October 18, 2024 • 49 mins
In this episode of The Wayfinder Show, host Luis Hernandez interviews Craig and Meredith Bennett, hosts of The Road of Life podcast, who transitioned from corporate careers to full-time entrepreneurs. They discuss the importance of a shared vision in marriage and business, highlighting their relationship framework based on self-love, commitment to the relationship, injecting fun, and having a shared future vision. The Bennetts share their personal journey of overcoming limiting beliefs, personal development, and finding fulfillment in entrepreneurship. They also discuss the challenges and dynamics of married entrepreneurship and offer insights and advice for couples seeking to align their personal and professional lives.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
It's a research backed principlethat couples who have a shared
common vision, something thatthey're working towards, a North
Star that they're both buildingtowards together, they are more
likely to be successful in theirmarriage.
So it's really just aboutaligning both people in the
marriage about what is the endgoal?
(00:21):
What is it that we want in life?
Welcome to The Wayfinder Showwith Luis Hernandez, where
guests discuss the why and howof making changes that led them
down a more authentic path orallow them to level up in some
(00:43):
area of their life.
Our goal is to dig deep andprovide not only knowledge, but
actionable advice to help youget from where you are to where
you want to be.
Come join us and find the way toyour dream life.
Luis (01:06):
Welcome back to the wayfinder show.
I'm your host, Louie Hernandez.
And today we have a reallyspecial treat for you.
We have here today, Craig andMeredith Bennett.
Craig and Meredith are the hostsof the podcast called The Road
of Life.
they left a 9 to 5 corporategrind so they can become full
time entrepreneurs.
(01:28):
And as life partners andbusiness partners and best
friends, they work together tobecome the best version of
themselves while living theirdream life and helping others do
the same.
I thought this was a fascinatingtopic because my wife and I are
both entrepreneurs.
We pretty much have always beenour adult lives and we've tried
to do things together and nowwe're starting to talk about
(01:48):
doing something together again.
But the truth is it's neverreally worked out.
But you guys seem to do it andcoach others on how to do it and
all that.
So I'm kind of hoping, you know,this will be like a free
coaching call for me in exchangefor being on the wayfinder show.
So thanks for being here.
Yeah.
let's just start with a really easy one right off the
(02:09):
top.
Like what is the cheat code forlife?
Craig (02:14):
I think the cheat code for life is.
Having an exponentialrelationship.
It's having that relationshipthat, you know, you have that
person in your corner, whenever,you know, the proverbial.
Stuff hits the fan.
We want to know that we havethat person that's there no
matter what when our self doubtenters us when we're, you know,
(02:35):
questioning everything there isin life.
We're not questioning thisrelationship.
We know we have that solidfoundation right there with us.
Meredith (02:43):
And then it doesn't require all of your time,
attention and resources to beconstantly trying to repair or
walk on eggshells and arguinglike, You're not spending all of
your mental energy and timedealing with that.
So it frees you up to level upevery other area of your life.
Luis (02:59):
Oh, gosh, I love that.
I never thought of it as a cheatcode, but as you're saying that
i'm like, yeah, that's awesomeright because I think a lot of
times we do walk on eggshellswith our relationships We're
trying to make sure the otherperson doesn't feel bad take it
the wrong way but when we havesomebody we can just Say
whatever we feel transparent andknow that the other person is
not going to take it the wrongway, right?
We get past all that and we justget into helping each other out,
(03:22):
right?
Meredith (03:22):
Exactly.
That's actually one of ourfoundational pieces is that we
always assume positive intent.
We always give each other thebenefit of the doubt.
if there's two ways to interpretsomething he says, I do my very
best to assume he meant it inthe best way and give him the
benefit of the doubt.
If I can't see that, then I justget curious and ask questions
instead of assuming negativeintent.
Craig (03:43):
And doubling up on that, that, cheat code for life is
that when you have that dialedin, like you've now got two
people putting all their timeand energy towards.
The other parts, like buildingyour dream life, building your
business, building, you know,whatever it is that you want to
attack in life.
(04:04):
You've got now two people whoare fully focused on just
building that.
And they're not worried about,you know, this relationship and
having to repair or work onthat.
So yeah, really cool.
Luis (04:16):
I love that.
Well, tell us a little bit moreabout you all.
so how did you go?
I understand you had a bigcorporate life.
prior to this and you both justdecided to quit and start
working together.
Is that right and build abusiness
Meredith (04:28):
Yeah, we worked for the same company.
that's how we met originally Weworked for a large multinational
energy company.
So, we worked together and thecompany Eventually was going
through some transitions andthey decided to close the
office.
At the time we were also feelinglike we had more to offer than
the nine to five, our careerswere great, but it felt like we
(04:51):
had something else inside of usto contribute to the world.
We weren't fully fulfilled inwhat we were doing.
when they made the announcementthey were closing our office and
moving, we all still had jobs ifwe wanted them, we wanted to
move across the country, wecould, but we took that
opportunity to pause.
And is this like a giantflashing exit sign on the
highway that this is youropportunity to do something
(05:13):
different.
And it was an incrediblystressful time because, you
know, we didn't know what wewere going to do.
We didn't have a plan in placecause it, you know, came on us
quickly and we were very planfulpeople.
But when this opportunity cameup, we.
Trusted our gut and jumped outof the airplane.
Craig (05:33):
And to her point, we are planners, but that has gone
completely out the window aswe've embarked on this
entrepreneurial journey.
Like it's, you can't really plantoo far in advance.
It's one step at a time kind ofthing.
But at that time it was reallyjust.
it was almost like the universewas speaking to us.
It's like, you're not fulfilled.
Here's an opportunity.
And, you know, looking back now,as we've gone on this
(05:56):
entrepreneurial journey over thelast few years, we realize now
that the universe is alwaysworking in our favor And that
was just one of those moments intime where it was like, It felt
like a bad thing in the moment.
Like, your job is at risk.
You may have to move across thecountry, but if you take a
second and actually look at thatfor what it was, it was one of
(06:16):
the greatest gifts we've everbeen given.
Meredith (06:18):
In fact, an example within this, within this part.
When this was all happening soobviously it was a little bit
stressful and then my dad gotcancer and we thought it was
going to be his last Christmasso we went home to spend
Christmas with my dad and thenwe finally had another cancer
and you know it was a very avery emotional time.
And then we decided with that,that added perspective of we
(06:40):
want to be closer to our family.
Our parents aren't getting anyyounger.
Craig's grandmother is stillalive.
And we want to spend as muchtime with family as we can.
We don't want to move to theother side of the country.
So that really helped us makethat decision.
And then almost as soon as wemade that decision, my dad's
health did a 180.
My dad is Healthy as a horse.
Both cancers are gone.
(07:01):
it was like, you didn't see itin the moment, but looking back,
the universe so worked in ourfavor to give us what we needed,
when we needed it to make thatdecision.
Luis (07:09):
Did you guys meet at that company?
Meredith (07:12):
You did.
Luis (07:12):
you were both already working there.
You married.
you got married before, likeduring what?
So you, okay.
So you had intermarital affairsin the corporate office.
Got it.
Love it.
Yes.
It's a
Meredith (07:22):
very popular thing to do at our company.
Yeah.
Craig (07:24):
A
Meredith (07:24):
lot of companies.
Craig (07:26):
We met, we both worked there for a couple of years and
then eventually I took a new joband it moved me to a different
floor in a big office tower,Downtown.
And I happened to be on the samefloor as Meredith.
Now we were, you know, ouroffices were down the hall from
each other.
Bumped into each other in thecoffee room one day and went to
a retirement party for a coupleof colleagues that we both knew.
(07:49):
And that's how we actually metwas at a work event outside of
work where we first connected.
Luis (07:54):
So I find that interesting because that means that you guys
have, already had an identity,that was already with the
company.
that.
Probably made it a lot harder,right?
Like your whole connection,everything came through there.
Meredith (08:06):
Yeah, actually it was incredibly, that was an
incredibly difficult part ofthis whole transition from the
corporate life to theentrepreneurial life that we
didn't see coming.
I didn't realize, I don't thinkeither of us realized how much
our identities individually weretied to our corporate careers
and how we contributed in thatway so that once we were no
(08:27):
longer in that corporateenvironment and having that
corporate experience.
It took us a while to find ourgroove and find, like, my
identity was so tied to being ahigh performer and, you know, my
exceptional performance ratings,there was a lot of my identity
tied into that corporateexperience so that when that was
gone, that was tough.
Like, I had a journey ahead ofme for sure.
Luis (08:48):
Sure.
Craig (08:50):
Yeah, growing up with my parents, it was like I was
raised to believe that you go toschool, you get good grades, you
graduate, you go to schoolagain, you get more good grades,
and then you go and get acorporate job and you climb the
ladder and that's success,right?
When this decision was,presented to us and having to
(09:10):
consider life after thecorporate world and what that
meant, and not only to me and myidentity, but also what I was
brought up, how would my familythink the people closest to me,
who were proud
Meredith (09:21):
of you for where you were and what you were doing?
Yeah,
Craig (09:24):
there was a lot of, angst within me?
Am I making the right decision?
Is this the right path for me?
It always felt right.
In my gut my intuition But therewas always that thing in the
back of my mind that was sayingyeah But that's not how you were
raised like it was you weresupposed to be on this path And
(09:45):
everyone was really was proud ofyou being on that path.
Are you sure you want to veeroff that path?
There was always kind of thatlittle niggling.
So yeah, there was a hugeidentity component to this whole
decision for sure
Luis (09:56):
Yeah, and I think I asked this and you said yes, right you
so you got married while youwere there together Okay.
so already you can share whileyou're in there how you really
feel about the company.
And when it came time to makethat decision.
Good.
Tell me about the business nowthat you guys decided to go into
together.
Cause that's another interestingpiece.
(10:16):
you went into it right awaytogether as a couple to start a
business.
Meredith (10:20):
we jumped right in.
So like we said, we didn't knowwhat we were going to do when we
decided to leave the corporatelife behind.
We just knew that it felt right.
The first thing we thought wewould do because it seems like
the thing to do was to start areal estate investing business.
We wanted to get into realestate and, you know, everybody
makes money in real estate.
So let's get into real estate toreplace corporate incomes.
(10:41):
And so we jumped into a businessthat.
No, we were a little blinded, Ithink, by the altruistic nature
of the business we were tryingto start and how we could help
people in that business.
And didn't do all the homeworkwe could have done in terms of
how do the numbers actuallywork.
But we jumped in, we got abusiness coach, we got a
website, all the marketing, youknow, we did all the things.
(11:02):
And we realized within a fewweeks that we were absolutely
freaking miserable in thisbusiness.
Luis (11:09):
Yeah.
Meredith (11:10):
Hating
Craig (11:10):
it.
We, yeah, we just didn't do thehomework on.
We knew we wanted to dosomething for ourselves, work
for ourselves and build freedomin the life that we really truly
wanted.
But we didn't actually know atthe end of the day, what that
was.
We didn't have the goal, likethe end goal in mind.
We didn't really know what thatvision of our dream life was.
(11:34):
And some of the things that wewanted to do on our way to
getting there.
And so we just, yeah, jumpedinto this real estate business
because that's wheremillionaires make their money.
And we can, you know, when wecreate that amount of wealth,
then we can have such a largeimpact on the world and help
others in it.
It was just kind of a naive wayof doing this, right?
(11:55):
And so it took us a minute.
We realized that, this is notfor us.
And that's when we took a stepback and we did the homework to
realize what is it that we want?
What's going to make us happy?
What do we want our life to feellike?
