In today’s episode, I’m joined by Robert and Kay Lee Fukui, co-founders of i61 Inc., cohosts of the Thriving in Tandem podcast, and authors of the book Tandem. They share invaluable strategies for balancing business success and family life. 

Robert recounts his transition from Fortune 500 company sales roles to small business consulting, emphasizing the importance of working smarter rather than harder. Kay Lee reflects on her entrepreneurial upbringing and the toll relentless work hours took on family relationships. Together, they provide practical advice on succeeding professionally while preserving family time.

We also discuss tips to improve business profitability, prioritize relationships, and create sustainable wealth. This episode is a must-listen for married parents seeking harmony in their professional and personal lives.

Episode Highlights

(04:05 - 05:08) Optimizing Outcomes Over Time Investment

(09:15 - 10:18) Managing Work-Life Balance and Finances

(16:39 - 17:22) The Power of Prayer for Couples

(23:39 - 24:33) Improving Profit Margins in Small Business

Connect with Robert and Kay Lee Fukui

Website

Listen to their podcast, Thriving in Tandem

Pick up a copy of their book, Tandem

Connect with Deb Meyer

Website: WorthyNest.com/podcast 

Schedule a free, initial consult

Full transcript

Deb Meyer (00:02.318)

You are in for a treat. I am so excited to introduce you to not one, but two guests. We have Robert and Kay Lee Fukui. They are co-founders of the business consulting company, i61 Inc., co-authors of the book Tandem, and co-hosts of the Thriving in Tandem podcast. They help married entrepreneurs create better work-life balance by structuring the business to scale while giving precious time back to the owner to invest in the marriage.

And if you're married but not an entrepreneur, you can also benefit from this episode. There is a tendency in our society to prioritize work over family, and this can create conflict and distance in our relationships. Robert and Kay Lee are on a mission to help couples succeed in both business and life.

All right, Robert and Kay Lee, you cracked the code on prioritizing marriage while building a profitable business. What led you to starting i61 and launching the consulting program Power Couples by Design?

I'm sure listeners would love to hear your backstories.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (01:11.886)

Well, yeah, it depends how far back we go because we didn't start out to focus on helping married entrepreneurs. My background is in Fortune 500 and I was in marketing and sales. I was working for beverage companies like Coca-Cola. Then I worked for Big Pharma. And then I got to get to the midlife crisis, the mid-40s, and thinking about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. And so I thought maybe start a business, but that was not my upbringing. So I didn't know what it would be. Kay Lee did come from an entrepreneurial background.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (01:41.422)

And so what I started doing is I just started doing marketing consulting with different businesses to see if maybe I'd find a business that I would like. But it turned out that I really enjoyed consulting and especially consulting with small privately held businesses because I get to interact directly with the owner, the teams and all that. And you really see the impact that the changes and the positive changes that we make has on not just the business, but the people.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (02:10.638)

I really love that. So seven years ago, I left Big Pharma to consult full-time. And the idea was really to help scale and grow these businesses that have the desire to make an impact in the community. It was about finding these purpose-led businesses. And sometimes business owners don't realize that they can make a positive impact.

They just think they're just there to make money and support their family. They don't realize how much of an impact their business makes. And so, sort of really helping them realize the bigger impact they make beyond just making money and selling a product or service. Then what happened was, you know, they're looking for marketing help, but as I'm looking at these businesses, because I always want to know as much about the business as possible, and I look at their operations and not marketing as well, of course, in their financial situation.

And what I realized was they're working way too hard. Not that hard work isn't good, it's just that they're working harder than they needed to. And it was stressing the team, it was stressing the owner, and it was going back home. And so that's not good, right? And it was one client after another all seeing very same thing. And then you hear about, if you step back a little bit, you hear about how if you're going into business, they say about, you're gonna have to sacrifice your personal life. All right?

And they say that usually say, okay, the first few years, once the business gets up and running, then you'll have your life back kind of thing. But I was seeing businesses that were going 10, 20 years out and they're still not having a life. And it was affecting home. And so that's when I looked at Kaylee and I said, you know, I think there's an issue here that no one's really addressing. It's like the elephant in a room, is that there's no balance in their life. And everybody's accepting it as normal.

