I sit here taking a hard-earned break from packing the camper for our annual pilgrimage to the Indy 500, looking out at the road ahead and thinking about how incredibly amazing my life has been. Every year, Amy and I get to do several things just like this— trips, projects, and adventures—that some folks only get to experience once in a lifetime.
But if I am being completely honest, none of it would be half as rewarding without a great partner. I have that in my wife, Amy. She has this uncanny ability to shine a bright light directly onto my blind spots, both in life and in business. Together, we manage to navigate the bumps, coordinate our chaotic schedules, and get everything we need exactly where we need it—at least in most cases.
If you asked us what the secret sauce is, we would credit it entirely to good communication.
But let’s clear up a common misconception right now: it wasn’t easy at first. We didn’t just wake up one day with a flawless shorthand. We had to work at it, fail, hit walls, and keep working on it until we finally got good at it. It was a massive hurdle for me historically, and truth be told, it still is a daily practice.
The High Stakes of the Couple-Owned Shop
Successful communication is the absolute foundation for any relationship, whether personal or professional. But when you marry the two? The stakes skyrocket.
In a standard transmission shop environment, a breakdown in communication between the front counter and the rebuild bay can easily mean the difference between profit and loss on a job. Missing a detail on a work order or failing to communicate a parts delay ruins your efficiency.
[Shop Disconnect] -> [Lost Efficiency] -> [Eroded Profit Margin]
But if you are working side-by-side with your husband or wife, a communication breakdown carries an even heavier price tag. It means that the good or bad day you are having at the shop doesn’t end when you turn off the bay lights and flip the sign to “Closed.” If you haven’t mastered the art of professional communication, that stress hitches a ride home with you in the truck. It sits with you at the dinner table, disrupts your evening, and bleeds right into your personal life.
Before you know it, you aren’t just arguing about an unbilled core charge; you’re eroding the very relationship you built your life upon.
Two Separate Worlds, One Shared Journey
Our perspective doesn’t come from a textbook; it comes from decades in the trenches of business ownership. We’ve looked at this dynamic from every conceivable angle because our backgrounds are wildly different, yet deeply intertwined.
- The Rebuilder’s View: I am a lifelong veteran of the automotive and transmission industry. I opened my first repair shop in 1984 when I was just 22 years old. For those counting, I spent 37 years running that business before finally retiring and selling it in 2021. These days, I spend my time at my hangar tinkering with airplanes and rebuilding antique units. I know the unique pressures of grease, late deliveries, and demanding customers.
- The Ballroom View: Amy, on the other hand, comes from a completely different world. She is a lifelong veteran of the professional ballroom dancing industry. She has owned and operated two dance studios entirely on her own, and eventually, she and I opened a third ballroom studio and event center together. On top of that, she co-founded Act for Missouri, a political watchdog organization dedicated to exposing state-level political corruption.
Talk about a clash of cultures. You have a grease-monkey rebuilder who looks at life through the lens of mechanical tolerances and fluid pressures, married to a high-level artistic entrepreneur who understands rhythm, presentation, and intense organizational management.
When Roles Reverse
Over our journey together, Amy and I have run two distinct businesses as a team. In the first business, I worked for her. In the second business, she worked for me.
Stepping into each other’s domain required a massive ego check. When I was helping Amy manage her studio, I had to respect her absolute authority as the expert in that room. When she stepped into my world, the roles reversed. Learning how to take direction from your spouse without feeling defensive or demeaned is one of the hardest professional skills you will ever learn. It requires setting clear operational boundaries and recognizing that a critique of a business process is never an attack on your marriage.
We had to learn how to transition seamlessly between being “Business Partners” during business hours and “Spouses” when we clocked out.
Join Us at Powertrain EXPO This August
At the ATRA Powertrain EXPO this August, Amy and I are going to stand on stage and pull back the curtain on our story. In our upcoming management session, “Being in Business with the One You Love: How to Survive and Thrive,” we aren’t going to give you a sanitized, corporate lecture.
We are going to share the raw reality: the laughter, the tears, the frustrations, and the hard-earned wisdom we gathered along the way. We want to give you highly practical, real-world suggestions on how to build a profitable entrepreneurial partnership without sacrificing the personal relationship that brought you together in the first place.
We are certain that no matter what kind of shop or business structure you run, you will find something in our story that hits incredibly close to home. Best of all, we aren’t just dropping in and leaving—Amy and I will be hanging around EXPO all weekend long. We want to meet you, grab a coffee, hear your stories, and talk through the unique challenges you face in your own operations.
We are looking forward to it. Pack your bags, lock down your shop communication protocols, and we will see you at EXPO in August!
