Power Up Your Marriage and Business

Business strategy is good but your mindset is the most important place to start. It doesn’t matter how good or how sound the strategy is, if you’re not comfortable with the change you’re not likely to execute well. Why? Because change is not comfortable no matter how big or small it is. 

But whenever you’re trying to improve your situation, it is going to force you to change. And that’s where the mindset comes in. It’s really getting you comfortable to make the change. You would think if a business owner was losing six figures or more a year, they would be open to change, right? That’s not so. One of my first consulting clients was in that exact scenario but would not change. In fact, their famous saying everytime I brought up a potential solution was, “It’s not going to work. This is how we’ve been doing it for 40 years.” 

From the outside looking in, it would be obvious that what was working for 40 years isn’t anymore. Change was necessary but the owner was more comfortable in his misery than going down the path of the unknown. 

So if you’re looking to improve your business situation or take it to the next level of growth, listen to this episode. Get your mindset in position to grow your business.

Imagine working with your spouse and living in an RV the majority of the time. Now add four kids and a dog. That’s a recipe for…(fill in the blank) Meet this week’s guest, David and Teesha Laflin. They are a magician family that travels the country doing corporate, church and school events around the world. Yes, David does saw his wife in half.

They share their story of how they got started doing magic for a purpose and getting the kids involved with the family business. Lots of great insight of doing life in an RV without killing each other. But more importantly how to have fun while doing business and finding creative ways to get the kids involved in something they enjoy doing.

If you’re like us, you started the business for greater freedom. Freedom to do what you want, when you want. Freedom to take time off to have fun and be with family when you want. Freedom to be as busy as you want. Call the shots, answer to no one, be the man (or woman).

Sure you know that you need to sacrifice your personal time in the beginning to start and grow the business. That’s fine. After a few years, your business would be highly profitable and you can do all the things outside of work you want to do. But ten years later, you’re still grinding it out. Twenty years later, same thing.

So what happened? Where did the freedom you desire go? 

If this scenario resonates then listen to this week’s episode as we discuss the mindset and strategy to put in place to grow your business AND gain the freedom you desire.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen many marriages end in divorce because one or both spouses couldn’t deal with some type of long term health issues, infertility, or miscarriage to name a few. You would think the spouse on the sideline would have great empathy for their partner who is going through any one of these traumatic experiences.

Just one issue like a miscarriage has ended many marriages. But this week’s guest Kevin and Steph Mason have dealt with an electrocution (really serious kind), twice being told they couldn’t have children, suffered a miscarriage, had brain surgery, and being diagnosed with cancer? 

Really??? How could one couple deal with all of this? Not only did they survive all of that but they have three beautiful children to boot (can you say miracle?). You know how they say, “don’t sweat the small stuff”? Well, this couple can say it and mean it. 

Join us for this fun and thought provoking episode. And get their book, “You Met Her Where?”

What the heck would you do if you went all in on a new business venture March 1, 2020 only to see the world shutdown two weeks later? If you read the date you’ll understand what I mean. That’s what happened to this week's returning guest, Cory Carslon. He was already an executive coach but part of his income and benefits came from a part time gig that he acquired right after he got fired from his corporate position as president of sales. While most of his income was coming from his coaching practice, the additional security from his part time position was…well…secure.

But his coaching practice was doing so well that he finally decided to quit that job and go all in with his business. Then the whole world shuts down and he instantly loses 35% of his income with the unknown of “what’s next?”

During this dark season of unknowns, Cory journaled. And from this journaling came this book that has already helped his coaching clients deal with adversity. We all have had them and will probably have more so I encourage you to listen to this episode and pick up some nuggets.

When it comes to the topic of work-life balance, the issue of time management tends to come up. “If I was just better with my time I could get everything done.” We were recently asked in an interview for some tips on time management. While we address this issue on a regular basis, it’s in an indirect way. 

So we want to address this issue directly in this episode. At the end of the day, it’s not about time management but about priority management. Not everything on your to do list needs to or should get done. That’s the problem with work-life balance, we try to do everything and our priorities get pushed to the wayside. Like our relationships. 

Maybe you need to reevaluate where you should prioritize your time and do that. And if the lower priority items don’t get done, it’s ok. So click the play button and find out if you need to re-think time management. 

As a business owner, you have a financial target on your back. People assume you have money and will pitch you all kinds of ideas. Anything from an MLM, cryptocurrency, gold, or the next Amazon. Not that there's anything wrong with any of those items in general. But like anything else in business, it can be overhyped, manipulated, and sometimes down right fraudulent.

Yes, we get pitched all kinds of business and investment opportunities. And recently, we heard from a friend that they invested into a business that went bad. In fact, we were pitched the same business idea but saw too many red flags and chose not to invest. We even warned a couple people that were involved in bringing investors to the pitch that we didn’t think it was a good idea. Unfortunately, many people invested and lost their money and for some, their retirement. 

