In episode 8 of Babies & Business, Avram and Rachel share a bit about what it was like before they both worked together in Digital Harvest. They talk about how having different strengths is essential in both parenting and building a successful business. While most people don’t work with their partner, everyone can learn something about choosing the right team members to bolster their business in this episode.

 

Show notes

 

 

0:45 Avram sets the scene, sharing about a past relationship and the dangers of being too similar to your partner

 

 

2:05 Rachel shares about her past tailoring business—what she loved and didn’t love about the biz

 

 

2:50 Take a peek at what Digital Harvest was like before Rachel

 

 

4:53 What is being in your flame versus being in your wax?

 

 

9:47 All hands on deck for new parents!

 

 

10:22 Creating a substantial business can be like raising a baby in this way

 

 

10:58 You are likely one of two types of people in business

 

 

13:05 Rachel and Avram rock at “opposites attract” in both business and personal

 

 

14:00 What if you can’t afford to hire your “opposite”?

 

 

Mentions & Resources

 

 

Ivan Misner, Founder of BNI Business Networking International website: ​​https://www.bni.com/

 

 

EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION

 

 

Below, you will find a transcript of this entire podcast episode. Enjoy!

 

 

Avram Gonzales: Hey. Hey. Welcome back to the Babies and Business Podcast. This is your host, Avram Gonzales, joined by my beautiful, fabulous, and lovely co-host, Rachel Gonzales. What’s up, girl?

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: Hi.

 

 

Avram Gonzales: We have spent all day together and it’s like after-hours recording this podcast while the baby is asleep. Let’s get into it.

 

 

Today’s topic is Your First Hire and Choosing the Right Partner. This is a topic that both Rachel and I are very excited about because it has completely transformed our life, our business, and the way that we do everything. And I think how we navigate and see the world now. If you really take hold of the top of this topic and some of the things that we’re gonna share with you today and take it to heart, I think you could change and transform everything for you as well.

 

 

I’m gonna take you back to a time that we’re gonna talk about it. Who was my last relationship? This is the one that I had before Rachel and I spent almost seven years with this person only to find. that we were way too much alike. Okay. Way too much alike. And that created a lot of problems in our household because there were things that both of us hated to do so they never got done.

 

 

And the things that we liked to do, we would sometimes fight about who would do those things? . Okay. So like maybe you can relate, maybe you had a relationship like that. Maybe you had a team member like that, or a business partner like we’ve all been there where we’ve been hanging out with or spending too much time with somebody who is just like us.

 

 

And when it was fire it was good, but when you poured gasoline on it, it was just really bad.

 

 

The next thing I want to talk about as we set the tone for the rest of our conversation today is what it was like for both Rachel and I. We weren’t always in business together. We both had our own businesses when we first met each other, and Rachel was running a tailoring and alterations business here in Albuquerque.

 

 

There were some things you loved about it and some things you didn’t love about it, and I think that’ll help us paint the picture for today.

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah, sure. So the things I loved about it were working on a project that was attached to somebody that I really like to work with. So working with the people and doing the work.

 

 

I really like the intricacies of working on a wedding dress because I can actually make that person’s dream come true about how they wanna look on the most important day of their life. Yeah, arguably. Yeah. So that is some of the things that I really loved to do. The things that I really did not love to do were anything related to marketing.

 

 

Actually really talking about my business, like knowing how to talk about my business and the strategies that go along with it. So those are some of the huge pain points for me. And strategizing was just, it’s just not my strength

 

 

Avram Gonzales: And for me, running the business that we run together now, Digital Harvest, there’s always I loved the sales part.

 

 

I loved cooking up all the campaign ideas. I love like Rachel’s used the word strategy a few times. I love all of that piece like what I really hated was actually doing the work. , like everything that came after, what was the fun part for me, even little things like having to build a customer or like I’m good with people.

 

 

I like talking to people. It’s, I’m a great salesperson, but honestly, like some of the customer service part of it was a little bit of a drag. I’m just not good at all the back and forth emails and things like that. Yeah. Stuff like that, which is hard. So coming together we realized pretty quickly, you know how opposite we are.

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah. And I know we’ve mentioned this in a previous podcast, but the strengths finder test really did help us Oh yeah. Hone in on that and really own, like letting you be who you are and letting me be who I am and loving the strengths in each other instead of mourning the maybe weaknesses of each other and like making that the thing that really irritates us.

 

 

Yeah. So instead of focusing on what we didn’t do well, we focused on what we do well, and coming into business together, we were able to find out that there are just simply things that you need to never touch and I need to never touch because you are really good at things and I’m really good at things and they’re not the same things.

