Key Takeaways

Find the Right Communication Balance: Avoid overloading clients with unnecessary details or going radio-silent. Give them the info they need to feel confident, but not so much that they feel confused or overwhelmed. Balance frequent updates with focused work time.

Simplify Technical Information: Don’t drown clients in jargon. Translate technical problems into simple challenges and solutions they care about. This builds trust, whereas too much tech-speak can create uncertainty or distrust. Focus on value and outcomes instead of every minute detail.

Always Plan & Timebox Meetings: Never go into client meetings unprepared. Have a clear agenda and set a end time at the start. Being organized and time-conscious shows professionalism and respect for your client’s time. It also ensures important points aren’t forgotten.

Maintain Human Connection (with Efficiency): Start meetings with a brief warm-up chat to build rapport, then get down to business. If there’s no relationship, there’s no business – but remember to timebox the meeting and stick to the agenda. This way you stay friendly and productive.

Set Boundaries to Protect Your Focus: Constant availability will kill your productivity. Batch your meetings on one or two days and use autoresponders for email/IM to set expectations that you’ll reply at set times. This trains clients to respect your focus time, avoids “got-a-minute” interruptions, and lets you do deep work without constant context-switching.

Leverage Tools & One Calendar System: Use a single integrated calendar and scheduling tool (e.g. Calendly or Zoom Scheduler) for all meetings. Block out “deep work” periods on it so clients can’t book you then. Also, disable same-day bookings – give yourself at least 24 hours to prepare for any meeting. These practices prevent chaos, especially when working across time zones.

Turn Updates into Engaging Videos: Instead of endless status meetings, send clients a short weekly video update. Screen-record your work, talk through progress and challenges, and deliver it on a set day. Clients get a rich, personal update (seeing code, designs, etc.), and often find extra meetings unnecessary. It saves you time, keeps them in the loop, and even gives you content to repurpose elsewhere.

Invest in Client Success (Build True Partnerships): Treat your clients like long-term partners. Show you’re deeply invested in their goals – whether that means going a bit over on hours or proactively solving issues. This builds loyalty and trust. Clients who feel you genuinely care will stick around for years and be far more understanding when emergencies happen. (As said in the video: “That’s not just a client – that’s my buddy, and I want to see them succeed.”)

Transcripts

Hey there Technomancers. Today I want to talk about some of the biggest killers of our time: communication failures. We’re also going to talk about the general communication that happens in our businesses, and how we can optimize it to give a much better experience for our clients—to help them thrive and feel like they’re really getting all the stuff they need without giving them too much and overwhelming them, as well as improving that experience for us.

We can stay productive and hit all of our targets as we need to. Today we’re going to explore hacking time and communication. Let’s get into it.

Okay, so when you’re communicating with clients as well as teams, in most cases you’re going to have a number of different platforms. Especially if you’re in an agency model or something similar, you’ve got different clients on different preferred platforms that you usually want to supply, especially when you’re smaller and just starting out.

Those could be anything from some clients preferring Zoom meetings, some getting their updates over Teams (because their organization is Microsoft-based), others using Google Meet. Then there’s also Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, email… you know, texts and phone calls. The list goes on and on, and it doesn’t ever seem to end. And these can be for any number of reasons, right?

They can be quick updates or quick check-ins. They can be full-blown meetings. They could be report reviews, they could be a scrum planning session—all kinds of things. And yeah, we can talk about all these fun new technologies on how to use VR and other solutions to have those meetings. But again, not every client is going to have access to a VR headset, and not everyone’s budget is going to make it worthwhile for you to ship one to them in order to have those kinds of virtual reality, modern-day experiences for meetings.

So there are a couple of things we need to clear right off the bat. One problem I see quite often is that you’re either giving too little information or you’re giving too much information, or you’re checking in with the client too often or not enough. Usually this stems from insecurity. It stems from either overfeeding the client with data because you’re trying to prove to them that you’re working or that you’re worth what they’re paying.

Firstly, that’s an insecurity. Secondly, it has a negative impact, because your client isn’t necessarily technical or interested in those technical details (whether it’s an artistic project or anything like that). They don’t need to know all those details. In fact, giving them too much may actually cause a level of distrust.