And what is it that we'reultimately trying to achieve?
And so we took a few months andreally just hammered that.
The back of the
Meredith (12:13):
year, really.
Craig (12:14):
Yeah, hammered our mindset, understanding, you
know, we knew that we had a lotof limiting beliefs and a lot of
stereotypes.
Stuff within us that was goingto hold us back from achieving
that, that end goal that wereally truly envisioned for
ourselves.
So we really did the work thenat that point to really start to
focus on what that was for us.
Meredith (12:35):
We had a lot of success in our corporate career
without having to unpack any ofthose limiting beliefs.
we could coast along therepretty good and have some pretty
good success.
It wasn't until we becameentrepreneurs that we realized
we had to pop the hood andactually look inside.
One of the huge benefits ofentrepreneurship is that you get
to, on this journey to yoursuccess, actually become the
(12:55):
best version of you.
In fact, it's the only way toget there.
So, you know, we started thisbusiness that was in no way
aligned with the life we wantedto live.
And it was actually making usmiserable, not just ourselves,
but it was impacting ourrelationship.
And so that's when he said, weneed to have a change.
And so we, that's when welearned that we were both
miserable.
(13:15):
We both traded in our bigcorporate paychecks for
something that we hated evenmore.
That didn't pay us anything atthis point.
And that's when we, you know,pump the brakes and started our
personal development journey.
With no plan for what our nextbusiness would be.
That evolved later.
Luis (13:32):
Oh gosh.
I love that.
And kudos to you guys forrecognizing that early on, one
of the things that people don'trealize too is that real estate
can be a place where you go makea whole lot of money.
It's also a great place to losea lot of money, right.
But, yeah, but let's talk moreabout your journey though.
I'm hearing all of the, the, thelingo.
I'm suspecting we have a verysimilar, personal development
(13:54):
path, right?
so what did that look like?
What was the person before youeven get into your business?
What, I mean, was there a book,was there a training?
Was there something you went andsought out that really helped
you?
And
Craig (14:06):
there's so much like we we went hard at the personal
growth when we made thisdecision to leave that business
that was making us miserable.
we went to personal growth,conferences, events, we read
books, we listened to podcasts,There was an event in particular
that made us realize the levelof limiting beliefs that we held
within ourselves.
(14:26):
we still hadn't quite made thetransition out of real estate.
We weren't sure, whether realestate was going to be a part of
our future, And so this wasactually supposed to be a real
estate conference that we wentto, and it was in Salt Lake
City, Utah.
And we kept, we get to thisevent and they keep saying, it's
just your typical real estateconference.
And they, they had this likejoking.
(14:48):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like it was almost like a
Meredith (14:51):
regular run of the mill real estate conference,
nothing to see here.
Craig (14:55):
And we weren't sure what that meant, but then we realized
that it was really more aboutpersonal growth.
And so we did some, Activitiesaround identifying limiting
beliefs and then, you know, it'salmost like this, ritual where
you kind of break an arrow withyour neck, like it was, you
write your limiting belief onthe arrow and then you put the
(15:16):
arrow.
Meredith (15:17):
And we did one where you break a board with your
hand.
Craig (15:20):
It's scary, yeah.
And you break and you walk intothe air and it shatters your
limiting, and it's thisrepresentation of you moving
past this limiting belief.
Luis (15:29):
were some of those limiting beliefs at the time?
Meredith (15:31):
mine was, I'm not good enough.
I'm not smart enough.
I'm not good.
I'm a fill in the blank.
Enough.
I'm not enough.
Craig (15:38):
And similar, like, just a sense of unworthiness.
am I really cut out for this?
we've done the big one 80 in ourlife.
Am I actually capable ofpulling?
who am I?
I don't know anything aboutentrepreneurship.
what business do I have in doingthis kind of thing?
So that was a big limitingbelief for both of us.
Kind of similar, actually, ourupbringings are quite similar.
So it makes sense that ourlimiting beliefs were a little
(16:00):
bit similar as well.
Meredith (16:01):
And then there was another event too, that came
shortly after this one.
That was a game changer for me,especially that helped.
Me define my new identity sothat I was struggling with my
identity coming out of thecorporate world and being an
entrepreneur and struggling withmy self worth and not knowing
what I was going to do.
And, you know, you're at theseevents with other entrepreneurs
(16:23):
who seem to have it all figuredout.
Obviously you're the only onewho doesn't have it all figured
out from where you're sitting.
And then at this particularevent, a couple of the speakers
were talking about, writing downthe five identities that you
want.
I am a coach.
I'm a speaker.
What are the things in thepresent tense?
What are the identities you wantto hold, and then what are ten
attributes, ten truths aboutyou, and I struggled to write
(16:44):
those down, but I eventually didsort of define the identity that
I wanted to hold as future me,and I wrote those statements
out, I still write them outevery single day in my journal,
like I'm a very structuredjournaler, I write that stuff
out every day to remind myselfof who it is I want to be, and
I'm actively becoming thatperson because I'm The beauty of
(17:07):
writing that stuff down everyday is it keeps it front of mind
for me.
And so that in the run of a day,you know, when you're faced with
a decision or you're takingaction, which you do a million
times a day, that stuff, theperson you want to be is front
of mind.
So that when you make thatdecision, you make it in
accordance with that vision ofyou, that version of you that
you want to be.
So it's like you give yourself,I'm giving myself a check mark
(17:28):
in the proof column that Iactually am becoming that
version of me.
And that's really helped medefine who I wanted to be so
that I could then do the work tobecome that
Luis (17:37):
person.
And those are two like greatstrategies that we see over and
over when we're trying to createa new identity for ourselves
right is, first of all, we hadthat imposter syndrome like you
said, but we start to visualizewhat that person could be and
that's hard at first right andthen we affirm it like you were
writing it down or you can sayit to yourself all the time over
(17:58):
and over.
You just.
Say those until you believe ittill you actually see it.
Right.
And now you
Meredith (18:03):
believe it more when you actually see that, like the
actions that you're taking,like, yeah, I made a decision
the way that she would, the waythat the person I want to be
would make it.
So then you start to believewith every action you take,
that's aligned to that person.
The belief becomes stronger andstronger and stronger.
It's like, it's not just thewriting.
It's the actual actions.
Craig (18:21):
I would say that principle to be do have.
was one of the biggest gamechangers for our mindset in
that, you know, we've alwaysbeen more of like, Oh, I'll do
that.
Or I'll be that when I havethis, but it's the opposite,
right?
It's actually, you have tobecome the person.
So that thing that you want thatend goal, it's really about who
has that, what type of personare they?
(18:43):
what attributes does that personhave?
Luis (18:45):
And
Craig (18:46):
then you figure out how to make sure that you become
that person so that you can havethat business or that dream life
or whatever it is that you're.
trying to achieve.
That was a huge mindset shift.
That was a game changer for me.
Meredith (18:59):
Which was, I think, reinforced by the book Atomic
Habits and The Slight Edge.
Craig (19:02):
Excellent.
I just finished The Slight Edgeagain, actually.
I love it.
Luis (19:05):
Well, you guys know that one of the ones I read every
year is The Go Giver.
Yeah.
Actually, the place where Idiscovered The Slight Edge was
in a sales training for realestate, where, you know, they
give you The Go Giver when youfirst walk into the training.
And I didn't know that.
I just walk in and I had alreadyread it and now I realize like
the language, in there and theprinciples were so aligned that
(19:27):
of course it's the same thing,but you go and then they give
you this other book list.
And the first one on that newbook list is the slight edge and
then atomic habits isn't farbehind there.
And that just became a readinglist for like me and my team for
a while.
So these are great ones, butlet's go back to your business
though.
First of all, when you weredesigning a business, you
realize, real estate wasn't it.
You're going to do somethingdifferent.
(19:48):
did you know you want to do abusiness together?
Craig (19:51):
Yes.
Luis (19:51):
So you were committed to each other for a business
already too.
Okay.
Yeah.
Because that's a big deal.
Meredith (19:56):
Yeah.
Craig (19:56):
Yeah.
100%.
Luis (19:58):
Yeah.
Meredith (19:59):
We didn't even, I don't think anything we really
talked about not doing ittogether.
It was
Craig (20:03):
Yeah.
It never really was discussed.
I think the assumption was thatwe're going to leave our
corporate jobs and we're justgoing to figure it out.
We're going to go do a business.
We're going to figure out abusiness together.
Yeah.
Meredith (20:12):
Yeah.
Craig (20:13):
Yeah.
Luis (20:14):
So I guess let's talk about what that business is and
how did you come up with it?
Like why that?
Craig (20:20):
Yeah, it was on this journey of going to these
different events networking andmeeting different individuals
and there was a person we raninto he's a coach of a personal
development company.
And, you know, he was talking tous about our journey and what we
had been doing in our lives uptill now and he said, you know,
you guys have this press likethis, there's this something
(20:40):
about you, you should thinkabout coaching.
And so we took that on board andthought about that for a while
and that's ultimately, was theseed that was planted for us to
then, go to these events we'reseeing and talking to more
people in the personal growthspace and coaches and it just
started to land for us.
It felt like, yeah, you knowwhat, this actually is something
(21:04):
that.
Feels right.
And looking back, there's beenlittle hints of that throughout
my life.
Like I'm big into sports.
I've played sports all my life.
I've had coaches throughout mylife and I've coached, girls,
basketball teams.
And I was even a mentor in thebig brother, big sisters.
(21:26):
So it was a natural fit.
So
Meredith (21:28):
it was actually interesting when we both looked
back, how many times in ourlives we fell into coaching
roles that It sort of again,like the dots only connect when
you look back like, yeah, I'veactually done this in my
corporate life.
I was a personal trainer.
But when you look back, therewas so many instances of
coaching.
And then throughout all theseevents and meeting these people,
(21:50):
we had so many people asking uslike, you know, you two seem to
have something special in yourrelationship.
How, what do you do?
How do you do this?
How do you work so closelytogether?
Like what?
So everywhere we went, we hadpeople.
Asking us stuff.
Craig (22:06):
Yeah.
I think they noticed that wewere able to spend an inordinate
amount of time together.
You know, we spend a lot of timein our personal lives, building
our relationship, but then also,okay, now you're also building
businesses together.
So you're also working togetherquite closely and you're
traveling and doing all theseevents together.
And that's really cool.
I can't get my husband or Ican't get my wife to come to
these events with me.
(22:26):
How do you guys have this levelof a relationship?
How are you this close?
Help me understand it.
And.
So then it started in the backof our mind that, okay, maybe
there's something special hereabout our relationship and we
can help people connect on thatlevel.
And then at one of these events,we were asked to speak about
relationships.
And so we did.
And that is actually what reallysolidified that it's
(22:50):
relationship, it's marriage andcoaching that's our business.
That's our superpower.
That's how we're going to helppeople And that it's from there
that we've now built out, youknow a coaching business So
yeah, that was kind of how wegot there
Luis (23:03):
Wow, that's really inspirational So how about let's
look at the business then?
What what is the a lot ofcoaches?
They have a model a framework togo around for what they coach on
and do you all have that CauseI'm going to ask you to just
give it away.
Craig (23:17):
Yeah.
It's called an exponentialrelationship framework and it's
got basically four big pillars.
Four commitments.
Four commitments.
And the first one is you have tocommit to yourself.
You have to commit to self loveand your own worthiness.
you can only accept love to theamount that, you can give and
(23:37):
receive love.
Right?
So like, whatever you, You canonly, you can only, you can
Meredith (23:43):
only receive love to the amount that you love
Craig (23:45):
yourself.
