IAM900- Special Episode with Gresh – Peace AKA Be Like Water

Gresham “Gresh” W. Harkless Jr. is the founder of CBNation and Blue 16 Media. CBNation is a Business to Business (B2B) Brand focused on increasing the business success rate through content including blogs, podcasts and videos. CBNation consists of blogs (CEOBlogNation.com), podcasts (CEOPodcasts.com) and videos (CBNation.tv). The brand focuses on increasing the visibility of and providing resources for CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners. Blue 16 Media is a digital marketing agency providing digital marketing services including web design & SEO to small to medium-sized businesses and organizations. Central to his marketing philosophy is that You Are a Media Company: Developing a Marketing Strategy to Connect with Your Target and Reach Your Goals. Gresham is a proud graduate of Howard University & Georgetown University.

Check out this new site: Blue16 Marketing

• CEO Hack: 365 Day Gratitude Journal & Shine App
• CEO Nugget: Build your media company but also make sure you're participating in other's media companies too
• CEO Defined: Being like water. Being flexible, malleable and able to pivot, adjust and change.

Website: http://iamgresh.com

Transcription

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[00:00:24.19] – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

[00:00:52.20] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and this is episode number nine hundred of the I AM CEO podcast. And falling in line with what we've done since the very beginning, any milestone episode, I usually try to do a solo episode where I talk a little bit more about, everything we're working on. So give you some hacks and nuggets just as normal, but also give me a little bit more insight into me and how I got started. And this episode is gonna be different.

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I usually try to drill down on something that sometimes I don't talk about, in totality as far as my story. And one of the things I wanted to focus on now was, actually a company that I started. I started a company when I was in college, and it was more of a nonprofit, I should say, where I got a youth venture grant with one of my buddies, Travis Mayfield. And we started something called Medicaracter Virginia. And, I still have the band that's literally on my wrist right now, but we hope to do a lot of things to help young men get ready and prepared to be men for one, but also to get prepared for college. And we did and had visions of doing a lot of different things, but it didn't necessarily go as great as we wanted it to go.

But we were able to give away some scholarships, which was pretty cool. And we were able to, of course, get awarded the youth venture grant. But right, after I graduated, from Howard University, I went to Georgetown to do my one-year master's. In between that time, I started an editing business called Exemplary Editing. Love the logo. Still love the logo this time, but I found out very quickly that the email that I sent out where I had editing had grammar mistakes in the email that that probably was not my zone of genius. So with that being said, I just wanted to bring up those two things because I don't talk as much about it, typically because there aren't big, parts of, I guess, the journey that usually people ask about. But I always say, and I said very recently on a podcast that we often forget that everything we do builds up into who we are.

So it's very hard to take away, the really good things that happen, but also the really bad things because they build up into who we are. So for me, I always knew, or later on, I should say, I got a little bit more clarity around wanting to be able to do something related to writing. I thought it was editing more or less correcting somebody's work, but I realized that it's more of producing and creating that work that I, am more of a proponent of and and something that is online with me. So starting with the family newspaper, you know, doing certain things like the exemplary editing business and so many different things that led me to what I'm doing now with CB Nation and the blogs, podcasts, and video content we do to help entrepreneurs and business owners be successful.

And, of course, Blue Sixteen Media, which is now, going to be creating an offshoot site called Blue Sixteen Marketing is gonna focus on those digital marketing services as well. So that's a little bit about what we do to help serve our clients that we work with. And if you go to the Blue Sixteen Marketing website, not only does it talk a little bit more about what we do, but it aligns with a lot of the things that we hold and I think are most important for us to do. So I always say we do things the Blue sixteen way. That means we have quality services qualities quality of our services. We have been in business for over eight years. We donate services to nonprofit organizations. I'm very thorough as far as the processes that we do to kinda help reach success. We try to focus on our customers and empower them.

And we have our you are a media company marketing philosophy that I always talk about as our secret sauce, and we always try to focus on innovation and business success as well. So those are just some of the things, that I think that we do that help make us different. At our core, what we're doing is helping to increase the visibility and lay that foundation for, entrepreneurs business owners, and organizations, And that's the man that manifests itself in the web design and SEO services that we provide primarily, for entrepreneurs and business owners. But we also do support and maintenance and things like that for, regular reoccurring clients. But the thing that I feel is our secret sauce is looking at what the value is that we provide.

I often say sometimes the best referrals for me are people who know enough to be dangerous and people who have had less than an ideal, experience with their digital marketing marketing process. I think so many times when you work initially, especially if you're first starting a business, you're looking more for what costs less than sometimes that quality. Often, it happens where you can't get a hold of the person who created your website or potentially your son or daughter doesn't get finished with their website. So our secret sauce and the thing that I feel like sets us apart is the focus on being great at our crap, but on an even deeper level, we're trying to bring that peace of mind. And if you have spoken with me, you know that peace is one of my focus words, and is my focus word. That's something that is brought up or comes up to me. And a lot of times, we experience more chaos to lead us to where our focus word is. So peace is huge for me. And what we try to do is give clients peace of mind.

