973. How to Make Your Spouse Feel Like Your Best Friend Again

Summary

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Fullerton Unfiltered Ep. 973

How to Make Your Spouse Feel Like Your Best Friend Again

Host: Brian Fullerton
Guest: Liz Fullerton
Date: June 3, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this heartfelt and humorous episode, Brian Fullerton is joined by his wife, Liz, for a down-to-earth conversation about marriage, business, and intentional connection. Their primary focus: how to rekindle friendship and genuine connection with your spouse—especially during the chaotic years of raising kids, building businesses, and managing life. The Fullertons share real stories, practical strategies, and honest struggles, offering listeners both a candid look at their own marriage and actionable advice for others.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Cold Basement and Camper Flashbacks (01:06–05:08)

• Brian and Liz open with playful banter about the freezing basement, which quickly leads to memories of their days living in a cramped, cold camper with kids.
• Memorable Quote:
  • "If you've never woken up to a camper being 44 degrees..." – Brian (02:30)
  • "The only reason we lived and made it through those nights is because we had the space heater on." – Brian (03:09)
• They discuss the challenges and humor in those minimalist years, and how shared hardship can bond a couple.

2. Dreaming Ahead: The Great Loop Boat Adventure (04:29–06:10)

• The next big dream: doing the 'Great Loop' boat trip with their kids when they're older.
• Liz emphasizes making family dreams and new experiences a part of the marriage journey.

3. Date Night: Evolving Purpose (06:46–09:49)

• Brian shares that after a particularly meaningful recent date, he realized the importance of conciously connecting—not just going through the motions.
• The couple acknowledges how busy life gets, especially during "spring rush" in the landscaping business, and why they schedule regular date nights for connection.

4. The Challenge: No Logistics, No Kids, No Current Events (14:18–16:29, 33:30–34:43)

• Main Insight: The core advice is to go on a date night and intentionally avoid talking about kids, logistics, or current events. Instead, focus on genuinely connecting as friends and partners.
• Brian presents this as a challenge to listeners:
  • Quote:
    • "Next date night, here's my challenge to you... go on a date with your wife or your spouse or your significant other and don't talk logistics, don't talk kids and don't talk current events, and see what you guys talk about." – Brian (14:18)
• Liz explains how their dates often turned into business meetings or parenting debriefs, which isn't true connection.

5. The Logistics of Connection: Meetings vs. Dates (15:45–24:51)

• The Fullertons realized they needed separate weekly meetings to sync up on business and family logistics. Only then were they able to keep date nights sacred for real bonding.
  • Quote:
    • "Stop treating your date night like you're meeting logistics." – Liz (16:20)
• Scheduling these "debrief" meetings outside of date night created space for genuine conversation and fun.

6. Growing Together vs. Growing Apart (20:03–24:23)

• Liz voices her need to stay informed about the business—not from a control standpoint, but to remain "equally yoked."
• Memorable Moment: Liz reflects on the challenge of defining her role outside the business and the identity shifts that come with seasons of parenting vs. business partnership.

7. Relationship Drift and Rediscovering Each Other (27:13–30:25)

• They discuss the phenomenon of "the 30s drift," where couples risk growing apart because life becomes about maintenance, not intentional connection.
• Quote:
  • "Maintaining is not growing." – Brian (27:13)

8. Rediscovering Friendship and Fun (34:37–36:01)

• After applying their new rule of "no logistics/kids/current events" to a recent date, Brian and Liz found themselves laughing, goofing around, and reconnecting as friends.
• Quote:
  • "All we did was act retarded and laugh... that's why it felt so good, is because we felt like us." – Brian & Liz (34:45–35:27)

9. Recapturing “Why We Fell in Love” Energy (35:58–37:01)

• Liz gets emotional recalling the memory of their first “coffee interview” date, tying the feeling back to their recent, intentionally fun date night.
• Quote:
  • "That was part of the reason why I married Brian, is because I was always laughing with him." – Liz (35:31)

10. Repetition Builds Connection: The "20 Hour Rule" (10:10, 44:03)

• They reference the need for at least 15–20 hours of “face time” per week to sustain a thriving relationship—an idea picked up at a marriage conference.
• Realistically, few couples (especially with kids) hit this target, so intentionality is critical.

11. How to Make New Connections: Practical Tips (37:53–38:53)

• Try new restaurants or activities outside your routine.
• Break the cycle of efficiency and maintenance; allow yourself room for curiosity, fun, and even boredom—just like kids do when they’re allowed to be creative.

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Actionable Advice & Takeaways

• Schedule Logistics Meetings Separately: Weekly business/parenting meetings clear the “to do” clutter, leaving date night open for actual reconnection.
• On Your Next Date Night:
  • Do not discuss logistics, the kids, or current events.
  • Go somewhere new, try a different activity, or just go on a walk.
  • Allow conversation to wander—be silly, reminisce, dream.
• Measure Your Connection: Are you just maintaining, or are you deepening your friendship and romance?
• If Connection Is Tough:
  • Consider marriage coaching for guidance—there’s no shame in seeking help.
  • Share this episode with your spouse to open a conversation.
  • Don’t be afraid to struggle—every couple goes through rough patches; the key is not quitting on the same day.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• "Just don't quit on the same day." – Brian (12:37)
• "It's hard to come together with a game plan or dream together or do anything if you aren't operating off the same mission." – Liz (22:20)
• "When you're dating, you're spending 20, 30 [hours] ... you're infatuated, constantly texting, good morning... and now you're 10 years in, got three kids, and it's just logistics." – Brian (44:03)
• "Every podcast is how to be effective and productive and efficient. But, like, how's your marriage going?" – Brian (44:46)
• "I smiled the whole night. Like, it felt like a date. That's how a date should feel, right? Like, you should feel bubbly and excited to be together." – Liz (44:56)

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Important Timestamps

• [06:10] – Introduction of the main date night concept
• [14:18] – Brian issues the "No logistics/kids/current events" date night challenge
• [16:20] – Liz on why separating meetings from date nights matters
• [27:13] – “Maintaining is not growing”—the dangers of drifting apart
• [34:45–35:27] – Rediscovering laughter and friendship on date night
• [35:58] – “Why I married Brian"—flashback to first date sparks
• [44:03] – 20-hour rule for meaningful relationship connection

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Tone and Style

Brian and Liz keep things raw, honest, and playful, frequently roasting each other and poking fun at themselves. They balance light-hearted banter with deep, sometimes vulnerable reflections on the tough parts of marriage and running a family business.

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Closing Thoughts

This episode is a mix of practical marriage hacks, unfiltered relationship talk, and relatable stories for any couple navigating the busy years of business and family. By separating “life management” from intentional, playful connection, Brian and Liz rediscovered the spark that made them best friends—and challenge listeners to do the same.

Challenge to Listeners:
Schedule a date night and, for just this once, avoid discussing logistics, kids, or current events. Give yourself permission to let the conversation—and the connection—surprise you.

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For more resources:

• Together in the Trades: Marriage conference for couples in business
• Tandem Marriage: Coaching recommended by the Fullertons
• Upcoming Events: Check the Fullerton and Together in the Trades websites for tickets and resources.

