Do you work with your spouse in your business? Have you not really clarified exactly what that means, and is it causing some stress at home? I know that was the case for me and my wife for a while. And in today's podcast episode, I want to share an interview with my wife and our business coach Wayne. Every year, around this time, over the last three years, we've gotten together to do some annual planning around the business and how it integrates with our family life. And this year we actually clarified my wife's job description and what that means. So it's been really beneficial to do this work, so I wanted to share it with you as something that might inspire a way that you could work with the people in your family. So check out today's podcast interview to see what is my wife's new job description and role at Ramblin Jackson. Hear a little bit of insight from our coach and hear what was the way that my wife described this coaching meeting this year.
My name's Jack Jostes and welcome to the Landscaper's Guide to Modern Sales and Marketing Podcast. This show is all about creating a business through sales and marketing that attracts your, hell yes, customers. So you can enjoy a better lifestyle, increase your profit, and really enjoy your family life, right? I really think that running a small business can be great or it can be totally chaotic. And in this episode, we're going to share some of the challenges that we've had in our family and how it pertains to the business and how some of this coaching work helps us get through it. So I hope you enjoy today's episode.
Jack Jostes:
All right everyone, here we are at our annual planning meeting. I'm here with my wife, Kara, who is the Vice President of Ramblin Jackson, and my coach Wayne Herring, who's worked with me for like five years. And we're at a historic house in Longmont, Colorado, really cool old building that was built before Colorado was even a state.
Kara Jostes:
That's correct.
Jack Jostes:
And we've spent the last couple of days working together on the vision of the company. We've talked about the work we're doing now in 90 days, a year, three years, and then we just wrote beyond, we even dreamed a bit about 25 years. And this is the third time that we've worked with Wayne, where we're really working on creating the business and the life together. And it's been really transformative for me to work with Wayne and Kara together. And wanted to just talk with you guys. How are you doing? Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Wayne Herring | Business Builder Camp
Wayne Herring:
Well, I'm Wayne Herring and I'm a coach, but I want to focus on Jack and Kara and I want to focus on what might be possible for other couples who own a business. It really has been a unique opportunity to work with Jack frequently during the year. Jack and I tend to talk for about an hour and a half, two times a month, and then we'll also trade emails and messages periodically. And we have a pretty heavy focus on the business, right? Like we're often talking about ideas and things that Jack wants to create or we're problem solving on challenges that come up.
Wayne Herring:
But to be able to bring Kara into the mix and to be able to work with the two of them together and to work with you all together for such kind of a long period of time, as a coach, is really a joy because what floats my boat is it seeing people dream big and seeing people live intentionally and seeing people get together in a shared space and get a little bit messy and talk about, how did decisions impact them or how are they really feeling and talk about, "Hey, when we had a conversation last year or part way through the year, this is what you said, and this is how it made me feel." Just it's been a joy to watch the two of you get clarity around issues like that and to set the course ahead and then to see you changing as a couple, and as individuals, and creating a really great company and a great family and two crazy wild boys. And so, anyway, I guess what I want to say is thanks, it's been fun.
Jack Jostes:
Well, thank you. Yeah, it has been fun and I wanted to record this podcast partly to just share with people that we do this work because we work with so many family-owned companies and I get to work with a lot of times, I'll meet two owners of a company, many times they're married and they have a family, and sometimes they're not really working together like Kara and I weren't at one point and through working with you and getting more intentional with each other. And part of that was just the phase of life that we were in when the boys were...
Kara Jostes:
That's true.
Jack Jostes:
Our boys are 14 months apart. And when both of them were under two years old, it was just chaos. And it was really, really hard for us to take two days away to go and do something like this like we did. We rented this house, we all stayed here, it was really great. And I think that people can create a business that supports their family in a way. Whereas, I think I was kind of creating the business almost at the expense of the family, but under the guise of for the family...
Wayne Herring:
Thinking you were doing it for them.
Jack Jostes:
And I don't know, there's a certain period of any small business where you're going to work a lot, you're going to work more hours than is healthy, probably, but you don't have to forever. And I think that that's...
Kara Jostes:
I think that's about the first year that we worked with Wayne feeds off this a little bit because he helped us do a calendar, which seems really, really simple, but just go through each month and plan in things. I mean, there was a stage where it was hard for me to get a shower when Jack was working 60 plus hours a week and I had two kids under two and they were 14 months apart. And so just scheduling even that need was revolutionary for both the business and for personal life. And then the second year we worked with Wayne, it was more about visioning about how big we could grow Ramblin Jackson, what Ramblin Jackson could really be, and what our family could be. And we've chosen a homeschool, so what our homeschool life could be, and this year was even blowing that bigger on out of the water and acknowledging our growth so far and celebrating how much we've been able to work together and under the guidance of Wayne, we can do and get accomplished.
