alright well gotta put Bochy it’s a
better topic big government what’s that
was a better topic than just talking
about local government talking about
being there I agree I agree okay so we
are live um welcome guys to another
hangout gray I’m had Michael Hurwitz
with me and he’s an offer on my website
and we are talking today about starting
a business and running the business with
your spouse or with your family um
michael has his own companies had it for
a while and we’re trying to figure out
what what topic might be good to discuss
today and so that was the one it came up
with so Michael for those of the viewers
who you know familiar with you can you
give a quick intro absolutely careers in
government which is like monster or
careerbuilder but specifically for local
government was actually one of the very
first in the space it was started in
1996 actually by my in-laws and my
father-in-law who is still a city
manager today but has been a city
manager for years and years and years
and about in the mid 90s at that time
when you had a job posting you would you
know basically fax off your job posting
requirements and then it was put into a
job pamphlet and then mailed out to
local government officials and my
father-in-law saw as well as my
mother-in-law saw that you know there
was an opportunity to obviously create a
job board monster was just starting at
the time and actually my wife great
story my wife started helping out my
in-laws and use that experience to
become one of the founders of hot jobs
so she has tremendous experience in you
know that space of the job board
industry so fast forward when I started
dating my wife you know her parents were
still running it as very successful
business but now they were at the
retirement age I think they were looking
to you know close shop and right from
the get-go our relationship was all
about the business in a good way very
positive way and so you know we started
talking about hey maybe we should take
over the business this is when we were
still dating we were I think we just I
might have proposed but was around that
time so the business is really part of
our
of our whole family nucleus which is
very cool so her in-laws have helped us
to this day grow the business I’ve got
my wife working with us her sister helps
us as well as our staff and everyone
else that obviously helped pull the load
but it’s such a unique situation and
very rare where you have a family
situation really helping out and you
know when you think about it that’s how
American businesses started in the
United States it was all about family
businesses family farms everything else
I think people kind of forgotten that
that’s a great way to start a business
and grow as a couple is having business
yeah and how long ago is that when you
guys first started this or when you guys
first started dating yeah we took it
over we’ve been married about three
years we took it over about four years
the site had never been updated I mean
literally it was like circa nineteen
ninety-six with the AOL cd-roms remember
you had a load a min and get your AOL
internet that a site like an AOL
homepage I mean it was horribly outdated
no social media presence no marketing
effort we took over the business from
ground zero and now we have major
partnerships with some of the largest
government associations in the country
we’re by far the leader in local
government job boards and more
importantly we’re very active on social
media with our blog one of the largest
blogs in local government and thanks to
you Evan and your organization helped
get our message out which is fantastic
and we now have more than 100 writers
that contribute to us from government
employers and job seekers to really you
know government thought leaders who are
really kind of creating the next trend
of employment in government we’re trying
to bring that message to as many people
as possible that hey you know what local
government is a great place to work got
hit by the recession and now they’re
looking to hire and you’re seeing a lot
of Millennials looking at you know hey I
want to change the world I want to do
everything like that I want to be part
of the community this is a great way to
be a part of the community it’s not
about the money always in government as
we know it’s about making a difference
and at local government you really can
make a difference cool so let’s talk
about working with your working with
your spouse you know I thought you’ve
been a fan of working with with friends
and family had great results with it but
some people
will say that’s crazy i could never woke
my wife i could never work in my in-laws
what advice if somebody who’s thinking
about that or who’s in that and is
having some issues I you know I made a
list of things it was funny because I
was thinking this morning like you know
what drove my wife korie a night to work
together and what made it successful and
in a lot of ways our business
relationship is equally as successful as
our marriage and and what drives that
common goals you know when you’re
sitting there and you have a business
partner that let’s say you just met a
few months ago where he has a financial
investment your company you don’t know
him beyond the parameters of that
initial meeting or that initial
friendship marriage is very different
you’ve got to rely on your partner if
she doesn’t pull her weight or if you
don’t pull your way you’re gonna hear
about it that night you’re gonna hear
about that day and you’re gonna see it
in your bank account so you know it is
all about common goals and you know we
really sat down and said okay you know
what do we want out of this business
what do we want to accomplish what are
our short-term midterm and long-term
goals and we constantly re-evaluate that
so I think that’s one aspect is what’s
the common goal you know a lot of people
say I want to grow big business it’s not
enough you know you got to get down to
the minutia and that’s where personally
for me and I think you hear this a lot
it’s all about delegating work there is
no way that two people can work together
on every project so my wife handles
certain tasks I handle certain tasks
you’re given the you know approval where
the person’s given the authority kind of
run with their program or run with their
department if they want advice from the
spouse they ask for it but at the same
time the spouse realizes look they’re in
charge of it and you have to take a step
back and you have to trust your partner
like in business but it’s a little
harder when you have an emotional
connection you know say hey we’ll wait a
minute how about we do it this way it
with your spouse you have to talk about
it but then you have to say you know
what she knows best that’s her area and
move forward so that’s another areas you
know delegate and then give kind of that
authorship to that task um you know
separate office
partners in this or somebody we’re not
puzzles we took over the business
officially from her parents and then you
know we kept on some staff hired new
staff and changed around but yeah we
took over a hundred percent ownership
and that’s actually a very interesting
point because if someone does start a
business and they bring in a spouse you
gotta have 50-50 partnership I know some
people saying well you know I’m the guy
or the female saying hey you know I
started the business I want the
