There really is no separation between business

and marriage and family issues.

They all affect the other, but you can only get help on one side or the

other, whether it's marriage counseling or business coaching or consulting.

right?

But never the two shall meet.

In a world where the grind of entrepreneurship often

overshadows personal life, one man has made it his mission to harmonize

the hustle with heartfelt home life.

Welcome to Seek Go Create,

where today we're chatting with Robert Fukui, co-founder of I 61 Inc.

A visionary who's redefining the entrepreneurial journey.

Robert is a marketing maestro with a track record of skyrocketing sales

for giants like Coca-Cola Novartis.

Alongside with his wife Kay Lee, he's crafted a lifeline for married

entrepreneurs drowning in the sea of

business demands with their innovative program, Power Couples

by design and their book Tandem.

I just finished reading that they are lighting the path to a world

where thriving marriages and prosperous businesses are not mutually

exclusive, but mutually empowering.

Listeners, buckle up as we explore the secrets to scaling your business

without sacrificing your most valuable asset, your marriage.

Let's get to the heart of what it means to lead with purpose, both in

the boardroom and the living room.

Robert, welcome to Seek Go Create.

Hey, Tim.

Hey, thanks.

You know what?

I'm gonna have to use that intro as my bio That was amazing.

I that for sure.

you can do that.

Yeah, I was working on that some that, and the pronunciation of your last name.

I've been working on that for

some

Which, which, which one took longer?

I think the pronunciation of the last name.

But anyway, Hey Robert.

Let's pretend we just bumped into each other.

We've done some things.

We've been guests on your podcast and you and I have chatted about some things.

But let's pretend we just bumped into each other.

You just came from a conference this last weekend, or you're on a plane or

something, and I ask you what you do.

What do you tell people when they ask what you do?

Yeah, sometimes I wonder.

But, we're basically, or I'm basically a business consultant

with an interesting twist.

so we really helped married entrepreneurs create greater work life balance.

That's the crux of it.

But within that is how do we help the entrepreneur win both in their

business and in their marriage.

They're sometimes they, we operate in silos and unfortunately we feel like we

have to lean towards one side the other.

so we just help them do both better, basically.

All right.

So you and I have talked a while back and you know that my wife

and I for 35 years-ish, have been essentially attempting to do this

that you and Kaylee talk about, and y'all been doing this for some time.

Why ? Why is the marriage relationship such a big deal,

especially when we're talking about entrepreneurs and business owners?

just if, even when you talk about in a business context,

it's all about relationships.

And if you don't have relationships, we really don't have a business.

you have to develop a relationship with your customers, one that's

long lasting and deep so that they come back right, again and again.

And then your employees.

you're not just, you these days with the younger generation,

they want more of a relationship.

even customers want a relationship with the brand.

Employees want a relationship with the business, with the owner.

They wanna feel they're part of something.

And then go back to your marriage and your family.

if you don't have them, I who are you gonna celebrate with?

I the things that we remember as we get older are the memories.

It's not about just the accomplishments, we'll talk about it, but really the

things that drive you emotionally for the good are gonna be your memories.

And it's gonna be your spouse, your kids.

and so at the end of the day, you want to, really invest into them because

you can still make a lot of money.

While investing in relationships first, but if you're investing

primarily in your business, your relationships are gonna suffer.

So I guess you choose.

The only way you can have both is if it's relationships first.

So the, I don't know, devil's advocate or the cynical

in me kind of popped up there.

And I do wanna say I'm in agreement with you.

Obviously I've been married and working with my wife for a while,

but I'm just trying to think about the person that would say something

like, yeah, but business is business.

there are plenty of examples out there of hard charge and business

people, probably mostly men, but probably men and women that have plowed

through, been successful in business and gone through 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

More relationships along the way, disconnected family, but

they're successful in business.

How do you respond when someone says, but how important is this

Because you can really be successful without the family, can't you?

Monetarily.

Absolutely.

And you're just as your just example you gave, but how happy are you, four

or five marriages and I'm sure you're probably, have some people in mind

when you say that just like I do.

And how happy are they?

Right.

just going through one divorce is just excruciating.

I haven't been through that, but I just know friends that, that have, just one

divorce is painful enough and you go through multiple, that's just a grind.

And then you've got all the complexities around, having different, multiple

families, So it's just really just, it's just really complex.

And so really how happy and fulfilled are you versus just pouring into

relationships you already have.

And I think the, you my pushback is we think we can't have it all.

We think we can't invest into our relationships and still

grow a thriving business.

And I can give you examples of that, that there's that example On the other

side is where one marriage, one family, and they still have a thriving business.

And an enterprise.

I mean, I'll just share with you, Sure as we got on the call that we're just at the

Family Business magazine conference and examples of, six generations of families

in the business and, some of 'em are doing better than others, but there's the

ones that are just thriving and they're family enterprises, which means they

have multiple, a multimillion dollar business as well as all the assets and

the thriving relationship relationally.

There was this one, guy on a panel, last week and it was, their last name

was, I won't say the last name, but they became a running joke in the conference

for the whole week because they were such an example of three brothers being

in a work well together, even when they were going through a buyout that

they were still thriving relationally before, during and after because they

had invested into relationship upfront and it really came from their dad.

But, so there's examples of this, the side where we can invest in relations first

and still grow a thriving enterprise.

I think it's good to hear stories like that because I

think often, this feeds the cynicism, we hear the stories of the ones

that have the bodies littered and very similar to what you said.

I think about, I even tell my wife this from time to time that I know . How much,

and this in a positive way, how much work it is to be in one marriage relationship.

And we've got two grown children, and this is in no way judging

people that have had some multiple families and things like that.

I'm not doing that at all, but

I can't picture how difficult it would be to deal with, multiple holidays,

multiple families, multiple, interactions,

relationships, and things like that.

So I just, I like my life to be a little bit simpler.

If possible.

E even though we know life is complicated, in fact, I think

I'd love to do this.

Now, Robert, I know that, we talk about redefining success here,

and I think what we try to do is

we're trying to shift the mindset that some people might have.

That success is just making money and cars in the garage and big

houses, but no healthy, successful relationships and marriages.

But I know that you've been through an interesting story and I'd love

for you to share a little bit of your background we've got the, in

the bio there, which was really cool.

You said, the marketing and the corporate work that you've had

and you've moved into being in business for yourself with Kaylee.

but there's some things that you've had to redefine and some challenges

and also share some things about that.

Whatever you're willing to share here.

Yeah.

Redefining success.

that's the key.

The key thing, because I'm sure you grew up just like I grew up, where success

was defined by our accomplishments.

