Turn Chaos Into Control With Colin Harms

Turn Chaos Into Control With Colin Harms

Colin Harms: You know, the sleepless nights, the conversations I can't watch the news anymore. Yeah. I, I can't listen to the updates. I still think that way today. Up until even a month ago, we got a, we had a big blow and we had to figure it out. But guess what? We figure it out. That's what I think why I'm feeling so good about 2026, is we've had to figure things out.

Yeah. We, we've had to shift on the fly. I've used that, that a lot. We shift on the fly, we shift on the fly. Right. We don't just sit there and go, oh, what's happening to us? It's made us better.

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

This is the Business Development Podcast podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. In 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 The Business Development Podcast, and now your expert host. Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy : Hello. Welcome to episode 301 of the Business Development Podcast, and today is a really special one because we are officially kicking off the three hundreds with my friend, my mentor, and a man whose company is helping power this show into its biggest year yet.

Colin Harms. Colin is a serial entrepreneur, a visionary director of business development at HyperVac Technologies and HyperFab, a podcaster and a trusted leader in Southern Alberta business. He is also a board member with the Lethbridge Community Chamber of Commerce and the kind of person who does not just talk about community, but he shows up for it week over week.

Colin and I originally connected because of this very podcast back in 2023, and since then he has been a steady light in our corner supporting our mission and pushing me to keep raising the standard year over year. And today I get to share something that I am genuinely proud of. HyperVac Technologies and HyperFab are officially the title sponsors of the Business Development Podcast for 2026.

This partnership is more than a logo and an ad read. It's a shared belief in what this show stands for. Educating and inspiring leaders while helping people build real momentum. Collin's Journey is a masterclass in persistence and leadership. From his early days learning the value of work ethic and relationships to nearly two decades leading in complex high accountability industry to betting on himself and acquiring HyperVac technologies with his partners, which is North America's leading air duct truck and portable vacuum manufacturer.

He is a builder. Who thinks in systems, plays the long game and believes that great businesses are created by great people, strong culture, and a relentless follow through. Whether you've been listening since episode one or you are brand new here, you are stepping into a milestone moment with us. Colin, It is my absolute pleasure to welcome you back to our stage to kick off the three hundreds.

Colin Harms: Hey, uh, thanks for the intro. Always, uh, always a great intro from you. And, and it's kind of interesting every time I, I listen to all the podcasts and everybody's like, whoa. So thank you for that. It's been a good ride, man. Uh, yeah, I, I can't even think where I would be without this relationship and that's no joke.

Like it, it has done so much for me. It's taught me that sometimes we need to stop looking where we're looking for something to happen. Yeah. And just let things happen. And also taught me reach out to people. When I reached out to you I had no idea who you are. I had no idea what you were about.

The only thing I knew was that I downloaded a podcast on Spotify and, uh, and, and I felt the urge to reach out. Yeah. And so here we, here we are today partners on the Authentic Hustle Podcast. Um, your support for my businesses has been amazing. And we're very thankful for that. And we know it's propelled our company forward.

Um, more so than that, Kelly, your friendship and what you've done for me personally building up my confidence level, um, you may not know that. I'm a pretty confident person.

But if you don't have somebody in your corner. That just fades away.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah.

Colin Harms: Right. It, it'll fade away and you don't notice it fading away.

Yeah. Um, and so thank you for that. Every week, um, you have an incredible drive that keeps me going keeps me on my toes.

Kelly Kennedy : Likewise.

Colin Harms: I I didn't, you know, like being committed to every Wednesday, being committed to, you know, it's more than just every Wednesday, right? It's, um, the advice, it's the conversations, it's the non-business related conversations we have that almost mean more for sure.

As much or more than the other ones. Yeah. Um, I, I, I don't wanna say it the wrong way, but I, I wasn't, I wasn't looking for a friend, but I found a really great friend, so that means a lot to me.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. Yeah. I, um, my gosh. Yeah. I had no idea how much, you know, our relationship would impact my life and it just, man, it just has, and it's so funny, like.

Two and a half years has just absolutely flown by. Yeah. I think we're gonna talk about that today about just how fast the years seem to be going at this point. Yeah. Um, but you know, when I look back to when we first connected, and I, I, you know, I mean, I really have to credit you for a level of motivation that really helped me through those beginning episodes.

It was like episode 21, you sent me a video and it was just a motivational video just being like, dude, 21 episodes. Like, you're absolutely crushing it. Keep at it, and you know, most podcasters, and now you're a podcaster. So you get it like it's a slog. And I think a lot of shows by about episode 21 are like, oh, like what am I doing?

Like, should I keep showing up to this week over week? Especially in the beginning because there's no return, there's no ROI, there's just you showing up week over week. Pouring your heart out, trying to make a difference. Yeah. Trying to build a show and, um, you know, I mean, you don't know what you don't know.

At 21 episodes, I was still learning everything. I was feeling overwhelmed. And that like, encouraging message, I think really kept me going in that moment. And, uh, it was the kick in the ass I needed at the right time. You didn't know it, but I don't know, man, like, uh, is a divine message, let's call it that.

Colin Harms: Yeah. I, I would call it a divine connection for sure. Right. And, and, and one that we, we know we need something.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah.

Colin Harms: And, and it comes at the right time. Yeah. Um, so I feel the same way. And yeah, two years has ripped by. Yeah. Um, and the last year in particular, I, I don't know, without these types of relationships, honestly, where I would be just because of, the environment, the economy just personal things that you go through, um, how you get through them.

You get through 'em one one day at a time, one week at a time. And, and when you look back and you go, oh, that was 50 weeks. That was 50 weeks ago. Like, that's some serious time. Yeah. Right. Like a lot happens in one day, let alone 50 weeks. So yeah. I'm just, I'm just so excited and honestly, I, because of you and even like I'll use this morning one of my favorite days of the week I used to always say I love every day that ends in why, right?

That's every day. Yeah. Um, but my favorite one is Wednesday because I know when I get to the gym it's instant boom. And I play the, the Wednesday podcast. Yeah. Right. And today was no joke. That was incredible. Like, I actually worked out longer because it wasn't over yet. So, so it was great, but it's just.

Having something to look forward to, I think changes our lives, right? Yeah. It, it's like people look forward to a holiday, right? I, I don't wanna look forward to the holiday six months or a year from now. I wanna look forward to Tuesday. I wanna look forward to Wednesday. I wanna look forward to every day that ends and why.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah, right. Yeah. No, it, it was funny 'cause before the show we were talking about Authentic Hustle. So for our listeners who may or may not know, we have another show together. It's funny 'cause we pretty much had this interview a hundred times. It kind of feels like, because we literally get together every Wednesday with Vijayan Swaminathan, and, uh, just have a great, you know, authentic conversation about business.

