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Entrepreneurship as a Couple: Scaling Businesses, Leadership, and Long-Term Success · Better Together

• Meesam curingbusy: All right, welcome back to Better Together Podcast. I'm Sean Sunsvold and I'm here with my co-host Kelly, as well as my business partner. And today we're joined by not one, but two incredible entrepreneurs, Anton Rudziuk and Monica Amorese. And what is amazing is that Anton and Monica are the co-founders of Amarude Ventures. They have a portfolio of businesses that span logistics. lifestyle brands and interior design. They are supported by a global team of more than 80 professionals spanning the United States, Colombia, Brazil, and Cyprus. What makes their story even more compelling is that their journey started together. Monica and Anton each bring their own leadership, strategic insight, and entrepreneurial vision to the table. And together they've built businesses and a life rooted in ownership, resilience, and shared ambition. What stands out most isn't just the scale of what they've built. It's the mindset behind it. They believe success follows a formula. It's not luck. And that proximity, discipline, and personal responsibility really shape those long-term results. So on today's episode, we'll talk about building a business as a married team, navigating risk and failure together, scaling internationally, and learning what it really takes to lead at a high level without playing the victim. Anton and Monica, we are so excited to have you both on here and we were just talking about it at the beginning. I think you guys are the first married couple we've had to interview on our show. Thank you so much for having us. This is amazing. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for being here. So let's start with this because you guys built your businesses together. So can you start us at the beginning of and tell us where this journey started for the two of you? Yeah, I think I can, I can go first, I guess. I, it started in 2011. We met at the end of the year. We shared a very common interest. I met Monica randomly at a place called Cafe Europe in Houston. It's like a European hangout place and she was there with her Colombian friends. I was there with a roomate of mine. Just, you know, was working very hard in the beginning, trying to find my way, trying to be a kind of a beginning entrepreneur. And then my friend loved Colombian women, so to say, you know, just loved the culture, I guess. And when he heard a particular kind of Spanish, he bolted and it was about 15 girls that were sitting in a circle and he sat in the middle of them and he was asking them what region of the country they're from. And then he was trying to get me over. I was quite shy. I had long hair at the time. I was all about work. I didn't want to meet anyone. He wasn't really looking, but you know, they say that's the time to really meet someone. Right. So. Yeah. We sat together and the rest is history and became business partners. We met on a certain foundation. I think the biggest thing is that I was born in Russia. I ⁓ grew up there. I've been in the US for a very long time. So the cultures were completely different. But at the end of the day, our fundamentals really matched. Fundamentals about family, fundamentals about what to do. And I think that really connected us. I actually admit it, and maybe I shouldn't say it, but I broke up with Monica. thinking that I can only have one thing, either business or a personal life. And I remember it was the sweetest breakup. It was the most cordial way to end the relationship. And she turns around as she's leaving the door and she looks at me and goes, you idiot, you can have it all. And that was like, it was just, hit me, but I mean, my ego couldn't let me say, okay, I'm sorry, because I knew deep down. And then like three months later, I was on top of a container, about four feet high. It was raining, was in Pasadena. I fell off the container, kind of bounced. And then the first person that came to my mind was this young lady. And I called her and she was at a play in New York with her brother. And her brother's like, what the heck are you talking to this guy? He broke your heart. And luckily, you know, we reconnected and from that moment on, we were inseparable. We are inseparable now. So yeah. That's amazing. That's our origin story. I love saying that story. Thank you. I'm going to call time out here real quick. Let's figure out to get Monica in here for the conversation. Right. Weird. I can tell she's got a lot to add that she wants to poke at you Anton. Yes. Technical difficulties. Technical difficulties. Do you want to log back out or log out and log back in Monica? Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Yeah. That was strange. She was fine. I forgot to that we edit and I mark things as they come across. So it's A-OK. I love that origin story. We'll get back into it. Thank you so much. it really, yeah, it's incredible. It's so funny because Anton was talking and when he said like his friend was in love with a Colombian woman, I'm like, who, who is not in love with Colombian women? I love a good origin story. I love that, you know, it took you basically falling off something to get some common sense in your head about Monica, which is nice. Yes. And so I'd love to hear a little bit from you, Monica, like So those early experiences that really shaped you, kind of your business, your and your relationship. Well, I came to Houston for three months. That's the thing. Like I came to Houston, never been to Houston before. And I came to Houston to start my own business. And at that moment, ⁓ the whole thing was bringing Colombian foods to Houston. So we got to be like in, I think 25T Fiesta Mart stores here and in Austin. And I met Anton, like he said, that day, I was starting my business, he was starting his business. So we found the common ground of being entrepreneur and being, you know, like starving artists, entrepreneurs, from the beginning, like no investments. was both of us just like doing everything. And we became partners before we were even engaged. So before we were like a real, real couple, we were already partners and we were like tied by the hip. It was, for me, was three months. why I was supposed to be here because I didn't know anybody in Houston. And as most Colombians, I wanted to go to Miami. I never thought that I was going to find the love of my life, the father of my kids, you know, like my, my ride or die, definitely. And I think that we found each other. And as I was telling you, before we started, we really find such an advantage of being partners and a couple, you know, like for us working together. It's an advantage. We can work together at any time, in any place, you know, in any location of the house, or of our offices. And it has been such a joyful journey because I think that we have grown together. Like when we met, how much, 15 years ago, 16, yeah, 15 years ago, ⁓ we were completely different people and we grew together in our business ⁓ as people. And we have made our journey together. a one-off personal improvement. we are, like Sean was saying, for us, definitely has not been locked. I'm not saying that God didn't have a humongous power. I'm a really believer that we're guided spiritually in our path, right? But we really put a lot of effort on it, on our relationship and on the business, on how to improve ourselves and how to become better people and help. all the people that were around us. So this man is amazing. So I am more in love with him every day. And it's been such a joy through all the ups and downs, which have been a lot to do it together. That's so awesome. That's so awesome. one of the things like Kelly and I, when we built this show, right, we titled it Better Together. And the reason we did that is because we figured out that we could build a life better. with the two of us working together towards something, then trying to do life separately and working two different careers, right? Which sounds like you guys were kind of in that same boat of focusing together. Like I want to talk a little bit about those early years. Let's talk about, you know, what, how did you guys sort of bring everything together? Cause you had two separate businesses, right? How did you then bring everything together and what was that process like trying to figure out? You know, this is my role as we do this and this is your role as we do this. you know, did it blur a lot of like who's wearing what hat? Yeah. ⁓ you know, I would say, ⁓ it's a great question. would say in the beginning, we really didn't have a vision. didn't have anything and everything you would think you would have looking back, you know, all we had is non-negotiables and our more respect for each other in business, you know, because I knew. That no matter what, I will never go below a certain line. And that really is the only thing that mattered in the beginning. There was no roles, you know, we were doing dispatch in our trucking company with paperwork together in the yard, you know, cleaning out the trucks. We were delivering frozen goods and putting the diesel in them, whatever it took at the end of the day, as long as we were together, you know? So I think that to me, it was the non-negotiables now looking back and really the fundamentals, again, the values that, and I think that last kind of last comment is, is I feel like when spouses have businesses separate, I feel like it builds walls between, you know, so this to me, it's frictionless, you know, like I can wake her up at 6 a.m. and say, Hey, listen, I'm worried about this deal. And then she can, she can not only help me, but know who I am versus me going to, you know, they say work wife, all this crap that people make up that is such, I think it's just excuses, you know, and I think that to me is, is the most important. I don't have anything to add. No, I just want to add that the only thing that we have is like a strong determination, which we still have. So failure has never been an option. So we just knew that we were just dedicated. And since it was fun because we were doing it together, we were working around until 3 AM, 4 AM. We didn't have kids. Our kid was the company. So we just like a strong determination on figuring out. I don't know how we're going to do this, but we are doing it. Everything that we did like that, our first standard operating procedure, we did it on post-its. I remember we still have the picture of the post-its and we have like just these kind of like post-its on the wall of how to do things. And at that time, as you said, we had two