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Transcript

[A]

Yeah, it's true. Brian's got a discount code for just about everything you need to run your business smarter and save serious money. Use promo code Brian's10 with our trusted partners like LeanScaper, CycleCPA, iotsotunes, Cujo Equipment, Defender, Proven Locks, Ballard Industries, and many more. Check the podcast description for the full list of partners and links and use Brian's 10 to start saving today.

[B]

You're now listening to the Fullerton Unfiltered podcast. Straightforward, no nonsense business advice, completely on unfiltered. Grow your business, grow your life. Now here's your host, Brian Fullerton. All right, guys, welcome to another episode of the Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast. It is our. Our. It's the Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast. How about that for an intro? Today, sitting in the basement, very, very cold basement. I'm literally shaking. Actually just now I just said that

[C]

I am so cold.

[B]

What happened?

[C]

What did you do? Why is it so cold in here?

[B]

Well, I turned the heat off downstairs. Don't do that. Well, because it's summertime, I thought the air conditioning should only be on. So upstairs the air turned on for the main level and the up upstairs, you know, the main, you know, second floor. And, and I saw the downstairs, the heat was on. So I'm like, well, the reason the upstairs has got the air on is because the heat rises from the basement. So I turned the heat off in the basement. Now it's 64 degrees and it feels like the days we ran out of propane in the camper.

[C]

It's so cold down here. I don't think the heat needs to be on. I think you need to turn the air down upstairs. Cold air sinks, hot air rises. So all the cold air is coming down from.

[B]

That's not. Well, listen, I don't know. Okay, if I have hot downstairs and it rises, cold air does it. So there's a tornado in my Sounds like staircase. I've seen the movie Twister 2 and Twister, the original OG Twister and Twister 3 is going to be on our staircase, apparently because there's a void where the hot and the cold air meet. Like the, the two different oceans, you know, me and there's like a rip current.

[C]

Twitter.

[B]

It feels like in our. Apparently in our staircase, our stairwell. But dude, this is a throwback to like waking up with no heat in the camper.

[C]

You're like bone cold, dude.

[B]

Like you, you stick your big toe out as you do at 10:00 in the morning.

[C]

At 10:00 in the morning,

[B]

Been there, done that, talked about that conversation. And dude, if you've never woken up to a camper being 44 degrees and

[C]

44 degrees, that's generous.

[B]

It never got really lower than that. It was like 44, 41, I remember seeing a couple times. But that's usually because the heat, if it does run out, you know, because you make dinner at 9, 10pm in the camper. At least we do. And back in the day. And then so, you know, you got propane on the stove, but if the heat does run out, running the furnace at night, it would always be between, you know, midnight and 5:00am and I was always up at, you know, 6, 7:00 clock at the latest. And I'm like, oh, it's. It's pretty cool. And you stick your big toe on. You're like, it's cold.

[C]

You could literally see your breath at certain points.

[B]

Then you kind of get the crusties out of your eyes and you go, it's about 25 degrees in here now. The only reason we lived and made it through those nights is because we had the space heater on. One typically in the living room of the camper that we would sometimes leave going once in a while.

[C]

Not usually, though, because it's a big fire hazard.

[B]

But we definitely leave one on the.

[C]

In the bedroom that like turns on and off depending on the temperature.

[B]

Yeah, it had a heat setting, so when we got up to like 65, it was. It was usually pretty good.

[C]

But you could. On, like, towards the end, I could tell that we were running out of heat because I, in my sleep was hearing the space heater click on and off and I'm like, oh, we must not have any propane.

[B]

Heater's like active or it doesn't turn off. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fair. So it's a little throwback. We're in about a room the same size of the camper.

[C]

I think this room is bigger.

[B]

Seriously, like, this is a wider. For sure. That's the bedroom and this was the living room at a kitchen island.

[C]

And that's.

[B]

That's pretty much it.

[C]

Yeah. For an entire year. For an entire year with children.

[B]

We did it, though. Why did we. How did we make it? Why did we make. Why did we make it? Other people. Why do we tell other people not to do it?

[C]

The thing is, I'd still do it again. That is a different thing again in a different way.

[B]

What with the boat.

[C]

The boat?

[B]

Yeah, we'll do a boat life. We'll do a. God could you imagine like a camper on the ocean and if you run out of heat or water or fuel.

[C]

For you, those of you who don't know what we're talking about, we have it on our dream board to do the great loop with our kids. When the youngest one is like, yeah,

[B]

talk a little bit louder. Oh, your mic's a little bit quieter when the kids are seven.

[C]

Yeah. I think the youngest is like five. Seven, Six.

[B]

Seven.

[C]

I wasn't gonna say six.

[B]

That's funny. Some kids just were like these boomers

[C]

you go on the boat for. Well, so like they, they try it. Usually you try and time it so that you're not in the cold weather.

[B]

No, I know. That's all fine. I'm not worried about the temperature of the weather. I'm worried about hitting something. Hitting a sandbar, actually. Funny story. I talked about the great loop to Shane Cunningham. That was at the Element tour last week.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And he brought his boat with him from Baltimore or wherever he's stationed two hours west to the tour. Because like he launched on the.

[C]

On the boat.

[B]

He. No, no, no, no, no. He towed the boat. Oh, super miscommunication there. Towed the boat.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

Then I think he launched like at the Potomac or he was going like 30 minutes up the road, like Ocean City or Atlantic City. I don't know what, whatever he was doing. And I was going on a boat ride for like a four day. Yeah, he was going on a four day, I think maybe down to Atlantic City. Maybe that's what it was. But he's like, there's no reason to go three hours back. I just brought the boat. And so we had like everybody's cars in the parking lot and it was like F250. F350. F250 work truck, state truck, Shane boat, beautiful F250 or whatever he has. And a. In a really nice looking boat. I don't know the name of it. But funny story, I told him about the great loop and he said he had never heard of it. And I'm like, dude, you're a boat guy. Like, this is crazy. And so he texted me this morning. He goes, my whole feed is nothing but great loop stuff. And he goes, he said, he said, hashtag listening. Because like all of our devices are clearly obviously.

[C]

Oh, for sure.

[B]

Invasive and listening. So that was kind of funny. But. Well, we're going to talk a little bit, recap last couple of days. And then I wanted to share about a topic that I have been sharing with a couple of folks. Along the way. And it's probably three or four people that I've suggested this to about a suggestion for date night. And for all of you couples out there, dating, engaged, married, married with kids, married 25 years, whatever. I wanted to share a topic that I saw on a reel that I thought was really insightful. And this also was something that we practiced. And I feel like we had the best date night we've ever had.

[C]

Was truly such a good date night. It was such a good. Like, the conversation was great and the food was so good. It was a spot we had never tried before. Like, it was just. It was a good all around.

[B]

It was our best date night, dare I say. I mean, maybe ever, but in five or ten years for sure.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean, literally like that good. How good could it be? Like, it was actually really good.

[C]

Oh, man, now I'm hungry.

[B]

We should go back. I don't know if I get that in the budget.

[C]

No, that was like a once a quarter.

[B]

Well, I know, and I wanted to share that because, look, it's the spring rush. We're all busy. I've been out of town four days in a row Wednesday through basically Saturday. So taxing. And the reason we did this date night the week before was because I knew last week was going to be busy. Then we have this week here, then the next week we've got four days of element webinars Tuesday through Friday on efficiency week, which is going to be. Which is going to be really cool. Wednesday, I think, is my birthday. I have coast pay coming up on Wednesday to spend day. Ironically, they're coming up in a camper. They're doing their coast to coast tour and they're interviewing like 25 different folks and partners and folks that use coast pay. And so I'm spending literally all day

[C]

with staying here in the camper with our hookups or I'm not sure they can.

