Episode 34: Married to Mayhem Featuring Susan Fuller and Krista Michalowicz

You are listening to the Profit first podcast.

I had a rhyme and I forgot episode 34. Oh, it won't be a bore. It's episode 34. Thank you. Wow.

Yeah.

That bassist just gritting his teeth, the.

Drummer cranking it out. Welcome, everyone.

Maybe it's an all women's band, the Go Go's or something. It sounds like. What was that? What was that 80s band, All Women Vixen. This is that band.

Wow. Really bringing it, bringing us back.

Yeah. 80s.

Welcome, everyone, to the Profit first podcast. I'm Chris Curran. I'm the founder of Fractal Recording.

And I'm Mike Michalowicz, author of Profit First. And what we talk about on this show is everything about profitability. Every single angle you can think of. Sales, money, marketing, and even marriage.

That's right. There's so many, so much business knowledge and ideas you can gather for yourself as an individual, as an entrepreneur, as a business owner. The number one. One is profit.

Yeah. The number one is profit. And I already got my first eye roll because my wife's in the studio today. When I said marriage, I didn't mean like it's a bad thing. I mean, if you don't have a rock solid marriage and you don't have a great partner, you, It's. You're going to feel it in the bottom line. You bring all that mess to work and you're not making money. So we're going to talk about that today.

And when you. When you asked your wife to get married and she said yes, in her mind, she won a game show.

Congratulations. You're the winner of this. Now can you pronounce my name? I asked her.

Assuming you just said Mike McAllister.

Shit, dude. She went from a simple single syllable last name, like a nice Easy one to McCallowitz. Like, what kind of crack are you smoking?

Yep, that's hurdle number one. When you're married to an entrepreneur. We're gonna talk about that, right?

Yeah. So. Hi, hon. Welcome to the studio.

Hey, babe.

How you doing?

Good. I was promised a night out. That's why I'm here. So let's go.

Yeah, no, let's hurt things up. We're doing date night tonight.

Oh.

And it was just gonna be me and her. And now it's the Bedards and some other folks. We're all going out. It's gonna be this big thing, right?

Nice.

Yeah.

So, by the way, I just want to mention, our website is profitfirstpodcast.com youm can also find our show on itunes and Stitcher and tunein radio. And we have a great guest today on the phone as well.

Yeah, we're gonna bring in Susan Fuller in a minute. She's married to Peter Fuller, and she is writing a book of what it's like to be married to an entrepreneur. And I thought, well, my wife's married to an entrepreneur. She did a keynote speech around Married to Mayhem. So I thought this would be a really interesting conversation.

True story.

True story. True story. Yeah, There you go. Yeah. But before we kick into it, let's thank our sponsors.

Yes. Our corporate partners. We love them. Nextiva.

Nextiva's awesome.

Dude. Voiceover ip. Like it's going out of style.

Right, right. It's coming into style right now. No, it's really so sophisticated. I had a call yesterday with one of the key people there, one of the owners of the business. Right. And they're becoming a $75 million company. I had a call and. And I cannot say what they shared, but it's an insider scoop to what's coming down the pike. They are doing stuff that is wildly innovative and kind of like you hit yourself in the head and say, hmm, that should have been done, like 20 years ago. Why no one do this? They're on the bleeding edge. Voice. Let me tell you this. Phones used to be this simple rotary kind of. I don't know what you got this thing here. It looks like a banana thing. Phones used to be that the right companies are exploiting its integration to data and really integrating its use of statistics and other stuff like that. I can't give too much more.

Look at you getting all philosophical.

Yeah. Yeah.

So tsheets is another one of our sponsors.

T sheets. We're gonna talk about them later, about their time tracking skills. And fundera.

Fundera.

She would have no idea. She's listening to one episode and was disappointed.

Were you?

No.

Yeah.

I'm never disappointed.

She was laughing at the alien voices, though.

We're gonna sample that. By the way, your wife.

I'm a huge fan of the alien podcast.

Profit Curse Podcast.

That's painful.

That is just painful.

So thanks to our corporate partners, and this is. This is an interesting episode because, you know, it's great to be profitable. It's great to be an entrepreneur, business owner. But, you know, you have to have a wife or a husband and that it impacts them.

Yeah. You know, a lot. You don't have to have a wife or husband. Well, you can avoid that.

It's not the law. Not anymore.

No. But, you know. No. It used to be it's true. But for entrepreneurs, there needs to be a balance. And here's what I love about Susan Fuller, who we're about to bring on. And you don't even have to hit the introduction music, by the way. I got something great set up for both of the ladies here. So Susan Fuller is a wife of a guy with, with too much tolerance for risk. Take that, stick that in your corn cob pipe and smoke that one, Chris. Susan has endured, conquered, and made peace with the high flying, high risk, entrepreneurial spirit that has been her steady course for 21 years of marriage. Without support. This is her statement. Without supportive life partners, entrepreneurs could be crushed by the energy that fuels them. They need balance. They need you. With little more introduction, I would like to introduce the two most important women on this planet. My wife, Krista McCallowicz and the wife of Peter Fuller. Susan Fuller, welcome to the show.

