A meeting that ends late, wanders through side topics, and produces no clear next step costs more than an hour on the calendar. It interrupts focused work, makes the next appointment late, and teaches people to dread the next invite.
Meetings don’t have to suck when they have a purpose, a disciplined agenda, and visible ownership of the work that follows. We have found that the goal isn’t to make business meetings entertaining. The goal is for everyone to leave knowing their time was used well.
Why so many agency meetings fail
Most bad meetings share the same problems. Nobody is certain why they were invited, the conversation expands without limits, and the meeting runs over into someone else’s workday.
A meeting can also become an information dump. People give updates, nod along, and leave without deciding what needs to happen next. That may keep everyone informed, but it doesn’t move a project forward.
Signs your meeting may be broken include:
- It begins without a written agenda or a clear result in mind.
- Ten people attend, but only two people need to discuss the main issue.
- A new concern hijacks the planned topic and consumes the entire time block.
- The meeting runs late often enough that people plan for it.
- Tasks get mentioned, yet no one owns them or reviews them next week.
When this pattern becomes normal, people start treating meetings as an unavoidable tax rather than a working part of the business.
Use a repeatable format for recurring meetings
Toby Cryns began looking at EOS as a meeting-management model, with attention on its agenda rather than the full operating system. The first recurring meetings at The Mighty Mo used that structure with operations, SEO, and project-management teams.
The immediate difference was noticeable. Even without planning enough time for the first rollout, the conversations felt shorter and covered more than previous meetings. Structure gave the leader a way to protect the conversation from drift.
### Keep the schedule and agenda consistent
A recurring meeting needs a familiar rhythm. Hold it at the same time each week, follow the same agenda, and stop on time. EOS recommends a 90-minute format for its Level 10 Meeting, although a smaller team may need less time. The important part is choosing a limit and respecting it.
The EOS Level 10 Meeting framework uses a repeated agenda that includes a scorecard, objectives, to-dos, issue-solving, and a close. You don’t need to copy every component to benefit from the central idea: participants should know what will happen before they enter the room.
A dependable format does more than reduce confusion. It forces the meeting leader to prepare, and it protects the next item on everyone’s calendar.
A meeting that always runs late tells the team that the agenda is optional and their time is not protected.
Focus on the issue, not a long status report
Status updates have a place, but they should not fill the entire meeting. The harder work is deciding which issue matters most, discussing it, and choosing the next action.
Start with the highest-priority business issue. Keep working on it until the team resolves it or the meeting ends. That approach can feel uncomfortable because a single important problem may take most of the session. Still, a meeting should not pretend that every topic deserves equal time.
Make the agenda the center of the meeting
Kurt von Ahnen has seen both extremes. Corporate meetings can become long conversations led by people who have enthusiasm for the business but no process for leading a room. On the other hand, meetings at LifterLMS have shown how a clear agenda can create useful participation.
A good agenda answers three questions before anyone joins:
- Why are we meeting?
- Which topics require the group’s attention?
- What decision or action should come out of this time?
Separate group work from individual work
If an e-learning module is one person’s responsibility, the manager and that person should meet directly. The same applies to an edit in a service manual, a small development task, or a detailed client request. Bringing unrelated teammates into that conversation wastes their attention.
Group meetings should address work that affects the group. At LifterLMS, that can mean sharing progress across development, sales, and customer service. The team may review sprint work, product plans, support feedback, testimonials, or recent sales activity. Details can then move into smaller conversations with the people who own them.
| Use a group meeting for | Use a one-on-one meeting for |
|---|---|
| A project risk that crosses departments | A specific person’s deliverable |
| Product feedback that affects support or sales | A detailed edit or technical handoff |
| Shared priorities and company progress | Coaching, performance feedback, or task clarification |
| A decision that requires several stakeholders | Work that does not affect the wider team |
If a meeting centers on one person’s task, it probably belongs in a one-on-one meeting. Every attendee should be able to explain why they are in the room.
Prioritize important work over urgent noise
An agenda does not solve every business-priority problem. However, it gives the team a way to triage issues during the meeting rather than allowing the loudest new concern to take over.
Before ranking agenda items, define what matters to the business. Otherwise, “important” becomes whatever someone feels strongly about that day. Once the team agrees on priorities, it can rank issues against those priorities and work through the most meaningful item first.
