IAM2282 – Gresh’s Highlights on Building Human Connections by Creating Authentic Content

Gresham Harkless identifies the particular attributes of the ideal customer, including demographics, interests, and pain points.

Gresham discusses the importance of answering three foundational questions and defining success for different businesses.

The conversation highlights authenticity and transparency in content creation, encouraging individuals to be themselves and share their journey authentically for human connection.

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

Yeah, absolutely. And I often say, even on my show, I say, don't forget about the human part of business and the human part of life at that.

I think you made such a powerful point where sometimes we're looking for who's our ideal client or customer, who do we want to work with?

And if you have had that ideal client or customer, maybe you start there. Maybe you start to mine the information and start to survey, for lack of a better term, and do research into understanding your ideal clients and who they are that you've already been working with.

Intro 00:30

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 enjoyed 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 guessed it on their episode.

And of course learn more, a little, a little bit more about us as well, too. This is Gresh signing out. Hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Paul Guyon 01:05

What are some of the foundational elements, or as you call them, ingredients that every business should integrate to function effectively as a media company? And how do these components change the way that you approach marketing?

Gresham Harkless 01:18

Yeah, I think before I usually say you even get started, you start to pop in and look at the ingredients. The first thing I say you want to do is answer three questions.

These three question questions are, are impactful because they do help you. As the quote-unquote ingredients evolve, they change. They add additional things into what they're doing.

And those three additional, those three foundational questions, I should say, really revolve around your target market.

And your target market can be the age, the location, if they have two and a half dogs or four and a half kids or whatever that might be painting the picture of who that is that you're trying to target.

[restrict paid=”true”]

But understand that you can drill down a lot more. At the heart of what we try to do as quote-unquote entrepreneurs and business owners is to try to provide transformation and support and solve a problem for the audience and the avatar, the people that you're trying to serve.

So don't forget about like drilling down to the whole psychology of your avatar, of your target market.

What's keeping them up at night? What transformation are you truly providing? And the reason I bring that up is because the more information that you know about that and continue to learn that information, it's going to evolve and change.

Especially if you have an ideal client that you're working with. And as you're working with, you know, 10, 15 years, sometimes if you're a financial planner, for example, their needs are going to evolve and change.

So you want to make sure that when you're creating media, creating content, you're using and leveraging the ingredients, you're. You're really paying attention to that.

So that's why you want to, of course, know that now as much as you can, but you want to continue to know more and more about it because it can ultimately evolve and change.

The next question I would say make sure you know ultimately what and how you define success. If you're an E commerce brand, you're going to define success in a completely different way than if you have a home improvement company and you're trying to serve your local community.

So you might want people to continue to kind of come through your door virtually and buy your product or service and not necessarily have a conversation with you.

Or you might have a chat bot or something like that where you're answering all those questions that may not work for your local home improvement contractor, that may not work for your local plumber, where they have an emergency and they want to talk to somebody immediately.

So understanding, like how you define success, what that looks like is going to evolve depending on how you've structured your business, what you want to do, and ultimately what that looks like.

So make sure that you understand and are clear about how exactly you define that success. And then that one of the other really big impactful things you want to know is the resources.

And so many times resources people flock to what's my budget? How much money am I spending? And so on and so forth.

But also don't forget about how important time is. Time could be your most valuable resource. So I usually say time and money.

And depending on where you are in the journey, you might be in more startup mode where you're doing more, you're using more quote unquote sweat equity to be able to get things going versus later on in the business.

So I think those three foundational questions are huge because even that question, as you answer it, as you start to get clients and customers, you might have more within your budget.

So you are able to hire an expert. So it might determine like what ingredients you end up choosing for that. So I think those are really impactful questions to ask. And Answer and to continue to kind of check in on. Yeah.

Paul Guyon 04:44

And so there are some, some things come to mind. Said, okay, there are people that are in startup mode that are listeners here, and there are also people who are, in our audience that, that have, that have some traction.

They've got customers. And a lot of times you, many times you end up saying, oh, I'm going to take that, that job.

And it happens to all of us where we, we are presented with an opportunity and we go, oh, oh, oh, yeah, I really want that deal. You can't have every deal.

And a lot of times that, that opportunity might be something outside of your wheelhouse. So I think a good, a good statement is stay in your lane and knowing what success is like helps you do that, helps you guide where, what kind of jobs you're going to take.

