Web Design Business with Josh Hall

(BONUS) Marriage and Entrepreneurship...10 lessons from 10 years

• Josh Hall

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My wife and I recently celebrated our 10 Year Anniversary 🎉

Here are 10 lessons I've learned in balancing marriage and entreprenership.

To get my upcoming newsletter entry diving into these in more detail, sign up for my weekly email here

Big thanks to the sponsors for our upcoming Web Designer Pro CON 2025 event! We couldn't make such a top-notch event for my community without their support 🙏

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Speaker 1:

Hello, my friend, another bonus episode of the podcast is upon us. This is a special, very special edition episode. I wanted to share some thoughts with you about recently celebrating my wife and I's 10-year anniversary and, more specifically, some things that I've learned and how to balance that with being an entrepreneur. I shared in my last newsletter entry that I had planned on sending a big old, meaty newsletter that had these 10 tips kind of written out and I was not quite done writing them when we actually went away for our anniversary. So that is coming up next. I'm releasing this podcast episode before my newsletter drops. So if you would like to read the written version of these 10 lessons learned, you can sign up for my newsletter for free today. You can go to joshhallco slash weekly and you'll be getting this this next issue my week.

Speaker 1:

My newsletters, if I could talk here today, come out Sundays at noon Eastern. Sometimes they're quick and short, little concise tips. Sometimes they're a little more meatier. In this case, I actually started writing this out and figured I would follow it up here with also an audio version of this, just to kind of talk through some of these tips. Because, yeah, I've learned a lot with balancing being married and my wife and I had a wonderful staycation last weekend at the time of recording this, and it was awesome to just get away for a couple of days. The grandparents had the kiddos and we just did nothing. We did what's the office space line? I did nothing and it was everything I thought it could be. We just slept in, we drank a little too much, I was drunk texting our hotel messenger, which I shared in pro. Another benefit of being a Web Designer Pro member you get to see exclusive content that is not made available for the public. But, man, we had a great time, just got to live it up and had some wonderful dinners and we did something I'm going to recommend here. We reflected on this 10-year journey that we've been on Three kids, three businesses later and here we are and we're very happily married and, um, I'll set some context here before we dive into these 10, I guess, their tips, their lessons learned.

Speaker 1:

But, yeah, I wanted to share this with you to see if it helps you, whether you are in a situation where you're married and you're wanting to, I guess, level up, do better at it, whether you're unhappily married and you want to make things better, or whether you're hoping to be married eventually and you're catching this at a good time because hopefully, these tips will be things you can reference to. So, with all that in mind, here are some 10 tips based off of being an entrepreneur who's been happily married for 10 years Now. I do want to set off with some context, because the tips that I'm going to give you would be different depending on the situation, so keep that in mind. These tips are pretty agnostic to any marital situation but, depending on your situation with your spouse, you may have 10 tips that are a little more pertinent for you, depending on your situation, if they're working and you're working, or how many kids you have, or if you're taking care of elderly parents or whatever that looks like. Important factor and why I'm so public about that, is how we run our day-to-day managing her and dealing with a lot of therapies and surgeries and everything we've gone through over the past few years Many of you know about very well if you followed me, so that all comes into play in this as well. All that to say, some important context is that when Em and I got married, she did join my agency at that time in Transit Studios for a couple of years doing VA and admin work and she was also doing babysitting on the side.

Speaker 1:

But I share that because we knew pretty early on and we were very open before we even got married and she was open about this that she wanted to be a mom. She wanted to be a mom, she wanted to be a homemaker. She wasn't necessarily a career driven gal, and because I was becoming more and more entrepreneurial and I was getting serious with my web design business at the time, that was just a good fit. I didn't feel like I needed to have a spouse that was going to be sharing a lot of the income because I was at that time not ready to be the sole income provider. But I knew that with what I had learned and what I had started, I felt like I could be the breadwinner. And obviously our life looked very different a decade well, well before a decade ago, before we even got married. But I knew that even if we were living on a lower, modest income, I could make it work with what I was learning as a business owner and in my personal development and everything else. So, all that to say, there was absolutely no shock with expectation issues, which is actually my first point, and that is to have clear expectations. I mean, there is just we'll probably get into like marriage counseling here, but there's nothing more important than expect like really clear expectations before you marry someone. This is in every category of life.

