Welcome back to the Christianity and Business Podcast, an initiative of the R. W. Dunham College of Business at Houston Christian University. I'm your host, Darren Shear, and this is the show that helps Christian business leaders to integrate biblical values into business. On today's episode, we're joined by a really fun couple, Robert and Kaylee Fukui. Robert and Kaylee are the co-founder of I-61 Incorporated, a business consulting company. They assist married entrepreneurs to create better work-life balance by structuring the business to scale while giving previous precious time back to the owner to invest into their marriage. They've developed an innovative consulting program called Power Couples by Design, which equips the married entrepreneur to build a thriving marriage and a prosperous business. And they're the authors of the new book, Tandem, The Married Entrepreneur's Guide for Greater Work-Life Balance. Robert and Cayley, welcome to the Christianity and Business Podcast. Thanks, Darren. Thanks for having me. Yeah, excited about this new book. And y'all just finished a six-week uh book tour. Well, maybe we'll hear some about that and your adventure across the country. But when did you first realize God wanted to be involved in your work in the marketplace?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's a good question. Yeah, I was actually both of us were raised in a church. My dad was a pastor, so I'm a PK. But same here as a okay. So that's why we connect right. Um but there's a period in my life from high school through about the time really I met Kaylee, um, where really wasn't walking with the Lord. I really kind of, I guess, need to find my own way, so to speak. Um, I don't know what it was. Maybe I saw so much hypocrite hypocrisy sometimes in the church or the pressure of being the PK and the spotlight being on me and having to act a certain way. But even though I was kind of not really following the Lord at the time, I always kind of really felt I was always led with biblical values, where that wasn't necessarily consciously intentional. It's just because I was brought up in that. So I, you know, really, you know, applaud my parents for just raising me up in the ways of the Lord. So I would just, even in Fortune 500 companies, I still led by biblical values, which sometimes was counter to what the company wanted. Um so, and then, but when we got married and started going to Harvest Rock Church here in Pasadena, um, our pastor's spiritual father is C. Peter Wagner, as we talked about before this conversation, and he he was pretty influential talking about the you know work in the marketplace and all that. And then there's another kind of evangelist that came through called named Lance Walnow that talked about the Seven Mountain Mandate and how as Christians we're called, you know, part of our our commissioning is obviously the Great Commission, but also to really make an impact where we are. And because only like you know, as you know, only less than 1% of the population is in a in the in the church, like working in vocational ministry. So the other 99% of us in the church or outside the church in the marketplace. And we're not just supposed to just go do work or do your business, but how do we make an impact for Christ? And so that's kind of where for us, for both of us, like, oh yeah, that makes sense. And I kind of looked at my past going, yeah, I can see the impact I had, not realizing the impact I had even in the corporate environment.
SPEAKER_01So, what changed from that uh after that revelation?
SPEAKER_02I think it was just you know, for a while, just kind of pondering like what am I supposed to do in the next phase of life? What you know, I was at that point, um, you know, we're in our 40s, and so I think, and I've heard like once you get in your 40s, you start thinking about the rest of your life. Like, what is my purpose? And so I was, you know, for me, I was wondering, am I supposed to stay in this corporate environment or do something different? And so, you know, that whole thing just really just triggered like just thought, and what am I supposed to do? And so, long story short, end up I really enjoyed marketing is my background, marketing and sales. And so I started doing some consulting on the side with small business, family business. And I really enjoyed that process um to really help these families, these business owners do better. But I also saw the impact it made, not just for the business, but for the family, for the employees, vendors sometimes, even of course the customers. But seeing the what what I did or what I helped them do made an impact in a different way than when I was in a corporate environment. And so I was like, oh, you know, I really feel that that uh we can make a kingdom impact with a lot of families, a lot of people, not just business. And so that's kind of the short story to just kind of what was what kind of led to the next step and to where we are now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, I want to get into your book, um, Tandem, The Married Entrepreneur's Guide for Greater Work Life Balance. Um, before we do that, and this may segue into that. Um, what's one of your favorite scriptures related to business and entrepreneurship?
