Leading Through Pain and Purpose with Shawn Neels

Welcome to episode 260 of the Business Development Podcast.

And today you're going to meet an entrepreneur who embodies resilience, discipline and purpose.

Sean Neals is the founder of Plains Equipment Rentals and his journey is anything but ordinary.

From battling a personal trauma to building a company on grit and vision, Sean's story is raw, real and packed with lessons every entrepreneur needs to hear.

Stick with us.

You won't want to miss this episode.

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.

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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 to the Business Development Podcast.

And now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Hello.

Welcome to episode 260 Milestone.

260.

And today I have an absolute rockstar interview for you.

He's a friend of the show.

Today we're chatting with Sean Neils.

Sean is a dynamic entrepreneur and the driving force behind Plains Equipment Rentals.

Since founding the company in 2018, Sean has built it into a trusted name in the construction and industrial sectors, providing top tier equipment and exceptional service.

As a leader, Shawn's vision has always centered on delivering dependability, transparency and family values to every client interaction.

His relentless pursuit of excellence is matched only by his genuine care for the success of those around him.

Whether it's managing the day to day operations or cultivating meaningful relationships, Sean's hands on approach has positioned him as a true leader in his industry.

But Sean's ambition doesn't stop at personal success.

He's deeply committed to uplifting the entrepreneurial community around him.

Actively working to become the best entrepreneur and partner he can be.

Sean believes in the power of shared growth.

His passion for helping fellow business leaders navigate their own paths to success is evident in every interaction.

Sean isn't just building a company.

He's fostering a thriving community of driven individuals.

Ensuring that his journey of growth and impact extends far beyond his own business.

When Sean Neils rises, so does everyone else around him.

Sean, it's an honor to finally have you on the show.

Wow.

Thank you, Kelly.

It looks like I got some work to do to live up to that also, you know, right after this podcast, I'll get hustling.

Dude, dude, you, you have been incredible.

And let me just start this show by thanking you personally, Sean.

You know, I met you through Colin Harms.

Me and you both have a mutual friend in Colin Harms and Jory Evans.

And dude, you've been absolutely incredible since the first interaction that we've had together.

You know, you've been uplifting.

You always say I uplift you and I help you, but dude, you have been equally uplifting, motivating and uplifting to me.

You have not just supported me personally, you've supported the entire business development PODC community by sponsoring this show.

And you, you know, you sponsored us for as long as you could in the moment.

And dude, I appreciate that immensely.

We wouldn't be where we are without people like you.

And before I even start this show, I just want to say it's an honor to have you and I am extremely, extremely grateful for what you have brought to my community, to the business development podcast community.

Ah, thank you, Kelly.

It's.

That means a lot, you saying that.

And it's been, it's been a crazy last year.

You know, the people we surround ourselves with is so important.

The energy they bring to us, Good, positive people working forward to a good common goal.

It's amazing.

Just a simple interaction or phone call could uplift a person in such a way.

It's huge.

It is.

It's so huge.

It's so huge how one interaction can completely change your day.

And dude, I just want to say, like, me and you have had so many just like phone call interactions and conversations along the way.

And, and I can tell you that every time that, you know, I've got a call from you in the morning or heck, it was on my way home from work, it always brightened my day.

It was always an interaction that, that increased my mood, that increased my energy and that motivated me.

And so I just want to thank you for your personal support in my journey.

Oh, man, I appreciate you.

That's awesome.

And likewise, you know, there's times I called you just a little bit down.

You know, we are both very high energy people.

I believe.

We work out, we eat the best we can to, you know, have a great physiology and energy around us, but sometimes we get a little bit depleted and just stepping out of.

We're both pretty solo entrepreneurs.

You, I know you have employees.

I got employees.

But we do a lot of work in the silence in the darker cells.

And after a while, sometimes, you know, we could that just erodes at us?

You know, whether contract after contract gets lost or, you know, things aren't going quite the way way you were, there's a contract that you worked up for months on, months advance, and you just get a little bit down.

Quick phone call, talking to somebody else that's maybe having a better day than you, or they just see that you're in a rough spot and they can help you up, and that's what it's all about.

Dude, I've been.

I've been totally blessed in this journey.

I really have.

And you know what?

Like, every time that I hit that point where I'm like, oh, my gosh, like, you know, I lose.

I lose a sponsor or I lose a client, or, like, I'm looking for another, you know, coaching client or something like that, I can definitely get super down on myself.

But then it's like something incredible happens.

And, like, you know, right now, honestly, I'm probably almost a little bit too busy, but it's like, I'm not going to complain about that.

I need that support.

It's like I'm getting exactly what I've been asking the universe for.

So I just have to suck it up a little bit and be grateful and be thankful and do the best that Kelly Kennedy can, man.

But I get it.

You and me are completely the same, right?

Like, we both operate essentially small businesses that do quite a bit of revenue, which is amazing, but they're small businesses.

It's me and you really just dealing with our clients, dealing with our coaching clients, you know, moving our businesses forward, getting that equipment out to site, like, and it is a lot to ask of one person sometimes.

So I totally, totally understand where you're coming from, but, dude, you're killing it.

You are.

You are doing incredible.

And.

And, you know, one of the things that me and you also share in common, we're both introverted people.

And it's like, for the most part, I would rather be working on my own.

I would rather just have to rely on Kelly to get things done.

I would rather not put myself in super uncomfortable situations, which I know is super ironic because I have this podcast, but there was a time where this podcast would not have happened.

You know, it took a lot of personal growth for me to get to a stage where I could have these conversations with, you know, you're not a stranger, but a lot of people I do talk to before I meet them are strangers.

So, you know, I still struggle with it, dude.

I still struggle with my introvertedness.

You Know, you put me in a room full of like a thousand people and I'm pretty uncomfortable.

Like, it's not my natural go to place.

I'm really good at turning it on.

A lot of practice in business development has made me great at just being able to be like, all right, go time, Kelly, like put on the mask, put on, put on the smile.

Let's get her done.

But it definitely took many years of practice and, you know, I'm still not perfect at it.

I still have days where I'm like, you know what?

I don't think I really want to be in this room.

No, I hear you 100%.

It's like a muscle, right?

The more you exercise it, the more you're going to have the ability to get out of that introvertness and really turn it on.

And all we can really control in the end is our, our inputs.

You know, what are we, what are we doing?

We can't control the output necessarily, but you know, if, if that's failure and that, you know, lack of confidence or contract gets us down, how we should respond to that is just keep staying on the path, you know, putting that stuff out there and ultimately, hopefully, or, you know, ultimately, I think we will get to that outcome.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, one of the things that I wanted to just kind of bring up here is, you know, when we met, I actually got to come down to Lethbridge.

Colin Harm set up this, like, amazing meeting with yourself and Jory Evans and some people from, you know, the city itself.

And it was an amazing experience.

I really, really enjoyed coming to Lethbridge and meeting all of you.

And I just wanted to kind of say, like, I know at that time you had mentioned, like, oh, like it's kind of, it's a little bit uncomfortable sometimes sitting at a table like that with such incredible people.

Right.

Like, you know, I, A lot of the times I feel like I'm standing on the shoulders of giants.

And you know, when I'm sitting next to Jory Evans, when I'm sitting next to Colin Harms and even you, like, I know you don't feel, feel it in that moment, but you have done an incredible job over the last seven and a half years of building planes, equipment rentals, right?