Speaker 1:

This is like we just talked about, with your career choices and your vision. Do you know, as a, as a woman, do? Do you want to be a mom? Do you want to be a homemaker? Do you want to make that your work? And that is work that is beyond a full-time job. Those of you who have done that know this very well. Those of you who maybe don't know what goes on being a full-time mom and a homemaker for several kiddos it is beyond a full-time job. So you got to have those clear expectations right up front, especially on that front.

Speaker 1:

Again, when she joined the business, there was an exit plan from day one. Basically, we knew as soon as we got pregnant we would ease off her tasks and maybe even after having Bria, our first daughter, we figured that she may do some admin tasks. But eventually, once we have multiple kiddos, for sure it's going to be full time mom and there's that's beyond full time job. So clear expectations. This is definitely the case with career, it's the case with children, it's the case with lifestyle, too, like, do you want to travel, do you want to be a digital nomad, or do you want to be more suburban and be close to family? What does that look like? All of those things which come into play with also setting your schedule and setting your week as an entrepreneur are really important as well.

Speaker 1:

I think this is important too, because if there are clear expectations on both fronts and let's say and I'm going to be talking to guys a lot on this just because I'm a husband, so it's going to be more natural for me to talk to husbands, but as a, as a, as a married woman, you'll hopefully get a ton of value from this as well. If that's you, but I, where was I? I was going to say, when it comes to like being the husband, if I felt like I don't want to be the sole income man earner, then I would have brought that up and those expectations would have had to have been talked about and agreed upon on some level, because if I expected Emily, my wife, to also bring home income, then that's going to impact what she does day to day and being a mom and a homemaker and potentially working at the very least, part time. So clear expectations which, in our case, was that, all right, I'll be the breadwinner, I'll be the sole income provider, and less, god forbid. We've always talked about this. We talked about like if, if she needed to make money on the side, we would figure something out. But the goal and the expectations were that she was, especially with multiple kids, would be the full-time house runner and the mama.

Speaker 1:

Um, now, if you know me, you know I am very active as a dad and I absolutely love it, and we don't do a typical 40-hour work week, or at least I don't. I'm very active with the kiddos. But when it comes down to it, and when it comes to situations where I'm in kind of hustle mode and there's a lot to do or a lot to get done or a launch or something big going on, it's really easy to say, hey, cutie, this week's going to be, or the next couple of weeks are going to be big weeks, they're going to be. I'm going to be working a little more than normal right now, oddly enough, we're actually kind of opposite. She actually is hosting her brother's bridal shower with with him and his future wife, and she actually has a bigger week this week. So this week I'm actually very, very light on my schedule in supporting her. The week after that she will kind of we'll return the favor and she's going to be much busier on the day-to-day home stuff and supporting me because I've got some courses to get going on revamping. So expectations super clear in all those areas. If you feel like you're a little too late, uh, because you're already married and you haven't set those, now is the time to do so, and I'm going to apologize up front for being coachy because I am disclaimer no marriage counselor or marriage therapist or whatever. But 10 years in I got some stuff to share. So that's where we are.

Speaker 1:

Side note, I meant to mention this before we kicked off, but Web Designer Pro members, you have been asking me for over a year now if Em would join the podcast and I have said yes, she will. She has committed to doing it. We just need to find the freaking time and we didn't want to record an episode while we were on our anniversary. The challenge with getting her on is she's willing to do it. She's not a person who likes being in front of camera or audio, but, uh, she knows that there's been a lot of interest in questions, even though she's like I am so boring. Why would anyone want to hear what I do? I'm like, trust me, cutie, I'm like people. Would they want to hear what we do day to day? Um, all that to say, we just need to figure out the time to do so. Usually, when we get the kids down, it's anywhere between nine and nine, 30 or 10 or God forbid 11 or later, and when that happens, the last thing we want to do is record a podcast episode. We got dishes to do and laundry to do, so I will get her on soon. That is my promise to all web designer pro members who have asked about that and sent in questions, and everyone publicly.

