IAM100 – I AM CEO Podcast Host Helps You Build Your Own Media Company

Gresham W. Harkless Jr. “Gresh” is the founder and Blogger in Chief for CEO Blog Nation (CBNation.co) and is the founder and digital marketing specialist behind Blue 16 Media. He currently works to help support small businesses and entrepreneurship with Blue 16 Media and CEO Blog Nation(CBNation.co). Blue 16 Media is a digital marketing company providing digital marketing services to small to medium-sized businesses and organizations. CBNation.co is a community of niche blogs, podcasts and content for entrepreneurs and business owners. He has been featured on WOL 1450 AM and 93.9 WKYS, Business Rockstars and has been published on All Business Experts, Fox Small Business, Patch.com, Prince William Business Magazine, The Atlanta Post and Under 30 CEO. He also is a member and founder of the $1M Club in BNI Northern Virginia South by passing a referral for over $1M.

• CEO Hack: Basecamp & Acuity
• CEO Nugget: You Are a Media Company
• CEO Defined: Charting the path of where you want to go regardless of your “title”

Website: http://progreshion.com

Social Media: https://progreshion.com/lets-talk/#social

Other Websites: http://youareamedia.company
Other Websites: http://blue16media.com
Other Websites: http://cbnation.co/

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. And this is because this is the 100th episode, we're gonna do something a little bit different. So, I decided to bring back the person that was in episode number one of the I AM CEO Podcast, which is my mom, Cathy Harkless. So, we're gonna do something a little bit different, where I'm gonna give her the keys and let her ask the questions and put me on the hot seat, so to speak.

Cathy Harkless 0:50

Amazing. First and foremost, thanks, Gresham, for giving me the opportunity to interview you. And I just love putting you on the hot seat.

Gresham Harkless 0:58

Thank you very much. So, looking forward to it. So, I'll step back and I'll just let you do your thing.

Cathy Harkless 1:03

First of all, the first question is what inspires you?

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Gresham Harkless 1:06

What inspires me, I've always been very passionate about entrepreneurship and what it means to kind of be a business owner, but I really just tried to kind of get very clear on like, who I am. And that took a lot of time, as far as me just figuring out what I'm good at and what I'm not good at and trying to kind of block out the noise.

So, what kind of inspires me is to just kind of hope to do, what my calling is what I feel my gifts are, and then hopefully be able to use those gifts to be able to get back and kind of help out humanity to probably a higher degree, but just from like a day-to-day basis, if I could do little small things, I can help out other people inspire people, I feel like I'm doing my part. So, I'm always just trying to do whatever I can to kind of make that happen.

Cathy Harkless 1:47

Yeah. Can you give us a quick peek into your story and why you started your business?

Gresham Harkless 1:52

Yeah, probably just like every other entrepreneur and business owner, this wasn't like the first thing that I did as far as the podcast or the digital marketing company, I think it probably goes back, like, I usually always say, my first venture capitalists were like you and my dad just because got the opportunity to do little things, whether it be selling potato chips, or us going to like MJ design, so I can get beads and stuff to kind of sell those at the playground. But I mean, I think probably the first entrepreneurial type thing I did that I fully like, was in charge of for probably a year or two was when my dad, went TDY. And I always say that was like pre-Skype time.

So, it was pre-FaceTime, pre-Zoom time, so he wasn't able to kind of do the recordings and have all the technology we have now. So, he used to send those care packages with, his favorites, the honeybuns, the oatmeal, cookies, and things like that. But I also started a newspaper. And to be honest, I don't really remember, and maybe better than me exactly what sparked that. But I know that I like to create content, and I like to work on the computer.

And I know that I wanted to do something to hopefully generate some revenue. So, I started to sell subscriptions to this family newspaper that you were nice enough to have printed for me so that we can kind of distribute them to the family, I could sell subscriptions. But it was also a way that we can let my dad know who was TDY and had gone to another country, and what was going on with the family.

So, I remember I just would try to create and put interesting things there family news. And then also I tried to put in sports things I remember I even looked at the Soap Opera Digest and things like that, and put stuff in there. So, that was probably what sparked everything. And then fast forward, obviously, a lot of years later, I was laid off and I was gonna get laid off again, not really happy and super, like frustrated because I felt like I quote-unquote, did everything right.

But it just didn't seem like things were going my way. I'm not sure if that was a combination of it being an economic crisis, and just getting out of school, but I took some chances. They didn't necessarily go my way. I tore my Achilles tendon. And that led me to start the CEO Blog Nation where I was like interviewing entrepreneurs and business owners.

And then I basically met somebody at a networking group after the first time I was laid off. And that's where I kind of started the Blue 16 Media, the Digital Marketing. So, a lot of it was not planned. I'm having sometimes difficult situations that happen, but just kind of trying to move forward and being true to myself.

Cathy Harkless 4:21

Interesting, I remember a lot of comments about those newspapers that you provided. And I remember your subscription was pretty outstanding, considering that point in time, but interesting that's what made you start.

