How to Do More of What You Love | Time-Saving Systems

In today’s BONUS episode, I’m sharing a real and honest convo about why having solid systems in your business is non-negotiable—especially if you want to avoid burnout and actually enjoy the life you’re building. 

I’m opening up about my own journey—going from completely overwhelmed to finally feeling more free and in control thanks to time management and systems that actually work. 

We’re talking about 

• protecting your time
• taking care of yourself
• and building a business that supports both you and your clients. 

Plus, I’ll share why brain dumping is one of my favorite go-to tools for staying clear and focused. Let’s get into it!

Come join me live on YouTube every Tuesday at 12PM EST for our Behind The Systems Lunch Chat.

K & D Jones Client Services LLC

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Book a Free 20-Minute Clarity Call and I’ll help you identify the #1 system or tech gap holding you back and what to do next. Go to YourSystemsPro.com/Clarity

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Transcript

Kenniqua Lewter (00:00)
today we're talking all about how to do more of what you love without going through and burning out. So this is the behind the systems part of our systems rehab podcast. So we're actually live here and I'm just doing, this is kind of like an impromptu live. Like I didn't really announce this live whatsoever

During our sessions that we're going to be having, which is behind the systems, it's really going to be about just casual chats that we could just have about business, about systems.

and how we can go through and implement systems into our life and our businesses without us actually going through and burning out and just kind of just bringing up these stories and these conversations to help our businesses grow. So if you're tuning in live, definitely go through, just let me know where you're tuning in from

like I said, today's topic is really about going through and just doing more of what you love in your business and just some time saving systems that I feel are going to be perfect for service based businesses.

When I first started my business, I might first of all, let me just go ahead and introduce myself in case you are new here. My name is Kenequa Luthor. I am a system strategist. I am a HoneyBook educator and I help service providers organize and automate systems to help them streamline their business, simplify so they can do more of what they love. They can elevate their client experience and in turn also make more money. And so.

When I first started my business, this was back in 2017 and I have offered a lot of different services during the time of me operating my business. But one of the things I did was along the way, there were always things that I had to go through and systems rather that I had to go through and implement in my business. Because when I first started my business, I was really piecing everything together. Like I had so many different softwares and tools that I was using.

I was using things like, which I still use like Google Drive, but I had contracts inside of my Google Drive. There were, I was using, at the time, I think I was using Adobe for signing contracts. Of course I was using email for communication, but I was just going through and I was just piecing so many things together. But when I was operating my business initially, before all of this and how I started to,

before I started getting systems together was that I was feeling so burnt out. I was feeling so burnt out and I didn't realize at the time that burnout wasn't something that we shouldn't feel I would say like as a business owner. So I think a lot of times when we get into business, we feel like being burnt out and working hard.

and grinding is just part of one of the things that we have to do as an entrepreneur. And it wasn't until later in life when I started to realize like that's not true. You don't have to operate your business from a space of burnout. A lot of us, when we started our businesses, we started our businesses because it was something that, A, that we love to do. It was something that we knew that we could help people. So we had a certain...

person or people in mind that we knew that we were going to help. And then a lot of it too, is that we start our businesses because we wanted to have that type of freedom and that type of flexibility. I was a, well, before I started my business, I came from a call center background. So as a call center worker, I worked at a call center for majority of my life.

And as a call center worker, I was making very little money. I think I was making at the time maybe $11 an hour or something like that. But there was no freedom at all. Like I barely accumulated any type of vacation days or anything like that. And if I did, I was calling out of work before I even accumulated any vacation days because I just hated going there each and every day because I was just so stuck in it.

And so one of the things of when I started my business, it was very important for me to go through and for me to get out of that type of job because I wasn't passionate necessarily about the job itself because I felt like I was kind of just a number there. Even though I love the customer side of it, the customer service side of being a customer service agent, but I didn't love necessarily the work and how we were treated in like the environment.

And because I didn't really have any time. And so when I started my business, that was one of the things that I really, really wanted was to have that freedom. Now I'll honestly say that even today, when we fast forward, you know, six, seven years later, cause I started my business in 2019. When we fast forward to now is that I have a level of freedom in my business where there are certain things that can operate on its own.

