- Team – Delegation / Advisors /Mentors – There is no “I” in Team… (May)
- Culture – Creating a winning culture rarely just “happens” (January)
- Finances – Know your numbers. They tell a story (June)
- Self Care – There is an “I” in Win (March)
- Leadership – Attitude reflects leadership – Leaders breed more leaders (September)
- Visibility – The name of the game is being found (July)
- Innovation + Creativity – R&D – Continue to Innovate – Never lose that innovative spirit – Always be Innovating (November)
- Entrepreneurship – Entrepreneurs solve problems – What problem are you solving? (November)
- Technology – I'm a Technology Company that does … (April)
- Resources – Being resourceful is important but so are the resources too (August)
- Connection & Networking / Communities – Relationships & Connections Matter – There's Power in Community (February)
- Operations – Business Model – The systems CAN set you free (October)
- Strategy – Why and how you do something might be more important than what you do (January)
- Human Part of Business – Mindset – Don't forget about the human part of the business (March)
- Future of Work/Entrepreneurship – Business as usual is not as usual (November)
- Pause – Spaciousness & Breaks – The One Thing – Taking time away can make you more impactful (December)
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Transcription
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00:26 – Intro
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 precisely the information you're searching for. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.
00:53 – Gresham Harkless
Hello, this is Gresham from the I AM CEO Podcast and this is episode number 1600 of the I am CEO podcast. This is bittersweet in the sense that OB obviously getting the opportunity to interview and publish 1600 episodes about maybe a thousand to 1200 of those being unique entrepreneurs, CEOs, and business owners and talking about all the awesome things that they're doing, even having people that are quote-unquote unconventional CEOs on the show has been awesome.
Obviously, as you know, and if you listen to the first couple of podcasts or you've heard from the very beginning, this podcast was an offshoot of our CEO chat podcast and I was super excited to get the opportunity to, I think to ask some of the most impactful questions but do it in a laser-focused interview. So really what this represents is so much, if you know me,16 is a very important number for me in so many different ways. It continues to kind of be important as I go through my life.
But what I really wanted to do was take this time in this episode to let you know that going into this next year we're going to have a lot more conversations and information that's going to be around some of the important topics that I've been able to pull from the episodes and from the interviews. What it basically means is that we're going to spend most of next year, if not all of next year, working on repurposing some of our most valuable and hopefully topical, if that's even a word, episodes that will be relevant to you as a CEO, entrepreneur, business owner.
I can say over and over again that this has definitely been a tremendous experience to get to 1600 episodes. I took a little bit of a hiatus to be able to kind of think about some of those topics. I want to, of course, be able to give you a rundown on some of those things and what they are, some of the 16 topics will be. But I think what you're going to see come about is, is a lot more information, a lot more content around these 16 topics. I think there are definitely 16 pivotal and also impactful things that CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners can do in business.
I definitely think it's something that you can do whether or not you're a startup organization or a startup person and you're thinking of starting a venture to get some of these quote-unquote ducks in a row. But I also think it's extremely important to be able to do that when you start to become a more developed and established business. Often believe that after the first, let's just say three to five years, you're usually at a place where you're looking at your organization and business differently.
I think I read something that said when people kind of go through and build their organizations and their businesses, it ends up being a lot more like a roller coaster ride where you start to see, can I get it up the hill? Can I actually go to where I want it to go? Then when you actually make that first opportunity, or your breakthrough, or whatever it might be, you start to feel as if you are doing exactly what you had in your mind to do. That's extremely powerful. But over time you go through the valleys and more valleys than you do go through peaks. It's so vital to understand that while you get to this first three to five years where you've been able to get past the hump to some degree, there is more that is going to be unfolded for you.
This kind of episode is to give you a little bit of a preview of some of the things that we are going to have as far as content throughout the year, but also to give you an idea of some of the different things that might be ebooks, courses, things like that, around these 16 topics and how you'll be able to delve down deeper and find out more about how you're able to grow and establish your organization. If you do happen to watching this, you'll see that on my whiteboard wall, there are 16 topics. That was definitely a free write of what these topics might be, how they've been impactful for me, and some of the things that you can kind of ultimately take away.
With that being said, I'm going to do a rundown of some of the different topics. You'll see that these topics will be evident throughout our months of months of different content. We're going to, of course, approach that by repurposing these podcast episodes. We're also going to have the roundups, we're going to have the unique content, ebooks, things like that. They're going to be coming out of this. So definitely stay tuned to some of the things that we have to unveil. But one of the big things that I want to start out with is by listing out each of the things.
So the first thing is going to be the exam, the importance of a team. There is no I in the team. You'll see how this kind of goes right in line with number four, and I'll get a little bit more into that. But understand that the reality is that when you are, especially in a startup mode or you're going through and achieving sometimes a lot of success, in order to go to that next level, you have to get beyond yourself. You have to realize the power of the team, of delegating, of advisors, mentors. These could be organizations. There are so many different ways that this happens, and that's something that has been really evident throughout each of the different interviews.
Culture, creating a winning culture rarely just happens. It's something that you have to be intentional about, something that you have to have as a high priority as well, too. But understand that whether or not you're being intentional about saying, this is my culture, your culture is still being created. You've seen that so many times with different organizations where they either take a stand or sometimes they even don't take a stand on certain social issues or certain things that are essential to their business or people that they're partnering with. Even though you have potential as a leader, CEO, entrepreneur, or business owner, deciding not to take a stand, you are in fact taking a stand by doing that.
That's creating a culture, whether that be external to what people see, but also the culture internally as well, too. Number three, understanding your financing, finances. Know your numbers. They tell a story. Especially with people who are trying to maybe scale their business or leverage their business to certain potential opportunities. You want to be able to make strategic decisions based on those numbers.