Like, sometimes we almost need to be able to step back and see, like, oh, I deserve to be here too.

I deserve to be at this table too.

But I can definitely feel that in that moment.

And you know, I just wanted to say, like, it's been a ride and you all deserve to be there.

And I feel that way, too.

You know, when I'm sitting at a table surrounded by amazing people, when I'm interviewing, you know, incredible, incredible entrepreneurs, people that have achieved immense wealth, immense status, I can still feel like, oh, well, it's just me.

It's just Kelly Kennedy, Right.

Who am I.

Who am I to be here?

But it's like, we earned our spots at that table, you know, and it's easy to forget that.

It's easy to forget that you belong there.

And.

And I'm not just speaking to Sean Neils today because he is an incredible entrepreneur.

I'm speaking to everybody else who's listening to this right now who sat at that table, who's been at that table and said, my gosh, like, what am I doing here?

Do I even belong here?

Yes, you belong there, or you wouldn't be sitting at that table.

Yeah.

And it's important to recognize that.

That you belong there, even if you don't.

Without you leveling up and, you know, pushing yourself to those uncomfortable things, those bigger things are never going to happen.

I mean, opportunity waits for no one.

So when that opportunity comes, whether you're ready or not, whether you feel you're deserving or not, don't let your limiting beliefs hold you back, because you'll.

You might never get that opportunity again.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, one of the incredible things that.

That I admire about you, Sean, is that I know you struggle with the same challenges that I do.

There's not a lot of people that I can, like, meet and be like, oh, yeah, that guy.

That guy struggles with his.

With being a bit of an introvert.

He doesn't like that social situation.

He's gotta push it, push his boundaries.

Right?

But, dude, you are incredible.

You know, you.

Not that long ago, you were at an event with Tai Lopez.

Like, you are.

You are getting out in the world.

You are pushing your own personal boundaries, and you are leveling up.

Every day, dude, every day you're out there leveling up.

You're doing better on the socials.

You know, you just did a huge bit of a rebrand for Plains Equipment Rentals, which has been pretty awesome.

And I've been keeping up with it.

I've been keeping up with what you're doing.

And I just want to say, you know, you're doing a really great job of leveling up.

Talk to me about that process, man.

What has that been like for you?

What is it like to be in a room with such incredible individuals and, you know, heck, to be able to, like, put yourself obviously uncomfortable and be able to, you know, thrive in that situation.

Yes, sir.

Well, you know, you make it sound like it's huge, but in the grand scheme of things, I think we're all on our own path, you know, just doing the best we can.

Like I said before, those opportunities, you really have to seize those because you, you know, we only receive several of them in our life and maybe we receive more.

But when we're starting out, those first couple opportunities, you have no idea what those ones will bring you to.

You know, whether it's a discount on a course or you name it, you really, you really have to seize those things.

And that's kind of what I kept in the back of my mind as I've been building the company, pouring into my employee, stuff like that.

Just, you know, when there, there is an opportunity to teach, opportunity to learn, opportunity to grow, lean into it, and might take a couple years to pay off, but who cares?

You know, the worst thing that could happen is you learn something from it.

And when, when I did the rebrand, that was sort of part of that thing, you know, very uncomfortable.

We, we did a ton of printing brochures.

We, we had all our stickers up for two years.

The whole works.

Right.

Ton of, ton of value and cost there.

But, you know, it made sense to do the rebrand.

We were changing our trajectory on who we were going to attract as a customer.

We used to be the affordable way that it didn't seem to make sense.

You know, ever since Co. Covid, nothing's affordable anymore.

So what are we trying to do?

We're not Walmart.

You know, it's all relative.

Yeah, not even that, though.

Just, just something, you know, we strive for quality.

We really do strive for quality.

Quality doesn't come at a cheap cost.

So we change, change the motto to pushing you further.

Now everything that we do in the company is to push the client further, to push our employees further, and to push ourselves further.

And what that looks like is providing high quality equipment, choosing the brands carefully, choosing the equipment we buy carefully, even if it's not new, making sure it's very well maintained.

And along the process, you know, we kind of think of how can we serve this customer better, how can we push this customer further?

And that's, that's, that's, you know, it was so important.

Joel McGowdon helped me with, with this.

He's the value proposition guy.

And really picking that value proposition or what you want your company to stand for, it's so important and it's gotta.

It's gotta align with the founder, with you.

It's gotta be.

It's gotta be authentic.

It's gotta be a way you operate even after work.

Maybe you're in your personal life, in your relationships.

What are you striving for?

What's your.

What's your ultimate goal there?

And that should align.

When you do find that thing, it's, you know, it's very clear to you what you should do for your customer and for the rest of them.

Yeah, yeah.

I.

You know, I've had the pleasure of interviewing Jory Evans a couple times now, and Jory is, like, the biggest advocate I've ever met for building a company around your values.

And.

And he's doing pretty damn all right, so I think he might know a thing or two.

What.

What was it like working with Joel?

Because you know what?

I've.

I've actually had the chance to interview Joel a couple times.

You know, we're friends, just like me and you are friends.

I've met Joel a few times at some Edmonton events, and he's an incredible individual, too.

North and west is a really cool company, and I'm gonna give him a little plug on here, because if you.

If you're just hearing this show for the first time, Joel's show is probably well over a hundred episodes ago, if I haven't had him back yet.

But, you know, he's got a company called north and west, and all they do is value proposition.

They come in, they work with you to.

To establish your value proposition, to understand it and to help you understand it, because most of us start companies and we don't even really understand the full value of it.

Do you want to just, like, give him a quick moment and explain what that process was like for you?

Yeah, 100%.

Joel's the man, no doubt.

And explaining more about what he does, like, what is your value proposition?

To break that down, I would say if you take some of the iconics in the industry, like Subway, their value proposition is somewhere along the lines of always fresh.

So everything they do, they try to make a fresh sandwich because no one wants that stale gas station bullshit, right?

They're trying to keep it.

Keep it fresh.

And people, veggies, meats, it's very important.

So they built their value proposition around that.

I think it's important for every business at some stage to.

If they don't have a clear understanding of what it is that separates them from the competition besides price.

Because if it's price, it's a Race to the bottom.

Unless you have something that's very rare or you're Sam Walton, maybe that started Walmart.

It's going to be very tough.

It's going to be a tough go because there's always going to be a cheaper person.

There really is.

And maybe they're.

They're doing business at a loss.

You don't know.

So why.

Why should you compare your rates to theirs and try to beat it?

It just doesn't make sense.

Yeah.

So find that thing and work with guys like.

Like Joel Miguel.

He's really good at.

He dives deep into your customers.

He'll.

He'll talk to whichever customers you want.

He'll try to figure out what they liked about you, what they didn't, and how you could provide more value to them, and from there, you could build it out.

I think we've worked for probably three months with him.

Took a while.

You know, you toss ideas between each other, but because he's been through the process, he's worked with big guys like Microsoft.

He's.

He's got great expertise, and he's the man.

He does.

He.

He actually established a podcast for Microsoft, which I thought was really, really cool when I first met him.

Huge, right?

Yeah, it is.

Yeah.

He's.

He's a very unique person.

I really, really love Joel.

I do.

There's.

There's certain people that I just, like, connect with immediately, and Joel was one of those people, and I have no problem plugging him wherever possible and recommending him wherever possible, because I think he is incredible.

I think the work he's doing is really uni.

