Power Up Your Marriage and Business

Daniel shares some interesting facts around what it takes to be a successful interrogator and how those skills transfer well into marriage and business. Trust is a central point of developing strong relationships. Without trust, it would be really hard to stay married to someone or do business with people, right?

So join us in this fun interview with Daniel and Carolina. Trust us, you’ll like it!

Daniel’s cyber consulting business:
https://www.etherealrodent.com/ 

Carolina’s textile import business
https://www.vcbimports.com/

Live Light Campaign for Central America
https://lifeliftsoulutions.org/ 

Keys to building trust with a terrorist:

• Build rapport
• Active listening
• Value the other person
• Do as you say

That can all change for the better if you just understand what marketing really is about. In this episode, we will unpack the definition of marketing that will be a game changer for your business. Not only will it give you a clearer understanding of what marketing is, you’ll find that it’s refreshingly ethical and you will be able to keep your integrity intact. 

Also, you’ll attract the right customers that will gladly pay for your product and service while being champions for your brand. Take a listen to this episode.

What better time to start a business than in the midst of a pandemic, right? Well, that’s exactly what this week’s guests did. Alejandro and Karys Batsakis are Yale MBA grads and corporate professionals who risked it all during the early days of COVID and started the men’s sleepwear brand SirCadian.

This is a story every entrepreneur couple needs to hear. It’s one thing to build a business together but it’s another thing to do it well. Learning how to work well together can be very challenging when your gifts, skills and talents are different. While the differences can complement each other, they can also rub each other the wrong way. 

Click and listen to their story of losing a great job, starting a business out of frustration and learning how to do the dance of working together and being married.

Building a business is both rewarding and challenging at the same time. There are times in the beginning or even 20 years down the road where you feel like giving up. And these last two years were definitely not an exception. We all know that it takes perseverance to grow a business and overcoming adversity is part of the script too. You may even be facing a situation that is challenging you right now. If that is you and you need a little pick me up, meet Antwan Winkfield. What he’s had to deal with and overcome from the age of 2 til his present age of 36 may make your situation look like child’s play. His story is sure to inspire and encourage you to push forward. Because the best is on the other side. 

Antwan was raised in the inner city of Kansas City, Missouri. Graduated top of his class from the performing arts high school, Paseo Academy. Graduated from the University of Kansas with a bachelors in social work. Becoming the first in his family to graduate from college. Earned an MBA from Baker University. Is an author with his new book, “Breakthrough Leadership with Antwan Winkfield” available on Amazon.

Whether you realize it or not or want to admit it or not we all have fears. And those fears can be an impediment to business success. Many people say they channel those fears as motivation to be successful. That does work for many people but not all. In the long term, using fear as motivation can be stressful and lead to burnout. What’s important is to identify the type of fear that manifests in your life and learn how to face it. We all fall into one of two categories of fear. When you know which one you fall into, it will be easier to recognize, deal with it and move forward to success. Join us in this episode as we talk about the fears that may be holding you back from success and how to effectively deal with it so it does not hold you back. 

Whenever we enter a new year, start a new project, or launch a new brand, we tend to set goals. But many times we don’t reach our goals. And if you look at the research by the University of Scranton, only 8% of people that set goals actually reach them. So you might be asking yourself, “so why bother?” Kay Lee has asked me this same question on occasion when we don’t reach our goals. 

This is a great question. But an even better question is, “what are those 8% doing that I’m not?” This is what this episode will be about. Yes, setting goals is important but achieving them is even more important. So we will address the 5 things you should do to better your chances of reaching your goals. Cheers!

Many businesses are constantly concerned about what their competition is doing in order to stay relevant to their customers. Many entrepreneur programs, consultants, and coaches recommend doing a competitive analysis at startup and anytime during the lifecycle of the business. While there is some value to doing this, there is a danger from side tracking you from growing your business. 

Focusing too much on the competition can actually turn your attention away from your strengths, rob you of profits, adopt faulty marketing strategies, ad unneeded products/services, and turn you into a follower instead of a leader.

Learn from this mistake we’ve made as well as some major corporations so you never have to worry about the competition again.

Starting a business or any new venture is the easy part. Making it a success is the hard part. Because rarely do all plans succeed the way you initially draw it up. As Mike Tyson famously said, “a plan is great until you get punched in the mouth.” So, what’s the key to success? Perseverance is one characteristic all successful people need. 