Those numbers, of course, are within your organization. Your accounting, your finance, the bookkeeping, taxes, all those things kind of go hand in hand. But you also want to keep in mind that there are also industry statistics. There are statistics around different aspects of your marketing, your customer retention, and your employee retention.
All these things are numbers that you want to pay attention to. So definitely finances is typically one of the biggest aspects. But know too that numbers are evident in so many different aspects. So make sure that you at the very least likely said number one, you don't necessarily know all the things and know how to read all the numbers, but how to find the people that do. Are you able to bring them on? Whether it be employees or partnerships or strategic advisors, whatever it might be, make sure that you know your numbers.
So number four, this is probably the one that I think maybe three, four years ago would not have been as big and as prevalent of a thing that we talk about and that's really self-care. So there is an I in when. So number one was there's no I in the team. Number four is there is an eye and when. The reason that I wanted to name it that is because I think it goes hand in hand. Oftentimes you'll hear it during the podcast interviews. Make sure you keep your oxygen mask on. Make sure you keep your cup full. Pour from the saucer. Don't necessarily pour from an empty cup. Make sure you fill up your cup in order to make an impact on other people.
I think if we forget about the self in what we're doing as leaders, especially we're only setting our organizations up for failure. These are things that came up during podcasts like making sure to meditate, to work out. Burnout on the other side also came up tremendously as well about things that people suffered when they did not understand that there is an I.
When you start to have what I think is a marathon mindset, you start to realize that it's not about working 25, 26, 30 hours in a day. It's about making sure that you're able to come back and work consistently for seven days for seven years and have that consistent cadence because those are the people that stand the test of time. To understand how important self-care is, understand how important it is to know and understand that there is an I and when.
Number five, attitude reflects leadership leaders breed more leaders. So I think going online with the culture, which is number two, and a lot of times with number four, it's not about taking care of self to be selfish. A lot of times givers, and especially if you consider yourself a giver, need to take care of themselves, and that creates leadership for organizations. If you're taking that time away to be able to kind of focus on certain things, that's going to help not just you, to be able to give to others, but it's also going to create this example that's going to breed that attitude, that leadership that you want to kind of have within your organization, which leads right into the culture.
It's one of the huge things that definitely came up during the podcast of understanding that you have an opportunity to be a leader. It's really exciting to kind of see that come to head in so many different ways, especially in the definition of what it means to be a CEO, where we saw that tremendously. Number six, the name of the game is being found. I talked about this a lot and I have to look through and delve through a lot more of the interviews, even more. But I'd gather to say that that is not the number one. It's probably one of the most consistent episodes that we had around marketing professionals, around how to get the name and who it is that you who to who it is that you are out there.
Remember, I always say that one of the foundational things of what we do is understanding that visibility plus resources times connections equals success. So visibility is a huge part of what we do, even in the digital marketing business, obviously. But also too, some of the people that have come on the show, they've really talked about from their vantage point, from their zone of genius, the thing that they do, how they can help clients to be able to do that. So really take in and, and enjoy that part. But know that as great as it is to have a successful product service, initiative, whatever it might be, you might even have a phenomenal culture. But if you don't have visibility around that culture, how are you going to be attracting talent?
So some of those things are so huge and obviously they're going to come up a little bit later as well too. Innovation plus creativity. R& D. Continue to innovate. Never lose the innovative spirit and always be innovating. So that's number seven. Innovation is one of the things that you hear a lot of times, through the podcast. Sometimes it's going along the, the, the, the, the less than traveled path to be able to see things come to fruition. You see it in some of the biggest innovators. But I think one of the things I was most excited about during the interviews is I think it kind of reframed the way that we looked at innovation.
I think sometimes when you think of innovation, you think of it being a wholesale change that completely changes the things that you're doing. Often, especially if you're starting something or you see a gap in opportunity, it's because sometimes the industry or the major players, sometimes even in the industry lose kind of base and lose connection with who and how they're serving. So a lot of times innovation is not necessarily just creating something new. Just I thought about putting this together with that. Sometimes it's paying attention to the industry or sometimes being in the industry and knowing that there is an opportunity that major players or everybody really and frankly could be missing out on.
So understand that there is a path to innovation. I think that that's one of the most exciting things. It's not something that you just have to be creative and things like that. I think by. By understanding and serving, that's sometimes the best innovation that you can have. But you'll definitely hear more about that as well, too. Entrepreneurship at the end of the day is solving problems. That's number eight asking you, what problem are you solving? When we get into entrepreneurship, sometimes it can be sexy. Sexy about getting the latest gadget or to get in the latest car, whatever these flashy things might be.
But I think at the end of the day, when you have a servant mindset and you are trying to be of impact on people, you realize and understand that you want to make sure that you are solving problems. So entrepreneurs solve problems. Entrepreneurship is something obviously that came out tremendously through the podcast, especially through the What does being a CEO mean to you? Because we started to look at it in a completely different way than I think a lot of times other people did and my goal, and our goal of people on the show was really to hopefully disrupt that.
They didn't disrupt it by saying, this is an entrepreneur, this is a CEO, this is a business owner, this is an executive, whatever it might be. They just came in and said what they meant from their perspective. If you aggregate all that information, loads of great, content that's definitely there from there. That redefinition, I think, of what it means to be a CEO, entrepreneur, or business owner. Technology. I am a technology technology company that does. Technology is the major disruptor in every industry. I think that I personally remember doing outside sales and going to speak to somebody when I worked with a company and knocking on doors and saying, are you here to talk about that Internet thing?