And so I think that's where we get that, the cynicism of relationship

and business and we can't have both and all this kind of stuff.

And so even though I grew up as a pk.

My dad was a pastor and but even he, he grew up a, with a

very, very strong work ethic.

He grew up on a sugarcane plantation in Hawaii.

And so the family's working, from the time they're young all the way through.

So they definitely, he grew up with a strong work ethic,

which he passed down to me.

But because of that too, even as a pastor, he got so focused on the ministry and

having success really was the ministry.

how well was the church and the congregation doing that?

The family often took a back seat.

And so here you are, you have a pastor, you're the shepherds of the

congregation, the shepherds of the flock, yet his own, in his own nuclear flock.

His own family was taken aback seat.

And it's no, nothing negative of him.

I know he loved us, I loved him.

we had a great relationship as we got older, but it was because of

how he grew up, just like you and I.

And so I think that's what happens is, how we define success is

a lot based on how he grew up.

So it wasn't just my dad's fault, he just did what he knew, right?

And so I carried that with me.

And so whether it was sports or in school and in my career.

I wanted to succeed by checking out the boxes, getting MVP for cross country

or basketball and getting good grades.

And then getting that marketing degree and getting that first job

outta college was with Coca-Cola.

it was like the feather my cap, Here I had some of my friends, graduating

from college and trying to find a job, any job, let alone something within

their major And here I did both, right.

It was my major and it was a great brand.

so then, and then I went into the, moved into the pharmaceutical industry and then,

you here I am, my, my career's growing.

I'm knocking on six figures and, I got all this opportunity.

Even my wife at the time too growing in her career.

Um, we had purchased our first house, got our first puppy.

And you're checking the boxes, right?

Of success from career to even personal.

But it was based on stuff, right?

Accomplishments.

it was the, the house, it was the puppy, whatever.

Um.

And then 22 years ago though, like everything shifted where it was a week

before Christmas and I kissed her goodbye.

We had tandem parking in our, garage down in the condo.

And so I had to let her out.

So I kissed her goodbye.

we give a nice hug and then she drives away.

And then literally 10 minutes from the spot I'm sitting at right

now, she got in a car accident and passed away at the scene.

She didn't survive the accident.

I didn't know about it until that evening when I got home and the

coroner was waiting for me at my door.

And I'm like, what, what's a coroner want to talk to me about?

I was just, I'm just like, what?

I thought he was selling something.

At first I'm like, what?

What does he want to sell me?

Like a plot or something?

And I'm like, what?

he asked to come in and I bring him in, come, he comes in the

house and he tells me what happens.

And I'm just like looking at him with just no, I just saw her, nine, 10 hours ago.

I just saw her, I kissed her, I hugged her, I felt her.

And so that couldn't have happened.

And then she, he brings out her driver's license and says, is this her?

And then all of a sudden it just this, just, range of emotions.

I don't know what they were, but it was just like, stuff's flooding my head.

And I'm like, it's still confused.

And I'm just like, this does not make sense.

'cause when you think about your spouse passing, it's gonna be an old age and

she might be sick or something, and there's always some kind of preparation.

But this was just like, a hundred miles to zero and nothing flat.

And I'm crying, but I'm still kind of in disbelief.

And so when he left, I got on the phone immediately and I called her boss.

I called her best friend at work, and I just asked him, did she show up to work?

And both of 'em said, no.

And she, they're like, you know what happened?

We haven't heard from her.

And I'm like, I tell her what happened, the coroner came and all that and

just, it was just, the nightmare.

And I'm just, everything stops.

And you, when we always make excuses, if we gotta do this, we gotta do that,

and we can't stop for a moment for kids or to, kiss your wife or whatever,

or talk to your wife or whatever.

But, in that moment, like everything stopped, whatever was on my plate

for that evening and going into the next day was just nothing was there.

Right.

What was, what was important?

obviously my wife and dealing with that and trying to make

sense of this whole thing.

and then so I think subconsciously you're starting to, I'm sure I wasn't

trying to redefine success at that time, but I know subconsciously, things are

running through your head, regrets.

there's all this stuff that goes through your head, I don't have another moment to,

whether it's fix something in a conflict or do something in the future for us.

I had what I had.

I can't, I I don't have a future with her anymore.

And then anything that happened in the past was, is gone.

it's, I can't change any of that.

Then the next morning, I think when you talk about redefining success, the

next morning is when I saw what success really looked like, and the next morning,

Knocking the door and I opened the door and literally the the doorframe created

a picture of what success looked like.

And it was my family and it was my friends from fourth grade, high school, college.

And even my first career, my first job at Coca-Cola, they were all

there that next morning driving six hours from San Jose to be down in

Southern California in Pasadena.

And, nothing they can say or do would change anything obviously,

and change emotion, but the fact that they were there was huge.

And so I tell this to people, you know, 'cause we always, we have

a loved one or someone that, they have someone that passes away.

We want to be there for them or say something, but we don't know what to do.

It's that awkwardness of what do I do?

it's nothing I can say or do is gonna change anything or make them feel better.

And so a lot of times we stay away from people when they lose somebody.

but the reality is that's when they need people the most and don't ever think

that they don't have time or they're, I know they're processing, which they are,

but just being there, being present for people is just does amazing, just wonders.

'cause then I knew I wasn't alone, right?

Because if I'm just, because you never know.

and so anyways, all I'll to say is that was the, I, one of the first

stages for me of redefining success.

And I was always, I always value relationships, but I think

obviously in something like this, it kind of hyper-focused you on

what really success looked like.

And it was relationships.

And I was grateful for the time that I was with my wife.

'cause we were actually childhood sweethearts.

I met her when I was 12 years old.

She was 10.

We met at a church camp, grew up together and she, we started officially

dating once I graduated from college.

And so there's this storybook, thing to this.

And then, you you're thinking you're on your way and then next

thing you know, it all stops.

How old were you?

so

how old were you at that time?

I was 35.

35.

And, what was your faith?

Walk you're, you said you're a preacher's kid and every time I hear preacher's kid,

I think of almost two divergent paths.

and we don't have to get into this but one path

and you brought it up.

y'all are at times, family can be secondary to the

mission, whatever that may be.

and, it doesn't sound like you went down the total opposite path, but how

strong was your faith at that moment that the coroner was at your door?

that's a good question.

And 'cause I get asked that quite a bit, especially in the early days of

how I got through that period, and it wasn't easy of course, but my faith was

very strong even though I really wasn't walking with the Lord at that time.

So I was one of those pks that kind of wandered away from the flock.

