402 - Future Planning for Entrepreneurs with Special Needs Families (with Pro members Marc, Lisa & Ed)

Being an entrepreneur is challenging. Being a parent-entrepreneur is even more challenging. Being a special needs parent entrepreneur…it’s tough to put into words. But one thing’s for sure, the freedom of schedule and flexible availability, to be able to care for a special needs kiddo as a web designer is UNMATCHED and well worth all the challenges.

We’re diving into all of that and more in this special group chat that I had with Marc Hyde, Lisa Dorian and Ed Gomes. All members of Web Designer Pro who have something in common, being a web designer and entrepreneur with one or more special needs children we care for.

We get into:

• Future planning for special care after retirement
• How goals and vision changes after having a child with special needs
• How to structure your schedule and calls around a complex schedule
• How we stay balanced during hard times (emergencies, surgeries, etc)
• The invaluable need for a supportive community of others who are in similar situations

And don’t worry, you don’t need to have a special needs kiddo to get a lot out of this convo because everything we talk about is applicable to you as an entrepreneur parent.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Why This Conversation Matters
• 3:11 Meet Mark, Lisa, And Ed
• 6:01 Becoming Entrepreneurs For Flexibility
• 11:36 The Hidden Costs And Support Systems
• 17:31 Future Planning Amid Unknowns
• 25:21 Benefits, Policies, And Country Differences
• 31:41 Investing, Insurance, And Housing Plans
• 38:31 Enter Ed: Caregiving Across Generations
• 45:51 Time Management When Care Comes First
• 53:01 Setting Client Expectations And Boundaries
• 59:21 Community, Transparency, And Belonging
• 1:06:51 Emotional Load And Showing Up

Transcript

Speaker 4: 0:54

Welcome to the Web Design Business Podcast with your host, Josh Hall. Helping you build a web design business that gives you freedom and a lifestyle you love.

Josh Hall: 1:04

Hello, my friend. It's great to have you here. This is another special edition episode of the podcast. As you may or may not have heard, I'm currently away. My daughter had an intensive surgery. At the time of publishing this episode, this would have been last week. And we have a very intense recovery period that we're helping her through right now. So this was a conversation I had recently, which is really timely because it's with a few members of my community who also have special needs kiddos, or in some cases, special needs great grand kiddos. And this is something that I've talked about with certain members privately in pro about some of the challenges as a special needs parentpreneur. All entrepreneurs who are parents have a certain set of challenges. And as somebody who has a special needs kiddo, or in some cases multiple special needs kiddos, the challenges are just, you know, two, three, and 10x with the amount of appointments that we have, the amount of financial challenges sometimes, depending on what's covered, what's not, a slew of challenges. And it can feel very, very lonely. But I've been fortunate, I think, because I've been public about having a kiddo with special needs and being an entrepreneur, it's brought some really incredible people inside of Web Center Pro who are in similar positions. And you're going to meet three of them. I want to say a big thanks to Mark, Lisa, and Ed who are joining me in this chat, which we would normally have privately in pro, but I asked them if they would be open to talking about planning for future planning for kiddos with special needs as an entrepreneur. And they were all open to come publicly and talk about this. So I really, really hope it helps you. Even if you don't have a kiddo with special needs, if you're a parentpreneur, everything that we talk about is applicable to you because it changes how you run your day-to-day business and it changes how you plan your future. So that's what we're going to dive into. Again, big thanks to Mark, Ed, and Lisa for joining me here and being open to talking about this publicly. You can check all their websites out by going to the show notes for this episode. Link is in the description. And again, we're going to dive into things that will help you as a parentpreneur. But if you are like us, and there's other members of Pro who are in this position too, these are just three folks who I just recently had conversations with about this. But if you're in this position, I really hope it helps because it can feel you can feel lonely in this, but uh you're not alone. And we're here together. And thank God for freaking web design and entrepreneurship, which allows us to have this freedom, schedule, and time availability to be able to care for our kiddos. So, anywho, here's the conversation. I hope you enjoy it. And I hope to see you uh back on our regular rotation of episodes and content here as my little sweetie Bria gets going and we start the recovery process. So thank you all for your support and messages and prayers for her as we've gone through a major surgery. And uh I will, of course, keep you updated. Here's our conversation about future planning for kiddos with special needs as an entrepreneur. All right, guys. Well, Mark, Lisa, thank you both for taking some time to uh to chat today about a um a special topic because we have special needs kiddos. And I was saying before we went live, hopefully Ed's able to join us. He he wasn't able to join out in the beginning, but uh we're all Web Designer Pro members. Uh we share a lot in common, and and again, we have special needs kiddos, which means we have a different skew on like planning and vision and you know, future planning for our business and for our family. It's something that uh Ed, who I hoof, hoof is able to join us here. We met up in person recently and we just got to talking about this. And I've really just not talked about this with anyone. So I thought, what better of a way to talk about future planning for our families, but also through the lens of an entrepreneur and as a web designer. So I kind of figure that's what we focused on. So we'll start off, uh ladies first, with our our guest from uh north of the border, Lisa. Thank you for joining. Uh, why don't you just just kind of share like your a little bit about your business and where you're at as a web designer?

Lisa Doiron: 5:05

I've been uh designing websites for about five years full-time. I probably in total about eight, but originally I was doing all the things for all my clients. And then I decided to focus in on websites, and it's been a lot of fun. And um yeah, I I live in Canada and I do my thing. Yeah, it's it's been slowly growing, like it's been a slow progression, but I'm getting to a point where um yeah, things are going really well.

Josh Hall: 5:34

And I forget, Lisa, what what were you doing prior to being a web designer?

Lisa Doiron: 5:38

Well, that's kind of a long, complicated story.

Josh Hall: 5:41

Okay. I tell you what, let's get to Mark and then we'll come back to that because I think that factors in with our situations with having special needs kiddos as well. Um so, Mark, tell us about your business, man, for those who didn't hear your podcast episode a while back.

Marc Hyde: 5:53

Yeah, definitely. So I'm Mark, I'm the owner, founder, head honcho. I always joked I'm the head barista at Mark Hai Creative too. Um, but yeah, I've been doing it full-time now since 2020. And this was not the goal, this was not the intention, but uh COVID kind of forced my hand with jumping in full sale into the entrepreneur life. And and I will say that um, you know, Lisa, I know you'll share some of your story. I I did not step into this world as a special needs parent. But then after uh my wife Beth and I got married, um, she had her five kids that she adopted out of not adopted out of foster care, she adopted her long-term foster care placements, and they came with special needs. And then our one little guy together has special needs as well. So I kind of went from the more like low-key life where it's just like, you know, marry two kids, work in a normal job to holy crap, I gotta figure out what the heck is going on to holy crap, I have eight kids, and six of them have some sort of special needs. So um, yeah, dude, it's a party.

Lisa Doiron: 6:49

Wow. I didn't realize you had eight kids. That's crazy.

Josh Hall: 6:52

Not and how many are special needs, Mark, between the eight six to varying degrees. So, Lisa, with your background, yeah, just share. I'm kind of curious because I don't know too much about this on my end. Um, like leading up to, I guess my question is like, did having a special needs kiddo encourage you to become an entrepreneur and have more freedom? What was the genesis of going from your previous roles to being a web designer?

Lisa Doiron: 7:17

So I started out as um, I worked in project management and healthcare, and my husband and I had to relocate and whatever. So I ended up going into project management for telecommunications, which I didn't like. Um I so I ended up getting pregnant with twins um right before sorry, right after I got laid off from that position. And I didn't really like it anyways, but it was just kind of a a really scary time. And so um fast forward a little bit, like had my kids, I could have found another job, like I had time to find another job or whatever, but it was like, well, with twins, it doesn't make sense for me. So my husband and I decided that I would stay home with the kids. So I was a stay-at-home mom solely for seven years, well, six years until they went into grade one. And then um in when my son was three, we found out that he like we didn't realize that he had special needs in the beginning. Um, he did have an incident at five months where he was hospitalized for uh three days. He just lost all upper body mobility uh well, all body mobility. He went from being a five-month-old busy baby to almost like a newborn again. He couldn't hold his head up, all that stuff. So that was kind of terrifying. But then um we fast forward a bit to when they go to school, and it was like, well, sorry, when he was three, we found out he had a speech delay, and then then it was a gross motor, a fine motor. And then once he hit school and we did the psychoed report, we found out he had intellectual disability as well. And then we did genetic testing and found out he had a chromosome deletion. So when they started school, it was just it just made sense. So that it was more of a necessity than anything else. I just didn't want to, I wasn't ready to go back to work and not be available to them. I wanted to volunteer at the school, I wanted to make sure I was around to help him however I needed to and do all the things and take him to all the therapies. So it just made sense. So it just kind of jumped in.