ownership in a marriage it’s 5050
whether you like it or not no matter
what someone did more so beforehand or
not I mean my wife the reality is it was
her in-laws that helped us start it she
had the background that if she’d gone in
and said hey I want seventy percent I
would have been like no sorry so you
know you gotta realize that hey this is
a fair partnership in life and in work
you have to you know you have to have it
fair so in decision making you know on
the big picture stuff I get to the task
you know you have your think he has
heard but what if you disagree on a big
picture issue or like it’s something
that the president would make a decision
on how do you handle you know it’s
interesting that’s a great topic so you
know some of that is based on the
delegation so with the delegation let’s
say there is a project that has
significant impact on the business but
it’s hunger you know my authority so to
speak or her authority you have to
really let that person say look okay
it’s under your department you know I’ll
take a step back now if it has
significant impact we’ll sit down we’ll
work it through it will decide hey you
know what this is really important
enough to where we have to work together
and make a decision but usually on most
issues you know my wife has authority on
her areas I have authority on mine and
to be honest I always tell my wife I
don’t want to worry about her business
you know it’s I’ve got enough to worry
about I want I know and trust her
implicitly I want her to run with it if
it’s a major project she shares it with
me and vice versa and then you know it’s
again it’s that kind of balance like in
marriage sometimes you’re going to have
to you know give up the fight for the
big picture and sometimes you gotta
stand strong but you know in marriage is
a guy
knows he got us some time away when your
wife says this is how a cheapy that’s
all so how have you guys split up your
roles what is your department of what is
hers and your business a lot well you
know it’s interesting and that’s another
thing it’s evolved over time right so in
the beginning she oversaw all the sales
because I came from advertising I used
to work in the print world USA Today
Gannett and overseen their advertising
and marketing so I stayed on with my job
as my wife who you know was running a
full-time with our staff was kind of
taking the you know the bull by the
horns and running with it and dealing
with it I was kind of sitting on the
sidelines you know assisting where I
could and so my wife got very
comfortable with working with a lot of
the employers so for the single job
postings and job posting packages she
would handle all that right and as I
started moving in and started developing
partnerships with large government
associations like for example we work
with the National Association of
counties which is the largest National
Association of counties in the country
were overseen all their job board career
efforts and also with ipma it’s the
world’s largest association of Personnel
Management for government we’re
overseeing their entire job board
resource Anor career resources blog etc
so I was bringing in those partnerships
and she decided you know you continue
with those partnerships develop that
angle let me run with this area so a lot
of it is organic in terms of who handles
what my wife does the billing on the
company and you know is kind of the CFO
along with our bookkeepers but I then
decided hey you know what she’s busy
with that I’ll handle the the financials
for the house itself you know and then
she can handle it so things kind of work
out organically and then you build on
that and obviously as a person gets more
and more experience in their space the
other person realizes hey they get it
and I’m so busy here with anything with
bandwidth it’s all about bandwidth in
entrepreneurial environment you kind of
step back and say you know what keep
growing it and it kind of organically
developed so now she does all the
finances she runs all the the job
posting programs a lot of the sales and
I’m doing business development with the
Government Association so you know it
really
kind of came up naturally and it’s grown
from there and it’s been quite
successful looks awesome nah yeah um a
lot of entrence work with their wives
they have a hard time when they come
home because then you’re still just
talking business and it’s visit 24-7 and
some people love that but have you
created rituals or you know schedules
are so you don’t bring it home all the
time oh that’s a great point you know
and I made a note I said don’t bring
work into the bedroom literally and
that’s part of the problem is you know
we’ll have our laptops in bed talking
about business it’s like that’s not
where business should you know be taking
place obviously there’s there’s other
rooms to have business so it’s very hard
up my wife is type a I’m type a and you
know if we’re in the car running an air
and if we r you know at our date night
we’re talking about business and some of
that is enjoyable some of that obviously
it’s a shared experience but you know
it’s hard to separate because that’s
what you do all day long and I kind of
got to the point where I decided you
know what when I had my other job and
when Corey was doing another job she
would talk about her work and I would
still talk about my work so I figured
you know what it’s kind of natural to
still talk about your work but it is a
it’s a balance and we haven’t set up the
okay tonight’s date night let’s not talk
about this because there again is that
kind of organic like hey we’re real busy
with business let’s talk about business
tonight we have some time to catch up on
things but it does it can impact the
marriage you know again for us it’s been
all positive for other people business
is difficult you’re talking about
negative things so you know one ritual I
do have in its personal ritual but my
wife is taking it on is on Fridays we
always have kind of the gratitude
checklist where we go through and say
these the things we’ve accomplished this
is where we were you know this is where
we were at in January this was her goal
by July we’ve accomplished it lets you
know revel in that opportunities they
hate we’re doing things we’re doing
things correctly and that is to me I
think that’s the greatest thing you know
just taking a step back and saying these
are the things we’ve accomplished
together Corey for our business the
appreciative of that and then it allows
you to kind of you know gets you that
next
um that next wave of energy to
accomplish what you need to accomplish
but always focusing on what we’ve done
right not just saying oh you’ve done
this wrong or I can’t do this right what
are we doing together correctly and then
you know build on that and it builds
trust doing that the gratitude fridays
is that how you start the day and today
when you’re doing my lungs usually
fortunately we live close to Malibu
right in California so Malibu is about
20 minute drive so we take a beach walk
Friday afternoon maybe late in the day
Friday and that’s kind of our thing a
lot of times if she’s busy I’ll still do
the walk and you just you know 10 15
minutes thinking about these are the
things I wanted to accomplish when you
know when I started out this January or
you know when Cory and I started the
business together when we were dating
