What comes to mind when you hear the word “meeting”? Isn’t it usually a professional setting like an office filled with supervisors and your bosses in business clothes, a white board and a conference table? What if I tell you that when I think of meetings, I think of food? Not just any food, but breakfast and a huge serving of pancakes with your team?

Here are the top three things I swear by when it comes to the ABC’s of successful breakfast meetings and why I’m all for it:

A is for accountability

One of the top secrets to success is being accountable for your actions and to have someone over you rooting for you. I’ve always said that having a mentor is important because they help you see your vision more than anything else and they coach you to go farther than you’ve probably even imagined.

Here are two things that you can bet your mentor will go over with you over a successful breakfast meeting:

• Business talk- Having everyone you’re accountable to around would mean getting stuff done over a meal first thing in the morning. As an entrepreneur with a go-getter mindset, what better way to start your day, am I right?
• Mentorship- Not only do you get to go over everything involving business-talk, you also get to go over life as well. Over this breakfast set-up, your mentor not only asks how are your businesses doing but how are you doing in all areas of your life.

You could easily get used to that right?

“Accountability breeds response-ability” – Steven Covey

B is for breakfast food

If accountability from your mentor as a young entrepreneur isn’t enough to convince you of breakfast meetings yet then how about actual breakfast food itself? I got your attention this time didn’t I? Energy is part of success and what energy fuels your body and mind first thing in the morning? That’s right. Breakfast food.

If you have  breakfast meetings often enough, you’ll get to build a list of restaurants in mind for the next one and if you’re a foodie, it’s all the better. Narrowing breakfast spots for their atmosphere to the menu is part of the fun. You get to decide which fits your team’s personality best.

From pho, to Downtown San Diego’s Breakfast Republic, to Sam Woo BBQ in Clairemont Mesa, these are just a couple of examples of my personal favorite local San Diegan breakfast spots.

Do you have a list of your own yet?

C is for community

One big topic I always talk about is the importance of being with others who are successful because it’s true what they say: you are the average of the five people you surround yourself with. So if you surround yourself with mediocrity, guess what? That will rub off on you.

I pride myself in being an entrepreneur, businessman and a leader. So that’s exactly who I surround myself with and people with those mindset of achieving greatness and striving for success in every aspect of life.

“The richest people in the world look for and build networks. Everyone else looks for work.” – Robert Kiyosaki

The community and the camaraderie alone is enough for me to suggest breakfast meetings to anyone. The atmosphere is charged with the whole team’s bouncing off ideas from each other. What’s more exciting than that to get you pumped up throughout the day?

Now I’m going to ask you: How do you view yourself? Let me know in the comments below!