Why Entrepreneurship Doesn’t Have to End Your Marriage with Larry and Sue Pruett

7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Welcome back to Seven Figure Leap. I am really excited today. I am, uh, talking to two people. I really admire an amazing couple that does business together, and we're gonna talk about how they help other couples do business together. And I think the most fun fact about them is it's the only client and it's the only podcast guest I've ever met in a post office.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: So. I'll, I'm sure that'll be part of their story and, and how our paths intersected as as we unpack the podcast. But Larry and Sue Pruitt from side-by-side business.com are my special guests. So Larry Sue,
I'm gonna let you guys sort of take it away here and give us a little context, a little bit of your backstory.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Thanks so much Justin. We are really excited to be here today and. Really when, when people ask us to share our story and how we got started, we really have to go all the way back to when we were engaged and, um, because our heart is marriage and, and we want to see people thrive in their marriage as well as their business.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And so when we were engaged, we [00:01:00] had several people who were very excited for us, but we also heard a good amount of. Well just wait until you're married. You'll be miserable then, you know.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Yes.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: That just didn't sit well with us and we heard it early in our marriage. You know, wait till you've been married for a year.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Wait till you've had kids, you know, whatever. People eventually gave up. Mm-hmm. I don't know, somewhere around the four year mark. But we were still happy and um, and we just got this very strong desire to see people be happy and thriving in their marriage. And we felt like God had really just laid it on our hearts to be a good example of what a godly marriage looks like.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And so that is something that we have. Always strived for, but then we have walked quite a path to get there. We started out kind of your typical Larry working a day job, me being at home with the kids and Yeah, and we've been married for 35 years now, so definitely everybody's given up on any sort of discouragement [00:02:00] there by, by now.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: But, um, but yeah, I was, I was just working a regular day job. We've got five children and really when we, after we had the fourth child at this point, um, I had the luxury of having a full-time job that was about 32 hours a week. I. I don't think that exists anymore.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: That's very part time.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Yeah, very part-time, and it didn't exist for me for very long. Uh, but during that small little season, I was like, I think maybe I should do something else to bring in some extra income. Uh, Sue was very busy with the kids and homeschooling and such, and so it wasn't like she was in a position to go out and, and pick up some extra income.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: So, uh, so the 21 years ago, I sold the first thing. On eBay. Alright. And we're still eBay sellers. Uh, but that kinda gave us the bug a little bit for entrepreneurship. It gave you the, it gave me the.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: That's a good, I I like that. Anyone that's not seen the video, the, the finger came out and sue's like that was you. Yeah.[00:03:00]
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: you should be clear. The pointer finger came out, you know. Um, but yeah, I mean, I literally, I had a job where I could come home for lunch and at lunchtime I would run downstairs to the, the office and check to see if anything had sold. And if it did, I boxed it up and I ran it by the post office on the way back to work.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: So it was, it was a crazy side hustle time for sure. And, um, and then, you know, there's a lot to this part, but then around 2012, we just decided, mm-hmm. Look, it's time, it's time for us to go full-time with the business, or at least to give it a try. Uh, we, we were gonna give it a six month trial and then here we are.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: It was 2013 whenever we, we actually took that plunge. 'cause I gave a six month notice at my job. And, um, and so
now we're 12 plus years of being full-time. Primarily it was, has been e commerce and now we're making this switch to, uh, marriage and business coaching. [00:04:00] And fast forward to 2020, I'm walking into the Jerseyville
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: That's right. Here we go.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: for eBay, and I look over and I see this guy standing there with a box of boxes that are all the same, and I'm like, oh, that's gotta be a seller.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: He's gotta be not packages. So I struck up a conversation with you. Dustin it. I was just like, and because we looked at helping other, um, brands and things and I thought, oh, let's strike up a conversation and see. And that began our connection to each other. And then eventually we got on your email list for your marriage.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Uh, ministry that you were doing and then you and Larry connected. So yeah, I wanna, I wanna speak to that also because that's kind of the double connection of the fact that you had, uh, the marriage related business and that was a passion of ours. And so, uh, I think it was, um, early in 2024. That I was like, Hmm, I haven't, you know, we haven't talked to Dustin.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: We had, we've had a, I think we had a phone call or some something along the way. And so I was following up on [00:05:00] both the, the possible brand representation online and as well as
maybe some sort of a connection with the marriage business. And, um, I reached out to you via email and you, you don't know this part because.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: You never responded to that email. And I think I, I think I had an old email address or something. Yeah. So, uh, so I'm like, Hey, I'm on the, the marriage business email and, uh, so I went ahead and just replied to one of your, your just kind of routine emails. I. I didn't really even think about which email I was replying to, but we had a, that kind of conversation going back and forth.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And the subject line on that email was, are you okay? So I don't know what the purpose of that email was, why you had that subject line, but all of ours say regarding, are you okay? Back and forth?
