Love & Business: How Kyle & Ariel Built Both Without Falling Apart

On the scene stuff for me. Yeah, but, Perfect. How are you guys? Where are you? Where are you?

So we are in a technically South Florida, right?

So we just moved. So we've been in South Florida for a while, but, now we're like an hour north from where we were, so we're still. We're not sure if South Flor is the correct answer, but somewhere.

In Florida on the ocean. So it's a city called Hutchinson Island. So we just, it's been a it's been a pipe dream, actually, for Ariel and I to one day moving to a house on the ocean. And as of last week, we actually fulfilled that dream. So very big graduations. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate that.

Yeah. So are you on the Atlantic Ocean or are you on the Gulf Atlantic?

Yep.

And what's your where are you relative to, like, Saint Augustine?

We are but two hours south.

But. Yeah, but yeah. Two hours.

Yeah. To our south. Do you know someone from Saint Augustine?

No. My my mother in law used to live in Palm Coast. Oh, okay. Little. Maybe a little bit closer even to you than Saint Augustine. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's cool. Yeah. She's out here now. Thank God that where I'm. So that was a giant eyeroll, but, she, she used to live out there, which means every once in while we got to go to visit the coast of Florida. Oh, well.

And where are you guys at right now?

Now I'm in Seattle.

Seattle? Okay, a little bit different.

Total opposite.

Yeah. I grew up in the mountains of Virginia. Okay. And, made my way out here. Maybe we've been out here, like, 25 years or so. Okay, so no, 1999. So, yeah, I guess it is about 25 years. Okay. It's 2025, right?

Yeah, it is already. I know, it's crazy. Yeah. I saw a really funny meme that said, January was a tough year, but we got through. It was like it was so perfect.

My thing is, February is the new January, so I started all my resolutions last Saturday.

There we go, there we go. And how are they going so far?

I mean, I'm I'm crushing it. I've been I've stretched every day. Yeah. That's lost every day. Let's go meditated every day. Let's go. And you know what else? I haven't done this. So you'll appreciate this as, as part of your shtick. I have not spent $1 since Saturday.

All right.

Oh, I, Rebecca, my wife Rebecca and I, we would try and experiment. Let's see if we can go one week without spending a single dollar. I.

That's awesome.

It's been fun just to kind of play with. Yeah, that is nice.

Yeah, that's an interesting challenge.

I think Alex or Mosey recommends that today.

Yeah, he usually does that. Yeah, he recommends it while he's like sitting in a jet.

It's fun. You're not that loud for me.

Oh, no.

We can we can turn here.

I can try turning these up a little bit.

Hey, hey.

This is way better. Better? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay. Awesome. Thanks for telling us. We appreciate that.

Yeah. Yeah. Sorry.

So. Well, we're a couple. We live in Florida. No, we so we co-lead a couple for, which is a coaching company for entrepreneur couples, helping them grow businesses without growing apart in the process. Yep. So both of us have been entrepreneurs for the last decade. And we had to figure out, like, how do you navigate being in business together with your significant other, whether you own separate businesses or you work together in one business?

So just over the years, by the blessing of God, we learned a lot of things that nobody else was talking about. And fast forward to today. You know, for the last three years, we've just been sharing these strategies with other entrepreneur couples, and we're helping them get results. We've also had a background in marketing. So what we offer is kind of unique in the sense that we combine our marketing experience with our experience as a couple of years, as we call it, and that allows couples to grow businesses quickly without, you know, the tension and friction that usually comes with it. So that's a little bit about us. I mean, most relevant you can say to that.

No. Okay, there you go. All right. Well, I definitely want to get into some of that with you guys. I want what I really want to do though, is, let's see. I think it was your assistant. Maybe that reached out to me.

Yeah. Samantha.

Mayor CB radio has been around for about seven years. Yeah. We, for the first seven years or so, I had a partner. Her name was Laura Heck, and she, just recently decided she would rather be a full time mom than okay by guessing. Gotcha, gotcha. We went through a little bit of a format change, which includes interviewing couples. Just kind of about who they are. So, yeah, it's been hard to find people, like, just in or organically. So, yeah, somebody can say, hey, I got these couple, they want to check with you about their stick. And I'm like, okay, that's cool, but I want to chat with them just about their life. Love that. Absolutely. Yeah.

And if it then begins to include your, your passion and your energy and your business. Absolutely. I meant like, let's talk about. Sure. Mostly I just want to, like, figure out how, like, how does it how does it work for you guys and what's going on. And so let's start with a little bit of like, like just a standard onboarding. And then we'll just see where it takes us.

