My online calendar loves me
Have you ever been in love?
Healthy love, I’ve come to learn, is all about boundaries: establishing what these are for us, maintaining them, and honoring those of others.
Now, having boundaries is not the same as having protective armor on or setting up ten feet high walls that someone has to scale with a bargaining chip. That’s not love either, that’s just straight up fear.
Fear of getting hurt again. Fear of “choosing” the wrong person. Fear of “settling.”
I’m here to tell you that having boundaries is the mark of a love with long-lasting potential. Once you’ve had your boundaries trespassed, you’ll learn what you’re willing to tolerate and what is an absolute non-negotiable.
Boundaries make your love bold. They preserve your dignity and keep your integrity intact. They non-verbally communicate your worth.
Boundaries are a form of self-love -- and if you find a partner-in-crime who will acknowledge and abide by and maybe even help you recognize what those boundaries are, well...they really love you for you.
And I don’t think boundaries are just confined to love with a romantic partner. We’ve got relationships of all shapes and sizes that are just crying out for some attention, some good ol’ boundary-setting.
Look, we set goals all the time with the help of technology, trackers, accountability partners, and visualization.
So...why shouldn’t we set boundaries in the same systematic sort of way? Because, make no mistake, this sort of set-up will make sure we’re successful for years.
Having boundaries with my clients -- defining who my ideal clients are and how I want them to show up -- and in my business -- like how many appointments I can make in a day -- helps me remain in love with my business!
And, interestingly enough, in business (unlike in a romantic relationship), if you’ve learned the hard way what doesn’t work for you, and you need boundaries to maintain that love, there’s an app for that.
In this week’s video, I share the 3 biggest boundaries technology helped me set up, after experiencing what I didn’t want. And I know my boundaries are working when they bring me a stream of clients, in a more strategic way, so that I can remain in love with the way I run my business for years.
How I know my calendar loves me
I use Acuity because it sends reminders, syncs with payment systems, and creates a Zoom link for me (zomg that saves soooo much time)! It takes such good care of me and my clients by setting boundaries and automating reminders so we don't forget our session time.
Online calendars are helpful because they
make it easy for clients to schedule
give you an easy response to brain-picking questions (so you get more clients!)
embed on your website
But the real benefit is that my calendar sets boundaries for me.
I've set my calendar up in a way that ensures I am at my peak performance for my clients. It looks like this:
No more than 2 appointments per day because I know that my brain gets fatigued. We all have our limits. Know yours, and set your calendar up to help you feel your best.
Sets specific times I'm available for certain appointments to serve my clients.
Strategy sessions are set up so that you can book your first paid session with me the very next day
Client sessions are Tuesday through Friday so I can work on my own business on Mondays
No same day appointments because I might miss the notification, and then I look like a no-show. (I learned this one the hard way.)
All of these serve my clients because I work best with fewer than 2 appointments per day, people can get started right away, and I don't miss appointments because I always get the notifications.
My calendar creates these awesome boundaries for me in a way that also benefits my clients. It's easy to book a session, and we both get reminders.
Your turn!
Try getting a calendar system. Test Calendly and Acuity to see which one works best for you. Personally, I find Calendly a little easier to set up, but Acuity has more features that I really like. Both of them allow you to embed it on your website, and the paid versions of both will send email reminders to you and your clients (that's kind of the point of an online calendar so just upgrade and pay for it).
Note: Using an online scheduling system will work best for you if you already use an online calendar. If you keep a paper calendar, then using something like Acuity won't work because Acuity won't know that you have an appointment scheduled in your paper dayplanner and you'll have overlapping appointments.
If you are using an online calendar, explore getting an appointment scheduler like Calendly and Acuity.
Let me know...
Do you use a calendar system? How can you optimize it to work even better for your business?