IAM2338 – The Power of Tapping into Resources and Mentorship in Your Journey

Kyana Brathwaite

00:00 - 00:36

My biggest hack is tapping into my resources. In the Philadelphia area, there are so many different resources and opportunities and mentors available. So even when I was going through nursing, I always made sure I latched on to mentors and resources and people who were within that entity or that industry that I was interested in and pulled from them the best that they had to offer. So that's always been my hack, whether I'm a CEO or a nurse or a student or a mom, I make sure that I surround myself with resources and I'm tapping into them because you cannot do this by yourself.

Kyana Brathwaite

00:36 - 00:54

It's a very hard and lonely journey. So the more you reach out, the more you find, and the more you connect, the more information you can take in. I tap into books, I tap into apps, but my biggest thing is what is available, you know, what organizations, what foundations, and what people really wanna help you succeed. That's my hack.

Gresham Harkless

00:54 - 01:10

I love that, I love that. And often people don't look around to see what's around them to see how they can get help. And often we sometimes as CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners feel like we're alone, but that's not always the case. Sometimes we just have to ask and a lot of people will be able to help us out and provide those resources we're looking for.

Intro

01:11 - 01:38

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Gresham Harkless

01:39 - 02:06

All right, so 1 of the really cool things that I get to do is I've interviewed a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners to find out why they started a business, advice, tidbits, and things that can really kind of help us to be more effective and efficient. And I think 1 of the things that really came up through episode number 13 of our MCO podcast with Kiana was around this idea of being able to kind of tap into the resources of others. I think a quote that I say often, and I say in quotes, in order to see further, you stand on the shoulders of giants.

Gresham Harkless

02:06 - 02:35

And I think in order to stand on the shoulders of giants, you have to be open to having that awareness that you don't know everything and you can learn things from other people. So 1 of the things that I really loved, and this was her hack, was that she tapped into resources in her specific area. And those different resources were opportunities, mentors, things like that. And I think when we go through life and go through business, we don't realize, especially now, that there's so many different ways we can tap into those resources. Those resources can include going to local organizations.

Gresham Harkless

02:35 - 03:09

It could be having conversations with people that are a little bit further than you are. It could be podcasts, it could be blogs, it could be books. It could be seminars or events, whatever it might be. But the idea is like, how do I figure out what I don't know and what I need to know to be able to take that next level and go to that next step? I think it does become difficult though, because 1 of the things that you'll start to realize is that everybody has an idea of what you should be doing and they'll give you advice and sometimes unwarranted advice as well too.

Gresham Harkless

03:09 - 03:45

1 of the really big things that I really started to do myself that I think is super helpful for those builders that are thinking and trying to figure out how to level up is starting to see what the bias might be from that person because we all have biases. And I think if you start to understand like, hey, this person is always giving me advice to do this or always give me advice to do that, Or this person, for example, has 30 employees. So when I give them my business problems, I said, hey, I'm having issues with X, Y, and Z, they will tell me from their perspective, you need to hire this person, you need to hire that person.

Gresham Harkless

03:45 - 04:20

Or I talk to another person who is a techie, and maybe this person says, hey, have you talked to chatGBT about this? Have you looked at this from an AI perspective? Or have you really started to see if there's a software or a SaaS solution to that problem? Or you get another person that says, hey, I'm a solopreneur. You don't even need to go down that route. Rather than you do that, why don't you create content so that you can solve that problem? And the reason I wanted to bring up those 3 perspectives is because once you start to hear that, you get to take, I think, from the superpowers of each of those people, you get to meld your own secret sauce, so to speak.

Gresham Harkless

04:20 - 05:05

So in this example, so say I'm having issues where the organizational culture is not ultimately what I want it to be. I go to the person with 30 employees, they say, hey, you need to hire a new head of HR because the head of HR is not doing ultimately what you want them to do. It's like, okay, that's their perspective. Okay, so their perspective is that hiring is sometimes a way by which you answer all those solutions. If I go to somebody that is a little bit more tech driven, they might say, Hey, if you're having issues with culture, have you ever thought of really creating a video that everybody has to has to watch before they sign in each and every day that tells them or reminds them over and over again about the culture.

Gresham Harkless

05:06 - 05:41

It's like, okay, that's a different perspective. Maybe there's a software tool or maybe you can use some type of automation so that they get it every single day in their email or maybe It's text to them. But either way, have you thought about doing that? You create 1 video. You basically have to amplify it on a regular basis. OK, that's from their perspective. So that might be good. And then the third person might say, hey, you need it. Why do you even need to have to have that culture? If you're having issues with the culture, why don't you just either have an expert come and talk about that culture overall so that you can speak about it and create content that will help out other people that are having those issues.