I love that. Yeah we're an open book. So there's no question off limits. And we're we're here to serve your audience in whatever best way is possible.

Okay. Well, I'll start with that question then. Why are you an open book?

Okay. You want this answer right now? Yeah. Well, the reason why we're an open book is because especially in today's digital age, where everybody is posturing online, we believe that there's a void of authenticity. And the authenticity is actually the thing that sets people free. And what I mean by that is when other people know, okay, crap, it's not just us that are going through dark times. It helps those that are looking from the outside in realize, okay, maybe I'm not crazy, maybe I'm not crazy for having issues in my marriage. Maybe I'm not crazy for having issues in my business. Maybe I'm not the crazy one where it feels like everybody else is living their best life. No, the reality is, is that we're all human.

We're all going through things behind the scenes. I know for me, like hearing and getting to see people's lives behind the scenes, the authentic life that was actually more helpful and more inspiring than, you know, the plastic facade of what an Instagram reel might show.

Yeah, it allows people to think that, they're not doing something wrong when their life doesn't look like the typical social media, highlight reel. Exactly.

Yeah. So that's why we're an open book. And we've also we I will also say we have a philosophy that, you know, even in our faith that God comforts us so that way we may be a comfort to others. And I believe that every single challenge that we've gone through in our life becomes a framework and becomes a lesson that we can then pass on to other people. So if we can help somebody sidestep years and years of trial and error, trying to figure things out, then, you know, it makes our life feel meaningful.

We've done our job.

Yeah. Okay. Now I have another question because, I sent out a pre a pre-interview questionnaire which you guys filled out. Thank you for doing that. Oh, yes. And but I want to call your bluff because I said, on a scale of 1 to 10, how's your relationship? And you said it's a ten. Yeah. And I was like, hold on a second, man. That doesn't. That sounds Instagram really? Like, how do you, how can you defend that for a second? Yeah.

That's fair.

So talk to me about if you guys have stuff going on, how do you have stuff going on and call it a ten, or do you want to revisit your number and we can start a new conversation?

I love I love that discussion. Yeah, yeah. I appreciate that. The reason why I think we honestly are a ten, even though I guess that makes us less relatable, is the fact that from our perspective, at least from our entire time of being together, we're in kind of like a honeymoon lifestyle phase of our relationship. We've been married for quite a while. We've been together for at this point, what, 12 years? And because of the challenges that we have gone through, I would say that where we are right now is the best stage of our relationship. So the reason why I think we said ten out of ten is because we're comparing against ourselves. You know, we're comparing against our entire background of what we've experienced in our relationship up to this point. And I would say it's never been better now. A reason why is because we did walk through a lot of.

Crap on a house on the ocean.

So yes, you had.

That going for.

You. Yeah. It's kind of hard. Yeah, it's it's, it is a little challenging to feel like. Like things are bad.

Yeah. Well, it's hard to feel upset when, you know, it's breezy. Everybody's out riding their bikes. It's warm. Yeah.

It's nice. Yeah, but at the same time, like, again, that's a ten out of ten for us. It doesn't mean that there is a room for growth. Yeah.

We actually I mean we would actually say like, you know, there's always room for growth. So even if we are at ten, we're like, let's just go to 11. That sounds great.

That's exactly right. Yeah.

So, you know, I'm, I sit in, counseling office with couples who are coming in every day. They're not at a ten, right. Or six, you know, whatever. And I always want to sort of ask this question, so maybe this will help us frame a little bit of your journey. But in your relationship, you've had a handful of before and after, moments before and after we met. There was before and after we got married. Do you have children? No we don't. So sometimes there's before and after we had children, sometimes just before and after the affair. Before and after the bankruptcy. Yeah. Before and after the fire. Before it. After my mom died. And those before and afters usually trigger some shift in relationship satisfaction. For better or for worse, do you have, like, do you have 1 or 2 of those that you could share with us 100%?

Yeah. Do you want me to start? Yeah, you could start. Then I'll feel like, you know, I'll I'll give you the most recent one, you know, because again, we are an open book. And I think this most recent experience is what kind of propelled us into a ten at least. How it feels right now. That most recent experience before was, you know, there were some things that I had going on in my life that I felt very ashamed or very guilty to even bring up to my wife. And because that was the case, what it created was kind of like a separation of, okay, my true feelings are over here in one room, but when when I'm in the room with Ariel, I'm not necessarily as open and as vulnerable about these things that I'm keeping behind the scenes, things that I was ashamed of. And what I noticed in that season was that Ariel is smart, you know, as most wives are.