[B]

We've got 240 and we've got water. So it's up to them. That's a good question. I don't know, but they rent a camper and they're. They got the whole thing wrapped and they've got half a dozen partners in their world and totally like one silo over. I don't. I don't know anybody that's really. Who's. I think like Verizon Connect or something like that. Anyway, they got a whole network of folks they're coming over to shoot. Content. Professional videographer. It'll be cool. So like the day of my birthday, it's Nine hours with coast. Oh hey, by the way, I gotta sneak out for an hour and a half. Do a webinar. Come on back. Some people are like, oh, you know, I can't do this because it's my kid's birthday and he's turning 1 years old. I'm like, dude, do your kid's birthday two days later. Like go to the meeting, go to the conference, take your wife out. Like, like would you have to exactly celebrate the kid's birthday the minute he like you know, came out of mama, you know, the same time last year? Nope. His birthday is exactly at 2 o' clock in the morning. You know, that's when we got to celebrate his birthday. I'm like, it's the idea of the birthday. All right.

[C]

And we disagree.

[B]

We totally disagree. And you're. And that's why we go to marriage conferences like together in the okay, so it might be a little too late to get it taken out to together and trade because I think that ship is pretty much sailed as hotels locked down or are they done? They're probably any minute if not already. I know our final council.

[C]

We don't have our meeting until I think Thursday.

[B]

Thursday, 8:30. I know our final counts do. We're probably going to shut that all down. So last chance I guess to get your together in the trades tickets in Arizona. And so we can't wait to see everybody there. What I wanted to do. So go back to coast. Go back to the Camper Life. They're coming on over. We knew it was going to be busy. I've been on tour. I'm like, hey, we're going to do date night. We try to do date night generally speaking. Talk a little bit more. I feel like I'm hogging the mic a little bit here. But date night something that we do we learn it or do we pick scoop it up from Kalphos or somebody a long time ago.

[C]

I don't. We had been doing date nights for a long time but not as we got when we had kids. We decided we had to put something on the calendar.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Weekly, same time every week.

[B]

When you're dinks it's not like you're really.

[C]

Because we heard a fact from the first together in the traits. The author, I can't think of his name and it was like how much time you actually need to.

[B]

20 hours. 20 hours a week of FaceTime was his hyp theory.

[C]

Or if you're seeing like his clients and stuff. It's like a minimum required time to have a functioning Relationship, you have to have FaceTime. I guess. I don't know.

[B]

It was 20 hours.

[C]

20 hours, which is which if you add up. Like, if you have both people in the home are working, you have kids, kids, activities, like, you really. If you actually sit down and look at your calendar and how many activities hours a week, you actually get together with just your spouse. Like, it's insane.

[B]

I would. I would venture to say it's probably single digits for every single person listening to the show. Especially if you have kids.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean, for real, like, face to face.

[C]

Our kids aren't even in activities. And just the chaos of just, like, running around after them is like, I.

[B]

I'm done with work. I get home from work and, you know, it's dinner, baths, bed, you know, and that's, you know, your sacred window from 6:00 o' clock to 8:30, 9:00pM and it's like. So if that's the case, you know, we decided to be a little bit more intentional with date nights.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And I know Keith Kalfuss does.

[C]

I think he's got like, how many straight.

[B]

We saw a post, it was like 520, whatever. Consecutive date nights once per week on Tuesdays for, I guess that's about a year.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I'm sorry, a decade.

[C]

Gosh, that's crazy.

[B]

That's incredible.

[C]

That is so cool.

[B]

So when we talk on the podcast, business and this and life and finances and money and scaling and business, like, that's fine. That's cool. And there's always a time and a place. But we're very, especially Liz and I, like, we're. Maybe we don't show it as best as we could, but we're very, like, focused on our relationship. We'd love to, you know, stay married forever. We want to be a great example for our kids. We want to be a great example for ourselves. Like, we want to make sure that we stay married together forever. Have we. Have we fallen short of the glory? Yes. Have we said things to each other that we regret? I know I have. How about you, Liz?

[C]

No.

[B]

No. All right, well, we'll take this woman a Sunday morning here. We've. We've said things. Right or wrong. We've. We've all done stuff. Okay. We've all said stuff. Done stuff. But my biggest thing is we both just don't quit on the same day. Somebody, if somebody was like, hey, what marriage advice you have? Well, our joke is always, yeah, we

[C]

just don't quit on the same day.

[B]

Well, no, that's not our Joke.

[C]

Oh, nothing counts.

[B]

Between like, no, that's her kids. What then when don't have an argument with.

[C]

Oh, with your clothes on.

[B]

Your clothes on.

[C]

Somebody wrote. I, I, I can picture the couple that wrote it for gosh. What was it something to do with their wedding? We had like an activity or maybe a jar. Did they just put it in the card? Maybe, maybe they put marriage. I think it was. They put marriage advice in the wedding card. And it was, you'll be basically, you'll be fine as long as you guys just never argue with your clothes on. And so, like, we joked about this for years. Like, it was like a couple years until 1.5 years. We were having a really heated argument. We separated in the room. Not like, like separated marriage rise. But like, like, needed five corners. Separated to our corners. And Brian comes back to like. And I'm thinking, like, we're gonna resume this argument. I turn around and he's butt naked. And the argument ended right there.

[B]

And you're like, what are you doing?

[C]

I was just so taken back. And I've also heard that, like, you should hold hands too. Like, so, like, maybe just take your clothes off and see where you get.

[B]

I'm still trying to enact the. If we're gonna have a knockout drag out and we reconcile and we need to reconcile, kick Satan in the teeth and make love that night too. But anyway, I'm not totally getting a lot of buy in on that one just yet. I get the girls heal differently. I'm like, oh, okay, sure they do. Okay, cool. So we're still trying to kick Satan in the teeth. Liz, you need Jesus. We all need Jesus. So, okay, so here's the deal.

[C]

Where is this podcast?

[B]

Well, we have got advice apparently for everybody in marriage. We got it all figured out. We got pre mar, we got dink advice, we've got kid advice. We've got Trying to keep it all together post kid marital advice. Well, here's the thing. I saw real. How about that for a segment? I saw a real. And it was go on a date night. Here's the million dollar. You know, you guys have been waiting 13 and a half minutes for this one. Next date night, here's my challenge to you and I. And I would love to have you guys shoot me a dm, shoot me an email, shoot me a text. I don't know, I don't care. Let me know if you guys actually do this and let me know how it goes. And if it goes bad, don't tell me. But if it goes great Let me know. It was a reel that I saw on Instagram and I live on ig and it said go on a date with your wife or your spouse or your significant other and don't talk logistics. Don't talk kids and don't talk current events and see what you guys talk about. Don't talk logistics, don't talk kids and don't talk current events. Because if you can extrapolate this out, when we do date night, we normally do it on a Thursday, just when we have child care. My mom comes on over and we get a window from what do you think? Like 4 to 7:30 at the most. At the most?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Sometimes it goes to 8:30 but we try not to cuz we got to get back and help with bedtime bath time and all that. But I don't know if you guys can relate. And Liz, I'd love to hear your thoughts. But when we go on date nights, ironically enough, go figure, what do we only talk about?