Oh, it's an honor, right? It's an honor to be here.

So, Susan, where are you calling in from?

Well, today I'm in Indianapolis.

See, that's where we met. Now I thought you live in California. I'm totally confused.

I know, so am I, because I lived in Indiana for our first six years of marriage. Then my entrepreneur moved his family to Silicon Valley for 10 years, which we loved and thought we were there for life, only to have a startup move us right back to Indianapolis. And we've been here for five years, and who knows where we'll wind up?

Okay, so this is where we got to start digging in. This is where we start. We start picking at the wounds. From the tone of your voice, it sounds like this was not necessarily expected or your vision for your family. The move to and fro. Tell me about this. Okay, so tell me about this experience. How do you address something like this?

Well, it just kind of gets dropped in your lap unexpectedly. For example, the first move was when my son was. Let's see, I think I was still. Oh, he was like four months old. And my husband came home for lunch and said, the company is moving to California, Silicon Valley. And I'm thinking, okay, where's that? Let's go. Let's pack up and go. So when he was four months old, we moved and headed up there.

But do you just say, yes, sir, yes, sir, I'll do whatever you want. Or, I mean, what's the dialogue around this?

I was ready for a change. I grew up in Indiana and met my husband in college in Florida. So for me, it was an adventure. I was excited for the move. It was A good time for me. So it was really exciting. The only thing was there were 17 employees in the startup company. My husband and I were the only married couple with children at the time. And that's what made it tricky because, you know, I mean, I had a three year old and a newborn and we're on this flight and it, I mean it was mayhem.

All right, so let's dig into this topic of these sudden shifts that entrepreneurs bring about. Hon. You know we've been through experiences when I say hon, Susan, I wasn't talking to you by the way. I know, I know. We're getting comfortable already.

Not yet anyway.

Not yet. Yeah, yeah, within a half hour. But hun, we've been through these experiences of sudden shifts that have been I brought about to the family where. What's your experience with that?

I don't know what you're talking about. It's been so smooth and easy.

Hear the dry mouth. You're getting angry already. Tell me about it.

Well, I like what Susan said, actually. She said my entrepreneur. And that's exactly how I think of you. You're my entrepreneur. So when people ask me what's it like to be married to Mike, he's crazy. I'm like, well, I think I'm the crazy one because he said, will you marry me? And by the way, I quit my job and I'm going to start up a company and I'm working out of this guy's basement. I'm like, yeah, let's do that. That sounds great. You're my entrepreneur. So balance. That's a funny phrase. I don't know what balance means. I think that ship sailed a long time ago. Balance for us.

Yeah. Well, one thing you do in our relationship is you bring balance. So I'll be working like Chris. I could go all night and I don't know Sus, if you feel the same way about Peter. Like when I'm in work mode, it's just go time. And one thing you do, hun, is that you'll say, hey, it's time to take a break, it's time for us time or something to do with the family and stuff like that. How do you go about that? What do you do?

I am good at that.

You are.

Well, I think that's just my personality too. My personality is I need balance in my life. I need to have family time, couple time, alone time, friend time. I need all that stuff. You don't have that thing, you don't have that gene that's missing.

I have more jeans you don't have friends.

He doesn't wear jeans, you're not wearing pants right now. For us, that's a big thing. I think I'm a good mate for you because I know when to say to you, that's enough.

Right. And you know, to say in a way that's not confrontational.

Right.

Susan, what about you and Peter? Do you have two, do you have balance challenges that you have to help navigate?

Oh, definitely. When the kids were younger, we used to do Freaky Friday pizza night. And that was a night where we would concoct these crazy looking pizzas and watch a movie. And it was just something that we had to look forward to at the end of the week. And then when we lived in California, we would often go to the coast on Saturday or Sunday and just have that downtime. So, you know, like you were saying, and my husband has even said, if I didn't have a family, I would just work non stop. So I think we are the ones that can, you know, put the timeout, sign up and say, hey, come on, let's take a break. And that's what the cool thing is also about working for yourself is you can have that flexibility where he can just, you know, carve out time in his afternoon and if the kids are home, hey, you know, we're going to go do something fun at three. So he can kind of gauge where his energy level is too, so he's ready for a break. And that's even super cool.

Susan, what's the trick to approaching Peter and making him take that break? How do you position it that's not confrontational.

