IAM2358 – The Cheat Code: Being Part of a Collaborative Franchise Association
Special Episode by Gresham Harkless Jr.
In this special episode, Gresham Harkless reflects on his experiences during day 16 of his journey to become a franchise broker.
Gresham emphasizes the importance of understanding what makes a good fit between a brand and a potential candidate.
He points out the challenge of managing a business while learning the intricacies of franchising.
Gresham mentions the value of being part of a collaborative franchise association, which connects him to seasoned professionals and established relationships with brands.
He advocates others to look for ways to reduce the burden of managing every aspect of a business on their own.
In addition, Gresham highlights the importance of outsourcing tasks and leaning on others to maintain a balance and protect mental health.
- Blue Star Franchise: http://bluestarfranchise.com
- Browse the Franchise Inventory: https://bluestarfranchise.com/franchise
- Is franchising right for you? Check this out to see: http://bluestarfranchise.com/assessment
- Franchise CEO (A CBNation Site – coming soon) – http://franchiseceo.co
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Transcription:
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Intro 00:01
Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview?
If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.
Gresham Harkless 00:28
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 going to 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 going to share a few of those snippets from the, 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.
All right, it's day 16, I believe of this broker to be a 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 the 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?
[restrict paid=”true”]
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 potential candidate.
And I think that 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 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 a 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. Got to learn a little bit more. There's going to be more workshops today.
There's also going to be even more speed rounds. So I'm going to 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 taking 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, 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 can take a lot.
So being able to take some of those things off so you could be more years on a 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, gonna 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, please let me know if there's anything I can do to help. And of course looking forward to giving you more and more updates.
Outro 05:34
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CBNation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.
Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five star rating. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.
Title: Transcript - Sat, 18 Jan 2025 04:56:19 GMT
Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2025 04:56:19 GMT, Duration: [00:06:14.66]
[00:00:01.52] - Intro
Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO Podcast.
[00:00:28.80] - Gresham Harkless
Hello, hello, hello, this is Gretch from the IM CEO Podcast and this is a special episode of our IM 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 going to 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 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 Grant signing out. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
[00:01:54.45] - Gresham Harkless
All right, it's day 16, I believe of this broker to be a 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 the 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 potential candidate. And I think that 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. You know, their strengths, their weaknesses, things like that. Well, they don't really tell us weaknesses, but you have an idea 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 a 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. Got to learn a little bit more. There's going to be more workshops today. There's also going to be even more speed rounds. So I'm going to 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 taking 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 know, you're trying to run a business, in addition to learning all the inventory, learning how to broker, you know 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, 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 B and I 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 can take a lot. So being able to take some of those things off so you could be more years on a genius, your superpower ends up being the best thing. So it's grad signing out, about to go do my workout, get my butt kicked, did it yesterday, gonna do it again today. So have a great day and hopefully I will get the opportunity to, you know, do a little bit more. As far as sharing, please let me.
[00:05:29.83] - Gresham Harkless
Know if there's anything I can do to help. And of course looking forward to giving you more and more updates.
[00:05:34.20] - Intro
Thank you for listening to The I Am CEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us@imceo.com Im CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five star rating. This has been the I Am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.
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