Latest / Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers / Ep. 81 - The meeting to plan the meeting for the next meeting! Stop Meeting - Start Doing!

Transcript

Ep. 81 - The meeting to plan the meeting for the next meeting! Stop Meeting - Start Doing! · Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers

0:00
SPEAKER_00: The learning pyramid.
0:01
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it says.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: It goes over the retention that your audience, even in a meeting, has based upon what you're saying.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: If you just give a lecture about things, they retain 5% of it.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: Five percent.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: Five percent of it.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: If you have a discussion about it, that goes up to 50%.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: Hey everyone, welcome to Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis Brothers, where we aim to share real stories about running a successful family business, working through adversity, and pouring back into the community that keeps our door open.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: We're your host, Matt Shelby, and Taylor, and we bring you relevant local business advice and automotive insights that are sure to change the way you look at running a business.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: And maybe even throw in a plug for you to do business with us.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: Hey, welcome to Crossroad Conversations with the Lewis brothers.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: Episode 81 today, Taylor.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: And it's just you and I diving straight into the topic of meetings today.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: Yes, your favorite.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Now, I like meetings with intention.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: With a purpose.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: Well with a purpose.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: That's a great word with it for purpose.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: I do not support meetings to check off a box to have meetings.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: And I think you're going to read a room by that, and we'll get into it of people around the room that are not engaged, that are rolling their eyes, that are going, why are we doing this?
1:23
SPEAKER_00: This is a waste of my time.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: And today we'll break that down to make sure are meetings relevant?
1:30
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely they are.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: But are they structured?
1:32
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a plan?
1:34
SPEAKER_00: Don't just have a meeting to have a meeting.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: Have a meeting with intention that propels your business plan forward.
1:43
SPEAKER_01: That's really good.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: We'll dive into that more.
1:45
SPEAKER_01: Recapping last week, they say one price, you pay another.
1:49
SPEAKER_01: We kind of talked about locally and in not only our industry, but every industry, that so many places you can't pay the online price.
1:58
SPEAKER_01: And we're really trying to change that of being transparent, really being transparent.
2:03
SPEAKER_01: Go back and check that out.
2:05
SPEAKER_01: Love talking about that.
2:06
SPEAKER_01: That the uh the availability and the ability to be able to actually pay an online price.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's that was a great episode, you know, about just transparency, giving people what they see online and that handoff from what you see on the computer to what you see in person.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: It should be the same.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: It should.
2:23
SPEAKER_01: It should, but we know it's not.
2:24
SPEAKER_01: Hey, also always check us out at Lewis Superstore.com for the freshest specials we got going on, and crossroads conversation podcast.com for all the 81 episodes that we have had going.
2:35
SPEAKER_01: Hey, coming up at the end of May, we are so excited about this, but it's our our showdown of a car show.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: It is an absolute showdown, and I know you're getting ready to give them the details, but I love it that that really you and Shelby challenged it last year and said, let's just open it up.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: And I was going, okay, but what's that gonna look like?
2:57
SPEAKER_00: What's it gonna feel like?
2:58
SPEAKER_00: You know, because I always like have questions in the background, even though I'm a wound-up person, going, How's that gonna play out?
3:04
SPEAKER_00: It was amazing.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: It was awesome.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: It was amazing.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: Why that was amazing is because of just the variety of cars that it brought.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: Yep, not just muscle cars, which we love, you know, not just new age modern muscle, you know, not some of the classics.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: It had all of those, but it had the the off-road, the overlanding.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: And and then the guys that came in in hydraulics, the whole club that was so fun for everybody to see because then they were putting on a show during.
3:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was everything you can think of under the sun.
3:35
SPEAKER_01: And we kind of broke the mold, which we do on a lot of things, but it's normally Corvette Club or Mustang Club or Mopark Club or Classics.
3:44
SPEAKER_01: We brought them all together.
3:45
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna do that this year and turn it up even higher.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna have all of that coming in.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm gonna make a prediction here because last year we got close to 300 cars.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: There could be a really good chance that we have over 500 cars to look at, you know, because, and I know we were supposed to just shout this out, but because this year we're bringing the NASCAR back, we're bringing the food trucks back, we got a live DJ there.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: Okay, not only that, we've got vendors set up, we got the bouncy house for the kids.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the list goes on.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: It's a true event.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: It's not just a car show in a parking lot that was open that seven or eight, nine, ten people show up.
4:26
SPEAKER_01: Yep, it's full deal, real deal.
4:28
SPEAKER_01: That is Saturday, May 23rd, 9 to 12 o'clock.
4:34
SPEAKER_01: We will have more details.
4:35
SPEAKER_01: Make sure you check out on our social media of how to register, when to show up, where to come, and it'll have instructions of how to be involved in the event.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: All right, so let's dive into this meeting topic.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: All right.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: Let's start with the meeting culture problem.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: All right, who created the meeting and why?
4:57
SPEAKER_00: So if you're uh and I want you to think about this if you're listening, because uh Taylor, I bet we've got two different types of listeners.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: We got one type of listener that loves meetings, that they love what a meeting gives them access to and what it produces.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: Not that they just love going to meetings.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: And and number two, then we have somebody that's like, I'm so tired of meetings, I won't do a meeting no matter what.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: And I think you got both of those people.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: And I think when you pull back all the layers of the why in both of those, they would be very similar, even though they seem like 180 degrees difference.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: It was first of all, let's talk about the one who embraces the meeting.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: Why do they want the meeting?
5:42
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'd have to say that they want the meeting because it's a time for them to gather either their leaders or their team and get everybody on the same page on what needs to be accomplished.
5:56
SPEAKER_01: I think it really you hit the nail on the head there because it's gonna be that's kind of their way of structuring their day, but you're doing it as having the meeting that I know, hey, I'm gonna go to this meeting.
6:07
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
6:07
SPEAKER_01: This is gonna kind of structure me somewhat throughout the day.
