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Do you ever feel torn between growing your business and being present with your spouse or children? Building a thriving business while nurturing a happy, connected family life can feel like a balancing act that few manage well. Thankfully, Stephen and Chelsey Diaz of the Rainmaker Family have cracked the code! After experiencing burnout in their wedding photography business, they transitioned to e-commerce in 2017, focusing on Amazon FBA — a shift that not only granted them financial freedom but also gave them the ability to spend quality time with their children, Kaizen and Oliver. Their journey has since inspired thousands of families to pursue online businesses that prioritize both financial success and family well-being.
In a recent episode of the Millionaire University podcast, they shared the actionable strategies that have allowed them to scale their business, stay present with their children, and avoid burnout. Below are their top three tips for harmonizing entrepreneurship and family. Let’s dive in!
1. Define Your "Non-Negotiables"
For Stephen and Chelsey, one of the first steps to balance was getting clear on their non-negotiables. These are the values, routines, or activities that are prioritized no matter how busy life gets.
This often means they’re going into their calendar and physically blocking time for family, time for their relationship, and even time for themselves.
By anchoring their schedule around what matters most, they prevent work from encroaching on personal time. This intentional approach to planning protects their boundaries and ensures the things that give them joy and energy stay intact.
To reinforce these boundaries, Stephen and Chelsey use family meetings to plan each week. This ritual improves communication, allowing them to check in, prioritize upcoming events, and adjust schedules collaboratively. They also use the concept of dream week: designing a weekly blueprint where both work and personal commitments are deliberately structured for balance.
“ What I did is create a dream week. I would look at a really awesome week, and I would just say, okay, what were the things that I put in personally, professionally to make that week really awesome where I got to the end of my day and I was like, wow, I did it. And then on the flip side, I compared it to the weeks that didn't go so well. I really analyzed the two and created a dream week off of that.” -Chelsey
All that’s to say, the couple recommends mapping out a weekly schedule with recurring time blocks dedicated to your non-negotiables. Whether it’s family dinners, exercise, or date nights, treat these commitments with the same respect as business meetings.
2. Build Systems to Free Up Time
One of Stephen and Chelsey’s biggest revelations was the importance of building systems to remove themselves from day-to-day tasks. Systems allow your business to grow without demanding more of your time.
Chelsey shared their early experience as wedding photographers: “We were really trading time for money,” she said. “ So we just started a physical product side hustle and threw it up on Amazon.” By shifting from service-based work to an e-commerce model, they developed a more scalable business.
They now apply this principle by automating processes, delegating to team members, and leveraging technology. Whether it's outsourcing repetitive tasks or using automation tools for marketing, the goal is to make your business work for you — not the other way around.
“It's that structure that's given us the capacity to have a huge team, have a big business, have a lot of impact in the family, be involved with our church. We can do all the things without it killing us.” -Stephen
Minimizing switching costs also plays a major role in maintaining focus. Switching between different tasks drains mental energy, leading to fatigue and reduced productivity. Stephen and Chelsey combat this by implementing themed days, dedicating specific days to similar types of tasks to stay in a state of flow. By reducing unnecessary context-switching, they maintain efficiency and reserve energy for what matters most.
3. Embrace "Freedom in Structure"
While creativity and flexibility are vital for entrepreneurs, Stephen and Chelsey stress that true freedom comes from structure. This paradox has shaped their approach to work-life balance.
“Time is a lot like money,” Stephen explained. “If you don’t tell time where to go, it’ll just go where it goes.” Similarly, “ If you just have a garden with no lattices, it's overgrown and all jumbled. But if you give it some structure, it can actually grow something really big and strong.”
Creating a structured routine doesn’t mean rigidity; it means giving your life a framework. For instance, the couple follows routines that adapt as their children grow but still prioritize consistency. Structure also makes it easier to recognize when it’s time to adjust as needs evolve.
By pairing structure with flexibility, they’ve avoided the burnout many entrepreneurs experience. Weekly family meetings, dream week planning, and themed days — all built around clear non-negotiables — provide the scaffolding that keeps their lives intentional and balanced.
To put it succinctly, “You get to that point in your life where you recognize trying to just be free actually is creating a lot of bondage, and I have to do things a little differently,” summarizes Kirsten Tyrrel, Millionaire University host.
Stephen and Chelsey’s structure-first philosophy has allowed them to run a large business, stay engaged with their children, and remain active in their community without burning out.
…Class Dismissed!
Entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be a choice between personal fulfillment and professional success. Stephen and Chelsey’s journey shows that with the right strategies, it’s possible to excel at both. Start by defining your non-negotiables, building systems that create leverage, and embracing the freedom that comes from structure. By following their lead, you can reclaim your time and enjoy a life where business and family thrive together!
Want to hear the full interview with Stephen and Chelsey? Click here!
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Transcript
Stephen: [00:00:00] So if you're trying to work in the nooks and crannies of your life as a mom, and you're switching between all these brain modalities, oftentimes that is the thing that leaves you really feeling frazzled at the end of the day. It's not because you did a lot. It's because you switched a lot.
