IAM2538 – Embrace New Beginnings: A Journey to Rediscovery

Gresham Harkless reflects on the challenges of a long and uncertain sales process, particularly in selling a business opportunity that lacks the clear, proven system of a traditional franchise.

He acknowledges the difficulty in balancing patience with the need for continuous improvement and occasional pivots, while also recognizing the value of sticking to what works.

Despite not having closed deals yet, Gresham celebrates small wins, such as successfully handing off prospects to his Zor and providing ongoing coaching.

Gresham plans to reinvigorate his approach starting on day 201 by joining a BNI networking chapter and focusing more on content creation, especially leveraging his podcast, to build momentum.

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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, 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.

A long sales process. It's not something where you meet somebody and then they're going to buy a franchise like tomorrow, typically.

There are definitely people that have that need where they've gotten laid off or anything like that.

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And that hasn't been a big focus of mine, but maybe it should be. So this is something where when I think of 200 days and think I'm starting anew, that's exactly what I'm looking at.

It's saying, like, how can I retool this? How can I do this in a completely different way? I think you're always at this balance between things take time.

And you know that there are improvements that are made and need to be made, and adjustments and tweaks and pivots and things that need to happen.

But there's also a case where you just need to hunker down and just do more of what you're doing.

And I think. You don't really know what the answer is. And I think that's what sometimes makes it difficult.

That's what's sometimes a beautiful thing around having a franchise is you actually get to follow a proven system, so you can kind of execute.

But in the same sense, sometimes the draw of going out on your own, this is definitely not a franchise.

So this is a little bit more of a business opportunity to give you an idea of what you're supposed to do.

But you decide, obviously, how you're going to run your business. And I think one of the draws of this is that you don't know exactly what's going to work.

You don't know exactly what's going to happen. It's not as easy as plugging and playing. There's a lot of moving parts that you have to kind of figure out.

So, for me, I'm very much so intrigued by how this is going to look. I'm seeing it as day 201, so we're going to start anew.

I'm not going to throw everything to the wayside. By no means am I going to do that. But I'm going to approach it as if I have made those deals.

Because I think one of the things our trainer said in the beginning is, if you approach it just like you made a deal, what would you continue to do?

And you continue to stay positive. You continue to know that you did the things that you were supposed to, that you were going to do.

And even though it's not a closed deal, because I haven't necessarily got somebody to start a franchise, I do feel like I do take wins in the fact that I have handed off to the Zor. I have done all that I could do to some degree to make that happen.

Now, you continue to kind of do the coaching and support on a weekly basis after you hand off to the Zor, but with that being said, I feel like there's been at least two or three people that I've handed off or were going to attempt to hand off that, the way that I wanted to go.

With that being said, I take some wins for that. But the way that I want to approach this now is joining a BNI chapter, potentially.

And then the other really big thing is looking a little bit more into content creation and seeing like how I can leverage that, especially the podcast.

So I look forward to seeing what that's going to look like, seeing what that's going to be. And then obviously kind of taking it from there.

But yeah, it's hard to believe. We're literally sitting at 200 days and, any time you have any type of startup, you're talking about this first six months and even a year are fully startup.

So it's just a reminder of that. I think that I got fully spoiled with my digital marketing business because my digital marketing business kind of started because there was actually a need for it.

Where this one is like, there is a need, but you don't necessarily have the closed deal in hand.

And because you don't have the closed deal in hand, it's a different ballgame. So you automatically wonder which is the best way to kind of start it.

Do you like go out on a limb and say, hey, this is a natural thing that I could start, and very much so in line or do I wait until I have the deal and then I can go through the process.

So I think it's really good when you're able to do the latter, which is having the deal.

But I think in all actuality, sometimes this is putting yourself in that place. So I'm getting myself out of my comfort zone, starting this and trying to see what happens, and we'll kind of see what goes from there.

But I'm excited around taking that next step. I wanted to take that next step, joining a networking group.

And then I think I'm definitely looking into doing more content creation and leveraging the podcast.

So that's my next step on this journey. And we'll see where it kind of takes me 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 06:09

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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