Kara Jostes:
Sometimes it seems that a business has a life of its own and to be able to do it in a two day intensive and create that life is interesting and we hadn't done that prior to three years ago, and it was just kind of you running the solo ship and me behind the scenes kind of trying to navigate or blow the sails in one direction. And with this time together, we're able to actually work together to steer that ship and to make sure all the leaks and holes are filled and that we really have a solid ship for the next 90 days, 12 months, three years and beyond.
Jack Jostes:
Well, and also that we created that together.
Kara Jostes:
Right.
Jack Jostes:
And because those next 90 days, 12 months, impact our family and really they're one in the same, right? It's not like they're now... They have a unified vision of supporting each other.
Kara Jostes:
Correct.
Jack Jostes:
Whereas I think previously, I wasn't thinking about the integration with the family and now we can, and we can't be deliberate about that. One of the things that we did was we finally created your job description.
Kara Jostes | Ramblin Jackson Vice President
Kara Jostes:
It's only been three years plus in the making.
Jack Jostes:
It's only been three years plus in the making and so at one time, Kara was our special projects coordinator.
Kara Jostes:
I think at one time I was HR something, hiring or something, and then became special projects coordinator.
Jack Jostes:
Yeah. So this year you were promoted or recently you were promoted to vice president.
Kara Jostes:
Got to update my LinkedIn.
Jack Jostes:
You've definitely got to update... I know a guy who can help you with that.
Kara Jostes:
Perfect.
Jack Jostes:
So what does it mean to be the vice president at Ramblin Jackson now?
Kara Jostes:
Well, it means that I'm a visionary sounding board for you. So you'll come in sometimes at lunchtime or at 10:00 PM or whenever and I listen to your ideas and bounce back what ifs or help shape the vision that you have to make it useful for our clients and our employees and our family. I'm also the curator of culture we decided, which means that I'm helping collaborate on our company culture and our core values and helping with adding people and Ramblers to our team and participating in the company, not on a day to day basis because that's not how this vice president role is, but I, watching weekly company meetings and I have my finger on the pulse of what's happening in the business. And then I kind of am the postbox Wrangler. I order things, I collect things from our PO box, I'm making sure that all of our Ramblers have new technology that they need and depositing checks, which will be a huge relief for Jack.
Jack Jostes:
Yes, thank you for helping do that, it's amazing, you can do it through your phone. Except for the big ones. Some of them, by the way, you're going to take the big ones to the bank.
Kara Jostes:
I'll have to adjust my salary.
Jack Jostes:
Okay. Yes, we'll have to adjust that and reimburse for fuel expenses too.
Wayne Herring:
And there was some negotiation around check deposit, right?
Kara Jostes:
There definitely was.
Wayne Herring:
There's asking for some things in the home life, in return for doing the check deposits, that was something we were...
Kara Jostes:
It may seem silly, but there is a lot of weight with the check deposits. I have to go get it from the PO box, we don't get mail delivered. I have to keep my finger on it, I have to know where it is, so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle of the paper home. I have to deposit it, I have to email accounting, I have to make sure Jeff has the pay stub. So there are a lot of pieces that come along where before I could just hand it off to Jack easily.
Jack Jostes:
Right. Well, I'm really looking forward to having help with it because there's certainly a lot to do. And as weird as it seems, sometimes I don't deposit those right away and then that impacts things. We all have administrative things that we put off. So the first accountability that you talked about was a visionary sounding board. And so we've mentioned traction hundreds of times on the podcast now, maybe not hundreds, but in Traction, the visionary is the person in the company who is creating the vision of the company of a where are we heading and why? And those were things that I used to kind of resist and put off and maybe think weren't important, but now I realize they are, and I've embraced that word visionary.
Jack Jostes:
And part of being visionary is coming up with... In the book they talk about, in Traction, they talk about coming up with 10 ideas in order to create one that's actually good. And so what I've found is when I would come to the Ramblers, the rest of the team with all 10 ideas, they would get really confused sometimes or distracted or worried, or like, "Oh my God were... "
Kara Jostes:
And sometimes those ideas are wild and crazy and nothing that you would ever apply so it would freak them out.
