IAM2201 – Setting High Goals and Pushing Boundaries in Business

In this episode, Gresham Harkless discusses the importance of perseverance, resilience, and strategic thinking for entrepreneurs starting from scratch.

Gresham shares the significance of believing in your product or service and being resilient in the face of setbacks.

He emphasizes that being attached to the “why” rather than the “how” of your business allows for more flexibility and adaptation as you grow.

Gresham highlights that success usually requires persistence and repeated effort.

Business Pillar: Strategy | Journey

Episode Link: SuccessGrid TV

Check out our CEO Hack Buzz Newsletter–our premium newsletter with hacks and nuggets to level up your organization. Sign up HERE. 

I AM CEO Handbook Volume 3 is HERE and it's FREE. Get your copy here: http://cbnation.co/iamceo3. Get the 100+ things that you can learn from 1600 business podcasts we recorded. Hear Gresh's story, learn the 16 business pillars from the podcast, find out about CBNation Architects and why you might be one and so much more. Did we mention it was FREE? Download it today!

Transcription:

The full transcription is only available to CBNation Library Members. Sign up today!

Gresham Harkless Teaser 00:00

When you are kind of looking at starting from square one, maybe you're feeling it's less than that.

Maybe it's like negative a hundred. You feel like you're starting it. You really want to understand that it's just going to be you believing in the thing that you believe in whatever your product or service is, believing that you can help support and create these solutions.

Intro 00:22

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast, and I wanted to share with you one of the episodes that I was a guest on for someone else's podcast.

I always talk about how important it is to build a media company. One of the next best things you could do is be on somebody else's media company.

So I had the pleasure of being a guest on this podcast, and I want to share a little snippet with you because it would help support the 8 business pillars we've really been trying to focus on with a lot more of our content and a lot more of the solo episodes that I'm doing.

So make sure, of course, that you subscribe to our podcast. But, of course, you take some time out. Check out the show notes.

And subscribe to the podcast that I've been featured on as well too, and get to learn about some of those 8 business pillars and how you can continue to leverage and build that up so you can go from builder to architect to, of course, rock star and luminary.

So this is Gresh signing out. I hope you enjoy this I AM CEO special episode.

Hussein Taleb 01:15

So what can like for example, now, if a business, especially new ones, when you have nothing to show for, like, followers or what the audience or whatever, what do you think, how they can figure out the best strategies to kick off things off?

And what do you think are the mistakes that they are making that they should stop doing it right now?

Gresham Harkless 01:40

I would say the biggest mistake, and I feel like I heard this a lot on my podcast, is there's just such this misconception around things happening overnight.

[restrict paid=”true”]

And I think we sometimes see that especially on social media, but not only social media. We see that in most media where we it seems like the person created success overnight.

They did one thing. They sent out one tweet, and then they became successful. Or they talked to one person and they became successful.

And don't get me wrong. That I'm sure that happens, but I think for the grand majority of people, it doesn't happen that way.

So when you are kind of looking at starting from square one, maybe you're feeling it's less than that.

Maybe it's like negative a hundred. You feel like you're starting at. You really want to understand that it's just going to be you believing in the thing that you believe in, whatever your product or service is, believing that you can help support and create these solutions.

And you just continue to grind. You continue to do the things along the journey. And I feel like we've found and you start to hear a little bit more around this idea of resilience.

People continue to hear the no's, but continue to keep asking and asking or asking in a different way.

So I feel like if you're resilient and you have this one of the big things I learned on the podcast is you get more attached to the why, not the how.

And what the all that means is pivoting. Because if you are so attached to like, how you're going to do this, you're gonna say, I'm only gonna do it this way.

But if you know why you wanna do something, you realize that maybe there's gonna be a different way for you to do it.

So if you're comfortable enough in terms of pivoting, but also you're really strong in terms of resilience.

You understand that it is a journey that is going to take time and takes a lot of nos, more than you'll probably hit yes's, then I think that really sets you up for success.

