IAM2441 – Embrace Change: Finding Life’s Seasons

Gresham Harkless begins by referencing Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, which speaks about different seasons in life—times of joy, struggle, growth, and loss.

He highlights the challenge of accepting that not every moment is about success or reaping rewards; sometimes, life requires patience and perseverance through tough times.

Gresham recognizes that it can feel like something is wrong when facing difficulties, but it’s often just part of the cycle of life.

Gresham shares his story about a missed call with a potential candidate, a situation that reinforced his understanding of reliability in sales and consulting.

He also mentions how the unexpected people sometimes succeed, while the ones he is rooting for may not. Gresham reflects on how this past year has been one of the most challenging for him.

He identifies that life comes in seasons of highs and lows, and understanding these patterns can help provide context and resilience. Gresham writes motivational reminders on his bathroom mirror, and this week’s message was: “It’s okay when things aren’t going the way you want them to go.”

 Furthermore, Gresham advocates to recognize their emotional seasons to avoid making impulsive decisions out of frustration or doubt.

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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 00:29

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.

For everything, there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. Time to be born, a time to die, a time to plan, a time to pluck up what is planted, a time to kill, and a time to heal, a time to break down, and a time to build up, a time to weep, and a time to laugh.

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A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to throw away stones and a time to gather stones together.

A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. A time to seek and a time to lose.

A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to sew. A time to silence and a time to speak.

A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace. Ecclesiastes 3, 1 through 8.

This is always one of those verses that is always kind of tough because you want the time to always be a time to sow, the time to get whatever you've been working hard on and hard for.

And I think so many times I, myself, and I imagine maybe a lot of you as well, too, get kind of stuck in this, like, when you go through those challenges, when you go through those hard times, we don't necessarily know that.

We feel like we're doing something wrong, or we did something wrong, or we can do something to tweak it, or to change it, or adjust it, or do whatever it is.

And sometimes it's just a season. And this is obviously not a sermon. It's just one of my thoughts.

I know that I had a call yesterday that was supposed to be with a potential candidate. Of course, I got a no show.

When I say of course, it just, I mean it based off of, sometimes when you have been in sales, you start looking at a lot of those different kind of indicators.

And those indicators show to me that maybe the person wasn't as serious or reliable.

But I decided to kind of go with it because I'm always open to being wrong, because it's just going to teach me more, maybe I'm off, maybe I'm wrong.

But at a strong indicator and haven't been around a lot of people having had sales jobs, even though this is technically not a sales job, you're consulting.

There are the aspects where if any time you hear like you speak to 100 people or you get 100 leads, maybe one of those will close.

And I've even heard higher numbers like 150 and 180. So it just tells me a lot around the mentality that you have to have around this.

So I kind of knew that, but I also was open to the fact that sometimes when you talk with people and you really are rooting for them and you feel like they're going to, turn that corner, get that franchise.

Those sometimes don't work out, but sometimes the people that you don't expect to work out do work out.

So I also was open to that as well, too. It doesn't necessarily mean that the doors close, of course.

But I think the point that I really wanted to get home is that sometimes this has been a really challenging year, actually.

I was starting to reflect a little bit about what all has happened this year. It's been really, really challenging.

I won't say the most challenging year of my life, but it's been a challenging year. And I think when you go through these periods, it's just like, it's a season.

And it's important to kind of understand like the flows and seasons that you're in, because I think that gives us a little bit more context.

And the fact that there are even seasons in and of itself helps I think in terms of being able to kind of embrace what's happening, even if it's not what you want it to be.

And every morning, every week, I should say, I write down on the mirror and I think I wrote down just something like an inspiration or just the type of feeling that I'm having at the time.

This week, I actually wrote down and this is the bathroom mirror. that it's okay when things aren't going the way that you want them to go.

And I think sometimes hearing that or seeing that or feeling that ends up being really, validating because we understand that it's part of the journey.

The journey is not always reaping, it's not always starting to sow the seeds all the time. It's not always that all the time.

It's not always enjoying the fruits of your work. Sometimes it's sowing, sometimes it's losing loved ones, sometimes it's planting a tree, sometimes it's picking from the tree, all those things happen at different seasons.

And I think it's so important to kind of understand the season that you're in.

And I'm definitely in a season of change. And I've been saying that over and over again, the part of the reason that I'm even doing these videos is because I'm going through this season of change.

So Understand from a humanistic standpoint what season you're in. I think it will help you to kind of maybe dampen or not make rash decisions based off the emotions that you're feeling.

Those emotions may be frustration. It may be doubt. It might be all those things. And I definitely have those feelings.

Or maybe should I shift, change, and do all those things? But just understand that season that you're in from an emotional standpoint, from a humanistic standpoint, I think it will help put context into everything.

Because when I look at this year, this was not my best year. And a lot of it didn't have to do with what I can control, and I have to understand that when making future decisions.

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 06:38

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.

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