Um, it's a YouTube show for those of you who maybe haven't heard or heard of that show yet. You can catch it on YouTube. It's called Authentic Hustle. And so it's, you know, I mean, I've probably interviewed you more than anybody else in the world.

Colin Harms: For sure. For sure. Well, and maybe that's why we know each other so well.

Right. Without it. And, and, and I've had people too ask me, you know, how do you, how do you know Kelly? How do you know Vijay? And I'm like, we don't need to go there. We just do. Um, but when you start telling the story, I think that's what people resonate with. Yeah. Right. And, and I think it gives, I don't mean our story, I mean a story.

That's what gives people hope. That's what gives me hope. To hear. Like even listening to the podcast this morning, and, and I'm like, this is so weird that Kelly's interviewing this guy, like the guy that saw The Beatles when he was six and he was a front man, like when he explained. What the manager of a of a band does.

Yeah. I was like, are you kidding me? Like, how, how can you even do all that?

Kelly Kennedy : No kidding.

Colin Harms: Um, and, and then you're dealing with real people and real people's lives. Um, but then I, then I thought back, I'm like, Kelly, I gotta give this to you. 'cause because you're always proud of, you family, you're proud of people, you know, you know, let's say I don't have a friend that won the Stanley Cup because I cheer for the Oilers.

They don't win the Stanley Cups. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. But I listened to that and I'm like, holy, this is my friend interviewing this guy. This is so cool. And then I think I am actually that close to that guy.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah.

Colin Harms: Right? Like, uh, not that I need to, but if I ever need to, Hey, Kelly, introduce me to that guy.

I don't think he's buying an air duct truck. Probably not. Probably not. But you know what I mean? Like, it's so cool to just know that Yeah. Right. And, and then. Yeah. So kudos to you. Kudos to me. Looking forward to that. Every, like, I, I just love looking forward to that every week. And then also Sunday, right?

Yeah. And I'm like, oh, there's another one coming. It's on the top of my list. I look forward to the Authentic Hustle. Why? Because it pulls the best out of me. Yeah. Right. I have to be on my A game. And I looked at I've watched a lot of things about people. Oh, they quit drinking or they did this, or why did they, and they said they, they don't have enough time for downtime like to be off.

It's just what it does to 'em. And, and I don't care if somebody doesn or doesn't. Whatever you choose. But I look at my days, I don't, I don't have a bunch of free time. In my days, I make free time. But what I do, I really look forward to it. Right. If that makes sense. And I plan for it.

Like our Wednesdays, I plan for all of that. Then you talk about the sponsorship. We plan for that, right? I'm gonna sow seed into what I'm getting fruit from, right? So, so this, as much as I can give into it, I know I'm gonna get tenfold out of it.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. Yeah. And man, like without it, it's almost impossible to continue shows like this.

I think maybe that's maybe important for some of our listeners to understand. You'll start a podcast because of passion, but you'll continue a podcast because of people getting behind you and supporting you. Because passion alone doesn't pay the bills. And unfortunately, the bills for podcasting are going up and up and up.

The requirements to process your audio, the time requirements, the tools required this year is a massive, you know, tools upgrade. Mm-hmm. For our show. I basically have to switch our entire ecosystem to Mac Colin, just to like, just to run the next phase of the show. Yeah. But the show sound quality and quality of the show is going up and up and up.

I'm planning on hiring, coaching for video. There's lots that's gonna happen this year. But yeah, it's, um, it's a constant investment of time and money and so without, you know, people like HyperVac, HyperFab, yourself we got some others potentially lined up here supporting the show and helping us take it to the next phase.

Yeah, it's very hard to continue. So, you know, I mean, kudos to you. Thank you for your support. We need all the help we can get.

Colin Harms: Yeah, for sure. No. And not saying, you scratch my back. I scratch your back. It's sowing and reaping is a better way to say it for sure. Yeah. Um, and, uh, and also into any ground.

Good, good. Solid ground, right? Yeah. That I believe is, uh, is good and it's gonna bring a lot of fruit. No, I, I, I'm just seriously, man, looking forward to the future and seeing where we're gonna get to, how we're gonna get there. Yeah. The people along the way, like even the introduction of vi Vijay just the things he's been able to do in my business.

Yeah. Right. And he helps me. And I would've never been able to reach out to that. No. Um, and, and find not, I guess I could find it. I wouldn't have that relationship. Yeah. I think one of the things I, I'm really concentrating on for 2026 is relationships, right? Is I can do, I can do business, I can make commerce happen anywhere.

But without a relationship it's just a simple transaction.

Kelly Kennedy : It's just a transaction.

Colin Harms: Yeah. And, and I don't want that. I don't want it to be transactional if I'm selling parts. Yeah. That's transactional. Yeah. But to a point, if I'm selling parts to a customer that we can develop a relationship with, now you don't lose that customer.

No. Right. And we're not, we're not buying that customer. We're, we're just becoming friends with them.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. Right.

Colin Harms: Yeah. And that's where I believe loyalty comes from. And in a loyalty, I think loyalty's coming back, I think it went away. I think, um, social media made it, uh, made, it went away. That's not good talking.

It made, it went away that Yeah.

Kelly Kennedy : This sounds like the hustle to me.

Colin Harms: It's just real. It, it made, uh, things change. Yeah. But I think we're gonna start seeing that authentic part, which you talk a lot about. You know, relationship wise. It's gonna come back and, and I'm looking forward to 2026 for that reason.

And I would rather for myself and in, in my personal life and in my business, have less relationships, but have good ones.

Kelly Kennedy : Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I, you know, I mean my prediction for 2026 is it'll be the year of community. I think every money might start the year without being part of a community, but I think every single one of us, if we're professional, are leaving the year of 2026 as part of something bigger.

Yeah, for sure. And you're seeing it blow up all over, like it's not just Catalyst Club, which has been amazing, but yeah, it's not just Catalyst Club. You're seeing these communities popping up all over the place. And it's not because we don't need them, it's because we needed them and now they're available.

Colin Harms: Yeah. We do need the, and, and I think community, people used to think community was your neighborhood, right? Yeah. If you start another group, you could call it the neighborhood. I guess maybe I'll, maybe I'll steal that one. The hood.