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: That's hilarious. Oh man. I feel like I got some gaps I gotta fill in for the audience. So, um, before, and then we'll then
we'll zoom into sort of like present day and the transition that you've been through lately with your [00:06:00] businesses and, and this awesome new business that you've launched recently with the, the coaching on business and marriage.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Um, first of all, if anyone doesn't know this, so my. First online business was engaged marriage, and that is what pulled me. Uh, it was also a side hustle, but that's what pulled me from marriage ministry with my wife online. So I learned digital marketing, created a website, wrote a book, and also I had a chapter there for about.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: A year or two year and a half with my wife where we tried to work together and we realized that she's not an entrepreneur and I am, and she should probably stick with special education and I'll stick with, uh, entrepreneurship. And so a lot of stuff in there kind of related to the work that you do now.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Um. And I don't know if I've ever told you guys this, uh, right in the transition from doing that to leaving engineering in 2017, there was a period where I was buying and reselling golf clubs. And I was like an eBay, eBay power seller. And all this, like, eBay was a, a very much another side hustle. Uh, and I was like, I'd buy local golf clubs, [00:07:00] repackaged, polish 'em up, take good photos, write good descriptions, resell 'em on eBay, and it paid, helped us get outta debt and uh, it kind of freed me up to be able to pursue entrepreneurship full time.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: And in 2017 I did a six month trial for my engineering job. And, uh, so you guys were five years, I think, ahead of me in that. But I, uh, very similar path in a lot of ways. And then in 2020 I was, you
know, in the age of COVID I was, uh, working by myself in the Warehouse for Fire Creek Snacks, which was another brand that emerged, you know, out of my entrepreneurial journey.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: I ironically, 2020. It was in the summer, I'm sure. 'cause that's when I would come up there and work in the warehouse. That was probably right around the time I got on my first podcast, which led me to podcast guessing, which is now what I do and how, you know, you guys ended up becoming clients this in this stage of our lives.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: So a lot of little funny, nuanced things and, uh. And yeah, so probably there was an abandoned cart sequence or an abandoned, uh, reengagement sequence for engaged marriage where if you
hadn't clicked or opened something [00:08:00] for a while, you get this message that's like, are you okay? Because it gets you to wanna respond and you responded.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: And of course then it led one thing led to another, and. And, uh, I guess the, I'll, I'll turn it back to you on this part, but, you know, ultimately we ended up working together and you guys, uh, not on Fire Creek snacks because I ended up exiting that partnership and I was kind of
in a stage, um, probably, probably whenever we met, but especially, uh, two years after that when I was like kind of checked out.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: 'cause that wasn't really my focus once this business took off. Um, but you, you came up. Came over into my world with the Podcast Profits Accelerator, and it's been part of this whole transition that you've been in this year. So anyway, I'll turn it back to you. But that kind of fills in all these, it's really interesting to me, and I hope the audience finds it instructive, like just the power of relationships and putting yourself out there and being open handed as far as like responding to people and serving people and having conversations because you literally never know where it's gonna go.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: So, uh, here we are on a podcast in 2025 talking about it.[00:09:00]
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Yeah. You know, one of the things, um, about that was when we met in the post office, you know, I had a, a couple of moments of nerves, like, I don't know, should I say anything? Should I, should
I, and not only just because. Who knows what's gonna happen if this, if this is a potential business partnership. But it's the, you know, it's the year of us being told, you know, don't talk to, don't talk to people, don't be close, don't do that.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: You know, and
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Yeah.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: so there was a little bit of that, um, that was there. But, um, just that, you know, taking that, that leap of, of speaking up and just saying something and, and just. Striking up a conversation, just kind of letting it go where it goes was, was super valuable for me. It was, I was actually, um, kind of practicing a little bit of that, that trying to connect with, with people that I don't necessarily know.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And so that was kind of fun. I was, I was grateful that you were nice. You were somebody nice to approach. So that was good. Well, and, and as [00:10:00] I understand it, that was fairly infrequent for you to do that. Um, it was very unusual for Sue to be in that particular post office 'cause we have a, a closer post office that we go to.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: 95% of the time. Mm-hmm. So, so there are a lot of, um, God moments there. Yeah. In, in that and, and just, I just think it's also really important 'cause um, on our email list right now, you know, I'll get frustrated sometimes that people just don't respond like I think they should, you know, um, not enough open rate, like I've got important things to say or whatever.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And so sometimes just a simple follow up, like, are you okay? Um. Maybe the catalyst to something and maybe in a way that you have no idea how that's gonna turn into. But, uh, we are just, we feel so fortunate to have gone through the accelerator program. We went through it in July of 2024, so that's been less than, uh, a year now that we've been through it.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And, um. And honestly right now we're really kind of feeling our momentum with it. [00:11:00] Um, one of the big changes for us is that we've sold off part of our business now and we have free freed up a lot of stress from our lives. Mm-hmm. Uh, we freed up a lot of time and now we're able to focus in on this now.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And, um. You know, so we have something like six or seven interviews that are scheduled after this one in the coming weeks. And it's all based upon what we learned through your accelerator program. Mm-hmm. So we're excited about seeing results. Even, even now, months after we went through the program, I.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: I love that. Yeah. I think, you know, because when we got into this conversation, it was. Obviously done lots of work with couples, like you've done lots of work with couples in the e-comm business, so co business coaching for couples was something you're doing but is very pointed at a specific type of business model and under the umbrella of some, you know, some other stuff. So it seemed like, as I recall, this is, you know, going back a little ways, but it's like you had a calling [00:12:00] to do something different.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: And you couldn't just like shut it down overnight 'cause it was your income. Right. And, and, and, and, you know,
