[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome back for another episode of the Unscripted Small business podcast. Today's guests are Larry and Sue Pruitt, a couple who have built a life of purpose, faith and entrepreneurship over the past 35 plus years. What stood out to me most in this conversation is how grounded they are not just in their marriage, but in the way they lead, serve, and show up for others. We talked about what it really looks like to build a life and a business as a team. Navigating roles, staying connected and leading with intention and their biggest passion. Now coaching couples from a faith based Christian perspective who are doing the same. Building businesses together while learning to prioritize their marriage and purpose. Along the way, they bring a beautiful balance of lived experience and spiritual insight that I think will really resonate. This conversation is full of wisdom, practical tools, and honest reflections from a couple who's truly lived it. Let's jump in. [00:01:11] Speaker B: Larry, sue, it's so wonderful having you in the studio today. Thank you so much for being here. [00:01:16] Speaker C: Thanks so much, Abby. We're really thrilled to be here. [00:01:18] Speaker D: We appreciate you having us on. [00:01:20] Speaker B: So why don't you start off by telling us a little bit about your background and what you do. [00:01:27] Speaker C: You want to start with that? [00:01:28] Speaker D: Yeah, I can get started. So I think the first thing about us is that we've been married for over 35 years. So we obviously were married very young. [00:01:38] Speaker C: We were children. [00:01:41] Speaker D: And we raised five kids along the way. Our youngest is 19, our oldest is 30 now. And so we are staring empty, nesting right in the face. Our youngest is the only one that's home right now. And he tells us he's going to be moving out in just a few months here. We'll see about that. But yeah, so we homeschooled our kids all the way through. What was that, 24 years? Something like that. And then along the way, we kind of discovered that we're entrepreneurs as well. [00:02:11] Speaker C: Which is crazy to us. We didn't start until we were older, mid-40s, five kids, homeschooling. Why not add entrepreneurship to your plate? It was a little crazy, but we started that about, I think it was 21 years ago. I think this month as we're recording in April, that we got our first DBA and started started our online selling career. [00:02:36] Speaker D: And that was very part time at the beginning. And then we went full time with it a little bit over 12 years ago. [00:02:42] Speaker B: Very cool. What types of products were you selling? [00:02:46] Speaker C: So I used to kind of jokingly say anything that's legal and profitable. We sold on several E Commerce Platforms and many different categories. And we, we started out serving other homeschoolers and then we expanded from there. [00:02:59] Speaker D: And every platform has its own unique audience and we sell on several different platforms. So we sell literally anything from collectibles to, you know, to food. We've sold home and kitchen, just a little bit of everything. [00:03:17] Speaker C: So, yeah. Wow. [00:03:19] Speaker B: Okay, so walk me through some of the different selling platforms. Cause I'm familiar with Etsy and ebay and Amazon, but are there any other ones that I'm kind of missing there? [00:03:30] Speaker C: So we have sold on ebay, Amazon and Walmart. Those have been our primary platforms. We dabbled a little with Etsy, but haven't done much there at this point. But yeah, each one is unique. I love ebay. I run our ebay store and I love doing ebay because of the customer relationships you get to build. We liked Amazon for the volume that we were able to do there. It was a little bit easier to scale, scale there. And Walmart is similar to Amazon. [00:03:59] Speaker D: So yeah, they're trying to catch up and they are catching up. But the other thing that we've done just a little bit of, it's been a few years ago now, but since we're homeschoolers, we were able to go to homeschool conferences and we had a booth there. And so we sold some books and such and we had some opportunities to speak. But because of that, we had one ebay store that was just focused in on like, homeschool curriculum and homeschool resources. And then the other ebay store was focused in on more collectible type things. [00:04:32] Speaker B: That's so cool. Tell us why you chose to do homeschooling over the public education system. I'm curious to learn more about that. [00:04:41] Speaker C: So for us, it was really, we had a family member who her oldest child was six years older than our oldest child. So by the time they had gotten to the point that they were ready to start school, they had decided to homeschool. So I had lots of long conversations with her, and by the time we had our first child, we had made the decision, yeah, I think we're going to homeschool. It's funny because I think that's kind of how we got into entrepreneurship as well. Part of the thing is that we wanted to show our kids there's more than one way to do life. You don't have to do just what everybody else says is, you know, the right way to do things or the normal way to do things. You know, you can do things in many different ways. And we wanted to show them that. And