Meet NASCAR driver, Will Rodgers. He’s had to persevere from the moment he was born (literally) and every step of the way in his racing career. From racing go-karts in Maui, Hawaii to hitting the big time racing NASCAR’s Xfinity Series, Will has had to work for every bit of success he’s had. 

Hear his story from surviving childbirth and a rare childhood disease to reaching the top levels of race car driving. 

One of the top issues we fight about with our spouse is money. Whether we can buy that car or not, take that vacation or not, buy that house or not, get that big screen TV or not, whether we save or not, send the kids to college or not. You get the point. 

If you’re like us, one spouse is the spender and the other is a saver. Those two differences in perspective on money makes for interesting conversations, right? 

There are tons of financial gurus out there talking about the importance of setting a budget, saving and investing but the problem is we need to first understand the “Why” we argue so we can better come up with a joint solution.

For a more in depth conversation about the “Why” check out episode 57 where we interviewed Rachel Cruze on this topic. 

The next step is to then develop a shared vision of what you want to spend, save and invest your money for so that you get on the same page on how to best use your finances.

Working with your spouse never seemed like a good idea to me until I ended up working with my spouse. (story shared in episode 1) I know I’m not alone as many people are strongly opposed to working with their spouse. But as our guests, Rob and Joanna Tiegen share, it is possible to not only work together but to do so in a way that actually draws you closer together as opposed to tearing you apart. 

Now, Rob and Joanna not only work together but over the years they’ve raised 5 kids and have had many foster children come through their home. Working together and taking care of a lot of kids can leave little time to actually connect as husband and wife. So how do you do all that? 

Not only do they share how to balance it all but they give some great insight into how working together has actually brought them closer together. 

Working together as husband and wife is not for the faint of heart. Many avoid it altogether. Some are surviving through it and others, like our guest Jim and Martha Brangenberg, are thriving. Not that every couple should work together but every couple can and do it well when they know how to do it. We had a great candid interview with Jim and Martha who both grew up in an entrepreneur family and avoided following the same path (Jim went to seminary) but eventually built several businesses together before settling into their current non-profit iWork4Him . They help business owners and W2 employees find purpose in their work and put on a variety of marriage retreats.

If you’re like me, consistency is reassuring. It’s like a security blanket that “guarantees” things will be well. But if you’ve spent any time as a married couple and business owner, then you know the only guarantee is change. 

Not only can change be uncomfortable but it can also create conflict in a marriage. So how do you deal with change? 

Meet Andy and Janine Mason. They left the comfort of their home country of New Zealand and relocated to the U.S. 15 years ago without a clearly defined plan of what they were going to do once they arrived. They also had 4 young children. 

They’ve had to navigate career changes, kids, writing books, moving to a new country halfway around the world and starting two projects and businesses together. Listen to this episode as they candidly share how they’ve been able to navigate change in life and business while prioritizing their marriage. 

One of the challenges many business owners face is that they do everything. Because they’re doing everything, they’re super busy and in bondage to the business. If this sounds familiar then this episode is for you. Doing everything may be the main reason your marriage and business is out of balance. You think you need to do it all when you actually don’t need to nor should you. If everything falls on your shoulders then it’s not good for the business, not good for you and definitely not good for your marriage. 

What’s the solution? Build and empower a great team. Even if you’re just working for yourself right now, hiring a great virtual assistant can be the first step in letting go.

I recently attended my first NASCAR race and was struck by the teamwork the pit crew demonstrated whenever their driver came in for a tire change, fuel, water, and minor mechanical issues. All this was done in less than 20 seconds. What an example of leadership, preparation and teamwork. 

This is something all business owners can learn from. So take a listen.

Vacations are fun, right? Of course they are but sometimes just getting there can be stressful. Even if you’re going to the Grand Cayman. Join us in this fun journey with marriage and family experts Jackie and Stephana Bledsoe as they share the challenges they experienced going on vacation. There are plenty of marriage lessons here like planning, being flexible, conflict resolution and enjoying the journey despite the circumstances. Oh, and what to do while the family of 5 has to be on 2 weeks quarantine in a 2 bedroom condo. What fun! Tune in and learn something.

You may be working harder than ever this year yet the profits just don’t seem to be there. In fact, your total revenue may even be up but the profits aren’t. Why is that? It may be a simple fact that you aren’t charging enough. 

If you’re like the majority of businesses out there, your sales price is not high enough and it’s costing you profits. Now you may be thinking that if you sell enough volume that the profits will follow. How’s that working for you? What we see is that the low price just forces the business to work harder. And the kicker is the profits don’t increase. At least as a percentage of sales. 