But as far as, like, very tactically, like, what someone should do, I mean, there's so much opportunity, that's out there to try to reach people.

Don't forget that, again, marketing, I think even sales to some degree, is about, like, having those conversations.

And again, the how has changed, but it doesn't mean that they have changed. So you can literally start an Instagram account right now and go and DM people and ask them about setting up a time to have a conversation.

And if I was starting in the very beginning, of course, being in that environment, we talk a little bit about networking and being part of networking groups, things like that. Having those conversations is huge.

But I would really be extremely active as far as, like, having as many conversations as I could just telling people about my product or service, but also probably even more importantly for the long term and being a value to them.

So not just saying, like, what can you do for me? But also saying, like, hey. How can I help you?

And I think over time, the people that do that end up lasting longer. They make a bigger impact in many different ways. So that's probably what I would do from square one.

Hussein Taleb 04:38

Yeah. Definitely. Because things like you mentioned, it needs time. Like, because, for example, if we are talking, for example, about online businesses, like, there is no barrier to entries.

Anyone can start whatever they want to start. But at the same time a lot of people might be starting the same thing that you are going to stop.

Tuning to have some kind of business stamina, I guess right to keep going at it. You need to, like I don't wanna say hustle. I don't know.

Maybe the world does and sometimes I don't like it, but you need to work for it at least for a while to establish some place in for your business.

Gresham Harkless 05:25

Yeah. Absolutely. I think grit and hustle, I think, yeah, hustle could have so many conversations, but I think it's been shown that grit is one of the most, biggest indicators of success.

If you have that and you continue to ask, then I think that'll really set you up for success.

Hussein Taleb 05:41

Yeah. So what are the most impactful, let's say, tools, resources, or books that you personally use? Or when someone's ask you what tool, resources, or books should I read or look at, do you recommend for them?

Gresham Harkless 05:58

Yeah. Absolutely. It's funny. On the podcast, one of the things I ask everybody for is the CEO hacks, which are like the apps, books, habits that make them more effective and efficient.

And I thought a lot around what are gonna be mines? Like, what are mines do I feel like really move the needle?

And I think the beautiful thing about these hacks or these resources is that they seem small, but they really compound upon the impact that they can make in your life.

And I think one of the biggest ones that helped me a lot in terms of focusing, because I'm an ideas person, I always, like, am like, okay.

Once you see one opportunity, you start to see it more and more and more. There's this book called The One Thing that has been one of my favorite go to’s.

The whole entire thesis of it is what's the one thing that by doing it, everything else is easier or unnecessary.

And the cover of the book actually shows, a bunch of dominoes, and the dominoes start out small and they get bigger and bigger and bigger.

So the idea is that when you knock over that first domino, it's gonna be able to knock over a bigger domino and a bigger domino and a bigger domino.

And what that does is like that compound effect where if you could focus on this one thing, it's gonna open up you to make an impact in many things.

So anytime I'm like, getting overwhelmed with doing too many things, sometimes I just say, hey. What is the one thing that can make that impact?

And it doesn't have to be anything big. Sometimes it's getting up ten hours early I mean, ten minutes earlier.

Sometimes it's just creating a plan at the beginning of the day. So it's usually those things that make a big impact.

Another big thing that's been huge for me or two other things I would say is my scheduling links. Being able to send a scheduling link. I use Acuity, but there's, one called Calendly as well too that a lot of people are very, fond of.

Those things allow you to not have to do the back and forth. And I think the beautiful thing now too is that people are more accessible to it, and then we're open to using a scheduling link, which is, of course, how we connected to.

And then I lean heavily on project management software. We use Basecamp, but there's other ones that we use like Asana. There's ClickUp.

There's so many different tools that you can use. But literally everything that has to do with a project we put in our base camp.

So that it's not just me, it's other people on the team have access to it no matter what time of day or day of the week that they're looking.

