One of my favorite and most powerful phrases to use with clients is:
“Remember when we agreed that…?”
Remember when we agreed that we’d only launch with 4 articles?
Remember when we agreed that a darker color palette would be more appropriate for this brand?
Remember when we agreed that it was ok to not see much traction for the first year?
Remember when we agreed that your team would write all the content?
Remember when we agreed that you’d trust my design decisions even if you disagreed with them?
This phrase surfaces accountability, which starts with a shared understanding. If you’ve agreed on something—whether in a conversation, a contract, or a Slack thread—it makes sense to revisit that agreement when memories fade or priorities shift.
Controlling scope
Early in my career, I used this phrase as a polite way to say no.
If the contract said five templates and the client asked for six, I’d say, “Remember when we agreed on five templates?” It helped me enforce boundaries without being a jerk.
But over time, I saw the real power of the phrase.
It wasn’t about controlling clients.
It was about being a better professional.
Facilitating agreement is difficult
To say “Remember when we agreed that…” you first have to actually agree on something.
Design is deciding. But too often, designers decide, and then just tell the client. There’s no real agreement; just an announcement.
Why? Because agreement takes more effort. You have to slow down, have a conversation, and align.
The more I coach design business owners, the more I see this gap: they’re great at making decisions but struggle to bring the client along.
It’s a skill. And like all skills, it gets better with practice.
How to document agreements
Even when you do reach agreement, people forget.
So write it down.
Email or Slack is often enough
A quick message can work wonders:
Me: Hey Jason! Just documenting that we agreed to add animation to the About page, and that shifts launch from Monday to Friday. Sound right?
Jason: Yep!
Me: Great!
Disclaimer: This isn’t legal advice; ask a lawyer for that. This is about relational clarity.
Use no-cost change orders or addendums
When email feels too casual but a full contract feels like overkill, use a change order or addendum. These are short docs that modify the original agreement.
But sometimes, anything that feels like a contract implies that you have to renegotiate money. To combat that, I often use a no-cost change order. That one word—“no-cost”—eases nerves and signals that this won’t affect the price.
Share meeting notes
I love seeing how tools like Fathom and Fireflies.ai—Granola is my favorite—have made note-taking part of every meeting again. AI can remove the bias of “who wrote what.”
When you share notes, add a quick check:
Hey Kim! Here are my notes from today. Can you confirm they’re accurate, especially the part about dropping CRM integration from this phase so we can launch a week sooner?
Becoming a time traveler
These tips might feel nuanced minutiae, but they help prevent the two most common freakouts I’ve seen in 20+ years of client work:
When clients don’t know what’s coming
When clients don’t remember (or like) what already happened
Both are time problems. So you have to become a kind of time traveler to help them navigate it.
Before they panic about the future, show them the future.
Before they rewrite the past, say: “Remember when we agreed that…?”
It’ll save both of you a lot of headache.
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