so that was partly why we homeschooled. It was definitely why we went into full time entrepreneurship. And it has been an exciting ride. And we took the kids along with us. So. [00:05:39] Speaker D: And some of the kids have picked up that entrepreneur bug and some of them have not. And that's perfectly fine. Some of them, we don't have any grandkids yet, but some of them may homeschool their kids and some of them may not. So but like sue said, we like that we live in this free society and we can kind of blaze our own trail. And we wanted to show them these different ways of doing things. And there's been a lot of good benefits along the way. [00:06:05] Speaker B: That's very cool. I actually have some friends that grew up in homeschooling as well, and they were part of different co op groups and things, and it always seemed so fun. And I also love too, with homeschooling, it seems like you can kind of give your children more of a curriculum that follows their passions and what they enjoy doing versus just kind of the typical. You're going to study biology and you're going to study this particular math and things like that. And growing up in the public school system, I always found that to be so rigid. And I often found myself daydreaming because I wasn't paying attention to things because it didn't really pertain to me in my passions or interests. [00:06:41] Speaker C: Yes. [00:06:42] Speaker D: Yeah. You know, sometimes the grass is always greener. Right. So sometimes, you know, like, either side is daydreaming about what the other side is doing on. On things. But one of the talks that I gave at a homeschool conference was teaching with fill in the blank. And it was basically to say, you can use whatever that passion is to fill to teach a lot of subjects at least. And. And I. I'm really passionate about baseball. And so my examples was all about baseball. And you can teach. There's a lot of science behind baseball. There's a lot of history that you can teach through baseball. And then obviously there's the physical aspect of it. You can get outside and. And you can play the game and such. There's a lot of math in baseball. And so. So we taught with, I think with each of our kids, there was. There was a totally different method of teaching them. And we were more rigid at the beginning. We got more flexible toward the end, which I think was just our progression as teachers. [00:07:45] Speaker B: That's so cool. I love baseball. I'm a big Cubs fan, so that Is awesome. [00:07:51] Speaker C: Cubs fans. Yes. I married a Cardinal fan. [00:07:53] Speaker D: I was gonna say. I'm gonna have to leave now. I'm sorry. We'll see. Just kidding. No, we have a lot of fun with that. Sue's dad grew up in Chicago as a Cubs fan. I grew up in the St. Louis area as a Cardinals fan. And. And we've got a friendly conversation that goes on all the time about that. So. [00:08:11] Speaker B: Yeah, those are always the best games to go to when you're at Wrigley Field or at the St. Louis Stadium. Those are so fun. [00:08:19] Speaker D: Yeah, for sure. [00:08:20] Speaker C: For sure. [00:08:22] Speaker B: Awesome. So I also wanted to mention, too, that you guys are my first married couple that I've had on the show. So this is really exciting, and I would love to learn. I know you mentioned that you got married young, but tell us more about your love story. [00:08:38] Speaker D: Oh, well, this is. Yeah, this is kind of interesting because. [00:08:41] Speaker C: I wasn't expecting this. [00:08:42] Speaker D: Yeah, no, no, no. This is kind of good because we do tell this story quite often. How we met. We met at college, and so we weren't that young when we got married, but we met at college. And when we met, sue was engaged, obviously, to somebody else. And that was a devastating night for me because I saw her. I was very interested. I manipulated things around so that we could sit next to each other at this event that we were at. And the first thing we did was introduce ourselves. And sue, it was. You had just gotten engaged? [00:09:20] Speaker C: Yeah, like, about a month before. And I was thrilled. And I was telling everybody and showing. [00:09:24] Speaker D: Off my ring, and I was just like, whatever. So I didn't introduce myself after her. I just said, I'm Larry. Yeah, I'm not engaged. You know, I don't know what I said, but. But it was kind of interesting. I don't know if you want to pick up the story from there. [00:09:38] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I mean, obviously, I. That relationship ended, and eventually we started dating, and we ended up getting married once I had finished college and. [00:09:49] Speaker D: But you don't. She doesn't remember me from that evening. [00:09:52] Speaker C: I don't. I don't remember meeting. [00:09:55] Speaker D: Which is kind of sad. But anyway, it eventually worked out. [00:09:59] Speaker C: That was the first night that I. I. Oh, man. I don't know how deep to go in, but I really felt that the Lord was impressing me that night that I wasn't going to marry the guy I was engaged to. And so I had a lot of angst after that whole night. I didn't sleep very well and all that kind of thing. And eventually I ended It. So, yeah, that was an interesting time. [00:10:25] Speaker D: Yeah. And I think this is. This is a big part of our story, though, is when we