She was sorting, you know, she's kind of picking up on like some things that were that were happening. But, you know, I felt that if I could that if I was going to bring these things up to her, that it would cause her to, you know, be upset to not like me anymore and it would be damaging to our relationship. But the very fact of me not bringing up something and not being emotionally intimate was actually creating and causing a strain in my relationship. But I'm sure, Zach, you've seen this time and time again with the couples that you work with. And I would say the before state of the situation was, you know, we would we would talk, we would communicate.

But there was, you know, almost like a, you know, a secret back door of my brain that I was not opening up to Ariel and what she would perceive it as is emotional shut down. She would perceive it as I'm dismissive. I'm cold. I'm. I'm distant. Exactly. And then one day, you know, all of it is built up beneath the surface. And I was like, no, I have to just come clean. I had to be open and honest about what this is. And, you know, I sat with Ariel and I'm not I'm here to say it's easy. It was actually one of the hardest discussions I've ever had in my life. But walking through that painful kind of confession time of these things that I had behind the scenes, as so painful as it was, it opened up more intimacy between us.

In fact, I would say that it was one of the things that greatly increased our intimacy, because, as I'm sure you know, and many of the people your audience knows, opening up emotionally is what leads to intimacy physically. That's the time I learned that. And also it leads to even more emotional intimacy. So fast forward to today in the after state, I now have shifted the way that I view our relationship where there isn't going to be a back door of secrets that I keep from my wife anymore. I'm actually now much more open and much more honest about what I feel. And because I do that, she has an even greater level of trust in me. And she also doesn't have to wonder, why is Kyle distant? You know, because I'm not anymore. I'm bringing these things up to her. So I would say that that was that was a really, really big one.

And that one was, you know, semi recent that really kind of propelled us in the next level.

One thing I'll add to that too, is when when there was kind of that emotional shutdown. What, what would happen in my mind is not only did I feel like he was distant, but there was also like, what's he thinking about? And my brain would actually, kind of catastrophize there we go. Catastrophize what he was thinking about and like what was happening in his mind. And so what I actually found is like, I think I was making it a bigger thing when he was keeping things from me, just, you know, because my mind would run rampant in terms of what I thought was actually happening. Whereas when we were able to discuss it, it actually brought us a lot closer together. And, and it made me realize that, like, I was bringing my own stories and baggage into what I thought maybe what's happening behind the scenes. So,

Mythmaking. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I that made this sounds wrong, but I set my wife down for a talk one time. But one time we had a we were coming into a particularly challenging time, and I sat down with her and said, hey, I need to talk about something. And she was sure I was about to ask her for a divorce. Right. And I was like, oh no, no, no, right. It's not, you know. Yeah. She had run away with this whole thought process that had kind of let her into, you know, again, I think, bringing clarity to those situations is really the biggest, you know, benefit sometimes 100%. I also think, you might and this might be what you're talking about to, which is, I would say, what's the best possible outcome of, of conflict. Yep. Yeah.

I guess the best possible outcome of conflict. Yeah. I would just say make up sex. Oh. Well you know, I mean that was part of it for sure.

Like when we go through something hard it leads to deeper intimacy. And it can be I mean, makeup sex can be ice cream. It can be a nice walk on the beach. It can be, you know, just some sense. It doesn't have to be. But, but yeah, deeper intimacy because of something hard that we've come through. Yes. So I think that's what you're describing.

Yes. Yeah, I mean that what that that was one, external outcome of that. You know, it's just a, an overall more deeper intimacy, which of course leads to more physical intimacy. And even today, you know, like the way that Ariel and I talk to each other, the way that we operate together, whether it's in business together or separately, where a lot more open with each other and there's just a lot more intimacy. I would actually say that, you know, in the last 12 months, we have more intimacy than ever before, and this is after 12 years of being together.

I'll talk about whatever you want, but I'm interested in a couple things that have just come up. You don't have children. Do you not have children on purpose or do you not have children because you're not, you know, into it or is it a challenge for you or like what is, is it on the horizon? Like what's your. And I'm not trying to ask you like I'm your mother in law. I'd be like, hey, what? The baby's coming. But like, what is that about in this part of your journey right now?

Yeah, yeah. So I'll say, for me personally, I think Kyle's more on the indifferent side. I, there's a probably a couple of different reasons, but I grew up, with my mom, and she, she had an in-home daycare, and so I was around children the majority of my life. I raised children from I mean, I live on my own, but I raised children from the age of, like, you know, 5 or 6 weeks up to, you know, now they're in college. She was my age a little bit. But so I did raise kids. I was around kids a lot. It's not that I don't like kids, but I just I felt like I already had done that part of my journey, as weird as that sounds. And so I've just never really had that desire for children. And I know Kyle knew that when he started dating me and, he always just kind of said he was indifferent.

