Pro tip: Decline meetings, as many as possible.
It always starts with a message or a call asking where I am. When I tell them where they let me know I’m late for a meeting. When I tell them I declined it or I was tentative you can practically hear the gears in their heads grind and seize up. The thought seemingly had, up until that point, never occurred to them to check the attendance on the invite before the meeting starts. “But... I booked it in an open spot on your calendar. Aren’t you available, can you come? Here’s why I need you here...” This is where it becomes clear to me that they’ve never considered populating the meeting with more than a subject and a conference link. They treat an open calendar like you’re some kind of reservation system.
When I schedule a meeting with clients, I send them an email with the questions I’m going to ask them and what I need to learn from the meeting. As a meeting attendee, I don’t want to be asked a question that someone knew they were going to ask before the meeting. I want to hit that meeting with answers so I’m not having to say, “I’ll look into that and tell you at the next meeting.”