[C]

So we used to only talk about the kids typically or things that were going on with the business because it was the first time that week that we got FaceTime together. And so a really great thing that we did we need to get back to prior to having Beckham was I actually put a block on Brian's Thursday schedule, which is typically his office day, for us to sit down and just debrief. And so then when we would take our date nights, it kind of took out all of that extra catching up that needed to get done for the family to function. Because it's not like our date nights shouldn't be like our meetings. Like stop treating your date night like you're meeting logistics.

[B]

We would exclusively talk, maybe kids then logistics.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

And we'd sync up calendars.

[C]

Yep. And it wasn't like that's not a date. It's not a date.

[B]

It'd be one of those fun things like Google defines dating as. I wonder if what that does come up with. And that's what it was. And so a little over a year, probably a year ago, you were not showing up on my calendar like as a meeting, you know, necessarily. We came back off the leanscaper March intensive the same time last year in the spring. And Mark Bradley said, look, I'm going to lay this all out. People like, I need to document everything. How do I do it? He goes, the people that are going to be here the same time next year, the ones that do, the ones that don't are the ones that can commit to an hour a week actually building out their SOPs. And so I picked Tuesday morning like 10am to write out whatever happened that day, that week and just did sops as we went. And that's the SOP bundle. And I'm telling you, it's not the thousand dollars that it costs that it saves you, it's the dude, hundreds of hours of building this stuff and we actually built at the Element Granum workshop in Virginia a couple of sops for sales and a couple scripts and it was great. But again, like it's also the I don't know what to ask chat, I don't know what to prompt it, I don't know how to make it battle tested or refined. Right. And that's when Gamble was like, dude, all your stuff is actually relatable and practical to element to attentive to the field. Like we're doing the thing like submission forms coming off of a website. So it's like you can just go to chat and build sops, no doubt about it, or go into lana and build SOPs. But it's not like they're battle tested or refined or have screen shares and screen grabs for your assistant to actually know what the hell is going on. So Bradley throws out this challenge a little over a year ago and I said, bet, like I'm going to do the one thing that, you know, most people aren't going to do. They're not going to commit to writing everything down over the next year. And I'm not saying I did like an A plus job. I probably did a B minus, you know, at everything. But a B minus or an 80%,

[C]

I'd say it's pretty solid.

[B]

Yeah, it's pretty solid. Like I've tried to document every damn thing that we've done to date and then I'm refining and rebuilding as we now go through a second year of it. Right. So everything that we've built, we're fixing, establishing, cleaning up, etc. Etc. Etc. Well, that's all we ever do is talk logistics. And so I was like, well, the same time last year, Liz doesn't know what's going on in the business necessarily dayto day. So on Thursdays at 11 days. Yeah, it was Thursdays at 11 right before lunch.

[C]

Because then we could do lunch together too.

[B]

Yes. And, and not have it bleed into the day.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And this is an important conversation, guys. I'm, I'm, there's, there's some really good strong suggestions and tips here, but I, I was like, look, I gotta get these SOPs and what we do documented and out of my brain. I'm gonna do that Tuesdays, Thursdays. I need to catch up with Liz and let her know what's going on with a bit. We just need more FaceTime together. Especially as we're growing. There's people that Liz hadn't met that were on the team for weeks, months and years. There's still people on the team that you haven't met.

[C]

I literally just met Gavin who's been working at it for us for like two years.

[B]

You've never met Phil.

[C]

I've yet to meet Phil.

[B]

Right. Who's running a, you know, $200,000 book of business for us.

[C]

Weird. Like that's so weird. I went from being like not involved in the business at all obviously when we first got together. Because it was. You had started it before you met me.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

To that was all we did together was talk about the business, talk about the business. And not that I ever worked in the field, but like I was a huge part of it.

[B]

I felt like every single thing was ran through you to now.

[C]

Like I'm still in a law like a lot of the big decisions. But to sit down and write like an SOP for a daily function inside the business on a crew member's like day to day. I have no idea.

[B]

And I found that to be okay. But also you wanted to learn more, know more. You were kind of a little fomo, a little left out.

[C]

I think that there for me personally in our relationship. Relationship and how I want it to function. And I think any. And this could apply to anybody who's in a relationship with like it's like such a weird term. Like a high valued man who has a lot going on in his life. There has to be a certain buy in with his spouse where you can't just be completely removed from stuff because you operate at such a high level that for me to keep up with you personally, I have to be reading the same books that you are in understanding to a certain degree of what's happening in our business, what's happening to you and what's happening. Because it affects every like aspect of our life.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And I'm not going to just be like left behind. I'm not going to be left behind. I don't need to know everything, but I do need to know some things just for my personal. I just feel like it's good for our relationship.

[B]

And it's true. Like another conversation for another time. But people growing at different levels is fine. But when somebody's growing and Somebody's not growing.

[C]

You're gonna drift apart. Like, you just can't. You're not equally yoked anymore. And you can say that in a religious standpoint, but you can also say that in a business and life and momentum standpoint. I'm not gonna be left behind in the dust.

[B]

Like if I read buyback your time and I'm like, hey, you need, like we need to stop doing tasks that are below our buyback rate where I can focus on being an owner CEO. And then I, I don't tell that to you or I do tell it to you. And then you are scrubbing toilets when we can hire a cleaning person for 20, 20 an hour. And you should be a mom and, or supporting me to let me go do 100 to $500 an hour tasks. We're not on the same wavelength.

[C]

Right.

[B]

And you're like, I would. And if somebody said in hyp, in a hypothetical, you know, we don't come from much, then we, we're too highbrow to, well, we're high brow now to have somebody cleaning our toilets. I disagree. You're unequally yolked. You're. Now you're fighting over how you guys spend your money. And it's not like you are or aren't better than it, whatever it is, that task, let's say laundry or cleaning the house or mowing the lawn. But now you create strife because you're not on the same sheet of music and you're, you're, you're just going to do it. Implode.

[C]

You guys don't have the same like, overarching idea of what things are going to look like if you aren't operating off of the same sheet of music.

[B]

Like what we're trying to accomplish here.

[C]

Yeah. So it's hard to come together with a game plan or like dream together or, or do anything if you aren't operating off of the same, like, mission. Mission. Like, it's hard to have the same mission without the same understanding of what

[B]

that even means and how you're gonna get there.

[C]

Yeah. So I'm not saying, like, I need to be. It used to be a really big pride for me. Like, I remember sitting down with Mark Bradley and going through our business, mapping everything out and realizing I wasn't on the org chart. And I looked at him and I go, oh my God, I'm not even on here. And he looked at me and said, why do you have to be like, why do you feel like you need to be? And for me, personally, with the way that I operate with our kids and homeschooling and the way I intend to see myself growing as a mom. Like, that isn't my goal. My goal isn't right now in this phase of life to be in the business, on the org chart. I don't need to be. But it felt weird, ego wise to not be on there for a minute. But I've also realized I do need to have an idea of what's going on. So I'm not on the org chart, but I'm.

[B]

But that's what we decided together. Yeah, you had. That's exactly right. That's exactly it. Like, and this was tough because we were growing differently in business, in life, and in a different season. And I'm like, liz, you can't be CEO, mom and mom. Like, it's one or the other.