The reason I say it can cause distrust is because when you’re communicating a technical problem with a lot of technical detail, it creates a sense of uncertainty in the client’s mind. Now they start to wonder: are you coming to them to solve the problem? It creates a feeling of, “Can I trust you?” because you’re creating an emotion of uncertainty in them as a result.

The first thing you want to do with heavy technical information is not to “dumb it down,” but to really simplify it. Indicate: “This is the challenge we’re facing. These are the strategies we’re using to overcome it. And if a financial decision needs to be made, here’s a clear reason why it needs to be done.”

Explain what will ultimately save everyone in the long term, so there’s a clear value-add to the decision-making process. The client doesn’t need to be included in your technical decision-making unless they choose to. For the most part, you want to make sure all your communication stays at a high level—meaning it’s clear, concise, and free of irrelevant information. It’s almost like creating an Instagram reel or a quick video: you want to take out all the fluff, right? That’s very important.

Now, when you’re scheduling your meeting with a client, you want to make sure it’s all planned in advance. Don’t go into meetings without a plan or at least a general outline. If you do, you’re likely to forget certain things, and you’ll come across as disorganized. Your client needs to see you as organized and structured, having an eye on the ball and having considered everything. They’re not sitting down with you just to “show face”—they’re sitting down with a professional, and they want to feel guided through the process.

This is one of the big differences between bigger agencies and smaller startups. Smaller startups might treat these meetings as casual chats and just hope the client is still on board, whereas a bigger agency understands that the client’s experience should be rewarding, clear, and to the point (because you’re valuing their time).

Because of that, it’s also very valuable at the start of a meeting or call to clearly state how much time you have. However, you don’t want to be so strictly business that you lose the human element. The human element is one of the most important factors—if there’s no relationship, there’s no business, right?

Often, your client will keep choosing you over other competitors simply because they like you and the relationship they have with you. So it’s great to cultivate that relationship. Start with a little warm-up: say hello to everyone on the call. Then get into your bullet points and state by what time you’ll be done.

Set expectations right away. For example, if it’s 6:15 now and the meeting is scheduled to end at 7:00, you can say, “We have until 7:00, and by then we will cover these points.” You might say, “It’s 6:15 now, here are the topics we’re going to cover. Any questions, or can I get started?” Then move into your core subjects and ideas.

Keep things on track. Where possible, save questions for after you’ve gone through the main points, because then those questions can flow into the conversation at the end. That said, make sure everyone knows that if they have an important question relevant to the topic in the moment, they’re welcome to raise it.

Otherwise, save it until the end. Once you’ve finished your main agenda and are in the open conversation part, you can tell everyone, “We are technically done, so you’re welcome to log off if you need to. I’m just going to take some last-minute questions or maybe catch up with Paul about his baby,” or whatever it may be. That way there’s a little buffer time for those who want to stay.

Having a clear cutoff time is important, but I recommend always respecting your client’s time as much as possible.

Now, another major part of your communication is going to be over email and text. In today’s world, a lot of people try to sound more professional by taking a message they’ve written and dumping it into ChatGPT, asking it to make it more professional or better structured.

Here’s the catch: human beings are pattern-recognition machines—it’s our fundamental biological imperative. We recognize patterns so we can automate responses. In the same way, when you get a phone call, in the first few seconds you know if it’s a spam caller, a robocall, or an insurance salesperson. Your brain automatically knows and shuts down, right?

The exact same thing happens when people read AI-generated content. Yes, AI can be a great tool to help speed you up, structure your message, or even generate ideas. But if all you do is dump your thoughts into it and let it parrot something out, the tone is going to match one the reader has likely seen before.

Right? Ever since AI became widespread, a lot of people suddenly have new words in their vocabulary and grammar structures that were never part of standard emails before. These are obvious telltale signs. And the moment you start doing that, sure it may be more efficient, but it loses the personal element that makes communication really work.

I have some clients that refuse to do online meetings; they only do in-person. They’re old-fashioned, or it’s just part of their culture. With those clients, many of the tools we’ve discussed won’t help you, so you need to rely on the fundamentals: make sure you have your bullet points and plan set, you know where you’re going, you’ve preset the time frame, you allocate a bit of time for warm-up, you go through your points, and then you close by noting that the time is up.

