Building a Million-Dollar Agency as a Power Couple: The Danny & Maday Story 🚀

You've built an amazing, amazing business. You're one of the legendary success stories.

I was running e-commerce stores. I was working at Fox News Channel. At that point in time, I was learning how to do my own traffic, run Google Ads, SEO. Fast forward, I went through a divorce. I went through a journey of trial and growth at a personal level.

I was a kindergarten teacher. I left my job. I left my job. Everybody thought I was crazy in my family. There's more to what I want. I trusted him very much. That foundation of trust was very much something that we both really built together. That gave me that sense of security. And so we just laid it out.

All right, well, Dani and Matty, thank you so much for joining us today on the Scaling Together podcast. You guys are longtime members of the 7 Figure Agency and you know, you've built an amazing, amazing business, you know, in the contractor space. You're one of the legendary success stories. And you know, you guys have done this together. And so, Yesenia, we're really excited to have you guys as our first interview couple on the show. For the sake of people that don't know your story a little bit, just tell us a little bit about how you got into the agency business and how you guys started working together.

I think you need to start this one.

I need to start it?

Yeah.

Okay, so the agency space, getting into the agency, marketing agency, I was running e-commerce stores. I was working at Fox News Channel and At that point in time, I was learning how to do my own traffic, you know, run Google Ads, SEO. One thing led to another. I started doing websites for local businesses. I stopped doing the e-commerce, ended up moving to Florida, and I turned all of my clients from New York. So at that point in time, I'm here, I'm looking for, you know, how can I get new clients? And I wouldn't call that an agency. I was more of a freelancer more than anything else. And fast forward, I went through a divorce. I went through a journey of trial and growth at a personal level. And probably about a year or so later, I found this beautiful woman, Maddie, and we met. And, you know, I was still doing the freelance thing more than anything else. I was doing other things as well that I'm not proud of. It was a journey of of personal growth, and I was living and leading a life that I'm not proud of, that, that specific journey. And God put her in my path to, to help me become a better man, a better human. And, and I told her, hey, I'm doing this thing right here. I'm looking to stop doing this, all this other messed up stuff that I'm doing currently, but I need to exit that. I can't— I need to paid this guy like $10,000 off in order to get out of that deal. And she let me borrow that money.

Yeah, well, let's—

And I'm still paying it back. Right, no. I'm still paying it back. I'm still— that's a—

Let's talk about that. So I was a teacher for 15— I was a teacher for 15 years. I did not have $10,000 saved in the bank. So I had to call my aunt and be like, tía, can I borrow $10,000? And mind you, me and Danny have known each other for what, a couple— like maybe 6 months?

6 months, maybe.

Right? And he's asking me for like this money. But I really believed in what he was doing. And I wanted him to get out of that situation that he he was in. So it was a no-brainer for me. So I think that was like the first investment into like the agency. Yeah, let's do it. And you know, at that point I was teaching, I was very, very burnt out. I had a kindergartner at home. I was a kindergarten teacher. And, um, he's like, why don't you quit and like join me? And I said to him, you are absolutely crazy because I have a stable job and I have health insurance and I have pension. But guys, my salary at that time as a teacher was $45,000 a year with a master's green education. He's like, we have so much more opportunity, so much more things if we do this together. And so I left my job. I left my job. Everybody thought I was crazy, my family, because they're like, you've— this is what you're called to do. This is your, your purpose. This is your, your life. I'm like, but it's not. There's more to that. There's more to what I want. So I quit my job and we started working together, and that's— that was the foundation of the agency. But we weren't at an agency, and we were still free then.

