Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.
Today I want to talk about working smarter, when it comes to meetings.
Today’s Quote: “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker
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Connect with Tracey D’Aviero, VA Coach and Trainer
Episode Notes:
Today I want to share one of my favourite little systems. It’s something I teach my coaching clients, and once they start using it, they rarely go back.
I call it the 20-Minute Meeting.
Now before you think I’m suggesting you cut meetings short just for the sake of it, that’s not what this is about.
This is about recognizing that a client meeting doesn’t end when you click “Leave Meeting.” It ends when everything that came out of that meeting has been documented, assigned, communicated, and organized. Unfortunately, many VAs don’t account for that part.
Here’s what typically happens.
You schedule a 30-minute meeting with your client.
The meeting runs right until the 30-minute mark.
You say goodbye, jump straight into your next task, or maybe your next client call.
Your notes stay scribbled on a notepad.
The project management system doesn’t get updated until later.
The follow-up email sits in your inbox waiting to be written.
Action items don’t get assigned until the next day. Sometimes they don’t get assigned at all.
And if you’re honest, how often do you end up doing all of that admin work later in the day without charging for it?
You’re still working because of that meeting, but the client’s timer has stopped.
That’s where the 20-Minute Meeting comes in.
If you’ve booked a client for 30 minutes, aim to complete the actual conversation in about 20.
That doesn’t mean rushing. It means having an agenda, staying focused, and gently steering the conversation when it starts wandering.
Most client meetings don’t need the full 30 minutes of discussion. All they need is direction.
Now you’ve created something incredibly valuable. Ten minutes. Those ten minutes are still part of the client’s booked meeting time. Use them immediately. Update your project management system. Write your meeting notes while everything is still fresh in your head. Assign tasks. Record deadlines. Draft and send your follow-up email if needed. Capture any ideas that came up. Log your time.
By the time those 30 minutes are over, the meeting is actually finished.
Everything is wrapped up. Nothing is left undone. You have effectively used those 10 minutes to complete the meeting task for your client.
And you got paid for the full task.
The Hidden Cost of Every Client Meeting
There are a couple of reasons why managing your meeting times makes sense.
One of them is the hidden cost of the lost time.
Implement ting a tight system like this keeps your money in your pocket.
A lot of VAs don’t realize how much free work they’re giving away because they’re only looking at the meeting itself.
Let’s say you’ve scheduled a 30-minute client call.
You block off half an hour in your calendar, you have the conversation, and when the meeting ends, you stop the timer.
But are you actually finished? Nope.
Organizing your notes, updating ClickUp, Asana, Trello, or whatever project management system you use. Uploading documents, saving meeting recordings.
All of these things are tasks that happened because of that client meeting. They’re part of delivering your service, and they are part of the actual meeting task.
But so many VAs treat them as “extras” they’ll squeeze in later.
The problem is, later almost always turns into unpaid time.
Let’s do some quick math:
Imagine you have four client meetings each week. After each meeting, you spend just 15 minutes wrapping everything up later in the day. That doesn’t sound like much, does it? But that’s one full hour every week. Over the course of a year, that’s more than 50 hours of unpaid work.
Think about that for a minute!
That’s more than an entire work week you’ve donated simply because you didn’t build your wrap-up time into the meeting itself.
Now imagine your hourly rate is $50. You’ve effectively given away more than $2,500 worth of your time. If your rate is $75 an hour, that’s nearly $4,000. And if you’re charging $100 an hour, you’re looking at over $5,000 of work that wasn’t accounted for.
This isn’t about squeezing more money out of your clients. It’s about recognizing the true scope of the service you’re already providing. The meeting isn’t just the conversation. The meeting includes everything required to make that conversation useful.
When you start thinking about meetings this way, you’ll stop seeing your follow-up as “extra admin.”
You’ll see it for what it really is. It’s part of delivering an exceptional client experience.
Why Clients Love Immediate Follow-Up
Another reason to manage your meetings better and bill for that follow up time right away is that your clients will love the immediate followup.
The 20-Minute Meeting isn’t just good for you. It’s fantastic for your clients.
Think about how many times you’ve been in a meeting where everyone leaves feeling clear on what was discussed, but then… nothing.
A day goes by. Maybe two. You’re left wondering, “Who’s doing what? What was the deadline? Did we decide to move forward with that idea or not?”
If you leave your meeting and don’t summarize the results right away, your client is wondering the same thing.
Now imagine the opposite experience.
You finish your meeting, and before your client has even had a chance to grab another coffee, they’ve received a summary of everything you discussed.
Their action items are clearly listed. Your action items are already in your project management system. Deadlines have been recorded.
The next steps are right there. There’s no trying to remember, no guessing, no wondering if anything was forgotten.
This kind of follow-up creates trust.
It tells your client, “I’ve got this.” and that is what they love.
Remember, they don’t hire a VA because they want another person to manage. They hire a VA because they want someone who manages the details for them.
Immediate follow-up demonstrates organization, reliability, and professionalism without you ever having to say those words.
You’re showing them instead of telling them.
Clients remember that feeling. They remember working with someone who made their life easier.
And that’s exactly the kind of experience that leads to long-term client relationships and referrals.
