IAM2462 – Franchise Broker Journey – Consistency is the Key

On Day 59, Gresham Harkless explores how chasing perfection can stop people from getting started.

Gresham explains that high-quality work doesn’t come instantly—it’s built over time through consistent practice and action.

He challenges the habit of merely checking off tasks, urging a focus on impactful activities that align with core KPIs and business goals.

Gresham highlights the importance of leadership in creating clarity, aligning team efforts, and harnessing individual talents to drive collective success.

He also reflects on the unique power of franchising, where success is easier to define and model thanks to proven systems.

Looking ahead, Gresham shares plans for 2025 that include doubling down on Blue Star Franchise, CB Nation, and CEO Hacks, and aims to create more impact through clearer strategy and stronger execution.

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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 00:28

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.

It's day 59 of the Franchise Broker journey. One of the things that kind of came up for me to talk about today was just this perfection.

I think when you have this bar of perfection, things have to be perfect or even they have to be of high quality that a lot of times people don't get started.

So I would push back on that in most instances. I think that there's a sweet spot where you're not looking for perfection.

But you're constantly trying to improve while also knowing that you want to continue to do that through the activity and the actions that you're taking.

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I think a lot of times, and I had this conversation yesterday where some people would never get started because they want it to be perfect or high quality.

But understanding or not understanding that high quality comes from the repetition of the things that you're doing, the practice reps that you get in.

That's where people sometimes don't get started because there's never going to be high quality because they never get started.

And also not just doing things to do things, but do things to make sure that they are of high quality, that they are strategic, that they are serving whatever that purpose may be.

And it's that balance between understanding those things of not just checking off the box, but actually moving the needle forward.

And that's what's really difficult around business and understand what are the essential KPIs to move the business forward?

And that's usually the challenge of leadership. And that's something that I'm going through to try to simplify.

While I'm starting to see like there's some gaps and some opportunities within the business, the question remains, are we doing the things that we need to be doing on a regular basis to get to where we need to be? Or are we just checking off boxes?

And when you're checking off boxes, you're not actually making the impact that you could make.

And it's important as a leader to be able to harness the gifts, talents and abilities of the people on your team so that they can achieve better and they can see bigger impact.

A lot of that sometimes is by aligning the KPIs, aligning the goals, aligning the activities and actions so that people truly understand what they're doing, why they're doing it.

And making sure that what they're doing is actually getting them and us, the organization, to where we want it to be.

That's one of the really cool things around franchising is that you get to kind of tap into the knowledge and expertise of others.

You don't have to figure as much of those things out because you know what it is to be successful, what it is to make that impact.

And one of the really cool things that we get to do collectively in business, but especially in franchising, is that you get to understand like what success looks like and you get to define that for yourself.

You get to talk to people that are actually growing and building the business and ask yourself, is that what I want to do.

Is that what I hope to achieve? Is that what it's going to look like? And then kind of work backwards from there.

So it's very exciting to kind of get into that space and the time and to be able to do that.

And I think, when you're able to tap into that and do some really awesome things.

It ends up being a phenomenal sweet spot because you're making impact and you're hitting those KPIs and doing those things that you need to do to get and become successful.

So that's the challenge of the leader.

How do you harness all that? How do you get that going? And even with franchising, I think It's interesting because I think that there's a lack of execution sometimes in people.

And that's the whole idea of the 12-week year. The problem is not that people don't know what to do.

Actually, the problem is that they don't execute. And that is something that I feel like I and a lot of people on the team are not suffering from.

But I think we are suffering from getting that clarity on what we're going to be and what we're going to do.

And I think part of my realization is that we have to make that transition. And I know that.

And that's where my heart's telling me. So now how do you strategically set up those things so that you can make that transition?

So that's what we're going to be looking at in 2025. I think a really big investment into Blue Star franchise, a really big investment into CB Nation and CEO Hacks.

And those things are going to lead us to where we ultimately want to be.

And I think we're still going to do client work and still going to look at that.

But I think it's just really starting to invest into our own resources and see what we can do there.

So excited about those steps, excited about that thing. And then we'll see what happens from there.

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 06:04

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CB Nation 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.

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