Now, the next item: if you are going to be doing video or Zoom calls. In today’s remote world, that’s what we do most often. If you look at my setup here (which is the same setup I use for meetings, just with a different camera for live interviews), the key is that my environment looks professional. It is well-lit, my audio is clear, and my picture quality is good. If you’re going to work remotely, stop using just a basic webcam or other cheap solutions.

Your setup is part of your business’s image. It’s the same reason you might show up to a client meeting in an expensive car versus a beat-up car. Now, you might say, “Oh, status symbols aren’t important.” Sure, a lot of people say that. But the catch is: if someone shows up at my door for a meeting selling a product, and they arrive in a brand-new Ferrari or Bugatti, well-dressed and well-presented, versus someone who pulls up in a broken-down 1980-something Volkswagen and is still tucking in their shirt as they come in—who do you think I’m going to trust to be more organized and deliver a better quality product? Even if the well-dressed person is more expensive, if budget isn’t an issue (and in most larger companies it isn’t), I’m obviously going to pick the one who came better dressed, better prepared, and better presented.

We have a human bias toward that kind of thing. So yes, maybe morally those status symbols shouldn’t matter, but biologically it does, because it gives us a sense of assurance that this person is successful and, as a result, they’ve probably been more successful than the other person.

The same is true of your setup. If all your meetings are in your bedroom with a crappy background, I’m not going to take you seriously. The only clients who will take you seriously in that scenario are those on a shoestring budget who don’t know any better and have no other choice. And a client that doesn’t have the luxury of choice—ask yourself, is that the right client for you? You want clients who aren’t going to be finicky about every penny. If someone is desperately counting pennies and can’t really afford the vision they’re after, maybe they’re not the client for you.

You want a client who can afford the vision they’re after, and as such, you need to present yourself accordingly.

I remember when I first started in sales in my early 20s. I actually became a partner in a brokerage by age 21, and the real reason for that is because I was a good salesperson. I was a good closer, and I realized very quickly that even on a phone call, if I was dressed in a suit and felt sharp, that confidence and energy would carry through. Because I had self-confidence and felt good about myself and my environment, that energy translated to my clients.

It got great results. When I didn’t do that—when I wasn’t confident or put-together—that self-judgment or lack of care also translated through. Similarly, if you present yourself as someone who doesn’t care about themselves, that’s going to come across, because we pick up a person’s presence far more than we pick up their words.

So the next thing to make sure of in your meetings is that you stop multitasking or getting caught in endless creative loops. A lot of people do this (and I’ve been guilty of it myself, learning the lesson the hard way) — you’re sitting with a client, working through an idea or a project, and then infinite new ideas start spinning up.

Now, the problem is twofold. First, it distracts from the achievable objectives. Second, these ideas are very abstract. They’re not well specified because they’re just creative thoughts coming out in the flow. If they’re not clear or defined, they can’t be tracked, budgeted, or implemented in any concrete way.

The biggest issue is that it creates an unconscious expectation in the client’s mind. In these meetings, the client gets excited about all these wonderful ideas and possibilities, but then they don’t hear anything more about them. Even if it’s not conscious, it builds an expectation and then nothing is delivered on it.

This can break down communication severely. One thing I like to do is make sure that every single idea or possibility that comes up in a meeting is noted (one reason I prefer Zoom is it can record/transcribe, but I also take my own notes). After the meeting, I’ll go into our project management tool (like DevOps) and create tasks or story cards for all of that stuff. I’ll write a short description for each idea and assign it to the relevant person (often to the client).

So if a great idea comes up that wasn’t in the budget, I have it recorded. I recognize it’s an opportunity, but I also know it may not be relevant or might not fit once it’s examined. Because I logged that idea (often assigning it to the client for follow-up), it’s not forgotten.

After I’ve noted the concept and asked the client for feedback on it, they’re now in a position to either take accountability to flesh it out (because they really want it)—in which case we can allocate time and resources to it (and bill for it)—or they’ll say, “You know what, that’s not important.”

Then we can check it off, with the client acknowledging it’s not important, and remove it, instead of leaving it as a lingering, unmet expectation.

These are very useful techniques you can start to apply, making them part of every meeting and conversation. And I’m not saying you should be so goal-oriented that you forget to build relationships.