It’s impressive. It communicates professionalism.
It builds your confidence, and their confidence in you.
It tells your client that they’re working with someone who has it all under control because they have a process.
And that’s exactly what ridiculously good VAs do.
And of course, you’re no longer trying to remember what happened three hours later.
We’ve all looked at our notebook and wondered, “What the heck did I mean by that?”
When you document everything immediately, your notes are more accurate, your follow-up is better, and nothing slips through the cracks.
There’s also a mindset shift here. Many VAs believe they’re only working when they’re talking to the client. You are not.
The meeting includes the preparation before it, the conversation itself, and the documentation afterwards.
That’s all part of the meeting task.
If you don’t account for that time, you’re giving away part of your expertise for free, and you probably don’t even realize it. Or you haven’t thought about it in that way. And you should! Everything you do for your client is billable to them. Everything!
I don’t want you doing work for free for anyone. So let’s change that right now.
Systems are important. Being a professional VA also doesn’t mean being busy all day. Systems help you deliver consistently excellent service without constantly feeling behind. The 20-Minute Meeting is one of those systems.
Finally one thing that I must also include is the objections that you all give me every time I tell you that a 20 minute meeting is all you need.
“But What If…”
Whenever I teach the 20-Minute Meeting, I usually hear a few common objections.
The first one is, “My client always talks too much.” Fair enough. Some clients love to chat. But part of being a professional VA is learning how to gently guide a conversation back to the agenda. That doesn’t mean being abrupt or cutting someone off.
It can be as simple as saying, “Before we wrap up, I’d love to make sure we’ve covered the other two items on our agenda.” Most clients appreciate that because they’re busy too.
The second objection is, “What if we actually need the whole 30 minutes?” Then use the whole 30 minutes. The goal isn’t to finish early at all costs.
The goal is to recognize that wrapping up the meeting is part of the meeting itself.
If today’s discussion genuinely requires the full half hour, that’s okay.
You may need to spend a few extra minutes afterwards, or you may decide that this particular client really needs a 45-minute meeting going forward.
You still need to block out the right amount of time for the meeting and follow up.
It should be 30 minutes total but if it is 45 that’s fine.
The important thing is being intentional instead of assuming the admin work is somehow “extra.” Allow time for it, and do it.
Another question I hear is, “Won’t my client think I’m trying to end the meeting early?”
Not if you’ve accomplished everything you set out to accomplish.
Most clients don’t judge a meeting by how long it lasted. They judge it by whether it was productive.
A focused 20-minute meeting with excellent follow-up is far more valuable than a 30-minute meeting that wanders off-topic and leaves everyone wondering what happens next.
Honestly, everyone hates meetings.
They should never be a co-working session. They should be a high level overview of what is happening and then you both go off to do your own work.
Finally, some VAs say, “I can just update everything later.” Of course you can. The real question is… will you? Life happens. Another client emails. Your phone rings. Something urgent comes up.
Before you know it, you’re trying to remember a conversation you had six hours ago. That’s when details get missed. When things fall through the cracks.
That’s when you’re doing unpaid admin work at eight o’clock in the evening because you never quite got around to finishing the meeting.
The 20-Minute Meeting solves that problem before it starts.
I love it! I hope you love it too!
So here’s my challenge for you this week:
Look at your calendar. Find one 30-minute client meeting. Go into it with a simple agenda and intentionally aim to finish the conversation in 20 minutes. Tell them client you want to follow the agenda because you value everyone’s time. Then spend the final 10 minutes completing everything that meeting generated.
Don’t save it for later. Don’t tell yourself you’ll get to it this afternoon. Finish it before the clock reaches the end of the original booking.
I think you’ll be amazed at how much lighter you feel, how much more organized you become, and how much more professional your clients perceive you to be.
Sometimes it’s the smallest systems that make the biggest difference in your business.
Do You Need Help?
Let’s circle back to today’s quote: Efficiency is about doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.
When you focus on doing the right things in the right way, you get both. And you stop losing money by working for free.
Now let me finish up by reiterating that if you really can’t see a 20 minute meeting working for you (it will), then do a 45 minute meeting. Take 30 with your client, and 10 to 15 to finish up.
But stop jumping out of the call and onto something else right away and trying to come back to it later. I can promise you by doing that you are losing money. You are not accounting for the before and after of your meeting, and you should be.
If you want help mapping out a great agenda that will help you work more efficiently, host shorter meetings, and deliver a polished summary and action steps to your client shortly after your meeting ends (without using AI), get in touch with me and we can book in one of my Quick Win private coaching calls.
All you need is the framework and you can create the right agenda for each of your clients – I used to have a different agenda for every client, because they all had different things to focus on for their business.
And we did the production meetings in 20 minutes! Even for my 6 and 7 figure business coaches.
You can do it. It works. I hope you try!
Thanks so much for tuning in to this week’s episode of The Ridiculously Good VA Show.
If this episode gave you one practical idea you can use today, I’d love it if you’d subscribe, leave a review, or share it with another VA who could benefit from it.
And if I can help you take a step forward, reach out to me. Send me a DM or book a Quick Win coaching call today.
Let’s help you become the ridiculously good virtual assistant you want to be.
I’ll see you next time!