So you
Meredith (23:46):
need to love yourself first to be able to be open, to
receive love and to be able togive love to somebody else.
So the first commitment isreally the commitment to
yourself, to love yourself, tobelieve in yourself, to believe
that you're enough in your ownself worth.
And there's a lot of work thatgoes into that for sure.
But that's the first commitment.
the second commitment Is the onethat most people would think
(24:09):
about it's the commitment to therelationship and that's really
the getting into the strategies,you know, that we mentioned way
at the beginning of the episodearound assuming positive intent,
giving the benefit of the doubt,things like that, building
trust, intimacy, communicationthrough vulnerability and
different exercises like that.
So it's really buildingconnection, and communication
(24:32):
through the lens of.
The mindset you approach yourrelationship with.
Craig (24:37):
Yeah.
And so once you have thatfoundation of that self love and
then you, build on top of that,the relationship, then we need
to start looking at injectingfun, joy, adventure, because
like, what is the point of allof this, if we're not having fun
in our relationship, if it stopsbecoming fun, we stop showing up
and we stop doing the things.
That are necessary to reallybuild that relationship and take
(25:00):
it to the next level.
Meredith (25:01):
That's when you see the breakdown in communication,
in trust, in intimacy.
Those things all follow thedeparture of fun in your
relationship.
And most of us don't thinkbecause life is busy.
Life is stressful.
There's kids, there's jobs.
It requires a lot of stuff andso prioritizing fun sometimes
falls by the wayside, but fun isactually the foundation upon
(25:25):
which we build a strongrelationship.
It's critical.
Luis (25:29):
So how does that, like, do you, I think sometimes we don't,
we start to take that part forgranted a lot in our
relationship, right?
We just, we, you know, is therein a way to be intentional about
it that, you know, keeps it topof mind?
Right.
Meredith (25:43):
Yeah, we do.
We do it a few different ways,actually.
we have kind of three differentapproaches to it.
the first one is to find ways toinject fun into the mundane
stuff in life.
Cause life is 99 percent mundaneand, you know, 1 percent
vacations and date nights andfun, fun stuff that you can see
as fun.
And that's an important part.
That's another one to focus on,but life is 99%.
(26:05):
Folding laundry, making dinner,the daily things we have to do.
And so we make an effort toinject fun into that day to day
mundane ness.
And we do that by, you know,neither of us like cooking, so
we do it together.
We turn on some music, we, youknow, make a mess and we bump
into each other and we'd have alittle dance in the kitchen.
(26:26):
And we try to make that part funbecause we both don't like it.
another thing we do that's fun,fun and weird is he created a
cardboard penis a few years ago.
For the backstory, for thebackstory, we, you know, it was
during COVID and we had masksshipped to us.
Craig (26:45):
I just made a modification and created this
thing and now we hide that thingback and forth for the other
person to find and it's just aweird game that makes us laugh
when it you know you're.
Taking out a shirt out of thecloset to put it on and out
comes this falls this cardboardpenis Gotcha, and now you have
to hide it on the other personyou don't want to get caught
with it You don't want to becaught hiding and it's just
yeah, it's this little that weplay that's just become fun
Luis (27:08):
Yeah,
Craig (27:08):
and then when you don't see them find it with your
eyeballs But then you see themwalking out of the room with the
shirt on that, you know, you hitit in You're you give them a
little wink like Like, gotcha,and then you know that it's
waiting for you somewhere in thehouse.
Yeah.
With a cupboard or a drawer orsomething.
So, just weird little thingsthat we can find to inject some,
(27:28):
some humor in, in life.
Meredith (27:30):
Something else he does is, he will sometimes, like, in
stealth mode, I don't know he'sdoing it, he'll write down in
the notes on his phone.
stuff that I say that he takescompletely out of context.
He doesn't record any contextwith it at all and he'll just
record it and I have no ideahe's done it and then like, I
don't know, a month later he'llbe like, he calls them McKay
(27:50):
isms because that's my lastname, McKay, and so he calls
them McKay isms.
He's like, you want to hear thelast few McKay isms?
And he'll read me things that Ihave said with absolutely zero
context but I can't remember whyI said it but they sound
ridiculous and We just laugh atthe stupid stuff that comes out
of my mouth sometimes.
That's
Luis (28:08):
funny.
Meredith (28:09):
It's just fun.
Yeah.
So we try to reject that.
Luis (28:14):
I love it.
That's really fun.
The fourth pillar.
Craig (28:16):
Yeah.
The fourth pillar is basicallythe commitment to the future.
So the fourth commitment wouldbe a commitment to the future
and it's building a sharedcommon vision.
And it's a research backedprinciple that couples who have
a shared common vision,something that they're working
towards a North star thatthey're both building towards
together.
(28:37):
They're more likely to besuccessful in their marriage.
So it's really just aboutaligning.
both people in the marriageabout what is the end goal?
What is it that we want in life?
What's our dream and aligningthat vision?
And just working towards it andby doing that all the little
things that happen that come upday to day that might you know
(28:57):
cause a little bit of a anargument or It's just a
discomfort in your marriage.
They fall by the wayside.
They've become so much lessimportant when you know what
you're driving towards that big,shiny North star.
That's the ultimate goal.
And it gives you a level ofcompassion and empathy.
When you know that the personnext to you is on your team,
(29:20):
you're striving towards that biggoal together.
And if they make a mistake orsomething doesn't go your way
and, you know, it would haveordinarily set you off course.
You just have that level ofcompassion and empathy knowing
that they're trying their best.
They're doing their best We're ateam and we're on our way to
this, north star.
So that's the fourth pillar
Luis (29:38):
yeah, I love that, you know my wife and I I think when
we had kids you kind of forgetall that it just becomes
survival like hey Let's justfigure out how to keep these
kids alive for 18 years and thenRight, but then now we're on the
other end of that.
So like my youngest is 16.
So we're almost free And, sowe're thinking about this, he's
going into 10th grade, and wegot three years is what we're
(29:59):
thinking, and we're starting to,in the last like year or so,
we've really, we've gone on moreroad trips together, and just
traveled, and we started to likedream again, and having, and now
we're thinking, okay, threeyears from now, it's just going
to be you and me again.
If all goes well, uh, at whichit better, or else I'll kill
her.
But the, uh, the, uh, the,anyway, so we started thinking
(30:22):
like, wow, you know, we realizedlike, we really like not being
tied down to a place.
So we want to try a couple ofyears of being nomadic.
And now we're starting toenvision what that would be like
and where we want to live.
And we went to Tokyo earlierthis year and we were like, Oh,
maybe we'll just do a year inTokyo.
Check that out.
And all this stuff.
and it's becoming like so muchfun to dream together again
(30:45):
about doing things like thatoutside of just like what you
got to do, you know, in a, it'sreally motivational and fun.
Meredith (30:53):
I think that's the most, it's weird to say, but I
think that's the most fun partof the whole framework.
You think the fun part is themost fun, but I think the, the
future, the building the future,that getting to dream, like
that's the work that we had todo that we hadn't done right at
the beginning when you opened,when we started that other
company, we hadn't done the workof like, what do we want our
life to be like?
Luis (31:12):
fun
Meredith (31:12):
to do that.
Luis (31:14):
Yeah.
So what does that look like foryou guys?
is it just to build a business
Craig (31:18):
Yeah, that was part of it for sure But it's like all areas
of your life your business yourfree time where you want to live
the travel that you want to doyour health We're very
intentional about all the areasof our life.
And we each did this exerciseindividually.
At first, we both went into ourseparate corners and wrote down
all of the things that we wannado in our life, in all the
(31:40):
areas.
Luis (31:40):
Mm-Hmm,
Craig (31:41):
And then we got together and we took both visions and we
shared what each other wrote,and then we incorporated them
into one vision of, ourrelationship, our dream life
vision for our life together.
Meredith (31:54):
And like yours.
We don't like being tied to oneplace.
So we're nomadic.
We're nomadic too.
Nice.
You're
Luis (32:00):
already nomadic.
Meredith (32:02):
Yeah.
We move
Craig (32:03):
around.
Yeah.
We, we, we travel quite a bit.
Our
Meredith (32:06):
home base is where we are right now in Canada where
it's where I grew up and it'svery close to where he grew up.
and it's beautiful in thesummertime.
It's absolutely gorgeous in thesummertime, but we don't love it
in the winter.
So the last few winters we havespent in either Arizona or
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Luis (32:26):
Oh, wow.
Meredith (32:27):
And it's the weather in both places is beautiful in
the winter here.
And so So we, you know, kind ofget the best of both worlds.
We get to be here in the summerwhen it's lovely.
And then we like to leave in thewinter and go somewhere
different.
eventually we want to build thatout and be even more nomadic.
We've got our, part of ourvision.
I don't know if you've ever seenthe Airstream Atlas, touring
(32:49):
coach.
Luis (32:49):
Yeah.
Meredith (32:51):
We want to
Luis (32:51):
do the van life.
Meredith (32:52):
want to give that a go.
Craig (32:53):
we're super into the road trips like you, like, we've got
a dream of kind of travelingaround Canada, the U S and kind
of going to all the, all the
Luis (33:02):
Americas,
Craig (33:03):
the hiking and checking out the different ballparks,
like baseball ballparks andstuff.
Oh, we got
Luis (33:07):
to meet up along the way then.
Yeah.
Yeah, sure.
Yeah.
Meredith (33:11):
We've got a bucket list item of seeing every
ballpark and every footballstadium for whatever reason.
Okay.
Luis (33:16):
I love it.
Yeah.
Nice.
So, all right, let's go intowhen these four.
pillars break down, right?
Cause these, these are, theseare great by the way.
But what about like, where,where do people come to you
usually?
Do they come to you when they'vealready kind of realized there's
some alignment?
Hey, we want to do life togetherand fix it.
or do they come to you when theyneed marriage counseling
(33:39):
essentially.
Craig (33:41):
Yeah, it's usually there's a breakdown in the
marriage.
They're unhappy in therelationship.
A lot of times, you'll talk tofolks and it's usually the same
core four.
Lack of communication.
We've lost intimacy.
There's a breakdown in trust.
We drifted over the years.
Meredith (33:58):
Yeah.
Craig (33:58):
No connection.
And so those are kind of thereasons why people will normally
put their hand up.
Like we're struggling a littlebit.
And then when you get into it alittle bit more there, those are
issues for sure, but there'salso some other stuff that's,
you know, you don't think aboutlike, well, there's some
limiting beliefs there aboutyour worthiness, there might be
(34:19):
some patterns of acceptingthings that, you deserve better
than.
And then there's, and that comesdown to a worthiness thing.
and then fun has been gone foryears, you know, they, they
focused on kids for so long thatthey've lost the intentionality
in their own marriage.
And so usually they come for theone reason it's, you know, we
(34:40):
can't communicate, we argue toomuch or we're always fighting or
we never spend any timetogether, things like that.
But it evolves into, there,there's always so much more
under the surface.
That's the kind of like thesurface level problem, but
there's always more underneathit.
Meredith (34:55):
we would love to talk to people earlier, so they don't
have to get to that point wherethey feel completely
disconnected and like strangersand they're, you know, they're
really starting to feel reallyunhappy.
We'd love to chat, to talk topeople before they get to that
point so that they never have toget there.
It's just, people don't tend to.
You know, raise their hand andreach out for help until it's
gotten to a point that it'sunsustainable.
(35:17):
Most people wait for the, thepain of the situation to have
gotten so greater than the, youknow, the pain of the discomfort
of having to change.