And it, I think it comes down to, and I tell entrepreneurs and even, and people

in ministry that if you don't invest into your kids' lives and it doesn't

take a lot of time, it's just make sure you check in and say, Hey, are you good?

when you're, if you're not investing into their relationship and they

don't, and your children do not know.

That you're first, they're first in your life.

Right?

And then people say that, I said the same thing.

I know my dad loves me and he did, but there is something about

paying some attention to your kids.

And when what I looked at the church, I looked at the church as that thing

that was stopping me from having a really good relationship with my dad.

And so that's why pks, that's why I feel that pks wander, and not all of

them do, but the ones that do, I think a lot of it stems through that is that

it wasn't be they, I think I still had a healthy even, I wasn't really

walking with the Lord at the time, but I still had a healthy view of God.

I knew that God existed and I didn't, I did not confuse God

with what my dad was doing.

But a lot of pks and will say that, they run away from the faith because their

example of who God is, was their parents.

They're dead.

And so I've said that's who God is and I don't want part of that.

Right.

And so luckily I was blessed that I, I did not have that

skewed, a view of who God was.

Um, but I know I did drift from the faith because a lot of it was that.

And if it wasn't for my own personal, I think experience with God and young age

at nine years old, where he literally had a Samuel experience where God

literally woke me up with an audible voice in bed in the middle of the night.

and he spoke to me.

And if I didn't have that experience, I'm not sure, how I would've drifted

to the faith that might, I might've been one of those other, those pks

that really went off the rails.

But going back to, so all I have to say is even though I wasn't really walking

the Lord going to church regularly, I still had a grounding in, in, in my

faith and who God was, had my experience.

So I, I could not deny who God was.

And so even I was sitting, I remember sitting at my.

Computer that week, starting to write up, type out my eulogy, type out the

eulogy for the service, the funeral.

And I just stopped in the middle and I said, okay, I know they said all

things work together for the good.

And so I said, God, this better be good because right

now this just, it's terrible.

this is about, I've never experienced death on this level.

Never really experienced any kind of tragedy growing up.

And so I'm like, yeah, this next phase better be really good

because right now this is terrible.

And so I'm just gonna have to put my faith that it's gonna be good.

and so that, that was that moment where I'd said, okay, I have to trust in God.

Because a lot of people in those situations would be mad at God.

I don't, a lot of people get upset when

we say they're questioning God.

And I've actually come to grips that I don't think it's bad to ask questions.

A lot of people go, oh, we shouldn't not ask.

Nah, I think that's okay.

But, I'm just curious, Robert, because I know from a cultural standpoint

you have, uh, Japanese heritage.

Obviously Hawaii is a little bit different culture than definitely where I grew up

in the Bible Belt of the South, but were you equipped to grieve or to be a good

griever or any of that, or was it like, cover all that up and don't do anything?

Because as we get into conversations about, the tandem the book and how

to work with, our spouses, a lot of these things are roots on how well

we handle things in the future.

I'm, I guess this is me.

How, were you a good griever or were you a bad griever?

'cause I don't, I'm not a really good griever, I don't think either.

Yeah.

gr growing up I wasn't a good griever.

my they don't teach those kind of things in seminary, apparently.

, you know, conflict and all that.

Um, grieving is hugely important.

it's underrated and it's not even just losing people.

I think when you lose a job, or you have some bad experience in

life in general, there's a grieving process that you have to go through.

And too many times, because we're growing up to achieve, we just

skip over that and say, Hey, that's the past and I gotta move forward.

But you do have to take a moment to, or moments to grieve, and it's okay to, even

as you're moving forward, to still grieve.

And I certainly did that.

And so I don't think I would've been a good griever, but it was actually walking

my wife through her grief in two years.

She lost her mom.

it's a surpr, it was a surprise.

her dad had late stage prostate cancer, so we thought he was gonna go first.

Next thing you know, um, her mom has congestive heart failure and dies.

It was like, it just, it was almost immediate.

within a matter of days.

And and then two years later, her dad ends up passing away from cancer.

and then six months later my wife passes away.

And so walking my wife through the grieving process.

And you've heard the seven stages of grief and all that.

it's real We just don't know when and where, how it's gonna

happen in, in those and what stage and where, what it, it's not.

The seven stages of grief are not written in like a linear order

where this is, these are the stages and these are the exact stages.

it's the emotions can be, where they fall in that line of seven is gonna

be different for everybody, but .For sure those seven stage degree for real.

And I walked my wife through that and it was rough, just even for me helping

her, 'cause I, I was like, what's going, you know, what's wrong with you?

It was like, it's been a year, you know, you should be getting over this.

so I even, I was that kind of a bad husband in that way, but, ultimately,

yeah, I said, okay, you know, I got this.

and so seeing her and observing those, the grief and, how and when it happens

and all that and what's needed.

And so I found that what's needed most when you're grieving like

this is to be able to talk.

it's and if you cover it up and try to be the man and be

strong and just move forward.

and so it's like some of the bad worst advice you can get from people, and

I've got it too, is like you just gotta keep yourself busy and focus

on your business or you focus on your career and just move forward.

Keep yourself busy.

Don't dwell on the emotion, but that's the worst advice.

You've got to deal with the emotion.

Just like even in conflict as husband and wife or with kids, whatever emotion's out

there, we gotta deal with it because if we put it under the rug, you're just creating

this rumbling of lava in this dormant volcano that eventually is gonna erupt.

And the problem is when it erupts years later and you can't connect

it with the emotion that's tied to the grief because it's years later.

So for me it was, I might as well deal with the grief now and understand where

the grief stems from then to deal with it later when I have no clue what's going on.

Because there is moments like six, there's six months after my wife

passed, I'm driving on the freeway and just, I just break down bawling.

I'm, my tears are flowing.

I can't see, I have to pull off the freeway.

And I wasn't consciously thinking about my wife, but it just came and

it was like, what just happened?

And for some people it might be anger.

I.

,right?

then, so anyways, all that to say is you need to be able to deal with

these things and have people, whether it's a professional counselor or a

pastor, good friends, people that are really authentically willing

to listen to you just to share and just get it off your chest.

And for them to be able to empathize.

And that was, and for me, so for me, it was witnessing my wife through that.

And then I said, okay, I know I need to talk about it.

And at the time I was in the pharmaceutical industry, I

was in the oncology division.

And so my customers were oncologists, cancer doctors and nurses.

And so they dealt with this stuff all the time.

And so when I, and I took about a month off of work when I came back to work

and I started visiting my offices.

there was a handful of 'em that were like, Robert, how are you?

and some of the doctors, even how busy they were, sometimes

it's hard to get a moment.

But they would see me and they would stop and they'd say, Robert, how are you?

But, and the way they said it was like.

