IAM2289 – Networking: One Important Key Strategy for Entrepreneurs

Gresham Harkless shares his reflections about the timing of his business decisions, which were influenced by significant life changes, and decided to take the leap into franchising.

He discusses the importance of faith and believing that things will work out when starting a new venture.

Gresham mentions that opportunities often come from within your network, and entrepreneurs should make their businesses known to family, friends, and acquaintances.

Gresham also discusses using a CRM (HubSpot, branded as “Boss” for franchise brokers) to manage leads and track progress as part of the 8-step process in franchise brokerage.

He shares how he managed the challenges with the help of his team, explaining the importance of having a supportive team to execute and support business ventures.

Moreover, he highlights the importance of choosing foundational businesses to support multiple ventures, like digital marketing, which has served as the foundation for other businesses in his portfolio.

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Transcription:

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Intro 00:01

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 01:28

One of the big things about starting any type of business is you start to realize that there's different sales periods and sales times to the things that you're doing.

When I was doing the digital marketing, honestly, I started the business after I had sales, so you kind of knew there was that opportunity.

This one's a lot different. I would usually recommend having a sale before you jump into anything.

But with this, it just aligned. Like I mentioned, my dog passed away, my grandma passed away, so there's a lot of change that was happening. And I was going through the process of kind of exploring what this might look like.

So, I still could step out on faith, honestly. And I felt like things were aligning this way. So I decided to take that leap.

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And a lot of things happened that really kind of worked out in my favor. So definitely thankful. I am a man of faith, so I was definitely thinking of what I got for that.

But gotta keep some giving. So with that being said, I do have a meeting set up with a potential client.

And one of the things I wanted to talk about just for this video is that so many times we might miss that we have opportunities that are right in front of us.

And one of the things that I really remember from training our trainer, William, said that your first deal and opportunity might and will, I don't know if he said it will probably come from somebody that's within your network.

So one of the things that we have to do as entrepreneurs, CEOs, business owners is to make sure that we're promoting ourselves.

It doesn't have to be in a salesy way. It just has to be say, to be to say, hey, I'm starting this business. If you know anybody that might be interested, would love the opportunity to connect.

And actually from a post that I had on Facebook, And I don't even know that it was a post actually, didn't even mean to do it.

I was doing it at the end of training where I was just updating the profile to say this was my new venture.

This was a new responsibility that I was going to have a new job title and things like that and it reached a lot of people.

Actually funny enough is when I did the post when I said okay well let me say this that and the third that it didn't really get as much traction. Go figure I had the logo and things like that.

So with that being said it was one of those things that you just have to be active. And that's what I've been. That's why I think I have that call this call today.

I was in Facebook groups, just literally looking for opportunities, not trying to sell, but just trying to be a resource.

And lo and behold, somebody that's not in my state, but in the state right next to mine in Maryland said, I'm looking for a vending opportunity.

So if you have been listening, vending was the thing that even our trainer said is that low hanging fruit, you go to try to find the path of least resistance.

So I just want to encourage you on that is like so many times we're looking far out to try to find our opportunities.

And that doesn't necessarily mean that the people that around you are going to be sold to, it just means that sometimes those conversations can start out with people that are right around you.

So I did that. I've been trying to do more outreach to people that I've had on the podcast. So another potential opportunity came out from there.

So I just been really active. I've been, you know, I use a CRM. So CRM came with our franchise brokerage. We use HubSpot. They call it Boss, but it's HubSpot.

It's like updated and HubSpot on steroids for franchises. Franchise brokers I should say and that's something I always put people through.

So now I'm like in this mentality of like how do I get to that first step because we have an 8 step process, but my focus is like, how do I get to the first step? How do you take a lead to make it into a potential opportunity?

So I've been really focused on that, which has been really exciting. So now it's just starting to guide people through that process and the steps and try to help out people more than possible, more than anything.

