IAM2302 – Gresh’s Shares the Essential Backup Plans for Digital Success

Gresham describes his businesses as largely virtual but with significant face-to-face networking before COVID-19.

He emphasizes how this personal connection was vital for educating potential clients, especially those unfamiliar with digital marketing.

Gresham shares how the pandemic forced him to adapt more to virtual environments. Although he was already working remotely, the surge in people using platforms like Zoom presented new challenges.

Gresham anticipates that the changes in how businesses operate, particularly the shift toward digital tools, will likely be permanent.

He highlights that while many talk about returning to “normal,” the future will likely see a “new normal” with a stronger emphasis on digital platforms. The habits formed during the pandemic—like remote meetings and virtual work—will likely persist.

Gresham is hopeful about the opportunities the digital shift will create for entrepreneurs and business owners, particularly in reaching broader audiences through online platforms.

Episode Link: David Delevante Podcast

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Transcription:

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Gresham Harkless Teaser 00:00

My biggest thing that I'm kind of trying to stay ahead of the game, I guess, on is having backups, because you never know how the amount of technology, the amount of people using the technology will affect it.

And as a matter of fact, as of this recording, like earlier today, my scheduling link that I use actually went down because I think the entire site went down.

So it's been in the back of my head and something that I've been trying to do during this time to really, even though I am fairly virtual, I understand now there's probably even more people using all these different tools and converting and changing.

Intro 00:32

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast. And I wanted to share with you one of the episodes that I was a guest on for someone else's podcast.

I always talk about how important it is to build a media company. One of the next best things you can do is be on somebody else's media company.

So I had the pleasure of being a guest on this podcast and I want to share a little snippet with you because it would help support the 8 business pillars we've really been trying to focus on with a lot more of our content, a lot more of the solo episodes that I'm doing.

So make sure of course that you subscribe to our podcast, but of course you take some time out, check out the show notes to subscribe to the podcast that I've been featured on as well too.

And get to learn about some of those 8 business pillars and how you can continue to kind of leverage and build that up so you can go from builder to architect to a course at Rockstar and Luminary. So this is Gresh signing out. I hope you enjoyed this I AM CEO special episode.

David Delevante 01:28

Hey folks, Dave Delevante with Coldwell Banker Residential here and we've got number 7 in our series called Business Not As Usual.

And the reason why it's not as usual, for obvious reasons, we have this COVID virus, this pandemic, this quarantine issue going on.

And we're trying to interview local businesses, CEOs, nonprofits, even clergy, just to see kind of how things have progressed through this process here. So today's guest, I have Gresham Harkless with me. Hey Gresham, how you doing?

Gresham Harkless 01:56

Dave is awesome to be on the show.

David Delevante 01:58

Yeah, it's good having you. Gresham and I go way back through networking and just friendship and talking about each of our dogs mostly.

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Gresham Harkless 02:07

And don't forget pool.

David Delevante 02:08

Gresham is the host of the I AM CEO Podcast, is the host of the CEO Chat Podcast. He's the founder of CEO Blog Nation and also Blue16 Media.

And I'm going to let Gresham explain what those things are in just a second. What we'd like to do, Gresham, is talk about kind of BC, DC, and AC.

So that's before COVID, during, and after. And we'll start with before. Tell us a little bit about your businesses and kind of how they were operating prior to COVID.

Gresham Harkless 02:37

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'm fairly virtual with everything that I do, but I definitely did a lot of face-to-face kind of networking and even kind of a little bit before COVID, I'd started to look a little bit more at my, I guess, my strengths and my zone of genius, so to speak.

So I started to scale back a little bit on some of the face-to-face that I was doing. But I think especially for me from a business standpoint, like I'm borderline introvert, borderline extrovert I should say.

So, getting an opportunity to really connect with people to let them know like some of the things that I did, the products and the services and especially for people that didn't maybe know the power of kind of like digital marketing and some of those things.

It was sometimes best to not be on the digital landscape to be able to kind of communicate that.

So I did a fair amount of face to face networking. And of course that's how we connected as well too.

And I think that was really how I kind of push my message and got to my ideal clients and kind of adjusted from there.