being part, being in that transition with you was, um, you know, I felt the stress with you. You know, it was like, wow, this, like, we really wanna do this new thing, but we still have this old thing and making the transition's hard.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: And I think anyone that's, uh, that's what one of the main reasons I wanted to bring you guys here to talk about it. It's. You're not on the other side of the transition fully, like you just sold part of your business like a month ago. But I felt like this is a really rich time to kind of dig in because you can still remember what it felt like, you know, a year ago and you're not quite complete, but you're getting there as far as like this transition, and I think it's really instructive and useful for people to realize.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Entrepreneurship's really hard and, and, and while we glamorize people's after and like look what they're doing and like wow. Overnight success and all that stuff. Um, you know, even like my overnight success, I. Started with in 2009 when I started Engaged Marriage, you know, and, [00:13:00] and, and that's how we, you know, met.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: But then I gotta, my first podcast in 2020 and now it's 2025 and this is my full-time thing. A lot of stuff happens over that long period, so I, I guess I'd love to maybe dig in a little bit, maybe, you know, just prior to starting the accelerator last July and. The decisions you were making, why you, um, felt called to the, to make this transition and some of the choices you made to empower that, you know, we don't have to, this isn't all about like the accelerator program, but you know, there's a certain mindset, a certain abundance mindset that's required to kind of bet on yourself and go all in and invest in a program when you're not even quite sure what you're gonna point it at yet.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Um, and so I just, I'd love to kind of turn it back to you guys and let you talk about the last year and what that's been like for you.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Yeah, and really I think it's helpful for us to go back about 10 years. Um, we had an opportunity at our church to teach a Sunday school class on the topic of marriage. And um, unfortunately at our small little country [00:14:00] church, we had a couple of, uh, couples who went through divorce and, um, and so our leadership was saying, we, we need to address this.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: We need to do something to strengthen marriages. And I went to our pastor and said. Sue and I are on board to support
you in any way you want. And he said, okay, I want you two to teach this high school class. And I said, no, no, no. We are here to support you behind. And um. But you know, as we got to talk about it, we, we got really excited about it and we got really positive feedback, including a couple who said to us, we, we think that you are very instrumental in saving our marriage.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And, and that's a very humbling thing. It's a very, uh, enriching thing. And so out of that, um, we had, we had a gentleman who came up to us after the class was over, 'cause it was about four months long, and he said, okay, what's next? We're, you know, are you gonna go on the road with this? And we're like. We're just happy we survived the last four months [00:15:00] here.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Um, but it did start our thinking process on this. And, and so our, our business now is called side-by-side business, which we've just recently rebranded to that we start off with a different name. And whenever I went back to, um, to looking like, oh, I should get this domain name. I'm like, oh, we have this domain name and we've been paying for it for 10 years.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: I love that you said that before I started recording. I'm like, we gotta make sure we talk about that. 'cause how many of us have like had the eureka moment and we get busy or we get distracted and then it's like, you know, a year later or 10 years later, like, I got this great idea and it's like I already own this.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Like I already had this idea. That's awesome.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Oh, yeah. It's fun to see how the Lord just weaves all the threads together in such a unique way. And, um, yeah, it's been, it's been a lot of fun to. Realize that yes, we, he's been pointing us towards this for the last 35 plus years, and he has really prepared us to [00:16:00] move into a place where we can really, I think, I think we're being used by God.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: It's, it's really not all us by any means, but we can really bless people's marriages, people's relationships, and help them to thrive in that personal life, which, you know. You've probably heard this before, but you get to the end of your life. You're not gonna be upset that you didn't spend more time at the office or that you didn't spend more time working the business and, and earning more money.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: You might have regrets around, I should have spent more time with my family. I should have spent, you know, I should have worked harder at, at my relationships or what have you. And to have people say to us that we've been used in a way that, um. Has, uh, redeemed their relationship is very humbling to us.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And, and that's the, that's the thing that I go, wow, we are really doing exactly what we're supposed to be doing. And, um, we're just thankful that, that the Lord's allowing that to happen now in a more full-time basis. [00:17:00] And so we've kind of tied together these two big passions of ours. We, we've talked a lot about marriage, but we also love entrepreneurs.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Yes. You know, entrepreneurs are a unique, um, personality and lifestyle and like you said, just just having the guts to, to take leaps and to do different things. Um, I, I never thought that I was an entrepreneur. And matter of fact, whenever I was younger in my twenties, I would take those, those career assessment tests and such.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And normally like the, the leader of, of that event or whatever, just say like, just do, just don't ever try to be an entrepreneur. Okay.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Whatever you do, don't start. Your own
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Yeah. Um. And so somehow along the way though, I've just changed, and a lot of that is because of Sue. She is, she's actually more of a risk taker than I am, and her, her encouragement on these type of things has really been impactful for me to say like, okay, we're gonna try this and we, we may go [00:18:00] down in a, in a blaze of glory, but we're gonna enjoy the ride.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And, um, and so as we have, we've raised, um, our, our children, our youngest is 19 now. He has informed us that he's planning on moving out later this year. So we'll see. We may be empty nested. Um, so things have just changed in our life quite a bit. And, and the, the, uh, e comm business was very, uh, conducive to, you know, we all worked together as a family.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: We did things together. I was able to. Go on sourcing trips where I would take one of the kids with me and I have 12 hours, just, just the two of us, you know, things like that. Um, as as the kids got
