IAM2575 – Embrace Failure: Steps to Transform It

In this special episode, Gresham Harless reflects deeply on the emotional and mental toll of his ongoing journey as a Franchise Broker, currently around day 228.

He expresses the internal conflict of feeling like a failure due to a lack of closed deals, despite understanding that business growth often takes time.

Gresham highlights the challenge of staying mentally strong amid slow progress and uncertainty, referencing past wins as a reminder that success is possible.

He emphasizes the importance of leaning into the process, even when it’s slow and frustrating, and recognizes that while a franchise provides a playbook, execution is still complex.

• 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 00:01

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 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, it’s day 280, no, 227. No, 228 of this Franchise Broker Journey. And I feel like you have these feelings that are creeping up now.

They've been creeping up for a while, but they're definitely like cemented every day. Every day you don't have a deal. You feel like you failed, and you feel like you're a failure.

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And you feel like you're debating on whether or not I'm going to close the door on that.

So maybe I'm going to just try to do something else. Should I be doing it? Am I throwing in the towel too early?

And I know that everything you kind of go through, you go through that challenging period.

Sometimes that challenging period is a lot longer than it seems. But the question you always have to ask is like, are you stuck in this opportunity pause where you're saying I need to have this I don't that's kind of like where I'm at now, where it's like, you're not sure if this is going to pan out how I want it to pan out.

And I'm not sure if I want to make any adjustments or changes, or what should I do?

And I think I'm pretty much there. And I remember our trainer definitely talked around this, around the mental part, the emotional part of starting.

And this is, frankly, this is starting a business. And it's been a while since I, honestly, frankly, I've looked into myself, starting a business.

But you look into these things and you start to figure, to try to figure out and understand, am I setting myself up for success by overextending myself in too many areas, or should I be very much so leaned into the one thing.

And I think when you go through this period, and you start to ask yourself these questions and start to try to clarify and understand these things, it ends up being very much so, a question and a process as you go through.

And you start to direct your brain and start to navigate through all of these things just to try to understand what is going to put me in the best light. What is the one thing that I should be focusing on?

And not the one thing I want to focus on, what's the thing I should be focusing on? And that's where you get a little bit overextended.

I know I was specifically focused on saying, hey, let's spend this last part of the quarter trying to get as many Blue 16 deals as possible.

And I think you want to step into the next quarter and say, hey, I'm doing this next thing.

But I think the reality is these things take longer, as far as periods of time, than they have.

And I think when you're trying to navigate all these things, you have these feelings and these emotions where you're like, hey, am I failing? Am I a failure? Why should I sit out?

Am I good enough? Am I doing it wrong? All these things have to build up, especially when you have that positivity.

But I think it's so important just to kind of lean into that process. Whether you're starting a franchise or starting a business, the process is the process.

And even if you start a franchise, yes, you have a playbook. You have a lot more insight into what will work.

It doesn't mean the execution of it is always going to go the way that you want it to go.

And I think that's just the reality of it. That's the reality of business. It's very, very, very hard. I think to start one business, let alone to start multiple ventures and businesses.

So, I think anytime you're able to be present and to realize that, realize that journey, realize this is what it looks like, it's going to set you up for success.

So, I'm definitely not throwing in the towel, but you have those feelings of am I a failure that come up.

I think so many times that's where you look back and say, hey, I got this win at this time.

So, if I can win there, I can win here. You just start to really build yourself up and become your own hype person.

But let's keep it a buck, as they like to say. It's definitely a challenge, you know, mentally and emotionally, in starting a business and starting anything, especially if you have any external challenges that are happening.

And this has definitely been that. So, you just try to take the next step and the step after that.

And that's what I'll continue to do. But I do want to switch gears. That's the hard part.

Switching gears, you're not necessarily throwing in the towel, but you do want to switch gears, and you want to see something.

I start to have some traction, and when it doesn't have traction, you feel like you're okay.

I failed at this because I didn't get as much as I wanted. I'm failing here, and it starts to compound.

But it's just like again keeping that mentality, the way that you wanted to keep it, it's going to be such a huge thing.

So that's kind of where I'm at because you need to kind of chop up the tree, and we'll see what else happens from there.

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.

Outro 06:18

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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