SPEAKER_02There's so many. Yeah, there are a lot. But the one I guess I leaned to just from a personal standpoint, just kind of overarching theme. Um, it's in Proverbs, I forgot the exact chapter and verse, but in a man's heart, you know, set a plan, but the Lord directs the steps. And you know, I'm a planner. So sometimes as a planner, and there's probably other planners on this listing, you get so controlled into the plan um that you don't allow margin for the Holy Spirit to work. And as any business owner would know, that nothing ever goes according to plan anyway. And so don't get so caught up in the plan and that you sometimes to a fault, you get so stuck in the plan that sometimes you drive yourself off a cliff. And we've seen businesses do that. Um, as opposed to really how do you start to like keep your discerning antennas up? And so you can kind of let the Lord direct. Because the to me, the plan, the one thing of the plan that really doesn't really change is the vision, overarching vision, and then maybe an ultimate goal, but the path in which you get there is most likely going to be a little different than what you're putting down the plan.
SPEAKER_00And I kind of learned that one the hard way because Robert would come up with the plan and say, this is the direction we're gonna go. And then he would like want to pivot. And I'm like, no, this is the plan we're supposed to stay here. And he's like, no, honey, we need to move over. And I'm like, no, but you said, and then I had to learn, like, okay, he's leading. The Lord wants us to go this direction. It's okay to like let it go and move with the Lord, as opposed to get so um stuck on my idea of what it's gonna look like or my thoughts of where I want to go, because a lot of times it's completely different than what the Lord has in mind.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I saw one of my first consulting clients actually was a business, local business that was in business like 40 years. And they were so stuck in the way they did business that they were, like I said, they were going down with the ship, sticking to their this is how we do business. And every suggestion we came up with, they just shot down because their excuse was that's not how we do it. This is how we've been doing it for 40 years. And I'm like, yeah, but it's not working. I'm like, clearly, so so that's just an example, like a real sad example of how you get so caught up in how you do business and how you the plan that you can go down the ship and you know, not not pivot and allow kind of the Holy Spirit to kind of lead different direction because in business, I mean, the market shifts a lot, right? We're we're always faced with different challenges every now and then, whether it's a pandemic or an economic crisis. But you know, you gotta be allow yourself to to really pivot.
SPEAKER_01Right. And and how did y'all get so passionate about serving God in the workplace uh to where you would actually write a book on the subject and then go on a six-week book tour? I mean, a lot of people just for one can't even imagine working with their spouse, you know, more than is absolutely necessary. Um, but then, you know, to write a book about this and go on this six-week book tour, like, where is this coming from?
SPEAKER_02It's one of those things where you just follow the breadcrumbs. You know, there's not one exact answer. But I think, you know, going back to Peter Wagner's impact and Lance Walmart's impact on us and our pastor, and you know, Peter had he started this Wagner Leadership Institute. He wanted to start kind of a school, a college, basically, uh post-secondary education that's a little different from your traditional seminary or even Bible college or regular school. And he had kind of gifted it over to our pastor because he was basically starting to gift off his assets and his ministries to some of his spiritual sons and daughters, and my past our pastor being one of them. And so when they were doing that transition, uh, my pastor, our pastor had asked me to start a kingdom business curriculum or course underneath the Wagner Leadership Institute. And from that, you know, long story short, from that point on, just developing that and teaching that, getting a hold of a curriculum, you know, as you know, Patrice's biblical entrepreneurship program, that's how I get connected to Patrice, was through Peter Wagner recommending our pastor, you need to bring him in. And as he's talking about God in the marketplace and God in business, it like totally resonated with me. And next thing you know, I'm like, oh, let's let's let's just license out this curriculum and then teach that through Wagner Leadership Institute. And that that's what really spurred this whole business kingdom business thing to where we are now, and just you know, teaching that for six years, being on the board of Nehemiah Project for 10 years, um, just being engrossed in that and just being in that environment and seeing the different people in different countries, the different Christian leaders making an impact in the marketplace. I was like, okay, this thing works. It's not just a cool thing to do, to be a Christian, but it works and it works in business from a financial perspective, but it also bigger ways, bigger in a bigger way, you're making an impact on people's lives. And that was it just, you know, a soul. And so, and she was along for the ride, and then then we've got more involved together in business, and then decide to write a book.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and then the book tour, we didn't really see that coming. I mean, that was like right after the pandemic, and I think people were really wanting to have relationships, and something about entrepreneurs can be very isolating. Like we feel like we're all alone on this island. And we thought, oh my gosh, let's do a road trip. We love to travel. And we're like, Lord, okay, we'll bite. So we uh started connecting with our friends in different areas and asking them if they'd like us to come and um speak on our book. Would any of them want to host us? We met so many great people. One testimony is uh we ended up at this coffee shop, which was not planned at all. They ended up with total last minute. I think they had 30 people. Robert put it on Eventbrite, all the places we were going. And a couple showed up and they didn't know the Lord. And they ended up, the people that hosted us had a church and they connected with them and they ended up going to their church and coming to know the Lord. So we were just like so excited. We never saw that one coming.