Yeah. Freelancing, but one of the things that I shared with you guys right before we were driving down here, we're like, how do we start it? Well, there was this guy, Joshua Nelson, was showing up on my Facebook feed and like how to grow a niche agency. And at that point in time, I was staying at my friend's place in Doral and I'm trying to copy like Contractor SEO Agency and like trying to mirror your websites and all of that. And I'm like, man, I'm following you from the sidelines. And I told her, I said, hey, there's this guy running ads. I want to sign up for the program. But I didn't have a debit card or credit card. Like, my situation was, was very negligent to the point that no banks wanted to have my business, like whatever I had. So I said, can I just use your PayPal and I'll pay you back every single month? No, like just Let me join. And I am so grateful to be here. This is an honor to be in this conversation because it wasn't until I came to your world that I realized that this was a real business opportunity, like a business. And I got to see it from behind the scenes. So that was the starting point for us. Yeah, just to get in proximity to that. So, so thank you for that. Thank you for showing up and running ads in our lives.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Um, since then you guys have just poured into the community and just helped so many other agencies get their footing and grow after seeing the success that you guys have had. So going back to, you said that you invested financially with him for the $10,000, but how did you invest emotionally? Like, what led you two to go to business together after him asking you for money? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What caused you to go into business together and how did you lay out those roles? Who was going to do what?

Um, it almost happened a little bit organically. I was very— I trusted him very much. I did. I trusted— I think that from the very beginning of working together, that foundation of trust was very much something that we both really built together. So, you know, he was like, you know, you can have— like, we did talk about, like, the structure of what the company would look like, and he's like, you can have full ownership of the company. Like, I trust you too, you know? So that gave me that sense of security. And so we together, we we just laid it out, but it was a little bit organic at first. There were no roles set out. There was more basically like, he's the person that's starting this and running with this. And I was basically doing like smaller things like paying invoices, making sure that the contractors got paid on time, making sure that I was collecting billing from like the people that we were working with, you know, distributing that. So then eventually like that role evolved in time, um, as I grew into it, because I really didn't have any business experience at all.

You played a lot of roles. Content writing back in the day.

I wrote content. Like, man, we have this content overflow.

There was No AI.

There was no content AI at that time. It was like we purchased a template and then Maddie had to like literally copy and paste the template and research on Google what's interesting about this city. And we would write like, you know, city pages that way, you know, the first paragraph. But it was basically just that. It was a way like he would just give me little jobs as we would go, little things. Not little, they were big, but they were like little at that time. And I'm like, yeah, sure, I can write. Or he would put me to be like, okay Maddie, this is how you write SEO content. You put it on this website, you look at the little tags on and then you have to make sure that you infuse those in the page. Okay. Can you— you got that? Like, sure, I got that. And I would like sit there. Was it— what was it, SEMrush? Ahrefs? I don't know, one of them. I would sit there and I would like, okay, this one, I need 7 keywords. Okay, cool. I didn't even know what I was doing, that I was— just trust the plan.

Yeah, there's no— we're building an airplane.

Yeah, that's how we all do that, right?

Um, yeah, yeah, that tends— that's a, that's a great question. I, you know, and We didn't trust that. Coming back to the relationship piece, when we got together, I said, hey, I want you to know who I really am. I don't want to keep any lies. I don't want you to think I'm this perfect guy. This is like, I'm really rebuilding myself and I'm committed to rebuilding myself in the process, whatever it takes. I have nothing. I'm sleeping on my friend's couch. And then she used to tell me, hey, how come you're staying there and you're staying on this other guy's place the other day? Like, she didn't know. And I said, I need to just let you know, but this is who I really am. This is the journey, and I love to learn. One of the things I was carrying around with me in the back of the car with my books, like I always—

In a garbage bag.

In a garbage bag, because that's the thing I got out of my ex's place. I packed my books and then I carried them with me. I would open them up and then journal. It's all about the trust. I think that's, that's an important thing in just letting you know out of the gates. And then I said in my past relationship, these are the things that didn't work out for me. Like, this is just not what aligned with my values, like what I value. And it kind of like led to us. We have two and two, a blended family now. But for us to together come up with like our shared values and hey, what are the things we're not going to compromise? One of them was respect. Hey, I'm going to respect you no matter what. I'm never going to talk down at you and call you names. And even if it's playful, it's unacceptable. The second thing is we're going to love each other no matter what. And establishing those core values among ourselves, because the thing is, we could talk about the business, but man, having children in the mix and having to raise them, you know how it is. Oh yeah. That in itself is another another weight that for us men, it's a fuel. But for us as a couple, it's been like, man, that's— this is why we're doing it and why we're willing to push. And that, that was— if, if I look back, hey, what did we do right? That's something that we did right out of the gate. Right.

