Balancing Business and Working with your Spouse with Sammy Gross

Because I work with my spouse, there's a lot of highs and a lot of lows in business. And in general, it's really bad to ride the highs and the lows because they're invariably going to happen. It has been extra difficult because those highs and lows. My spouse is looking at me, and she's also my business partner. So it's a really difficult fine line to walk.

So today on the podcast, I have Sammy Gross, who is the president of Therapeds. And today we're going to talk about what it's like to be new in your business, and then also what it's like to work with your spouse. So, Sami, thank you for being here today.

Thanks for having me.

And can you tell me about what does Therapeds do?

Therapeds is a pediatric therapy company providing early intervention services in early learning centers.

Wow. What do you do at Therapeds?

So I'm the president. I'm in charge of revenue cycle management, business development, you name it. I kinda own a lot of it.

Okay.

And I bring donuts to the quarterly meeting.

That's probably one of the most important things that you do, right? Feed your team. Are they good donuts? Where do you get your donuts from?

Oh, there's this place, duck donuts, down the road from us at Pine Crest. Anyone on my team watching this knows I've never actually brought those, so that was a lie.

So now you're gonna have to raise the bar and bring duck donuts.

We're usually a crumble cookie company.

Okay, yeah, I can go for that. So talk to me about. So your business not only impacts families because you're working with children, but you are a family business. So tell me, I would love to know what made you decide to work with your spouse.

So, first off, I had no intention of working with my spouse. When I met her, she had started this company years back, and then I kind of shifted into it in an unofficial role. But then I've always wanted to be a business owner. Did not know what that meant at all. I just kind of had this vision of me being a business owner, and I don't know, I saw that what she had done had some really good groundwork. To be something that could be scalable, can impact a lot of families, can be profitable, I don't know. And it was exciting. I'm also a horrible employee, so it made sense to be a business owner.

So if you own it, Faye can't fire you.

I'm not sure the formality she probably could. She probably could fire me still, you know, if she wanted, but.

No, that sounds like an awkward family meeting.

It would be. No. Yeah, I think that was kind of. I don't know. And I just. I had a bigger vision, I think, than Faye. She kind of started off and she wanted to be able to have something that could sustain her family. And then I had a really big vision for what this company could be.

All right, so shifting into your work in the business, tell me how you integrate your personal passion, what you care about, into your business.

So I think my personal passion, and I have a background is empowering people and coming from customer service. So it's been. My goal is to make every interaction with, whether it's an early learning center director, one of our staff members, a family member, is just kind of to treat them like they're the president of the United States and make sure they get the world class experience that they deserve and whether it's the entry level employee versus our leadership team trying to bring that and making everybody feel empowered to grow.

How do you measure your impact in how you're doing that?

How? Yeah, I mean, there's satisfaction. Our staff does satisfaction surveys and I don't know if I have any quantifiable goals. I mean, we look at retention and things like that because we're in a relatively high turnover industry. So when we measure our retention, I think that can be directly correlated to how good our customer service is and customer experience within the internal customer.

Okay, so I've heard you say small business is not for wimps.

I said that?

You did. I said it several times when we've been together.

Did I use the word wimps?

Yeah, you did. And you emailed it to me too. Small business is not for wimps. See, so unless somebody was chatgpt answering the questions I sent you.

I thought you said small business isn't for wimps.

Well, I always say it is, but you said it too. Okay, so maybe you parroted it back. Yay me. Impact. So there's a lot of ups and downs in small business. Regardless of who said small business is not for wimps, clearly we'll both agree that we both said it. How do you define success when you are walking through those ups and downs? How do you manage your feelings, your communication, everything? Because again, you're working with your spouse.

It's something. It's really tough. I will say I. I'm no expert, especially as somebody who I've got like these lofty goals, like I want to take over the world. And unless I take over the world, like, I might not view that as a success internally. So I'm, I'm coping right now with learning how to celebrate the small wins. But I think the biggest thing too, because you. Because I work with my spouse, there's a lot of highs and a lot of lows in business. And in general, it's really bad to ride the highs and the lows because they're invariably going to happen. It has been extra difficult because those highs and lows. My spouse is looking at me and she's also my business partner. So it's a really difficult fine line to walk when she sees me dejected because I got a tough email or she sees me riding the high of getting a sale or getting a new client. So I tried to stay more even keeled doing a lot of meditation. But other than that, it's something I'm really struggling with.

Wow. So you balance a lot of different things. So you're a business owner, you're a husband, and in the not so distant past, you added another title to your list, that of dad. So how does small business life hit differently with that new title?

