He shares his experiences and lessons learned as a franchise broker and how this process relates to starting a new business.
Gresham highlights the emotional roller-coaster in starting something new, including excitement, fear, and imposter syndrome.
He explains that one of the biggest challenges he faced (and that others face when starting a business) is simply getting started and mentions that taking that first step is crucial, even though it might seem daunting.
Gresham emphasizes the importance of consistent action and the ability to pivot when necessary.
He discusses the concept of the “Minimum Viable Product” (MVP), drawing on lessons from the book The Lean Startup.
Blue Star Franchise: bluestarfranchise.com
Browse the Franchise Inventory: bluestarfranchise.com/franchise
Is franchising right for you? Check this out to see: bluestarfranchise.com/assessment
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Transcription:
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Intro 00:00
Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast, and this is a special episode, episode number 2287 of our I AM CEO Podcast. And this is actually going to be a snippet of a snippet, so to speak.
I'm just doing an intro because I've been starting to document my journey into starting what is now called Blue Star Franchise.
We're also gonna do a kind of sub-site within CB Nation called Franchise CEO. So you'll see some links in the show notes related to that.
But just wanted to give you a little bit more insight, give you a little bit more color in some of the aspects of why I'm actually doing this because one of the things I was doing as I was going through training to start up this new business was realizing and hearing from the founder of FBA, the Franchise Brokers Association, that it'd be really cool to document your journey going through and building this out.
I think it's something that would be super helpful. Obviously for people that are looking for and thinking about starting franchises, but frankly, if you're starting anything, any type of business, I think it's really cool to kind of just even see the journey and how it's been going from there.
So I'm gonna share a few of those snippets from the first couple of videos that have been created, but definitely of course subscribe to our YouTube, check out a lot more where I figure out exactly where here with Glenna to post this.
So I'll have that information that's available to you. But regardless, if you're a builder, continue to keep building, continue to do your thing. The world definitely needs exactly what you're trying to build.
It needs you to be your unique self, so make sure to run your own race because nobody can run your race like you. This is Gresh signing out. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
Gresham Harkless 01:30
Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from Blue Star Franchise and Blue16 Media. And I wanted to just give an update.
Like I mentioned, and I've been talking about my franchise journey. It's something in being a broker, becoming a broker, going through training and learning a lot more about what I should be looking for, what I should not be looking for.
I wanted to do some of these updates just to give you a little bit more insight into how it is to be a franchise broker, but frankly also how it is to even start a business.
Now, of course, full disclosure, I have my digital marketing business. I've started a business before, but times are definitely different.
This is about 10 or 11 years ago, and there's been a lot of updates and changes, but in some ways I think a lot of things are the same.
A lot of what you try to do is to get your name and your information out there. Marketing is such a key part of it, but I literally am a little bit sweaty because I just got done doing my Peloton workout.
One of the big things that I learned fairly quickly is how important your morning routine is. Now, doesn't mean you're doing cold plunges, doesn't mean frankly you're even working out.
It could just be literally you taking control of the day. If you know, and if you have listened, call it Blue Star franchise named after my dog Star.
So I started to nickname my morning routine the star time, because that's where I really go through a lot of the things that I think allow me to take a little bit more control of the day before the day starts to take control of me. That includes reading the Bible.
Sometimes it's some type of movement, working out, entertaining yoga, something along those lines. Also, journaling. The journaling could literally be writing.
The journaling could also be just audio, thinking through my thoughts. Especially since I recently lost my dog. I spent a lot of that time just journaling about like how I was feeling, what was coming up for me, at the time as I go through this business.
And I think there's just gonna be a lot of emotions and frustrations and mistakes that I make and things that I do well that I need to celebrate. That's all gonna be like within that space and time.
I usually drink some tea, get my water ready, and then I really get started on my day. Typically, unlike today, this is a little bit more of a weekend, but during the week I'm waking up my son and kind of just getting started with the day.
So usually try to jump ahead of the day before the day starts to take hold of me. Granted, I'm still running the digital marketing business, and I'm also still creating a lot of content with CB Nation.
So doing the podcast and things like that. So my plate is full, to say the least. And we also have a new baby coming on the way. So there's a lot of different emotions and time.
So I really look at that time as kind of like a better term like sacred time, it's time to get to spend time with God, just make sure I'm in the right direction, just to kind of continue to kind of warn to myself and learn more about the direction that I'm taking.
But frankly, it's also a time that I just kind of create some space just to kind of be whether that is, you know, challenging my body and pushing and pulling, or sometimes it's even just resting.
Frankly, just getting my thoughts and emotions, feelings, just all those things out there. So I would really encourage you if you are starting something, if you haven't, even if you have started something, is to think about that morning routine.