So people wait until it's gottento the point that it's, I can't
keep going like this.
we can't continue like this.
We need help as opposed to, Ican see we're headed down this
path.
but I'm going to wait till weget there to raise my hand.
(35:39):
Usually.
Craig (35:41):
Yeah, human nature is we avoid problems as much as we
can, right?
It's human nature and ultimatelyin a marriage that can compound
the problem and make things somuch worse down the line.
it's really great when someonecan identify like, Ooh, I'm
feeling this now.
It's only going to get worse ifI don't deal with it in the
moment.
Luis (36:00):
Well, I, I, I love this topic actually before I, we, I
know we're getting close to theend, but I'd like to ask you
just, you have this concept ofmarried preneurship.
I love that term.
Never heard of you.
Did you guys coin it?
Craig (36:15):
I don't think so.
I think I've heard it elsewhereas well.
It's, okay.
Luis (36:20):
Let me put it on pause so I can look it up and see if it's
available to sell it to youguys.
Just kidding.
What a great term.
So just describe that a littlebit.
I know it's go ahead anddescribe it in your own words.
Craig (36:37):
It's entrepreneurs.
it's basically two peoplejoining forces as a married
couple and going through theentrepreneurial journey
together.
it's basically entrepreneurshipis, a journey.
It's.
Stressful.
It's challenging.
it comes to ups and downs.
The ups are so fantastic.
It makes all the downs worth it.
But there are some moments whereyou question yourself, you
(36:59):
question every decision thatyou're making.
Why am I doing this?
There are those moments.
Meredith (37:03):
Yeah.
And it's lonely sometimes,
Craig (37:06):
you
Meredith (37:06):
know, oftentimes I find as an entrepreneur.
you're creating your own pathsometimes and not everyone
necessarily understands it.
So, it sometimes feels a bitisolating.
And so it's helpful when you'vegot that other person that
understands the vision that, youknow, when you're having those
down days where it's what am Idoing?
We don't usually have them atthe same time.
(37:28):
It's helpful.
Like, my down day, isn't thesame as his down day.
And my update isn't always thesame as his.
So we can kind of pull eachother back and forth.
We can pull each other out ofthose lower days.
And you've got someone sort ofshoulder to shoulder with you
who understands what it's allfor.
You can be on the same page inlife, in business, at home,
(37:48):
everywhere.
You've got someone, you've got ateammate.
Craig (37:51):
And it's really cool because.
As an entrepreneur, you'reconstantly growing.
It's human nature to want togrow.
And I just find it so much of abigger thing, in
entrepreneurship.
when you're growing together,you're not growing apart.
so many times as anentrepreneur, we've heard that,
they're growing constantlytrying to build this business
(38:12):
and grow as a human being tobecome that best version of
themselves to have that visionat the end of the day.
And many times their spouse.
isn't as interested in that.
They're maybe not growing at thesame rate.
And when you do that, youeventually, yeah, kind of grow
apart.
And so married partnership is,is kind of growing together and
becoming the best versions ofyourselves.
(38:34):
And it's also growing yourmarriage and your business and
your life becomes exponential.
Luis (38:39):
So with your coaching is married partnership, the goal,
Meredith (38:44):
entrepreneurs.
Especially marriedentrepreneurs, have an added
layer of complexity, right?
They've got this sort of uniquesituation that other married
couples don't necessarily have.
And so it's nice to have someonewho speaks their language, who
understands what they're goingthrough, owning your own
business and working throughthat together as a couple.
So we like to help entrepreneursbecause we understand them, in a
(39:08):
way that not necessarilyeverybody does, but we don't
only help entrepreneurs.
Luis (39:13):
Okay.
Great.
let's get into it.
Cause we got a two for onespecial today with our world
famous Wayfinder four.
So, all right.
You can't.
Not, you know, when we get tothe part about favorites, no
cardboard penises, please.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you Let's start off with ahack something you guys use to
(39:35):
cheat Life with and you guys caneach give me one
Meredith (39:40):
What comes to mind for me is walking?
Luis (39:43):
Yeah,
Meredith (39:43):
we walk together every day and it helps us connect like
we have good conversation whenwe're walking together You know,
it's just good for our health toget our steps in it gets the
blood pumping We're also morecreative when we walk so it
benefits our business So walkingis almost like the secret
ingredient that helps ourbusiness and our marriage and
our health for that matter It'swalking is a life hack for us
Craig (40:06):
And another one is sleep.
I would say make sure thatyou're getting good quality 7 8
hours of sleep every night.
And I know that there'sentrepreneurs, you know, you're
You might have to pull an allnighter or whatever limited as
much as you can do as much asyou can to get that sleep That
is so vital for your health andit keeps you Energized and going
(40:28):
for the next day.
Meredith (40:29):
He just finished the book why we sleep.
It's very front of mind
Luis (40:32):
No, I i'm with you though.
I'm a hardcore runner and thatreally got me into getting good
sleep habits and I gotta tellyou like I'm a big believer that
all those, like all-nightersthat we used to pull, like
they're really not necessary.
If you prioritize sleep, it'llhelp you plan out everything.
So you don't have to pull theall-nighters.
Exactly.
I agree
Craig (40:51):
a
Luis (40:51):
hundred percent.
Meredith (40:51):
Look at that.
We're in common.
Luis (40:53):
Cool.
By the way, my wife and I also,you mentioned walking right now.
We're not in that cause it'sjust been too hot at the time
that we normally would go walk,but we usually would do an
afternoon walk together with thedogs and it was so good.
That's when we recapped the day.
and I really look forward to it.
The weather's starting to turnagain and I can't wait to get
back to that.
Cause we were just talking aboutthat earlier.
(41:13):
And so that's good.
Craig (41:14):
That's a great answer.
Luis (41:15):
Cool.
So how about a favorite?
This could be a book, a show,not a cardboard penis, but
anything else.
Not a cardboard penis.
Meredith (41:23):
My favorite book, so far anyway, is The Mountain Is
You.
Actually, any book by BriannaWiest.
Luis (41:30):
She
Meredith (41:31):
is fabulous.
But The Mountain Is Youspecifically is my favorite of
hers, but I'll read anythingshe's written.
Luis (41:39):
I feel like a great book.
Okay.
Awesome.
How about you?
Craig.
Craig (41:45):
my top book.
Oh, there's so many.
It could be anything.
It could
Luis (41:49):
be anything.
Spore, hobby, uh, you know,show.
Oh, uh, favorite
Craig (41:52):
TV show.
I'll give you a great TV show,it actually has some really cool
life philosophies and lessons,and it's called Ted Lasso.
Luis (42:03):
When you said life philosophies, I kind of knew you
were going to say Ted Lasso.
You know, I've never seen it.
I've never seen it, but a fewpeople have used that one.
You have to watch it.
Yeah.
And actually now I know I'mlying.
I did have another, uh, coupleof other couples and, and they,
they have a business tootogether and they, they teach
people how to be, uh, innovativeand creative through improv and,
(42:27):
uh, awesome.
You guys need to have them onthe show on your show.
They're great.
I'll give you their info, butthey said Ted Lasso too, and all
about how it was really funny.
Okay.
Yeah.
So how about a piece of advicefor you?
Younger self.
Meredith (42:43):
Stop caring so much what other people think.
I was so caught in that for solong, like until my turn 40, I
cared.
It's still a battle.
It's not something I'vecompletely released, but I was a
massive people pleaser.
I had zero boundaries, peoplepleasing to the end of the year.
Stop caring what other peoplethink.
Craig (43:03):
Yeah.
just do the thing.
Just do it.
Just take the step.
Do the thing.
And don't worry aboutperfection.
There's no such thing asperfection.
Just get started and do it.
Whatever's on your heart.
Don't wait.
Just do it.
Luis (43:17):
Yeah.
And they go well together.
Right.
Just do it.
And don't stop giving a rat'sbehind about what others think.
Right.
Yeah.
And as podcasters, I think wehave to embrace both of those
and just, right.
Yeah.
Meredith (43:30):
Something we've really taken away from the podcast for
sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Craig (43:33):
If we waited to start our first episode until we were
ready, we still would not haverecorded one episode.
Luis (43:38):
Oh, a hundred percent, man.
And me, like, I can't standlistening to my voice, right?
And I think that's a reallycommon thing.
Now I've grown comfortable withit, but it was so hard.
And you're afraid of all the umsand ahs and all these things,
after a while, it's just like,drop it.
Who cares?
Like what they, you know?
Just being human.
Meredith (43:55):
That's
Luis (43:56):
cool.
So this one, I'll give you achoice, for each.
Give us either a big opportunityor a limiting belief.
Meredith (44:04):
Like, of my own?
Luis (44:05):
Mm hmm.
Meredith (44:06):
Yeah.
Luis (44:06):
Or, or that you see or are working on, whatever.
Either an opportunity or alimiting belief?
Meredith (44:12):
my limiting belief, I'm still working on it, I'm
working on it every day, is I'mnot enough.
And so every single day, I lookin the mirror, make eye contact
with myself, I smile at myself,I say I love you, I'm proud of
you, you've got this, and I givemyself a high five in the mirror
every day.
And it's been really helping.
I love it.
It's a work in progress for me,for sure.
Craig (44:34):
Yeah, and for me, it's, similar.
I struggle with theperfectionism and the, you know,
never wanting to be seen as,wrong or not doing something
completely right.
And so, for me, it's a constantbattle of fighting that.
just do the thing.
Just take the step.
Nobody cares.
(44:54):
Nobody's paying that muchattention to you.
Do it.
So it's a constant battle forperfectionism for me.
and I do struggle a little bitsometimes with, being seen and
telling my story, I've alwayshad a mindset of like who really
cares about your story, but I'mlearning and I'm getting there
that it's actually reallyimportant.
(45:14):
It can help a lot of people.
And if I'm not a hundredpercent, or if I don't tell my
story, I can't help as manypeople as I want.
Luis (45:21):
That's right.
Yeah, I love that.
You know, I had a hard time withthat too, because I didn't
really, I think with my story,like, I'm just like, who cares?
You know, nobody wants that.
I, I now, I don't know.
And, and we make up our ownstories, right?
We are whatever we think we are.
So, like, but, I think to growthe Wayfinders show, I started
to get on more podcasts and, andto get on more, people just want
(45:43):
to hear your story.
That's why they let you on.
And I'm realizing like, Ohshoot, really?
And I want to talk about this,but they want to know my story
and I'm like, okay, so it's,there are people who want to
hear it.
Get out there and share it.
Alright, so what about contactinformation?
how can we, if people want toknow more about you?
Meredith (46:02):
Yep, we are on Instagram.
You can find us at Meredith andCraig on Instagram.
And we've got the Road of Lifepodcast so you can find us there
as well.
Luis (46:13):
Awesome.
And we've got a website.
Craig (46:16):
Yeah, what's
Luis (46:17):
the website?
Craig (46:17):
www.
roadoflifecoaching.
com.
Luis (46:23):
guys, this has been a real treat.
I really, really enjoyed this.
I'm going to take this episodeand, you know, take it back
today.
Hopefully on our evening walkwith my wife, it's starting to
cool again.
So we can, maybe this is a goodexcuse to start walking together
again and share about, what I'vehad here.
Maybe.
You know, one day, who knows,we're, we're starting to discuss
a possible venture togetheragain for the first time in like
(46:45):
15 years.
So, maybe, you know, we can talkabout that in the future as
well.
Yeah.
You guys are inspirational.
So keep doing what you're doingand sharing it with the world.
It's, it's awesome.
Thank you for being here.
