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Business success is dependent on a solid financial foundation & success looks different to everyone & there is a lack of equity of access to resources and information for small business owners and independent contractors & there is a societal narrative making us believe “balance” is our ultimate goal & … There are so many “&”s that impact being your own boss. Let’s have some frank discussions on the basics of business with a holistic focus on everything that helps business owners define and find success.
Molly Beyer: [00:00:08] Welcome to The Ambiguous &: Business Basics and Beyond, the podcast where we have frank discussions on the basics of business, with a holistic focus on everything that helps business owners define and find success. Each episode is a reminder that success isn't one thing, it's a whole lot of ambiguous ands. Like, subscribe, or follow and let's explore these ambiguous ands.
Molly Beyer: [00:00:35] Hello and welcome to The Ambiguous &: Business Basics and Beyond. I'm your host, Molly Beyer, and I'm here to lead you through frank and holistic conversations on the basics of business. Welcome back to Systems that Save Sanity, and today we're talking about a system that every business owner is touching every single day, whether it's consciously or chaotically. That is scheduling and meetings. If you've ever looked at your calendar and thought, "who scheduled this?" only to realize it was you, you're in exactly the right place. I do that to myself all the time. So this is one of the top three overwhelm points that I see in my clients. Honestly, it's really one of the places that I've had to do the most unlearning, relearning, systematizing myself, and honestly, I still struggle with it because I am continuing to reflect, review, and revise my processes almost daily. When it comes to scheduling and meeting systems.
[00:01:33] Before we really hit our stride with MK Meyer and Associates, my calendar was just a free for all. My clients really could schedule whenever, networking could go whenever, if someone asked, "Oh, do you have time for a quick meeting?" My knee jerk answer was always yes. I really had no boundaries, I had no structure, and I didn't have a lot of awareness of where I needed to actually function like a human. There's one week I remember vividly, I had 18 meetings, 18 meetings by Friday. I didn't feel like a business owner anymore. I was a soggy noodle on a laptop. The worst part was that half of my meetings didn't even need to be meetings, and the ones that did, I really didn't always show up as my best self because my energy was just scattered everywhere. And so that week, I really realized that if I didn't build a system, that my calendar was just going to swallow me whole. And it really is not a time management issue. It's really a strategy, capacity and values issue. This is where everything changed for me for the first time, because we want to remember that systems aren't meant to be static again, they're going to grow with you. We want that reflection, that review, and that revision constantly because that is what you need to be consistent in your business. So when we're talking about calendar systems, what we're really talking about is your time, your energy, your capacity, your relationships, your ability to create that deeper value, and to really deliver that value.
Molly Beyer: [00:03:10] So your scheduling system is all about boundaries. It's a boundary system more than anything. And when you do it right, it gives you predictability because you're not guessing what each day is going to hold. It gives you more focus because you've grouped like tasks together. You get room to breathe so that you can actually think and reflect. It also shows a lot of professionalism because clients trust you when your time is structured, and so do your contacts and sanity. Because that's what matters more than anything else, is it gives you your sanity back.
[00:03:41] We want to talk about what strong scheduling and meeting systems include. And there's really five core components. The first is how people schedule with you. Are you manually coordinating this again? Is it 16 emails back and forth trying to figure out who can meet when? Are you using some kind of tool? Are you offering specific availability windows to people? The second component is how many meetings are you taking in a day or in a week? This really requires that you know your personal capacity. Your energetic limits and the amount of white space like that white space in your calendar. You know what I'm talking about that you really need to function as a business owner.
Molly Beyer: [00:04:23] The third component is the meeting purpose and structure. Are you using agendas? Do you have templates? Do you have expected outcomes for the meetings that you're having? The fourth component is follow up systems. How are you taking notes, delegating tasks, figuring out next steps and timelines, and how are you communicating that then with yourself and with the person you met with? And finally, it's that review rhythm. You want to take a weekly audit of what worked, what didn't, and what needs adjusting because the system again, it's not about time. It's about alignment. It's about alignment with where you are right now. And this is going to shift again, maybe it's weekly, maybe it's monthly, maybe it's seasonally or just your seasons as a human.
[00:05:11] We're going to break down this system into three different ways that we can build it that are manual software and AI supported. So our manual approach, this is great for businesses with low meeting volume or again a preference for a more personal touch. This might include back and forth emails, but again, we want to do them intentionally. Blocks of times available where you don't have to have as many emails back and forth. You can have a standard meeting confirmation email template that you can just copy, paste and send off to people. If you're using something like Google Calendar, you can send invites manually through there to give people at least access to that sort of small software component.