SPEAKER_02And then the husband just recently reached out to me because he started a podcast for Christian men, and so he said, I was his first guest because he remembered us obviously and we're instrumental in connecting into the church. So, you know, that was just a fun little story, I think. That was like, oh, okay, this is pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01I like this. So, what really is your message in this book, uh, tandem?
SPEAKER_02That you can prioritize what's important, faith and family. Even the book, the book's not exactly faith for because we're trying to reach a broad audience, but definitely, you know, your family is important, it's central. And obviously, it's central to God's heart. Um, and but you and you can prioritize that and still have a successful business. But in business, because we both grew up, and even though my dad was a pastor, it's very much like running a business, as you would know, that a lot of times the congregation or the work of the ministry takes center stage and the family takes a back seat. And in her case, her dad was a business owner, same thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the business became the mistress in our family, so it was really challenging. And you build resentment when your dad's working six days a week and not at your high school graduation, and it's it's hard.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Do you find that I don't know, this may just be kind of anecdotal on my end, but in the faith and work movement, there I guess sort of the dark side of it can be what I'm really trying to do is justify an unhealthy relationship with business and put a spiritual, missional, you know, Christian kind of uh uh label on it to sort of excuse me from the focus that I need in prioritization of my family. Um, is that have you noticed that in the faith and work movement? Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02It's it's across the board, Christian and unchristian, you know, justify the fact that you're neglecting your family because I'm providing for the family. Or especially when you're in ministry, I'm doing the work of the Lord, but it's still work, right?
SPEAKER_01But if you can make it, I'm providing and I'm doing ministry, it's like double win. It's like, wait, hey, you know, we're I'm doing God's work and I'm putting food on the table. Like I found myself having that same kind of temptation to fall into that. Um, what do you what do you say to those folks?
SPEAKER_02I say stop making excuses and justifying and rationalizing why you're not investing into the most important relationships other than God. Right? The priority of life is supposed to be God, family, and then your work. But how are you actually living it out? And usually it's flip-flopped around, right? It's work and then maybe family, and then hopefully you read a few scriptures or you go to church. And so that's that's your that's your number three. But how do you really prioritize those things? And I think the struggle, the internal struggle, the tension, is that we feel that if we prioritize God and family, that our business is gonna struggle, our ministry is gonna struggle. And we think, and it's also that we have some false assumptions of what that priority looks like. We think we're gonna have to spend so much time in the Word, or so much time with our wife and our kids that we're not gonna have time for the business or the ministry. Or we think, yeah, we think we need more, we always think we need more time to grow our business or our ministry. And so the reality is it doesn't take a lot of time to keep God and family at priority. It just takes quality of time, it takes your best, right? Just like first fruits, it's give us your best. And you never define how much what amount that first fruit offering should be. It's never defined, right? The tithe is defined as 10%, and you can argue about that, but at least there's a number somewhere in scripture. But the first fruits is not defined as far as an amount, it's just your best, right? And what is your best? Like for us, first thing in the morning is our quiet time with the Lord. That's our best. Because it's we're not distracted, right? And it's our best time to do it. And in each other, then we pray with each other second. And it's a best before everything gets going, that's our best, right? Because we're not distracted. So that's just an example of how it doesn't take a lot of time to prioritize God and family first, and you'll still have a ton of time left over to invest campus in the ministry.