And if your net profit is less than 15% of total revenue then you have room to increase price. 

Even if you realize you should be charging a higher price there is natural fear of raising prices for a variety of reasons. So this episode is dedicated to helping you get over that fear so you can raise your prices to where they should be and give you a better margin of time and money.

Christy Wright is a #1 national best-selling author, personal development expert, and host of The Christy Wright Show. Since 2009, Christy has served at Ramsey Solutions, where she teaches on personal development, business, and faith. Her newly released book, Take Back Your Time is an essential book for the busy entrepreneur couple. It’s all about gaining better balance in your lives. 

As a business owner, you know there is no shortage of things to do. There are customer issues, employee issues, vendor issues, fires to put out, and sales to grow. Then when you get home there are those responsibilities too. You need to spend time with your spouse and family as well as the other chores that need to be done.

How do you find time to do it all? How can you get a better work/life balance? Does that even exist or is it the ever elusive unicorn?

Well, it might start with asking what work/life balance actually means...for you and your spouse. This episode is not a one size fits all approach but to give you a framework of how, together, you and your spouse can find better balance in your business and marriage. 

Listen to this great interview we have with Christy Wright as she lays out some of the principles in her book that will help you get on track.

How many of you business owners want to grow your business by working less? Of course you do but it seems a little far fetched doesn’t it? Not exactly. You see, the average business owner spends 65% of their working day on activities that do not lead to growth. That means, very little of their time is dedicated to those ON the business activities that will build the business. 

So if you are able to effectively shift your time to more ON the business type activities, you will see greater growth without having to put more hours in. In fact, if you adjust your priorities properly and are able to offload more busy work, you’ll actually work less hours.

We realize it’s easier said than done but it is possible. So take a listen to this week’s episode and work less but do more.

You thought your life was crazy? Maybe it is but moving to different countries, states, and cities, changing careers and business, having kids and working conditions can put a stress on any marriage. Meet childhood sweethearts Dan and Danielle Macaulay. They started out their lives as church pastors before Dan became a full time recording artist and traveling worship leader. You could imagine the kind of work schedule he put in while Danielle did her best to hold the fort. Then COVID hit and everything came to a screeching halt. Yes, it was stressful but amazingly Dan felt peaceful because he wasn’t putting in the crazy hours as he was before. Tune into this episode as we explore with Dan and Danielle of how they’ve dealt with the busyness of their business and the lessons learned from COVID that they’ll use going forward.

If you’ve been struggling with finding a better balance between marriage and business. Trying to find more time to spend with your spouse and family. The solution may be to scale your business. What? How can growing the business be the key to spending more time at home? You don't have enough time as it is. 

Well, the first thing to understand is scaling is not necessarily about growth. It’s about setting the stage to enable and support growth in your business. 

So whether you want to grow or not, when you scale the business, you’re putting a structure in place that can handle more without putting in more work. In other words, it’s making your business more efficient which will make your business more profitable and give you some precious time back into your life.

Take a listen to this episode as we discuss some practical tips to scale your business and give you your life back.

Is your marriage and business in balance? Take this short quiz to find out and get helpful tips to make it better. https://www.powercouplesbydesign.com/your-power-couple-score 

You may have to sacrifice some time away from the family to build the business but it doesn’t mean your family life has to suffer. Ultimately, you do want to build a business that allows you more freedom but in the meantime, make sure you’re intentional about building up your marriage and family while doing so.

But how do you do that when you have “no” time to devote to the family?

The majority of studies show that there is no correlation to the amount of time spent with your spouse and kids to the overall well being of the individual. So, as a busy entrepreneur, you’re off the hook in that you don’t have to feel guilty about not spending enough time with your family.

HOWEVER, there is a correlation between the QUALITY of time spent with your spouse and kids to the strength of your relationships and their overall well being. In other words, you don’t need to spend a lot of time but you do need to make the time you have count. And that’s what trips up most entrepreneurs like you, right? 

Many times, even when you’re home with your family you’re not present because you’re still connected to the business. Whether it’s through electronics or just mentally thinking about business. It can be challenging to just “turn off” business once you get home. 

So building boundaries around your personal time is so important to make sure business doesn’t interrupt family time. Take a listen.

Is your marriage and business in balance? Take this short quiz to find out and get helpful tips to make it better. https://www.powercouplesbydesign.com/your-power-couple-score