who would have guessed we would have
accomplished XY and Z and you know when
you take a step back and appreciate that
you you do realize the magnitude of what
you have accomplished and that allows
you to then go on to accomplish that
much more because you know if you got
from there to here you can get even
further yeah it’s a great way I’m een
whether you’re in the business with your
spouse or not it’s a great ritual
exactly exactly so you bought I guess
you got it from your in-laws are they
still involved are you still working
with your in-laws a great question so
you know we don’t have an official
executive board but luckily her dad had
see he’s thin in city government for
pretty much his whole life right and my
wife was actually after she helped sell
hot job to yahoo she continued on as a
teacher in the school district in Los
Angeles and has more than eight years as
a school teacher so there’s a strong
public sector background with my in-laws
and especially her dad is extremely
strategic in his analysis of what works
in government he’s very entrepreneurial
you don’t get that a lot of times in
government but my father was extremely
entrepreneurial very forward thinking
and what government can accomplish
developing public-private partnerships
etc so he’s always involved in
high-level strategic meetings a lot of
times if we have major meetings with
government associations we want to do
some content part
ships or job board partnerships he can
bring in some advice and the great thing
about working with my father-in-law a he
doesn’t have any financial involvement
so you know he doesn’t have that tied in
secondly he’s retired so he wants to
still be involved he’s still you know
look he’s 62 in government that’s like
starting out because average age in
government is probably about 70 so he
wants to be involved so he enjoys you
know getting involved with us
strategically but then he can step back
saying hey you know what this isn’t
gonna affect my bank account I’m just
helping out my son-in-law and my god and
my daughter so this is something that
you know I’d love to do and he’s been a
tremendous resource and of course my
mother-in-law herself started the
business and really ran it from day to
day so she was instrumental when we
first launched the business and helping
us say okay you know this is where we
were at four years ago how do you kind
of rebrand yourself and market yourself
to the same people that she was dealing
with and then take it beyond so they’ve
really each played a significant role in
the success of our business and you know
from where we were three years ago to
just where we are now it’s beyond our
wildest expectations has been great it
really has i mean we’re by far the
leader in this space and you know we
didn’t expect it so quickly that’s
awesome yeah I’m you know you’re such a
great story and it’s worked out well and
everybody’s you know getting along and
you’re getting results I’m trying to
figure out well how can we make this
more replicable so other entrepreneurs
were thinking about working for spouse
can do the same thing I think I’m buddy
of mine he’s got he’s got a business
it’s you know just crossed a million in
sales he’s thinking of bringing on his
wife and in the Domingos she’d be great
at it he’s had a hard time filling that
role but he’s worried about you know
that was a single income house and he
worked with his wife and you know if it
doesn’t work out what you do so is there
you know if you’re thinking about it how
do you is there way to test it you know
how do you I don’t know how to get over
that fear of if it doesn’t work out then
you know she’s quit her job and now you
know it’s not working out what do we do
is that how do you how do you test it or
how do you reduce the risk
start getting into it Evan that’s like
the million-dollar question isn’t it um
you know it’s funny there is no way to
plan but i should say there is a way to
plan that there’s no way to know so you
know in terms of planning my wife and I
decided you know when we first were
growing the business she would be the
one to jump in with both feet right I
was continuing my work and you know I
would help when I could at night sauron
weekend she ran a full time and then we
waited to see okay how was the business
growing where’s our revenue at can we
live on this how much do we need to
reinvest then once we got to the point
where it’s like okay Michael now you can
jump into it with both feet even then
how much money do we have in the bank
account you know because like he said
the big question is you’re now a
single-income family you depend on that
business that business is your child and
it’s either going to keep the both of
you very happy or you got to go back
into the private sector which would be
miserable right I don’t want to work for
you know anyone else after running the
business so it was a lot of planning
going into it and you know we’re very
careful with money this and that but a
lot of it is you know just taking that
risk at a certain point it’s like you
know what jump into it um I knew my wife
the one thing that I knew implicitly was
she was such a hustler so hard-working
so skillful of what she does
knowledgeable of what she does dedicated
to making a success I knew that I
couldn’t get a better partner I’ve never
had a better partner both as a wife as
well as a business partner and from
there I felt comfortable saying you know
what I’m gonna quit my job in corporate
America even though you know it was
still growing we you know we’re ready to
live on the money the whole thing we
were reinvesting that you know at a
certain point I got the right partner I
got the right pieces in place now I just
I gotta jump into it may not work but I
gotta jump into it and that’s kind of
where I was at was okay you know what
we’re gonna jump into this but not
knowing a hundred percent where it’s
gonna go and you still don’t know you
know it’s you know how it is that’s the
beauty of being an entrepreneur but I’ll
tell you one of the two of my greatest
decisions in life one was meeting my
wife and married her and the other was
going into business together and it
sounds corny but it’s
greatest thing having your own time your
own freedom creating your own thing and
doing it with the one you love and
making it happen you know good and bad
you go through it that’s what being a
couple is all about right it’s about
creating a joint goal and making it
happen and how better can you express
that than in a business and that’s kind
of that to me summarizes what a marriage
is all about is you know starting a
business is a great expression of that
marriage and so you were so you were
doing a hard time at the start will
still have in your your job you left and
put both feet in and so I guess through
that part time experience you can see
hey are we working together well are we
fighting over this isn’t causing you
know detriment to our marriage or is it
there is it helping it grow stronger and
for you too you know it was strengthened
you guys about you guys even closer
together so maybe there’s having some
kind of checkpoint or lay up while you
try part-time evenings or whatever it is
and see you know you have your Friday
gratitude session see is this thing for
us or not you know I think you hit it
right on the head which is you know
especially to your friend who’s thinking
about that is almost kind of a pilot
