In this episode, Jessie and Angela discuss the complexities and benefits of business partnerships with friends, drawing parallels with family relationships and emphasizing the importance of clear expectations, open communication, and respecting each other's strengths and boundaries. They share their personal experiences of collaboration, highlighting the necessity of flexibility, mutual support, and setting priorities, especially when family is involved. Jessie and Angela stress the value of having honest conversations about workload, responsibilities, and conflicts to prevent resentment. They reflect on their journey, discussing the challenges and rewards of working together, the importance of enjoying the collaboration, and the need to continually adapt to life's changes. The conversation concludes on a positive note, with both expressing gratitude for their partnership and the experiences they've shared, affirming the potential benefits of partnering with a friend in business.
**ANNOUNCEMENT** After nearly 3 years, the Marketing Moms podcast is sunsetting. Thank you so much for the unwavering support, well-wishes, and memories. This has been the experience of a lifetime <3
It's coffee time!
Jessie & Angela
00:01.72
jessievalle
Hey'll before we begin today's episode this is a reminder that we are sunsetting this podcast. So if you have any great memories questions. Comments things that you'd like to share with us for us to share on our very last episode which will be 150 please write in at contact at marketingmoms co or find us on Instagram at Marketingmom's Podcast we would love to hear from you and what this podcast has meant to you the last three years as we know that it's meant a lot to us. So today's episode is actually about. Partnering with a friend which I think we have some great tips and tricks and things that that we have found partnering with a friend and can hopefully help you if you kind of decide that you want to do that in the future. So. Let's ah, let's get into it.
01:30.50
jessievalle
So as we were listening to that intro. It made me think about the fact that for a lot of us when we have kids we are partnering with a friend. Ah.
01:32.98
Angela
Um.
01:39.34
Angela
Yes.
01:43.63
jessievalle
Now I know that some people consider things like marriage as you know a business arrangement basically but um I just think it's interesting. How a lot of these things we're going to talk about today for partnering with a friend in business.
01:49.96
Angela
Um, right.
01:59.57
jessievalle
Actually also apply to partnering with someone raising children. Ah.
02:02.31
Angela
Um, the yeah.
02:06.15
jessievalle
I Wanted to talk about this because I think that from the things I've seen online. There's a lot of negativity honestly about partnering with friends and.
02:19.42
Angela
Um, yeah.
02:22.80
jessievalle
People say that you should not do business with family and friends and I just wanted to be a voice to kind of pop in and say you know what? there's also a lot of really good things that can come out of it.
02:27.95
Angela
Um, ah.
02:37.54
Angela
Yeah I think it's definitely something you have to really consider before you jump into like you have to consider what kind of friendship you have and what kind of person your friend is and if your you know goals and values are going to align and things like that. So. There's definitely a lot to consider but I don't. Think there should be like a blanket moratorium on partnering with friends I think it can definitely be something that you can do in and business and like you said in Life. It's not like we're going through life not partnering with people not pairing up with people.
03:00.95
jessievalle
For sure.
03:15.43
Angela
I Know we all probably hated the you know group projects in school but like in life in life. You are going to have to partner with people hopefully by choice. But yeah.
03:17.79
jessievalle
Oh totally.
03:29.23
jessievalle
I Think one of the biggest things to think about before you begin is each other's strengths if you are partnering with someone just because they're your pal. You're probably doomed for failure.
03:37.52
Angela
In.
03:47.57
Angela
Um, yeah.
03:48.31
jessievalle
But if you partner with someone with the expectation that you're going to utilize their strengths and they're going to utilize yours then it could lead to a much more fruitful relationship.
03:59.37
Angela
Yeah, for sure and definitely look at where the 2 of you need support like do you need support in the same Area. Can you support each other.. It's not so much a case of opposites attract as just sort of being able to fill in this. Bases for each other.
04:19.92
jessievalle
Yeah I remember you know just like any relationship a business partnership is also a give and take and I remember first coming to Angela three years ago feeling like I wanted to start.
04:31.37
Angela
And.
04:39.70
jessievalle
Something I kind of wanted to start a podcast um I was open to starting like even a Youtube channel but I had to give and take right like when I brought it to her she said I'll do it with you if it's only a podcast and we don't show our faces. Totally fine I conceded because it wasn't that big. It was more important to me to have her as a partner than to show my face on Youtube you know what? I'm saying so like in any relationship it is give and take.