[C]

Not to the degree that I want to.

[B]

Sure.

[C]

With the upbringing of our children.

[B]

And it just wasn't. It's just not. It's illogical. It's not feasible. And this wasn't like a knockdown drag out. This was a very important discussion.

[C]

Like, well, no, I had like a whole. I don't know what to call it. Like, midlife crisis. It wasn't a midlife crisis. It was like a mom life crisis. Right. Where I'm trying to figure out, like, who am I? What are my goals? Who do I want to grow in to be? What do I want our kids day to day to look like? What like. And why does any of this matter? And I. It was a really hard thing for me because I felt like I didn't fit in.

[B]

You didn't. It was really hard.

[C]

I still don't feel like I.

[B]

You're not on the org chart, dude.

[C]

I don't fit in with, like, anywhere. Like, I'm not. Not a working mom, but I'm also not a working mom, but I'm not. Do you know what I mean? Like, it's a. What you're saying, spot to be in.

[B]

So, like, especially coming from somebody who. You And I grinded YouTube for five to seven years together, every day, every thought. You edited a couple videos way back. You gave ideas. All the time we were doing things,

[C]

I was in the comment section on every single video exclusively answering comments.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. Like, we did it a lot together. And to denou. To not be in anything is weird, but it's. We had to have like, this conversation. And the way that we found for me to best stay in the business was to have these meetings together.

[B]

And, well, we We. We struggled for a long time.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Like. Like pregnancy.

[C]

All of a sudden it felt like it was just your thing. And like, I've been kicked out.

[B]

It was. And that's. That's. I don't know we're gonna go this heavy on it, but.

[C]

Well, I. Yeah, this isn't where I intended to go with it. But also, keeping our kids offline became really difficult to do. And like, yes, our business is in. Our life up until that point was all online. So I went completely private, basically.

[B]

And we. We didn't have. We don't have any notes on this. This is heavy. This is definitely an evolution of our life the last four or five years. And I know some of you guys listening in, you know, have kids, don't have kids. You know, spouse, wife, moms. This is what happens. And this is all stuff that's new for us. It's a new season of our. Of our life and our existence. So you can see the devolvement for Liz's role, the increased demand for what I'm trying to do. And then I build a team of people that are taking Liz's jobs and roles. And this is like it, dude. Sparks flew. Sparks flew, tensions flew, tears were cried. Angriness was shown from you and other. And myself and different things. We just didn't know how to gel and. Because nobody gave us a roadmap. And when we did sit down with Mark, Mark's like, very, you know, pragmatic, very logical. And, you know, the ead, you know, automate, eliminate, delegate, prioritize. He's like, liz, where. Where do you want to be and what. What do you need to be? And then if. If Brian has this team of people, what data do you want him to share with you? What do you not want to share? And then there's times, and maybe you guys have heard this before, where we're talking and you're like, just the details, man. Just the.

[C]

I just need. There's times where, like, I don't need to know every. Because my brain can't honestly fit anymore sometimes depending on where we're at. And I'm just like high level. Like, how important is this? What is it affecting? Okay, cool. Yes. No, like, whatever. But what this was turning into, because I. I was just gone from the business basically, was when we did have those date nights that were rarer, when we were, you know, we've got. We have.

[B]

We did not do every three kids, guaranteed. We were doing under. Yeah, we were doing date night once a month at a minimum.

[C]

It turned into, like a debrief session, though, where all we were talking about was logistics. All we were talking about was the kids, let alone current events. Like, we didn't even make it. There was not enough time. And so putting the meeting on the schedule of, okay, once a week, nothing wrong.

[B]

That's not connecting, though.

[C]

That's not connecting. That's. That is just survivability. Like, you're just maintaining, maintaining. Like, like you're not growing deeper in your relationship. You're not growing together as people. You're not even maintaining your relationship. So time, that's just life maintenance.

[B]

So time out. How many people listening in feel that way with their spouse? I don't know you anymore. I don't even feel connection. I don't even know if I love you anymore. Dude, you've changed. I've changed. They can't keep up. They're outpacing me. Like, if you guys are getting start. You know, start at 21 and you

[C]

don't think this is real, people start to grow apart.

[B]

This is. Dude, it's the mid. It's the. It's the 30s drift. It's the Brad and Tammy talked about. And it's not even so much you're drifting, which is one half of the equation. The other half is you're not being intentional of coming and staying together. And maintaining is not growing. Duh. But, like, when you're just having these maintaining dates, you're not growing. You're not finding any charming, loving, connected conversationalness together. And that's what they kind of felt like. They were like, you know, our board of directors meeting, we called it on Sunday, Sunday planning, kind of. That we did a long time ago, for a long time, kind of morphed into these Thursday date nights. And we had recognized that date nights were just logistic sinks. But that's why the Thursday 11am calendar hold for you.

[C]

I would say it's almost.

[B]

You had to show up on my

[C]

calendar as the actual date night. Because your date night is pointless if you aren't able to talk. Like, because you. You do have to talk about these things, right? Like, these things have to get talked about. The. The details have to be ironed out of who's gonna, you know, take the kid to the doctor's appointment this week. Like, these things have to be talked

[B]

about or what has happened this week

[C]

or whatever, or whatever that is, but these things have to get discussed. So the meeting with each other is almost as important, if not more important than the actual date night, because that's gonna happen one way or the other. It's whether or not it's gonna take over your date night. Right.

[B]

For sure. And imagine this like. And then for what if somebody told you there's a right and a wrong way to have date night? I mean, there is, but that's what I'm saying. But you didn't know any better because you don't know what you don't know.

[C]

You're just told you have a date

[B]

night, three hours together, go get shitty food.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

You know what I mean? Seriously, like go to, go to Chili's, go to Applebee's. You don't have to get food, by the way. We heard that a long time ago. It doesn't mean you have to go to movies. Movies aren't date nights because. Well, that's what I was just gonna say. Like I did hear. I don't know if it was Love and marriage or one of the early Love and respect or Love and respect or what's the other that we. Anyway, some of the early marriage books that we read, you know, newlyweds, everybody reads them. Love and Respect and a couple other ones. They were like, movies aren't necessarily a good date night opportunity or even engaging engagement or dating, courting, Dating, date night. Because you don't, you don't build any connection there. No, you go watch a movie, eat popcorn. Yeah. We date nighting for three hours, sit

[C]

next to each other.

[B]

Yeah. That's not dating. Like, that's not getting invested into each other. That's not having a romantic, engaging conversation for two, three hours. So quick tip. If you guys are new or younger dating, you know that mess, like you can just go on a walk. Shocker. Like you can go ride bikes, you know, you can do something physical like go fishing. Go. Yeah, I mean, whatever's your thing. It doesn't have to.

[C]

I used to love when we were early into dating, going on like a little mini day road trip with you because we were stuck in a car together and all we could do is talk.