I think we both had our own values that we had. We were working on a lot on ourselves before we met each other. So we had our own values. Like for him, for example, I had a list of things that I was looking for in a partner. It was very easy for me to jump in and say yes because he met every single— and I was very detailed with the things that I was looking for, both— I mean, from like the small inconsequential daily life thing to like the value of a person, like as a person. And it was so obvious that he fit all those things that I was looking for that it was like, well, I have to trust you because you're quite literally like fit the bill exactly. And it's also like, as you said, political views. I said it, we're not talking about that. We're gonna agree not to talk about those things. Um, that works too. Like, even if we have different— like, right, it's a real thing.

That brings me to the next question that I want to ask you guys, is because when I look at you guys and your, your relationship, every time that we've gone together I've noticed that you guys have a lot in common. You guys have come to agreements so many times in your life and live together with your core values. But how do you handle when you guys don't agree with things, especially in the business as well?

We don't agree on a lot of things. Quite literally, if you think of who Danny is and who Maddie is, we are very polar opposite humans. Yeah, we are 100%. We— if you go down to the Colbys, all the test scores, everything, all the, all the things, Myers-Briggs, everything, we are quite literally— if he is this on, on this side, I'm on this We're very opposite. Yeah. So I think that, that the underlying thing is respect. Like, if he wants to like believe in like, I don't know, like a purple dinosaur is like his— okay, well, that's your belief, that's fine. I— that's not on, on me to decide what he— who he— you know, those things. But we argue all the time when it comes to like work stuff too and things up. But that's okay. That's okay to have differences and have different ideas and different you know, and arguments. Like, it's all about the respect at the end of the day.

Respect.

That's the number one thing.

There's never going to be demeaning or devaluing or you're wrong and I'm right. You have your vibe, I have my vibe, and we live together.

Well, I think it's a part of it is also the vision. What are we envisioning together as a family? You know, we know if it gets too extreme, it can definitely lead to, you know, to a path that is not healthy for either one of us. Spiritually, emotionally, you name it. But the main thing is like, what are we— why are we doing this? Like, what are we doing this? And 2 and a half years ago, about 3 years ago, this was before we rebranded. It was Concrete Marketing Crew. And I would say probably 95% of Concrete Marketing Crew's vision was Dani Barrera. Like, I was just out there and she was in the business. She was working in, you know, behind the scenes, etc. But I'm like, this vision, it's not our vision together. And we needed to go back to that point in place because, you know, when that happens and we're growing together and the business is scaling, the pressure only grows higher. You know, when the financials go up, amazing, you make a lot more money, you have a lot more opportunities. But what happens with us? What happens with right here? What are we building together? And that's a conversation we had. And I said, hey, this is— This is what I think, you know, we should explore doing. What are your thoughts? What do you want to build? And now, you know, we were doing a personal development exercise on our exit numbers. What is our big numbers? And I have a check I carry with me in my wallet and, you know, it's got my number. And then she's like, oh, I beat you.

Mine is bigger than yours.

Yeah.

And he was like, okay.

So I'm like, amazing. So I gave her a high five. I'm like, we're doing this. So if she's not bought in and I'm not bought in equally, you see, the vision is what sets the tone and that brings us back together at the end of the day.

I love that so much. And you were just mentioning the financial part. You talked about books in a garbage bag and cut through today. You're at over $500,000 MRR. Um, what would you say is the way that you handle your finances? If there's an investment you guys want to go into together, how do you have those conversations?

I don't— we trust each other.

We trust each other.

Like, we're very trusting. I don't— you know, he never asks me for permission, nor do I ask him for permission to do anything that we're investing in. Like, we quite literally— I trust that whatever investment he's going to make is going to further and make us better, and it always does. So there's never that question of like, oh, why did you invest in this? Or you need to ask me for this. Like, we just don't—

we have a conversation about it. Like, hey, I'm thinking about doing this. What are you seeing? Like, what's— what are your thoughts? But it's not like, oh my gosh, I'm afraid to go and ask. That's, you know, that's one of the things about trust and respect is like, are we gonna trust each other? Uh, you know, and for example, she, she's, uh, she's invested in a personal coach for herself. And I said, man, I'm happy that you're doing that for yourself. You should be doing that. Seeing you grow. And that's the spirit. That's the spirit that we have for each other. It's like, wow, you're looking to grow yourself. A couple of years ago, I did an ayahuasca trip. She was against it. She was like, oh my gosh, you're turning into—

It's not my jam.