And I think to this day, he's still indifferent. I think if I wanted to, he'd be down. But I don't think he has that desire necessarily either.

Yeah. So so even though there is probably there's especially for Ariel, a lot of societal pressure, a lot of like, you know, a potential obligation that would be put on her at the at the end of the day, when we come together and we make decisions about life, we we ask each other, what do we both want? And if if honestly, like if neither of us have a genuine desire to have kids right now, who's to say that we should have kids? Now that is to say, we do care deeply about the younger generation, of course. And not that we need that disclaimer. But, you know, a lot of what fuels what we do behind a couple producers is the fact that we are essentially coaching a lot of parents on how to navigate growing a business. And being intimate together with their significant other, which has a ripple effect into younger generations.

So even though we have a very strong calling, I would say, to impact younger generations and to feed into the next generation of leadership, having kids doesn't really feel part of that calling it that makes sense.

Yeah, yeah, I do love that. Something that you said, and I tell clients this all the time. I think in any, decision or conflict in particular, there is something you both want, like. Yeah, just seek that out. What is it that we both want is actually really, really, I think that I'm glad that I'm glad that you surfaced that. Absolutely.

Yeah. And honestly, that question, it guides most of the things that we do in business. Like we're even even some of the things that we walk our clients through in our coaching program. It all kind of starts with that question, you know, because if we're going to look at building a business, we have to make sure that the business that you're building, especially alongside your significant other, is something that actually creates the lifestyle that you want in. We know many business owners that grow wildly successful businesses, but they're tied to it 24 seven, and it doesn't create the lifestyle or even the relationships that they want. So if we can come together as a couple and answer that question, what do we both want? Identify a unified vision. From there, we can actually dictate the strategy that would enable that unified vision to become a reality.

Yeah. And if there's ever any, supposed conflict in what we want, like if you want something different than I want, we always ask the question first before we like, quote unquote compromise. We always ask the question like, how can we both get what we want? Which sometimes involves compromise, but we try to be resourceful and figuring out like, what would it look like for both of us to not feel like we have to compromise?

Man we, we, we covered a lot of ground there in a hurry. I want to slow down and back up just a little bit. And how, how did you guys find each other. Like how did you meet.

We actually met in middle school. So we actually, we met in middle school. Yeah. We dated. We dated in middle school for how many months?

About four months. And I know that because she broke my heart and she broke up with me.

It was the middle school dating, like.

Oh, it was crazy. Well, I was, I was that grew up. I was that clingy 14 year old kid that thought that the very first girlfriend I had would marry me. So I was still in that phase. So when I was with Ariel, I think I came on a little too strong. Yeah.

We grew up in a small town in Ohio, and, at that time, Kyle was the, clingy 14 year old boy. And I was the strong, independent woman that was not ready for that type of,

You know, race. Then kids were at that point, right?

Exactly. Tell me about. But what's interesting is then, you know, we kind of both went our separate ways, but we even though we were broken up, we we always got along with each other. We were still friends. We stayed in contact.

We'd go months without talking. And then all of a sudden we'd have a six hour phone conversation.

And then, essentially, we got back together around the age of 19, and I was a completely different person. In fact, I think I swung the pendulum so far to the other direction where I didn't want anything to do with a committed relationship. Oops. Yeah. So, so she was she had to deal with that side of it, too, of like, you know, wanting, a man who is committed. And eventually I was committed because essentially when we got back together, neither one of us had any intention of being together. Yeah, like it was a foreign thought. All I knew is that when I was around her, I realized, oh, wait a second, I could just be myself. I could do the dumbest, weirdest thing. I could stand on a table and like, you know, shout pizza in a crowded room.

And she would be, like, totally accepting of who I was. And the fact that I could be my authentic self around her just allowed us to have a deeper connection. And of course, I thought she was beautiful too. That also helped. And over time, even though we never had the intention of getting married, you know, years later we ended up getting married and we never would have thought, you know, now that we that our marriage and the things that we've learned from our marriage is something that impacts thousands of entrepreneur couples from all over the world. So it's just crazy how all of these things happen. But yeah, I all from a middle school breakup.

So, Ariel, I have a question. Yeah, he's standing on the table and you and you know, shouting pizza and you're like, whatever. Is that more about you or is that more about him? Are you saying.

That is the question. Yeah. So I think I think a little bit of both. I think it's I love one of the things that drew me to Kyle in the beginning was his, like, creative kind of outrageous mind, actually. I remember even in middle school, he had, like, the sense of humor that was like kind of outrageous that like, everybody, I mean, he was, you know, relatively popular, but I just, I loved his personality, a sense of humor. And, so I think there's a reverence and respect that I have for that side of him. But then there's also, of course, like, I like being with somebody who's kind of like the life of the party that gets along with everybody, that gets everybody to open up to him. So that's a little bit of both.