Well, it kind of reminds me of a time when we did have like that sit down, come to Jesus session. I remember I was like, we need to talk. And so I, we sat outside on our front like courtyard area at the table and I said, don't have your phone out. I really want you to hear me. And I said, you know, you are so distracted, I feel like you're not here, you're not listening. And I mean, he had several companies going at the time and different partners here and there in his businesses, different, you know, time zones as well. So she was scattered and I just felt like it was encroaching into the home. And of course when your office is in your home, then you know, that's a whole nother element there. But I think it was just really having that serious meeting over there. No distractions, look, you are distracted. Please, you know, try to, try to separate as best you can and Be present when you're home.

And listen, hon, what's your thoughts about that? We've had similar.

Well, Susan nailed another thing. I feel like she's my sister. Wife here. You said meeting. You said, we had this meeting. And that's how I approached Mike. Actually, a friend of mine, years ago, said something to me. We were having some struggles, or I should say, I was having some struggles. You were completely unaware of them. And I was saying, I don't know how to get his attention. I'm really frustrated. I'm overwhelmed.

And.

And she said, why don't you sit down and have a meeting with him? Mike likes to have meetings. Talk to him like you're in a business meeting. Oh, my God. It was like the light bulb went off, and I took down a pad of paper, and I sat at his desk, and I said, hey, I need an appointment with you. And actually, your eyes sort of lit up. You were like, oh, Mom, I'm all in. You know, you want to have a meeting with me? Let's do this. So that started this thing where it wasn't confrontational. It wasn't like, we need to talk. You know, worst phrase, a man can hear. And then you were open to me, and I felt heard. And we use it to this day.

Yeah, yeah. Chris, you're married. You're an entrepreneur. Has your wife had the we have to have a talk, or did she couch it a different way?

We haven't gotten to that stage too much yet. It's coming. But, see, my wife and I. I don't know, we have this such a smooth relationship that she. She's. You know, it does happen, but it happens very smooth and seamlessly thing. I don't. I don't know how else to say it. You'd have to ask her.

I guess I was gonna say, let's get her in.

Yeah, you'd have to ask her. But how about. I have a question for you.

Yeah.

So. Well, I guess if you were approached that way, let's have a meeting. You were open to it. But have you ever been approached in a way where you were. Where it wasn't nice, where you kind of were, or maybe you told your wife, hey, I got some work to do. I don't have time for this.

Oh, yeah, sure. So. So what goes on in my mind is I the one more thing syndrome? I always have one more thing I got to do, right? If I just get one more thing done, and what's happening in my head is like, oh, if I just get this done, we'll make a little more, you know, we're this much more closer to a breakthrough in income or usually it's income related or some kind of advancement of the business. So just give me one more thing. But I realize as I'm finishing that one more thing, my mind starts thinking about the just one more thing I need to do.

And.

And I get stuck in this pattern of just one more thing, just one more thing. And I can just one more thing all the way till midnight. I've, quote, unquote, improved. My first company was called Allmec. I used to work through the night. I actually wouldn't even come home. I just worked through the night and so forth. Now I start the wrap up around six. I get up 6:30, 7:00 clock, and I'm usually pretty much done for the night.

But it's, but you know, the funny thing about what you're saying for me is that when you were growing your first business, we were growing our young family. I also was very busy. So you not coming home? Well, my job was 24 hours a day too. So, you know, we were true ships passing in the night. And a million things were happening in your day. And a million things were happening in my day. It hasn't really been till the kids got older and you could start to, you know, see colors again and sleep and breathe and hear my own voice in my head where I really could see the distance at times between us.

Susan, how about you? Did you experience that with Peter with a young family?

Well, as a matter of fact, the day after my son was born, I'm still in the hospital. My husband left for a day trip to New York and that was like, well, that's fine, you can go. Because I'd rather you go when I'm here in the hospital than when I'm home, you know, alone with two kids. So, yeah, so I often we joke around about that and he was like, yeah, left, you know, the next day and headed to New York. But do you think this is a.

Male phenomena or is it, is it even more the male entrepreneur phenomena or is it just an entrepreneur phenomena? Susan?

I think it's just an entrepreneur. I don't think it's necessarily related to a man or a woman. I think they're, you know, it can be, it's just a drive. It's just that, you know what I, what I love talking to entrepreneurs is because they just get it. And I think when you talk to people who might not have the history with entrepreneurs, they get kind of a Glassy eye. It's like, you know, I don't know what you're saying. Like, what do you mean? You work for a startup. What do you mean you need fundraising? What do you mean you don't get paid?

What do you mean?

People who are, you know, they're outsourced. Why would you, why would you pay them and not yourself? And, you know, so. Or like, you know, family vacations, you try to make plans and it's all set in stone, and then all of a sudden you lose a client and you're like, we can't go on that vacation. And what do you mean? You know, so, you know, things like that. I, it's. That's real stuff.