Kirsten: Who's ready for the power of a power couple. That is what we have for you on today's episode. We have Steven and Chelsea Diaz, who are the founders and creators of Rainmaker family, a company where they help mamas make it rain. If you're still out there looking for a business that you can start, maybe preferably a side hustle, because you have a family.
And you don't want a full blown company. This is the episode for you. And even if you are building a full blown company, there are so many principles that are going to be essential because Stephen and Chelsea themselves have scaled from side hustle to full corporation. And there's a lot of systems that they've had to put in place to make that happen.
And continue to make it rain. So without further delay, let's dive right in with Stephen and Chelsea Diaz. Hello, Chelsea and Stephen. Welcome to the Millionaire University podcast. I'm so excited to [00:01:00] chat with you guys today. I told you I have been a follower and have seen you all over the internet for years and years, which means you must be doing something right.
So thanks for coming on and being willing to share your story and your insight with our audience today.
Stephen: Hey, glad to be here. So
Kirsten: excited to be here. Thanks for having us. Absolutely. Okay. We don't often get a family. We don't get a husband and a wife duo very often, but it's perfect because that's who started our show as a husband and wife duo.
So we're somewhat familiar with what it looks like, the dynamics of building a business together, but give us a little bit of your guys backstory and were you always entrepreneurs? How did Rainmaker family come to be? And by the way, that's the name of your company, the Rainmaker family. So just give us a little bit of insight into how we got to where we are today.
Chelsey: Hmm. Yeah. I love that question for us. It really started in this tiny one bedroom, one bath, little like vacuum that we were living in. And there's this rickety old black spiral staircase inside of our house and you would climb it to the very top. And Steven's very tall [00:02:00] and he would like hit his head on the ceiling and upstairs was our very first office.
So we jumped into entrepreneurship as a young couple. Right out of college, really. And we were actually in the wedding industry where photographers and videographers. And we found some success at that, but we were really trading time for money and just really in this season of overworked, overextended and really getting burnt out.
And I just remember like during the winter months, January, February, like friends stopped calling us. They'd see us around town and they say things like, man, you guys are just so busy. Like we don't want to bother you. Like you've been traveling so much. I really got us thinking, like, I know we are busy, but we're not that busy, I guess.
And for me personally, like, I think women especially feel this way. Like, I just felt the weight of the world on my shoulders every winter season when checks weren't coming in super consistently. And I just remember feeling after doing that business for a [00:03:00] couple of years together, just feeling like this is not sustainable long term for what we want to do.
We wanted to start a family. We wanted to have some kind of work life balance if that really like does exist, you know, and what we were doing, traveling all the time, working like crazy hours, it just wasn't going to be sustainable. And so Fast forward to the summertime when we were in full blown wedding season, we had started kind of a little side hustle and we had tried all different kind of side hustles and I should really say like Stephen started a lot of these side hustles.
Chelsea kept the
Stephen: wedding business running while I goofed off watching webinars, buying every program, like doing everything you could think of. So thank God Chelsea kept the real business running. But we did have some side hustles, right?
Chelsey: Yeah. So at the time we just started a physical product, like little side hustle and we threw it up on Amazon.
Amazon had this program called Amazon FBA and it just started selling and creating like extra revenue for us. And it was incredible. And honestly, like I [00:04:00] wasn't really a believer yet. I was still like very skeptical. I'm like, Oh, that's great. Like you have fun over there, Steven. Like we need to show up and shoot these weddings and deliver for our clients.
And I'll never forget, we were in the middle of, again, wedding season. It was probably 110 degrees outside. We had our 10 minute break for dinner at the wedding. And I was just like, Hey, Steven, let's check our Amazon account. Let's just see like how much money we made together. And so we pulled it up and I'll never forget after like stuffing my face full, like mashed potatoes and tri tip.
That we looked at our app and to my surprise, we had actually made more money with our Amazon business than we did photographing that wedding. And for me, that was like the first light bulb moment, that aha. And it was like, I had finally like the weight of the world that I'd felt every single slower season or just like, what is this going to look like to have a family with the careers that we've chosen?
And. It [00:05:00] finally began to lift and I just felt lighter and freer and it was finally like the financial freedom and the financial leverage that we had really been looking for. And so we still kept running our wedding business and selling our own physical products and creating that brand. But Steven really just started teaching friends and family about the same method that we had learned because it's like, Oh my gosh, this is life changing.
This is incredible. This is the type of. Freedom that we have been looking for and we can't just keep it to ourselves. And so through a series of learning how to do online marketing and teaching Steven's mom the same method and friends and family, that's really where the Rainmaker family and now we teach was birthed.
Amazing.
Kirsten: Okay. I think I've probably heard your story. Like I said, I've followed and seen things. And the reason I probably do is because your story is so similar to mine and my husband's. We were photographers. He had a job in nonprofit. I was working wedding photography in California. Also tapped into that [00:06:00] Amazon, like, yeah, we'll see if this actually works because back then the internet making money like that was so new and then when it works, you're like, Oh my gosh, there's something here.
And is this a fluke? And we just kept seeing that. So we've gone probably diverged in our paths at some point, but I love your story because it resonates with me and it, we, it Same thing we shifted from there into like people wanted to know how it worked and we started teaching and that breeds a whole new realm of online business, which I see you guys are in right now, too, with an education side to your business.