Josh Hall: 9:27

I mean, do you guys ever Mark and I were just talking about this via DMs and pro, but it's like I can't imagine working a nine to five corporate job and being able to take care of special needs. I don't know how people do it.

Lisa Doiron: 9:39

I don't either.

Speaker 4: 9:41

And that's why I do what I do. I mean, even after since being married to Beth, I interviewed at two other jobs in the creative space. One was at a local university, one was at uh just another company. And we got to the point where they offered me the job, and I'm like, I just can't. I can't give it up working from home. Like, I mean, even today, like I kept Lennox with me this morning while Beth had to go do an uh not special news appointment where a different kid broke their glasses, so she had to deal with that. But it's like, you know, able to just be there for either taking my daughter three hours away for her specialty or just to be home for the other kids when Beth takes a kid to do an appointment. We just couldn't do it. Like it, I mean, no money aside, doesn't matter. Like the availability is really just unreal that we have to have.

Lisa Doiron: 10:28

Yeah, 100%. Just recently, like my my twins just started grade 10 and the school board that they're in, they decided this year that the um diverse learning kids um teachers needed additional support. So they would get off at lunchtime on every Wednesday, every week. And I was thinking, like, if I had a full-time job, how would I how would I deal with that? You know, like he's he's old enough to come home on his own and stuff like that, but getting home, like I have to go pick him up, and yeah, so and there's also something to be said too, Josh, I'm sure, because we know we're we're both dads, and and so we, you know, I have Beth, you have M to to help take care of the kids when we're doing our thing. Dang, at least that's whoo! A lot of pressure you have to deal with with that. Full disclosure, my husband's a firefighter, so he works shift work, so he is available sometimes to help out with stuff during the day or whatever. So it's helpful. But he also has a sidekick too. So we're we're pretty busy family.

Josh Hall: 11:30

I mean, I'm just I often pinch myself thinking about how grateful we are to be able to have a freedom-based schedule that we can. I mean, we're busy, we probably work 24-7 in our minds, but we can turn off, we can ramp up and ramp down and turn on and turn off calls and projects and everything we need to, you know, when needed. Like I told you guys leading up to this, we're gearing up for a season where Bria has a surgery and it's going to be a very, very intensive uh three to six month daily therapy situation. And yeah, it's one of those where like I just don't know how people can do it. All to say, like it's just amazing the opportunities that we have, particularly in a web design. One thing though, as a web designer, as folks kind of learn as they become a business owner, is you I feel like you get up to a point in your business where you stop going from like hustling just to get clients and hustling just to make revenue to really vision casting and future planning. And I'm really curious about this because we're kind of in the stage now where I'm thinking about, yeah, like, you know, years down the road, what's this look like? I I again, I'm hoping Ed's able to join us. Ed is actually um retired from the post office, does web design part-time, but he's a grandpa. He has his granddaughter with special needs. And so we had this conversation about, you know, he's he's really active with her, but um, you know, we're thinking about the next 10, 15, 20 years. So I guess I'm kind of curious, have you, Lisa, your kids are a little bit older. Have have you thought about that? So to eat to either of you, like how I guess how far have you thought about you know, future planning and retirement and what that looks like with with special needs?

Lisa Doiron: 13:13

I have thought about that, but it's hard to know. Um, you have to be ready to pivot. Like, I think we're kind of thinking through all the scenarios, but really it's hard to know at even at 15 what his future is gonna look like. So it's kind of just um planning as best you can and with with the information that you have right now, knowing that it's probably gonna change because through the course of his life, we have pivoted so many times that yeah, it's just one of those things that you can only do what you can do. So we've you know tried to get the the disability savings accounts and the tax credits and all that stuff set up, um and are contributing to that as much as we can. And um, like I said, my husband is finishing the basement right now, and we're always kind of have that thought in mind that this might be where he lives someday, he might stay with us, or he might end up moving out and being independent with with support, or you know, there's there's a ton of different things that that that could look like. So you just have to in in my case, anyways, I just to kind of try and be open to all the possibilities.

Josh Hall: 14:27

How far do you look in the vision the the future then, Lisa, especially with that situation? Like you kind of have plans in place or maybe a plan B, but how far do you guys plan for that sort of thing? Because uh like you said, you you don't quite know what the long-term future is gonna look like. But how far is your vision? How how far are you guys able to plan accordingly?

Lisa Doiron: 14:46

I feel like we've looked as far as retirement. And then after that, it kind of gets a little hazy because it's my daughter, they're twins, right? The same age. So um if something was to happen to us, like at this age, we do have um people in place that would be their guardians or whatever. But when they're adults, I would imagine at this point she would be the one who would kind of take over his care if something was to happen to us. So you have all those thoughts in your head, but it's like we don't know what kind of support systems he's gonna have at that point. He might be married, he might um have kids of his own. It's hard to say.

Josh Hall: 15:29

To you, Mark, times six. Time six. No prayers.

Marc Hyde: 15:33

Well, this is where it's hard though, bro. Because like with and Lisa, I'll I you know, you can speak in this better than I can. You know, with special needs, there's so many different types of special needs out there. Like, you know, everything from Lennox with his congenital heart defect, where most of his needs are corrected via surgery, um, because they're just physical on that side. I mean, I mean, obviously, he has to like get checkups and all the different things the rest of his life. Um, to some of my other ones who, you know, you I I'll I'll make the joke because of the community do. You don't become a foster kid because of great situations and great circumstances. And so my kids, a lot of them have different, um, they're they're born with needle needle natal abstinence syndrome, NAS. And so a lot of that has more to do with, you know, emotional things or um outburst or um even just like controlling your your body a little bit. Um it's like, you know, are we necessarily worried about what this looks like for them in the future? Not not necessarily. Um, but Beth and I have had some real honest, gut-wrenching conversations of what happens if X, Y, and Z, in terms of what happens if, you know, one of one of our children who um, you know, does does have some some mental handicap with um in terms of of their IQ being extremely low, um, almost at that that that point. Um, and then also with with the physical disability that goes alongside of her cereal palsy diagnosis, um, we've had had the real conversations of what does it mean if we have to manage her finances the rest of her life? What would it mean if she does have to live with us for the rest of her life? What if, you know, this does happen? What are we gonna do? All these different things. And, you know, we're we're working hard really now, like really hard right now on not preparing our kids to be shielded from their problems, but what can we do to launch them into the future? And so we're we're really trying to set them up of like, just because you were born with this diagnosis or just because you struggle with this, you still got to go and be a functioning human and contribute to society. So, what can we do to set you up to launch you off into that? And so those are the big conversations we've been having around that. Um, and even for like retirement, like, you know, we we definitely contribute as much as we can to our Roth IRAs. Um, we got some big life insurance policies because I mean Beth has a bigger one than I do. Um, because we're like, if something happens to one of us, we got a button of kids we gotta take care of, man. We got to make sure we're prepared. So we're doing all the things we can do. Cause like, you know, um you you know me, Josh, I was hitting to bring it in, but like, you know, even in the proverbs, it says that the horse is prepared for the day of battle, but you know, you can't always determine your safety because the safety is of the Lord. So we're gonna do the best we can to prepare for these things to happen, but we can't live in fear of that too. And so we we've been trying really hard to make sure retirement was set up well. Um, we, I mean, we have a full ensuite in our basement too that I know Lisa, you're working on. Um, so we're like, if one of our kids has to live with us for a time, we're like, we're prepared for it. Um, but it's just so hard with with so many different diagnoses of of kids that they're dealing with their special needs.

