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00:00 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

01:26 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast formerly the CEO Chat podcast. So doing something a little bit different as we ease into the fall from the summer and you know, everybody's traveling a lot more. You know, Life is obviously a lot different than it has been in the last 4 years, definitely since I started this, let alone the last 2 years or so. But I had a podcast called the CEO Chat Podcast, which is a lot more of a long-form podcast. I didn't really reach the 1, 400-plus episodes that we did with the I AM CEO podcast. So there's a lot more long-flowing, a lot more conversational, but might be dusting off, the CEO chat podcast and bringing that back out.

So with that being said, while considering that what I wanted to do is go through some of the interviews that I had that were some of my favorites and share those. It's not going to obviously be the entire interview. We're going to have links in the show notes so that you can go and listen to the full interview. But I wanted to do some snippets that you can get. You're going to hear, of course, you know, the visibility, either the resources or the connections in each of these different snippets. So it's going to be one of those things that are really going to help you to hopefully learn more about the guests that are on the show, what they do, how they do it, why they do it, but also get that opportunity to really learn about some resources that can make you more effective and efficient. So sit back and enjoy this special throwback CEO chat episode.

[restrict paid=”true”]

01:26 – Sean Weisbrot

Everyone knows that starting a company isn't easy. So I'm curious to know what was the hardest thing about starting Blue 16?

01:33 – Gresham Harkless

A lot of times with running a business, there are so many different things that go wrong. There are so many things you don't know. You don't know that you don't know. You feel like you're the only one that doesn't know. But in reality, you know, we're all kind of figuring it out, you know, and taking steps along the way. I think that loneliness, while sometimes it allows you to be able to just chart your own path and choose your own lane and go with it, at times when you're unsure of yourself, unsure of what you're doing and how exactly The decisions that you make will impact certain things. You're just confused and you don't know. Setting an environment that allows you to succeed is probably one of the biggest challenges overall. And I think that you have to be very aware of who you're surrounding yourself with.

02:15 – Sean Weisbrot

It's hard to find entrepreneurs who have the time to be your support network, which makes it even worse because the only people you find yourself wanting to know are other entrepreneurs because they're the only people who understand you. So entrepreneurship is a blessing and a curse on multiple levels. You have 2 podcasts. I've just started my first. It's hard. I'm doing it alone. Why the hell did you want to do 2?

02:38 – Gresham Harkless

So the first podcast that I had, still is kind of going. It's not as regular as the daily podcast I have. CEO Chat podcast was a podcast I literally just started because I was interviewing entrepreneurs and business owners for the blog. I would listen to the recordings and then I would write up a blog post and then send them the blog post and then just have the recordings for myself. And I was listening to some of the recordings. I was like, Hey, This is pretty valuable information.

So that's really how that podcast started. Fast forward about 2 or 3 years, I had it up to be a weekly podcast, but one of the things that we kind of touched on in the very beginning, that I Love You did so well, is that you get that opportunity to really build connections and relationships through podcasting, and it can blossom into other things and other opportunities. So I had the goal of creating a daily podcast and I knew that the way that the CEO chat podcast was set up was not equipped to be daily. I really went back and I figured out what are the best questions. What are the most impactful questions? What questions can I ask consistently so that the guests know what's to come? I know what's to come, but at the same time, it lends itself to be kind of conversational.

So that's the only reason I started it I always try to hold my Y at the front, which is hopefully to create content and information to help people's lives better.

03:51 – Sean Weisbrot

I don't know how you do it. Like I said, I do this all on my own right now. I wish I had help. I found some software that helps to automate some of it, but It's not easy. That's for sure.

04:01 – Gresham Harkless

That's why I'm so appreciative to be here the time and energy and the being present It's so big and any opportunity to get to have somebody's time because I know obviously we're recording now But there's a lot more you'll do after the fact and that's why I'm appreciative of everything that you're doing.

04:16 – Sean Weisbrot

Do you have people you're working with or do you do it all on your own?

