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IAM2366 – Unveiling the Franchise Broker Odyssey

Special Episode by Gresham Harkless Jr.

Smiling person in front of a backdrop with various faces, text about an episode on "Unveiling the Franchise Broker Odyssey," with podcast platforms listed below.

Gresham Harkless is celebrating his 2nd anniversary and has traveled a lot recently.

Gresham attended a conference with around 200 brands and had the chance to meet with seasoned brokers.

He absorbed much valuable information about what successful brokers do, their mindsets, and how they approach the business.

Gresham emphasizes the importance of becoming skilled at lead generation while keeping marketing costs low.

He believes content creation will play a big role in generating leads and is something he plans to experiment with.

Gresham suggests focusing on learning one or two brands per month and doing deep dives into those brands to truly understand them.

Gresham considers collaborating with others and possibly bringing in additional agents or partners to share the workload, noting that you don’t need to do everything yourself.

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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.

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh here. And this is day 20 of the franchise brokerage journey. And again, just day to day, it's just kind of the same things. It's not anything too exciting, I would say.

But, one of the big things that I actually had some time to do. First and foremost, it's my two year anniversary, so I'm actually at an AirBnB. I've been traveling for like the last like two or three weeks.

So just been in different places, haven't really, settled down as much as I would like, I would say.

[restrict paid=”true”]

But, it's just time to do the training, go to the conference, have the baby shower, do all the things, all the personal things that play a big part.

But one of the really cool things that I like, especially around doing a business like this, is that you do have a little bit more flexibility because as long as there's Internet then I can pretty much do what I need to do.

It's not quite the same, but at the same time I try to have a little bit more of a consistent kind of morning routine.

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My quote-unquote star time that I'm able to dedicate towards being able to do the things that I need to.

But with that being said, I finally got a little bit of time just to kind of take a breath from conference.

Once I got back from conference, it was like go, go, go. Had meeting, meeting, meeting. And I didn't get a chance to really like let go of some things from conference.

Just things that I really had. I don't know if epiphanies is such a strong word, but when you're around different brands, and we were around probably about maybe 200 or so brands, I think I made 70 to 80 of them, just going through everything, doing workouts in a different place, not sleeping as well, just all those things were happening.

But also being around some of the other brokers, hearing a little bit more around the more seasoned, successful brokers, what they do, why they do it, kind of the DNA from there was really, really good.

So I had eight things that I probably was going to try to just run through, as far as like things I wanted to take away from the conference.

Also one of the cool things too is I am in a Facebook group with about franchising and someone anonymously posted that they wanted to know people's experience as far as being a broker.

So I actually spoke with that gentleman yesterday. He reached out to me, had a quick phone call while he was driving around and he kind of just asked me a little bit more like what my was because I just got out of training on what that looks like.

So a lot of I, a lot of what I talked about with him I wanted to also share here because I think the first thing that really came for me and this was literally off the top of my head when I was talking with him.

I hadn't got a chance to fully like digest everything. I got a little bit of time today, but I'm writing down these eight things was super helpful.

So I'm going to run through the eight things. I might do a deeper dive on each of them, but I want to just touch on each and every one of them.

This is from conference, but also from the validation calls. Just all those things that I kind of see as are the opportunities and things that I see that are in my superpowers to be able to kind of hopefully execute on.

Number one is lead generation. Get good at lead generation. Keeping your costs low. That's something that came up at conference. The cost of advertising and marketing is always going to be increasing.

So you want to find either new and innovative ways or you want to try to organically be able to build that opportunity.

I think this is right up the alley of what we do. So we want to really get good at lead generation. In the brokerage world you can buy leads in any business.

You can basically set up marketing and have an outside marketing company. But obviously we're able to do that internally. So we really want to get extremely good at that.

That's the number one thing that I think is right up our alley. The next thing is content creation. Being able to experiment with that also with leads is going to be huge overall.

But getting good at content creation is going to be one of those big things that's going to be huge too.

Number three, I said there's a lot of different brands so I don't to focus on learning all the brands. Like I said, I talked to about 80 of them. You really want to get good at maybe one to two per month.

So maybe 24 per year. I've heard two per per week. But even with me having my business just have to be realistic about what that time looks like.

So get good at 1 to 2 per month maybe and do. And when I say deep, I mean I mean doing a deep dive on these specific brands.

Number four, AI is here. Use it to for content but also use it for any efficiencies within business just to be more effective and efficient and really be at the forefront of that.

Number five, look into co-workering. I said the phrase you can have an entire. An entire watermelon are part of a grape or entire grape or part of a watermelon.

And that's something that I definitely want to focus on is like I don't have to have it all and do it all.

I could also find people number five looking at co working, maybe long term bringing in other agents which is part of the organization I'm with and 6 my skill set fits nicely. Seven there's a big push around resales that I want to look into and number eight layoffs are actually good for business.

So those are the eight things that I'm going to start leaning. 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.

