IAM2482 – Unmasking Day 175: The Franchise Broker Journey

In this special episode, Gresham Harkless reflects on the challenges, setbacks, and learning curves he’s faced at the 175-day mark of his franchise broker journey.

Gresham aims to close two deals within that time frame, but he's only seen limited movement with one candidate whose financial readiness is uncertain.

He shares how the process has proven far more difficult than anticipated, with many candidates dropping off at various stages and deals taking much longer than expected, often four to six months or more.

Gresham emphasizes that the biggest barrier is generating consistent, qualified leads, calling it a “leads game” where, without a strong pipeline, no amount of knowledge or process can make up the difference.

Moreover, Gresham remains committed to learning and adjusting, focusing on lead generation and advising others to start part-time and build from there.

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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, 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.

And just like that is day 175 of the franchise broker journey. It's crazy. 175, if I had to take that and divide that by, let's just say 30 days, I think it was about almost six months.

So it's crazy because the whole goal was to get two deals within the first six months.

And it doesn't look like that's going to happen. I have one candidate that's kind of further along.

Other candidates haven't been, so it's the case where you do speak to a few people and you realize that this is harder than it looks, way harder than it looks.

And I think that's where, so many times, that's why you hear candidates sometimes say that, I didn't get a deal in the first year.

And I think that is why I was kind of a little bit more calculate a little bit more cautious when starting something like this.

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I've heard people say that, hey, I would just go all in. I wouldn't do it half half time, part time or anything like that.

And I think that's completely wrong advice. If I talk with anybody, I definitely say, hey, you should do a part time.

You should get your feet wet, get things up and going because you have to know the brands.

You're going to want to know the candidates. You want to know how to get candidates and get leads.

And so, I think it's just like understanding that is probably the biggest thing that I would ultimately say.

So, I came back from traveling. Lots of things have happened. We've had our son, had illnesses and sicknesses and people pass away and just all these things have happened.

So business has ebbed and flowed. The digital marketing business has ebbed and flowed.

Been so much that's happened that I'd be fully honest and say like I'm not all the way in on this I would like to be more in on this.

And I'm gonna say more in I'm not all the way in more in because I do think it's a really good opportunity to be able to be that matchmaker.

But I don't think it's necessarily easy because you have to have the candidate match with the brand and then things can go to another level.

I've had many people get off the wagon, so to speak, or get off the journey at different places.

So it makes it a lot more challenging on what you should do, how you should do it.

And I think at the end of the day, whenever you're talking about these processes, I've heard people say it can take four to six months for somebody to get over the finish line.

I've also heard somebody say, hey, one of the stronger candidates got somebody done in two weeks.

It just depends. It depends on when that person's ready, how that person's ready, the size of their comfort zone, just all those things play a really big part in their circumstance, honestly, too.

So with me, I'm just, it's very, intriguing to kind of see like how this is gone how long it's taken.

But I'd be lying if i didn't say that I wasn't more equipped now than i was before but you get a little bit more fatigued.

And you're like hey this should be I should at least have two deals I wanted to at least have two deals by the end of last year.

So before our baby was coming so to be at now six months and not have any deals for close to six months it's kind of shocking to me.

I have one candidate and I don't know if he has the financing, but we're trying to kind of work through those things.

But I'm not sure like you either have the financing or you don't and I'm very unclear around why that is It almost feels as if everybody around that candidate too is also not very, nobody's like eager to pull, to like move forward.

So that's what's very confusing. So I'm not sure if it's the candidate, I'm not sure if it's the financial part, I'm not sure if it's the connections, whatever it is.

Because yeah I think that is what makes it a little bit different so with that being said yeah we just take continue to take a step at a time.

I'm not necessarily not throwing in the towel but I am probably taking my foot a little bit more off the pedal than it was it wasn't all the way down the pedal.

Before I still want to do these videos obviously I was traveling so I didn't get a chance to do the videos.

I wanted to see but it's just continue to kind of put one foot in front of the other, see what happens and where we can go.

And then, ultimately kind of take it from there. But yeah, lots of lessons learned that's leads, leads, leads, leads.

Actually, we were on a call, and I think I talked a little bit about it, where they're offering like this franchise brokering kind of bootcamp or something you can kind of go through.

And part of me is like, leads, I think, I don't know if everybody will admit this, but I think the most important thing that candidates have is leads.

It's a leads game. It's the most important thing. You either get the leads or you don't have the leads.

It doesn't matter how equipped you are or how your sales process is. If you don't have the leads, that's not taken care of.

So that's still my focus. It's gotta be my focus, it looks like, for the entire year.

But I'm testing out many things, but we'll have to see. The leads is where the opportunity lies.

All the other things I'll figure out, but the leads is where I need to figure out the most.

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 06:43

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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