If you run/oversee multiple companies like me then your time is incredibly valuable which is why I hate when I get these emails from people telling me to set up calendly meetings with them to discuss…nothing specific…just a general meeting.

Here are some points that work for me, and maybe they will work for you.

1). An actual meeting should result in a lucrative (for me) business deal closing or something close to that, not some introduction. Everything else can be over email.

2). The person who is requesting the non-critical meeting is already telling me their time has no value, otherwise, they wouldn’t just be requesting a random meeting.

3). If they’re requesting the meeting then send them a Stripe link to pay you for your time. You’ll quickly get a response saying: Actually, we can just email. That is perfectly fine.

4). I factor in opportunity costs in almost everything I do so for me to take a meeting, I have to cancel something else. It doesn’t matter if the meeting is five minutes. That is time away from something that brings in revenue for my companies or family time.

5). Create a meeting calendar with a booking fee. As soon as you get one of those emails then forward the booking page to the sender. You’ll either get silence (which is great) or they pay you for your time (which is also great). If they send you a follow-up email instead of booking the meeting they so desperately wanted then they have indirectly answered that the meeting would’ve been a complete waste of YOUR time which is good to know early.

I will share this with ANYONE who is requesting a non-critical meeting with me. My time is incredibly valuable, so I must treat it as such!