Meredith (46:57):
This was a pleasure.
We hope you've enjoyed TheWayfinder Show.
If you got value from thisepisode, please take a few
seconds to leave us a 5 starrating and review.
This will allow us to help morepeople find their way to live
more authentic and excitinglives.
We'll catch you on the nextepisode.
It's a research backed principlethat couples who have a shared
common vision, something thatthey're working towards, a North
Star that they're both buildingtowards together, they are more
likely to be successful in theirmarriage.
So it's really just aboutaligning both people in the
marriage about what is the endgoal?
(00:21):
What is it that we want in life?
Welcome to The Wayfinder Showwith Luis Hernandez, where
guests discuss the why and howof making changes that led them
down a more authentic path orallow them to level up in some
(00:43):
area of their life.
Our goal is to dig deep andprovide not only knowledge, but
actionable advice to help youget from where you are to where
you want to be.
Come join us and find the way toyour dream life.
Luis (01:06):
Welcome back to the wayfinder show.
I'm your host, Louie Hernandez.
And today we have a reallyspecial treat for you.
We have here today, Craig andMeredith Bennett.
Craig and Meredith are the hostsof the podcast called The Road
of Life.
they left a 9 to 5 corporategrind so they can become full
time entrepreneurs.
(01:28):
And as life partners andbusiness partners and best
friends, they work together tobecome the best version of
themselves while living theirdream life and helping others do
the same.
I thought this was a fascinatingtopic because my wife and I are
both entrepreneurs.
We pretty much have always beenour adult lives and we've tried
to do things together and nowwe're starting to talk about
(01:48):
doing something together again.
But the truth is it's neverreally worked out.
But you guys seem to do it andcoach others on how to do it and
all that.
So I'm kind of hoping, you know,this will be like a free
coaching call for me in exchangefor being on the wayfinder show.
So thanks for being here.
Yeah.
let's just start with a really easy one right off the
(02:09):
top.
Like what is the cheat code forlife?
Craig (02:14):
I think the cheat code for life is.
Having an exponentialrelationship.
It's having that relationshipthat, you know, you have that
person in your corner, whenever,you know, the proverbial.
Stuff hits the fan.
We want to know that we havethat person that's there no
matter what when our self doubtenters us when we're, you know,
(02:35):
questioning everything there isin life.
We're not questioning thisrelationship.
We know we have that solidfoundation right there with us.
Meredith (02:43):
And then it doesn't require all of your time,
attention and resources to beconstantly trying to repair or
walk on eggshells and arguinglike, You're not spending all of
your mental energy and timedealing with that.
So it frees you up to level upevery other area of your life.
Luis (02:59):
Oh, gosh, I love that.
I never thought of it as a cheatcode, but as you're saying that
i'm like, yeah, that's awesomeright because I think a lot of
times we do walk on eggshellswith our relationships We're
trying to make sure the otherperson doesn't feel bad take it
the wrong way but when we havesomebody we can just Say
whatever we feel transparent andknow that the other person is
not going to take it the wrongway, right?
We get past all that and we justget into helping each other out,
(03:22):
right?
Meredith (03:22):
Exactly.
That's actually one of ourfoundational pieces is that we
always assume positive intent.
We always give each other thebenefit of the doubt.
if there's two ways to interpretsomething he says, I do my very
best to assume he meant it inthe best way and give him the
benefit of the doubt.
If I can't see that, then I justget curious and ask questions
instead of assuming negativeintent.
Craig (03:43):
And doubling up on that, that, cheat code for life is
that when you have that dialedin, like you've now got two
people putting all their timeand energy towards.
The other parts, like buildingyour dream life, building your
business, building, you know,whatever it is that you want to
attack in life.
(04:04):
You've got now two people whoare fully focused on just
building that.
And they're not worried about,you know, this relationship and
having to repair or work onthat.
So yeah, really cool.
Luis (04:16):
I love that.
Well, tell us a little bit moreabout you all.
so how did you go?
I understand you had a bigcorporate life.
prior to this and you both justdecided to quit and start
working together.
Is that right and build abusiness
Meredith (04:28):
Yeah, we worked for the same company.
that's how we met originally Weworked for a large multinational
energy company.
So, we worked together and thecompany Eventually was going
through some transitions andthey decided to close the
office.
At the time we were also feelinglike we had more to offer than
the nine to five, our careerswere great, but it felt like we
(04:51):
had something else inside of usto contribute to the world.
We weren't fully fulfilled inwhat we were doing.
when they made the announcementthey were closing our office and
moving, we all still had jobs ifwe wanted them, we wanted to
move across the country, wecould, but we took that
opportunity to pause.
And is this like a giantflashing exit sign on the
highway that this is youropportunity to do something
(05:13):
different.
And it was an incrediblystressful time because, you
know, we didn't know what wewere going to do.
We didn't have a plan in placecause it, you know, came on us
quickly and we were very planfulpeople.
But when this opportunity cameup, we.
Trusted our gut and jumped outof the airplane.
Craig (05:33):
And to her point, we are planners, but that has gone
completely out the window aswe've embarked on this
entrepreneurial journey.
Like it's, you can't really plantoo far in advance.
It's one step at a time kind ofthing.
But at that time it was reallyjust.
it was almost like the universewas speaking to us.
It's like, you're not fulfilled.
Here's an opportunity.
And, you know, looking back now,as we've gone on this
(05:56):
entrepreneurial journey over thelast few years, we realize now
that the universe is alwaysworking in our favor And that
was just one of those moments intime where it was like, It felt
like a bad thing in the moment.
Like, your job is at risk.
You may have to move across thecountry, but if you take a
second and actually look at thatfor what it was, it was one of
(06:16):
the greatest gifts we've everbeen given.
Meredith (06:18):
In fact, an example within this, within this part.
When this was all happening soobviously it was a little bit
stressful and then my dad gotcancer and we thought it was
going to be his last Christmasso we went home to spend
Christmas with my dad and thenwe finally had another cancer
and you know it was a very avery emotional time.
And then we decided with that,that added perspective of we
(06:40):
want to be closer to our family.
Our parents aren't getting anyyounger.
Craig's grandmother is stillalive.
And we want to spend as muchtime with family as we can.
We don't want to move to theother side of the country.
So that really helped us makethat decision.
And then almost as soon as wemade that decision, my dad's
health did a 180.
My dad is Healthy as a horse.
Both cancers are gone.
(07:01):
it was like, you didn't see itin the moment, but looking back,
the universe so worked in ourfavor to give us what we needed,
when we needed it to make thatdecision.
Luis (07:09):
Did you guys meet at that company?
Meredith (07:12):
You did.
Luis (07:12):
you were both already working there.
You married.
you got married before, likeduring what?
So you, okay.
So you had intermarital affairsin the corporate office.
Got it.
Love it.
Yes.
It's a
Meredith (07:22):
very popular thing to do at our company.
Yeah.
Craig (07:24):
A
Meredith (07:24):
lot of companies.
Craig (07:26):
We met, we both worked there for a couple of years and
then eventually I took a new joband it moved me to a different
floor in a big office tower,Downtown.
And I happened to be on the samefloor as Meredith.
Now we were, you know, ouroffices were down the hall from
each other.
Bumped into each other in thecoffee room one day and went to
a retirement party for a coupleof colleagues that we both knew.
(07:49):
And that's how we actually metwas at a work event outside of
work where we first connected.
Luis (07:54):
So I find that interesting because that means that you guys
have, already had an identity,that was already with the
company.
that.
Probably made it a lot harder,right?
Like your whole connection,everything came through there.
Meredith (08:06):
Yeah, actually it was incredibly, that was an
incredibly difficult part ofthis whole transition from the
corporate life to theentrepreneurial life that we
didn't see coming.
I didn't realize, I don't thinkeither of us realized how much
our identities individually weretied to our corporate careers
and how we contributed in thatway so that once we were no
(08:27):
longer in that corporateenvironment and having that
corporate experience.
It took us a while to find ourgroove and find, like, my
identity was so tied to being ahigh performer and, you know, my
exceptional performance ratings,there was a lot of my identity
tied into that corporateexperience so that when that was
gone, that was tough.
Like, I had a journey ahead ofme for sure.
Luis (08:48):
Sure.
Craig (08:50):
Yeah, growing up with my parents, it was like I was
raised to believe that you go toschool, you get good grades, you
graduate, you go to schoolagain, you get more good grades,
and then you go and get acorporate job and you climb the
ladder and that's success,right?
When this decision was,presented to us and having to
(09:10):
consider life after thecorporate world and what that
meant, and not only to me and myidentity, but also what I was
brought up, how would my familythink the people closest to me,
who were proud
Meredith (09:21):
of you for where you were and what you were doing?
Yeah,
Craig (09:24):
there was a lot of, angst within me?
Am I making the right decision?
Is this the right path for me?
It always felt right.
In my gut my intuition But therewas always that thing in the
back of my mind that was sayingyeah But that's not how you were
raised like it was you weresupposed to be on this path And
(09:45):
everyone was really was proud ofyou being on that path.
Are you sure you want to veeroff that path?
There was always kind of thatlittle niggling.
So yeah, there was a hugeidentity component to this whole
decision for sure
Luis (09:56):
Yeah, and I think I asked this and you said yes, right you
so you got married while youwere there together Okay.
so already you can share whileyou're in there how you really
feel about the company.
And when it came time to makethat decision.
Good.
Tell me about the business nowthat you guys decided to go into
together.
Cause that's another interestingpiece.
(10:16):
you went into it right awaytogether as a couple to start a
business.
Meredith (10:20):
we jumped right in.
So like we said, we didn't knowwhat we were going to do when we
decided to leave the corporatelife behind.
We just knew that it felt right.
The first thing we thought wewould do because it seems like
the thing to do was to start areal estate investing business.
We wanted to get into realestate and, you know, everybody
makes money in real estate.
So let's get into real estate toreplace corporate incomes.
(10:41):
And so we jumped into a businessthat.
No, we were a little blinded, Ithink, by the altruistic nature
of the business we were tryingto start and how we could help
people in that business.
And didn't do all the homeworkwe could have done in terms of
how do the numbers actuallywork.
But we jumped in, we got abusiness coach, we got a
website, all the marketing, youknow, we did all the things.
(11:02):
And we realized within a fewweeks that we were absolutely
freaking miserable in thisbusiness.
Luis (11:09):
Yeah.
Meredith (11:10):
Hating
Craig (11:10):
it.
We, yeah, we just didn't do thehomework on.
We knew we wanted to dosomething for ourselves, work
for ourselves and build freedomin the life that we really truly
wanted.
But we didn't actually know atthe end of the day, what that
was.
We didn't have the goal, likethe end goal in mind.
We didn't really know what thatvision of our dream life was.
(11:34):
And some of the things that wewanted to do on our way to
getting there.
And so we just, yeah, jumpedinto this real estate business
because that's wheremillionaires make their money.
And we can, you know, when wecreate that amount of wealth,
then we can have such a largeimpact on the world and help
others in it.
It was just kind of a naive wayof doing this, right?
(11:55):
And so it took us a minute.
We realized that, this is notfor us.
And that's when we took a stepback and we did the homework to
realize what is it that we want?
What's going to make us happy?
What do we want our life to feellike?
And what is it that we'reultimately trying to achieve?
And so we took a few months andreally just hammered that.
The back of the
Meredith (12:13):
year, really.
Craig (12:14):
Yeah, hammered our mindset, understanding, you
know, we knew that we had a lotof limiting beliefs and a lot of
stereotypes.
