IAM2415 – Turning Challenges Into Triumph

Gresham Harkless discusses the idea of disrupting business norms—challenging traditional methods and doing things differently, even when others may not always understand or approve.

Gresham points out that there’s no single approach to business and entrepreneurship, as each person’s perspective and method is valid, and everyone has their way of “upsetting the apple cart.”

Gresham shares his journey, noting his experience as a business owner for 11 years and working in a sports franchise where he managed contractors.

Gresham is inspired to create a charitable aspect within his business, naming a project “Blue Star” after his family members who passed from cancer, and he wants to donate a portion of business proceeds to cancer research.

Furthermore, he encourages people to remain true to themselves and pursue their unique paths, saying that authenticity is key in life and business.

• 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

Check out our CEO Hack Buzz Newsletter–our premium newsletter with hacks and nuggets to level up your organization. Sign up HERE. 

I AM CEO Handbook Volume 3 is HERE and it's FREE. Get your copy here: http://cbnation.co/iamceo3. Get the 100+ things that you can learn from 1600 business podcasts we recorded. Hear Gresh's story, learn the 16 business pillars from the podcast, find out about CBNation Architects and why you might be one and so much more. Did we mention it was FREE? Download it today!

Transcription:

The full transcription is only available to CBNation Library Members. Sign up today!

Intro 00:00

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 00:26

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.

How are you upsetting the apple cart? One of the things in business is I believe business is tremendously around like opportunities and doing things a little bit different, going against the grain, doing things frankly that people sometimes don't always like.

I think that really, really can mean a lot of different things. I think that even within entrepreneurs or business owners, there's levels.

And when I say levels, I don't mean one higher than the other. Maybe levels is not the right word, but there's different approaches.

There's different perspectives. It's like I ask on the podcast, like, what does being a CEO mean to you?

And I get all these different answers. None of them are wrong. When we think about, like, how we're approaching entrepreneurship and business, how we're, quote unquote, upsetting the apple cart.

[restrict paid=”true”]

There's a lot of different approaches to that too. And, I think for me, one of the things that I really wanted to hone in on is like, how can I approach this from a digital marketing perspective?

As somebody that has been a business owner, has owned a business for the last 11 years, and I've worked in a franchise, I didn't as much do the financials for the sports franchise I kind of worked with.

We would go to preschools and we would teach sports camps to these preschools. I was kind of like the area manager, so I was in charge of a team of contractors, and that was difficult and challenging.

Side note, one of the franchises, if I do do anything with my condo, I was looking at was actually that, because I think it's just such a cool business and a model.

Not sure what the upside is, but I'm really intrigued by this one that I met and talked with at the conference, FBA conference.

But also just in terms of my experience with that and how that aligns a lot with, my degree and things like that and how it was absolutely my hands down favorite job.

But the reason I bring all that up is because sometimes when you're going to different ways to approach and do things.

Sometimes upsetting the apple cart or doing things differently or being an innovator doesn't necessarily mean that you're creating this new system or process or technology.

Sometimes it just means how you approach and execute within your business. Sometimes doing what other people are not doing.

One of the things that I do want to get into as I started to get some traction, I didn't want to do too many things at the same time.

But like I mentioned in some videos, I lost my dog to cancer, to a fight with cancer while I was going through this process, and it hurt.

It still hurts, honestly. But about a week or two after that, I also lost my grandma, and both had battles with cancer my grandma fought cancer a couple different times.

And it's difficult but one of the things that in sidebar my uncle as well died about a year or so ago.

So something that if you're listening to this make sure that you get checked out but secondly it's one of those things where I felt very compelled to not only name it Blue Star.

I've been kind of toying with different avatars of people we want to target. And of course, these avatars are named after family members that I lost.

But I also am very, very compelled to take a percentage or something of closed business and put it towards some type of research or cancer treatments or something that can help to support cancer humans.

And of course for our non-human family. And that's something that's really compelling to me. I think that that's a way to definitely quote unquote upset the apple cart.

But there's so many different ways to do that. There's so many different ways to approach it. And I think when you decide that you're going to lean into a model in a different and unique way, it becomes exciting.

And I think that you also get people that will for lack of a better term, shame, or try to shame, or unconsciously shame you from doing what you're doing.

And anytime you're doing any type of innovative, anytime you're doing something that's against the grain or different, within context, within a realm of things, you sometimes will feel that shame.

And that shame, I felt a little bit yesterday, actually. And it made me kind of take a step back. But one of the things I say is, be yourself, or the quote is, be yourself because everybody else is already taken.

And I have went through my life trying to be other people, trying to conform, trying to be what I'm supposed to be, or what I should be, or what I look like, or all those things.

And what I always come back to is who I am. And that's something that you really want to stay true to, stay true to who you are.

You are a beautiful person and you are beautiful because of who you are. So make sure you be who you are. And that's something I try to remind myself of often.

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 06:36

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CBNation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase. It's a community.

Don't forget to schedule your complimentary digital marketing consultation at Blue16media.com. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

[/restrict]