IAM2288 – Harnessing the 12-Week Year Strategy for Success

Gresham Harkless discusses using the 12-week-year methodology to help him stay focused and execute effectively.

This approach summarizes a year's goals into 12 weeks, fostering a sense of urgency and accountability.

He shares that even when he doesn't hit every goal, the system helps him stay mindful of the activities that truly move the needle.

Gresh considers the emotional challenges faced during the startup process, including personal losses.

Gresham credits BNI (Business Network International) with helping him stay accountable and consistently present his business to others, which was crucial during the early stages of growing his digital marketing company.

Gresham discusses the complexity of balancing a 9-to-5 job (or main business) with side projects like starting a franchise.

In addition, he shares an important tip for networking in any organization—seek out people who are having the same kinds of conversations you're having.

Blue Star Franchise: bluestarfranchise.com

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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 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.

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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 01:29

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from Blue Star Franchise and Blue 16 Media and this is day one of the Blue Star Franchise business. And I'm super excited to kind of get everything started, but I also have all the feelings.

I mean, if you've ever started anything, you probably also have all the feelings. It's so exciting when it's further away. It's exciting because you're thinking about all the things you do, you're creative, and then when it gets here, it's time to kind of execute.

So one of the things that I've really worked on is I do something called a 12-week year. If you haven't checked out that book, check that out. I'll have the information and the show notes as well too.

But the 12 week year is essentially built on this idea of execution. The reason that they do a 12 week year rather than a year is because 12 week year allows you to be a lot more intentional in your activities, allows you to create this momentum because you have to understand that you only have quote-unquote 3 months, which is actually a year.

So I did this the whole entire year. It has created a lot of momentum, I think for me, even when I haven't always hit the goals, what it does is it requires you to be aware of the activities that you're doing, are these activities that you're doing helping you to get to where you want to be or not and if they're not then you have to pivot and change.

You have to do that pretty rapidly because you only have a week or so which is equivalent to a month. So thinking about 12 week year, 12 months in the year, 12 weeks, basically a week equals a month.

Essentially a day equals almost like a week or really 2 days equal like a week. But the idea is that you start to create this activity, I don't know if I call it a cycle.

But it's something that you really get to see those things happen so quickly where you are either reaching your goals and if you're not reaching your goals, you have to pivot and change.

Now, what I've done with my 12 week years is I enjoy the kind of novelty of new things, I get excited by those things.

I think the reason I really like the 12 week year is because it becomes that opportunity to basically have 4 kind of opportunities or 4 segments within a calendar year to be able to be focused on things that you want to accomplish.

Now, also, if you feel like you want to carry those things over, you can do that too. And I've done that for a goal or 2, but primarily I've usually been very focused on just one thing and just being locked in on doing that. It also requires you to really focus on maybe 2 to 3 things.

So the reason I bring this up in day one is because I've already mapped out the things that I want to do on a regular basis.

This position, this opportunity, this business, like most businesses are going to be very much so lead driven.

So I walked into this having already built a website, having already gone through training, those things are of course part of that process.

But what I really wanted to do with this is to just focus on lead generation, code outreach, code email outreach, code social media outreach, but also starting to announce to family members, those are close to the family, people that I'm connected with, that this is something that I'm doing.

I already got the question of, okay, are you not doing additional marketing anywhere anymore?

And that's not the case. Definitely still continuing on with that. This is just something that is a little bit more of a new venture.

If we think about it, it's been 10 to 11 years, really 11 years or so in counting on starting this business.

So it's so important that I kind of make sure that I communicate with clients, let them know some of the things that I'm working on, but also let them know that I'm still very much so ingrained in the things that I'm doing.

It's just something that's going to compliment those things. So with that being said, this is day one. Again, all the feelings, I'm definitely getting started. Everything else was day 0 or prior to that.

And as exciting as it is, you're gonna go through, have those bumps, bruises, things that don't go the way you want it to go. It's never gonna go probably as quickly as you want it to go.