Stuff within us that was goingto hold us back from achieving
that, that end goal that wereally truly envisioned for
ourselves.
So we really did the work thenat that point to really start to
focus on what that was for us.
Meredith (12:35):
We had a lot of success in our corporate career
without having to unpack any ofthose limiting beliefs.
we could coast along therepretty good and have some pretty
good success.
It wasn't until we becameentrepreneurs that we realized
we had to pop the hood andactually look inside.
One of the huge benefits ofentrepreneurship is that you get
to, on this journey to yoursuccess, actually become the
(12:55):
best version of you.
In fact, it's the only way toget there.
So, you know, we started thisbusiness that was in no way
aligned with the life we wantedto live.
And it was actually making usmiserable, not just ourselves,
but it was impacting ourrelationship.
And so that's when he said, weneed to have a change.
And so we, that's when welearned that we were both
miserable.
(13:15):
We both traded in our bigcorporate paychecks for
something that we hated evenmore.
That didn't pay us anything atthis point.
And that's when we, you know,pump the brakes and started our
personal development journey.
With no plan for what our nextbusiness would be.
That evolved later.
Luis (13:32):
Oh gosh.
I love that.
And kudos to you guys forrecognizing that early on, one
of the things that people don'trealize too is that real estate
can be a place where you go makea whole lot of money.
It's also a great place to losea lot of money, right.
But, yeah, but let's talk moreabout your journey though.
I'm hearing all of the, the, thelingo.
I'm suspecting we have a verysimilar, personal development
(13:54):
path, right?
so what did that look like?
What was the person before youeven get into your business?
What, I mean, was there a book,was there a training?
Was there something you went andsought out that really helped
you?
And
Craig (14:06):
there's so much like we we went hard at the personal
growth when we made thisdecision to leave that business
that was making us miserable.
we went to personal growth,conferences, events, we read
books, we listened to podcasts,There was an event in particular
that made us realize the levelof limiting beliefs that we held
within ourselves.
(14:26):
we still hadn't quite made thetransition out of real estate.
We weren't sure, whether realestate was going to be a part of
our future, And so this wasactually supposed to be a real
estate conference that we wentto, and it was in Salt Lake
City, Utah.
And we kept, we get to thisevent and they keep saying, it's
just your typical real estateconference.
And they, they had this likejoking.
(14:48):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like it was almost like a
Meredith (14:51):
regular run of the mill real estate conference,
nothing to see here.
Craig (14:55):
And we weren't sure what that meant, but then we realized
that it was really more aboutpersonal growth.
And so we did some, Activitiesaround identifying limiting
beliefs and then, you know, it'salmost like this, ritual where
you kind of break an arrow withyour neck, like it was, you
write your limiting belief onthe arrow and then you put the
(15:16):
arrow.
Meredith (15:17):
And we did one where you break a board with your
hand.
Craig (15:20):
It's scary, yeah.
And you break and you walk intothe air and it shatters your
limiting, and it's thisrepresentation of you moving
past this limiting belief.
Luis (15:29):
were some of those limiting beliefs at the time?
Meredith (15:31):
mine was, I'm not good enough.
I'm not smart enough.
I'm not good.
I'm a fill in the blank.
Enough.
I'm not enough.
Craig (15:38):
And similar, like, just a sense of unworthiness.
am I really cut out for this?
we've done the big one 80 in ourlife.
Am I actually capable ofpulling?
who am I?
I don't know anything aboutentrepreneurship.
what business do I have in doingthis kind of thing?
So that was a big limitingbelief for both of us.
Kind of similar, actually, ourupbringings are quite similar.
So it makes sense that ourlimiting beliefs were a little
(16:00):
bit similar as well.
Meredith (16:01):
And then there was another event too, that came
shortly after this one.
That was a game changer for me,especially that helped.
Me define my new identity sothat I was struggling with my
identity coming out of thecorporate world and being an
entrepreneur and struggling withmy self worth and not knowing
what I was going to do.
And, you know, you're at theseevents with other entrepreneurs
(16:23):
who seem to have it all figuredout.
Obviously you're the only onewho doesn't have it all figured
out from where you're sitting.
And then at this particularevent, a couple of the speakers
were talking about, writing downthe five identities that you
want.
I am a coach.
I'm a speaker.
What are the things in thepresent tense?
What are the identities you wantto hold, and then what are ten
attributes, ten truths aboutyou, and I struggled to write
(16:44):
those down, but I eventually didsort of define the identity that
I wanted to hold as future me,and I wrote those statements
out, I still write them outevery single day in my journal,
like I'm a very structuredjournaler, I write that stuff
out every day to remind myselfof who it is I want to be, and
I'm actively becoming thatperson because I'm The beauty of
(17:07):
writing that stuff down everyday is it keeps it front of mind
for me.
And so that in the run of a day,you know, when you're faced with
a decision or you're takingaction, which you do a million
times a day, that stuff, theperson you want to be is front
of mind.
So that when you make thatdecision, you make it in
accordance with that vision ofyou, that version of you that
you want to be.
So it's like you give yourself,I'm giving myself a check mark
(17:28):
in the proof column that Iactually am becoming that
version of me.
And that's really helped medefine who I wanted to be so
that I could then do the work tobecome that
Luis (17:37):
person.
And those are two like greatstrategies that we see over and
over when we're trying to createa new identity for ourselves
right is, first of all, we hadthat imposter syndrome like you
said, but we start to visualizewhat that person could be and
that's hard at first right andthen we affirm it like you were
writing it down or you can sayit to yourself all the time over
(17:58):
and over.
You just.
Say those until you believe ittill you actually see it.
Right.
And now you
Meredith (18:03):
believe it more when you actually see that, like the
actions that you're taking,like, yeah, I made a decision
the way that she would, the waythat the person I want to be
would make it.
So then you start to believewith every action you take,
that's aligned to that person.
The belief becomes stronger andstronger and stronger.
It's like, it's not just thewriting.
It's the actual actions.
Craig (18:21):
I would say that principle to be do have.
was one of the biggest gamechangers for our mindset in
that, you know, we've alwaysbeen more of like, Oh, I'll do
that.
Or I'll be that when I havethis, but it's the opposite,
right?
It's actually, you have tobecome the person.
So that thing that you want thatend goal, it's really about who
has that, what type of personare they?
(18:43):
what attributes does that personhave?
Luis (18:45):
And
Craig (18:46):
then you figure out how to make sure that you become
that person so that you can havethat business or that dream life
or whatever it is that you're.
trying to achieve.
That was a huge mindset shift.
That was a game changer for me.
Meredith (18:59):
Which was, I think, reinforced by the book Atomic
Habits and The Slight Edge.
Craig (19:02):
Excellent.
I just finished The Slight Edgeagain, actually.
I love it.
Luis (19:05):
Well, you guys know that one of the ones I read every
year is The Go Giver.
Yeah.
Actually, the place where Idiscovered The Slight Edge was
in a sales training for realestate, where, you know, they
give you The Go Giver when youfirst walk into the training.
And I didn't know that.
I just walk in and I had alreadyread it and now I realize like
the language, in there and theprinciples were so aligned that
(19:27):
of course it's the same thing,but you go and then they give
you this other book list.
And the first one on that newbook list is the slight edge and
then atomic habits isn't farbehind there.
And that just became a readinglist for like me and my team for
a while.
So these are great ones, butlet's go back to your business
though.
First of all, when you weredesigning a business, you
realize, real estate wasn't it.
You're going to do somethingdifferent.
(19:48):
did you know you want to do abusiness together?
Craig (19:51):
Yes.
Luis (19:51):
So you were committed to each other for a business
already too.
Okay.
Yeah.
Because that's a big deal.
Meredith (19:56):
Yeah.
Craig (19:56):
Yeah.
100%.
Luis (19:58):
Yeah.
Meredith (19:59):
We didn't even, I don't think anything we really
talked about not doing ittogether.
It was
Craig (20:03):
Yeah.
It never really was discussed.
I think the assumption was thatwe're going to leave our
corporate jobs and we're justgoing to figure it out.
We're going to go do a business.
We're going to figure out abusiness together.
Yeah.
Meredith (20:12):
Yeah.
Craig (20:13):
Yeah.
Luis (20:14):
So I guess let's talk about what that business is and
how did you come up with it?
Like why that?
Craig (20:20):
Yeah, it was on this journey of going to these
different events networking andmeeting different individuals
and there was a person we raninto he's a coach of a personal
development company.
And, you know, he was talking tous about our journey and what we
had been doing in our lives uptill now and he said, you know,
you guys have this press likethis, there's this something
(20:40):
about you, you should thinkabout coaching.
And so we took that on board andthought about that for a while
and that's ultimately, was theseed that was planted for us to
then, go to these events we'reseeing and talking to more
people in the personal growthspace and coaches and it just
started to land for us.
It felt like, yeah, you knowwhat, this actually is something
(21:04):
that.
Feels right.
And looking back, there's beenlittle hints of that throughout
my life.
Like I'm big into sports.
I've played sports all my life.
I've had coaches throughout mylife and I've coached, girls,
basketball teams.
And I was even a mentor in thebig brother, big sisters.
(21:26):
So it was a natural fit.
So
Meredith (21:28):
it was actually interesting when we both looked
back, how many times in ourlives we fell into coaching
roles that It sort of again,like the dots only connect when
you look back like, yeah, I'veactually done this in my
corporate life.
I was a personal trainer.
But when you look back, therewas so many instances of
coaching.
And then throughout all theseevents and meeting these people,
(21:50):
we had so many people asking uslike, you know, you two seem to
have something special in yourrelationship.
How, what do you do?
How do you do this?
How do you work so closelytogether?
Like what?
So everywhere we went, we hadpeople.
Asking us stuff.
Craig (22:06):
Yeah.
I think they noticed that wewere able to spend an inordinate
amount of time together.
You know, we spend a lot of timein our personal lives, building
our relationship, but then also,okay, now you're also building
businesses together.
So you're also working togetherquite closely and you're
traveling and doing all theseevents together.
And that's really cool.
I can't get my husband or Ican't get my wife to come to
these events with me.
(22:26):
How do you guys have this levelof a relationship?
How are you this close?
Help me understand it.
And.
So then it started in the backof our mind that, okay, maybe
there's something special hereabout our relationship and we
can help people connect on thatlevel.
And then at one of these events,we were asked to speak about
relationships.
And so we did.
And that is actually what reallysolidified that it's
(22:50):
relationship, it's marriage andcoaching that's our business.
That's our superpower.
That's how we're going to helppeople And that it's from there
that we've now built out, youknow a coaching business So
yeah, that was kind of how wegot there
Luis (23:03):
Wow, that's really inspirational So how about let's
look at the business then?
What what is the a lot ofcoaches?
They have a model a framework togo around for what they coach on
and do you all have that CauseI'm going to ask you to just
give it away.
Craig (23:17):
Yeah.
It's called an exponentialrelationship framework and it's
got basically four big pillars.
Four commitments.
Four commitments.
And the first one is you have tocommit to yourself.
You have to commit to self loveand your own worthiness.
you can only accept love to theamount that, you can give and
(23:37):
receive love.
Right?
So like, whatever you, You canonly, you can only, you can
Meredith (23:43):
only receive love to the amount that you love
Craig (23:45):
yourself.
So you
Meredith (23:46):
need to love yourself first to be able to be open, to
receive love and to be able togive love to somebody else.
So the first commitment isreally the commitment to
yourself, to love yourself, tobelieve in yourself, to believe
that you're enough in your ownself worth.
And there's a lot of work thatgoes into that for sure.