program in the sense that you know I
wasn’t completely ready to quit you know
the one thing Cory and I do is we jump
into things and we test things out you
have to you have to take risks as an
entrepreneur but they have to be
calculated as much as possible so if
you’re going to jump into you know a
marriage situation and then work do a
test pilot program hey you know have
your wife or husband get involved on a
specific project see how well you work
together see where the conflict points
are and work through nothing’s going to
be perfect obviously that’s just that’s
the reality but at least you can know
sometimes it wow this is a problem he’s
not pulling his weight she’s not doing
this and neither worked through more not
because we knew pretty early on okay we
get along really well in terms of work
where we have the same mentality and you
can’t hold grudges you know if if
someone you know I work at Starbucks all
the time right I go out and and I work
in different environments depending upon
what kind of meetings I have for the day
or I’m on the road with meetings or
Corey’s on the road with meeting but
you know she can work from bed she can
work downstairs she can work it you know
wherever she needs to work but you can’t
hold any kind of like well it works for
me it should work for you you have to
accept that they’re doing it because it
works for them and then you let them run
with it and that to me is the most
important thing is just that trust
factor once you trust it’s like be on
your way do it I know it’s going to
happen and then come to me if you have
if you want advice or needed otherwise
run with it I like the pilot program um
you date before you get married right so
you’re doing and then you decided you’re
gonna become a heart that’s all yeah
that’s cool um so you have it you have a
team to write you people who work for
you do they have any issues they you
know know who to talk to about different
issues or is it you know whatever
department it is you know some people
talk to you some people talk to her
great question you know that’s another
thing to wear you know when you’re in
the workplace and you have a manager
sometimes you want to you know show off
to your manager you want to you know hi
like why you would be the best candidate
if perhaps the VP’s involved you know
there’s always some kind of political
angling but if you’re the business owner
and you have people reporting if it’s an
issue that lets say my wife is overseen
and I may be on the conference call I
have to acquiesce my wife makes the
decision let her rule up because you
don’t want to get into a bickering
situation you see it on TV shows all the
time where couples work together and the
employees cannot stand it so very clear
even on before meeting before we go in
any meeting Corey and I’ll be like okay
you know do you want to run with this
meeting it’s your show or this is your
project I’ll listen in and you can give
advice or whatever but ultimately you
know it shows respect to your business
partner and wife and vice versa and it
also shows respect to your staff because
you don’t need to have your staff know
what’s going on like oh my god they had
a fight last night and they’re bringing
it in the workplace right Bob okay you
really have to be professional and a lot
of what we do you know we have interns
come in here we have a lot of people who
are contract we do a lot of you know
skyping things like that we’re always on
calls and you know there’s times where I
know Corey wants to beat me in the head
and I want to be her in the head and you
just have to step back and say you know
we’re on a business meeting this is
professional like in any situation and
acting professional manner so is your
staff aligned with that you know you
have your staff she has her staff or
your staff will overlap and you make
decisions for some of them and praise
how did you structure your team yeah
it’s great I mean you know we have we
have a social media team and I
predominantly oversee that but Corey
chimes in because Corey is very strong
and LinkedIn very very strongly linked
in and actually helps set up our twitter
account to grow I took it over about a
year ago to grow it even further and get
more involved in other social media
efforts with government associations
it’s the same team that we deal with but
now they you know they’ll come to me but
I you know Corey and I are very careful
about never playing any game to a staff
it’s immediately like you know what I
think Corey handles that talked to Corey
if she acquiesces and gives it back to
me then call me but there’s never any
kind of underhanded yes where you would
get that in the private sector obviously
in corporate America you do that on
purpose here you have to really work so
that you can have you know the staff
respects my wife the staff respects us
and you got to do that by saying look
you know what no you can’t turn around
and say oh yeah Cory she’s not in charge
of that you know just come to me the
minute you start doing this adapt will
sniff it out and they’ll use it to their
advantage obviously and it’ll hurt you
in the log right how do you guys have do
you have titles of both co-founders or
when he took this whole Bible she took
when she took the CEO title well this
bird because she had started it I mean
in the sense that you know she was
taking this full time while I was still
part time I took the president title
we’re both co-founders but when we talk
you know we just it’s not like oh she’s
the CEO or the president you know and
when we you know it’s interesting in
government to and this is actually tarde
Vanek government is a very close-knit
industry it really is it’s all about
much like the entertainment business is
all about who you know
and people love the fact that we were a
family run business when it was started
out it was started out by my
father-in-law who was in government it
was taken over by my wife who is in the
public sector um you know we’re all kind
of this family unit and government loves
that so we use it to our advantage
because you know we really believe in
the public sector believe what local
government can do and you know it’s one
thing for a private sector company that
just trying to break into local
government saying oh I understand your
process I can help local government out
versus someone who says that’s our DNA
we are about local government we
understand local government and this is
how we can help you and that’s been
heavily influential in helping us secure
some pretty large programs with
government association and I think
helping us to continue to grow very cool
Michael we are bumping up against the
clock it’s been awesome having you on
board I think you should write a book on
this it’s going to help a lot of
entrepreneurs are trying to figure this
out for those people watching people
want to learn more about you where can
they go to learn more obviously the
articles of my sight but where else can
they find your website social look they
can go to careers in government com they
can email me at Michael at careers in
government calm and we’re on twitter at
careers in gov and ranked 11 because we
love being a partner with you we love
what you do and it’s great talking to
you this half-hour yeah it’s been
awesome meeting you thanks so much for
joining in absolutely take care all
right Cheers okay