6:12
SPEAKER_01: So they look forward to that.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: I I believe so.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: And then even those that like don't really look forward to it, they like the results.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like working out.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: Like, like nobody's like, man, I just can't wait to get to the gym today.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: I mean, every once in a while you'll have those days, but most of the time it's like, man, I got other stuff I could do and this and that.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: But like when you finish going to the gym or you finish doing this or that, you feel so good about it.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: A proper meeting that has structure and an agenda and that doesn't last too long, somebody will come out of there with a game plan.
6:47
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I think they'll come out with a game plan because more times than not, we'll see some of our sales staff that is gung ho for a meeting.
6:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they look like they're writing down.
6:56
SPEAKER_01: They come out of the meeting and they do jack squat.
7:00
SPEAKER_01: Because one, it wasn't a productive, successful meeting, or they're not paying attention, kind of where you were rolling into there.
7:07
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: So, but before we get into the 180 side, let's talk and let's help some people out there with a meeting and why you should have a meeting.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: Because I in my mind, there's a couple different types of meetings.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: All right, we have our quick meetings, and I call these a five to 15 minute meeting.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: And these are meetings that we already know what the goal is, we know what the game plan is, and we're checking up on it throughout the month, making adjustments, quick tips, where are you at, how are you pacing, boom, boom, boom, and then we go.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: It's really quick.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: Those happen multiple times a week.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: They're scheduled and they're expected.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: You know, the the managers, and I'm talking at the manager level, um, they're expected to be there no matter what.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: Now if they're off, they're off.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: I don't want them to come in on their day off for a vacation.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: But they now have figured out that they can do that.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: If their team can't run for five to ten minutes without them, they have not, there's a whole different issue out there, okay?
8:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: But if you can't meet with your team for five to ten minutes and give clear expectations for the day, show them on how they're pacing for the month, for the goals, make adjustments, and then rock and roll.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: There's some other things going on.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: There is.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: Don't ever think that you can set a goal for your team and not ever circle back around with it until the end of the game.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: You know, if we're in sports, we like talking sports.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: It would be think about this.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: It would be, we're in baseball season.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: So it would be like starting the baseball game, unplugging the scoreboard.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: All right, and then you plug it back in at the bottom of the ninth.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: That's not gonna do good.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: It's not, is it?
8:51
SPEAKER_00: You don't know where you are.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: Like you think you're doing good, you think you're winning, but you might not be.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: Like, like you, you think you got X amount of outs, but how many do we really have?
9:00
SPEAKER_00: You know, so on and so forth.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: So that's the same thing with your team, but it needs to be structured, it needs to have an agenda.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: And after you've had a few of those, everybody needs to know what to expect.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: You know, when they come to our meetings every week, and I'm talking again, I'm talking about our quick meetings, they they know what we're gonna go over.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: You know, they're not gonna blindside them.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: They know exactly what's gonna happen there.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: You know, and they're probably primed, they know we're gonna go over that, and then they're primed for open for areas of concern, like of customer reviews or customer follow-up, or hey, we need to be able to dive into the team this way that we can hit, but it's very quick, like Matt said, staying brief, staying quick, but being to the point and saying, hey, let's get get going.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: You know, I I think you hit on a really big subject there.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: And I I want for everybody out there gung-ho to do meetings, please, if you don't listen to anything else, listen to this today.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: Besides having a structure for your meeting.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: Don't go in there and wing it.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: Everybody can tell when you wing it.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: And when I go to a meeting that somebody is winging it, I feel like they're 100% disrespecting my time.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: You know, go in there with an agenda.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: Now there's an open time that you'll go over other things.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: Here's here's the second thing is after you've gone over the normal stuff, like you're talking about, only bring up one subject, maybe two.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: Don't go over 10 housekeeping items.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: No.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: They won't get it all.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: That's that's too much.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: That's from a fire hydrant.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: No.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: Go over one thing.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, we've had an issue with the VIN number on our paperwork not being correct.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: I need everybody to really hyper focus on double checking, well, VIN number's not as big as for us, but mileage.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: Double check the mileage on the paperwork to make sure that it's accurate before the customer signs.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: That's one housekeeping thing.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: Let's do that with more impact.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: And then maybe the next meeting we circle back around with that.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: Hey, just to let you know, thank you for everybody for their attention on looking at the miles on the paperwork.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: We've made a big improvement with that.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: Here's what we need to work on next.
11:07
SPEAKER_01: That's a lot of times I think in meetings are lost that you feel like, oh my gosh, I've got this much to train the team on.
11:14
SPEAKER_01: I've got to do all of this.
11:16
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you try to verbal vomit it in there.
11:17
SPEAKER_01: It's a water hose, it's hitting them, hitting them over the head so they don't get it.
11:21
SPEAKER_01: But then I love what you just brought up there that you go over something small real quick.
11:26
SPEAKER_01: We checked out on it, and then the next meeting follow up real quick.
11:30
SPEAKER_01: It's not very fast, but it's accountability of, hey, I'm still paying attention to it.
11:35
SPEAKER_01: So if it was VIN numbers, hey, team, we've done great with the VIN numbers, let's keep that moving forward.
11:40
SPEAKER_01: And then in a manager's mind, whenever they hear that, oh, he's really paying attention to this because it's the second meeting he's brought it up.
11:47
SPEAKER_01: And it didn't take much more time at all to be able to put that together.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: Not only do you get, hey, they're paying attention, they're falling up, it actually makes an impact.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna laugh because you've heard me talk about this eight million times.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: But for everybody else out there, maybe you've never heard me talk about this.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: The learning pyramid.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: All right, this comes from the educational world.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: I I can't take any credit for this except just ripping it and doing it.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: Look up the learning pyramid.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: And and I think our producer could even put it in the show notes.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: The learning pyramid, here's what it says it goes over the retention that your audience, even in a meeting, has based upon what you're saying.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: If you just give a lecture about things, they retain five percent of it.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: Five percent.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: Five percent of it.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: If you have a discussion about it, that goes up to 50%.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: And and then if you follow back up with a manager in their department and they start teaching others how to do it, it goes to 90%.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: So we can take one or two subjects and do a really good job, have a discussion about it in the meeting.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: So we just went from a five to a 50%.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: That 10x our meeting over everybody else's up and down the road.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: That's so strong.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: They think they killed it.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: Why do they think they killed it?
