Cameron Herold, who scaled 1-800-GOTJUNK from 14 to 3,100 employees in six years, breaks down five meeting rules: clear purpose, three outcome items, no agenda no attenda, start on time, finish five minutes early. A one-hour meeting with 10 employees earning $70,000 a year costs $350.
Questions this video answers
From 14 employees to 3,100 employees in six years.
28 countries.
Three books.
Annual retreat, quarterly retreat, strategy meetings, weekly action review, one-on-one coaching meetings, and a daily 7-minute all-company huddle.
He calculates $35 per hour per employee, so 10 employees × $35/hr = $350 for the hour; he also states an hour can cost as much as $1,000.
Chapters
Forbes magazine has dubbed him the CEO whisperer.
A lot of the CEOs that I work with have turned to me to figure out how to make their businesses run, how to make them more lean, more efficient, better cultures. Years ago I built a company called 1-800-GOTJUNK. I was the chief operating officer and took them from 14 employees to 3,100 employees in six years.
Harold is the founder of the COO alliance and has been coaching groups and individuals for more than 20 years. Here he advises business executive Joe Polish.
So we were talking about how or what your plans are for expanding the Genius network. Where are we going with that? What I want to do is take the 10 minute talks and then I just want to start putting, putting out a lot of them for free.
Harold says he's lectured and coached in 28 countries.
If you think about building a home, you build the foundation first and then you put up the walls, then you put in the plumbing and electrical. I build great companies the same way. So the foundational blocks are your core purpose, your core values, your core vision.
He's written three books. His most pointed Perhaps meetings suck.
And the reality is meetings don't suck at all. We suck at running meetings if we don't have the education on how to run them or participate. Of course they suck.
And it seems the more meetings, the better.
You need your annual retreat, you need your quarterly retreat, you need your strategy meetings, you need your weekly action review and you need your one on one coaching meetings where your CEO is coaching the VPs who are coaching the managers who are coaching the staff. Lastly would be a daily huddle. It's really a 7 minute all company stand up meeting that helps build the energy, get everybody on the same page, share ideas and key numbers together.
And all these meetings come with a price tag, which is another reason Harold to keep them on point. Take a typical hour long meeting, he says, say 10 employees making $70,000 a year, hence $35 per hour, that comes to $350 an hour. Harold says on average one hour can cost as much as $1,000.
My top five for meetings. Number one, every meeting has to have a clear purpose. Why are we here? Number two, what are the three things we're going to get done? Number three, no agenda, no attenda. Number four, every meeting has to start on time. And number five, every meeting should finish five minutes prior to the scheduled ending time. And that allows you to show up for every phone call and every meeting on time.
And when it comes to the big picture of running a company, this is the top advice for CEOs.
You need to have a vivid vision, which is a clearly detailed four or five page document describing your company's future so that everyone can be on the same page.
And also passion for the job and the mission.
Yeah, I think passion is so critical. I mean, if you don't wake up in the morning saying hell yeah, I love doing this hell yeah to a project. Hell yeah to a customer, then say no. The two things I'm amazing at are speaking and coaching. And I would do both of those for free, except my kids have to eat. So for me, that's a passion play.
