IAM2428 – Unlocking the Power of Virtual Assistants

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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 00:26

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.

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh here and I just got done with my workout and I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to even talk about today, what kind of came in my mind.

But one of the things I don't think I really touched on is being able to leverage the power of VA's virtual assistants.

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If you haven't really looked into that or explored that, I would definitely encourage you to do that, especially if you are in this franchise brokerage business.

Because a lot of times it's being able to kind of amplify the time that you have and the work that you do by understanding that you can't do all things and be all places.

I think that's one of the probably the biggest things that I take away from the digital marketing business.

Maybe not the biggest, but one of the biggest, I'll say, is understanding that the power of your time, understanding that you can't be and do all things.

And frankly, that you don't do all things well. And that's something that I really kind of lean into.

That's part of like why I said, like, as I get going, I probably do a lot more co-brokering of deals because I don't see myself as wanting to control every part of the process the entire time.

If we can start working on building leads, generate opportunities, I specifically and completely want to co-broker these deals.

I definitely want to be able to kind of go through the process and kind of learn myself in the beginning especially.

But I also see that maybe in the future actually having a brokerage where there's multiple agents and things too might be something that I really, really want to focus on.

But I know more than anything else, like having my VA who has helped work with me throughout this process.

Throughout the previous business, the business I'm working on now, the digital marketing business, but also this business has been a huge help.

And I think that whether you're kind of getting started like that, I think always people ask the question about when's the right time to hire.

And I think always the right time to hire is as soon as you can. And when I say as soon as you can, like literally today.

And what I don't mean is that you bring somebody else on and I have a different philosophy and maybe that's not the right philosophy, but I have the philosophy of bringing a person on.

Even if it's a small amount of hours, just to kind of get your reps in to understand how exactly it is to manage people, especially people that are going to be remote.

It's a completely different tool set. You're not walking around their desk and saying, hey, did you get this done?

It's going to be a lot more of a different type of feel and flow and way that you even manage and the way that you try to interact.

It's something that you kind of have to learn in a different, in a unique way. So I think it's so powerful when you're able to kind of sit down and kind of understand that.

Because it unlocks so many opportunities in your business for things that you, you ultimately can do is because you don't have to do all the things.

You don't have to be in all the places. And also when you have VAs or people that are in place, they're going to be able to do some of the things you did do.

So one of the big things that my VA Leona has been working on is really starting to manage the CRM.

So the calls that are coming in, we're getting leads, making sure that we're doing at least the initial phone calls.

So that I could spend more time on ultimately doing the quality within the business where most of my time right now is being spent on I'm testing out and trying out lead generation opportunities.

And of course, having those meetings and cuts with potential candidates as well, too.

So when you're able to spend more time, even if it's a small thing on one less thing, it's just going to make you overall better.

But think about all the office tasks that you could have somebody do as well, too.

That could be everything from arranging documents or reaching out to the Zores to learn more about their customers or their potential candidates, I should say, getting a better idea of what things might be missing in the item 19.

And that you want to kind of learn just all those different aspects, which are important to your overall business.

When you get that opportunity to really kind of delve in deep and learn more about it, it's going to end up being better for you.

Now, we'll always end up being open to talking with somebody about their their item 19 and those no essential documents, maybe not.

But the point is that you get to maximize your time, you figure out what you do best, and you try to spend as much time there.

And the more time you spend there, the better off you're just going to be overall.

So with that being said, this is Gresh signing out. A very tired Gresham. One thing I did learn recently this is more personal than anything else is check your blood glucose levels.

I learned more about it. I actually was pre-diabetic I found out when I went to the doctor and I've been checking it every day.

I'm starting to see that there's something called In the morning, your blood sugar can actually spike.

I mean, when your blood sugar spikes, it can make it a little bit harder when you do workouts and things like that.

So it's something I just learned about, something I'm kind of working through, but make sure you check your numbers because it could be important.

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 06:47

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.

Check out the latest and greatest apps, books, and habits to level up your business at CEOhacks.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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