SPEAKER_00And if you're not sure how you're doing or what it's gonna look like, sit down and talk with your spouse. We take our couples through this. It can look different to everybody, every couple. So sit down and think, you know, maybe your love language is time. Okay, well, let's spend time with the Lord praying or go do something, you know. Uh it could be a lot of different things.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. What are some of the best practices that you've seen uh or or and done as it relates to this?
SPEAKER_00I'd say we have our weekly meetings and they're Monday at 3:30. And we go over our finances, we go over our calendar, we check in with each other. Huge thing is, for at least for me, is we give each other an encouraging word. And oh my gosh, if your love language is affirmation, it goes a long way. We pray together. So we want to make sure we show each other that they're our priority and that we care about them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and it's a lot a lot of things we started adopting. We thought, like, oh, we found something. But as we've either talked to other couples that we we see are kind of high performing couples or have a great relationship and all that, every one of them adopted something similar to what we're talking about, is especially if they're Christian, they pray together, right? Intentional prayer, not just a dinner time, just a dinner time prayer, but we're intentional prayer, prayer time, and then have some kind of regular check-in. And it's usually weekly, at least weekly. It's to get on board and stay on the same page, you know, get on the same page and stay on the same page. Um, and and so those kind of those, just those two things, the daily prayer and this is regular check-ins, intentional time just to stay connected and talk about the issues, the calendar, business, life, vision, you know, all those things that kind of give like you kind of give a flap of the arm to, but you really don't intentionally talk about. Um, and so just those things, just and they're really simple, but for whatever reason, we're such in a hurry society that we just can't seem to want to just calm down for a few minutes for for an hour or so a week and just okay, let's talk about these things, right? Yeah, these are things that are adopted by other what we we call it considered power couples as well. And so nothing new that we're doing that none of these other successful couples are doing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Um, I mean, the date night is um uh something that's been fairly commonly uh emphasized, but for those of us with young kids um and in-laws and and parents that don't live uh super close, it's uh you know, it can be easy to just sort of use that as an excuse for why we're not having that regular time. I'm speaking for myself here, uh, but I love what you're saying about just having having that set time where, hey, if the kids are running around being crazy, like, hey, they can go go outside, whatever. Um, but uh mom and dad need to have this time together. I think that's really great wisdom. And that's the kind of wisdom that uh the scripture teaches, you know, like the Sabbath, it's it doesn't necessarily prescribe exactly what needs to happen on the Sabbath. It's just it's rest, you know. For something like uh we were talking about the first fruit, it's not a prescribed amount for a that weekly check-in time, it's it's not necessarily about what exactly is said or or done, what kind of business is taken care of during that time, but that you have that, I think that's so powerful. Yeah. Yep.
SPEAKER_02And just a little tip because there's a couple really busy to have kids too, and they're talking exactly what you're talking about. How can we have a babysitter and all that? So they would just go get takeout and just sit in a car in the group in the garage or in the driveway, and that's their date night. So if something goes wrong in the house with the kids, they can they're not far away, they can go in, right? But say, hey, mommy and daddy need a break, and they go sit in the car with their fast food or whatever, and that was their date night in the car.
SPEAKER_01I love that. I love that. What are some other tips for that weekly check-in and and what that's like for y'all?
