From Business Armor to Authenticity: 7 Ways Emotional Support Transforms Entrepreneur Relationships

Free Agent Podcast with Meg Schmitz – Guest: Jaime White, Founder of Believe Crew

Meg
Hello, everybody, and welcome to or welcome back to the Free Agent podcast. I am Meg Schmitz, your lovely hostess. And as you probably are aware, this conversation is all about free agency and taking control over your financial future. The mission of my show is to share inspiring conversations with real people who took the leap into self-employment, business ownership, sometimes franchising and an expectation of freedom.

From corporate refugees and executives tired of the desk job to entrepreneurs and investors looking to share camaraderie and inspiration through their own business journey, my podcast shines a spotlight on real people who stepped into the unknown, took control over their destiny, and became their own boss.

Today I have the delight of welcoming back Jaime White of Believe Crew. Jaime is one of my favorite entrepreneurial advisor, counselor, emotional support people. I love Jaime’s voice. I always find it to be soothing and calming, even when I’m hiding behind my own mask of professional success.

She wrote—and she has these amazing posts. So if you’re not following Jaime, you need to follow Jaime. But there was a post that you created last week that really resonated strongly with me. And so that’s what I want to dive into today: the reality of owning a business and how it affects not only your professional life, but your personal life and relationships. So, Jaime, welcome back.

Jaime
Thank you, Meg. I’m excited to be here and I love it. Sounds almost like an emotional support animal, right? But the emotional side of business—it’s taken me a long time to sort of thaw the business armor of protection, you know that wall of protection, to say it’s okay to talk about this, it’s okay to be having these conversations. But it’s what I saw, it’s what I felt. And I’m done hiding, you know? This is a conversation that I’m here to have.

Meg
And it’s real. The pictures that you have posted—and you’ve got an amazing photographer who’s working with you to get all these shots—I knew you before you went to Mexico and made this big move and the pictures are stunning, they’re beautiful, they’re calming. Not just of you and Kevin and your family, but also of your retreats that you’re hosting.

And just as you put in the post last week, the reality is that there’s shit behind what looks so picture-perfect. And in business, every day you’re in the trenches, either alone in your head or maybe with your partner, your life partner I mean, with you. But it’s not all great.

Jaime
You know, there’s a saying that I’ve used for the last couple of years to help with the transition we went through and one of them is: “Embrace loneliness and reinvent yourself in the process.” That one was really helpful.

The other one that people talk about is how it’s lonely at the top and entrepreneurship is lonely. And I think the more I lean into this, the more I feel and realize that there’s a piece of it that just is—and we have to come to terms with that. Because what we feel called to, no one else fully understands. It’s literally having to go internal to say, this is for me, and quiet out all the noise that says, “This is what you should do.”

That’s my least favorite line. And then also the saying that people use, I mean, I heard it growing up was keep the emotion out of business. And it just, it. It wasn’t reality. So instead, and I even, maybe I shared this with you, Meg, I went to an M&A conference—Midwest Business Brokers and Intermediaries—and I tried to have a conversation about this kind of topic and literally I tried six different doors, asked it in a few different ways, and every door was closed. They even said, “That’s the elephant in the room we don’t talk about.”

Yet statistics show that 70% of deals fall through in mergers and acquisitions—someone trying to buy out a family business or you know having some succession planning—because of the emotional side. So, like, how is this working for you? Oh, my word.

Meg
Well, and it’s interesting to talk to business brokers, some of whom have exited or stepped back because it’s so hard. To your point, it’s hard to find that marriage between a buyer and a seller when there are unrealistic expectations on both sides.

But back to that post—tell me where you were in your head and in your heart when you posted that, because that was a left turn from what some of your messaging typically is.

Jaime
Well, honestly, Meg, it’s about me thawing more of that armor and being willing to be vulnerable, being willing to have these conversations and say, “This is what I see, this is what I feel, this is what I’ve seen.”

I think I’m coming from that position now—how do we continue to be real, be authentic, be vulnerable, and then fully show up? Both can be true. We don’t have to say I’m only good at business, or I only enjoy talking business if I leave the personal side out, if I leave these hard conversations out.