So did you experience. It sounds like you did, but just for clarity, did you experience those ups and downs financially where it's, you know, one day jet setting, next day, you know, walking to wherever, eating cereal for dinner. Exactly. Eating ramens. Have you experienced those highs and lows?

Oh, exactly. Oh, yeah, yeah. You stop eating at the nice restaurants with the nice tablecloth and you're like kids, you're ordering off the dollar menu at McDonald's. You know, like, my son's like, can I get a Big Mac today, mom? No, you're getting the double cheeseburger off the dollar.

So how do you. I want to get some resolution or some, some tips and tricks that you both, Krista and Susan, that you both have learned or discovered for navigating stuff like that. How do you manage those highs and lows? How do you communicate that and deal with that? Start with you first. Go on with your spouse, the entrepreneurial spouse. How do you navigate those swings?

Well, how I navigate with you is consistency. I need to keep feeling connected to you. I need to feel like we're both on the same page. And that also means for me that you know what's happening in your family, you know what's going on with your children. We have amazing family that I'm really proud of. And it's with hard work and total devotion, I think. But that doesn't mean every day is sunshine and rainbows. For sure. Staying connected to you, knowing where you're at, you learning how to say, I feel stressed out, instead of just going into your man cave and going to work harder, work harder, work harder. You can't work hard enough sometimes. Sometimes you have to know how to take a walk and tell me. And I get to tell you. And you're really good about that. You listen.

Yeah. You know, one thing Krista did with me, Chris, Is that just yesterday? I think it was. She came home, she came in the office, and she's like, hey, why don't we go for a walk? And I'm like, oh, it's perfect. Perfect timing. And it just. There's a physiology change. Is that the word?

Sounds like a word.

Sounds like a word. There's a physiological change. And it gets. From my perspective as the entrepreneur, gets me out of thinking business. There's motion walking, and we're talking. But another thing you came up with, hon, is couch time. Tell Chris about this. This is cool.

So when our kids were little, there was a little bit more, Aw, aren't they adorable? There was a little bit more attention to having a night out, and we weren't very good about it. Between your schedule and three kids, it was maybe once a month. But now that the kids are older, we don't necessarily want to go out to dinner. Every Friday night. You're out. You're already out eating. And maybe the schedule just don't allow it. Maybe we don't want to. So we kind of came up with, maybe it's a glass of wine, maybe it's a cup of tea. Go in the living room. Go in the nice living room. Shut a door, tell kids we're not here.

Yeah, it becomes its own room.

There's no tv. We're here teenagers, but we're not here. Like, leave us alone. This is our time. No tv, no phones, no kids, sometimes even no dog. You know, this is about us. And we put our feet up and we just talk, laugh, and it goes hours. Sometimes we're just talking and laughing, and it's so fulfilling.

Susan, what do you do for you and Peter to get some good husband wife time?

Well, I think it's gotten a little bit easier now that our kids are older. They're 18 and 15. So we have a daughter in college who's now home for the summer, and our son is almost getting ready to be driving. So I think we're at a different stage, too, in our marriage and that our kids are older. So I think that, you know, like Chris just said, having that quality time where there aren't, you know, a million other things happening that you can have that time to focus on kind of where you're at, where you want to be going. I think before in our entrepreneurial lives, we were always reacting. You know, if we lost a client, then it'd be like, okay, scrambling. What are we going to do now? And where are we going to cut back and all this? And so now we come together and have kind of like financial meetings where we can look at the budget and kind of project so we can be prepared instead of always feeling like we're just always reacting. So I think that helps, kind of sitting down, having an understanding of where we're at and where we're headed. And then I think like Krista said too, just kind of checking in to know where everyone is at in their lives. Especially this year was a struggle with the transitioning with one off to college. And so that took a little bit more of our, kind of our date night time, I guess you would say, where, you know, we would talk about her and how her life was going a little bit more. So we have a winery just down the road from us. And so they have like music. Yeah, it's pretty fun. Did you say what winery?

Well, I was gonna say, well, welcome to California. But then I'm like, no, you're in Indianapolis now. I'm like, where is this winery?

I know, can you believe it? It's like stuck in the middle of cornfield. But hey, we're.

It doesn't matter where the winery is.

I know, it's kind of fun. They have live music on Sundays from 2 to 5. So we'll hop down there and listen to some live music and we just kind of guard that time and say, hey, this is what mom and dad are going to go through and have some time together. And it's just something that we start to look forward to and then we can still talk during that time and share what's going on. So I really like that.