05:05.47
Angela
Bright. Ah.
05:10.28
Angela
Yeah I remember that too because I was really worried that you were going to tell me that we had to stop meeting or stop hanging out like because you were busy and you had little kids and. All of that and so you were kind of hemming and hawing and I was like oh she's going to tell me we can't hang out anymore and instead.
05:32.95
jessievalle
And instead I was like we're going to do a podcast which honestly has been really great because we've been able to use it as a ah means to make sure that our relationship.
05:49.22
Angela
Yes.
05:49.58
jessievalle
Is a priority. It's so easy to to just be like am going to sleep in today Angela will understand but when we have a podcast episode coming out and we haven't recorded yet.
06:00.76
Angela
Um, right we have to record.
06:06.26
jessievalle
Get your butt out of bed and go record it.
06:07.43
Angela
Yeah, yeah, and thanks to the podcast. We got to meet in person.
06:16.20
jessievalle
I'd like to think we would have met in person eventually anyway. But yes, yes, it it strengthened our relationship enough to where we just had to because we're you know, like best friends. So what? what are you going to do like I got to meet you in person. Um.
06:16.70
Angela
I Would like to think that too. But.
06:25.99
Angela
Um, yeah, yeah.
06:33.95
jessievalle
1 of the big things when you're beginning a business relationship is to set clear expectations and just be very open and honest in your communication and I feel like we did that really well in the beginning. I was like here is what I I laid it out as like this is what I expect from you are you okay with this and you're like yeah here's what I expect and for us to both be very open and honest and like to.
06:53.60
Angela
Um, yeah, yeah, yeah.
07:09.72
jessievalle
I Want to say to have the hard conversations and I feel like people say that a lot but you're like but what is the hard conversation. The hard conversation for for us was I'm going to do X Y Z work expects that I'm going to do it and I'm going to do it. Never.
07:25.77
Angela
Um, and make.
07:29.58
jessievalle
Resenting the fact that you're not going to do it because I'm saying right now that I'm doing it.
07:32.10
Angela
Um, right? Yeah yeah, that was definitely hard and it's again with the hard conversations. It's not like they're all these big you know momentous decisions.
07:50.21
Angela
Sometimes you know like you said it is just saying here's the thing that I'm going to do like and here's what I need or expect you to do like. Let's have a conversation about it.
08:00.00
jessievalle
Um, I also remember I also remember this was 1 big thing speaking of hard conversations is I flat out told you I said. This is my idea if it ever comes down to the fact that I'm doing more work by choice in the podcast relationship I will not feel resentful towards you for what I'm placing on myself.
08:32.62
Angela
Yes, yeah.
08:35.63
jessievalle
And that was big because I know that for some people the more work they do and they feel like their partner isn't pulling their weight. They start to get resentful and I flat out said from the beginning there is a good chance because of my personality I'm gonna take on more.
08:43.54
Angela
And it.
08:50.10
Angela
Um, listen.
08:52.60
jessievalle
But just know that I would I am saying right now I refuse to feel resentful towards you because I decided to take on more. That's not your problem. That's my problem. Ah.
08:58.30
Angela
Right? Yeah well and I think that is also a decision that has to be made when you're working with friends is what what are you going to be able to do without feeling resentful toward the other person.
09:14.57
jessievalle
M.
09:17.18
Angela
Because some of us have personalities where they're going to take like Jesse like where we're going to take on a lot of especially the organizational stuff. Jesse's amazing at organization and project management and keeping things on track. Um. And mostly she just asked me to show up and talk.
09:36.79
jessievalle
Ah, now there are things that Angela handled she handled a lot of the social media and making sure that posts were going out and and taking our episodes and putting them on the blog things like that I never touched because she claimed it.
09:48.10
Angela
Button in.
09:53.99
jessievalle
And then I just expected it to be done but we also never stepped on each other's toes because I knew she was handling it I didn't step on her toes. She openly offered say hey as long as I'm not posting something else on social media you can fill in any of the gaps go for it that was totally fine.
09:54.44
Angela
Um, yeah, yeah.
10:12.20
Angela
Um, me.
10:13.68
jessievalle
But I never took over her jobs. Basically I never took over her tasks and she never took over mine. We just respected the fact that this is what you've claimed to do and I'm gonna trust that you're gonna do it.