Josh Hall: 18:25

That is what's tricky because Lisa, uh, your your kiddo has a chromosome one deletion, right? Is that right?

Lisa Doiron: 18:31

No, it's um 16p 11.2.

Josh Hall: 18:35

Okay. So wait, wait, wait, Lisa, what was that again?

Lisa Doiron: 18:37

16P11.2 chromosome.

Josh Hall: 18:41

Yeah, and Bria's, I believe, is 2025 Q through 31, if I remember right, chromosome one. So there are just so many, you know, little, little differences. And now our situation was different with Bria, at least to where we we found out while she was in Euro. So we knew before she was born that it was going to be quite a journey. But to the to the future planning, it is uh for both of these circumstances. I think for anyone with special needs, they'll probably tell you like there's just so many unknowns. But it doesn't mean that we can't plan for probably a few different scenarios. That's actually probably a good way to go, is just to plan for like scenario A, maybe they live with us forever or until we're here, and then we need to have a plan for future care once we pass, whether, you know, hopefully it's a long time from now, what that looks like, who's going to be the caregivers. And then maybe a plan for like, yeah, different support if they're able to be on their own. So I'm just, you know, talking ideas out loud, but I feel like that's probably a good rule of thumb is to just have, you know, just like in in the web design world, we have like a few different scenarios or a few different goals. It's like you can almost do that with future planning, especially with special needs. There's option A, option B, option C kind of thing.

unknown: 19:51

Yeah.

Marc Hyde: 19:51

But isn't that the way it is for all of life? You know, where it's like, I mean, even if we weren't entrepreneurs, like there's always the the the what if of like, well, what happens if I get, you know, like least like what happens if I get laid off? What happens if my job's not there anymore? Um, what happens if this drives up? What happens if that drives up? So obviously you got to be wise and prudent with your your finances. And, you know, Beth and I, um, I mean, we both were blessed to basically be debt free. I mean, so that's that's probably been the biggest thing for us now is we worked really hard to ensure that, you know, we're not bogged down by debt. So we're not trying to play catch up, but that we're able to plan it for the future. And so I know that was a big, big thing for that. That's a big thing for us is you know, we're we're we still have the mortgage, but other than that, yeah, we're debt free. So we're able to live in a lot of extra freedom because of that.

Lisa Doiron: 20:37

That's no little thing with eight kids either. Like that's a lot. That's huge. And then maybe how old are all your kids?

Marc Hyde: 20:46

Oh gosh, put me on the spot. Okay. Um just turned 14, about to turn 12 in like two weeks, uh three weeks, and then ten, eight, six, six, six. Right, no, no, seven, six, six. Six, six, six sounds a little I mean they're we call them the littles, but man, they they trouble me because um, but no, we have three first graders all within five months of each other. So one just turned seven, the other two will turn seven here in a little bit, and then our little guy at two and a half.

Lisa Doiron: 21:14

They got, yeah.

Speaker 4: 21:15

Yep.

unknown: 21:16

Yeah.

Marc Hyde: 21:17

And there is something to be said too. Like, we have a lot of different things because our kids are special needs, because they were adopted out of foster care, um, because they were, you know, they they basically were um, you know, put under the state's care. Like, we do get a lot of different benefits that we are able to be, I mean, way beyond blessed. Like in terms of insurance for them, they're covered, they're fine. Um, we still get it, like they they call them um special needs adoption. We have tax credits that we get to apply. We also have different subsidies that we get as if they're still um kind of like foster care, like foster care parents actually do get income to help take care of these kids. And because they are special needs, that goes with them, the life of the kid and the life of mom. And so, so we have a lot of benefits that are just beyond, like, I mean, we're so blessed in that regard. Um, and that's how I was able to build the business. And I Josh, you and I have talked about it offline where it's like Beth was the one where we were, we we could at least pay most of the bills if I didn't like if the business wasn't going anywhere. So that positioned me in a place where I could build the way we needed it to work for the family.

Josh Hall: 22:19

Is that again, yeah. Is that mainly because of the foster care situation that you get those credits? Because I don't I'm not aware of that's only because of the foster care yet. Foster, okay.

Speaker 4: 22:28

Okay.

Josh Hall: 22:29

I was just thinking of like, yeah.

Marc Hyde: 22:30

There are some things with like uh, I mean, and just adoption in general. There's some like adoption tax subsidies that that come alongside of it. If it's just even normal adoption, too, I believe. I don't want to speak too much into it. I'm not your tax professional, so please consider a professional. Make sure we get that disclaimer in there. Um, but no, there are a lot of things that we are beyond blessed with that have those different things. Now, that being said, these kids can eat. So they still not cheat. But um, but yeah, I mean, just with all the different things, I mean, that's how Beth was able to do what she was able to do because with all the appointments they had, they were in the car for I think it was at one point like three hours a day per day during COVID with all of the appointments these kids had to have between therapies and like physical therapy, occupational therapy, emotional therapy, appointments, um, specialist visits, you know, all those different things.

Josh Hall: 23:19

And this may be a little bit different with Lisa being in Canada. So there may be like, you know, different retirement expenses and credits and stuff like that. But Lisa, what do you guys have set up? You said you have like a disability um what what's your setup look like as far as like funding for the future?

Lisa Doiron: 23:36

So in Canada, you get an RDSP instead of an RESP, which is a registered disability savings plan, I think it stands for. Um so you put in um up to a certain amount. I can't remember the the amounts, but the government puts in a certain amount as well. So you're able to like kind of kind of compound your money in there. And then beyond that, it's just um your your whatever you put in. And then when you take it out, um I don't think you're taxed on it. And then you also are or you might be taxed on it when you take it out, just like an RSP. I don't know if you guys have those in the US.

Josh Hall: 24:14

Something similar. Like I know we invest in a Roth IRA. It sounds like you do as well, Mark. To where like, yeah, almost like an entrepreneur savings account, basically, retirement account.

Lisa Doiron: 24:26

Yeah. And then we also have like a tax credit that we get as well. But that's about it, like for disability really we we my husband has really good benefits being a firefighter too. So we get um some support there as well as there are um supports like my my son is part of um FSCD, it's called Family Supports for Children with Disabilities. So they he has a special services plan where he gets like um some speech um OTPT and um I think it's uh psychology with that too. So they take some some of the financial burden for that as well. That's cool. That's awesome.

Josh Hall: 25:17

So it helps it it's obviously different for Mark and I too, being in the States where uh whereas Canada with socialized health care, like you know, gosh, costs can be outrageous for for a lot of the medical stuff in the states. I mean, luckily, I don't know, maybe you have more, I want to say perks, but you you with with the foster care system, maybe you have um, you know, some different avenues there for you, Mark. But I know for us, like, thank goodness our children's hospital has a lot of financial assistance programs within it that most people can qualify for. Um, otherwise, it's like, I mean, I mean, it could be tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands.

Marc Hyde: 25:57

Yeah, that's it. I've seen some of these bills. Whoo! Yeah, it's nuts. I mean, and with uh the my daughters that were in foster care. I mean, thankfully they they get Medicaid because of because of that. So that pays for all that. So, and praise the Lord for OTs and PTs. My goodness, they those people are the real heroes. Um, and at least I do stuff like you where I sat and I'm like, my first year of therapy with uh one of our youngest, I'm like, I feel like it's more therapy for me to make sure I know how to take care of my daughter better than she needs it. Um, because oh gosh, I needed that. But uh yeah, but so the kids, they at least have that. And with Lennox, um, he still gets a lot of support too um from the state of Indiana. And also that's the other thing, too. It's hard to be in the states, it's a lot state dependent too. And so Indiana has a lot of benefits for that. Um, and I mean, I also will call a spade a spade. It is nice to have a lot of little tax write-offs running around. And so that that helps bring bring bring some costs down too.

Speaker 3: 26:49

Yeah.

