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IAM2351 – The Importance of Taking the Plunge and Embracing the Unexpected Opportunities
Special Episode by Gresham Harkless Jr.
In this special episode, Gresham Harkless reflects on how they started their franchise broker business before they felt “ready,” which has been a key part of their entrepreneurial journey.Gresham emphasizes that it’s often beneficial to start things even when you're not fully prepared because you’ll make more progress than waiting until everything feels perfect.
He shares that they received a potential lead through a Facebook group post from someone looking to sell their franchise.
Gresham believes that blocking out time helps them stay disciplined and focused, which is essential for managing multiple business ventures.
He also admits that they struggled to find a place to fit the franchise brokering business into their schedule.
In addition, Gresham discusses the importance of discipline and intentionality in balancing all their responsibilities.
- 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
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?
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
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.
And just like that, we are on day 10 of running this franchise brokers business. And I'll tell you, been a lot already. I think as there has been more activity in the digital marketing business, it's just taking a lot more out of me.
But I think one of the big things that I have to remember throughout this process is that I'm moving before I was ready.
I started the franchise broker business before I was quote-unquote, ready. And one of the things that we always have to remember is as we go through journeys, I am a big proponent of and a big supporter, I guess you could say, of starting things before you're ready.
And if you start things before you're ready, you'll get farther than you would because often you're never ever going to be completely ready.
And I've actually had some opportunities actually come up from Facebook groups. Like I just reached out to a person that posted in Facebook group looking for brokers and he wanted to find out about reselling his franchise.
Now it's very beginning stages. I just sent a message back, but I think one of the big things that I'm taking away is that sometimes when you take a step before you're ready, the opportunities may not come in the way that you see, but they may come in another way.
And as I start to figure out what my day-to-day is going to be, what that's going to look like, I lean heavily on time blocking.
Having dedicated times where I'm doing certain things I believe strongly, especially for me, the first two hours of usually Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and probably even a little bit Friday, but definitely Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday is very highly focused on my high priority activities.
Like I mentioned in previous video, I'm doing 12-week gear. So my 12-week year activities, I usually try to really focus on them there.
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Of course it doesn't always go the way that I want it to go as things pop up, but unless it's something that's burning down, I really try not to have that time focused on anything else.
One of the big things too is that on Fridays I usually try to have it as like a carryover day. I do podcast interviews.
But also during that first two hours I'm really focused on that too. Also like kind of, for lack of a better term, taking it a little bit easier than I am on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, because I know that those days are a little bit slower.
However, this week has just been very, very busy. But I've been very intentional on making sure that I create time blocking opportunities.
Those time-blocking opportunities allow me to be a little bit more present. What I haven't done and was one of my struggles is figuring out where I was going to fit in this franchise brokering business.
As my alarm goes off, one of the big things that was important for me is is creating space for everything that you're trying to do.
And that's the one thing that I think that I would have done a little bit sooner and better is just to be honest and realistic about where this is going to fit.
As I think about different opportunities, like even a networking opportunity, I'm thinking the same thing, like what might be the place that this is going to fit.
And when I don't have that solid answer, then it becomes a question of like, are you going to be able to do this at a high level?
But I'm a big again, a big proponent of being able to say that, hey, I'm going to figure it out. I'm just gonna have to be even more disciplined and I'm just gonna have to be even more intentional on the things that I can be.
And that's really where, those time blocks come in. So I have dedicated times that I usually go through my emails. I have dedicated times that I usually have for client meetings.
I usually have, I'm trying to have dedicated times. Those client meetings are also becoming candidate meetings for the brokerage business.
But it's really focusing on that time blocking because without that, without that discipline, for lack of a better term, I think I would definitely be kind of running around like with a chicken in my head cut off.
And even if I do feel like that way sometimes, I know that a lot of things are kind of being taken care of.
But frankly what I did mention and like we're implementing eos into our digital marketing business so we're constantly like working on those things, getting the right people in the right places.
And that is a kind of a long-term focus. It's not just something you snap your fingers and make a difference.
So understanding some of the things that I see, understanding the parts of the digital marketing business, it's that it's a, and even understanding the nuances of the clients is a process.
So that's one of the big things that we're continually working on and trying to see like how and what would work best.
But that's basically it a lot of different things and you know, continue to kind of work on, continue to kind of fight through those things and just get better. So I think that's gonna be basically it for this episode.
Please let me know if there's anything. I could do to help. And of course looking forward to give you more and more updates.
Outro 06:49
Thank you for listening to The I AM CEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.
Check out the latest and greatest apps, books and habits to level up your business at CEOHacks.co. This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.
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