Workflow 29: NotebookLM as a Free CRM for Client Meeting Notes

You can keep a client's entire history in one place for free, and ask it when anything was decided.

My paid agents handle this for me already. Snape manages relationships, Mrs. Norris pulls out the commitments. But that setup costs money to run, and not everyone needs it on day one.

This version uses NotebookLM, Google's free notebook tool. One notebook per client, holding every transcript, decision, document, and contract. When you need to know what was agreed, you ask it, and it tells you and shows you where it found the answer.

What this replaces

Scrolling through six months of meeting notes looking for the call where you both agreed on the deadline.

Or the version that happens with teams: someone asks "didn't we already decide this?", nobody can find it, and you have the same meeting again.

Blueprint

One notebook per client.

Trigger: manual, whenever you have a question about a client or something new to add. Inputs: meeting transcripts, documents you've made, contracts, anything that gives context on the client. Output: answers about that client, with the source document shown.

The setup:

1. Create one notebook for each client
2. Keep one Google Doc per client holding every meeting transcript
3. Link that doc to the notebook, so it can update as the doc grows
4. Upload everything else: contracts, templates, assets you've created for them
5. Ask it questions

Transcripts can come from wherever you meet: Zoom, Google Meet, Fathom, whatever records your calls.

Organize

What you need:

• A way to get meeting transcripts out of wherever your calls happen
• One Google Doc per client for transcripts, so there's a single file to link
• The documents you've made for each client, gathered together
• A clear rule about what goes into a client's notebook and what doesn't

Before you put client data anywhere

Worth ten minutes up front:

• Read your client agreements. Some contracts restrict where client information can be stored or which tools can process it. Check before uploading.
• Know which account you're using. A personal Google account and a company Workspace account handle data differently. Client work generally belongs in the company one.
• Keep notebooks per client, not combined. Mixing clients in one notebook means one client's information can surface in answers about another.
• Delete at offboarding. When a client leaves, remove their notebook. One place per client makes this clean.

Systematize

NotebookLM doesn't need a system prompt the way an agent does. The work is in what you put in and how you ask.

Questions that work well:

When did we decide [X]? Quote the relevant part and tell me which meeting
it came from.

Give me a rundown of our last meeting: what was discussed, what was
decided, and what's still open.

List every decision we've made about [TOPIC], in order, with the date
and source for each.

What have I committed to delivering for this client that isn't marked
as done?

Before my call with them tomorrow, summarize where things stand and
anything I should know.

How to set it up

1. Pick one current client and create a notebook for them.
2. Start a Google Doc and paste in their meeting transcripts so far.
3. Link that doc to the notebook.
4. Upload their contract and anything else you've made for them.
5. Ask it something you already know the answer to, to check it's reading correctly.
6. Then do the same for every client.

What else can it do?

NotebookLM keeps adding features. It can turn a notebook into a slide presentation, an audio version you can listen to like a podcast, and other formats. For client work the question-answering is the useful part, but the others are worth knowing about.

Assign

NotebookLM stores, searches, and answers.

What goes into it, and what you do with the answer, stays with you.

The feature that matters most here is the one that sounds least exciting: it answers from the sources you gave it, and it shows you which document each answer came from. That's what makes it useful for questions like "when did we agree to this?" You can check every answer against the source, and it tells you when it can't find something. Still check anything important before you act on it.

The judgment it can't make is what belongs in there at all. Client information comes with obligations, and those don't change because the tool is free and convenient.

Rule of thumb from this build: an answer you can trace to a source is worth more than a confident one.

Integrate

This is the free version of something I run with paid agents:

• The paid version logs meetings and extracts commitments automatically
• The free version needs you to paste transcripts in, but answers the same questions
• Both keep one record per client, both let you ask what was decided

If you're starting out, start here. It's free, it takes half an hour, and it solves the most common problem in client work, which is forgetting what you already agreed. When the volume makes pasting transcripts a chore, that's the point to automate.

It's also useful beyond meetings. If you've run interviews for a client, say candidate interviews for a recruitment project, one notebook per client keeps every interview findable, with the source attached every time.

Next: the exact process I'd follow to start a business from scratch, and what the first two weeks should actually give you.