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IAM2587 – Unlock Your Productivity: Journey through the 12-Week Year
Special Episode by Gresham Harkless Jr.
In this special episode, Gresham Harkless is stepping into day two of this new 12-week year with a completely restructured focus and a deeper understanding of what really matters right now.He’s shifted digital marketing to the top of his priorities, recognizing that with the right infrastructure now in place, it has strong growth potential.
Gresham reflects on the tough transitions he's faced — unexpected challenges that hit hard, echoing the Mike Tyson quote about everyone having a plan until they get punched.
He emphasizes the importance of balancing business with personal life, especially as he manages parenthood and struggles with sleep.
Furthermore, Gresham highlights the significance of mental and emotional resilience, recognizing that staying focused and mentally strong during hard times is what will ultimately drive success.
- 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 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 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'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 the day.
All right, so I'm re-recording this for the third time. I actually thought I was recording two things, but basically, I have my 12-week year that has just basically started yesterday.
So, I'm working on that, and we'll see just kind of how things will go from there.
Basically, it's day two of the 12-week year, very sales-focused.
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I've completely reprioritized things, like digital marketing is going to be that number one thing that I was going to focus on.
And right after that is going to be either CEO hacks. I think it's going to be CEO hacks because that's the ultimate long-term if I had to pick one.
The three things I would lean more into the CEO hacks and the affiliate links, and being able to kind of develop a membership around there.
And then the next thing is going to be the broker. So going into this year, I think we were looking at probably a flip of that brokerage was number one.
I think the CEO hacks might've still been in kind of in the middle. I think digital marketing was at the bottom, and it wasn't fully at the bottom, but it was just like, I wasn't as involved as I have been.
I think we had some operations people in place. I wanted to continue to kind of work through that and then adjust from there.
But I think that's where I want to make sure that we adjust that. You want to get the digital marketing to a spot. I was kind of at that spot, but I didn't have the infrastructure that I have now.
So, if we can keep the infrastructure as we do now, then hopefully we can continue to kind of move forward.
So that's going to be the big thing is just making that adjustment and then ultimately kind of going from there.
The good thing is that we have one client that we're kind of looking at to see as a potential option to bring on another new client.
But I want to basically get two or three more of those existing clients, and then we'll kind of see how those things go.
So, that being said, I think we again want to take steps forward. I also am really big into Sales is the number one thing, but also naps, which is wild.
I've never been one that has a great relationship with sleep, but the little one not sleeping through the night still.
Even before Star, and even before, I've never been a great sleeper, and that's something that I had to really work on.
Sometimes you can't always affect your sleep, but you can get not the same with naps, but you can get something where you feel a little bit better.
And I think it'll hopefully help out with my blood sugar and all those things, too. So, these are real-life things that are happening.
And as you're running a business, like you have to juggle not just the business part, but also the personal part, being able to kind of navigate all those things as being such a huge thing.
So that's what I'm looking at right now. And we'll just see how everything takes it from how everything goes from there.
The news is I'm starting to see some fruits being bared. It's a challenging time, but you're starting to see it.
And when you start to see it, that gives you a little bit more energy, and you can continue to pour into that.
But I think one of the biggest parts that I have to really hone in on is that mental part, mental and emotional part of business. I talked about that before.
In the very beginning, people don't talk a lot about that. What you're telling yourself, what you're thinking you're going to see, is what's going to happen.
Making sure that you stay really locked in, especially during the difficult times, is what's going to keep you going.
So, this has been really tough. I was not expecting this at all. And I go back to Mike Tyson quote, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.
I got punched in the face, and I'm not the only one. I think a lot of people in this industry got punched in the face.
So, the thing is, I think I got really blessed by not letting go of the digital marketing company.
I was able to kind of switch gears with that a little bit, get our operations up and going, and now we can push more into that.
So, I'm looking forward to that, seeing what happens, and then just ultimately kind of take it from there.
So yeah, that's it. This 12-week year, I think it's going to be very transformational. So, I'm ready to lock in.
I'm ready to get going. I'm ready to see you know, some sales come through the door and help out some people.
So, let's just see what happens and make sure I get some of my daily nap in as well, too, which it's weird to say, but it's something that I'm really going to prioritize as well, too, with this sales goal.
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 06:02
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.
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