IAM2420 – Leads: To Buy or Not to Buy?

• 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 00:29

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.

To lead or not to lead? That's the question. Not as poetic as Shakespeare, but still something that I've been kind of wrestling with myself in my mind of like what to do, what not to do.

[restrict paid=”true”]

Now, don't get me wrong. I have somewhat of an advantage in terms of having an additional marketing company.

But of course, I as with most things, it doesn't just mean that you flip a switch and it happens. It does still take time in and of itself.

We have not worked with franchise brokers, have not worked with franchisees or ZORs or anything related to franchise, really.

So it's all going to be something that's fairly new. However, I am kind of excited by the opportunity because I think also it might give a little bit more of a bread trail.

Like kind of like I think it's Goldilocks, where you had the breadcrumbs that were kind of leading you towards something.

Or it might've been Little Red Riding Hood. I can't remember.  So that shows my age and shows how far away I am away from, all of those things.

But point that I'm trying to make is, sometimes by not buying leads, it performs, it creates a little bit of pressure so that you start to experiment, you experiment, and then you can always kind of do those things.

One of the things that I did when I first started my business is I was in a BNI chapter and I ended up leaving that BNI chapter.

I left that B&I chapter because I wanted to try other things. And what I started to realize and what I told myself at some point is that buying or being in a BNI will always be there.

So I kind of have that same feeling around leads, like having that opportunity to buy leads will always be there.

And because they will always be there, my thought is, should I necessarily do it out of the gate?

I have the leads. I've got a little taste, I guess you say, of the leads. And there seems to be some opportunity that's there.

But my question is, should I continue that on for maybe two or three months? As I always usually say, you want to give something really probably six months, but three to six months of time.

But because I'm trying so many different things at the same time, do I want to do that? Is it the volume or is it the quality or is it a combination of those?

Because one of the things that I've looked at and relates to digital marketing especially when someone raises their hand and says, hey, I have an issue with my website, can you help out? You can be there.

Sometimes they do that on social, sometimes they do it in Facebook groups, things like that. Or of course you get that opportunity where somebody says, I have this issue, do you know anybody?

And you have clients or customers or people that you networked with that can say, hey, I do know a guy or know a gal or know whoever it might be.

But this is new. So, Seeing how people are actually taking that action will ultimately kind of depend.

One of the big things that came up, I remember during the conference, was that people that are kind of experiencing layoff or just dissatisfaction with their job often will look for other opportunities.

But when we take the Zorical test, and I hope to do a video around Zorical, it's all around comfort zone.

If your comfort zone is big, then you're less likely to take action. If it's small, then you're more likely to take action.

If you're medium, then you may take it or not. I actually, when I took the Zorica myself, before I took this, before I went on this path, I had a medium Zorica or comfort zone.

And what that basically meant to me was that you're not like pushing towards starting something, but you're also not super comfortable.

And that just kind of speaks to my kind of nature. But I think if I hadn't had the digital marketing business, my comfort zone would have been smaller.

So the reason I bring all that up is because trying to identify like where people are at that time is really the, if you're trying to generate your own leads is what you're going to be looking at.

Like, how can I be where people are dissatisfied? Where do people go when they're dissatisfied?

What do they do when they're dissatisfied? What do they do when they get paid off? Just all of those questions.

And there's not one set way, but you want to be where people are having those conversations.

And so that's where a lot of the thoughts and things are for me on like how to kind of generate those opportunities.

But frankly, there's not a lot. There are some people that are saying, hey, I want to start this or I want to start that.

I want to start vending or I want to know a little bit more around buying a franchise. Are there any franchises that are available in this area or not in this area?

You see it from time to time, not nearly at the level of that I've seen from a digital marketing perspective, but I think it's just less people.

That potentially need, or are asking at least, on buying a franchise versus those that are looking into digital marketing.

So it's one of those things. I'll continue to kind of go through their thoughts, but I wanted to just give you a little bit more about my insight of where I'm thinking, what to do.

Should I just generate content to create leads myself, or should I buy leads, or should I do a combination of both for a certain period of time to just get ramped up? So those are the questions.

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 06:40

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.

[/restrict]