Now, do I personally come into the office every single day? Yes, I typically do come into the office. I come into the office typically Monday through Friday. I'm typically here from like 10 a.m. to like five on most days. But I still have a level of freedom where I can say, OK, I'm going to take off just a random Wednesday to go to the beach with my kids or to go to Busch Gardens. I can go through and do that.

because I am number one, an entrepreneur, but then also two, I do have some systems running in the background. And so what I've found is that as I've gone through and I've worked with so many different clients, like I work with clients going through and setting up their systems and their software like HoneyBook and their project management tools is that, and again, I work with, for example,

like people in the wedding industry, people that do events, people that are coaches, and other professionals. But one thing I know is that they know what they know, right? They are 100 % in to what it is that they do in their particular business. However, a lot of the times is that we are sometimes just so much bogged down.

by the other things that are just not in our zone of genius. So like you may be a great event decorator or you may be a wonderful coach. However, all of the other things that are surrounding you and your business that has to still be done, not necessarily done by you. Sometimes those things can just be so overwhelming.

A lot of times I think that we think that we don't have enough time to implement systems into our business. And we think also too, like what exactly are systems? Like what are systems? What are the things that I need to even input into my business? And when you think about that, I do want you to really think about is that you cannot afford not to have systems in your business. Okay? You can't afford not to have systems.

And when we're talking about systems, I don't mean to say as if you have to have this software that you see everybody using. Like, so you don't have to, like, I am, you guys know that I absolutely love HoneyBook, but it's not saying that you have to have HoneyBook or your business is not going to be successful. That is not it. Or you have to use XY tool, this tool, that tool in order for you to be successful. That's not true either.

It's really about going through and inputting systems into your business to not only help you, but to also help your clients. And I think as service providers, because it's kind of like in the world, like I'm a service provider too. Like as a strategist, I am a service provider. And I think sometimes as service providers, we are so wrapped up into what our clients needs are and what they want a lot of a time. And then sometimes that we also, we kind of,

negate ourselves inside of our whole process or it's the opposite because a lot of times see why do you see the opposite where people are so involved with themselves and what they want to do that they don't worry about their clients and so you don't want to be on one extreme or the other right I think there is a middle ground to

having systems in place, again, that works in your business, that works for you, and that also works for your clients. So it helps support you, your mental health, how you actually operate, how you want to operate in your business. So like even when it comes down to, I believe, like creating your offers in your business, let's just say that for example, even like just going through and creating your offers in your business, if you're creating offers in your business, you want to create offers in your business that actually support the way that you do business.

So like, for example, you might see some people that are really heavy on creating like courses or something like that, right? So you have course creators. Those people that typically go through, they create courses and things like that. They are more likely want that type of freedom. Now, of course there are categories where you're going through and of course you're supplementing your income and all of that goodness, which is perfect. However,

you want to make sure that what you're doing, your business flat out, guess the gist of what I'm trying to say is actually something that goes through and supports you and your clients. So how exactly do you do that? What exactly does that look like? So one of the things I believe of how you can go through and really start to learn how to step in to your CEO role, even if you're working by yourself, right? Like I know like being a CEO,

is a lot of times with people who manage other people, but it's nothing wrong with you inspiring to be a CEO of your own business, even if you are a solo partner, right? And so I feel like in order for you to step into that CEO role before you even become the CEO is that you do the actions of a CEO. like you're being, you actually being the CEO before you actually become.

the CEO and how you actually do that is going through and understanding as a CEO how you need to go through and actually protect your time and put systems in place that do not only protect yourself, protect your business, but then again also help you to be able to go through and support your clients. And so I think that really streams from or comes from a point of being able to understand what your

goals are and again how it is that you yourself want to work. So I guess when I'm doing like these behind the behind the systems part is that I really want to kind of like break down some things that maybe I'm even doing in my business. So I recently went through and I revamped my business. I have told you guys that I know in like in the podcast portion of it, I told you all that. I think there's a video when I'm saying the same exact thing.

