BusinessFranchisingI AM CEO PODCASTSocial EntrepreneurshipStrategy
IAM2324 – Secrets to True Success: It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint!
Special Episode by Gresham Harkless Jr.
Gresham Harkless emphasizes the importance of this training, noting that it provides a solid foundation for anyone looking to enter the franchise world.He describes the Live Week training as an intensive experience, with 8-hour days dedicated to learning the ins and outs of being a franchise broker. This rigorous training underscores the importance of work ethic and dispels the misconception of overnight success.
Gresham highlights the importance of laying the groundwork for success and being prepared for the challenges that come with it.
He explains that people often underestimate the value of the time and experience it takes to achieve quick results.
Gresham advocates for a mentality of continuous improvement, getting “1% better every day.”
- Blue Star Franchise: http://bluestarfranchise.com
- Browse the Franchise Inventory: https://bluestarfranchise.com/franchise
- Is franchising right for you? Check this out to see: http://bluestarfranchise.com/assessment
- Franchise CEO (A CBNation Site – coming soon) – http://franchiseceo.co
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Transcription:
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Intro 00:00
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 BlueStar Franchise.
We're also going to do a kind of sub-site within CBNation 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 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.
Gresham Harkless 01:26
Just like that is day 21, week three of the franchise brokerage journey. It's hard to believe it's been about three, I guess four weeks since I started training.
Well, not even started training since think since Live Week to where I'm at now. Live Week was basically when we went to go train to kind of learn basically an 8 hour day all week about what it was to be like a franchise broker.
And I think that this is probably the first week where I'm going to be more embedded in both of the businesses, all the businesses, I guess you can say so.
It's exciting but at the same time it's just like, you want to make sure that you're doing all the things that you want to do to be successful.
One of the things that really kind of resonated with me today is that sometimes we forget about what it's truly like to run a business.
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We see the quick wins. We see the people that are, quote-unquote, instantly successful. And the quote that kind of resonates with me is that, and I say a lot on the podcast, is that the secret to overnight successes takes 10 to 15 years.
You hear 10 to 11, eight years, whatever that number might be. The point is that the success that you see is not a result of just what's happening right now.
A lot of times, success is a result of what has happened years and years prior. There's even, like this meme that I always remember where there's a.
I think a plumber that someone calls and they call him or her to fix whatever the issue is. And they've been working days to try to figure out what the issue is called the plumber.
The plumber comes in, fixes it in like 10 minutes. And it's like, okay, are you going to charge me for the full hour or two or the service call or whatever it is, because it took 10 minutes.
It's like, you're not. I'm not charging you based off of the 10 minutes I took. The reason that I'm charging what I'm charging, which is the full amount, is because I put in all the time and hours to learn how to do it in 10 minutes.
And so the reason I bring that up is because so many times when we go through the journey, we forget about laying that foundation, putting the bricks in place to be successful.
And while we want that, instant success is rare than I think people want to truly say. So when I think about this franchise brokerage journey, I think about me hopefully being able to get a little bit more of an advantage by being able to have the digital marketing business, by having the resources for entrepreneurs and business owners.
But at the same time, I really wanted to tap into this. I'm going to outwork myself. I'm going to be better than myself. I'm going to get 1% better every day.
And I think if I am trying to defeat Gresh, so to speak, and progress and to get better, then having that mentality is going to be huge.
Because I believe strongly in work ethic and how work ethic can lead you, set you up for success. When people don't put the work in.
In many different aspects, then I don't feel like we should be wondering why things aren't going the way that we want them to go.
And frankly, putting in work ethic and doing the things doesn't mean you're working on the right things.
It doesn't mean that you're going be successful. But I think when you get in the mentality of trying to do all the things that you can do to increase your likelihood of success, you can't say that I wish I would have did this or I wish I would have did that.
If you put the time in, it may not go exactly where you wanted to go. It may not be part of, what's in your, in the cards for you or your destiny or what God wants for you. I would say, even say.
But it doesn't mean that you didn't do everything you could do. So my mentality is always like, what can I do?
What are the things that I could do to try to increase my likelihood of success and let me do all those things.
And I'm definitely focusing on the sales and the marketing. I'm definitely focused on the lead generation now that.
One other really big thing that I talked about a little bit in the videos is that I felt like maybe March or April was the best time to kind of start this because literally I'm not even in the place that I'm at now.
Celebrating this past weekend with my wife. Our anniversary went through training, bringing on different people, setting up systems in the digital marketing business.
All these things are happening at the same time. So this was not the ideal time, but I felt like by getting a little bit closer to where I was, I'd be able to set myself up for success a lot more.
So that's just what I really wanted to focus on is just like, how can I continue to kind of take the steps to be successful and how can I move before I'm ready.
And that's ultimately what I wanted to do. That's what I am doing and we'll definitely see. As I continue to record how this goes.
Outro 06:09
Please let me know if there's anything. I could do to help. And of course, looking forward to giving you more and more updates.
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