IAM2317 – Journey to Franchise Broker: Insights and Strategies

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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 BlueStar franchise.

We're also going to do a kind of sub site within CBNation 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 going to 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 we're going 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 and 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 01:26

All right, it's day 16, I believe, of this broker to be our journey to be a franchise broker. And there's a lot of things that are happening just at this conference.

It's like I've been connected with, I want to say, 20 or 30 brands and just like learning about these brands, learning a little bit more about them, what they do they're looking for as ideal candidate.

One of my key questions as well, because of my background is to ask always around marketing, what are you doing for marketing? Can somebody come in and can they implement their own marketing?

So trying to find that perfect fit, I think for those marketing executives. But I think that's one of the biggest things for this position is just understanding truly exactly what is a good fit for a potential candidate.

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I think that takes a lot of time. So we've been doing these speed rounds, had keynote speeches, but we're also doing a speed round where we learn a little bit more about the brands, their strengths, their weaknesses, things like that.

Well, they don't really tell us weaknesses, but you have an idea of who's a great fit. I talked with somebody and I was like, okay, is this a semi absentee model where somebody can have this as a side business?

He said, no, I want people that are all in. And that was the founder that was there. And I respect that because you want to know exactly who's going to make you successful.

So had to do this quick video. Gotta learn a little bit more. There's gonna be more workshops today.

There's also gonna be even more speed rounds. So I'm gonna get to know more and more brands, be completely overloaded.

But I wanted to do this with the view that I have here in Orlando because it's super awesome. And yeah, that means that it's day 16. Learning a lot, heads exploding with information.

And we'll see if it continues on, see how I continue to kind of get better. One of the big things that I remember is just take it a day at a time.

Like some of my classmates get overwhelmed just because there's so many different things to kind of learn.

And you're trying to run a business in addition to learning all the inventory, learning how to broker all those things and you have all the tools, all the things in place, but you have to kind of put it in place.

So the thing that I have adopted and a lot of times, just because I know myself more than anything else, is I know I'm not going to learn everything that I can learn, but I want to know where I can find the things that I can learn.

And I want to be able to contact the people that I need to for whatever reason. So having and being part of this association makes it a lot easier because for one, you get to stand on the shoulders of giants, people that have done it before, where it's a really collaborative association.

But two, they've already developed the relationships with these brands, so I don't have to go through and find all the brands, develop the relationships and do all those things.

So it's been really cool to do that because it allows this opportunity to be able to not have to do all the things and I think that's part at the heart of it, what a franchise is.

But frankly, if you're just starting a business as well too, find out how you can get a cheat code, so to speak, how you can learn more, whether it be hiring a consultant, being part of an organization, something I did with my digital marketing business, I learned a lot around business.

Not necessarily around digital marketing specifically, but by being in a BNI chapter with other entrepreneurs and business owners.

So think about those things that can kind of help you to not have to do all the things. Because running a business is so much just talking about all the business aspects and then on top of that, the emotional and mental toll that it can take on you, especially as you start to get things going.

Whether you're successful or you're not as successful in the beginning, it's just it could take a lot.

So being able to take some of those things off so you could be more your zone of genius, your superpower ends up being the best thing. So it's Gresh signing out, about to go do my workout, get my butt kicked, did it yesterday, going to do it again today. So have a great day and hopefully I will get the opportunity to do a little bit more as far as sharing.

Outro 05:02

Please let me know if there's anything I could do to help. And of course, looking forward to giving you more and more updates.

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