I’m just in a place now where I’m starting to be willing to talk about it more. Because there was, I don’t wanna say shame around it, but a fear that I wouldn’t be accepted in the business community if I talked about all this behind-the-scenes stuff that’s not working out.

So I think that’s where it’s coming from in my heart—just saying, “Is anyone else feeling this?”

Meg
Well, and so obviously it resonated with me. I emailed you right away and said, “Oh my God, I need you back on the podcast,” because this is reality—and it’s hard.

There’s a book called The Hard Thing About Hard Things. Somebody’s got to deal with it. And if you’re the business owner, the buck stops with you—you’ve got to make that decision.

I read that post and thought, that is the authentic Jaime. This is the reality that you and Kevin have been through personally as a married couple who’ve been in business for a long time.

You’ve got six kids, and your family is continuing to grow dynamically. You can’t stop being a parent, you can’t stop being a partner. But these relationship dynamics enter into business, and it all makes you that much more believable in your role.

You and Kevin both—with Believe Crew and the work you’re doing becuase you are sharing the reality that we all go through, so that post to me made you even more real than you already are.

Jaime
Thank you. I. I feel. I mean, again, I saw it too, in my parents and my dad. Actually, I was just telling Kevin this this morning. When Kevin and I had first gotten engaged, he told me that I should watch Father of the Bride. And I don’t know if you’ve seen that, but I just happened to be on the plane yesterday looking for free entertainment, and I was starting to watch it. I had to stop because it was a little triggering because I started to realize how real it was for our situation. Kevin and I had told our parents that. That we were engaged on the same week that my parents were vacationing, and that my mom started realizing that something was wrong. I think after watching Father of the Bride, I’m wondering how much my mom was saying to my dad, like, this isn’t working. And. And then, of course, how are you going to say that? And then she. She ended up finding out that she had breast cancer. Like, at the same time that we’re saying, hey, we’re engaged. And so there’s just this incredible emotional weight that’s happening behind the nods and the smiles.

And, like, as I’m watching this. This movie, and there’s so much not being said at the table, you know, and for those of us that are in a moment of excitement, we’re not recognizing the. The little. The messages that are being passed, you know, behind the scenes. And. And my parents were in business for 20 years before that happened together. And they were kind of at the point where everything seemed like it was amazing. You know, everything. Look, paper. They were. We were featured in a magazine as a family. And yet behind the scenes, the emotional pain was taking us out. And. And it’s not what anyone was really, really talking about, and nobody knew how to address and how to deal with.

So I saw it then, and then experienced it again in my own life. And I think one of the things, too, that I’ve noticed is that in the past and for myself, when there’s personal issues at home, it’s easier to shut the door and go to work, because then I feel like I could actually make a difference. Sometimes, even though business is frustrating, even though it’s not always working out, it still feels like I can move the needle somehow. I don’t know exactly why. Versus that personal relationship just feels like, oh, my word, I’m walking away from this and I’m going to go put it all into the business.

And it works, or it serves me until it doesn’t. And so what happened was Kevin is a former addict you know, and I’m just, like, shutting the door on that, going to work, making everything, you know, work. In my mind, this is great and amazing. And I have a team that I can either fire when they’re not working out or, you know, I can welcome in when they’re, you know, when it’s a great fit to work together.

But the problem is that then, you know, 15 years later, I’m waking up and I say to Kevin, you know, if the kids leave, we really don’t have much together. Like, there have been a lot of companies that have benefited from employees having bad relationships at home because we throw ourselves into the work. But the question is, is that going to continue? Like, is there a point where we’re just like, you know, what if I don’t have good relationships? Does the business fill those. Those needs, you know, those personal needs at a level where sometimes it’s like. And I guess my curiosity right now, Meg, is, am I just feeling this shift because this is the space that I’m in, or is there an energetic shift, even in society, where people are saying, I don’t just want the business to fill my life. I want there to be more in my relationships.

Meg
Wow. That’s okay. So you live in the space all the time, and you’re talking to entrepreneurs, business owners, whether they’re doing the business alone or it’s family business. So I think it’s kind of like when people come to me and they start looking at franchises and they start to realize how many of them are out there. It just hadn’t been on the radar previously.