better topic big government what’s that
was a better topic than just talking
about local government talking about
being there I agree I agree okay so we
are live um welcome guys to another
hangout gray I’m had Michael Hurwitz
with me and he’s an offer on my website
and we are talking today about starting
a business and running the business with
your spouse or with your family um
michael has his own companies had it for
a while and we’re trying to figure out
what what topic might be good to discuss
today and so that was the one it came up
with so Michael for those of the viewers
who you know familiar with you can you
give a quick intro absolutely careers in
government which is like monster or
careerbuilder but specifically for local
government was actually one of the very
first in the space it was started in
1996 actually by my in-laws and my
father-in-law who is still a city
manager today but has been a city
manager for years and years and years
and about in the mid 90s at that time
when you had a job posting you would you
know basically fax off your job posting
requirements and then it was put into a
job pamphlet and then mailed out to
local government officials and my
father-in-law saw as well as my
mother-in-law saw that you know there
was an opportunity to obviously create a
job board monster was just starting at
the time and actually my wife great
story my wife started helping out my
in-laws and use that experience to
become one of the founders of hot jobs
so she has tremendous experience in you
know that space of the job board
industry so fast forward when I started
dating my wife you know her parents were
still running it as very successful
business but now they were at the
retirement age I think they were looking
to you know close shop and right from
the get-go our relationship was all
about the business in a good way very
positive way and so you know we started
talking about hey maybe we should take
over the business this is when we were
still dating we were I think we just I
might have proposed but was around that
time so the business is really part of
our
of our whole family nucleus which is
very cool so her in-laws have helped us
to this day grow the business I’ve got
my wife working with us her sister helps
us as well as our staff and everyone
else that obviously helped pull the load
but it’s such a unique situation and
very rare where you have a family
situation really helping out and you
know when you think about it that’s how
American businesses started in the
United States it was all about family
businesses family farms everything else
I think people kind of forgotten that
that’s a great way to start a business
and grow as a couple is having business
yeah and how long ago is that when you
guys first started this or when you guys
first started dating yeah we took it
over we’ve been married about three
years we took it over about four years
the site had never been updated I mean
literally it was like circa nineteen
ninety-six with the AOL cd-roms remember
you had a load a min and get your AOL
internet that a site like an AOL
homepage I mean it was horribly outdated
no social media presence no marketing
effort we took over the business from
ground zero and now we have major
partnerships with some of the largest
government associations in the country
we’re by far the leader in local
government job boards and more
importantly we’re very active on social
media with our blog one of the largest
blogs in local government and thanks to
you Evan and your organization helped
get our message out which is fantastic
and we now have more than 100 writers
that contribute to us from government
employers and job seekers to really you
know government thought leaders who are
really kind of creating the next trend
of employment in government we’re trying
to bring that message to as many people
as possible that hey you know what local
government is a great place to work got
hit by the recession and now they’re
looking to hire and you’re seeing a lot
of Millennials looking at you know hey I
want to change the world I want to do
everything like that I want to be part
of the community this is a great way to
be a part of the community it’s not
about the money always in government as
we know it’s about making a difference
and at local government you really can
make a difference cool so let’s talk
about working with your working with
your spouse you know I thought you’ve
been a fan of working with with friends
and family had great results with it but
some people
will say that’s crazy i could never woke
my wife i could never work in my in-laws
what advice if somebody who’s thinking
about that or who’s in that and is
having some issues I you know I made a
list of things it was funny because I
was thinking this morning like you know
what drove my wife korie a night to work
together and what made it successful and
in a lot of ways our business
relationship is equally as successful as
our marriage and and what drives that
common goals you know when you’re
sitting there and you have a business
partner that let’s say you just met a
few months ago where he has a financial
investment your company you don’t know
him beyond the parameters of that
initial meeting or that initial
friendship marriage is very different
you’ve got to rely on your partner if
she doesn’t pull her weight or if you
don’t pull your way you’re gonna hear
about it that night you’re gonna hear
about that day and you’re gonna see it
in your bank account so you know it is
all about common goals and you know we
really sat down and said okay you know
what do we want out of this business
what do we want to accomplish what are
our short-term midterm and long-term
goals and we constantly re-evaluate that
so I think that’s one aspect is what’s
the common goal you know a lot of people
say I want to grow big business it’s not
enough you know you got to get down to
the minutia and that’s where personally
for me and I think you hear this a lot
it’s all about delegating work there is
no way that two people can work together
on every project so my wife handles
certain tasks I handle certain tasks
you’re given the you know approval where
the person’s given the authority kind of
run with their program or run with their
department if they want advice from the
spouse they ask for it but at the same
time the spouse realizes look they’re in
charge of it and you have to take a step
back and you have to trust your partner
like in business but it’s a little
harder when you have an emotional
connection you know say hey we’ll wait a
minute how about we do it this way it
with your spouse you have to talk about
it but then you have to say you know
what she knows best that’s her area and
move forward so that’s another areas you
know delegate and then give kind of that
authorship to that task um you know
separate office
partners in this or somebody we’re not
puzzles we took over the business
officially from her parents and then you
know we kept on some staff hired new
staff and changed around but yeah we
took over a hundred percent ownership
and that’s actually a very interesting
point because if someone does start a
business and they bring in a spouse you
gotta have 50-50 partnership I know some
people saying well you know I’m the guy
or the female saying hey you know I
started the business I want the
ownership in a marriage it’s 5050
