Creating Margin and Clarity for the Year Ahead

In this Marriage Monday episode Jeremiah and Savannah Jennings recap a rare and meaningful date night that turned into one of their most productive conversations as a couple. They share how intentional preparation before the dinner allowed them to talk through travel expectations family rhythms business growth and personal needs without conflict. The conversation centers around time management travel boundaries and accountability as they plan for the year ahead with clarity rather than assumptions. Savannah opens up about the realities of managing a home with two young kids and the need for personal margin while Jeremiah shares what support looks like for him as the business grows. Together they explain how setting expectations in advance creates trust reduces resentment and helps couples move forward as a unified team.

Transcript

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Jeremiah, welcome to Marriage Monday with Jeremiah and Savannah Jennings. The Jennings own growing green landscapes and are very happily married. In this podcast, Jeremiah and Savannah discuss the wins, losses, good times, bad times and everything in between, pertaining to owning a business while maintaining a healthy marriage along the way. We hope you enjoy the show. What's going on everybody? Thank you so much. Tuning in. What's up today here on the growing green Podcast is your host Jeremiah Jennings. Welcome into marriage Monday for you. Hope you guys are doing well. Have a great week out there. Great start to your week. So man, it's already yawning. What a great way to end of the show. How are you today? Great, excited to be here. Always, always really. Is that true? Yes. Is that really a true statement? Let's go before the should we break out the polygraph? Wow. So aggressive. Just saying, always excited. Yes, always energized. No. Are you ever energized? No, not at the time that we record these. When are you energized? There's like a like a sweet spot, like late morning when I've, like, gotten going but haven't gotten too I usually have pretty good energy between like 10 and 12am 2pm Yeah, I would agree. And then you know the worst time of the day, like four, 230 to three? No, no, no. From like three to four, you don't understand. 230 is the best time of my home, because you get to take a nap because the kids are napping, yeah? Which means it doesn't mean that I get to nap. That means it's just quiet, yeah, which will make you should make you more tired. It makes like, when I'm at the office, that three o'clock window hits me and I'm like, oh my goodness, I have to get up. And no, the worst part of the day is four because they're up. But, but that's so early enough afternoon, I feel like in the well, I mean, like, early night, I guess, no, because what four o'clock hour is like, I'm not really like, I'm close enough to you coming home that, like, in the winter, I feel like the worst is five, the five o'clock hour because it's dark outside, you don't know we're close. Don't understand that. I don't care what time it is if you're home, I'm not like, whatever. But if it's but if it's four o'clock, that's not true, folks, by the way, yes, it is. Then you know you're, I'm like, close enough to you getting home they don't really want to start a new endeavor, because I don't, you know, like, you're me here, and I don't love to be like, in the middle of something when you get home, like a task, or, like, a something around the house. So like, I'm kind of just in this limbo of, like, waiting, but not really wanting, just like, we've gotten away from turning on the TV, and so I, you know, like, I'm not gonna turn on a show, but then we've, we've, if we've been home, we've done a lot of our home activities. So it's just like this weird limbo, like trying to entertain him, but then also try to have the house semi together when you get home. So keep, try to keep him from wrecking everything. You know, it's that's the worst time of the day. And also I'm just depressed because I'm like, I love my kids. I'm like, nap times over and have hours you are not prepared now that we're not prepared for the day that they stop taking naps, we're not ready for that. No, we're not, but it will come with other things. Like, once they're to that age, like, there are other things he will be able to do, understand, hopefully, act Yeah, like in attention span, things like that will be hopefully a little more developed. But if, yeah, if you're, like, two year old, stop snapping. Are you okay? That's right, that's rough. Holy cow, yeah, I can. That would be really rough. But yeah, so to answer the question, do you have a very small window time where I'm, like, genuinely energized, but other than that, I'm either thinking about the most recent time I was asleep, or the the closest I will until I get to go to sleep. Whatever's closest to me how you feel about your Christmas decorations. Trees looking good, trees looking just kind of sad. They are coming down in like three weeks, yes, but I feel like we're out. This is my favorite time. We're, like, in the in the thick of Christmas season, like, it is very much Christmas time, but it's cross. Christmas isn't like tomorrow. So I'm like, Oh, this is so nice. We get like, we have some more time to enjoy