older and moved out, and I'm going on these sourcing trips by myself, they weren't nearly as much fun. I. And n not nearly as impactful.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And matter of fact, kind of the opposite, they were kind of depressing. And I kinda struggled with some, some things along the way and just realized we, we need to make this change. So our, our family [00:19:00] situation changed, changed, our mission, changed a little bit. And, uh, so now this new opportunity is, is what, what we feel like the Lord's.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Awesome. So we're gonna. a a little bit kind as we get closer towards the closing part of the, of the, the show about mission, and you're gonna give us some really good, tangible ways to define
your mission and set boundaries and say no to the things that maybe are pulling you away from the mission that you're on.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Whether you feel like that's. God's mission for you? You know, just regardless of sort of the source of it, um, you know, I feel like it's God's mission and I feel like this whole call to stewardship is a big part of why I do what I do. And it's interesting for me, like it's, hear, hearing your story, it was like very reflective for me.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: 'cause it's like, well I got online because we're doing marriage ministry and so I thought, man, we're gonna be marriage people and. You know, that was a great chapter in our life and we actually got approached by a church that we had spoke at, I don't know, [00:20:00] pre COVID and like this is, I'm talking like yesterday, like this just happened and I got this message on Facebook.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: She's like, we want you to come back and we're doing this, you know, marriage event. And I'm like, I don't really do that anymore. I'm like, but it got me thinking like we could, now we end up having a conflict of the weekend, but. You know, I've, I've matured and my wife's matured, and our, our season of life has changed and we've got, you know, two teens and a 20-year-old also.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: And it's like, I could do that, but like, I don't really, I legitimately just don't feel like I'm called to do that right now. Like, I feel like I'm called to serve entrepreneurs and I kind of talk about it like guiding the guides or leading the leaders, you know, like empowering people like you who have their own unique gift and helping you spread that, evangelize that and go out and make that big impact.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: And it was very comforting to kind of like. Feel at peace with that and be like, no, I should say no to this. In the past I'd be like, I can't say no. They asked me. And you know, it's kind of an ego thing. Um, so thank you for kind of giving me the space to reflect on that. Um, so I'd love to, maybe we zoom in a little bit to the, even, you know, the last few months.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: It's [00:21:00] pretty big event. Uh, you mentioned it, but I'd love to hear a little more tangibly about like, so you exited part of your e-comm business, which has been like this steady thing for full time, for 12 years and some part of your life for 21. And now you've rebranded, you've got the coaching business. I know you've had some coaching clients.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: I know you've got, you know, kind of a, a new program you're, you're looking to launch. So yeah, just maybe give us a little flavor for a snapshot of your business right now and, and how it feels and, and what you're looking forward to.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Sure. Absolutely. Um, we have, as you said, we did the e-commerce. And in the course of doing that, we also did a lot of coaching of people on that, and many of the people that we coach were coupled and so we began to, to get that insight. So I. So as we have, you know, made that determination that, okay, we want to move into this, uh, coaching for marriage and business.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Um, we, as you said, we sold off one of our assets. We've kind of used that to kind of be the launching point for. [00:22:00] For the current business that we're, um, working on, and we are doing a group coaching experience and, um, right now working on filling our first group. And so it's still very new to do this and only this, or primarily this.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Yeah. And, um, we're kind of in that first crank of the flywheel that you'd like to talk about. Yes. You know, and, and, um, finding, finding people who need and want what we have to offer. And of course that first crank is the hardest crank, right? Yeah. So just being real on it, you know? And, and so, but it's been a lot of fun and, and having the, uh, the, uh, information that you have taught us.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Yeah. It, it has given us the, the direction that we want to go and building up our audience, and we've been kind of steadily doing that. Um. But we, we, like, one of the main reasons why we
decided to go with the group coaching experience though, is because we just see that power of community, uh, in, in your circle [00:23:00] community.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: It's just so powerful to be part of that group and the encouragement that you get. And again, just people who understand who you are and, and what you're doing, and. One of the stories I love to tell is, um, there's a guy that I know, a little bit of an older gentleman, but I've known him for about 25 years or more, and just recently there was a time where, uh, he was introducing me to someone and he said, Hey, this is so and so, and he works at this factory and he's got this job, and, and he said, so and so.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: This is Larry and. What is it that you do again? And I was just like, we've talked about this. You know, somehow he just di you know, he just didn't get me, he didn't understand it. And in some ways, I don't expect somebody who's worked just a nine to five. Nothing wrong with working a nine to five, but it, it's just a different world.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And so. That's why as we kinda, um, Mary, if I can use that word, the married couples with the entrepreneurs, and then we get into this group setting where, [00:24:00] um, we, we we're wanting to build this community. We're wanting to build this, um, this kinda system where everybody helps each other along the way. And, um, and we've got a framework that we've come up with and a whole, um, what we call the two, two four pathway that we'll walk people down and set.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: So we're very excited about getting this going and, and, um, it feels like 20 12, 20 13 all over again for us when we were getting our e-comm, like really up to where it could be a full-time income. And, um, it's, it's exciting and it's scary all at the same time.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Clarity. I wanna talk about this kind of, this gift of clarity. So like your own clarity as you've been on this journey, especially the last 12 months, but also you've worked with a ton of couples, right? And getting them united or getting them committed to certain products or certain, um, you know, niches or whatever.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: There's, there's [00:25:00] always this process of gaining clarity and, uh, I've seen you guys gain a ton of clarity and so, uh, I can give my own observations, but I'd love to hear from, from you, like. You know, what's, what's, uh, what's, what's it been like to go through a
process of like getting clarity and then, you know, any coaching experience or anything you have around that, like, you think it's important?