SPEAKER_00I'd say finances was huge. Resolve, uh, I'd say a couple of things. One was uh if there's something that we're upset about, this is a great time to talk about it because we know we're meeting up. If it can wait, you know, we're meeting up Monday, so I can talk with them about X, Y, and Z. Finances is huge because as entrepreneurs, you don't always know what the finances are gonna look like because you don't have a steady paycheck every two weeks coming in the same amount. So we sit down and talk about the finances. He'd be like, I've got this job coming up. This is what's coming down the line. I'll be like, oh, okay, so I know what's gonna come in. We talk about finances in the sense of, and we talk about this with our clients. We help them grow so they can make more money so we can give more money to the kingdom. Because some people believe um in the church, it's not okay to make any money. You just barely get by, but we believe we want our entrepreneurs to be successful so we can advance the kingdom. So we talk about what kind of things do we want to do with our tithe or what do we want to pour into with our time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and the format we kind of follow for the weekly meetings is just basically as Kaylee said earlier: start with praise for each other. And she's words of after. Affirmation, I'm not, which means I'm not good at giving affirmation. So which means having it on a schedule, um, and obviously doing our prayer time every morning. That's the time I you know that's essential for me. I was like, okay, you know, it's it's it's time to give my spouse some praise because too many times in in life that's things get busy, we just stop acknowledging each other, right? And then next thing you know, everything out of our mouth is more to-do lists or some kind of criticism or all that. So we start with praise and then a calendar, you know, what are some personal things coming up? You know, what are the business issues we need to take care of? And at the end, we wrap it up with how can I support you?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So you bookend it with very positive stuff, right? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And if anyone's wondering what happens during marriage counseling, it's a lot of that kind of stuff. It's like, hey, affirm your spouse. Um, you know, like share your your grievances, you know, talk about talk about these things. And and so, I mean, the value of marriage counseling is in a lot of ways right there in a weekly check-in.
SPEAKER_02It's it's we learned it. We were in two years of marriage counseling before we got engaged. We were in counseling four weeks after I met Kaylee. Wow. She suggested I go to counseling, basically, is what happened.
SPEAKER_00Very much.
SPEAKER_02Okay. And so that's what we've learned a lot of stuff was through those two years of addressing those things. You know, before it was an issue. We talked about the issues.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Wow. That's that's quite a that's quite an investment. I mean, y'all were pretty, pretty sure that this was um I mean, just an emotional, it's a very, you know, deep emotional experience.
SPEAKER_02It wasn't, it wasn't so much that we were sure we were gonna get married or anything. That we're I've only I only knew her for a month, but go ahead and tell her why. Tell them why.
SPEAKER_00Well, Robert was previously married and to his high school great school sweetheart that he met at church camp when he was a little boy, he'd see her once a year. And uh one day she was going to work, it was a week before Christmas, she was driving and the roads were wet on the freeway, and she spun out and she didn't make it home. She ended up dying. And uh he loved her and would still be married to her. And I remember I was in uh Bible study with some girls, and they're like, Well, at least he doesn't have an ex-wife, you don't have to worry about that. And I'm like, No, but he loved her, and I knew he always would love her, but I wanted to make sure he had room in his heart for me before I spent a lot of time because I thought, oh, this is a really great guy, and I didn't want to give my heart over and then find out he didn't. So that's how that came about.
SPEAKER_02So that was the impetus, so that's why she suggested that. And then from then on, we just she started going with me, and then it just became relationship counseling for those two years until we got married.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Wow. What a I mean, that's such a a strong foundation to be so thoughtful. I mean, I I uh I hope our marriage counselor isn't listening from our pre-mar, I should say our pre-marriage counselor isn't listening because it was very um, I don't know, there wasn't there wasn't a whole lot to it, frankly. You know, we didn't really get into much. Um, you know, we read some books and that sort of thing, but um, but it sounds like y'all really did some some deep work early on, and now you're continuing that uh through through your marriage and are able to now teach that uh to the rest of us to be just be more thoughtful and intentional about uh about checking in with our spouse and firming our spouse and and just doing life together. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Being able to resolve conflict because that's huge. If you can't resolve conflict, it affects your marriage in a negative way and it affects your business too, because you're not able to move forward because you're kind of stuck in this place, and there's all of a sudden there becomes all these different things under the carpet that you can't talk about, and it's just um it's challenging.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, I'm like I'm like physically in those those times um that there have been in our marriage, like I'm like physically, I can feel it physically. I'm just like I'm just drained. Yeah. Um, and there's just like no other explanation for it. Yeah. Um, but it those things can be uh so but since we did start to go through some counseling and become more equipped with the tools to talk about things and uh just process together, um, our marriage has just become so much more healthy as a result of that. Um and is so do you do you encourage couples to work together um professionally?