Deb Meyer (03:40.25)

Mm-hmm.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (04:06.862)

And I'm looking at it from just a business perspective, I can see how they can run the business more efficiently and more productively and have more profit and actually gain more time back. How do we pick more? Because from the corporate environments I came up with, or came up with, we didn't look at how to just put more time into how the business grows. We look to see how we can have better outcomes.

Right? When I was in sales, it wasn't about me putting more time in to get 10, 20 % increase in sales from the year before. It was, what do I need to do to improve what I did last year? And it was improved performance, improved outcomes. It wasn't about putting more time in, but that was the go -to strategy for a lot of small business owners. And that's kind of how that whole thing started. Just that aha moment and say, wait a second, there's a better way to do this. And then of course there's a better way of intentionally, prioritizing investing into your marriage and your family even in the midst of growing a business.

Deb Meyer (05:09.242)

What about you, Kay Lee?

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (05:12.078)

Well, and I want to say too that there's no proof that you need to put in 100 hours a week and 80 hours a week to be successful. I think that's more of a myth that we just kind of accept that as status quo because we hear that all the time, but there's no data at least that we've seen that backs that up. And as a child of entrepreneur and third generation, the business became the mistress. So my dad worked six days a week. He wasn't home much.

To this day, I don't think he was at my high school graduation. It was really stressful on our family. And so we thought there's got to be a better way to do this where you can win it both.

Deb Meyer (05:47.962)

Yeah. Well, I'm sure growing up in that environment, it is hard because you're seeing this model of the American dream being lived out, right? Third-generation business, that's exciting, right? But then it's also like, well, when you're not really living life to the fullest because you're sacrificing the relationships with family members. It does wreak havoc no matter how financially successful the business is.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (06:12.142)

Yeah, and I know a lot of your listeners aren't business owners. The same can be said even as a W-2 employee, because I came up, most of my career was as a W-2 employee. And the same thing happens even in a work environment. The successful people or the people that want to succeed, they feel like they have to sacrifice their personal life in order to achieve. I remember one of my colleagues almost bragging that she hadn't taken a vacation in five years.

And I'm like, they pay us to go on vacation. Like, why would you not? I'm like, yeah, because her answer is always, I'm just too busy, you know, I'm just too busy. I got so much to do. And I'm like, I didn't say it to her, but I'm like, yeah, but I've won sales awards. I've accomplished from a professional level, but I take my vacations. I mean, they're paying me to take a vacation. Why not take a vacation? And we also know that, you know, it's so, I think culture is so acting so counter,

Deb Meyer (06:42.746)

Right? Why are you proud of that?

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (07:10.67)

Intelligent, meaning the data supports rest, taking vacations, because your body, both physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, rejuvenates itself in periods of rest. And rest isn't just sleeping. It's just disconnecting from work and doing something that's more fun or life-giving besides work, right? And there's so much data research out there that supports rest. But yet,

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (07:38.062)

we feel that we have to, in order to achieve, we have to work more, have to work harder, and don't rest. It's actually counterproductive. And so, but that's the thing, the tension that we face, what society's teaching us versus what science is showing us. And even as people of faith, right, one of the 10 commandments is obey the Sabbath, keep it holy. And it's not just a spiritual element, it's an actual physical, mental, emotional issue too.

Because if we don't rest, eventually our body breaks down. I know there's data on the World Health Organization just in 2021 published the research that showed that people who work over 40 to 50 hours a week have a 35% increase in heart attacks. We also know there's from Henry Ford to Stanford's research on

Deb Meyer (08:15.126)

Burnout, yeah.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (08:36.462)

Work productivity that people that work over 40 to 50 hours a week, their productivity does not increase. The more hours you put in after 50 hours, there's no additional benefit as far as productivity. So productivity wanes after a certain period of time and so does your health. And so there's no reason to work.

Deb Meyer (08:51.898)

Yeah, well and when you think about health, I mean a lot of financial ruin can happen when people fall into poor physical health because of all the medical bills that pile up too. And if they get in a situation where they can't work anymore, maybe they don't have the disability insurance they should have thought about, like those situations do still happen. And I'm not saying every person that falls physically ill is... it's a result of burnout, but I mean it can be a very big contributor as you said.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (09:27.766)

Absolutely. Being in the pharmaceutical industry for 25 years, every time we had a new drug and a new therapeutic area for a different disease, one of the things you look at, we learned a disease, number one, and we look at risk factors. And stress is probably the most common risk factor I've seen across all the diseases from cancer to heart disease, I mean, you name it, diabetes, you name it. Stress is probably the most common risk factor.across diseases across the board.