it and be in it. And it's like, as someone. Who loves Christmas and would decorate so much earlier, I kind of get this, like, not embarrassment, but this, like, I don't know, like, shame isn't the right word either, but it's like this, like you you feel like you have to hide it, like you can't. It's not like, normal to be excited or, like, celebrate Christmas until a certain point. But now I'm like, oh, it's acceptable. It can be fully celebrated, the natural Thanksgiving. Well, I just, that's what I should say. I'm happy because it's like, fully acceptable to be like, all out Christmas right now, everybody is, and it's in the height of everything, like Christmas shopping, like all the things, the Christmas parties and the, you know, we don't do any Christmas parties. We have to give them some higher circles their Christmas parties. We do one Christmas party a year. That's it. Yeah, Jack has one for school now, though, oh, that counts. That does not count as DJs, which is so funny, because that's what ours is gonna show up in your PJs, no, but our Christmas party is adults, is pizza and PJs, which is, honestly, I'm happy with it. You know what we um, but we don't really like you're gonna start hosting a growing green Christmas party, because initially a lot of these Christmas parties are like, work parties, yeah, we're gonna have one next year. We're gonna be we're gonna be killing it next year. But yeah, the 1.3 million in sales, and we're gonna bomb Christmas party. I'm manifesting it now. Party to celebrate. There you go. But yeah, Jack's got a little he had a Christmas program at school last week, and next week is a party near super drama school, and we're just saying, like, we get to wear Christmas PJs to our party, which is such a move, right? Like, yeah, there's 100% we got to vote on a tire for our party. And it was, this started last year. It wasn't even an option. And one of the guys, like, jokingly, was like, wait a Christmas PJs. And we were like, Wait, actually, yes, great idea. Add that to the list, and everyone vote for that right now. And they really did. It was like, you name it. Like everyone said that, because I think the other options for, like, ugly sweaters and, well, there's so much work, and it's like, why am I gonna just waste 30 bucks? I struggle with that a little bit because it feels a little wasteful for me, because I don't, I want to participate and be involved, but then also, like, I don't want to spend money on something that will literally gather dust in my closet, or I'll resell it after, or, yeah, something, but you'll never sell for what you bought it for. So it's like, or one of the things was, like, classy, or like Christmas, like casual, business casual, and I guess I'm just not. I'm in the minority here that don't have that in my closet. Yeah? But I was like, I don't even know how to do that. Isn't that so bad of me. I've never had to dress that way, so I don't even know how to dress that way. Yeah? Cuz nursing, I mean, he was that were PJ sore every day is what felt like a T shirt and stretchy pants. Money we spent on those PJs, though, tennis shoes, yeah, they're nice PJs. Much money thing we spent on the scrubs in the hundreds, 230, 1000s, definitely. Okay, that's insanity. How many sets Did you got at least eight to 10 sets. Okay, so eight to 10, yeah, minimum, maybe about 1000 Yeah. But like, also don't feel like that's insane, like what I'm saying is insane on their work wardrobe, yeah, especially if you work higher up and judging you just saying, Okay, you do pay a lot of money for stuff to get blood on and peed and pooped and thrown up on them exactly. It's so nasty. Anyways. Anyways, little update here we if you listen to the show last week, and two weeks ago, we were prepping and planning for our week, our yearly sit down meeting. And we got a meeting because that's what we were doing. We're discussing. We go in there with an agenda of like, and this is our first one. Next year will be way more dialed, because we're gonna know like, what we really like, how this year went. And so it's gonna be like a review. It's gonna be like a review and budgeting meeting, essentially, yeah, and a year ahead forecast, because we're in year, like, if you want to, applies to, like, a business principle. We're going into the year trying to build a budget with no historical data. And so it's like, we're just guessing here. We don't earn that, no, right, but now we're going to track it through the year, and then we'll have historical data going to next year. And we would have said, Okay, this worked. This did not work. You know, we'll be able to really measure and manage what works and didn't work. But anyway, I would say so we went to. A very nice steakhouse locally, very, very nice and very good. They cooked my meat a little too, too long. It was fine. Once you cut into it, it was okay, but nice place and had a good time when it was a late dinner. Felt like we were Yeah, we chose, honestly, I liked it. It was nice. Yeah? I mean, we ate it. We had a 730 reservation, yeah? We just did that to help with the kids, so that, yeah, my friend that was watching them would just really be everywhere I slept. So I think it was helpful for her, but I didn't mind it. Yeah, no, for sure, it was fun. I was just, we hadn't like, it's, it's