Again, I’ve emphasized the importance of relationships, but you also need a clear focus and to lock down your time, because time is money for both you and your clients.

Another component here is when these meetings happen. The biggest problem is the idea of the “got-a-minute” manager. Whether it’s your team, your remote developers, or your clients, some people think it’s great to have your line always open—to always be accessible. But in fact, it’s a huge disadvantage. It’s really not a good practice. Here’s the reality: if everyone can phone you up at any time, a quick call that was supposed to be 5 minutes turns into 15 or 30 minutes.

That turns into a whole conversation and becomes an hour out of your day. You had eight productive hours, now you’ve got seven. Do that a couple more times and you’ve got even less.

And not only are you losing the time spent on the call (because the client might think, “I only took 20 minutes of your time”), but there’s also the buffer time and context-switching cost. You have to shift from that conversational, emotionally-engaged state back into deep logic or coding mode (or whatever serious strategy work you were doing). These use different parts of the brain and require a state change.

We’ve noticed that when developers in the middle of working on a project are required to hop into meetings at random times, it takes on average up to 45 minutes for the developer to transition into the meeting and then to get back into their work afterward.

In other words, about 45 minutes of lost time after the meeting means you’ve lost at least an hour of productivity just for that one person to get back up to speed. For example, if a meeting is at 10:00 AM and a developer starts work at 8:00 AM, they won’t get into deep work before it. Then they attend the 10:00 meeting, which maybe finishes around 11:30. Then they’re going to go to lunch.

By the end of the day, yes, you had a one-hour meeting, but the switching time means they’re only really back to productive work by 2:00 or 3:00 PM. And how much do you have left until 5:00?

That’s why one of my key rules is: I schedule all client meetings on the same day where possible, unless it’s a critical priority.

I try to get all my client-facing meetings done on the same day, or at least scheduled and agreed upon in advance. This approach also extends to email and phone communication. I make it clear to my clients and team that I’m not available for an immediate response unless it’s a critical, top-priority emergency.

In other words, if production is down or there’s a major issue, fine—but even then you shouldn’t be jumping for every little thing, for the same reasons I mentioned above.

The next thing to do is set up an autoresponder (email, WhatsApp, whatever channels) that clearly indicates you do not respond to communications immediately or outside certain times.

Be honest with your clients: say “I want to be more productive for you, so I’m only going to check emails and messages at, say, 12:00 and 5:00 each day.” That way you have the peace of mind to get into deep work. Every time you see a ping or notification on your phone, or an email comes in that requires some thought, a part of your brain starts analyzing what that could be. That pulls you out of deep work.

You’re going to lose productivity, and your client isn’t going to get the full value of your time. So they’ll appreciate you doing this—making sure you’re only interruptible for truly important matters.

This approach also gives them a chance to consider: “Is this question I have really important?” Instead of firing off an email and creating a chain of back-and-forth emails (where you’re replying all day instead of getting real work done), they might realize it can wait or resolve it themselves.

This is essentially how agile Scrum teams operate: you have a product manager (or Scrum master) who filters requests and protects the team from unnecessary input. If something valuable comes in that’s not in the current plan, it goes into a common backlog where it can be brought in later if priorities change. Or it’s at least flagged so that if it must come in urgently, everyone knows which tasks will be impacted.

Because of that, another thing I do is: on Friday mornings I allocate the next week entirely for existing client work. That means by Thursday, I cut off any new work from clients. Otherwise I can’t accurately predict my time or tasks.

Now, that doesn’t mean I ignore new ideas or opportunities. If something comes up, I let it come in and just add it to the backlog, so I can bring it in later if it’s necessary or if I have the capacity. But this approach also trains your clients: they learn they need to have all their information and ideas in by that cutoff if they want it considered in the next sprint.

Now, this leads to another important point: a lot of meetings (weekly scrums, weekly reports, etc.) are actually unnecessary, right? We often have to take time away from work to have those meetings, and so does the client. We do it just because it’s scheduled as a weekly scrum or report.

But ask yourself: is that report or meeting necessary?

I have one of my best ideas related to this, but before I get to that, I want to talk about time zone considerations and booking these meetings. I’m saving the really good stuff for last. If you’re like me (or anyone working remotely nowadays), managing time zones is crucial.

