There is a specific kind of silence that happens in a car after a sixteen-hour Saturday. It’s the kind of silence that’s rooted in the physical, mental and emotional exhaustion. It renders you both uninterested in chatting about, well, anything. For years, Emily and I lived in that post wedding-day silence. We were building a dream our dream in the wedding industry, where the stakes are high, the emotions are higher, and the line between "business partner" and "spouse" is thinner a wedding veil.

People often ask us, "How do you do it? How do you work together, live together, and still actually like each other?" The truth is, it wasn't always easy. In the early days of building our iconic global brand The Mamones, we fell into the same traps everyone does. We disagreed over "fairness," we stepped on each other's toes, and we let the business interfere with our life.

Over nearly two decades and through the transition from the wedding industry to the corporate market we developed a strategy. We decided to call it the Power Couple Playbook. It’s the the sum total of the tips and tricks we learned as we became wildly successful in business and madly in love in life.

Respect the Zone of Genius

In the beginning, we tried to do everything together. We both shot, we both edited, we both handled client emails. It was annoying and inefficient. We did it in the interest of equity and a fair distribution of labor. Over time, we relized what a silly effort that was because although we may share a vision, our strengths are worlds apart.

I tend to be the logistics person: the one creating the systems and keeping the business running like a well oiled machine. The one making sure the client experience is nothing short of exceptional. Emily is the creative genius, the one who ensures the client uses only the best adjectives and a flurry of OMGs when they view their image gallery. When we stopped trying to equally divide every task and started staying in our "Zone of Genius," everything changed.

Identifying your strengths isn't just about efficiency; it's about respect. As the saying goes, game recognizes game. When we decided Emily would be our creative lead it didn't mean I wasn't creative, it meant that together we decided...

It would be better for both of us and for the business to divide responsibilities not in half but

between the two of us.

Life (& Business) Isn't 50/50...it's 100/100

One of the biggest lies told to couples is that marriage (and business) should be a 50/50 split. (Side note: don't get me started on how much I dislike the word "should"). If you’re keeping a scoreboard, you’ve already lost. The sheer volume and variety of responsibilities that exist in our daily life and work is considerable and the tedious task of trying to ensure an "even" split is as futile as it is unproductive.

There are weeks when I'm doing 90% and Emily's at 10% because she’s focused on family, her music, a personal project or a moment of self care. There are weeks when she's carrying 90% of the load while I’m on-site for a speaking engagement, attending a mastermind or turning wrenches on our vintage 1986 CJ7. The specific math doesn't matter as long as each of us are bring 100% of what we've got and both of us know that we're in this together.

When you stop measuring who did more dishes or who replied to more emails, you create space for compassion and empathy not to mention performance and excellence. There's no room for jealousy, resentment or small-mindedness in a business or in a marriage. This emotional maturity and psychological flexibility is what allows us to navigate pressure cooker of major projects like FunnelHacking Live as high-achievers that are partners in business and in life.

A Foundation Built on Trust

You can't build an iconic brand like ours if you're second-guessing your partner’s intentions. Trust in a business, like in a marriage is about knowing that your partner is always looking out and always has your back. It means being confident in each other and in yourself. It means being vulnerable, honest and transparent in all things and in all ways. This trust is built in the small moments. It’s built when we communicate. When we talk and listen: really listen: to each other when we offer positive or constructive feedback. It’s strengthened when we realize that our business and our life are both stronger because we're together. Without this trust, honesty, communication and vulnerability the business becomes a source of anxiety rather than a source of creative freedom.

Shared Accountability: We Win and Lose Together

In our world, neither of us gets the credit and neither of us takes the blame. If a client is unhappy for any reason it doesn't matter who booked the project, captured the image or edited the photo. We're both responsible. Any time we book an epic project or exceed the expectations of a loyal client it doesn't matter who built the proposal, communicated with the client or who was on location for the project. We both get the credit. We treat every loss as a team lesson and every win as a reason to celebrate the business and life we’ve built together.

Life Behind the Lens: Turning It Off

We’ve became keenly aware of how easy it is to allow the business to creep a bit too far into the marriage. We don't much believe in "work/life balance" because it shares quite a bit in common with the fallacy of the 50/50 partnership. We aim more for work/life integration and work/life harmony. We acknowledge when it's time to slam the laptop shut, take a walk through our neighborhood, have a glass of wine on our little patio or take the jeep to get some fro yo with Frankie. We're filled with gratitude when we acknowledge that we love the business we’ve built, but we love each other more."

The Evolution of a Signature Studio

Shifting from the hectic world of weddings with all the evenings, weekends and emotional labor to the more structured, professional corporate market was a massive move in the right direction for our little family. It was strategic, empowering and full of profound benefits that positively impacted our business, our marriage and our family.

If you’re struggling to find that harmony, if the business feels like it’s suffocating the spark that brought you together in the first place, it might be time to rethink your strategy. You don't have to choose between a wildly successful brand and a beautifully happy marriage. You just need a better playbook.

Building The Mamones has been the greatest adventure of our life, not because of the places we’ve gone or the brands we’ve worked with, but because we did it all together.

Ready to stop grinding your gears and start shifting into overdrive? It's time to build something that lasts! It's time to consider the corporate shift, refine your business, differentiate your brand and diversify your revenue.

Contact us today to see how our family can serve yours.