What's going on? She's going and fasting and praying. But I said, man, I feel in my soul that I need to go through this. 'Uh, through this process for myself, it's not for you.' Okay, that's an interesting one because she was not in agreement.

I didn't like it.

I don't like that she supported me. And then that trip was supposed to be a weekend, I just did one day, and I'm like, 'I got what I needed, I'm out.' Like, I'm back home.

Which at the end of the day lines back to that idea of like core values. So like, even if like, you know, this, this is very important for him, he wants to do it, but like, even if I think that— I know that this is not like— maybe this isn't the thing that— maybe this isn't— I don't know, whatever conviction I have of like his journey, it's not, it's not on me to like be like, don't do this. But eventually the core value always backs and aligns back together no matter what path or journey or thing you're gonna invest in. You see what I'm saying? So whether it's good, whether it's like weird, like it doesn't matter. It always comes back to like that alignment.

It's very true. I mean, you guys set out to do life together. And that also means respecting and caring about the other person that you're with and making sure that you have one life to live, that you have that other person that you're with and sharing life with, doing the things that they want to do and are passionate about. So that's awesome. That's what makes you guys so great together as a couple. Um, how do you separate business talk from marriage talk? We get this question all the time. People are like, when do you turn it off?

That's a great question because the truth is that we don't. Like, I love it.

You don't.

He loves it. I love it. We don't. Like, we find joy in— and I mean, if we have— we're going to talk about things that are not business related, we have that kind of conversation too, but it's part of us. I love, I love that conversation.

Yeah.

Are there ever parts in the night or, you know, on the weekend or something where you'll start talking about business, the other one's like, well, you know, I don't want—

we do. The new job, the new— or we— one of the things that we do we've been implementing really, really strongly lately is like, we're going to add this to the one-on-one issues board. And we've—

I love that.

Yeah, we just type it in there.

Just type it.

Yeah.

It's quite literally because we have our integrator and implementer that they're amazing assets. They really balance us out in business and they're like, you guys don't make those decisions without bringing it to us.

Nice.

You know, so and that's the thing is we've learned it's key to have, I believe, a balancing individual in the organization if you're working with your partner.

I agree.

But when it's at night, like sometimes we get creative ideas. The best creative ideas for me come at nighttime and then she's tired and I'm like, I've learned to like, let me write it down. Boom, boom. And then sometimes I'm running it by her and she's like, I'm just exhausted.

Not now.

Yeah, not now.

We're going to do my one-on-one next Tuesday at 4 PM. I'm like, oh yeah, so I gotta learn how to slow myself, which is healthy. Yeah, those boundaries are healthy.

Yeah, it is, 100%. And talking about when you're feeling tired and exhausted and stressed, how do you handle that as a couple, uh, in the business? You also have 3 beautiful children— 4 beautiful children— and this growing family. How do you handle your entire family life and your business life? How does it all work together? What kind of support do you have? What do you do for stress?

Um, well, first, well, I'll talk to you about the support, and then you guys, I guess you can talk about the stress part. So we definitely have help. We have to have help in the house. If I'm managing an agency, I don't want to manage a house. And it's very important as an investment to what we're doing in the agency to have someone help out in the house. Um, so that's, that's definitely something there. But the kids, they do stuff, and they're part of the agency. Yeah, they are teens, which is older, older, but they're— we we bring them with into all the things that we do. We involve them. They have jobs. Like, some of them have jobs that I could probably outsource somewhere else, but it's nicer to be able to have my kid— like, for example, I was telling Yesenia, my 15-year-old packages our welcome boxes. And yes, we can have an outsourced person doing that for us, but she has a station and she organizes her station and she has her list and she writes it out. And she's even now giving me tips. Hey, Mom, you know what this this is taking a little bit long. Maybe we can have these printed with this message and I can just like write it out myself with like the name. And so she's now starting to think of like business things. Our son does video editing for like the company. We have video editing team, but you know, we give him certain—