Speaker 1:

If you're not a member of my community yet, I do plan on bringing my wife, emily, on and we'll talk about this next tip, which has been extremely helpful for us, and that is a weekly look ahead. This I think there's a lot of different versions on this and, technically, a lot of what we're going to dive into are things that you probably should do in your business, which is often a weekly look ahead, and I forget if it was, it may have been something from Brendan Burchard that I saw, or another entrepreneur, or in a book, I don't remember, but something made this crystallize and be clear for me that this weekly look ahead is something I always did for my business, and looking at what tasks I wanted to get done Didn't really dawn on me to do that with him and make this a marital habit. So generally, what we do and it's been a game changer for us, especially now with a very busy season of life we have three kids under six, as I mentioned, a lot of therapies, a lot of appointments, a lot of meetings, everything all the time constant A weekly look ahead is key. Now you could easily share your calendar with somebody, but that doesn't always reflect the personal needs or the personal goals or vision, or even I mean we're to the point where, like, a trip to the grocery store is hard to get to. We need to like plan that out.

Speaker 1:

The joke about everything being on a schedule when you're a busy family is actually not a joke at all. It's like extremely helpful. So a weekly look ahead has been really helpful for us. We do that generally on Sunday nights and I'll just show her my calendar and she'll tell me about what she wants to get done If she does want to run to home goods, or if she wants to go out with a friend at some point, or if she wants to have her parents over. Or, in my case, if there's a bunch of calls and I'm like this isn't on the schedule but I'm going to need a few hours leading up to this or some deep work segments, or if I'm going to take Annie, our middle daughter, to school, I'm going to want to do a coffee shop after that and do some writing. We just it's not super long at all, it's not super thorough. We just look at the weekly, like the week ahead, and we do this little weekly look ahead, and it's been a game changer. So I would highly encourage you to do that. Definitely you're in your marriage and even in your personal relationships. I mean this could be helpful where you have a roommate, or definitely your business or business partners, but a weekly look ahead it just helps avoid unexpected things, Just like we talked about with clear expectations. That same idea holds true too. What are the expectations for this week? You know, if M's cooking dinner on Tuesday night, I know that I'm not going to take a call at four and then do some wrap up work afterwards, because it's going to be five 30 and she hasn't even cooked dinner yet and the kids have been going wild. So, if I know, if we talk about her cooking dinner Tuesday night, my goal is to stop working at like three 30 to be able to hang with the kids, give her a chance to decompress a little bit and then maybe we'll play and then she'll get to cook. So simple as that. Nothing, not rocket science, nothing wild, just a little weekly look ahead. Which leads to point number three here, which is just an overall principle that good communication equals less problems.

Speaker 1:

I went to a meeting, like a business thing, in a hotel years ago. It was actually kind of a multi-level marketing trap. I didn't realize at the time. Now I'm really attuned to those, but it was absolutely one of those MLM you know marketing, one of those like meetups but where they try to get you to join the program. But it was actually a really good speaker and I actually learned a lot. I brought my notepad and I took notes and there was a quote that I heard in that that I've talked about a lot on the show. This is a course applicable to business, but definitely your marriage. There may be no more important thing outcome for this quote than marriage, and that is the quality of your life will depend on how well you communicate. One more time if you're multitasking or if you're mowing and it's loud, turn it off for a second. The quality of your life will depend on how well you communicate, and I found that to be true in every area of life, particularly marriage.

Speaker 1:

Over communicate my wife and I.

Speaker 1:

One of our favorite hard R movies is the change up. If you've ever seen it. There's a scene where Ryan Reynolds is like you're a brain damaged mule. Your brain always call your wife when you go to the grocery store. Because why? Because you're a brain damaged mule. That actually is very true, especially for dudes. Over it's easy. It's easier, I think, for guys as a whole. There's outliers, of course, but I think as guys we just tend to communicate less. We're just kind of like oh, I'll do this, we'll figure it out, if you know. If she does something and I wasn't aware of, I don't really doesn't really bother me usually, but I usually get the opposite reaction and I'm learned better.

