IAM2692 – Creating a System: Turning Ideas into Replicable Processes

The Journey and Strategic Realignment

Gresham Harkless introduces this special episode as a “snippet of a snippet,” aimed at documenting his journey into launching Blue Star Franchise. This initiative includes the development of a sub-site within CB Nation called Franchise CEO, intended to provide insight and “color” into the building process for those considering franchises or any new business venture. Inspired by advice from the founder of the Franchise Brokers Association, Harkless emphasizes that documenting this path is a way to be helpful to other builders while staying true to one's unique self and “running your own race”.

Identifying Gaps and New Opportunities

Reflecting on the concept of “connecting the dots” looking backwards, Harkless realizes that his current path is aligning with seeds planted years prior. While building his digital marketing company, he experienced an epiphany triggered by observing how people interacted with content creation tools. He noticed a significant gap: while he used these tools consistently to document his process, many others lacked the consistency needed to create content at scale. This realization, coupled with conversations with thought leaders and franchise candidates who wanted to lean into their “genius,” highlighted an opportunity to help busy professionals leverage their expertise through systematic content creation.

Systems, Scalability, and Future Vision

Harkless is now testing a new concept that bridges the gap between digital marketing and franchise brokering, viewing the two fields as “cousins” that naturally lead into one another. His primary challenge is moving beyond just enjoying the conversations to creating a replicable process and system that can be scaled. By going through this process as a customer himself, he aims to create a “win-win-win” scenario where he helps others use tools to leverage further opportunities. Ultimately, he is leaning into his own “superpower” and alignment, recognizing that success comes from focusing on areas where personal genius and market needs intersect.

Previous Episode: https://iamceo.co/iam2688-documenting-the-journey-how-to-build-trust-and-momentum-fast/

• 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

Have to come up with an idea and name, but at the very least I have a little bit more of a concept. So it's worth testing out. Like, I had another niche that I was really testing out, but this one feels a lot more in line. But one of the things that I wanted to, when I built whatever that niche was going to be, that it ended up being more of a process and a system. So that'll be the challenge of like, yes, I like it, I enjoy it, I love having these conversations. But I think the really true, really big and true opportunity is actually going to be in being able to kind of create a system around and replicate.

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast and this is a special episode, episode number 2287 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'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 Herald 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 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 day.

Gresham Harkless 02:09

Steve Jobs has this quote where he says, you can only connect the dots of your life sometimes looking backwards. It's from a commencement speech that he gave at Stanford. But one of the funny things that I found about this is that I often have conversations with CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners and they tell me a lot of like, what they do. And a lot of those seeds are usually planted, not just when they're doing it. Usually they're planted years and years and years prior to that. So that's why that quote really resonates with me on the idea and the concept of sometimes when you're doing things and you're just operating in your space and who you are, sometimes there's alignment after the fact.

So for me, I've been looking a lot at different niche audiences. So when we're building the digital marketing company, I'm trying to figure out exactly how to do that, what that offering looks like, what audience can I serve. And you know, I've been back and forth around, you know, different audiences, but now I actually got an epiphany. And that epiphany didn't come from me, it came from other people talking to me like, hey, this might be an opportunity. And this tool that I'm using actually right now is a perfect example example of that. Because with this CEO hack, it allows me to create content in a quick way. And I've been able to kind of do that at scale. I've done over 200 of these episodes just documenting my process in terms of being a franchise broker.

But one of the really big things that kind of came up is they identified me as somebody who used the tool a lot more than the average person. But also that there was a gap where people weren't using the tool or they would use it for a little bit, come back and then leave and use it for maybe a month and then a week or two and then leave. And there wasn't that consistency in terms of creating content. So that's where that. And having another conversation with another digital marketer that actually I referred to an opportunity opened up this idea. And it's kind of being able to kind of drill down and be able to kind of help people along the, the, the journey of creating content.

I talk with a lot of people that have thought leadership. I actually just talked yesterday with a potential franchise selling candidate and she is selling her franchise largely because she wants to lean more into her expertise and her genius. And that was project management. So it's funny that again, those dots are aligning, and they're aligning looking backwards because maybe that is showing me what is the next path. As I try to hold on to the prior things, as I like to say a lot, in order to go and swing to the next jungle gym, you have to let go of the previous one, but not wanting to let go of that previous jungle gym because I feel like I'm on a four. I didn't know what to swing into. And I think I'm getting a lot more alignment on what that looks like.

So I'm gonna put out a test and see. Just kind of check the temperature of people that have been on the show, especially that usually have that thought leadership and want to be able to kind of do that at scale and figure out exactly how to do that, especially if they are super busy. So that's something that I'm putting together. It's not, you know, by myself. It's in alignment with other people. But I feel like there's a really big opportunity because not only can we do that, but we can create that content. The content goes on social, goes on blogs, goes on content. But that content can also be leveraged as far as, like doing, you know, Google Ads or SEO, optimizing a website or post, doing all those things, like taking that thought leadership and kind of running with it.

Have to come up with an idea and a name. But at the very least, I have a little bit more of a concept. So it's worth testing out. Like, I had another niche that I was really testing out, but this one feels a lot more in line. But one of the things that I wanted to do when I built whatever that niche was going to be, that it ended up being more of a process and a system. So that'll be the challenge of like, yes, I like it, I enjoy it, I love having these conversations. But I think the really true, really big and true opportunity is actually going to be in being able to kind of create a system around it and replicate this.

But I think I have an idea of exactly how to do that. And I'm actually going through this process as a customer as well too. So it should be pretty exciting to kind of see this evolution. And I think it'll be my opportunity to create win, win, win, because I'm able to help people find out about a tool, using that tool to be able to kind of leverage further more and more opportunities in the future. So pretty excited, Pretty awesome. We'll see how everything goes.

But needless to say, like, this franchise broker journey took me to where I am now with the digital market, which is why I wanted to kind of be aligned with these things, because I think they're very much so. Cousins, I'll say. I won't say brother and sister, but I'll definitely say cousins. And when I have a conversation around one thing, it leads to another. So, you know, with that person that I spoke with around her franchise, I end up talking about my podcast. And when I talked about my podcast, it opened up a whole entire thing where she has a genius, and she hasn't really shared that, you know, across, you know, sites and the way that she's able to do that.

It just was an aha moment. But it's aha moment. That's been said many times. I just got to start listening. So, you know, you hear a lot of different things. It's hard to know what focus. What to focus on. But sometimes what you should focus on has a lot of alignment with who you are, your superpower, your genius, and you could just ultimately kind of take it from there. So that's kind of like where I'm at, and I'm looking forward to leaning more into this.