But we've realized the community can actually be from here to Ukraine to wherever. Right. Yeah. It, it doesn't really matter. We're human beings all, you know, really looking for a lot of the same thing. Yeah. And how the heck do we find it? The reason we weren't finding it is because we were going in our neighborhood.

So I'm not calling it the neighborhood. That was a bad one. I'm not. But if you think about it, we were really honing in on our neighborhood, those right closest to us.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah.

Colin Harms: Well, we weren't getting it right. So we, we, you know, we can make that community, you know, the catalyst calls, all those types of things.

Um, I think we can bring it in closer from further away.

Kelly Kennedy : It's so funny. But I think the neighborhood we put on the same masks we put on on LinkedIn.

Colin Harms: Yeah.

Kelly Kennedy : We're too close. We're too close to our community. We're too close to our neighbors. Yeah. And I think on a certain level, we don't always let our guards down with them.

The cool thing that's happened inside Catalyst Club is that it's a private community and everyone knows it, and everybody respects that and comes there with that idea. And because we've made it a private community, people are willing to just be like, you know what? I don't know you guys, but I'm just gonna share what's going on with me.

And they're not met with, what's wrong with this person? They're met with. Oh man, me too. Like, how can we help you? Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's really surprised. That surprised me. Mm-hmm. And I think it surprised a lot of our members too, because. I didn't know how people were gonna show up in there. Yeah. I, you know, I knew what I wanted, whether or not people were going to do it was another thing.

And so it honestly is, it never ceases to blow my mind. The support people are getting there.

Colin Harms: You know what's amazing too? It's kind of like, catalyst Anonymous, right? Hi, my name is Colin, that's, I'm dealing with this, this, and they're all like, Hi Colin. We understand. I am a workaholic.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. All of us too.

Colin Harms: But it, it's in a great way, right? Yeah. That, that, Hey we're, we don't know you, we don't need to know you, but we're here for you. Yeah. And I do, I think I learned more in that environment because I, I, I want to hear somebody's story. Yeah. I don't, I don't, it's like you and I, if all we had to do was talk to each other every single day, how are we ever gonna learn something new?

We didn't have time to, we didn't have experiences that other people have, to, to hone or glean from the edges, I guess. Right? Yeah. I love to sit on those calls and, and listen. And then you talk or somebody else talks and other, you know, it goes on and on and on. I love that because then I can just go, oh I'll take that for me.

Perfect. Okay. I'll take that for me. I don't have to say anything. Yeah. I can just, nobody knows that I'm stealing these tidbits that are gonna make my life better.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah.

Colin Harms: Um, and then if I do feel the need to say something, I will.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. Yeah. And I think too, like the cool thing about Catalyst Club has been that we have people with such varied experience, you know, like leaders like you in there who've been through a lot, who can support some of those younger leaders who are just getting in there for the first time, and vice versa, some of those younger leaders bringing ideas and information and technology that us older leaders haven't quite figured out yet.

Yeah. So it's cool because you have people at your level, people above you, and people below you to support, and that system feeds into itself and becomes a circular supportive system, which is amazing.

Colin Harms: Yeah, it is amazing. And, and come to think of it, two years ago, it wasn't even birthed. It wasn't even a thought.

Kelly Kennedy : A year ago.

It wasn't on the table. And you know, we talk about this all the time where, you know, I was saying like, I like to do my annual plan, but like if something comes up during the year that wasn't part of the annual plan, that it's like, still seems awesome, I'm going to pursue it. And Catalyst Club was absolutely one of those things.

It was not on the 2025 plans, but it came up as something that's like, okay, there's a gap here. We can do this. I'm gonna do it as part of, you know, my coaching community anyway. Why don't I just try to build the Catalyst Club community? And so that, you know, I mean, it, it wasn't in the plans, but it was, you know, one of the best unexpected things to come outta 2025 for me, for sure.

Colin Harms: Mm-hmm. Well, and you know what, when you think about it, so 70, how many? 75?

Kelly Kennedy : 74 members of this morning.

Colin Harms: So 74 could be 75 by the time we hit authentic today. Yeah. But you think about it, so those 74 people have the ability to. Plant seed in all of our lives. Or, and vice versa, right?

So what can happen in 2026 that we have no idea. Oh, we have no idea. A lot, right? A lot. Or Yeah. Maybe we have this innate feeling of how is this ever gonna happen? That's why we have those groups, right? That's why we have the community. That's why we do these things. That's why you put all your time into making them happen for all of us.

Yeah. Um, you know, I was thinking about you encouraged me all the time to start the, the Blue Sky Method podcast. It's closer for sure. I know A few weeks ago I said, no, I'm not ready. I, I can't do it. There's a couple things that happened recently in my life where I'm like, Hey, you know, I need to get on this and get this, get this done.

I also had to find some space in my head to say, you know what? It's, it's gonna take me an evening out of a week to, to produce and do all this stuff. Okay. I can do that. Right? Yeah. I just have to, prioritize. So I think going into, I love the, the ability now we're a few days away from 2026, um, knowing, because it, it's like a restart, right?

It's a refresh. It's a restart. I know people don't like that. They don't like the, um, what are they resolutions, right? I think we're headed for a good one, man. Yeah. I think we're headed for a real good one.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. I have really good feelings about 2026. I don't know why, I don't know what's coming, but I know that I haven't, I think historically I've maybe dreaded the coming year a little bit. Yeah. And this year I don't at all. I'm just like, let's go. Like we're set up to just move forward. And I'm seeing optimism everywhere I look.

Colin Harms: Here's another, uh, weird thing that's been happening in my mind lately is I was realizing in the last month, February 1st will be five years since we acquired this company.

Wow. Five. Like, five, like how could it be five? Right. And then I think, okay, everyone's like, oh wow. Your buildings, your equipment is so amazing. And, and now I'm at the point I'm like. We, we've polished the edges, we've done different things. We're launching new innovation. And then I'm honestly, I find myself going, well, why didn't we do this?

Why didn't we do this? How did this take so long? Like we, we should have done more in five years. And then I'm like, you know, on the financial end of it, I'm like, nah, we did pretty good. You know, we were very aggressive in the way we did things, how we set it up. I can't let myself go. Like I, why even go down that path of Well, we should have, or what we could have, right?

Yeah. Um, we did, we did a lot of things and, and we're flourishing. And then I look at the stats. I mean, we acquired a, a good business. We're making it great. Um, I look at stats of how long businesses actually last. Yeah. How many succeed and we're already past that, right? Yeah. Yeah. And we're far past that.