different businesses and we actually invested on each other. Like I put money in Antone business, he put money on mine. We were working on putting both of them, like getting both of them out of the floor. And we realized that Logistic had way more potential and we closed. the food business. So that one we decided, no, this is not for us. And we dedicated all of our efforts into the logistics business. And it started with one truck. So we started with one truck and Tom started with the FlexiTimes, which had already, like it was already growing. And we're like, okay, we need a trucking company to move this. We started with one truck and no clue what it meant to have a trucking company. We always look back and said, I don't know if we'll do it again. It paid off. we... We had to start everything from scratch. I think that the fact that we found what was each other's strengths. I am my background. I'm an industrial engineer. So I was able to focus on how to organize these. And Anton is an amazing salesperson. So he dedicated to make a range. So it just worked. We really complete each other. And I think that that was a key differentiator here for us. Yeah, for sure. I love that you guys both have like different. pieces of the business, you know, like it, took a little bit for Sean and I to come together and work together. We, we've been married for 22 years, almost 23 years. Thank you. But I would say like to her point of like, you know, like how dividing the roles, if there was, we were super divided, then it was super mixed. We were divided because there was no choice, right? Like we had so many things to do that we, we were divided roles. Then there was a point when we started adding people that we were call CEOs and it got a little bit messy. Like, okay, so then who is deciding this? And there were many fights. I'm not going to deny it. What do you mean? Like, why did you take the decision? Not me. And it was tough for a while when we were like, call C, in the company until we decided, okay, hold on. We need to really go back into having different roles and, know, like making it a team. for a long time, I was kind of like Anton Seikid. was his... the CEO of everything and I needed, I felt like I needed my own thing and I always loved interior design. That was something that I wanted to do since I was little, but my parents said no. And the fact that he was the one that encouraged me, why don't you go do when the company got that we had all the managers and everything was more organized. He was the one that told me, why don't you do what you want to do? And I went back, started a company with a... friend first, because I was so afraid to start this on my own. Then I bought her out and it became part of our partnership again. And Casa Marisa is our latest venture that is actually opening next week. It was my dreams. And then I am now the principal of that and Tony the CEO of the other one. And it just works. really works. Yeah. really does. know, Sean and I have been married for almost 23 years and It honestly, we worked for the first, well up until six years ago. So whatever that is, math is 19 years. We work separately, you know, like I was always in the marketing side of things. He was always in the sales side of things and it was, we worked for two different companies. mostly stuck with nonprofits. He was in the secular world, very different. And so when we started building this in 2019, sorry, 2020, it was, we're like, I don't know how this is going to work together, but it will. It will. And you know what? It's so complimentary. There are so many things that I'm like, hey, you're really good at this and I am not. So therefore this is your on your job description. And there's times like technically I have the CEO title, but there's times that Sean brings some of this stuff in from corporate background. There's not, I think if we were in a regular business, we would have maybe butt heads a little bit on that aspect. But yeah, it really is. So kind of leaning into those weaknesses side, what are some things that you guys have that you cover each other up with? very interesting that we cover each other with. That's a great question as well. You know, I think what we do and being so exposed and having so much to pulling at you, know, any every different direction, kids, businesses, you know, not just one business. We feel like we have to incredibly protect our space as much as possible, you know, so What we do is every, every Monday morning we have an energy and connection meeting. used to be called lovers meeting. found a little cheesy name. we, we change it to lovers and connection in their energy connection, energy and connection. We just changed like two weeks ago, so I'm still getting used to the name in there. We discussed the things that we feel were, were, were not below the standard for the week before, you know, and that's where we discussed those things. And you know, um, I can tell you, I can be a little bit more emotional than Monica, believe it or not. Monica being an engineer, she is my person that takes all my crazy thoughts and helps me organize them. I get them to about 85 % when the idea is very fragile and very, you have to really kind of tender it and can be broken anytime. I get it to a point where it's enough and then kind of we discussed it, you And then