So really exciting, really cool. Love the opportunities that have existed in our lifetime to be able to have families and build businesses where you're not trading that time for money. It's so cool that it even exists. Yeah, awesome. So. Now, let's talk a little bit about what that has looked like because you set up the nest egg.
You set up the foundation and I'm sure it was just all roses and rainbows after that, right? Like you started having children, everything just clicks into place. The work life balance is there because the money's passive. Is that how it's worked out? [00:07:00] Definitely. Yes.
Stephen: Overnight success. You know, no bumps in the road.
Oh my gosh, no. You know, like all entrepreneurship is a journey. It's a roller coaster, honestly. There's ups, there's downs. I mean, we had days. We're crushing it on Amazon. We had days losing 7, 000 in a day and be like, Oh my gosh, like the world is ending. And that was just the beginning. And I think we learned a lot trial through fire.
And really that's where the, our education program started because. we had learned so much through our mistakes. We were like, Hey, we want to help other people experience what we're experiencing, but actually avoid those mistakes along the journey. And as we've grown, like we had our first son in 2019 and then our second son was that 2022.
Chelsey: Yes.
Stephen: I always get the years mixed up. But yeah, we got a two year old and a four year old, almost five year old now. And that forced us to like, even more so love up. That was the dream. Like we wanted to start a family, wanted to set up a business that like we ran, but didn't run us. But [00:08:00] when we started having kiddos, that's where we were like, Oh my gosh, one, the value of this business.
is so much greater than we even knew. And that's where we really started to narrow our audience to really serve moms specifically. And through Moms Serve, the family was like, we want every family to be able to have time freedom, be able to have location freedom, be able to have choice in how they're bringing in income so they can spend time with the people they love most.
But when we had our own sons, it was like, We really saw the value because when we had Kai, our first, we were still like half in half out with weddings. We hadn't fully retired from that business yet. We were doing Amazon. We were doing Rainmakers and we're doing weddings. And there was a handful of weddings we shot still on Saturdays when he was a young kid.
And like, I just remember driving away on Saturdays and him just crying, you know, in the driveway, just. With my parents and like, of course, we're leaving with loved ones, but it's just like the feeling of leaving your kids is like, Oh my, it like rips your heart out. You know, I know we have to go do this [00:09:00] wedding.
And that was really at the point where we need to fully go all in, really lean in with Rainmakers, build something that we can have Saturdays free again, um, and not be traveling so much. And that's really what we did. 2019 really leaned into building Rainmakers and then it was like, I feel like perfect storm or divine intervention, however you want to define it.
But 2020 happened.
Chelsey: Yeah.
Stephen: And. We were in the right place at the right time, like online business blew up in 2020 because everyone was home. All of our weddings got canceled in 2020 because no one was getting married or hosting these big weddings. And so that was our chance. Like we were just right there at the right moment and really felt like it was a miraculous timing thing where we were able to help so many families in 2020 whose lives were turned upside down, ours included.
And that's really where Rainmakers, we are like, put the stamp in the air like this is our full time thing. And we were tired out of weddings, went all in on Rainmakers and yeah, it's been incredible. But I would say one of the biggest things we've learned that we can share with your [00:10:00] audience. If you're running a business with your spouse, with kids, we got to do stuff different.
We can't be just operating like every hustle bro you see on Instagram, right? Like we have to do things differently. And so we've really figured this out through trial by fire on what works, what doesn't. And you know, we've been able to, you know, hit the Inc 5000 list, which is a list of the fastest growing.
Privately held companies in America. We are number 148 on that list last year. So we've grown amazing impact, but we've done it in a way that protects our family in the in between. So we love sharing about that and we can dive into that for sure.
Kirsten: Yeah. Well, and just to give context. So I want people to understand that we're now not just doing the wedding business in Amazon.
You have the Amazon business, I assume is still functioning, right. And kind of running. And then you have There's education side to your business where you have programs, you do coaching and you have a media side, similar to millionaire university. You have a podcast, you have a social media presence, all of those things, just so people can get a visual picture of this has turned from a [00:11:00] side hustle into a full blown organization and company.
And that requires a certain level of organization and order where. I think sometimes we get a little bit lost in the middle ground of that where it started as a side hustle to create time freedom. And then before you know it, you blink and you have a full company and you're like, well, what does that look like now?
I didn't plan to own a company. I just wanted a little side business. Then you have to still carve out a lot of intention, right? So that you are still adhering to the vision and the dream that you created in the first place, which was. For you guys to have the flexibility. So yeah, let's dive in and just share some of maybe the top ways and top tips that you have for our audience about how you guys have facilitated that as you've moved through different seasons of growing from side hustle to company.
Chelsey: Yeah, definitely. I think there's really three main things that we've done and that continue to evolve. And I feel like before I jump into those, I just want to like pause and just say, like, I love what you said about starting like a side hustle just to encourage people that's grown into this full [00:12:00] blown company and like, that's really what has happened.
And it's been so important for us, whether you have a business partner or not, or your company is growing and you're like the CEO at the top or have some team around you and really want to put your family first. It's like, it's yearly, it's quarterly, it's monthly, almost like really evaluating like what is working and what isn't working.