And where we're going is gonna be amazing. But in that timeframe of five years. We've had a pandemic. Yeah. Like a real one.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. Like you bought it literally right before the start.

Colin Harms: Yeah. It was like half an hour later. Right. We walked outta the lawyer's office and they're like.

Kelly Kennedy : Oh no. Literally signed the paper.

Walk out, the world closes.

Colin Harms: And we're like, where is everyone? Oh, it's, it's over. The raptures happened and I didn't go, honestly. It, it's like, okay. That was the start. Yeah. And, and then it was the, uh, what did they call it when everybody just started quitting their jobs? The uh, quiet quitting. Quiet quitting.

Yeah. People were quiet, quitting people were, Hey, I don't wanna do this anymore. You know, which would, which was okay, except for the people that just bought a business. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and, and so I think, okay, what happened in five years? Lots. Lots happened in five years. Then there was the supply shortage, right?

A barge got stuck in a canal, so we had no toilet paper.

Kelly Kennedy : Oh yeah. Remember that? Yeah, I remember that.

Colin Harms: Um,

um, and then you, the, the worst part of COVID for me wasn't the COVID part, it was the loss of some friends. And just over views or opinions. Right. I don't like that that happened, but it it still affected it and, and still has. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and I like to say now as well, your opinion doesn't pay my bills so I keep going.

It's true. Right. But that doesn't help make friends or keep family. No. So then you fast forward. Then in there, you're, you're on the comeback here. Okay. COVID is over the supply shortage. And then you're really excited there's gonna be a political change and then you're not so excited. Uh, 'cause the tariffs hit.

And uh, well.

Kelly Kennedy : And, and I think that was a little bit shocking to Canadians and, you know, I mean, I know we have a lot of American listeners. Yeah. I don't think that we expected tariffs. I, you know, I mean, I didn't, we didn't. Yeah. I like, I, I think, I think we, we didn't, we weren't paying as much attention as you guys were.

Let's just put it that way.

Colin Harms: And you know what I, I remember being in Portland for the, the election. And I was so excited. I was just so excited. I'm like, yeah. Just because I'm a capitalist. A lot of Albertans were very excited. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, this is gonna be amazing. Yeah. I remember, you know, calling and texting my partner saying this is just, this gonna be the best thing ever.

And, uh, it was COVID the next day. Yeah. It was kinda like, what's going on here? Yeah. What's happening? And then. The sleepless nights, the conversations I can't watch the news anymore. I, I can't listen to the updates. Um, I still think that way today. Up until even a month ago, we got a, we had a big blow and we had to figure it out.

But guess what? We figure it out. That's what I think why I'm feeling so good about 2026 is we've had to figure things out. Yeah. We, we've had to shift on the fly. I've used that, that a lot. We shift on the fly, we shift on the fly, right? We don't just sit there and go, oh, what's happening to us? It's made us better.

Um, I, I, I, it's really odd to say, because I certainly k Kelly, you've pulled my head out of the sand a couple times and I'm a pretty positive guy, but you've actually called me and said, Hey, what's wrong? Get outta it. Snap out of it.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. And, and yeah, I was definitely a couple times, um, two for sure, because I know for a fact, yeah, like usually you are the, you're the, the shining light out there in the world when I'm like, calling the world is falling apart and you're like, dude, dude, you're okay.

You're all good. It's all good. Um, and then I was calling you, you were like, Kelly, the world's falling apart. I'm like, no, dude, it's all good. Hey, you'll, it's gonna be okay. Yeah. Um, but yeah, you're right. You're right. 2025 I think was out of all the time or out of the entire time I've known you, it was the only time I saw you, uh, go negative.

Colin Harms: Yeah. Well, and I'll give you an example. So in the last year for 14 months, uh, we were working on, uh, e-commerce. We're gonna launch a store across North America, it's gonna be amazing. And it's, it's a lot harder than we thought it was. And then tariffs hit that screws up your store. And, and, and I'm like, we don't need one more blow.

Like, but you know what? We, we launched the store. It's successful. We did a soft launch. We, we just opened it wide open this week. It looked good. The comments we're getting are good. That feels really good when people say that. This is amazing. Yeah, this is gonna be amazing. But what we did do is on November 1st, we got hit with another unknown tariff because Canada decided to play a video that the president didn't like.

Like is that really how this world works? I guess it is.

Kelly Kennedy : Um, well, in all fairness, our pr, our Prime minister and Trump could get along better.

Colin Harms: Yeah. Well, you know what, like, here, here's the reality. We are real people. Living in, in a sitcom. Yeah. That's what we're doing, right? Yeah. So I can't wait till, uh, hopefully that goes back.

So, you know, November 1st we got hit with another round of stuff and, and it halted our US business came to a halt. But what we didn't do was bury our heads in the sand. We said, okay, well let's figure it out, right? There's, there's gotta be a way. And, and it took three weeks of us just saying the same thing.

Try harder. Let's keep going. Call more people, figure it out. And, and the answer is, I'd actually like it when people say That won't work. Bet you it will.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. Yeah.

Colin Harms: Let's find the way. Have you tried it? Have you tried it? Have you tried, have you tried this? Have you tried that? Yeah. And we ended up on numerous, numerous phone calls with people we did not know, having great conversations.

Uh, some were dead ends, other ones were great until we, we finally had a conversation and the guy said, we'll try this. And we did. And it worked. And, but it's just taught us keep peeling back the layers. Keep peeling back the layers. Yeah. When somebody says, oh, this is gonna kill a business, or this is gonna kill an industry.

Okay, are you just pulling the pin? That's it. Or are you gonna keep trying? Are you going to, we, we can't become just a Canadian business. That's not an option for us and we don't want it to be. Um, and then people say to me, well, Colin, why don't you, uh, why don't you go over the pond? And I said, well, I'm 45 minutes from the US border.

I kind of like that one.

Kelly Kennedy : Not to mention we're about 4,000 kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean.

Colin Harms: Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, uh, you know what? Like, I, I, that's the part of it that I, I don't wanna hear, but guess what I all, I think is in this last year, it just keeps making us better. Yeah. It keeps making me a better person.

Like even I thought, okay, I'm getting tired. I'm doing this. What do I have to, I have to get healthier. So I think I've, I told you, Kelly, I uh, and I'll throw that in there. I woke up by, I watched the Super Bowl. I ate pizza, I drank some beer. Like a lot, I think.

And I think when I say I'm scaling up, I wanna scale my business, not me.