Valuable, and I do think he's going to move mountains eventually.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, Without a doubt.

It's such a need, and there's no one else that does it.

You've mentioned before, dude.

And at this point, too, it's like, I've gone through, you know, hundreds of episodes and.

And I haven't met anyone else like him yet, which I think stands like it's a pretty big shining spotlight.

I hope he listens this episode.

He's like, kelly, shush, stop it.

Yeah, no doubt.

Anyways, Joel McAlnick, if you need value proposition challenges, he's.

He's incredible.

He's the man.

That's right.

So, Sean, let's bring it back to you because, like, that's.

That's who this is really about today.

You know, how did you end up on this entrepreneurial journey?

First off, you know, me and you are relatively the same age, if I remember correctly.

I'm 35.

I'll be 36 by the time this comes out.

How, how old are you right now?

Oh, we're a little different, Kelly.

I'm 26 actually.

My God.

My God, you are.

Yeah.

You're the man, dude.

You're the man.

I wish I had the drive that you had when I was like 26.

You know, I was just, I was baby business development.

Kelly, at this point.

It, it's so true.

Like I look at 23 year olds that are just, they've got 14 million dollar business and I was like, man, I wish I had the drive when I was 17, you know, why didn't I start early?

And there's, there's always going to be someone that, that you could compare yourself to that started earlier was more passionate, quicker and yeah, I'm not that old.

I'm not that young either.

Compare myself to some of the 17 year old business owners.

Yeah, but really, as, as I get a little bit older in the last couple of years, I, I recognize that age actually doesn't make a huge difference.

It's, you know, what are you doing on a daily basis?

What are your values and what kind of person are you?

You could be friends with a 60 year old.

Why not?

If you're 20, you can learn a lot.

Maybe they, they could reflect on their past and give you pointers.

I think, I think age is, age is a funny thing.

It doesn't matter so much in this space.

No.

And like you said, it really does matter, like who is in your circle.

Like, what did you see?

Right.

Like for me, my dad was an entrepreneur, but not really like he was and he wasn't.

He had his own company, but he just worked for the same company for like 40 years.

So it's like it wasn't really a whole lot different from an employee.

So.

And so that was the closest thing to like an entrepreneur that I grew up with and understood.

And to me it just looked like employee.

And both my parents were like, hey, like just, you know, go to school, get a good job and enjoy your life, right?

Like that was kind of their view.

They just wanted me to be happy whatever I did.

Which was amazing parents, by the way.

Parents out there just encourage your kid to be happy.

But at the same time, if you can't see it, right, like our kids are going to grow up with a very different experience.

They're going to grow up seeing their dad, you know, podcasting and watching, doing business development and coaching and building his own brand and his own company.

And like, I Hope that that models great behavior for them to emulate when they're older.

Right.

Because I think you can only emulate what you see and understand.

And so, you know, one of the questions I had for you was, did you have people that you saw that were entrepreneurs that you got to kind of emulate?

Yeah, not.

Not a whole lot.

I just knew I always wanted to level up.

And when I ran into a wall, you know, I previously did concrete and I was obsessed with getting to the next level, you know, getting my company truck, you know, maybe an office someday.

And when there wasn't that opportunity in the company, whether their vision was too small, which I think many smaller construction outfits have a downside there, where their vision's too small, their employees vision doesn't fit within the company.

You run into a wall and you're like, man, I'm stuck.

I don't want, I don't want my life to be like this for the next 20 years.

I want to keep leveling up.

And I think that's where a lot of us turn to entrepreneurship, because there is no limit.

There's no cap on that.

It's unlimited potential.

And you know, as a father, you mentioned too, your kids are seeing what you're doing.

And I think, I think that's really important.

Not to say that there isn't a need for jobs.

Like, there's amazing companies, there's amazing jobs out there, but what they see from you is you pouring into your unlimited potential.

And they could do the same in any area.

You're always leveling up, you're always growing.

And sometimes that's very hard to do within a job.

I mean, I, I have, I have guys too.

And I think we going back to the age thing, I think that's where the age barrier actually comes from.

When, when you're in an organization and someone's been there 30 years, he's a 50 year old and the other guy's an 18 year old, then there's a huge gap.

But when you're in entrepreneurship and you're just seeking out your own true potential, it seems like that gap disappears.

You're just like all in it together.

Yeah, it does.

And the further I go down this like, business development path, and you know, at this point, I've interviewed well over a hundred entrepreneurs and yeah, like, you're absolutely right.

It's like that drive is in each and every one of them that want to help, that want to succeed, that want to give back.

That is something that is very unique to all entrepreneurs, not just One or two.

Like, it really is a community that wants to build the community.

Right.

And so, like you said, I feel like somebody who's been an entrepreneur for 50 years will still sit down with someone who's an entrepreneur for one year and say, hey, man, like, how you doing?

How's life?

It's kind of challenging, isn't it?

Do you want some tips on that?

Yeah, like, it's.

It's incredible.

It's incredible.

And I know, you know, I want to go back to the employee aspect of this, because you know what?

You're absolutely right.

There is entrepreneurship, as much as I pump it on this show and I try to encourage as many people to do, is not for everyone.

It really isn't.

There's some people that would be like, this sucks.

Like, having to rely on myself 100 to find my business, to perform my business, or to pay for marketing or to pay for an employee.

It's like, that is too much.

And that is okay if that's you.

Totally, totally okay.

I understand that.

Honestly, I don't think that I even understood when I got into entrepreneurship how much stress, how much I was actually putting on my shoulders.

I think at the time I felt like, oh, yeah, like, how hard could this be?

We can figure this.

I was naive to it because I just hadn't had really any experience in it.

Right.

And, you know, I took the challenges one by one as they came and they came and they came, and you just handle them and you move on.

And I'm grateful and thankful that I got to go down this path because I'm not sure that I would have found myself without it.

Ironically.

Right.

Like, I'm not sure I would have found that this is my purpose, this is what I was meant to do.

But if you're on the other side and you're like, you know, I'm good with just being an executive.

I'm good with being able to go home at night and shut off and that.

You know what?

I'll be honest, Sean, that's the thing I miss the most.

The thing I missed the most from being an employee was being able to shut off at 4:30 or 5:00', clock, go home and just be Kelly.

Because there is a certain level when you become an entrepreneur where the clock doesn't stop.

Right?

There's always something more you could do or feel you should do or family obligations that are.

That are, frankly, smashing a little bit with the work obligations.

Especially when you're a solopreneur and you're doing the best you can?

Yeah, man.

There's.

There's something to be said about being able to completely shut down.

And I think when you do become an entrepreneur, you have to.

I don't want to say you have to get to a point where you can, but on a certain level, you got to get to a point where you can.

There's no other way to really say it, because the obligations aren't going to stop.

Your commitments to your clients, your commitments to your family, your commitments to growing your business, your commitments to yourself, they all collide.

They all collide.

And you're just.

You're just balancing.

You're putting out fires here, putting out fires here, putting out fires here, and, you know, somehow the castle builds.

But at the same time, there are times you're like, holy cow.

Like, how can one person do this?

I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Oh, without a doubt.

But what I have come to realize and what I've really worked on and I've learned this from others, was you have to shut it off.

Because if you don't shut it off, it's going to lead to you being stressed out.

You're going to respond in a way you probably shouldn't, whether it's to your family, your spouse, your wife, or, you know, another employee.