met and when we then dated and got engaged. And, you know, we just. We suffered through. I don't. Suffer is the right word, but we experienced a lot of discouragement from other people. And I think people, whenever you first get engaged, everybody's excited with you and everything, but then they're kind of like, you're kind of annoying right now. You're just so excited. You're so perky. And so we kind of got some negative comments about, like, oh, yeah, you're happy now, but just wait till you get married. And then we got married, and then we were still happy. They're like, oh, yeah, honeymoon period, give it six months, you know, a year. Then, you know, maybe not so much. And I don't think people were intending to really drag us down, but they did. And we are kind of stubborn people. We both have that streak in us, especially me. And we just kind of decided, like, we are going to be encouragers. Whenever somebody else is excited, we're going to be excited with them, and we're really going to encourage married couples. And so it sounds weird, but from before the time we were married, we wanted to encourage married couples. And so now that we've been married for 35 years, I think we just have more experience and more authority, so to speak, in that area. [00:11:42] Speaker C: People listen to us a lot easier now. [00:11:44] Speaker D: People listen to us now. [00:11:45] Speaker C: Married for eight months. [00:11:46] Speaker D: That's right. [00:11:48] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Well, I. I absolutely love that, and I love how the Lord used your stories to come together into what has been such a beautiful marriage to be together for 35 years. I mean, that's. That's a long time. And I'm sure that you guys have seen so many different seasons together. What are some of the foundational elements of your marriage that has helped you go through some of those tough seasons together? [00:12:11] Speaker C: I think there's an element of it that is. Is just the fact that we made a commitment and made a vow before God that. That we're going to stick together and we're going to figure things out. We've definitely had years that we get to the end of the year and we think, wow, I don't ever want to live that through that year again. But there were things that happened in us as a result of that year that were really beneficial that we treasure, and we're glad that we have that. We showed our commitment and we figured some things out and we fixed things, we changed things up. Even as we walked through the time of Larry coming home from his day job and moving into full time entrepreneurship, that was a. It was a good time, but it was a difficult time. And we knew that the end of it was going to be worth it. What's that phrase I've heard? The juice was worth the squeeze. And so, you know, we knew that we were going to have to go through some things, and we did. And just so many, so many times we've been able to say to our kids or to friends around us, you know, or be the example to that this is what a godly marriage looks like. This is what you do. This is how you. You move through it. And so we, you asked about what are some of the foundational things. I think one of them is definitely mutual respect and consideration. Neither one. Even though my personality would tend to be kind of a steamroller, neither one of us steamrolls the other person. We really work at things and come to decisions together. Is there anything I left out? [00:13:51] Speaker D: Well, I would say the absolute most foundational thing is that we are Christians and everything is foundational. Upon scripture, I assume that. [00:13:59] Speaker C: Don't. [00:13:59] Speaker D: I alluded to that. But Genesis 2:24 is kind of the marquee verse, and it just talks about being a one flesh kind of relationship where literally we are one and we take that extremely seriously. And so, you know, a lot of the options that the world has are just not even on the table for us. So we don't even think that way. We know we have to work through things. And so along the way, that's. There's several principles that we've come up with. And for example, we will have really difficult conversations. And it's like, we're not going to let this go. We're just going to. We're going to cut through the awkwardness and we're going to fight through it. We're going to make sure that we discuss that. And that has helped us. And sue has taught me that, to be honest with you, over the years, women, women have this tendency to be much better at communication than men. So guys who are listening, listen to your wife, all right? Pay attention, pick up on her cues. And literally, sue has helped me because I had a tendency just to clam up and not want to talk about anything. And so she kind of forced me to, which was really good for me. And so that would be one other thing I'd add to what you said. [00:15:12] Speaker B: Well, and I love that you're touching on communication. Because I think that that is such an important quality within any type of relationship, whether that's marriage or business. And a lot of people struggle with communication. And I think it's also because sometimes we're not provided that supportive space to honor the person that we're talking to. And so it sounds like that you all also have that, that space that you hold for each other to be able