Now, without a spouse, I think the kind of the life of the entrepreneur would go down some crazy. The wheels would go off the wagon. It would just go down this crazy path because to some degree it's an addiction. Right? Maybe it's not a unhealthy addiction like drugs, but it's an unhealthy addiction of it's a manic. There can be a manic state of got to work more, got to work more. How, you know, what. Is there specific things you can say that if someone listening in is saying, oh, I'm thinking about marrying an entrepreneur. And this is, you know, man or woman, certain things, Susan, that going into that relationship that you should be prepared for and can help the entrepreneur through their kind of manic state?

Well, that's really interesting because it took me many, many years to figure out that actually my husband was an entrepreneur, which sounds funny, but when we met in college, he ran a hot dog business out of his dorm room.

Is that what he called it, Susan?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he came up with the combo meal where they got like, you know, the hot dog, chips and a soda for a certain deal. And I just saw it as being resourceful. You know, he's being very resource. He's making envy. Or he would work two jobs, you know, during one of his, you know, breaks from college. So then it started to spiral into early on in our marriage when he's like, hey, let's do a video wedding. Videography company will be Fuller and Fuller Productions. And I'm like, okay, sure, you know, whatever. And so here we are on the weekends, VO TV and weddings. And then it turned into writing articles for the local newspaper with monthly columns. And so for me, I was just like, gosh, maybe he's just super resourceful. And then as the years went by and the years went and it was one thing after another, I thought, what is wrong with this guy? And he's got a problem because my parents worked the same job for 41 years and retired, you know, with pension, and we don't. We're not going to have that at all. I mean, good grief.

So I think, what am I doing?

Yeah, for me, I thought there was something wrong with him. But now, as I lay out the timeline and see where he's going and what he's done, then I think that my advice would be that you have to give them the freedom to live out their dream. Being an entrepreneur, I don't think you should set time limits. I don't think you should really set geographic limits. I just think that for them to actually live out their passion, they have to have that freedom. And I think that by giving them that freedom, then they will in turn be there in the relationship and you're going to have those ups and downs and, you know, those times of distraction. But I just think that I truly want an entrepreneur. Always an entrepreneur.

Yes.

Do you have something to say, hon?

I think that it's wonderful to give someone their freedom to explore their passion. And I think you have to have that in any relationship. I would say, I feel like as long as the relationship is equally supportive and equally nurturing, then it can work. But you can't have one person saying, okay, go do your thing, and the other person goes, great, I'm out of here. And they do their thing and you neglect that, the thing at home, and it's gonna blow up.

Well, that book you turned me on to, can you. Can you share that book, 50 Shades of Gray? I Love it, dude. No, no, no. But I did love it. I did. No, she didn't turn me on to. I found on my own.

He liked it.

No, And I quote. Wait, why are you laughing?

I heard if you read first these shades of gray, the opening paragraph is. No, my dorm room really is a hot dog stand. So what was the book?

The Five Love Languages.

Yeah. And you were up on stage, you were sharing some of the principles. What's the core essence of that book?

When I gave my speech.

Yeah. To a group of entrepreneurs.

Well, the core principle for it. God, we read that so long ago, but it really redirected our marriage, which was a great marriage, a young marriage, but a great marriage. And it really gave us a road to commit to together, just understanding how your significant other hears and feels love. And what we learned from that little book was how differently you and I heard and felt love. It was kind of astounding.

Yeah. My interpretation, Chris, was if you spoke only German and I only spoke Japanese, it's a very hard conversation. But what's interesting is I'll try to speak Japanese louder and more slowly until you finally get it. And you will reciprocate in German, louder, more slowly, but I still won't get it. And we will frustrate each other. And that's how the love languages work. If I know your language and I make an effort to speak in German, even though it's not my native language, you will feel appreciation because I'm making an effort in your language and vice versa. So Krista discovers this book that they identify five different languages. We speak different languages, but now we make an effort. And even though I try to speak her language and it's artificial to me, but because she senses I'm making a genuine effort in her language, it comes across as authentic and vice versa.

Well, it is authentic. You authentically want me to feel happy.

Right.

You know, so even though you don't need some of the things that I need and vice versa, we authentically want the other one to be happy and to feel loved and heard and supported.

Now, Susan, tell me about your husband. How much money is he making? Tell me about your husband in regards to what he's contributed to your life. You didn't expect to marry a hot dog man entrepreneur, but you did. What was the impact been on your life?

Oh, I think that he has taught me to definitely persevere and to just keep reaching. He never gives up. And I think that I would have thrown in the towel like many years ago thinking, you know, okay, I'm just going to go, you know, clock in, clock out, get a regular job. And that was a nice ride to try, but he just does not give up. And so I think that's what he's taught me definitely over the years, to just keep driving.