she with a very calm head can help me. That was a huge negative for us because we didn't realize that I was very emotional if I brought an idea and she would strike it down, but it wasn't that she was striking it down. And I learned through the lack of what I didn't have to understand that I'm going to first build it to a certain point and then discuss it. So I would say emotion for me is one. Monica, when we first met, she was incredibly frugal, incredibly frugal and still now more or less as well, you know? And I remember I was... doing dry cleaning and I'm a guy, had two dryer sheets, two, and threw them in. And Monica goes, you threw two in? I go, live a little, live a little, you know? And I think her part is being, I'm kind of a bigger type of a, whatever you call it, so it helps her get a little bit out of her shell. I would say those are the direct negatives, not negatives, but things that we worked on. that we recognize to be something that we need to improve on. I would say that would be a great example. Monica, what do think? Yeah, think the biggest for me, besides that, he had taught me to live, he said like live large and I'm like, what? I I come from Colombia. In Colombia, the culture is about saving, saving, saving every cent because you never know when you're going to need it. So definitely it has opened my mindset. besides that, like, you know, helping each other with like our mindset. Like we really, we even call each other, which is funny. I don't know I should say here and don't crap. See, we say the word crap because we crap, you know, I kind of like go up together, you know, like they kind of like tagger each other. So we help each other to, to, get better. Um, and the one area that I remember that I never thought that I was going to be able to do on my own was selling. Selling for me was like a hell no. I'd have an accent. people are going to react weird to me calling on the phone, you know? And I had it at the beginning and experience when I was doing like the food products, like people will go, what? I don't understand you, Muharrab, but me. So for me, like being able to sell, was like, Anton, you're the salesperson and he would say, the rainmaker. So I left it to him. But when we started the interior design, Anton is like, I cannot sell interior design services. have no clue. So I had to start selling and definitely he was my sales manager. At the beginning I told him, look, you're my sales manager. How do I say this? Am I asking the right things? Am I explaining things right? So he became my sales manager for a while. Now he's my COO. He got promoted to COO. We mentioned at the beginning, right, that you guys just don't have one business. You don't have two businesses. You have how many? It's seven separate operating. Entities, seven P &Ls, seven balance sheets within two divisions, lifestyle and logistics. So let's talk about that because that in, I mean, I'm just thinking running seven businesses, that's complex, right? So how does that work for you guys? How do you manage to have time for each one? And what are you, how do you structure your days so that you can make sure that you touch each business during the day to make sure things are working correctly? Yeah, great question. I would say that I always say that we are. We are an overnight success, 15 years in the making. So these seven businesses were not built. We started with one, then two, and also these businesses are not like, I don't know, selling Coca-Cola and then selling shoes. They are somewhat related within a logistics space and within the lifestyle space. Kind of preface in terms of that. And I would say building a business requires in the beginning, just pure, massive effort. Elon Musk says, entrepreneurship is like staring at the sun while eating glass, right? It's true. I think the first seven years were incredibly difficult. I had heart issues. had just a bunch of different things that I had to have, health things that were deteriorating. But our perseverance and ⁓ our determination got us to a decision where we realized seven years, maybe six years ago, that it was not about us anymore. The beginning part, it has to be about you. You have to almost have to have an ego to get through all the no's, all the rejections, because no, you you can't afford to hire a great person, so you have to do on your own. But there comes a time where it just becomes too much. Thanks to many mentors, we realized that and we shifted the light to our people. You know, and when we did that, I think it started in 2019. It was a Business Mastery Tony Robbins event that we went to. And from that moment, we started these leadership calls and we just not knowing exactly what the outcome would be, but we poured into our people and we basically became the antenna. We would go out, seek information, read books, do everything, and then just pass it to them. First two years, nothing. I mean, our meetings were horrible. Just Zoom meetings, just silence. Everybody would just, but we kept going. And now we have some of the most incredible meetings that we have with our leadership team. We call it the M7, the seven senior directors. And then we have the supervisor and operators. So it's leadership and then we do every Thursday rotating. And we had calls with tears. We have people that are losing weight. They