It’s more than a list of to-dos — it’s a means of focusing on how your business is winning and energizing the entire team to achieve what’s possible.
I’m surprised by how often I get asked to cover this topic, but upon reflection, I understand why. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting Grant Cardone’s headquarters, then you’d get it.
Every morning the entire staff — all one hundred fifty plus of them — gathers together, there’s music blasting, there’s a real palpable, positive energy that fills the space and it is inspiring. It makes you want to tackle the day with your whole being, give it everything you’ve got and then give it some more.
We took that feeling with us when we came back to the Cardone Ventures offices 18 months age with the goal of starting every business day in the exact same way. In our prior business pursuits, we had all-team meetings, but they weren’t daily, and they certainly weren’t like this.
When we all started working remotely, it forced us to rethink our approach. We knew the feeling we wanted to create. We knew the level of focus we needed to instill in our team members. But would the virtual nature of our meetings be a hindrance to achieving this?
Here’s the thing: We didn’t know, but we were committed to doing it. It wasn’t going to be perfect, but it was going to be us getting better at it by following through on that commitment. That’s my first recommendation to you before we dive into the meat of this. Just commit. Make the commitment. Follow through on the commitment. Keep going. It will get better. Don’t stop. “Courage comes from those who make decisions.” Let that be your guide.
Part One: Welcome to Work!
This was a revelatory idea to me. We welcome clients to meetings. We might say good morning to co-workers and exchange pleasantries, but do we really welcome people to work? Most organizations do not. It’s overlooked.
Use this time at the top of the meeting to help people shed those non-work-related concerns — the laundry and the dishes and partner and kid and house stuff that can distract you from doing your best work.
When we pump each other up about the work, we can achieve great results. When we can achieve great results, we can apply the fruits of our efforts (money, an improved mood or outlook, or other perks) to the non-work things that can be distractions.
Be intentional about this time. Use it as the opportunity it is to inspire, motivate, shake out the yawns and the stress and the bullshit so we can all get excited about doing great work.
Part Two: Wins and Priorities
At Cardone Ventures, we structure our wins by department, and we don’t do this randomly. We do it in very much the same way our business cycle flows. It starts with Marketing, and then moves on to Sales, then Accounting, Events, Learning and Development, Platform Review, and then our Strategic Business Unit.
It’s a linear progression. I recommend you structure yours similarly based on how you conduct business. And make sure to make this communication of wins very focused. This isn’t a quarterly update. This isn’t about future, visionary goals. This is, quite specifically, what each team was able to achieve yesterday. No more, no less. What KPIs did you improve? How many client meetings did you conduct? How much cash did you collect?
Having these daily updates can help us identify micro trends with clients and how we should structure future outreach. Can you see where I’m headed with this? This is where the day’s priorities come into play. Our daily priorities come into very clear focus when we’re discussing daily wins and we all have a clear sense of what our departmental and company goals are.
Part Three: Share Something You’re Learning
At Cardone Ventures, we have a daily learning and development platform Cardone University. It helps us grow as individuals and as team members — promotes career development, and helps our people achieve their personal, professional, and financial goals because it teaches us how to sell. Everything you want in life comes down to a sell: selling yourself, your clients, your team, your spouse. This training is truly transformational and we wanted an active way for people to showcase their experience with the material.
When I first introduced this, I literally put everyone’s name in a hat, drew one at random, and, without exception, that person had the floor for the next few minutes to share what they learned the day before. Today, we have a fancy wheel that feels like we’re playing the Wheel of Fortune! This exercise reinforces that not just training but learning is a priority. It helps to improve our team’s comprehension of the material, their presentation skills, their sales chops, and fosters thinking and discussion from the rest of the team.
After the team member shares what they learned, they role play with a sales team member (and sometimes even Brandon) to ensure they know how to utilize the material. It can certainly be intimidating at first, especially for new team members, but it sets the tone for our culture. We are about improvement and remove our egos in the process. You should never let your team members practice on your clients – roleplay is a gamechanger to get reps in.
Now I know not everyone has a daily training platform, so look into CardoneU today.
Part Four: Reinforce Your Business’s Core Values
Our leadership is composed of published authors. We have multiple books that speak directly to the mission, vision, and values of our organization. At random, we’ll grab one of those books, open it to a page — literally any page — and read a passage from it.
The point? Well, the point is that there’s knowledge to be gleaned from every single one of those pages and that they all reinforce our core values. We’re here for a reason. Is every single action we’re taking that day in service of those values? If not, then we’ve got to adjust.
Now, of course, not every business has published authors in its midst. I get that. Pick up a copy of the 10X Rule and you can implement the same learnings and end your meetings with energy!
Your daily meetings don’t need to be a slog. In fact, they shouldn’t be. They are a daily opportunity. Are you taking advantage of them?