Don't BS me.

How are you really doing And if I try to BSS 'em, especially the nurses,

they'll pull me into an exam room and just shut the door and say, let's talk.

And so they were my therapist basically.

And I thank God for them.

it's good to have that.

in a recent interview, someone was talking about authentic community

and words that keep popping up that I don't . I don't know that I heard if they

existed, I didn't hear them years ago.

Words like authenticity, vulnerability, empathy, things like that, that,

unfortunately with, some generations, especially with males, they

don't really work their way in.

But you mentioned Romans 8 28, all things work together.

for those that are his children, that maybe my translation,

not the exact translation.

Yeah.

And you mentioned that you told God, what's next here?

And you were 35 years old and you had lost your wife.

So let's fast forward.

What is all the things that work together for your good?

Because I know some of the rest of the story, so let's move through the,

some of the rest of the story here.

Yeah.

it's, as we sit here today, you know, it's a culmination of things and experiences,

from, growing up with my first wife and, going through death and all that.

And then a year and a half afterwards, after my wife

passed, my first wife passed.

I wasn't looking for my next wife per se, but I knew I just needed

to get out there and meet people.

I, I was new to Southern California.

I really didn't have any friends, although I had rekindled some

relationships with some of my old church camp friends, they came out

because of the funeral and all that.

got reconnected with them.

The ones that are really here in Southern California.

And so spent a lot of time with them and that they were a godsend for sure.

and then I'd said, okay, I need to, not so much date, but I knew I need

to get out and just meet people.

I just can't just stay in my shell.

and I wasn't, didn't have expectations about dating, I just said, I just

wanna go out and meet people.

I'm not looking for the one, 'cause I've also seen the bad of guys like just

running into another relationship and try to get married as quick as they can

because they can't handle being alone basically, is what it comes down to.

and so I wasn't that, I wasn't looking for that, but I just

was, Hey, let's just meet people.

And a year and a half afterwards, I met my current wife Kaylee, and I just,

met her on a Christian dating site.

and I was actually, I wasn't looking for a Christian dating site.

I wasn't looking for a dating site early fair, but I got on my AOL.

So I'm dating this process here, my AOL account,

We may

although I just came across.

we may need to explain what that is to some people,

I just got an email this morning though, from

someone with an AWOL account.

so that's still in existence.

It's apparently still around,

um,

is a little better than a Hotmail.

you get Hotmail, AOL and CompuServe or something

like that.

Yeah.

so I got the spam in my inbox in my ALL account.

It said Meet Christian singles.

And again, I told you I wasn't really walking with the Lord at the time,

but, so I clicked on it, went on the website, and I'm like, okay, these

women look pretty normal, because I was expecting like these Amish green,

dress pink women or something like that.

so I don't know what I was expecting, but anyways, and I'm thinking, oh, I,

I know my mom would probably like for me to meet a nice Christian woman.

So I said, what the heck?

So I go on there.

I.

long story short, I met Kaylee.

we converse for a couple days through the system and then finally I said,

okay, let's, wanna get on the phone.

Um, and about a week or two later I said, I'm gonna be, she lived an hour

for me in Ventura, which happened to be part of my sales territory.

So I said, Hey, I'm gonna be out there on Friday.

Would you wanna get together for dinner?

She said, sure.

And so we got to dinner and met her and I really had a good time

and obviously really good time 'cause we're married 17 years now.

And so definitely, she was a good, raised a good Baptist woman.

And so was the person that got me back in, into the church basically.

And she didn't push, but she slowly weaved some things in will you pray for the meal?

And I said, sure.

What the heck?

And then, as things got more serious and, I would, either be out there

for the weekend or she'd be out here.

So if I was out in Ventura, she says, it's Sunday, we should go to church.

So we, would go to church with her, to her church.

And then, when we got engaged and we decided that she was gonna move

out to Pasadena, she said, okay, we need to find a home church.

And I'm like, oh, okay, it's this is getting serious, right?

So, long story short, we landed on our current church Harvest

Rock Church here in Pasadena.

And, and then all of a sudden, we get married and then next

thing you know, she's we should get involved with a small group.

You 'cause we needed to meet people.

I'm like, all So I was getting a little more uncomfortable.

I'm like, so anyways, so we got involved with a small group and

then she's oh, we, I think we should start our own small group.

I'm like, what?

It's So she's no, it'd be great.

So I'm like, okay.

And started leading a small group and then little by little I'm getting more

and more involved with the church.

And then this is over, what, 2, 3, 4 years now.

So it's not happening quickly, but she's you see how Kaylee's acting?

She just weaves some things in.

And then, and then the church announced that, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna to

Israel for the first time, and so our pastor's gonna lead us trip to Israel.

And Kaylee's oh, that's been on my bucket list.

I'm like, really?

I'm like, okay.

So we go to Israel.

and then we got, I.

We got to get baptized at the Jordan River, which I think that's what church

groups do when they go to Israel.

Israel, You gotta get baptized in the Jordan.

Interesting story with that was I wasn't gonna get baptized because

I said, oh, I've done that before.

I've been baptized.

And the whole group is gonna get baptized.

And except for me and the pastor's wife, so we were in this, they have

this amphitheater set up at the Jordan.

It's somewhat commercialized, but there's these two amphitheaters.

And so we were in one.

And so as everybody's gonna get baptized, me and the pastor's wife,

we decided we're staying back, so we're gonna watch all the stuff.

And so it was one, it was interesting that when we, there was nobody at nobody there.

Like we were the only group there.

And like we pulled in the parking lot and there was no cars in the parking lots.

And I'm thinking, is this open?

And so usually, and the tour guy will tell you, usually it's just, like

I said, it's pretty commercialized, so just it's crowded and there's

one group after another just waiting to get in to be baptized.

I'm looking at everybody getting ready to be baptized.

And we even had a worship service, that's how long we were there

without have anybody interrupt us.

So as I'm watching everybody getting in line to get baptized and I see my wife

down there alone, um, without me, I'm thinking I probably should get baptized

with my wife, And so I really feel as God's way of holding the crowds back

so I can come to my senses and get down there and get baptized with my wife.

And that was the first time I committed myself to the Lord on my terms.

Not because I was a pk and because it was an expectation as a pastor's kid,

And it that, and I'll just pause there 'cause that, all that say and that

culmination of things and that just shifted things in my own life and my

relationship with God and just set a stage for what the next phase of my life,

my career, and even when I'm doing now

is.

Yeah, it's fascinating to me.

it really is obvious, especially as you tell the story that God brought.

Her to you And I did have this vision , while you were telling the story of

Robert almost with a hook in his mouth and just being pull pulled along.