Deb Meyer (09:58.106)

Yeah. Well, and you actually cite something interesting in your book. You talk about that 2020 survey stress in America. You said 64 % of adults say money is a significant source of stress in their lives. So I'm curious when people are under stress and they're working a lot, they're feeling that sense of burnout. How do you kind of give them these coping mechanisms to say, Hey, I need to step back and maybe reevaluate where my life is.

trending towards.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (10:30.83)

first thing it's like you guys got to get on the same page. You know that's with all our clients that's the first thing where we go after is you got to get on the same page. What does work -life balance mean to you and when it comes to finance what's important financially? You know you got to have money in order to support your life right but also you got to think about the future and so like I'm a spender, Kaylee's the saver and

Deb Meyer (10:33.562)

Mm -hmm.

Deb Meyer (10:45.818)

Mm -hmm.

Deb Meyer (10:50.746)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (10:57.934)

yes, spending's okay, but you can't spend your future away either, right? And saving's important, but if you don't go and have some fun, well, that's boring. And so there's gotta be that little happy medium that you agree to, is like, let's have fun, but at the same time, let's not sacrifice our future. You gotta, and then that's of course where the budget comes in, which was a point of contention in our marriage early on.

Deb Meyer (11:02.682)

All right.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (11:24.654)

you know, Kaylee wanted to get on a budget. That's where, you know, her lifestyle growing up, her family growing up, budget was a big thing. And my family growing up, that wasn't a big issue. And so, and especially we didn't have money growing up. So when I got money, when I started working to make good money, yeah, I spent it. Cause you know, I was like, hey, I got to celebrate, you know, I'm doing well and all that stuff. And next thing you know, I was like, wait a second, you know, I can't spend my future away. And so that's where, you know, got on the budget.

Deb Meyer (11:37.69)

Resentment, yeah.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (11:51.47)

And then even before we met Kaylee, it was like, okay, how do we start investing for the future? You know, from our retirement 401k to then start real estate and all that. And of course, when we got married, we finally were able to, she convinced me to get on a budget. We actually took, we actually took, not took, we actually led Crown Financial Ministries. I think you're familiar with Crown. So we brought that in our church and then we kind of ended up leading that. And so that's where I got convicted.

Deb Meyer (12:04.794)

Mm-hmm. Hehehehehe.

Okay. Yeah, yeah.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (12:20.558)

to get on a budget was because all the things she was saying was biblical. And so I was like, I was like, okay. So I guess I can't argue anymore. Cause you know, who am I gonna argue with now? I can't argue, I'm not arguing against Kaylee now, I'm arguing against God. So, you know, we got on a budget and then that helps really start to, I don't say eliminate, but it starts to minimize those arguments.

Because without a budget to point to, that's where it's just back and forth. Like, you don't want me to have fun, you're spending our future away, right? And it's coming up with a budget to be able to do both. Yeah, I'd say come up with a vision of what you want your life to look like, and then how can you work towards that? Because if we want to travel the world, then okay, we need to start paying down some of this debt and get on a budget and come up with a plan so we can do that. And at the time, maybe we can't.

Deb Meyer (13:13.754)

Right.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (13:18.574)

We don't have the money to travel the world, but what little thing can we do? Maybe we can go visit our own city and be a tourist in our own city, you know, do things that don't cost a lot of money, but yet it's something that you enjoy and you feel like it's part of your dream. And it's something that you can both work together and go in the same direction as opposed to looking at as one's the saver and one's a spender. It's like, how can we come together and come up with a vision and a dream for our family?

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (13:47.182)

I mentor some young guys that are at church and one of the guys was talking about, and he's a saver, his wife's kind of a spender, and they're coming up, there's big bonus that his wife's gonna get, and then they wanna go take this international trip, right? And they just got back from an international trip. And she wants a house, and he wants to say, I mean, there's all these financial goals that they have too. And I'm like, “how much is the bonus?”