are increasing their energy. They're making more money. I mean, it's just unbelievable within our people. And as a simple fact that we just reduced the light from us and put it on our people and invested in the right people, obviously. Yeah. that were willing to accept it and work together. I would say that, know, Monica, I know you want to add something to that. No, that's true. Like having the right culture, we dedicated a lot of work to our culture. So we knew that the foundation and so much work to do. mean, like we were talking just yesterday about that with our people, ⁓ our culture, we all agree that is the most outstanding area that we have in our companies. ⁓ And that's the one that had given us the ability and I can do all the things because we have the trust on our people. And besides that, for Anton and me, us and our family is above all. So like we take care of each other and of each other needs and we readjust because we know that if him and me are not doing okay, it's going to be felt in everywhere, right? So we really put a lot of effort on us and the kids and first us even because we feel like even the kids are gonna suffer if we're not okay. So it's first us, the kids and then everybody like extended family that is all our company, all of the members of our team, making sure that our culture is strong enough because the life of an entrepreneur and the life of business owners and our companies. It's like that. So there are days where everybody's happy, there are days where everybody hates us and you know, like we had to go with the punches and we had to be strong enough to be able to navigate those. So yeah. But I would say to fast forward, I would say it's two words, systems and standards. I would say you can boil it down to two words really. I look at every business as a game and a game. If you play a game, a video game, know, the programmer tells you where you can and can't go, even though the player has a perceived unlimited way to do whatever they want, right? Like the RPM or whatever those games got. So if you look at, say, a trucking company, I look at it as a game. In a game, you have players, right? So I cannot be a player in the game. I have to be outside, hence working on the business, not in the business. And I see all my people as the players. So if I can position them and have them play the game, they have to know the rules. So for the first seven years, we would get excited about idea, but our people just didn't know the rules of how to succeed. realized that. So clarity came into the picture as well. It's just kind of adding tool belts to your tool, to your tool tools or things that you pick up along the way as well. think, yeah, so standards and ⁓ processes is certainly now what's getting us to be in. Frankly, my goal is 30 companies. really don't see a problem with that as long as I have the right people. It's all about the people, truly, truly. It really is. There's a couple of things that you guys said that I just want to kind of just like re-highlight and emphasize. And one was Monica, like you were talking about, like how if you and Anton are not right, you know, it's... boils down to the kids, it boils down to the company. That's something that Sean and I were very aware of as well. We had a meeting yesterday that we had to have as a, what'd you call it, lovers meeting, but it's renamed now. Yeah, we had to have one of those yesterday. know, those are things that like, you know, as you're going along and you're doing the work and you do the day to day, sometimes you get a little misaligned. But then Anton, you're talking about systems and processes and those are the things that allow you to scale. And not only are you scaling within the United States, you we mentioned at the top of this, like you're managing people across other countries and that may speak other languages. So talk to us a little bit about that. What is that like working and managing across multiple countries? I mean, I would say, I don't care where you're from. have the same, people have the same needs. doesn't matter what language you speak, you know, and as long as you understand what influences the person, You can do wonderful things, you know, and people need a purpose. People need a purpose and the job of a leader is to paint a brighter future. know, especially in today where we're fed with so much information and so much, whether it's true or not, it's just coming from all angles. know, people need a north. And I look at myself and I know Monica the same. We look at each other as the source, right? The source cannot be weak. The sun doesn't come one day and doesn't come the other day, right? That's not how it works. So we are held to a much higher standard and we call it not living by example, we call it example living. Because if you live by example, somebody turns away, okay, I've done it and you move away. But example level is the standard. It's who you are. It's not what you do. You know what mean? So I feel like we have to be excellence on every level. Otherwise I don't feel strong enough to lead if I cannot do it myself or if I've not done it myself. So that's what I feel. The way that we started with our business, especially Colombia, that was the first one that started, it was not even the same. It was not planned. It was not like, okay, now we're