But I went through and I revamped my business, thus revamping my systems, but I cut so many different services that I was offering and I streamlined them all the way down to just basically two. So systems, system setups and strategy, and then HoneyBook support, right? So I help entrepreneurs go through and leverage HoneyBook to help manage their clients, right? And so with me going through,

and stripping down to just those two services. The reason why I do that is because number one is that I wanted to.

do something that I could just be known for. I just wanted to be known for just one thing, which is systems. That's what I wanna be known for, just one thing. Before I was offering everything, I wasn't, well before I wasn't offering everything. When I first started my virtual assistant business, I was offering everything, but like in the last year or so, I was still offering like website design. And though your girl can still design a website, but it's not a service that is something that I'm just gonna offer front-facing.

on my website to say, hey, come to me for website design. Now, if I have a client that comes to me for systems and then they just so happen to need website design, I will offer it. Like I have a client that we're off boarding later today, and that is definitely something that I'm going to. She's off boarding for HoneyBook. But because I see that she may have a need for having a new website, I'm definitely going to offer her a new website. Right. And so and I have the ability to be able to go through and do that.

But in this season of my life and how I actually want to go through and operate, I want to make sure that number one, that I do go through and I just protect my energy. That's part of me helping me to be able to do more of what I love. So I know with me protecting my energy, that means me protecting my calendar. Okay, that's me protecting my calendar. So.

There's a system in place that I have for me protecting my calendar, not just from a physical like software that I use. Like for example, like my regular calendar, I'm using Google calendar to connect to my honey book, of course, with my meetings. But I actually like religiously use my Google calendar. Like if I have anything that's coming up, it is on my calendar.

I probably will in another video show you how I go through and manage my calendar, how I go through and put things on my calendar. But literally I can plan my week in less than 30 minutes really, because I already know what I'm doing for the week every single week because of the way that I've gone through and I've timed blocked my week. But when I talk about going through and actually protecting my time, when I'm protecting my time is

That I'm not going to have a meeting every single day. I'm not going to be available to take meetings every single day. Why? Because that energy for me switching back and forth of I'm doing admin work this time, or maybe I'm doing some content creation. Maybe I'm doing some client work to now I have to jump on a call.

That's not what I typically like to do. So now just me protecting my time and keeping me in the space that number one, my energy is high and I can serve my clients at my best self is that Tuesdays and Thursdays, those are gonna be my days. So I typically theme my days, but Tuesdays and Thursdays are gonna be the days that I do content creation. Like what I'm doing this video with you guys here live now is that I'm gonna do content creation.

And I'm also going to have client meetings. So literally after this, after I do this live session, I'm going to be doing why have lunch? Cause I build in a lunch break again, because that's me protecting my time. Why? Because I was the person before that could sit here. Like I literally can just sit here and work, work, work, work, work. So I was going through and I was skipping lunch. There was plenty of times that I came into the office and that I would skip lunch.

Or I would get my lunch, warm it up, sit at the table, sit at my desk and do work while I eat lunch. I know some of you guys probably still do that. And at times I absolutely do that as well too. But now I try to be so much more intentional about taking an actual lunch break. Let me get up. Let me warm up my food, whatever I'm going to do. Let me go somewhere to go get some food or whatever. Let me sit in the other room.

And let me actually just come down from whatever it is that I was working from, take that hour off, enjoy, look at, you know, a couple of YouTube videos or get on Instagram and scroll, comment on threads, but then come back. And now I'm refreshed to kind of dive back into what it is that I need to do. So like literally after this live jumping on, then I'm going to jump off. going to go to lunch at one o'clock and then I'm back on. actually have three more meetings for the rest of the day. Right.

And so just going through and just being able to go through and protect my time allows me to be able to show up as my best self. That also even goes into like personal, like I say, I say, no, I will say no to a lot of stuff. No, it is very rare. And it's not just like personal as far as like friends, family, nothing like that.

Because I do show up for my friends and my family but there are certain things I want to say no to if some if someone comes to me even if it's business and someone comes to me and they want to do something that like promote something or show up for something doing a vent for something that doesn't align with What I want to do as far as what my goals are what my values are it's gonna be a no or

If it's something that I feel like it's just going to take too much time or that I just don't believe in, it's going to be a no. Like I say no to so many things like that. Like I literally say no to way more things than I actually say yes to because I have to go through and protect my time. Like, so there will be times where you may have someone that may even jump in your inbox and be like, let me go through and let me, you know, pick your brain about X, Y, Z. And it's like,

you have to go through and just learn how to protect your time because all of that is energy. so going through to so that's part of a system like that literally is a system. And I think sometimes we don't think that that is a system, because when we think about systems, we're thinking about tools and we're thinking about software that we can use. But just really understanding that systems are merely just the processes that you do and you put in place to be able to give you freedom.

