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Brian Fullerton
You're now listening to the Fullerton Unfiltered podcast. Straightforward, no nonsense business advice, completely on filtered. Grow your business, grow your life. Now here's your host, Brian Fullerton. Hey, what's going on guys? Welcome to another episode of the Fullerton Unfiltered podcast. It is your host, Brian Fullerton hanging with you guys and good morning. Well, today we have a returning special guest. Somebody that you know, somebody that you love, somebody who is always the crowd favorite and softens the the podcast a little bit here. Good morning. Beautiful wife for life. How we doing?
Liz Fullerton
Oh, so good.
Brian Fullerton
That is tattooed on your arm. Wifey for lifey. Is it not like property but weird. It's a, it's a long term commitment that we made in front of God.
Liz Fullerton
What marriage is, is a covenant you make to God with your spouse.
Brian Fullerton
It's a triple braided cord. That's not easily broken, is it? I mean even with the best scissors.
Liz Fullerton
Not by the spring rush. Are you sure?
Brian Fullerton
Not by the way.
Liz Fullerton
Not by even by the spring rush.
Brian Fullerton
The spring rush. Yeah, we, we wanted to do a little podcast episode today. I don't know. I don't know what's gonna come out of the mouth of my wifey today. We're heading on all eight cylinders, right? We're good. We're solid.
Liz Fullerton
So good.
Brian Fullerton
So good.
Liz Fullerton
So good.
Brian Fullerton
Yeah. Are you gonna draft me yet this spring? Not yet. Remember half of nothing is nothing. So I think it's a rounding ear down. Want to get Liz on here to today. It's been a couple minutes. We were going to talk a little bit about together in the trades. The marriage conference that we got going on. I just thought it was a fun show topic was we're on link live on Wednesday night and we went for, you know, an hour and 20 minutes, hour and a half, which is pretty. Pretty often, pretty typical. And it was a fun time. We actually had Caleb Almond on there. Liz. We roasted Caleb for, like, 15 minutes.
Liz Fullerton
And. Nice. I. I can see why he wants to be friends with you, of course.
Brian Fullerton
Obviously.
Liz Fullerton
Such a good friend.
Brian Fullerton
Caleb does this thing with Jeremiah where he'll. He'll go, so, Jeremiah, talk a little bit more about yourself. And Jeremiah goes, so I'm Jeremiah. And he goes, all right, everybody, that's the show. So we had him on yesterday, and perfectly like clockwork. I was like, caleb, give these guys a little bit of a background. He goes, I'm Caleb. And I just muted his zoom, you know, link, and he died laughing. It was. It was great. We're all chuckling. But then, of course, he proceeded to call in from his Cricket wireless phone or, you know, from the low valley of Ohio, wherever the heck he's at, where apparently real cell phone signal coverage hasn't made it. And Caleb was like, this planned obsolescence of my cell phone, you know, And I'm like, dude, just spend the grand and get a new iPhone. Like, he's probably holding out with an iPhone 7. So I think we had better connection with the Artemis shuttle for the moon people.
Liz Fullerton
I didn't know that was happening yesterday.
Brian Fullerton
Nobody did. And coincidentally enough, it was on April Fool. So we should do a poll on Instagram and say, like, is this an actual moon? Are they landing or just orbiting?
Liz Fullerton
They're orbiting.
Brian Fullerton
So nobody's landing.
Liz Fullerton
And not that I know. I, like, again, like, I didn't even know this was happening. So take.
Brian Fullerton
I had no clue.
Liz Fullerton
Take my word for what it is. I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I. I think they're just orbiting.
Brian Fullerton
You would think that they're going around the backside, like, three times, slingshotting around.
Liz Fullerton
Do you.
Brian Fullerton
You think that something as grand as that. That hasn't happened since. I think 1957 is, like, a stat I saw. What is that, like, 60? No, that would be like 70 years.
Liz Fullerton
No, it's 50. 57. It's 26.
Brian Fullerton
Dude. No. What are you talking about right now? I was like, dude, I see the wheels turn. It's 20, 26. So there's 25 years plus 50. So between 50 and a thousand years, we've been back to the moon, and I heard about it the day it's launching, right?
Liz Fullerton
Like, I didn't know it was happening, or I would have done, like, a little, like, homeschool thing. That's what I'M saying had the kids watch it, like so no idea what's
Brian Fullerton
going on, so who knows? I'd love to do a poll on ig Please go to Brains on maintenance stories.
Liz Fullerton
Like, do you think the first moon landing is real?
Brian Fullerton
There's no way. There's no way. I, I, I want to do, I haven't got this sanctioned yet. I don't know if we're gonna get it done. But I want to do together in the trades. Trades After Dark. And I'd love to do Rent the Ballroom out for.
Liz Fullerton
We talked about this on our last board meeting and you got vetoed.
Brian Fullerton
Yeah, I did get veto happening. I want to do Trades After Dark.
Liz Fullerton
We're not doing a Trades After Dark.
Brian Fullerton
Listen, listen, it sounds like there's a lot of support here in the marketplace and I, what I wanted to do was get the, you know, the same conference room that we have and everybody can come in their PJs, we'll do snacks and we'll do a Google sign up sheet and we'll go from like 9 to 10:30 for an hour and a half every like 10 minutes. You can sign out 10 minute slot. Pick your conspiracy, right? And you have to make a presentation for like seven or eight minutes and then.
Liz Fullerton
I can't have people at the vote sanction a conspiracy night.
Brian Fullerton
Come on, dude. It was so great.
Liz Fullerton
It could go so wrong.
Brian Fullerton
Chemtrails.
Liz Fullerton
Chemtrails.
Brian Fullerton
Artificial meat.
Liz Fullerton
Did the moon landing happen? He's gonna do was like they're gonna bring like Hitler or something and do. I can't. Yeah, put the trade's name.