So, to me, you live in this space and have an acute awareness of the need for people to address the reality. To your point, you can’t just close the door in your personal life and. And think that everything’s going to be status quo because the other person tried. The other person is going to know that you’ve checked out, that you’re not participating as much, whether they’re a good participant or not, or, you know, there’s. There are legs to this relationship, and it’s worth staying in. But that’s also where people start to turn to drugs or alcohol or other distractions because the healthy dynamic in the relationship isn’t there. The business is getting the love, whatever the love language is, but the other person is not.

Jaime
Yeah, and I think I’m looking at some of the statistics. You know, right now. Some of the younger generation, they’re saying, is not interested in. In alcohol as much like Alcohol sales are down now. Some of that, I wonder if it’s just because they’re literally, you know, checking in on people that are under 21, but the flip side of that is there’s, they’re predicting incredible growth in wellness tourism where people don’t just want to travel, they want to say, what’s, you know, how can I improve who I am? And like, when my mom was on her cancer journey, she went all over the world, I mean, Ireland, California. She had a vaccine made out of her, out of her type of cancer. And technically she was on a wellness tourism, you know, adventure, you could say. But I think there’s this, this younger generation is saying, I, I don’t want to just work like my parents generation or like the generations before me without feeling good. I don’t just want to cope and numb. I mean, I’m not saying everyone is doing this, but these are what statistics are saying. Right?

Meg
Right.

Jaime
And so I’m curious to see, you know, is this a time where people are. The other thing that we see is that so many people are willing to spend money on their children. And often what the children want most is for their parents to get it together. Like, how come, and especially as women, we struggle to invest in ourselves and say, you know, I’m worth this investment, but we’ll put the money into our kids. I mean, literally, there’s like no budget for our children. But what are we, what are we doing to take care of our own, you know, emotional health behind the scenes in our relationships?

Meg
And I’ll just come right out and say, that drives me crazy. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a man or a woman, but you’re deflecting your, onto your kids, your time and your money that you ought to be investing in yourself to be a better parent long term. Yeah, it takes me right back to being a parent. My son is now 35 years old, so it’s, it doesn’t take much to go back in time and think, yeah, I remember being that person. I remember being that mother. I’m good. But then I was divorced, so chicken or the egg, you really have to take care of, you really have to take care of yourself if you’re going to be a good partner for the long term and a good parent.

Jaime
That’s what I’m, I’m now a hundred percent all in on, is that I need to be in alignment with me first, then my partnership, then the business. And who am I? Do I know who I am and what I’m finding. And this is so frustrating to admit, because I used to blame the people around me, and now I realize that they kind of just got hit with the shrapnel when I exploded. But what I’m realizing is that the relationships are a mirror. As frustrating as that is for whatever the triggers are that are coming up for me, this is my work. This is not their work. Because when I do my work, I’m not triggered. As stupid as it is, I can make a good choice. I’m. You know, I have boundaries. I can set boundaries, and then, you know, Kevin and I, when I really step into learning about what is our partnership here for, and. And who are we here to be together, it’s an incredible thing. One plus one does not just equal two. When you’re in a partnership, there is, like, this is this incredible momentum, this incredible amount of things that can be birthed into the world or support that can be given to people when a partnership is fully in alignment.

And so it’s life and business partners, right, that we’re in, that we’re choosing. And then the other thing is the idea, like, when you’re in a partnership with an entrepreneur, you’re kind of in business together, even if you’re not in business together, but almost the idea that we’re always business partners, even if somebody has two w. Two jobs. You know, like, we’re. We’re choosing how and where to invest our money together. And so we become this financial entity that when we’re aligned, it’s an incredible experience. But when we’re not, like, some of the world’s worst experiences can happen.

Meg
Well, you see it on the firing lines all the time with the people you’re. I was gonna say parenting.

Jaime
That’s not too far off sometimes. Meg, thank you.

Meg
Yeah. I. I have been to some seminars not with you and Kevin. The amount of time it. It can take to break into the marriage dynamic, because the walls are up, and I don’t want to reveal my weaknesses. So for some people, it takes quite a while, I would think days, to have that trust in you and Kevin. But once on the inside, I can vouch for how much care and concern you and Kevin are delivering.