Because not every customer is going to be your ideal customer. And you want to work in your sweet spot of things that you want to do and you can do and you do well and that support that success model that you just mentioned.

That's a good point. Yeah. So what are some of the, are there some tools or some ways that we can uncover those three questions to help us with research? I mean, it's a lot easier to find out information about everyone.

Privacy is out the window these days, but there are some really great tools and strategies that you can use to mine that information to inform your decisions. What are some of those?

Gresham Harkless 06:07

Yeah, absolutely. And I often say, even on my show, I say, don't forget about the human part of business and the human part of life at that.

I think you made such a powerful point where sometimes we're looking for who's our ideal client or customer, who do we want to work with?

And if you have had that ideal client or customer, maybe you start there. Maybe you start to mine the information and start to survey, for lack of a better term, and do research into understanding your ideal clients and who they are that you've already been, been working with.

Because you may start to create that avatar specifically for the clients you worked with. But I say even if you're just getting started and you have, you don't have a client, you don't have an idea of who exactly that is, maybe you have an idea of who you worked with well in the past or who you would want to work well within the past.

I think one of the things about the journey that you go on for entrepreneurship and definitely in marketing is you start to refine exactly who you want to work with.

And it sometimes unfortunately happens by trial and error where you make those mistakes and you're like, I shouldn't have worked with that person.

And I sometimes you, you might have already known that, but you continue to refine that so you know exactly, you know what and who that work, who that looks like.

But don't neglect the opportunity to be able to send out surveys, to send out, get a net performer promoter score for your ideal clients and customers that you're, that you're working with or potentially want to work with, because the more information you have, the more information it's going to help out.

But that market research is such a huge thing that you want to make sure you leverage. But I think it becomes really difficult depending on where you are in the stage.

Because when you say yes to something, you're automatically saying no to something else, as you said so well, so you want to make sure that you are having your ideal clients and customers coming through as much as possible.

So you want to drill down and learn as much as you can about who they are, what makes them tick, what might be keeping up them up at night so that you can ultimately provide, those services for them.

Paul Guyon 08:09

Right. And that leads me to the idea of content. So if you're going to create content, we talked about that.

You had an ideal at 10, you had an idea, you had, you had the ideal audience. In fact, you knew everything about them because you were part of that family.

So and sometimes you are your ideal client, which is, which is really, really handy, but you are creating content that aligns well with what their interests were.

So can you talk about some of the strategies that you would use for content content creation that would help you stay in your lane and attract those ideal clients?

Gresham Harkless 08:45

Yeah. A lot of what you do kind of goes back to those three questions. So you've answered those questions.

And anytime I say you're trying to determine what platforms, what content you're trying to create, make sure you're, you're going back to those three questions because you're always going to be able to test and experiment with different options.

But you want to be really dialed in with your ideal client and customer. If you know, like this keeps them up at night, then you know that providing a solution to that, even just in your content, is going to help make their lives better.

So you want to make sure you gear on that. A lot of times I compare like building your media company to figuring out whatever your favorite dish is.

And I always go to my mom's sweet potato pie. Cause it's one of my absolute favorites. But there's chocolate cake.

There's pineapple cake. There's so many different things. So kind of just envision what that is and what that looks like.

And you go to the grocery store and you figure out what ingredients are going to help you to build that ultimately that ultimate, dessert that you want to have.

That's the way that you want to approach your marketing. When you want to approach your content, you're thinking of, okay, everybody's listening to the same station, which is what's in it for me. WI-FM.

So you want to make sure that you're coming into their lives so that you can provide value for them.

And the reason that you want to kind of go to the grocery store and get those ingredients and look at what they are

And by ingredients, I mean literally the platforms that you're using to be able to get that content out there, you know that there's pros and cons of each. Like, we were just talking about if you're going to use a platform like TikTok, like as we're talking now, that may be a little bit more kind of risky to use versus using YouTube or using.

Or optimizing your website with Google. So you want to kind of understand, like, what all the ingredients are.

And then you want to kind of start to say, okay, I know this platform. I know it is its own kind of language, so this is how I'm going to communicate on that platform.

But you never, ever want to lose sight of why you're doing that, which is to provide value for your ideal clients and customers.

So as you start to develop that content strategy and what that looks like, make sure that you're keeping top of mind.

