Working With Your Partner
SUMMARY
On this episode, we’re going to talk about working with your partner and how to make it work.
One of the important aspects of having a successful business and relationship with your partner is differentiating work time from quality time.
TRANSCRIPTION:Â WORKING TOGETHER WITH YOUR PARTNER
Kamala Chambers
On this episode, we’re going to be talking about how to build a successful business, and a successful relationship with your partner, working with your partner in a way that’s going to work for both of you.
Hey, Thriving Launchers, last week, we made a big announcement with what’s going on with Luis and I. If you haven’t listened to that, you should go back and check that out.
But today, I wanted to talk a little bit about working with your partner and how to make it work.
Some people want to start a business with their partners, or they have a business with their partners. We just wanted to talk a little bit about some of the pitfalls that we fall into and some of the things we found worked well for us.
Luis Congdon
This is a common question that people are asking us. They ask us a lot whenever we’re talking to somebody online, or we’re at seminars or different events. People asked us, “Is that hard living and working with your partner? Is it hard to manage a business with your partner? How do you keep the relationship, the romance, and the business all separate so they can all function harmoniously?”
People also ask us, “Do you guys get sick of being together all the time? That’s a lot of time. How do you guys do it? How do you manage your time together like that?”
Kamala Chambers
And, the answer is yes, it is hard. It is a challenging thing, but I wouldn’t change it for the world because it allows us to have the lifestyle that I want to live.
I love that we can travel for most of the year and not become location dependent. We can both be making money from wherever we are.
Positive Things With Working With Your Partner
Kamala Chambers
Let’s start with the positive, and then we can get to some of the challenges, but the thing that works the best for us is acknowledging the other person’s gifts and their skillsets.
Luis and I couldn’t be more complementary in our skillset. I am very task oriented and an excellent project manager. I dive in and get things done, and walk you through all the way from the very beginning to the very end, so things get done.
And Luis, he’s an idea generator. He comes up with bold and risky ideas I would never do on my own. He goes out, finds the people, and makes the connections to bring those ideas to the forefront. He’s a networker. He’s just a master.
You’ve seen our roster of fantastic guest that we have on the show. That’s because Luis goes out and he connects with people in a profound way, and he brings in those incredible guests.
Working With Your Partner And Complementing Each Other
Kamala Chambers
These skill sets, if you have a partner and maybe your skillsets aren’t the same as this, you might have a complementary skill set. I think always acknowledging your partner’s gift and what they bring to the table is important.
What do you think Luis is like one of the best things or one of the greatest things about working with your partner or a tip that you have?
Luis Congdon
Kamala highlighted some of the positive aspects of our relationship in a positive and beautiful way. In the same token, those are some of our challenges too because she’s much focused and processes steps, how to move from A, B, C, and D.
I, on the other hand, am very focused on creating ideas, connecting with people, having very broad general ideas and not a lot of facts sometimes or getting inspired and moving towards something.
Challenges When Working With Your Partner
Luis Congdon
And sometimes, we butt heads because she needs me to understand how to do something or be able to execute it or understand the processes involved. Sometimes, I need her to be able to dream with me or leave all that aside for a little bit and create visions.
In that, there’s a beautiful struggle and opportunity with that. The biggest one is learning how to communicate in such a way where both of our gifts come out, where both of our differences can be appreciated and not become things that are against each other. That was a common thing within our first few years of being together.
We consistently found frustration with each other because I’d come with all these big ideas and have not much of a clue how to execute them. I just came with a lot of inspiration, a lot of excitement or I was doing something, and I didn’t know what it was going to lead to. I was just excited and felt that enthusiasm was effusive, and like a gift. Yes, it was.
Kamala also had some excellent points. But for the first few years, we struggled with that because we were so different.
My tips when working with your partner is learning how to communicate and listen to your partner. That’s why I recommend books like Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg, Conscious Loving by Dr. Gay Hendricks. Those are two significant resources.
Kamala Chambers
I agree with you, Luis. Those are some struggles that we have and one the challenges I find is how do we make time for the relationship and not just the business. We’re always playing with that.
It’s not like we found the magic sauce and we’d put it on everything. We play with that every day. How can we make time for the relationship when we’ve been together all day long?
Helpful Things To Do When Working With Your Partner
Kamala Chambers
I think the things I found worked is to take space to have time apart. When we come together, we can have quality time and not just work time.
Kamala Chambers
Even though we are both wildly passionate what we do, we need to have another passion, which is the relationship. Those things help.
We have another episode that we did for you guys on Media Free Nights. That helps. It’s about taking a break from media and having that time together.
Find Ways To Know Each Other Again When Working With Your Partner
Kamala Chambers
Since we’ve been out at our little cabin in the woods, taking long walks together is a nice way to get to know each other again. That’s something that is so important.
We need to have ways to get to know each other, and not just think we’re dealing with the same person every single day because we are all dynamic human beings.
Luis Congdon
Well said, Kamala.
Kamala Chambers
I appreciated being here with you guys and sharing a little bit about how to create a successful business while you’re working with your partner. We hope this has helped.
Keep thriving everyone.