So we decided to record this podcast so we can share from our experience, how to recognize a bad investment. But on the flip side, how to make a good investment choice. Hope this helps.

Are you a perfectionist like me (Robert)? Do you plan everything to a “T” or pack your schedule so tight that you have no room to breathe? Have you heard some guru say, “You have a book in you”?

These are some of the things we explore in this week’s episode. It’s a bunch of life and business lessons we learned from writing our first book and taking a leap of faith and driving the country for six weeks promoting it. 

There were two major things we learned. 1) Just do it - Stop waiting for the perfect moment to write or finish the book. 2) Leave margin for the unexpected to happen. Some of the best opportunities came from chance meetings that were not planned. 

So, even if you don’t write a book, the points we share are relevant to your life and business. Because it was from the process of writing and promoting the book that we realized that perfectionism is overrated and the best things in life happen in the margins.

Get your copy of our new book, Tandem: The married entrepreneurs’ guide for greater work-life balance. Click the link to learn more. You can also download the first chapter for free. https://www.thetandembook.com/

I’m not sure if you realize but we all buy based on what we read. Sure, what we see, feel and taste are part of the sales process but ultimately, we need to read what we are buying, how to buy it and what it costs. 

But it’s not quite that easy. Writing compelling marketing messages that compel people to purchase can be challenging. And writing it without manipulation so you can sleep at night can seem more difficult. 

Meet Joy Capps. Author of the new book “Joyful Copy.” She’ll share with us how you can write compelling copy that sells while holding true to your values. You don’t need to manipulate your audience to get them to buy. You can be authentic and truthful and attract all the business that you need.

Succession in business isn’t often done or done well. If you look at the statistics, only 30% of first generation businesses transition to the second. Why is the success rate so low? There are a number of factors but one of the top reasons is the fear of letting go. You’ve created this baby so the idea of someone else running the business is hard. Especially because the next person may not run it EXACTLY like you do. 

So what are the keys to success for business succession? That’s just one topic of many that we explore with the power couple team of Mike and Amber Sipple. Mike has not only taken on the role of his dad’s company Centennial inc. but he’s also preparing for his own successor. 

But wait, there’s more. Mike and Amber have been married 18 years, with three kids and oversee four businesses together. So the natural question we have for a couple that is that busy is, how do you balance it all? A great interview that all entrepreneurs need to hear.

We’re back from six weeks on the road. We saw the country, spacious skies, fruited plains, purple mountains majesty and went from sea to shining sea. As you know, we launched out on a daring road trip to promote our new book Tandem: The married entrepreneurs’ guide for greater work-life balance.  

It was meant to be part business, part travel, part networking, and all fun. Isn’t this how life should be? All work and no play leads to a dull life. And after all, our book is all about balancing it all. So we needed to show it could be done and still love each other afterwards. 

In this episode, we do a recap on our trip to talk about our many adventures and some of the life and business lessons we came across. There is probably another book in there! Take a listen to this fun episode.

Get your copy of our new book, Tandem: The married entrepreneurs’ guide for greater work-life balance. Click the link to learn more. You can also download the first chapter for free. https://www.thetandembook.com/

You’ve heard of Servant Leadership. Well, now pay attention to Customer Driven Leadership (CDL). It’s not necessarily better than Servant Leadership, it is an addition to. Why should you pay attention to this method? For starters, it has turned million dollar companies into billion dollar earners. But more importantly for the married entrepreneur, it has helped business owners gain the freedom from the business they desired when they first started. - Work-life balance!

Now that I have your attention, you will want to listen to our interview with Daniel Hammond. If that name sounds familiar, we interviewed him and his wife, Carolina, in episode 92 “Trust: The Key To Marriage and Business Success.” https://marriedentrepreneur.co/blog/trust-key-to-marriage-business-success 

He’s back with his new book, “Customer Driven Leadership,” and discusses this amazing method that has been around since 1995. So this isn’t some “latest and greatest” technique. It’s been proven with businesses, nonprofits and bureaucracies around the world. Tune in and find out what CDL is and how it can help your business.

We hit week five of our book tour and we’ve heard you loud and clear. Boundaries, or lack thereof, is the number one issue that is keeping the married entrepreneur from achieving greater work-life balance. As we’ve toured the country with our dog Pippa, all of the concepts of the book have resonated with the audience. So that has reinforced to us that we have hit the right message. 

But the lack of boundaries is the number one issue we’ve heard that is causing the lack of work-life balance. As entrepreneurs’ we tend to say “yes” to everything non-family related. So our calendar gets full with everything and the family gets the sloppy seconds or thirds. While we’re still on the road, we recorded this episode to tackle this issue in full. 

If this resonates, then take a listen to this episode as we discuss this issue. Better yet, get your copy of our new book, Tandem: The married entrepreneurs’ guide for greater work-life balance. Click the link to learn more. You can also download the first chapter for free. https://www.thetandembook.com/

Imagine being told to leave the 9th grade and being kicked out of the house all at the same time. Then your 16 year old girlfriend tells you she’s pregnant. What do you do? Well, this week’s guest, Sean Osborn, decided it was time to grow up. He learned as much as he could about technology and eventually started, built and sold a multimillion dollar tech company before the age of 30. 