I led guided, I'm sure I'm not, you weren't probably kicking and screaming,

but, I was just, I'm just praying this morning I was saying, Lord, lead me down

the path that you would have me to go and steer me away from the path that

you would have me, to stay away from, or, close doors and things like that.

and to me that is just so, I mean, listen, I don't think anybody would

be excited about losing a spouse, but then have to look at, all things,

you know, in that scripture and, the, not even the completion of

the story, the rest of the story.

'cause the story's still being written

along the way.

and I, we've, I've, I.

I've met Kaylee once and it's, y'all are beautiful couple with obviously

a heart to do something that is very unique and I think challenging

in the culture that we're in.

And so I guess the question I have now is how did y'all then get

into this, what I call a mission?

I don't, I think that's the way I'll term it too.

This mission of not just business and not consulting and not just helping people

with marketing and all these things.

'cause I know she has a background.

Her family was business people

also.

So she also feels the, the

The tension.

being the mistress of a business owner or

pastor's kid and stuff like that.

But so how did y'all then move into what you're doing now?

What was the thing that led you, it seems like there was just this path

that was being laid out for you.

Yeah, for sure.

So I like to say like a lot of people want, they wanna know God's

will in their life, of course.

And they wanna know the big picture.

They wanna know, what do you have for me?

And for me, well, I always say you better be careful what you wish for.

'cause like sometimes if he reveals the whole thing, you can't handle

it or you're gonna try to run away.

And so for me, it's always about following breadcrumbs.

even just a story with Kaylee, it's like this falling one step after another

and it's not looking too far ahead, but I'm just like following the next step.

And so that's what happened even to where we are now.

Was in, in our church, we got introduced to, this concept.

I know Lauren Cunningham and Bill Bright, years ago had this same, the

same dream or vision about the seven mountains of culture and how we are

influenced and discipled by these seven mountains and culture, which are like

the business and arts and entertainment, even religion and government education.

there's all these seven spheres that together they really

disciple and form our culture.

And so it was all about, Hey, wherever you're called, wherever

God's called you in these spheres, you want to be an influence, a

positive influence in that area.

So we can turn the tide instead of arts and entertainment, inundating

us with some really bad stuff.

right?

How about if we influence that to have a positive message?

it's not so much just about evangelizing people, but it's about

just discipling people the right way.

When God calls.

So I started thinking about, okay, what's my next step?

am I supposed to stay in this corporate environment or is it supposed

to be doing something different?

So I started entertaining the idea of having a business, which

I never entertained before.

'cause my dad just said, get a job basically get a good job.

And so I was never had an entrepreneurial mindset, but Kaylee

actually when we were dating, said, oh, I can see you having a business.

And so I think that plan to see, and so I started thinking about that and

I was like, Hey, what would it be?

so I checked off, I had a list of all these different types of industries

and I checked off all of 'em and said, Nope, nope, And so I said, well, you

know, my background's in marketing, so why don't I do some marketing

consulting with different businesses and maybe I'll find something that I like.

it turns out I really liked just consulting.

I really enjoyed helping family businesses succeed because you see the impact

it has on their life, their family.

I.

And their employees in a different level than it is when I'm just working

for a corporation and I'm just really trying to keep the shareholders happy.

Right.

, we're just trying to keep the shareholders happy.

it's a wholly, totally different impact and I see it on more of a personal level

when I'm helping small family business.

And so I said, okay, I'm gonna go down this road.

And then my pastor got, had this ministry school and then they asked me

to Create kind of a kingdom business curriculum to, to launch with the school.

And I'm thinking, okay, I never had a business, but I know how to train.

I've done some sales training and all that.

I understand that process.

And so long story short, we got a, we got, with an organization called

Nehemiah Project that had a kingdom business curriculum all written.

I took the course and they licensed it out.

So I said, Hey, why don't we just license this thing out instead of me

trying to recreate something or create something that's, it's already here.

So started doing that for about six years.

led that, course.

And so that started me down, more of the trail of really helping

small family business and that's far more from a kingdom perspective.

And then, um, six years ago, so I said, this is where it's at.

And so six years ago or seven years ago, I left my corporate job to consult

full-time at small family business.

And then in the midst of that, as you're, you really get to know the

owners, the clients a little bit better.

They start opening up about their personal life.

And then one owner after another started talking about their marriage.

And so I started looking, seeing the trend and the connection that the stress of

trying to grow this business was affecting their home life and not in a good way.

And they're so all in trying to do this business that their marriage,

their family was suffering.

And I'm like, Hey, why are you doing that?

'cause I started going that, that same path myself when I was

working full time and starting to launch my consulting career.

I was working till 2:00 AM until I finally stopped and said, wait, a, this is crazy.

'cause by the time I hit the weekend, I'm dead.

And I'm with my wife, I'm with Kaylee physically, but I'm not present.

I'm exhausted.

And so I'm sitting at my desk at 1:00 AM one night and I'm like, Lord.

I don't think this is your best.

I understand the sacrifices have to be made to transition, but even

within the transition, I don't believe that sacrificing quality time with

Kaylee is what I'm supposed to do.

I don't think that's your best, but I, so I'm falling into the trap that

every other entrepreneur, or even people in ministry or doing, was going

all in and say, I'm gonna sacrifice my family life, while I grow this thing.

And so I, I couldn't change the fact that I had to work outside

of the full-time job to do this.

But I said, okay, what do I, at least, instead of going bed at 2:00 AM when I,

what about 11:00 AM or 11:00 PM That's three hours a night I get back and over

the course of a week, that's a big, and I can be functional more than functional by

the weekend And so creating that boundary allowed me to reassess what I was doing in

the business and what was really important versus what was just taking up time.

we get so busy and a lot of that busy work is not productive work.

And so I really started looking at what is really productive versus not.

And really started to carve this thing out.

And so I was able to, get to bed by 11, sometimes 10 30.

And then I made sure that even after I went full-time in the business,

I didn't backfill it with just, getting used to working till 10 30.

I wanna make sure I wasn't working till 10 30 even when I hope

didn't have my full-time job.

And so all that to say that experience and as we, and we also, Kaylee and

I went through counseling, before we got married, two years of counseling.

I know you read the book.

We went to counseling for two years before we got married and helped us

develop tools to do conflict better.

Just to be able to do issues.

And so all the, to say, all the culmination of stuff was like, I

started really helping my clients with co conflict and saying, Hey,

how do we do this business better?

How do we make sure that you can still focus on family and you

can still grow this business, but let's focus on family first.

So that's kinda a little bit of the story of how we got here, just the

rabbit trails, uh, or the trails.