 

 

So let each other be in our respective roles and we really compliment each other.

 

 

Avram Gonzales: I found that I was riding this like roller coaster in my business, both emotionally and financially because I had a push-pull relationship with the things that I liked versus didn’t like. So I would equivocate, I think in the back of my mind, every sale that I made, it was like, woo-hoo.

 

 

And then it was like, oh crap. Like now there’s all of this work and stuff to do that I don’t actually want to do. We have another mentor of ours. His name is Ivan Misner. He’s the founder of BNI Business Networking International. He uses this phrase all the time. He talks about being in your flame versus being in your wax, and I wanna talk about that here today because when it comes to choosing the right partner, now, by the way, when you’re looking at like a business partner, you don’t have to have a partner to be successful, but you do have to have a team.

 

 

So partner, team member. Those are interchangeable here. Okay. And for those of you who are just starting out, your first hire is gonna be a little bit different, and we’ll talk about that in a minute, about what your opposite your partner should actually be. All of us are geared to enjoy certain things and excel in those things, and if we were to spend more time in those roles, we would live a more happy, fulfilled, and prosperous life.

 

 

It’s all the other things that really suck the energy out of us. So the things that you, like Ivan Misner described as the flame, the things that you don’t like or that are hard for you to do, or they’re outside of your zone of genius, that’s your wax. So oftentimes solopreneurs spend a lot of time in both the flame and the wax struggling to get a lot of traction.

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: Well, and I think we also agonize about hiring the people to the things that we hate because. Why would we give someone something that hates Oh

 

 

Avram Gonzales: Yeah. Why put them through that?

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: We just, we’re, you and I are wired in such a way that there is no way that we would ever hire somebody to do something that we loathe because we would never burden them with that.

 

 

Avram Gonzales: They wanna put them through that.

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah. But what we have found coming together is that. You like, you’ve let an email ruin your whole day one time.

 

 

Avram Gonzales: That’s true.

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: Multiple times.

 

 

Avram Gonzales: Yes. More than multiple times.

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: And you’ve told me about it at the end of the day. And my question to you, if you remember it, was why didn’t you just forward that email to me and let me know that you needed help with this

 

 

Avram Gonzales: True.

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: Because you could have just sent it to me. Yeah. Been done with it in like five minutes if you needed to write a note to explain what was going on.

 

 

Avram Gonzales: That’s true.

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: And then it would be in my plate and oh boy, I would love to have something to do, especially if I was able to go and do something and check it off of a list. We have found working together that while you don’t love to do certain things, I love them. And while you love them, I don’t love them. So you found out that, oh my gosh, I can give someone something that they, a, they love it. I hate it, but they love it. So that you feel a little bit more free to, to do that.

 

 

And I think it’s a beautiful thing when you can when that aha moment happens for you.

 

 

Avram Gonzales: Right? I think the, I see it all the time in our household as well with Baby Lincoln and the kinda like the division of roles and there’s a lot of flexibility in that. Like we don’t always do the same things, but there are certain things, like one of the things that humbled me early in our relationship was I thought I was pretty good at Tetris stuff together.

 

 

Like I thought I had really good spatial awareness and I still maintain that I do, but she is way better at packing the car or like getting all of the things together. Who’s really good at knowing what to get together, me, I’m really good at making that list and knowing about and anticipating all of the possible things that could go wrong that we need to pack for and be prepared for.

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: And then I go ahead behind you and I get the list.

 

 

Avram Gonzales: Exactly.

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: I just put all this stuff in the bag or in the car.

 

 

Avram Gonzales: Exactly. And I think that’s why babies. Have two parents.

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah.

 

 

Avram Gonzales: And I know that there’s people that have a lot of different situations and how their family looks and what that’s like. But I don’t think anybody starts their journey of parenthood saying, I would love to do this all by myself.

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah.

 

 

Avram Gonzales: Because it, it is so hard and there’s just so much to it yet alone running and a business on top of it, it’s just crazy. I don’t know how some people do it, but people do it.

 

 

So ideally there’s at least two people involved when raising a baby. And I think with building a business, at least two people involved and making something substantial that can really grow. And so when we look at okay what should that first hire be like? And how do I what my opposite is cuz that’s actually what you’re looking for here?

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah.

 

 

Avram Gonzales: There’s a couple things we wanted to leave you with here today. I think first thing that you can do is you can look at and maybe track the tasks and things that you’re working on this week. Maybe do it for two weeks or something and just take note of all those things and then sit down with that list and ask yourself, did this thing give me energy or did it drain my energy?

