 Hey cleaning business owners. This is Derek with cleaning business builders. Although today I'm hanging out in my new business handyman connection I've owned it for a week in a day now. So I'm making lots of changes around here So I'm talking today about work life balance because I'm shooting these videos sort of stream of consciousness of what's going on in my life and Only multiple businesses including a new one work life balance is pretty important And we have a couple sayings at cleaning business builders One of which is what gets measured is what gets done, but I'm also a believer in what gets scheduled is what gets done So I'm going to talk to you about how some of the things I do to achieve work life balance And also kind of tell you a story of a side effect of it of how I accidentally ended up on a date And I'm married by the way, so I shouldn't be dating very bad, but we'll get to that later So one of the things I do to manage all my businesses is Tuesday is meeting day Once a week I step away from the businesses and switch into 100% CEO mode So I have meetings all day long so 8 a.m I meet with my sales team at handyman connection just added that this week and go over what they're selling What's in the pipeline? What can we expect to be coming on board in the next week at 8 30? I meet with the team at cleaning business today our trade publication So Tom Austin and I talk about what are the articles going to be? What's our advertising plan? What type of new products are we going to launch? Now 9 30 I meet with the team over at blue skies services I'm an investor with blue skies and also a consultant to them So I attend their management meeting where we talk about key measures 10 30 to 11 I get a 30 minute break to move around maybe eat something then 11 to 1 Tom Liz and I meet for cleaning business builders where we work on our new products our services things like that From One to 130 I've got a break to eat lunch and then 130 to 230 I meet with the castle keepers team Just like with blue sky services castle keepers is someone I do some consulting with and I'm helping them expand across the country And we've got a conference call to discuss how that's all going to work together from 230 to 330 I've got a conference call in a new acquisition. We're working on can't share yet But we're working on a new market. So that's that call 230 excuse me 330 to 4 I've got a 30 minute break and then 4 to 5 I meet with Randy and Kyle with real world services in Columbus So pretty much Tuesday from 8 a.m. Till 5 p.m. With the exception of an hour and a half I'm scheduled with calls and on those calls. We go over key measures. What are the plans? What's the strategy to make sure everything's staying on track? Now I apply this same scheduling principle to my personal life now. I'm not going to recommend this to everyone I will bet 85 percent of you maybe 90 are going to think this is a crazy system But it works for my wife and I I am happily married have two kids spend a lot of time with them And part of the reason why is our scheduling system So I might need a diagram to explain this But Monday night my wife is responsible for our kids, which means Monday night I'm free to do whatever I want. So Monday is the night that I work out with my trainer Tuesday I take care of the kids on Tuesday night. My wife goes and plays ice hockey Wednesday night My wife takes care of the kids and Wednesday night. I normally go running Thursday night. I take care of the kids again And Becky plays ultimate frisbee and then Friday night is a little bit complicated because we have a rotation And the way the rotation works out is it's four week rotation One week I have my daughter and Becky's got my son the next week we flip The week after that I take both kids the week after that she takes both kids So this ensures that every single week we each get some one-on-one time with one of our kids And then we're not every single week once a month and we normally try to make it something fun I'll go to king's island with them But something where I spend one-on-one time with them and then also Once every month we get a friday off to kind of do whatever we want in my case I normally work in Becky's case. She normally goes and hangs out with her girlfriends Saturday Becky takes care of the kids during the day and Saturday night We have a date night. So we always have a date just the two of us every Saturday Sunday I take care of the kids and then Sunday night is family time we do Family events family dinner and make sure that the whole family is together And there's a few other things in there every Thursday morning I take the kids out to a restaurant For breakfast and we get donuts and eggs and omelets and talk and hang out in the morning So that's how we schedule it and this ensures that every single night Someone's watching the kids Becky and I have time to work out do whatever we're interested in And it avoids a lot of jealousy and arguments with us when we first got married I'd be upset that Becky'd be hanging out with her friends She'd be upset that I was working too much and under this deal on Monday