He told me and then, and I said, "Bbut you said you have debt, right?" He's like, “Yeah, we're paying off different school loans, this, that, the other thing.” And I said, “How much do you spend? How much do you pay per month on the debt?” He said, “a thousand dollars a month.”

And I said, “Why don't you, why don't you just take a smaller trip now, pay off the debt? It frees up a thousand dollars a month.” Which is a lot of money, right? Over the year. So in a year, it's going to be $12 ,000. And I said,

“You can take a portion of that 12,000 that you're getting in cash now to take another trip maybe next year. Right? But save up for a house.” But yeah, that's my point. You can also take a big chunk of that to start saving for the house or the next thing you want to do that's more tangible than just a trip. And I'm like, why spend your future away? And then, I mean, he got it.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (15:12.558)

I don't know if she did. And they're young, they have no kids. She wants to spend. I told him, I was like, you got to frame it. It's not about whether we take the trip or not and just save or not. It's like, let's frame this thing. It's $1,000 a month we free up by paying off this debt. Now in another year, we can take another smaller trip, but we can also be that much closer to our dream of getting a house. And so anyways, just all I have to say is when you start, that goes to the budget.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (15:42.158)

You know, the issue is like once you start to budget and plan ahead and then see that you can achieve your dreams, but you can also have some fun now or maybe defer a little bit of that. Maybe not the international trip now, but maybe a domestic one, but maybe in a year or two years from now we can save for that international trip, right? So we can't have both. It just takes a little bit of planning and we might have to delay some gratification now for to be able to achieve our dreams a little bit sooner. But just think all the money they're going to be saving by putting that down towards their debt because the interests are not paying.

Deb Meyer (16:18.362)

Mm-hmm. Right. I mean, in today's environment, interest rates are very high. So it's likely that they're paying far more, you know, just from an interest rate perspective than what they would if they had invested that money elsewhere. Yeah.

So I did like how you also touched on the fact that you're a believer. And I think when we first connected, you and I, Robert, we met at Mike Kim's You're the Brand Live event back in May. And I thought it was really cool that we both were like “Faith Family Finance” and that's the logo for Worthy Nest, my RIA. Can you share a little bit more about how people who do have that kind of “Faith Family Finance,” in that order, how do they prioritize it? Because I think it is challenging, especially in today's world where there's a lot of consumerism and focus on a secular worldly desire. It is hard to stay centered in that stewardship focus.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (17:20.622)

Yeah, you prioritize in that order, right? Faith, family, finance. And so you have to practically live that out. So that's the big question is how do you practically live out faith and family before finance? Because right now, practically speaking, we put finance ahead of both because we're all in our career or our business, even our ministry. My dad was a pastor and the ministry took center stage and family took the back seat.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (17:49.07)

It doesn't matter if you're in a secular environment or a Christian environment, we just, the way we're wired these days, culture has taught us that in order to succeed, we gotta put our work first. Right, that's kind of how our achievement, yeah, our achievement, yeah.

Deb Meyer (18:01.358)

But that's what's causing the burnout and it's hard to show up in a great way in your faith life and your family life.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (18:09.55)

Yeah. And so you gotta basically deconstruct your life and start over and say, okay, and let's take our calendar. See, you know, where you're, whatever I see on the calendar, that's priority, right? So I say, okay, where's faith besides Sunday church? Where's your faith? Like, what do you do daily? So we just, we have our daily discipline, you know, quiet time, read scripture, pray individually, and then we pray together.

Deb Meyer (18:23.002)

Mm -hmm.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (18:38.702)

So for all the couples out there, especially those of you, the couple that prays together stays together, there's actually data that supports that. Family Institute did research that showed that the couples that pray daily together, and this is active prayer, intentional prayer with each other, the divorce rate is one in 1 ,100. So it's a fraction of 1%. And so, I mean, just...

Deb Meyer (19:01.722)

The national divorce rate on average is about 50%. Yeah.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (19:04.334)

It's like 40 to 50%. And did you know only 8 % of Christian couples pray daily together? Outside of meal time, only 8 % of Christian couples pray daily together. And the statistics for pastors are very similar.

