Meetings Are Expensive. Start Treating Them Like Line Items.

Let’s do the math. A 6-person meeting at an average salary of $100K costs around $300 per hour. Do that 3 times a week and you’re burning over $45,000 a year—just to talk. Not decide. Not build. Just talk.

Multiply that by 6 meetings a week and you’re looking at a six-figure burn rate just to talk.

Here’s the truth: most meetings aren’t where the work gets done. They’re where insecurity hides. Where leaders delay decisions. Where people look busy while solving nothing.

This doesn’t mean you go full async. It means you earn the right to meet.

How to Run Meetings Like a C-Level Operator:

1. Start with an agenda. No agenda, no meeting. It’s not optional. It’s the cost of entry.

2. Cap attendees. Only invite people who will speak, decide, or contribute. Everyone else? Summary after.

3. Decide or delegate. Every meeting ends with a decision, an owner, or a clear next step. If not, it wasn’t a meeting—it was a time sink.

4. Push updates to async. Status reports? Record them. Summarize them. Don’t call a room together just to read a Google Doc aloud.

Some leaders think canceling meetings makes them look disorganized. The best ones know it shows focus. Your job isn’t to keep calendars full—it’s to keep teams moving.

And when you do need a meeting? Make it count. That’s leadership.