funny we were because we were literally riding home the other night, and we were like, isn't this funny? How different our lives look compared to like friends were going out because we were coming home at six o'clock, and we were like, getting ready to do kids bedtime and go to sleep. And they were like, they were going out and had an appointment at seven or 730 and then had and then, like, it's so it's life is so different people that like go start their night at 9pm 10pm that's a different demographic of people. It is, and we are not in it. No sure aren't. So we 730 dinner was good. We got a four. We got a four person table, instead of a two crammed together, which was really great. They did hook us up. Really, really good. Because this is one of those restaurants where it's, like, if you've been, like, a cheese a factory, you know the prints, where they have like a massive row of like a half table, and they put, like, single tables on through there, and you put 10 of those next to each other, and they're one and a half feet apart. Yeah, they're, you're right on top of people, exactly there and so. And you can never get a four person table for two unless you like, they're not gonna give you, yeah, no space so, but they had somebody who was taking too long, something like, All right, we're gonna be this four persons. I was like, Yes, please. Thank you. And so it's good. But I would say the over arching thing, we went into that meeting with, into that dinner, talk to talk about was time, don't you think, yeah, for the year. All right, agree, time, as far as travel goes, was the main thing. Like, how much are we going to travel? How much are I going to travel individually? How much is are we going to travel as a family? Just how much are we going to be away in general for the year? And it was good. It was it was really good sit down and just like, talk about that transparently. I built a custom GPT and chat to do, like, the math and stuff for us. We just told it when I was planning on going and burden percentages. I think where we ended was 6% individual and 16% family. Correct? I think so, which ended up being like, I can't remember the 22 days, individual and 50 Well, what see, yeah, because 20 12% would be 44 and then another Yeah. So it was like, I think it's 52 days, 48 or 52 days, something like that, right around 50 days that we would be gone as a family. And so that is like, these are Max numbers. These are like, top of the line needs to be something really, really important to exceed these. And so that is what our just, what we kind of landed on. We talked about, I talked about Pat, like my business coach that has kind of helped us, and walked me through that and their process, and he has gone 10% individually and 30% family. He's also running a $14 million landscape company, so he has a little more ability to be gone. But so I take that, I was like, Okay, we need to figure out what works for us as far as, like, we don't. We don't need to just like, take those numbers and say, yeah, that works for us. Like, right? We need to actually fix, fix infinite on our schedule. And so that's what ended with, very good discussion. We really, I'll tell you why I wanted to talk about a little bit and why I felt like it was so important, was because we really did a good job of talking about this prior, right? And I think it allowed you to get in a good headspace. Yeah, going into it, yeah, because what we had two weeks, three weeks before, yes, we decided to go. And so we literally had plenty of time to sit there and like, know what going into the night was going to talk about. We had, again, somewhat kind of an agenda, things we wanted to talk about. And it was very encouraging to go into that. And we had a two hour dinner with like, zero arguments about anything that we were planning for the next year, which is really good, and it goes, it goes to show the like the proper preparation can solve. A lot of problems that arise, arguments, frustrations, things that just like aren't communicated well in the moment. Those are all things that can be fixed pretty easily, if you can just set some boundaries and set some time in place beforehand to actually do it. So I mean, it's December the 15th, if you're listening this real time, you could set a dinner for next week, and y'all could go do this and have a week leading up to it, like you got plenty of time, and still get this in before the New Year gets here. So I highly encourage you to do it. If you haven't with your spouse, just go talk about these. And maybe it's like, you need to talk about what the year looks like for you, business wise. So like, travel is our big one, but we also talked about what the year looked like, business for wise for me. And like, where money's going and what we're investing and what time looks like, right? Because we're on a big like, 26 is going to be a massive group. We double our business in 26 essentially from where we were this year, and that is a big task to set. So we talked about family goals, family life, like, what does that look like? Kids, all of the above and so. But again, I know getting in that right headspace ending up to it was a massive win for us, don't you think, Oh, totally agree, yeah. What are your takeaways from that? What are some of the biggest things