13:11
SPEAKER_00: Because they're the ones teaching it.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: They're at the 90% level.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: But it's not about you running the meeting, it's about how good did you push that down and get your team to buy into it.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: Well, the only way you get to do that is you got to have discussion.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: Have them write it down and then have them go teach their department.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden you've gone from a 5% to a 90%.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: You will kill your competition with that.
13:33
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes.
13:34
SPEAKER_01: Um you say that and I laugh on Monday uh sales training meeting.
13:38
SPEAKER_01: We were going through, and we were going over objections, and it was Monday morning, and majority of them were still trying to wake up and trying to pull them out, grab a toe strap and jerk them out of the ditch.
13:48
SPEAKER_01: But I was going over, and some of them will do good on objections whenever we're going over, but I'd hit the second objection, which was I just need to think about it.
13:58
SPEAKER_01: And normally, if you're in a meeting atmosphere and you pull call someone out, everyone else relaxes.
14:05
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
14:05
SPEAKER_01: Because then they're not like I'm getting ready to get called out.
14:09
SPEAKER_01: So I went from there and then I went to the next person.
14:11
SPEAKER_01: I hit them with the same objection.
14:13
SPEAKER_01: I went through about 15 people with the same objection.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
14:16
SPEAKER_01: And got to the end of it and said, Do y'all know why I did that?
14:19
SPEAKER_01: And they uh said, Well, so we're making sure we're doing it.
14:22
SPEAKER_01: I said, Because y'all were so excited that I wasn't going to pick on you, that I was moving on to the next person.
14:29
SPEAKER_01: And you know what happened the next two or three days walking through?
14:32
SPEAKER_01: I heard people hitting it with each other with that objection because we went outside of the norm and we try to change it all the time, but it has to always be effective but ever-changing to adapt to your team.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: That is so good.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: And I hope you guys hear about that.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: What Taylor went over.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: He could have just called on one person and then moved on.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: But when he called on number two and number three, the rest of the class, a whole different level of retention and learning happens.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: And then the subject you're actually going over, I mean, how frustrated are you as a leader right now?
15:09
SPEAKER_00: We talk about this all the time of the team not actually doing what you ask them to do, or not using a new word track or a new process.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: What takes time in you as a good leader and teacher, you have to change how you're teaching now.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: Again, I go back to sports because it's an easy one to relate.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: Take any sport in the world, okay?
15:31
SPEAKER_00: Whether you're running or badminton or volleyball or soccer or baseball, football, whatever it is.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: Think about as a kid, how many reps did you put in doing the same thing to try to get better at it?
15:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden we we become adults and get careers, and we're like, yeah, we practice 10,000 free throws to get good at basketball.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to earning a living and making sure my family has income to live, we just put it under a pill and hopefully it migrates into our brain.
16:02
SPEAKER_01: It may have been that I got them excited in the meeting and said to the point of because they were still glazed over at that point.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Hey, I know you don't like your managers holding you accountable.
16:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
16:12
SPEAKER_01: But I said, I've got something a little bit different that might hold you a little bit more accountable.
16:15
SPEAKER_01: Say we're towards the end of the day and you're checking out, and I said, Your person that you do it for, your husband, your wife, your significant other, your kid sits there and says, Hey, did you kill today?
16:26
SPEAKER_01: Were you the absolute best?
16:28
SPEAKER_01: And all of them just put their head down.
16:31
SPEAKER_01: Like, but that's so true.
16:32
SPEAKER_01: It was so true.
16:33
SPEAKER_01: Of we did 10,000 free throws to get where we needed to go.
16:37
SPEAKER_01: And then we get into a career, and man, they're just asking me to make phone calls.
16:40
SPEAKER_01: They're asking me to follow up with people.
16:42
SPEAKER_01: Why are you doing that?
16:44
SPEAKER_01: We're trying to support you to move you forward.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: I think you can take that in any industry and you think about this because some people are like, oh, that's dumb.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: I feel awkward.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to practice that.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to practice that word track on how to answer the phone.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: Any industry out there.
16:56
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to practice how I should interact with a customer when I go to their house to do HVAC or plumbing or roofing or any of that.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: Practice before you get in front of a customer.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: Again, sports, it's no different.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: We didn't start practicing game day.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: We practice beforehand.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: So when it comes to game day, we're prepared.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: That's why you have the meetings.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: That's why you role play.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: That's why you talk about it.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: So you've practiced and don't practice on the thing that's writing income checks for you, the customer.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: No.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: But everybody gets that wrong.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: So okay, we got a little bit off there, but but the point is, is without meetings, that cannot be accomplished.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: No.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't have meetings and you you if you didn't have to, let me just say that.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: If you didn't have to have meetings and coaching and teaching, you wouldn't need managers.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: If you could come out with a memo that asked the employees to do X, Y, and Z and they just did it a hundred percent, they wouldn't need you.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: It really wouldn't.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: That's the same.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: So we'll talk sports again.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: Same thing with football.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: The players, especially professionally, the the players know how to do it.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: They've been practicing how to do it, but aren't there still coaches on the sideline and in the press box constantly communicating about that?
18:23
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: It's the same thing with you guys as leaders out there.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: All right.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: So takeaways on that part there, and then we're then let's flip over to the other topic.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: All right.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: So the takeaways there is go into a meeting, make it intentional, have an agenda, and do go over less things.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: Y'all that have been in speech class, you remember what they tell you.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: Talk about a maximum of three subjects.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: You start off the speech, tell them what you're gonna tell them, and then go over one subject at a time with three supporting details on why they should do that one subject, and then move to number two with three supporting details, then to number three with three supporting details, and then you wrap it up about what you've already told them.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: It's repetition, and we're keeping it simple.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: So have your meetings with that.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: All right.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: One other deal on meetings.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: So that meeting was structured on either your goals, your KPIs, how it's progressing.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: Then there's another type of meeting that you need to have to keep your business fresh.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: That type of meeting is let's call it a brainstorming.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: So that's a different still has structure.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: Still has structure.