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah.

 

 

Avram Gonzales: Because you’re gonna identify that you are one likely, one of two different people. This is something that changed my life. This is the piece I was teasing you about in the beginning. Most business owners are one of two different types of people. , you are either more geared towards the marketing and sales side of building the business or the operational side of the business, like the doing okay, and a business needs both of those people in order to thrive.

 

 

Now there’s somebody listening that’s like, I like both of these and I’m gonna tell you. , good luck with that. When you find out which way you actually lean, then you’ll be empowered to bring somebody in who can support you on the other side.

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: I think that we also need to remember as entrepreneurs we’re talking about all the strengths and leaning into those strengths and hiring.

 

 

For your weakness, having someone come in and help you to fill those roles that absolutely just drain you, that you procrastinate, that you doddle that you take forever to do that. You just don’t. You would rather go and clean the dog poop from your backyard than do these jobs.

 

 

Avram Gonzales: That’s a good point. This stuff you’re delaying.

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: And so if you’re delaying it, that’s a really good sign that you don’t like it, that you’re not empowered by it. You don’t wake up and get out of bed and think, yay, I’m gonna go do this. So sometimes in business alone, And not even sometimes in business alone, you feel like you need to do everything.

 

 

Maybe you’re constrained by budget, maybe you’re constrained by many different things. Sometimes we think that we need to be good at everything and do everything, even if we’re not good at everything, we have to duct tape and put some toothpaste on it just get it done.

 

 

Avram Gonzales: But only I can do this.

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: Right?

 

 

Only I can do this. But really, if you hired somebody and they were able to put a hundred percent of their effort behind that task, or any task that you gave them, they would do it better than you because you are not currently giving it a hundred percent of your attention.

 

 

Avram Gonzales: You’re being split in a million different ways, wearing all these different hats.

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: Exactly. So the thing that I believe once we came together and we saw that we were total opposites, instead of being mad at each other and head-to-head and butting heads, and You need to be better at this because I’m good at it and yada, we can really celebrate each other’s differences. We can celebrate what we bring to the relationship.

 

 

And if you are doing business alone, do yourself a favor and stop telling yourself the shoulds that the world is telling you of. I should be good at this. I should be good at that. I should do this. This should come easy to me. I should be able to handle this. All the things. If you say should before, whatever it is, you need to get rid of that task because nobody is good at everything.

 

 

And when you get someone in that can help you with the things that you don’t love, not only will you get energy back, your business will grow.

 

 

Avram Gonzales: But Rachel, how am I possibly gonna afford somebody who’s my opposite? Guess what? I’ve got you covered. Maybe it’s not that person right away, but there are so many opportunities available for you to unload 10 to 20 hours of your workload a week with a virtual assistant that will run circles around you doing all the admin stuff. Yeah, but Abraham, the admin stuff only takes me a little bit of time. Look, I hear you on that. But when you’re switching tasks over and over during the day, I don’t care how super superhuman you think you are losing a lot of energy and efficiency by having to do that so much. You can hire somebody, you can go to upwork.com. There’s a million different other places where you can hire a virtual assistant for five to 10 bucks an hour and get this out of the world. And they speak perfect English. Yeah, and they’ll be on it. They’ll work during your hours.

 

 

So there’s a lot of options and a lot of availability for people to fill those roles. Help you get into the driver’s seat of your business in the place where you love to. and be empowered by somebody covering all those things that you don’t like to do.

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: Yeah. I like to leave you with a challenge of don’t make excuses for why this can’t work for you. Ask better questions. How can I fill in the blank? How can I receive? How can I hire someone to help me with this? How can I find, ask different questions instead of making statements about how things aren’t working? Ask different questions and answers will appear.

 

 

Avram Gonzales: I love it. That’s a beautiful place for us to stop off here on today’s podcast.

 

 

Your first hire in choosing the right partner. I think this has been a brilliant discussion of all the ways. That working with your opposite and having people in your life that are different than you are only gonna help you be better, be stronger in your business to grow. So with that, we just appreciate you listening.

 

 

Thanks for dropping by. Connect with us on social media on all the different platforms. You can also drop us a line at hello@babiesandbiz.com. Let us know if you’ve got any questions or future podcast ideas you’d like us to cover. And make sure to hit that subscribe button, whether you’re on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, whatever platform you’re listening to us right now.

 

 

We appreciate you. We’ll see you on the next one. Bye for now.

 

 

Rachel Gonzales: Bye for now.