So one of the things I just want to leave you with is that we sometimes don't want to share out what we do, how we do it.

And I try to do that from day one. I did that before I was done with training because I knew that that was the first step I could take is to do those posts. I did it on Facebook, I did it on LinkedIn.

I'll do it some other places, but don't forget that you're providing the solution. Entrepreneurship is all about providing solutions to people's problems.

So the more that you can get your name out there, the more people you can help solve. So don't forget you're providing a solution.

So make sure you promote yourself, talk about what you do so that everybody, friends, family, and people close to you know.

So give you a little bit more context if this is the first time you're listening. I have a digital marketing business that I've had for the last 11 years.

I also have a slew of resources for entrepreneurs, CEOs, and business owners and that's under CB Nation. The digital marketing company is under Blue 16 marketing really. The umbrella of everything is Blue 16 media.

So even Blue Star franchises, which is what I'm starting now is under that. So it can be a little bit confusing, but I'm trying to like work through, streamline exactly how I communicate that.

But one of the topics that I wanted to talk about more today was around things just going wrong.

I literally am trying to fix what's going on with my camera. I have 2 cameras. One of the cameras is not working the way that I want it to work. It's showing up really grainy.

Not sure why I just started to do that with this new software that I'm testing out, which also has its own things that are working and not working amongst other things. My watch is not charging.

So that one of the smartwatches and things like that. And none of these are major things.

But the reason I wanted to bring it up is because, you might have, and I feel like a lot of entrepreneurial people have this kind of fix it mentality, you're really focused on solutions and you're really focused on finding solutions.

So sometimes when these things go wrong, you have to kind of take a step back and just ask yourself, is this the most important thing that I could be doing with my time?

As somebody who has a business that I'm still very much so involved in with the digital marketing business and doing some other things.

It's essential that you prioritize. I was even going through and I had a check-in with the trainer after training just to figure out like where I was.

And one of my biggest things is I said, hey, I just have to figure out how I'm going to fit everything in.

And that's kind of like a struggle that I'm anticipating, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a struggle that I have right now. I think it's so important to make sure that you have a great team.

And that's one of the good things that allowed me to kind of do this next venture is that I do have a great team.

We are developing that team and it is happening as we speak and I think that made it a little bit better and easier for me to kind of you know go through training and go through this new venture.

But also that it's not a completely new venture in the sense that it's very much a support for the other thing that I'm working on.

So digital marketing, we're working in the B2B audience. Even with CB Nation and the podcast, I'm interviewing CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners, some who can become clients or we can help support.

And even with this, this is a niche within entrepreneurship. So it's not as if, I won't say that it's not a new business because there's definitely gonna be a more focused target market.

But I will say that it is not something that I'm starting to dunk in donuts while I'm doing the digital marketing and then I'm going to do a home remodeling business on top of that.

So it's some things that are somewhat related. And I think that if you are going to work on multiple ventures, I would definitely say try to do that.

But of course, it just depends on how things work out because I think digital marketing is one of those foundational things.

And while just to give you a little bit more insight, when I started Blue16, I actually was also running. I got laid off from a position.

So I was I had some relationships and I started a kids sports franchise. It was called kids sports drill.

And I did that because I had some relationships at the preschools and I and I just did it. But I kind of was burning out which is another topic I'll probably talk about in the future, of putting your oxygen mask on.

And I just ran into this point where I had to make a decision. I was an adjunct professor, I was also running Blue16, I was the leadership of my networking group, and I was running these kids sports drills, so I just didn't have enough energy and I had to make a decision.

So I chose digital marketing because I thought it was a foundational thing that I could use in other ventures.

So I think marketing in and of itself is so important. So if you wanna start out something beginning, maybe start out with something you're passionate about, but also something that can be foundational for other things if you're interested in that.

So this is Gresh signing out. If there's anything I can do to be helpful, obviously franchising, business or even just digital marketing help, please definitely let me know.

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