And you clearly are, because I believe you're out starting to build a little bit of a name for yourself as you're writing a book. Starting to do the speaking circuit around this subject specifically.

Right, exactly. Yes. I've been a stay at home mom all these years and just a few years I did graphic design out of our house. And you know, the kids often say that was the worst summer because you never did anything with us. Used to be being around, you know, and so now that they're.

Sorry.

Sorry. Actually I miss them, Stacey. I know they grow up so fast, but. Yeah, I just feel like I'm in a good spot in my life that I can look back and when I talked about the timeline and I lay it all out, I'm like, good grief. We have been through so much and there's so much to share and so much to get out there that I'm super excited about all the people that I know I'm going to meet.

Yes.

When the time comes.

Yes. So tell us, have you started working on your book? Can you give us any insights onto what that's all about?

I have. I actually thought I was done and then our life threw us a great big curve ball. The startup that we moved out here with, my husband was one of the co founders. It is seeking more fundraising and so he had to kind of step aside and we still have the shares and we're still hoping good things happen, but he's moved on into different avenues. So I need to finish the conclusion, I need to just wrap it up. But the book's going to touch on what it's like to relocate, travel, what it's like when your husband works heavily with the opposite sex. The feast and famine times. And I think a real important part of the entrepreneurial self is that they're at a different course maybe in their life. So I think it's charting your life. You know, maybe you're in the throes of a startup and you're super excited as the entrepreneur, but as the spouse, your oldest is going off to kindergarten and so that's a big deal. And that is definitely emotions that you're not going to be having a high. Like, you know those startup launch parties that are super awesome. You might be super sad because your child is going off to kindergarten and you feel like they don't need you as much. So I think it's just figuring out where you're at in your marriage relationship and charting where someone might be at a high, someone might be at a low.

So everyone's eyebrow raised when you said working with the opposite sex. We all went. It was like, what's that TV show 2020 we watch on the Dateline? Dateline? Oh, yeah, there's that one host, Chris something. He White hair and he always.

Leather jacket.

Yeah. He was like, oh, was it murder? He gets all excited about the evilest things. So it's not murder, but it is the opposite sex. Susan, what. What tips did you share about that in your book?

Well, the biggest thing is set boundaries, because, for example. Wow. In my book, I write about a time that my husband would travel to New York for a client, and he put so much time and energy into this client, and then he passed this huge client off to his business partner. And so we were at lunch one time on a date, and I said, I just have a question. Why would you pass off your baby quote unquote, to your business partner? Well, as it turns out, this big client was falling in love with my spouse and wanted.

Are you serious?

Oh, no.

Yeah. And wanted him. Yeah, I wanted him to leave me for her. And he's like, where are you coming up with this? And it was the fact that when they would leave, meet for coffee or whatever, he would say, it's a date, meaning it's, you know, a specific time on the calendar. But in her mind, you know, it was way more than that.

What's her name? We're rooting her out right now.

Yeah.

Wow.

That. You know, it, for one. That my entrepreneur would even tell me all this is huge because, you know, usually he's very much to himself, but for him to share that, and then, of course, for me to have trust in him to know that. Okay, I believe you. What you're saying that, you know, nothing went any further than that. So that was tough. And then, you know, the travel, Travel overseas with, you know, business partners and ladies that he works with. That's really tough.

Yeah. But clearly you set the stage for that communication, so you didn't have to be quiet about it. You know, my wife and I, we. Krista, we the same thing. I travel a lot, and I think there's an appeal. Someone hears, oh, there's an entrepreneur like Peter. Susan, I do a lot of speaking, a lot of public exposure. I'm in the news More than a typical someone that works as a job. So there's perceptions, like, oh, potential power and prestige associated with this person. You know, so there's an appeal to the entrepreneur, which is. Little do they know how pathetic we are. But how do you hunt? How do you handle that?

Well, right? Like, I'm looking at you right now. You're wearing an I Love Shenanigans shirt. You're, you know, a little bit bo. A little bit bo. Yes.

I've worn that for four weeks in a row, by the way.

You know, I mean, you're cute, but then you go tour around, and you're dressed in your finest suit. You smell nice. You're hilarious. You know, I am kind of funny, actually. I think for most of our marriage, it didn't really occur to me that that was a risky proposition to be touring around and stuff. But I credit that to the fact that we're very. We stay connected and we really like each other.

Yeah.

So. But there's definitely. There's been times where that has been like, oh, my God, he could totally lie to my face, and I would never know. I mean, I think I would know, But, I mean, you're traveling all over the place. You've been around the world. You're doing this and that. I'm busy. How would I know? And you kind of get in that head game, and you're like, is there something I don't know, you know, but that. You cannot let that run away with you. But I know you. I know you. I trust you. I've been hit on at the grocery store. Okay, so I did just do the head waggle.