And I know like when we had Kaizen, our oldest, like certain systems that I could do, then don't necessarily serve me or work now that we have two, or if we add more kids, I know that we'll be adjusting. So I think that there's freedom and we're going to share our things that really worked with us. And we have friends that have taken them and adopted them and made it their own.
And that's the really beautiful thing about entrepreneurship that we forget all the time. Like, Oh yeah, like I created this to serve me. Yeah. Absolutely. And not to be a slave to what I've created. And so if any of these catch on to you, I just hope that brings more freedom to your listeners and just having those light bulb moments go off.
So [00:13:00] I think first of all, like the number one thing that I did after having our son Oliver was I was coming back into work. I knew that my maternity leave, I felt like, man, I'm ready to jump back into some things. But I just had this like sense, like I think mama's intuition of just like, there's so many different avenues that I could go into and pick back up, but like, what do I really want to focus on and how do I want to show up as a best version of myself as a best mom, as a best wife, as a best business owner every single day of every single week.
And so what I really sat down and did, and Steven really helped me do this. is create what we like to call a dream week. And that's not like going every single day to get a massage, but it's really like, what are like the things that you actually have to get done every single week? And it's looking at pattern recognition.
So I would look at a really awesome week and I would just say, okay, what were the things that I put in personally, professionally to make that [00:14:00] week really awesome where I got to the end of my day and I was like, wow, like I did it. I have energy. I'm showing up powerfully. And then on the flip side, I compared it to the weeks that didn't go so well and that were hard.
And I was more tired and grumpy and not showing up at the best version of myself. And I really like analyze the two and created a dream week off of that. So I think it's really important when you're looking at your week that you are putting in things in your calendar first that are the personal things that give you life.
So. If you're like me and you love working out, I put those in my calendar first, because I know that if I don't put those in, or if I, Stephen, I don't put a date in first or intentional time with the boys, it will just get filled with other stuff, with other commitments. with other business meetings. So that's really like, I think the first one is just looking at your week and it's not to become like a Nazi about like your calendar, but I really think in the [00:15:00] restriction and in getting really clear on like, what is your best, yes, it's going to really serve you and have you show up the best version of yourself and not.
toying between like work mode and mom mode that I think so many women experience. It's just like that constant struggle of like, you're in one space, but you're thinking about another, or you're in one area thinking about your kids. And so I think that is a big area that has helped us.
Kirsten: Yeah, that's huge and so important.
And I think the word that comes to mind is auditing, right? That's essentially what you did is you audited yourself. You audited your time and your week and your energy. And a lot of times we would just want to go into problem solving mode and just be like, okay, well, I'll try this. I'll try this. And we're really not even measuring and we have to do this in business.
And it's ironic that we don't often do that personally, because if you don't have some kind of data to work from, then you're constantly going to be in a guessing game. So it's cool to hear how you did that. And it's a simple, you know, Business principle we can apply to start [00:16:00] showing up with our best foot forward.
And that's where we need to create non negotiables from. So I love that you prioritized based on what your important things are with family, with yourself, knowing, Hey, when I cover these bases, like everything else is gravy, everything else shows up. It's so much simpler, easier. It's not necessarily going to like move the needle forward and make me more money overnight because I got up early and went and worked out.
And also it will at the same time, right? Like it's not linear, but it can be the more consistent you are. So, and what about you? Have you, Stephen, also seen the need for that? I know as moms, like we really do take on a lot and there's so much depending on us for nurturing of children, but even for yourself, as this company has evolved, would you echo the same thing?
Have you done something similar for yourself?
Stephen: Yeah, 100 percent because what we, Chelsea did it first and then I was like, Oh, it looks nice. I should probably do it for myself. So what we did, we actually had a physical printout of a week and we actually started to color code it because that was really nice to be able to see like, does it look [00:17:00] balanced a little bit?
Like, is it all work? Is it all mom time? Is it like, you know, where is it? Where's it landing? And it's hard to balance. two things that are kind of the unequal value, right? We love the business, but we love the kids so much more. And so, but we were big believers in counterbalance at least. And just if it's a really heavy business week, we're going to counterbalance.
But the other thing we did, this is kind of like the second tip for entrepreneurial families is we actually learned about this study they did on something called switching costs and switching cost is really the cost on your mind and your body when you switch between modalities or tasks. And especially tasks that have like kind of a different way of thinking attached to them.
So if you're trying to work in the nooks and crannies of your life as a mom, and your kids are coming in, you're working, your kids are coming in, now you're doing taxes, then your kids are coming in, and now you're doing a creative post on Instagram, and you're like switching between all these brain modalities, oftentimes that is the thing that leaves you really feeling frazzled at the end of the day.
It's not because you did a lot, it's because you switched a lot. [00:18:00] And so they've actually done studies on this that it can take 15 to 45 minutes for you actually like in your brain to switch over, like, even though that switch happens immediately in, you know, you go from this meeting to another meeting and they're totally different ways of thinking.
And so what we did with the calendar, the dream week is one, we got to plan out what are the dream things we need in there. But then two, we themed our days. So every day has a theme to it where we're staying within the same brain modality, so to say, that entire day. So for us, we're actually recording this on a Thursday, so we are breaking our rules just a little bit.