Thank you. I like that.

You could be honest. Okay. If there is anything that you didn't like, I'll.

Accept the status symbol of being with somebody like.

That. All right, there we go.

Shoot. My question is evaporated out of my head. Cried quite, quite. Oh, this will do for now. So you guys have this energy that's clearly around entrepreneurship. But what do you do? Like off brand? What do you do? Like what do you do with your free time? How do you. Yeah, how do you stay connected when you clock out, I guess. Or what's your what's your jam?

Specifically around what we do together.

Yeah. I mean, just in general, like, okay, how do you how do you stay? Healthy and whole as. Yeah, individual people. And then, you know, what do you do when you're not, you know, on task?

Yeah. That's a great, great question. So I'll, I'll answer first and then you can go for it. So there are a lot of other areas of life outside of entrepreneurship that are very near and dear to us. For me, my, my spiritual journey, my, my walk with God and my, my Christian belief that that leads me to an ever growing, you know, deeper relationship with, with God that I do pursue on a regular basis. And that's essentially the foundation of a lot of every bit of success that we have. It from my perspective, it's it's building off of that foundation so consistently growing deeper in in my walk with God. That's number one. Number two, I have a very strong passion for music. So, you know, in the in between Ariel and I dating in middle school and coming back together, I actually toured in a rock band and I'm a drummer, so I toured a the country in a rock band.

I played drums all over the country, and music is always a part of it. What was that?

Do I know this band?

Probably not. We were almost famous, but not famous, so it was like just enough to be annoying. So I played in a band called Concordia, and we were able to, you know, share the stage with very big acts with. That was really cool. But, yeah, not big enough. Not big enough to make it, which is okay, you know, but I would say that music is still something that I pursue now. It's still very, very important to me. So I will still write music. I also record music. I will still play music. I still volunteer at our church. I and music actually is going to be something that is a bigger aspect of our life going forward. Now that's on the personal side from a from a intimate relationship side. We do a lot of things outside of the work world to make sure that we stay connected.

One of the things that we do is what we call like Sacred Sundays. Sacred Sundays for us is a time where we just completely shut down. We don't take any appointments, we don't do any meetings. Nobody comes over the house. We are just we have that entire afternoon into the evening dedicated to just rejuvenating from the week and coming together as a romantic couple and making sure that that foundation is strong throughout the week. So that's that's my piece.

Yeah, I love it.

Hey, do you want to add to that?

Yeah, I would just say individually too. On my side, I have a, I used to be a marine biologist. I used to study wild dolphins and, prior to. Yeah. So a big fact of why I want to live on the ocean, but, so for me, there's a big love for the ocean. There's a big love for those things. And, being where we live was a big part of that. I really wanted to live by the ocean. I really wanted to be in South Florida. All the things. But yeah, so for me, I think it's just the care and love for the ocean. I also have a big charitable heart because I worked for a nonprofit. So, so a big part of what it is that we do in the business side is we want to give charitably to causes that we care about as well as, create a lifestyle that we both want to live where Kyle can play music. I can, you know, do research and fund research or organizations and things like that as well.

So, yeah. So going back to that question, the magic question of what do we both want that created our ideal lifestyle, which included living on the ocean. So we were able to thank God, check that box. And now we're getting to a point where as we're consistently outsourcing and building a team for a couple of years, that we are going to be in a position where we can pursue these other nonprofit causes and passions on our heart. So, yeah, it all comes with that question, though.

I, do you know the band Toad the Wet Sprocket? Yeah, I once, I once, the Dave Matthews Band open for Toad the Wet Sprocket. Oh, my.

Gosh, I can only imagine.

It was like they came out on the stage and they were like, to do it. So it came out and they were like, those guys are pretty good. Yeah. You know, of course they're they're playing massive, massive venues.

Oh my gosh, they're phenomenal. Carter Beaufort's actually.

So I saw that the Dave Matthews Band was like, playing just like little garage shows.

Oliver, I would have stayed.

For a while.

Love to see that, because Carter Beaufort's actually my number one top favorite drummer of all time. Oh my gosh, hands down amazing.

That's pretty fun. Yeah. And dolphins. That's pretty cool. How did you how did you do that? How did you get into that part of your life?

Ironically, I was very unqualified for it.

Yeah. Right. Me, my I, yeah.