Brian Fullerton
Yeah. World War II. Pollen on the highway system. You want to hear my, my favorite one that I heard just the other day? This is a new one. I haven't heard this one. National parks and Bigfoot. You want to know more?
Liz Fullerton
Oh, no, I don't.
Brian Fullerton
Okay, so what? So obviously you want to know more. So the reason they're doing national parks is they don't want us to go into the areas where these beings are coming into our areas, because that's where their portal is to transfer from our planet back to their home planet. Right. So why else would they have national sanctioned parks where people can go. Obviously they don't want us to see something. And that's where Bigfoot sightings happen. And Bigfoot is a creature from another planet who's using his portal to come and fro from wherever the hell he's from. And his portals in the national parks.
Liz Fullerton
Why would he, why would he come here?
Brian Fullerton
Why would he come here. I don't know. You have to ask him. But that's. That's the new one I heard the other day. How many of these have we heard? Like, flat earth? I mean, dude, I think it's a fun. So if anybody has, like a conspiracy night.
Liz Fullerton
You know what? My big conspiracy.
Brian Fullerton
What's that?
Liz Fullerton
I get on, that I've been on for probably a decade or more now, is milk and the dairy industry.
Brian Fullerton
That's another one. What's your theory on that one?
Liz Fullerton
It's disgusting. And they started. First it started with dirty milk, then they started pasteurizing it. It's a whole thing. And then now we have to keep with it. That's why America produces more cheese than any other country in the world, just to keep our dairy afloat.
Brian Fullerton
Okay, so. So bring your mike in a little bit. You couldn't pick up the visual cue there. I don't know what the heck that was, but. All right, so you're passionate about one or two. Everybody's got one.
Liz Fullerton
Oh, I have a lot. I'm just saying I can't put the trade's name attached to any of them.
Brian Fullerton
That's why it's an unsanctioned event. Trades after dark. So I don't know. We'll do another poll on the next slide on Instagram. So first one is vote for. What was the first question?
Liz Fullerton
The moon landing.
Brian Fullerton
The moon landing. Yeah. That's the moon landings up there. Right. Anyway. And then number two. Oh, like, is Zorro Mandani. Whatever. From New York. Is he Epstein's son? Right. All this stuff. These are like, what?
Liz Fullerton
I haven't seen that one.
Brian Fullerton
My lawn care feed is. Or the island boys are Jeffrey Epstein's kids. You know, I've seen that one too. Dude, you could do this all day. That's what I'm saying. Like, it'd be fun to do a conspiracy theory night, I guess. I guess.
Liz Fullerton
Apparently really fun. I just.
Brian Fullerton
It's unsanctioned. It's unsanctioned. So, like, it's unofficial, right?
Liz Fullerton
Sure.
Brian Fullerton
How the kids doing out there, by the way?
Liz Fullerton
They're doing great. Like, I was trying to get back him down for a nap. He's like, going. I don't know if he's going down to, like, one nap or what, but I. I couldn't get him down. So it's a mess.
Brian Fullerton
It's three on one right now with grandma, but it's the mother in law, so I'm totally fine with that. So. All right, so let's do Take it from the top. The reason I was asking if you want to do a show today just for a few minutes was, well, we do need to talk about together in the trades because that is quickly approaching. For anybody who doesn't know, we've got a marriage conference that we co host with a couple named Caleb and Brittany Almond. Five, six years now. Six years.
Liz Fullerton
This will be our sixth year.
Brian Fullerton
That's crazy. It's crazy how time flies.
Liz Fullerton
Time is flying.
Brian Fullerton
We, we started this six years ago. I gu. Obviously. And you and Brittany had the great idea. Give them the 32nd. If people don't know a lot of new listeners to the show. You know, two people probably this year. So for the two people that don't know, educate them a little bit more about what do you got going on trades.
Liz Fullerton
Brittany and I had an idea to create a space for women in the industry. Whether you're married into it or like run the business or whatever level that you are committed to the business at. And we realized that, you know, women probably aren't just the only problem, that the men are probably the biggest part of the equation. So instead of doing a women's conference, we quickly pivoted to doing a marriage conference, which then turned into a marriage retreat. And it happens during the spring rush or right shortly after the spring rush intentionally, because we feel personally in our marriages that we need like a re coming together after getting blambasted.
Brian Fullerton
Right.
Liz Fullerton
And we turned it into a retreat because we wanted people to be taken out of the business. Instead of having another conference where you're sitting, you know, learning. I mean, you're going to learn a lot of stuff, but just sitting in like more of like a business atmosphere, like a conference would be. Having it be a retreat, you know, kind of gets your brain out of business mode and back onto your marriage. And we do it over the course of a couple days so that you have the conference in the morning or the, you know, like the meetings in the morning. And then you have all like afternoon and evening to explore these really cool places. It travels all around the country. We've done some really great places in the past. This year we're doing the Grand Canyon, which should be a lot of fun.
Brian Fullerton
Have you ever been?
Liz Fullerton
I've never been to the Grand Canyon.
Brian Fullerton
I don't think you had.
Liz Fullerton
Which is a whole conspiracy in itself. We could talk about.
Brian Fullerton
What's the Grand Canyon conspiracy?
Liz Fullerton
I don't even know all this.
Brian Fullerton
Did the earth really flood from the Grand Canyon? Did it? Is that the big aquifer that you Know, flooded the planet with Noah and
Liz Fullerton
Well, I've heard there's an Indian reservation or Native American reservation like in the bottom of it and a lot of like, supposedly like shady things have happened and it's like completely unrestricted really, because it's technically native land, so it doesn't adhere to the same laws. I don't know. It's a whole thing. Anyways.