So I think that a lot of times we think that systems are those things that are to construct us or constrain us. And that's really not the case. They're actually the opposite. They're there to give you the freedom for you to understand about, this is, because just imagine if you were to say no to more things in your life that didn't align with you, that weren't part of your goals.

that was taking too much of your time. If you were to say no to those things and you put you like you actually put it a system. And what I mean a system is having a checklist of these are the things that mean the most to me. And in order for me to say yes to these things, they have to go through this checklist, right? However that looks for you, right? Whatever is going to be on your checklist in order for me to say yes to this. So let's imagine if you had someone

that wanted to do a brand deal with you or that wanted to do a collab with you. And in order for you to say yes, it had to check off three or four things. That's a system that you put in place that is used to go through and protect your time, right? To protect your time and not only align with you, your business, your goals, but also to be able to help you to be able to stay aligned with your idle client, right? That's not something that you need a tool.

or a software for it. That's something that you can merely just write down and just having your forefront that I need to have three or four of these things that actually are going to be a yes for me in order for it to be a yes. Otherwise it's a no. If you come in and it's only two of four things that are on this list, then it's a no for me. Okay. So this is where your systems and especially with like, so if we were to put this in a category of a system, like what system this actually is.

This is gonna more so fall into like your time and your calendar management system, right? So this is how you're protecting your time. You protecting your time is going to help you to be able to do more of what you love in your business because you're thus gonna have more time to do more of what you love.

If you're trying to do and trying to be everything that everybody wants you to be, this is going to leave you with less time and less energy, less mental capacity and space for you to be able to go through and jump into your zone of genius, for you to be able to be creative, for you to be able to show up for yourself, your family, your ideal client at the best version of yourself, because now you're just so mentally drained because

you've tried to go through and do all the things. And I know this because I have tried to do all of the things before. I have been that person that's like, okay, I know I have to do this for X client, this client, this client. I'm going to go through and I'm going to skip this workout or I'm going to go through and I'm going to stay up to two o'clock in the morning and I'm going to get this work done. Or I'm going to skip this meal because I have to do X, Y, Z for work.

But where that leaves us and not saying that there's not times where I have to stay up late at night, or there's not times where you're going to want to stay up late at night because you have to catch up or you have to do something. But the point is, is the times that you do that, you are depleting and you're trying to pour from your cup that is just dwindling down. And eventually it's going to lead to this point where you're going to start to feel like burnt out.

there were times where when I was burnt out, I felt burnt out. Like I was so burnt out where it's like my brain was about to explode. And the only thing that where it left me, it left me where I was truly just like laying down for a couple of days because I couldn't go through and I couldn't show up.

I couldn't show up because I was just so burnt out and I was just so tired. And so it's so important that as we are running our businesses is that we go through and we prioritize ourself. We prioritize our health and we put these systems in place to know that we have to prioritize ourself in order for us to be able to go through and show up for our clients.

And just understanding that it's not hard to put these things in place for yourself is really just knowing where it is, where it is to start and just going through and actually going through and doing it, like really making it up in your mind that I have to go through and prioritize myself, my health, because when I do, I can be so much better for my clients. I can show up so much better for them. I can do exceptional work for them.

I can think like if I am my best self as a strategist, my brain is going, I can see clearly versus if I'm tired and worn out now, I'm really drained in my mind. I can't think clearly. How can I give strategy? How can I pull out my brain? If I feel so drained and so tired that leads me again, not being able to do and work and be my best self.