But this was a show that made it worth it. So you, once you have rules, you can break them. But for us, Tuesdays is our talking day. So we do podcasting, ad creation. You know, we do anything that's going to like be like this. Chelsea's doing the hair and makeup. That's a Tuesday, right? And we just know.
Tuesdays, that's all we do all day basically for the business. And then I have for my week, different themes of every day. And one, this is so helpful. [00:19:00] One as a couple, because I know for Chelsea, that's a family day, like with the boys, I'm not going to schedule something or, Hey, I know she does all her appointments, things like that.
On this day, right? So we don't have to like constantly be checking with each other. We just know like that's the time that she does those things. And we just like make people work around our times for the most part. And same with me. I just know like certain days of the week. I have like a work in the business day.
I have a kind of a more open day kind of work on the business day. I have a more like one on one meeting type day of a more team meeting type day. And I have a personal day that like I kind of just explore and do. Yeah. More out there things that often do help the business, right? So I have themes to my day and that helps basically the goal of this is to reduce the switching cost and be kind to your mind.
So at the end of the day, you're not frazzled. And so, I mean, we've worked with thousands of moms now at this point, this is such a game changer for them because a lot of them are trying to run businesses while running a household and, you know, switching a ton and just honestly, for them, It's more [00:20:00] beneficial to like just get two days a week where they just focused for maybe half a day getting child care, getting a mommy helper kind of person in place to help with the kids or even doing a swap with a friend.
I'm going to get two days on my business where you watch all the kids, you're going to get two days on your business where you watch all the kids. There's ways to do it, but just that focus, deep work time. is more effective than what working in the nooks and crannies throughout the week. And it gives you like, I don't know, you've seen this because you Chelsea's week, my, I work more Monday to Friday.
Chelsea works pretty much Monday, Tuesday, half day, Wednesday, then the rest are family days. And so for her in this season, like, that's what she has grace for. That's what fills her bucket with the kids. Like she, like, she just knows like, that's, I need that. If I do more business, I'm like thinking about the kids and I'm feeling that guilt.
Right. If I. Don't do the business at all. Then I'm thinking about the business. I'm like guilty. Like, I feel like I just should be in the business. So you kind of find what works for you and you design your calendar around that.
Kirsten: [00:21:00] Well, and on that note of finding what works for you, I'm curious if you recommend doing something similar to what you did for tip number one, because I, I feel like I've definitely implemented pieces of the strategy that you're talking about and even hearing you talk, I'm like, Oh yeah, maybe it's less about the tasks all matching and more like the modality that you're in.
And I want to, I'll talk about that in a second. But. If you're recommending this to somebody who's never really approached their schedule this way before, is it just a trial and error thing? Do you have any recommendations on where to begin? Do you think it works best when it's like the part of the brain you're using?
We're doing all the talking, like you said, and trying to fit. So it's less about time blocking, whether it's like the urgency of different things that have to be done in the business, but still making sure they get done. Just does that make sense? Like, what would you recommend as you're starting this out?
What are some ways that you tested and tried and found that worked?
Stephen: I mean, we started with the, what Chelsea said, which is get the life giving things in there first. What is going to make your week amazing? We love having a date with each other. She loves to work out three times a week, right? Get those [00:22:00] things in there.
Of course, you can't have like a workout day. You're just going to work out all day. Those types of things. Sometimes you space out, get those things in there. The coffee date with a friend, the time with the kids. All the life stuff because we're building businesses around our life. We don't want to build the life around the business.
So that's crucial. And we do that even like looking out for the year where like we get family stuff in there first. Then at that point, I would say if you can bunch some tasks together that are similar, like maybe like we just started with admin Mondays, like that was kind of what we started with. That was like, we just had one theme day and it was admin Mondays.
And it was like, Emails, taxes, like anything that's like admin, kind of like that brain modality. It was on Monday. Right. And then as our business grew, we kind of evolved some of the other days in some businesses, you, you just gotta be reactive and kind of just. Go with the flow, but that often can leave you really frazzled.
So even just planning the week out, maybe it's, maybe you don't have it dialed right at the beginning, but sitting down on a Sunday night or even Monday morning, whatever works for you and going like, what are my big [00:23:00] things I'm going to do this week? And then like actually kind of trying to bunch them together, theme them together into bigger chunks that can really help.
That helps me a ton. Cause I know if I'm just reacting to things all day, I just feel like I didn't do anything really, you know, but if I'm proactive and I have it all That helps me.
Chelsey: Yeah. I think I'm reminded of in our wedding business, even in our wedding business, we had no systems. We had no SOPs. We had very, you know, not really even any team.
We just had some editors here and there. But even then, like, I think that even when you're wearing a million hats like that business, we were customer support, we were social media, you know, every hat we wore. But I still think that if you're in that season of many tasks that you have to do, you could still like time block and theme your days in a way.
So what I mean by that is like, if every day you feel like you need to answer your email, then I would just say like carve out whether it's 30 minutes or an hour in the morning and then you're done. And then for me, I remember even in the wedding business, like there are certain days, like usually it [00:24:00] was Tuesdays and Wednesdays where I would be editing or like getting galleries back and going through.
