IAM2611 – Prospecting Every Day Like Day 1

In this special episode, Gresham Harkless Jr. frames the show as a resource for anyone building a business, emphasizing the value of sharing real‑time experiences and encouraging listeners to subscribe for more content.

He then recounts his personal experience with layoffs, beginning with his first layoff in his early twenties, describes the fear, disappointment, and feeling of being misled that came with a reduction in force, noting how the instability of early jobs forced him to confront the reality that no one—​not even CEOs—​is immune to job loss.

This turning point sparked a mindset shift: rather than waiting for another opportunity, he decided to “burn the boats” and pursue entrepreneurship, recognizing that the stakes would feel far higher later in life when family responsibilities increase.

Seeing franchising as a hybrid path that blends entrepreneurial ownership with a proven business model, Gresham explains why he gravitated toward this avenue.

He is compiling resources, such as a “layoff survival list,” to help others facing similar setbacks and hopes to connect with listeners who might become franchise candidates.

• 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 subsite within CB nation called a Franchise CEO.

So you'll see some links in the show notes related to that. But I just want 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 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. It 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. This is day 256 of this franchise broker journey and I'm getting back to like prospecting like it's day one.

One of the big things that I ignored, well I don't want to say I ignored, I wanted to do more general. Now deciding to be a lot more focused.

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There's a tremendous amount of layoffs that are happening. My heart honestly goes out to everybody who's been laid off. I got laid off when I was 25 or so. It might have been 24, 23, 24, something like that.

It was in my early 20s. And I remember that feeling. That feeling was terrible because I've heard and I read a lot, and people usually say or have said that Layoffs don't just come out of nowhere.

Typically there's signs and those signs get kind of amplified and then you know that there's a layoff.

So for me, I was really looking at, you know, what was happening, you know, in the business. I left the company largely because I didn't think it was stable, but then I went to a place that was not stable either,

where two of my managers had left and it was just like very, very not exciting place to be and then so I went right back to where I was before because I said hey even if I'm going to be in some places unstable.

At least I want to I want to I'm going to be in some places unstable at least I want to enjoy what I do which I was working with kids at the time so that was very enjoyable running sports camps all across northern Virginia.

But probably not too long after that I was laid off and I could laugh about it now I was not happy about it then I was actually very scared, very, very sad.

And I didn't have a full layoff, but it was a reduction in force. And I felt kind of misled because I talked to the manager, the manager, the owner actually, co-owner.

And he had said that, you know, things would, you know, there's still opportunity there. But the reality is that there, there wasn't a lot of opportunity.

And that's where I really, you know, changed, you know, honestly. And at that time I said, okay, that layoff then was, you know, that layoff was when I was like 23, 24.

I was living with my family. Imagine if that layoff was when I was, you know, 34, 35, 38, 40, whatever it is, whatever those numbers are.

And I have a wife, kids, everybody is dependent on me. So that's kind of like what, you know, flipped the switch for me where I said that, Hey, I know that I'm not immune to layoffs.

No one's immune to layoffs, really. Even these CEOs get fired from their own company.

Now, it's a completely different thing, obviously, when you're basically raising two kids, or three kids, or three and a half dogs, or frankly, even yourself, and you're trying to make ends meet, and then you experience a layoff.

You pour yourself into your company. You do all the things. For me, it was literally driving across Northern Virginia, using my gas.

Expending all my energy to make sure these kids enjoy their time. And then you just kind of get thrown aside like you're nothing. And so for me, I changed. I changed then.

And I know there's probably some people that are experiencing that same thing where they poured a lot into what it is that they're doing.

They probably did a ton of giving and investing and working and are really They really have the skills that you look for to start a business. And maybe that light switch does go off and they say that I'm not going back. Maybe it doesn't happen when they're 23, 24.

Maybe it happens when they're 43, 44, or 50, whatever it is. And they realize that maybe there aren't any other opportunities.

For me, I kind of burn the boats just because that's my mentality. But it doesn't mean that I'm any different than anybody else.

I believe that entrepreneurship is definitely not for everybody. One of the reasons I wanted to get into franchising is because I felt like it's a little bit more of a hybrid.

You can be an entrepreneur, you can own your own business, but at the same time, you don't have to come up with the idea. What you have to do is come through and execute on a daily basis.

And don't get me wrong, there's things that happen, there's fires you have to put out, there's things that you definitely need to know. It's not a job.

But I think it's a little bit more of that middle of the ground, middle of the pack for somebody that is high, is really great at executing. At the same time, maybe more of a nine-to-five mentality, but wants to own their own thing and have their own investment and leave a legacy to some degree.

So that's where I'm kind of, you know, hoping that I could reach out to people and see if that could be of any help.

But, you know, I think the biggest thing is I'm putting some resources together and starting to compile some things very similar to COVID where I had a running list of all things that we needed. Same thing is going to be for layoffs.

And I just want to put that together and, you know, see what things I can do to kind of help out.

But we'll see. Maybe some of these people will become candidates. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help. And of course, I look forward to giving you more and more updates.

Outro 06:46
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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