Mm-hmm. Anyway, which doesn't matter, just for me, a personal thing. But I've dropped 45 pounds in less than a year. Wow. Um, wow. And, and I, and I haven't done it like in one month. Yeah. So mentally, I'm, I'm feeling better. I think I'm seeing clearer. Physically I'm feeling better. I still gotta, I got some goals, uh, where I want to get to next year.

But once again, it proved to me I, you know, I'll just use that in this, in this journey, in this part of the conversation. I, I think I fought that mentally where I couldn't beat it for like 25, not 25, probably 20 years. And I would just fall back into it, fall back into it, fall back into it. Now my mind is set.

Okay. This is where I'm gonna be by the end of June.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah.

Colin Harms: Right. And I'm gonna be there. Yeah, so, so these weird things, if you call 'em adversity or whatever you may call them, I think we can use them to our advantage, right? Like, okay, let's, uh, hit me again. Watch me come back. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Like, it's like, uh, what's the meme?

There's a meme where where the devil's sitting in the back whatever the devil looks like, and all he says is, oh shit, he woke up again.

Kelly Kennedy : Well, okay. I, I do have to say though, 2025 has been probably a monumental financially changing year for you, right? Like, between the real estate doing really well, HyperVac, you know, going through challenges, but frankly doing really well. Would you say that financially 2025 has been one of the best years of your life?

Colin Harms: Best year ever, by far.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. Yeah. Which is, has that bought you the time to start to focus on the things that really matter to you?

Colin Harms: You know what, I, I think it did buy me time. It bought me the mental capacity. To know how to get through some more things. Does that make sense? Like it's not that I, I mean, I was never, I gotta be clear, I was never broke.

Not even close. Um, yeah, I'm not that guy. Oh, you gotta hit rock bottom. I don't think you do, and I don't think you want to. Things weren't always easy. But I think what happened there mentally, it put me in a state of, okay, we can do this, right? We can get to the next level. Okay, yeah, we can do this.

Like we, even as a business, we, we made great financial, um, strides, if you will and really good decisions as a partnership, um, that got us ahead and got us to a point of no turning back.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah.

Colin Harms: And then even with the real estate business I don't know, like I'm, you know, I've been licensed 16 years or 17 years.

I don't know why. This was the year maybe I, I got better at building relationships. I know for sure I, I. Better at responding to people. Yeah. In the way I did. Right. It wasn't so, transactional, right? Like I had to really care to make things happen and it just flowed, right? Like it was I would say as in the flow for real estate and, and then for 2026, I don't just say, oh, I'm not gonna go look back and go, that was a great year.

Oh, I wish I could do that again. I'm actually preparing to beat it. Yeah. So yeah, for sure. You're, you're correct. That did help a lot especially when there's so much adversity and you're like, what is going on here? Why is this happening to us? Yeah. Um, and when I stopped saying, why is this happening to us and what can we do about it, that was the game changer.

Kelly Kennedy : I would say too, like one of the big differences between 2024 and 2025 for you is you were a lot more public in 2025 as well, right? True. Yeah. Not just, not just with authentic hustle, but like you were more active on LinkedIn, you've been on, you know, other shows. Yeah. You, you know, you're, uh, part of the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce.

Now I'm not part of it, but literally leading part of it on the board, on the board. Like you have made a big effort to be more out there, and I wonder how much of that has played to your favor.

Colin Harms: Yeah, I bet you, I think you're right. Um, years ago, you know what I would call networking. I, I did meet a lot of people, right?

I met a lot of people fortunate to have different positions with some companies that I ended up meeting a lot of business people and not realizing. How great those relationships were even locally. Right. That would come back to feed me later. Yeah. Um, and just by being authentic. Um, and I still see that today, every day that happens.

You know, our friend Jory has labeled me, uh, he said he is getting me a, a thing from my desk that says Instant family.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. Sounds about right.

Colin Harms: Just because you meet people and they become instant family.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah.

Colin Harms: Um, but I think, yeah, it's just been a really good year for that. For sure. And, and I think all of that ties into helping my head space.

And you know what? I I think it's made me a better husband. Like I, I've really noticed myself change, and it's kind of weird, like when you notice yourself change, I, I've, I don't think I ever have before until now where I'm like, oh, mm-hmm. You know what? Like, why was I like that? Yeah. You know, I'm, I'm gracious.

My wife, didn't. Tell me to shut up or whatever. And, and I catch myself, and then I'm like, you know what? I've always thought of myself as a good dad, but then I'm like looking through the eyes of my kids. Was I like, like, why would I have acted like that? Why would I have acted like that in front of my kids?

Yeah. Why would've I, why couldn't I just button my lip and not let them hear that? And so I'm really cognizant of that now, and, no, no, nowhere near perfect and never will be, but certainly better than I was. Yeah. And in trying, I could read a million books. I, I listen to audio books, but when I do it now I'm like, okay, I'm gonna do this with intention.

I need to take something from this and actually apply it to my life. Not tell Kelly how this will work for him. And one of those, I think I've told you, um, is, uh, Mel Robbins Let them, yeah, right. And, uh, did you read it or have you heard it? I have a copy before. You haven't, I haven't read it yet. I haven't read it yet.

I have a copy for you. I just, uh, my wife's like, why did you buy all these books? I'm like, you told me to buy it. And I have to tell this story. My wife says, you, you're gonna, you should buy this book. And I said, what is it? Mel Robbins, Let Them. And I'm like, yeah, is it good? She's like, it'd be great for you.

I'm like, oh, wow. Okay. So I download it that day. Yeah. And I binge listen and I listened to it, and then I'm like, everything, I'm, I'm like, let them, let me let you let my, I'm going on and on and on. She's like, why are you doing that? I'm like, what's in the book you told me to read? She's like, I never read it.

She goes, I said, it would be good for you. So actually it was two days ago, she was like you got a package in the mail. Why do you have 10 books? I go, people need them like this. This was so good for me. I think it would be good for other people. Yeah. Um, but I think that I, I'm trying to think if it was three or four months ago I read it, that it really transformed the way I think, and I mean, it's not, it wasn't the answer right.

But it was me allowing myself to let go of a lot of things. Yeah. Right. And some people that were in my life that I am like, oh, why is that happening? Why is that happening? And not worrying about it for the rest of my life. It's been really freeing and my wife actually says like, does nothing bother you?

And I'm like, I I did, what about that? I let them

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. Yeah. Well you were like that before. Let them. And so now it's just, it's made you like a super let go guy.

Colin Harms: Them. Yeah. And then so, so much Maybe Mel Robbins will ever, maybe she'll listen to our podcast. Yeah. Um, she might have to. 'cause I'm actually going to see her in Vancouver, like Oh, cool.