10:14.87
Angela
Brave.
10:25.11
Angela
Um, yeah, yeah I think the clear community one. That's I think the most important thing if you're going to partner with a friend is having that clear communication and it is hard. It's hard to have those conversations. It's hard to have other conversations like the one we had to have when we decided to sunset the podcast um because you know you don't want to hurt people's feelings but you also don't want to get to the point where you're feeling resentful or you're not enjoying.
10:48.87
jessievalle
M.
10:58.73
jessievalle
M.
11:02.80
Angela
Thing that was the other thing Jesse and I went into it was that we were both going to do it as long as we were both enjoying it. Um, which I would say I'm going to be honest I thought the podcast would end because 1 of us got bored with it or wasn't enjoying anymore and that is not why.
11:09.53
jessievalle
Um, and we go for it. Yeah.
11:19.41
jessievalle
Ah, no no I mean we'll talk more about that on the last episode. But yeah, no I I think something else that was huge for us throughout the last three years was also it's not just setting.
11:21.44
Angela
It is not how that ended up going. Yeah.
11:36.98
jessievalle
And being openly communicative at the beginning you have to have open communication throughout the entire business relationship. So there were times where we talked about different ways to monetize. Do we want to bring on guests. Do we want to try this and that and.
11:42.32
Angela
Yes, yeah.
11:56.96
jessievalle
What happens if it fails what happens if it succeeds how much like are we willing to prioritize extra time. Do we need to do. We need to prioritize less time. Um, we had to continually have those conversations especially because there are 2 of us.
12:03.22
Angela
Me right.
12:13.80
Angela
In here.
12:16.20
jessievalle
In it and we're both going through different things in our lives and our businesses.
12:20.60
Angela
Yeah, that was the next thing I was going to say is it's important to remember that just like our lives have seasons. Our friends' lives have seasons and so it's not always going to line up exactly. Your free and productive season is not always going to line up with your friends free and productive season and there's going to be times that you know like Jesse said you have to drag yourself out of bed to record the podcast because it has to be done and you know. There were times like over the summer that we would take breaks we made room for each other's vacations. Um, just recently Jesse's family kind of had a bug go round.
13:00.32
jessievalle
Um.
13:08.57
Angela
And you know so there was space for that. My family I feel like is all the time having bugs go around. Ah.
13:14.26
jessievalle
Um, and also knowing that we can be flexible like there during the summer we typically recorded at different times than during the school year we adjusted for that.
13:20.63
Angela
Um, yeah, yeah, um, yeah course during.
13:29.87
jessievalle
Just knowing that everything doesn't have to be the same all the time.
13:33.41
Angela
Yeah, there's that get definitely got to be some dynamic there.
13:38.52
jessievalle
Yeah, we also made sure to respect each other's boundaries which is huge because we never took it for granted if Angela ever came to me and said I just can't. This week okay cool and I respected that no matter if she was willing to share or not what was going on a lot of times it was you know I have an appointment I've got to.
14:10.64
Angela
Right.
14:13.40
jessievalle
You know a kid has an appointment this and that like cool but we always respected that our in our lives our priorities the number one priority in our life was never the podcast was never this business.
14:29.25
Angela
Um, right? yeah and move. Yeah.
14:33.00
jessievalle
And we were again open and honest and set that clear expectation upfront and for us personally family is always number one. So if our families needed anything that always came first and.
14:46.19
Angela
Um, yeah.
14:52.10
jessievalle
I've never resented or felt bad about any of it because we both felt that way and we set that expectation from the beginning.
14:54.55
Angela
Um.
15:00.41
Angela
Yeah I think having values and priorities that line up make things go a lot smoother with things and there were days that we you know instead of recording on Monday we'll record on tuesday.
15:09.55
jessievalle
Yeah, yeah.
15:15.93
jessievalle
If you.
15:17.64
Angela
Especially in the beginning because I have a large family and there's lots of appointments all the time. Always there were a lot of like I scheduled this appointment three months ago before I knew we were going to start a podcast.
15:27.72
jessievalle
Um, yeah, again, we set the expectation that we were going to be flexible. You have to again be honest with what you expect so that you're not let down.
15:34.88
Angela
E.
15:41.23
Angela
Um, yeah, yeah.
