hello I’m Gary Shotton and I’m here as a part of inspiring better business and we hope that these lessons are helpful to you we hope that you’re going to benefit and be very successful in your businesses today I’m going to talk about the subject of productive meetings and you know we all have time that is very valuable to us at least the people you want in this meetings are people that probably are you want that have time that’s very valuable to them so you want to value that time just even more so than if you valued money if you were to ask everyone to donate a certain amount of money that would have taken them certain amount of time in one way or another probably to have created that money so time is more important than money and we’re going to talk about how to have a productive meeting your peer mentoring groups and how that could happen it’s a result of us talking just a couple days ago to a new group a kind of a college group that’s forming in Tanzania and they’re a great group and we talked about this so number one you want to make sure that your meetings have value what do I mean by that that there’s content that there’s a reason to come that there’s not just a waste of time and that that’s important because the people you want there probably are have other things they can do with their time and so you’ve got to be sure that you’re valuing that time I know there’s a cultural thing start entering in here when I say start on time end on time Wow the person that is there and drags on and comes an hour late didn’t value the other people that were on time and I know it’s cultural but if you will start the meetings on time and get some good stuff done and then keep your meeting length fairly short the person that’s an hour late probably missed the whole meeting because I would suggest that you hold it to now hour-and-a-half and that’s probably long enough for you to get anything done you wanted want done now number two who should come to the meeting well I’ve been a part of meetings of this type for maybe is not much as thirty-five years and I will tell you that there’s some people that come to the meeting because they don’t have anything else to do they’re not interested in business they’re not interested in growing business some of them actually come with a negative attitude they’re not there for the right purpose and so somehow someway you’re gonna have to sort through and identify those people that are sincerely interested in being a part of this team in a way it’s like a football team you call World Cup football we know that the East African countries and all around the world know about that sport and if you’re going to put together the right team you have to have a good players so think of your meetings like that at a team meeting it’s a team huddle and of course like we said there’s got to be value of time but you’ve got to have the right people on the team that doesn’t mean everyone there is a business owner but everyone there should be very interested in being a business owner or working towards it they could be currently employed someplace else fine I was employed for nine and a half years for someone else and I did my very best working for someone else for nine and a half years and on the side I had started one or two or three small businesses and I frankly think that’s one of the best way to do it so be sure you have the right people there number three make sure if you have the right people there everyone has a chance to talk everyone has a chance to share I suggest that when you get together that one personal least has a we call it a talking point something of value to speak about we suggest you if you don’t have anything else that you select something from the website ID detox and I suggest that you select if you’re from an African culture that you picked select someone like Alfred Matua the mechanic or Judith the jeweler and you listen to or summarize that talk as a talking point I like a large point that’s not for you to learn everything about that subject it’s for it to stimulate discussion amongst all those people that are attending and everyone should have a chance to speak now not everybody wants to but at least whoever is the leader make sure that you point out and ask each person if someone hasn’t talked just make a mental note or write down their names and put a checkmark and if somebody hasn’t done any discussion any verbalization just ask them hey would you want to share sometimes they’re just holding back on contrary sometimes you’ll have somebody there just a talker and talker and talk or take you way off track as a leader you’re gonna have to be able to reel that person in and say hey listen let’s stay on track here hey that’s enough for you do we go on to someone else’s to discuss it that’s a bit challenging but you can do it I know you can do it I know you can do it then number four we encouraged that these meetings are not a time to discuss the technical side of each one of your businesses we had a person that was discussing juice and how to make juice and now they’re gonna make the avocado juice and how they mixed it with water and what was the right proportion that’s technical someone else is maybe making shoes out of pork out of pigs and they can talk about height at a tanning the hide and getting the best leather they can get how they shape that shoe and how they fit the shoes and what size of shoes that’s technical somebody that’s gonna make a cake how’s the right temperature which the right ingredients you should actually even keep some of that confidential you should be not talking in this setting and the subject on each one of those is do your research in other words everyone should be doing the research there’s two things every person has a business before they start the business and during the business is continual research continual research and continual improvement so you can talk about ways to improve and use each one of those the bit of technical information not as a discussion about the technical but a discussion about how to continually improve therefore in the group could be someone making cakes someone fixing hair building shoes they all need that continual improvement talk about ways to do continual improvement last but not least we have some people that are very concerned because when they get in a group they’re almost certain somebody’s going to steal their idea and they’re going to be producing their competitor well that could happen but again if you select the people that have a bit of different interests that’s different for each other and rain remain on the business side not the technical side and press the issue that everyone should stay connected with what they’re gifted at not what looks like somebody else is making a profit not what somebody else is doing but what they are gifted at and you be a bit vulnerable without sharing all of your technical side business business business and I want to tell you why would you grow together and someone then learn enough information and then start competing directly with somebody else in the group you know you could start with someone that has similar businesses and I suggest that some people could have similar businesses but maybe you could separate intentionally and you can move one of the businesses several miles away or a couple kilometers away or you know what your sphere of influence is get far enough away that you’re not pulling from the same customer base and now you can work together you can do some things together if you’re in the same business but not in the same market be careful about that because that will put a stop to someone’s really interest in being a part of these peer mentoring groups peer mentoring clubs well at the end of the day we’ve got a direct people to God as the source of wisdom you’re not the source of wisdom but he is the so God is a source of witty inventions new ideas new creativity he is the Almighty Creator and he will help you create new ideas as you’re going forward hope this helps I hope you have great meetings I hope these meetings lasts and lasts for as a team pulling together actually the best thing is the same team pull together like if there’s ten people try to work on having that same team ten people at every and then maybe be hesitant to bring someone else into that meeting maybe suggest that somebody start another meeting with another ten people rather than mix it with too many people and too many thoughts and and build like that football team I think there’s a Lebanon on a most professional football teams that would be a great number have eleven people on the team and go forward thanks for being a part of this I hope this is helpful to you we do appreciate your interest in being a better business person using business for God’s service