And that's not fair to anybody either.

So you need to know what you could take.

You know, how many hours you could put in a day, maybe, maybe go a little farther.

So you're always leveling up.

You know, you're always stretching, but know when to shut it off, too.

And then when you do shut it off, be intentional with that time.

Go work out, get a good workout.

Don't be on your phone.

Don't be dealing with email still, because that's.

It's shared energy.

And you're not getting the most out of you can and you're not going to be as recharged.

You're not going to have as good workout to go into those things.

So what I've really learned was, you know, being intentional with shutting it off.

And then when you shut it off, what do you do with that time?

If your goal is to.

To learn more, learn a different skill.

You know, put your phone away and, and grab that book and read the amount of pages that you said you're going to read, follow through, get it done and move on to the next thing, or spend a certain amount with your time with your family and your kids.

Allot that amount of time.

And it should be pretty much non Negotiable, except for emergencies.

Yeah.

Doing that has made me really recharge for the next day and be able to take it on head on and some.

Something I'm still getting better on.

But that is, that's the goal post out there that I'm shooting for.

Oh my gosh.

I love it.

I love it.

And you know, I just want to say to all the entrepreneurs listening, I have sucked horribly at this part.

So I am, I am not the king of time balance.

You know, I talk about it and I talk about the importance of it and I ask all of my guests, how do you find it?

Because for me, I have struggled a lot.

And I think, I think I've struggled a lot, Sean, because I tend to bite off too much.

Like I just, I bite off too much.

I, I want to perform on this show.

I want to be able to show up twice a week non stop.

Dude, at this point have not missed a single episode.

Not miss one.

Right?

But that kind of commitment takes time, takes energy and takes.

Frankly, it just takes.

Right.

Like it just is what it is.

Plus on top of that, I do business development and I do business development coaching and I manage social medias for all my stuff.

So it's a lot like.

And I recognize it and I accept that I made that choice and I live with it.

Right.

But the reality is, is that like, the balance thing has been hard for me.

The non negotiable has been, you know, making sure that I get my like walk in with Shelby at the end of the night, that I spend a little of time with my kids, that I'm trying to still be a great parent, a great partner and do my best with the show and with my coaching and with, with my other, you know, business obligations.

Right.

But it is really challenging and I, and I do want to acknowledge that because I think, I think some people feel like, my God, this is really, really hard.

Am I alone in this?

Is it just me?

And I just want to say to all my entrepreneurs listening right now, it is not just you.

It is not just you.

We are all struggling with the work life balance.

I've talked to so many people about it.

My view on at this point is total.

There's no such thing as full time work life balance.

There's.

There's times when you have to give more to work, there's times when you have to give more to your family and there's times when you have to give more to yourself.

Yep, yep.

Right.

There's no balance.

There's just there's certain times for certain things and do the best you can because that's what everyone else is really doing.

That's right.

That's right.

No 100%.

And you're, you're a very busy guy.

I got to give that to you.

I would say I'm probably a little less busy.

And, you know, there's a few things on that I think you're, you're 100% right where you, where you say, you know, sometimes you're going to have to be all in on family because family crisis or there's sickness you got to deal with.

That's the, that's the only right thing to do.

Yeah, but I think it's important to balance back to, you know, the things that are serving you.

If you know you're doing better off of exercise and you're able to serve your community, deal with your clients better.

When you're, you've.

You recharged your exercise, I think whether it's one or two days after you should, you should try get that in.

And what I've realized, doing the 75 hard program actually with Andy Frisell, I've done that one multiple times, is, is you actually have more time in the day than you realize.

And it all comes down to priorities.

You know, we can make ourselves so incredibly busy, and we're like, there's no way I have time to work out.

There's no way I have time to go to that family ball or, you know, take my daughter out to whatever event.

But the fact is, you do.

You just have to restructure, reorganize, and point out what matters the most.

One of the questions that I have for you, Sean, is, you know, obviously for me, what I found, and I'm not always great with it.

I'm not.

I'm not.

I would say I've become a bit of a morning person.

Like, I've gotten better and better and better at it.

But I definitely was not a morning person before I became an entrepreneur.

But what I kind of found was like, you know, at least a few days a week, I do try to get up at about 5:30 and just kind of hit the ground running, try to get caught up on some things that I need to catch up on.

Because, dude, like a lot of times, especially like Tuesdays before show release or on Fridays when I'm doing multiple interviews, plus producing the Sunday show, I can end up working pretty late into the evening.

It just is what it is on those days.

It sucks.

But that's just what's happened.

So what I kind of find is that for me, one of the things that makes me feel good, I struggle with it in the morning to get up and actually do it.

But I do feel good about it when I can kind of hit the ground running and rob some time before the kids wake up or before Shelby wakes up.

Are you a morning person?

Do you get up?

Are you a crack it on, get started kind of guy?

Yes, I am Cali.

I am a morning person 100%.

You know, maybe it's the, the silence being introvert that there's no one else around and I could just do my thing.

Not that I don't love my wife.

I absolutely love my wife.

It's just, you know, you know, it's dark out, it's beautiful, it's cool, it's not hot.

You could just do your thing.

And when I say that I'm more relating to exercise because I'm a big fundamental believer of exercise.

So I try to get some form of workout in in the morning before I touch any sort of work.

And that really, that's like the first wind of the day for me.

I could hit my hit the ground running after I get that workout in.

So, yeah, by all means.

There's been, there's been different periods in my life, you know, where I Woke up at 4:30 consistently, except for the weekends, and then switch over to 5, you know, 5:30 kind of depends on what, what's demanding from me at that time.

Yeah, I think it's, it's very valuable to get up early and not that you're not going to succeed if you don't, but there's, there's some untapped potential there in the mornings.

I think any, anybody can't argue that.

Yeah, it is, it's magical.

There is something to be said.

There's like, you're right.

There's a quiet that you don't get any other time of the day.

It does not matter what it is.

There's a certain quiet you get at five in the morning that you really can't find anywhere else.

Yeah, undistracted time.

You don't have all the clutter in your, your mind.

It's like, it's like a baby brain.

I like to use that analogy because babies, you know, they're, they don't have all these old thoughts and these worries, these stresses and all that other stuff.

They wake up and they just, okay, I'm going to learn how to walk.

And you know, oh, there's that.

And they're like there's none of this, you know, background haze within their minds.

And that's how I think of mornings.

It's like it's new day.

Hopefully you slept well and you know, let's start try without your phone or any technology in the morning.

And it's new.

It's like a baby brain.

I love it.

Yeah, that's interesting.

I haven't done that yet.

I'll have to give it a try.

I'll have to like lose the phone and see what that's like for that moment.

Because for me, for me it feels like, okay, I'm up at 5:30, no one else is up yet.

Okay, I can get some work done that I need to get done, that if I get it done now, maybe I have more time in the, in the evening.

Yeah, that's the thoughts that go through my head at that time.

But it's funny because I have talked to a lot of people who are like, hey, like just like take that time for yourself, right?

Like just enjoy that time.

Exactly what you're saying.

Actually I've had multiple people tell me like, don't bring up your phone, you know, if you want, maybe do your little workout, like have you have a little bit of you time, but like make it beneficial to you.

For me, man, I don't know, I struggle, I, I struggle with like to me it can feel like, well, if I have this time, why waste it?

But it's like, it's just my mindset.

It's like it's not a waste obviously, but like that's where my mind goes, right?