he does the Friday CCTVs. We have a TV show. He, he rendered his last night at 4 in the morning. He had to do it in time, you know. And, and I'm like, man, that's To me, that's like, wow. Yeah, you know, we getting them involved and not separating them, it's been very healthy for us. Yes, because a lot of what we do, it's, it's building and growing together, you know. And, and that's— we, we also with God and church, like, we don't separate those things. Like, a couple of weeks ago, we just played a worship song on the TV and like a playlist, and we worship, and the dogs were barking and like singing together with us, but we're praying. And then my son was doing, uh, preparing a quick share with, with other teenagers. And like, you know, we're— I want him to, to feel like, hey, we're here for you. Like, whatever God's put in your heart to be able to do. Like, so otherwise, if I was to just say I'm just a business owner, 9 to 5, then I'm a father from like 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM, and then I got myself a couple of hours or whatever it is, I don't think you get to live in the full expression. And sometimes, for me, I need to feel the fluidity, and that doesn't need to work for everyone because I need to— just the same way we talked about trips, if I overplan it, I don't feel the joy. That's just my thing. And that's where she balances me out because she's the orchestrator, organizer. She's like, like, this is what needs to be done. But I think that dynamic has helped us out, not, not be able to separate. And like, the kids are, are a part of that blend in whatever necessity is.

Yeah.

And from the stressing point, I mean, we all have our own things that we like to do. Yeah, we find the pockets. What do you like to do?

Well, I mean, I like to do art, journaling type of things, but we also work out together and we make it very easy to do it. The gym is quite literally next to the office. And the kids go with us too. And we don't— like, Danny and his— like, we, we kind of separate. So some of us do high-intense, like, workouts, and other ones of us do other more, like, things like yoga. And, like, you know, we just separate. So we get there, we all work out, and then we sauna, spa, whatever it is, steam room.

Nice.

And then, yeah, and then we go home. And so we all deposit that stress through the day.

Yes, we experience everything through it. That's the thing. It's like I used to think like I need to separate this and like Michael Aguilaro, I want to give him a major shout out because he's like, dude, you, you're thinking irreplaceable father is here. You're thinking investing in business and like growth and partnerships is here and like coaching. Like he's like, you're one. And the moment you learn to build into the integration, that's where you're going to feel fulfilled. And that's taking work. To just be able to just— because I used to be more like, it's got to be a certain way in my calendar, but I work very different than a lot of people. And then she understands, and then we work together in different ways. So like, that, that's, that's a very healthy thing for us to, to keep in mind.

And that is the dream for a business owner, especially husband and wife team, that our kids want to join this kind of lifestyle as well and be plugged in so that we get to spend time with them as well, sharing our passions. Yeah, that's awesome. You guys have put— built that into your lifestyle.

Yeah, it's life by design.

Life by design. The quarterly vision, right? Uh, we had our, our State of the Union for Contractor Clique Q3, uh, but the night before we, we put some prayer songs. Like, I prayed about Like, God, like this, all these plans are in your hands. Like, we're just here. We're going to see how we can serve our team members, how we can impact our clients. We want to be able to create incredible impact in the marketplace for everyone, bring value. But at the end of the day, she was exhausted that night. Remember, she was like, she's going through her time of the month and she's like, man, I need to lay down. I'm like, great. But I really do need to share this with with our family before I share it with anyone else, which the next day was the team. And, and I shared with them and then I had them read, hey guys, help me read some of these core values here. Hey, this is a 1.5-year, this is a 2.5-year vision. What, what's, what do you guys think is the most exciting? Where do you see, what do you guys see yourself in this picture? But you see, 4 years ago I wasn't doing none of that and there was a lot more friction with like kids don't even know what we were doing.

Right. And like you said, like, right now that I think that the minute you remove what is expected to be from the equation, like, people feel like you expect you have to do this in a certain way. No, you don't. We were doing that video. I was laying in bed watching the TV from like the bedroom. I'm like, just laying down. Like, amazing.

