“The Business of Being a Family in Business” Show
Information for Invited Guests
If you are reading this, chances are I’ve emailed you directly. Why? I’d love for you to be a guest for my (soon-to-be-launched) “The Business of Being a Family in Business” audio (podcast) show. I feel you have a unique perspective, experiences, and stories that can help other people trying to navigate a business that involves their family.
Rather than dump all the details into an email, I’ve put them here so you can learn what the show is about, how you can participate, and some of the technical specs you’ll need. There are a few sections here that you will want to look over before making the decision to be on my show:
- What Can We Talk About on the Show?
- Show Info You Will Need to Know
- When Will It Launch?
- Why I’m Doing The Show
Interested? Keep reading! Right now I’m looking to get the recording done by the end of November so we can edit in December and launch in January. Thanks!!
A recent survey of small business owners by Bank of America found that 29% of female business owners and 18% of male business owners currently had at least one of their kids working for their business.
Succession planning is a huge challenge for many small companies, with 70% of family-owned businesses never making it to the second generation, according to a report in the Harvard Business Review.
What Can We Talk About on the Show?
My hope in interviewing you for “The Business of Being a Family in Business” is that you can share your experiences in starting, running, or growing a business with – or with the support of – your family. Family can be your spouse/partner, sibling, grand/parent, grand/child, or even a cousin.
- Did you start a business with a family member?
- Did you need the support of a family member to help get you to the next level in your business?
- Did you take over a family business from a parent or grandparent?
- Did you hire family members to work within your business?
- How do you juggle kids and spouses and caretaking with the demands of running a business?
- Were you in business with a family member and it (the business… or maybe even the family…) didn’t work out?
- Are you currently looking to grow your business and want to incorporate your children (kids or adults) in the business?
Not all mixes below work (Promotion & Food – hey, we can try!) but this will give us a great “Graminal”-style content framework. Of course, a mix can be revisited with different guests and different situations if it applies (single business owner vs. married partners vs. siblings vs. parent/child.) Let me know what combinations resonate with you and we can chat on the show about that. If nothing strikes you as interesting – no worries! I’d love to chat anyhow!
- Pain
- Profits
- People
- Passion
- Process
- Promotion
- Perception
- Perseverance
- Fun
- Faith
- Field (work/career)
- Food
- Family
- Fierce (being bold/brave)
- Fitness
- Friends
- Foreplay (relationships)
For example: We could choose…
- Profits & Family: How to become financially secure when you alone or you with a spouse depend on business income for family income.
- Perseverance & Fun: How to carve out dedicated leisure time outside of the business and/or how to determine when you need a “time out” for the sake of your sanity and business productivity.
- Passion & Foreplay: Self explanatory, but explore how to keep a relationship alive when you work with each other!
- Process & Field (work/career): Talk about how designing processes to work are crucial to setting boundaries and goals.
- People & Food: Oh heavens we all need help figuring out how to feed ourselves (and family) while we are running a business. Outside help? Delivery service? Chef service? Help!
- Perception & Family: How to explain to your family that just because you are home all day doesn’t mean you aren’t working. No you can’t run the PTA cupcake sale, you are working. Biggie.
- Perseverance & Faith: How do you keep active in your faith while running a business? How to you turn to your faith to help?
Show Info You Will Need to Know
Show Format
Framework
- Show Opener – 5 Minutes: General chit-chat to catch up
- Segment 1: – 10-15 Minutes: Cover our first topic
- Segment 2: – 10-15 Minutes: Cover our second topic
- Wrap Up – 5 Minutes: Let us know where we can find your latest product, book, talk, show
Intro / Closer
I will record the intro/outro – including your bio and intro – after our chat so you don’t have to spend your time listening to me frame out the episode.
Show Recording
For the show recording, I use Zencastr. It will handle the actual recording and give us the ability to talk to each other. Here’s what you’ll need:
- An Internet-connected computer (preferably ‘hard-line’ and not Wifi)
- Microphone (preferably not your computer’s built-in mic)
- Headphones or earbuds
Please be sure you using headphones or earbuds to hear the audio. Otherwise, Zencastr will pick up the output of your speakers, which makes editing the show a difficult task! Also, note that your microphone needs to be recognized by Zencastr (visit here for help.) Finally, please don’t leave the Zencastr page until you get a notice that your file was uploaded (it usually takes only 5-10 seconds).
I will send you the link to the Zencastr session about an hour before we record.
Headshot & Bio
It will be helpful if you could send over your headshot and bio (or a link to them) so that I can include it in the show notes. Social handles are also very useful! Have a blog? Send a link. Have a podcast? Send a link. Have a YouTube channel? You guessed it, send a link.
When Will It Launch?
As you may have noticed, the show hasn’t launched yet. As with any media property, I’ve got to get a few episodes “in the can” before launch. Your episode will most likely be in the launch or soon after. THANK YOU for stepping up and having faith!
My plan is to launch the show the first weeks of February 2018.
After the initial launch, the plan is to publish one show a week. Each episode will be recorded about 2-3 weeks before it’s published. This gives me some wiggle room to reschedule a guest or bump around our recording time to better fit crazy schedules.
Once a show is recorded and rough-edited, I’ll start promoting that episode (and YOU) a week or so before the publication date. After publication, I will be sure to keep you updated with listener feedback. Hey, everyone likes to hear they did a great job and helped other people!
Why I’m Doing The Show
Chances are you don’t know me *personally* – as in you’ve not (yet) had dinner at my house, met my kids, or known me prior to my social / digital media work. Because of that, it felt like a good idea to let you in on my ‘why.’
I should also probably mention that I started podcasting in 2004, had the distinction of being one of the first women podcasters, and made six-figures from my second podcast. I’ve also had nearly 35 podcasting clients where I helped build and market their shows. This show will not be my first rodeo <grin>
I own a family business.
In fact, I’ve owned several family businesses. My husband and I have been together 20 years, made 7-figures, lost 6-figures, and had 2 kids along the way. We’ve brought our kids to work, had our kids DO work, worked with our siblings business and even hired on a cousin. I’ve owned a retail store, a consultancy, an agency, worked as a freelance consultant, produced several podcasts, owned several direct sales companies. I’ve even worked for someone else’s company in order to “extend the runway” of our family businesses. I currently am the co-founder of a software company (with my husband) AND work as a professional speaker (with my husband’s support.)
Most – but not all – of those businesses have been with my husband. One of the businesses has been so wildly successful all we could do to survive was lean on our family for help and tap their professional expertise. Some of our businesses failed to thrive the way we envisioned. One business failed so spectacularly I wasn’t sure we’d ever recover.
Our software company also happens to be in an industry that is comprised mostly of family owned businesses. That was probably the ‘last straw’ for me to finally step up and acknowledge that family owned businesses are a unique and vibrant part of our economy and deserve to be cared for, invested in, and celebrated.
I (accidently) helped a number of family-owned businesses find their own way.
My path helping others figure out their path was accidental. Time and time again friends have reached out to me for advice, guidance or mentorship on how to navigate a small business – but somehow it always came around to needing to work with or with the support of their family. I’ll be honest here, sometimes their outcome was a shuttered business or broken relationship. I’m not a medical professional. I can only speak from experience and a point of reference to help encourage each person to choose their own path and give them some tools to facilitate that.
They came to me because of the track record I have with not just small business, technology and marketing – but the fact that my husband and I not only make amazing business partners but life partners as well. It was not always easy. It was not always simple. But it is very much worth it.
My goal in having YOU on my show is so that together we can help more people grow profitable businesses and strengthen and their families. Thanks for the opportunity to help share your experience and stories so that together we can serve others.