Brian Fullerton
What about dinosaurs and cover up for giants and the Nephilim, right?
Liz Fullerton
Nephilim. Yeah. There's, there's. Okay. So together in the trade.
Brian Fullerton
I might do its own conference in general. Like an E ticket, you know, like
Liz Fullerton
totally unrelated is happening in the Grand Canyon. And we have. I can give you the speaker lineup. We have Mr. Marty Grunder and what beautiful wife for wifey for lifey, like you say, Lisa. And we have a new speaker for trades coming from marriage 365, Casey Caston. He is, if you look him up on Instagram, he is so entertaining. He's hilarious. He's very much Brian's humor. So I can only imagine you guys bantering. I think it's going to be really good. And he's like our, our professional that we're bringing in, right? So we bring in industry leaders like the Grunders and then we have an actual marriage professional. Not that. I mean Marty and Lisa have been married for how long?
Brian Fullerton
I think 30 or 35 years.
Liz Fullerton
And they have some good fruit on the tree. Like they've got grandkids and they're, they
Brian Fullerton
got a beautiful family.
Liz Fullerton
It's a beautiful like idealistic like that. It's. I realize it's harder and harder to find people in the industry who have so. And quote unquote, like made it and then are still together. And I'm really excited to hear their story. But Casey cast in from marriage365, him and his wife together, actual marriage coaches. We just have him coming. But he is, he is genuinely so funny and he teaches in a way that is so entertaining that you don't even realize you're learning.
Brian Fullerton
Well, I was just going to say like for, for all of you guys. Like who, who's got the credibility to, to put on a marriage conference? Well, we're, we're married and we're working on it.
Liz Fullerton
We run it because we know that we need like, like, like I said, a break right after the spring rush to realign and re. Establish like, you know, I think your marriage basically.
Brian Fullerton
And, and the, and the interesting thing is like nobody here is pretending to have it all figured out. Like One thing I. I jokingly have said, and many others have also felt the same way, is like, counseling versus coaching. Right? Like, I think, unfortunately, there's a taboo of counseling. I am going into counseling on something, an addiction of this or that, a relationship, just a challenge. And unfortunately, there's a taboo. It's just the word counseling, and it seems very, like, inferior, superior, as I always personally internalize it. It doesn't have to be that way, obviously. But when you say coaching, you know, to our age group and below, everybody's like, yeah, you got a coach, a baseball coach, gymnastics coach, instructor, you know, coach, taekwondo coach. Like, I think we're all pretty open to being coached in something. I. I don't think anybody here is trying to. And just so we're super clear for anybody who is listening in and evaluating, coming on out, nobody's saying we all have it all figured out, like, hardly from the case. In fact, like Liz joked, we're all going because we all know we could use more help, and we want to prioritize it and keep our marriage a priority and the success of our marriage a priority. I don't want people to just, you know, be married for 40 years and sleeping in different bedrooms and haven't talked to each other for 25 of it. Like, that's not the goal either. And so I just wanted to add, like, we've had authors speak. You know, we've had marriage counselors speak. We've had the Enneagram girl, Ashton. She was awesome a couple years ago. That was a fun exercise. And so we try to, like, make it fun, keep it engaging, learn something new. Yes, you will get out of your comfort zone from a conversation or an activity. And that's the idea, you know, we got to break up the. The. The habit flow that we're all in. Like, we don't want you to just come in there, be in a stupor. Okay, I came. And then leave. Like, we want you to, like, tangibly leave with something fun or new.
Liz Fullerton
We want you to get something from it. And we're actually. We're doing something new this year. We're doing a, like, couples breakout session. So we're going to be doing the ladies in one room, the guys in one room, and then we're gonna meet back up at the end and kind of share what we discussed. And it's something we've never done before, but we actually have access to the entire property. It is only our group at the hotel this year, which is awesome. It's like a whole little, like, Resort cutesy thing off of historic Route 66 in Williams, Arizona. About what do we say, like hour from Flagstaff?
Brian Fullerton
Yeah, I think so. It wasn't even that bad.
Liz Fullerton
It wasn't even that bad. Maybe 45 minutes and then there's a train across the street if you'd like. Or you can drive down Route 666 like I said. Or you could take a train directly to the Grand Canyon and then be back, you know, in time for dinner and stuff. Whatever you want to do. We leave the afternoons open so you guys can get some time together away like we had said and like Brian touched on. Like we, Brian and I specifically, I can only speak for us, talk a lot about how awesome it is to be self employed. It's something we fully believe with like our full chest will say that there is no better lifestyle for us personally than to be business owners. And within promoting this lifestyle. I feel like we do a disservice to people by just encouraging you to become successful in your businesses at the expense of your family, at the expense of your marriage. And both of us come from divorced families. It's something that we didn't want for our own. And when you are self employed, your risk for divorce increases significantly. It is one of the most depending. It doesn't even depend on what industry you're in. Just being self employed in general, it is one of the statistically most like dangerous professions to have for your marriage, hands down. And we recognize that. And we don't want to promote this lifestyle. Lifestyle, like at the expense of your legacy. Like that's what you're building this business for, right? Is you're creating legacy for your family, changing your stars, right?