Just bizarre. Yeah. Um, like, I like concerts, I like games. Yeah. And I, I said to my wife, Hey, in May we're gonna Vancouver. Oh, for what? I said to see Mel Robbins. And she just laughed, are you kidding? I'm like, no. And I go, and the tickets were more than a concert, but when something impacts your life Yeah.

That's what you should do.

Kelly Kennedy : Sure.

Yeah. Yeah. No, it's, um. It's funny because me and Shelby were having a very similar conversation the other day because, you know, you, you celebrated five years with HyperVac. I was actually celebrating five years with Capital. Yeah. And we were talking about how like, man, like I've changed a lot in that time, but like, I haven't noticed any of it.

It's like you, it's only when you reflect back and you're like, wow, I was like a really different person back then. Yeah. You're like, holy crap. Like we're actually changing all the time. And she was kind of making the case that like you're changing all the time, so how are you controlling that change? How are you influencing the person that you're becoming?

And I think maybe that's one of the things that we all have to be more conscious about is that you are being put in situations that are forcing you to grow and change. You're changing all the time. Are you conscious of it or are you directing it in a path that you want to go because it's happening either way.

Colin Harms: Yeah. I think that's good. That's key is I think when you start to realize or you see, you start to look in the mirror and actually see what's happening. I think, I think that's the biggest difference. And maybe it's my age, right? And I keep saying this like every year older I get it. Well, I, you know, my senior friends say things to me and I'm like, I get it.

I get it. Like Im getting that like, oh no.

Kelly Kennedy : Now I understand what they're saying.

Colin Harms: And then, and when you start to look through what they've seen, yeah,

right. You're looking through what you've seen, right?

Kelly Kennedy : Mm-hmm.

Colin Harms: And I think the other one is, I heard it this way. When we stop looking through stained glass, right?

We see things clearer. And that, and that may sound simple, but it's profound because we put these stained glasses on because I, I'll, this didn't happen. Kelly tells me something about a situation, and right away I've got stained glasses on. That's what I start thinking, right? We have to think for our thou, for ourselves.

We have to, what is good for me, right? It's not selfish, but you have to be selfish sometimes when what's good for me and my family, what's good for me? I need some time. I need to take a break. I need to push harder. What's good for me? So what glasses are you looking through? Are you looking through stained glasses or are you looking through clear glass?

So.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah, I think we all have a lot of reflection to do. Um, we do, you know, I mean, I guess ultimately it's hard to see the future. My crystal ball's broken. Yeah. Has been for a while. Yeah. Um, you know, when Catalyst Club is a great example of that, it wasn't even remotely in the plans and turned out to be one of the greatest things to happen under 2025.

So it's kind of one of those things where ultimately you can't see the future coming, but you can influence it. It's like obviously my coaching. This podcast, the things that I was working on was leading to something like that. I didn't have that in the plans, but it became obvious at some point that was something that we should start pursuing because we make a difference with it.

I was just ready to say yes, but that doesn't mean that the choices I was making along the way weren't leading me to a place where I could say yes. And so to say that you can't see the future and you have no influence isn't completely true because every action you take every day is building your legacy and leading you to the next point.

So what actions are you taking today that are leading you to be able to say yes to that great opportunity you can't see coming?

Colin Harms: Well, and, and you know what, uh, a simple thing is, success leaves clues, right? It does. It doesn't matter what vocation you're in, what you're doing, success leaves clues. So if you want to be successful in any situation, right?

It's not just business. Like any, any part of your life whatcha looking for, right? Where are you looking for it? Um, and I'll use like what you were saying is I go into the, uh, catalyst GGPT. So business development. So the more info that's in there, or GPT in general, right? Yeah. We can go, we can go pull something out.

What we need very quickly. It really helps us not fail. It moves us forward. If we just keep looking for it, if it's never been easier to find answers. It's never been easier to find clues, I guess. Yeah. Um, I use it. My, my permanent Christmas lights on my house don't work. I, and I go, they say quit using that for, it's not Google.

No. It's better actually. It's better than Google. Yeah. So I'm gonna keep using it and, and it helps me in my daily every thing we do, we can reach out somewhere and find an answer. Right? Yeah. Whereas before, it was like, who, who, who said it? Somebody said, oh, maybe it was on, uh, was it Jake Gold? He said You, you used to have to record a tape.

Yeah. Mail it to somebody. They'd have to listen to it if they actually listened to it. The barrier to entry he was talking about, right? Yeah. Our, our barrier to entry for anything personal life, anything is pretty limited. We, we can go after it. And I don't wanna be cliche, but you know, I, I never actually say that.

Uh, what is it? Shoot for the stars or whatever.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. Shoot, shoot for the moon. If you miss, you hit the stars. Yeah. You hit the stars.

Colin Harms: Right. So in reality though, as long as we're trying and as long as we can convince ourselves that we can get there or we can do something, we really can. Right? Yeah. Like, like you can, you convince yourself that you can or you can't.

You're right. Yeah. So yeah.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. Whether you believe you can or you believe you can't, you're right. So you might as well believe you can.

Colin Harms: Yeah. Right. And then my dad actually taught me, right. You gotta think anyway, so you might as well think big. Yeah. So, yeah, it's a pretty easy choice.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. Yeah. No, it's, um, it's interesting for sure.

Like I said, I have really good feelings about 2026. I don't know what it is. I can't see the future. Yeah. But what I can say is, is that if we continue the momentum we have right now, 2026 will be our biggest year yet in every way.

Colin Harms: Yeah. And one last thing for me is Kelly. I think the good thing about not being able to see the future is we would screw it up.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah.

Colin Harms: Right? If, if we, if we knew because we would do, oh, I'm gonna divert from that. Oh, I'm, I'm gonna do this. I think, uh, the ability to shift on the fly comes from experience. That's the catalyst club, I don't have to have the experience, but Kelly can have the experience. Vij can have the experience, you know, Nate can have the experience.

Whoever is on there, we can learn from. And that's another one, like a great, you know, uh. Lead in for the Catalyst Club is success leaves clues, right? Yeah. That's what that's about, right? Yeah. You, you need some clues go there.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. And it's not just, it's not just that, like sometimes you just need a place to, to vent.

Like, to truly just be like, I'm struggling. Like I'm genuinely struggling. 'cause every single one of us have days like that. Even you, you know, it's like we had that conversation earlier on, like 20, 25 is the only time I'd ever seen you have those days. Yeah. And it's like everybody has those days. We have to stop pretending that, everyone's got their shit together 24 7.