It's funny to laugh about it now, but I think that as a leader, especially among those 16 things. Number nine. That technology piece is probably one of the most disruptive pieces in the industry because it is evident in every single industry. If it's not in your industry or it's not leveraged as much as it could be in your industry, that might be the opportunity that you have to be that innovator, to be that entrepreneur to really be that forward-thinking person. How can you potentially leverage technology or potentially even disrupt everything by incorporating technology?
So, been super excited to talk about some gadgets or you need to be more resourceful and I love that because it allows you to think, think creatively and differently about like, how you're serving the clients that you're working with, how you're creating solutions to problems. Often if you have duct tape and you're putting that together, you put two things together that maybe don't necessarily go together, but you're being resourceful, you're thinking about it in a different way because you're thinking about the lack of human resources you might have or it might be financial resources.
However, once you get past that certain amount of years in business and I feel like you get a little bit more established, you start to think about those resources. What and how can you get, additional financing, how can you potentially get a key person on your team? You start to think differently about your organization and your business. So I want to really highlight, like, how important those resources are. Those resources can run the gamut.
It could be hiring a coach, it could be understanding and reading a book and realizing that you need to join this person, take this person's course, or join this person's group coaching session, whatever it might be, or it might mean that you have to or want to invest in some type of widget or some type of software that's going to completely transform your business to save you more time, but also the people on your team. So I want to really highlight how important it is.
Obviously, through the CEO hacks, we highlight that through every single episode, but how important resources actually are and how it's not just being resourceful, it's also having resources. If you could be resourceful with resources, you're going to be in a pretty phenomenal place. So that's something that really came up true during podcast number 11. Connections and networking communities. Relationships. Connections ultimately matter. There's power in the community. Know that. It's the African proverb that you can go far by yourself. But you go so much farther together.
I think one of the things that we start to understand is while we understand that there is an I, when we start to get greater awareness around who we are, it's so important that you're dialed in. You have those connections, those relationships, all those things to help increase your likelihood of success. Where do you want to go? You want to put yourself in those rooms around those people so that you can ultimately be that. I think one of my favorite quotes is from Muhammad Ali, and he said that I said that I was the greatest before I was. He knew that he was the greatest before he became, quote, unquote, the greatest.
That's the power of connection, power of opportunity, of saying things, the tongue of even saying that you're going to do things. So being able to understand that those relationships, those connections, those opportunities go hand in hand with where you're going to allow you to not just connect with people to get their business card but to develop these deep relationships and these connections. That's something that came through a lot during the podcast and deep, deep, deeply from a podcast perspective, one of the things I was most excited about was getting an opportunity to connect with so many different people.
I would have never connected with 12 to 1600 people to be able to connect with in a way that I never would have had before. It's extremely awesome. I'm super excited and blessed to get the opportunity to do that operation. The systems can, in fact, set you free. You'll hear me say that so many times. Where I consider myself to be creative. I consider myself to be somebody who's always finding solutions for better or worse. It's a gift and a curse. But we and I definitely understand that coupled with technology. For me, putting systems in place has allowed me to be able to be even more creative.
Not because you're necessarily thinking about all these things, it's that you don't have to think about these things. If you have a system in place for all the things that you're doing, it allows you that opportunity to be, be present in your creativity because you don't have to think about the things that you didn't do because you put it on a list or you schedule it out or whatever it might be. Or as you can see, if you're looking at this, I potentially put it on your wall and wrote it out. The importance is that the operations and systems are probably going to be one of the most foundational aspects of your business because it's going to allow you the opportunity to do those magic words.
If you decide that that's the route that you want to go of scaling, bringing on more people, make sure the people are continually to provide the value and the quality of the product or service that you're providing. It's one of the things that I think is not sexy. Operations are not sexy because you want to create, the next widget, the next opportunity, you want to disrupt, do all these things. But most of the people, I would probably venture to say, all of the people who are truly making disruption and doing phenomenal things are those who have strong operations in place. While they may not be in cement, they're probably gradually improving them so that they can get there. So it's huge.
Number 13, why and how you do something might be more important than what you do. This is all around strategy. Number 13 is strategy. The strategy has been something that is extremely important. I think during this, this journey and doing these interviews, one of the biggest things that I realize and I hear, and you'll hear it through each of the interviews, you might say, okay, this person does it a way, this person does it Z way, this person does it F way, this person does a G way. This person is doing a mix of 1, 2, and 3. This person is doing like a little bit of A with a little bit of Z with maybe I think sounds like a little bit of S or so you realize, which I love to say so many times during the interview, is that if you run your race, you can't lose.
The strategy piece is huge. I talk about this a lot related to marketing, but it's become evident in so many different ways during this interview. You can have people that are doing the exact same business and their strategy is completely different, so they're executing their business in a different way. Somebody, for example, who could be running a marketing business can say, I want to hire as many, many employees as I can so that we can grow so that we can really make an impact upon the people. You have somebody else who has maybe the same knowledge and wants to grow their marketing business in a different way.
Maybe they're going to be more of a solo CEO, solo entrepreneur, solopreneur, or whatever title they might give themselves. But their goal is really to just empower other people to make connections, to be the strategist, whatever it might be. Maybe the same businesses, maybe the same top-line revenue, but at the same time they're approaching in a different way. So that's why I said why and how you do something might be more important than what you actually do. It's not so much that you do marketing or you do HR or you have the latest widget. It might be how you're executing on that that really is the difference. It ends up a lot of times becoming the secret sauce that you have.
Number 14 is something that I heard so much when I started my business and it's something that we zoom past, but I think became, I think tremendously evident in 2020 during the pandemic and I think also was one of the foundational aspects of number four, the self-care, understanding that there is an I and when. That is basically that there is a human part of business and don't forget about it. Don't forget about the human part of the business. The reason why this is so important is because I think that we can get so much in the operations, hiring, and technology and make sure that we are creating the best product or service.