Speaker 1:

Communication is key, even for the smallest of things. So, husbands, you in particular are welcome. Number four so you know, the first three are kind of all communication based clear expectations, weekly look ahead, good communication often communicate, get over communication, drill that into your head. Communication, communication, communication helps both parties. Number four is to know their love language.

Speaker 1:

The five love languages is a book that most people are probably familiar with. I think some marital programs and probably some church programs go through it in like the marriage counseling lead up. I actually think this is like if you're going to get married, I think you have got to go through this, because love languages are also a communication language. Now, I think, isn't it a program? Is it a course? Now, I'm pretty sure it's like a whole thing. But the five love languages book, which was made really popular I don't know when it came out, had to have been the nineties Cause it's like pink and or it's like a purple and gold, but it looks super cheesy. It looks like something your aunt or your mom's going to give you before you get married and say you got to read this before you get married. It'll really help. Well, it will really help because you learn their love languages.

Speaker 1:

My wife is very different from me and I'm very different from her with our, our late, our love languages and what supports us and builds us up. I am a words of affirmation guy, which is one of the love languages. I like hearing thanks, I like being praised, I like being acknowledged. When I do something, when I do the dishes I like, I just do. I would love to say like that's not me, but I know myself now I. That's why I like hearing people sending in testimonials and reviews and I love hearing about people liking this podcast. It's. It's not a vain thing for me, it's it's. It could maybe deep down there's um, not intimacy issues, but maybe there's a void that you know. Affirmation is healing for me. I don't know, but I just am. I like hearing hey, thanks and praise. My wife would never care if I ever said thanks for doing the cleaning or something. She just doesn't care, she just does it.

Speaker 1:

Now she is a big time one-on-one quality time person. I am a little bit of that, but not much. I can hang out with my wife like once a month, and then we could do other hangouts and date nights with other people or group settings and I would still feel just as close to her. She is like I need one-on-one time multiple times through the month Ideally a date night, something truly away, but then also night times and times where we watch a show together, or just even if we go out to dinner. It's not just go out to dinner, it's like I want to take you and go on a date, relabeling things like that. She is a quality time gal through and through.

Speaker 1:

Both of us are not really acts of uh well, acts of service. Yeah, it's another one. We're both that. Neither one of us are gifts people. Some people, gifts are everything to them. Like they really. They give gifts as a sign of um, yeah, like their love, like that's how they give. That's how they show their love is they give a gift? They may not say anything, but giving a gift is huge for them and they want to receive gifts. Neither one of us really give a crap about gifts. So I think knowing their love language is key and this will help your business too, because you'll know what to do and you'll know what to look for and there'll be a lot less conflict and friction if you know how to support them. I know I'm going to prioritize quality time. What's the other one, physical touch, that's the other one. We're kind of that. But, um, you know, like she would, she would much rather go out on a date and have one on one face to face discussion than get a back rub Uh, although my back rubs are pretty good. So I've been told three kids later, all right.

Speaker 1:

Number five is to include your spouse into your business, where you can Now, as I mentioned, it was easier early on because she was literally a part of the business. She knew my client. She was doing updates for websites and managed WP. She was sending invoices. I was doing graphic design at the time. She was placing orders. She was in the business. It was a lot easier to you know. Quote unquote include your spouse.

Speaker 1:

But what I realized is, when she stepped out of the business and did full-time, mom and I had to be really proactive and intentional about telling her about the business, and spouses are not going to read your mind. They don't know what your vision is unless you share with them your vision, which is another key, like, if you get a chance to do a, an annual reflection we'll come up to this in a little bit but you've got to share your vision Now. You don't want to talk business all the time, especially with multiple kids, in the limited time you have, but you got to include your, your spouse, in some way. They want to know, at the very least, what's going on in your business, whether you do this in times, whether you do this in your weekly look ahead, whether you do this on date nights but don't. The next point is actually don't turn a date night into a business meeting, but include them in some way and, if you can, bring them to conferences. I brought him to WordCamp 2023, wordcamp US and it was not only life changing for me but life changing for her, because she actually got to see the results of what I do. She knows I go up here and I come work and I have a podcast and I have pro and I do courses, but she doesn't really see the outcome of that Like I do. I mean, she may see testimonials online and stuff, but getting a chance for her to actually meet members of web designer pro when we had our meetup thereup there and seeing what I do and, most importantly, seeing the results that I'm helping people get in person and hearing their stories, she was like oh my gosh. She even told me. She was like I feel like I'm married to a celebrity. I had no idea you know, like basically what an impact you're having on people. So it was awesome and it was really important for her to see that. So, um, do that, include your spouse where you can.