So I was from Ohio. I don't know if maybe the fact that my name is Ariel. I don't know if there was, like, a self-identification at a young age or something there, but, but. Yeah, so I went to for college, I was like, okay, I can't go to school for marine biology because I had to go to school in my, in my local town. So I went to school there and I went for psychology and learned like behavior. But it was with a a slight bent on like human behavior but also animal behavior. So that's where I started. But I only had a bachelor's degree. And what I ended up doing is kind of like finding an organization that I wanted to work with, getting my foot in the door with them, doing like a really short internship.

And then after that, I, reached out and was like, hey, if there's any position I can fill for you guys to help out, let me know. They called me and they were like, hey, we need a cook on the boat. And they asked if I knew how to cook. And I was like, I could figure it out when I had never cooked anything other than toast in my entire life. Yeah, yeah. And so I went out on this boat. I was responsible for cooking for the whole crew and for everybody on a moving boat, which was an adventure. And, they ended up liking me, and they invited me back every year to the point that I finally, after many years of doing that, was able to then become the research assistant for that organization. So. Yeah.

So, Ariel doesn't give herself enough credit like, how insane is that to reach out to an organization, go. Hey, whatever you need, I'm in. They go, hey, do you know anybody that can cook? She goes, I can cook. And then the day before she flies out to Florida from Ohio, she's practicing cooking for the first time in her kitchen so that she's prepared to cook on a boat for world renowned marine biologist.

I call my mom and ask her how to boil eggs.

Crazy. And then she did it. And she did it well. Like, yeah. Phenomenal. Yeah.

That's amazing. I have a I have a friend. I give him credit for this because he actually he was a chef and he was he he said, I want to learn how to do everything. Because when somebody asks me, what can you do? I want to say, what can I do? There we go.

You love that.

What can you do? Well, what can I do? I'll do like I'll be sure I'll cook on a boat with some stuff. So you're a rock drummer and a and a dolphin chef and. Yep. Somehow you become entrepreneurs together. Or you, you tap into that, like, what's that transition? How does that how does that work?

Yeah. Well, both of us had that entrepreneurial gene as long as we've known each other, especially when we got back together after the age of 19, you know, Ariel opened up a dog grooming salon in Ohio. And I kind of fell into the digital marketing world before being a digital marketing consultant was like, the cool thing to do before funnels were like all the rage. I just so happened to seek out a mentor who taught me how marketing works, and I and I was learning marketing because, you know, I was a musician. I just wanted people to show up and like, come to my concerts. And I also wanted to provide marketing help for my dad because my dad was an entrepreneur and he didn't really know a lot of the marketing stuff.

So I was like, man, if I could learn marketing, I could promote my music and I can help my dad's business grow, too. Long story short, it led to, for me, a career that just took off where, you know, a couple of years after learning all of this marketing stuff, I was building out sales funnels for eight figure companies and helping them generate millions and revenue while simultaneously, Ariel is growing her dog grooming business.

She also got involved in the nonprofit world, and her experience in the nonprofit world also showed her. As I'm sure many listeners know, that nonprofit organizations don't always quite know like how to get the word out. Yeah. And, you know, they just don't that that business savviness isn't quite there. And because she saw what I was doing on the marketing side and she saw the need on the nonprofit side, Ariel actually dove into the world of figuring out how to use organic social media marketing to get the word out about organizations and businesses without having to spend a dime in paid media.

So that actually led Ariel to, you know, shutting down her dog grooming business to launch an organic marketing coaching business. So now we have two businesses in one household. I'm running a digital marketing consulting business where I'm working with clients that do seven figures in eight figures and above. And Ariel is working now as an organic marketing coach, helping women from all over the world grow and scale businesses from home without any paid media experience.

So as we're both growing, we're both in the marketing world but with a different flavor, and that is really where we started experiencing a lot of tension in our relationship. Because as as much as we liked each other, we also liked business. And we had all of these passions, as you mentioned. And we had to figure out, okay, between us, how in the world can we succeed in business without sacrificing our relationship in the process? How can we stop talking about work 24/7? For example, you know how how can we be present with each other when we're on date nights together? And in the business world, how do we decide whose time is quote unquote more valuable to either be in work or to take care of the House? Or, you know, how did the gender stereotypes fall into this?

All of these confusing, complex questions we had in our mind, and quite honestly, there weren't really any answers to. And even on the business side, we had to figure out, like, how how can we leverage each other's strengths? How can we trust each other to get the job done without one of us having to step in and micromanage?

