IAM2671 – Documenting the Journey to Build a Sustainable Model

The Podcast Business Model & New Venture

Gresham Harkless is releasing this as a special episode, number 2287, which is a snippet documenting his journey into starting a new business called Blue Star Franchise. This new venture will also have a sub-site/channel called Franchise CEO within CB Nation. Harkless's main reason for doing all this is to build out a viable business model for the podcast. He believes that while building downloads and followers is important, the business aspect is where most people struggle. He intends to document this journey, realizing it could be helpful for those considering franchises or starting any type of business.

Challenges and Re-evaluation of Alignment

Harkless shares that he is on day 343 of this franchise broker journey, admitting it is hard to believe it has been this long and that he thought he would be much further ahead. His initial idea was to build out the franchise business to support the podcast and other long-term projects. However, he realized this new venture wasn't as aligned as he initially thought, calling it a “miscalculation” on his part. He believes the business can be very profitable if he can convert even a small percentage of his existing audience list (e.g., 5,000 to 10,000 people), but getting those people is the key. The journey has felt like a failure, and he notes that his two other classmates have “dropped off”.

Strategy and Forward Momentum

Harkless is at a point of re-prioritization, looking to take the rest of his 12 weeks to “go all in on the content creation” to build success and test what will work for the franchise brokerage business. He maintains that it will be a viable business. He suggests it's a great opportunity for someone who already has different streams of revenue or another business. While he wouldn't advise going “all in” on it based on his experience, he acknowledges that having the time to do so is what creates a “breakaway”. He plans to continue experimenting, including testing Meta ads. Ultimately, he is focusing on keeping costs low and leveraging relationships to create great opportunities.

Previous Episode: https://iamceo.co/iam2667-the-journey-to-the-next-level/

• Blue Star Franchise: bluestarfranchise.com
• Browse the Franchise Inventory: bluestarfranchise.com/franchise
• Is franchising right for you? Check this out to see: bluestarfranchise.com/assessment
• Franchise CEO (A CBNation Site – coming soon) – franchiseceo.co

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Transcription:

Gresham Harkless (00:00)

The reason I'm doing all this is to build out a business model for the podcast. That's the whole reason I feel like I still very much feel like I've used content information to build our business the best way to do a podcast. And I, I believe that you can definitely go the route, of course, in terms of building out the downloads, the followers, all of those things. But I feel li ke if you have a business, that's where most people struggle.

From the IM CEO podcast and this is a special episode, episode number 2287 of our IM 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'll 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 her Glennard post is. 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 need you to be your unique self. So make sure to run your own race, because nobody can run your race like you. This is Grass signing out. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of day.

Gresham Harkless (02:01)

It's day 343 of this franchise broker journey. It's hard to believe it's been this long as far as like the journey. And man, I thought I would be so much further ahead Because I think the idea was to take this, build this out, to be able to build up the other thing. And I think the reality that I came to is that.

The reason I'm doing all this is to build out a business model for the podcast. That's the whole reason I feel like, I still very much feel like I've used content information to build our business, the best way to do a podcast. And I, I believe that you can definitely go the route, of course, in terms of building out the downloads, the, the, the followers, all of those things. But I feel like if you have a business, that's where most people struggle. You can get views, you get downloads, you get all those things. And I don't want to call them vanity metrics, but I do believe that you want to make sure that you have a viable business with what it is that you're doing. So that's where I looked at it. It's like I was trying to build out this franchise broker business to support.

The podcast and the blog and all the things that I've been doing over the years. And I realized, like, that isn't it, you know, and doesn't necessarily mean it can't be. It, it just means that this is probably not as aligned as I thought it was going to be. And that's miscalculation on my part. But it doesn't mean that there's not anything there, because here's the reality is that you, if you get 5,000 people on your list or 10,000 people on your list, even if you get a small percentage of those people in this business, it's very, very profitable. But it's only if you get those people. So for me, I've been very much so locked in on continuing to kind of grow out the thing that I've been doing. I think that maybe focusing a lot more. And I'm going back and forth, franchise business or this business, this business or that business. And I said I was gonna take the rest of my 12 weeks, like next was gonna be like 17 days or so, go all in on the content creation, try to build out the success. Ultimately what I wanted to do is to continue to kind of test out and see what will work for this business now, this franchise brokerage business. I do truly feel like this is going to be a viable business. I just think you have to make sure, in my opinion.

Have set up the, the opportunities to be able to have different streams of revenue. I think it's a great opportunity for somebody that has something else that they're doing. I wouldn't necessarily say that from my experience that I would do this, I would go all in on this.

However, I think by having the time to go all in on it, that's where you create a breakaway. However, I've heard many people very similar to real estate that don't actually make it through. And I am a testament as well too. Although I can honestly say, like, go all the way in because I still have my digital marketing business because I'm still doing the podcast, this was kind of the third thing that I was working on. However, I do think the ROI is such that if you can.

Sustain a certain amount of advertising dollars, you can see some opportunity come from here. So very interested, super intrigued by, like, where these opportunities lie, what it's going to ultimately look like. Then I test out, I think, some meta ads at some point very soon, and then just kind of go all in on, you know, what this looks like. So I'm running a bunch of experiments, doing a bunch of different things as usual. I think that for better or worse, sometimes that takes you away from doing the things and how you should be doing them. And I think that at the end of the day, you know, it's just taking it one step at a time. It's hard to believe it's been a year. I think my other two classmates have kind of dropped off. And I completely understand. You gotta make sure that you, like, we all came in with something else. That's what was unique probably about our class.

Like, I don't know if anybody says I'm doing this full time or I'm doing this even consciously, you know, I don't wanna say full part time. I think this was, for me, it was a side hustle to a side hustle. I wanted it to be my main thing. I definitely wanted to grow up there, but I just didn't get the traction that I thought I would get. So I hate, you know, going through and saying, like, I failed, but it feels like I fail. However, I think it's one of those businesses where there's not a requirement as far as.

What you have to pay out. However, if you do pay out, it still doesn't necessarily.

 Mean that you're going to get leads, you're going to get close business. So I think if you're able to keep costs low and maybe leverage the relationship, you could get some really great opportunities. So that's how I'm kind of approaching it for now. I'm still going to test out some, some marketing and meta ads. Probably as well too. We'll see how everything goes from there. But still chopping at the tree, just different.