Brian Fullerton
Yeah. I mean like again, it's not even financial, you know, we joke like, oh, who gets half of all the debt? You know, I think, I think that's Caleb's joke. Forgive me if it's, if it's somebody else that said that, like, oh, we're gonna split this thing into, into two and you get half of the debt, I get the other half of the debt. Like, who wants that? It's, I think Caleb ready say, like, hey, somebody's gonna pay the other side to take this thing off of their hands. Not like who wants to keep it? So that's always funny there. Sometimes you're right on those, Some of those days you're right. But again, like outside of the financial side of it, like, we just want people to be happy, you know, and to be able to of course run their own business. But we're super cognizant. And, and I'll tell you, like from firsthand experience, running a business is a hard endeavor. Being married to a spouse who's an entrepreneur. We've all, you know, unfortunately probably experienced a lot of high highs, low lows, uncertainties. You know, right now it's the spring rush and we still have a lot of work renewing and hoping to renew. And it's, you know, you lose an account and it's all, you know, screw that guy. And you go and kick the, kick the cat. You know, two minutes later you get a new bid come through and it's $7,000. And you're like, dude, we're going to the moon. 10 million. Locking this thing in, like, happy as a happy camper. Whatever you want to call weighs on you more than we probably all know, more than we probably all admit. And that's a compounding stressor to a relationship, you know. And when I wanted to go full circle to, to link, you know, Wednesday night, I was like, dude, it's been, it's been a busy couple of weeks. It's been a, a challenging couple of weeks because we've been not maybe as lovey or connecting as we would want, you know, since maybe Valentine's Day, because there's a six week window or, dude, you're just in the grind. And like, there has to be things that get done in a certain timeline, in a certain time frame. Turnaround times, you know, for quotes and bids and new hires and training and estimates and equipment ordering. Like, there's just, you know, somebody said like, you know, wish There was a 25th hour in the day or. What did you say the other day? You want to be octopus mom? You wanted.
Liz Fullerton
So, like, I've been trying this thing with the kids where I'm. When I can sense myself starting to get frustrated and like, to realign my brain, like, I get silly. It works really well for my brain. And so I turn in, they call, can you be monkey mom? Is usually what they say. And then. But usually I like, act like a monkey and get whatever done, whatever. And then yesterday at breakfast, they were all asking for something at once. The baby was crying. I was like, you guys, you know what I wish moms had? Monkey. Or what did I say? Octopus arms. If I could just have, like, I truly believe that as a mom, like, the more kids you have, the more arms you should grow. Like, why not? Our body changes so much anyway, like, just like a couple extra appendages.
Brian Fullerton
What if it was a temporary appendage by the way.
Liz Fullerton
That's fine. I only need it for probably like the first three, four years of the kid's life.
Brian Fullerton
Well, I was gonna say like nine months, 10 months of a kid.
Liz Fullerton
Yeah. Anyways, so I became octopus mom and I was like going through all these scenarios of like, wouldn't it be so funny if I just had like an extra arm and like I. You wish you had like an extra hour in the day. There just doesn't seem to be enough of us to go around right now. And it is really difficult.
Brian Fullerton
It stacks, it adds.
Liz Fullerton
We are coming off of like a two week sickness in our house right after we got back from Florida.
Brian Fullerton
Three weeks now, dude.
Liz Fullerton
And Brian, like, like he's just not available. Like he. And it's not because he doesn't want to be. It's because there, there is only a limited amount of time to get done everything that needs to get done to make sure that we are set up for a successful season. And like, yes, you can make pivots and stuff mid season. There's, there's never a wrong time to do things. There's better times though. And to set yourself up to have a good season, it is important to take this time and make hay. Right. And for me coming off of a trip, being sick and then like I've had no parenting breaks until this week. Yeah, like at all.
Brian Fullerton
And being sick with three little kids is a disaster. You guys should all try it.
Liz Fullerton
It is, it is awful. I can only imagine people like, I don't know how people have like eight kids and like, you know, everybody's getting sick at the same time. But I guess, I don't know, they get older and start taking care of this. I don't know. Anyways, so Brian, I'm like, hey dude, like we gotta eat. Like the kids are hungry at like, you know, five. I'm lucky if they can make it till five for dinner. Just with the way that we've had a delete snacks and stuff anyways. And so I'm like looking at him in the office at like 4:55. I'm like, I gotta get started with dinner. I'm like, the kids are eating me alive. And you're like, I just need five more minutes. And then five more minutes is really 45 more minutes. And the next thing you know we're eating at like 7pm and I, I can't. So like I'm flexible but like kids can't be. And so some of it like I just have to operate without Brian. A lot yeah. And it's really hard because nobody in our personal life relates.
Brian Fullerton
Not really.
Liz Fullerton
And not a single person day to day, besides, like, our friends at a distance, like the almonds, like the Jennings, like, you guys, Blake and Natalie. Like, I. Nobody else relates. And it's so hard.
Brian Fullerton
Well, that when I was on link talking about that for, like, the last 20 or 30 minutes, I'm like, dude, it's been a. A crappy couple of weeks. Crappy. Like, by the way, our crappy is still somebody else's best. And they're very average.
Liz Fullerton
I'm so grateful for everything we have. Like, it's. It's really. Like our world is really good right now, but it is. It is hard. I'm doing a lot of. We both are, like, single parenting three kids by myself for 24 hours a day. And Beckham cut two front. He's cutting two teeth at the same time. He did his bottom ones and he did his top ones just now I'm
Brian Fullerton
not sleeping with a sleep regression deal again, like, whatever the hell.
Liz Fullerton
And he's, like, coughing in her sleep and, like, throwing up. It's been.
Brian Fullerton
Yeah. I was laying in her bed with her the other night just to. Just to help her, console her, go to go to sleep. And two hours later, we both woke up in a pile of vomit. That was exciting.
Liz Fullerton
So gross.
Brian Fullerton
It's so gross all over me and that, you know, one o' clock in the morning, and that was great. Only to then do the Superman shower, you know, get her cleaned up, wipe me off and lay back down, only to realize I lay back down in vomit. That's disgusting. And it was on the blank at the comforter. And I shine my phone at 2 in the morning. She's, like, shaking. She's cold. She's like.
Liz Fullerton
She's a little peanut.
Brian Fullerton
She's my little. She's my little thin men, you know. And there's vomit all over the bed, the comforter. I'm like, oh, my God. Like, dude, this real, like, stuff massacre.