[B]

We went to local landmarks. I took Liz the Sault Ste. Marie, five and a half hours north. Back then, you know, Stefano Narducci was probably 7 years old. That's a joke right there because he probably won. He's probably in fifth grade. He's probably in kindergarten. That's funny right there because he's in Sault Ste. Marie. But we would do that. We would go to Niagara Falls. We would do these four hour, six hour car road trips there and back all around the country and Just get time together. And that's the thing about dating. It's a quantified time. And why do you find this person, love this person, fall in love with this person is because you spent so much time together. And it goes full circle right to today. How much time are you getting with each other? And even if you say, oh, we did date night for three hours, like, bro, you synced up calendars for three hours. And so the Tuesday SOP thing was huge for me. I had to get the business out of my brain. But then part of that conversation was four months prior. We're at Mark Bradley's house. One in a billion chance. What an incredible miracle opportunity. We draw out our org chart. We draw out what we're trying to do in life. We didn't us in the all men's. We didn't, we didn't know how to like build for the future. 12 months with an org chart. And to like begin with the end in mind. You could say that we all did, but. But we're all hand to mouth.

[C]

Yeah. The actual doing of it. Like we, we never.

[B]

No. Nobody dumped out our business on, on our brain. And Mark, of course, asked very pointed, is it poignant or pointed? Pointed, but you know, poig. You know, poignant. I always wonder that word. Poignant.

[C]

Poignant.

[B]

Pointed. But is it poignant?

[C]

I don't know.

[B]

Point. Not pointed at you, like poignant. T O I G N a N t pointed. I don't know, but I don't know how to say that word. Pointed conversations. And Mark doesn't, you know, like a good coach doesn't let you off with, I don't know. He's like, no, no, no, let's. Let's talk this through. So I knew that we needed to do a Tuesday SOP dump. We needed to do a Thursday calendar sync because you, you wanted to know certain things about the business, just a high level. And that could be, hey, things are good. Hey, things aren't. And so again, we calendar synced, you know, if you will, on Thursday, which is what worked for us at 11am and that at the time then freed up Thursday night. But we still weren't super effective, you know, because we'd still talk about the kids and we talk about current events. And I ran this and I ran that. And again, we don't run in our family. So it was all irrelevant conversation. You know, we don't. My favorites are the car sticker, the 0.0. I don't run. It's like, I don't care about your 26.2, your 10k, your 5.3. Anyway, bad joke. So I saw real a couple of weeks ago and again, I probably would have loved to spend more time on this, but my point is don't talk kids, don't talk calendar and don't talk current events. Now I guess if you don't have a debrief during the week because you don't have a Thursday at 11am meeting or an hour on the calendar with your wife, maybe if you have a two and a half hour dinner, date night, spend 30 minutes syncing up and then don't talk about those for the rest of the night and see how your day goes.

[C]

Talk about that in like the car on the way there and once. Okay, like once we leave this car pencils down. That kind of a thing. Or like. I know. So we have.

[B]

That's a good point.

[C]

My mom comes and sits with the kids on Tuesdays and Thursday morning so that I'm able to do like just functional stuff. And then also like the stuff with Brian, like I am Today a podcast. And if we didn't have that and say both of you are working, like take your lunch hour and instead of, you know, sitting in the break room with your co workers or something like FaceTime your husband, FaceTime your wife or whatever, instead of, you know, jerking off in the Jimmy John's parking lot with the crew, go sit in your truck and have a conversation with your wife.

[B]

I was like, where's that going?

[C]

I know, I didn't mean to say it actually. I'm not editing that out, whatever, but you know what I mean, Get a little bit creative. Or if you have older kids that aren't waking up throughout the night, you know, like maybe there is something to be said for waking up before the kids and having coffee with your spouse. Like, I think as many times as you can sit down and have a meal with your spouse is like so important, just in general. So anyways, get a little creative. But whatever you have to do to make that date night like an actual

[B]

date night, well then somebody would say, right, so let's just wrap it up with this. That would beg the question, well, what do you talk about at date night?

[C]

What did we talk about, Brian?

[B]

I don't even know. That's the best part. All we did Tell me if I'm wrong on my salvation. All we did was act retarded and laugh.

[C]

Which is us. Like, that is which is us. I think that's why it felt so good, is because we felt like Us, we just. If there's nothing that Brian and I are. There's. Brian and I are good at some things in life, but not a lot of things. But one thing that we are very good at is being goobs with each other. Like, we are so silly and so, like, just. We're just goofy. Like, some of our most fun memories are playing Marco Polo through the mall like idiots. Like, just stupid. We're just dumb. But we have a good time always. Like, if we can just.

[B]

So you guys ever see divorce papers? She does love me.

[C]

That was part of the reason why I married Brian is because I was always laughing with him. I. He can take the pressure off and make me laugh like nobody else can. And that's what date night felt like. Like, I literally got. I actually. This is gonna make me tear up because I vividly remember going on our coffee interview and getting home. And even that was like, if you guys don't know our story, we. We didn't get. Go on a first date. We went to go get coffee to see if we were aligned on life

[B]

goals and stuff, which, if I was aligned with. If you were.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah. But I had a list of questions.

[C]

That was how kind of not serious that was. But just, we. We shut down a Starbucks. We were there so long because it was such a good conversation, and we were having so much fun just talking about life and, like, what we wanted. And I got home from that, and my stepmom was waiting up for me. And I had said, I think I met my husband. Like, I think I'm gonna marry this guy. And it was just so good. It was so. I remember saying it was so good. I got home, and your mom was watching the kids, and I looked at her, and I was like, tonight was so good. Like, it was that same, like, so good feeling. And.

[B]

Yeah, so I'm not the reason. You guys are all very smart out there listening in, and you're always like, fullerton, give me the tip, give me the secret, give me the thought, give me the takeaway. I'm not going to give you a takeaway, because I can't make you guys have a romantic date night. You guys have to figure out, what do you talk about? And, you know, it's just like, you have to let your kids be bored to let them start being creative.

[C]

That's exactly this. Yes.

[B]

Right?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

When people like. Like, Emmy came up to me, I don't know, a week or two ago, she's like, I'm bored. I don't want to do something like, well, you'll. You'll figure something out.

[C]

You got this.

[B]

I wasn't, I wasn't.

[C]

Here's this activity. Yeah.

[B]

As we say, we're not here to be the entertainment monkey. No, like, go play self play in La La Land with your toys, your dolls, your Barbies outside. Go. Go ride your bike. Like, kids have to be bored to engage their creativity. Now think about that. Sincerely, like, I would encourage you guys the same thing. The reason this is probably the only podcast I've never done with the takeaway I called Action right is I don't know what that looks like for you guys. I know for us, all we did is roast each other and laugh. We have nicknames for each other. We modified some of those. And we would just laugh or like, and. And we went to Quick note. Go somewhere new.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, change it up, bro. Like that. That's one thing. I can give you a little bit of a logistical thing. I think it was good for us. We. We have our same half dozen, you know, spots, and we are kind of like geographically bound because we're. There's a small town that we live in and everything else is about 20 minutes away. When you have drive time, you eat a third of your drive time or your date night with drive time. So that's not going to happen. So we stay local. If you stay local, there's only a half dozen decent restaurants. And so we went to a new place. We did splurge.

[C]

It was a splurge. It was so worth it, though. Oh, my gosh, my mouth is watering. It was so good.

[B]

It was. It was literally a new little steakhouse joint. Fantastic food. I got the bill and I'm like, am I buying for the restaurant tonight? And I'm totally serious because there's a, like a nicer steakhouse. Well, about the same level. And I know what the average tab is there. You're gonna. You're gonna burn, you know, 250 bucks on a quality date night. And the all in. And I got this bill and I was like, dude, there's no way this is my check.

