IAM400- Special Episode

Gresham “Gresh” W. Harkless Jr. is the founder and Blogger in Chief for CEO Blog Nation (CBNation.co) and is the founder and digital marketing specialist behind Blue 16 Media. Blue 16 Media is a digital marketing company providing digital marketing services to small to medium-sized businesses and organizations. Central to his marketing philosophy is that You Are a Media Company: Developing a Marketing Strategy to Connect with Your Target and Reach Your Goals. CBNation.co is a community of niche blogs for entrepreneurs and business owners including video content and audio content (podcast). 

• CEO Hack: Gym and maintaining health & strengthening my mind
• CEO Nugget: Go bigger and don't quit
• CEO Defined: It's a mindset. Strategic Mindset. Ownership

• Progreshion.com
• CBNation.co
• Blue16media.com
• Youareamedia.company

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Transcription

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INTRO 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, this is Gresh from the I AMCEO podcast, and this is episode number 400. It's crazy to believe that we hit 400 episodes. But with true perseverance, great things happen in 400 episodes is a great accomplishment. So I'm super excited, not just for myself, but for the entire CB Nation team, all the guests that have been on the show have bearing with me for these hyperfocus interviews, to hear from some awesome entrepreneurs and business owners on what makes them effective and efficient and things that they do. And also hear their stories and all of those things.

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Just to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind about this time last year, when I was you know, thinking about a new podcast and thinking about how I could kind of mesh in a lot of different aspects of my business and things that I was passionate about, so that I could hopefully accomplish something that was or get something moving, I should say that was impactful. But it could be impactful, not just because it took you all 24 hours a day, but it was something that could be like shorter laser focus for these busy entrepreneurs and business owners.

As you guys well know and love just because you are so I'm recording this, from my car just got done, you know, from a B2B share, or lead share group that I hadn't visited before, had two calls. Those calls didn't go through. No worries, things happen, you know, when you're running a business, and then I'm going to the gym for a quick workout. Before I go to another kind of networking event later on tonight. But with that being said, I wanted to drill down on exactly like why I started this podcast.

The goal was really to create something because I had a longer-form podcast. But it wasn't as organized. It wasn't as systematized so I wanted something that was organized that could potentially scale up to be a daily podcast, which I've been able to do. And then also be able to lean heavily upon a really strong team of Muhammad, who's our editor who does a phenomenal job with the audio and video editing. We have Mercy who you have probably seen if you've ever emailed us, she does a phenomenal job of checking on the email. So it's you know, not just you know, me, it's a phenomenal team. I just get to be the one in front of the microphone or front of the camera.

With that being said the goal was really to increase the business success rate. That was the mission that we were drilling for. We wanted to do that in a two-part way. We wanted to create that opportunity for visibility for entrepreneurs and business owners to talk about their business, what it is they do, what makes them unique and successful, what their secret sauce is, and their unique selling proposition and then drill down a little bit deeper and go behind that, that that veil so to speak, to hear those things, those kinds of secrets to success that they do to be effective and efficient.

So those were the CEO hacking and CEO nuggets and then the glue was just bringing together like exactly how you would define being an entrepreneur business owner. So that was the vision that I had in place. I remember I basically had that kind of in place and then I went to a local woman's cups, if you haven't checked out what made cups go to the DMV CEO site, there is a resource that you want to know about. Specifically, we have one in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area but it's all across the United States.

So shout out to the Kauffman Foundation for standing up for a great organization. But with that being said, I presented there and they kind of poked holes in everything that I was doing just kind of give me that different perspective just so that I can strengthen my model and my business model of what it is that I was hoping to see and it has evolved from even just that a year ago and it will continue to evolve I'm understanding that.

So with that being said I'm AM CEO podcast was launched in July and kicked off everything by interviewing my mom who has an embroidery business the goal for the podcast was really to get laser focus interviews and about 60 minutes or less largely because of Blue 16 Media and I am always using wearing wearing number 16 Since I was a And in the junior year of my college, I feel like I've been wearing some form of number 16, just about every day. But the goal was really to get that two-part kind of mission fulfilled in these laser-focused podcasts.

I've had some phenomenal guests, everything from everybody from the former CEO of Calvin Klein to inventors, investors, real estate investors, solopreneurs, coaches, consultants, you name it, they've been on the show. And you get to hear those different stories here, why they started their business as they do, and how you can also Arm yourself as being a better entrepreneur or business owner.

So with that being said, the IAMCEO podcast is a branch of CB Nation where we focus on increasing the business success rate. And we make sure to do that, and a lot of different ways, audio, video, and of course blog content, to kind of hit that mission, and we kind of, you know, laser focus on that. Then what we do is we make sure that we are also providing those resources that help our business owners provide awareness to all the resources that you may not necessarily know about as well.