Oh you know, trust me, those mornings are not, you know, I like I say I love the mornings, but most mornings consist of a grueling workout where I show back up at the house, you know, bruises on my shoulders from my weighted vest, dripping sweat, you know, all that other shit.

But you feel great because it's, you won the first little win.

It's the first little win of the day.

I feel like it opens your creativity.

That's the biggest thing I've noticed is no technology in the morning.

It's somehow when I open my phone first thing in the morning and I'm looking at an email, it somehow scatters my energy in a certain way and my, my creativity can't work to the fullest.

It can.

Whereas when I, I leave my phone away and I only look at my phone for a timer or a workout, just the way my thoughts construct into different creative areas that help propel the day forward.

You know, whether even If I'm thinking about projects.

Yeah.

As I'm doing my workout, I don't know.

Phones are evil, man.

I mean, that's our livelihood, right?

But they, they do something to a person and they steal.

They steal the good old fashioned creativity and whatnot.

Yeah, it is.

It's wild how much smartphones have like, like just embedded theirselves their claws into us, isn't it?

Right.

Like even for me, right?

Like, I love podcasts, obviously I'm a podcaster, but actually long before I was a podcaster, I loved listening to podcasts.

So just like you, I know you are also a podcast lover.

I find that even in my spare time, if I'm out walking the kids or if I'm out on a bike ride, like, dude, I got a pair of earbuds in and I'm listening to a show.

But like, let's get real, I'm listening to my phone, right?

Like my phone has like a grip on me probably 80% at least of the day in one way or another.

Even if it's just I'm consuming audio content.

Yeah, yeah.

And you know, that's different for everybody.

Some people could take in more information than others.

Some people could listen to three hours of podcasts and actually absorb and get something out of it, whereas other people could only listen to 20 minutes and they're like, you know, that's it.

If I listen beyond that 20 minutes, it's not going to absorb and it's not going to serve me.

So you got to know what works for you.

And I think, I think how my mind works is I'm a little bit more like that 20 minutes where I could only take in so much information, where it just goes in one ear and out the other.

So that's what I'm aware of.

And that's also one of the reasons why I limit the phone time, you know, in the mornings and try to do it at nights is because it doesn't absorb in, in a intentional way.

Like I want it to.

What I always recommend to people is to.

Because you can really have self help overload.

I've gone down the self help overload pathway and what has always worked for me is to stagger it out.

So like, for instance, if you love the business development podcast, which hopefully you do because you're listening to it, you should alternate this show with something that is just enjoyable for you.

And I hope this show's enjoyable for you.

But at the same time you should have just an entertainment show.

Like for me, I love a show called Scared to Death or I love, you know, Jim Harold's Campfire, or just something fun to listen to that's like, oh, that's fun or that's entertaining.

Right?

It has no, like, like no self help purpose in my life.

It is just for entertainment.

And my recommendation is to stagger it.

Have like, have your self help, but stagger it with like, you know, a good book that's entertaining or another podcast that's entertaining so that you get the most you can from the self help thing instead of feeling like, okay, like I'm getting overloaded and none of this is, is coming through.

And I know I, I talked to a lot of people on this show, Sean, who were like, I love listening to your show, but Kelly, it's like drinking from a fire hose, but I don't know how else to do it.

Yeah, that's a tough one.

No, I hear you though.

It's, it's.

You could, you could go down a rabbit hole where you're absorbing or you're taking in too much and you can't absorb it.

And I feel it actually leads to inaction because there's all these great ideas, great strategies, things you could all do, but when you get 1500 of them in three days, you're probably going to do not because you're.

Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure.

So like, my advice is always just to stagger it.

Find your entertainment.

Find something that you can just passively listen to that it's not really going to matter if you miss something or not.

Like an entertainment show or a comedy show or a scared to death, a great show and just find something that's an entertainment for you and mix it.

So have your self help, follow it by something that's entertaining and that way, I don't know, there's some type of balance to it.

Back in the day that I used to do audiobooks all the time, I was a huge audiobook consumer, Sean.

I still am.

But honestly, I find the older I get, the more I like actually physically reading, which, I don't know, maybe that's an old man thing.

I'm 35.

I'm not that old.

I'm 36.

I guess at this point I'll be 36 when the show airs.

But yeah, I find that the older I get, the more I actually prefer physically reading.

But when I was younger, when I was 23, 24, 25, I just crushed audiobooks, like on Audible, like it was the end of the world.

But I would stagger them.

So I would listen to Something like the, like Switch.

And then I would follow it by like a Stephen King book and I would, I would alternate them.

And I found for me it created a really nice balance where by the time I got back to self help, I was really ready to listen.

I was really ready to learn the lesson.

Yeah, that's huge.

And, you know, a lot of us.

We think we have to start a podcast and listen to every single episode going through.

You know, maybe if there is like your show, there's 200 and some episodes, maybe, maybe you shouldn't listen to every single one because it's going to kind of desensitize the real good contact.

Maybe you should pick out what is valuable, what aligns to you because there's a ton of topics on your show.

Right.

And totally to ask for your listeners to listen to everyone, that'd be cool.

But I don't think it's going to serve your listeners.

I think maybe they should just look through those titles and I think your titles are pretty well laid out that they could understand which one's going to help them in that moment and, you know, dive into it deep.

Hopefully they can pull some from it.

Yeah.

Well, what's really interesting, Sean, about, you know, the BDP is that I find as I go, it really evolves, right?

Like the topics that get requested are nuanced and they change as time goes.

So you really can listen to things in the.

So I get what you're saying.

I totally do.

And I say go for it.

If you want to cherry pick, cherry pick all you want.

But I do think that there's value in the first, you know, 50 episodes of the BDP that is absolutely monumental if you are new to business development.

And I would say that, like, as we go on, there's a lot of value that still is to business development, but really starts to talk about entrepreneurship and mindset and positive thinking and the power of, you know, of, of taking notes every day.

There's like, it's really interesting how like, the show continues to, like, change a little bit.

It's very nuanced.

But.

But as we get into, you know, two hundreds and into eventually three hundreds, like, the show almost is like, it has seasons to it.

It almost feels like seasons, but there was no way that this show was always going to stay the same.

And so.

And I don't think any show can or does.

And so there is, for instance, there's things in the first, you know, 50 episodes which might be incredibly beneficial.

And then there's things in the next Hundred episodes that are beneficial in a different way.

And the things in the next 100 episodes that might be beneficial in a different way.

It's all an evolution, just like business is an evolution.

Yeah, yeah.

100.

You hit the nail on the head.

You're using your analogy there.

Love it.

But right from the start, you know, that one to 50, I think if you are really trying to learn business development, I think that's crucial.

That's what I did and I learned very, very well from that.

And they were, they went in steps, you know, 1 to 50.

Everyone was a different thing.

And if you listen to 1 to 50, you got a pretty good grasp on things, I would say.

I agree.

That's the, that's the core of the business development podcast.

Right.

What it's become now is something even bigger.

But that was the core, you know, those first 50, in my opinion.

Yeah.

And, you know, I think, I think I'll find that in every hundred episodes I will try to circle back and try to, you know, hit those topics again.

Right.

Because there are the people that show back up and you know, they're like, Ah, 260 episodes.

Like, I don't want to listen to all those to learn the lesson.

I'm just going to start at 2:50 or 2:10 or wherever they show up.

Right.