Josh Hall: 26:49

So what are you at what are you investing in currently, Mark, to prepare for the future? Do you have a a Roth IRA as a family? Do you have like separate savings accounts or future funds for the kiddos? What's what's your current setup look like? And then what you know, what would be ideal, you think?

Marc Hyde: 27:06

Yeah, definitely. So we have a Roth IRA, so we just have traditionals with that. Um, and we do we we max them out every single year. So we we've been doing that for for the last few years. And I think they just raised it to like, is it like eight grand a person now? Seven grand? I don't I don't remember what it was. They just ducked it again. Um Beth keeps up with it. She she really is the MVP of the house. Um, and so we we do that. And and this is where it's interesting though. So so with the kids, we've had a lot of conversations around, you know, we have eight kids. That's a lot. And so, what can we do to help set them up for college and and then for careers or things like that? Because some of our kids might not either want to go to college, or let's just be honest, B might not be able to do college. Like we might have to figure out trades for them. And so we've talked about, you know, do we put aside savings plans for them? Do we just help them buy their first car just so they can go get a job or whatnot? Um, and Beth and I both are are very much self-made individuals where, you know, we paid for college on our own. We we had to do it on our own. And there's something to be said about that ownership that that the kids are able to do. Um, and you know, you don't have to go to the $40,000 a year school. Live at home and go local. It's still a great school. And so we have not done a lot with actual um, actually, I should say we haven't done anything with actually providing like different funds for our kids yet in in those regards. Um, only because we know that to make it count, we just can't do it. And so basically what we've also decided now is our kids are also in private school. And so we're like, we are sacrificing now to help set you up for a great education, great future. It includes trade schools and uh pre-enrollment credits, all these different things where it's like, we're doing a lot that we can now to set you up for that next step. Um, but we're we're gonna get you to that next step, we're gonna guide you through, but you're gonna have to do a lot on your own. And so um, and that's where I know that's a lot different than other folks because we aren't dealing with some severe special needs um that that people have, you know, severe mental, emotional, cognitive disabilities. We we we have that, but not enough where, you know, it would completely jeopardize these kids' futures. Yeah.

Josh Hall: 29:25

Yeah, it is that's I know for us personally, like we're with with Bria, she'll she'll be with us um, you know, long term. So it is kind of we're thinking instead of like a college fund, we our idea is to have future funds for all the kiddos up to a certain amount, whatever they want to do, college or you know, janitor school, whatever. But the idea, I think that we're really talking about more now is like for her, she's going to have a lot more needs. So I don't want to seem unfair, but obviously we're going to make sure she is set up. Maybe there's a certain amount that is equal and some sort of fun for her, but maybe have something separate for ongoing care. I mean, one thing I've thought about is it might be different for us too, because we have no earning cap as entrepreneurs and as web designers. Whereas if you're in a corporate job, the goal is to save money and to move money that is cap. Like you make 90,000. So that's what you have to work with. You only have that. And unless you get some raises, it may go up a little bit, but it's probably unlikely you're going to be able to make too many drastic decisions. Mark, we don't need to talk numbers, but your business has grown like wild. Lisa, you're primed and ready to get your productized stuff going. I foresee a lot of growth for you. Like, do you guys think about do you almost feel like less worried about the future planning when you're like, I can just make more. I might be making way more in 10 years.

Lisa Doiron: 30:47

No.

Josh Hall: 30:48

Okay, all right. Love it. Tell me about it, Lisa.

Lisa Doiron: 30:52

Honestly, like, well, I'm just a worrier, right? That's the way I'm built. So I'm inclined to Oh, there we go. There's Ed. I'm inclined to worry. It's just Hey.

Josh Hall: 31:03

Hey Ed.

Lisa Doiron: 31:04

Hi Ed.

Josh Hall: 31:04

Did I get Did I get the wrong time zone? It was in the calendar, but that's all right. We're only halfway through. We're rockin' and rollin', man.

Speaker 3: 31:12

What's up, Ed?

Ed Gomes: 31:13

How are y'all doing? Doing it. I apologize for my tardiness. I thought it was two o'clock central time we were starting.

Josh Hall: 31:21

Ah, gotcha. I should have made that clear. I I thought the the uh calendar invite would adjust automatically, but that's all right. We got plenty to talk about. Ed, are we able are we able to see you or are we just gonna hear you today? No, you can see me as soon as I figure out how to get the camera going. Oh, nice. All right. We'll have Ed do a little intro here. But no, I appreciate that, Lisa. You saying that, and again, maybe that's more of a personal thing, but um I don't know. Maybe your tune will change after the next little while after you've seen you know some revenue boosts, just because I that's just kind of how I've felt is like I don't want to not plan, but I also have faith in myself that it's like, you know, in 10 years, we may be at the point where it's like it's hopefully it's not an issue. Like whatever feeds, she you got it.

Marc Hyde: 32:07

And that's how we feel too over here at the Hide House, where it's like, you know, we're trying to do things to give these kids a great life right now, and turn and then we're trying to like, you know, pay off the house. We're trying to do this. We want to go on vacations. And like Beth even sent me the we're we're hopefully well, we are, uh, we're gonna go down to Smokies, which is where Beth and the kids, you know, came from with East Tennessee. Uh, but we're going down there for vacation. And I'm like, that's an expensive, expensive rental for the the week. And then I'm like, I giggled at Panera and went, I'll just go get one more client, they'll pay it off, it'll be fine. Like, that's just like that's the freedom we have, where it's like, if I see that number of what it's going to cost, and if it really is like, oh, I'll go get one client and then we're fine. Like, that's a whole different mind shift than where I was at when Josh, when I first jumped in with you, man.

Josh Hall: 32:53

Yeah. And has it like, has having special needs in particular in our families, has that changed you guys as entrepreneurs with confidence or how you feel about your business? Mark's shaking his head, but I want to hear you, Lisa. What um, you know, how has that changed has that changed how you've thought about building and running your business? Whether it's schedule or revenue or whatever?

Lisa Doiron: 33:16

I think maybe my situation's a bit different just because um from what it seems like, from what you guys have said, like I can't be completely full-time doing this business. I don't have unlimited time. Uh my husband works a lot, so I have to pick up the slack on the other end with the kids in the household and all the stuff. So trying to get traction in my business sometimes has been difficult, or trying to find that work work-life balance too has been challenging as well. So um, yeah, I don't know if that did that answer your question. I can't really remember what you're talking about.

Josh Hall: 33:51

Yeah, no, I was just kind of curious like how you know the mindset of building a business basically around special needs and how you think because it's it's just so different for us with the amount of therapies we have, especially for you know, Mark with that many. But uh I I'm really I mean, I've always been a freedom first entrepreneur, but even more so as a special special needs parent, we're really like it's all about the schedule, it's all about freedom and very few calls, and nothing will encroach on that just to account for and prepare, especially like with the season we have coming up with RIA. So real quick, Ed, are you able to get the camera working? Or hey, all right, there he is.

Ed Gomes: 34:33

I've I figured it out. I had tried to log in through Firefox first and it wouldn't let me, but I didn't log completely out, so it was confusing the camera. Good to know. So you had two different browsers. Yeah, so I'm back, and now everyone can see how old I really am.

Josh Hall: 34:50

All right, we've got Ed in the house. Ed, I'm so glad you joined us because we were joking. You're the one uh, you know, you and myself met up a few months ago at first and kind of prompted the idea of this chat. So um we did intros early on, so Ed, we'll get you caught up and have some fun here. Why don't you, if you want to just share, you know, you have an interesting pathway into web design as somebody who's retired. Yeah. Um, just share us a little bit about your business, kind of where you're at with your web purpose.