and Wednesday night If I want to work all night, that's cool But I have to be home Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5 p.m. non-negotiable Now I can work out. I can stay at work. I could go hang out with my friends I could do whatever I want, but that's the system that works for us So recently I did a training event in Indianapolis and people were asking me Well, why did you do Indianapolis and the real answer was it was the Friday rotation where I was off from the kids So Indianapolis is close enough that I could drive out Friday night spend the night Teach the class on Saturday got to dinner with everyone on Saturday be home in time for date night Saturday night So that's why I taught the class in Indianapolis. I didn't need to ask permission Now life isn't always that neat. Sometimes there's events or things we have to go to But since we've got an outline Becky and I kind of do swaps So sometimes on date night the discussion towards the beginning we're a little more romantic later on is logistical of Hey, you know, I've got to have a meeting on Thursday night when I'm supposed to watch the kids Can I swap Thursday for Wednesday with you this week and we do that type of stuff? So what gets scheduled what gets done and this makes sure every single month Becky or every single week Becky and I have a date every single week our family spends time together That our kids always have a parent at home that we have time to work out and stay in shape And everything is balanced for us and we have time to do our projects if I want to go to the comic book store Whatever, that's okay. And once a month we get someone on one time with the kids and once a month We get a free day on a Friday night to do whatever we want. Now, how did I end up on a date? Well, part of the reason why is I don't know if you've ever noticed this but I don't wear a wedding ring I'm very uncomfortable with jewelry. Just a little finicky thing with me. I don't like Necklaces watches and I don't like rings. So I lost my wedding ring Several times at which point we decided it was best that I just not get them anymore And about five years ago before we had a second my youngest or my eldest Lindsey was about four years old at the time And we didn't have any kids who lived on our street back then We moved since then but back then we didn't have any kids who lived on our street So Lindsey always seemed a little lonely to me and she was always talking about this kid at school mckinsey And mckinsey was her best friend. So I left mckinsey's mom a note that said, hey, you know, I'd love to go on a play date Becky Not Becky Lindsey's always talking about mckinsey. I would love to get the girls together, etc So we went on this play date and on the play date mckinsey's mom keeps asking these questions And she's like, wow, you're really active with Lindsey and I'm like, well, of course I am I take care of her on every monday and wednesday night and every, you know, every sunday and Remember no ring and as the night's going on she starts with, you know, the casual touching and Eventually starts moving to Attempting to pet me which is a little awkward And at that point I start realizing something weird is going on here and mckinsey keeps bringing up her dad And I guess they were divorced or never married and mckinsey's I didn't know that when I set up the play date Mckinsey's mom's like mckinsey stop talking about your daddy now. It's a bad time And that's finally when it dawns on me that I never used the word married with this woman My wife has a name. It's Becky. So especially back then I didn't tend to say my wife I would say, oh, yeah I take care of the of Lindsey on monday and wednesday and Becky takes care of her on tuesday and thursday And I realized I kind of sounded like a divorced guy So, uh, I had accidentally ended up on a date and I actually felt really guilty because this woman was like Wow, what a great guy. He's so involved in his daughter's life and look our kids already love each other And I'm sure she was already starting to imagine all the great things it could be So I kind of freaked out at that point and was like Lindsey, you got to go potty. She's like, no, I don't daddy I'm like, yes, you have to go potty daddy needs time to think so we went to the bathroom Uh, so lindsay could go potty and daddy could think of how to get out of this And I at that point had to figure out how to sneak in the words Wife and married in a way that would let mckinsey's mom back off Without being too embarrassed since it was my fault So if you use this plan, I highly recommend you wear a wedding ring or you at least manage to tell people you're married But that's how I achieve work life balance. It may not work for everybody. It may be a little over structured My mom thinks it's the weirdest system in the world But it works for us and that's what matters in your life And that's what's great about being an entrepreneur is you can develop your life Your systems How you want to and this works for us and I hope it gives you some ideas and uh, hopefully you follow us at cleaning business builders. Thanks