If you have clients in different time zones, working out scheduling can get tricky—especially when daylight savings changes hit one region and not another. You might think a meeting is at 2:00, and suddenly it’s at 3:00 because of a time change.

Here’s how I handle it: first, stop using a dozen separate calendars. Pick one primary calendar and copy all of your meetings into it. If you’ve got a dozen different email addresses, that’s fine—you’ll get meeting requests in those inboxes, but then just recreate or add those meetings into your primary calendar.

The reason for one primary calendar is that you can link it to scheduling services like Calendly, ScheduleOnce, or even Google Calendar’s scheduler. My personal favorite is Zoom Scheduler — it has a small fee, but it automatically creates my Zoom meeting links.

Again, you don’t have to use Zoom’s paid tool; you can use the free version of Calendly and still integrate Zoom meetings. The point is I like everything in one simple environment. I don’t want the cognitive effort of jumping between different apps to manage scheduling. The more our attention is scattered, the higher the cognitive cost. Our daily willpower is a limited resource, so you need to be optimal in how you use it.

Now, if you’re using a scheduling tool linked to your calendar, don’t just use it for meetings that others book—also block out your deep work time on it. That way no one can book over those periods.

Another thing: I make sure nobody can book a meeting for the same day or even the next day. That way, if I see a meeting has been scheduled, I have time to prepare for it. For example, I might reach out: “Hey John, I see you booked a meeting and invited Jane. Could you give me a quick brief on what it’s about?” Or have them fill that info in when they book. Then I can see, “Okay, the meeting is about the new UX design; they just have a question. Alright, is there anything I need to get from the team or check beforehand?”

That way I’m fully prepared for the meeting and can be as effective as possible. It also allows me to align my work. For example, if I know I’m going to be talking about Unreal Engine with a client (for a project I’m doing), why not schedule my other Unreal Engine tasks or tutorials on that same day? Then I’m in the same mindset; I’m not jumping between completely different types of work. I’m focused on the same kind of concepts.

It’s very important to keep yourself performing well and aligned like that.

Now for my little secret weapon—one of the things I think is most important, and it’s really aligned with today’s technology and environment.

As I mentioned earlier, constantly setting up meetings isn’t always ideal. Some clients may like frequent meetings initially, but in the long term it becomes an issue.

I do a lot of long-term work. My clients value my work because we have a deep relationship. I have clients who have been on retainer with me for 2, 3, even 4 years—I’m doing work for them all the time. They trust me and we have a good relationship—because I’m deeply invested in them and in their brands.

One thing I always do at the start of a new project is negotiate some stock up front or an investment percentage. I do that because I want to feel I have ownership in the product.

So if that client’s retainer hours run low, I don’t even care if I go over. I’ll push to the next level for them. Because that’s not just a client—that’s Jamie, that’s Craig, that’s my buddy. It’s my friend, someone I love and care for, and I want to see them succeed.

I’m also invested in the project because the more it grows, the more I grow, and the more my own business grows. This way you also start expanding into different areas. Being invested means your clients feel that relationship, and it matters to them—especially on a day when you’re late on a delivery or struggling. (I had one recently: I was at the vet for two days because my poor little pet—my baby—almost died on the operating table.)

Fortunately, the surgeons were able to save her. I was distraught, but my clients understood — they said, “Go be with her, take care of that.” That’s the kind of relationship you want with clients, right? They do that because they know you’re invested in their lives and they’re invested in yours, but it’s not distracting from the objectives.

You’re still focused on delivering value, and delivering it consistently. That’s what will really set you apart from others.

Now, I know I’m going slightly off tangent, but you oftentimes don’t need to wait for the client’s criticism. That’s something I see a lot of people do: they’re unsure about something and say, “Maybe this could be better… let’s see what the client thinks.”

No — the client shouldn’t have to be the one thinking about that. It’s your job to critique your own work, to be the critic, right? If you criticize your own work and find the problems before the client (or anyone else) can, then you’re delivering something you’re proud of. Your client will say, “Oh, you really thought about this. You really thought about that.”

That kind of diligence is what gives you leverage and builds trust. It makes the client realize, “It’s not just that this job got done — this person goes above and beyond.”