to have hard con. [00:15:40] Speaker C: Absolutely. And I think that communication is the conduit to what's really important. And that is your connection with each other. It's your connection that's going to keep you moving forward, arm in arm, hand in hand, through difficult seasons. And the way you get that connection, that deep connection, is to communicate about everything, have difficult conversations, have awkward conversations, be honest about what you're thinking and feeling, be a little bit thick skinned so that when your spouse is, is expressing their true feelings, you don't take it too personally and, and let yourself just get wounded by it. You, you listen and you hear the heart behind it and you work through some things and sometimes you're going to be the one who's going to need to change or apologize. You need to be willing to do that because it's really easy to go into everything thinking, oh, you know, he's got to change, he's, you know, he's the one who did wrong here maybe, but maybe not. [00:16:43] Speaker D: And so we have something that we just call connect time. And it's just a short amount of time. And especially it like the most difficult time to do that as a husband and wife is whenever you do have small children in the home. But it's also the most important time to do that. And so the way that we did that is whenever I had my day job, whenever I would come home, that would be like the top priority. So I'd give the kids the hugs and all of that and everything. So I welcomed them. I didn't push them off to the side or anything. But then we would sit down on the couch generally and just say, this is our connect time. And it would be five minutes, sometimes 10 minutes, maybe 15 minutes. And it was time that the kids knew that mom and dad's relationship is really important and they need to connect, they need to have this conversation. And at the beginning it was pretty rough, to be honest with you. But we trained them and we talked to them about what we were doing. And as long as there was no big emergency, what do we say? [00:17:40] Speaker C: No, if there's no bleeding or something's not bending in the wrong Place, don't interrupt. [00:17:47] Speaker D: And so that did a couple of things. It allowed us to connect. You know, a lot of times it was very surface level things, and then we'd have deeper conversations later. But it showed the kids that that priority, that the marriage relationship was super important to us and that they were welcome additions to the family. But the marriage was the foundation of the family. [00:18:09] Speaker B: Oh my gosh, I absolutely love that, making it a priority, because especially in today's world, everything is so busy and so sometimes we aren't able to prioritize things. So it's about finding the right things to prioritize. And it sounds like your marriage was that main priority above anything else, your life, whether that was business or work and things like that. [00:18:32] Speaker C: It absolutely has been for us. We were super fortunate. The. The pastor that married us. Probably the most memorable thing he did with us before the wedding was draw a triangle, put God at the top, Larry at one bottom, me at the other base, and talk about, you know, our job was to grow closer to God. And as we did that, we would automatically grow closer to each other because we were both moving towards the pinnacle. And so that has been super important for us. And again, just letting people know, this is what a good godly marriage looks like. And because we had that connection we have this time that we called the talk that we had back in 2012, it was a really difficult season and Larry had come home from work and had just kind of verbally dumped everything. You know, it was. This was after the kids had gone to bed for this one. They were older, they had gone to. [00:19:34] Speaker D: Bed, and I probably didn't come home till they'd already been, to be honest. [00:19:37] Speaker C: Yeah, right, right. And he just shared a lot of the difficulties that he had experienced at work that day. And it was not the first time that he had experienced that. And that was the moment that I decided, okay, this is time to kind of press in a little bit here. And I asked a question I had been wanting to ask for a long time, and I finally just said, how long are you going to let them do this to you? And of course, that took him by surprise. And your reaction was like, well, I. [00:20:07] Speaker D: Was like, I'm doing this for you. I'm doing this for you. I'm doing this for the kids. I was really, I was shocked by the question. It was one of those eye opening moments, though. [00:20:17] Speaker C: It was. But because I saw myself as my husband's cheerleader, I thought he needs somebody to say to him, you don't have to put up with this. You don't have to keep doing this. And so that was really the catalyst that, the talk that propelled us forward into, okay, I think we need to do something different. You need to leave this job and why don't we try to bring you home and see if we can do full time entrepreneurship? Like I said, that was kind of a. Maybe some people thought it was a crazy thing to do at that time because we had young kids and a lot going on in our life already. So it wasn't like we had time, we had to fill, but it was a really, it was a very. That, that's