Liz Fullerton
I don't know why. Brian, you should have just left it. Because there's, like, other beds in this house that nobody's using because we all sleep in one bed that you.
Brian Fullerton
Well, it's not a bad idea. We did. We came back down.
Liz Fullerton
We have a guest bed that's, like, always ready for somebody.
Brian Fullerton
It's just like, dude, it weighs on you. And then it does. And then, like I said, one thing gets moved. Date night gets skipped. Date night again gets skipped. Date night again gets skipped. Then you realize there's six or eight weeks, you haven't connected with your spouse. And you're like, why are we arguing? Like, you know, immature idiots and roommates. My opinion. And you're like, this has to get fixed. And, dude, it's like, it's an admin flow. And I think the. The biggest way to approach this is to realize there's, like, a season of this that may or may not be acceptable, but there's also a time when you have to realize, like, somebody has to put an end to the crazy train in a good way. We talked about that about three or four months ago, coming off the heels of a. A similar season. And I think it's okay to recognize that. But again, you just like anything in any time with anybody, you have to be transparent about where you're at, what we're trying to do, what we're trying to accomplish. And right now, we're kind of sunsetting on a very busy last three to four weeks.
Liz Fullerton
Yeah, I actually. I saw a reel the other day, and I was. I didn't send it to you because I think I was mad at you at the time, but it talked about how, from a woman's perspective, when you're married to a business owner, that when he is building his business, it is like, it is worry season. And it is like a season of postpartum where things are crazy. He's more needy. He's not able to necessarily do his own lifting inside the family because he's creating. Right. So it's like being pregnant. It's like being postpartum. And for us, this hat seems to happen. Like you, like, go postpartum, like, every spring, but it's almost like being a farmer, too. Like, there's a season that stuff has to get done, and it's just making it through, through and remembering who you are and who spouse it.
Brian Fullerton
Sorry. It's in there.
Liz Fullerton
You've been programmed, Disney. It's great. There's another conspiracy theory. Why are all the. Why are all the Disney parents dead? Or parents and Disney dead?
Brian Fullerton
Right.
Liz Fullerton
Why are all these orphans happening? That's not like,
Brian Fullerton
dude, everybody's convinced. And I. And if you have a juicy one DM it to me, I want to know.
Liz Fullerton
Brian loves the cons.
Brian Fullerton
I love them. I eat them up.
Liz Fullerton
I do, too. It's not that I. I don't. I.
Brian Fullerton
Well, my favorite. My favorite line was, what's the difference between a conspiracy and the truth? Couple years, about six months.
Liz Fullerton
Yeah.
Brian Fullerton
You know, the Fizer vaccine, All this stuff, dude, like the metals, the mercury dude, you. You say, I, I. I eat this stuff up. It's a. It's a guilty pleasure.
Liz Fullerton
But just to give you guys a couple of, like. So, like, we're talking about all of this. That's what I love about together in the trade so much, especially now that it's been established for six years, is there's couples that come back year after year that have created this environment in this room where anybody can walk in at any point in time. So even if you've never attended an event, there's a group of people who will absorb you in, and they relate and they talk, and they. They keep the relationships going offline. And it's just been such a beautiful community to see come around really quickly. Just to give you a couple quick facts, the way that we set up the tickets this year is one ticket per couple. So the ticket price is per couple, not per person.
Brian Fullerton
How much is a ticket, by the way?
Liz Fullerton
That's a great question.
Brian Fullerton
I think it's like 600 bucks. 500 bucks.
Liz Fullerton
It is 6, 42. 09.
Brian Fullerton
And that's per couple.
Liz Fullerton
And that's per couple. And that also includes two meals. Three meals you guys like, because we're doing breakfast each morning together in the room before the sessions start. And then one of the meals we're doing together in the evening is a part of our hoedown where we have a DJ coming. We're gonna, like, do some dancing, some games. We really had a great time with it on the cr. We did a. A riverboat cruise in Savannah last year.
Brian Fullerton
I thought it was great.
Liz Fullerton
I was shocked. I was like, we're going to do this, like, DJ setup, and people are like, what is this? It was so fun.
Brian Fullerton
It was pretty fun.
Liz Fullerton
Like, seeing Mark Bradley drop it low on the dance floor is burned into my.
Brian Fullerton
I love the love and marriage game.
Liz Fullerton
Oh, and then we should. I don't know if we're going to the love and marriage game. We're going to do something. It's. It will. Oh, my gosh.
Brian Fullerton
It's Jeremiah, Savannah's dude. They're so. They're so perfect. They're so cute. They're so. It's so fun. It's so fun that we know of. You know, it's always the ones that aren't. They got to be watching out for you, know what I'm saying? So.
Liz Fullerton
And then we're gonna do fireside chats, too, because, like I said, the entire property will be nothing but people in our group. So we've rented out the entire facility. All of the hotel rooms belong to our group. Speaking of hotels, when you buy your ticket, you'll get a link to book. We have a block that you can use for a discounted rate that's only available after you've purchased your ticket. And then the dress code. Everybody's like, what? What do I wear? Because that's what women worry about, right? Just like, casual, but, like, you know, a little nice. Little, like, very sundress. It's gonna be hot.
Brian Fullerton
All I can remember is smart car to limo or limo to smart car. And then Cornell Max, the love and marriage game. It's, like, seared into my brain. Like, there's times where you're like, man, I wish I could not hear things or unseen things.
Liz Fullerton
It was so funny.
Brian Fullerton
The only thing worse than that, was
Liz Fullerton
it the pink thing?
Brian Fullerton
I don't remember. All I know is that Mark Bradley was behind me and he was, like, making comments and I'm like, all right, dad, go away. Like, I don't want to hear. He's like, oh, I put this game to shame, you know, like, where's the place? You did so and so last time you made Whoopi. And I'm like, oh, my. So it's very.