15:44.46
jessievalle
And I feel like we did a really great job of that because I never once felt bad for pushing a recording or changing a recording or canceling a recording or anything and I feel like it stems from the fact that we've.
15:51.44
Angela
Um, yep.
16:00.68
jessievalle
Always been extremely open and honest with each other.
16:04.11
Angela
Yeah, yeah, that's very important and I think on a more practical note one of the things that we learned is to really take advantage of the times that you have that time and space and productivity. Um. Because there are going to be times when you don't have that so many times Jesse and I have had five six seven even podcasts ahead recorded and the next thing we know we're going. Oh we have an episode coming out next week and we don't have one recorded because.
16:22.78
jessievalle
With you.
16:35.54
jessievalle
Okay.
16:38.50
Angela
Kids have gotten sick or it's been summer or you know something else and it's just you know life gets away from you So we learn to take advantage of those times when we had time and space and productivity to get ahead.
16:54.30
jessievalle
Yeah I want to say that in the three years we've been doing this I can only think of 2 maybe 3 times where we recorded the morning of and the episode actually came out a couple hours late.
17:07.44
Angela
Um, yeah, yeah, same day. Yeah.
17:10.58
jessievalle
But still in the same day. We never missed a day but I'm I'm pretty proud of us that in all in all that time we only 2 or 3 times where we published it a little late.
17:20.37
Angela
Yeah, yeah, we did really good there were there were a few times we would like record on Monday and release on Wednesday but yeah I think there was only 2 or 3 times that we recorded Wednesday morning for that day. Yeah.
17:30.57
jessievalle
Um.
17:35.71
jessievalle
Knowing that it was collecting them out. Yeah for that day. Yeah I think another thing is.
17:38.71
Angela
And.
17:50.77
jessievalle
You you? so you really should plan for conflicts. But again for us I feel like because we were always open and honest with our expectations.
17:55.30
Angela
In her.
18:08.48
jessievalle
I Can't think of any conflict that we ever had.
18:10.48
Angela
No no I think because we were able to come to each other and you know have those conversations it. It definitely went a lot smoother.
18:22.18
jessievalle
Yeah, now if this were our only business and our family depended on it and all the things we would have probably butted heads at certain points.
18:36.18
Angela
Um, yeah.
18:39.20
jessievalle
And it probably would have been a really good idea for us to have a written agreement from the beginning. But since this was kind of just like a side project for fun. We could be a little more relaxed with how we set everything up.
18:41.56
Angela
Yeah, absolutely.
18:54.52
Angela
Now.
18:56.51
jessievalle
But again, no matter what we still had to have that open communication about our expectations. So.
19:03.32
Angela
Yeah, and and what we were what we had the bandwidth for like um like our book. Oh my gosh when Jesse was like we're going to write a book I was like we're going to what I'm sorry.
19:08.62
jessievalle
The.
19:19.34
jessievalle
Um, I'm like don't worry. It's gonna be fine.
19:22.18
Angela
It was It was fine. It was fun. It was way easier than I had anticipated. Um and now I get to tell people I wrote a book with my friend.
19:29.25
jessievalle
Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, so in the end I am very glad that we had this experience that we were able to partner together and. Grow as business owners and people and still have this exciting ride together with a friend and have someone to so to celebrate the winds and pat on the back for the losses and.
19:56.51
Angela
Yeah.
20:05.50
Angela
Um, yeah.
20:06.28
jessievalle
And and all the things that have someone to share this passion with so if I were to do it all over again I would 100% ask angela to do this with me again for sure.
20:10.83
Angela
Um.
20:14.97
Angela
Yeah, yeah, absolutely in a heartbeat if the if the factors that are a factor in our decision to sunset. The podcast were not factors I would definitely still be doing this if I Had. Or have the opportunity in the future I Would definitely do it Again. It's been amazing and fun and a great learning opportunity for both of us. Um, now I know how podcasts work which actually makes listening to other podcasts. Really fun.
20:42.79
jessievalle
He out.
20:51.28
jessievalle
For sure So Whale I don't think I have anything else to say other than I'm really glad that I did this with you and I would definitely do it again and if you out there are considering. Partnering with a friend for business just know that there are a few things to take into consideration. But at least from where we Stand. It's worth It. Oh.
21:20.50
Angela
Um, yeah.
21:27.83
jessievalle
All right? We'll talk to you next week
21:31.49
Angela
Bye.