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: I guess that's a kind of a softball question, but like, how do you see the process of clarity and, and the way that you also serve your own clients who are couples trying to build a business together, which is a unique challenge.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Yeah, absolutely. And I'll say, yeah, one aspect of it was at the beginning was, I'll use the word frustrating.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Yeah. Yeah.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: That that you, you have to reach that point of tension, but you go ahead. Yeah. Sometimes you do have to experience that pain a little bit of trying to figure out on your own before I. You realize I could really use some help with this and, and I will just say through your accelerator program, you know, we went in to learn how to be a podcast guest, but we came out with tons of clarity and just a better [00:26:00] understanding of really what are we trying to even do?
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: What is our message once we get on those podcasts? Um, and it is, um, it's an emotional experience to gain that clarity. Um. It's a surprising thing to me, somebody who doesn't like to get emotional very often. Um, and so just to realize that number one, we've got something powerful to share with, with couples.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: We can make an impact on people's lives and just to get that validation, uh, from other people. But then just to get that messaging down. And so, um, we've got a great 10 x promise now. We help married entrepreneurs build a business of their dreams side by side.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: I love it.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And that took a lot of work.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Isn't that, isn't that so funny? You're like, everyone listening is like, that's really good. That, that's super simple. You know, I, I guess they figured that out, you know, right before the interview today we've been working on it for a year, you know, or whatever. So probably longer. You've owned a domain for 10 years, so, um, that's [00:27:00] really good though.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: That's a very clear promise. I like that a lot.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And it's probably what the fourth or fifth iteration of that. And, you know, we learned certain, certain things and we got feedback from people and we're like, okay, that's not what we were going for.
Yeah. And so, yeah. Um, but that clarity is, is, is key. And that is what we have seen in our, in our clients as well.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Um, and when we were teaching people how to source product and how to navigate customer service and all these little, you know, detailed things, but then it, it would always kind of come up to. Um, this, this couple like, well, the spouse is not on board and how do I handle this situation? And we're going two different directions and it's like, okay, we kind of need to pause some of these detailed steps and we need to get the bigger, bigger things under control first, before, you know, you pull each other apart by doing different directions.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Mm-hmm. You gotta be really careful there. Keeping priorities straight is so [00:28:00] important. And, you know, we've seen it, we've seen, uh, businesses, uh, harm marriages who weren't, um, they just weren't paying enough attention to everything that was really what they said was the most important. But that it, they kept getting pulled away from that and, and us helping people to figure out, um, how to know.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: How to set the boundaries you need to set so that that doesn't happen to you. And, um, I don't think anybody would go into business with their spouse thinking, gee, I hope this hurts our relationship. You know, we don't think that. No. Um, but it has the potential if you're not paying attention to, to what's most important.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And that's one of the things that, that we can help kind of put up some warning signs and say, Hey, you know, this is what you need to pay attention to so that you do this well. And just one example is, is just the roles within the business. Whenever you're married to your business partner, and even if you know one, maybe one person does 99% of the work and, and, uh, the other is just kinda [00:29:00] supportive or just, you know, supplementary type things, or if you're 50 50 in it, it'll, it's gonna look different depending upon that circumstance.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: But your roles in the business may look completely different than your roles in the house. And, and whenever your office is in the house like ours is, that becomes really complicated. One of the
things that did help us while we, uh, were heavier into e-commerce is that we had a warehouse that we were renting.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And so it kind of made it a little bit simpler, like, when we're here, here are the roles, when we're back home, we're different roles. Um, but really just to go through those and to say, okay, who's gonna handle which, you know, kind of outline, here's the important, um. Categories of our business and who's gonna be in charge of that.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And when that person is in charge of it, they don't just have the responsibility, they also have the authority. And so that means that if Sue's got the authority in something, I just need to keep my nose outta it, which is tough sometimes. And, um, and vice versa though, we, you know, there's, there's big [00:30:00] decisions that we're both involved in.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Um, but then there's a lot of little decisions that within our sphere of influence that we say, that's mine. That's yours. Mm-hmm. And then the other one respects. And that really helps. Yeah.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Started. You started that by talking about. Feeding your own clarity and then transition really beautifully into something we're gonna kind of close with over the next, we'll see how long it takes, 10 minutes or so, and letting you guys teach us about, um, what you call a family mission statement. And I, that is what it is and we want to talk about it in that way.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: But as you were talking, I'm like, yeah, this is, everything you said is totally true and probably intensely true for a couple who is in business together. 'cause these roles and these blended. Blurred lines among home and work and my parenting role and my spouse role and my business role and all this stuff, it's, it's messy.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: And so I think, um, clarity is king there, right? Like, I was at a conference recently and they said, uh, clarity is a gift. And like that was kinda like the theme that people in their [00:31:00] presentation, they come see, clarity is a gift or clar clarity is a blessing. I'm like, it really is. Like, it's not, I don't think it's a word we even focus on enough.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Um, but also even if you're listening and you're an entrepreneur and you're married and you, they're not directly into business, you still need a family mission statement, they still need to know their
role and your role respective to the business and the finances that tie into that. And like, I could totally relate to that.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: I, I mentioned we had our own kind of rough patch of trying to be in the business. We realized that wasn't the best, um, use of our talents and, but you know, ever since then. The main sources of conflict, I would say over the years have been, Dustin, you're working too much, or Dustin, you're traveling too much.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Or I feel isolated, you know, with kids. And I'm like, well, I'm doing this 'cause the for freedom, you know? And it's like,
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Yeah.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: I don't know if that's what we want. And so we've, we've, we've definitely had those times and. One thing we've done really well, I'd say over the past several years is get really clear on our b my, my boundaries specifically.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: I'll point the finger back on myself, but clear boundaries, clear expectations, [00:32:00] um, clear communication when things aren't feeling right. And then like just the united front about what is the mission of the business. 'cause whether she's working in it or not, ultimately it's her business too, because we're married, right?