So I think on a certain level I'm going to consistently have to bring those things back in.

And I, and I want to because I love talking about them, but I think I am going to have to essentially take those first 50 episodes and repeat them as long as this show exists, because there are going to be the people who need a refresher or maybe my take.

And I'll be honest, like, I find the longer I go down this path, I learn new things and my take might even change from what I thought at episode 10 to what I Thought at episode 300.

You know what I mean?

Like, it's amazing how much when you are challenged to reflect on your views and the way you do things and your values on things, how, you know, a few years can make a huge difference in the way that you think about it.

And while they.

It hasn't changed a lot, there are certain things, like AI that really didn't exist at episode one.

Like, it was chat.

GPT was just released.

We didn't really understand how to even use it yet.

Now it's, it's monumental.

We use it for all sorts of show production and all sorts of stuff.

Or heck, I didn't even understand show production.

Sean, when I started this.

Right.

So you'll see the show gets better and better and better and better.

And that is just an evolution of Kelly Kennedy learning audio production.

Yeah.

So it's amazing, dude.

Like, podcasting has been such a journey, man.

It's been.

It's been incredible.

No doubt.

And I can see from your perspective, too, it's very tough to know where to go.

You in.

On the one side, you have all these new listeners coming in.

Yeah.

Like you said, you want to do a recap.

But on the other side, you have maybe a ton of loyal old listeners that you don't want to, you know, keep repeating the same thing or else they might get, you know, they might.

They may get a little annoyed with you.

So.

Well, keep it.

Keeping it fresh and new.

Yeah.

You gotta balance.

Reflecting back to.

On the good lessons and maybe the new improvements that you can.

Totally.

Yeah, totally.

And I would say every year I'm learning something new.

Right.

Like 2023, it was the year of AI.

2024 was the year of personal branding.

2025, which the show is coming out.

I don't know what it is yet because we're not there yet, but we're going to find out.

And it's really interesting how every year thus far in the show, and I know it hasn't been too many, we're only two and a half in, but every year to this point has had something very defining, some very defining difference or things that people wanted to talk about.

I find that, like, at this point, I'm really excited to see what is 2025's defining thing.

Right.

If 2023 was AI, if 2024 was personal branding, what the heck is 2025?

And I'm excited to figure it out.

Yeah, man.

Maybe you're going to be like a fitness guy.

You know, you're gonna be get your 6k or you can't be on the business development show.

Randy Elliott.

Oh, boy, I would be a hypocrite on that one.

Not all of us are Sean Neal's dude.

Speaking of, though, you know, let's talk about it.

We've talked fitness quite a bit.

So I think we know Sean Neals is a little passionate about his fitness.

You know, your entrepreneurship journey started in fitness, didn't it?

Yeah, yeah.

100.

It's always been a component of mine.

I think it maybe started a little bit with ego, if I'm being honest.

You know, I worked with another construction guy where he's like, well, I bench pressed.

What was it?

3.

320 When I was 20 years old, I'm like, yeah, well, you know, game on.

And that's, that's how I thought.

Right.

And from there on it just kind of became a lifestyle.

You know, it pushed me through things when, you know, I've had some really dark points in my life where it, it brought light to it and it, it pushed me through.

You know, next to God, who I, I owe it to, for, for getting me through those tough times, my responsibility, and that was what could I do to improve my, my.

Like, I went through a very dark patch in my life where I got into an accident and someone was killed tragically and whatnot.

I had to witness that.

And from there on it went actually into counseling, a ton of counseling, emotional therapy type stuff for trauma treatment, whatnot.

And from there I recognize that that's a very important thing for many of these trauma treatments is therapy and working with psychologists to get your mind straight and rewired in a good way.

But a lot of times that leads to becoming a victim.

You know, woe is me.

This happened to me, wasn't my fault, this or that.

And there's no ownership in that.

And that really doesn't serve you.

So where I felt it was good to go from that was to take extreme ownership and go into a program like 75 Hard, which is a 75 day program, where you do these tasks on a consistent basis.

So the first thing, I'll just run through it for those of you that don't know what it's about.

The first thing is a 45 minute workout every day for 75 days.

So it consists of one 45 minute workout.

It's gotta be outside regardless of the weather.

The second thing is a second workout, 45 minutes.

It's gotta be three hours apart.

So that makes it super inconvenient.

Wow.

And then the third thing is a progress picture.

So you know there's gonna be progress over that 75 days.

And seeing that on day 20 or day 40 or 50, it's gonna be inspiring to see the changes.

It's huge.

I got my employee doing it right now and he's.

He's just blown away.

He's lost like £20 in 35.

Wow.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I'm getting back to it.

So we've got the progress picture.

Next thing is drinking a gallon of water a day.

It's incredible what that does to you.

Not to mention your workouts do require you to drink a lot of water.

So it's important.

Sure.

And no, no alcohol or Cheat meals, that's a, that's another one of the things.

So just eat.

Putting clean food into your body every day on a consistent basis changes the way you think, the way you operate.

If you're working from a dark place or you're in a dark place in your life, or you're just looking to improve your life, that's huge.

Third thing, follow strict diet, could be any diet you want and pick it and go.

So I did that when I was, you know, feeling like a victim, maybe feeling a little bit entitled, you know, like, why does this happen to me?

I was through all the therapy, did that and I, I had to get back on my feet, you know, I had to take ownership, take responsibilities for the things that happened in my life that were ultimately my fault.

And this program catapulted me forward, catapulted my business forward.

Consistently doing those things on a day to day basis, that's huge.

And ever since I, I've done that program probably five times.

Along with portions of the Live Hard program, which is just more tasks involve cold shower and all kinds of fine stuff.

Intentionally putting yourself in really hard situations.

And the growth's been phenomenal to the point where it's a non negotiable for me to get some physical form of activity, some physical workout in every single day with the exception of Sundays, which I'll just do a walk.

I believe it's good to have one day of rest.

Yes.

So, so did God.

Yeah, no doubt.

Goodness.

Yeah.

My gosh, man, I had no idea.

I'm sorry that happened to you.

Yeah, no worries.

I mean these things happen in life and it's, it's, it sucks.

We have to do the best we can and take ownership of that situation.

I truly believe that.

And so often we follow victim.

Right?

And going into the victimhood, that could last years, man, I, I've met people 20, 30 years.

They're still on that one incident that happened to them in life and they can't get over the fact that that happened and they, they go nowhere, they're stuck.

That's it.

Until you take that ownership.

You know what, Think of it as like, what can I do?

God gave me a healthy body, a healthy mind.

What can I go do with those things?

I can't control the outcome of me magically jumping out of depression or, you know, this trauma state, but I can intentionally put good things in my body.

I can make sure I'm getting exercise done and that's been proven to help depression like nothing else.

No antidepressant could help you like that.

Yeah, well, there's a lot of men who struggle with.

Who struggle with the therapy side.

Right.

I'm tough.

I don't need.

I don't need to go to therapy.

Talk to me about that.

Talk to me about that.

Because you're tough.

You worked in construction.

You know, what was the moment where you're like, you know what?

I think I need help.

And first off, you know, congratulations on.

On taking that step for yourself, because there's a lot of men who wouldn't do it.

Yeah, no, I appreciate that.

I wouldn't consider myself top work in progress for sure.

But yeah, it's a generational problem, especially in this past generation where we.

We don't talk about our feelings, you know, this, this.

