Intro/Outro (00:01):
Welcome to Dial P for procurement, A show focused on today’s biggest spin supplier and contract management related business opportunities. Dial P investigates the nuanced and constantly evolving boundary of the procurement supply chain divide with a broadcast of engaged executives, providers, and thought leaders. Give us an hour and we’ll provide you with a new perspective on supply chain value and now it’s time to dial P for procurement.
Kelly Barner (00:31):
If you are listening to this episode of Dial P on the day it publishes, then today is December 29th, 2022. Today would have been my dad’s 71st birthday. He passed away earlier this year after a long tough battle with cancer. My dad was the kind of guy who always knew just what to say no matter what the situation was. I would hear his advice in my head and I hear it in my head still now, like playing a tape. He would always say, Kelly honey, and that’s when I knew it was coming. I had better listen up because it was going to be good Kelly honey. Now that doesn’t always mean that his advice was cheerful or flowery or what I wanted to hear. His wisdom was real and it was distilled the hard way. The really funny thing about this is that my dad spent the second half of his career as the VP of enterprise sales for technology companies in the semiconductor space, so he was in sales and I was in procurement, so that led to a lot of really interesting discussions and we didn’t always see eye to eye.
Kelly Barner (01:44):
Now that said, most of his best advice applies to everything situations way beyond sales and procurement and even work. In this episode of Dial P, I am going to share the best of my dad’s advice so that you can benefit from it too. I’ve told you about my dad, but before we go any further, I should introduce myself. I’m Kelly Barner. I’m the co-founder and managing Director of Buyers Meeting Point. I’m a partner at Art of Procurement and I’m your host for Dial l p here on supply Chain. Now, I’m constantly scanning the news for complex articles to discuss things that are interesting but may escape people’s notice. Dial P releases a new podcast episode or interview every Thursday, so be on the lookout for future episodes and don’t forget to check out past episodes as well. Now, before we get back to today’s topic, I have a favor to ask.
Kelly Barner (02:46):
Usually this is where I would pause and ask for your support and engagement on social media or podcast platforms, and I will never turn that down, but given the different nature of today’s episode, instead, I’m going to ask for you to share the best advice you ever received from someone close to you. As always, I’m grateful for your interest and attention to what we’re building here at Dial P. This may be the most personal episode I’ve ever recorded, but every single episode comes from the heart. The first piece of life advice I got from my dad was born out of learning to ride a bicycle. My bike was pink, truthfully, everything I had then was pink, and the only thing this bike lacked was training wheels. All of my friends had training wheels, so even before they mastered the balance required to ride a bike, they were zipping up and down the street in front of our houses.
Kelly Barner (03:48):
Me, not so much, but that’s the way it was in my house. There would be no training wheels for Kelly because we didn’t do things the easy way. Instead, I got wisdom. Bruises are metals. My dad told me you earn them by working hard and they are a show of your determination and stamina. Now, it’s been a really long time and yes, I did learn how to ride a bike, but if my memory serves me right, the bruises on my legs probably qualified me for the Olympics. In determination and stamina, I didn’t give up, and before long I was able to ride that bike without training wheels. I was confident enough to leave the relative safety of the backyard and move to the sidewalk, which came with a second lesson. Sometimes a slower start allows you to be faster later on. You can go a heck of a lot faster when you can really ride the bike without training wheels.
Kelly Barner (04:51):
So all those kids that had been so much faster than me with their training wheels on were suddenly in my dust because I was riding my bike for real. As I got older and worked my way up through high school and college, my dad’s advice had less to do with pink bicycles and more to do with surviving and succeeding in the real world. As you may have noticed, the world is not fair, but that doesn’t mean other people are luckier than you. In fact, according to my dad, there is no such thing as luck. You make your own luck. He would say, just like with riding a bike, the answer is more hard work. If you want to succeed, you have to train harder, put in more time, make better choices, and just plain outdo everyone else. Obviously that was hugely valuable advice in college, but it really started to pay off when I decided to go out on my own professionally at buyer’s meeting point.
Kelly Barner (06:00):
Now, this isn’t meant to offend any of my nine to five corporate friends. Lots of people with salaried jobs work really, really hard and put a lot on the line personally to succeed, but nothing, absolutely nothing compares to the pressure you place upon yourself. When you become an entrepreneur, there is no one to cover for you. Every success and every failure is your own, and every day, hour or minute you take off is a day, hour or minute. Your business is at a standstill and you are never going to get that time back. It is the ultimate opportunity cost. All that said, it isn’t like I never failed. I got bruises in business just like I got bruises in the backyard trying to learn to ride that pink bike. I failed all the time. I continue to fail all the time, in fact and in many different ways.
Kelly Barner (07:03):
My dad always had advice for that too. This is actually the advice I repeat to myself most often since it seems like I am more likely to fall back on his wisdom the most when things go wrong. He said there are two winning guys in every deal. There’s the guy who gets the contract, he obviously wins, but there’s also the guy who figures out right away that he has no chance of ever getting that contract. That second guy may not be any closer to his quota, but he has minimized the waste of energy and maximize the time he can transfer to the next opportunity, which he may win. There are a lot of books about entrepreneurship, but they’re all anecdotal, they’re all opinion, they’re all right and they’re all wrong. The reality is you can’t get by without making mistakes. Instead, watch for evidence that confirms your choices or shows them up as not the right way to go, even if you want them to be the right way to go, have the courage to admit that own the error, and then this is the hardest part of all.