But that's the first commitment.
the second commitment Is the onethat most people would think
(24:09):
about it's the commitment to therelationship and that's really
the getting into the strategies,you know, that we mentioned way
at the beginning of the episodearound assuming positive intent,
giving the benefit of the doubt,things like that, building
trust, intimacy, communicationthrough vulnerability and
different exercises like that.
So it's really buildingconnection, and communication
(24:32):
through the lens of.
The mindset you approach yourrelationship with.
Craig (24:37):
Yeah.
And so once you have thatfoundation of that self love and
then you, build on top of that,the relationship, then we need
to start looking at injectingfun, joy, adventure, because
like, what is the point of allof this, if we're not having fun
in our relationship, if it stopsbecoming fun, we stop showing up
and we stop doing the things.
That are necessary to reallybuild that relationship and take
(25:00):
it to the next level.
Meredith (25:01):
That's when you see the breakdown in communication,
in trust, in intimacy.
Those things all follow thedeparture of fun in your
relationship.
And most of us don't thinkbecause life is busy.
Life is stressful.
There's kids, there's jobs.
It requires a lot of stuff andso prioritizing fun sometimes
falls by the wayside, but fun isactually the foundation upon
(25:25):
which we build a strongrelationship.
It's critical.
Luis (25:29):
So how does that, like, do you, I think sometimes we don't,
we start to take that part forgranted a lot in our
relationship, right?
We just, we, you know, is therein a way to be intentional about
it that, you know, keeps it topof mind?
Right.
Meredith (25:43):
Yeah, we do.
We do it a few different ways,actually.
we have kind of three differentapproaches to it.
the first one is to find ways toinject fun into the mundane
stuff in life.
Cause life is 99 percent mundaneand, you know, 1 percent
vacations and date nights andfun, fun stuff that you can see
as fun.
And that's an important part.
That's another one to focus on,but life is 99%.
(26:05):
Folding laundry, making dinner,the daily things we have to do.
And so we make an effort toinject fun into that day to day
mundane ness.
And we do that by, you know,neither of us like cooking, so
we do it together.
We turn on some music, we, youknow, make a mess and we bump
into each other and we'd have alittle dance in the kitchen.
(26:26):
And we try to make that part funbecause we both don't like it.
another thing we do that's fun,fun and weird is he created a
cardboard penis a few years ago.
For the backstory, for thebackstory, we, you know, it was
during COVID and we had masksshipped to us.
Craig (26:45):
I just made a modification and created this
thing and now we hide that thingback and forth for the other
person to find and it's just aweird game that makes us laugh
when it you know you're.
Taking out a shirt out of thecloset to put it on and out
comes this falls this cardboardpenis Gotcha, and now you have
to hide it on the other personyou don't want to get caught
with it You don't want to becaught hiding and it's just
yeah, it's this little that weplay that's just become fun
Luis (27:08):
Yeah,
Craig (27:08):
and then when you don't see them find it with your
eyeballs But then you see themwalking out of the room with the
shirt on that, you know, you hitit in You're you give them a
little wink like Like, gotcha,and then you know that it's
waiting for you somewhere in thehouse.
Yeah.
With a cupboard or a drawer orsomething.
So, just weird little thingsthat we can find to inject some,
(27:28):
some humor in, in life.
Meredith (27:30):
Something else he does is, he will sometimes, like, in
stealth mode, I don't know he'sdoing it, he'll write down in
the notes on his phone.
stuff that I say that he takescompletely out of context.
He doesn't record any contextwith it at all and he'll just
record it and I have no ideahe's done it and then like, I
don't know, a month later he'llbe like, he calls them McKay
(27:50):
isms because that's my lastname, McKay, and so he calls
them McKay isms.
He's like, you want to hear thelast few McKay isms?
And he'll read me things that Ihave said with absolutely zero
context but I can't remember whyI said it but they sound
ridiculous and We just laugh atthe stupid stuff that comes out
of my mouth sometimes.
That's
Luis (28:08):
funny.
Meredith (28:09):
It's just fun.
Yeah.
So we try to reject that.
Luis (28:14):
I love it.
That's really fun.
The fourth pillar.
Craig (28:16):
Yeah.
The fourth pillar is basicallythe commitment to the future.
So the fourth commitment wouldbe a commitment to the future
and it's building a sharedcommon vision.
And it's a research backedprinciple that couples who have
a shared common vision,something that they're working
towards a North star thatthey're both building towards
together.
(28:37):
They're more likely to besuccessful in their marriage.
So it's really just aboutaligning.
both people in the marriageabout what is the end goal?
What is it that we want in life?
What's our dream and aligningthat vision?
And just working towards it andby doing that all the little
things that happen that come upday to day that might you know
(28:57):
cause a little bit of a anargument or It's just a
discomfort in your marriage.
They fall by the wayside.
They've become so much lessimportant when you know what
you're driving towards that big,shiny North star.
That's the ultimate goal.
And it gives you a level ofcompassion and empathy.
When you know that the personnext to you is on your team,
(29:20):
you're striving towards that biggoal together.
And if they make a mistake orsomething doesn't go your way
and, you know, it would haveordinarily set you off course.
You just have that level ofcompassion and empathy knowing
that they're trying their best.
They're doing their best We're ateam and we're on our way to
this, north star.
So that's the fourth pillar
Luis (29:38):
yeah, I love that, you know my wife and I I think when
we had kids you kind of forgetall that it just becomes
survival like hey Let's justfigure out how to keep these
kids alive for 18 years and thenRight, but then now we're on the
other end of that.
So like my youngest is 16.
So we're almost free And, sowe're thinking about this, he's
going into 10th grade, and wegot three years is what we're
(29:59):
thinking, and we're starting to,in the last like year or so,
we've really, we've gone on moreroad trips together, and just
traveled, and we started to likedream again, and having, and now
we're thinking, okay, threeyears from now, it's just going
to be you and me again.
If all goes well, uh, at whichit better, or else I'll kill
her.
But the, uh, the, uh, the,anyway, so we started thinking
(30:22):
like, wow, you know, we realizedlike, we really like not being
tied down to a place.
So we want to try a couple ofyears of being nomadic.
And now we're starting toenvision what that would be like
and where we want to live.
And we went to Tokyo earlierthis year and we were like, Oh,
maybe we'll just do a year inTokyo.
Check that out.
And all this stuff.
and it's becoming like so muchfun to dream together again
(30:45):
about doing things like thatoutside of just like what you
got to do, you know, in a, it'sreally motivational and fun.
Meredith (30:53):
I think that's the most, it's weird to say, but I
think that's the most fun partof the whole framework.
You think the fun part is themost fun, but I think the, the
future, the building the future,that getting to dream, like
that's the work that we had todo that we hadn't done right at
the beginning when you opened,when we started that other
company, we hadn't done the workof like, what do we want our
life to be like?
Luis (31:12):
fun
Meredith (31:12):
to do that.
Luis (31:14):
Yeah.
So what does that look like foryou guys?
is it just to build a business
Craig (31:18):
Yeah, that was part of it for sure But it's like all areas
of your life your business yourfree time where you want to live
the travel that you want to doyour health We're very
intentional about all the areasof our life.
And we each did this exerciseindividually.
At first, we both went into ourseparate corners and wrote down
all of the things that we wannado in our life, in all the
(31:40):
areas.
Luis (31:40):
Mm-Hmm,
Craig (31:41):
And then we got together and we took both visions and we
shared what each other wrote,and then we incorporated them
into one vision of, ourrelationship, our dream life
vision for our life together.
Meredith (31:54):
And like yours.
We don't like being tied to oneplace.
So we're nomadic.
We're nomadic too.
Nice.
You're
Luis (32:00):
already nomadic.
Meredith (32:02):
Yeah.
We move
Craig (32:03):
around.
Yeah.
We, we, we travel quite a bit.
Our
Meredith (32:06):
home base is where we are right now in Canada where
it's where I grew up and it'svery close to where he grew up.
and it's beautiful in thesummertime.
It's absolutely gorgeous in thesummertime, but we don't love it
in the winter.
So the last few winters we havespent in either Arizona or
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Luis (32:26):
Oh, wow.
Meredith (32:27):
And it's the weather in both places is beautiful in
the winter here.
And so So we, you know, kind ofget the best of both worlds.
We get to be here in the summerwhen it's lovely.
And then we like to leave in thewinter and go somewhere
different.
eventually we want to build thatout and be even more nomadic.
We've got our, part of ourvision.
I don't know if you've ever seenthe Airstream Atlas, touring
(32:49):
coach.
Luis (32:49):
Yeah.
Meredith (32:51):
We want to
Luis (32:51):
do the van life.
Meredith (32:52):
want to give that a go.
Craig (32:53):
we're super into the road trips like you, like, we've got
a dream of kind of travelingaround Canada, the U S and kind
of going to all the, all the
Luis (33:02):
Americas,
Craig (33:03):
the hiking and checking out the different ballparks,
like baseball ballparks andstuff.
Oh, we got
Luis (33:07):
to meet up along the way then.
Yeah.
Yeah, sure.
Yeah.
Meredith (33:11):
We've got a bucket list item of seeing every
ballpark and every footballstadium for whatever reason.
Okay.
Luis (33:16):
I love it.
Yeah.
Nice.
So, all right, let's go intowhen these four.
pillars break down, right?
Cause these, these are, theseare great by the way.
But what about like, where,where do people come to you
usually?
Do they come to you when they'vealready kind of realized there's
some alignment?
Hey, we want to do life togetherand fix it.
or do they come to you when theyneed marriage counseling
(33:39):
essentially.
Craig (33:41):
Yeah, it's usually there's a breakdown in the
marriage.
They're unhappy in therelationship.
A lot of times, you'll talk tofolks and it's usually the same
core four.
Lack of communication.
We've lost intimacy.
There's a breakdown in trust.
We drifted over the years.
Meredith (33:58):
Yeah.
Craig (33:58):
No connection.
And so those are kind of thereasons why people will normally
put their hand up.
Like we're struggling a littlebit.
And then when you get into it alittle bit more there, those are
issues for sure, but there'salso some other stuff that's,
you know, you don't think aboutlike, well, there's some
limiting beliefs there aboutyour worthiness, there might be
(34:19):
some patterns of acceptingthings that, you deserve better
than.
And then there's, and that comesdown to a worthiness thing.
and then fun has been gone foryears, you know, they, they
focused on kids for so long thatthey've lost the intentionality
in their own marriage.
And so usually they come for theone reason it's, you know, we
(34:40):
can't communicate, we argue toomuch or we're always fighting or
we never spend any timetogether, things like that.
But it evolves into, there,there's always so much more
under the surface.
That's the kind of like thesurface level problem, but
there's always more underneathit.
Meredith (34:55):
we would love to talk to people earlier, so they don't
have to get to that point wherethey feel completely
disconnected and like strangersand they're, you know, they're
really starting to feel reallyunhappy.
We'd love to chat, to talk topeople before they get to that
point so that they never have toget there.
It's just, people don't tend to.
You know, raise their hand andreach out for help until it's
gotten to a point that it'sunsustainable.
(35:17):
Most people wait for the, thepain of the situation to have
gotten so greater than the, youknow, the pain of the discomfort
of having to change.
So people wait until it's gottento the point that it's, I can't
keep going like this.
we can't continue like this.
We need help as opposed to, Ican see we're headed down this
path.
but I'm going to wait till weget there to raise my hand.
(35:39):
Usually.
Craig (35:41):
Yeah, human nature is we avoid problems as much as we
can, right?