We can do all the things and we can forget about the human aspect. We can forget about trying to connect with and create a solution for potential people. We can forget about understanding that the people who are on our team or the vendors that we're working with or communicating with are human. And I think that if we zoom past that, we forget about the mindset, the emotional aspect, the eq, all those different aspects, the emotional intelligence. All those things play a part in your success. So if you're not paying attention to the human aspect of business that could be really setting you up for failure.
I think personally, at the end of the day, if you're not doing this to make an impact and to really change the lives of people, then why are you really doing it? I know that's everybody's decision and I think that goes back to the strategy and understanding your why and things along those lines. But at the end of the day, that's my honest feeling. Don't forget about the human aspect of business. Don't just try to run through or run through to your goals and aspirations. Funny enough, I just read a book that, that an autobiography that talked a lot about that, where the person came to this realization about the human parts and how you pay attention to the emotions and all those things because they are why you're ultimately doing the things that you're doing more than that.
Understand the human part of business and understand that the human part of business is sometimes outside of business. So your family, friends, those that you love and care about, definitely understand that. Number 15, the future of work and entrepreneurship also comes true during the pandemic. Business as usual is not as usual. This goes hand in hand with number nine, technology. When you say that I'm a technology company that does understand that because of technology, because of the pandemic, because everything has been disrupted in some form, shape, or fashion, business as usual is not as usual.
The way that you might have been having that strategy. Number 13 might change when you are thinking about the future of work. Now, this is from an entrepreneurship standpoint, how you're executing your business. But also keep in mind that working from home, the great resignation, the people that have quit their job without actually quitting their job, all this happens because you want to be aware of the future of work. We want to be aware of the changes that are happening and, it's so important because you want to really, for lack of a better term, start to future-proof your business.
I believe, and many experts have said this and even said on the podcast, that the way to future-proof your business is to understand that you're never going to future-proof your business. It's not as if you say, okay, well, I'm just not going to do it. The idea is that you continue to innovate, you continue to put yourself out of business, and you continue to think about how you can improve things. It's that insatiable appetite that I think really allows people to continue to innovate. But on an even deeper level, that's why it's so important to understand the human aspect of business and understand that there is an eye.
Because you don't want to have that insatiable appetite to where you're never full, you want to have that insatiable appetite to understand that you're at peace and know that there is not as much peace as you think that there will be. I think that's where the future of work, the future of entrepreneurship really comes in handy. Understanding that your business, business as usual, this is how we've been doing it, is not necessarily going to be the way of the future. So you continue to get you, get your thirst to quench or get that food to kind of quench your or enjoy whatever meal it is that is going to produce itself in your business and in your ventures.
So the final thing, and this actually came about during one of my last interviews and I actually you something that I touched on in the beginning, what came about from this list and will come about from the things that we'll have in the next year or so is that it's so important to pause. Taking time away can make you more impactful. It's something that is not sexy. It goes, I think, hand in hand and is very aligned with self-care. Self-care can manifest itself in so many different ways. Number four, there is an I. When in understand that pausing, taking time away, and doing one thing which might be taking a break, it allows you to become even more impactful. It's something that is different for me.
I'm the person who really would try to figure out a way that I didn't have to sleep, that I would continue to kind of work through those things. But one of the most impactful things for me during these interviews has been self-care. There is an eye and when also understanding the power of the pause, the power of taking a step back, spaciousness, breaks. This is on a deeper level, but I think it's also on a very practical daily level. And I think that when you kind of get started in your organization if this is a startup business or an organization that you're working on, it's a completely different kind of focus that you have.
But I still think that you want to incorporate some type of breaks, pauses, whatever it might be. These breaks don't have to be major. I think that's the beauty of it. When you start to think about things in a marathon mindset, you're not going to experience burnout in the first year because you're working 25 hours a day. You understand that, okay, If I work 16 hours a day, 12 hours a day, 8 hours, whatever number you come to. But I incorporate walks with my dog or spending time with my loved one for whatever period of time, or I have this really great desire to paint.
I'm going to decide to paint or I'm going to whiteboard. I'm going to color all these things. Incorporating that into your life is only going to help you create that pause, and that's going to help solve the problems. But on an even deeper level is going to create a tremendous, I think, opportunity to innovate on a different. On an incredible level. So that's a little of the 16 things that you'll hear and how important that is and how impactful that has been. But there's. There are so many different things that I've learned from this podcast, and it's just been so impactful. So I truly appreciate it if you had the opportunity, to be on the show. I truly appreciate you if you've just been listening and you've subscribed and, engaged, with it.
It's all extremely valuable and appreciated by me. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Gratitude is another big thing that I learned. But, the beauty of this is that I'm not really going anywhere, but I am taking a pause of 1600 episodes in terms of recording. So look for more stuff coming from me, from us, to hopefully help you to take that next level, to take that next jump in business. Specifically, really trying to focus on the CB Nation architects, the people who are moving away from the builders, the grinders, to getting things done too. How can you be more strategic about your business?
How can you be that architect that doesn't necessarily nail every nail, doesn't necessarily get the hammer and pull it out and go to the store and get all those things, but as a person that maybe orchestrates all those things and has an understanding and how impactful that can be. So these 16 things are obviously different and you can't necessarily focus on every single one and be perfect at them all. But I think the beauty, of number 13, especially this strategy piece, is that you start to understand that maybe I'm going to focus on 1 and 5 because I feel like either that's lacking or maybe that's something that needs to be addressed a little bit more. Maybe it's just frankly a.
It's a hot-button issue that could potentially capital, or it could be your flat wheel of the business that you're trying to run. It could really tremendously hurt your business. So you understand that these are the things that I'm going to prioritize, but my goal in Talking about these 16 things is not to say this is the end all and be all in business, not to say you need to do this, you need to do that, you need to do that. Even the order of it is done so in a way that I believe that you can go through and focus on number five and then maybe come back to number one, and then maybe a year from there, you're focused on number 16 seen.