You got to do it laying down.

Beautiful. Right. And just like relationship-wise too, the minute you remove from your mind that you need to fit into a specific kind of pattern and container, like I'm supposed— you're supposed to be like this, and I watch the movies and I watch the social media couples and they fit this pattern, and you start comparing yourself to that, you will forever be very miserable when you're running a business together with your spouse. You just really gotta remove— there's no pattern.

We made that commitment up front. We're like, dude, I'm not, I'm not gonna show off to the world what, you know, I want people to— like, I care less and I respect people. But my family, I want to love it, love them, and experience them in my fullest for myself. Not so that other people feel happy about me, for myself.

Right.

And that brings me joy and fulfillment. Same thing in the business like that. That helps me stay grounded too.

Yeah, I love that. So I'm hearing not work-life balance because that kind of insinuates you got to do a little bit of this, a little bit of that, but more like work-life integration. Like, yes, like it all blends. And it's all part of how you operate as a couple, as a family, as a father, as a mother, and as entrepreneurs.

Yeah, 100%. So that's how you make your kids, um, and entire life work together. But how about the two of you romantically? Like, how do you keep the fire burning, the sexy time? Like, what do you have scheduled as far as dates and things like that?

I mean, how far do you want to go?

I already set a boundary on this before the call.

Keeping it PG. PG.

Okay, PG.

Thank you.

Respectfully to our YouTubers.

No, just like romantic time, like date nights. Do you have that already set in? We get that a lot. Like, what do you guys do to connect with each other?

We do have date nights, but like we're talking about it all like pockets of time throughout the day. He'll come to my— to the office and to my actual— my office and be like, hey, you want to go for a walk with me?

Yeah.

I'm like, sure.

Yeah.

And then we'll go for a walk together and like we'll just walk around, you know, the building and 'What do you want to talk about? Do you want to talk about work?' I'm like, 'Actually, I do have a work issue I want to talk to you about.' 'Okay, great. We don't have to talk about work. We could talk about life. We could talk about whatever we want.' And little pockets of moments of time like that quite literally make up— for me personally, it fills my bucket more than like a grand gesture like that has to be planned in a calendar. So I think that also like understanding what your partner needs is very important, because if I did need a grand gesture, then he would be doing the grand gesture. So it's quite literally understanding what we need. I need my My love language is quality time. So just give me the quality time, however it looks. And to me, my bucket gets filled when it comes to love. So I think that you don't have to, at least for me, we don't, I don't have to have a specific, we do, we do have our kids, we drop off our kids at camp. I mean, I'm sorry, at church Wednesday nights and then we go have dinner together. But I find that those pockets of times when he comes to the office and says, let's go for a walk, are way more romantic than like the dinner out when the kids are at And we also made it work where when we don't have kids, yes, we take advantage of that.

Like every other week, at least once a month, we have no kids, right? And, uh, and then we just go all out. We're like, man, let's go and have fun. Where do you want to go? Do you want to book a, you know, 3-day weekend, you know, somewhere? Let's get an Airbnb and just like— that's, that's just on the spontaneous side. But I believe making deposits in indirectly, not directly, but indirectly to set up the mood, it's important. And, and I work with men who are going through divorce or have gone through divorce, and there is no intentionality. There's expectations. Number one is your wife doesn't owe you anything, doesn't owe you sex. That's a byproduct of you being able to create a connection. That is amazing. And that sets the tone and the mood for a romantic experience. And that's the other thing is like, man, I want to experience— and that was a conversation upfront. I love to experience sex without feeling guilty or shame or like any of that. And there's been a lot of spiritual work for me to deal with at a personal level, as a man, as a husband, as a leader, to be able to not feel any type of weirdness around that topic. And that's— it's been a growth experience, but we have the best sex ever. Like right now, like it's only grown, you know, not because we're going and flying and booking trips and I'm getting her a bag and like, I'm like, hey, here. That's not how we do it.

I agree with that.