that you felt were like, glad you did it. I think it was really just glad that we it was, I think, the biggest things that I think about, I like, you know, it's dinner or whatever, is being just thankful that we had time to get into a good headspace for it. Because I think that's just make or break of a conversation. If you, one of you doesn't feel ready or bombarded or ambushed in any shape, form or fashion, you both should be on the same page, as far as, like, knowing this is the goal of the conversation, so there's no surprises. And then the second thing is, just like, whatever the outcome of it was going to be, I don't, I don't think either of us had any concern that we were gonna be on different pages. So, like, this might be a different conversation next year. If we think we're gonna be have different thoughts on 27 Does that make sense? Yeah. So like, like, I'm thinking one thing, you're thinking another, right? Or, like, I want to start focus to be here this year, and you're like, No, I'm really passionate about this, which could easily be the case for people, right? I mean, it's not uncommon to think, you know, and depending on, like, where the business goes this year could be for us next year, like, it just, that's what I mean, yeah. So I think what's important is, like, if that is your case, to again, like, you know, you're coming into this to have this conversation so you're not being ambushed, you know, like this is planned, even if it's not what you thought they would say, this is still the goal of the conversation. Is to get these things out there and kind of figure out how you can work together and where you can give and take a little bit if it's not exactly what you thought, and vice versa, for how they can do it for you, and what that looks like. But the second thing is just being really thankful that it happened. What third thing you already said? What was the second thing? What you were talking about? Well, I didn't name it. Okay, continue. Another thing is really just being glad that we had it so that in six weeks, six months, nine months, we can point back to it. I think that's the biggest reason that we did it, is we're literally building a budget like that, that we're building a budget. You have to have a business budget. Well, it's accountability. It's accountability for us at certain times in the year, for both reasons, good and bad, and fun and not fun, like me and him. You know, when we both want to go do something, but it doesn't really fit. It doesn't serve our purpose. We're doing either well that, and it's just like, well, that's not that we were very intentional with the timeframes that we decided on. And unless it's like something crazy, opportunity, whatever, then the answer is no like. And we have this to fall back on like to hold us both accountable. And you know, this holds you accountable with individual travel. This holds me accountable when you know the the days are long and I'm struggling as far as like, you being gone, or the boys and things like that, like, no, like, this is what we agreed on, yeah, this is where we're going? Yeah, it's just that fallback of, like, you can just sit here and look in six months and say, when you ask that question of, why are we here? Right? When you ask us that question, you can go back and be like. This is why you can go back to that meeting, to that dinner, and say this will be agreed upon. This is when I'm walking out the door to go do something. This is what we agreed upon. And so that's not to say it's written in blood, right? But it is. This was a very like, very clear. This is what we're sticking to. It needs to be something pretty crazy, yeah. And it's also not like to get out of jail free card. It's not like, Well, we said we're doing this, so you're fine. Or, like, whoa, correct, emotions, right? Like, you still, you know, you have intake a little bit there. And this is also a sent to say that we won't do, like, check ins, of, like, you know, how, how, how are we doing? Is this working for us, because, again, we've never done this before, so I could totally see that being something that we implement, maybe once, twice a year of being like, this is the trajectory where we're headed based off of what we decided. Like, is this still working? You know? So, yeah, because we don't know even, even the travel being gone like that was just something we tried to create it like we've never really managed again. We're going from no no data or whatever, no history, no history, to like, just try and throw something out there, right? So anyway, it is. It was, it was really good. It's very, very beneficial. It was one of the like that was one of the most proud of us. Times I've probably we've had, I feel like, yeah, proud to just really sit and really, just proud to sit and look at what the next year holds and how we can move forward with just us being on the same page, and, you know, I sit here and kind of think about it, and, you know, I don't get emotional, but it does make me, it does make me stop and think and say, like, I'm, I'm proud of where we've come because this is not, this is not something that We probably would have done three years ago, four years ago, five years ago, probably two years ago and done this, and it shows where our communication skills have grown over the