Understand each of these things and understand how they're all also interconnected, which is absolutely huge, and definitely appreciate you again. I almost don't even want to say bye, but I'm not going to say bye. I'm going to say see you later because the podcast is definitely coming back. So I'll never say never, but you'll definitely hear more from me. This is Gresh signing out. Have a phenomenal rest of the year and look forward to talking with you soon.
32:39 – 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.
00:26 - Intro
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 precisely the information you're searching for. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.
00:53 - Gresham Harkless
Hello, this is Gresham from the I AM CEO Podcast and this is episode number 1600 of the I am CEO podcast. This is bittersweet in the sense that OB obviously getting the opportunity to interview and publish 1600 episodes about maybe a thousand to 1200 of those being unique entrepreneurs, CEOs, and business owners and talking about all the awesome things that they're doing, even having people that are quote-unquote unconventional CEOs on the show has been awesome.
Obviously, as you know, and if you listen to the first couple of podcasts or you've heard from the very beginning, this podcast was an offshoot of our CEO chat podcast and I was super excited to get the opportunity to, I think to ask some of the most impactful questions but do it in a laser-focused interview. So really what this represents is so much, if you know me,16 is a very important number for me in so many different ways. It continues to kind of be important as I go through my life.
But what I really wanted to do was take this time in this episode to let you know that going into this next year we're going to have a lot more conversations and information that's going to be around some of the important topics that I've been able to pull from the episodes and from the interviews. What it basically means is that we're going to spend most of next year, if not all of next year, working on repurposing some of our most valuable and hopefully topical, if that's even a word, episodes that will be relevant to you as a CEO, entrepreneur, business owner.
I can say over and over again that this has definitely been a tremendous experience to get to 1600 episodes. I took a little bit of a hiatus to be able to kind of think about some of those topics. I want to, of course, be able to give you a rundown on some of those things and what they are, some of the 16 topics will be. But I think what you're going to see come about is, is a lot more information, a lot more content around these 16 topics. I think there are definitely 16 pivotal and also impactful things that CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners can do in business.
I definitely think it's something that you can do whether or not you're a startup organization or a startup person and you're thinking of starting a venture to get some of these quote-unquote ducks in a row. But I also think it's extremely important to be able to do that when you start to become a more developed and established business. Often believe that after the first, let's just say three to five years, you're usually at a place where you're looking at your organization and business differently.
I think I read something that said when people kind of go through and build their organizations and their businesses, it ends up being a lot more like a roller coaster ride where you start to see, can I get it up the hill? Can I actually go to where I want it to go? Then when you actually make that first opportunity, or your breakthrough, or whatever it might be, you start to feel as if you are doing exactly what you had in your mind to do. That's extremely powerful. But over time you go through the valleys and more valleys than you do go through peaks. It's so vital to understand that while you get to this first three to five years where you've been able to get past the hump to some degree, there is more that is going to be unfolded for you.
This kind of episode is to give you a little bit of a preview of some of the things that we are going to have as far as content throughout the year, but also to give you an idea of some of the different things that might be ebooks, courses, things like that, around these 16 topics and how you'll be able to delve down deeper and find out more about how you're able to grow and establish your organization. If you do happen to watching this, you'll see that on my whiteboard wall, there are 16 topics. That was definitely a free write of what these topics might be, how they've been impactful for me, and some of the things that you can kind of ultimately take away.
With that being said, I'm going to do a rundown of some of the different topics. You'll see that these topics will be evident throughout our months of months of different content. We're going to, of course, approach that by repurposing these podcast episodes. We're also going to have the roundups, we're going to have the unique content, ebooks, things like that. They're going to be coming out of this. So definitely stay tuned to some of the things that we have to unveil. But one of the big things that I want to start out with is by listing out each of the things.
So the first thing is going to be the exam, the importance of a team. There is no I in the team. You'll see how this kind of goes right in line with number four, and I'll get a little bit more into that. But understand that the reality is that when you are, especially in a startup mode or you're going through and achieving sometimes a lot of success, in order to go to that next level, you have to get beyond yourself. You have to realize the power of the team, of delegating, of advisors, mentors. These could be organizations. There are so many different ways that this happens, and that's something that has been really evident throughout each of the different interviews.
Culture, creating a winning culture rarely just happens. It's something that you have to be intentional about, something that you have to have as a high priority as well, too. But understand that whether or not you're being intentional about saying, this is my culture, your culture is still being created. You've seen that so many times with different organizations where they either take a stand or sometimes they even don't take a stand on certain social issues or certain things that are essential to their business or people that they're partnering with. Even though you have potential as a leader, CEO, entrepreneur, or business owner, deciding not to take a stand, you are in fact taking a stand by doing that.
That's creating a culture, whether that be external to what people see, but also the culture internally as well, too. Number three, understanding your financing, finances. Know your numbers. They tell a story. Especially with people who are trying to maybe scale their business or leverage their business to certain potential opportunities. You want to be able to make strategic decisions based on those numbers.
Those numbers, of course, are within your organization. Your accounting, your finance, the bookkeeping, taxes, all those things kind of go hand in hand. But you also want to keep in mind that there are also industry statistics. There are statistics around different aspects of your marketing, your customer retention, and your employee retention.
All these things are numbers that you want to pay attention to. So definitely finances is typically one of the biggest aspects. But know too that numbers are evident in so many different aspects. So make sure that you at the very least likely said number one, you don't necessarily know all the things and know how to read all the numbers, but how to find the people that do. Are you able to bring them on? Whether it be employees or partnerships or strategic advisors, whatever it might be, make sure that you know your numbers.