one of the deepest connections I think we've ever had emotionally because we had this conversation that really we'd been needing to have for a while and finally we decided, okay, we're going to dive in and have this talk. [00:21:14] Speaker D: And you decided I didn't have an option. [00:21:17] Speaker C: Yes. But you, you could have walked away and you didn't. [00:21:19] Speaker D: I could have. [00:21:20] Speaker C: You could have said, nope, I'm not having this conversation left, and you didn't. You stayed in it. [00:21:24] Speaker D: I, I leaned into it and, and I, I just think that is just such a key principle for, for any relationship, honestly. And this really applies towards parents and children as well, is. And as the parents, you're the adult, so you gotta, you gotta be the one to initiate this and such, but to lean into those. Sometimes it's like, I don't know what I'm gonna say. I don't know how I'm gonna introduce this. I don't know how I'm gonna jump in. Just do it. You know, maybe you can practice it a little bit. I don't know if you, in that particular situation, you probably didn't. But sometimes we'll practice. Like I may write down some notes and that feels a little bit weird, but it's okay because it'll help me to say, like I'm going to say this phrase and leading off this conversation. And again, it could be with a friend, it could be with anyone, but it's worth it because relationships are super important and the marriage relationship is the most important relationship. So we would definitely prioritize doing it, you know, having those difficult conversations for that. [00:22:24] Speaker C: Absolutely. [00:22:26] Speaker B: You're leaning into confrontation. So I love the idea of taking notes because as somebody that hates confrontation, I sometimes think about that and how I'm going to phrase things because I never want to hurt the person that I'm speaking to. But sometimes we have to have those difficult conversations. And I think also just remembering too that it doesn't make me bad for wanting to have that conversation. And it sounds like you all also lean into each other, which is so, so important. It sounds like, sue, you knew that he needed to be home. He needed that for his mental and overall well being. And that's such a beautiful foundational element of marriage and of relationship is when you can really know what your partner needs without them even saying what they need. [00:23:14] Speaker C: Absolutely. And it was one of those times as we moved through that, through that time of deciding, okay, you're going to come home, how are we going to make this happen, all that kind of thing. It really helped that we were willing to do that because we both had ideas about what it was going to look like when he came home. And for me, I was really looking forward to, he was going to be available to me for when I needed to talk to him about something because his day job, I didn't have that accessibility. I couldn't call him, we couldn't talk during the day. His days were very long. So there was a lot that went on at home that I really didn't even get a chance to talk to him. But I was really looking forward to that. He was looking forward to talking to me. And so as we started this time at home together, first of all, I would want to pop into his office, say my thing and leave right away because I've got things to do and I forgot, oh yeah, he's going to want to talk back. You know, he's going to want to say something about that. We're going to want to have conversations. And so that ended up taking more time of my day than I was thinking. He went through like, I don't want to go too deep into it, but he went through a time of, of serious detox and what, I don't know what the right word is, recovery from, from the, the job that he'd had. There was a lot of physical manifestations and, and things that he went through and trying to settle down out of that that we didn't expect to encounter. And we did. And so all of these things, talking, you know, talking about conflict, talking about expectations, talking about having hard conversations, those things can be handled in a way that are gentle. You can pray for the other person's heart to be prepared for the conversation that you need to have. You can pray for your own heart to be prepared. Because as I alluded to earlier, there may be things said that you don't necessarily want to hear. [00:25:13] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:25:14] Speaker C: And so I think it's it through all of that that we went through, being able to lean into and have hard conversations. In fact, there was one day within a couple of months after Larry had come home that we responsibilities weren't being broken up the way I thought they were going to be broken up. And I was. I had an awful lot on my plate. I was trying to get back into, you know, a really good, solid routine with school, with the kids and all that kind of thing. And I came into his office one day and I was like, okay, look at me. I need your attention. I am. I think I said the words, I am about to break and we need to change something. And that got his attention. And he. He leaned into that. He said, oh, okay, yeah, what do we need to do? [00:25:59] Speaker D: So the results of that ended up being we needed to change the roles in the business. And I just thought