The Business Club, November 18, with Mathew Blades

My wife Kay and I host The Business Club six evenings a year at The Bond on Camelback. Our next night is Wednesday, November 18.

The room is business owners, along with the operators, bankers, and advisors who back them and paper their deals.

You are our guest for the evening. Hors d'oeuvres and drinks are on us.

The food is catered by Arcadia Farms of Scottsdale.

There is one rule on the floor: business gets done here, and nobody gets treated like a lead. If you come alone, find me when you walk in and I will introduce you to a couple of people you should know.

Mathew Blades, at 6:40

There is a conversation you keep putting off. With a partner. With a key hire who is slipping. With a customer, a seller, or a banker.

Most business problems drag out because nobody wants to open that conversation, or nobody knows how to start it without making things worse.

For nearly 30 years, Mathew made his living having conversations, as an award-winning radio and television host. For more than ten of those years, he hosted mornings on Mix 96.9 here in Phoenix. Today he works with leaders and their teams. He wrote Go First, a book about having the conversations we would rather avoid. On the 18th, he shows you how to handle yours:

Check where you are. Three questions he brought over from radio: what is working, what needs a tweak, and what do we stop doing right now.

Walk through his six steps for keeping a hard conversation productive.

Watch it work. One or two volunteers bring a real conversation they have coming up, and Mathew works through it with them in front of the room.

Bring the one conversation you have been putting off. You can keep it to yourself, and you will leave knowing how to open it the next morning. Nobody gets called on.

Deb Shapiro was set to speak and stepped away. She put me straight onto Mathew. He and I have talked. He does not lean on slides, and he does not lecture a room for an hour.

The Evening

6:00 Doors open. Grab a bite and a drink. Music is on and the room is talking.

6:30 I open the night.

6:40 Mathew Blades.

7:30 I introduce people who should know each other.

7:45 Back to the room. Home by nine.

Where to Go

The Bond, 3200 E Camelback Rd, Suite 130. Come in through the main entrance on Camelback. Security at the front desk knows about the night. Park in the garage on the north side. It is free after five.

Put your name down and I will hold you a seat.

Because we print your name badge and plan food around the exact list, only claim a seat if you plan to be in the room. If something comes up, just let me know ahead of time so we can give the seat to someone else.

Nik