IAM2680 – Investigating New Brands and Market Opportunities

Reconfiguring for the Next Level

Gresham Harkless reflects on the challenge of business growth, noting that while it is common to hear advice about keeping “the main thing the main thing,” a conflict arises when that current focus is no longer what will lead to the next level of success. He describes being in a transitional phase where he is making bolder moves to facilitate change without “selling the farm”. This shift involves leaning more heavily into his franchise brokerage business, Blue Star Franchise, while simultaneously exploring ways to niche down his existing digital marketing efforts to unlock new opportunities.

The Framework of Strategic Testing

A central theme of this episode is Harkless’s commitment to an iterative testing process to determine his future direction. He explains that true insight only comes from leaning into these tests with enough intensity to see if they succeed or fail. By taking this experimental approach, he can either step back from projects that lack traction or double down on those that do. This philosophy is currently being applied to his franchise brokerage, where he is actively “sharpening the saw” by researching new brands and participating in industry events to identify high-potential opportunities.

Real-World Application and Documentation

Harkless emphasizes the importance of documenting this building process, a suggestion inspired by the founder of the Franchise Brokers Association. He views this transparency as a resource for anyone starting a business, offering a raw look at the journey rather than just the final results. Currently, he is seeing real-world traction with new leads and is moving through the practical steps of the brokerage process, such as reviewing entrepreneur assessments and preparing presentations for potential candidates. Ultimately, he views the next steps as a day-at-a-time progression, focused on discovering what works through active participation and constant learning.

Previous Episode: https://iamceo.co/iam2679-the-franchise-execution-model-why-franchising-isnt-about-reinventing-the-wheel/

• 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
Franchise brokerage wise. I mean, I still think that there's a huge opportunity there. I don't think that that has changed probably about close to the year. It's actually exciting to me to kind of see like some new brands. I went to an event yesterday as well too, that the VA ran where they had some different brands, brands that I hadn't heard of. Some of them I hadn't heard of because they're new to our inventory. So it's just an exciting time to kind of start, you know, continue to kind of sharpen the saw, continue to kind of look into these things to see what might be some opportunities.

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 her 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 the day.

Gresham Harkless 02:04

Let's keep the main thing. The main thing, that's what you hear a lot. And it's so important, you know, you understand this is a thing that is, you know, helping you to get to where you want to be. But what happens when the main thing is not the thing that's going to take you to the next level and that's where it becomes challenging. That's where I kind of been at, is starting to make that transition, that change and trying to gradually do it. But it doesn't necessarily happen, I think, unless you start to make some moves. So what I try to do is make bolder, bolder moves. Not necessarily sell the farm, so to speak, or put it all on black or all on red or whatever it is that is your flavor. The idea is that you start to really look at what's happening. So funny enough, I have started to see some traction with the franchise brokers business. I think that's a lot of times because people are also back. So it's just that time of year getting ready to wrap up towards the end of the year.

Went to a conference, got a few kind of leads, things there. Absolutely. I'm dialed in on trying to, I think lean more into the franchise brokerage business but also to, you know, look at this content that is a massive amount of content that we have and kind of purpose that get opportunities from there and then maybe even niching down in the digital marketing business. So I'm looking at some different opportunities there, seeing if there's some opportunity within a niche that I could really focus on. And if I can focus on a niche, then what that'll do is open up opportunities to do other things. So not necessarily as a placing, but maybe even a different focus on that. So I think that's one of the things that I want to continue to do is to kind of lean more into this testing. But I think it's really hard to test unless you take more and more of a. If you lean more and more into those tests. So sometimes those tests don't work out and you can just take a step back. Sometimes they do and you can lean more into it. So I'm kind of in that place where I'm kind of testing those things out and seeing what's working and what's not. But franchise brokerage wise, I mean, I still think that there's a huge opportunity there. I don't think that that has changed probably about close to the this. It's actually exciting to me to kind of see like some new brands. I went to an event yesterday as well too that NBA ran with. They had some different brands, brands that I hadn't heard of.

Some of them I hadn't heard of because they're new to our inventory. So it's just an exciting time to kind of start, you know, continue to kind of chirping us all, continue to kind of look into these things to see what might be some opportunities. But with that being said, you know, just taking it a day at a time, seeing what kind of come about, have a candidate who went through the process as well now took the the entrepreneur assessment. I'm going to do a presentation to him. We'll see what I can kind of do from there. But yeah, just excited around, you know, the next steps, what that's going to look like and just taking it a day at a time. So we'll definitely see everything that happens and then we'll kind of take it from there.