Jack Jostes:
It would freak people out and...
Wayne Herring:
And they need to do it when they hear the owner, the CEO, air these ideas, they suddenly start rushing to see how they're going to get it done.
Jack Jostes:
Yeah. So the value to the organization is significant to have you in that role, because it helps us...
Kara Jostes:
Right. I'm like the filter.
Jack Jostes:
You're like the filter. So that way, when I come to the team, and I do still brainstorm with the team and with certain positions more than others, that can be more of a guidance and a decision of here's the direction we're heading and we've already vetted this idea. And yeah, sometimes it does come at 10:00 at night. And one of the things that we figured out is asking like, "Hey, can we talk about a business idea right now?" Has been something that has helped. Because sometimes the answer is no, and that's fine. We're not working all the time and getting an agreement to do that.
Creating Boundaries Between Business & Family
Kara Jostes:
There has to be some boundaries with a family business.
Wayne Herring:
Yeah, totally. Can I? That's one of the things that we've talked about over the year is just how to have those boundaries or how to clearly communicate in this space, we're in this house, when we're in two days of talking about family, about business, this is where you've decided together and made an agreement for, this is what I will say to let you know that yes, it's the time to talk about it or no, it's not. Yeah, you've done a good job with boundaries and I encouraged everybody to establish rules for that. Maybe even a room in the house where there's a safe zone where you won't talk about business. Everybody has their own way.
Kara Jostes:
Timetables where it's okay and not okay.
Wayne Herring:
Yeah, sure.
Jack Jostes:
Whatever it is. Wayne, tell us a little bit about well one, yourself, who do you work with? How can people learn more about you? And then more broadly, what type of work do you do? And maybe you're not the right fit for everyone. Why should people consider working with a coach?
Wayne Herring:
Yeah well. The primary thing I'm excited about right now is Business Builder Camp, businessbuildercamp.com, which is simply my name for collecting men who are building businesses, who are like you Jack, they want to build a great business for sure. They want to make lots of money, those things are fun and good. They want to create something that employs people, and they want a team around them that are like elite superstars, not at leasters, and they want to have a great family life. They want to live intentionally, they want to parent the way that, you're not perfect, but you're intentional about how you parent your boys and they want to be a good husband and they want to live a life of adventure. They want to carve in things like trips and fitness and all those things.
Wayne Herring:
So I work with guys like you, I've been working with you for going on five years because I love working with you and seeing what you're up to and seeing what you're creating. So yeah, that's who I work with. But I think there's coaches out there for everybody and I encourage listeners to find somebody who will create space for them to do work like the two of you are doing here, to get clear on what they want. I ask what your key phrase or words were to sum up the work we did here. And Kara said, what if, what if, what if, what could we create? And that's what coaches do. So yeah, find somebody that loves business and life and wants to see you thrive.
Kara Jostes:
And helps you dream. I think you've helped us dream, so thanks for that Wayne.
Jack Jostes:
Yeah. And I've learned a lot from working with you that has become a part of helping my clients do that and dream about what's possible and what their, hell yes, customer is and what their life could be like as a result of sales and marketing, I think can have a really big impact. That was actually the thing that we originally started working on with sales management. I read Sales Management For Dummies by Butch Bellah. And he recommended you and we solved the sales management problem pretty quickly and you were kind of like, "Well, what's next? What else? Why are you doing this?" Things that I hadn't even thought about become part of the work that I do now when people might come to us from marketing and then we would learn more about their life. So it's been great. And I know you've got a plane to catch, so...
Kara Jostes:
He's literally got a jet.
Jack Jostes:
All right. Well, very good. And yeah so like Kara mentioned, one of the things that we do is plan out our year, and Kara and I made a video last year. If you look in the show notes about how to plan your year, it can be a really great thing to do. Certainly 2020 was a weird year, half of our travel plans got canceled and whatnot, but we still had a great year. And a lot of the plans we made did happen, and I'm looking forward to playing that again.
Wayne Herring:
And I'm going to create a page on our website, businessbuildercamp.com/ramblin, and I'll put some of the resources like the calendar and the three-year plan and things that we use during these sessions so other people have access to those.
Kara Jostes:
Cool.
Jack Jostes:
Right. Good job, Wayne. businessbuildercamp.com/ramblin. And thanks everyone for checking this out. Hope this was good and have an awesome, awesome day, and we'll talk to you later. Bye.