And I think that's allowed us to be a lot more nimble us to be connected as a team because everything is not so dependent upon me, because that can often happen when you end up becoming the log jam.

Hussein Taleb 08:40

Yeah. Definitely. So Gresh, what would you say the final takeaway for this episode? What would you do to someone looking to start a business, whatever type of businesses it is, especially if it's online business?

And how would you advise them to stay motivated, let's say?

Gresham Harkless 09:01

Yeah. When I first started, I think I watched a lot of like, Will Smith videos and he was very, like, motivational for me just in how he looked at things.

And there's this book, another book called The Alchemist that he talked about in an interview that help you to reframe, like, how you look at things.

But one quote that I always go back to is, don't tell me the sky is the limit when their footprint's on the moon.

And that's good, man. Yeah. I love it because it really speaks to this idea that a lot of times people say things that can't be done because they haven't seen it done.

But just because they believe that it hasn't happened, doesn't mean that it can't be done.

And I think it's kind of that resilience, that defiance even, that you're saying, hey. I'm going to do this and I'm gonna commit to doing this, having that passion that you talked about earlier.

That's what separates people. So often, when you go through the entrepreneurial journey, there's gonna a lot of no's, and sometimes it's gonna be for the people that are closest to you and around you.

But don't let that deter you because there are footprints on the moon. So that means that those things that you think that you could do, you could be the first one to set and trailblaze that.

So don't allow the discourages, the naysayers to detract you from what you should be doing.

Hussein Taleb 10:17

There is a lot of talk about, for example, this kind of things and goal setting that you should not put goals too high so we didn't reach them.

But the way I see it is you should put them as high as you can because if you if we as humans keep putting setting goals that we have already reached or a little bit, like, two percent tired.

So we would reach them easily. But when you put them way up there, like, you will push yourself more to reach them, and you will know your limits.

And you will start developing a new, let's say, skills or motivation or inspiration or regret or whatever it is that you wanna call it or do with it to reach that.

Because either you reach there and you have satisfaction within self or you give up and just keeps sitting down and go to sleep.

So either this or the like, this or this, there is nothing in between, I guess.

Gresham Harkless 11:12

Yeah. I would definitely agree with that.

Hussein Taleb 11:14

Yeah. So, Gresh, where can people get in touch with you, learn more about you?

Gresham Harkless 11:19

Yeah. Absolutely. So a hub for me is I have a site called iamgresh.com. That's i a m g r e s h.com.

Like I mentioned, some of the things that I've learned from the 1600 podcast episodes, there's information there, free e-books.

Also, you can contact us at Blue16 Media. So links to all those, CBNation, the podcast, all those things are on iamgresh.com.

Hussein Taleb 11:47

Yeah. Awesome. Actually, I think you have done something amazing that I saw that what you have done is, like, have some kind of fun sheet or excel sheet or something like that.

This took I'm sure it took, like, a lot of hard work and hours maybe to do. So that's, amazing. Yeah.

Gresham Harkless 12:07

Yeah. From the different episodes? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is a way I was just trying to organize things.

So yeah, it definitely took some time, and I'm hoping to continue to improve it. The hundred plus things I learned from being on the show. Absolutely. For being, having guests on the show.

Hussein Taleb 12:22

Yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you, Gresham, for being here today with me on this episode of the Success Grid Podcast. Really pleasure to have you here.

Gresham Harkless 12:30

Thank you for having me, Hussein. I appreciate it.

Outro 12:32

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh again, and I hope you enjoyed that special episode of the I AM CEO podcast.

Just like I mentioned in the beginning, we're really trying to laser focus on these 8 pillars to show you as a builder how you can leverage these 8 pillars and really level up there, so it helps to level up your business and organization.

So hope you enjoy this episode, and definitely please check out the show notes so you can learn more about the pillar, learn more about the person that I guested on their episode and of course, learn more a little bit more about us as well too.

This is Gresh signing out. Hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[/restrict]