It's almost the first thing I do, and I always make a joke about it. It clears the path for anything, from periods of absolute fluency to 100% blocks. I used to abhor the phone, video calls, etc, but after starting this approach it has helped me a lot. Also, as an ancillary bonus, it sets a congenial tone right away. I just started a new position with a company that uses Teams, and had overheard a few folks complain about its stability, so I took the opportunity to joke that *this* time it wasn't Teams' fault, I just stutter -- and that went over brilliantly. /edit: Also, in taking this approach, I've had far more feedback similar to "oh i didn't even notice" -- because those who stutter notice every little bit of problems, but good folks don't care or notice at all.