It's human nature and ultimatelyin a marriage that can compound
the problem and make things somuch worse down the line.
it's really great when someonecan identify like, Ooh, I'm
feeling this now.
It's only going to get worse ifI don't deal with it in the
moment.
Luis (36:00):
Well, I, I, I love this topic actually before I, we, I
know we're getting close to theend, but I'd like to ask you
just, you have this concept ofmarried preneurship.
I love that term.
Never heard of you.
Did you guys coin it?
Craig (36:15):
I don't think so.
I think I've heard it elsewhereas well.
It's, okay.
Luis (36:20):
Let me put it on pause so I can look it up and see if it's
available to sell it to youguys.
Just kidding.
What a great term.
So just describe that a littlebit.
I know it's go ahead anddescribe it in your own words.
Craig (36:37):
It's entrepreneurs.
it's basically two peoplejoining forces as a married
couple and going through theentrepreneurial journey
together.
it's basically entrepreneurshipis, a journey.
It's.
Stressful.
It's challenging.
it comes to ups and downs.
The ups are so fantastic.
It makes all the downs worth it.
But there are some moments whereyou question yourself, you
(36:59):
question every decision thatyou're making.
Why am I doing this?
There are those moments.
Meredith (37:03):
Yeah.
And it's lonely sometimes,
Craig (37:06):
you
Meredith (37:06):
know, oftentimes I find as an entrepreneur.
you're creating your own pathsometimes and not everyone
necessarily understands it.
So, it sometimes feels a bitisolating.
And so it's helpful when you'vegot that other person that
understands the vision that, youknow, when you're having those
down days where it's what am Idoing?
We don't usually have them atthe same time.
(37:28):
It's helpful.
Like, my down day, isn't thesame as his down day.
And my update isn't always thesame as his.
So we can kind of pull eachother back and forth.
We can pull each other out ofthose lower days.
And you've got someone sort ofshoulder to shoulder with you
who understands what it's allfor.
You can be on the same page inlife, in business, at home,
(37:48):
everywhere.
You've got someone, you've got ateammate.
Craig (37:51):
And it's really cool because.
As an entrepreneur, you'reconstantly growing.
It's human nature to want togrow.
And I just find it so much of abigger thing, in
entrepreneurship.
when you're growing together,you're not growing apart.
so many times as anentrepreneur, we've heard that,
they're growing constantlytrying to build this business
(38:12):
and grow as a human being tobecome that best version of
themselves to have that visionat the end of the day.
And many times their spouse.
isn't as interested in that.
They're maybe not growing at thesame rate.
And when you do that, youeventually, yeah, kind of grow
apart.
And so married partnership is,is kind of growing together and
becoming the best versions ofyourselves.
(38:34):
And it's also growing yourmarriage and your business and
your life becomes exponential.
Luis (38:39):
So with your coaching is married partnership, the goal,
Meredith (38:44):
entrepreneurs.
Especially marriedentrepreneurs, have an added
layer of complexity, right?
They've got this sort of uniquesituation that other married
couples don't necessarily have.
And so it's nice to have someonewho speaks their language, who
understands what they're goingthrough, owning your own
business and working throughthat together as a couple.
So we like to help entrepreneursbecause we understand them, in a
(39:08):
way that not necessarilyeverybody does, but we don't
only help entrepreneurs.
Luis (39:13):
Okay.
Great.
let's get into it.
Cause we got a two for onespecial today with our world
famous Wayfinder four.
So, all right.
You can't.
Not, you know, when we get tothe part about favorites, no
cardboard penises, please.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you Let's start off with ahack something you guys use to
(39:35):
cheat Life with and you guys caneach give me one
Meredith (39:40):
What comes to mind for me is walking?
Luis (39:43):
Yeah,
Meredith (39:43):
we walk together every day and it helps us connect like
we have good conversation whenwe're walking together You know,
it's just good for our health toget our steps in it gets the
blood pumping We're also morecreative when we walk so it
benefits our business So walkingis almost like the secret
ingredient that helps ourbusiness and our marriage and
our health for that matter It'swalking is a life hack for us
Craig (40:06):
And another one is sleep.
I would say make sure thatyou're getting good quality 7 8
hours of sleep every night.
And I know that there'sentrepreneurs, you know, you're
You might have to pull an allnighter or whatever limited as
much as you can do as much asyou can to get that sleep That
is so vital for your health andit keeps you Energized and going
(40:28):
for the next day.
Meredith (40:29):
He just finished the book why we sleep.
It's very front of mind
Luis (40:32):
No, I i'm with you though.
I'm a hardcore runner and thatreally got me into getting good
sleep habits and I gotta tellyou like I'm a big believer that
all those, like all-nightersthat we used to pull, like
they're really not necessary.
If you prioritize sleep, it'llhelp you plan out everything.
So you don't have to pull theall-nighters.
Exactly.
I agree
Craig (40:51):
a
Luis (40:51):
hundred percent.
Meredith (40:51):
Look at that.
We're in common.
Luis (40:53):
Cool.
By the way, my wife and I also,you mentioned walking right now.
We're not in that cause it'sjust been too hot at the time
that we normally would go walk,but we usually would do an
afternoon walk together with thedogs and it was so good.
That's when we recapped the day.
and I really look forward to it.
The weather's starting to turnagain and I can't wait to get
back to that.
Cause we were just talking aboutthat earlier.
(41:13):
And so that's good.
Craig (41:14):
That's a great answer.
Luis (41:15):
Cool.
So how about a favorite?
This could be a book, a show,not a cardboard penis, but
anything else.
Not a cardboard penis.
Meredith (41:23):
My favorite book, so far anyway, is The Mountain Is
You.
Actually, any book by BriannaWiest.
Luis (41:30):
She
Meredith (41:31):
is fabulous.
But The Mountain Is Youspecifically is my favorite of
hers, but I'll read anythingshe's written.
Luis (41:39):
I feel like a great book.
Okay.
Awesome.
How about you?
Craig.
Craig (41:45):
my top book.
Oh, there's so many.
It could be anything.
It could
Luis (41:49):
be anything.
Spore, hobby, uh, you know,show.
Oh, uh, favorite
Craig (41:52):
TV show.
I'll give you a great TV show,it actually has some really cool
life philosophies and lessons,and it's called Ted Lasso.
Luis (42:03):
When you said life philosophies, I kind of knew you
were going to say Ted Lasso.
You know, I've never seen it.
I've never seen it, but a fewpeople have used that one.
You have to watch it.
Yeah.
And actually now I know I'mlying.
I did have another, uh, coupleof other couples and, and they,
they have a business tootogether and they, they teach
people how to be, uh, innovativeand creative through improv and,
(42:27):
uh, awesome.
You guys need to have them onthe show on your show.
They're great.
I'll give you their info, butthey said Ted Lasso too, and all
about how it was really funny.
Okay.
Yeah.
So how about a piece of advicefor you?
Younger self.
Meredith (42:43):
Stop caring so much what other people think.
I was so caught in that for solong, like until my turn 40, I
cared.
It's still a battle.
It's not something I'vecompletely released, but I was a
massive people pleaser.
I had zero boundaries, peoplepleasing to the end of the year.
Stop caring what other peoplethink.
Craig (43:03):
Yeah.
just do the thing.
Just do it.
Just take the step.
Do the thing.
And don't worry aboutperfection.
There's no such thing asperfection.
Just get started and do it.
Whatever's on your heart.
Don't wait.
Just do it.
Luis (43:17):
Yeah.
And they go well together.
Right.
Just do it.
And don't stop giving a rat'sbehind about what others think.
Right.
Yeah.
And as podcasters, I think wehave to embrace both of those
and just, right.
Yeah.
Meredith (43:30):
Something we've really taken away from the podcast for
sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Craig (43:33):
If we waited to start our first episode until we were
ready, we still would not haverecorded one episode.
Luis (43:38):
Oh, a hundred percent, man.
And me, like, I can't standlistening to my voice, right?
And I think that's a reallycommon thing.
Now I've grown comfortable withit, but it was so hard.
And you're afraid of all the umsand ahs and all these things,
after a while, it's just like,drop it.
Who cares?
Like what they, you know?
Just being human.
Meredith (43:55):
That's
Luis (43:56):
cool.
So this one, I'll give you achoice, for each.
Give us either a big opportunityor a limiting belief.
Meredith (44:04):
Like, of my own?
Luis (44:05):
Mm hmm.
Meredith (44:06):
Yeah.
Luis (44:06):
Or, or that you see or are working on, whatever.
Either an opportunity or alimiting belief?
Meredith (44:12):
my limiting belief, I'm still working on it, I'm
working on it every day, is I'mnot enough.
And so every single day, I lookin the mirror, make eye contact
with myself, I smile at myself,I say I love you, I'm proud of
you, you've got this, and I givemyself a high five in the mirror
every day.
And it's been really helping.
I love it.
It's a work in progress for me,for sure.
Craig (44:34):
Yeah, and for me, it's, similar.
I struggle with theperfectionism and the, you know,
never wanting to be seen as,wrong or not doing something
completely right.
And so, for me, it's a constantbattle of fighting that.
just do the thing.
Just take the step.
Nobody cares.
(44:54):
Nobody's paying that muchattention to you.
Do it.
So it's a constant battle forperfectionism for me.
and I do struggle a little bitsometimes with, being seen and
telling my story, I've alwayshad a mindset of like who really
cares about your story, but I'mlearning and I'm getting there
that it's actually reallyimportant.
(45:14):
It can help a lot of people.
And if I'm not a hundredpercent, or if I don't tell my
story, I can't help as manypeople as I want.
Luis (45:21):
That's right.
Yeah, I love that.
You know, I had a hard time withthat too, because I didn't
really, I think with my story,like, I'm just like, who cares?
You know, nobody wants that.
I, I now, I don't know.
And, and we make up our ownstories, right?
We are whatever we think we are.
So, like, but, I think to growthe Wayfinders show, I started
to get on more podcasts and, andto get on more, people just want
(45:43):
to hear your story.
That's why they let you on.
And I'm realizing like, Ohshoot, really?
And I want to talk about this,but they want to know my story
and I'm like, okay, so it's,there are people who want to
hear it.
Get out there and share it.
Alright, so what about contactinformation?
how can we, if people want toknow more about you?
Meredith (46:02):
Yep, we are on Instagram.
You can find us at Meredith andCraig on Instagram.
And we've got the Road of Lifepodcast so you can find us there
as well.
Luis (46:13):
Awesome.
And we've got a website.
Craig (46:16):
Yeah, what's
Luis (46:17):
the website?
Craig (46:17):
www.
roadoflifecoaching.
com.
Luis (46:23):
guys, this has been a real treat.
I really, really enjoyed this.
I'm going to take this episodeand, you know, take it back
today.
Hopefully on our evening walkwith my wife, it's starting to
cool again.
So we can, maybe this is a goodexcuse to start walking together
again and share about, what I'vehad here.
Maybe.
You know, one day, who knows,we're, we're starting to discuss
a possible venture togetheragain for the first time in like
(46:45):
15 years.
So, maybe, you know, we can talkabout that in the future as
well.
Yeah.
You guys are inspirational.
So keep doing what you're doingand sharing it with the world.
It's, it's awesome.
Thank you for being here.
Meredith (46:57):
This was a pleasure.
We hope you've enjoyed TheWayfinder Show.
If you got value from thisepisode, please take a few
seconds to leave us a 5 starrating and review.
This will allow us to help morepeople find their way to live
more authentic and excitinglives.
We'll catch you on the nextepisode.
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If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.