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IAM2588 – Unlock the Power of Multiple Lead Streams
Special Episode by Gresham Harkless Jr.
In this special episode, Gresham Harkless reflects on a powerful morning workout and expresses a desire to build consistency by committing to it at least four times a week, even while managing parenting duties.He acknowledges a key misstep in the early days of his business: jumping directly into cold market outreach without first cultivating referral relationships and tapping into his existing network, which he now realizes should have been the foundation.
Gresham emphasizes the power of personal connections, referencing a tool called Decks, which revealed over 13,000 contacts gathered from LinkedIn, Facebook, podcast guests, and more — many of whom he hasn’t yet reached out to systematically.
Additionally, Gresham pointed out that while referrals are vital, relying on various lead sources is critical for sustainable business success.
- 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.
From working out. Just finished Sims Flash 15, which is always a beast. 15 minutes, but gets you right.
If I could do that every day, or even, I'd say four days, that might be a goal that I'll try.
Four days into a week, it would be really cool. Got the little one with me. He's awake early.
Little bit off on time, but what I really want to do is to focus today on creating multiple streams of leads.
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It's funny because when I first started BNI, I used to talk with everybody, and everybody would say, hey, I get my leads.
I'll get all my leads from BNI, I get all my business from BNI. Very reminiscent actually, now that I think about it, to the yellow book.
When I used to talk with the older reps, they used to say, hey, put it in the yellow book ad. I put my kids through college. I don't have to do anything else.
But what's interesting around that is now everything's so fragmented. So, you can't even, then you shouldn't have. But now you definitely cannot just do one thing.
However, but I don't think that I did in this business, which I think should have been rule number one, which is to develop that referral relationship, to leverage that, to really work on that, to ask everybody, how many people do you know?
Bless you. When I first started my business, I think bless you. When I first started my business, one of the first things that I really focused on was telling everybody from a marketing perspective that the number, the first social media site that you have is your email address.
If you start an email newsletter, that'll probably get you exactly where you need to be.
And so, I have this really cool app called Decks that I ended up signing up for, and realized that basically, add 13,000 contacts.
And those aren't all email addresses, but those are, those are contacts that are through social media, like LinkedIn, some are through Facebook, and things like that, and email addresses and people that have been on the podcast, things like that.
Not even actually touching my email addresses, probably yet. So, the reason I bring all that up is because usually when you first start your business, that should be the first thing that you do.
And that's the mistake that I think I made. I went right into um cold market, and I think you need cold market to sustain you.
And actually, to grow, sorry baby, but the reality is that that's not going to be the thing that probably gets you up and going, it could be, don't get me wrong.
But it may not be that's where I thought that there was an opportunity, doesn't see that the opportunity is right as I thought it was.
And then also, too, I think it's just a market standpoint and the economy and things like that, and where everything's at.
So, with that being said, generate multiple streams, even if your primary is referrals, which it probably definitely should be if you're doing quality work, you should look into other ways that you can generate leads as well too.
So, with that being said, that's just kind of like where I'm at, and just ultimately see how you can ultimately take it from there.
Please let me know if there's anything I could do to help. And of course, looking forward to giving you more and more updates.
Outro 04:56
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.
Check out the latest and greatest apps, books, and habits to level up your business at CEOhacks.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.
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