Liz Fullerton
It is so good.
Brian Fullerton
We do keep it a little bit adult themed. And this isn't necessarily, like, you're exclusively Disney crowd. We did. We definitely get a little more transparent,
Liz Fullerton
a little bit more raw, especially after hours. So, like, during the sessions, we're like, oh, don't even.
Brian Fullerton
I go to bed. I'm out of this. I'm. I'm in bed at 9 o' clock.
Liz Fullerton
And then after, like, not everybody is, though. Everybody's party out anyways, anyways. So who is this for? This is like, this is probably one of the biggest questions we get is like, I don't actually run the business with my husband. Right. Either do I. Right now. You get from. For perspective, you get everybody from, like, a Brittany Almond who's, like, in the field, right? Who, like, owns the business to Savannah Jennings, who was like, yeah, no, I don't want to do any of that. But you go get them, babe.
Brian Fullerton
And she's in a career change, lifestyle change, career woman, mom. Mom part time. This. Who knows what so much over the years, everybody changes.
Liz Fullerton
Even if you're somebody who's like, in the driver's seat in the business and that might change. What is that going to look like? Or if you want to get more involved, what does that look like? So it's a wide spectrum of people that attend These events. But we all just happen to be in the trades industry. So this is for not even just green industry specific, but you know, plumbers, electricians, whatever trades.
Brian Fullerton
We've had people from a little bit of everything. We've had a couple sleepers come in that aren't even they're in trades, but they were in like way different industries. And I'm like, how did you guys even hear about us? And friend of a friend invited them in. And some of the companies that have sponsored over the years have come not only as a, as a sponsor, but the couple has started sending.
Liz Fullerton
Yeah, we've had some repeat sponsors that have found so much value in the event that they've started sending not just a representative but somebody in their company as a couple, which I think is so powerful and so cool to see the buy in that we've had from the sponsors over the years. Speaking of sponsors, if anybody is looking for a sponsorship spot, we do have one still available. If you need information on that, reach out to us on Together in the Trades website. We have our email there.
Brian Fullerton
So yeah, transparently folks, like we make enough on tickets and sponsors to break even and then like probably pay for some gas money. Not last year, not last year. Last year we were significantly in the hole, I mean literally out of family budget. I'm like, wow, there goes a big hit. So we made an investment into the event, into the future and into you guys. And we know as we. So as shall we reap. And it always comes down, press down, chicken together flowing and 30, 60 hundredfold return. So we were happy to do that. At least we were. I don't buy the almonds, but they're building a house this year.
Liz Fullerton
So they're like, we can't do that again this year.
Brian Fullerton
They're like, we cannot lose money. And we're like, we agree because we have to pay our mortgage. So we're real people, just like you guys. But we, we put a significant, significant, significant investment into the event last year and happy to do so, but we'd love to have you. Long story short, we'd love to have you. It's a great time. Many folks have been coming for three years, four years, five years in a row we've had people get engaged at the event which was.
Liz Fullerton
They now have had a baby since they got. They got engaged, married and have had a baby.
Brian Fullerton
Yes, many other.
Liz Fullerton
Shout out, Sam. I am.
Brian Fullerton
We've had folks make, make babies on the road while we're there. You know, we've definitely. We're like hey, wait nine and a half months. You carry the two. You know, you're like.
Liz Fullerton
We pray for the event to be fruitful.
Brian Fullerton
Fruitful and multiply. So again, if you want a little bit of a retreat, you want to have some fun, get around some folks who are doing life the same way as you. Like most folks are, you know, 90 cents on the dollar, pretty. Pretty equally yoked with what you're doing, what we're doing, which is pretty fun. And you won't find a more, like Liz said, welcoming environment. And by the way, you know, make it a vacation. Come see the Grand Canyon, for crying out loud. I mean, why not? Like, that's why we do a traveling event. We've done Big Sky. We've done the Silos. We did Nashville. I think Nashville did us. You know what I'm saying? That was. I don't. I didn't realize how Nashville has changed since I've been to Nashville. That was.
Liz Fullerton
We've talked about doing Vegas and making it. That was a spicy, like, reading. Bachelor, Bachelor, bro.
Brian Fullerton
I went to.
Liz Fullerton
Because that was natural.
Brian Fullerton
When I went to Nashville, it was like Disney, Hannah Montana. When we went back there three years ago, four years ago, it was Vegas. It was Vegas. Trailer park Vegas. New Hannah Montana. What's her name now? What's her.
Liz Fullerton
Miley Cyrus.
Brian Fullerton
Miley Cyrus. Yeah. Yeah. When we went. When I went 20 years ago is Miley Cyrus. It was Hannah Montana. We went back like, it was. It was. It was Miley Cyrus, dude.
Liz Fullerton
I was like, that's a good comparison.
Brian Fullerton
I was like, what the hell happened here?
Liz Fullerton
And there were so many bachelor bachelorette parties.
Brian Fullerton
Oh, it was shocked. It was crazy.
Liz Fullerton
It was so fun, though.
Brian Fullerton
It was a good time. No doubt about it. Like, everybody had fun. Beautiful pool out there, great time, Bring your swimsuit, hang out, have fun. You're at a resort for the most part. There's always a. A beautiful pool, some boys, some good food. So anyway, we. I will tell you this. This is not me being salesy, but I'll just tell you, in a very practical sense, this is in the middle of freaking nowhere, Flagstaff. And I say that respect to Flagstaff, you know, like, hey, what. What do we do? But the hotel I think we have, is it 75 rooms or 75 couples?
Liz Fullerton
Yes, but.