Keep side topics without letting them derail the room
Related questions will come up. A person may say, “What about this?” while the team is discussing another problem. Sometimes the new thought is useful. It may even need attention soon.
The answer is not to ignore it. Thank the person for raising it, add it to the issues list, and return to the current topic. If time remains, discuss it later in the meeting. If not, assign it to another conversation or place it on a future agenda.
We use the same discipline when we create show notes. Less important ideas go lower on the list, where they remain available without displacing the main subject.
Evaluate urgency before changing priorities
Kurt often returns to the lesson in Tyranny of the Urgent: people can spend every day putting out fires and never make progress on the work that matters most. That same habit can consume meetings.
Urgent means an issue feels immediate. It may require attention, but it should still be evaluated.
Important means an issue supports the larger goal of the business. It deserves protected time, even when other requests are noisier.
Time blocking reflects this distinction. We reserve time for important work first, then fit genuine urgent work around it whenever possible. That takes discipline, especially for agency owners, project managers, and anyone who receives a steady stream of client requests.
Let team conversations reveal risks
A group meeting can uncover information that separate one-on-one conversations miss. Toby described asking different people about the same project and getting conflicting answers. One person said it was going well. Another said it was going off the rails.
Neither response alone gave a complete picture. A shared conversation could have surfaced the disagreement sooner and created an opportunity to correct course.
Bring the issue into the room, then move details out
The team meeting is the right place to identify a problem that affects multiple functions. It is rarely the right place to complete every piece of detailed work.
Kurt shared an example from LifterLMS’s events add-on. When the feature was introduced to the broader team, he raised feedback from stakeholders about additional needs. The developer recognized the value of the request. Then the detailed conversation moved to Slack between the people who needed to work through it.
That balance gave the product team useful feedback without turning the entire meeting into a technical planning session. LifterLMS itself supports a broad set of course, membership, payment, quiz, and integration workflows, so keeping cross-team communication clear matters when a product change affects customers in several ways.
Use a simple process:
- Surface the issue with the people who need to understand its impact.
- Confirm why it matters to the project, customer, or business priority.
- Assign the people responsible for resolving it.
- Continue detailed planning outside the full-team meeting.
Turn discussion into visible accountability
A meeting that only exchanges information may be useful on occasion. A recurring business meeting should usually create action.
Kurt’s view is direct: action is the reason to meet. The group needs to know what happens next, who owns it, and when the owner will report back.
Build a short list of owned tasks
After discussing an issue, convert the conclusion into a clear to-do. Avoid vague notes such as “look into the client concern” or “work on the landing page.” Instead, define the work well enough that the owner knows what done looks like.
For a weekly meeting, the expectation may be that each task is complete by the next meeting. A monthly cadence may require a longer window. The timing can change, but the ownership should remain visible.
| Task | Owner | Due date | Status at next meeting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Confirm the final project scope | Project manager | Next weekly meeting | Done or not done |
| Collect stakeholder feedback | Account lead | Next weekly meeting | Done or not done |
| Test the requested product change | Developer | Next weekly meeting | Done or not done |
When an owner does not complete a task, the work should not disappear into old notes. It returns to the issue list, where the team can discuss the obstacle, reset the commitment, or decide the task no longer matters.
Protect the process as the team grows
A strong agenda will lose value if the leader stops managing it. The time limit, topic order, action list, and follow-up all depend on consistent use.
Team personalities also shape the outcome. Some employees need time to learn the role and build confidence. Others may repeatedly complain, spread negativity, or weaken trust across the team. The difference is not always obvious in the first few weeks or months.
Leaders have to pay attention to patterns. A person who dislikes every meeting, every project, and every colleague can affect client relationships, productivity, and morale. At the same time, a new employee who is still finding their footing may need clearer training rather than quick judgment.
Clear processes help separate those situations. When expectations, training, and ownership are documented, the team can discuss performance based on observable work instead of assumptions. We have seen training work best when it gives people short, role-specific lessons and real examples, rather than handing them a vague checklist and hoping they figure it out.
Introduce a new meeting process carefully
The first experience with a new format carries weight. If the first meeting is confusing, unfocused, or late, someone may decide the entire system is a waste of time.