But I'm experiencing you and that soul connection when I can look at you in the eyes and hold your hand when we're going through the most stressful of moments and days. And just hold her hand and say, hey, come here, it's okay. And I can get her out of that, that mood, take her out for a walk. I'm making the indirect deposits. She doesn't need to know that, but I got to be the one to be able to create. And she does that for me. She does that for me a lot. Like she, she evens me out because I'm, I'm all in type of guy, right? I'm high pressure. I'm very high pressure and she creates that space for me to be able to feel comfortable being all of who I am. And when I am that, that's where that connection of attraction is for me, right?

That is so well said. That is such a beautiful statement that you just made of the connection, how important it is starting everything with connection between the two of you and finding that space to do it in. What would you say is the thing that makes it all work for you and your family? Because you talked about that romantic time. It does— you need to have support when you have such a large family to be able to have the house running a certain way and be able to step away to do this. What support system do you have? The people that, that take the ball from you so you're able to run your business? Take care of your kids so that you can have this romantic time with each other?

I think that now that they're older, it's a little bit different. So the older they get, the easier it gets. So that's the silver lining.

Totally.

When you're in— when we met, they were 5, 6, 7, and 8, or 5, 7, 8, 9, right? But now they're 13, 14, 15, and 17. So they're very much independent. They can— when we go travel, they can stay home alone so long as we pack the fridge with all the junk that they like to eat and they think it's a vacation because they don't usually eat that stuff. Or I Uber Eats the McDonald's. Like, they're like, yes, this is great, go travel as long as you want to travel. So I think right now it's a little bit different, but when they were younger, we did— his mom lived with us for a little while. Um, when we were closer to my family, my family would, would watch them. So I, I believe in our case, our support system was our family. And like, in the home, we do have a person that comes and cleans and does the laundry. Like, I was talking to Yesenia too. I think that having that house person at this point. Yes, it's good to instill and train the kid to do the thing that they— yeah, they clean the house, clean their room, and he wants them to be like washing. Just like they have better things to do right now. Like right now we have them— I want to train them to like understand. I want that time skill to have. Yeah, but I think they do, but they already have that skill. But I think that it's also a great skill to have, have them understand what it's like to run a business and have them understand what finances look like and have them like train them like on, okay, I gave you fine and like money, but why are you wasting on this? How come you haven't put this away? Do you have a You have a budget. So I think in that time now for me is more valuable than having them like make their bed or like, yeah, they also some another tip that one of that Jen gave us, Jen Aguilero, Mike's wife, was like, when I, the day that I took my kids' room and I just closed the door and said, we have a space that we all respect. The kitchen is our space. The living room is our space. The office, all of that's a communal space. You guys have to respect that space. But if you want to live in a complete dumpster, just close the door and I'm not even going to go in there.

Which is hard for me.

Which is hard for me.

That one is a hard one. Yeah, I'm learning how to respect.

It's a hard one, but—

Laundry, everyone's got their room.

Just close the door.

I'm like, dude, have your bed done.

And we have the lady that comes and she cleans. And I tell them all the time, if your room is so messy that the lady can't clean the room, then it's on you to clean it. So then they'll pick up, she comes, she cleans, and by Friday it's a big disaster.

No, I think— okay, so the cleaning lady comes on Monday.

Yeah.

And then by Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning, it's a mess all over.

But that's their space.

So that's their space, right?

So, so that's the next thing you're looking for is a house manager or somebody who can make sure that she can come in and clean and make sure that their stuff is organized.

Because I like it too.

I like my space around the house.

You see disagreements and it's totally fine.

That's how we keep the conversation going, right?

I love it.

It is what Yeah, so I think that, that we had family that would help us, and we also have the dynamic situation that every other weekend they would have got— they would go to their parents' house. So like, we had— we would really, really be intentional about taking that every other weekend to spend time together.

Uh, this has been a wonderful conversation. Loved spending time with you guys and hearing how you make your life work with business, with your family, with each other. What advice would you give to another couple who's considering, hmm, should I bring my spouse into the mix, into this business with me? Should I go into business? What would you say to that?