Deb Meyer (19:20.698)

Interesting. Huh.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (19:21.55)

And I could say from my, and I remember reading that, I was like, thinking back to my childhood, I'm like, yeah, I don't remember my parents praying together. Like on a regular basis kind of thing, like daily prayer. I said, I don't remember seeing them do that. And so, and not to say they're bad people, I mean, they're a great, he was a great man of faith. They both were great people of faith. But just one simple daily discipline that shows your priority, number one.

Deb Meyer (19:29.762)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (19:49.454)

Priority to God, but also at the same time, it's showing priority to each other. So it's a two for one. It's priority to God, but it's also priority to each other. Because how often do we start our day when we have that intentional time with our spouse? Again, beyond the dinner table, and sometimes even that's pretty rare, right, in today's society. But how many times do daily we sit down with our spouse and just connect?

Right? And so it's not even just in Christian circles. So prayer time creates that opportunity just to connect intentionally. And for us, first thing in the morning, because if it doesn't happen in the morning, it just doesn't happen. Then the busyness of the day goes on, right? So that's just one thing you can do to put your faith in your family as a priority. And even have the kids involved. And so I know one of our clients, they do the prayer time and devotional time with the family in the evening.

Deb Meyer (20:21.978)

Connection time.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (20:45.166)

Yeah, and I hear people say, I don't have time for that. And it doesn't take a lot of time. You know, it doesn't have to be an hour, half an hour, exactly. And there's nothing like having your spouse pray for you and to start your day that way. Yeah, it's interesting because, yeah, that's a very common answer is, our schedules are different. I'm like, time out. This is exactly what I'm talking about. Our life is out of balance because we can't make time for our priority.

Deb Meyer (20:51.13)

Right, it could take five minutes.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (21:15.502)

If you say faith and family is a priority, then do it. You don't make excuses, you just do it. And then there's still so much time in a day, right? That still leaves you the rest of the day to do what you need to do. But what happens is too, starting a day with that kind of foundation actually sets a really peaceful tone for the day instead of just starting in the rush of the day, right? And that's part of, and then, so yeah, again, there,

Deb Meyer (21:22.074)

Just do it.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (21:45.358)

That's just the small thing and for us too. We have our weekly meetings as well right. Mondays at 3:30 is our weekly meeting. So we talk business and personal time … every, you know, calendar sync … all those intentional things. We need to discuss that sometimes may or may not get discussed during a week. But we have intentional time to do those things so we make sure we're staying on the same page you talk about Finances where are we at with things? Where are we going?

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (22:12.494)

You know, what possible clients do we have coming up? It's a more peaceful release for me. Kind of eases the anxiety of the unknown … just talking to him and finding out where we're at. So then the finance piece is that one as far as wealth-building. That's the part that should be the simplest for you to do because there's a difference between income generating and wealth building.

Income generating is a stuff that we work for.

Deb Meyer (22:27.93)

That's great.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (22:42.67)

But then what we do with the money to allow it to grow without our effort, that's the wealth building for me, right? And I know you know this. But that should be the simplest of all because the money's growing without me doing anything. My only effort, our only effort is making sure money goes into an account, whether it's our retirement account or our mutual funds or our real estate, investing in our real estate. And so when I was leaving a pharmaceutical company to consult full time, I ran, for the first time, a net worth analysis of us. Because one, it was, you know, it's kind of scary leaving the comfiness of a regular paycheck and bonuses and all the benefits. And I realized, I was like, honey, do you know how much we're worth? I'm like, no.

Deb Meyer (23:28.442)

Right.

Most people don't. Yeah, most don't.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (23:38.062)

And I'm like, we're gonna be okay. I was just surprised because I didn't track my 401(k). I don't want to look at it because you otherwise react when the market turns. You know, you don't want to people react and they want to stop giving or stop investing or whatever. And I was always, you know … just set it and forget it.