going to set Colombia so we can grow there. It was a need that we had at that moment. We cannot do this on our own. We need help. We cannot afford the people here. Let's start looking for where we can find good people that is in a way cost-effective for them. We started with an assistant in Colombia. That was the first thing that we had. And it started growing and it started growing without all the same thing, like with us putting like the same vision of how this is going to be, how this is going to be the culture. And then we realized that now we had over there at that point, probably 20 people and there was like, I mean, it was a mess at some point, Like the thing that we wanted from them is like they could speak English. That's it. And then we realized, no, we have to the same add culture to this portion, make it a strong. Like, make them feel that they are proud of working for the whole group for Amarith Ventures. And the moment that we started working with the people, how do we add value to them? How do we make them feel that they are working for the best company they could be at? Like, we created, remember the first time we created the engagement department. And it's when we realized our people is our biggest asset, right? Like, we need to have... strong people that can manage everything that is thrown at us on a daily way, especially in logistics. In logistics, mean, integer designers is a little bit, it's crazy when we have to install, but daily is, you know, like we're building towards the project. Logistics is like, it's coming around, you know, everywhere, things changing, the day, the trucks, the ship, I mean, it's crazy. So we needed to make our people have people. that really believe in what we are doing. know, like the people that really wanted to be there, that leave the company in their blood, our motto is improve or die. So we needed people that wanted to keep improving. Not that, okay, I'm good here. I mean, don't bother me much, but I'm doing my nine to five. We wanted people that wanted to keep improving day after day, because that's what we are about. We keep growing and growing and we... We could have at some point said, okay, we're okay. Let's stop here. For Anton and I, we're like, we cannot stay still. We have to start pushing the envelope all the time. So we made sure that we attracted people like that. And of course we're always tweaking and adjusting, but the people that are with us is the people that know that they, want to continue going. They want to continue growing. Like our goals are early and audacious. So, you know, we want people that want to do things with us for sure. I love that. Yeah. The, the BHAG, right? The big hairy audacious goal, you know, and I think all of us as entrepreneurs, have it, right? Like we know we have this big dream, this big vision. And I think it, I think that has to be part of your, almost your DNA and wiring as an entrepreneur, because that's the vision you're, you're bringing everybody to. And so, you know, I'm curious, you know, you guys have done really well at growing multiple businesses. Let's talk about when it didn't go so well. Right? Like, let's talk about, how do you guys process failure, you know, in the business and as a couple? Like, how do you, how do you guys work through that? Yeah. I mean, ⁓ believe Simon Sinek, I don't want to, ⁓ steal his, his thunder, but he said it and we, we are huge followers of him as well, where we are, we've, we've embodied that we are in the game of the infinite business. So if you think that you are in the game of infinite business, then there really is no failure. I generally look at it as learning. We call it tuition. Right? No matter how much it is, we've written checks for multiple zeros for mistakes we've done. Of course we are sad about it, you know, we get emotional about it, but we just, move on because we believe that the greatest failure comes the greatest seed of opportunity. And sometimes it's incredibly hard to, we just had some health stuff happen that was like, like why? But actually when you start calming down and relaxing and not, not becoming a victim, things start to unfold. I think that to me is absolutely the answer to have for that, know, for that. So Monica, I don't know if you. Yeah, I just say that, I mean, it was, was bad at some points. It was so bad. And don't say that he had some heart issues. think that the pressure got. us a story about a million dollars in receivables. when the lady quit? We had, we had an employee and she was our accountant, like accounting person. She quit. crying, like one day she quit crying and she said, I cannot handle this anymore. But she never said that she was having a tough time. So she quit. And when she quit and I go into the business to see the into accounting, to see what was happening, we had $1 million of un-invoiced work. ⁓ even that it was uncollected. was not being invoiced. So we had to start by like invoicing back. Work that was like three, four months that was not in voice and then wait for it to collect, right? So I remember it happened to me that we were going into a cruise. was like a, one of those cruises that is a three day cruise, a charter cruise of Latin singers. And every night there was a concert and I love Latin music and Antonio has learned to love Latin music with me. we this