Gresham Harkless 4:35

Yeah, and funny enough, we still have some family members that still owe me some subscription revenue. They know who they are.

Cathy Harkless 4:45

Interesting. So, tell us about your business and what products and services that you provide.

Gresham Harkless 4:51

Yes, I have a digital marketing company called Blue 16 Media. So, we do web design, SEO, and a little bit of social media. And then I have a community kind of has niche blogs, I call it CBNation.co. A lot of people will know and refer to it as CEO Blog Nation, which is where it's a kind of hosting. But basically at the heart of it, what I do is I try to kind of adopt this mentality of creating content for your target market.

So, this initially didn't start out like this. But I knew when I started Blue 16 Media, I wanted to basically create kind of like this media platform and this philosophy where people that were, whether they're creating a website, they're doing SEO, they're doing social media, or even like out and face to face networking, you the idea is that you create content for your target market and my kind of being and having no journalistic interest. And having that desire to really create content, when I was doing, CEO Blog Nation, just as a hobby, I started to really think like, okay, with Blue 16 Media, if I really wanted to, like really expand this really rapidly and to reach a lot of people and connect with my target market, what's the best way that I can do it.

And what came to me was what I would probably invest in the most, if I had and if I didn't have to worry about money was to put our investment money into a certain venture, it was essentially CEO Blog Nation.

So, probably about two or three years ago, started merging the two brands together, and everything's kind of powered by Blue 16 Media, largely, because it's that same philosophy, where I'm trying to connect with entrepreneurs and business owners, but also I'm creating resources and content, whether it be infographics, I do book reviews, I have podcasts, obviously, I'm going to start doing some more video interviews. But the idea is really just to kind of create content for that target market for the entrepreneurs, business owners, and CEOs so that they can be successful and efficient at what it is that they do.

Cathy Harkless 6:40

Interesting, it's really important to establish a target market and to know exactly what your target is. I think that helps all business owners. What makes you and your organization unique?

Gresham Harkless 6:53

I think it kind of goes along that same mindset. And that same idea where we're trying to help build a media company for you. And I know that when I say that a lot of people might get kind of caught off guard, like, I'm not going to build a media company, like, why would I do that? But my philosophy is really not to do and be everywhere, it's really to do kind of like a self-inventory of who you are if you're going to be doing it.

Or if you're hiring a firm, or an agency that's going to do that work for you figure out what they're really best at and see, as you touched on if the target market that you're trying to reach and connect with and hopefully will become clients and generate opportunities for you will be able to kind of resonate with that specific content, or they're looking for specific keywords if we're talking about SEO, but that is really to have that media company mindset where you're creating your own Washington Post, you're creating your own USA Today. But it's specifically tailored to that avatar to your target market.

So, you're creating content and you're using those platforms in order to do that you're not just you know, creating a Facebook page because you hear it, you should do one, you're not on Snapchat, because you're here, you should be on Snapchat, you're not doing SEO or Facebook ads, because it's a buzzword, you're doing it because you're strategically looking at how you're trying to connect with your target market, and then also to where they're spending time and having like conversations and engaging with them deeply so that you're top of mind when they're thinking about your specific product and service.

So, I think the really big differentiator of Blue 16 Media, and CEO Blog Nation is really that we adopt that mindset, I specifically have invested well into, building this media company. And the idea is really just to kind of do that for your company. And it doesn't have to be a Podcast and a YouTube channel on all those things. It could just be one of those kinds of things.

Cathy Harkless 8:41

Okay, so tell me, what's your one favorite resource, or life business hack that has helped you as a CEO?

Gresham Harkless 8:51

I'm gonna cheat a little bit even though I tell everybody the same one. I'm gonna give you two. Is that okay?

Cathy Harkless 8:56

That's fine.

Gresham Harkless 8:57

That's fine. All right. So, um, my number one probably thing that probably changes our business, probably more than anything is this platform called Basecamp. And it's a project management tool. And the reason that I swear by Basecamp is just that it's helped to organize everything that we're doing.

So, whether we're interacting with clients, face-to-face, obviously, might see local clients face-to-face, but we're also doing things online through Basecamp. It allows everything that a client is working on to be in one set place. And the reason that that's been such a game changer is that when I started my business, I had contractors and people that I work with, so I have contractors or some that I've worked with from five years ago, when I started the business on these contractors are working sometimes at different times at different hours.

So, to be able to go to one place and to access the client's logo on hand, things like that little small thing like that take so much of a burden off of me and it allows me to be a lot more efficient and I focus on other things. Whereas, when I started my business, everything was in my email. So, if a contractor or a team member needed something, I would have to forward it to them. But now everything's in Basecamp.