So really going through and just, I guess, really, again, the gist of it is just being sure that you prioritize yourself. And this is going to help you lead for you to be able to do more of what you love to do in your business. If you are a person that maybe you do hair or again, you're a wedding, you're a photographer, you're doing events, you prioritize yourself is going to help you to be able to do more. The next thing is going to be.

is making sure that you set time to actually work on your business instead of just so much in your business. Because a lot of times it's so easy for us to continually to work in our business. Like we know like when you're going through and like you're waking up in the morning, you're putting your task list together. It's so easy to, you know what you have to do.

in your business, right? You know that you have to send that email. You know you have to go through and send that contract. You know you have to show up and do the, let's, you're a photographer, maybe you to show up to a shoot. You know all the things that you have to do in your business, but it's so important that if we want to be sure that we have the freedom, we have the flexibility, and we do what matters the most to us in our business, we have to also prioritize and

it's time aside to actually work on our business as well. So what exactly does that look like is working on our business. And again, if you're joining us live, let me know that you're joining live inside of the chat, say hello, let me know where you're tuning in from. I would love to go through and connect with you. Again, these are gonna be our behind the systems, kinda little chit chats, okay? So they might be my little rants or information to bids, examples, whatever.

That's what we're gonna be doing every single Tuesday at 12 p.m. Eastern. So be sure to like and subscribe so you don't miss another episode. Next week I'm actually gonna be answering your questions live. So I will go through and I'll put that up for you as well. just making sure, so like when you're thinking about working on your business, okay, so on your business. For me, I think that it's very important. And the reason why I say this is because for years and upon years,

There were so many times that I did not do this is that I didn't prioritize working on my business and I continue to do the things that were just in my business that I just knew I had to do like the admin work, et cetera. I knew that I had to do that, but working on my business means that I'm helping my business to be able to grow.

And so I'm doing things like, okay, I'm doing lead generation, right? Because even though you're working, you have clients, you're making money, you have this continuing to still get leads, right? And so there are systems that you put in place for lead generation, right? There are systems in place that you put in for your content. So like if creating content is part of your lead gen, which in most cases content, whether it's going to be long form content, short form content is going to be written content in some form.

You're doing something, even if it's ads or something like that, you're doing some type of lead generation in order to be able to grow your business. But it's just so important for you to understand that working on your business is so much important than just working in your business. Now, if you are at a point where you can go through a course and hire people that ultimately would be a very good thing. But I feel like a lot of people.

are not necessarily at the stage of where they can necessarily hire people. And a lot of times too, feel like even if it's not just from a monetary standpoint, it's from a lot of different things. Like when you go through and you hire someone, there are so many different things. Like I've had people in the past when I was a virtual assistant that would go through and hire me and they would hire me and they did not have a clue of what they were hiring me for.

They didn't know what they wanted. They didn't have anything in place, no SLPs in place, which are standard operating procedures. They didn't know what they needed. And so they were just hiring just to go through and hire someone. So like, I wouldn't recommend just hiring someone for the sake of hiring. There's a process and systems that you wanna put in place before you even start doing all of that. So if you're currently working by yourself, I'm telling you, there is so much that you can do on your own.

with the proper systems in place and then hiring for roles when you are ready for them, right? As you go through and prepare. So if you know you're gonna start hiring people, start preparing yourself now to go through and hire people. That way you don't have to feel like the in your business task that you're having to work so much in your business, but you're actually hiring the proper person and you're actually have something prepared for that person to be able to go through and work. The last point that I have to meet today is,

If you want to go through and you want to do more of what you want to do in your business, you want to do more of what you love in your business. You don't want to be bogged down by everything that's going on in your business. You want to basically keep the flow of the energy up is my opinion to go through and brain dump on a regular basis. Brain dump. Again, it's an energy thing. What I believe. Okay. So when you go through,

and you actually go through and brained up everything that's going on in your head. That means that when you leave your office, your living room, your bedroom, wherever it is that you work at, if you're actually working at, you actually have a nine to five, wherever, is that when you brain dump, it allows for you to not take all of those ideas and everything that's swimming along in your head, those things, those little tasks that you have to do, those projects.

Every single day, what I like to do is like on my calendar, there's like a section on my calendar where it's like brain dump. And all it is, it's a calendar event. It's only 30 minutes. It doesn't even take me 30 minutes to do it. Like literally, it probably only takes me 10 minutes. But before I leave the office is that I will open it up and inside of that calendar event, inside of Google Calendar, it is a...

just a Google doc that's attached. And so I can write on the same Google doc each and every time. And so I just go through and I just open it up and I can literally just brain dump the day. I can brain dump how I felt today. I can brain dump what I worked on today. I can brain dump what like what's going on or what I have to do tomorrow. Now, my event, because I think my days, I already know what I'm doing the next day. Like, so I can show you guys how I do that in another video. But I didn't know what I'm going to go through and do that day.