And I think it’s because of where you are in your marriage, to your point that you and Kevin can dynamically calm people down and get them connected to what’s wrong faster. Because you and Kevin develop trust, I think, easily and quickly, unless somebody just got the absolute brick wall up. But it’s one of the gifts that I. I believe you and Kevin have is to be able to disarm people and get to the heart of the matter faster than going to a therapist or a counselor.

Jaime
Yeah, it’s interesting, Meg, because our combined gift is creating unity. And sometimes what we’ve seen when we work with clients, and sometimes this is in, you know, like the parent sibling dynamic, not necessarily the husband and wife dynamic, but we have helped people walk away from the relationships they’re in. So I can’t say that creating unity is always, you know, forcing people to stay in the situation. You know, sometimes it’s. It’s just making those really tough decisions that isn’t to stay. And it’s true that we are now very aware of our gifts. And I have a gift for seeing a core issue. Like, it’s like this. Like this laser light that I just have in my being. And, like, I go straight for the. The core thing. And sometimes, you know, it’s like Kevin and I had a conversation about something last night, and I. I shared what I was seeing, and he was like, how did I not see that before? You know, but that’s what we’re here to do as humans, is help each other see things that we don’t see ourselves.

And I. I don’t. That’s another thing that I didn’t learn growing up was how to not just ask for help, but accept that other people can help us, you know, with these things. And so, anyway, I appreciate you pointing out our gifts, because that has been part of the process, and that’s what we want other people to know, too, is what are your gifts? What are your core values? And then what are the gifts of the other person? Your other life or business partner? And then what is it together so that we create individual entities and we’re not, like, losing ourselves in the process. It’s that everything can stand in its own, you know, its own pillar in.

Meg
Working with the people that you and Kevin attract. Do you share with them the different stages your marriage has gone through? Do you share that?

Jaime
100%. I mean, we’re in a space now where, I mean, we’re super open, super vulnerable. And obviously, we had a podcast about Kevin’s addiction for a while. So we’ve, you know, and we’ve learned that by sharing it reduces the shame. You know, one of the things that happens for people is when we don’t share and when it’s so vulnerable and we don’t have anyone to talk to about this. Like, there’s a lot of stuff people say to us that they’re like, my spouse doesn’t even know this, you know, and it. But it’s that first person that, that first space of saying, this is what I’m feeling. This is what’s coming up. And we’re coming from this incredible space of non judgment because chances are we’ve been through a version of it.

And so sharing that, like, I shared some this weekend with some women business owners. I was on a hiking trip out in Colorado, and I share again, just like I do. And there were several that spoke up and said, you know, when you said that, it really connected for me because I also have felt something similar in our relationship. And one of the things that people have found to be sort of the most. I don’t know if incredible is the right word, but kind of a takeaway is the fact that Kevin and I say we divorced the first version of our relationship. You know, we’ve been together for 25 years or so, but I’m. I’m no longer. Neither one of us is interested in that first version. Like, it’s just not. Not something we want to go back to.

And so we. We created space to say, what is it that you want now and who are you now and who do you want to become now, and what is it that you’re interested in now? And. And it was a moment a couple of times where it might not have been me and it might not have been Kevin. You know, like we weren’t going to choose each other, but then as we work through what was behind it, then feels amazing to choose him again instead of. Instead of, you know, saying not giving ourselves permission.

Meg
Yeah.

Jaime
You know, I think just like making an assumption that we have to stay together, I don’t think is helping a lot of marriages either, you know.

Meg
Well, that’s such an interesting mind shift is significant words in there. Deciding to divorce version one without getting divorced and deciding to choose what the new you in this relationship. I still choose him. But what’s great is that you and Kevin both decided to choose each other and to work on yourselves. Did you work with like, who’s your support group during all of that?

Jaime
Yeah. Well, it’s interesting, Meg, because we’ve never actually done any kind of traditional therapy. And I think, you know, growing up in my family, there are a lot of reasons for why that wasn’t encouraged and not necessarily good reasons, you know, that I find out later. So when we started, it was actually Through a business coach, you know, that I was like, oh, wait, what am, what am I, what are you hearing? You know? And so he was a leadership development coach and that ended up starting to shift my. Same time that I was looking to develop as a leader in the business, I was also done, you know, oh, sorry if my Internet’s been bad.