Deb Meyer (23:53.914)

Yeah, you don’t want to do a lot of short-term reacting. And yeah, put the blinders on.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (24:05.614)

I was more of the set it and forget-it kind of person. And I had a good financial advisor that advised me and let him manage any kind of shifts in the funds or portfolio. But, although I say that, we invested in real estate. And then by the time we're 50, and I'm thinking … my gosh, I'm like, wow. Looking back, it's like, you know, it's not like we did anything fancy and it's not like we started with a lot of money to begin with to start investing.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (24:34.926)

But we create a habit of investing. And so whenever we had extra money, right? And next thing you know, you're a multimillionaire. But you're like, how'd that happen? Mike Kim interviewed me on another summit and called my session The Boring Millionaire because so many people think you need to start with money and you need to invest big money at the beginning to make a lot of money.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (25:03.182)

And it's gotta be fancy and you have to be moving stuff all over and you gotta be an expert. Yeah, going for returns and all that stuff. And as you know, Deb, I don't know if you understand, but I started with just $200 a month into my 401k at Coca-Cola. And then we diversified and opened our own mutual fund account and then started getting a rental property, right? And then we got two. And then next thing you know, now we have income coming in from our real estate investments that is almost like a little like a salary, right?

But it's all from, and it started small and you just allow the years and the compound interest and appreciation, the value of the properties to do its thing. And we didn't have to do a thing.

Well, and your corporation was doing matching. And then now you're like, wow … steady plotting.

Deb Meyer (25:48.175)

Mm-hmm. The 401k match.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (25:55.758)

Yeah, steady plotting, right? That's in proverbs that steady plotting brings prosperity and it's a hasty speculation that brings poverty. And so, you know, we weren't the ones, we weren't the type that were always wanting to chase returns. We were just, just put money in, put money in, put money in. Yeah. Just a daily discipline or monthly discipline. And so next thing you know, at 50, you're like, wow, how did that happen? Right. I mean, we know how it happened, but you know, it's, when you're not really keeping track of it, you're like, surprise. And then, but it came from just doing the boring stuff that.

Deb Meyer (26:06.522)

Mm-hmm. Disciplined. Yep. Yep.

Well, let's shift gears for just a little bit. I know you work with a lot of small business owners and for many of them, low profits can keep them up at night. In your opinion, is the answer always more sales or is there something else?

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (26:42.83)

Yeah, I mean, sales can be part of the answer, but it's not the entire solution. Like I said, when I was first consulting, people wanted marketing help. They want more sales, more sales, more sales. And the first thing I looked at was their financial statements. And I noticed that the majority of business owners are working on too low margins. And so the first, the easiest thing to fix is margin. It's not getting more sales. More sales is actually harder because you have to do more activity, whether it's doing more marketing or spending more on the marketing, whatever.

You have to do something to get more people to come in. That's actually harder than just trying to adjust your margins because that's not, it starts on paper, but it's just stuff you do in the business that you have control over. Like raising prices or minimizing expenses. Those are the two things or the combination of that will increase your profit margins. And it has nothing to do with sales, right? It's just how you handle your money.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (27:41.774)

The majority of business owners are afraid to raise their prices. And so that's the first thing we attack, because basically we look at the profit and loss statement from revenue to expenses, we start from the top and work our way down, which starts with revenue, and it's where can we increase price? And there's always an area that we can increase price, even if it's just 5%, but that 5 % increase hits the bottom line directly. Right, there's no additional expense.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (28:10.734)

So if you had a 5 % net profit margin, well, an average 5 % increase in price, now you got a 10 % net, right? And so, yeah, and then without doing anything. And so in the first month, the price increased, now you're increasing your profits. And people think that they're gonna lose customers, and this, that, and the other thing. People aren't gonna blink at 5%, especially these days. Yeah, with inflation.

Deb Meyer (28:21.882)

Mm-hmm. It's a measurable difference, yeah.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (28:39.79)

Some businesses haven't raised their prices in years and I'm like, wow, with inflation, the way it's going, every time you go to the grocery store, it seems like prices are going up. And it's so sad because how many times have like your favorite product, your favorite restaurant gone out of business and you would have been willing to pay more for that service or product had they raised their prices. And so raising prices are a pretty simple way. Of course, it's emotionally difficult.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (29:09.262)

Because people think you're going to lose customers and your customers that know you, love you, see the value in it, they're not gonna blink. Once you get over 15, 20 % price increase, you might have an issue, but even with that, even if you lose customers, because of such an increase in profit margin, you can afford to lose customers and still make more money.

Deb Meyer (31:15.034)

Mm-hmm. All right, I'm gonna close with one other question here. So I know you guys have experience working with entrepreneurs that are married and their spouses outside the business, but you also have several entrepreneur couples. I guess for those who are contemplating working together as husband and wife, are there any situations in which you would say, yeah, definitely work together or not? And how can couples prevent working together from negatively impacting their marriage?

