Has Working In Business Together As Husband & Wife Affected Our Relationship?

Today Helen and Chris try a Sunday afternoon podcast. Today it’s left to Helen to plan today’s discussions. She generally tends to put a lot of trust into Chris so let’s see how today goes! With the new mic covers removed as per Helen‘s request, do they sound different? Chris thinks it’s better with but Helen prefers the look without. She also feels they give more of a retro look, but is it more of a retro sound?! Chris normally takes the lead on the podcasts, but today has decided they will openly discuss “Has being in business together changed their relationship?” Chris wasn’t really feeling up to doing the podcast this week, but sometimes you’ve just got to get on with it. Suck it up buttercup, as Helen would say! Decision making. Does Helen take longer to make decisions down to her confidence issues? Do they disagree as a couple to be awkward or it is genuinely down to having different opinions!? Chris is certainly more confident making decisions than Helen and is happy to hold himself accountable for the decisions that he makes. They discuss does Helen and other people in life find it hard to make decisions and move on with them because they’re not happy to hold themselves accountable when things go wrong?  So do they work well in business together? Throughout both of their personal and career experiences they have both had completely different challenges in life, and the way in which they react to them. Whilst showing true ying and yang, chalk and cheese, personalities, experiences and ways of dealing with things it seems to work in business in that they respect each other’s different opinions and can use these to apply to their customers in the most effective way. They both bring totally different skills to the party and appreciate each other for this.  Along the way they also discuss why farting so funny, well at least until it smells bad! Does anyone else fart in front of each other? Helen knows both couples that do and couples that don’t, but will she share who?! They can’t imagine holding them all in all the time. Do you? Over 15 years ago Helen had her own fashion brand where she designed, made and marketed everything herself. Learning so much from it with so many valuable lessons and appreciating the tremendous support she received from Chris the whole of the way. However, she feels on reflection she simply wasn’t ready back then and has since grown and learnt so much from that experience which she has now applied to her career and personal life today. Chris continues to experiment with new filming equipment all the time and how this can benefit his clients at Krakens Media. Helen is often a guinea pig so that he can confidently offer these new ideas to clients and know how it’s going to work successfully for them. They discuss how your mindset is so important in life. After all it’s your own mind that stops you from doing anything. They’ve knocked lots of walls down along the way together and individually, but they’ve got through it. Helen‘s favourite phrase, “Suck it up buttercup” comes back around from time to time! Chris’ tough love is what helps Helen through. Your mind can bring you so much but can destroy people too. It’s so important to look after our mind and keep in touch with your mental health. It’s proven things are never as tough as you think they’re going to be, you can worry about it all day long and we can be used to putting things off, but we all need to face tough things in life. They’re more often than not, not as hard as you think they’re going to be.  The mind is so powerful and our state of happiness can change in the flick of a switch. Helen refers to her ex partners as an example and how important the mind is, she harshly refers to her break ups that perhaps it’s more the routine you miss than the person, in her experience anyway! Helen tries a bit of ASMR with the microphone as she is a fan of this. However, Chris still doesn’t see the fascination in it but offers up his fancy 32-bit audio for the job! They finish with a round up saying that to make work life work for them they keep their roles as separate as possible and speak through gritted teeth if need be at work! Helen feels running a business together has shown such respect for each other and shares a real beautiful moment, getting deep and meaningful, but spoils it by singing at the end, much to Chris’s disappointment, sorry Chris!  Can working with friends or family work for everyone? They feel it’s easier to offload as and when, usually at home to nip things in the bud. This allows them to move on from any issues very quickly, which works well for them both. Helen finally asks Chris how he personally feels working together and if this has affected their relationship. She quickly  covers her ears for the answer! She feels she’s annoying and appreciates Chris’ patience with her. Chris’ response may agree with this, he may not! He reflects that Helen is in fact annoying at times but once they found their stride and got in their own lane it works for them and their different views are a good thing.  They work differently in that Helen enjoys sharing what’s happening with customers, but Chris likes to focus and knuckle down on a day-to-day basis. Helen will appear like a meerkat from behind her computer, when she wants to ask or share something with Chris and he will ignore her until it becomes too annoying!  Their advice to anybody going into business together, whether with friends or family is to be cautious and try and understand each other and appreciate each other as much as possible and to go in eyes wide open. Honesty is the best policy too! Helen V’s Chris. Chris can’t stand Coffee, but Helen needs it to start the day. What do you prefer coffee or tea? This weeks customer shout out is bistro B63 at Halesowen College after Helen had a business meeting there and really enjoyed her sausage patty burger! They also provide the Student and staff uniforms for the College through Thread a Pixel too. They then discussed the amount of courses available at Colleges across the country including Halesowen College. On reflection, they feel they both would’ve done an apprenticeship if they were more readily available back in their day.  Chris starts to MC, but Helen quickly stops him. Maybe it’s time to finish the podcast! Another awkward sign off from Chris and Helen, wishing all a great week and saying goodbye for now.