So number four, this is probably the one that I think maybe three, four years ago would not have been as big and as prevalent of a thing that we talk about and that's really self-care. So there is an I in when. So number one was there's no I in the team. Number four is there is an eye and when. The reason that I wanted to name it that is because I think it goes hand in hand. Oftentimes you'll hear it during the podcast interviews. Make sure you keep your oxygen mask on. Make sure you keep your cup full. Pour from the saucer. Don't necessarily pour from an empty cup. Make sure you fill up your cup in order to make an impact on other people.
I think if we forget about the self in what we're doing as leaders, especially we're only setting our organizations up for failure. These are things that came up during podcasts like making sure to meditate, to work out. Burnout on the other side also came up tremendously as well about things that people suffered when they did not understand that there is an I.
When you start to have what I think is a marathon mindset, you start to realize that it's not about working 25, 26, 30 hours in a day. It's about making sure that you're able to come back and work consistently for seven days for seven years and have that consistent cadence because those are the people that stand the test of time. To understand how important self-care is, understand how important it is to know and understand that there is an I and when.
Number five, attitude reflects leadership leaders breed more leaders. So I think going online with the culture, which is number two, and a lot of times with number four, it's not about taking care of self to be selfish. A lot of times givers, and especially if you consider yourself a giver, need to take care of themselves, and that creates leadership for organizations. If you're taking that time away to be able to kind of focus on certain things, that's going to help not just you, to be able to give to others, but it's also going to create this example that's going to breed that attitude, that leadership that you want to kind of have within your organization, which leads right into the culture.
It's one of the huge things that definitely came up during the podcast of understanding that you have an opportunity to be a leader. It's really exciting to kind of see that come to head in so many different ways, especially in the definition of what it means to be a CEO, where we saw that tremendously. Number six, the name of the game is being found. I talked about this a lot and I have to look through and delve through a lot more of the interviews, even more. But I'd gather to say that that is not the number one. It's probably one of the most consistent episodes that we had around marketing professionals, around how to get the name and who it is that you who to who it is that you are out there.
Remember, I always say that one of the foundational things of what we do is understanding that visibility plus resources times connections equals success. So visibility is a huge part of what we do, even in the digital marketing business, obviously. But also too, some of the people that have come on the show, they've really talked about from their vantage point, from their zone of genius, the thing that they do, how they can help clients to be able to do that. So really take in and, and enjoy that part. But know that as great as it is to have a successful product service, initiative, whatever it might be, you might even have a phenomenal culture. But if you don't have visibility around that culture, how are you going to be attracting talent?
So some of those things are so huge and obviously they're going to come up a little bit later as well too. Innovation plus creativity. R& D. Continue to innovate. Never lose the innovative spirit and always be innovating. So that's number seven. Innovation is one of the things that you hear a lot of times, through the podcast. Sometimes it's going along the, the, the, the, the less than traveled path to be able to see things come to fruition. You see it in some of the biggest innovators. But I think one of the things I was most excited about during the interviews is I think it kind of reframed the way that we looked at innovation.
I think sometimes when you think of innovation, you think of it being a wholesale change that completely changes the things that you're doing. Often, especially if you're starting something or you see a gap in opportunity, it's because sometimes the industry or the major players, sometimes even in the industry lose kind of base and lose connection with who and how they're serving. So a lot of times innovation is not necessarily just creating something new. Just I thought about putting this together with that. Sometimes it's paying attention to the industry or sometimes being in the industry and knowing that there is an opportunity that major players or everybody really and frankly could be missing out on.
So understand that there is a path to innovation. I think that that's one of the most exciting things. It's not something that you just have to be creative and things like that. I think by. By understanding and serving, that's sometimes the best innovation that you can have. But you'll definitely hear more about that as well, too. Entrepreneurship at the end of the day is solving problems. That's number eight asking you, what problem are you solving? When we get into entrepreneurship, sometimes it can be sexy. Sexy about getting the latest gadget or to get in the latest car, whatever these flashy things might be.
But I think at the end of the day, when you have a servant mindset and you are trying to be of impact on people, you realize and understand that you want to make sure that you are solving problems. So entrepreneurs solve problems. Entrepreneurship is something obviously that came out tremendously through the podcast, especially through the What does being a CEO mean to you? Because we started to look at it in a completely different way than I think a lot of times other people did and my goal, and our goal of people on the show was really to hopefully disrupt that.
They didn't disrupt it by saying, this is an entrepreneur, this is a CEO, this is a business owner, this is an executive, whatever it might be. They just came in and said what they meant from their perspective. If you aggregate all that information, loads of great, content that's definitely there from there. That redefinition, I think, of what it means to be a CEO, entrepreneur, or business owner. Technology. I am a technology technology company that does. Technology is the major disruptor in every industry. I think that I personally remember doing outside sales and going to speak to somebody when I worked with a company and knocking on doors and saying, are you here to talk about that Internet thing?
It's funny to laugh about it now, but I think that as a leader, especially among those 16 things. Number nine. That technology piece is probably one of the most disruptive pieces in the industry because it is evident in every single industry. If it's not in your industry or it's not leveraged as much as it could be in your industry, that might be the opportunity that you have to be that innovator, to be that entrepreneur to really be that forward-thinking person. How can you potentially leverage technology or potentially even disrupt everything by incorporating technology?
So, been super excited to talk about some gadgets or you need to be more resourceful and I love that because it allows you to think, think creatively and differently about like, how you're serving the clients that you're working with, how you're creating solutions to problems. Often if you have duct tape and you're putting that together, you put two things together that maybe don't necessarily go together, but you're being resourceful, you're thinking about it in a different way because you're thinking about the lack of human resources you might have or it might be financial resources.