04:18 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, so I have an editor and then I have someone that helps out in editing just the video part, the audio part, and then actually creating the blog post. So I'm really just doing some of the outreach right now and even that I'm hoping to kind of delegate that out. In one of the internships I had, my boss said, don't let the perfect getaway the possible. And I tell myself that all of the time because it's definitely an art and I appreciate my editor and the team so much because I know that that wasn't in my zone of genius. And I know that the quicker that I unloaded that would allow to kind of be present in interviews and get an opportunity to really hopefully provide value a lot more.

04:53 – Sean Weisbrot

So at what point did you realize that you needed to delegate all of your things? Because you have like 10 blogs and 2 podcasts.

05:01 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, I tried to delegate from day one, honestly. I understood that I wanted to start a business and I know that I didn't want to do all of the things. But I tried to take on jobs or opportunities that I knew that I could do and hopefully start delegating them out and using things like Upwork to be able to find people that are still on my team, you know, as of 8 years ago. The reason that I try to do that is I didn't read the book at the time, but there's a book called the E-Myth and it talks a lot about how people are really great at what they do and they decide to start a business. And they realize that running a business is about so much more than the work that they're doing. And so they get overwhelmed and they don't realize there are different aspects of the business.

So what I really try to do is understand that often we are the bottleneck to our business as leaders. What can I do to kind of take myself out of it? And it's still kind of a tension that I have, especially when things don't go as well as I want them to go, or somebody messes up on something with a client, you wanna jump in and just do it, and just like, I'll just take care of it. But I know that is one of the worst things that you can do because you really wanna kind of teach and empower the person. Granted, if it's the right person, sometimes that happens where it's not the right person. But assuming it's the right person, you want to coach them up and get them going and give them the information so that they don't do it the next time or they at least are going to communicate so that things go well.

06:15 – Sean Weisbrot

I try to understand every position. Like what is the expectation that I should have of this person if I were to hire them? And then learn as much as I can about the skills that they need, the software they may be using, and things like that. And then when I'm ready to hire someone, I'll have a standard hiring process ready. Like, what is a hard skills test I can give them to make sure that they actually know what they're talking about and they're not lying to me, you know, that I know they can actually do the things that I know they're supposed to be doing? And then a personality test, an interview, and you know, these kinds of things. I need to know that I can trust this person and the only way I know that I trust them is if I've done it. I don't have to be good at it but if they're better than me I'll know instantly.

06:57 – Gresham Harkless

Well, I should say too that a lot I have done it before I hired somebody So it wasn't like I was completely, you know, unaware. So I think you bring up a phenomenal point. I usually have different levels of where a person is. So often when they first get started, they'll work on something that's internal that won't be anywhere close to the client-facing. And it usually takes some time before they get to client-facing work. Again, because it's technical, it's not like we're building a house or anything. A lot of times if things aren't going the way that I want them to go, I can see that before it becomes life. And unlike putting the nail in the wrong place, like if you were building a house, that could be a lot more costly and destructive to a business and the people that would be living there.

07:38 – Sean Weisbrot

So let's get into your hacks. So tell me about your first hack that you love so much. We talked about it last time, your 365 gratitude journal. Funny enough, I've had it for about a year now

07:48 – Gresham Harkless

It's called a 365 journal and it's a way for me to end the day. It allows you to really get a different prompt on a different topic. Usually, it's around gratitude, it's around things to be appreciative of. Basically somebody writes a prompt, and you have an opportunity to respond to that prompt. How or in what ways do you see that people are coming together, not being torn apart in the world? So I would basically respond to that. And then at the end, every single day, you have 3 things that you are appreciative of that day. The reason that I love it is because so many times I found myself always wanting to go to the next thing, I'm just, I guess, struck that way where I enjoy accomplishments, I like them, but I can't say that I really celebrate the wins as much as I should.

So a lot of times that forces me to really say, these are 3 things I'm appreciative of. And even if I haven't had a major win, Sometimes it's the little small things like my dog or my girlfriend or my parents or people like that that sometimes you forget about. You forget about, you know, being able to lay in bed. You forget about having running water. Just all of these things. You become a lot more appreciative of those things because you map it out every single day and I'm forced every day to think about 3 things that I'm appreciative of even if it's a really terrible day.

