In This Episode…
Today I am feeling quite smug. Why? Well I applied everything I have put together about meetings over the last few days to a meeting I called with a client. And do you know what? It all worked.So in this episode I share the background to the meeting, how I prepared for it and what followed after the meeting. I describe what my client said about the meeting and then explain my follow up process.I reveal a couple of other things I did as well as just how this whole episode has made me feel today.Spoiler alert – I feel great!!!!
Episode Transcript
Hi, and welcome to today’s episode of the profit productivity podcast is your host Michael tipper. Who else would it be next day I’m quite pleased with myself. Why is that I hear you ask. Well, it’s because I have had a really good day around meetings. So if you’ve been following these episodes over the last seven or eight days or so you’ll have know or you’ll know that I have been complaining about how bad I was at handling meetings, how I let them run away with me, how I wasn’t handling them very well. I wasn’t following up. I was missing things and it wasn’t in line with how I want to apply myself to my business. And so I’ve spent some time looking at that over the weekend. I got very clear on what my outcome was on what success looks like in a clear direction, because I applied my productivity improvement, operating system to the whole process.
Well, today I applied everything that I had set out to applying in the meeting that we had today. So let me give you some context and some background to this. So I’ve been working with a particular client for a number of months now, and I called a meeting yesterday because I wanted to get clarity on what the next steps were going to be in the project that we’re currently working on. So it was me who called the meeting. So I called the meeting yesterday for today. And so this morning, what I did is I sent them the template that I created of the weekend in Evernote, which was the agenda template. So I got very clear on the outcome on the purpose and what the agenda was. So I was very clear on what I wanted to add to the meeting, why I wanted it and what I felt the steps were to moving towards that.
So I package that and send them, and that really helped me that preparation that I did really helped me get very clear on what I wanted from the meeting there. And just turn up and say, okay, let’s talk about this particular topic by forcing myself to get clear on what I wanted done or success to look like that’s the outcome. And then understanding why I wanted that and then getting some sort of idea of what the steps were to achieving that I got really focused. I got a lot of clarity and it allowed me to think through the principles, the concepts, the ideas, the challenges, such that I was ready for that meeting in a big way. I knew exactly what I wanted from the meeting and how I was going to apply it. So then we had the meeting. Now, the first thing that the, my client did when we started the meeting was he thanked me for the agenda that it was clear.
It was precise when he knew exactly what we’re going to be covering. Now I know that this particular client is someone who is, doesn’t like waffle likes to get to the point and is like hanging around. So I think that clarity really helped them and they appreciate it. So we had the discussion and I took a mind map notes, and it was a very productive meeting. The, there was clarity because we knew what we’re talking about. We made some decisions, which I captured. We created a plan of how we’re going to move forward. And some actions were created again, all of which I was, I captured. So that was a, a really good experience. And it was just much, much easier because of the groundwork that I had done beforehand, but I didn’t stop there. What I did because I’d taken map notes.
I then process them and put them into my template saw. So I’ve got a record of them in Evernote. So I can go back to that, look at the agenda, look at the outcome and look at the notes that were taken. I gathered them together and I sent them to the client with a summary saying, this is what we agreed. Here are the actions. Here’s how we’re going to move forward. So that was, really, really powerful for me because now I feel very, very clear on what’s going to happen. Now that wasn’t the only thing I did now, because I’ve been working with this client for a few months. Now, I had a sort of half inch of paper of my notes and the bits and pieces, the contracts and the, the, the quotes I’d sent them and the notes and the handwritten pieces of paper that just gathered dust and posted notes all over the place.
It was a real mess. And that was part of the thing. I could see myself going down was creation of this mess when I was dealing with meetings. So what is I sorted it out, got rid of all the rubbish found stuff I didn’t really need to have in there. I sought the bits of paper out, scan them, put them into Evernote into a sequence. So now I’ve got them for reference and I destroyed that paper. So I don’t have that paper. I don’t have that paper hanging around. Now. I’ve got clear actions into my system that I know how we’re going to move forward. So I got organized and I used my beloved scan and my scan snap scanner. And that really gave me a huge mental release. Cause it’s amazing too, to realize just what are a mental load, having a big watcher paper that you’re not sure what’s in it.
You’re not worried. You’re worried you might miss something in there hanging around all the time. So now I’ve cleared that I can go back to it and look at it any time want, and this can be a huge mental release. So how do I feel now having done this Well, I feel very, very clear. I feel very, very focused on this particular contract. I know exactly where we’re at as does my client because they’ve got the same information I have. I feel aligned with moving forward. I feel very much in control of what is going on with, with, with this contract. And I feel very professional in the way it’s been handled. I’m on top of things and I’ve no doubt about how this is moving forward. So it’s been a really useful experience today. Now I’ve proven that works. There are a few tweaks. I need to make that, but that’s going to happen that I accept that. And now I’ve just got to get this into my system. So I do this every single time. So it took a little bit of time today, over time, I’ll get quicker and quicker and quicker, and this will be something that will just become automatic in time. So that’s today’s episode until tomorrow.
