Prep for a client meeting with a one-page brief: who is in the room, what you last talked about, the open deals and promises, what changed since, and the one decision you want made. Fifteen focused minutes the hour before beats an hour of anxious tab-opening the night before.
Run it in this order, about an hour before the call, while the context will still be fresh when you need it.
Four blocks: who they are (name, role, company, anything personal worth remembering), the history (a few lines on how you got here), the open business (deals, amounts, stage, invoices), and what to raise (the decision, the risks, the questions).
One page is the discipline. If it does not fit, you have not decided what the meeting is for. The brief is not a transcript of the relationship; it is a weapon for the next hour.
Prepared is mostly remembering plus asking forward-looking questions. Steal these.
Remembering what they told you last time is most of what clients call professionalism.
In Orbit, ask Hiro to brief you before a meeting and it hands you a one-page summary: who they are, the history, open deals, and what to raise, all drawn from the contact's real timeline of emails, notes, and invoices. You walk in already caught up, and the 15-minute checklist becomes a 3-minute skim.
About an hour before works best: close enough that everything stays fresh through the call, far enough that you can chase a missing detail. Fifteen focused minutes at that point beats long night-before prep, which mostly evaporates by morning.
Four things: the last conversation and any promises made, the open business like deals and invoices, anything new in their world since you last spoke, and the one decision you want from this meeting. If you check those, you are more prepared than most vendors they deal with.
A meeting brief is one page with four blocks: who is in the room, the history of the relationship in a few lines, the open deals and amounts, and what to raise today. Its job is to load the context into your head fast, not to document everything.
Prepare briefs in advance rather than between calls, then take two minutes before each meeting to skim the brief and write your opening line. The writing of the one-pager can happen the night before or be automated; the skim is what has to happen in the gap.
Yes, a short one the day before: two or three bullets and the decision you are hoping to reach. It lets the client bring the right information and people, and it quietly sets you as the person running the meeting rather than attending it.
Ask Hiro and it delivers a one-page brief before each meeting, built from the real history. AI comes standard on every plan, with monthly credits included, no credit card to start.
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