she was going to continue on doing the things in the business she was going to do and can, you know, and grow the business and continue to homeschool the kids. And I don't know why I thought all that was possible for a human being. So it was just lack of awareness on my part, which, again, guys, I know we can be like that sometimes, right? But yeah, I just think that was so important from my perspective. It was so important that she entrusted me with just being that honest that she was really struggling. The words she used were very dramatic to me because, you know, that, like, that kind of still gets to me to think about my wife is breaking down and I'm just oblivious to it, like, what's wrong with me? But I just, I think I was. [00:26:50] Speaker C: Going to say, I think one key to that conversation was I didn't come at you and attack you. That's a piece of it is that I was feeling frustrated. I was feeling like, you know, oh, my word, this is too much weight for me. But I didn't come at him and say, you know, hey, you need to fix this. I just said, this is what's happening in me and we need to change something. [00:27:11] Speaker D: And so that kind of like fast forwarding to the business that we have now is. It's called side by side business. And that's part of the heart behind that, is that as husband and wife, we're running this business together, side by side, but we're also attacking problems and issues. It's really easy. We've heard people talk about, you know, I need to get knee to knee for this conversation with my spouse. And it's kind of like, you know, we need to confront something. We need to really, like, you know, address this. And there are, there are, as we've already referenced, there are a lot of times where that is very important to get eye to eye and to have these discussions. But when there's a problem, when we get eye to eye, we have a tendency to start blaming each other. Like, you know, you're the problem. When really the, you know, she's not the problem. There may be like, let's say it's financial. Well, okay, there's a money issue. There's a money problem here, but we need to address that shoulder to shoulder, side by side. And we're on the same team here is kind of the idea. And so some of these conversations are directly with each other, and sometimes they are us together, shoulder to shoulder, side by side, addressing the problem together as. [00:28:24] Speaker B: A team, working with couples within your, your coaching business. What's the main problem that you run into or that most couples run into when they're doing business together? [00:28:38] Speaker D: Okay, so there's a wide range of things there. But one of the big things that we have seen is that whenever there's some foundational things that are not taken care of, it's really easy to kind of ignore those. And then there's that it creates all these other issues then that are maybe more in your face at times. And so we have just found that whenever the most important relationship is solid, on a solid foundation, and of course, I'm talking about the marriage relationship, that it just makes everything else easier. It doesn't mean that running your business, for example, we primarily work with married entrepreneurs, so it doesn't just mean that their business is just going to. Everything's going to be, you know, a bed of roses. Now, there's still problems and challenges, but when you've got those foundational things taken care of, it really makes it so much easier to address those other things. [00:29:34] Speaker C: Yes. And I also think that one of the issues that we address pretty quickly with couples is their roles in the business. Because one of the things that we discovered as we were moving into this working together is that the roles that we had in the home, the roles that we have in our marriage, that's pretty clearly defined in scripture, like what your role should be and what your, your priorities are there and everything. But when you start talking business now we're talking perhaps roles that look very different from the roles that you play at home and play at home, that you hold at home and that you need to figure out for the business who is strong in what area. And that person needs to take the lead in that role. For example, for our E Comm business, when we had a warehouse and a team of people to run. You know, traditionally, I mean, Larry runs our home. He's. He's the head of our home. But when it came to that, I'm better at managing people. And so I ran the warehouse and I. I managed that team, which was very much a leadership role, which is, you know, I don't try to take that role at home, but it was. It was a way that we leaned into our strengths and even things like at home, I ran the home budget, but when it comes to business money and spreadsheets and taxes, my eyes glaze over. And that's his job. So sometimes the roles look a little different, and we help couples discover what should the role be that you play in the business versus it may or may not be the same or similar role to what you are fulfilling your home. [00:31:19] Speaker B: Have you found with some of your couples that maybe their strengths are the same? And what has been the solution for that? Like, let's say you've got two people who are very spreadsheet oriented. Where's the creativity? Have you helped couples kind of