Speaker 1:

Speaking of number six, when you go on a date night, it is not a business meeting. Now, inevitably, the more busy you get, probably the topics you're curious about talking about are things that are going on with your kids or family, or or business. Um, god forbid, I don't know how many political conversations in with a fun night. So I guess, teach your own. But if you do talk about business, share these things, but don't make it a business meeting. I've really had to work on this because I think probably every entrepreneur and web designer gets to you talk about what you're excited about and you're excited about your business. But you can talk about your business for an hour or an hour and a half very quickly and then, boom, you just ruined a whole date night talking about that. So, include them in conversations, ask them questions, share ideas with them, get feedback and let them have some input. Even if you know, even if they're not a business coach. They're your spouse. They shouldn't be your coach, probably, but it's valid, even getting insight from people who aren't in this world. They may see things through a different lens than you do. But be careful not to make date nights business meetings. That's been a key for me because I have caught myself and M's always been really generous with that. But there have been times where she's like can we talk about something else? I'm like oh yeah, sorry, sorry, I got excited talking about workflows and automations and circle. We don't even talk about that here. So it's a date night, it's not a business meeting.

Speaker 1:

Number seven a couple of different ways I was trying to phrase this, but I'll just tell you frankly she's my drinking buddy. We have a really good friendship and that is crucial. And you have to be proactive in maintaining your friendship when, for those of you who are not married for long or haven't been married yet, it is so easy to become roommates. And we've been really proactive about talking about this early on and being serious about avoiding the roommate trap, because you just get busy. I'm working, she's running the house, she's doing a lot of cooking and cleaning, I'm doing chores, we're both managing the kids, we're in and out where we don't get too much time. Sometimes the kids are up to 11 and then we don't have any time to decompress. We want to get some sleep. So when you get to that point it can be really easy to lose a lot of the good communication and you're just kind of side by side or back to back doing your chores and running your tasks. But the danger of that is you lose friendship. So all I can tell you is, however you gained a friendship in the first place, keep doing that.

Speaker 1:

Be intentional. Go to date nights. Don't just dudes, don't just take your. Don't just go to dinner. Don't say, hey, you want to go to dinner. No, frame it as a date night. Make it special, even if you're going to White Castle together. Make it special. Make it a date night. Have fun. Do friendship stuff, do others marriage strengthening activities. If you know what I mean, drinking buddy M is my drinking, but we had a blast this past weekend. We also, as I mentioned, we realized and found out that we can't do cocktails like we used to. We're kind of sticking to just bubbly and Miller light these days, because cocktails made a very long, made for a very long Saturday morning for us, and that's also where I looked back the next morning and didn't realize I was messaging the hotel, chat um and clamoring for champagne at 11 PM. So luckily they were really cool about it.

Speaker 1:

But any who, him and I have a blast together. Even though we have different interests, we have learned to do stuff together. She does enjoy going to hockey games and she enjoys going to bars and having a drink with me. So one thing that's cool about that too, and if you have a spouse where maybe it's not quite like that, you can still you obviously like them to some degree. You got to work on your friendship, do stuff that you enjoy doing together. I don't feel like I need to have my bros to go have a good time, which is really cool. Em comes and we went to recently the outdoor, the stadium, outdoor game for the Blue Jackets, and I didn't need to like just find a bunch of guys to have a good time. I knew she would really enjoy it and we had a great time and we drank. We had a good time, we loosened up, it was awesome. And same thing with just one-on-one time. We have a good time hanging out together. So whatever that looks like for you do it.

