IAM2624 – Completing the Journey: Day 263 Insights

In this episode, Gresham delves into the mindset behind his venture, using the mantra “finish the fight”—a phrase he recalled from a training‑camp T‑shirt—to illustrate the relentless mental battle entrepreneurs face.

He describes how doubts, funding challenges, and personal hardships (including the loss of his beloved dog) can sap motivation, yet stress the importance of staying locked‑in, persisting through monotony, and using emotional drivers as long‑term fuel rather than short‑term fixes.

This perspective underscores that entrepreneurship is as much about emotional resilience as it is about business tactics.

He emphasizes his goal of carving out a new pathway rather than simply riding a stream of pre‑packaged leads, and he sees disruption and uncertainty as opportunities to innovate.

• 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. Grist 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 subcite within CB Nation called a franchise CEO.

So you'll see some links in the show notes related to that.

But I just want 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 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.

It 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.

It's day 263, and there's this idea, this concept, that I was going to training camp.

I went to training camp yesterday, actually. I think it was training camp, but it's not that I do football. But either way, a few years ago.

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I remember, it might have been about four or five years ago, They had this t-shirt, didn't work out obviously, but the idea was called finishing the fight. And the reason I wanted to bring that up is because we're constantly in this fight, this battle to get what we want in life.

And I think so many times we get through the mud, we get through the challenges, we get through the drudgery, we get through the monotony of like what that looks like.

Especially like going through this broker journey, you know, You're going through the challenges of what that looks like, what that might be. And I think when you come across something like that, as my alarm goes off, you can easily put in this place where you're like, hey, I'm not going to make it. It's not going to work out.

I'm not cut out for this. And just all this self-doubt that can kind of come up. But I think it's so important to make sure to really be locked in and stuck on finishing that fight, to keep fighting, to keep going, to keep doing the things that you need to do.

So whether it be like starting out or starting your business and dealing with the mental battle of those around you that may not, you know, support you or potentially, you know, just going through a challenging, personal reasons that you're going through, you know, through the process.

Or maybe you didn't have the funding and the funding fell through and all those things happened as you were trying to actually fund your franchise or whatever it might be, it's important to finish the fight.

And I think for me, like not having closed that business, it's definitely one of those mental, emotional, and all those things that could kind of dial on you and pull on you.

Especially, I think in the grand scheme of things, one of the reasons I did this was in tribute to my dog that passed away. And not being able to, I feel like, in the way that I want to, to be able to, celebrate her, celebrate all the awesome things she was able to do.

The idea of like actually getting connected with her is definitely, you know, frustrating. There's no doubt. But I think, you know, I didn't do this for a year. You know, I didn't do this for, you know, just a few days or just a few months or just to get one deal.

I did it for the long term. And I think if I was to go back, I would just tell myself that and remind myself of the process that I can kind of go through and that process can start, you know, whenever.

And I think with all the things happening and juggling and just so many things that, you know, you juggle this in terms of business, having multiple business ventures, whether they're profitable or not, just having them requires a certain amount of upkeep and work.

You know, being able to kind of have people and manage a team and all those things that ends up being a lot.
So I think you always want to try to set up, you know, I wouldn't even necessarily say a better time.

I think I started when I should have started. And I think all it is telling me is that I would have approached it differently, and I probably would have moved a little bit slower. And would have been more into the testing mode earlier on.

But with that being said, I remember what the person said when I had these calls that he would experiment the most.

And it's not to say that I didn't experiment. I definitely have, and I will continue to. But I think it's just I'm happy with myself and not deciding to purchase from the lead portals.

I think that's the biggest one that I had. As I started to not have some success, I started to be kind of pushed or compelled. And even like when I first signed up, we got a lead pack with that.

I think that can be very addictive because once you get that lead pack, you have a lead or two coming in every single day. You want to have that constantly.
So what I fought against is not getting caught in that trap because I'm in this to hopefully create a new pathway or a new way to kind of do things.

I think that's ultimately where I'm at is how do I get that together and how do I create this opportunity to be able to really leverage that.

The great opportunity to create something new when there's definitely any type of unsettling, any type of shifts and changes, this is where you have the opportunity to create a new pathway, new opportunity.

That's what I really signed up for this to do. And it's not an easy journey. It's a journey that, as a matter of fact, is sometimes if everybody's going right, you're going to go left.

And you might end up going left and then further left and further left because the left that you thought didn't work.

And I think that's the thing I signed up to do. And we'll see what ultimately kind of happens from here. But I'll keep up and keep on to keep and finish the fight. 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 06:29
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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