whether you like it or not no matter
what someone did more so beforehand or
not I mean my wife the reality is it was
her in-laws that helped us start it she
had the background that if she’d gone in
and said hey I want seventy percent I
would have been like no sorry so you
know you gotta realize that hey this is
a fair partnership in life and in work
you have to you know you have to have it
fair so in decision making you know on
the big picture stuff I get to the task
you know you have your think he has
heard but what if you disagree on a big
picture issue or like it’s something
that the president would make a decision
on how do you handle you know it’s
interesting that’s a great topic so you
know some of that is based on the
delegation so with the delegation let’s
say there is a project that has
significant impact on the business but
it’s hunger you know my authority so to
speak or her authority you have to
really let that person say look okay
it’s under your department you know I’ll
take a step back now if it has
significant impact we’ll sit down we’ll
work it through it will decide hey you
know what this is really important
enough to where we have to work together
and make a decision but usually on most
issues you know my wife has authority on
her areas I have authority on mine and
to be honest I always tell my wife I
don’t want to worry about her business
you know it’s I’ve got enough to worry
about I want I know and trust her
implicitly I want her to run with it if
it’s a major project she shares it with
me and vice versa and then you know it’s
again it’s that kind of balance like in
marriage sometimes you’re going to have
to you know give up the fight for the
big picture and sometimes you gotta
stand strong but you know in marriage is
a guy
knows he got us some time away when your
wife says this is how a cheapy that’s
all so how have you guys split up your
roles what is your department of what is
hers and your business a lot well you
know it’s interesting and that’s another
thing it’s evolved over time right so in
the beginning she oversaw all the sales
because I came from advertising I used
to work in the print world USA Today
Gannett and overseen their advertising
and marketing so I stayed on with my job
as my wife who you know was running a
full-time with our staff was kind of
taking the you know the bull by the
horns and running with it and dealing
with it I was kind of sitting on the
sidelines you know assisting where I
could and so my wife got very
comfortable with working with a lot of
the employers so for the single job
postings and job posting packages she
would handle all that right and as I
started moving in and started developing
partnerships with large government
associations like for example we work
with the National Association of
counties which is the largest National
Association of counties in the country
were overseen all their job board career
efforts and also with ipma it’s the
world’s largest association of Personnel
Management for government we’re
overseeing their entire job board
resource Anor career resources blog etc
so I was bringing in those partnerships
and she decided you know you continue
with those partnerships develop that
angle let me run with this area so a lot
of it is organic in terms of who handles
what my wife does the billing on the
company and you know is kind of the CFO
along with our bookkeepers but I then
decided hey you know what she’s busy
with that I’ll handle the the financials
for the house itself you know and then
she can handle it so things kind of work
out organically and then you build on
that and obviously as a person gets more
and more experience in their space the
other person realizes hey they get it
and I’m so busy here with anything with
bandwidth it’s all about bandwidth in
entrepreneurial environment you kind of
step back and say you know what keep
growing it and it kind of organically
developed so now she does all the
finances she runs all the the job
posting programs a lot of the sales and
I’m doing business development with the
Government Association so you know it
really
kind of came up naturally and it’s grown
from there and it’s been quite
successful looks awesome nah yeah um a
lot of entrence work with their wives
they have a hard time when they come
home because then you’re still just
talking business and it’s visit 24-7 and
some people love that but have you
created rituals or you know schedules
are so you don’t bring it home all the
time oh that’s a great point you know
and I made a note I said don’t bring
work into the bedroom literally and
that’s part of the problem is you know
we’ll have our laptops in bed talking
about business it’s like that’s not
where business should you know be taking
place obviously there’s there’s other
rooms to have business so it’s very hard
up my wife is type a I’m type a and you
know if we’re in the car running an air
and if we r you know at our date night
we’re talking about business and some of
that is enjoyable some of that obviously
it’s a shared experience but you know
it’s hard to separate because that’s
what you do all day long and I kind of
got to the point where I decided you
know what when I had my other job and
when Corey was doing another job she
would talk about her work and I would
still talk about my work so I figured
you know what it’s kind of natural to
still talk about your work but it is a
it’s a balance and we haven’t set up the
okay tonight’s date night let’s not talk
about this because there again is that
kind of organic like hey we’re real busy
with business let’s talk about business
tonight we have some time to catch up on
things but it does it can impact the
marriage you know again for us it’s been
all positive for other people business
is difficult you’re talking about
negative things so you know one ritual I
do have in its personal ritual but my
wife is taking it on is on Fridays we
always have kind of the gratitude
checklist where we go through and say
these the things we’ve accomplished this
is where we were you know this is where
we were at in January this was her goal
by July we’ve accomplished it lets you
know revel in that opportunities they
hate we’re doing things we’re doing
things correctly and that is to me I
think that’s the greatest thing you know
just taking a step back and saying these
are the things we’ve accomplished
together Corey for our business the
appreciative of that and then it allows
you to kind of you know gets you that
next
um that next wave of energy to
accomplish what you need to accomplish
but always focusing on what we’ve done
right not just saying oh you’ve done
this wrong or I can’t do this right what
are we doing together correctly and then
you know build on that and it builds
trust doing that the gratitude fridays
is that how you start the day and today
when you’re doing my lungs usually
fortunately we live close to Malibu
right in California so Malibu is about
20 minute drive so we take a beach walk
Friday afternoon maybe late in the day
Friday and that’s kind of our thing a
lot of times if she’s busy I’ll still do
the walk and you just you know 10 15
minutes thinking about these are the
things I wanted to accomplish when you
know when I started out this January or
you know when Cory and I started the
business together when we were dating
who would have guessed we would have
accomplished XY and Z and you know when