navigate those elements? [00:31:36] Speaker D: Yeah, definitely. And, you know, that's. In many ways that's good, like, because it. You can get to decisions a little bit faster if you're both, you know, you both have that bent. Because I've had to really learn how to discuss spreadsheets and such with sue over the years. If I start at the top and work my way down, yeah, she's. I've lost her by the time I get to anything that is really relevant. So I. I jump to the bottom. Yeah. And then she asked questions to fill in. [00:32:03] Speaker C: Right. [00:32:04] Speaker D: So, yeah, if they have similarities, I. I think it's. It's still just really important that it's well defined who is. Is responsible for that area, and then that person has the authority in that area. You know, like we said earlier that sue runs the ebay portion of our business. And when we were transitioning from one location to another not too long ago, just a few months ago, and sue was asking me questions about some of the things, like, I'm thinking about getting rid of this item that hasn't sold in a long time. And I was just like, that's fine. Whatever you want to do with it. And then she came back to me again and like Sean, a different one. I've done a lot of vba over the years. Okay. So we do both have a strength in this area. That's why this is relevant here. But so she, she would come back to me with another thing. And I, at some point I just said, look, you're in charge of that and whatever decision you make, I'm not going to be upset about it. I think you were afraid, like, I had sourced something five years ago and it's never sold. And I was going to be upset that she was getting rid of it and we were taking it to charity somewhere. And I'm like, no, just, it's your decision. Just do it. And so that's tough at times because I could have seen something on that giveaway pile and go, like, that was really important to me the day I remember, the day I found that and such. So she was deferring to me. She was trying to be kind to me. But when it comes down to business, we just need to have those roles really well defined and then the authority within that sphere well defined. And it's hard. But as the other partner, you can't be trying to butt into that area. [00:33:37] Speaker C: Right. And I think the flip side of that coin is there may be areas that neither one of you is very strong in. [00:33:43] Speaker D: Correct. [00:33:44] Speaker C: Or maybe you're both reticent to step into that role. And at the beginnings, probably one of you two is going to have to fulfill that role. So you're going to have to have. [00:33:53] Speaker D: A discussion like website development. Yeah, unfortunately, it's me right now. [00:33:58] Speaker C: You're going to have to figure that out and do that for a little while. But that problem probably should be one of the things that's on the top of your list to outsource, once you're ready to begin outsourcing and bring somebody in who can fulfill that role for you. So there will be challenges, there will be things that maybe neither one of you want to do or things that both of you want to do. And again, it's just a matter of talking through it and making the decision about how are we going to handle it and then just stick to that. [00:34:31] Speaker B: I, I love that advice. [00:34:32] Speaker C: That's. [00:34:33] Speaker B: That's such solid advice, especially the outsourcing piece, because I think that for any entrepreneur, there are going to be those elements of business that you don't enjoy doing and at the forefront, you just have to work your way through them. And then when you get to that point, you can outsource and so you can focus on the, the creative elements or the elements that you do like within your business. So within your business structure now, are you all still doing the selling as well or More so just coaching side. [00:35:02] Speaker C: We've cut back quite a bit on our selling, but we, we're still doing it. I don't know if I'll ever leave ebay. I really enjoy doing it. So. So it's a fun thing for us to do. But primarily right now we are doing the. The business coaching and marriage coaching for couples. [00:35:18] Speaker D: Yeah, this is, this is just an area that we have found that this is what the Lord created us for. This is really where we just feel so passionate about doing this. And we've had the opportunity to coach literally hundreds of people in the e commerce space. And we have observed that a lot of times businesses just, it just creates this extra level of stress in the marriage relationship. And we just kind of feel like we're well positioned to help people with both the marriage relationship as a foundation and then how that leads into running a business as well. [00:35:57] Speaker B: What is your best or top piece of advice for a married couple that has decided that they want to take that plunge and they want to start a business together? [00:36:07] Speaker D: I would say to make sure you're on the same page and to dream together. You know, there's with it depends on, you know, how the relationship is. We, we know some couples where they're both entrepreneur minded and some where one is and one isn't. So it'd be a little bit more of a challenge. Well, either way is a challenge, obviously, because if you're both entrepreneurs, you both have got these wacky