As I mentioned, meetings take time. Your clients don’t always have the capacity for them. I have one client, a really dear friend, who’s constantly bombarded with work. He’s opening new shops, training new teams — there’s always some fire he has to put out (bless his incredible spirit; great human being, fantastic thinker). So if he has an hour blocked with me every week, he sometimes forgets or just can’t make it because of everything going on.

Instead of me sitting there wasting my time because I set aside that hour and he’s a no-show, here’s what I do (and I recommend you try this as well): I keep all scheduled meetings and report sessions for my clients in my calendar as blocked time. That way, if they don’t use it, I still have that time reserved to do other work.

They also feel reassured knowing that time is available if they need to talk to me.

Now, here’s what I do next. You’re probably already creating content for your social media, right? You might record little screencasts or videos talking about projects and ideas. Why not start making content for the people that matter the most?

Your clients, right? If you’re putting in that kind of effort to market to new clients, remember you have existing clients who already trust you and are building things with you. Why not produce even more value for them?

So, instead of me just sending a weekly report or telling a client to go check the Scrum board during the week, I do screen captures of the work I’m doing. Once I finish certain pieces of work, I hop on camera and talk about what was done, what challenges we ran into, or what we accomplished. I like to do this on Sunday (you might schedule it differently). I always tell my clients they’re going to get their video on Tuesday — that’s my content delivery day for clients.

Just like you might schedule a social media post for a certain day, you can schedule your report video content to go out to clients every Tuesday morning. So, on Tuesday morning my clients open their email and there’s a video of me presenting what we did that week, taking them through a technical deep dive.

One thing I’m incorporating now (and I recommend you do) is adding a bit of storytelling to these videos to really engage them in the ideas.

With this approach, the client can decide: do we even need a meeting this week? You’re already working and doing these things.

Basically, just turn on the camera and talk to it every now and then—screen record and explain what you’re doing. You’re capturing all that media. Then on Sunday or Monday morning, instead of planning for a bunch of meetings (and losing that day), spend the morning editing those clips together and send them out to the clients.

I often prepare by outlining the core concepts or bullet points in advance so I know what I’ll cover in the video. Then I send it out to clients. So every Monday (or Tuesday) morning, they get their 15-20 minute video (or maybe less, if I can optimize it).

This gives them all the insight and information they need. On top of that, they get to see the work in progress—stuff they’d normally miss. In the video, they see the 3D modeling, they see the code being written, they see the tests. They get to experience it like they’re part of it.

You’re speaking directly to them in those video moments. They have their little “movie,” and then they can decide, “Hey, I want to have a meeting this week because I need to talk about this thing,” or maybe they realize they don’t need a meeting at all. If they do want a meeting about something they noticed, it’s already on the calendar.

For example, in the video I might say, “I have a question on this part that I need you to sign off on — you can just give me confirmation over email, or we can hop on a call to discuss it.”

Now you’ve pre-eliminated all those unnecessary meetings. You’re also doing something that you can ultimately repurpose as content later.

You can even take some of those ideas and put them into a blog. For example, for one of my clients we’re building a game experience and documenting it on a blog. Now you have a great relationship, you’ve got great content, and your clients are getting an experience instead of just a quick conversation.

And here’s something I do as the cherry on top: I still make sure to touch base with them on a call every couple of weeks, just to maintain that relationship. I also add something else to these videos: a bit of mentoring, some industry information, and resources.

I basically act as a news agent for my clients, right? There might be a lot happening in my industry that they’re not aware of, so I filter and package it in a simple way for them. This also gives me material I can use as content on my social media—so it’s a double win.

I even make sure my clients get this information up to a month in advance. Same with my interviews and other content—I want to make sure they have a leading advantage, as if they were paying me as a private consultant. I give them those experiences, which also opens the door to other possibilities (upsells, etc.).

Okay, so lots of ideas! I hope these have been useful. Obviously there’s a lot more we could cover, and if you’ve got some other great productivity hacks or time management hacks—or tools that help manage all this—please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear about your tools and strategies. And if there’s any specific subject in the digital or agency world you want me to dive into, let me know below and let’s knock it out of the park.

Till then, I hope you’ve enjoyed this hack, and I’ll see you next week.