Just deal with it and move on.

And a lot of those people that say those same things, a lot of statistics are coming out that they're not the best husband they could be.

They're not the best employer they could be.

You know, many of the repercussions from just dealing with it, just not talking about it are.

Yeah.

Anger outbursts, not understanding someone else's point of view, which is a form of narcissism, you know, and emotional instability, stuff like that.

Right.

So is that really serving the people around you?

You gotta.

You gotta take a step back, stop being so selfish for yourself too sometimes and say, hey, I'm not the best husband I could be.

I'm not the best boss I could be.

Why is that?

And how do we fix that?

And that was one of the things for me, you know, I was going into relationships.

It was not good.

What I was, what I was, how I was, my outputs to the people around me.

And mine was an extreme case.

I mean, I seen some terrible, terrible things.

I mean, it.

It was.

It was very visual.

I. I did CPR on.

On a corpse, pretty much that.

That died moments later.

And that was at my hand.

So the guilt was incredible.

Incredible.

Yeah.

Wow.

It was in imaginable.

So I did.

I pretty much had no choice but to go get help because I knew I couldn't do this on my own.

Do you.

Do you still struggle from like PTSD from that?

No.

Wow.

Thankfully, that's been gone and that's.

I think it's moved.

This is the third year coming up in November.

It's been three years.

Wow.

Wow.

My gosh.

Dude, I. I had no idea that that happened.

Like, it's just.

It's incredible that you.

I guess I thought I knew you, and it's incredible.

And I think that that's the thing.

I think that's really the big secret here is that, like, I.

Me and Sean, we haven't known each other long, but I've known you for at least.

At least six months, if not a year at this point.

I think we met in February, so.

Man, like, it's incredible because you think that you know people, right?

We all make that judgment.

Oh, yeah, I know him.

He's a.

He's a great person.

And you are a great person, by the way.

I'm not.

I'm not saying anything about that.

I'm just suggesting that, like, we all come to our.

To our, you know, assumptions with people, and we're like, yeah, we know him, but the reality is we know nobody, Know nobody.

We know nobody.

We know nobody.

We know.

We know what they project, and we know what we want to know or what we think about them.

Right.

But the reality is we all are individuals.

We all carry our struggle with us.

I have my struggle, you have yours.

And we don't show that struggle to the world.

Right.

That struggle is ours, and we.

We carry it inside.

But understand that we're all carrying a struggle.

I don't care who you are, we're all carrying something.

Yeah, yeah.

And ultimately it's your responsibility, how you deal with that struggle.

It could be.

It could be not so bad, or it could be really bad.

But are you doing the things that you can to improve that?

Yeah, it comes down to absolutely.

Man, this has been incredible, Sean.

I knew it was going to be, but it's been incredible.

Lead us into Plains Equipment Rentals, man.

Talk to me.

What is planes, Equipment Rentals?

How did you know?

How did you found it?

What has that experience been like?

And, you know, what are the services that you provide?

Yeah, for sure.

So that's a.

That's a.

Interesting story.

I guess it involves a lot of naiveness.

Not knowing what I was doing, but just going for it.

It all started in construction.

You know, as I relayed earlier.

I was doing concrete, loved concrete for what it was.

You know, to most people, it sounds like you're just rubbing rocks into a shiny surface, but there's more to it than that.

Trust.

So, yeah, and it was.

It was not having the ability to level up.

You know, it was.

It was.

Promised me, you know, a truck when I got to that level, and not.

And that stuff never really came around.

It was just to keep me around.

I moved around in different companies and whatnot, trying different things very, very quickly, kind of moved through the Ranks of what I thought was possible.

And I was always a little bit frustrated that there wasn't more for me to learn.

There wasn't a clear path forward for me to make more money, to take on more responsibility and handle more jobs.

There just wasn't that.

And that's, that's kind of when I got a little bit bored.

And when, when you get bored, you look for things to do right.

So my dad's a mechanic.

He always has been a mechanic.

So I have that mechanical background and I love equipment.

I think I was, I was 19 years old.

Yeah, 18 or 19.

Started started looking Kijiji, looking at wheel loaders.

And specifically I was like, man, these things are cool.

And then there's a few ads that, that said for rent.

Oh shit.

Let's, let's check it out.

And yeah, nine grand per month.

Holy shit.

Why don't I just buy one?

I rent it out.

Let's go.

Yeah, it's got to be easy, right?

Even if you only rent it for half the year.

Still a ton of money.

Okay, go up.

So.

So my dumb ass bought a wheel loader.

Bought a wheel loader.

Thought it was a great idea.

It was way out in Edmonton.

I'm in Lethbridge.

So did the whole process.

I think I bought it right.

Which was good.

Soon after, got a project.

It was a three month building a horse ring.

It went pretty well.

Had a couple issues with the mechanics that had to get mechanic out to fix this stuff.

And from there on I was advertising different ads and people didn't seem to take me seriously, which was pretty understandable.

I mean, what equipment rental company has no name and one piece of equipment?

It's time to make some changes.

So I got, I got the business name.

You going, you know, planes, equipment rentals.

Did the little thing online where you register your business name, you get a GSC number, blah blah blah.

Did that stepping up and got a few more contracts.

Went through the process where that drives everybody away from equipment rentals.

Where someone rents out your piece of equipment.

Absolutely trashes it and destroys it, doesn't pay, it comes back bruised and broken.

So I did that, kept going because I was invested.

I, I purchased this piece of machinery and I was bored at work.

So let's, let's keep going.

This was always a side hustle for me for the first couple years.

Yeah.

And yeah, the next step was to buy another piece of equipment because if you want to represent yourself as the equipment rental company, you can't just have one piece of equipment.

So I bought another machine.

Winter rentals was pretty, pretty good for me.

I purchase snow pushers for these machines and they would sit at like Costco's and Walmarts through snow contractors and they rent them throughout the season.

So that was always a part of my business.

And then from there on, you know, we went into air compressors, stuff like that.

Eventually it came to the point where I was like, okay, I feel like I can't get anything out of construction or concrete anymore.

I was subcontracting myself out to other contractors trying to, to teach talent, to teach, teach, get some vision going in the companies.

But they quite frankly weren't having it.

So we left on good terms.

It was, it was all good.

It was a great way to make money and to get me started and to help fund the bills for this equipment rental company that was going to be a multi million dollar thing.

But turns out there's a lot of unknown expenses with that equipment.

Yeah.

So two years ago, two and a half years ago now, I decided to go all in.

I was like, if I'm going to keep treating it like a side hustle, it's always going to be a side hustle.

So you know, I had to go all in.

Even though the revenue numbers weren't where I wanted them to be, I wasn't getting as many leads as I could in as I wanted.

It was time made that jump.

Took, took kind of a leap forward into incorporating the business and building out the website.

Had marketing guys help me with Google Ads, different types of marketing on social media.

Working with guys like Kelly.

Right.

You know, to, to get the brand showcased on the sponsorship.

Great way to, to reach a lot of eyes.

That's a big part of starting your business is just get eyes on your brand.

You need, you need visual.

Yeah, yeah.

Brand awareness.

Brand awareness.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And from there on, you know, we, we grew it more.

Wheel loaders has always been a big, large part of the business.

Just because they're so well rounded.

There's so many uses for them.

You could use them in landscaping jobs, energy jobs, snow removal, you name it.

So we, we got several different sizes of those, specialized in a few other things.