The breadcrumbs of just one thing after another led me to say,

Hey, there's an issue here that nobody's really dealing with.

And I think people are just accepting this status quo of focusing your time and

energy on the business and whatever's left over the family gets, and then maybe when

we get the business to a certain level, then we'll be able to live life, have

greater work-life balance and all that.

And I'm here to say that it doesn't matter how size, how big the revenue

is or the size of your bank account or your net worth, people still

struggle with work-life balance, regardless of how much money they have

and how much time they could have if they were really wanting to do it.

I think the struggle of being present in the now is something

that entrepreneurs, business people struggle with, that maybe it's a

little bit easier if you work for someone else in another environment.

Maybe it's not, I don't know.

There could be people that struggle with that.

Anyway, I know I had that.

I was interviewing someone recently and they said that they

had an addiction to tomorrow.

Yeah.

and I think my addiction was to more, just

whatever.

It was more, hey, if I could work till 1:00 AM you know what, I probably do 1 32.

and we've got these conflicting structures, the world system

which says hustle and, and go at it, and things like that.

And then, like you mentioned, the kingdom, which basically

says, be at rest, be at peace.

There's something called a Sabbath and things like that,

The one commandment.

We all violate

the only

one

don't put it up there

one

the one that we, our EAs, it's the easiest one to violate because

there's no, it's not, thou sht not kill, there's no these ramifications.

It's more of a personal issue, but it also has relational issues too.

But it's the one we can easily violate.

Right?

and unfortunately our culture rewards that hustle because you

probably had people that were telling you, man, yeah, you gotta pay the price.

You gotta, you stay up, you're building your own company, you're

building your own business, Robert, you gotta do all these things.

And, that's kinda where we find ourselves.

Let's, before we get too much farther though, I wanted to kind

of, you mentioned, you know, family . Family, small family business.

So I'd like to define that in just a second, just to make sure we understand.

But I'd also like for you in the same kind of conversation to, to let me

know what's your balance right now.

'cause I know you do consulting for people that are in business

and then that started opening up doors for you to do conversations

about marriage relationships.

And a lot of the books and the resources you have now are for

married couples in that situation.

but what's the ratio right now of, I don't wanna say just business people versus.

Working with married couples.

What, first of all, define small family business.

What is that niche for you guys and how do you define it?

I've got a definition that I use for what I, for the people I work with.

And then how much is like marriage work?

Probably almost all of it because it all relates.

And then how much would you say is just like hardcore actual

business growth and business work?

I follow the SBA, the small business administration definition of

small business, which is $500 million in revenue or, or 500 employees and less.

but our, most of our clients are doing well, less than that, less than

$10 million in a year in revenue.

and so we Yeah, all our focus is primarily all marriage and business.

So they're business owners that are married and they have the tension of

sometimes they're working together too.

A lot of times they're working together.

Most of our clients are working together, so they feel the tension

of business working together, conflict, teamwork issues, all that.

There's, it's all wrapped and run, and there's no separation of those things.

And that's been the problem.

The clients that come to us do say, oh, you're a breath of fresh air because

there really is no separation between business and marriage and family issues.

They all affect the other, but you can only get help on one side or the

other, whether it's marriage counseling or business coaching or consulting.

right?

But never the two shall meet.

Never the two shall meet.

And so they'll tell us, a lot of times they'll tell us like, yeah, we get

marriage help, but they really can't empathize what's going on in the business.

And then if we have a business consultant, they really can't empathize

what's going on in the marriage.

And so we get these and sometimes we get these good advice for one

aspect of life, but it also conflicts with the other aspect of life.

And but we understand business and we have a heart for the family, and we understand

those two dynamics and how much tension there can be because only about six

point, only about 6% of the population are married and have a business, right?

It's about 9% of the population have a business and about

70, 70% of them are married.

And so very few people You can't understand the tension that goes along

with being married and having business, whether you work together or not.

There's not very people that can understand, empathize with that.

And so having someone that understands that and can help them navigate those two

parts of your lives, um, is refreshing.

So yeah, it's all marriage and business basically.

And how much, how much of our time is spent on one.

The other, it's, it gets blurred too.

'cause sometimes we're talking about business issues, but then some relational

conflict issue comes up, which is important because that's part of, that's

part of the reason why their business is getting stagnated 'cause they can't

make a decision to move things forward.

And anyways, I hope that answers your question,

There used to be, there used to be this joke that we had years ago.

I was in a, in an MLM business, and one of the, one of the jokes, or it was actually

a principle that we talked about was if you go speak to someone, make sure you

speak with both the husband and wife.

That way you'll be guaranteed to have the decision maker and I know that even

though let's just use a traditional, and I know that we're not in necessarily

a traditional world much anymore more, but traditionally a male is out as the

head of the business and the female may be working in some type of role.

It is interesting.

We can talk about some of the roles that we sometimes pigeonhole

people into just because of

tradition, but even if, let's just say the spouse isn't there,

I do know that spouse has decision making over whoever

that leader or that person is.

But, that's fascinating to me.

What are, and the book does a great job, we'll talk about the book here in

just a moment, but what are some of the biggest issues that you see top 1, 2,

3, whatever, related to business owners that are also either working with or

they're, or they're, they're married because I don't really separate off.

I think if you're going into the same office together every day,

there might be certain things there.

for those that are watching the video here, I'm in the main room of our RV

and my wife and I are here with about 400 square feet, and we are business

owners and we are together almost 24 7.

This is our quote unquote air quotes here, office.

But just what are some of the top two or three things that you see, and we

may try to address those here before we wrap up and let people know how

they can get some more resources.

The top two or three things that, what

That are the challenges for people that are, married,

entrepreneur, business owners.

what are the big ones that you see

so number one, the first one's always

communication, conflict resolution,

shocking,

always that.

Yeah.

that's what creates the tension in the relationship is you just

not able to resolve an issue.

I.

, right?

And there's two different, viewpoints and we just can't come to agreement.

And so whether it's, an issue in your personal life or the business, and

like I said, even if the spouse isn't working the business, but they're

having some input in what they're seeing their spouse going through in

the business, and sometimes they're they're clashing on these differences.

And it's especially the spouse that's running the business, a

lot of times they will disregard what their spouse is saying.

'cause, oh, you don't really know the business 'cause you're not part of it.

And so because of that, they disregard what the, I'm just gonna say wife, because

I'll just use my own example what the wife has to say because, oh, you don't know.

And so the problem is they know more than you think, and they don't have to know the

intricacies of the business, but they have a knowing and a feeling and discernment,

whatever you want to call it, about what you should be doing or not doing.

say even what people you should be involved with.