And all of these questions we could not find answers to. So we had to, like, figure it out ourselves the hard way. And that essentially led us to creating new strategies and systems for ourselves that have now built double doors. Because after we figured it out for ourselves, we went from a point where our income was completely flatlined and our intimacy was just drained to getting to a point where not only did our intimacy come back and we can experience a height of a relationship, we actually noticed that the more intimate we became as a couple and the more we learned to work well together, it actually dramatically increased our income in the process. So it was kind of like stumbling on like a secret holy grail of growth for a couple. For years and.

Not more sex, make more money. Is that what.

You. Pretty much. That's exactly. Well, that's part that's part of the stake for sure. And it's true because if if you're any anybody who's listening to this, if you can imagine having a business with your significant other, if if there's a subconscious belief that business growth equals less intimacy and more strain in your relationship, you will subconsciously sabotage your own growth. Yeah, but what if you could enter a world where the success of your business can actually feed the success of your relationship, and vice versa? Yeah, and that's what we started to share. So that's kind of the long answer for how entrepreneurship got involved into all of these things. But we do feel very in alignment now with combining both of our skill sets and our backgrounds to help other entrepreneur couples sidestep all of the trial and error we had to experience.

Yes, that sounds like one of those things is where they clear boundaries. Perhaps around Sunday, like, yeah, we just we clock out on Sundays and we clock back in on Monday or whatever. But yeah, you have a like what else is on the list?

Like, oh, there's so many things.

Yeah. I don't want to I don't want to give it all away for free. But like, what's the what's the what's the secret?

Yeah. Well, you mentioned a part of it there. You know, we have to create boundaries. We have to. We had to protect the boundaries, and we have to trigger the transitions, as we say. So when we talk about creating boundaries, basically we have to answer the question as a couple. When does work start and when does work stop. And we get together and we align on our schedule of where does work end and where does romance time begin. And we're very intentional about that. In addition to that, we also have to answer the question, when does family time start and what is family time stop? When does romance time start? When is romance time stop? You know, when does the time for ourselves to pursue the things that we are called to?

When does that start and when does that stop? And really creating a schedule that aligns on that? Once we have that schedule created, number two, we have to protect those boundaries. And a lot of times our conversations with a lot of our clients looks like a specific framework of communicating boundaries to relatives, in-laws, team.

Member.

Team members, clients, even to make sure that everybody around you knows, like what your what your boundaries are. And a lot of times you could do so without being a jerk, without having to be mean. And in fact, the way that we teach people to set boundaries, nobody even notices the boundaries are being set. Everyone just kind of acts within the the way that they're being trained to communicate, you know? So that's that's the second thing. And then I would say the third thing that's been helpful is now that we have those things in place, we have to do what we call triggering the transitions. What I mean by that is in between each of those things, whether it's work time, family time, personal time or romance time, we have to install 15 minute to 30 minute routines that transition our minds and our bodies from one mode to another.

Because it's one thing to go on a date night, it's another thing to actually be present on that date night.

Exactly.

I usually sometimes I call this the Mister Rogers moments, and you guys are probably too young to have ever watched Mister Rogers, but I remember Leslie. Yeah, he would, he would. He had a very specific ritual from being out there to in here, change his clothes and. Yeah, and his sweater and put on the shoes and say, okay, I'm gonna sing this little song. And then he's like, okay, now I'm in here and I'm ready to do this. I'm ready to be your neighbor, basically. Yeah.

So that's a great analogy. I think we might use that. We'll give you credit for sure.

Okay. Thanks. I just had another couple that I talked to, about an hour ago, and they, trademarked something for them too. So. Done. Yeah. We get, I want to back up just for a second because, I think we just, like, sped over this thing that Ariel, I want you to speak to a little bit more, which is, your business. Are you still doing it? But it's really focused on helping women do, like, grow or women, become more effective or more empowered. Tell me about that.

Yeah. So, the organic marketing coaching business that I had again, like I said, really stemmed from me seeing, like, nonprofits not knowing how to get the word out about themselves. And so it was not just nonprofits, but it was also like business owners that didn't have the capital to just pour into advertising. And so what I started with was teaching mostly women, because it's just who was drawn to me, I think, but mostly women, how to start and grow businesses from home without any paid advertising. And so that was the majority of my, like, organic marketing coaching business was focused on women specifically so they could stay home with their kids so they could, you know, build their family in a way that they didn't have to, like, leave for a job all the time, all that. So I don't currently need to do that.

I still have some consulting clients every now and then, but for the most part, we went all in on a couple partners a few years ago. It's actually kind of wild where we both had separate businesses, and I thought for a long time, there is no way we are going to go in business together because again, strong, independent woman. I just wanted to like, I had my thing and I want it to be my thing. And then one day I got sick and I woke up the next morning and I was like, today's the day we should go into business together. And so we did. But, but yeah, so I don't currently do that. Other day you got sick.