Meg
You’re fine.

Jaime
Okay. So at the same time that I was realizing that I wanted to develop as a leader in the business, I also started to realize, and I think this happens when we start to wake up. You could say we start to want growth and want something different. Stop tolerating what we’ve been tolerating. Then all of a sudden, like all the windows and doors, you know, like, who this is? Like, where is this? And and so we ended up working with an energy healer at the same time that we were working with this leadership coach, ended up finding this methodology that now we use in Belief crew because over seven years they partnered really well together.

Where when I would do coaching, this is very growth oriented. This is, you know, change your mindset, change your self talk. But then there’s some stuff that I just can’t figure out why I’m still doing it. Like, I don’t know why anymore. I’m. I’m out of, of ideas. Like, I just can’t figure out why, why this problem is still showing up. Because I thought I, I thought I did shift my mindset. And so we actually started releasing emotions and working with. We actually. I did a hypno session and worked with some theta healers and just different people that were in an alternative space that would do work on me and I could just show up and they would find some of the things and some of the reasons where. So I get to the point where my coach and I would find something for me to work on and then I would like, want to get off the phone right away because I didn’t want to talk it through anymore. I was like, I know this is in my body and I don’t know how to get it out of my body.

And so now in Believe Crew, we’ve kind of like merged multiple modalities and said my nervous system isn’t regulated to accept a bigger version of me. My nervous system isn’t regulated to accept a better relationship and instead I need to literally release it from the body. So that’s what we’ve started to, to just do and embrace. And like, it’s as simple as saying like people say in mindset, you know, I am. You want to be able to change your wording, you know, to, to something positive, you know, like a, like a manifestation sentence or something like that. Okay, but how many times do people stare at their mirror and say the same things and nothing really actually changes? Right?

Like there’s this. So for me, getting, getting to the core and working with other people to release the stuff that’s in my body or generational trauma or whatever. And so now the people that we worked with, that we ended up finding as the best people are now working with us in Belief crew to work with our clients. So it’s just become like this full circle transition.

Meg
Yeah, that’s great. It reminds me, and I’ve been very transparent in this podcast about some of my own challenges, but I agree with that. Sometimes the best person is not a licensed therapist, but somebody who’s going to dig into. Maybe it’s your job, maybe it’s your business. Come at it from the business standpoint. Filter. And I used to go to a guy my ex husband and I named Marty Business. He shifted from marriage counseling to business partner counseling, including married couples.

And he is also one who recommended hypnosis or energy release. Because you’re right. You’re absolutely right. I can. I was at a wedding over the weekend. I’m sitting in church. It’s all the sermons, not sermons, but the prayers that I grew up with. And it, saying the words is not the same as releasing the energy or absorbing the energy and finding a person.

Like you and Kevin have to dig beneath the, the rote, the standard, the, the pat answers and really get into the why and the core of why are you holding on to something that does not serve you? Why it doesn’t serve you. So why? I ask myself that about another glass of wine after 8 o’clock.

Jaime
You know, and it’s really hard to admit sometimes how much of it comes down to our childhood. And I just, I, I don’t even like these answers. Mickey. I’m, I, I’ve always said I prefer business conversations, you know, and strategy and moving forward and creating something and creating things. But all this stuff is so heavy. It pulls us back, it brings us back and it’s like what does your 12 year old self say about, you know, like I don’t even know anymore. Like someone just, you know, help me. So that’s what I personally work with a team of people that are willing to actually do the work for me so that I don’t have to talk anymore, so that I don’t have to tell you anymore. Like you Energet, check into my body and tell me what’s stuck because I’m, I’m out at this point. Yeah. And maybe it’s laziness, but it feels so good. And I think when my mom was sick, you know, that really taught me a lot, and it really, it really made an impact on me. And so for years I’ve thought about, as business owners, where do we get to go? Like, if you have a physical health issue, there’s an emergency room somewhere that you can go and check in. And you just know that someone is going to do what they need to do. They’re going to tell you where to put your foot in your, in your hand, and they’re going to stick an IV in you and you’re going to put you in a bed and someone’s just going to take care of you for 24 hours even, you know, and sometimes I feel like, as business owners, where is that, like, oasis, that you could just go and have a check in and feel like someone else is going to take care of you and knows how to give you the iv. Does that make sense to you?