And then by Thursday I wanted to be like delivering the gallery and blogging it. So I still had like the large chunk of my time. I knew that I was going to be editing, which sometimes felt more draining to me. And at the end of the day, you know, before I was wrapping up, I would spend. 30 minutes or so like on social media responding to clients or, you know, so there's like ways that you can like theme it, even though if you were to look at that day, I'm still switching a little bit, but there's like one major thing that I'm trying to get done.
And I think business owners, like we need to be really like aware of that and really intentional. Or if you have a big team and you're checking slack in the morning, it's like, be really intentional. Like I have 30 minutes to do this and then I'm going to allow myself to go into recording a bunch of content or podcasting or whatever it is that you're doing that day.
So I think it evolves, but no matter what level you're at, whether you're [00:25:00] Early stage entrepreneur. You have a huge company. There's still different ways that you can do it and it can be applied.
Kirsten: Yeah. Well, I love one of the things that you said with your talking Tuesdays, and I love that you're here on a Thursday because normally that's kind of the day that I do podcasts too, and I've decided to switch.
And initially I thought maybe it'll be all the millionaire university stuff happens on Thursday and I just do ads for them. I do all of my work there and I'm even thinking maybe it's less about the compartment and more about, like I said, using my voice, maybe it's a talking day. Where they do all the podcasting for my show, for their show, for content creation.
I spent an entire day yesterday where it had been on my mind. I needed to do content. I've been so behind, nothing is batched, nothing's in the queue. And so because of that, I have rarely been posting. And so I, it was so much more beneficial. I noticed I spent. Hours on this task and I got so much more done than when I try to fit in like making a real making a tick tock here and there, where it's just like that shift.
Yeah, it's so true and so helpful if you can [00:26:00] start to notice that your brain is doing this and like haywire all the time versus Oh my gosh, I'm actually moving the needle forward and getting something done because I stayed focused in that zone. Super helpful.
Stephen: Yeah. It's powerful.
Kirsten: Yeah. So what is tip number three?
You guys said there were three. What is the third one?
Stephen: Tip number three is the family meeting, weekly family meeting. So the more high level entrepreneurs we talk to, the more common we see this being. And it makes sense. I mean, we run meetings in our business for a reason. And so we actually adopted a family meeting structure that is.
We actually got from our business. There's a way of running a business called EOS, like traction? There's a book called Traction. And they have like a specific type of way they run a meeting that's really efficient. Has a really high level of accountability. And I know even just saying meeting, people are like that sounds boring.
But we've kind of modified it for our family and guys. This is a game changer. I don't know. You want to tell like why we started doing the family meeting? What led to it? Yeah,
Chelsey: definitely. What led to is again, coming [00:27:00] out of season of maternity leave with Ollie. And I just remember running downstairs one night and it was probably like 930, 10 o'clock.
I should have been going to bed. And I ran downstairs and I just remember looking at Steven and saying like, I feel like everyone is screaming at me. And it was like, I had a million messages on my phone, like text messages. I had a million thoughts racing, you know, I had a million to do is Steven and I hadn't like checked in on where we were at with business and it was just like, there's no system, there's no order, there is no intentionality of like when Steven and I were communicating about personal business life, like any of that.
And so it just felt like every night before I was going to bed, I was. reminded of like all the stuff that like the mental clutter. And so we're just like, we've got to get better about creating again, one meeting place where I know that I can go to Steven with like my, you know, fix this around the house.
Have you called the [00:28:00] plumber? Like, Oh, did we get a date night? Like, for set up here. Oh, I need to run this by you. So it's just like one central place to like have those conversations.
Stephen: Yeah. I would say like previously, you know, you work all day, like we work in the same business, but we don't talk all day, right?
Like I'm doing stuff. She's doing stuff. Then it's family time, right? We're with the boys and we're putting them to bed and like, you know, then you finally get into bed and you're like, Oh, I tend to rest. And then now we're like, Trying to throw a bunch of updates about the day and like decisions. And it's like 9 p.
m. It's a recipe for disaster, right? Like you're not actually resting. And so the family meeting for us, we, I'll kind of give like the rough highlight of it. We have a podcast. I think it's episode 99 on our show, the Rainmaker family show that goes like in detail. So for your people listening, like I want all the details of how to run a family meeting.
It's episode number 99. So, but the high level is. One, the family meeting, you do it once a week, it [00:29:00] gives you a bucket to throw all the stuff that's not urgent into. So instead of going every night, Hey, did you follow up with this person? Or, Hey, this person asked me to speak on their thing. Can I travel to this thing?
Like those aren't urgent things. And so let's not add more switching costs to each other at the end of the night when we're already feeling frazzled. Let's just throw them in a bucket. We have a shared note on our phone. And it just goes in this like, it's like the discussion section of the meeting, right?
They're either like, I need info about something, I need a decision on something, or I need to just share info about something. So it's not urgent. It's not like that has happened today. It's just like, we can be kind to each other at the end of the day, throw it in the bucket, right? Forget about it. And then we're going to cover it every week.