09:08 – Sean Weisbrot

Sometimes if I'm having a really crappy day or if I feel extremely stressed, I'll like put everything down and I'll just start thinking out loud to myself like, oh, you know, I love my mom, I love my dad, I love my dog, like they're amazing, they're this or that. And I'll just, I'll just do that. And it makes me feel good pretty fast. I'm thinking about, you know, who's in my life and why they're there and what they've done for me.

09:32 – Gresham Harkless

I guess that the app is a more concentrated and more consistent version than what I do for sure. Let's talk about your second hack, the Insight Timer. I was like, I really wanna get into meditation. Didn't really have a kind of a framework of how to do that. I actually started out with an app called Headspace First. That is a really good way that you can learn about meditation, which is really big for me because I was really kind of teaching myself and just kind of learning from there. And I think the thing that I take most from that app was being able to kind of look at your thoughts like balloons. And it's not that you aren't being present. It's that when you're trying to be really present on something and then something else pops into your mind, you really take it like a balloon and you let it go.

So you are more aware when you're not being present than you are of the different things that are happening. And the reason that that stuck with me so much is because, with the chaos that it is running a business and the different things that happen, there's so much beyond your control that it's so important to kind of approach it just like that balloon. So inside Timer is really to get more aware of being present, to again, kind of drive home the gratitude. Like, sometimes it has different props, and I'll usually go through all the different aspects of getting focused on your day, of visualizing how exactly you want to see your day, what things you need to focus on, and how can I be present to this moment. I can hear the air conditioning above my head, really being present to all of the things that are around me because so many times you just skip over things.

And I'm notorious for wanting to start my day, so I'll just jump into my day. But it was really that that allowed me to really get focused to calm down so that not only does it help me out at the beginning of the day and get my day started out right, but I think that as we talked about when those chaotic times happen at 12 o'clock or 01:00 in the day, you can really take a step back and be more at peace because you've been practicing that for those times that happen like that.

11:19 – Sean Weisbrot

Yeah, I think it's really important for everyone to meditate. It's been an extremely important experience for me to understand who I am. And when you mentioned the Headspace app teaching you about using balloons, I was never taught like that. What I was taught was your thoughts are there. They're gonna be there no matter what you say or do. You can curse your thoughts, you can ignore your thoughts. They're gonna be there. And when you meditate, your thoughts are gonna pop up into your conscious mind and you have 2 choices. You can allow them to control your emotions, or you can learn to accept them. Through meditation, you can kind of step outside of yourself with the goal of observing those thoughts.

And when you become an observer of your thoughts, they have no control over your emotions. And therefore, by observing them, you can come to understand them, and through understanding, you can come to accept them. And once you accept them, they become your friend. Through being your friend, they don't bother you anymore. When I start meditation every day, those thoughts are there. But then within 30 seconds to a minute, I get deeper into meditation to a point where the thoughts are gone. There's literally nothing. It's just me in silence for 30 minutes.

And it's beautiful Getting to that point where you literally go so deep that you hear nothing and you feel nothing and you're just kind of in darkness with yourself in a positive way is such an amazing experience because it's just quiet and we're so used to noise that this period of quiet is just so peaceful and amazing. It's like 30 minutes of meditation is like sleeping for several hours for me. I don't know if you've ever experienced anything like that, have you?

13:04 – Gresham Harkless

In my experience and kind of I think in alignment with what you just said, there are so many things that are pulling from you and kind of getting you closer to the, you know, this is a gas tank analogy, but getting closer to E that a lot of times you don't have enough to continue on. So when we go to sleep, we're re-energizing ourselves. But I think when we're able to kind of just be, you know, quiet and have peace and not have things pulling from you, it also allows that opportunity to be able to do that. And I think that it's so powerful. And again, I'm not, you know, 16 years in, but I think it's something that I've seen such a valuable thing because my default was to get up and to start doing something every single morning.

13:40 – Sean Weisbrot

You can do two things. One, check out the inside timer, and second, go to welivetobill.com slash meditate and you can sign up for my free email series about how to get started with meditating. Even better. So let's talk about the third hack. I am coloring.