However, once you get past that certain amount of years in business and I feel like you get a little bit more established, you start to think about those resources. What and how can you get, additional financing, how can you potentially get a key person on your team? You start to think differently about your organization and your business. So I want to really highlight, like, how important those resources are. Those resources can run the gamut.
It could be hiring a coach, it could be understanding and reading a book and realizing that you need to join this person, take this person's course, or join this person's group coaching session, whatever it might be, or it might mean that you have to or want to invest in some type of widget or some type of software that's going to completely transform your business to save you more time, but also the people on your team. So I want to really highlight how important it is.
Obviously, through the CEO hacks, we highlight that through every single episode, but how important resources actually are and how it's not just being resourceful, it's also having resources. If you could be resourceful with resources, you're going to be in a pretty phenomenal place. So that's something that really came up true during podcast number 11. Connections and networking communities. Relationships. Connections ultimately matter. There's power in the community. Know that. It's the African proverb that you can go far by yourself. But you go so much farther together.
I think one of the things that we start to understand is while we understand that there is an I, when we start to get greater awareness around who we are, it's so important that you're dialed in. You have those connections, those relationships, all those things to help increase your likelihood of success. Where do you want to go? You want to put yourself in those rooms around those people so that you can ultimately be that. I think one of my favorite quotes is from Muhammad Ali, and he said that I said that I was the greatest before I was. He knew that he was the greatest before he became, quote, unquote, the greatest.
That's the power of connection, power of opportunity, of saying things, the tongue of even saying that you're going to do things. So being able to understand that those relationships, those connections, those opportunities go hand in hand with where you're going to allow you to not just connect with people to get their business card but to develop these deep relationships and these connections. That's something that came through a lot during the podcast and deep, deep, deeply from a podcast perspective, one of the things I was most excited about was getting an opportunity to connect with so many different people.
I would have never connected with 12 to 1600 people to be able to connect with in a way that I never would have had before. It's extremely awesome. I'm super excited and blessed to get the opportunity to do that operation. The systems can, in fact, set you free. You'll hear me say that so many times. Where I consider myself to be creative. I consider myself to be somebody who's always finding solutions for better or worse. It's a gift and a curse. But we and I definitely understand that coupled with technology. For me, putting systems in place has allowed me to be able to be even more creative.
Not because you're necessarily thinking about all these things, it's that you don't have to think about these things. If you have a system in place for all the things that you're doing, it allows you that opportunity to be, be present in your creativity because you don't have to think about the things that you didn't do because you put it on a list or you schedule it out or whatever it might be. Or as you can see, if you're looking at this, I potentially put it on your wall and wrote it out. The importance is that the operations and systems are probably going to be one of the most foundational aspects of your business because it's going to allow you the opportunity to do those magic words.
If you decide that that's the route that you want to go of scaling, bringing on more people, make sure the people are continually to provide the value and the quality of the product or service that you're providing. It's one of the things that I think is not sexy. Operations are not sexy because you want to create, the next widget, the next opportunity, you want to disrupt, do all these things. But most of the people, I would probably venture to say, all of the people who are truly making disruption and doing phenomenal things are those who have strong operations in place. While they may not be in cement, they're probably gradually improving them so that they can get there. So it's huge.
Number 13, why and how you do something might be more important than what you do. This is all around strategy. Number 13 is strategy. The strategy has been something that is extremely important. I think during this, this journey and doing these interviews, one of the biggest things that I realize and I hear, and you'll hear it through each of the interviews, you might say, okay, this person does it a way, this person does it Z way, this person does it F way, this person does a G way. This person is doing a mix of 1, 2, and 3. This person is doing like a little bit of A with a little bit of Z with maybe I think sounds like a little bit of S or so you realize, which I love to say so many times during the interview, is that if you run your race, you can't lose.
The strategy piece is huge. I talk about this a lot related to marketing, but it's become evident in so many different ways during this interview. You can have people that are doing the exact same business and their strategy is completely different, so they're executing their business in a different way. Somebody, for example, who could be running a marketing business can say, I want to hire as many, many employees as I can so that we can grow so that we can really make an impact upon the people. You have somebody else who has maybe the same knowledge and wants to grow their marketing business in a different way.
Maybe they're going to be more of a solo CEO, solo entrepreneur, solopreneur, or whatever title they might give themselves. But their goal is really to just empower other people to make connections, to be the strategist, whatever it might be. Maybe the same businesses, maybe the same top-line revenue, but at the same time they're approaching in a different way. So that's why I said why and how you do something might be more important than what you actually do. It's not so much that you do marketing or you do HR or you have the latest widget. It might be how you're executing on that that really is the difference. It ends up a lot of times becoming the secret sauce that you have.
Number 14 is something that I heard so much when I started my business and it's something that we zoom past, but I think became, I think tremendously evident in 2020 during the pandemic and I think also was one of the foundational aspects of number four, the self-care, understanding that there is an I and when. That is basically that there is a human part of business and don't forget about it. Don't forget about the human part of the business. The reason why this is so important is because I think that we can get so much in the operations, hiring, and technology and make sure that we are creating the best product or service.
We can do all the things and we can forget about the human aspect. We can forget about trying to connect with and create a solution for potential people. We can forget about understanding that the people who are on our team or the vendors that we're working with or communicating with are human. And I think that if we zoom past that, we forget about the mindset, the emotional aspect, the eq, all those different aspects, the emotional intelligence. All those things play a part in your success. So if you're not paying attention to the human aspect of business that could be really setting you up for failure.