She did.

I mean, you're not the only one out there in the world, but you know what I'm saying? Like, anybody. Anybody can make a choice, but you have to know who you're married to and know what your marriage is about.

Yeah.

I have a really corny question. Should I ask it?

Of course, dude. That's what the show's all about.

So maybe you can take a stab at it. Susan, if marriage is an entrepreneurial venture, then what is the actual profit you get from a marriage?

Wow.

Corny, right?

That was kind of corny.

Stupid. No, we can edit it out.

Yeah, no, we do not edit this out.

But it. But it is. Isn't.

Is.

It is an entrepreneurial adventure.

All right, let's do some talk, for God's sake. Let's go. Go See.

Well, I think it's awesome that he's my best friend and he knows me better than Anybody else. And at times, I believe he knows me better than I know myself. So just to have the years together, it's really awesome just to be hanging out with your best friend all the.

Time, you know, it's funny. So I have an answer for what the entrepreneur brings to a relationship. Susan's definition, at least what I heard was to take on more risks. But I think the entrepreneur gets an. Because an entrepreneur is always trying to find the opportunity in business. I think they find the opportunities in their spouses. Like, they can see opportunities for their spouses in all facets that the spouse can't see themselves. I don't know. What's your thoughts on what an entrepreneur brings to a marriage?

What an entrepreneur brings to a marriage? Yeah.

What the hell have I brought to our goddamn marriage?

I stopped listening when you start talking. No. What do you bring to our marriage? Well, laughter. We laugh every day, but that's.

I dare say you're funnier, though.

I think you're. Yeah, that's right.

I dare say she's funnier.

Dude.

Dude, she is one of the best character actors. We were watching. Susan, you got. Here we are at a. Our son's concert last night in our town, which I won't mention. I'm scouting Jersey, and he's playing guitar.

And stuff where we still live.

One of the music teachers. Every time they complete choral guitar, whatever, he turns the audience and does the most emphatic bow you've ever seen. Like, he's just so engaged. But he does a double bow where he bows his head. And he bows his head like. You know, like, he bows his head like, thank you. And he bows his head in exhaustion. He feels that she reenacts it. She reenacted I pee myself every time. And her best thing is she can do facial impersonations. I don't know if you want to do it front, Chris. You'll get intimidated. But we'll see someone. We will see someone. Like, we went out to dinner once in Long beach island, and there was this woman making this most ugly face. Just naturally. Krista can replicate the facial expression perfectly. Then we're watching Dateline. Remember a poor murder victim had this horrible smile. She was even taking a picture. I cannot stop laughing.

Instagram.

I know. I just lost all my friends.

Okay, so I'm.

Thanks, babe.

I'm sorry about that. So what do I bring to the marriage besides revealing everything I should do?

Laughter. Laughter.

I bring laughter to the children.

And, well.

Well, you support me, so I support you. That's obvious. I encourage You, I support. You always have. You support me. And that's not something that I really fully realized until years into our marriage, how much you supported my dream or if I. If I wanted to do something. You're always behind me. You are always backing me up.

I love it. Susan, this is your last. This is not your last. This is your opportunity. I'm sure Peter's listening. We do have one listener. It's your husband.

Hi, Peter.

Hi, Peter. How are you?

Hi, Peter.

You can say anything about your marriage to an entrepreneur right now, directly to Peter. What do you say?

Oh, wow. I would say that I can't wait to see where the next decades and decades take us and the people that we're going to meet in the places that we're going to go to together. It's just a wonderful journey.

Love it.

If you ever do need therapy, we have music for that.

Oh, yeah. Throw it on here.

Yeah. If you ever need to, you know.

Hon, what do you want to say?

Yeah, I like that. About the music.

No, you can say stupidity.

What are you feeling right now?

I feel happy. Relax.

For God's sake. We're wrapping the shelves.

Say something. All right, that's enough.

Do you want to say anything or no?

Therapy.

I just want to say that it's a pleasure to be married to you. Take me out.

Okay, Susan.

Nice.

If people want to get your upcoming book, what's the title? Where are we going to find it when it comes out?

Oh, well, I like the title My Wedge Heel. Because.

Say it one more time. The phone cut out. At one time. It just cut out. Say it.

I like the title. My Wedge Heel.

You did say that. I thought it was me going shopping. In my head instantly.

My Wedge Heels.

I know. I think it's awesome. But he thinks that maybe it should appeal to more, like, the male audience. So we will see what it winds up being. But it's definitely going to have the substance of encouraging entrepreneurial family.

And what website should people go to if they want to find out more about you, Susan? And they definitely do.

Susan Fuller, Me.

Susan Fuller, me. And we will have it on the show. Post. Susan is an absolute privilege having you on the show. Thanks for joining us today.