SPEAKER_02I mean, if it just asked off the cuff, but you know, typically the clients that come to us are already working together, right? So we don't need to encourage one way or the other. Um, and but to if someone was just to ask us, should we work together? And I said, it just depends. I go, number one, does it fit your callings? Right. Because we have we have cli we've had a couple clients where one's the business owner and one has either she's a nurse or one's wants to be stay-at-home mom, and that you know, that's fine. I mean, there's no right or wrong other than does it fit the calling? Right. And does it is there room in the business for both gifts? Right? It's not just bring them into the business just to have them in, but is there a position for him or her that fits their gift? Yeah, and then from there is just know how to resolve conflict, just get better, just get some tools to be able to resolve conflict because you know, a lot of times like I was one of those when I started my consulting business, she asked, Oh, how can I help? And I said, I got this because I didn't think it was good for the marriage. Right. And I know there's couples out there that had similar thoughts that it wouldn't be good for the marriage. Um, and if that's the case, then really, you know, if you have if you think there's gonna be a lot of conflict in the business, and sometimes there is, because people come to us, all it's doing is magnifying what's already there in a relationship. It's just if you don't have a really good way of resolving issues in the marriage, you're gonna have a lot more challenges in the business because the business just magnifies what's going on at home. Because now in business, you need to make some decisions pretty quick, right? Usually sometimes it's it's really immediate or sometimes it's more long term. But the reality is you need to make decisions in either to keep things moving forward and just to keep the business going. And you've got payroll to consider, there's so many things to consider, right? So there's more pressure and stress when you're working in a business. And so if you haven't if you don't have a really good ability to resolve issues in a marriage, you're definitely not that's gonna be it's gonna be magnified in the business. So for us, it's just more uh just know how just get tools to be able to resolve conflict, right? And if you can do that, you can do anything together. Yeah, yeah, that's well said.
SPEAKER_00And I think it can look different for each and each couple because like you have your publishing company, your own business, and uh you know, your wife, I we consider it both of your businesses because you're married. So your wife, I'm sure there's probably some aspect of it that she helps you with, whether it's praying, supporting. I know, like uh we just had uh I think it's Dave Ramsey, like when he goes to hire, his wife doesn't work in the business, but he takes her to dinner and she will say, Yes, I think you should hire them or no, because that's one of her giftings and she's really strong at. So there's other ways that your spouse can support you, but might not be in the day-to-day business.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, making decisions. Well, I can tell you at this exact moment, I can hear my wife in the in the kitchen, and she's trying to corral the boys to keep them from running up and down the halls. And um, but yeah, every time I get on these these calls, I mean, that's one very specific way that she is is uh is helping helping to enable me to do what I do professionally.
SPEAKER_02So she does crowd control.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Crowd control. Yeah. She gets her a yellow polo shirt. Yeah. A little like one of those dig little vests, you know, like the person cards.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. But yeah, she um she helps in in so many ways. But but like the house, the home, the family itself, I mean, and there's an economy in and of itself there. Absolutely. And so just as a starting point, probably just being more open about the finances, you know, that's I think that seems to be uh an area that a lot of couples just don't talk about, you know. One person handles the finances and the other person just, you know, doesn't either just doesn't care about it or just doesn't want to want to have to think about it. Um, and it's just sort of one of those um I can't remember the name of the the Disney movie that came out not long ago, but uh they have that song we don't talk about Bruno. Um, you know the one I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01But there's like you know, those those topics uh in uh in a family that sometimes we just feel like, oh, we can't we can't talk about that, but we should we should be able to talk about Bruno, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we gotta talk about everything. Yeah. Especially finances. I mean, we've had uh just not just a business, but I mean, I've we've seen just even recently family members or friends where you know one spouse dies and the surviving spouse didn't realize the mess that's left. Um or yeah, or just didn't know who to who to seek counsel from. I mean, we've heard even like attorneys who have said whenever, especially if there is a business owner that was part of a partnership, that if when the business one of the partners dies, the other partners tend to not do what's best for the surviving spouse. Right. They go all in for themselves.