Meg
Like, is that what your sessions are?

Jaime
That is what our sessions are. Because. Because I wanted that, right? Where can I go and just have someone else take care of me? And so when, when we work with business owners and they, they experience it, they’re like, I’ve never had anything like this in my life. Like, three years later, people are coming back and telling us, they’re like, I think I left your home. This was back when we were in Wisconsin and offering them in person in Wisconsin. And they’re like, I left your home. And that they changed my life. Like, I was more supported than I’d ever been. And so now hearing that, you know, multiple years later, it’s like, yes, this is what I wanted to create. This is what I thought, you know, people needed. But at the time, it was like, will you come try this? Like, you know, is this a thing? So.

Meg
Well, clearly it is. Clearly, more. More business owners need to unpack their, their history. One of the best exercises I have been through personally is a woman invited me to contribute a chapter to, to an anthology called Worthy for More. And I laughed at Doris when she first brought it up. There’s so many other people with a voice or a story. She said, no, I. I need to have what you’re telling me in. Your vulnerability needs to be documented. That was a real exercise in unpacking and acknowledging. And I was a middle kid with a narcissistic older brother and younger sister and a dad who is a surgeon. Mr. Myopic World revolves around me. He was not a parent. He was a business coach. My mom and I to this day, will talk about linking arm in arm. It’s the two of us against the three of them. Absolutely. I can go back to sitting in my bedroom window looking at my dad and my. My little sister, the golden child with him, doing things with her that he’d never done with me being more of a dad. And in that. And in that chapter for the anthology, I went back to my extreme weight loss. It wasn’t anorexia per se, the control that I needed to exert in or. And then how that spilled into my marriage and spilled into my divorce and spilled into. It was a really cathartic experience to write that chap.

Jaime
You know, it’s interesting you say that, Meg, because for a long time, I was not one that I was like, oh, I’m gonna write a book. You know, I hear that a lot. But I. I wasn’t one. And then all of a sudden, I got this bee in my hat, whatever bug, and whatever they say, and I decided, you know what? I do feel called to write a book. And so I poured it all out. And then two days later, I was like, none of that is the book. And then I go and I sit down again the next weekend, pour out the next. You know what I think are 10 chapters worth of stuff. None of that was it. It’s like, it. This stuff needs to come out, and where are we giving it a space for it to come out and to realize, you know what? That was a story that doesn’t need to be told anymore. Like, I’m moving on from that. And I do think it’s a powerful experience to. To write, you know, even if no one ever sees it, like, to write out something with the idea that we have something to share. And. And. And what you said about worthy, you know, like, that you did this from that lens and that perspective. That’s. I mean, that’s an incredible conversation in itself.

And one of the things that happened to me in the last two years is that I started to realize where most of the time, I’m asking for the minimum. You know, what’s the minimum instead of what’s the maximum? And so I’ll give you a small couple, small examples. In this particular exercise, I had felt that I deserved some. Something and was going to take something to court and say, hey, you owe me money. And so I put together a number and Then put together all the information and I was willing to settle for the minimum. Right, what’s the minimum? And then the attorney looked it over and of course their version is looking for the maximum. And like our letters and our perspectives were so different that I just took a step back and I was like, why do, why, I don’t think this is just me, but why do I do this to myself? Like looking for the minimum.

And so I started to look for what is the maximum that I would like in my life. And, and again from the small example standpoint, a housekeeper, you know, someone to help you clean the house. Like I finally found the maximum because when we have her three times a week, it’s too, it’s too much different energy for our family. You know, like it’s super helpful to have her here twice a week. But more than that. And so I was like, this is how you find the maximum. Like just accept. Yeah.

Meg
And all the talk about manifestation and universal energy and alignment and if you don’t, if you don’t ask for it, it’s not going to come. I had a great mentor after I had been divorced. The unexpected divorce of 2008 and a few years of self care and just saying, I’m not going to date, I’m not going to throw myself all into business, but I’m going to enhance my friendships and I’m going to live life. I’m going to go experience the things that I’ve been denying myself because that’s what we women do.

