Your calendar is lying to you...and your credibility

⏱️ 5 minute read (I know you’re busy. Save it, skim it, or read it while avoiding one meeting.)

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Let’s start with the elephant in the calendar.

We talk about meetings like they are free. Like calendars exist just so we can fill them. But meetings are expensive, and most companies pretend they are not.

The average employee now spends more than 11 hours a week in meetings. That is almost a third of the workweek gone. And roughly a third of those meetings are considered unnecessary or unproductive.

Translation: we are lighting time and money on fire.

I once sat in a weekly status meeting that cost the company $1,255 per meeting. Every week!!! Not a one-off. A recurring calendar invite that quietly drained thousands of dollars a month.

That is not collaboration. That is legit throwing money away each week on something that could have been a Slack channel update or group chat.

All we did was go around the room and give our updates. No challenging anyone. No follow-up questions. The look of pure boredom and disdain for this meeting was on everyone’s face. That’s not how you want to spend your week…especially if you are driving the meetings!

Here’s the part that stings.

Marketing loves meetings.

We love pre-meetings.

We love post-meetings.

We love syncing on things everyone already read.

We love “quick check-ins” that take an hour.

Early in my career, I thought meetings meant importance. If something mattered, it deserved a meeting. If leadership was nervous, we met more. If a decision felt unclear, we added people.

It felt productive. It felt responsible.

It was neither.

Sales hates meetings.
Operations hates meetings.
Executives tolerate them.

If marketing becomes the function that schedules the most meetings, we stop looking strategic and start looking like coordinators.

Most meetings are coping mechanisms.

We use them when priorities are unclear.

We use them when we have not done the thinking yet.

We use them to feel aligned instead of being decisive.

We use them to prove we are busy instead of effective.

Remote work made this worse. It is easier to drop a Zoom link than to write a clear update or make a call.

But easier is not better.

If you are a solo marketer, consultant, or fractional, your time is your inventory. Waste it, and no one is refunding you.

Things changed when I stopped asking, “Should we meet?” and started asking, “What problem are we solving?”

Meetings are not communication tools.
They are decision tools.

If no real-time decision is required, you probably do not need a meeting.

Before anything hits my calendar, it has to pass this test:

Status updates live in email or Slack.

Feedback happens in comments, not calls.

Brainstorms are time-boxed with clear outputs.

Decisions have owners, not committees.

Recurring meetings must earn their place every quarter.

Work does not happen in meetings. Work happens after meetings. If you are always in meetings, you are not doing the work that actually matters.

This part matters, because how you push back depends on where you sit.

If you are a solo marketer
You do not have positional power, but you do have leverage.

Your move is framing.
Instead of “Can we cancel this meeting?” try “I can send a quick update and recommendations instead so we can save time.”

Come with answers, not questions.
Executives will happily trade a meeting for clarity.

Protecting your calendar is not being difficult. It is being professional.

If you work on a marketing team
This is about credibility.

Use the roadmap to suggest better ways of working, not to call people out.
Volunteer to send the update.
Offer to summarize decisions.
Be the person who turns meetings into outcomes.

Over time, people trust the marketer who simplifies, not the one who schedules.

If you are a fractional or consultant
This is about boundaries and margin.

Meetings are not value. Results are.

Set expectations early on what requires a meeting and what does not.
Batch meetings when possible.
Push for agendas and decisions.

If every update requires a call, you are running an expensive reporting service instead of a strategic engagement.

Your calendar signals how you operate. Make sure it reflects leadership, not availability.

Do this. Actually do it.

Then watch what happens.

You get more real work done.
People trust your judgment more.
You stop looking like a coordinator and start acting like a leader.

And yes, someone will still say, “This could have been an email.”

Your job is to make that true.

See you next Sunday!

— Jeff

P.S. If your calendar looks like this email and your results don’t, we should probably talk. I help solo marketers and B2B teams simplify strategy, clean up systems, and stop mistaking activity for impact. Less chaos. More leverage. Actual pipeline.
If you want to walk through it together, grab time here: https://calendly.com/jeff-forestcitydigital/marketing-coaching-discovery-call