[C]

We both got dessert, our own desserts.

[B]

We got an appetizer, we got desserts.

[C]

We were gluttonous.

[B]

Honestly, it was. It was between the food and the fun. And I don't know if they're correlated or. I don't know, maybe. Maybe all the chemicals in both of our brains just aligned that night. And maybe we got lucky, but it was fantastic. But, you know, but again, it wasn't a business sync up. Meeting it wasn't a. Here's what the kids got going on, here's the ballet recital, and here's. The crew wants to do this. We're gonna get them in the golf or swimming like it was. Dude. And that stuff, there's an important part of that. Again, not to reiterate ourselves or repeat ourselves, but that stuff's important. But again, like, we just found that there was a more intriguing and fun and romantic conversation and fun time together by not talking about stuff that we always talk about. And, like, there's the profound message 40 minutes deep. You know what I mean? But. But there's a lot here. There's a lot on today's show that, like, we had to figure out.

[C]

Well, I think doing stuff like this, where you set parameters and. And actually concentrate on each other allows other things to come up. So, like, you know, dreaming together again. People are always like, how do you get these goals? Like, we hear a lot, we talk a lot about goals in our dream board and our vision board. And, like, how do you get your wife aligned with this stuff? Well, it's like, is there even room in there to talk about this kind of thing? Because you guys are so far behind, your relationship is so starved for connection that, like, how do you align on a. On a goal that's going to happen in five years?

[B]

That's a fantastic, you know, go, like, hey, we'll do a date night. And we never seem to, like, have a good date night or always fight or there's nothing to talk about because you are so anemic. Yeah, I heard somebody say that once. There's a pastor talking about picking up the Bible, and it's like, you're. You're anemic. You're spiritually anemic because you've had no good nutrition, like I saw in our garden.

[C]

This is weird, but in my raised beds, the water. The soil was so water phobic because it had been so long since it had been watered that the water was just running right through it. Instead of the dirt acting like a sponge and absorbing the water for the plants, I had to get rid of the soil because it was so water, it wouldn't absorb water.

[B]

Wow.

[C]

It gets to a point where, like, it's just not going to work.

[B]

Yeah. And. And, you know, hopefully none of this is fire alarms or fire bells for everybody, you know, listening in. This is. Dude, this is practical stuff. Like year seven to 10, they say is the hardest part of relationship. We're in, like, 13 or 12 or whatever the hell we're at now. It's not any easier. Just quick note, doesn't it, like, I

[C]

don't think it's gonna get easier.

[B]

I don't think it gets easier, bro. I think everybody just.

[C]

It.

[B]

Yeah. Like when we asked a couple peers like, hey, like, does it get easier with kids as they get older? They go, no, it's just different. They need you different ways. And they gave some analogies and we're like, oh, okay. So we're just kind of like, there

[C]

is no finish line.

[B]

We're always screwed, you know, but. But even then when they're, when they're 20, like clearly like their own, their own, their own little, you know, microcosm of society and they can, they can, you know, build. No, dude, like, people still call you. They still come back to you if you had a great relationship, hopefully. And it, it's just different now. And so anyway, I don't want to make this like grand point of. I think we already kind of made our point along the way. There's a lot here. Maybe, maybe share this episode with your spouse and say, hey, like, would you take a crack at this show? I think this might be a good one. And again, let me know, like your guys thoughts. And by the way, we don't have it all figured out. Send me something.

[C]

If you had yesterday morning.

[B]

Yeah, yesterday was a tough day. We've had tough days. We've, we've. Dude, we've had tough days. We've said things to each other. We've said, that's it. One of our things is we bunches don't quit on the same day. So I'm like, over my dead body. We've, and vice versa. We've been roommates. We've had roommate phases for days and weeks and longer than we'd like to admit. Sometimes where you're like, this sucks, you know, we've had and done a lot of it, haven't we?

[C]

We've got three kids, all two or less years apart and a business and

[B]

three businesses, a house.

[C]

It's a lot, dude.

[B]

Just, just getting laundry done is a logistical task.

[C]

I, I'm really good at getting the laundry washed and dried. After that though, it's not.

[B]

We say that all the time. I can wash it. You could dry it. We need a machine that can like fold it. I don't give. It's $10,000. They will finance it. Like, let's go.

[C]

There's a reason our laundry room has a door.

[B]

He just shut the door.

[C]

It's not my problem. I can't see it.

[B]

Oh, this was a good one for us. And I hope that real found value with. With what? Again, don't talk kids. Don't talk logistics. Don't talk current events. Doesn't mean that you can't talk. Those things just sync up before. Don't, don't let, like, listen, let that bleed into date night. I gave that suggestion to three different folks and they were all like, dude, these are high level people. They've all said, that was a great suggestion. I've never heard that before. That was great. And again, if you guys have something fun or cool or some cute quirk, I know we threw up on you on the half dozen things that, that we subscribe to, but if you have anything cool like that or a different thing or different place or different way of doing something, let us know. Because again, we found at a minimum, at a minimum to go back to that 20 hours a week thing. It was 15 to 20 hours a week to grow a relationship. And think about that. When you're dating, you're spending 20, 30 every. You're infatuated, constantly texting, good morning.

[C]

Text every. Like, all the things.

[B]

No, you hang up. No, you hang up. You know, I want to hear you breathe. Just leave the phone on.

[C]

We'll just, we'll sleep on the phone.

[B]

Just leave on the phone, sleep. We've all done it. You've all done it. But again, like, you know, now you're 10 years in, you've got three kids. Two kids. A kid. And it's just logistics, bro. It's just, it's just, you're just trying to be efficient, right? And one of my favorite lines that I shared from LAL last year from my speech was, your brain isn't hardwired for accuracy. It's hard. It's hardwired for efficiency. And so we're all these, like, efficient machines. And every podcast is how to be effective and productive and efficient. But, like, how's your marriage going? You know? Like, oh, I'm efficient at my marriage. I'm effective at my marriage. Like, what? Yeah, like, I want to deep.

[C]

So, like, inhuman.

[B]

That's what I'm saying. Like, I want a deep, connected, fun, romantic relationship. And I felt like we walked out of that night having that and it was.

[C]

I, like, I smiled, like, the whole night. Like, it felt like a date. Like, that's how a date should feel, right? Like, you should feel bubbly and, like, excited to be together and, like, maybe this is groundbreaking.

[B]

Maybe we got lucky. I don't know.

[C]

We'll see if the stars align again.

[B]

I felt like it was our best.

[C]

No, I feel like we have a lot of pressure.

[B]

Somebody comes out of us and go, that was gay. I didn't get anything out of it. My wife and I, we still fought. All right, well, if you got other issues, maybe you got to do some more digging and. And you got a cavity, you know what I mean? And you got to clean it out before you can cap it. You know, I. I say all that in Jess, but jokingly aside, tandem marriage, those are our people. We love them. They've been to trades for five out of the six plus years we've enrolled in their coaching and marriage coaching program. If you. In all sincerity, if you do have major struggles or issues, like, there's no pride in picking up the phone and calling somebody, I don't call it counseling because I think everybody's got issues and problems and nobody's any better than anybody else. But coaching. I'll take coaching any day. I think Liz made a pivot on that to me or. Or helped me connect the dots. I'm like, yeah, yeah, we could be open to some coaching. I'm like, yeah, well, it's just because you're the coaching guru, aren't you?