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: And so I think for anyone listening, and if you're not married, but you has some sort of business partner or team, you need this too. So this is a universal. Need and principle, but we'll talk about it in the
lens of a, you know, a married couple who's working together. 'cause that's who you specialize in helping.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Um, but yeah, I think this idea of clarity boundaries, saying no to the wrong things and, and being fully committed to the right things. Like, I'm very excited about this. So I, I'm gonna kind of turn it over to you all and let you unpack this. I know you've kind of prepared, uh, sort of a mini lesson here on, on a family mission statement.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: And then from there, you know, I'll answer, ask you some questions probably, and we'll, uh, close.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Yeah, absolutely. And this is definitely more of a mini lesson because this is something that we would probably go through, I don't know, 90 minutes or something like that, uh, if we were with a client. Um, [00:33:00] but it's, it's really important for us to say no more frequently. And so what we wanna do is to help the listeners and those who are watching to say no more frequently, um, more, uh, powerfully.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And guilt free. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And what that does is it frees you up to say yes with confidence. And so you know what you can say, what you can say yes to. You know, one of the things that we run into as entrepreneurs is we all want to say yes to, to plenty of good things. There's a lot of good things that cross our path that we wanna say yes to, and we should say yes to some of 'em, but not necessarily all of them.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Another thing that we suffer with probably. I think probably most entrepreneurs suffer with is shiny object syndrome. You know? Yeah. We probably, most of us have a notepad next to the bed so that when we get a new idea, we can write it down real fast for.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Oh yeah. One in the shower. Whiteboard in the shower. Yeah, you gotta have that. So.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Yes, that's a little [00:34:00] extreme. I don't have that. Um, but although it might work on the shower stall, I'll have to try that. But anyway, so, so one of the things that we need to begin to recognize is that not every opportunity to say yes to a good thing is something that we should be saying. Yes. And we hear that I think fairly often.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Um, and we hear that like we need to set up boundaries. We've talked, we've mentioned the word boundaries several times already, uh, during this time together. Uh, and so I think everybody would kind of nod their head and say, yes, we all need boundaries to have more balance in life. But normally that's where everybody says, okay, well good luck.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: You know, have a good day. And so what we have found, work found is that, um, something that really works well for this is a mission statement. And that can be a family mission statement. It could be, uh, if someone is single, it could be just a purpose statement. Um, it could be, you know, there could be a business statement, but really the family mission statement informs the business statement.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: So we always encourage [00:35:00] people to start with that family mission statement. Yeah, I think one of the reasons that we start with the family mission statements, 'cause we do primarily work with married entrepreneurs and we know that. Every, nobody's gonna say, the business is more important than my family.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Everybody's gonna say, my family's more important. And so we're gonna help you live that by helping you develop a mission statement that helps you live that way, the way that you, that you want to, to live. So, normally we would take, like we said, um, about, uh, 90 minutes or so to teach this, but we wanna encourage you, if you're walking through this, take about an hour and walk through some questions.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Uh, think through some. Some things here, but we don't want you to overthink it like seriously and limit yourself to an hour so that it doesn't become this big hairy deal. Right? Yeah. I think that's one of the big deterrents that people do have is that it's like it, it sounds really boring. Um, and, but you, and you do have kind of to fight through some things every once in a while on this 'cause it's, it's deep thinking and such.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: But yeah, don't overthink it. Just jump in and get something down because you're gonna revise [00:36:00] this as you go. We, we revise things on a regular basis with it, so, so we've got basically five steps. All right? So the first step is probably the one that will take the longest because, um, you're gonna answer some questions and it's gonna get down to some, some deep things that will help out with.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: So the first one is to think of a mentor, somebody that you really respect. This could be somebody who's really successful in business. This could be a multimillionaire, or it could be somebody who really doesn't have a whole lot of money, but you just really respect this individual, and so ask yourself this question, why do I admire that person?
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: What is it about them? What kind of character qualities do they have that has caused me to really respect and admire this individual? And then secondly, ask yourself, if I could be remembered for one thing, what would I want that to be? What, what's the thing that stands out the most to you? What's the most important?