David Delevante 03:37

I never thought about that since they're coming to you for digital expertise they don't have digital expertise so they wouldn't know how to meet you.

So now that we're quarantine we're on I don't know what we're day 40 something or whatever it is how things changed or in sort of in your method or operation?

Gresham Harkless 04:00

Yeah, I mean I think that just as we kind of talked about before we hopped on, and I think a lot of more people were Zoom in.

So like my podcast that you mentioned, I do it on Zoom on a regular basis and I do the recordings.

And my biggest thing that I'm kind of trying to stay ahead of the game, I guess, on is having backups because you never know how the amount of technology, the amount of people using the technology will affect it.

And as a matter of fact, as of this recording earlier today my scheduling link that I use actually went down because I think the entire site went down.

So it's been in the back of my head and something that I've been trying to do during this time to really, even though I am fairly virtual, I understand now there's probably even more people using all these different tools and converting and changing.

So it's been in my mind to really figure out like what backup plans or backup ways I can do it kind of planning for worst case scenario.

If we're not already kind of in that aspect, but just if this didn't work as I wanted it to work, what would I do after that?

And just kind of planning for those different scenarios, just in case as technology sometimes does break and things happen, I won't be completely like, I guess, unexpectedly caught off guard.

David Delevante 05:15

Yeah, good point. I think we were joking before, I wish I'd owned stock in Zoom If I knew how many people would be exactly. I mean, we've even gone in real estate.

We've gone virtual now, where if we do a tour of a house, eventually prior to buying the house, most likely the person will come in and do an actual tour, but we actually can, we tour them virtually. That's the way you do it.

And it minimizes the contact and it gets the word out there. And that's something that we may, as we come out of this COVID thing, we may actually do more of that. Cause it's very efficient.

The tools that we have out there are pretty amazing. So, which brings me to my final question, which is as we come out of this, do you see any positives that have come out of this or any affirming hopeful words you can give us as we're locked in our homes right now?

Gresham Harkless 06:00

Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing that I sometimes hear is people say the phrase and they may not necessarily mean it.

They say the phrase when things get back to normal. And I think a lot of times they're referencing what going back to the way the way that business was done or life was done.

And I think just as you kind of spoke to in so many different industries, the thing that I'm noticing the most is that there's a shift happening and there's permanent changes that are going to be happening as well too.

So when people are able to virtually do a walk-through of a house, like you kind of spoke to, that is something they're going to be able to do and they're probably going to want to do more.

And it might be more of the face-to-face or more of the, I guess, in person might be secondary.

So I think that's the biggest thing that I see, that's happening just overall across the different industries, where the digital that I kind of preach on it and speak to and help business owners and entrepreneurs and organizations out with is potentially gonna be that primary aspect rather than the secondary as it was for so many people.

Because now you've been forced to do it, and those habits are starting to be imprinted for 30, 60, however long this will be, and those habits probably won't necessarily go away.

So I wouldn't say things would go back to normal. It's just gonna be like a new normal, I think would probably be a more accurate way to say it.

David Delevante 07:19

Yeah, I totally agree. I heard someone say I'm never shaking anyone's hand again. Well, that's taken to the extreme.

I'm not sure I believe that would but people say back to normal and normal has changed and we're gonna have to get used to what that's gonna look like.

It's kind of an adventure we've been placed in whether we wanted to or not. I know for me, I'm a hugger so I'm gonna have a hard time here not hugging people, but we'll see if we can get through that as well.

So Gresham, thank you so much for your time. I know you're busy with your four businesses, I guess you got going right now, but I appreciate your insights and your time and your friendship as well. So God bless you.

Gresham Harkless 08:01

God bless you too, Dave. Thanks for having me on. Bye now.

Intro 08:04

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh again and I hope you enjoyed that special episode of the I AM CEO Podcast. Just Like I mentioned in the beginning, we're really trying to laser focus on these 8 pillars and show you as a builder how you can leverage these 8 pillars and really level up there so it helps to level up your business and organization.

So hope you enjoyed this episode and definitely please check out the show notes so you can learn more about the pillar, learn more about the person that I guested on, their episode, and of course learn more, a little bit more about us as well too. This is Gresh signing out. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

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