Ed Gomes: 35:15

Sure. I am uh right at 69, so I'm probably one of the oldest people in the group. I've got four grown kids, five grown grandkids, and and they've figured out how to replace themselves. So I've got five great or four great grandkids, and one of those is the special needs child that I spend a lot of time. In fact, that's what I've been doing all day today, up until when I got here. So yeah, it's between that and you know, over the past few years, my wife's had breast cancer, then lung cancer. So you you know the drill, Josh. It's one one doctor after another and and uh yeah, so my s you know, my story's a little bit different because the the special needs child is a you know, a few generations away. But um she's still the love of my life. So and and you know, of course it it's you know, like I shared with you when we met a while back, Josh, you know, it's it's yeah, it's it's really I've allowed it, I should say, to slow me down in business development. And uh I've made the commitment to push forward. My my site is live. I'm just about done setting up Moxie thanks to Lisa the Moxie Maven. And uh, you know, moving on. So of course, uh you know, the therapies continue, the doctor visits continue. I mean, I'm on every school, field trip, you you you name it, I'm I'm there. So yeah, it it does have an impact. And it does make make planning difficult as well, as as we all know.

Josh Hall: 37:04

Well, you're an inspiration in like every category, Ed. First off, I'll have what Ed's having because 69, I didn't realize I I see 48-year-olds who, you know, they couldn't hold a candle that. So yeah, I mean, it is interesting, Ed. You are in a in a position where, like you said, you know, retired, your web design business is something on the side, but I like that what you said there, where it's like it does slow you down. I know we were just talking about how having special needs changes us as a business owner and how we plan. And I've found that too. And I don't know if you guys feel like this, but I am very, very driven. And it is very hard for me sometimes. I have to be very careful about following people on social media because I've I have to remind myself they don't have the same, I don't want to say limitations, but they don't have the same variables that I have and and and we have. Um, it's easy for somebody to say, like, get up at five o'clock and do an ice bath and do a cold plunge and you know, work 10 hours and then do this and this and do yoga and then a hot sauna and breath work. I'm like, I'm betting you're not taking a kid to two or three, four appointments a week. So then wake up at 4 a.m.

Marc Hyde: 38:12

with night terrors, and then then once they fall asleep, the next kid wakes up, and then the next kid, then the dog wakes up. I mean, yeah, bro.

Josh Hall: 38:20

Right. So I all that to say yes, Ed, I totally, yeah, it's just you're you're you're a really great example of um being at that stage in life where you were, whether you wanted it or not, you were called uh you know to some higher duties.

Ed Gomes: 38:36

I thought I was done. But yeah, she she was born perfectly healthy. And this she was born February 15th, 2020, right at the onset of COVID. At three weeks old, she developed bacterial meningitis. Wound up in the hospital. While she was in the hospital, she had a stroke, then came the Caesars, then came the brain surgery, and then came the VP shot. Yeah, I I've learned so many medical terms. You she had a left partial craniotomy. I can say that now real well. But uh yeah, so she's nonverbal. Uh you know, at therapy we're working on getting her to stand. We are working hard on getting her to be able to stand, at least for transference. Because I'm not, yeah, I'm five foot six, I'm not a large man. My granddaughter, the child's mother, is even smaller than I am. So we're trying to get her to where she can assist more before it does any damage to us.

Josh Hall: 39:45

Because if she gets hurt, she's grouped. That's a good point. There's like financial planning, but then there's physical planning too, right? Just like health, health planning. Yes. Um, Ed, we were talking a little bit ago about specifically future planning with like what we have in place. Something you and I started to, you know, we kind of opened up the can of worms on this, but what does that look like for you guys so far? Um, you know, have you thought about on your end or your your family's in, your daughter's in, with creating like a future fund for your granddaughter? Is is anything like that in place? Or is it something you've talked about or thought about?

Ed Gomes: 40:18

Yes, we do talk about it. My my daughter, who is the child's grandmother and her husband, my son-in-law. People ask me if having great grandchildren makes me feel old. I always tell them, no, having kids that are grandparents, that makes me feel old. My granddaughter and her fiance, one of the biggest problems we have, and one of the driving forces behind my extensive involvement is neither one of them drive. They don't have a car. He Ubers to work, and I take, you know, my granddaughter and the baby everywhere they need to go. So, yeah, that's that's the topic of conversation. Um because if if if she can get that mobility, that can help. What they really need is is is a a van with a wheelchair capability and all that nine yards, because the wheelchair is heavy too.

Josh Hall: 41:09

Does that give you more drive, Ed? You know, starting your business at this age? Or are you, you know, you've already kind of gotten going with it, but uh you've been in pro for what, two and a half, three years now?

Ed Gomes: 41:18

Yeah, a couple of years, yeah.

Josh Hall: 41:20

Does that uh I I don't know what I'd do without it. Well, you are, I mean, you're you're a key member of the weekly hangouts, and you've just been you've been a rock for a lot of people in pro, Ed.

Ed Gomes: 41:31

So the hangouts the hangouts are the best kept secret in pro. I swear I don't understand why there are not more people that are, yeah. We should be having four or five screens of people. Uh Mark, you've been on them. Actually, I've been on one. What have been on one?

Marc Hyde: 41:49

I thought you were calling me out right now.

Josh Hall: 41:51

I just remember I remember the time you were there. Well, that is a topic of conversation. I could do a better job of promoting um, but I I also the the UK folks were talking about doing two to have a call for the UK folks to join. Um, but yeah, I mean, like uh I do appreciate you, Ed. You're always one of the first people to respond when a new member joins. And you know, you're not a a paid spokesperson for pro. You're just you know, you've been a huge member, but I I'm kind of curious, like, yeah, how has that um has has the community and just web design in general given you drive at this stage in life to be able to where you're at?

Ed Gomes: 42:29

My plan when I retired was to focus on, you know, that's all I wanted to do. I enjoyed building websites, I just wanted to focus on that, you know, build the business. I discovered you, I discovered pro, and then she got sick. So the drive is still there, and the biggest thing that I need to focus on personally is time management. When I get some free time, you know, when I finally bring her home, my 68-year-old self wants to sit down and just take a break. So what I need to do is take that time, you know, refocus that drive and use that time more efficiently.

Josh Hall: 43:13

Do you um because we just talked about the financial side of planning? Uh it might be tough because you are a couple generations removed, but like, do you have any personal goals or aspirations to help financially with your great-granddaughter?

Ed Gomes: 43:26

Um I haven't had to yet. They're, you know, they're pretty yeah, he works at a bank. Um, you know, they've got Medicaid for her Medicare exp her medical expenses. Um so they're real they're really doing okay in that respect. Um I'd like to see them focus on getting transportation so that you know, because right now it's either me, if if for whatever reason I cannot, because you know if if my wife has an appointment at the same time, my great granddaughter has an appointment, yeah. I gotta take mama. And then there's my son-in-law, he'll have to leave work and and fill in for me, but there's no one else. And uh yeah, she she's up to 50 pounds. The heavier she gets, the older I get. You know, sooner or later the twain shall meet, and uh yeah, it's it's it's just not gonna be safe for me to do anything but drive.

Josh Hall: 44:27

Is that a business goal, maybe, to like help out with transportation? That could be a fun that yeah.

Ed Gomes: 44:32

That could that could be too. In fact, after I get done here today, I'm going to pick up a car for my other son. But uh yeah, I would definitely be willing to you know set that as a goal.

Josh Hall: 44:46

Be a fun little pro challenge. Yeah. As far as time management, I figured we'd talk about this inevitably. Lisa shared a little bit about this a little bit ago, um, with managing you know her schedule with her teenage kiddos. Mark, how do you do time management? I have a Beth. Mr. 8 is enough.