Ours is Sunday, we do. The other thing it does is we look 10 days out on the meeting. So we sit down and we take the first 5 look at our calendar silently. And we just look 10 days out and we go like, Hey, what do I need to communicate? How can I support you? How you can, how can you support me? We're both thinking of each other.
Oh, I saw there was a [00:30:00] calendar like mishap here. Let's talk about that. And we look 10 days out because seven days keeps you in reactive mode, but 10 days, it keeps you looking a little bit forward beyond the next meeting. So you're anticipating stuff a little bit more. So we look 10 days out, we come up with a list of like, okay, here's all the stuff we're discussing, talking about, making decisions on.
And then that leads into, we just talk through all those things really quickly. We try not to side trail too much, unless these meetings are really long. And then out of that comes action items like tasks, like we call it the agenda. And it's like, Stephen, do this. Chelsea, call the parents and get childcare.
Stephen, do this thing. Right. And we have it really specifically. And then the next week, We come back together on Sunday and we actually start with the agenda and we're like, Hey, did you do this? Did you do this? And we just, we both go, it's like accountability. Did we all do the stuff we were said we were going to do?
If not, we communicate why we got stuck, whatever. And then we go and kind of do the calendar thing again. So that one thing has been such a game changer. We were traveling recently and [00:31:00] we missed two weeks. We did like a half. Family meeting and it just like you could tell right because like stuff came up where it was like, Oh my gosh, Thursday morning this thing happened and we didn't anticipate it because we didn't look at the calendar ahead of time with each other.
So that's been a game changer for us. I highly recommend for any people running. Family businesses, especially it's so powerful. And there's another level of it too. If you have older kids, you can use it as a way to start getting family values in the kids. And you know, this is what we're going to do when Kai turns five, we're going to start to, you know, just like you would with a business.
Here's our family values. Here's our family mission. Like we'll have a section of the meeting. It's like we call it ethos shout outs where it's like, Hey, one of our family values is being radically generous. And Kai, I saw this week that you are so generous with this friend, this boy at the park, right? You gave him your tractor and we start taking our family values, saying them every week to our kids and calling out that in them every single week.
Like how powerful would that be? So. Yeah. [00:32:00] If you have older kids, definitely check out that episode because you can integrate them in where it's not this drain. It's like this connecting time. It's like, how can we support each other? And you're getting this family values and language in them every single week, calling it out.
Kirsten: Yeah. Well, I love that you mentioned this is something you see a lot with high level companies, high level. Businesses that have kind of gotten to a certain point. And I was wondering as you're talking, is this a natural evolution on a cultural level where it's like we have lived in a world where the internet has just become part of our lives, the internet business model has changed.
So we've had to flow and really react and create more intentionality with that. And also, is it on a level of just success when you hit certain benchmarks, when you start creating more momentum, that's where it Breeds the need for things like this, because I love seeing that this is a continuous thing that keeps popping up as I'm engaging with more and more business owners is we are moving out of this, like, Holy cow, what's happening into what's our plan here?
How do we show up intentionally? And it's just interesting to [00:33:00] see that. Happening across the board. Right. And so I am just curious if that's something that we're seeing because of the fact that business, we've kind of gone through this spike of like this hustle culture, and now we have more entrepreneurs who are having families and they're really wanting to make sure that balance exists and there's harmony.
And. In everything that they're doing. So I love that you have tangible, actionable things that can help us to shift into that and to create more purpose and order, because as you said that, I'm like, that's exactly the conversations my husband and I have had this year, like what has happened? We need more order.
We need more planning. We need this to feel like we're. Creating instead of just reacting as all of the things come up and we do have teenagers. We have a lot going on. So if anybody listening is feeling that frazzled sense of existence, it's possible. It's possible to just take some time. And for you guys, like, how long did it take?
Because I think there's a tendency to feel a little impatient in the in between when you're like, we're trying to make order. And now there's more chaos because we're [00:34:00] practicing a new normal. And we still have all of the results from the old normal. So what do you recommend as people start engaging today?
Just stick with it or what kind of helped you to see it through.
Chelsey: Yeah, I think you have to have buy in from family, especially if you're going to do that with kids or buy in from your spouse, but just having a, this is the time that we're doing it and we're committed to this. So just having buy in from the beginning and sticking with it.
And I mean, you heard Steven, like the weekends have been busier for us specifically on Sundays. And so we might even have to have a discussion about like, is Sunday's really the day for us anymore? Because it's felt. Like our oldest isn't napping all the time anymore and the meeting seems to be longer just because we're just in this big Transition we just moved there's a lot of moving pieces in our business and in our personal lives So does it make more sense to do it on a different day when there's a little bit more breathing room?
We're not up against a time suck. So again, it's always re evaluating and I even I love what you said about talking to [00:35:00] other people that are wanting, that are implementing this or feeling like they need to implement something. And I think it's a mix of, I do think that like technology plays into just this overstimulated, always on the go or feeling like you have to be on the go versus, you know, when I grew up, it's like kids were outside playing and like, yeah, there were sports, but it just didn't seem like.
I think there's this family hustle culture too, that is now a thing. And it's almost like counterculture when you're only, when your kid is only in one sport or doing one thing or, you know, like last night we just signed up our youngest for jujitsu and they were like, Oh yeah, we haven't seen you guys in a while.