Speaker 1:

Now I've included her a lot on things like going to hockey games and going to baseball games and bars and doing stuff. But I also realized that that's a two-way street and as much as she loves doing stuff like that, she also likes just chilling back, getting some popcorn and watching things like Legally Blonde or Pretty Woman or going to things like the Nutcracker or Apple Picking. And I do that with her and I actually like Pretty Woman. It's a great movie. Legally Blonde is actually a really good movie, sweet Home Alabama a classic, really good. Guys can like those things too. So I've learned to like that stuff. I've really learned to enjoy going to the nutcracker.

Speaker 1:

Apple picking is like I'll do it, I'm not going to complain, I don't love it, but I'll do it. And then there are some things where she knows like I just I'm so not interested in that and for her, I'm not going to bring her to a Meshuggah concert, which is my favorite metal band. I just, you know she would do it, but she's not going to love it, it's going to give her a headache. So like I'll do this, katie, you stay home, you go to the band. Bizarre craft, bizarre thing, that's just. I really don't want to do that. We've kind of learned to to do most things together, but there's things that we there are a few separate things that we do just because we don't want to torture the other person Number eight results. So, as I mentioned, this is what we did in person and WordCamp US 23. She really got to see the results in person, which was huge.

Speaker 1:

But you can do this in other ways too. A lot of times you could do this on your weekly. You know little hangouts or weekly lookaheads. But if something cool happens in your business, share it, even if it's just one off. Like recently landed a big sponsor for the upcoming Web Designer Pro event. It was a $10,000 sponsorship package that I sold and I went down. I was like cutie, 10k package that I showed you Landed it, we locked in a primary sponsor for that and she was like awesome way to go. Like even things like that revenue and boosts and things like that are really fun to share because you can be like hey, look what we did, we just had a huge month.

Speaker 1:

But also sharing wins from people is huge. We did a challenge last year in pro about creating a wall of awesome, which, for me, I literally have a wall of like almost 70 testimonials, just clips from people sharing wins and results from courses and pro, and she sees that when she comes into my office she can literally look and like, see the impact that is going on here. So, whatever that looks like for you, do it. Share the results. Don't just say, all right, I'm going to work. Share what you're doing. Share like I'm creating a podcast episode to help people or share about this, and definitely don't hide the successes. Again, same thing with your email list. Same thing with social media.

Speaker 1:

Share your wins and results, but don't leave your spouse out. Number nine here last couple. This is more of a realization that they are a part of your business. Your spouse is a part of your business directly or indirectly, but they are a part of your business. Em is not a part of my business on paper quote, unquote.

Speaker 1:

She's not on my team page now, but she's a massive part of my business because I'm able to do what I do because she is a full-time mom and a homemaker, as I mentioned, I am very involved. It's not like we're a fifties couple and I'm like, all right, I'm hitting a train there, I'm going to the office and I'll stay at seven. I want dinner on the table and I want you on the bed afterwards. It's not like that most days, but she does the bulk of going back to her expectations. She does the bulk of that stuff so I can work and I can have more bandwidth and energy to do this. And when I'm not doing this, I'm hanging with the kids and we have really honest conversations about the weeks ahead If I need to do some more home stuff this week, or if she's going to need to do more this week, or maybe we'll eat out a little more one week and instead of her cooking if it's going to be busier.

Speaker 1:

So, but I've realized that, directly or indirectly, your spouse is a part of your business and you know this as well as I do. When relationships, when you're at, when you have trouble with relationships, it affects your business, and this is same in partnerships or whatever. Even if you're just having a bad day, you just don't show up as well, you're not as sharp. So this is where, like, the better things are going outside of the office and downstairs where I hear them being a little wild right now the better things are going to go here because we're not. I mean, fights happen, arguments happen, but we've had to have talks about that, by the way, too.