Okay, so I, I'm— even though we do life together and everything's connected and our business is infused into our life, the big thing that has helped me in this pocket and situation, I really have to look at Danny as my husband and my business partner. There's two people. Danny, my husband. Danny, my business partner. So when I'm mad at Danny, my business partner, it doesn't seep into Danny, my husband, and vice versa. If I'm mad at Danny, my husband—

were you mad at the most?

Probably Danny, my business partner.

Yeah, and she's my boss. Technically speaking, she's my boss.

True. If I'm angry at him, like, because he didn't—

I don't know, my worst employee, the stuff.

Yes, 100%. Whatever. I can't bring that into the agency because then it really seeps into the culture of the agency. So I really have to be intentional about being like, okay, I got to put this aside because this was Danny, my husband, who I'm really mad at, and I'm not mad at Danny, my business partner, or vice versa. If I'm frustrated, we're trying to solve a situation in the agency and I'm, I'm not aligned with Danny, my business partner. When we get home and we're having dinner together, I can't bring that into dinner because then I'm like infusing this like frustration. That I'm seeping into the kids, and then everything just gets like, you know, just like uptight. So I really have to have—

be—

it's an internal thing. This was— you're not mad at Danny, your husband, you're mad at Danny, your business partner. Well, we'll deal on that in Level 10. And that's been a great thing too. Sharon, I need help, you know. So we'll put it in there, we put it in the Level 10, my one-on-one with the integrator, and we deal with it like that. So Separating Danny from my husband and my business partner has been my biggest tool.

I mean, there's a lot, there's a lot I can share from my experience as a human. I always look at myself and say, how am I showing up for my partner right now? Like, if I'm not getting what I want out of the business side of things, I've had to look at myself in the mirror and say, maybe this level of pressure is unhealthy for my relationship. Maybe this level of ambition is not healthy. 2.5 years ago, I was at that point in time, like I came to one of the masterminds, the 7 Figure Agency, my roundtable. Chris Rodriguez was there and I'm like, hey, I'm having this problem right here where I'm not seeing my wife eye to eye in the business. And this is like very like So it depends who I'm talking to, like which version of my journey I'm having a conversation with, because it's not black and white. It's more about you than it is about the other person. If she's not buying into the vision, it's about me. So one of the biggest mistakes I see is with one of the agency owners wanting their spouses to be, hey, I'm going to be your number one support system, but you've actually never cared about them. And be their number one support system in their life. And sometimes it takes taking 4 or 5 steps back in order to gain common ground and lead from that place. And that's something that's helped me out tremendously. And then loving her unconditionally. And I mean that in the most frustrating pieces, just reminding myself in the back of my head, hey, what does the Bible tell me about love? You know, love is patient, love is kind. You know, it never keeps record of wrong. We don't keep record of wrong. Like, I already forgot how she offended me last week or yesterday. I forgot. I move on. I don't keep those records of wrong. And that's, that's been very helpful. And, and getting someone to buy into what you feel called to do on earth, it's more about how you're showing up for them more than anything else.

100%. Working on the foundation of each other's relationship before you go into a venture. Otherwise, you're going to bring that mess at home into the business.

Yes.

100%.

Yes.

I love it. It's beautiful what you guys have accomplished. And we don't get to hear much about Maddie. And it's like she's been there from the beginning. She's the real— she's seed funded the whole thing. And, you know, I think it's just a beautiful thing to be able to run a business with a spouse. And there's lots of conversation about You can never make that work, and it creates conflict. But I think if you put God first, spouse second, yep, business third, everything else, everything else works in harmony. So thanks for coming on and sharing your, your story, your journey, how you guys are scaling together. If somebody want to learn more about you guys and connect with you further, what would be the best way?

You do it.

Oh, well, you can connect on Facebook, Facebook, Instagram. What's your Instagram?

@Maddy Barrera.

@Maddy Barrera. @ItsDannyBarrera. And then on Facebook, where— that's where they can find us. And then we're at Contractor.Clic. That's our website.

So good.

Awesome.

Thanks for sharing, guys. Thanks for listening today. If you got value from this episode, be sure to hit the subscribe button, drop a review, and connect with Danny and Maddy. And stay tuned for a future episode of Scaling Together. Thanks, everybody.