19:38
SPEAKER_01: That there is definitely guardrails on, but the guard it's much wider.
19:43
SPEAKER_01: Like Matt said on the other ones, you're talking about um it's a maximum of three topics.
19:48
SPEAKER_01: Whenever you go into a real um directional meeting that you're teaching and moving forward so it can be obtained.
19:54
SPEAKER_01: Whenever you're going into a brainstorming meeting, it's kind of open because if it wasn't open, I don't think you'd get the input that you need.
20:01
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: People would be too afraid to say anything that they're be judged.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: It really would.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: Now, those do not happen.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: Those aren't every day.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: Our everyday meetings are they're short.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: Our training meetings are only twice a week, and we introduce once.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: The second training meeting of the week just follows up on the first training meeting.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: No, it's quick.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: These meetings, they might only happen, it all depends upon the business and where you're at.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: They might happen once a month, once a quarter.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: You do need to give everybody a heads up that's coming into a brainstorming meeting.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: Here's the subject we're going to talk about.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: So you can send that in an email.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: Hey, today's brainstorming meeting, we're going to talk about if we should make adjustments on marketing.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: Please bring two or three ideas you have, what you like about our current marketing, what you don't like about our current marketing.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: So they can come prepared.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: Again, that's having a productive meeting.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: That's communication.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: So the other meeting that people know to bring all the numbers, this meeting, they know hey, bring ideas and tell us what you like and what you don't like.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: All right, here is something I learned a few years back, and I want to pass it on to everybody out there listening.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: When you get to a brainstorming meeting, a meeting where you're asking for feedback, this is crucial, crucial.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: Please listen to this.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: You, as the owner or as the manager, you have to be the last one to give input.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: You know what happens if you give input first?
21:38
SPEAKER_00: Everybody else, even if they had a better idea, you're in charge, you're their own, they're scared to death to give their opinion.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: They're done.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: You will not gain other ideas that may even be against yours, and that's okay.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: You have to create a culture in that meeting where it's okay for them to disagree with your idea in a brainstorming meeting.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: And the way you do that is you're the last one to talk.
22:03
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
22:04
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's very easily accomplished as long as you do what you had said there.
22:09
SPEAKER_01: Send out an ahead agenda.
22:12
SPEAKER_01: Like these are the things we're talking about with marketing that we're going to change events we go to or fundraisers we have or golf tournaments or what radio, blah, blah, blah.
22:22
SPEAKER_01: The list goes on and on.
22:23
SPEAKER_01: Give them a parameter to start, and then you go into the meeting and they've already got a guideline of how they need to start.
22:30
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: So they're they're ready, they're excited.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: They're not like, hey, don't call on me.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: They've come prepared because you've picked the people that are going to be in the brainstorming meeting.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: If it's about expansion, if it's about trying to figure out new opportunities within your business, say, hey, bring one idea on something you think we shouldn't do any longer in our business that we've done in the past, but maybe is not as effective anymore, where sales have gone down or whatever it may be.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: And then bring me one or two ideas of areas you think we could expand into.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: And then you start the meeting and you're still in control.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: For everybody out there is like, oh no, I don't want to just turn over my employees.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: Whoa, whoa, whoa.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: You're in control of the meeting.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm running the meeting.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking questions, though.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: And I have created an atmosphere where people feel comfortable giving their ideas.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: And they don't know if their ideas align with mine or not because I'm not the first one to talk about the ideas.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, I used to not run meetings like that.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: It was like I kicked it off and I went over the ideas first because I felt like that that was the good icebreaker.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: And if I talked and I got everybody's mind going, it'd be easier for them to talk.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: But that was so far from the truth.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: What I was doing is just getting a bunch of people that would agree with me.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, they'd just yes, yes, yes, me to death, and I'd come out of there going, man, I had an idea.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to kill it with this idea.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: Everybody agreed with me.
23:57
SPEAKER_01: And like when you look, that's why you learn from everybody else.
24:00
SPEAKER_01: You didn't get anything out of the meeting that you actually wanted to.
24:03
SPEAKER_01: Like you went and emptied yourself out, which you could have done sitting in a room by yourself.
24:09
SPEAKER_01: You just had some people that were just agreeing with you that made you feel better.
24:13
SPEAKER_01: So that is so important to know.
24:15
SPEAKER_01: I'm brainstorming.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: That's a really good thing.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: You know, and it ends up coming out six months later, a year later down the road, when maybe the idea doesn't work as well.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: And then somebody finally goes, Hey, boss, I wanted to say something, but there was just a whole lot of hype and momentum.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: So I didn't want to mess the meeting up.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: But there was really this pitfall with the idea.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, dang, why didn't we talk about that a year ago to make that adjustment?
24:41
SPEAKER_00: So in brainstorming meetings, here's our takeaways on that.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: Is again structure.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: Nobody minds having a meeting as long as they know that it's structured and it's valuing their time and they're heard.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: So in a brainstorming meeting, send out an email beforehand.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: Tell them what you're going to go over.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: Tell them, here's what I need you to bring to the meeting.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: All right.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: When you start the meeting, welcome them, talk about the idea, and then go around the room with you being the last one to talk about what the brainstorm is.
25:12
SPEAKER_01: That's very good there.
25:13
SPEAKER_01: How about a little fun fact quiz there?
25:16
SPEAKER_00: All right.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: How many meetings per week do most managers attend?
25:21
SPEAKER_00: You're not allowed to be in the mix of this.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: On average, most managers.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: How many meetings do you think a week?
25:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: Five, six.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: On average, most managers have eight to twelve meetings per week.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: Looking at those stats, you take one of our managers.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: Okay, they've got a doc meeting on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that's three.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: We've got a save a deal on Monday.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we've got a sales meeting on Monday.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: We got a save a deal on Friday, sales meeting on Friday.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: And I guess we got show and go on Saturday.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: That's eight.
26:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
26:00
SPEAKER_01: We're on the low end of that.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: Tell them it's time to ramp it out.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: And most of those meetings we just counted of eight are 15-minute meetings.
26:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's only two meetings that are ones 30 to 45 and ones an hour.
26:12
SPEAKER_01: So that's it.
26:13
SPEAKER_01: It's a training meeting.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think so.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay, but on the other end, a director, a VP, a C level is 17 plus meetings a week.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a lot.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: It is a lot, but when you start thinking the more and more I've learned about upper level and C-suite, your role is to meet with and coach and train each of the other managers.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: And if you're the majority of your time should be spent with your other department managers, helping coach them for their departments.
26:52
SPEAKER_01: Because that's your way, instead of you being in the work and doing the work, you are teaching and enabling others.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: And I think the best do they still do a little bit of being in there because and you'll hear people talk about this, but this is a slippery slope.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: It's like you got to be in it to have your ear to the ground and down in the trenches.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: And I do agree with that, but only with a certain amount of time.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: And now that's how we were raised.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: So like we truly can talk from this point of being in the trenches 100% of the time.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: If you're in there 100% of the time and you're juggling the rest of it at the same time, you're not given the time necessary to the other managers.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: All right.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: So how do you keep from that becoming a trap?
27:40
SPEAKER_00: Designate time for that.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: You know, and like I'll take blocks of my day and go, okay, at this point in time during the day, it's time for me to walk through the departments.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: For me to put my ear to the ground, ask a couple questions to employees, see what's going on.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: But that doesn't, that's not how my day starts out, and then goes, well, I'll fit some meetings in if possible.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, so I think that's important.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: That's important.
28:04
SPEAKER_01: That was really big.
28:05
SPEAKER_01: Okay, diving into meetings are costing you more than you think.
28:09
SPEAKER_01: One vendor told me he added up in internal meetings in one week and it was over 20 hours.
28:15
SPEAKER_01: So not having the right meetings, as Matt was just talking about of going through there, of not doing the correct meetings and you saying I don't have enough time like I'm too busy, you probably don't have enough time because you're burning up your time with inadequate meetings that don't amount to anything.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:34
SPEAKER_01: That don't necessarily amount to what necessarily you're needing it to be.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: I think, and I want because there's hopefully some employees listen to this of ours.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: And if not, we're gonna send it to them.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: Because there are some that get caught up to go, we just have way too many meetings.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: Our managers, we just told you, they're between seven and eight meetings a week.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: But they're intentional and they're within a time frame.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: At eight meetings a week for our managers, that's 165 minutes.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: 165 minutes.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: All right, so that's two hours and what's that, 45 minutes.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: So that's less than three hours.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: And they're talking, some people added it up to over 20.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: You can get what you need done in a shorter time frame.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: You you really can.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: Every meeting is not an hour to two to three hours long.
29:24
SPEAKER_01: No, a lot of people take that format of a meeting and think that it has to be that way.
29:29
SPEAKER_01: Like we're gonna sit here and we're gonna mumble over things and try to just read through the script and do this without changing anything.
29:37
SPEAKER_01: Your people that are in the meeting are zombies by the end of it.
29:41
SPEAKER_01: They're done, they're looking at their phone, they're not responding to anything, and you're just up there just wasting your time and breath.
29:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
29:50
SPEAKER_01: So make sure you're you're doing your meetings correctly.
29:54
SPEAKER_01: You're doing it's about money, momentum, and morale.
29:57
SPEAKER_01: They're just a that's a no truth.
29:59
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
29:59
SPEAKER_01: It's about money, momentum, and morale.
30:02
SPEAKER_01: You're making sure you're making the most out of your product that you're selling, the momentum to keep your team going and the morale.
30:09
SPEAKER_01: So you can see when your bad apple is not hitting on all cylinders and you can pull them out.
30:14
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
30:15
SPEAKER_01: And the guy that's hitting, I'm gonna go help that guy however I can.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: You know, those three things you just talked about there are so important.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: And that's why you have to have some meetings to make sure is the money, whether it's the money you're making or the cash flow, is it on track?
30:32
SPEAKER_00: What does our momentum look like?
30:34
SPEAKER_00: It's not a set it forget it.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: It's you got to make adjustments.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: Teams make adjustments all the time, don't they?
30:40
SPEAKER_00: They change up formations, they change up plays, they change up players.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: They don't just keep grinding out the same game plan from down one, quarter one, play one if it's not working.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: You gotta make adjustments.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: Too many people keep doing the same thing and expect different results.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: And we talk about this especially mid-month-wise with our whole team, from salespeople to sales managers to technicians to parts people is we say, if you're not, if you take your numbers right now and you multiply them by two, does it get you to where you want to be by the end of the month?
31:15
SPEAKER_00: And if the answer is no, you better change something.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: If you don't change something and you expect different results, that's stupid.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to say any better than that.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: But then you have to have the morale and the culture behind it.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: Like even if you're in the dump and you're behind your goal, you better get a raw, raw pepper alley going on.
31:37
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: Tell them you believe in them and we can do this.
31:39
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
31:40
SPEAKER_01: And going over and setting those clear expectations of, hey, these are your goals.
31:45
SPEAKER_01: I'm helping you support your goals.
31:47
SPEAKER_01: These are how we're gonna achieve your goals.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: But then a manager's standpoint.
31:51
SPEAKER_01: We talked about that the other day of if you look up half halfway through the month and you're not where you need to be, don't keep doing the same thing saying, hey, great job, we'll see you in the morning.
32:01
SPEAKER_01: That's so true.
32:02
SPEAKER_01: Hey, great job, we'll see you in the morning.
32:04
SPEAKER_01: No, not a great job.