Exactly like what it is that, is going to improve their lives. For me at 10, it was like, how can I get the juiciest information about what's going on in the family so that I can get more subscriptions? So you want to approach it in the exact same way.

Paul Guyon 11:02

Yeah. And, you had me at pie. When you said sweet potato pie, I was going, huh? Yeah. So I think another thing that I like to know a little bit more about is that when you create content, you need to create it for, for people who are, who are ready to buy, who don't even know you yet and who are maybe deciding or they might not even know that they have a problem yet.

And they might have sort of been searching out there. So you have to have a kind of a wide net and with all the options that are available.

And you mentioned knowing the platform. Isn't it smart to know to stick with one platform and get something that works and then expand from there with that content?

Gresham Harkless 11:50

Yeah, absolutely. I'm gonna continue with the pie analogy, Paul, since you loved it. And I think if you're making sweet potato pie, I always say, you don't wanna go to the grocery store and get, ketchup at that time, at least not for that specific dish.

I don't want ketchup in my sweet potato pie. I don't know about you, Paul, but that's not necessarily gonna be good for me.

So I think it's so important to kind of have that understanding of what exactly you're trying to create because you are gonna, maybe two other platforms to own deeply, to know deeply and to make sure that you're always abreast of those changes, those opportunities.

And I feel like that's even the case if you do decide to hire an outside consultant or an agency or whatever that looks like, because it's going to give you that opportunity to go a little bit deeper, to make a little bit more of a transformation.

And as noisy as these platforms are, as noisy as it is in the world, to go further, a lot of times you go that extra mile and going that extra mile means you're not focusing on all the things, you're focusing on that one thing because you know it's going to provide that, that transformation and opportunity for your clients and customers.

The reason I usually say two max, three is because you never, ever want to stop experimenting just because just. I'll go back to the catch up analogy. Just because I say that I don't want catch up, it doesn't mean that there might be some type of catch up that might work well in that pie.

So all that means is that, hey, this is a platform that your idea clients are not on, they're not using, but it doesn't mean that they won't be using it in a year, it doesn't mean they won't be using it in five years.

So as you start to kind of spend time there, you start to know it, experiment a little bit, not spend all your time, but some of your time you can be what they.

A lot of times call on social media platforms first movers. And there's a lot of advantage to being the first mover on certain platforms because there's people that were on platforms like vine, that are still enjoying the fruits of those platforms because they move first and they move to other platforms first.

And they built that community and that connection over time. So, don't hesitate or be a resistance to experimenting as well too.

Paul Guyon 13:55

Yeah, and TikTok is one of those, one of those platforms that's really very popular with younger people.

Now, you mentioned the sweet potato pie. Let's go back to that. When you're creating a sweet potato piece, I believe that the more fresh and authentic and maybe organic, even clean foods that you use in that recipe make it so, so much better.

And so how is authenticity and transparency is that important in your content creation these days or are we trying to trick our audience into becoming clients?

Gresham Harkless 14:35

No, and I think that you're right on. I love that. I agree with you 110,000% that the more fresh and kind of you that you are within your content, the more you're going to be able to resonate with people.

And that's why I said you never want to forget about the part that you're kind of just transferring content and information to somebody.

It's ultimately these all are conversational tools the way that you can help to get that media out there, talk about what it is that you do.

So I feel like another great way, like you said, to know the platform is a really great opportunity, but to be yourself. I often say if you run your own race, you can't lose.

And that means you have to know what your race is. You have to know what is your secret sauce, what sets you apart, what is your superpower.

And the more you show up as that, the less likely people are to try to emulate. They might try to, but they are not going to do it successfully because they're not yourself.

And I think that it wasn't so much the case in years prior, but it's becoming more and more evident where people are craving this opportunity for that human connection.

They're craving the content that can actually help them on a day to day basis. They want to know somebody.

They want to know they're not the only person that's going through this issue or this problem. So the more that we share that, the more that we share our journey and what that looks like, the opportunity for connection is going to be tremendous.

But I think you have to really do that from an authentic standpoint because in this day and age, it's getting harder and harder to quote, unquote, hide behind facades or hide behind things that aren't real.

And people will find you out. As we see that sometimes online that authenticity is going to be such a huge thing. And it  always go back to the quote, Paul.

It's like, be yourself because everybody else has already taken, so why not do that? Because everybody wants you to be who you are.

Outro 16:19
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 enjoyed 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 guessed it 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 day.

[/restrict]