Hey Reader,

It's beginning of August 2021, we're in a perfectly average stakehouse in suburban Chicago. Crammed into a long booth table with ~10 people, most of them I've never seen IRL before, just in small virtual boxes on my computer for the last year on calls.

It's my farewell dinner.

And I am 10 questions deep in an awkward line of questioning from my boss' boss trying to wrap his head around the fact that I was walking away from a "good" 6 figure job with high visibility and likely promotions, to join my wife's photo & education business - as everyone else at the table sits in silence because for most people in corporate what I was doing is crazy.

I don't think he ever got it - the next day the Italy business unit director messaged me that I should add him on Linkedin and I should reach out if I ever wanted to come back (heavily implied - when it didn't work out).

This Sunday marks 5 years working together. And I hate to say it, but the majority of the examples of couples working together that we used as comps when I planning the jump... no longer work together.

Why did it work for us?

On the pod today episode #33 we broke down the 5 Biggest Lessons we learned that we tell anyone considering making the jump themselves (along with a few fun stories... it's worth a listen).

Do you wish someone would just give you a plan for how to reach your business goals?

This week we had a VIP Day with a client. In 4 hours we got specific on her dream ICA, what her zone of genius is and the whitespace she operates in, what her offer ecosystem looks like, and what she needs to sell to hit her income goals.

Want more details on VIP Days? Book a discovery call here to see if it's a good fit for you.

Lesson 1. Do a dedicated onboarding

I'd spent years as an blend of advisor/consultant/coach for Jo's business. We talked about it literally every day after I got off work. So we assumed that I'd be able to just hit the ground running... we should have scheduled a week.

Where are the documents stored? How do I send a contract? What are our invoicing terms? What's the password for ___? Oh and do I get my own email? And above all.. what do I do everyday??

For a lot of solopreneurs they don't have everything written down in SOPs yet - so we recommend "body doubling" or basically doing EVERYTHING together for the first week or two and slowly transition to doing more of the things. This is a great way of sharing the habits/processes but also talking through why things are done certain ways.

2. Roles & Responsibilities

We're equal partners, we don't have to have "job descriptions" do we?

Yes you do. When an inquiry lands in your inbox for example, it should be very clear who's job it is to follow up, and they should have decision making authority so they can independently take action rather than checking in on every little detail before doing anything.

We recommend using a RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consult, Inform) framework, to define each persons responsibilities in at least the things that weekly happen in your business.

3. How do you communicate

Going home after work to complain about your coworkers is really awkward when you partner is your coworker...

Getting really clear on when, where, & how to communicate makes a huge difference. For us that means Monday meetings, daily check-ins, and communicating over text even when we're right next to each other so we don't break flow states.

4. Prioritize your relationship outside of work

Spending all of your time working together doesn't mean it's meaningful connection. Finding ways to intentionally prioritize your relationship is really important to prevent becoming just another set of roommates that work together.

Scheduled date nights, boundaries when work is off limits, and proactively finding non-work topics to connect on is ways we've found make a big difference for us.

5. Dream Alignment

Are you clear that you and your partner are working towards the same things? Because if you're both making decisions for the business in service of diffrent goals, you'll create problems fairly quickly.

We do annual, quarterly, and even monthly check-ins on what we're dreaming is in alignment.

This is a super high level, if you want the full breakdown listen to the whole episode #33 here.

See you next week,

Lyndon