32:06
SPEAKER_01: Let's pull over here to the side and we're gonna talk about how we're gonna do differently tomorrow and the rest of the month.
32:11
SPEAKER_00: That is that's good.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: You know, we it was a couple of years ago we were exposed to that.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we get running and gunning, and I've done it.
32:19
SPEAKER_00: Then, like at the end of the day, and I'm a very positive person, so are you.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: And it's like you're just telling everybody good job.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: Because you're on a roll.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
32:28
SPEAKER_00: It's like, man, good job today, you killed.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: And the store may have killed it.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: You know, so then you're just on a high, like, great job, great job, great job.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: But there's probably 10 or 20 percent of your employees that sucked it up.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, bad, bad.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: And and you're going around, and just because you're on a roll, you're like, great job today.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: And they walk out of the building, they're like, My manager's oblivious.
32:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
32:54
SPEAKER_01: They either do that or they're the person that is riding your clock, and they're like, dang right, I did those five phone calls, and I did a great job.
33:02
SPEAKER_01: So they're gonna do it again, and you're not gonna get any production.
33:06
SPEAKER_01: And that's just what Matt was going into that.
33:09
SPEAKER_01: We had our eyes open a little bit of like, okay, we still got to stay positive.
33:13
SPEAKER_01: We're never gonna dog cuss somebody and push them down this way.
33:16
SPEAKER_01: But hey, come on over here, let's work on this.
33:19
SPEAKER_01: You didn't quite hit the parameters we needed to.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna talk car terminology right here.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: And because growing up, and it and until I got some more wisdom and I've got plenty more left to get in my career, I was all gas, no brakes.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just I was like, who invented this stupid brake pedal?
33:38
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: And I would just gas, gas, gas.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: And and the more you learn and and the more wise you become in business or parenting or anything else, you learn that you need a brake pedal.
33:49
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: You need a brake pedal.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: And that's the same thing.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: If you've had a great day and you're all gas and high five, and good job, good job, good job.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: You better be able to, there's a corner coming, and that corner requires a break so you don't overshoot it.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: And that's the employee that saw everybody else around them being successful today, and they didn't.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: You better hit the brake right there, slow your roll, do a little bit of coaching, and then you can grab a gear and gas it with the next person.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: You know, it it requires brakes and gas.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it does.
34:22
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that I would have thought in my younger years that I ever would have said that, but you got to have both pedals.
34:27
SPEAKER_01: No, but it's starting and stopping because you got to realize, too, that in a meeting, you have to have audibles, no different than in sports, because you may have this killer meeting set up in your mind, and the vibe of the room is just not taking it.
34:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
34:43
SPEAKER_01: And so you've got to be able to pivot and think of, hey, this employee, this employee, and this employee all got to be kind of still in a group atmosphere, um, appealed to differently.
34:55
SPEAKER_01: So you got to be able to teach to them and be able to audible like that and don't get your feelings hurt.
35:00
SPEAKER_01: If your meeting that you set aside that you thought was perfect, well, who did you have telling you it was perfect that was your accountability person?
35:08
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're we're constantly, and I'm just gonna bring this up.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: We're pretty, we're pretty passionate about meetings here because we understand how powerful they can be.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: But can I tell you, and I'm telling them, you know this, how much work and energy and constantly evolving we spend preparing for our meetings.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's a lot.
35:37
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is a lot, but and what's reassuring to me is when we get a new employee that'll come to our meetings and then they leave and they're like, I heard you guys were different, but that was something else.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, I had an employee come up to me that's worked for us for a while after our Friday meeting, last meeting.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times we get comments about the music and the fog and the light show, but but it's it's not just that.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: It's the structure and it's the slideshow and it's the presentation and it's the handouts and it's the writing it down, it's the coaching, it's looking at where you are, where you need to be, how we get there.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: And this employee said, I just want to thank you for constantly showing me where I can grow and have the positive mindset to get there and to helping me reset mentally when I'm having an off day.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: That's bad.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: You know, that that that is.
36:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: And it's so so it's not just the data, it's the data, it's the handouts, it's the audio visual, it's the walk-up music, it's the follow.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: It's all of it.
36:47
SPEAKER_00: It's all of it.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: And we have people that walk into our meetings now, and I I can see it in their mind.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: They're like, man, it was must be nice if I had this and I had that.
36:55
SPEAKER_00: Listen, guys, we we started in a you know, in a break room box with one boom box and a CD that was scratched and would skip.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we did.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: And we and we had handouts.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: You know, we went over it and we told people to write it down.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: Just start.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: If you're in construction, go to the job site.
37:14
SPEAKER_00: Don't make them leave the job site.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: Go to the job site, get yourself a dozen donuts, open up the tailgate, bring everybody around and go over what needs to be done for the day.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
37:25
SPEAKER_00: It's five or ten minutes.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: It's that easy.
37:27
SPEAKER_00: It is.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: Get them in the right mindset to win.
37:30
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
37:30
SPEAKER_01: The other thing we hadn't really talked about, but the cost of what your meetings are costing you.
37:36
SPEAKER_01: This is on average a fact.
37:37
SPEAKER_01: So meeting time costs an average of$29,000 per employee per year.
37:43
SPEAKER_01: So$29,000 per employee per year.
37:46
SPEAKER_01: U.S.
37:47
SPEAKER_01: businesses lose an estimated$259 billion per year to unproductive meetings.
37:56
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
37:57
SPEAKER_01: And then in a list of there, 77% of employees report being in meetings, it simply led to scheduling another meeting.
38:06
SPEAKER_01: 77% of meetings that go on, these are people that report the meetings were to schedule another meeting.
38:13
SPEAKER_01: I hate those.
38:14
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
38:15
SPEAKER_01: 71% of meetings are considered unproductive, and 65% of employees say meetings prevent them from completing their own work.
38:24
SPEAKER_01: That one has a little bit.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: All right.
38:43
SPEAKER_00: So the first one, you know, you know I'm a numbers guy.