[C]

Everybody's got a coach for everything, right? Marriage. And my thing is, a lot of people are like, oh, I don't want to do marriage coaching or counseling or whatever like that. I don't want to.

[B]

Stigma.

[C]

There's a stigma behind it, but, like, looks weak if you think about it. Like, you have, like, checkups and stuff on your health before you need it. Like, you don't want to wait until your car breaks down to change the oil, Right? Like, it's better to have a little checkup. Just do a little.

[B]

Ask your spouse, hey, would you be open to some coaching? Some. Some. Some. I want to work on a relationship. I want to get better together. Would you be opposed to that? And that might be your litmus right there, because we're going to have to

[C]

do some coaching together before the great

[B]

loop, because, yeah, we should definitely enroll when we do the great loop with Brad and Tammy, because everyone weekly, dude, you know. You know, we're gonna smoke a pier.

[C]

Yeah, it's gonna be.

[B]

I'm gonna look at you.

[C]

It's gonna be so fun. As long as you can't go anywhere all the way. I mean, it could sing, just not with us on it, preferably. It's gonna be fun.

[B]

We are going to absolutely grow together.

[C]

Not that this is happening anytime soon

[B]

we're gonna bump our way through.

[C]

I was listening to a podcast about it this morning. That's why it stuck in my brain.

[B]

I think we're gonna bump our channel, bowl our way through knocking off every

[C]

beer just for reference. Now that we're back on this topic. Neither of us. I grew up on, like, fishing boats and, like, speedboats where you'd, like, tie a tube to it up north, but that's it. Like, not these, like, giant things.

[B]

I've canoed a couple times.

[C]

This is gonna be so good.

[B]

Imagine our culture insurance agent. Hey, so we got a 54 foot pilot house boat. It's valued at 800,000. We need you to insure this.

[C]

800,000. Okay. Okay. You should get some family jets.

[B]

We're gonna have some conversations on that. That's another five to seven the ten year out bucket list one, so. All right, well, that's what I got for you guys. That's our massive, groundbreaking news. No kids, no logistics, and no current events. See what you talk about. Hopefully you guys have some fun. I don't know.

[C]

What did we talk about?

[B]

I know some of the things. I'm not repeating a single thing that we said at all because I'm. One, I'm not giving these guys any ideas. But two, it's not appropriate. Of course. We were in, like, this glass atrium, front area.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And I know our voices reflected.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

And that's why I'm like, dude, these people all probably think we're crazy or psychopaths or they think we're madly in love and we're like, dating or something. So I don't know. It was a fun time. It was a great, great dinner for us. And spring for the appetizer, spring for the dessert, spring for the glass of wine. Enjoy yourselves and make it. Make it a fun day night. Please do not go the Chili's or Applebee's. That's not. You're just. I mean, all you're gonna do is. No, all you're gonna do is be. Cheesecakes are good for sure, but all you're gonna do is be angry at the lack of service. And that's a current event. You know, you're just gonna be like, you know, do you know what I mean? Like, we just go everywhere because we're like hyper efficient people. We're like, God, I would serve this better. I would even lay the plate out differently. Look at this food. This looks quality. Our presentation could get better. Like, we don't stop and turn it off. And like, we're just robots going through the motions, you know what I mean? Like, instead of focusing that time and energy on the stupid restaurant, go somewhere where you get great service. You don't have to think about how

[C]

crappy or no service at all.

[B]

What does that mean?

[C]

Like, go for like the walk.

[B]

Oh, go for a walk.

[C]

Fishing or.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

But then you're like, you know, this would be a great river to fish on.

[C]

I think we should start riverboat touring business.

[B]

You know what we do? We need a canoe rental business. Nobody's got any canoes on this. That's the problem with all of us. We're all freaking psychopaths. You know, this water could be done better. You know what? I'm gonna go. I'm gonna start an allergy cleaning business. This water needs to be sprayed. Which reminds me, you know the Johnson hoa? I hate them. You know, you start bitching about the business. Oh, while I'm here. You know what? These guys didn't pay their invoice either. Oh, and. And Matt didn't show up today. You know what? I don't like Matt. It's what we do.

[C]

We're all.

[B]

Some of you guys would probably look at each other like ogres, like, because you've got nothing left. Like we like do. We did it.

[C]

I think you literally asked me what my favorite.

[B]

I was like, so what's your favorite color? Color.

[C]

Color these days? My favorite color changes.

[B]

So what's your favorite color these days? That's probably what I did say. So. All right, over and out, folks. We love you. We appreciate you together on the trades dot com. What else we got Liz Lal coming up soon. LA tickets will go out in a couple weeks. We're locking in a really, really great guest speaker lineup. I think you guys are going to be blown away.

[C]

Where are you next? Because you're on tour with Granum like tonight. No, I mean maybe.

[B]

I think I'm at leanscaper next week. I've got though if no efficiency week next week, coast thing on Wednesday, Leanscaper the following week, up north the following week. Element. I got two back to backs in July for tours. First week of July, second week or third week of July. That's outside of anything else that's going on mid July. I got the teenager tour that I'm filming till end of June. Then we've got two another tour in August. Dude, it's gonna be insane. We got snow week. We're gonna do with LMN in July. So that's gonna take whatever opposite week of the tour, dude. Like I'm not kidding, like for the next three months we're not gonna see each other for about 10 hours a week, dude.

[C]

It's gonna be, I'm gonna miss like the whole summer with the kids.

[B]

It's gonna be a lot, dude. Well, we're also trying to be very aggressive with our finances and try to pay down the mortgage, pay some stuff,

[C]

some debts off this house.

[B]

Yeah. Like we're plan here to, you know,

[C]

so we can go buy a boat.

[B]

Yeah, I mean no, to practice on.

[C]

We should probably buy like a pontoon first.

[B]

Like a used pontoon, like a 25 year old pontoon. Cuz we are going to hit some

[C]

and go over to the lake down the street and just practice.

[B]

Oh my God. It's all going to be, it's all coming. All right folks. And then in five, 10 years we'll be on the great loop and we might disappear for a year. So people like when is the podcast? Then I go, I don't know, maybe the, the year of the great loop. We'll find out. So it'll be a good 10 year run. All right, well that's what we got for everybody. We love you. Appreciate you. Any final thoughts you want to not but we're out.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Audi 5000.

[C]

I'm hungry.

[B]

Audi 8. 8. Call me. Audi 5000, huh?

[C]

What's for lunch?

[B]

I don't know. I don't know what's for dinner or for dessert. All right, over now guys. We love you. Appreciate you. Have a great day. See ya.

[C]

Bye.

[B]

Bye.

[A]

Want to see every new mower, skid, steer and chainsaw on the market? You could drive around to all the dealers or spend four incredible days at Equipex Exposition in Louisville this October. That's where all the dealers are in one place. 30 bucks if you register early equipexposition.com register now@equip exposition.com or use the link

[B]

in the podcast description.

[A]

Save 50% off your registration when you apply the code. Brian at checkout. We can't wait to see you in Louisville.

[D]

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 you to go on out there and crush it with your own business.

[B]

Fullerton Unfiltered Podcast thanks for listening and

[D]

we hope to see you on the next episode.

[A]

This has been a Brian Fullerton and Mr. Producer Production.