Marc Hyde: 45:06

I I and then we put a dog on top of it. No, I I I have a Beth. I mean, my wife is a saint. She's a freaking superstar. Um, there are a lot of things that I do in my schedule that um I'm still I struggle coming out of summer and into fall um because my summer schedule looks very different than it does for the fall. Um, like this summer we didn't do any vacations, but we did day trips. So I was able to take day trips with the family. It was awesome. Or get to work late because heck, I could. Um but when it comes to actually now scheduling a lot of things, um, you know, we our calendar is full every single day from top up to top down. And so Beth and I pretty much have meetings every night to walk through the calendar. And then we do them before the whole week and then day before to make sure we're good to make sure um who know who's going what, where, when, all the different appointments. Now we got kids in sports now for school, so we're dealing with that with scheduling too. Um, but gosh, this is this is why I do what I do, man. And like it hasn't slowed down my productivity. Um, in some regards, I think it's boosted it because it's like I my computer, I mean, doesn't always, but like now the goal is four o'clock, so you better get your butt moving. Like, that's where it's at. And thankfully Beth was very gracious where she's like, if you need to work at night, do it. Like, it's fine. Um, but I'm I'm a very driven person. I'm also one where um if my nose gets pointed in the right direction, I start working, I could work nonstop till I fall asleep. Um, and so sometimes it's hard for me to pull away when it comes comes to work. But but with the schedule, the the beauty with my schedule and with my clients who I mean I've always led with you're gonna be on a first name basis with with me. My clients know my schedule. Like in terms of like two weeks ago, I said, Hey, these are my out of office dates. We have an appointment for one kid here. I'm gonna be gone for the whole day. I mean, heck, I even ran a junior high retreat for our school, like as part of that a couple weeks ago. Um, and so generally my clients know what's going on or if I'm gonna be out of office. Um, but I work a pretty standard schedule from I take the kids to school, I get back home, um, might chat with Beth a little bit, might have a little bit, like, you know, have like a quick lunch with her or two. Um, but thankfully that the kids are all in school besides Lennox, that makes life a lot easier. It was very, very, very different when the three littles were not in school. And we were doing at-home therapy plus on-the-road therapy. Um, but no, my schedule is pretty, pretty tight when it comes to, I would say nine to four on most days. Um, but I still have freedom to go teach at Chapels. I still have freedom to go on as many field trips as I possibly can, still have freedom to go to Indianapolis or like, you know, for any surgery. I have a mobile rig where if Linux needs surgery and we're gone for five weeks, don't matter. My productivity doesn't change. And so um, but again, a lot of it goes back to I have a Beth and she's she's she's a saint.

Josh Hall: 47:57

When I love too that you mentioned being upfront with your clients about your schedule. I actually I think as a special needs entrepreneur, you have to clients have to know you don't have a normal schedule. Um, Lisa, have you I don't know how often the appointments are and the ongoing therapies are for you, but have you had that issue or have you thought about that? Or how do you handle that with letting clients know? Because I know you're personable with your clients. How yeah, do you know, do they know your life story and and the situations with your kids, or what's that look like for you with like, you know, letting your clients know that you know may not have a different schedule?

Lisa Doiron: 48:37

I'm pretty upfront with them and let them know like I've got 15-year-old twins. Well, they're 15 now. Um, my son has special needs, like I I'm not always available, but I will get back to you as soon as I can, kind of thing. I'm not um yeah, like like now we do we do appointments during the day, we do appointments after school. It just depends on the week, right? And who's who's available when. So it's yeah.

Josh Hall: 49:02

Do you have particular call days, Lisa? Like do you do you only schedule calls for a couple days a week kind of thing, or how do you manage ongoing?

Lisa Doiron: 49:11

It was Tuesdays and Wednesdays before, and now I've I've got it down to mostly just Tuesdays. I try to keep it to the one day. Um, but I am pretty flexible too. Like if someone's doesn't have availability, I'll fit them in somewhere. So yeah. And and as I need to connect with clients, it just depends, right?

Marc Hyde: 49:32

But here's the thing too though, Josh, and Lisa if you don't mind me asking, is a lot of times, at least my clients, like I'm I'm not a slave to their needs. They're my clients. And so that's kind of the beauty of us being freelancers too. Uh I can see an email and say, Yeah, I'll hit them back up tomorrow. Like it's fine. Like that's that's gotta be some beauty in that. Um, and I mean, I don't I don't know if people do this for you too, Lisa. For me or or Ed, people for me are like, hey, I know you're really busy with all the kids, but if you get a chance, can you do this? And I'm like, dude, you're paying me. Of course I'm gonna do that for you.

Lisa Doiron: 50:03

Yeah. Yeah, I find um my clients are all awesome. Like they a lot of them understand they're really easygoing, and yeah, we have um most of most of my clients I have a close relationship with. So um, yeah, it's easy to to adjust, and I don't feel like I need to I've kind of set the the standard where I don't need to be on top of all the things all the time. So, like you, Mark, I it's like, well, I'll get to that when I get to it. Yeah.

Josh Hall: 50:33

And I feel like we're all we're all our own worst critics, especially when it comes to like a timely response. Like most clients, if they send something over, if you even get back to them in 24 hours, they're probably gonna be blown away. Whereas I'm like, oh my God, I'm so sorry. It's been 24 hours, I didn't get to you.

Marc Hyde: 50:50

You mean the email I just wrote? Yeah. Like, I am so sorry. It I got that email 18 hours ago. Like yeah.

Lisa Doiron: 50:57

But my schedule is it varies. Like I'll work in even uh in the evening if I have the ability, if I'm busy during the day with like a therapy or taking my son somewhere, or my daughter even, like she's in in basketball now, so she does school basketball and um community basketball. So there's that too, right? Like you have that other kid that you have to make sure gets gets as much attention. So yeah. So if I have to, I'll work in the evening or do whatever. And my husband's pretty understanding about that.

Josh Hall: 51:28

So Ed, we were saying early on, we couldn't imagine being having a nine to five job and taking care of special needs. Uh, you are, I mean, let's just call us, you know, in Mark's words, call a spade a spade. What would your family do without you? Like, I don't know. I don't know what to ask or say other than like uh thank goodness for the freedom we have as entrepreneurs and web designers to be able to manage this and have the freedom. And then if not, you need to have family support or some sort of support system there.

Ed Gomes: 51:58

That was partly why I retired so that I could be available. That's cool. Yeah, that is cool. Yeah, unfortunately. My kids were having two ed. Yeah. But but thank God I, you know, I was at a place where I could retire, you know, and and and you know, being a government job, you know, the retirement is enough where I you know I don't miss a meal. So I have that flexibility.

Josh Hall: 52:22

That's uh for you did you what I'm actually kind of curious that what was it about web design?

Ed Gomes: 52:28

I've always I've always yeah, the first website I built was about 27, 28 years ago in in in I don't know if you remember AOL Press.

Josh Hall: 52:42

That may be uh that's before front page.

Marc Hyde: 52:46

Yeah, yeah. I guess if you're a dreamweaver, not yeah, right.

Ed Gomes: 52:50

I gotta look this up, AOL Press. Huh. I'm sure it's it's it's you know gone the way of Netscape Navigator and all those old platform. How many years ago was that in? It was discontinued in 2000.

Josh Hall: 53:06

So I mean look, Ed already alluded to his age, so you know, we're not giving any thoughts.

Marc Hyde: 53:12

That was the but the age of your great-granddaughter when you started building websites.

Ed Gomes: 53:16

Whoo! Yeah, so I always enjoyed it, and you know, and I knew once once I retired, I just wanted to be able to do that for you know for you know small businesses, you know, whoever. And uh you know, I knew I was gonna be in a place where I didn't need I didn't wouldn't have the pressure of I need that to eat. Yeah, it was because I want to and I enjoy it.

Lisa Doiron: 53:44

So did you retire from it?

Ed Gomes: 53:46

I was a a manager with the Postal Service for 38 years. Before that I was army for six years. And a web designer through it all. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. Mark, you you you're some of your kids are adopted, aren't they?

Marc Hyde: 54:04

Yep, five of them.

Ed Gomes: 54:05

Five of them. Yeah. I my two younger are adopted, myself, my brother, and my sister are adopted, my nephews adopted. I've got a family picture with my parents and my sisters and brothers, and some of my kids, and there aren't any two people in the picture that are genetically connected. Wow.

Marc Hyde: 54:23

That's cool. That's a story in and of itself.

Josh Hall: 54:25

I want to read when you're coming out with your book, Ed, because I'll be your first customer.

Ed Gomes: 54:30

I've got a one of my websites, it's it's adoptionsandoptions.com. And my story, my adoption story is on that site. With pictures. And that picture that I'm adoptionsandoptions.com. Gotcha. I built that one and WordPress with a newspaper theme.