you take a step back and appreciate that
you you do realize the magnitude of what
you have accomplished and that allows
you to then go on to accomplish that
much more because you know if you got
from there to here you can get even
further yeah it’s a great way I’m een
whether you’re in the business with your
spouse or not it’s a great ritual
exactly exactly so you bought I guess
you got it from your in-laws are they
still involved are you still working
with your in-laws a great question so
you know we don’t have an official
executive board but luckily her dad had
see he’s thin in city government for
pretty much his whole life right and my
wife was actually after she helped sell
hot job to yahoo she continued on as a
teacher in the school district in Los
Angeles and has more than eight years as
a school teacher so there’s a strong
public sector background with my in-laws
and especially her dad is extremely
strategic in his analysis of what works
in government he’s very entrepreneurial
you don’t get that a lot of times in
government but my father was extremely
entrepreneurial very forward thinking
and what government can accomplish
developing public-private partnerships
etc so he’s always involved in
high-level strategic meetings a lot of
times if we have major meetings with
government associations we want to do
some content part
ships or job board partnerships he can
bring in some advice and the great thing
about working with my father-in-law a he
doesn’t have any financial involvement
so you know he doesn’t have that tied in
secondly he’s retired so he wants to
still be involved he’s still you know
look he’s 62 in government that’s like
starting out because average age in
government is probably about 70 so he
wants to be involved so he enjoys you
know getting involved with us
strategically but then he can step back
saying hey you know what this isn’t
gonna affect my bank account I’m just
helping out my son-in-law and my god and
my daughter so this is something that
you know I’d love to do and he’s been a
tremendous resource and of course my
mother-in-law herself started the
business and really ran it from day to
day so she was instrumental when we
first launched the business and helping
us say okay you know this is where we
were at four years ago how do you kind
of rebrand yourself and market yourself
to the same people that she was dealing
with and then take it beyond so they’ve
really each played a significant role in
the success of our business and you know
from where we were three years ago to
just where we are now it’s beyond our
wildest expectations has been great it
really has i mean we’re by far the
leader in this space and you know we
didn’t expect it so quickly that’s
awesome yeah I’m you know you’re such a
great story and it’s worked out well and
everybody’s you know getting along and
you’re getting results I’m trying to
figure out well how can we make this
more replicable so other entrepreneurs
were thinking about working for spouse
can do the same thing I think I’m buddy
of mine he’s got he’s got a business
it’s you know just crossed a million in
sales he’s thinking of bringing on his
wife and in the Domingos she’d be great
at it he’s had a hard time filling that
role but he’s worried about you know
that was a single income house and he
worked with his wife and you know if it
doesn’t work out what you do so is there
you know if you’re thinking about it how
do you is there way to test it you know
how do you I don’t know how to get over
that fear of if it doesn’t work out then
you know she’s quit her job and now you
know it’s not working out what do we do
is that how do you how do you test it or
how do you reduce the risk
start getting into it Evan that’s like
the million-dollar question isn’t it um
you know it’s funny there is no way to
plan but i should say there is a way to
plan that there’s no way to know so you
know in terms of planning my wife and I
decided you know when we first were
growing the business she would be the
one to jump in with both feet right I
was continuing my work and you know I
would help when I could at night sauron
weekend she ran a full time and then we
waited to see okay how was the business
growing where’s our revenue at can we
live on this how much do we need to
reinvest then once we got to the point
where it’s like okay Michael now you can
jump into it with both feet even then
how much money do we have in the bank
account you know because like he said
the big question is you’re now a
single-income family you depend on that
business that business is your child and
it’s either going to keep the both of
you very happy or you got to go back
into the private sector which would be
miserable right I don’t want to work for
you know anyone else after running the
business so it was a lot of planning
going into it and you know we’re very
careful with money this and that but a
lot of it is you know just taking that
risk at a certain point it’s like you
know what jump into it um I knew my wife
the one thing that I knew implicitly was
she was such a hustler so hard-working
so skillful of what she does
knowledgeable of what she does dedicated
to making a success I knew that I
couldn’t get a better partner I’ve never
had a better partner both as a wife as
well as a business partner and from
there I felt comfortable saying you know
what I’m gonna quit my job in corporate
America even though you know it was
still growing we you know we’re ready to
live on the money the whole thing we
were reinvesting that you know at a
certain point I got the right partner I
got the right pieces in place now I just
I gotta jump into it may not work but I
gotta jump into it and that’s kind of
where I was at was okay you know what
we’re gonna jump into this but not
knowing a hundred percent where it’s
gonna go and you still don’t know you
know it’s you know how it is that’s the
beauty of being an entrepreneur but I’ll
tell you one of the two of my greatest
decisions in life one was meeting my
wife and married her and the other was
going into business together and it
sounds corny but it’s
greatest thing having your own time your
own freedom creating your own thing and
doing it with the one you love and
making it happen you know good and bad
you go through it that’s what being a
couple is all about right it’s about
creating a joint goal and making it
happen and how better can you express
that than in a business and that’s kind
of that to me summarizes what a marriage
is all about is you know starting a
business is a great expression of that
marriage and so you were so you were
doing a hard time at the start will
still have in your your job you left and
put both feet in and so I guess through
that part time experience you can see
hey are we working together well are we
fighting over this isn’t causing you
know detriment to our marriage or is it
there is it helping it grow stronger and
for you too you know it was strengthened
you guys about you guys even closer
together so maybe there’s having some
kind of checkpoint or lay up while you
try part-time evenings or whatever it is
and see you know you have your Friday
gratitude session see is this thing for
us or not you know I think you hit it
right on the head which is you know
especially to your friend who’s thinking
about that is almost kind of a pilot
program in the sense that you know I