Yeah. It's not true. But you need a safe space to be able to come to. And so, like I said, even if, like, even if Catalyst Club community isn't for you, if you are hearing this show today, I want you to start researching communities that do align with you. Mm-hmm. You'll find benefit in them. Even virtual online communities like Catalyst Club.

It's powerful and you will be surprised at how much you have in common with people around the world.

Colin Harms: A hundred percent. And you know, I just thought of it too, is, um, every day in our lives, it's, I, I can't even imagine being a commodity trader, right? Because it's up, it's down, it's up, it's down, it's up, it's down.

It's historically down, it's up. And, and I don't know where that happy medium is but that's our lives, right? We have no idea what tomorrow's gonna be. We have no idea what the next day's gonna be. And that's probably for the better.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. Yeah. If we, like you said, if we knew everything, life would be so boring, right?

Colin Harms: Like if we knew, uh, I like hockey, but if I, if I actually knew the Stanley Cup's gonna be like, I don't know why it's gonna go like to almost July before they play. That's how long the season goes. But if we actually knew, it wouldn't even be good.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah.

Colin Harms: Right.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. You knew the outcome. It wouldn't be worth watching.

Colin Harms: Yeah. And you know what? We, we forecast in our businesses, we do all that type of thing. We run p and ls, but we don't really know. We don't really know what's gonna happen next month. Yeah. Uh, we forecast for it and, you know, and, and we deal with whatever the outcome is. Yeah. But you know what, I, I, would things be different if we knew exactly what was gonna happen?

I don't know if that would be for the good.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. Yeah.

Colin Harms: It'd be the bank would be happy.

Kelly Kennedy : I think I have to hit on something though with HyperVac because, you know, you guys have been working on some stuff behind the scenes for a while. Mm-hmm. Um, and you know, obviously if you've listened to this show, you've heard the HyperFab ads, you're gonna hear more of them. You. You haven't just been building vac trucks, you've been constantly looking for how do we do this better?

How can we fabricate our own bodies? How can, yeah. And so literally you built a fabrication facility Yeah. In your back 40. Yeah. And it's HyperFab and so that's just starting to get its legs. But like, I think we have to talk about that. Is that like long before the tariffs, you were already planning for diversification with HyperFab.

Yeah. And so in some ways you are better set up for 2026 than you ever could have been. HyperFab is gonna go fully active. And we're gonna be talking about a lot on this show, but, you know, introduce our listeners to what you were doing with regards to diversification that frankly now is starting to pay off in your favor.

Colin Harms: Yeah. So what we did was, when we purchased the company, um, a hundred percent of our work in our manufacturing was subcontracted, like literally a hundred percent. And we slowly. I wanted more control of that situation. Um, not knowing how that would look, because on the outside looking in or any advice we were getting is subcontracts probably the way to go.

We said, no, we want more control. We wanna control our timelines, we want to control our quality, but we actually have no idea how to do that. So we start researching. We order equipment, we bring it in-house, we take, you know, like the beautiful part is my partners are not adverse to risk. They're, let's do it, right?

Yeah. We built a business case, let's do it. We implement those things, we go after it. And that's where, where in five years we've done a lot. But when you're in it, you're like, okay, there it is. Right. It feels like it's, it's harder. Yeah. Um, and so we, we start to cut our own trucks. We start to bend our own trucks.

We start to weld our own trucks. We bring that in-house. We're hiring people. We're hiring the right people, putting the right people on the bus. Not easy. At all. Um, but as we start to see it come to reality, you know, as the weeks go by, as a year goes by, we're like, whoa. Wow. Like, wow. That's amazing.

We're actually bringing this in. Then we're, you know, we're 40%, we're 50%, we're 60%. All of a sudden now we're at a hundred percent. We control the flow completely. We buy the material, we control the flow of the material. We control the fabrication part of it right down to all of a sudden people hear about the equipment we have.

People doing deliveries and, and word gets around, Hey, could you cut this for us? Could you bend this for us? And then we're, we're like, I'm seeing the stuff we're producing, and I'm like, we're doing that. Right. And then obviously Blue Sky Colin says, well, why don't we have HyperFab?

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah,

Colin Harms: Um, and so fast forward to today, which hasn't taken that long. You know, we're, we're gonna. Evolve in 2026 and into, into a huge game player. We are going to be a player in that, in that space. Part of it was we had to get there in our heads. Yeah. We had to know we could do it. We had to realize that sometimes if you build it, they will come.

That's real. You have to do it. You have to have the people you're involved with believe in that as well. They believe in you and then they believe we can go do it. Now we're, you know, um, Kelly's gonna be a big part of that. But we had to get to that part where, you know, we can, we can bring those resources and to help us, but only when we know we can do it.

So now we're gonna go do it and I think, uh, we had a meeting last week, Kelly, you were involved. And this is how current this is. We're not talking about six months ago. We're talking about, it was like 72 hours ago. We, we, we had a meeting, but that meeting really catapulted us. Forward, um, or out there to believe what we can do.

So now it's gonna be website, it's gonna be business development it's gonna be RFPs. And we've actually said, Kelly, even you don't know this, since our conversation internally, we've said, okay, we need to take over the other 7,500 square feet of our building because we're gonna need this. Yeah. You know, we've been, how do we double our production?

Okay. This is how we do it. How many people are we gonna need? We're not forecasting just a p and l, we're forecasting a completely different business.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah.

Colin Harms: Right. And, and I did joke the other day, any of my air truck customers, if you're ever listening, I did say maybe one day we won't even sell those trucks.

Right. Because maybe we won't. Right. Maybe one, maybe maybe we're gonna come a completely different industry. Yeah. I've been reading about the history of where businesses started and what they're today, and I'm like, what? Yeah. Uh. But that's where we're headed. So I think 2026 is gonna be like ridiculously fun.

Kelly Kennedy : The only thing consistent in business is change the, there's no way that a company lasts 100 years without significant change. And I would say nine times outta 10 they're creating completely different products. Yeah. Completely different products than they started. That's right. But as long as you go into it with that idea and not be so rigid and say, you know what, I'm just gonna see what comes.

It doesn't necessarily have to be exactly what we did before, but it can be a place we evolve to You're going to be okay. It's the companies that get so rigid and refuse to change that end up in the biggest challenge.

Colin Harms: Yeah, and, and recently I, I think I was telling you about the Amazon book I read or listened to, and it really opened my mind to how many times they failed.