Josh Hall: 54:52

Well, we're gonna link that in the show notes. Check that out because I want to read that whole story. But oh found it.

Marc Hyde: 54:57

My adoption story.

Josh Hall: 54:59

There it is. Well, I'm excited to read this. Well, we're still recording, so I'll make sure I don't read this right now. But um that's fascinating. And you know what? I have to say, there's something to there's something to being open and transparent online. I totally understand people not wanting to put their family and personal things online. I I totally understand. I'm completely opposite in the way of like, but honestly, you guys would not be here. I don't know. We would may not be having this conversation, or at least we wouldn't have a sense of um like uh unity in the in the in what we kind of go through as parents of special needs or you know, great grandparents' special needs without I mean all to say, your vibe attracts your tribe. I've found sharing my family story and what we continue to go through with having a special needs kiddo and Bria, like it just brings amazing people. Lisa, Ed, Mark, you guys are just three of a more web designer pro members who have special needs in their family and have have talked about this. So it is kind of for me personally, all I can say is it's nice to not feel alone in that because when you're in entrepreneurial circles, again, going back to like the who you follow, it can be very easy to feel like, well, I would love to do that, but I can't. I've got you know these amount of appointments or this going on or or future planning that is different than you know, some people may be thinking about retirement and how much how many travels they can do. That's not really in the cards for us unless Free is able to come.

Marc Hyde: 56:28

So Right and if you don't mind me giving a soundbite for you, Josh. I mean, that's why I subscribe to your stuff. Like, I mean, the the you know, freedom and the lifestyle you want. And then I'm like, okay, that's what I want. And you're like, hey, hey, you can make monthly recurring revenue doing this. Bet, okay, we're gonna do that. And my business would not be what it is without your stuff. And then there's also that level of, you know, in yours and mine DMs at least, like, sure, we're talking about coaching stuff too, but I would say probably half of it are good conversations because our kids are dealing special needs stuff that we're we're going through. Like, you know, like my kid, my youngest is now a tube, and you guys are a tubi family. Like, that's that's nuts. Like, that's just stupid cool. It's the same idea of like people who have gone through different stages of life. Like, you know, like I was never a foster parent. I'm never gonna say I am. Beth was the foster parent. But when we meet people who are foster parents in public, you should see Beth's face light up because she's like, you know what it's like to go through the crap of dealing with DCS and her parent visits and all these different things. And I'm I'm sitting here like, I don't know what that's like, but I know what it's like, you know, dealing with all the the actual trauma that we're dealing with. Like, there's just I don't know, there's there's a lot of beauty in the unity that you can find.

unknown: 57:37

Yeah.

Josh Hall: 57:38

That's so yeah. Oh, go, go, Lisa. Go feel free, Lisa.

Lisa Doiron: 57:41

I was just I was disagreeing. I I liked what he said, beauty and the unity. That's cool.

Josh Hall: 57:45

Beauty and the unity. That is a great that is a sound bite. Mark delivered. Those catchy headlines have been paying off.

Marc Hyde: 57:53

All that pastor headlines have been all the pasture stuff has been paying off. That mixed with your dad funds, bro. We got this.

Josh Hall: 57:58

You know, it's funny, like we were at a pizza shop, it's probably a few months ago, and there was a little girl who was about Bria's age who we could tell was a similar uh some sort of deletion or some sort of delay or developmental something. And she kept on looking over at our table, and then, you know, as as just like Bria, busy, busy body, got places to go, stuff to do. And um, when I got up with Bria, the mom saw her and then changed immediately. And then she came over to Emily, my wife, and and then they were talking, and it was like, yeah, there's just immediate unity. She was like, I was gonna apologize for my daughter. I I see, you know, your daughter's got something similar. And it was just like, yeah, we just talk about it. And it was just, you know, there's a sense of um, I guess it's like anything, if whether it's a sports team fan or whether it's a season of life or whether it's a special needs parent, there is a sense of unity that is is just hard to articulate.

Ed Gomes: 58:49

Yeah. My great-granddaughter has a G tube as well. She's had it since she was six months, and uh last week she had a dentist appointment. And the dentist is raping about how clean her teeth are. There's no plaque at all. And I'm like, well, hell yeah, it's bypassed the don't go in that way.

Josh Hall: 59:07

Yeah.

Ed Gomes: 59:08

Club Tubi. Yep. I I still remember when when we met Josh and little Bria comes running up, she smiles and lifts up her shirt. Proud of the tubies.

Marc Hyde: 59:21

Hey, where's your button, buddy? Yeah, every time. They are proud of the tubies.

Ed Gomes: 59:27

But that's good though. I mean, that that's a good, good mindset to pass on to that. Yeah, yeah.

Josh Hall: 59:32

And it is um, yeah, I say all that to say it's very, it's it's gratifying and rewarding to know that like being open about you know having special needs has not deterred people. Yeah, it's brought awesome people like you guys into my, you know, into where I hang out every day, into the crew, into the club.

Ed Gomes: 59:51

I loved meeting Bria. That would that was so fun.

Josh Hall: 59:55

Oh, you guys should have seen Ed was like immediate grandpa. I mean, she just went up to him, he held her. It was like, yeah. Because a lot of people, you know, like with the kiddo with the tube, or if there was anything else, you're you're a little leery, like they're afraid to break him. Uh-huh. But yeah, Ed, you rocked it. It was all I did. That was one of my favorite things was seeing her with in person, and she gave you a little drawing and everything. Yeah, I've still got it.

Marc Hyde: 1:00:17

All right, Josh. You've asked us a lot of questions. Can I ask you one? Sure, yeah. All right, dude. So I I know Lisa Ed will all agree there's something to be said about the emotional toll that it takes with being a special needs kid. With um, for me, that's probably the biggest struggle is the emotional tool that comes into my work and then leaves with my work. For you, with running an entire community plus having to raise Bria, and then you got, I mean, yes, Bria is like the celebrity in the group, but you also have other kids too, and you have a wife guy take care of. How do you balance the emotional, gosh, gosh, you're about to go through hell with. With with the the surgery with Bria and the recovery, like just calling calling it what it is. How do you handle the emotional side with that with still showing up to the group and being our coach every day?

Lisa Doiron: 1:01:01

Good question.

Josh Hall: 1:01:02

Probably three things. It's uh Miller Light. And then also I do enjoy Miller Light. I do enjoy Miller Light. There's better stuff out there. How dare you, Mark? I'll turn you. Uh a lot of it is, I mean, I it's so true. Like there are, you know, there are seasons. And it depends too, like when there have been emergencies. That's very, very different because when emergency happens, depending on what the recovery looks like, I mean, thank goodness I have a team that can step in when needed. And Mark, you've offered to help up ahead here to do like a QA for pro. I mean, that's huge. Like a lot of pro members have become kind of like, you know, like semi-coaches and mini coaches in a lot of ways. So building up a professional support system has helped dramatically. So that's probably the best term I could put on that is like a professional support system, whether that's actual team members or whether it is, you know, just community members like yourselves who I could rely on. And I know like Lisa, Ed, Mark, great people. They, you know, they got it if if need be. So that's been huge because it's not all completely on my shoulders. That's also a benefit of having a community, is you know, like I obviously I'm there every day, I'm active, but it isn't to this point, like absolutely 100% reliant on me. I could not show up in pro for a few days and it would be fine. So getting to that point has helped because and there are ebbs and flows, you know, just emotionally with certain things and and to gear up for it, like like I said this fall, you know, next month is gonna be a big deal. So that's been huge, quite honestly, is yeah, professional support network. The other thing is I just love it. I just love what I do. And when you love what you do, I mean, there's times where I'll be at the hospital and I log into pro, not because I feel like I need to or because it's work, because it's where I want to hang out. Like they're my you guys are my people. So that's what I want to hang out with. So that helps.

Marc Hyde: 1:03:01

And let the record stand, we've told you to disappear for a few days and we'll be okay.

Josh Hall: 1:03:04

Like got some time off. You heard it here. So if somebody said, Where did Josh go? I'll say, Mark said I could bail for a little while. No.