Molly Beyer: [00:05:55] And then you want to have a weekly review to ensure that you're not having anything fall through the cracks. The key to any of these systems, though, is the structuring of the process. Even if your actions are manual, you want to have that solid structure. So say you only want to have meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Even if you're scheduling manually, you're going to honor that boundary. Then we're going to look at our software approach. And this is where a lot of business owners breathe a sigh of relief. Tools like Calendly, Acuity, Google Calendar, Microsoft Bookings, or scheduling features that are built into CRM systems. These tools give you the ability to have automatic availability rules. They can build in buffers. They can deal with different time zones. You can even include pre-meeting questionnaires. You can have automated confirmations, and reminders go out at different times. So then your calendar really just becomes this filter instead of a free for all. And so when mine was a free for all, I started using Calendly and it was one of my first regular business expenses for automation. And it truly was the smartest decision that I made.
[00:07:07] Now let's step into that AI assisted approach, because AI can really help you do a lot of things. It can draft those meeting follow ups, it can convert meeting transcripts into action items, it can write agendas, it can summarize your client prep notes, it can identify themes from recurring meetings, it can suggest scheduling efficiencies when it sees patterns. And remember that AI supports the structure that you create, it doesn't replace it. So how do we know when our scheduling system needs work? We have some pretty clear signals that are going to happen. Are you feeling rushed or behind most days? Do your meetings frequently go over time? Are you ending your days exhausted? Do you have a buffer between sessions? Are you double booking or overbooking or missing follow ups? Are you dreading opening your calendar app at the beginning of the day? Are you getting to the end of the day and finding yourself not able to remember what half of your meetings were about? If any of those are familiar, if the answer to any is yes, you're not broken. Your system just hasn't caught up to your current capacity. And again, this is why reflection is such a huge part of your broader strategy work, including your compass process, your weekly follow ups, your avatar clarity, your hiring strategy, all of these things. Because when you know who you serve, how you serve them, and what capacity you need, your calendar becomes a tool for alignment and not for survival. So for me, again, once I found myself drowning in these meetings, I reached a point where I really had to pause and ask myself, what does a sustainable week actually look like for me, not for somebody else?
Molly Beyer: [00:08:55] Not a time management guru. Not my ideal version. The one that I kept imagining I was going to be, but me, with my real energy and my real responsibilities and my crazy, chaotic brain and my values. And so I started experimenting. So I tried things like No Meeting Mondays. Immediately, I felt relieved. I added some buffers between meetings and different sessions, and that was a game changer. I created a clear purpose for each meeting type, what we were going to be doing, why we were doing it, and what we expected the outcome to be. And so my meetings did become more manageable and more productive. They became more aligned with my own vision, and a lot of them became enjoyable again. The ones that had started to lose their joy. So again, we want to have review touchpoints with this system process. So our weekly reviews are looking at our upcoming meetings, confirming agendas, prepping any materials we need, and then blocking off any focused time that's not already on the calendar monthly. It's good to look back at meeting volume back and forward. We want to review patterns too, in what we've already done. Adjust our availability based on what we've learned through these processes, and evaluate any tools and templates that we're using to make sure that they're still relevant quarterly.
[00:10:17] You really want to do a super deep audit. Are you meeting too much? Are you meeting too little? Are you meeting with the right people? Is your time still aligned with your strategy, capacity, and goals? And again, this is where we want to refine and not react. So whether you're following along in the workbook in the show description for our scheduling and meeting systems, or you are just going along on your own, here is our growth stretch. So we want to choose one of these. If you haven't already, turn on some meeting buffers in your scheduling tool. Give yourself a no meeting day. Establish what day that's going to be and stick to that boundary. Create one new meeting follow up template that you can start using today. Introduce a pre-meeting questionnaire, even if it's only for one type of meeting that you're having. Block one recurring focus session weekly, whatever amount of time that feels like it needs to be. Just change one of these things and see how it transforms your entire week. So some of the workbook highlights for this section are going to include a scheduling workflow, again for that manual software and AI options, some meeting purpose templates, the review touchpoints, a boundaries checklist, our growth stretch, and some reflection prompts on capacity and alignment.
Molly Beyer: [00:11:44] Because again, reflection and strategy. We're building these systems to run a better business. So this is operational strategy. And again, this structure is really where we start to find sanity in our business. Scheduling and meetings are not just administrative tasks. They're really the backbone of how you show up in your work. A solid system isn't just about efficiency, it's about honoring your energy, respecting your capacity and creating the space your business needs to grow sustainably. I think in a future episode, we're going to talk about building your perfect week as well, because there's a lot of really great reflection that goes into deciding how we spend our time. But our next episode is going to continue with our Systems that Save Sanity, diving into the documentation process, which is a system that often feels really overwhelming at first but becomes transformative once it's in place.
[00:12:39] So thanks again so much for hanging out with us today. We'd love to hear your feedback on today's episode, as well as any requests for future content. Drop a comment or suggestion and join us next time for more frank and holistic conversations on the basics of business. Please also like, subscribe, or follow so you never miss an episode. And until next time, I'm Molly Beyer and this has been The Ambiguous &: Business Basics and Beyond. Have a wonderful day.