ideas and you may be pulling different directions. If one is an entrepreneur, one's not, then the one who is reluctant, we need to make sure that that person is on board as well when it comes down to it. But I think it's so important that you're both going the same direction that you are dreaming together. And that's something that we will walk our students through is just that entire process. And there's, you know, you need to ask good questions. Right. And so we've got like a list of questions that we have come up with that really help people to narrow things down and to get a good idea of. Yes, we're both on board with this. We're both pulling the same direction on this thing. And as long as you've got that kind of vision or purpose together, then as the issues come up, it becomes really clear of how to address those things together. [00:37:29] Speaker B: Beautiful. What sets your coaching business apart from other coaches out there that maybe are working with married couples and businesses? [00:37:39] Speaker C: So I think that really it's just a matter of we've Lived it for so many years. It's been a high priority for us to be an example of what a godly Christian marriage looks like. And then that we just carry that into our business world and into our business relationships. We take people down a pathway. We call it the 2, 2, 4 pathway, where we help them discover what's the vision that you have for your family? What's the vision that you have for your business? How do you make those two visions come together and. And accomplish that and grow that business that you're dreaming of remaining side by side? And so we. You hear it all the time. I'm sure you hear it in all the circles that the most important thing in business is relationships. And if you're in business together, the most important relationship in your business is your marriage. And so we give a high focus on that and we. We let the marriage or the business come along with the marriage and. And grow as a result of having an amazing marriage. [00:38:42] Speaker D: And, you know, I just referenced this a minute ago, but we've heard this recently that it's just so important to ask the right questions. And as just humans, it's hard for us sometimes to ask the questions of ourself. It's just hard to get outside of our mind and know, like, what's the main question that I need to ask myself right now? So that's something that we've just learned over the years is what. What questions should we be asking of our students? And we've just seen a wide variety of responses and we've learned what works better with people in certain circumstances. And so I think that's one of the things that kind of sets us aside, is that we know the questions to ask. And we, as we've talked a lot today, we will lean into these difficult conversations and we will give people the direction that they need, whether they want it or not. And we've seen that people have responded well to that and have had good success. [00:39:47] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. Well, this sounds like such a beautiful framework, and I would love for people to be able to connect with you. Where can we find your website and how can we connect with you if we want coaching? [00:39:59] Speaker D: Yeah. So the best way to connect with us, we have a free resource that we are making available to your listeners here, and it's a set of connection cards. And do you want to explain what those are and then I'll get the link? [00:40:11] Speaker C: Yeah, it's really just a way we talked about connecting every day and how important that is. And these are just little quick questions that you can give an answer to in a minute or two. And some of them are fun and just kind of, you know, dreaming type things like where would you go on vacation? Some of them are a little bit more serious about the business or about the marriage and get, you know, maybe, maybe open up a deeper conversation. And there's about two months worth of cards in there if you use a day. Yeah. [00:40:39] Speaker D: And so to get that, you just go to our [email protected] connect c o n n e c t. So sidebyside business.com connect amazing. [00:40:52] Speaker B: Oh my goodness. Well, those sound like incredible cards and I love that they're a free resource. So I will be sure to link all of that information within our show notes. Larry and sue, this has been so wonderful. I've absolutely enjoyed having you on as a guest today. I do have one more question for you and this is something that I like to ask all of my guests at the end of the show. And it's one of those mad lib fill in the blank style questions. So the question is you have to blank to blank. [00:41:21] Speaker C: Yeah. So we would say you have to prioritize your marriage in order to succeed in your business. [00:41:28] Speaker B: So beautiful. Thank you so much for your time today. [00:41:30] Speaker C: Oh, thank you. It's been a joy to be on. [00:41:32] Speaker D: Thank you so much for having us. [00:41:38] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening. If you found value in today's conversation, make sure to subscribe, rate and leave a review. And as always, don't forget to share this episode with anyone that you think could benefit. And for more information about today's guest, be sure to check out the show notes. We'll see you next time.