Marc Hyde: 1:03:11

I'll blame Jen. Jen said you can go.

Josh Hall: 1:03:14

Yeah, right. It is, you know, that is true though. It's like we we do deal as special needs parents with and probably need to prepare for different emotional swings that, you know, just quite frankly, a lot of kids or a lot of parents don't have to go through unless there's a traumatic event or unless there's an injury or something. Yeah. Whereas like it's it's weird. I experienced this a couple months ago, Bria. Actually, it was the day that uh Ed and I met in person. It was that night. It was right after we met. Yeah. Yeah. Bria had a seizure and um ended up in the we we couldn't get her out of it, ended up in the hospital. And I remember being in the ambulance and just feeling like you know, it's weird, but it didn't feel super weird in a weird way. It was like the third time I've been in the ambulance with her, rushing up, and I didn't feel it. I guess I I don't want to, I don't dare um you know, likeness to being a vet or or some sort of a combat veteran, but I do think there's something to where, and you guys probably have experienced this when you go through episodes or hardships, you just kind of get used to just doing it and just sucking it up, and you just you do it. What else are you gonna do? A lot of my family and people around us are like, I don't know how you do it. And M and I have both talked about like, well, what up the hell else are you gonna do?

Marc Hyde: 1:04:27

Yeah, you just do I have a choice, you gotta do it.

Lisa Doiron: 1:04:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just gotta show up.

Josh Hall: 1:04:32

Mm-hmm. So I think that has helped too. And honestly, there's a business lesson in there too, because even on a on a different level, like when your numbers are down and stuff, something's not going right, you still gotta show up. You still gotta do it. So a lot of different answers there, Mark. I appreciate that question and that prompt, but those are all things that have just yeah, kept it going.

Lisa Doiron: 1:04:51

It's great that you can share like what you're going with through like what you're going through with your community as well. Like you don't have to pretend you're like on top of the world all the time. You can be honest with what's going on with your family.

Josh Hall: 1:05:05

Well, and that's a testament to to the community too, Lisa. I mean, you're so right. It's I honestly it's amazing that I feel comfortable to do so. And I think that goes back to like, you know, being really honest about where I'm at in life and as an entrepreneur, it brings people who are like that. You know, there's a douchey, hustling seven-figure entrepreneur who just wants to make millions of dollars as quickly as possible. They just don't fit in in Web Designer Pro. You know, like if I talk about, you know, appointments with a special needs kiddo, I don't know what their level of empathy is. They're probably like, oh, that's nice, but let's go. It's you know, it's it's a little different. So it is a testament to the people.

Marc Hyde: 1:05:42

Everyone that I've met within the community has their priorities and I think that goes back to even like with this last uh pro call you had with Carol with her just coming back and sharing where she's at. Like that's the beauty of the pro calls, is we like I know what's going on with Carol. Like, I know what's going on with Michelle. I know what's going on with Ben. Like it, I don't know. It's it's a cool place. You've made a really dope place.

Lisa Doiron: 1:06:04

I don't attend as much as I'd like to in person. Like I can never quite make it for some reason. So I always listen to the replays, but I should try and make a more of a point.

Josh Hall: 1:06:16

Yeah, you've been on a sum, Lisa. Yeah, I I know we do them on the same day that you do your client calls, so maybe always end up having issues.

Ed Gomes: 1:06:24

But uh switch that up. Yeah. I have to watch most of the QA's on the replays because guess why?

Josh Hall: 1:06:30

There beah, it's so true. But no, I really appreciate that, guys. It is it's wonderful to have a support system that is. I mean, we have some great family and great friends around us, but it's it's certainly in on a work perspective, I think it's almost even more important because you know they're not in Web Presenter Pro day to day. They're not building a business with the same um you know circumstances and variables. So yeah, no, I really appreciate it. Yeah, just a pre we can wrap this up here and get and get ready to sign off. But yeah, I just appreciate you guys. That's we appreciate you.

Ed Gomes: 1:07:07

Uh-oh. There goes the landline. Yeah. Well, we're gonna do it.

Josh Hall: 1:07:14

Christian always gives me a hard time. You got it. That's that was the cue. Um, well, let's wrap this up here. Let's just do like um I'd almost like to hear like a closing thought or like a takeaway from you guys if interested. Um, you know, especially if there's there's other entrepreneurs, business owners who have special needs in their family, either directly or a few generations below, like in Ed's case. I'm almost wondering like what would be your guys' um what would be a note of inspiration or a or a takeaway? Uh Ed's got something it looks like on the tip of his tongue.

Ed Gomes: 1:07:45

Yeah, keep your priorities in order. That's uh you know, the business will always be there tomorrow, but the kids need you today.

Lisa Doiron: 1:07:52

Yeah, 100%.

Ed Gomes: 1:07:53

That's great.

Josh Hall: 1:07:54

I'm still learning that one. Sorry guys, follow up. Good luck following. We can't follow that one.

Lisa Doiron: 1:07:59

I know, right? Yeah. Mine is just to find like uh I have my tribe of web designers and stuff like that, but yeah, like finding my tribe of special needs entrepreneurs, it you know, like it really makes a difference having people who know what you're going through and what you're where you're coming from. So now I have to do that.

Josh Hall: 1:08:17

And even to go even niche, you know, niche apart from that, it's like special needs entrepreneurs, web designers, which is what we have, yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:08:26

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 1:08:26

You know, the the only thing that's popping in my head is making sure you're on the same page with your spouse. Like I'm still still still working through that one because Beth gets Beth gets mad at me when I don't set my expectations clear of I have a busy week, here's all the clients I got going on. Instead of me trying to sneak in little hours here or there, she goes, just have a conversation with me, Mark. Like you can work at night, like it's totally fine. And so, you know, the biggest thing for us is just communicate and over-communicate because man, clarity is kindness. And if if if you're gonna go through this, I don't know. There's there's something about when not saying our kids are war, but when you go to battle and you go to war and you're in locked up with somebody else, you can do a lot more. And so for us, you know, we always say same team, like we go same team high fives almost every day. Because it's not us against the diagnosises, it's not us against the calendar, it's not us against the kids, even though sometimes it feels like it. It's a it's a no, we're the same team, we're going for the same mission, we're gonna love our kids, let's communicate well, and it's gonna be okay. It's gonna be fine. Thank you.

Josh Hall: 1:09:32

That is beautifully said. Yeah, I I'll just echo kind of what Ed said earlier about not feeling the the need or the pressure to like you know, basically hustle and hit a certain goal, like you can slow down. Um, that's certainly one thing I've learned with with Briya, as much as I am competitive and hyper-driven. It's like, you know what? I don't need to do that right now. Or, you know, this is why I'm not doing podcast interviews right now or doing certain things, like kind of going to that point. This is where I'm needed is this. And I'm gonna make sure my work days and my calendar and the projects I have in front of me line up with this, which is you know a certain level of support. So, yeah, that's great, guys. Well, great takeaways, guys. Thank you so much for your time today. This is so much fun. Really appreciate it, guys. Good stuff covered. Hopefully, this helps some people in similar situations, and uh, we'll see you guys all on pro and we'll just keep on doing what we do. See you guys, guys.

Lisa Doiron: 1:10:26

Thank you.

Josh Hall: 1:10:27

See y'all later. So, again, big thanks to Mark, Lisa, and Ed for coming on and having this conversation publicly. Hope you got a lot from it. You can go check out all of their websites to connect with them and see what they're up to. If you go to joshall.co slash 401. That link will be in the show notes as well or in the description below. The show notes page also has more links from what we talked about in this conversation. So again, I hope it helps you. Regardless if you have a kiddo with special needs as an entrepreneur, um for parents as entrepreneurs, and even folks who are about to become parents or want to become parents someday, and you want to know how you balance your business and do it all. I hope this helps. I've got some takeaway itself. Thank you again for joining. Thanks to Mark, Lisa, and Ed. And I'll see you on the show notes. Stay subscribed because we've got some killer episodes ahead. So I will see you on the next one.