past couple years. It shows where our hearts are at, like truly trying to serve each other better and truly trying to build each other up and make sure that we both know that, like, we are on the same page and we are trying to achieve the same goals, but it just takes different things from each of us to get there. And it's a process of, it's a process of, like, we're going to win some, we're going to lose some. There's going to be fun parts along the way. There's going to be parts that aren't fun along the way. There's gonna be parts that really suck along the way. But we're gonna see here and be able to come back and be like, Look, this is why we're going where we're going. It gives helps, like, helps cast that vision out there. And I just like, I said, going through, going through this entire thing, talking about what we talked about, like, and having zero arguments out of it, was just really, it was really, like a proud moment for for me, for us. I felt like, no, I'd agree, for sure. So serving each other well is a conversation we've had recently that is just like, more and more and more sticking out more and more of how important it is, yeah. Well, I mean, I think it was just also a big tone of this conversation of like, okay, these are the things we want. But like, how can we help each other and do that? Yeah, not just like, how can we accomplish this? But it's like, no, whoa. Can you hear that? Yes, so sorry, but more so of like, okay, well, what this sounds worse than it means. Like, what do you need from me? Like, yeah, what? What do you need for me to be successful in this area? Like, how can I help you do that? Because, I mean, that's what it's all about for each other, 100% I mean, that's like, I mean, that's literally the things that we're going through right now. So, I mean, we'll give talk through, like, an example, and then we'll wrap it up. But just to be like, transparent and show you the real like, what we're actually going like, talking about is you being stay at home with the kids now and running the house and me doing a little bit more solo travel? Like, one of our conversations was you telling, like, for me, it's, it's my need is just like, full support of what we're doing and that, and me traveling some is part of that process. And you were like, I said, What do you need for me? And it was essentially, I need to be able to, like, go and do while having the kids, and not feel like we have to, you know, make things up and, you know, you we have to get to a point where you. Are, like, financially free to where you can just go and do to an extent, you know, not outrageous things. Oh, but be able to go and, like, go get food or whatever, and you do that to a pretty good extent now, but still, you're very creative at trying, like, Savannah is the opposite of the typical. Like, typical, so bad. I shouldn't say that stereotypical, like, just woman that stays home and goes, swipes a card all day and has no issue with it. You're like, on the other specs, like, the other end of that, very, very like, conscious about money and what you spend versus don't spend. So it's a big deal for you to, like, go and do things, yeah, yeah. If it's not like groceries or something that they like, go do fun things, like, go do entertaining things, yeah? But again, it's like, look, I gotta have some things to do when I've got two kids under three to entertain. So that was just one of the things. It's like, okay, well, these things have to start paying off these, these trips, the investments you make in the business. We have to start having really strong finances that start to grow with that. So again, we have that ability to go and do more and more. Yeah, well, that's just, like, a very small thing that was not, yeah, no, that was not a make or break, correct? But that's just an example, right? What's it? What's another one? Do you have another one you'd like to share? No, I mean, what I thought you were going to talk about is me sharing, like, wanting, needing, appreciating, just like some sort of, like, I don't want to say consistent or routine, but, like, somewhat scheduled, like time, just like, be alone, because, you know, the biggest comparison that I feel like, you know, you make, is like, yes, it's different, and yes, it's not like, it's not the same, like, there are some things that logistically can't get done, but it's just like, think about what your life would look like, productivity wise, If everything you did, you did with kids, like my, my, you know, job, the house, the groceries, whatever, like, everything I do is done with them. So, like, there's never designated time for me to do things productive or not productive, just like, be a human being without them. So, you know, that was just something that I was like, I need to have some sort of time where Jack goes to school, yes, but, like, Tate is very much a little person now, you know, so, like, I can still get things done, yes. Does it, you know, is it the end of the world if the sheets don't get folded today and the the stairs don't get vacuumed, no, but like, at the same time, like all of these things that fall under my role and responsibility of managing the home, like, you know, they they have to get done, but my things get done with kids, so It just changes the dynamic of, like, the