Documenting the New Venture
Gresham Harkless introduces this special episode as a “snippet of a snippet” focused on documenting his journey into starting Blue Star Franchise. This initiative includes the creation of a sub-site within CB Nation called Franchise CEO to provide resources for those exploring the franchise model. Inspired by the founder of the Franchise Brokers Association, Gresh believes that sharing the raw building process is valuable for anyone starting a business who wants to see the authentic journey of a builder.
Leveraging Wisdom and the Secret Sauce
A central theme of the episode is the importance of “standing on the shoulders of giants” by utilizing the expertise and resources of those who have already succeeded. While Gresh advocates for using these frameworks to avoid common mistakes, he warns against strictly copying others without adding your own unique flavor. He argues that true success occurs when an entrepreneur combines proven wisdom with their own “special secret sauce” to create something truly distinguished.
The Power of Running Your Own Race
Gresh stresses that “running your own race” ensures you cannot lose because no one can replicate who you are. This concept requires deep self-awareness and self-actualization to understand what you personally need to perform at your best. Rather than falling into the trap of comparison—which he calls the “thief of joy”—Gresh encourages entrepreneurs to focus on their own lane and compete only against their previous selves.
Previous Episode: https://iamceo.co/iam2681-the-sky-is-not-the-limit-turning-setbacks-into-starting-lines/
- 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 00:00
When I say run your own race, it doesn't necessarily mean just out there running. It's also understanding who you are and having that self discovery, self actualization, self realization and self awareness around who you are. So when you're able to do that and you're able to lean into that, well, that provides the opportunity for you to run your race better than anybody else. Because no one can run your race like you. Because nobody is who you are.
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 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 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 01:54
If you run your own race, you cannot lose. And CEO Nugget is something that I mentioned so many times on the podcast because I think when we get into life, frankly get into business, One of the things that we always lean on is trying to make sure that we are doing the things that we need to do to be successful. One of the best ways to do that is to stand on the shoulder of vaginas. It's another strong saying that I say, and you know something I got from Einstein, it means that if there are people that have done the things that you've done, or there's expertise, knowledge, and resources that are out there, why not use those resources to see a little further, get a little farther, not make the same mistakes that others made? And I think that makes perfect sense. But I think the problem with that is that sometimes we get so rooted in copying what other people are doing that we don't add our own flavor, we don't add our own ingredient, we don't add our own secret sauce to the thing that we're ultimately trying to do. And. And I think that's where things become really, really special. Can you take the expertise, the knowledge, the mistakes, the wisdom that is from other CEOs, entrepreneurs, business owners that have gone as far as you want to go, but then can you make it your own by adding in your own special secret sauce, your own special flavor, your own thing that you can do to make it even better? And I think that's where being in the space of running your own race is so powerful, because I often say, if you run your own race, you can't lose. Often when we run our races, we're looking to the left, we're looking to the right, we're looking behind us, we're looking up on top of us, and we're saying, this person is doing this. They're a little bit farther than I am, even though they may have been running longer than we are. So I'm going to start to look at their lane, start to look at what they're doing, start to emulate the things that they're doing. The problem with that is it takes us away from running our race. So I want you to kind of ultimately visualize yourself as being that runner, and you're in your lane and you run, you finish that race, and you know you can improve from that race. So you go back to the beginning, you tweak what you're doing, maybe you breathe a little bit different, maybe you get more rest the night before, maybe you decide to change your shoes, or maybe you listen to a podcast or a YouTube video or read the book and you realize that there's some sweet tweaks that you can make to get it A little bit faster, a little bit better. That's what running your own race means. It means you're in this competition against yourself. When you're looking to your left and right, you're not looking at other people, you're looking at your previous self. When you're in that space of running your own race, what it allows you to do is not get focused on that comparison of where I should be, where I think I should be. Even with our own selves, we do this and say I should be farther than I thought, than I, than I am right now. Comparison can be that thief of joy. And the reason that comes up is because we're looking on social media, we're looking on online platforms or reading blogs, we're reading interviews, we're doing all those things. And we see people's stories, we see the things that they've been able to achieve and do. But frankly, we don't know their story, we don't know their journey. We don't know that they started 10 years ago. We don't know that they made 100 mistakes before they hit on the one that they are doing now. So that's where we have to get really, really, really, really present on running our race. And one of the best ways to run your race is to understand ultimately who you are. It's one of the first steps running a race. Do you know, do I need to breathe a little bit more? Because I need that to propel myself a little bit faster. Do I need to slow down, do I need to get a full night's sleep or really good night's sleep before I run this race? Whatever it is that you need for yourself is ultimately part of that secret sauce, is the things that you do to kind of harness exactly who you are so that you can be your best self. So when I say run your own race, it doesn't necessarily mean just out there running. It's also understanding who you are and having that self discovery and self actualization, self realization and self awareness around who you are. So when you're able to do that and you're able to lean into that well, that provides opportunity for you to run your race better than anybody else. Because no one can run your race like you, because nobody is who you are. So when you're running your business, being that entrepreneur, CEO, business owner, lean into that senior sauce, lean into who you are, because that's what's going to distinguish you. But frankly, that's where the opportunity is to get bigger, better and badder every single day.