And one of my, well, you know, Chad Ko led a business group that would meet in person weekly and he waggled his finger at us one day. You don’t know how to get out of your own way. You’re asking for a lot. You don’t have a frickin clue about how you’re going to get there. So let’s have a visioning session about what, what would it look like? But realistically, what’s your plan? And I sat there in that moment, I thought I don’t need any help with my life, my personal life. I’ve cleansed myself from two divorces and I’m good just being me. I don’t have a problem with my business. But I guess the one thing that is missing is my lobster, my life partner who will be my forever husband.

Well, Chad was really funny and this will never leave my brain. He said, I’m going to lead you through this exercise and when you put a plan together for Big and big comes, don’t you dare say no, don’t you dare say I’m not ready. When big presents itself and you recognize it, you embrace it and lean into it as hard as you can. And that’s when the universe delivered. Peter Layton, my husband.

Jaime
That’s amazing. That sounds so much like Chad to.

Meg
Mr. Tough Love. He was, he was way, you know, he is in such a different place now than when I first met him. I think it was 2009. So it was, I was going through a divorce and he was in a much different place in his marriage, which also then dissolved. But he used, used his senses to go straight for the jugular. He would pull out his gun and start shooting at your feet like, dance, brother, dance. You better start moving because you’re, you’re. And, and it was a conversation about not just business, but how it’s impacting life.

Jaime
100 and, and you know, in family businesses, there’s a lot of addiction in terms of, you know, there are liabilities, let’s just say, and assets, you know, in the family. And all of it is making an impact, making a difference. I, I, you know, like the Coldplay CEO that went all viral. You know, like those moments that stuff behind the scenes is impacting the businesses. Real life example, this is hardcore impacting businesses. So I’m excited about the human side. You know, there’s the AI side of business right now and then there’s the human side. And sometimes they overlap, but I think that’s, that’s what I see. The future is like this intersection of, of both of those dancing well.

Meg
And you know, my background is my, my degree is counseling. And then my mom was very involved still in palliative and hospice care education. She’s a former nurse. So I’m way over on the emotional intelligence side. It’s far over. Pete, my husband is over on the AI. Yeah, he, he uses AI a lot. And intelligence is multi dimensional. So he’s not just over here in the analytical side. He’s a human being as well. But we definitely have that disparity in how we look at things.

And you’ve been here and stayed here and know both of us, we work really well together, except that we don’t work really well together sometimes. But to give each other the space because going back to something you said earlier, we both have jobs and our jobs are to run effective, profitable businesses. It’s our jobs. We approach it differently, but systematically together, it works very well. So we both have had at this stage, we’ve been married for eight years and together for 11 to choose each other again. He’s. You’d be so proud of him, Jaime. He’s evolving so nicely now that he’s recognized that his old strategies in a marriage don’t work. He started to tear up and cry one day when he said, are you saying you want a divorce? I said, no, Mr. Chairman of the board, I’m getting off of your board of directors because I don’t think you’re effective. And until you’re willing to address these situations, which are personal, not just business, I can’t. I cannot be an effective member of your board.

And. Yeah, he said, so you want a divorce? No, no, I’m. I need to give you the space to run your business the way your family office the way that you need to run it. And since doing that, he took that as a real wakeup call. So you’d be very proud of. Of the strides that I am.

Jaime
That’s amazing.

Meg
Pete is made.

Jaime
And I’m proud of you for creating that space. Because space. I used to be in the self storage industry. We literally sold space. Right. And so now here I am in the emotional side of things again, selling space, you know, And. And it. It feels very strange because they’re so. There’s such different types of space, you know, but technically they do the same thing. If somebody gets a storage unit to get stuff out of their house to make room for something new, that’s really the same thing that we’re having to do energetically get rid of something that’s old so that we can create space for the new version of us. And if we don’t, there’s no room. It’s just literally no room for it.

Meg
Great analogy. And. And as Pete and I are now past 60, he’s 65. I’m 62. Our kids don’t want.

Jaime
They don’t.

Meg
And what has become important to us, particularly because of the pandemic, was to get rid of stuff and not to replace it.