It's like, well, we've come once a week, it's only been a week. And they're used to kids showing up every single night for school. Some kind of sporting practice and I'm like, wow, that's a lot, you know, so I think like technology, I think as your business gets bigger, there's more parts and things you have to think [00:36:00] about from a financial standpoint, from a leadership standpoint, from a traveling standpoint.
Like. Oh, yeah. All of that. So I think it's just created this, yeah, like I think that there is this new wave of entrepreneurs. I think that want to do it well with their families. You think like, well, I think back to when I was growing up, like I didn't know any entrepreneurs, like I know that they were there, but I didn't know of any.
And even in college when we first launched our wedding business, I was like, can you even do this? And then you see like. the people that I followed now and having family. So I do think that there is this new wave coming in of like, you can have a beautiful business and you can have a beautiful family and they can be this beautiful, like marriage between the two, but it does take extra intentionality and extra work, but it's worth it.
Yeah.
Stephen: I'll throw in one thing too. It's like time is a lot like money and we use a lot of money terms for time, like spending time. [00:37:00] Like, budgeting time, right? And so just like with money, if you kind of don't tell time where to go, it'll just go where it goes, right? Like, so that it feels like, cause we're both creative, you're creative, you know, it's like we're creative entrepreneurs, but like, and so sometimes people don't want restrictions, but like Chelsea said, like, it's kind of like.
In the restriction, there's freedom. If you just have a garden with no lattices, like it just it's overgrown and all jumbled. But if you give it some structure, it can actually grow something really big and strong. And so we've seen it's like freedom in the structure. And of course, you can break the rules once you have them, you should be flexible to always adapt and like change as family changes.
But it's that structure that's given us the capacity to grow. We have a huge team, have a big business, have a lot of impact in the family, be involved with our church. Like we can do all the things without it killing us. And I think maybe that's because we've seen [00:38:00] other generations do it. Maybe I think a lot of people that probably had entrepreneurial parents growing up or business parents, like they probably weren't as present.
And I think this generation is like, Hey, let's do things different. You know, like we've seen people burn out from doing it. The wrong way.
Kirsten: Yeah. Yeah. Cause the pendulum can swing too hard either direction. And I think the key and what we're trying to identify is like, how do we find this? Real version of success that doesn't prioritize one over the other.
And I think we have a tendency to do that where it's like, Oh, is my priority being a parent or having a business instead of my priority is a fulfilled, complete life that involves my passions, my dreams and the people in it and focusing on where that meets in the middle and how we can avoid those extremes.
Like I love this conversation so much. And I think you guys are amazing and going to continue to be leaders in this arena, because there will be more and more people wanting to have both feeling like, I don't want to just choose a career. over having a family. I want to have both. What does that look like?
Stop selling me the lie that I can have it all and telling me that I [00:39:00] don't have to have structure or rules to that. So I love that you mentioned that there have to be some kind of restrictions to create freedom. I think that's a true sign of wisdom. When you get to that point in your life where you recognize, Oh, trying to just be free.
Actually is creating a lot of bondage and I have to do things a little differently. So,
Chelsey: and when
Kirsten: you engage in this way and to me, it sounds fun and it sounds exciting and it sounds really empowering to utilize the tools you guys have talked about. It doesn't sound limiting. It actually sounds really freeing.
So I love it. You guys are amazing. And I think you're living it and you're emulating it. And it's important that we have leaders like you guys showing that this is what it looks like, and this is what makes it possible. And this is The nitty gritty that goes into it. It's not just all coming together because we're lucky.
We're doing it very intentionally. So hats off to you guys.
Stephen: Thank you. Thank you.
Kirsten: Of course. Okay. So if people want to listen to episode 99, they want to binge more of your content. They want to follow along. What is the name of the podcast? Is it just the Rainmaker family? And then where else can they follow [00:40:00] along and connect with you guys?
Chelsey: Yeah, we have a podcast, the Rainmaker Family Show. You can find that on all the different platforms, and then you can go to the rainmaker family.com. Our website has lots of info or you can follow at the Rainmaker family as well on Instagram.
Kirsten: Awesome. You guys are amazing. Thanks so much for coming on and sharing your wisdom.
This is definitely a different kind of flavor on the show, and I'm excited that we've had the chance to talk to you. So thank you so much.
Stephen: Thanks for having
Kirsten: us. so much to Rainmaker family, Stephen and Chelsea and our other show sponsors for this phenomenal episode. I loved hearing their story and I loved hearing how we can really shift this intentionality as we're building businesses.
Maybe there's times we have to trade time for money as we're getting started. There's a lot of trade based businesses that are in more high demand, especially as we go into 2025. And there's also tons of opportunity to build something like an e commerce brand where you're not having to trade time for money the same way that you would if you were doing what Steven and Chelsea did as a [00:41:00] photographer, a videographer.
I really am so happy that there are more people who have families who are showing up and sharing their stories to show that it's possible for us to have both. We can have a family, build a thriving business and make everything come together seamlessly and beautifully. So thank you for sharing those systems with us today.
It was amazing. And until the next one, you guys, class is dismissed.
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