IAM2533 – The Turning Point: Restructuring Everything

In this special episode, Gresham Harkless is in a defining phase of his journey, weighing whether ongoing adjustments can fix deeper issues or if it’s time to let go and start anew with a clean slate.

Despite attempts to streamline and restructure, there’s still a disconnect between the business’s operations, culture, and direction, further strained by the challenge of juggling too many roles and ventures at once.

Gresham emphasizes that the complexity and volume of moving parts have made it difficult to be fully present and effective, both internally and with clients.

In addition, Gresham is exploring whether beginning again, with the wisdom and tools he gathered, could open the door to a clearer, more purpose-aligned future.

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Transcription:

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Intro 00:01

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

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.

The question is always, when do you take the button and just detonate everything and reset everything that you're doing when you feel like you're not really making a lot of headway?

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There's a lot of foundational mistakes and changes, and things. And you just start kind of a new, like, when do you do that?

And what does that look like? And I think that's kind of like where I'm at now. I've been trying to restructure, like try to fix, tweak, and change things.

But I think foundationally from a, maybe a cultural standpoint, like within my existing business, but also within, everything I've been trying to build is just like trying to make that change has been a really, really difficult, because you see some of the big, there's like so many things that need to be fixed and changed and improved.

And I think a lot of that is just because, as an organization, we end up being so stretched amongst all the things that we're doing.

And when we're stretched amongst all the things that we're doing, it doesn't allow us that opportunity to really be present, to really make the impact and do the things that we need to do.

I think that even with clients and candidates and things like that, it doesn't necessarily become simplified or easy or I don't know.

It's just like, there's so many moving parts. When you have so many moving parts, it just doesn't, it doesn't always go as smoothly as you want it to go.

So, the question always remains is like, does it need to be adjusted and changed or does it need to be completely re-hauled?

And when it gets completely re-hauled, it means you just kind of hit that detonate button. You start from scratch and build over.

And I think it's one of the beautiful things around franchising is that you don't have to necessarily worry about that as much.

But you do sometimes have to worry about the activities that you're doing and saying, if I'm not doing it the right way or if I'm not listening to whatever, has been the plan, and things like that, should I do it in a different way?

And I think you have those hard-to-hard meetings. And that happens in many ways in many parts of our lives.

And, I think any type of business or franchise is so different where you have to really evaluate the ROI you're getting from the things that you're doing. And is it worthwhile?

So, I'm kind of in that introspective point now where I'm really evaluating, looking, and asking myself, it doesn't make sense to kind of start new and start from scratch to some degree, some of these things.

And I think I had some coaching sessions with my coach. And one of the things that she said is like, what would it look like if you were to just like have a blank slate and completely, like completely start from a blank slate and then start to realize that you have ingredients or tools or things that you've already built that can help support that.

And I think that's kind of like where I'm at, in this place where you try to continue to do these things, but you just realize that you're not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

Don't get me wrong. I mean, I think this is definitely one of those challenging times because one of the things that happened is one of the lead brokers mentioned that I don't think she has a close deal with this year, which is wild to me.

It's wild because there's something that's definitely happening. There's some struggles that are definitely going on. And I don't think it's just one person. I think it's industry-wide.

But it makes you just very, very it makes you kind of look at things in a different way, you have to look at things more of a long haul, more of a long stretch and seeing what you're going to do, you want to be very cognizant of the investment that you're making and getting the ROI of investment and what it means to look long-term.

And I think one of the things that I've seen, especially around this franchise brokering, is I said many times, I don't feel like I've touched my Walmart, and I don't feel like I've had engagements or one-to-ones with people and spent the equity that's needed.

And I think a lot of that is just because there's been a lot going on, in the last eight months, lost my grandma, lost my dog, newborn starting a business.

And that's just some of the service level things, just bringing on new people within the digital marketing business, and people leaving, and people working out and not working out, and trying to implement EOS.

All these things are happening right simultaneously at the same time. So, it makes it really, really challenging to sometimes get those things done.

But in retrospect, I definitely maybe would have pushed this off a little bit longer. But I also think that I am further ahead than I would have been if I would have started like now.

But I don't even know if I would have started now, considering all the things. So, it's just interesting times, and we just kind of have to see what goes from there. But I'm excited around the opportunity and the fruits that I'll bear in the future.

Please let me know if there's anything I could do to help. And of course, I look forward to giving you more and more updates.

Outro 06:31

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CB Nation and 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.

Don't forget to schedule your complimentary digital marketing consultation at Blue16Media.com. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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