Jaime
Yeah.

Meg
But to create well, and you’ve been here. This office is more like an art gallery than anything. And it’s absolutely full. But none of it is a new acquisition. It is so full because we got rid of the big houses and the big. Lots of bedrooms. And what we pared down to. This is an analogy, what we pared down to. And I’m staring right at original art, real furniture that means something to us. So we didn’t add anymore, but life became fuller and more rewarding.

Jaime
Yeah. Yep. I’m 100% here for it.

Meg
And that is what I hope our Listeners will take away from this conversation. Less is more. Be real. Go visit Jaime and Kevin in Mexico. And if. If you’re not in touch, get in touch because your life will be so much more fulfilling. Your relationship and your business or businesses. When you clear the room, clear the space to make space.

Jaime
What I’d love to share too, is that depth is possible in relationships. Because right now, what we see and hear from so many is, you know, sort of just like giving up or like we can’t have everything or we can’t. And there’s so many that are craving that true depth, energetic connection in their relationships. And it is possible. I’m not going to say it’s without hard work. The amount of time and investment is not for the faint of heart, but for me, it was worth it.

Meg
And it’s a great exercise for people who aren’t used to exercising or people who are used to exercising. But that’s your cathartic way of dealing with life versus dealing with life. You’re exercise is a great bandage, but really, there’s so much stigma still behind a man being in touch or a woman who owns a business to be soft and approachable, not aggressive and assertive. What you think your Persona needs to be needs to have a left turn so that it can become that much more fulfilling for everyone, including you.

Jaime
Oh, my Goodness, Meg, I’m 100 with you.

Meg
Yeah, I could go on forever. What do you want to talk about next?

Jaime
Let’s make our worthy podcast a whole nother. Yeah, this is great. Thank you.

Meg
Well, thank you. Will I see you on Friday?

Jaime
You will.

Meg
Excellent. I’m referring to our first Friday networking meeting that I invite all of the anyone I’ve ever worked with who’s gotten into business, whether it’s a franchise or you’ve gone your own way or somehow we’ve been connected and we convene once a month in order to basically share who we are, what we do, what our business does, and what doors do you need open? What problems do you need solved? And what’s so beautiful to me about it is the collective works together. It’s not. It’s not me. I know everybody. But I don’t have to be the one with the answer. Y’ all do. It’s not even heavy lifting. You’re sharing reality of your business ownership dynamic. And we all have felt that uniformity of. I’m not alone. I’m not the only one. There is light at the end of the tunnel. This too shall pass. Whether it’s you’re In a bad time or a good time. It’s a great saying that can ground you that given time, things are going to change. And we’re here as a collective, just as your group is there to support through the hard things. And there are a lot of hard things. So deal with it, everybody. And please take a look at Jaime. It’s J A I M E Jaime White on LinkedIn. Her posts will inspire you. And if you’re thus inspired, learn more about the escape to Mexico to get some energy, healing and and reality checking with Jaime and her husband Kevin. It’ll be a worthwhile experience.

Jaime
Thank you, Meg.

Meg
My pleasure. So thank you, Jaime. It’s always great to see you. I enjoy seeing you once a month. But when you’re back. This morning I thought of you when I was getting dressed. I put on a camo dress, you know, channeling. What? Where? How did I meet Jaime? I thought about putting on my kayaking clothes because we. It’s not really. It was like it doesn’t matter for a podcast, but I always show up in my best dress to my fashionista Persona. But I was so excited to have you on the calendar for today channeling what to wear and how to show up for this. But this is a perfect interview and so thank you for making time so quickly. I really appreciate it.

Jaime
No, it worked out and I’m glad.

Meg
Perfect. All right, so I will see you on Friday morning and when this baby is ready to launch, which will probably be next week. Mother Hubbard’s cupboards are bare. I somehow ran out of podcasts, so this is. We’re coming to the close of season seven. You might be the season ender.

Jaime
Okay.

Meg
But it should be next week. So we’ll get collateral for you next week.

Jaime
Okay, thank you.

Meg
All right. Have a great day and say hello to Kevin.

Jaime
Okay, we’ll do. Okay, Bye. Bye.

Meg
Thanks. Bye.