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Outro 06:41

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. 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.

Title: Transcript - Sat, 25 Jan 2025 14:02:29 GMT

Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2025 14:02:29 GMT, Duration: [00:07:17.20]

[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.

[00:00:28.85] - Gresham Harkless

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh 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 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 day.

[00:01:54.43] - Gresham Harkless

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh here. And this is day 20 of the franchise brokerage journey. And again, just, you know, day to day, it's just kind of the same things. It's not anything too exciting, I would say. But, you know, one of the big things that I actually had some time to do. First and foremost, it's my two year anniversary, so I'm actually at an Airbnb. I've been traveling for like the last like two or three weeks. So just been in different places, haven't really, you know, settled down as much as I would like, I would say. But you know, it's just time to do the training, go to the conference, you know, have the baby shower, do all the things, all the personal things that, you know, play a big part. But one of the really cool things that I like, especially around doing a business like this, is that you do have a little bit more flexibility because as long as there's Internet then I can pretty much do what I need to do. It's not quite the same, but at the same time I try to have a little bit more of a consistent kind of morning routine. My quote unquote star time that I'm able to dedicate towards being able to do the things that I need to. But with that being said, I finally got a little bit of time just to kind of take a breath from conference. Once I got back from conference, it was like go, go, go. Had meeting, meeting, meeting. And I didn't get a chance to really like let go of some things from conference. Just things that I really had. I don't know if epiphanies is such a strong word, but you know, when you're around different brands, and we were around probably about maybe 200 or so brands, I think I made 70 to 80 of them, just going through everything, you know, doing workouts in a different place, not sleeping as well, just all those things were happening. But also being around some of the other brokers, hearing a little bit more around the more seasoned, successful brokers, what they do, why they do it, kind of the DNA from there was really, really good. So I had eight things that I probably was going to try to just run through, you know, as far as like things I wanted to take away from the conference Also one of the cool things too is I am in a Facebook group with about franchising and someone anonymously posted that they wanted to know people's experience as far as being a broker. So I actually spoke with that gentleman yesterday. He reached out to me, had a quick phone call while he was driving around and he kind of just asked me a little bit more like what my was because I just got out of training on what that looks like. So a lot of I, a lot of what I talked about with him I wanted to also share here because I think the first Thing that really came for me and this was literally off the top of my head when I was talking with him. I hadn't got a chance to fully like digest everything. I got a little bit of time today, but I'm writing down these eight things was super helpful. So I'm going to run through the eight things. I might do a deeper dive on each of them, but I want to just touch on each and every one of them. This is from conference, but also from the validation calls. Just all those things that I kind of see as are the opportunities and things that I see that are in my superpowers to be able to kind of hopefully execute on. Number one is lead generation. Get good at lead generation. Keeping your costs low. That's something that came up at conference. The cost of advertising and marketing is always going to be increasing. So you want to find either new and innovative ways or you want to try to organically be able to build that opportunity. I think this is right up the alley of what we do. So we want to really get good at lead generation. In the brokerage world you can buy leads in any business. You can basically set up marketing and have an outside marketing company. But obviously we're able to do that internally. So we really want to get extremely good at that. That's the number one thing that I think is right up our alley. The next thing is content creation. Being able to experiment with that also with leads is going to be huge overall. But getting good at content creation is going to be one of those big things that's going to be huge too. Number three, I said there's a lot of different brands so I don't to focus on learning all the brands. Like I said, I talked to about 80 of them. You really want to get good at maybe one to two per month. So maybe 24 per year. I've heard two per per week. But even with me having my business just have to be realistic about what that time looks like. So get good at 1 to 2 per month maybe and do. And when I say deep, I mean I mean doing a deep dive on these specific brands. Number four, AI is here. Use it to for content but also use it for any efficiencies within business just to be more effective and efficient and really be at the forefront of that. Number five, look into coworkering. I, I said the phrase you can have an entire. An entire watermelon are part of a grape or entire grape or part of a watermelon. And that's something that I definitely want to focus on is like I don't have to have it all and do it all. I could also find people number five looking at co working, maybe long term bringing in other agents which is part of the organization I'm with and 6 my skill set fits nicely. 7 there's a big push around resales that I want to look into and number eight layoffs are actually good for business. So those are the eight things that I'm going to start leaning. 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.

See also  IAM2278 - Managing Partner Builds a Strong Corporate Culture through Employee Empowerment

[00:06:41.69] - Intro

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 Code. IM 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 CBNationCo. 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.

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Dave Bonachita - CBNation Writer

This is a post from a CBNation team member. CBNation is a Business to Business (B2B) Brand. We are focused on increasing the success rate. We create content and information focusing on increasing the visibility of and providing resources for CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners. CBNation consists of blogs(CEOBlogNation.com), podcasts, (CEOPodcasts.com) and videos (CBNation.tv). CBNation is proudly powered by Blue16 Media.

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