^{Before we begin, we want to acknowledge the tragic shooting in our hometown of Winder, GA. Four innocent souls were taken from us and our community is forever shaken. The Barrow Community Crisis Fund has been established to support those most affected by this tragedy.}

How the heck do you work with your spouse all day?!?

Nikki and I get that question all the time.

And if I’m being completely honest, it’s a question we’re still figuring out ourselves.

So, in this issue, I’m sharing everything we've learned along so far.

Spoiler: It’s tough, but it’s worth it. Also, this will be useful if you have a business partner of any kind.

Let me start by addressing the elephant in the room: balancing work and personal life when you’re married to your business partner is just plain hard.

The reality is that the lines between work and personal life are blurry, and they probably always will be.

You have to manage the overlaps so they don’t turn into complete chaos.

One of the best strategies we've implemented is having scheduled meetings.

I know what you’re thinking — oh, meetings. How revolutionary!

Seriously though, actually scheduling meetings with your spouse can feel awkward, but the formality of it actually helps.

For example, every morning, we have a simple standup meeting.

It's not rigid. But, it is a set time to discuss business and personal tasks for the day.

I’ll admit, the idea of a daily meeting doesn’t exactly excite me.

But I’ve learned that this standup is crucial, not just for the business, but for our relationship.

It lets us align, fix urgent issues, and then move on without interrupting each other all day.

Speaking of interrupting each other…

Here’s the thing: when you're married to your business partner, you'll have a lot of urgent things to discuss.

But we’ve had to learn the hard way that not everything is as urgent as it seems.

Sometimes, I get a great idea. Or, Nikki has something to say. But, we’ve had to discipline ourselves to ask: can this wait for the next scheduled meeting?

I’m not saying it’s easy. There have been plenty of times when we’ve failed at this, but when we get it right, it makes a huge difference.

Which brings me to the most disruptive trend to hit business since the invention of the cell phone…

We have to talk about things like Slack (Teams, WhatsApp, iMessage, or whatever).

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with instant messaging tools.

I even went on a bit of a rant during our last podcast episode.

On one hand, they’re great for quick communication.

On the other hand, they’re also a surefire way to kill productivity.

I’ve started to believe that Slack is just the 21st-century version of someone barging into your office unannounced.

We’re still figuring out the best way to use Slack without letting it control our day.

Recently, we’ve decided to check messages only at set times instead of constantly being at its beck and call.

This really helps us stay focused on the task without getting pulled in a million directions.

Nikki and I have very different work, communication, and thinking styles.

She’s a let's talk through this so I can organize my thoughts type. I’m more of an I need to quietly ruminate on this thought for a while before I speak'er.

She thrives on lists and spreadsheets, while I prefer a nice clean whiteboard.

Neither of these are right or wrong. They're just...different.

This used to cause a lot of friction, especially early on.

To bridge the gap, Nikki created a separate doc for each of our meeting types we have (Daily Standup, Sales, Content, Client Meetings, etc).

These documents became our go-to during each meeting. It’s a small thing, but it’s been a game-changer for us.

Nikki no longer feels like she has to keep it all in her head and I can take the time to think through things before we discuss them.

This also means we’re not pinging each other on Slack all day and that our meetings are more productive and efficient.

It is crucial to align our visions for the business and our life together.

I’m a long-term thinker.

I like to plan 10, 20, even 50 years into the future.

Nikki, on the other hand, is more practical and focuses on what needs to be done in the short term.

It took some time, but we’ve found a way to marry these two approaches (pun intended 😃).

We start with a 10-year vision, break it down into a 3-year picture, and then into 12-week chunks.

This allows Nikki to take ownership of the details, while I can focus on the bigger picture.

It’s a system that works for us.

Along those same lines, we’ve made it a point to celebrate hitting our short-term goals. This is key to avoiding burnout.

It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind and forget to appreciate how far you’ve come.

Milestones give us something to look forward to. They motivate us to keep pushing forward when it feels like we're just laying bricks.

So, what’s the takeaway here?

Working with your spouse is incredibly rewarding, especially if you have complementary skills that make you 10X more effective (like myself and Nikki)

But there will always be new challenges to face and new lessons to learn.

At the end of the day, be intentional with your time. Communicate openly. And, ensure your goals and values align.

We're not perfect. But, we will make it work. It's for the business, our relationship, and most importantly, our family.

If you’re navigating similar waters, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

How do you manage the balance between work and personal life when working with your partner?

Until next time, keep pushing, keep dreaming. Remember, the journey matters as much as the destination.

See you next week,

-Reade