IAM2643 – Nibble Your Way Through the Week!

In this special episode, Gresham shares what he’s been doing to generate leads: cold direct messages on LinkedIn using Sales Navigator, a few automation tools (Closely), and follow‑up emails to keep contacts warm.

While he’s begun to see “nibbles” — small bits of traction — he admits to frustration over the limited results. Through reflection he realizes he may have been targeting the wrong audience (B2B instead of the more receptive B2C segment of people facing layoffs or career dissatisfaction) and recognizes the importance of networking and leading with empathy.

Gresh wraps up by acknowledging that success comes from consistently doing the right things over time, not just repeating ineffective tactics. He sees the current outreach as planting seeds that could later grow, and commits to experimenting, learning, and taking the journey one step at a time.

• 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

Check out our CEO Hack Buzz Newsletter–our premium newsletter with hacks and nuggets to level up your organization. Sign up HERE. 

I AM CEO Handbook Volume 3 is HERE and it's FREE. Get your copy here: cbnation.co/iamceo3. Get the 100+ things that you can learn from 1600 business podcasts we recorded. Hear Gresh's story, learn the 16 business pillars from the podcast, find out about CBNation Architects and why you might be one and so much more. Did we mention it was FREE? Download it today!

Transcription:

The full transcription is only available to CBNation Library Members. Sign up today!

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 00:26
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 subsite 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 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.

Next week. And then I've been doing cold DM's to people through LinkedIn with sales navigator also been able to kind of use some automations that I have set up using closely, and those two things seem to at least get some traction, some things that move forward even without me having to manually do them.

[restrict paid=”true”]

But honestly, I've just been going through and just saying, hey, just sending people a message, especially if they've had anything, need to have a layoff or anything close to that, and just seeing what happens. So I'm starting to see a little bit of nibbles and traction there. I decided to also just send messages to everybody that I kind of connected with and had some type of conversation.

I had sent them a a message earlier on this month for some of them, like some of the videos and things like that. But, you know, I added them to the email list, just wanted to continue to kind of like, you know, deepen and sharpen those relationships. But we just got to kind of see what happens. I mean, this has definitely been a challenge.

I think the biggest thing that I realized, or now realizing, is that because I'm starting to get nipples, it's telling me that, one, I should have been networking. Two, I should have led with that.

Secondly, I probably should have went in and definitely looked for not the B2B audience. It should have been the B2C, the people that were getting laid off or career dissatisfaction, not happy about what's going on, all those things.

So I think those were the two biggest things that I really need to lean into and see what would happen. And we'll just continue to kind of take a step at a time. I'm really surprised that I haven't got as much traction as I thought I would. That's been definitely a source of frustration for me.

But I think a lot of it is, you know, I had somebody on the podcast yesterday and he was, I forgot the exact phrase, but it's usually doing the right things consistently for a long period of time is what leads to success. And I feel like I was probably doing the wrong thing and I tried to do them consistently and you know, I did them for a period of time and he didn't reach that success.

So if you're not doing the right things that can affect you. And I think that where I was, you know, with targeting businesses, maybe wasn't the right target market. So I think going back, I probably would experiment a lot, but don't get me wrong. I did some automations through LinkedIn. Didn't see a lot of traction there.

And honestly, the automations that I did, you know, I'm not seeing like a huge clip. You know, these are just some nipples here and there. So I think that's where, you know, some source of the frustration is. that I did, you know, at least plant some seeds and try to do different things.

But I probably just didn't do it enough to start to see like there were some nibbles and there was some opportunity there. But even here and, you know, going back, you know, you hear all these different things and then you hear that, hey, you can definitely focus on.

Like I remember and it was like something, you know, it's funny because when I went to the training last year, one of the lead brokers who also leads our Friday sales calls, I remember she mentioned that layoffs are really great for this business. And it was just like one of a throwaway thing.

It wasn't it was something that was like a side conversation that I just happened to hear. But I remember it. And it's funny that end up probably being the goal. But you see all these different things and the plan I had and the way that I was going to focus, it was going to be completely different.

But hearing that ends up being the seed to what I'm doing now. So better late than never. But you wish you would have done it earlier. And I wish you would you know, you wish all those things, you know, you know, if it was, if it was a fifth, we all be drunk.

So, you know, if this, if that, but at the end of the day, you're here now. So I think the good thing is that hopefully I have some seeds planted and I can continue to kind of cultivate and grow and see what those things happen. And then we'll just kind of take it a step at a time, but yeah, you live and you learn and you just take it a step at a time and go from there.

So we'll see what happens and, you know, see, you know, where everything kind of leads me. 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 06:15
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 imceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and everywhere you listen to podcasts.

Subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

[/restrict]