wasn’t completely ready to quit you know
the one thing Cory and I do is we jump
into things and we test things out you
have to you have to take risks as an
entrepreneur but they have to be
calculated as much as possible so if
you’re going to jump into you know a
marriage situation and then work do a
test pilot program hey you know have
your wife or husband get involved on a
specific project see how well you work
together see where the conflict points
are and work through nothing’s going to
be perfect obviously that’s just that’s
the reality but at least you can know
sometimes it wow this is a problem he’s
not pulling his weight she’s not doing
this and neither worked through more not
because we knew pretty early on okay we
get along really well in terms of work
where we have the same mentality and you
can’t hold grudges you know if if
someone you know I work at Starbucks all
the time right I go out and and I work
in different environments depending upon
what kind of meetings I have for the day
or I’m on the road with meetings or
Corey’s on the road with meeting but
you know she can work from bed she can
work downstairs she can work it you know
wherever she needs to work but you can’t
hold any kind of like well it works for
me it should work for you you have to
accept that they’re doing it because it
works for them and then you let them run
with it and that to me is the most
important thing is just that trust
factor once you trust it’s like be on
your way do it I know it’s going to
happen and then come to me if you have
if you want advice or needed otherwise
run with it I like the pilot program um
you date before you get married right so
you’re doing and then you decided you’re
gonna become a heart that’s all yeah
that’s cool um so you have it you have a
team to write you people who work for
you do they have any issues they you
know know who to talk to about different
issues or is it you know whatever
department it is you know some people
talk to you some people talk to her
great question you know that’s another
thing to wear you know when you’re in
the workplace and you have a manager
sometimes you want to you know show off
to your manager you want to you know hi
like why you would be the best candidate
if perhaps the VP’s involved you know
there’s always some kind of political
angling but if you’re the business owner
and you have people reporting if it’s an
issue that lets say my wife is overseen
and I may be on the conference call I
have to acquiesce my wife makes the
decision let her rule up because you
don’t want to get into a bickering
situation you see it on TV shows all the
time where couples work together and the
employees cannot stand it so very clear
even on before meeting before we go in
any meeting Corey and I’ll be like okay
you know do you want to run with this
meeting it’s your show or this is your
project I’ll listen in and you can give
advice or whatever but ultimately you
know it shows respect to your business
partner and wife and vice versa and it
also shows respect to your staff because
you don’t need to have your staff know
what’s going on like oh my god they had
a fight last night and they’re bringing
it in the workplace right Bob okay you
really have to be professional and a lot
of what we do you know we have interns
come in here we have a lot of people who
are contract we do a lot of you know
skyping things like that we’re always on
calls and you know there’s times where I
know Corey wants to beat me in the head
and I want to be her in the head and you
just have to step back and say you know
we’re on a business meeting this is
professional like in any situation and
acting professional manner so is your
staff aligned with that you know you
have your staff she has her staff or
your staff will overlap and you make
decisions for some of them and praise
how did you structure your team yeah
it’s great I mean you know we have we
have a social media team and I
predominantly oversee that but Corey
chimes in because Corey is very strong
and LinkedIn very very strongly linked
in and actually helps set up our twitter
account to grow I took it over about a
year ago to grow it even further and get
more involved in other social media
efforts with government associations
it’s the same team that we deal with but
now they you know they’ll come to me but
I you know Corey and I are very careful
about never playing any game to a staff
it’s immediately like you know what I
think Corey handles that talked to Corey
if she acquiesces and gives it back to
me then call me but there’s never any
kind of underhanded yes where you would
get that in the private sector obviously
in corporate America you do that on
purpose here you have to really work so
that you can have you know the staff
respects my wife the staff respects us
and you got to do that by saying look
you know what no you can’t turn around
and say oh yeah Cory she’s not in charge
of that you know just come to me the
minute you start doing this adapt will
sniff it out and they’ll use it to their
advantage obviously and it’ll hurt you
in the log right how do you guys have do
you have titles of both co-founders or
when he took this whole Bible she took
when she took the CEO title well this
bird because she had started it I mean
in the sense that you know she was
taking this full time while I was still
part time I took the president title
we’re both co-founders but when we talk
you know we just it’s not like oh she’s
the CEO or the president you know and
when we you know it’s interesting in
government to and this is actually tarde
Vanek government is a very close-knit
industry it really is it’s all about
much like the entertainment business is
all about who you know
and people love the fact that we were a
family run business when it was started
out it was started out by my
father-in-law who was in government it
was taken over by my wife who is in the
public sector um you know we’re all kind
of this family unit and government loves
that so we use it to our advantage
because you know we really believe in
the public sector believe what local
government can do and you know it’s one
thing for a private sector company that
just trying to break into local
government saying oh I understand your
process I can help local government out
versus someone who says that’s our DNA
we are about local government we
understand local government and this is
how we can help you and that’s been
heavily influential in helping us secure
some pretty large programs with
government association and I think
helping us to continue to grow very cool
Michael we are bumping up against the
clock it’s been awesome having you on
board I think you should write a book on
this it’s going to help a lot of
entrepreneurs are trying to figure this
out for those people watching people
want to learn more about you where can
they go to learn more obviously the
articles of my sight but where else can
they find your website social look they
can go to careers in government com they
can email me at Michael at careers in
government calm and we’re on twitter at
careers in gov and ranked 11 because we
love being a partner with you we love
what you do and it’s great talking to
you this half-hour yeah it’s been
awesome meeting you thanks so much for
joining in absolutely take care all
right Cheers okay
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