stress or productivity. I don't know how to say that, but it's like, imagine if the only way you got things done all day was by somebody having their kids or by you. Oh, it's not even just that. It's not even Yes, it's just also a mental break. Like, yeah, give me a give me a two hour, three hour window of just a mental clarity, yeah? Like, I don't think that people realize, people that have kids that don't ever take a break from their kids don't realize what they're not getting. Like, yeah, that's, that's the thing. You love your kids. When I love our kids, I don't like, I don't want to spend time without our kids, necessarily. Like, literally, it's so funny the kids, but there's nothing wrong with sense. Wanting to sometimes makes no sense. Like, literally, at that dinner, I was like, I think we had, we had changed the topic or something. And like, I was already thinking about, like, because I think it was a really rough day with Jack. It was that day, probably most of them are, and by the end of that we were I would know. I was like, I miss him. Like, he was like, he was just, I don't know, I forgot what it was, but I was like, it's only been through two hours, three hours, but when I'm leaving, I'm like, goof sit down type thing. Like, see you later. And then you're like, Oh, they're cute. I love them. They it's like your stereotypical look at pictures of them while they're asleep, and you miss them before we hit record. Yeah, I had small group tonight, and got home and they were asleep and started looking at pictures. I was like, Oh my gosh, go to sleep. It's nap time. Literally, it's so funny. But yeah, look that so again, it's not me saying I don't want to be around my kids. I love my kids, but that, that time alone, like that time extended time, for sure, is something that is, yeah, it's really, really long for, even if you don't know you're longing for. Long for it, because if you don't know any different, like, I guess you don't need different. That's just part of it life, yeah, but it's one of those things. Like, once you fly first class, there's no going back, you know, once, once you start getting that little taste of alone time. Like, Okay, gotta have it. Like, I see what it does for me. I gotta keep that scheduled. Yeah, but yeah. Like, and also transparent on that, we haven't even figured that solution out. So this is not a like, this isn't a go in and figure every problem. This wasn't like, go in, throw all the problems on the table and then come up with a solution by every end of the dinner. Exactly. That was not it, because we have not figured that out yet. We don't know what that looks like yet, but it is like, it's talked about in the environment of like, Hey, we're not like, nobody's getting upset, nobody's saying this, or nobody's getting on to you for doing this. This is just like, hey, I feel like I really it just like creates a safe space, not to be drama, but like creates a safe space and also a freedom to just, like, be honest. Because again, I just can't emphasize enough how important it was for us to both be in the mental place for that conversation, because I didn't have to worry about how it's coming across you, because it was like, Okay, no, we're just, we're both right here, and we're both saying, like, this is where we're at, and I'm not dancing around anything because I'm nervous about how it's gonna get reacted to. Like, yeah, no. Like, we're just, this is where we're at, and everything's going to be pretty matter of fact, and we'll just roll with it. Yeah, 100% Well, anyway, that was, that's our recap. That's kind of how we ended up the dinner. It was, it was a really good time. I'm excited for what the year holds. We got a lot going on. A lot of things happening in the next couple weeks and months. Just our business is trying to grow. Y'all's business is growing. We're trying to go one day at a time here. But if we can ever help you, please let us know. Please let us know we are two weeks, three weeks away from the end of the year, and then we'll be rocking into 2026, if you would leave us Big Five straight review. If you enjoy the marriage Monday shows, if you'd like to see a change, like see something new, come let me know. How can we change? How can you update it for you, make it a little better, make the experience better, so you keep coming and listening and then sharing with your friends as well. So that's how we get to continue to grow the show, is by sharing and giving reviews. So when people do see it, when they do get clicked, when they do cook on it, then they know, hey, I should actually check in on this, because it good, good thing. So anyway, I love you. Appreciate you. We care about you. If we can never help, please, please let us know, like I said, happy to help any way that I can. We are going to have a great week here, and hope you all do as well. Get some last little pushes in before Christmas so we can keep that revenue pumping. Have the good conversations. Take meaningful time to sit down with one another and literally, just like, look into each other's eyes and talk about the future and what that looks like for y'all. Thanks for tuning in. If we can ever help you, let us know. Thank you for the dust and wrap this one up and we catch we look forward to catching you here on the next one you you