Explain why the format is changing. Make the agenda easy to follow. Keep the first sessions focused on a few meaningful issues, and finish when promised. Then show the team that their action items do not vanish after the call.
The meeting leader sets the tone. If the leader allows interruptions, abandons the priority order, or skips the follow-up list, the process will quickly become another loose conversation with a nicer template.
For a broader discussion about agency operations, WordPress work, and business decisions from this same conversation, see the Agency Action episode on better meetings.
Find agency work through relationships first
The conversation shifted from internal meetings to a useful thought experiment. Suppose you arrive in a new city with a laptop, limited cash, no contact list, and no ability to call former clients. How do you find web work?
We would start with people, not a logo, a polished homepage, or a paid marketing campaign.
### Go where new businesses gather
Look for local economic-development offices, startup programs, leadership cohorts, business classes, and coworking spaces. Kurt mentioned Startup Hutch in Hutchinson, Kansas, and the South Valley Economic Development Center in Albuquerque as examples of the types of groups that help people start businesses.
New business owners often need a website, a sales page, a basic e-commerce setup, or help clarifying their online presence. You don’t need to walk in with a dramatic pitch. Start by participating, learning who is in the room, and explaining the problem you solve.
Show up consistently. A BNI group, a local Meetup, a library event, a gym, a coffee shop, or a business-development class can all create opportunities. Familiarity builds trust because people see you return, contribute, and follow through.
Offer a small, clear starting point
Kurt’s approach would be to offer affordable startup website packages, complete them quickly, and use the first project to build trust. The first sale is often the icebreaker, not the final destination.
The American Pickers example fits well here. Buy something small, start the relationship, and earn the chance to discuss bigger opportunities later. In agency work, that might mean a starter site, a technical consultation, or a short discovery project.
Be direct about what you do and what kind of work you want. “I build WordPress and WooCommerce sites for local startups” gives people something specific to remember. “I’m available for anything online” does not.
Become useful before asking for referrals
Relationship-building does not require a forced sales script. It starts with genuine interest in the local businesses around you.
Buy coffee from the neighborhood shop. Purchase a bicycle tube from the local bike store. Ask how long the business has operated, what customers ask for most often, and what the owner enjoys about the work. The goal is not to corner someone into a website pitch while they ring up a sale.
Over time, the owner may mention a problem, ask what you do, or introduce you to someone who needs help. We have found that relationships with people in adjacent agencies can work the same way. A nearby agency may receive a project outside its preferred scope and refer it to a business it knows and trusts.
You can also create goodwill by connecting people at an event. If two attendees should meet, introduce them. Acting like a helpful host, even as a guest, gives people a reason to remember you.
Build sales momentum before polishing everything else
Many freelancers get stuck in activities that feel productive but do not create revenue. They revise their logo, compare page builders, experiment with plugins, write website copy for an audience they do not yet have, or build tools before they have clients.
Those activities may be useful later. They should not replace sales conversations.
Start with the opportunity in front of you
If someone asks whether you can build a WordPress or WooCommerce site, answer the question clearly. If you have the skills, say yes. Get their contact information, understand the need, and follow up.
Your website does not need to be perfect before you talk to a prospect. Toby’s point was practical: if the conversation reveals a real need, you can build or refine the relevant portfolio page after you know what you are selling.
Don’t overthink marketing before you have someone to sell to. Revenue gives you the room to improve branding, systems, services, and promotion with more confidence.
Keep the technology practical
WordPress, paired with a small set of dependable plugins, can support a profitable agency. You can build sites, create sales pages, support e-commerce, and launch learning experiences without waiting for the newest tool or a complex custom stack.
That approach fits the same principle behind Mañana No Mas: stop delaying the work that gets a real project launched. Tools matter, but tools do not replace conversations, follow-up, delivery, and client trust.
Build meetings and sales around follow-through
A better meeting starts with a clear agenda, includes the right people, protects the time limit, and ends with owned tasks. The format creates room for hidden risks to surface while keeping side conversations from swallowing the work that matters.
Agency growth follows a similar discipline. Show up where people gather, explain the problem you solve, listen for real needs, and follow up with useful action.
The most productive meetings and the strongest sales efforts both depend on clear priorities and consistent follow-through.