Excavators was another one.

Compaction rollers, air compressors, as I mentioned before, which have many different uses.

And from there on we, we dialed in our value proposition earlier this spring, tried to understand who we were trying to serve and how we could serve them the best way.

Got that dialed in and yeah.

Oh, also earlier that year we became an authorized arctic Snow and ice products dealer which was pretty cool.

And those are cool.

Those are really cool.

Yeah, I love them.

I'm very passionate about that.

For those listening, probably the coolest snow blades on planet Earth.

Yeah.

Like very neat.

They're articulating, right.

Like they, they work, they operate independently.

Like they have the ability to move certain pieces of the blade.

Yeah.

100.

So its biggest shining component is you can effectively remove hard packed snow and ice by simply just tilting the attachment forward.

You can rip up that hard pack snow and ice.

You know that stuff that everybody slips on at the Costco Walmart, you know it builds up every year.

Every year I end up on my ass.

Yeah.

100 Canadian problems it is.

So that's their, you know, amongst many other shining components.

That is their, their main one is you know, really having the ability to scrape that stuff gone which leads into better productivity, higher efficiencies.

You don't have to salt so much if you're a contractor and just overall well done, well done job on that part.

So that's always been exciting.

The arctic snow and ice products.

And it aligned with what we were doing with the equipment rentals.

We had our attachments for the winter which worked very well.

And from there on, you know, just taking it day by day, creating systems within the business, raising, raising up our employee in the way that we, we think is the right way.

And yeah, the guy's name is Declan.

Phenomenal kid.

He's, he's only 17 years of age.

Oh wow.

Yeah, he's 17 years of age.

He's not the only employee that we've had.

We've had multiple others.

But he, he, he wanted to learn and he wanted to grow.

And that really resonated with me because there's not too many kids that wanted to do that.

One time I casually mentioned that I did 75 hard five times.

Not that that's a globe of honor or anything, but he's like, I'm starting Monday.

And you know, ever since, you know, it's, it's insane.

Like he's on, he's close to day 40 right now.

He's dropped 20 pounds.

His attention to details through the roof.

His consistency has shown up.

His over delivering all components of that 75 heart program and he's, he's in it, it seems like he's in it for the long haul.

He, his vision fits within the company which is something that Jory Evans talks about a lot.

And there's room for him to grow.

And it's been awesome, amazing, amazing.

Sean you know, one of the questions I can already hear people listening is hey, we need equipment.

What is your service area?

You're obviously based in Lethbridge, but do you serve all of Western Canada?

100%.

Yeah, we do serve all of Western Canada and how we're able to do that is with strategic partners that take care of our maintenance and operations when that equipment is out and further away from us.

So we have certified mechanics looking after our equipment if there is any breakdowns or whatnot.

And then the logistics, we're all set up in that area too.

Obviously it's not going to work to go halfway across the globe for a one day rental.

Yes.

You know, for that longer term contracts we are able to be quite competitive because they're lower overhead and we could serve a lot of different industries.

Well and I would also say for like US companies, a lot of US companies do construction work in Canada.

Right.

And it's, it's a hell of a job just to move all the equipment, you know, that far.

So it does make sense to have strategic partners like planes, equipment to be able to help you when you're doing work in Canada.

So I see more of that in your future for sure.

Yeah, without a doubt.

Yeah.

No, it's, it's, it's exciting and you know, just being able to, able to provide quality equipment, reliable stuff.

We've, over the past couple years we've really dialed in on our attention to detail.

You know, if there's something that looks like it might be going out, we just replace it because that's part of our value proposition is to have high quality, reliable equipment.

So that's, that's why we could offer it.

That's been exciting.

A lot of people really appreciate that, that we're, we're taking that extra step to making sure that there's no issues on site and, and you know, providing the equipment that they need, listening to what it is important for them, you know, whether it's brands or specific attachments that they need and delivering on that.

Totally, totally.

And like me and you both know, you know a down piece of equipment has repercussions.

Right.

It's not just that piece of equipment that's down, it's all the work that could have been done after that equipment was supposed to complete its job.

So it doesn't just slow down, you know, that one job, it slows down the whole job.

So you're absolutely right.

Quality equipment critical.

And planes has got it.

Yeah, 100%.

And how, how people ask they a lot of Times ask and say, well, how are you doing that as a small company?

You know, if something goes wrong, how are you going to be able to replace it?

Say if it's an engine job or transmission.

And the answer is, we work with a lot of other companies that have the same equipment, you know, whether they're rental agencies or other contractors.

And we're fully set up that if we send a piece of equipment out and something happens that we can't deal with in a timely fashion, we're going to just replace that piece of equipment so you can keep on going with your project, because ultimately that is important.

So that's how we do that.

Amazing.

Amazing.

And, Sean, you know, where can people find planes, equipment rentals in you?

If people want to, like, explore your products, explore your services, explore some arctic cat blades.

How do they do it?

Yeah.

Also, it's all on our website, ww.

Planes equipment rentals.com we spent a lot of time to try and make that as easy as possible to use.

And it's all on there.

Whether you need heavy equipment, lighter equipment, or arctic snow and ice products.

It's all up there.

Amazing.

And if people want to follow you because you post a lot on LinkedIn, you're active there, where do they find you?

Yeah, absolutely.

So LinkedIn's a great spot you could reach me at.

Sean Niels, reach out anytime.

Anything you need.

I'm just.

I'm just in.

In it.

I've.

I've done nothing in the grand scheme of things, but if I could help you, I will definitely try to help you.

And, you know, another one's Facebook or Instagram.

Also, Sean Niels, find me there and let's talk.

Amazing.

Amazing.

Sean, it's been an honor and I just want to, before we wrap this show up, from the bottom of my heart, dude, thank you so much for supporting, you know, me, the business development podcast, and, you know, the business development podcast community.

It's because of people like you that we continue to operate.

And so thank you for putting your money where your mouth was and actually financially supporting the show.

I just want to say I appreciate you and I really appreciate our friendship and everything you've done for both me and the listeners and the show.

Hey, you're welcome, Kelly.

And thanks for having me on there.

It's a.

It's a huge honor to be on this.

This massive platform of a show.

It's no small thing, really.

So I sincerely thank you for that opportunity and it was great to be a sponsor for you, too.

Like, it's not something that anybody could just do.

Well, anybody can do.

But I was given the opportunity at a time and there's only a certain amount of slots that you have.

So that was, that was great.

That early support dude.

Can't tell you how much it means to me because it really is, you know, growing a show like this.

It's expensive and it's hard and it's a labor of love.

So anybody who, you know, makes the choice to share in that labor of love, to share the load per se, is greatly, greatly appreciated.

Especially when a show is young, when a show is getting, you know, it's, it's legs.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

That's what it's all about.

You've helped me more than I can, you know, ever, ever say either.

So just that's what it's all about, right?

Paying it forward, bearing each other's burdens and, and doing the best we can.

Well, I hope this show sends a ton of people the Plains Equipment Rentals.

You're an incredible individual.

You're honest, you have integrity and you really believe in quality work.

And I think, think that absolutely, absolutely matters.

Until next time, this has been episode 260 of the Business Development Podcast and we will catch you on the flip side.

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 industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020.

His passion and his specialization is in customer relationship generation and business development.

The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your business development specialists.

For more, we invite you to the website at www.capitalbd.ca.

see you next time on the Business Development Podcast.