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Um, is it making lots of [00:37:00] money? Is it spending time with family? Is it, what's the thing that you would
want to be remembered for? What's the thing that you kind of want to leave your mark on the world with? And of course whenever you're answering that one thing, it may bring up three or four things that are tied at first.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: That's fine. Yeah. Um, okay, so then the third question to ask is, if I had a million dollars in the bank and I could do anything that I wanted to do professionally, personally, in life, what would I do? Would I travel a lot? Would I, you know, would I go see the world? Would I get an rv? Would I stay put in my, go back to my hometown and, and set up, set out roots there, whatever.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Um, because this really gets to the heart of who you are and what you really are made to accomplish. I think so much of what we, what we do in life, we're driven by the fact that we gotta pay the bills, and that's just reality. But if that wasn't an issue, what would you do? Yeah. [00:38:00] And then step two will happen if your spouse isn't listening to this episode with you. Uh, ask your spouse those same questions and, and write down their answers and just, um, and so that's gonna take just a few minutes there as well. So, yeah, this is a great side tip for the guys. Guys, if you ask your wife these deep questions and pull out a notebook and start writing down the answers, she may pass out in a good way.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: She'll love it in a good way. Oh, you value my answers that much? Yes. So e either way, this will be a, a great, uh, connection time for you. So then as you, uh, for step three, now, uh, you wanna take, again, as a married couple, you wanna make sure that you're on the same path. That's crucially important. So you wanna start looking for some commonalities.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Uh, both in your answers and your spouse's answers. Um, if you're doing what we said to do and you're just kind of doing this quickly and you're not overthinking things, then you're not gonna worry about repeating words as you're going through here. And so you'll probably see some repeated words, some [00:39:00] common phrases, just some things that kind of like, okay, I'm seeing a pattern here, and maybe even recognizing some things that will surprise you.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Uh, in that process. So just circle those things or highlight them, someti some somehow, and just recognize those commonalities in, in all of those answers you just had. And of course, most important is the commonalities between your answers and your spouse's answers. If there's commonalities there, you've got it.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Yeah. And so then step four is to sit down and just summarize. The, the commonalities into three or four sentences that you're just basically laying it, you're saying this is what's important to us. These are the boundaries that we want to set. And, um, this begins to help you set up those boundaries so that you can live the life without regret that we all want to live.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Right. I, I don't think anybody wants to have, uh, any regrets. And then, um, it, you lay out the mission that you want to accomplish, uh, as a couple and as a family. So that just kind of is gonna summarize who you are, where you're wanting to go, what you [00:40:00] wanna accomplish, what do you wanna be remembered for.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Um, and again, this doesn't have to be super flowery and fancy. Um, you can throw this in the chat GPT later to kind of clean it up if, if you so desire. Uh, but step five is pretty simple. Then you just wanna get this into a format where you can print it out. So. Uh, put it into a Word document or a Google Doc or whatever, and, and save that and print that out so you can be referencing it because this is a tool that you wanna, and if by chance you don't have a printer at home, write it.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Just write it on paper. Just get it on something on paper. You want a hard copy. And so what happens is, is that these statements, this, this family mission statement, it really becomes a filter. For you so that as opportunities come up as, as people begin to ask you to participate in things or whatever, whatever it is, um, you filter those things through your family mission statement.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: If it fulfills that family mission, then great. [00:41:00] If it doesn't, Hmm. You know? And so, uh, when you get a new opportunity, you need to use it in a certain way, right? So then you just ask yourself. Some questions, and this can be done for big, big things. Obviously it can be done for little, uh, opportunities as well.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Um, but just like some of the questions that you would ask yourself is, does, does this opportunity, does it help me to become the person that I want to become? Or does it lead our family down the direction that we want our family to go, um, is going to help me to accomplish the things that are really important to me in life?
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And will it move me? Closer towards my, my dream, uh, the dream career, the dream family situation, or whatever. Um,
so yeah, so ask those questions and yeah, so when you get done asking yourself those questions, if all three of those answers are yes, then you can say yes confidently and no, this is moving us in the direction that we wanna go.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: If any of those you have to say no [00:42:00] to, uh, in answer to that question, then your answer needs to be, not now. Maybe not ever, but definitely not now. And, and you just need to put that off because it's moving you away from what you have said you want to, to do as a family and the mission that you want to achieve.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And I think you'll find that most of the time the answer is no or not Now. And we're, we're just so programmed to say yes. So much. So, uh, kind of what, and just in summary and finishing this up then, is that the mission statement is going to give you that filter to take these possible opportunities and stop saying yes to good options and start saying, start saying no to those and start saying yes to the right options and opportunities.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: I love it. This is really powerful and it is also simple, which I always say like the most powerful things are simple and the most valuable things are the easy to do and easy not to do, right? It's one of those [00:43:00] things you'd be like, that sounds pretty cool. I'll do it later, and then people don't do it. I think you've really challenged yourself, especially if you're, if you're working with a spouse or if you're, um, in need of some unification with your spouse about your, um, business, financial career goals, man, like, who couldn't benefit from this, you know?