So, if they send something to our support ticket system, we take care of it. They don't have to worry about it. They get to focus on their core competency and the things that they do best rather than worry about the things that they may do not as great. So that's our secret sauce. And as promised, I always switch gears into what I call, the pay it forward section or the first of those, which I call a CEO hack. So that's usually an Apple book or habit that you have, but it's something that makes people more effective and efficient. And if you have spoken with me, I think one of the biggest things that I've been able to do is regularly, write in my three hundred sixty-five gratitude journal.

But I came across a new app that I wanted to mention as well too. And it's called Shine and Shine app. And you can find it in the show notes, but also on our our CEO hacks site. And the reason that I like the Shine app is not necessarily because I like to use it to start my day. But I like it to use I like to use it in the middle of the day because it gives you that opportunity to check in, depending on if you're having a great day or a not-so-great day. It gives you prompts based on how you respond to the, basically, the AI technology, that automated conversation. And I like that because you can potentially get things to read, you can potentially get a meditation, or you can potentially just journal depending on how you're feeling and what kind of comes up for you. So I like it because it's not as structured as a lot of things. And a lot of times, you can just check-in in the middle of the day, or even maybe check-in in the morning, and gives you that opportunity to get away to make sure you're taking care of yourself, and you're filling up your cup.

And I think those are things that are extremely important for any entrepreneur or business owner, anybody that's given tremendously of themselves. So I like, that hack, as well. So after that, I usually talk about a nugget. And the nugget is more of a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. I often say it might be something you would tell a client or if you happen to be a time machine, you might tell your younger business self. And my absolute biggest nugget is really what I usually say at the end of most of my presentations is that I'm a big proponent of helping, organizations and businesses build their own media companies.

But one of the things that I always talk about is that even if you are and do have the resources and the time or whatever to build a media company, make sure that you're taking advantage of other people's media companies as well. So that could be something as small as jumping on Facebook groups and answering a question for somebody or giving their expertise. It could be, you know, jumping in on a podcast using podcast guest dot com or helping a reporter out as well too to to be able to get your name or your information out there because there are a lot of people that have media companies that are looking for content and looking for help with people to create that content. And this is where you can kinda come in to get your name, your information out there. So try to work, you know, smart and hard.

But at the same time, understand you don't have to necessarily create everything. You can just go to, another place and have that done because there are very many media companies that are out there. So just try to increase your visibility by leveraging some of those options. And with that being said, my absolute favorite question is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. The goal of the show is that have different, quote-unquote CEOs on the show. And for me, what being a CEO means is understanding the world and the economy, especially that we live in. Understanding that to, I think, truly be a great CEO and to be effective and efficient you have to be, like Bruce Lee said, as I say sometimes in the podcast, like water.

And what that means is you have to be able to be formed unless you have to be able to be, really strong, if you're able to gain that momentum to be able to move things. But you're also having the ability to change your form, potentially, becoming gas, in in doing all those different things that are necessary to be successful. Because success is not something that is a straight line. And as we're seeing in this economy, whatever you were doing to reach success, you might have to do something completely different. So I would say that being a CEO and especially being a great CEO is about being formless. It's about being, malleable. It's about listening and engaging and being like water.

And I think when you're able to tap into that and the beauty of water and what it does, you know, to ourselves, and the world as a whole, you start to see the impact that it can make. Make. So if I were to, I guess, create this metaphor, this idea of what being the CEO means, I think it's not one size fits all. There's not one set way. And that's the beauty of the podcast. It's not one answer to what that means. And that's where I think it taps into the water. That's what the spirit of the podcast is all about being like water, being formless, being able to to adjust and change and shift to go fast and at the same time go slow and to be dormant. And at the same time, you know, pick up speed and build up momentum. So being able to do that, those balance beam, acts are huge for CEOs.

And I think that is how I had this episode would define, you know, being a CEO. And with that being said, thank you so much for listening to this. I appreciate so many people on the team. Mercy, Simon, Raju, myself, so many people that have been on the show, you know, for being able to get this going and and and and continue. It's no small feat to kinda create podcast content. So if you know a podcaster hug them or give them a like or a sub a subscribe, or something along those lines because it's, something that takes, a lot of attention and a lot of art, skill, and resources to make this happen.

So I appreciate the entire team for being able to make sure, that happens. And with that being said, you can always catch us at Iamceo.co You can always catch everything for CB Nation at CBnation.co. And, of course, please check out the news site, Blue Sixteen Marketing, or Blue Sixteen Media. Thanks, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:13:01.89] – Outro

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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