SPEAKER_00And they have no idea what's going on at all.
SPEAKER_02Surviving spouse doesn't know who to turn to, who to talk to, who to trust. I mean, there's so many things, right? So the you you gotta talk at least about the basics and make sure that, you know, hopefully, you know, at one point we're gonna die anyway. And so making sure that everybody knows, you know, all the specific details they need to know so that you know, especially financially.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. You see people buy die and then they leave all this huge amount of debt to the surviving spouse and they have no idea they had it, what to do with it.
SPEAKER_02And it's just yeah, and sometimes it's a little shame, right? If especially if the the financial picture of your household and the business isn't doing well, and sometimes there's a little bit of shame to divulge that information. Um, because you fear your spouse is going to be upset, which they probably would, you know, because they're like stressed. It's like, oh my gosh, we're not doing well, right? But just to get it out there and then just create an open environment to talk and say, okay, how do we deal with this? And be open to receive feedback that might be counter to what you're thinking. Um, and and just put your ego down a little bit and just to have a conversation. Because even in the midst of even if the financial picture isn't doing well, but like Kaylee would say, you know, as long as I know what's going on, that's helpful in itself, right? Yeah, right. Even though it's stressful, but it's better than not knowing. Right. And then something, then you find out later when it's really too late, right? That's even worse. But at least to divulge it. So, okay, okay, this is bad. Now let's figure out how to deal with this.
SPEAKER_00And you do it together, and you're so much stronger together.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. Knowing is half the battle. I did I just made that up. I'm gonna write a book about it. My next book. There you go. Knowing it's half the battle. Um, no, but um, so this has been so helpful um uh for me personally, and that's typically the way that I go with these these interviews, is I'm trying to help myself and hopefully our listeners benefit uh as well. Um but so people can get this book again. The title is Tandem, and the subtitle is The Married Entrepreneur's Guide for Greater Work Life Balance. And I'm I know that's on Amazon and probably a lot of other places as well. Uh, what do you want to say about how people can connect with you and um grow more in this area?
SPEAKER_02Well, I mean, the book's one way, and if you actually, if you go to thetandabook.com, um, you can actually download the first chapter for free. And it's it's also an opt-in, so which means we'll get notified and then we can reach out to you. But and then our website is marriedontrepreneur.co. And so you can connect with us that way. You can even schedule a complimentary call. Um, we have our Facebook, Instagram, Power Couples by Design. And um, yeah, you can podcast. And our podcast is power up your marriage and business. So those are different ways you can see some more content or just get or connect with us directly.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. Well, Robert and Kaylee, uh, thank you so much for sharing with our listeners today and helping us grow. Uh, this is um, I mean, it starts in the home, right? And and so this is so important, so powerful. And thank you for what you're doing and your willingness to drive all the way around the country uh shouting this from the rooftops. Um, we we really need it. Thanks, Darren, for having us. It's been a pleasure.
SPEAKER_00This was great.
SPEAKER_01We hope you've enjoyed this episode, and if so, we would greatly appreciate it if you'd leave us a quick rating and review for the Christianity and Business podcast on iTunes. You can get more information about HCU's Center for Christianity and Business and sign up to receive free access to all issues of the Christian Business Review Journal by visiting our website at Christianityandbusiness.com. Thanks for listening and remember to keep integrating biblical values into your business.