I think personally, at the end of the day, if you're not doing this to make an impact and to really change the lives of people, then why are you really doing it? I know that's everybody's decision and I think that goes back to the strategy and understanding your why and things along those lines. But at the end of the day, that's my honest feeling. Don't forget about the human aspect of business. Don't just try to run through or run through to your goals and aspirations. Funny enough, I just read a book that, that an autobiography that talked a lot about that, where the person came to this realization about the human parts and how you pay attention to the emotions and all those things because they are why you're ultimately doing the things that you're doing more than that.
Understand the human part of business and understand that the human part of business is sometimes outside of business. So your family, friends, those that you love and care about, definitely understand that. Number 15, the future of work and entrepreneurship also comes true during the pandemic. Business as usual is not as usual. This goes hand in hand with number nine, technology. When you say that I'm a technology company that does understand that because of technology, because of the pandemic, because everything has been disrupted in some form, shape, or fashion, business as usual is not as usual.
The way that you might have been having that strategy. Number 13 might change when you are thinking about the future of work. Now, this is from an entrepreneurship standpoint, how you're executing your business. But also keep in mind that working from home, the great resignation, the people that have quit their job without actually quitting their job, all this happens because you want to be aware of the future of work. We want to be aware of the changes that are happening and, it's so important because you want to really, for lack of a better term, start to future-proof your business.
I believe, and many experts have said this and even said on the podcast, that the way to future-proof your business is to understand that you're never going to future-proof your business. It's not as if you say, okay, well, I'm just not going to do it. The idea is that you continue to innovate, you continue to put yourself out of business, and you continue to think about how you can improve things. It's that insatiable appetite that I think really allows people to continue to innovate. But on an even deeper level, that's why it's so important to understand the human aspect of business and understand that there is an eye.
Because you don't want to have that insatiable appetite to where you're never full, you want to have that insatiable appetite to understand that you're at peace and know that there is not as much peace as you think that there will be. I think that's where the future of work, the future of entrepreneurship really comes in handy. Understanding that your business, business as usual, this is how we've been doing it, is not necessarily going to be the way of the future. So you continue to get you, get your thirst to quench or get that food to kind of quench your or enjoy whatever meal it is that is going to produce itself in your business and in your ventures.
So the final thing, and this actually came about during one of my last interviews and I actually you something that I touched on in the beginning, what came about from this list and will come about from the things that we'll have in the next year or so is that it's so important to pause. Taking time away can make you more impactful. It's something that is not sexy. It goes, I think, hand in hand and is very aligned with self-care. Self-care can manifest itself in so many different ways. Number four, there is an I. When in understand that pausing, taking time away, and doing one thing which might be taking a break, it allows you to become even more impactful. It's something that is different for me.
I'm the person who really would try to figure out a way that I didn't have to sleep, that I would continue to kind of work through those things. But one of the most impactful things for me during these interviews has been self-care. There is an eye and when also understanding the power of the pause, the power of taking a step back, spaciousness, breaks. This is on a deeper level, but I think it's also on a very practical daily level. And I think that when you kind of get started in your organization if this is a startup business or an organization that you're working on, it's a completely different kind of focus that you have.
But I still think that you want to incorporate some type of breaks, pauses, whatever it might be. These breaks don't have to be major. I think that's the beauty of it. When you start to think about things in a marathon mindset, you're not going to experience burnout in the first year because you're working 25 hours a day. You understand that, okay, If I work 16 hours a day, 12 hours a day, 8 hours, whatever number you come to. But I incorporate walks with my dog or spending time with my loved one for whatever period of time, or I have this really great desire to paint.
I'm going to decide to paint or I'm going to whiteboard. I'm going to color all these things. Incorporating that into your life is only going to help you create that pause, and that's going to help solve the problems. But on an even deeper level is going to create a tremendous, I think, opportunity to innovate on a different. On an incredible level. So that's a little of the 16 things that you'll hear and how important that is and how impactful that has been. But there's. There are so many different things that I've learned from this podcast, and it's just been so impactful. So I truly appreciate it if you had the opportunity, to be on the show. I truly appreciate you if you've just been listening and you've subscribed and, engaged, with it.
It's all extremely valuable and appreciated by me. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Gratitude is another big thing that I learned. But, the beauty of this is that I'm not really going anywhere, but I am taking a pause of 1600 episodes in terms of recording. So look for more stuff coming from me, from us, to hopefully help you to take that next level, to take that next jump in business. Specifically, really trying to focus on the CB Nation architects, the people who are moving away from the builders, the grinders, to getting things done too. How can you be more strategic about your business?
How can you be that architect that doesn't necessarily nail every nail, doesn't necessarily get the hammer and pull it out and go to the store and get all those things, but as a person that maybe orchestrates all those things and has an understanding and how impactful that can be. So these 16 things are obviously different and you can't necessarily focus on every single one and be perfect at them all. But I think the beauty, of number 13, especially this strategy piece, is that you start to understand that maybe I'm going to focus on 1 and 5 because I feel like either that's lacking or maybe that's something that needs to be addressed a little bit more. Maybe it's just frankly a.
It's a hot-button issue that could potentially capital, or it could be your flat wheel of the business that you're trying to run. It could really tremendously hurt your business. So you understand that these are the things that I'm going to prioritize, but my goal in Talking about these 16 things is not to say this is the end all and be all in business, not to say you need to do this, you need to do that, you need to do that. Even the order of it is done so in a way that I believe that you can go through and focus on number five and then maybe come back to number one, and then maybe a year from there, you're focused on number 16 seen.
Understand each of these things and understand how they're all also interconnected, which is absolutely huge, and definitely appreciate you again. I almost don't even want to say bye, but I'm not going to say bye. I'm going to say see you later because the podcast is definitely coming back. So I'll never say never, but you'll definitely hear more from me. This is Gresh signing out. Have a phenomenal rest of the year and look forward to talking with you soon.
32:39 - 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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