Brian Fullerton
Which is probably about the same thing as one couple per room. Yes, but we're half sold out. That's a fact. And just like any event, more tickets sell closer towards the event, as people know, like, they've got the money, they got the time.
Liz Fullerton
We have like 80. I think the countdown is like 84 days away or something.
Brian Fullerton
Yeah. So I'll just tell you, like, just like when you're trying to book an equip Expo room or LaunchPinner Academy, when we launch that thing and, you know, may or so or so, and there's 50, 60 hotel rooms, like, once they're sold, they're sold. I mean, that, that's sometimes as important or more important than the dang ticket. But I'll just tell you, it's not like you're in Nashville and there's 17 hotels nearby.
Liz Fullerton
Or what's hard about, especially when we've done this out west in the past, is limited accommodations. And because we've rented out the entire thing, like, we've gotten kind of as many as we can get. We can't add more room. And there's other groups, right?
Brian Fullerton
Yeah, there's other groups, other conferences, other traveling things.
Liz Fullerton
Summer. So it's going to be peak Grand
Brian Fullerton
Seas at Big Sky. There was only two hotels at the top of the mountain.
Liz Fullerton
That's basically like this. There's a hotel across the street that we do not have a roomblock at that we are not in control of it, like, selling out.
Brian Fullerton
Yeah.
Liz Fullerton
And then our room block at the actual hotel is the entire hotel. So we can't add any rooms to our room block because we've already got them all.
Brian Fullerton
And again, the. The Grand Canyon is 50 minutes from the hotel. But you're going to fly in likely to Phoenix, and it's two and a half hours. So if you don't order Flagstaff or you got to do a layover, fly over to Flagstaff. But I'll tell, like, that just was kind of not economical. Inside baseball, I am flying us into Phoenix. We rented a Turo. We got a Jeep, which is really cool. It was like half the price of an Enterprise and super fun car. So that's what we're doing. We're going to fly into Phoenix and then drive up the two and a half hours, do some sightseeing. You know, I do want to see, like, the desert, the mountains, whatever, whatever the hell we see. But I want to get a little bit of car time. But I'll just tell you, like, if you, you don't make it or you're like, hey, I wanna, you know, don't get a hotel room. Like, dude, your nearest Hotel is 2 and a half hours away. Like, there's no civilization between there. It's.
Liz Fullerton
Yeah, there's not a lot.
Brian Fullerton
So I'm not. I'M not trying to, like, you know, oh, come one, come all, or you know, oh, last chance to get your ticket. I'm just saying, like, don't wait, don't procrastinate. Because if you do want to go, you want to be on site, you want to be there, there is no civilization out in the desert after that.
Liz Fullerton
Well, we're only, we're actually very limited. We're only able to sell to the capacity of the hotel rooms that we have.
Brian Fullerton
That's what I'm saying.
Liz Fullerton
Even if they wanted to come, if we're sold out at the hotel, we can't do it. We can't have any.
Brian Fullerton
Unless you want to stay two and a half hours away.
Liz Fullerton
No, not even.
Brian Fullerton
Well, I'm staying at a different hotel there.
Liz Fullerton
But we do, we don't have any room.
Brian Fullerton
We don't have any room in our conference room that's so big and that's 150 people. Yeah. So again, there's plenty of time, plenty of seats, plenty of tickets. But I'm just saying don't, don't sleep on it. And logistically, if you, if you're going to go, you got to plan some time off. Babysitters make the financial investment, it's going to cost you, you know, a couple grand, realistically. Right. Between a car and a ticket and hotel. But we'd love to have you, long story short, like, make the investment into your marriage. We, we truly believe in it. If we didn't, we wouldn't keep it going because it's not like it's always the easiest thing. It's not. Yeah. Traveling events and finding new AV person every year and new hotel staff every year and new logistics and new airports. Like, you know, it's an adventure for all of us. Long story short. So we're making the investment again. Last thing I'll say, and you guys have heard me say this before, but think about it a little bit differently. Some people treat a crumb like a feast. Other people treat a feast like a crumb. Like, we're doing the best we can to make this a super fun event, super practical, a lot of learning, a lot of relationship building, a lot of fun. Yes, it would be way more convenient to do it in Columbus, Ohio, like for the east coast and, you know, a bigger airport. We get it. But get out of your comfort zone. Make the investment into you, into your wife, into your spouse, into your husband. Come out west, see the Grand Canyon. Like that's a bucket list item for
Liz Fullerton
anybody listening to get you away from your Business. And we realized that for ourselves when we went to Deer Valley when we had first had, I mean, I mean, was like six months old. And it was a rough start for us, like the transition to four hours west. I will take the transition to two to three kids over the transition from zero to one because that's how hard it was on our marriage for sure, to be completely frank. And so we went out to the mountains after the season ended and stuff. It was over winter and we kind of like reconnected as a family. And we're like, this is amazing because you feel so far away. You do only focus on you. The business physically is so far away for most people. So, well, it's intentional.
Brian Fullerton
And again, stress test your business, you know, like leave for four days. It's. It's going to be a couple of day event. It's no big deal. The routes will get done to. Yeah, the guys will get done, the mowing will get done. Stress test, bench test. It's dog days of summer. Does not. The grass isn't going to be grown like crazy like the spring, I assure you. You can peel off for a couple of days and put that new crew member, crew lead in charge and give them a little bit of a leash to, you know, go do some work on their own, stretch a little bit, get out of your comfort zone. And you might realize, like, hey, maybe I can actually get out of the field and start hiring a team. And this might be the first example of doing that. Okay, so that's all we got for you guys today. Website.
Liz Fullerton
Liz is together in the trades.com or find us at together in the trades on Instagram.