Gresham Harkless

05:41 - 06:11

But you can literally make revenue by having a strong following or having a certain amount of people that literally drill down about that specific topic. So you're doing it all wrong. The advice that you need is ultimately to not have as many people and just figure out how you can get affiliate revenue, get sponsorships, or you can co-create content, whatever that might be, leverage your YouTube channel. Those are things that you can do to really get to where you wanna be because ultimately what is your goal? Is your goal to have the employees or is your goal ultimately to create content?

Gresham Harkless

06:11 - 06:44

So taking a step back from there, what we start to realize is that the content that we're getting, the advice that we're getting, the resources that we're tapping into, as I talked about with Kiana, it ends up being biased based off of what the people are telling you. So when you are able to ask those questions, you're able to see from that vantage point of how they're given advice, it gives you, I think, the opportunity to delve and create something completely new. So imagine if you were to take these 3 pieces of advice, you were able to create something completely new and different.

Gresham Harkless

06:45 - 07:11

Maybe you didn't necessarily hire a new head of HR, but maybe you have your head of HR already. And you said, hey, why don't we go through this course that can teach you a little bit more about culture? And then you can also say that, hey, why don't we also try to create a video? And then in that video, we could talk about all those things, and we could have it sent out every single month to all the employees so that they know about the culture and what we're trying to create and what we're ultimately trying to do.

Gresham Harkless

07:11 - 07:41

And then you can say, also as a part of that, we're doing that internally as a team, but why don't we do that externally so that we can also teach people about the culture that we're ultimately trying to create? So it ends up being 3 things that are melded together that isn't just 1 answer. It gives you a little bit more of a different way that you can approach. And I think that I would even spend time seeing how can I potentially take that time and energy and put it into 1 action that can actually hit all 3 of those things?

Gresham Harkless

07:41 - 08:19

And so thinking through that, like literally off the top of my head, Maybe it's not so much that there is all these things that are created. Maybe it's simply that they record a piece about the person that is going to be your head of HR. Maybe they really just create space and time to talk more about the culture. They create a webinar. The webinar is created as far as like bite sized contents that could be used internally and externally. So literally you take what could have been 3 different things that you did, because ultimately what you're trying to do is solve the problem around culture.

Gresham Harkless

08:20 - 08:52

Creating our webinar, that webinar is and can be used internally and externally, is created into bite-sized content so that it can be delivered directly to the clients that are internal, but it also can be used as a way to tell people about what the culture is and how you go about creating that culture. So that hour block of time, that webinar, is actually going to hit all 3 of those things because you have the automation that a techie person wants. You also have the coaching of the HR person because the HR person is actually creating time and space to be able to do that.

Gresham Harkless

08:52 - 09:25

If they need to have a consultant do a session, maybe something like that, where it could be an interview of a HR perspective from an HR consultant of that person that is your head of HR, and they have a back and forth and they create that piece of content together. So they get to learn from the people, the person that is interviewing or having that back and forth co-created piece of content with them. And then you also, of course, get the opportunity to really create that content that can create maybe another revenue stream. So that's just a way to kind of think creatively about the things that you're doing.

Gresham Harkless

09:25 - 09:54

But I really wanted to hammer home on that hack because I thought it was such a phenomenal hack is because we so many times try to figure out how to do all the things and not realize that they're resources that are literally at our fingertips. But sometimes those resources that are at our fingertips do have biases. They may not answer the thing that we're ultimately looking for, but if we can marry that creative thinking along with those resources, we can ultimately be an esophitol. So that's this CEO hack. Again, experimenting with a different way that I'm doing this content.

Gresham Harkless

09:54 - 10:16

I wanted to add snippets from really powerful things that I got from previous episodes. So hopefully you enjoyed it. Definitely let us know. Have a phenomenal rest of the day. But again, don't forget about the resources that are literally right outside of where you are. They're in your fingertips. They're literally on your hand. They might even be in your brain or on your computer, whatever it might be, don't forget about those resources because they can help you level up and get to that next level.

Intro

10:16 - 10:50

Thank you for listening to the I Am CEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at imceo.co. I am CEO is not just a phrase, It's a community. Want to level up your business even more? Read blogs, listen to podcasts, and watch videos at CBNation.co. Also check out our I Am CEO Facebook group. This has been the I Am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.