So that really valuing each other's opinions and not just poo-pooing it

and knowing how to listen and then come to agreement and, and especially

like whenever we have disagreements or conflict, you know, we always

want, we're trying to talk the other person into seeing your viewpoint.

We're always trying to, we wish that the, your spouse would change,

be different, act differently, talk differently, whatever.

And you know, the scripture about pulling the plank outta your own eye

so you can see the spec in here's eye.

I the first rule of engagement is on the comp communication, conflict resolution

issue when we come with a new client is.

You make the change, not your spouse, you can't control her or him.

You can't change her.

And him, nobody can change her and him except God and themselves.

But you can change yourselves.

And the way you react, the way you talk, the way you act, the way you react

to your spouse and how you do those things can totally change the dynamic

with the issue for good or better.

The way we react to our spouse, if we overreact, it creates an emotional

negative response in our spouse, and she's gonna, or he's gonna

react negatively to you as well.

And so anyways, the communication, conflict resolution issues number one.

And then two is then you gotta take account for what you're doing and

what yours, what you lend into this argument, disagreement, this conflict.

And what can you do to change yourself, not to change the other person.

so that's, those are the top two things.

those two things alone.

We'll help you in marriage and business, period.

Yeah.

listen to your spouse.

'cause I've had a couple, two, three times where, you it was a financial decision.

I think it was a real estate issue, whatever.

I ran all the numbers.

I don't think we're married yet.

And Kaylee had a feeling.

She said, I don't feel good about this.

I don't like, and then I'm like, yeah, you don't understand.

I ran the numbers.

This is all good.

It blew up it cost us six figures, or it cost me six figures of time.

What really cost us six figures because that she married me.

And so I'm like, you know what?

After, so after I didn't listen after the first time, but after the

second time, I'm like, you know what?

I should probably listen when she has a feeling

That intuition.

I agree with you.

I actually wrote it down here on my notepad, that intuition is something

that, and we hate to generalize here, but it seems as if men are lacking in that

area and women are much more in tune.

I don't want to say that wholesale, because they're, I'm trying to have

better intuition, but I'm kinda like you.

It's no, the numbers are good and I believe in people and everybody's

good, and all that kind of stuff.

And we had a situation with a partner, that we never could meet.

I like going out and meeting.

taking my wife and meeting with someone before we do business, especially if it's,

we're gonna partner on some big projects.

And the guy's wife never was able to meet with us and it was bothering me, but we

kept going ahead and before we knew it, we were working together and all in bed

together in business and stuff like that.

And it did not end well.

Robert and my wife kept saying, I don't know, I don't have

a good feeling about this.

we should be able to meet his wife along the way.

And sure

enough, today he's, we're not, definitely not working together.

Cost . Probably seven figures if we really did the math.

And also he's no longer with his wife and things like that.

So it's, it, intuition.

Yes.

Now, one of the things that I loved, I just finished reading tandem the book,

And first of all, I had to grasp what the name meant.

I'll let you explain the name in just a little while.

Was that it really went back and forth between some theory and then

some hardcore, like practical stuff.

There were a couple of lists, and I might be getting these wrong, and we

got it pulled up here, but I don't have that exact page where there were like.

Seven ways to avoid having conflict, and then nine ways to handle

conflict once you deal with it.

I may have the numbers off or something like

that, but extremely good practical stuff that to me, I think are

good for married people as well as business people, leaders, because

most of these things apply in both

situations.

But what do you wanna say about the book tandem?

At what point did y'all decide we need to put some of this wisdom a book?

that was a little bit of an evolution too.

I mean, didn't wanna write a book.

People would ask us early on, oh, as we were doing the work we're

doing, oh, you should write a book.

Like, no, that's too much work.

but it got to a point where, again, the reason why we got into this, and,

I'm a marketer, market researcher at heart, and so I see a need and I go,

I think we should have filled this not thinking in the ramifications of this.

I'm like, writing up the stuff and I'm like, we're dealing with marriage issues.

And I'm like, why am I doing this?

Kaylee's the one that loves this marriage stuff, it's but I'm the

one that can put it to paper.

anyways.

when we first started doing this, really focusing on married entrepreneurs,

I was like, okay, we need to scale this because there's a lot of married

entrepreneurs that need this help.

Because I said I didn't see any resources out there that

specifically dealt with both issues.

And so that's also why we started podcasts was, hey, this is one

way to get the message out.

'cause we know we can only help so many clients at a time.

I mean, as much as we want to grow our business regardless, even if we have a

hundred consultants in our belt, we can still only have help so many people.

so as we're growing in the meantime, what can we do?

And one of 'em was the podcast and the second one did come to,

we really should write the book.

we were gonna write a collaborate collaborative book with different

experts to write in each chapter.

And then we had a meeting with this couple that we've been taught, Kay and

my talk, we gotta reach back out to them and thank them because they saw what

we're doing and they wanted us to be a collaborate on a chapter in their book.

And then they said, At first they said, have you written a book yet?

And we're like, no.

They're like, no, you should.

Your first book should be your book.

I'm like, we're like, really?

And they just start talking.

I'm like, oh, makes sense.

I mean, we should set the tone.

I mean, it's our message.

I mean, anyway, so all that to say is, um, they, that couple, and

they're in Arizona, they gotta find their names now and reach out to 'em.

But, they're the ones that really got us thinking about, yeah, I

guess we should write this book.

And so that's where it started.

And really the heart behind it is just to get as hand as many people as

possible and many couples as possible.

there's a workbook that's, built into that too.

There's a QR code at the end of the chapter, and so

you can download a workbook.

And so there's videos and stuff.

And so we built it as a multipurpose use.

And we even thought, Hey, you can use it.

'cause someone asked us on our book tour, Hey, could we use

this as a, like a group study?

And I'm like, Yeah, it's built for that.

Yeah, sure.

Go ahead.

I don't care.

if you want us involved, fine.

We're here, but if not, go for it.

we don't, we're not holding tight to this.

it's not, and I, like I tell Kaylee, I said, what we put

in this book is nothing new.

All this information's out there, we just package it, right?

There's nothing new under the sun We just, it's just the way you package things.

And so we just happened to package it in a way that we feel could really

help the married entrepreneur

just do life and business better.

And the big thing that I get from that, and my wife and I talk about

this, Glori and I talk

about this quite often, is that we really do, especially in that

relationship, have to take our eyes off ourselves and do the best we can

to study our spouse, partner, life partner, intimate partner, all of that.

And there's a couple sections where I love that y'all go through Strength

Finders, disc, five Love Languages.

