IAM2703 – The Strategic Advantage of Local Marketing

Dominating Your Local Zip Code

While a national brand name provides a prestigious foundation, the true strategic advantage for any franchise lies in the specific opportunities found within its own zip code. Gresham Harkless reveals that the most successful owners do not wait for corporate marketing to drive their growth; instead, they take proactive ownership of their local visibility. By finding specific niches and opportunities in their immediate surroundings, these entrepreneurs transform a global business model into a dominant local force. The goal is to move beyond being a silent branch of a corporation and become the “mayor” of your town—the recognizable face of the business who is deeply integrated into the local fabric.

Humanizing the National Brand

The secret to standing out in a crowded market is to localize your message and humanize the corporate brand to build a genuine connection. While head offices provide templates, the most effective marketing is personal and reflects the unique spirit of your specific team, customers, and town. Harkless emphasizes that consumers connect with other humans, so showing up at local chambers, networking events, and community sponsorships is vital for building authentic rapport. By aligning your personal style with your community presence, you ensure that your business visibility feels genuine rather than forced, creating a level of loyalty that national advertising alone cannot achieve.

Strategic Growth Through Measurement

High-performing franchise owners treat local marketing as a disciplined strategy rather than a guessing game. Following the philosophy of “measure twice and cut once,” great leaders track their results to identify exactly which social media posts bring people in and which partnerships build long-term loyalty. This data-driven approach, combined with the core equation of visibility plus resources times connections, allows an entrepreneur to navigate the non-linear “plate of spaghetti” path to success. By starting small and marketing with consistency, you can build a meaningful foundation and eventually become a true local legend.

Previous Episode: https://iamceo.co/iam2702-how-to-build-a-business-that-aligns-with-who-you-are/

• 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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Trancription:

Gresham Harkless 00:00
When your business aligns with who you are, it doesn't just make money, it makes sense. And you're more likely to stay with it because at the end of the day, consistency is one of the calling cards and most important things that successful entrepreneurs have. And you're usually going to be more consistent with something that aligns with who you are, your strengths, and kind of ignores your weaknesses.

If you're building something meaningful, you're in the right place. This is the I Am CEO Podcast. I'm gresh, and for over a decade I've had the honor and the privilege of Learning directly from CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners just like you on how to build. After recording more than 1600 episodes, one thing has become clear. Success isn't about following someone else's blueprint. And as I like to say on. The show, if you run your own race, you can't lose. Even when we feel the journey should be a straight and linear path, what I've come to find out is success is a lot more like a plate of spaghetti. So in this special segment and episode, I'm starting to curate and share some CEO hacks and CEO nuggets that I've been dying to share. Drawn from thousands of episodes with phenomenal guests that have provided awesome value on the show, but also my 10 years of business experience as well too. These lessons are designed to strengthen the foundational principles that every business is built on and guided by a simple equation that we always go back to with our content. Visibility plus resources times connections equals success. This is practical wisdom you can apply almost immediately, so be sure to check out the show notes for more resources and next steps on how to level up. And of course, enjoy this special episode of the I Am CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless [00:01:46]:
I hate to break something to you. There is no best franchise, only only the best franchise for you. I can't tell you the number of times I hear this question. What's the hottest franchise right now? What should I be investing in or looking out for? What's the latest on this? What is franchising tending towards? And honestly, I end up responding with the same thing. That's actually the wrong question. The right question is what's the right fit for my goals, my strengths, my lifestyle, and my abilities? Start with you. And that's why a lot of the first conversations I have with candidates are actually all around them, not around the franchises. It's about truly understanding their background, their experience, what they desire in trying to make that come to fruition through a franchise. So are you looking for freedom Are you looking for flexibility or financial growth? It might lead you down a different path. Then it's vital that you understand your style. It's one of the reasons that we have this entrepreneur assessment that we take people through. It helps us to kind of identify where a person lies and try to match them up with what is a successful franchisee in that specific system. So you could be a builder, you could be an architect or a luminary, as I like to call them. Do you like being hands on? Are you leaning more towards management? What are your core competencies within business? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? How can we lean more into those strengths? Those are a lot of the questions that I'm asking. And finally, finally, finally, after I get all the information that I need, I do research and I come out with some concepts that you can take a look at. That's where you find the model. We have a back and forth conversation. I try to match these according to who you are and the knowledge that.I have as well too.

Some franchises might require you to be more in the trenches, working on a specific core competency. Maybe you need to know more finances. Maybe you need to lean more into marketing or sales. Others might allow you to lean into other competencies. You may not need to lean as much into sales if you're not that people person. Others may allow you to step back and actually build and manage a team and find a manager. And here's why I do all this. When your business aligns with who you are, it doesn't just make money, it makes sense. And you're more likely to stay with it because at the end of the day, consistency is one of the calling cards and most important things that successful entrepreneurs have. And you're usually going to be more consistent with something that aligns with who you are and your strengths and kind of ignores your weaknesses. Now if you're curious which franchise might fit your goals, your background, your experience, take a entrepreneur assessment, head over to bluestarfranchise.com assessment and find your match. After you take the test, we can actually sit down and have a conversation to make sure the findings align with who you are. And if they do, that helps give me a strong data point towards matching in the correct franchise and business.