Brian Fullerton
Cool. And again, whether you make the investment to go there, we'd love to have you. But other than that, like, continue to just realize where you guys are at again. One thing I'll just tell you, I realize is somebody has to eventually own it, get out of the crazy cycle, pull the other one out. You know, you can very easily slip into roommate phase. Passing by, cohabitating, not connecting. I think it's going to take time, you know, five, ten hours a week, facetime, date nights before you get back into the passionate, hey, I love you, not just like you or I'm just married to you phase this time of year. Be cognizant of that, you know, with your relationships, with your wife, your kids. Business will always be there. It'll always come and go. But again, like, you want to make sure that your spouse, your husband, your family are there with you as well. So that's something that we talk very transparently about and wanted to make that investment into you guys talking about that today. So together. Trace.com love to have you and we look forward to Liz, Any final thoughts?
Liz Fullerton
Not a thought behind these eyes, Brian.
Brian Fullerton
Not a thought behind these eyes. Feel that Heard. Heard is what one my friend Lucas says heard. All right, that's what we got for you guys on today's show. We love you. Seriously. Grab your ticket. Love to see you there and can't wait to have a bunch of funny stories and funny jokes and if you know, you know there's so much stuff that will never make it to the airwaves and that's why you gotta go so you can see and hear the stuff that cannot get published cannot get published on social media. So. All right, we love you guys. Have a great day and we look forward to catching up with you guys here on the next one.
Liz Fullerton
Bye.
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What would you change in your business if your team could operate with confidence without needing you at every turn? That's the goal behind the launch Entrepreneur Academy SOP Bundle this powerful training system was built from real world processes used inside a growing company designed to help you train your field crews, develop your office staff, and create the structure needed to scale. You'll get over 50 field training SOPs covering everything from mowing and snow to trailers, blades and equipment basics. You'll also get office training for leads, estimates, payroll, marketing systems and more, plus over 30 documents and resources to help you build a stronger business foundation. Best of all, it works with the systems you already use.
Brian Fullerton
The presale window is open now for an incredible 9.99.
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On April 22nd, the price increases to 2499. Get in early at launchpreneuracademy.com
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thanks for taking the time to listen to the Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast with Brian Fullerton. We hope you enjoyed this production. If so, please consider leaving us a five star review for the show. While the techniques and ideas presented here are designed to help you grow a more successful and profitable business, no one can guarantee these results for you. We want to emphasize that entrepreneurship is not easy and the ideas presented here are just the opinions of Bryan Fullerton and his respective guests. No one can guarantee success for you. That being said, we hope the ideas presented here help you and motivate you to go on out there and crush it with your own business.
Brian Fullerton
Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast thanks for listening and
Podcast Outro Narrator
we hope to see you on the next episode.
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Podcast Summary: Fullerton Unfiltered - Episode 948
"Thee Place to Be: Why We're Hosting a Marriage Summit at the Grand Canyon"
Date: April 3, 2026
Host: Brian Fullerton
Guest: Liz Fullerton
In this light-hearted and genuine episode, Brian Fullerton and his wife Liz reconnect on-air to discuss their annual marriage retreat for entrepreneurial couples, "Together in the Trades." The duo dives into the challenges of maintaining a strong partnership while running a business, the benefits and details of the upcoming 2026 Marriage Summit at the Grand Canyon, and the intention behind stepping away from day-to-day chaos to focus on their relationship. The discussion is peppered with banter, relatable parenting stories, and a surprising amount of conspiracy theory humor, all delivered in their trademark unfiltered style.
Context & Origin
Liz Fullerton:
"...we realized that, you know, women probably aren't just the only problem, that the men are probably the biggest part of the equation. So instead of doing a women's conference, we quickly pivoted to doing a marriage conference..." [09:13]
Retreat Structure and Intent
Location & Environment
Speaker Lineup (11:11):
Unique Features (14:26):
Brian Fullerton:
"We want you to...tangibly leave with something fun or new." [14:22]
The Struggle is Real
Notable Quotes:
“When you are self-employed, your risk for divorce increases significantly. … It is one of the statistically most dangerous professions to have for your marriage, hands down.” [15:00]
“Running a business is a hard endeavor. … Being married to a spouse who's an entrepreneur…we've all probably experienced a lot of high highs, low lows, uncertainties.” [16:25]
Taking the Leap
Both emphasize that investments in business should not come at the expense of family or marriage (15:00).
The retreat is an intentional way to "stress test" leaving your business for a few days, ensuring that the company and the marriage grow stronger (37:06).
Brian:
“Get out of your comfort zone. Make the investment into you, into your wife, into your spouse, into your husband. Come out west, see the Grand Canyon. Like that's a bucket list item…” [36:30]
Liz:
"You get everybody from, like, a Brittany Almond who's, like, in the field, right? Who, like, owns the business to Savannah Jennings, who was like, yeah, no, I don't want to do any of that. But you go get them, babe." [28:07]
On connection:
"Somebody has to eventually own it, get out of the crazy cycle, pull the other one out. … You can very easily slip into roommate phase." [37:47]
On community:
"There's couples that come back year after year that have created this environment in this room where anybody can walk in at any point in time..." [25:05]
On the value of coaching vs. counseling:
"When you say coaching, to our age group and below, everybody's like yeah ... I don't think anybody here is trying to ... pretend we all have it all figured out." [13:36]
Humor/banter:
Tickets & Accommodations
Dress Code:
Activities:
This episode delivers actionable insight and heartfelt stories from a couple “in the trenches.” Their candor about business, marriage, and parenting makes their upcoming “Together in the Trades” retreat feel essential, not just for business couples, but anyone who wants to stay intentional about their relationship amid entrepreneurial chaos. The episode is a warm invitation: Step away, invest in your marriage, laugh a lot, and build lasting community where people "get it."
For more info or tickets: togetherinthetrades.com
Follow on Instagram: @togetherinthetrades