38:45
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
38:45
SPEAKER_00: So$29,000 per employee per year.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: So there's there's two ways to look at that.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: I'm not arguing the fact of that.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: There's two ways to look at that.
38:53
SPEAKER_00: There's some people that would look at that and say, wow, that's a lot of money.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: Stop having meetings.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: Or if you take on average eight meetings a week, one of our managers, okay?
39:04
SPEAKER_00: Eight meetings a week times the you know the year, that equals 416 meetings a year.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
39:11
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's$69.71 per meeting.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: So here's the way to look at it.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: You could say quit having meetings so they can be more productive, or you could say, meetings are necessary.
39:24
SPEAKER_00: I better make them count because every single head that's in this meeting, it's costing me$69 per person per meeting.
39:33
SPEAKER_00: I better bring value.
39:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
39:36
SPEAKER_01: Because whenever you put a dollar amount to it, it really starts to quate down.
39:40
SPEAKER_01: No different than all of your charts that we go over in manager meeting of, hey, I'm not just saying, hey, go sell more cars.
39:48
SPEAKER_01: This is how you sell more cars.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: That's how you get it.
39:51
SPEAKER_00: You're trying, and and you guys have probably heard a big buzzword out there in uh business world right now is is working on your business or working in your business.
39:59
SPEAKER_00: And and there's this dividing line.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: I was talking to a friend of mine, Mark, the other day, and and he just did another podcast on this about, hey, you gotta still got to work in your business and you work on your business.
40:10
SPEAKER_00: You got to do both.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: And meetings should help employees on how to work on their business without having to leave the business and spend a whole day.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: You're compressing what might take them two or three whole days down to just 15 minutes or 30 minutes.
40:28
SPEAKER_00: That's how to work on it.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: Like here, here it is.
40:32
SPEAKER_00: Now go work in it.
40:33
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: And that's how you do that.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: So I think six or 29,000 a year should not scare you away from having meetings.
40:41
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
40:41
SPEAKER_00: It should encourage you to have more intentional meetings.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
40:45
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to go over the 77% because I think this is true.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: And I'm currently going through this with two software companies that we've narrowed down.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: I hope they're listening.
40:56
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
40:56
SPEAKER_00: I hope you're listening because you're about to screw up your chance of us doing business with you.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
41:01
SPEAKER_00: Slow me down if I get too far off.
41:02
SPEAKER_00: No, you're good.
41:03
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
41:04
SPEAKER_00: Is that both of them have had meetings with me just to set up the next meeting?
41:12
SPEAKER_00: And I told one of them on the phone right before we got in here.
41:15
SPEAKER_00: I said, if you do that to me again, that's the most disrespectful part of my time.
41:20
SPEAKER_00: I will absolutely cancel your ability to even sell us anything.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
41:26
SPEAKER_00: You should not have a meeting to set up another meeting.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: No.
41:32
SPEAKER_00: Now, can you have a meeting and the next meeting, the first part of it?
41:37
SPEAKER_00: You review what you went over last meeting?
41:40
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
41:42
SPEAKER_00: If you go back to if you're in any board meetings, what do you have to do at the first of it?
41:46
SPEAKER_00: You have to approve the meeting minutes from last time.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: That's really asking.
41:50
SPEAKER_00: Are there any other questions?
41:51
SPEAKER_00: Is there anything we missed?
41:52
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
41:53
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
41:53
SPEAKER_00: That's a different structure.
41:55
SPEAKER_00: But don't just waste people's time.
41:58
SPEAKER_00: And that's where we get.
41:59
SPEAKER_00: Remember when I told you that at the very start of this, we had two different people?
42:02
SPEAKER_00: One guy that, or one girl, or whatever, that likes meetings and the other one that thinks they're just waste of time.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: They think they're waste of time is because they've not been in intentional meetings.
42:11
SPEAKER_00: They feel like their time is not being valued.
42:13
SPEAKER_00: And that's on you, the person running the meeting, if your audience feels like that you did not respect their time.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: That's big.
42:21
SPEAKER_00: It is really big.
42:22
SPEAKER_00: And you know, the the 71% of meetings are considered unproductive.
42:26
SPEAKER_00: And 65% of employees say meetings prevent them from completing their own work.
42:31
SPEAKER_00: Our goal is when they leave there, that they're armed and ready to go to be more productive at their work.
42:40
SPEAKER_00: You know, in our business where we have new programs and we have this and we have that, if we didn't have the meetings, they wouldn't know what was going on.
42:46
SPEAKER_01: They have no clue.
42:47
SPEAKER_01: And what I think it in turn pushes them to because if there's a reason why they're not in the meeting and we hold them extremely accountable to being there, it's because they're doing business and they're not doing anything else.
42:58
SPEAKER_01: And they know management is going to come ask them afterwards.
43:02
SPEAKER_01: Hey, you weren't in the meeting, show me what you were doing.
43:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
43:05
SPEAKER_01: And that normally flushes out anybody trying to make an excuse.
43:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh I would agree.
43:10
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it is.
43:11
SPEAKER_01: So making the meeting count, we've kind of already talked about getting into this, but so many people have way too many meetings and they're just checking the box.
43:21
SPEAKER_00: They're checking the box.
43:22
SPEAKER_00: I think you just have to ask yourself because it's talking about eliminate, you can eliminate a good portion of your meetings.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: You need to say, am I prepared for this meeting?
43:31
SPEAKER_00: Does it have a structure?
43:33
SPEAKER_00: And is it doing one of two things?
43:35
SPEAKER_00: Is it making sure that we're putting our game plan in place and adjusting if things are not tracking like they should, or is this a brainstorming?
43:45
SPEAKER_00: And have I sent out the expectations to the ones that are going to be in the meeting?
43:52
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
43:53
SPEAKER_01: The end point here that I love on this, and you always hit on this, because we have some long term employees that we give a hard time.
44:00
SPEAKER_01: About this, but the meeting after the meeting happens because the real meeting didn't actually produce a decision.