Thanks for having me.

All right, now go have a hot dog.

Boom.

Where is it? Here it is, bruh. Oh, wrong one. There it is. Okay, dude. So, Chris. See you, Susan. So, Chris, what did you learn from today's episode?

You know, I think I learned that when the spouses authentically support each other, that that's the important bond that keeps everything together and allows all the magic to happen.

Yeah. I love that. If people are just true to who they are, but also have a true understanding of who their spouse is, too. I think it brings balance. What I thought was interesting, too is when Susan was talking, the stories she was sharing and so forth, it sounded just like our stories. It's amazing, the similarities. So if you're married to an entrepreneur, you're not on an island. You're not alone. There's lots of people like you. And if you're the entrepreneur and you're married to someone that's supporting you, supporting you as an entrepreneur, you're not on an island. It's not the only relationship that's like that. There's lots of parallels. It's good to seek out people like you. You can share and learn from each other.

Totally.

Yeah.

Agree.

Agreed.

What did you learn, Krista?

I learned that there's someone out there who knows exactly how I have felt.

Susan Fuller. And she's in Indianapolis. So you got to move to Indianapolis?

Well, if she was back in California, then I definitely.

Well, they may be going back, based on what she said. Totally, dude. So we got some things to wrap up before we get out of here.

Yes. Well, we have our wonderful corporate partners. We just want to give a quick shout out.

Of course.

And if our listeners. By the way, if you. If you're a regular, regular listener of our show and you haven't checked out, you know, our corporate sponsors. Go ahead. I mean, we have links to them in the show post, don't we?

Yeah, every single show post has one. You know, maybe you don't need a phone system today, but one day you may go to nextdiva.com and just check them out. Check them out. You know, and they're legitimate partners, by the way. They're not just spending money with us, which they are, but they're not just doing that. They have genuine interest in working with our community, and that's why we have personal relationships with each one. Yaniv, you know, Yaniv.

Yaniv.

Yaniv from nextiva. I talk with them at least once a week. They've invited us out to the conferences. They even said, mike, we're gonna pay the bill for you to fly out so you can experience our other partners and stuff that are working with us so you can understand the system better. Fundera Meredith Wood over there met with her at least two or three times now at different conferences, always asking about the profit first community. What's the membership like? Who are Members, how can we help out? And then tsheets is our other sponsor. T sheets for time tracking. They're at literally every event I go to. I'm seeing Kelly or Matt Rissel. Matt Rissel is on our show. Awesome guy. He's one of us. So maybe you don't need their stuff today, but just check out their stuff, what they got going on. Because one day when you do need it, they're good businesses from good people.

Yeah, we love it. So profit first. Professionals. Mike Michalowicz, tell. Tell me about it.

It's not a porn site.

Lay it on me. It's not a German workout site.

Well, it is. We had a little routing issue, and you see, like, you know, I put the weights up, I put the weights down. I put the weights up, I put the weights down. But we fixed that. Good. But now it is a. I have no idea what we do anymore. Oh, it's a. It's. We are an organization for bookkeepers, accountants, and business experts. So if you're an accountant, bookkeeper, or business expert, call us right now or go to the website profitfirstprofessionals.com Click on the Become button. It doesn't mean you're gonna be part of the organization like this, but what does means we're gonna start a dialogue. We are looking for people that are looking to help drive, plot profit for clients. And by the way, if you're an entrepreneur and owned a business, come to the same site, profitfirstprofessionals.com, click on the find button, and we'll hook you up with an extraordinary accountant, bookkeeper, or business expert to drive more profitability in your business. Dude, what do you do, dude?

Fractalrecording.com I produce podcast shows for business authors who want to influence the entire global global domination.

And dude, literally, you are the guy in the industry. Go on the web right now and type in podcast specialists for business authors. How many people are you gonna find? No one. But there's no one out there.

That's it. You get.

You get us, man. You get our language. You dig us.

I'm here to help.

Yeah.

So thanks for listening and way late.

Nice.

Thanks Everybody for listening. Profit First, Podcast.com, iTunes and Stitcher. Listen to to all our episodes. Thanks for listening.

No, it's always a joy having as an alien would say it first Podcast. That's what we are.

Wow. That's it. Mike, you ready to go?

I'm ready. I want to do another one, dude. Episode 35 coming up soon. Too. Yeah. 35. Our 35th episode, and we're getting better and better stuff.

Once we're 35, we were were eligible to be President of the United States.

Oh, that's true. That's true. But we'll Never age past 35. So, like, like episode 70, like. No, we're still 35. Things are sagging below our knees that shouldn't be, but we're 35.

Here's your chance, brother.

Bruh.

Oh, my God.

Just absolutely nails it on it.

See you guys later.