But regardless, you wanna stay present in the things that you can control. You want to stay present in the day-to-day activities.

So that's where you lay those things out. You have that 12 week year goal, and it allows you to be really present and to kind of filter out those things that are not as important or at least prioritize those things that are important so you do that before the day gets a little crazy.

So there's so many different things that were coming up during the first day. It's just like getting the announcement out there, letting people know.

I would honestly have done that sooner. I should have let people know while I was going through training that this is something that I was doing.

Just wasn't 100% sure if I was going to do it, how I was going to do it and things like that. So that's a little bit of what held me back.

But honestly, I always ask the time machine question when I'm on my podcast. If you were to hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self? I would say 5 weeks ago to be able to make that announcement just to let people know.

But granted, I didn't have a name, didn't have any of those things. But again, just started to document that journey a little bit.

I did some of the I AM CEO podcasts around franchising, but I would probably have been a little bit more intentional with letting people know that I don't know where this is going, don't know how it's going and I just want to kind of have it flow from there.

But granted also, one of the things that we never want to forget is there's a human side to business.

So actually my dog, we had to say goodbye to. My grandma also passed away a week or 2 later.

So it was just like a busy time over the last, I wanna say 60 days or so, 60 to maybe 75 days or so.

So there's been a lot going on, a lot of emotions, a lot of feelings, and that's one of the reasons I named it Blue Star.

But we're winding back the clock. When I started my digital marketing business, I had done some kind of freelance stuff here and there.

But when I got serious about it, I actually joined a networking group. I joined a BNI chapter. And that's something that I'm exploring right now.

I'm looking for more of maybe a virtual chapter that gives me a little bit more flexibility. So I won't have to drive to the meeting and not to the meeting.

But one of the reasons I'm looking at BNI is because there's such a huge network of chapters. It's literally something that is worldwide.

It is something that once you're a part of a BNI, I feel like you're part of the mafia, so to speak, you're part of the organization.

But I also know how beneficial it was for me in the beginning of getting started to kind of stay true. Like once you pick a category, once you say you're going to do what you're going to do, it made me consistently, it kind of held me accountable.

Now that I think about it, because I'm an ideas person, I always have new ideas. I think sometimes when you go through the process and things aren't going as quickly as you want them to go, I think you often need to have some type of accountability.

This accountability was that this is what I do, this is what I'm known for in this chapter. So I'm not gonna change it week to week to week.

I talked about digital marketing when I stood up to do my sales management and my 30 second kind of spiel or speech about what I do, why I do, how I do it.

But I always incorporated like CB Nation because that was a large part. That wasn't the main business.

So as you kind of go through any type of journey, just know that accountability and staying true to what you're doing is going to be a huge thing.

Having a community to kind of lean on will help out but also related to BNI but honestly it could be frankly any organization.

Also gets you the opportunity to practice your spiel and your speech. It also gives you that opportunity to be able to connect with people that can advocate on your behalf.

A lot of times people within organizations are called your extended sales team because they look for opportunities for you. It's not necessarily that you're quote unquote selling to them, but a lot of times you're just keeping your eyes and ears open.

You're empowering them and educating them so that their eyes and ears are open for opportunities.

So that's something that I might look more into. Frankly, I'm just trying to calculate the time because anybody who has a 9 to 5 is maybe doing side hustle and is starting something new, you have to figure out how you're gonna maximize that time.

So that's gonna be huge. Also, we have a newborn of a baby, baby boy on the way in a couple of months as well too. So getting prepared for that as well as another big part.

So don't forget a human part of business, but also know that, you can really lean on other people.

So I think that's where BNI or frankly, other chapters and other organizations can be really great.

Here's one pro tip for networking organizations. What you really wanna do is make sure that you find people that are having the same conversations that you hope to have within your organization.

That's gonna be where your book of your referrals are gonna come from, not from the total number of people necessarily, but typically for those people that are having conversations that are similar to you.

So as a digital marketer, I was always looking for people that focused on maybe social media or maybe their IT or something along those lines because they were having similar conversations.

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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