And yes, he did marry his girlfriend and that baby is now 33 years old. 

Now he’s a mindset coach helping thousands of business owners, executives and anyone that wants to achieve more. You’re going to want to tune in to this episode as we cover a lot of ground around what not to do when working with your spouse or away for Thanksgiving to the mindset issues that keep business owners stuck. Definitely listen to the end as some of the gold nuggets are there.

We did a thing! Our first book is released today on Amazon. What’s it about? Work-life balance and how to win in marriage and business at the same time. Is this even possible? It is. Not only are we doing it (not perfectly) but we know other married entrepreneurs’ who are as well. And do you know the common thread between all those that are able to win on both sides? Being intentional.

That’s right. You need to be intentional about trying to achieve what you want. It’s just like business. It doesn’t succeed simply by wishing it to. You need to plan and work at it. 

Which is part of the problem. As entrepreneurs, we can be so intentional about having the business succeed that our marriage and family take a back seat. That’s why there is a lack of work-life balance. 

If this resonates, then take a listen to this episode as we discuss this issue. Better yet, get your copy of our new book, Tandem: The married entrepreneurs’ guide for greater work-life balance. Click the link to learn more. You can also download the first chapter for free. https://www.thetandembook.com/

Also, we’re giving away free copies of our book by answering a question we pose in this episode. So take a listen and email us with your response to our question to the following email address. info@powercouplesbydesign.com

It’s so easy to complain about your life and blame people and circumstances for your situation. But a wise man once told me, “no matter how bad your life is, someone else has it worse.” It’s no use complaining about things outside of your control. If you want a better life, a more fulfilled life, then take control of the things you can control. Don’t worry about the other stuff.

Meet this week’s guest, Jaime Villalovos. She is a successful entrepreneur and author of a best selling book, “Happy and Strong: Create your dream life while enjoying the journey.” 

She shares about her humble beginnings in a dysfunctional situation to becoming a millionaire by the age of 30. This interview is less about how to achieve a fortune and more about overcoming and enjoying life as you succeed. Tune into this week’s episode and get the book!

Click here to get the book

Instagram: jaime.villalovos 

Would you be willing to be “stuck” on a road trip with your spouse for 6 weeks? Well, that’s exactly what we’re doing. With a dog in tow, we’re driving around the country to promote our book Tandem. (link to the download the first chapter is below) So in the next several episodes where it’s just the two of us, we’ll be sharing what’s going on and the lessons we are learning about ourselves, each other and those we encounter. 

And we’ve learned a lot in this first week and a half. Take a listen. 

Our book Tandem: The married entrepreneurs’ guide for greater work-life balance is about to be released September 7th, 2022. Get a free download of the first chapter by clicking this link. https://www.thetandembook.com/ 

It’s one thing to be married and another to work together in business. And for a man, it can be tough on the ego to lay down a successful corporate career to join your wife in her business and not be the “boss.” Meet Phil Cheng and Elizabeth Yang. Two power houses in their own right who recently completed a successful merger of business and marriage. 

Elizabeth built a very successful law firm specializing in Intellectual Property as well as Family Law with several offices around Southern California. Phil is bringing his human resource and operational management gifts into the practice to help take it to the next level.

In this interview, we cover a lot of ground around successfully working together as husband and wife, laying down your ego, and maintaining work-life balance. Take a listen.

If you want to win in business and marriage one of the things that will accelerate your success is to get help. As marriage and business coaches this may sound self-serving but we have our own coaches as well. In fact the top executives, entrepreneurs and athletes have coaches. But if you’re like me, it’s hard to ask for help for fear of admitting defeat.

I’ve learned the hard way over the years that asking for help isn’t admitting defeat but it definitely helps you find solutions faster than doing it yourself. We don’t know what we don’t know so why not hire or find a mentor that can help us in our journey to be better spouses, parents and business owners? It can only help.

Join us in this conversation as we talk about our own experiences getting help and how it’s helped our marriage and business.

I often hear budding entrepreneurs tell me they’re going to start a business so they can have other people manage it while they go off and do something fun or significant in their life. My response is usually an internal “eye roll” because it’s not as easy as it sounds. In fact, most business owners never see that lifestyle until they retire.

In the meantime, the average business owner is working a lot more hours than they had dreamed. So, it’s great when you actually get to meet a business owner that has built the entrepreneur's dream job. 

Meet Jim Adams. Owner of a very successful business, American Landscape and Structure. So successful in fact that they grew 4x during COVID! But he’s found the business formula that allows him to run the business while he’s on the road with his wife, Cara and two dogs.

He’s also launched into his other passion of consulting small, privately held businesses accomplish the same thing he has. More freedom!