FULL TRANSCRIPT

00:00 – Show Opening

Are you a professional who wants to become a more effective leader? Then get ready for daily tips from the coach, with the experience and inspiration to help you succeed in any leadership situation. You’re listening to The Meeting Leadership Podcast with Gordon Sheppard.

00:27 – Start Here – Podcast content starts here!

Gordon Sheppard Speaking

Welcome to another episode of The Meeting Leadership Podcast. My name is Gordon Sheppard, I just want to say thanks for being here and thanks so much for all the feedback that folks have been telling me about the show. The kind of things like, they liked the short episodes in terms of being able to get in, get out, get something they can use, they like the practical tips and the guests. So really, I’m so glad that it’s working and I’m so glad that you’re the type of person right now that’s taking the time to get one more leadership tool in your tool bag. Get some more strategies that you can use to run outstanding meetings and you’re choosing this podcast as the place to do it. Thank you so much.

01:05 – Topic Introduction – The online agenda app that gets results with Ashley Janssen

And if you are a leader who is tired of unproductive meetings, you want to figure out a way to get something done about it, but you just don’t know where to look, then today’s show is going to be highly valuable for you. That’s because today we’re going to talk about the online agenda planner app that gets results. And the app that we’re going to help you learn about today is called Tadum. And to talk about it, we are really lucky because we brought in one of the creators, her name is Ashley Janssen.

And she is way beyond app development, I can tell you. She’s a global thinker. She provides these really well thought out solutions to help her clients in really kind of a holistic way. So not only in today’s interview are you going to hear practical tips that you can apply kind of right away as you learn about this app, but you’re also going to hear ways to adjust your attitude, ways to adjust your habits. So it’s super valuable what you’re about to hear. This interview is a wonderful one and I’m not going to keep you waiting any longer. Here’s Ashley Janssen. 

02:02 – Interview Starts

Gordon Sheppard: Ashley Janssen, welcome to the show.

Ashley Janssen:     Thanks for having me.

Gordon Sheppard:    It’s really great to have you here because when we met, I met you as an expert who was helping people to solve their meeting headaches and I really think the work that you’re doing in the world is so important because so many people are having such disastrous meetings, but there’s a few people here that maybe are listening that don’t know about you. Tell us a little bit about yourself before we get going.

02:26 – Ashley Janssen introduces herself

Ashley Janssen:     Yeah, so I’m the CEO and Co-founder of Code And Effect, which is a software company that develops web based business tools, and I’m also the co-founder of Tadum, which is online software for an agenda and recording meetings. And I also provide one on one consulting to entrepreneurs who are struggling with organization and time management and I’ve been an entrepreneur myself for over 10 years.

Gordon Sheppard:    Wow. What a great combination and I’m sure your clients benefit from that whole package and specifically in the online space, when people come to seek out your app. Tell us what Tadum is.

02:56 – Introduction To The Tadum Online Agenda Software App

Ashley Janssen:     Yeah. So Tadum is online agenda software and it provides the process and tools that help people to easily organize their meetings and automate the creation of agenda and minutes and also create that accountability in their teams. That full package of running the whole life cycle of your meetings.

Gordon Sheppard:    This doesn’t, this sounds more like a miracle than a solution in an actual application. How do you, what is the response that you’re getting from the users of your app?

Ashley Janssen:     Really good. A lot of them are saying it’s done a really good job in actually changing the nature and the culture around their meetings. So people especially around accountability I would say. And also the attitude towards meetings. They’re that narrative around meetings are terrible and everybody hates them, but I think we’ve created a solution that helps automate a lot of the headaches that happen with creating your minutes and your agenda and getting into the good habits that make meetings really effective, as well as building in that accountability piece, so the things are actually happening between meetings, so that they become more efficient and effective.

Gordon Sheppard:    Well give me an example that one of your clients has gone through to develop a new strong habit with this solution.

04:02 – Tadum Software User Feedback

Ashley Janssen:     Sure. So one of them Shenzhen Entertainment Company, they do paintball and laser tag and they have a management of about seven people who are across two different locations. And they’ve had a big change in two areas. One was actually just having the, first of all, the very structured, recurring nature of their meetings and having the reminders to create the agendas and that those agendas weren’t being done last minute and there was a lot more thought being put into it. And part of that thought it was actually because everyone has access to the agenda. Once it’s sent out, everyone can go in and look at what’s being talked about in the meeting. They can add their own agenda items and also provide updates on tasks they’ve done. Created that accountability both for the person who’s leading the meeting, which is the owner of this particular company, and so that she had to put a lot more thought into making sure that the meeting had the content and was going to be well organized. And then from her team side, they knew that they had their to do’s on that agenda that had their name against it and that they would be held accountable to the task that they agreed to do with the last meeting. So they said that the good habits was making sure they checked that agenda, got the things down between meetings and were able to provide those updates.

Gordon Sheppard:    This is way beyond an app. This is a really, a truly, like you said at the beginning, a culture shift.

Ashley Janssen:     Exactly.

05:27 – The Impact of Tadum – Creating great habits and supporting them with automation

Gordon Sheppard:    What a wonderful thing to be able to bring into an organization and know the beginning there might be a mechanical kind of learning, but here you are then knowing then with your full package around some of the coaching that you’re doing, you can already see what’s going to happen once they get through using it.