Right whi which, which was eyeopening to me because you don't see that right on, on the outside looking in. You don't see, oh, Jeff Bazos, he's a failure. Not, he is like the second richest guy in the world.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah.

Colin Harms: Right. In like 20 years. He went from that to that. Yeah. That's not what I'm aspiring to do, but what I love to hear, or what I was reading about is, okay they threw this at the wall.

They went after it. Okay. That didn't work. Shift on the fly. Yeah. Right. Then they, then they morphed into a different business. Then they morphed into a different business. Then they morphed into a different business. And they do that every day. Yes. Right? Yes. Like, they're not stopping, like, like they become a shipping company.

They become, you know, a distribution company. They become a warehousing company. They become a technology company. And so that's kind of like leading into, you know, hyper back, hyper FB and our store which, which is gonna be multilayered as well. I'm just so excited where before I, I didn't know how can you make this happen?

Because I, I'm, I'm not that person, but now I'm like, well, we can just meet people. Yeah. You ever heard of bj? Like, uh, yep. And, and who that guy knows. And, and we're always that, you know, six degrees of separation or whatever they call it, we're that close to those people at a, any given time.

We just have to keep asking. So that's what I think is gonna be, you know, a year from now, if we have have another podcast, it'll be completely different. Yeah. I think I will be, the people that we're hiring now is gonna make me be a different person. Yes. Right. I'm gonna move to a different position.

We're doing that right now and that's gonna be a game changer.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah, it's, um, Amazon never ceases to amazing man. Like the fact that we can hop on our phone and order something and have it sometimes on our step before the day is over. Yeah, absolutely. Just blows my mind. And it's all conducted and coordinated by Amazon.

So, um, they deliver stuff better than Canada Post.

Colin Harms: I gotta tell you a great story. So we, uh, through our e-commerce we use Amazon as a distribution partner, right? Yeah. Depends, right? Because I, I, it, we, and we did it within weeks of me listening to this book. And so we, uh, we get an order, I guess online guy orders something from New Jersey.

He gets charged 40 bucks for shipping and he gets it the next morning. Yeah. And so he calls me. I just wanna know, how does this work? I got, I paid 40 bucks for shipping, but it was, here I go. So you're, you're upset that it was, you got it too fast. You, you wanted it to come like on a horse.

Kelly Kennedy : I was gonna say, um, if I could have, if I could have shipped through Amazon, you would've had your gifts, your Christmas gifts yesterday.

Colin Harms: Well, but dude, it, it's, so it proved to me the process works.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And

Colin Harms: I, I had to explain, we worked through our Amazon distribution partners. It's drop shipped. This is what it is, okay. Yeah. Fine. I just, I, you know, I thought for 40 bucks it would take longer. What? Let's, let's go back to 1980.

Yeah. Um, but to me, that's the amazing part of where, because that transaction happened and he called me and invoiced his concern. You paid too much for shipping, for very fast shipping. Okay, I get it. Whatever. It made me believe for that much more if we can do that. And that was in New Jersey, right?

Yeah. Where, you know, we, we made it happen. I'm just like, yeah, okay. Diesels, you're onto something here. Yeah. You're, you're so far onto it that we can do it. So I look at it, how do we format our store the same way they do?

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. Yeah. Um, I think, I was talking to Shelby the other day who said that Canada Post had been outsourcing some of their shipping to Amazon.

Colin Harms: Yeah. Because kids are better at it.

Kelly Kennedy : They're just so good at it. Yeah, exactly. It's um, yeah, I think at Christmas time, Canada Post has to outsource to Amazon. Like there's just too many packages.

Colin Harms: Yeah. So any business, doesn't matter what anybody listening, any business that you're in, success leaves clues.

Yeah. Right. There's, there's no better advice than that is look at what they're doing. Maybe it's a competitor, right? Like, like, I love, I can't wait for my competitors to see our site. And, and you know what? I hope they ramp up because that'll make us ramp up. Yeah. Right. The better they do, the better we do.

That's the way it is. Right? It's get competitive.

Kelly Kennedy : It's a big world. It's a big frigging world. Right? Like even if I want you to think about this, even if there were, let's call it 20 other vac truck manufacturers at your capacity. Mm-hmm. The reality is, is the whole world can potentially be your customer.

Easy. That's a pretty big marketplace.

Colin Harms: Yeah. Yeah. And that's the part of where people said to even, why don't you go over the pond? And I'm like, well, there's, there's three 60 million people 45 minutes across that border. Yeah. Um, that's a big market.

Kelly Kennedy : And I think we talked about this, but I think that for you guys and hyper FB specifically

That's gonna put you in a very unique position. Mm-hmm. Because you can ultimately ship to the US and and fabricate for the US as well as you fabricate for Canada. That's right. So close to the border.

Colin Harms: That's right. And I think, um, for hyper Feb too, with the bi Canadian the big push, even the prime Minister's putting that on now and, and if they continue on with that I think there's so much, so much market out there that we have no idea.

Yeah. Um, you know, that we, we can go from this to this, we just have to be smart about how we do it. I just think the really, the sky's the limit, right? There's just so much for, it doesn't matter what you're in, just look around. There's so much out there for you to take.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. Yeah, it's a big world people and it's a global marketplace and it's getting easier and easier and easier for you to facilitate that.

Yeah. So I think that's a great place to end today's show, Colin. Yeah. Yeah. Um, man, I always love chatting with you. Thank you for your support. We wouldn't be at 300 without you. We wouldn't have this beautiful signal award without you. Um, that's super cool. And I'm super proud of our Signal award and here's why.

We were the only Canadian show that made the business category for 2025. Wow. At the Signal Awards. Yeah. And we are the only independent show. Every other show was part of a billion dollar network, and there was us supported by you. Um, yeah. It's amazing. And I think that speaks volumes. That speaks volumes.

We earned the crap outta this thing.

Colin Harms: Yeah. Yeah. You did. You did. And and you know what, it's a we thing, right? Yeah. And that's why we have to support each other. We have to endorse each other, um, and we have to show it off. If you don't show it off, people don't know about it. So.

Kelly Kennedy : Yeah. Yeah. And you know, speaking to my other Canadian podcasters, American podcasters, just because you're independent doesn't mean you can't be a top show.

You absolutely can be. That's right. All right. All right, that is episode 301. Here is to an epic next 100. Thank you for your support, Colin. Looking forward to having HyperVac and HyperFab on board here. And, uh, let's make 2026 our best year yet. Cheers. Until next time you've been listening to the Business Development Podcast and we'll catch you.

On the flip side.

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