IAM2448 – Harness the Power of Endless Leads

Gresham Harkless discusses his progress approximately 45 days into his journey post-training and reflects on one of the biggest ongoing challenges: generating quality leads.

Gresham explains that while his initial package included a set number of leads, he has likely exhausted them and now faces a key decision—whether to continue buying leads from the same source, despite their limited success.

He notes the psychological boost of receiving a steady flow of broker leads but acknowledges that relying solely on these isn’t sustainable.

Gresham references advice from a broker who emphasized the importance of experimentation in the early months.

In addition, Gresham has a VA (Virtual Assistant) helping with outreach, which allows for faster processing, but he’s still experimenting with multiple strategies.

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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.

Leads, leads, and more leads. So today, I want to say I'm about day 45 or so maybe.

I'm actually going to get down, write down, and I'm going to figure out exactly how many days I am in from training, from conclusion grading, and exactly where I'm at.

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So I have to go look at a calendar and figure out exactly where that is. But I'm sure the conversation is going to be what the conversation always is.

The biggest problem that I'm working on trying to solve that i think a lot of people struggle with is leads it's something that has come up over and over again.

And I've been torn because um included in the package that i have we got a certain amount of leads those leads I think I've run out.

I have a meeting, I think today, with, I guess you call him my coach or so, but I know that's going to be the big topic of conversation is like, do I want to continue with getting leads from this source?

And the source that I got them from was okay. These broker leads were okay. I didn't really get anybody past the really the research. Oh yeah, the research.

So that's the closest I got, people through to, um, I started to do some preliminary research, some tea checks, things like that, but it just didn't pan out.

So the question, that I have for myself is, does it make sense to get dependent upon those broker leads?

Because it was cool to really see like there is a cadence of one or two leads that are coming in and they're coming in quickly, they're coming in rapidly, they're coming in hot.

That was really cool because it gives you that, okay, like I'm doing things. But I think one of the big things that I remember when I talk with a broker.

I believe from BNI actually, one of the things he really said to me was that you just, one of the things he wished that he did most in the prior, the first six months or so was just experimentation.

And here's the thing. I have, do have a VA, which is helpful. So like, I can probably burn through a lot of leads a lot quicker than maybe the average person that doesn't have that VA.

But at the same time, I think that you might just want to experiment. It's not as if my VA, it doesn't and isn't able to work on other things.

Obviously, I want her to work on this so that I can start to generate more revenue there, which is always the goal.

But I also understand that maybe one of the hesitations I had was in the very beginning.

I wasn't sure if I was going to commit to be able to do it full time. And I know that I'm still in that place now.

I'm honestly maybe, maybe putting in an hour or two per day. And I think that that's being very generous because it's not necessarily an hour of focus time.

So sometimes if I'm on like a different webinar or something like that, and that's my alarm going off.

If I'm on a webinar or something like that, then I'm, you know, multitasking, I'm doing other things, which is wildly inefficient. So I know that I'm not doing the things that I need to do.

But to stay fully present, maybe I can get at about five hours a week or so. Of course, I have my VA that's working on those things, just following up with those prospects.

So my focus has just been like, how can I help to generate leads? So we're doing some Google Ads.

But I'm also looking organically. organic search, I think that's the best way to say it. It's like literally searching through these different platforms and seeing where there's opportunities are.

I also have LinkedIn premium, so I'm looking through that and seeing like if I am trying to drum up opportunities.

But the question that I don't have the answer to that I'm looking for the answer to and have an idea of something that I'm testing out.

We'll see if it works out just as far as like the social search is how do you find people that have raised their hand and say, hey, I'm interested in our franchise.

And potentially get them to have a conversation with you. I know one of the lead brokers for FBA, she mentioned Amanda.

She had mentioned that one of the really big opportunities is being able to find people that are already interested and be able to kind of get them to work with you.

And that's something that is very interesting to kind of see. Like if somebody comes to an open house as a real estate agent, you ask them, are you working with a realtor?

They're interested in a house because they're there. And you ask them, are you working with a realtor?

If not, here's my card. Same concept. So how do I generate that? And how do I find that?

That is a question that I'm really trying to work on. And I think I have some ideas. And keep in mind, I don't have to build leads for an organization.

I maybe have to get 30 to 60 leads a month, ideally. So that's something that I'm really trying to look at and see how can I find the answer.

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. 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.

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