IAM2616 – What They Threw Away: I Built with Story Part 2

Gresham Harkless shares his personal story: a string of layoffs in his early 20s left him frustrated, embarrassed, and feeling undervalued after years of broken promises and unstable jobs.

Those setbacks rekindled an entrepreneurial itch he’d had since childhood—selling chips on the playground and taking sales gigs in college.

After twelve years of running a six‑figure digital‑marketing firm and interviewing over 1,600 CEOs, he realized the key to resilience is finding the right franchise, not just any business.

Today, through Blue Star Franchise, Gresham acts as a matchmaker, offering hundreds of vetted franchise opportunities across 30+ industries—from food and fitness to virtual and home‑based models.

He invites anyone who’s been laid off or is at a career crossroads to book a free, no‑pressure conversation at bluestarfranchise.com, reminding listeners they have far more options than they think.

• 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

Check out our CEO Hack Buzz Newsletter–our premium newsletter with hacks and nuggets to level up your organization. Sign up HERE. 

I AM CEO Handbook Volume 3 is HERE and it's FREE. Get your copy here: http://cbnation.co/iamceo3. Get the 100+ things that you can learn from 1600 business podcasts we recorded. Hear Gresh's story, learn the 16 business pillars from the podcast, find out about CBNation Architects and why you might be one and so much more. Did we mention it was FREE? Download it today!

Transcription:

The full transcription is only available to CBNation Library Members. Sign up today!

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 subcite 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 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.

Getting laid off changed everything for me. Not just my job, not just my income, everything.

I felt frustrated, angry, sad. I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream. I felt embarrassed.

Even though you hear that other people get laid off and these things happen, when it hits home and it happens to you, it feels, it hits different. I felt played.
While I know that I was in my early 20s, I knew that it could happen again and again and again if it happened then. Every time I hear about someone else getting laid off, I feel it, like a punch to the gut.

And I think I'm only now just starting to understand why. Because it's me. It probably wasn't just the layoff. It was the buildup.

Graduating and being promised job after job after job, and that never came to fruition. Raises that were talked about but never happened, or if they did, they were a small percentage of what I felt like I put in.
It was years of being treated like I was less than. The layoff was just honestly probably the tipping point.

Now, I used to run sports camps all across Northern Virginia. I was Disneyland dad, and I would walk in with a big, huge, inflatable Mr. Football, and the kids would throw the football into Mr. Football, two to five years old, even the two-year-olds, they could barely stand up.

And I would clap, and I would scream, and I would get excited for them to enjoy sports, enjoy activity. I even had the opportunity to teach them Stranger Danger, where they would pull their armor away and say, hey, you're not my mommy, or you're not my daddy, and teach them the safety and the fun that could come with sports and being active.

It was honestly purpose-driven work, but I left. I left because I didn't think it was stable, and I thought I had a better opportunity. But unfortunately, I left one sinking ship for another, and that job also was not stable. I had one manager that left during training.

I had another manager that left about a day or two after I got out of training. So I found myself back at the job working with the kids.

I felt like it wasn't stable, but I said, hey, at least I love what it is that I do. I still believed in the mission, honestly.

But a few months later, hours were reduced, and I was essentially laid off again. I felt like I did everything right. I stayed late, woke up early. Drove all across Northern Virginia.

Stepped in when others didn't step up. I got my master's degree. I got my bachelor's degree. I did all the things that I felt like I was still tossed aside, like I was nothing.

But in that painful moment, something shifted. I remember being the kid selling potato chips on the playground, selling the family newspaper. And I always had that entrepreneurial itch. I took the sales jobs in college, not because I loved it, but because I knew I needed it if I ever wanted to start a business.

But honestly, I didn't believe in myself. I was told I didn't have what it takes, indirectly and directly, and honestly, I believed it. And then I got laid off. That was the moment I realized that I really had nothing left to lose.

I didn't go back and take a bunch of sales jobs. I just took one more. But I knew I was going to get laid off from that job, too, because it wasn't stable either. But at that time, I had a different mindset.

And it was deja vu, because as I found myself going through that job, stubbing my toe, not doing great, doing great, having all those mixes of feelings, my manager eventually left again.

I found myself in the same place without the mentorship, without the support, without the things that I thought I would get when I graduated from school. But the difference was things had changed. When that happened, I knew And I was ready to make that change.

Fast forward 12 years later, I run a six-figure digital marketing company. I've interviewed over 1,600 CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners. I've made every mistake that you could probably make. I've learned.

I've grown. And I've started helping others do the same that are at these crossroad moments. Now, I know entrepreneurship is not for everyone.

And frankly, it probably even wasn't for me when I started either.

But here's what I wish I knew. While the company that laid me off was a franchise, it just wasn't the right one.

There are hundreds of franchises out there that we have in our inventory that have real systems, support, and some guidance. And that's one of the reasons I wanted to start Blue Star Franchise.

Not to just push business ownership, but to serve as a matchmaker, helping people find the right opportunity for the goals, their skill set, and ultimately who they are and where they ultimately want to go.

Now, whether you're ready to start something new or just want to explore options so you never feel powerless again, let's talk. We have hundreds of franchise businesses across 30 plus industries in our inventory, from food to fitness, coaching, cleaning, storefronts, to virtual businesses, to home-based businesses, lots of different options, even part-time businesses.

But honestly, even if you're just looking for your next job, I put together helpful resources for people that have been laid off too.

So if you've been laid off or you're at a crossroads, let's chat. Visit bluestarfranchise.com to book a free, no-pressure conversation. And I say to myself often, they gave me lemons, so I planted a grove. And you can too.

You're not alone. You've got way more options than you think. Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help. And of course, looking forward to giving you more and more updates.

Outro 06:55
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. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

[/restrict]