So with that being said, that CB nation, that's our products and services, and then what I feel like is our secret sauce is usually what I talk about all the time, it's kind of that media company mindset, the idea is that you create a bunch of content for your target and ideal client, and you get the opportunity to not just potentially provide your products and services, but also have that opportunity to potentially create new products and services that you may partner with other strategic partners for, or you might just create, it may not even exist, but because you've so dialed into, and you have a pulse and feel upon those entrepreneurs and business owners, you can fulfill exactly what they're looking for.

I think that you know, for me, it's entrepreneurs and business owners for somebody else, and might be, you know, personal trainers for somebody else. It might be people who want to lose weight, it could be so many things. But the idea is that you're creating content for that target market. And you're so kind of drilled into that, that you're able to create a product that they want not just something that you want.

I think that the big thing to kind of keep in mind is that with my evolution, with this podcast, and with this blog, I've learned that sometimes everything you create doesn't necessarily always pan out. And that's okay because that's part of the process. But I think the big thing that I've taken away, is that sometimes because you're so doubting, you have to listen to what people are asking for and what people are looking to do. And then you have to provide that.

So sometimes it's not what we have in mind before we get started, sometimes, we just get that opportunity to really kind of showcase that. And I think that's one of the exciting things about being an entrepreneur or business owner and for lack of a better term kind of like an artist and creating things. So with that being said, That is the secret sauce is your media company creating the content, video, and information for those entrepreneurs and business owners.

As always, I want to just switch gears and I want to give you a rapid-fire CEO hack, which is like an app or book or habit that you have, that I have that you may not be incorporating into your life, if you didn't hear me, I'm sitting in my car, I'm about to go into the gym, that's got to be one of the most clutch hacks that there is out there. For me, it's the gym, eating well working out, I think that I'm probably in the best health that I've ever been in.

Over these past few years, you know, I've run a 10 miler, I've, you know, run numerous five K's, I, you know, I just ran a seven and a half minute mile, all these things, because I've been taking care of my health. But what it has done is it allowed my mindset to get on an entirely different level. And because of that, I'm gonna I'm able to, you know, to me go through and understand that the Marathon of running a business and what exactly that looks like.

So I've been able to do that largely just because I have that mindset. And largely that mindset is just because I've been working out I've been beaten on my body to strengthen my mind. And I think that's one of the big things that you could do, you could do that from a working out standpoint, but also look at it from an eating, I drink a ton of water. You just want to make sure to hydrate and put things into your body in your mind so that you can be successful and efficient.

So with that being said, the next thing that I wanted to kind of touch on was what I call the CEO nugget. And this is the word of wisdom or a piece of advice that we're going to hop into a time machine when I would probably tell my younger business self and I think I would probably keep doing a lot of what I'm doing. I think the biggest thing I probably would say is just go bigger.

Don't quit, don't give up just really go after it, I think that's the biggest thing that we sometimes often forget, is that we have to have that consistency, we have to have that mindset. But I always say, if you want to do something that you're passionate about the really the cheat code, I think, is to be able to do something you're passionate about and get paid for doing it. I think a good measure of that is if whatever you're doing right now, you had to quit it, you would restart the same thing. And that's why I feel like I am.

So I would tell myself to just go with it, go directly towards it in the fight through it, and understand that it could take time and may not necessarily go straight on the direct path if you think it will. But with that being said, make sure that you don't quit and you continue with it. Because you can do anything in this world. If you have this mentality as a mindset that you're just going to do whatever it takes to make that happen. Whether that be good as you know, a side job, whether that be going to drive Uber, whether that is you know, mopping floors, whatever that might be, that helps you get to where you want to be in your life and what success looks like, then you make sure that you do that.

So make sure you do that. And with that being said, the last thing, I wanted to kick off with the definition of what it means to be a CEO. Our whole goal was to have different quote-unquote, CEOs on the show. So I think CEO is a mindset, I think it's something that you can be whether you're a solopreneur, or you're a traditional CEO, you can have that strategic mindset, you can have that ownership, not just of you necessarily doing yourself all the time, maybe you have a contract to do it. Maybe you have an employee do it. Maybe you're partnering with a strategic firm that has that expertise.

With that being said, make sure you have that CEO mindset because it's all about taking control and taking action into whatever goal that you have not anybody else's goal is your goal and you're okay with having that goal. So with that being said, this is Gresh signing out.

This is episode number 400. I've been truly blessed that you've listened to this and that you've downloaded this podcast and I hope you continue to listen. We provide loads of great value and great content. But with that being said, this is Gresh signing out.

OUTRO 12:02

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by 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. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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