The #1 Playbook For Any Business

Greetings Operators!

Here is a short form on the most powerful thing you can implement in a small business.

This is the number one place I start with any business operation I’m working on improving!

I’ll see you this weekend for a deep-dive issue with links, videos, and helpful tools and AI implementations!

SHORT ISSUE
The Ultimate Format for Running High-Impact Weekly Meetings

If I had to pick the “ultimate system” to start with at my business, it would be weekly meetings.

Weekly meetings are the leverage point of so many improvements at a company, that not doing them is almost criminal. 

Weekly meetings bring together all the key personnel in an area in order to share results and solve problems, and in the process help build an incredible culture.

I often share with new operators that if you only do one thing, make it implement weekly meetings. If you run a solid meeting, every week, and perform the action items that come up as a result, chances are you’ll automatically arrive at:

• a team which executes and continually hits goals

• a constantly improving company that has less and less fires

• a culture of trust and alignment around what matters

So how do you run a great weekly meeting?

This week, I'm sharing my battle-tested framework for running weekly meetings that people actually want to attend. This isn't theory - it's what I've refined over years of trial and error with my own teams.

The 45-Minute Meeting Framework

I know what you're thinking - "Another meeting framework?" Stay with me here. This one's different because it actually works. Here's the breakdown:

First 5 Minutes: Quick Check-ins Just tried this with my team last week: Everyone shared one thing they're excited about. Simple, but it completely changed the energy in the room. Try giving each person exactly 30 seconds - you'll be amazed at how focused people become when there's a timer running.

This builds trust, respect, cohesion, and positive energy.

Next Up: Wins & Updates (7 minutes) Had a client tell me recently they skipped this part because it felt "fluffy." Big mistake. Sharing wins isn't just feel-good stuff - it's about maintaining momentum. Make the wins customer and employee focused.

This creates alignment and excitement, and keeps the team tied in to other goings on.

👉️ Tip: Create a shared doc where people can drop wins throughout the week.

Scorecard Review (8 minutes) Keep it simple: 5-7 key metrics, clear ownership, visual indicators. I always use a traffic light system (red/yellow/green) - our review time dropped from 15 minutes to 5.

Here is where we keep accountability and constant momentum, and bubble up issues right away!

Action Items (10 minutes) This is where most meetings go off the rails. The key? Review status updates before the meeting. Focus meeting time on removing blockers, not status reports.

Any red lights should have actions associated with them to bring them back to green by next week.

👉️ Tip: Have the individual choose, the self commitment is powerful.

Project Progress (5 minutes) Every company should be “operating” day to day, as well as building the future of the company.. and each person should have a part. here we cover the major aspects of the current main objective - just the highlights:

• Major milestones hit

• Upcoming challenges

• Help needed

Tactical Round Robin (8 minutes) This is a list

• Collected throughout the week

• Issues that arouse during the meeting

Real issues, real solutions, real quick. Had someone in last week's workshop ask about handling tangents here - We move those to strategic 👇️ and move on.

Strategic Topic This is a list of topics to be covered, met over, and solved outside of the meeting.

Thats It!

• Connect as a team

• Hold accountable to results

• Ensure momentum on key objectives

• Solve Problems as a team

For a deeper dive on his agenda, see here.

💡 Quick Win for Next Week

Try this at your next meeting: Have everyone submit tactical items 24 hours in advance. We started doing this last month, and it's been a game-changer for preparation and focus.

What Not to Do

Let's be real - here's what kills weekly meetings:

• Detailed project planning (save it for project meetings)

• Training sessions (schedule separately)

• One-on-one issues (handle offline)

• Technical deep dives (wrong forum)

• Social hour (that's what happy hour is for)

Tool Spotlight

Been testing different tools for meeting management. Current favorite setup:

• Agenda: Email or Slack

• Time tracking: If you use Zoom, its built in. Otherwise an Iphone or free online timers work fine.

• Action items: Asana

• Scorecard: Simple Google Sheet (mine is built into Confluence)

• Meeting Minutes: I use Confluence. Here’s my template 👇️ (created a week before to gather tactical items and wins.

🔥 Hot Take of the Week Controversial opinion: The best meeting leader isn't always the team leader. Try rotating facilitators. Yeah, it feels weird at first, but it builds leadership muscle across your team.

What's Working for You?

Hit reply and let me know: What's your best meeting hack? I'll feature the top responses in next week's newsletter.