13:55 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, absolutely. So one of the things I wanted to do was by having, you know, the daily podcast get an opportunity to really do something creative to be able to connect with the people that have been on the show. And I created kind of like this coloring book essentially. And a lot of times we forget that coloring as a child was something that we did for fun and enjoyment. And I think that one of the things, especially creators can do is always get into their inner child, so to speak, and do those things to take themselves away from the hustle and bustle, which is I think consistently with all these hacks that we kind of focused on.

So created an I Am coloring book that basically has different brands, but it has an opportunity for people to basically color each of the different pages and each of the pages has a brand and kind of a message related to what exactly the message might be. So like the Blue 16 media onesays, you know, visibility equals success. The name of the game is being found. The CB Nation one has visibility plus resources equal success. So it's just kind of giving you a short message but gives you the opportunity to really color. And there's a lot of, and I'm no, you know, doctor or anything like that, but there's a lot of studies that show by coloring, it allows you that opportunity to reduce your stress, reduce frustration, allow you to focus more. A lot of the things that we talked about with these other hacks.

So it's so interesting that as leaders, especially in business, sometimes we have a lot of problems that we're dealing with and things that we're trying to figure out what the correct solution is. And often we feel like a lot of times it's just drilling down, working harder. But a lot of the great ideas come about while you're walking your dog, while you're potentially in the shower, or why hopefully you can be coloring as well. It takes you away from what you're doing on a regular basis to be able to kind of exercise the creativity to think about the things that you're doing right there rather than think about all the problems that are going on and trying to create solutions. And a lot of time stepping away, allows you to come back even stronger and better.

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and the CEO Chat podcast. And I hope you enjoyed this special episode. Gave us an opportunity to kind of take some of the snippets from some of the longer-form podcasts that we have and repurpose them here. And we might be dusting off the CEO Chat podcast and talking a little bit more about some of those longer-form episodes and hopefully some of the people that have been on the IMCO Podcast on the longer forum episodes. But I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope you enjoy this little snapshot. Of course, you can go to ceochat.co and have the opportunity to listen to the full complete version of the episode. But also you can maybe see that it's very important to create content but also to be able to listen to and take in the hacks, the nuggets, the stories, just all the things that make these interviews so unique and so special.

So I hope you enjoyed this episode and be sure to follow up with the guests, follow up with the CEO Chat podcast, and hear about all the awesome things we're working on.

16:58 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by 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. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

IAMCEO Podcast Transcript

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00:00 - Intro

01:26 - Gresham Harkless

01:26 - Sean Weisbrot

Everyone knows that starting a company isn't easy. So I'm curious to know what was the hardest thing about starting Blue 16?

01:33 - Gresham Harkless

02:15 - Sean Weisbrot

02:38 - Gresham Harkless

So that's the only reason I started it I always try to hold my Y at the front, which is hopefully to create content and information to help people's lives better.

03:51 - Sean Weisbrot

I don't know how you do it. Like I said, I do this all on my own right now. I wish I had help. I found some software that helps to automate some of it, but It's not easy. That's for sure.

04:01 - Gresham Harkless

04:16 - Sean Weisbrot

Do you have people you're working with or do you do it all on your own?

04:18 - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, so I have an editor and then I have someone that helps out in editing just the video part, the audio part, and then actually creating the blog post. So I'm really just doing some of the outreach right now and even that I'm hoping to kind of delegate that out. In one of the internships I had, my boss said, don't let the perfect getaway the possible. And I tell myself that all of the time because it's definitely an art and I appreciate my editor and the team so much because I know that that wasn't in my zone of genius.�And I know that the quicker that I unloaded that would allow to kind of be present in interviews and get an opportunity to really hopefully provide value a lot more.

04:53 - Sean Weisbrot

So at what point did you realize that you needed to delegate all of your things? Because you have like 10 blogs and 2 podcasts.

05:01 - Gresham Harkless

06:15 - Sean Weisbrot

06:57 - Gresham Harkless

07:38 - Sean Weisbrot

So let's get into your hacks. So tell me about your first hack that you love so much. We talked about it last time, your 365 gratitude journal. Funny enough, I've had it for about a year now

07:48 - Gresham Harkless

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Special Throwback Episode - Podcast Interview with Sean Weisbrot

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