Speaker 1:

There's sometimes early on. We had we were a little more volatile early on, um, and we had some big fights right before calls and I told her I was like listen, we cannot get into stuff like this right before I have a call. We just can't. We need to save it. We can do it afterwards, but I've had to talk about that too, and she's learned that in some of her areas as well. Sometimes you want to get through a problem or a challenge, but sometimes there is a time and place and right before a sales call, not a good time. So I had to be really upfront and open about that and she responded well and um, for the most part that hasn't been much of an issue. We still have arguments and stuff, but you'll learn to, especially husbands speaking to dudes here. You'll learn what bus buttons to push and what ones will set your gal off, and I've learned, even if I'm pretty sure I'm right about this.

Speaker 1:

What's the old quote? Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy? I'm right about this. What's the old quote? Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy? I'm like I'll just let it go or I'll say I'll save it for later, cause I like being right, I like controlling things. So does she sometimes. So we have to kind of pick, or you have to pick your battles. But all that to say this all directly affects your business. So be really cautious and proactive about that. And then, finally, this is one of my favorite quotes ever. I talk about it often. It's oh so important. It's kind of like the glue that holds all these points together, which is a quote wherever you are, be there.

Speaker 1:

When you're on a date night, be there. You're not thinking about business plans. You're not thinking about a DNS issue that's going on, unless that is in fact going on and you just need to be like I got to figure out this email migration first. You're there. You're present. When you're on vacation, you're not working all the time. You're not thinking about business all the time Great time for vision casting. But you're not, you know, just sitting there staring off into space and they're like oh, dad's not even here. He's thinking about something in pro or something. You're there. You're present At the end of the day when, talking to husbands here, when your girl wants to watch friends, you're not on your laptop. All the time You're not doing something, you're not multitasking. And then you didn't hear a word. She said you are there, you're present.

Speaker 1:

I learned this early on when we just had Bria and I was watching a hockey game. I had my laptop, I was doing some email, I was quote unquote playing with Bria on the floor and my wife had said something and I realized I missed the game, didn't even see what was going on. I felt bad because I wasn't playing with my daughter. It took me a half an hour to do something I would do in five minutes normally on my computer, and I had no idea what my wife just said, which is the most important. So it was then that I realized I've got to be present. I've got to compartmentalize these. I can do all three of these without the laptop stuff. I can save that for when everyone goes to bed or first thing in the morning. But wherever you are, be there. It will make your life so much better in all areas. So there we go.

Speaker 1:

I hope you enjoyed these tips, friends. Just a few lessons that I've learned. Again, depending on your situation. There may be some more applicable tips for you, but a quick recap. Number one look, or excuse me, clear expectations, which leads nicely into number two, a weekly look ahead. If there's anything you take away from this, do that. Do a Sunday night look ahead. Number three good communication equals less problems. That a good old quote. Quality of your life will depend on how you communicate. Know their love language. Number five include your spouse in the business where you can. Six if it's a date, it's not a business meeting. Seven don't lose your friendship. Eight share those wins and results that you're getting. Helps your spouse know the why of your business. Number nine they are part of your business directly or indirectly. And number 10, wherever you are, be there.

Speaker 1:

Again, I am putting this in my next newsletter, so this is coming out a few days before my newsletter drops. If you're not yet on my email list, go to joshhallco slash weekly. It's going to be a little more robust. These will be written out, it'll. Uh, if you want to see the more you know the written version of this with a little more juicy, details and things like that. Uh, I would love to invite you to join and you can get the it's on the next issue. It'll be coming out Sunday.

Speaker 1:

This one will be coming out Sunday, march 23rd, at noon Eastern. That's when all my weekly newsletters come out. Josh hallco slash weekly to pick that up for free. I hope you enjoyed this. So let me know, and cheers to whatever your situation looks like. Again, if you're fixing to get married one day, if you're married but you'd like you know some of these you can implement, or if things are rough right now, by golly, I would really love to hear from you If one or many of these tips help and, most importantly, maybe in a couple months from now you can say Josh, thank you for your web design advice and thank you for your marriage advice. Both are going swell. So cheers, friends to 10 years and thanks to my wife for putting up with me as a busy entrepreneur and control freak for 10 years. Here's to many more decades with my cutie, and I hope the same is true for you.