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: And, uh, I think it's really, really powerful. Put you on the spot and you maybe don't have it. And if, if the answer is like, I, we don't have it, that's fine. I'd love to hear your mission statement if you have
it handy, or if you got some rough version of it in your head, just to kind of give people an example of how this might look as a finished product. Oh, good. I was like, we did not talk about this beforehand, so I'm like, I'm gonna put 'em on
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: He said he might ask us. So we better have that in front of us. Yeah, so it's, it's basically got four statements that, and um, and this is probably going to morph, but the first statement is to grow closer to God as individuals and therefore closer to each other. You wanna do the second one? I'll do the second one.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Yeah. Um, so then the second one is, uh, to grow in [00:44:00] wisdom and use the gifts, talents, and abilities that God
has given us to fill areas of service in the church and our community. And then the third statement is Lead children and others to Christ by being a good example of what a Godly family looks like.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: And the fourth statement is, this is an example of us, uh, altering this. Uh, we generally take a close look at it annually. I. We used to look at it quarterly, but this, this fourth one is based upon this change that we're making in our business and our life. Uh, so the fourth one is to serve married couples by encouraging and challenging them to have a one flesh marriage that demonstrates Christ's relationship with his church.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Wow, that's powerful. That fourth one gave me chills. That's, uh, that, that's awesome because you can totally see then with, with that filter and with your value system and, and that when an opportunity comes up to, you know, oh, someone's gonna pay us a lot to go do, uh. I don't know, a non couples, you know, or a, uh, a thing that's like, not necessarily anti Christian, but [00:45:00] like not in alignment with that statement of the mission that you're on.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: It's like that's a no, even though it would be lucrative and we could do it and it's within our skillset, it's not on mission. Right? And, and vice versa. Maybe there's something that is totally on mission and maybe it's not quite as lucrative. Your mission didn't say like, to be millionaires and your mission, you know what I mean?
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: So because you have your mission and your value statements like it, it is a very clear filter to me, like when certain opportunities come up, which they do come up and we're entrepreneurs and we already talked about shiny object syndrome, right? So, um, that, that's really good. This is definitely something to do with my wife.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: It's been a while we've had conversations around these things, but to actually document it and have something to reference in the moment when you're in the heat of the moment and you're excited about something new, um, for either of us to be like. We agreed to this so.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Yes. We, we try not to weaponize it. Yeah. Right, right. But no, it is good for clarity and to kind of bring us down to earth and, and I think I [00:46:00] probably have more crazy ideas than you do.
Maybe, I don't know. But Sue is very good at very kindly saying, Hmm, let's talk about this. You know, I'm not sure that fits.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Yeah, right. Like when would we fit that in? Yeah. And how would that, what would that take us away from and. And so yes, she does it in a very kind way, but I think she probably uses, uses the mission statement more effectively than what I do, to be honest. But it's, it's something we even recommend to people to frame it and hang it up in your house.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: If you've got children, talk to your children about it and help them to understand. Uh, one of the, a common phrase that we had in our household was like, if an opportunity came up, especially if it was something that we were like, okay, I think this is clearly. Not Christian, not what we want to be associated with.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: We would say something along the lines of, Hey, we're, we're peritz. We, we don't do that. You know, we don't wanna participate in that. And then fast forward to, [00:47:00] as our kids are adults now, and, and one of our kids set up a, uh, like a messenger chat group for our family and they named it and, um, she named it, we are Pruit.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Okay.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: That's gotta feel good. That's awesome. I mean, that, I know it's, maybe sounds a little trite, but that's definitely a legacy thing, right? For, uh, for your kids to adopt that language. So, well guys, you are, uh, you're a gift to me. I'm really grateful that we got this time to unpack your story and unpack some of the lessons and, and really have this practical application for getting a mission statement in place.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: 'cause I think it's really, really important. Um. So side byside business.com is obviously home base. But yeah, this is always funny when someone's been in my program, but like, you know, you're one clear call to action, but you know people, if they wanna know more about you, they wanna learn from you, maybe they wanna get some coaching or have you talk to 'em about how to help them with their business 'cause they're working together as a couple.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: What is the next best step? Step for people that wanna go deeper?
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Um, so what we'd like to do is give to your [00:48:00] audience a, a gift, and if that you visit side-by-side business.com/connect. We'd like to give you a set of connection cards, and it's basically a way for you to connect with your spouse once a day. Real quick, um, you know, two minutes or less usually. And, and it's just questions that you can ask each other.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Pull out one of those a day, make it a, make it a routine at dinner before bed in the morning, whenever it works for you. And some of 'em are just fun and lighthearted. Some of 'em get to a little bit deeper purpose around, you know, you're being in business together. Um, but we just want to give people that so that if, if you are starting to feel at all disconnected from your spouse, if you feel like it's a fight.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: To get to where it's just the two of you connecting. This can be a tool that, that can be used that way, uh, for you and, um, and, and just do that. There's, I think, 56 or so in there. So, you know, you'll get almost two months worth of [00:49:00] just connecting on a daily basis and in a way that hopefully begins to foster a deeper connection.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: That's beautiful. What a great gift. Well, side-by-side business.com/connect, go get your connection cards again. Obviously the bullseye for this is if you're a couple who's in business together. But if you're part of a couple hood at all, uh, I think connection cards are great, right? And you can, uh, you can use that as a great communication prompt and, uh, really, really grateful for the gift and for your gift, uh, to the community and to the podcast audience here.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: Larry and Sue, um, thank you so much for being here again, uh, you know, a round of golf clap. Applause. This has been really useful, like legit, like super useful to me. Um, very grounding and really
helpful to like, I. Kind like reprioritize my spouse as part of this business journey that I'm on. Um, not to say that it's, it's broken in some way, but like there's so many great tools here on this mission statement.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Host: These communication tools, the connection cards I think are just awesome. So side-by-side [00:50:00]
business.com/connect. Uh, make sure you guys go take advantage of that. And Larry and Sue, thanks for, uh, all that you do.
7FL - Larry and Sue Pruett Guest: Thank you so much Justin. We really appreciated this. Thank you.