Adapted from remarks by Tim Mulcahy, CEO of American Wholesale Energy, at the ONIT 2026 Annual General Meeting.
After almost 50 years in sales, I have worked through enough changes in business to know that markets never stand still.
There are periods when customers are comfortable with the status quo. There are other periods when something changes and suddenly questions that were not particularly urgent become much more important.
One of the lessons experience gives you is to recognize those moments. Another is understanding that recognizing an opportunity and being prepared to act on it are two very different things.
Throughout my career, three habits have helped me prepare for those moments: managing my energy, continuing to learn and consistently creating opportunities.
Staying ready matters
I learned the importance of preparation long before I worked in energy.
Early in my sales career, I was working in direct sales and not taking particularly good care of myself. I drank too much coffee, ate poorly, smoked and had stopped doing much of the exercise I had enjoyed when I was younger.
A colleague asked me to go for a run one morning before work. I was badly out of shape and struggled through it, but I immediately noticed a difference in how I felt afterward. I felt better.
We began exercising regularly before work and eventually I started seeing a connection between my physical energy and my performance.
Sales involves constant human interaction. You need to listen carefully, think clearly and maintain your energy throughout the day. A customer you speak with late in the afternoon should receive the same attention as the first person you spoke with that morning.
Exercise became part of how I prepared myself for the day. The broader lesson was that opportunities are much easier to capitalize on when you have already done the preparation.
Keep learning because the market keeps changing
I learned another important lesson during one of the most difficult periods of my career.
After a company I had been involved with failed, I lost more than 90 per cent of my net worth in one day. For a period of time, I focused far too much on the problem.
Then someone gave me The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. It helped me redirect my attention toward what I could control. I began setting goals again and made learning a much more important part of my daily routine.
I was spending a lot of time in the car, so I listened to audio programs about business, sales and leadership. That habit has continued for decades. One reason I remain so committed to learning is that businesses and markets continually change.
What worked five years ago may not work today. What customers cared about ten years ago may not be what they are asking about now. Experience helps, but only if experience does not prevent you from absorbing new information.
Energy is becoming a bigger business conversation
This is all particularly relevant to the energy industry today.
Electricity demand, natural gas, data centres and energy infrastructure are appearing regularly in mainstream business conversations. Customers are hearing about these issues, and many are paying closer attention to energy than they might have several years ago. That changes the nature of the conversation.
I have spent enough time in this industry to have watched energy markets move in both directions. Conditions change. Prices change. Customer attitudes change.
The mistake is believing that because something happened one way in the last cycle, it will happen the same way in the next one.
Our responsibility at American Wholesale Energy is to understand what is happening now, remain knowledgeable about the market and be prepared to have informed conversations with customers about their options. That is also where prospecting matters.
I have always believed that the strongest salespeople keep their pipelines active. When business is good, it is easy to stop creating new conversations. Then the market slows or circumstances change and suddenly the pipeline becomes urgent.
I have tried to avoid that pattern throughout my career.
Consistent prospecting keeps you close to what customers are thinking. It gives you more conversations, more information and a better understanding of how the market is affecting different businesses. It also prevents any single opportunity from becoming too important. When you know another conversation is coming, you are better able to focus on what is right for the customer in front of you.
After almost 50 years in sales, I believe there is an important period ahead for the energy industry. But favourable conditions alone do not create results.
The market may create the opportunity. We still must recognize it, understand it and do the work required to capture it.
That comes back to the same fundamentals I have relied on throughout my career: prepare yourself, keep learning, stay close to customers and keep creating opportunities.
Markets change and being ready when they do is the part we can control.