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (31:47.118)

I'd say that we're to each other's strengths. Robert is great at being detailed. It used to bother me. I'm like, why are you so detailed? You know, every little thing, i’s dotted. But now if I'm doing something and it really needs to be detailed, I love it. I think it's handy. I'm like, honey, can you look at this? As opposed to letting it rub me the wrong way. So finding something that your spouse is good at and plugging them in at that seat, because then if they're happy, you're happy.

And it'll be a lot more peaceful, put it that way. And whether or not they should work together, I mean, that's a question about your own vision for yourself, right? Are you called, maybe some spouses, they already have another career or sometimes they have another business or sometimes they just wanna stay at home and raise the family, that's a priority and that's fine. It's mainly about what you feel you're called to do.

If you're contemplating working together, but you're hesitant because you're afraid it's not gonna be good for your marriage like like I was I was afraid when she asked For if she could help me and I said no because I didn't think it would be good for the marriage That's not a good reason not to work together Because what? You know every couple can work together if they just learn how to Communicate but it's all about how to resolve conflict. You know, we're always gonna have disagreements.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (33:13.902)

But how we're able to resolve that is the issue. And then that's what couples are afraid of, getting in those conflicts. And if you know how to do conflict well and know how to resolve issues, then you can work together and do anything together. Absolutely, we're big proponents of couples working together because you're better together. I mean, who better to work with you than your spouse? Who can you trust the most? Who wants to have your back? Who wants to succeed more than anybody else out there, right?

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (33:43.662)

It's gonna be your spouse. And you're usually opposites in some form or fashion, which means you also have complementary gifts and skills. So automatically you're bringing on somebody that's a compliment to you, and not just to you, but to the business. And just learn how to do conflict. That's the big thing is that, is don't let things get personal and address the issue. Don't address the emotion that sometimes gets tied to it. Because sometimes if I come to her and it sounds critical, then she can get emotional about it and then we get in an argument.

But if we can take a step back and I say, honey, I'm not trying to be critical, I just need answers to this question. It's just a business issue. Then we can kind of step back a little bit and get out of our personal self and then say, okay, let's just address the issue and not take it personal. But that's where things can get kind of sticky is when we just take things too personal.

Deb Meyer (34:42.81)

Right, right. Well, I love that you touched on that conflict resolution too, and I think you detail more of the steps in the book Tandem. You highlight, I think it's eight different steps to kind of reframe conflict, because conflict is inevitable. I don't care how perfectly people are matched, there's always going to be some level of disagreement in any relationship. Yeah, well, cool.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (35:03.278)

Yeah. Absolutely.

Deb Meyer (35:07.61)

Thank you so much for being here. Where is a good place for people to find you if they want to learn more about working with you or some of the other resources that you offer?

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (35:16.398)

Well, our website is marriedentrepreneur.co. Thank you, honey. See, he's detailed. Words do matter. People are going to type in, yeah, people are going to type in what they hear. So yeah, know that. And our podcast is Thriving in Tandem.

Deb Meyer (35:26.362)

No “the” in front, just married. Okay. Okay, all right. Perfect, I'll link to those in the show notes too. All right, well thank you so much. Any closing thoughts for listeners?

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (35:42.606)

Given what your podcast is about, if you've been listening but hesitant about starting to invest, you just gotta do it and just start with something. Like I said earlier, people think you have to start with a lot of money to make a lot of money, but you don't. You just have to start with something. And as you know, it's really let compound interest take its effect. But if you don't invest, it's not gonna take effect. And so just start with something and get into that habit, new habit of investing into yourself as opposed to just spending it or paying a credit card company, you know, interest. So get out of debt and at least start a Roth for retirement. Put some money into it every year.

Deb Meyer (36:27.61)

Yep. And if you're eligible to directly contribute, great. Otherwise come to a financial planner like me. We can help you figure out backdoor Roths and stuff. All right. Well, cool. Thank you guys so much. I really enjoyed this conversation.

Robert & Kay Lee Fukui (36:33.87)

Exactly. Absolutely. Absolutely.

You're welcome. Thanks, Deb. Thank you, Deb.