Yeah. Just like I had a really bad sickness and I was, like, bedridden for a few days, and I. Okay, if you would have asked me 24 hours before if I wanted to start the couple business with Kyle, I would have said, absolutely not. And then the next morning I woke up. I think the sickness was breaking a little bit and I was like, hey, today's the day I think we should do it.

And he was like, so do you think the sickness was correlated to that though? Like, what was the what was the correlation there I don't know. Yeah. We just know.

It was odd.

Yeah. We always kind of say it was a God moment because it was almost like the sickness slowed her down a little bit. And then she she woke up one day, for whatever reason, she was a different person. She was like, I think now's the time. We should launch a couple for nurse.

Yep. Yeah. And then, and that's when when was that?

That was in summer of 2021. And then we officially launched a couple partners in January of 2022. And it was crazy because we had no idea if there was even other crazy entrepreneur couples like us out in the world. So we created a Facebook group and we we launched the program and we were shocked in a good way how quickly this thing took off. And we were very, very blessed to where, you know, in month one, it was an instant hit. We had a bunch of clients, our Facebook group grew like crazy. Then it just kept growing and growing from there. And now to this day, that Facebook group that we have, it's called Successful Couples in Business. That Free Facebook group is the largest group of entrepreneur couples in the world, to our knowledge.

And again, it just is proof that anybody listening to this, if you and your spouse want to grow a business together, or you are in business together and and you want to be around other people like you, there actually are other couples like.

You more than you think.

Yeah, it's crazy.

So what's next for you? What's what's, what's on the horizon? What do you as you get. You just moved. Yep. So you're settling into, like. Well, you make dear friends like we do.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. A lot of times they are from other states or other countries. Like, for example, this morning we just met with a couple that flew in from Romania and talking about different business and ministry ventures that they have, which is really cool. So we will obviously, you know, our rule is if people fly in what will we'll take them out to dinner, we'll take them out to coffee, but they just have to get close to us. That's one rule we have. But of course, outside of that, we spend the majority of our days talking to people, doing podcasts, interviews, doing, you know, team meetings and client calls. So when we're not working, we're actually pretty boring. I will be honest with you. We are pretty dang boring. We like to just relax a little bit and, take time to, you know, you know, rejuvenate from the week and to get back at it.

Yeah. But I would say, okay, what's next for us? That's that's more exciting. We have a live event that's coming up. So in April 10th and 11th, we are doing a couple producers live, which is an in-person conference specifically for entrepreneur couples. We're very pumped about that. It's one of the most fulfilling things that we get to do, because we get to see life transformations face to face versus face to zoom. So we have amazing speakers that will come and speak and share their knowledge about growing businesses to eight figures and above as an entrepreneur couple. And we also have workshops there too, where couples can actually connect and have conversations that they might not otherwise have in any other environment. So we're really pumped about that.

What else? So where's that

Where is it? It's in a city called Deerfield Beach, Florida. It is South Florida. And we actually have the event in a hotel that's right on the ocean. So it's kind of doubles as a vacation for couples that they want to turn into a long vacation.

Ocean's always involved.

Yeah. We always got involved with the ocean somehow, you know.

Yeah. Yeah. Well. That's fun. I'm really glad to talk to you and hear a little bit about how you make it work and how you, essentially, you raised each other, you know, from middle school to to now, and, and it seems like you did a pretty good job.

Appreciate that. Thank you.

We did. Okay. I think I lucked out in the in the mix. I think I was the lucky one, very blessed to be with her. So. Yeah, I'll just throw that out there.

Rebecca.

Oh, thanks very cool. So if I'm interested in learning more about what you're up to, how do I find you?

So there's a couple places I would say. The first one is, our Instagram. So if you go to at couple, that's our Instagram handle. We also have a podcast. It's called The Couple Preneur show, which is again specifically for entrepreneur couples. How to navigate that unique dynamic of being two entrepreneurs in one relationship. And then we have our Facebook groups, our Facebook group is called Successful Couples in Business. If you search that in the Facebook bar, it should pop up right at the top. And basically that's, to our knowledge, the largest community of entrepreneur couples where you are surrounded by other couples who get you, who understand you, and who can cheer you on and celebrate you as you pursue your big dreams.

So very cool. Well, thanks again for coming on. I'm like I said, I'm trying to figure out how to. I don't really know what I'm doing yet, but, it's been fun just to kind of get to know people and see what they're see how they make it work, because, you know, it takes all kinds. And, I'm just grateful that you you gave me a little bit of your story.

I love this. I love the questions you ask. So thanks for having us.

Yeah.

Thank you. Yeah. Don't hang up.