It's first off, I somewhat. A mentor of mine told me like I was, I was really anxious about having a baby in business. And he told me, he's like, Sammy, the second you have this baby, like, you are just going to have this desire to go provide for your family and you are going to bring it up a notch. So I was in the hospital after my baby was born and I didn't feel this, like, desire to provide for my family because I was really tired and I was like, oh, my God, he didn't know what he was talking about. But since then there has been a different intensity. So I think being a dad a has helped me appreciate. Appreciate all parents. Being a dad is so much more difficult than being in business. I think it has made me appreciate going to the office is much easier than staying up with a sick child.

Yeah.

And I don't know, I think especially to watch my wife, who is super mom, super business woman, does every wears every hat. I think that has given me a new appreciation, but it's also put things into perspective. Like I said, boundaries are really tough in a family business. I don't know if I said that or not, but they are.

They are.

And I think it has brought a different level of perspective that I do not want my daughter to witness me stressing at home about something at work or only talking about work with Faye. So. Wow.

So you're often working together with Faye almost all the time. So how do you balance your working and your married relationship? What are the things that you would say to Sammy five years ago of do this, stop doing this.

Okay. I mean, first off, communication is one of the most important. Faye and I have done a lot of work on finding a dialogue format that we can bring up difficult conversations in a respectful way. So I think investing more into the communication and in the relationship as well as making sure. A business mentor of mine also told me he's like, sammy, for every hour you put into work with Faye, you need to put X number of hours outside of work. And it's something I strive for. I think, especially with a young child, it's really difficult when you're working together eight hours a day to say, hey, let's put 10 hours towards each other. But I think really setting aside time, that is business off limits.

So what does that look like for you? Business off limits. As someone who struggles with balance and turning off, how do you do that, Sammy? I'd like to know. Teach me.

I was hoping you would teach me. It's tough. Especially Faye is the type of person who will work from like 5am to 2pm and I'm the type of person who's working at 11pm and we'll be watching Sex and the City and I'm like, oh, my God. And she could tell this. Look what I'm about to say.

Don't do it.

She's like, don't do it. Yeah, yeah. It's tough.

Are you the person that checks email in bed and gets frustrated?

Yeah, yeah. For sure. I mean, yeah.

Same.

I'll tell you, I have gotten really good. I'm gonna toot my own horn for a second.

Okay.

Because previously I would get an employee quits at 10:30pm and I would be like, faye, Faye, Faye. And now I have gotten really good at waiting until the next morning to tell her.

So do you hold all of that information, try to go to sleep and then tell her at 5 in the morning?

Not at 5 in the morning? Not for me, no. But, yes, I do tell her in the morning. So I. And yeah.

And has that been helpful for your relationship?

Yeah.

Helpful for the business?

It depends. It depends. I wear my emotions on my sleeve so, like, she can read me and she can sometimes tell. So sometimes she's like, hey, Sammy, what happened? But often I play it cool. I can reach to an outside advisor or somebody and go to them without needing to alarm her.

Okay.

It's tough wow.

It is holding all this stuff together, balancing the family part. Still trying to do all the things like eat, sleep, and work out. Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, so what is the one thing you'd want listeners to know about what it is that you do to balance and communication? What's that one thing where you're like, if you don't learn anything else? Take this away from the podcast.

I think the power of taking care of yourself. I don't know if it has to do with communication. I mean, I think when we're not taking care of ourselves right now. Right. I have to be a dad, a husband, a business owner, and Faye has to be a mother, a business owner. Everything she does, which, sorry, Faye, for not including every aspect that you do, but I think it's taking care of yourself because without working out or eating healthy, I am of no use to anybody in any of those realms. I'm a bad dad, I'm a bad husband. I'm not my optimal as a business owner. So making sure to do that. And it's something I'm working on.

I appreciate your authenticity vulnerability around it because I think it's so easy as a small business owner to pretend like we have it all together all the time. No, we don't. And children will humble you quickly and remind you of that. At least I know mine did. Maybe yours doesn't do that, but.

She can't talk yet. But she will.

Yeah. Just wait. So in kind of closing some things up, how can our listeners connect with you and your business?

So our social media presence is not great, but you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, follow me on LinkedIn. Yeah, give us a follow. Kind of see what we're up to.

Awesome. And kind of learn too, about how you're balancing all the family stuff, all the work stuff, and continuing world domination.

Yeah. Yeah. Who knows? Maybe I'll be make a TikTok about it.

Okay.

TikTok.

I don't know. We're not on TikTok.

Not mad on TikTok.

All right, thank you, Sammy, for your time.