IAM2561 – Identify Growth Gaps in Your Strategy

In this special episode, Gresham Harkless reflects on a strategic shift in his approach to lead generation, moving away from prioritizing quantity to focusing on the quality of leads, particularly in the context of his Google Ads campaign.

He initially aimed to collect as many leads as possible, but soon realized that this strategy resulted in mostly low-quality prospects.

Gresham emphasizes the importance of finding the right prospects rather than chasing volume and expressed a goal of securing 5 to 10 quality leads per month.

He highlights a major gap in public awareness around franchise opportunities, revealed through networking conversations and his experience with a BNI chapter application, which he ultimately paused due to interpersonal concerns.

Gresham remains optimistic and committed to adapting his strategy, exploring niche franchise opportunities, and using these regular updates as a grounding part of his routine to track progress and stay focused.

• 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.

Re-evaluating the gaps. So, I really try to do the Google Ad perspective and everything kind of changed because what I said was instead of trying to get as many leads as possible, which we started out doing.

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It's like, hey, let's just get leads. Let's just go get leads so I can call them and see. We got really kind of low-quality leads for the most part.

But I would say maybe around two or so came from Google Ads. One of those has been really flaky. The other one, we went through the process. She got it flaky towards the end after I did the presentation.

And she decided not to go on, but she did tell me that. So that was that. And part of it is like she owned her own business, and she didn't want to, she didn't want to pay the royalties and things like that.

I think that's what it came down to. But what I'm ultimately kind of looking at is how can I get maybe 10 quality leads come in each month?

And I think that's kind of like the goal that I should have now, related to Blue Star, even 5 to 10 leads.

I think if you have 10 quality leads that come in, you're gonna look at it a lot differently than trying to get the, 100, 150.

I've been, I've had the, I'm not in the room talking with the other brokers, the high-top brokers, but there's a co-broker program.

So, in this co-broker program, one of my classmates actually negotiated being in that program, but you have to maintain a certain level to be in that program.

But overall, across the board in that program, apparently there's a drop in there's a drop in the percentage that people's clothes rates.

And it's wild because you get into this right when the clothes rates drop. But, where there's some disruption, there's definitely opportunity.

So, the question remains, people aren't buying, or is it that you just have to be able to find the right people that are buying? And I think being able to kind of look at that and see is it's going to be huge.

I really thought that, with the change in the economy, that no matter what economy, even if it's a bad economy, you would think that people would be knocking on doors to start businesses, but that's not actually the case.

There's so much insurgency that's happening. So, with that being said, I just had to reevaluate everything, but I thought going in has completely changed. And I thought the Google Ads was going to be the way to go.

It turns out, in the way that I was doing it, it wasn't. I don't think Google Ads ended up itself or not. I just had to find and have to find a niche opportunity.

So, I'll be looking into that, seeing what things I can create, what things I can do, where things can go.

But I'm still excited. I think that where there's disruption, there is definitely opportunity. And where there's opportunity, that's where you get to innovate and grow. But you have to innovate and grow.

You can't continue to do the same thing and say, hey, why am I not getting any further? So yeah, I'm adjusting, switching some gears, and ultimately take it from there.

But we'll see what happens and see where it goes, and then continue to check in. I think also, too, doing these updates has been super helpful because it's almost like, for the most part, unless I'm traveling or just get off my filter because a little one gets up early or something like that.

It's part of my routine. It's part of the thing that I do. So, with that being said, it's just kind of my check-in, that in addition to me, like trying to hop on calls as much as I can, you learn so much around the different brands and the opportunities.

So yeah, I, but it's wild because I talked with, I had a one-to-one, and I was gonna join a BNI chapter, didn't get, did not get accepted.

I decided to pause my application because I talked with the committee and I got pushback, I think, from one of the members, at least one of the members, and I didn't know if she would kind of spoil the well or poison the well, so to speak.

So, that being said, I still had one-to-ones with some of the people. One of the people I had one-to-ones with, she's pretty much like, he would have been a really good fit for the chapter, but she also had owned a franchise, and the franchise that she had owned.

She said she didn't even know about all these opportunities in franchising. So, I think there's so much kind of lack of knowledge and awareness around franchising.

And I really want to try to get more information out about that. I think that's where the gap is, but I really want to drill down a lot more to see like, where there might be some under-cultivated or leveraged brands that we can try to make more content about.   So, we'll see how it goes and then ultimately take it from there.

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 06:28

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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