Kelly Barner (08:21):
Try something new because what I’ve never actually really thought about is that guy who realized he wasn’t going to get that contract, what exactly did he go do next? That is the choice that makes the difference. It’s wise to do a postmortem and understand where things went off track, but you also can’t spend so much time reflecting that you miss the next opportunity because cue the next piece of advice. We are all just one paycheck from the street. I know that probably sounds really negative, but hear me out because it’s not. I know the workforce has gone through a significant change over the last few years, but we’ve moved very quickly from the great resignation to repeated news about layoffs. Depending on your point of view, this advice will probably mean something different to you. If you have a job that you don’t love, don’t compare it to a fictional perfect job.
Kelly Barner (09:29):
Compare it to having no job. Now, how does it look now, especially given the rising number of recent layoffs? This advice means save your money, invest your money, be careful and prepare for a rainy day. Manage your debt. If you do lose your job, it means you’re no worse than anybody else. You’re just closer to the street. People who seem to have escaped the circumstances in which you currently find yourself may just be one paycheck behind you. If you’ve planned well, you may even be better off, and if you find yourself like that sales guy who just figured out he’s never going to get that contract, and you are now making the choice, I’ve been laid off, what do I do next? That choice, that moment, that thought, that could be what lines you up to get the job, that the person that’s one paycheck behind you would’ve taken.
Kelly Barner (10:36):
We’re all going to be subject to wins and losses, good news and bad news. How you come out on the other side is determined in large part by your frame of mind. That is one thing you have absolute control over at all times. My dad would’ve called things that fall into this category, self-fulfilling prophecies. Are you failing because you thought of yourself as a failure? Are you succeeding because you thought of yourself as a winner? It works both ways equally well, and the choice is yours, and that brings me to the big one. This is the million dollar advice. If I knew your specific name right now, I would be saying, Kelly honey, I’m letting you know it’s coming. You can do anything you set your mind to actually, wait, scratch that. I gotta do it all together. Kelly. Honey, you can do anything you set your mind to.
Kelly Barner (11:45):
Now, I’m a huge fan of the Will Ferrell movie, Talladega Nights. His father gave him similar advice. He said, if you ain’t first, you’re last, but this is different. Once again, this is about making a choice. Setting your mind to accomplish something sounds lovely, doesn’t it? Yes, I’m going to dedicate myself to achieving such and such a goal, but what does it mean? What does it mean in the moments when you have to choose between going to sleep because frankly you’re exhausted and staying up to put one more hour of polish on whatever your most important deliverable is? What are you going to choose when you’re ready to send off a draft to someone and then you have a last minute idea or realize you forgot to double check that every single thing is as it should be? Do you say, eh, and hit send, or do you stop and reread the draft and double check the details?
Kelly Barner (12:55):
What choice do you make in the quiet lonely moments when no one is looking? Will you make the hard choice or the comfortable choice? And it really is up to you. There are a few themes that run through all of the advice that I’ve shared with you, and it starts with ownership. It is hard to own your own situation because sometimes that means you are to blame and seriously, that feels lousy, but it also means no one else had a role in determining your outcome, and the next time you try, you can make other choices in the hopes of succeeding. That’s where you grow as a person. Hard work practically goes without saying, there is absolutely no substitute for hard work. Sure as heck, not luck. Do not suggest that anything had to do with luck, but it’s also not about easy sliding call your shot and then go get it and don’t let anyone or anything or any set of circumstances slow you down.
Kelly Barner (14:04):
Finally, be the best you can be. A lot of my dad’s advice fits really well in corporate procurement and supply chain, but as many of you know, that’s not anywhere near where I started out. I was gonna be an English professor focusing on Shakespeare and Milton, and then I was gonna be a librarian before I landed in business. My dad’s advice was always the same, and his expectations never changed. He wasn’t any easier on me when I was reading Shakespeare then he was. When I was preparing to row the head of the Charles or start my own business, he sure as heck never changed his advice because I was a girl. It doesn’t matter what your goal is, it does not matter who you are. All that matters is whether or not you have the dedication and perseverance and vision to get you there. Oh, and that’s the last thing you need to know about my dad.
Kelly Barner (15:06):
He was always right. Now, when I first realized that an episode of Dial P would air on my dad’s birthday, and I came up with this idea, truthfully, I wasn’t sure I could do this. It has not been an easy year. The supply chain now and art of procurement teams have been absolutely amazing, and if I’m honest, they’ve heard a lot of this advice before. To me, this advice is part of his legacy. It’s certainly my guiding star, and I think it’s as good a metal as the ones I earned in my backyard while learning to ride that beautiful pink bike. But now as promised, it is your turn. When times are tough, whose voice do you naturally hear in your head? What advice have you received that applies well beyond the original situation in which it was offered? Do you share that advice with others, and will you please share it with us now? Find this episode or me on LinkedIn, on Twitter, on Facebook, and drop those thoughts in the comments so we can all benefit from the best advice you have ever received. Until next time, I’m Kelly Barner. On behalf of Dial P and the team at Supply Chain now, thank you for listening and have a great rest of your day.
Intro/Outro (16:38):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of Dial P four procurement and for being an active part of the supply chain Now community. Please check out all of our shows and events@supplychainnow.com. Make sure you follow Dial P four procurement on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to catch all the latest programming details. We’ll see you soon for the next episode of Dial P four. Procurement.