And then clients can interact and send, they can just send emails, but it comes through Basecamp. It's made it tremendously easier for me and be able to kind of run the business. And then the second thing, I think that absolutely was a huge time saver is my scheduling app, I use a scheduling app, there are different ones out there, I use Acuity, but to be able to just send a link and say, hey, I know you're busy as well to my pick, whatever time works for your schedule, you'll get an invite, I'll get an invite. And we can both hop on a conference call or hop on Zoom, or whatever it is.

And that automates all that back and forth, that initially used to have to do I mean, it's been a huge time saver and fleet game changer. And I can go on and on and on. I mean, I have a whole list of, CEO hacks that, I've compiled, and I'll continue to kind of update but those are just probably to top of mind that has been my absolute favorite game changers.

Cathy Harkless 10:55

Kind of reinforces something that you told me once about working smarter, not harder. I think those tools allow that to be done. Next question, what golden nugget do you have that you would give to entrepreneurs and business owners?

Gresham Harkless 11:09

Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing that I kind of touched on this is that a, that you are a media company, so you want to be able to kind of create content and create information for your target market. So, you want to drill down, as we talked about your avatar and figuring out how to create content for that specific market, and that's more on the digital marketing perspective, and even the marketing because you can have that kind of, you're a media company mindset while you're face-to-face networking as well.

But the second thing I would say like especially when I started my business is very important to understand that sometimes you have to do a lot to do a little to do a lot again. And what I mean by that is that when I started my company I mentioned I got laid off, and I was gonna get laid off again.

So, I did a lot of things on this side while I was building up, Blue 16 Media. And that was me doing a lot. And I kind of hit walls and was exhausted because I was doing so much. But I started to scale back. And my idea is always to scale back. But as an entrepreneur or business owner, you always want to have those multiple streams of revenue.

So, I scaled down to kind of focus and laser focus on something a little bit more in order to hopefully be able to create more. So, that's why I say you might have to do a lot to do a little to do a lot again, is because you kind of have to figure out like what your peace, your thing that you can do better than anybody else. And then once you figure that out and you reach a certain level, then maybe you're able to kind of scale-out and do additional things.

Cathy Harkless 12:27

And one more question, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Gresham Harkless 12:31

Yeah, for me, I think being a CEO is all about kind of charting the path of where you want to go. One of the reasons that I wanted to kind of look at and develop this podcast was because I felt like entrepreneurship, what it meant to be a business owner, what it meant to kind of be in business, whether you were a startup founder, and just started, you know, 10 minutes ago, or you some of that been in business for 10 years, and you had, five employees and had been running a really successful local business, I kind of felt like they had CEO kind of DNA or mindset was kind of an all those people.

And I think going forward in the future, there's definitely going to be more of a need for people to be and have those entrepreneurial skills or those quote-unquote, CEO skills. So, for me, like on a superficial level, I mean, CEO, to me is just kind of a title. But to me, it represents so much more where you are the person that's in charge of your life, whether you be a solopreneur, whether you're working for a company, whatever it is, you're going to have to have those entrepreneurial-type skills. So, like, even if you're looking for a job you want to basically build yourself as a brand. You're using tools like LinkedIn to network with people.

So, you have to basically help when you're sitting in an interview to show people exactly how you can solve those problems that they have. So, that you can get hired. Well, I'm doing the same thing when I'm talking to another business owner. And you're doing the same thing, when you're hoping to sell your widget or your product or your service, or your T-shirt, you're trying to help show how you can solve those problems.

So, you want to have that CEO problem solver type of mindset. And that's really what I was hoping to do with this podcast giving different types of quote-unquote CEOs the opportunity to talk about who they are, and what it is that they do, but then also get an idea into how their business owner how they do those, you know, day-to-day kind of activities to reach their goals. And still, in my eyes, they are very much oh CEO, to me, that's just the title. So, it doesn't matter if you're a big huge fortune 500 company or you're a solopreneur. The bottom line is that if you're helping make the world a better place, and you're charging ahead then you too are a CEO.

Cathy Harkless 14:27

Um, one thing that I'll share that I observed is that you're driven and you're driven to succeed. And that drive means a lot when you're a CEO, and you're leading by example that says a lot. Now, is there anything else that you would like to share with us?

Gresham Harkless 14:43

Yeah, I mean, I think that's basically it. I mean, like, I really touched on like, even like, CEO nugget is just that you are a media company. So, making sure that you create content for your target market is definitely important. Definitely. I have the opportunity to have really great people on this podcast, so definitely check back in and subscribe to check out the podcast and you can always catch me like literally, everything I work on is on my personal website progreshion.com. And that's progreshion.com.

And that literally has links to all the different projects that I'm working on. But as I mentioned I have these podcasts, doing a lot of video interviews as well going into next year, and then also creating a course called The you are a Media Company course. So, you could definitely check out the information about that. But again, I appreciate you for emceeing and being so nice to me, they see it wasn't as hard as I thought it was gonna be.

Cathy Harkless 15:36

Okay, well, again, thanks for the opportunity. Thanks for sharing. And again, it's great to kind of peek into who you are and what you're about, and what you do.

Outro 15:46

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co

I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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