44:08
SPEAKER_01: Fix the meeting and eliminate the aftermath.
44:10
SPEAKER_01: We uh and we call it out in meetings because we know it's gonna happen.
44:14
SPEAKER_01: So we call for input.
44:15
SPEAKER_01: Yes, hey, what else are y'all gonna talk about?
44:18
SPEAKER_01: What else do we need to interject?
44:19
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't address that, it will happen every single time.
44:24
SPEAKER_00: The meeting after the meeting is the true scorecard for the person that ran the original meeting, if they did a good job or not.
44:31
SPEAKER_00: Because this happens, it happens in every industry, not just the automotive.
44:37
SPEAKER_00: And watch next time you have a meeting, give it two, three, four, five minutes, walk around the building or somewhere else.
44:43
SPEAKER_00: Don't go in the middle of it and find your huddles of people.
44:46
SPEAKER_00: That's the meeting after the meeting.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: What are they going over?
44:49
SPEAKER_00: They're discussing what you just went over.
44:52
SPEAKER_00: Is it relevant?
44:53
SPEAKER_00: Should they do it?
44:54
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: That's what they're doing.
44:56
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
44:57
SPEAKER_00: It happens in our business.
44:58
SPEAKER_00: Don't you can't eliminate the meeting after the meeting.
45:01
SPEAKER_00: You just can't.
45:02
SPEAKER_00: What you can do is make sure what they're talking about there is an extension and gaining traction on what you went over during the meeting.
45:10
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
45:11
SPEAKER_01: That's the point.
45:12
SPEAKER_01: It is.
45:13
SPEAKER_01: It is.
45:14
SPEAKER_01: Well, I've got a couple of questions.
45:16
SPEAKER_01: We can both answer these, but I've gone through.
45:18
SPEAKER_01: How many meetings are you in a week?
45:21
SPEAKER_01: I'll let you tally that up because you're gonna need to talk about that.
45:23
SPEAKER_01: You've got plenty of wars.
45:25
SPEAKER_01: I'm probably in uh, you know, Matt went over eight.
45:29
SPEAKER_01: I'm probably in less than less than 12 or 13.
45:32
SPEAKER_00: I would say 14.
45:33
SPEAKER_00: I'd say you're in that 14.
45:34
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
45:35
SPEAKER_01: So I got a couple more in there, and then uh Matt, he is in a lot of good volunteered focus groups that bring a lot of light to things.
45:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but you know, I think that yeah it's uh I very all of it's very I have a lot of meetings a week.
45:53
SPEAKER_00: I mean it it's it it ranges from 15 to 25 a week.
45:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 35 were on a busy week.
45:59
SPEAKER_00: But but that but those are intentional.
46:01
SPEAKER_00: Those are intentional.
46:02
SPEAKER_00: And and there's some times that I look up and I'm like, why did I schedule that many meetings?
46:06
SPEAKER_00: Well, but when you look up, because they're with producers and other managers in other areas within our business to make sure that they're on track.
46:14
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
46:15
SPEAKER_00: Is lo and behold, I there there will be, I'll hit a threshold every once in a while, and I just clear my schedule besides core meetings, and it'll move back down to six, seven, or eight.
46:24
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
46:25
SPEAKER_00: And I'll let that go for a week and I circle back around and I look at the KPIs and they start slipping.
46:30
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
46:31
SPEAKER_00: And it just reminds me.
46:33
SPEAKER_00: And it's stuff like policy, it's stuff like rental cars, it's stuff like this or that, or phone call amounts.
46:40
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, okay, that's why you go over that stuff.
46:42
SPEAKER_00: Constantly top of mind awareness.
46:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
46:45
SPEAKER_00: Because you can email it all day long, you can pass it out all day long, but when you discuss it, it has more relevance to it.
46:51
SPEAKER_01: It does, bringing it up in there.
46:53
SPEAKER_01: And then what is one actionable item that you that can help make meetings more productive?
47:00
SPEAKER_00: Simplify them.
47:01
SPEAKER_00: Okay, go over less with more impact.
47:04
SPEAKER_00: And number two, have a clear agenda and be prepared.
47:12
SPEAKER_00: Nothing aggravates me more than going in a meeting that I've been invited to, and somebody's winging it.
47:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
47:21
SPEAKER_00: You're de you're just it's disrespectful.
47:25
SPEAKER_00: And then that's where you get the number up there that that 77% say that they didn't want to be in the meetings.
47:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I and I'm gonna come off of that and resonate the the have an agenda, have your clear written path, but be flexible in there because be flexible because of of how your team's going to adjust, how they're gonna read you, how everything's gonna go that day.
47:50
SPEAKER_01: Be flexible and still share that same passion off of what you set up and and be able to dive in there.
47:57
SPEAKER_01: A whole lot of fun things.
47:58
SPEAKER_01: We went over meetings today of how to make them more successful, how to make the most out of them, and and don't let that dollar amount that a meeting cost you scare you.
48:07
SPEAKER_01: It's actually great and make it work for you.
48:10
SPEAKER_00: I'll throw this out there to you as well.
48:11
SPEAKER_00: If you're out there listening, um, you can see how to get to us, you know, within the show there, or you can find us on social or in person.
48:19
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to sit down with you or maybe just shoot you an email on how to help your meetings.
48:26
SPEAKER_00: You're we have people all the time from the outside world come to our meetings and see the structure.
48:33
SPEAKER_00: We want to just help you get better out there.
48:35
SPEAKER_00: So thanks for joining us today.
48:36
SPEAKER_00: As always, check us out on LulithSupershore.com or Crossroad Conversations Podcast.com.
48:42
SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for joining us today, and we hope you enjoyed this episode.
48:45
SPEAKER_00: Make sure to give it a like, share it with your friends and family, visit our website, and send us some questions.
48:51
SPEAKER_00: We want to know what you'd like to hear, who'd you'd like to hear from, and what you want to see, or maybe even some questions for us to answer about either the automotive industry or just business in general.