But when I go through and I actually go through and do a brain dump, this allows for me to be able to release everything that has gone on for the day. And so it allows me to be able to go home and I don't have all these ideas swimming in my head. Now, of course, as an entrepreneur, there's still going to be ideas I'm going to have swimming around in my head. like I, before, and I will tell you before.

it would be times where I couldn't even sleep properly because I had all of these ideas like, this idea, I could do this. I could do that. this would be nice. I need to reach out to such and such, or I need to do this. And so as entrepreneurs, our minds are constantly just going, going, going, going, going, going, going, going. Okay. This is, this is part of being an entrepreneur. Like it's like, we always have ideas, but if you get into the practice of going through and actually just like dumping out your ideas,

Every single day. And like I said, mine is in a Google Calendar note. Well, Google doc that saved in my Google Calendar lets me know that every single day, let's go through and and and brain dump. And some things sometimes I don't have anything on my brain. Like sometimes literally I can leave the day and it's like, it's cool. This helped me out so much. This allowed for me to be able to have more restful sleep, more calm sleep, because I don't have everything that's on my mind.

because I prioritize, I put a simple system in place, a simple system of just brain dump your day, just release your day. Simple system doesn't take long at all. Like literally, like I said, it takes less than 10 minutes for me to be able to go through and do. And you don't have to go through and make it fancy, put it in any type of system. I use Google doc, but you don't have to use a Google doc. You can literally go through and just use a, just get a piece of paper and a pen.

Just get a notebook and just literally just go through after every single day, just put how your day went and just brain dump the things that might be going on in your head. Now, of course, there's other levels to this because some things that might be going on in your head might actually be things that you need to work on. Like honestly, when I brain dump, these aren't typically, I can honestly say that I don't typically go back to my Google Doc to review it. Because a lot of times,

Unless I'm searching for an idea, maybe, but I don't necessarily have to review it on a regular basis. I don't put tasks in there. I don't put like projects in there. so typically it's just me just releasing my day, but I don't necessarily, I don't put tasks in there. So I don't have to go back and put tasks about what it is that I was working on or what it is that I need to do for the next day. Even though you can do that, if that makes it easier for you.

I like to use a project management tool. So I do use Asana. That is where I'm going to go through and I'm going to add a task. So at the end of the day, if there is a task or a project that I need to add on to what I what it is that I have already going on, then that's where I'm going to put it, because I like to have everything in a centralized place. I'm not going to go back to Google Docs to try to figure out where it was. I'm not going to go through a notebook to figure out where I wrote that task.

I'm going to go through and I'm going to put it inside of my Asana and I'm going to assign it a date. And if it's assigned to a particular project and I'm going to do that, if it's a certain priority, I'm going to put a priority on if it's like high priority. If it's not something that's really, really important, I'm not going to put a high priority on it. Sometimes I won't even put a priority on it altogether. But the point is, is this going through and having that system for the end of your day? How are you going to end out?

your work day. again, I feel like brain dumping is a really good way to do that. so, yeah, so that was basically this is like I said, this is our behind the systems live that we're to be doing every single week. I want to try to get it done. I see that I'm at like 36 minutes. I want to try to get them done.

like in 30 minutes because I want to do it in like the average lunch break time. If you like this episode, just go ahead, like this video, go be sure to subscribe. If you have questions, definitely drop them inside of the comments here on YouTube. I will go back and I will review those comments and those questions that you may have. I will be live again next week to answer some of your systems and HoneyBook questions.

So I will go through and answer some of those questions for you and even go, cause HoneyBook actually just released a few different features. So maybe we'll cover that in that session before, but again, focus and prioritize yourself. And when you prioritize yourself and you genuinely love what it is that you do, you genuinely love helping your clients. You're gonna find that you are going to be able to show up so much more for them.

when you go through and you prioritize yourself and they're going to get that overflow of that extra energy, that extra creativeness that you have. So I hope you enjoyed this again, be sure to like and subscribe and I am going to go ahead and end it here and I will see you later this week.