To me, I think three of the best assessments to learn about

yourself and also learn about

your partner, spouse, and I just think you guys did a great job with it.

Tell me

about the name Tandem, that's kind of unique.

And then I got a couple questions as we wrap up here.

that came, I have to, give credit to my mastermind group.

And so it was about, two to three months we're about to finish the manuscript.

And we're, I think we're at the editing phase and I'm like, I need a title.

We had a working title, but I knew that wasn't the one.

And it was my turn to be in the hot seat.

That's this next day.

And I'm like, what do I wanna present with them?

And I'm like, they're, most of them, they're all kind of

marketers in their own right.

And some of 'em are copywriters.

The head of the group is this really master copywriter and did work for

John Maxwell and some big names, right?

And so title I said, I just said, I need a title.

You know what we do?

You understand a little bit about the book.

I'm like, I need a title.

And then somebody threw out tandem and then everybody started throwing all

these analogies and metaphors around tandem because obviously it's, the

book is for married entrepreneurs, so it's two people doing life

and business together, so tandem.

And then obviously the imagery with the tandem bike.

and then, when the guys in the group say, oh yeah, you can, we have a,

my wife and I have a tandem bike.

We only rode it once, so, you can write a book.

There's a story behind that.

and I'm just laughing and just started laughing and I'm like,

alright guys, time out real quick.

Yes, this is the title because.

When we go to the beach, a lot of times, Kay, inevitably there's

someone a couple riding on a tandem bike going by and Kaylee's oh,

we should get on a tandem bike.

And I'm like, no, that's not a good idea.

She's like, why?

She's because I don't know exactly where I would seat you in the front or the back.

'cause you know how you like to get distracted.

you don't wanna pay attention to what's in front of you.

You want to pay attention to everything else that's going around.

And we're at the beach, which means you're gonna be looking at

everything but what's in front of you.

So I can't put you in the front.

If you go in the back, you're probably not gonna be peddling so and so anyways,

so I'm gonna be doing a lot of, that's gonna be a lot of effort for me.

So anyways, it's this kind of running joke that between her and I, and so of

course then I came up with a tandem thing.

I said, oh yeah, that's gotta be it because there's so many

life and marriage lessons.

if you've never been on a tandem bike, try it as husband and wife because

there's definitely some conflict that arises that can arise on a tandem bike.

We, we haven't done a tandem bike, but I just had this vision

of us when we went canoeing one time.

We were up in Whistler in

Canada and we went canoeing.

And my thought was, I'm gonna sit in the back and I'll just brute force and all.

And we, there were other people with us that were just kinda

like in a work situation.

They didn't know each other.

And we were horrible.

We were horrible.

And it was all my,

Glori can probably

hear this, she's in the back of the rv.

It was almost all my fault.

'cause my thought was, I don't want her have to work too hard.

she could just kinda steer up front and I'm just gonna,

which doesn't work in canoeing.

It probably doesn't work in biking either.

no, not a town bike either.

great name there.

hey Robert.

Gimme some other resources.

I know you've got the podcast Power Coup, power Couple, and you've got the book.

Tell us about all the resources you guys have and where to find you.

And then I've got one more question as we wrap up here before we finish the podcast.

Yeah.

Thanks Tim.

just go to our website, marriedentrepreneur.co and,

Kaylee is always like, why'd you pick the word entrepreneur?

I can't spell it.

So

sometimes.

going, I started going, we'll try to conclude

the spelling down in the links

I go just Google it.

Just google it.

Google how to spell entrepreneur.

It'll correct you, AI will correct you anyway.

so right there you can then you'll get, be able to connect right to our podcast,

Power Up Your Marriage and Business.

It's also on all the podcast players.

you can follow us on Social Power Couples by design on

both on Facebook and Instagram.

And you can just look me up on LinkedIn as well.

just Robert Fukui, FF as in Frank, UK ui.

For those of you that are not don't see my name out there, but in the show notes.

But those are ways you can follow us.

And of course in our website, we've got all our digital resources as well

as, links to the book and all that.

So that's the best way.

I listened to a number of episodes.

I was traveling, we were traveling from Colorado down here to Southern

Utah, last week, and I listened to about three or four episodes.

Great compliment.

I think it's a great compliment to what we're doing here.

For those folks

that are married entrepreneurs in business, Robert, we are seek,

go create those three words.

Last question, I'll let you pick one of those words over the other two.

Seek, go or create.

Which one do you choose and why?

I think I'd have to go with, create and, and why

was my, why is that my answer?

I never thought of myself as much of an innovator or creative.

And so Kaylee would say, 'cause I'm not, I'm more analytical

by nature and all that.

you don't think of analytic an analyticals like accountants and

engineers as creative, but you really are.

And as I've.

walked out this journey of being in business, looking at the need that's

out there and developing something from nothing, developing from something

that's not really out there, and having that boldness to go and try

something that no one's really doing.

I've really latched onto that.

I really, I've, it's really brought me to life, so even for you listening, you

don't, even if you are like me that don't think you're creative, you absolutely are.

we all see things and we all can react to things, but a lot of times we don't

act on our impulse to create something because we think it's too risky.

we think we don't have what it takes to do it and succeed at it.

And let me tell you all, we are all we're all, we're built,

we're created in God's image.

And so we have all the aspects of the DNA of God.

Some ratios of certain aspects of DNA is more than others, but we all

have the ability to create something.

And so I really, my encouragement really is if you see a need and if

you've probably had the self-doubt of that you can do this, go for it.

Because God's doesn't put you in a position to see things and not

have given you the experience and the skill and gifts to do it.

I think we just hold ourselves back and I was one of those because I'm

not a risk taker by nature and but as I've done it, and so start doing,

you you'll figure it out right?

And especially if you're married, you have your spouse to help you out and

you always have God and you always have people around you that can help you do it.

I think the big mistake that we do as entrepreneurs.

Just like your canoe story is we try to do it on our own.

So that's the big mistake of why we're not able to do things.

So as you see things, see a need, go create it, but don't

try and do it on your own.

Surround yourself with the right people that can help you put this

thing into action and move it forward.

I'm very similar.

I have had an engineering background that I didn't think I

was creative, and you know what?

I was wrong and I'm okay admitting that.

Robert, thank

you so much for this conversation.

It's been awesome.

If you're listening in, get the book tandem.

I recommend that we'll have some links down below if you're either

watching this on YouTube or listening in, and then I think you should go

check out Power Up their podcast.

If you're listening via podcast, great time to just jump out right now.

If as we finish here and go subscribe and listen in over there, I think

it'll be some great wisdom for you.

We are seek, go create.

We have new episodes every Monday.

Until next time, continue being all that you were created to be.