Ashley Janssen:     Yeah. I think a big part of it is that people are not necessarily naturally really structured and organized, but they want to be and they know that it provides the benefits, but it’s hard to do that yourself. So with Tadum we kind of like to, we like to of ourselves as opinionated software, so we provide the structure and the habits on that automation, while still giving you some of the freedom to build your agenda as you want and use the app in the way that fits your team best, but supports those habits and those sort of the automation to make you actually do those things when you know you should.

Gordon Sheppard:    Well, and so much fatigue around meetings comes afterwards when the accountability piece doesn’t get carried out. How was Tadum helping people solve the accountability issue?

06:29 – How Tadum Helps With Accountability

Ashley Janssen:     Sure. So there’s a couple of ways. So one specifically is you take your meeting minutes in your agenda, so you use your agenda as your outline and then fill in comments and updates and discussions within that. So first of all, you have minutes that provide that background of what was discussed, what decisions were made. And when you finish a meeting, those minutes become read only. So there are this history that everybody has access to and they’re also in an easy to find place that everybody can find. It’s not in the black hole of someone’s shared drives.

Ashley Janssen:     So that’s one piece. And then the other one is that all to do’s have to have a person with data science. You can’t just be like, “Oh yeah, yeah, I’ll do that. And then walk out of the meeting and forget.” It’s written down, your name is put against it and you give an estimate of when you think you can have it done by. And at the next meeting, all of these items roll forward until their marked as done. So there’s that automation piece pulling it forward and they’re creating the next agenda and on that agenda, that to do will stay open until someone says it’s done.

Ashley Janssen:     So you know that if you didn’t do it, everyone’s going to see it. So it’s that encouragement to want to remember, but also know that you’re going to be held accountable for what you’ve agreed to do.

07:41 – Tadum Is An Investment – Save time, gain structure, clarity and more

Gordon Sheppard:    This is remarkable. And what I’m hearing in what you’re describing is that this type of app is not a cost, it’s an investment.

Ashley Janssen:     Absolutely. Especially because there’s so much time, wasted time spent in meetings, where either there’s no agenda at all. It’s not followed well, there was no minutes taken, people don’t write down who’s responsible for what, and then you come to the next meeting and everyone’s confused and not sure about what they’re talking about. It takes a lot of that away where it increase the structure and such expectations for what should be achieved and then building that accountability so that things are actually getting done. And then by building those habits into your organization, you’re creating a lot more efficiency around what everyone’s expected to do.

08:22 – Tadum Contact Information – https://tadum.app

Gordon Sheppard:    Well, I can hear that the interest level is just going to be sky high for learning about this. If people want to learn more about this, where can they get in touch?

Ashley Janssen:     Yeah, so they should go to Tadum. So that is T-A-D-U-M.app and they can read more about it and sign up. We have a free account as well as the paid accounts. They can look around, poke around on the free account and see what they like and if they feel like it’s going to be valuable for them, they can upgrade to the paid account.

Gordon Sheppard:    That sounds terrific. Ashley Janssen, thanks so much for being on the show.

Ashley Janssen:     Thanks for having me.

08:51 – Conclusion

Gordon Sheppard:    Now, I think you have to agree when I say, that is a blockbuster interview, right? There are practical things that you can take out of there around the specific parts of the app that you could actually apply to your business. But more than that, can you imagine app creators that create opinionated software? I love that phrase. They give you the structure, they’re building in the habits, they’re building in the accountability that you need to go out and really use this tool and put it into action to make your meetings better. And I can honestly recommend that you check it out, and if you don’t have the link yet, you’ll find the link to Tadum in the show notes for this episode, episode 30 of The Meeting Leadership Podcast. 

08:51 – MLP 047: How Being Intentional With Your Time Helps Make You A Better Leader with Ashley Janssen – https://meetingleadershipinc.com/47

And if you really enjoyed listening to Ashley, guess what? We’re so lucky to have her back coming up in episode 47 of the show and there she’s going to be talking about how being intentional with your time helps make you a better leader.

Gordon Sheppard:    She’s going to get into a lot of the coaching and consulting ways that she helps entrepreneurs to really optimize what they’re doing. Again, from a holistic point of view, you can check that one out at meetingleadershipinc.com/47.

10:00 – Meeting Leadership Academy – https://meetingleadershipinc.com/academy

Gordon Sheppard:    And I also want to let you know that this episode of The Meeting Leadership Podcast is brought to you by The Meeting Leadership Academy. Now, once you’ve got your app, once you’ve got your system, whatever that is, if you’re looking for great live and online training support to help you learn how to become a stronger leader, learn how to run outstanding meetings, then visit meetingleadershipinc.com/academy. And once again, I have to say thanks for supporting the show. Thanks for being a listener. Thanks for spending your valuable time here today and we’ll see you tomorrow on The Meeting Leadership Podcast.

10:33 – Outro

Speaker 1:          Thanks for listening to The Meeting Leadership Podcast. Be sure to subscribe for more strategies to help you become an outstanding leader. And don’t forget to rate and review so we can bring you fresh content every day. We’ll see you tomorrow, right here on The Meeting Leadership Podcast.