I think it's one of the biggest things that I've heard consistently throughout doing the I AM CEO Podcast, that your morning routine is a being the way to really set up your day.
Tony Robbins has this quote where he says, in order to win the day, you win the morning. So I thought that is something that I'm really, really hammering into.
And I think the more you start to fill up your plate, the more things that you do, I think it's going to be even more important to lean on that morning routine because it's going to be your way to kind of standardize your day per se
And often, you don't have to do your morning routine at 4 a.m. I personally get up, my alarm music goes off between 4:45 and 5:15.
I have one of these ways that I track my sleep just to make sure I'm sleeping better, which is a whole another video that I want to put together.
But at the end of the day realize one of the biggest things is in order to win tomorrow you have to win today.
So at the end of the today as you start your drill down and wind down and that happens, remind yourself that you are setting yourself up for tomorrow.
So as much as you can try to plan as many things as possible, but know that you have to be flexible enough because those plans will just kind of go everywhere.
So just know that consistency of that morning routine. It could be an hour, it could be 15 minutes, it could be 10 minutes, especially if you're just getting started.
It ends up being, I think, one of the biggest things that I wish that I knew when I first started my business that I'm definitely implementing now.
So anytime you start a new venture, you have all the emotions. You literally have the excitement and that excitement can ultimately be, your fuel that can get you going.
You have the fears, you have the worries, you have the imposter syndrome of who am I to really help somebody out?
And I think that's one of the things that hopefully I'll be able to capture throughout this journey.
But one of the big advantages I have is because I have had a business before and I am very much so somebody I think that is teachable.
So I really go through everything that I learned through training. So if you didn't listen to my longer video, I pretty much went through a 40 hour training this past week to learn as much as I could about franchise brokering.
Now, prior to that, this is like week 4 of the training of an FTI training with the Franchise Brokers Association or FBA.
And what I really hope to do is learn as much as possible. So the first 3 or 4 weeks were pretty much on your own time. You can take classes. We had a few classes that were set in between, but we can always get the recording.
But live week is pretty much you're locked in. You go to their land or forwarder office, you get to meet their staff and do those things, which is, I imagine, pretty exciting.
I actually did mine virtually, so I feel like it was even harder because you have to kind of lock in, to a video. You don't have as much of the interaction and opportunity.
But needless to say, it was really great because I got to take a lot of notes. I really have a ton of information, but that's one of the really big things that I think that I would have done.
And I will do differently. Like yesterday, when I finished up live with training, I probably would have sat down and literally did a brain-depth of all the things that I learned.
I plan to definitely do that today because even waking up this morning, my mind was always racing about ideas, things that I could do to handle things, ideas, and ways I can handle objection. It's just all of these different perspectives that I had.
But one of the big things that our trainer, who was phenomenal, did tell us was that the biggest thing is getting started. That's the biggest impediment to success.
And what's so funny is that I feel like that's the same thing around entrepreneurship and business. It's like, how are you going to get started? What is the next step you're going to take?
So I took it upon myself to make sure that I went ahead and posted on my Facebook that I was starting this new venture.
I got about a hundred or so people that were interested and commented or put comments or whatever, not saying they're gonna buy a franchise or anything like that, but I think it was my first step.
And once you take that first step, then I think you take the next step or the next step and the next step and the next step.
So I think that's the biggest impediment to people like really getting started is actually getting started.
And I think it becomes something, especially if you've had this goal, aspiration or dream for such a long period of time, we forget that entrepreneurship is really around creating consistent action.
And even creating that action, when it is not the right action, you're able to pivot and change quickly.
So that's where you really want to create that, that quick action because it's going to allow you that opportunity to learn and to pivot and to change and do that over and over again.
And that's really how you get your way to success. I always joke on the podcast, on the I AM CEO Podcast, that success is much more like a plate of spaghetti than the straight linear path that we think it is.
So that's one of the big takeaways that I wanted to kind of hammer home is that if you're starting something, whether it is a brokerage, whether it is a new business, get started fast.
One quick hack I'll kind of share with you as well too. There's a book that I actually got when I started the blog called The Lean Startup. The lean startup, there's this concept of an MVP, a minimum viable product.
The idea is that you get something up and going so that you get it to the market and you start testing it out. I've had so many minimum-viable products. I've had so many large viable products, I guess if that's even a phrase, that haven't gone according to plan.
So it's so important that you continue to kind of take those steps. So if you are starting something right now, figure out what thing can you do right now.
Is it a post on social media? Is it a call to somebody that doesn't know about your business? Whatever it is, take that action right now and I'll see you on the other side.
But I'll keep documenting this journey because it's something that I wanna share as much as possible.
So this is Gresh signing out. If there's anything I can do that'd be helpful, obviously franchising, business, or even just digital marketing help, please definitely let me know.
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