What I Learned From Meeting 421 People This Year
My annual data and a tool for you that can make meetings more meaningful
Welcome to the latest entry in The Workaround. You’re in good company with thousands of fellow entrepreneurs and innovators who have subscribed!
I’m your host, Bob, and my mission here is to share personal, behind-the-scenes stories of ups and downs from my career leading tech startups and corporate innovation.
I write to make you think, smile, and discover a shortcut to success or a trap to avoid.
Here we go…
By now, we all get at least a few of those "Year in Review” emails which went mainstream with Spotify. So far I’ve gotten my annual stats from Nike, Peloton, Grammarly, and a favorite, my “Year in Beer” from the Untappd app. My liver isn’t happy to learn that I’ve had more NEIPAs this year than last…
Seeing these drop into my inbox got me thinking about my business year in review and the stats that could be worth sharing. And an idea hit me: How many meetings did I have in 2023?
It seems like I spend a lot of my day talking with people. But how many meetings? How many people? How many were on Zoom or in person? So I opened my calendar, booted up Excel, and went down the rabbit hole…
I’m not claiming to be a Jedi-level meeting master or anything, but I did learn something about myself and built a couple of tools that might help you make the most of the most important part of your workdays in 2024.
The Setup
There are several reasons I meet with people. I’ve got new prospects and current clients across our multiple businesses. There are meetings where people want to learn my thoughts on a topic, and/or I’m picking their brains in return. I have several new and old friends in career transitions who are looking for advice. I like to connect with innovation leaders on LinkedIn. And serendipity happens.
In this exercise, I was most interested in how many people I had “meaningful interactions” with around business topics. To me, “meaningful” means we’ve gotten to know each other—moving past slide decks and small talk, and usually in no more than groups of two or three people. I excluded regular team meetings, 1-on-1s, and client check-ins. I counted get-togethers with friends if one or more of us had a juicy work topic to discuss. I did not include happy hours at conferences or other big group activities. Finally, when I say “number of meetings,” I mean how many people I met. For example, meeting with the same person twice in a year is counted as two meetings.
[For the data geeks out there—and I know you’re out there—feel free to suggest different models or ask additional questions in the comments. But please remember this is mostly for fun.]
It took about an hour to look at my week-by-week calendar and jot down details of these meetings—specifically around location and whether they were “old” or “new” connections.
Data & Insights
Here’s how everything sorted out:
421 Total Meetings - Seeing this number on the spreadsheet surprised me and my team when I shared it this week. While it seems like a lot, it’s only 1.6 meetings on average per day over the course of 260 working days. The average length was about 40 minutes. So I spent a little over an hour a day meeting people. But remember, this excludes regular team, client, and partner meetings.
Seasonal Peek in Spring - The most meetings per month happened in April (55), with March (48) and May (51) close behind. Fall was another peak, with 39 in October and 52 in November. No big surprise here—people tend to concentrate on their work when the kids are back in school and vacations are over.
76% Virtual - What did we do without Zoom? Talk on the phone, I guess. I’m actually surprised this percentage wasn’t even higher. On the other hand, I enjoyed my in-person meetings more. These also peaked in Spring and Fall. I took only three business trips in 2023. A Delta representative called to ask where flowers should be sent. And while I didn’t do the math on this, I would assume that 98% of my meetings with people happened because something got put on the schedule. Impromptu phone calls are so rare these days.
42% New Relationships - I was most curious about this going in and assumed the share of “new” people I’d met would be lower than this. It might be a sign that my new business efforts are working—or that I’m bad at keeping up with old work friends.
I’ve got the whole spreadsheet up here, and you’re welcome to dig into the data further or copy and paste it for your own use. Please share your results with me so we can compare!
Improving Myself For Others
It felt like I was having more meetings than ever before in my career. It’s definitely becoming a more important part of my job and, honestly, a highlight of my days. Reflecting on this, I decided to try to be a better meeting partner a few months ago.
First, I needed to track all the people I met with. I’m already dutifully using Hubspot to log prospect and client calls. But what about all the other stuff? I had found myself forgetting the details of our previous conversation and wondering when we got together last. Maybe I’m getting old, maybe 421 meetings is a lot, or maybe I actually care more at this point in my life.
So I whipped up the most simple spreadsheet you can imagine. It’s just a simple document with the name, date, and topic of our last chat. Right after a meeting is complete, I pop this up and capture a few notes from our conversation. This takes 60 seconds. When the next meeting happens, I move the previous notes over. You can take this one for yourself, too:
In addition to tracking better, I’ve been working on, well, being a better person. Aided by my growing study of meditation, stoicism, and religious traditions, I’m improving my approach to working with others. Before a meeting, I now pause and get in a mindset to listen and learn. I recognize that there is another interesting person before me with a unique story, skills, and interests. My objective is to see how I can help them, even when I’m the one pitching something.
The better we are with other people, the better life becomes for all of us. But this must start by looking inside ourselves and noticing how and why we think and react in certain ways. In this case, my impulse to go down a data rabbit hole about meetings got me wondering—why the hell did I do this?
More than ever my work is around conversations with other people. My network keeps getting bigger after 30 years in business. I get to work across multiple businesses, partnerships, investments, and supplier relationships—a swirl of people interacting to get things done.
And this Substack had brought me so many new ways to reach new and old friends. With over 7,000 subscribers, I receive at least a few replies to my posts from people struggling with an issue.
As for the data analysis piece, I might be channeling Peter Drucker’s line that “what gets measured gets managed.”
And I’ve learned this year that I truly treasure this time with others. Going back into my calendar was joyful. It brought back clear in-the-moment memories of where we were, topics we discussed, and laughs we shared. People are infinitely fascinating. Some discussions were difficult, and some of us didn’t click, but no time was “wasted.”
What I really enjoy is not you; it’s something that’s greater than both you and me. It is something that I discovered, a kind of symphony, a kind of orchestra that plays one melody in your presence, but when you depart, the orchestra doesn’t stop. When I meet someone else, it plays another melody, which is also very delightful. And when I’m alone, it continues to play. There’s a great repertoire and it never ceases to play. - Anthony de Mello
My ultimate job in Life at this point is improving myself. And I’ve realized that I can practice improvement by being present in these moments for others. Making a positive dent in the universe can happen one meeting at a time. If you’re lucky, once in a while, you get to see how your presence in someone else’s life can positively change their world—which is really our world, too.
How we might work together…
My team and I lead Hearty, a boutique recruiting service that helps tech-forward companies hire proven talent. Our senior team of operators sources and screens, saving you time and money. When you need help, let’s chat.
Need help with a software project? Perhaps a product MVP, a project that requires outside help, or a fractional CTO for key strategic decisions? Our team at Shipwright Studio has worked together to build multiple successful startups, and we love helping leaders turn their dreams into reality. We're the team our clients trust for software built to last.
Looking for Influencer Marketing and Content Creation? The team from our previous company is back by popular demand with A2 Influence. We’re ramping up now and would love to share more.
Feel free to schedule time together during my Open Hours for questions, feedback, networking, or any other topic!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Since we’re all part of one big family on this planet, here’s my family holiday card for you:
Thank you so much for opening your inboxes and brains to my words in 2023. I wish you a wonderful holiday season, and let’s make it a great 2024.
Ahoy for now!
Bob