cruise and we start like, okay, we have to invoice, we cannot like, we're not going to miss the cruise, we'll go and we will work all day. Everybody was in the pool, they were like, like they will stop in different islands and we will work all day invoicing. was like invoicing, invoicing, invoicing all day, go to the concert at night, go back to the, to the room, sleep, wake up, work all day. And we did, we invoice for three days on a row plus what we kept invoicing here while we look for somebody else. And you know, like all those things and many, many situations that we have like that, it was tough. And what I can tell you is that we have been doing a lot of personal work, like personal improvement. Like first with Tony Robbins, Simon Sinek, we're part of Jodie Spence as well in terms of like meditating and really, really going deep into aligning ourselves and believing that we're not alone. There's something bigger here than us that really guide us. The difference what I remember is that whenever we had one of these situations before, we call it we're going on a haul and we're going to get out of bed. Like let's go on the haul. ⁓ my God, how are going to get out of this one? This is horrible. We want to just to be in bed, like just being watched TV and let's forget about it. Saturday and Sunday, Monday, we'll deal with that. Right. And now. When we saw this happen, it's like, okay, we're gonna go in the hole for how long? mean, maybe we're gonna for, I don't know, half an hour. Yeah, we're bored of the hole. We're out of the hole. But also, we've gotten much better, right, Monica? We've maybe able to shrink our kind of downside as well. And I think to add to Monica's point, to be clear, maybe at first we blamed this person and said, oh, how dare she this? But maybe day two, we turned it and we put it in ourselves. We said, we are the leaders. So it's our responsibility. It's not her fault. She truly was overwhelmed and she had a personality where she couldn't speak up. You know, I think that truth and that honesty is something that is very difficult to do. Yeah. But I'm very lucky that we were able to find that because otherwise we would have been just still blaming this person and who knows, maybe the business would have gone under. Certainly, you know, we were having such a big gap of collecting, you know, so. Yeah. mean, it's, I think it's good. It's really good. And it shows that you guys are self-aware leaders to back up and say, Hey, what could we have done different for this employee to help her succeed in? Maybe that wasn't the role. Maybe she needed to go to somewhere else. Sounds like she did, but it was outside the business. But you know, it's a learning lesson. You fail forward, right? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So let's talk. ⁓ Just real quick before we wrap up here, kind of like, where do you guys find time away from work and what does that look like? Can I say it? Yeah, absolutely. Of course. Of course. have, so we have, for us, our family, as I said, is very, important. So we have certain rules, right? Like certain, like there's certain, certain rules. Yeah. Sorry? Non-negotiables. Yeah. So non-negotiable. One is one day night. a day and we actually this year we're doing it with KPIs. It's one of our KPIs. So we have KPIs for the business and we put now KPIs for us as for individuals, right? And we follow, we have an RPM. RPM is a system that Tony Rowen that that is results purpose method. And we do a massive action plan with that and we're doing it for us as well. RPM, we decided to put KPIs for us on our rules. One is a day night a week, two hours a ⁓ So from 6 to 8 p.m. is time for our kids. Our KPI is five times out of seven, so five days out of seven that we are on that 6 to 8 together with the kids as a family. And for ourselves, have like, there's many, many things that we found in common ground. So we meditate together. So our meditation is a time that is for us. And at night, we have like... There's always, go to sleep like listening to like an audio book about, you know, something that is making us find our minds. So we really, really make a real effort on how to spend time together. Not only the quality time. I love dancing. We go dancing, we go for dinner, but also things that make us better. Right. So seeing we both are part of the Tony, Tony Romine's platinum family, that is the group. Like, you know, we, we traveled together with him to improve ourselves. So on those trips, on the things that we do together as meeting our KPIs of the week and our energy and connection meeting that is unbreakable. We do an urgent connection meeting on a Monday morning unless we have an emergency or an emergency. And during those times, we really work on where are we, what is not right, what should we improve? Like, is there something that you didn't like? Tony Robbins teaches. Like in a couple, there's certain code and one is like putting each other's needs above even ourself. Like asking the person, what do you need? Because we think that we're giving them what they need, but it may not be what they want, right? So we bring that up all the time. Of course, in the intention from the other person. So of course there are fights and there are issues, but we really, really work hard to remind each other and to go back to taking care of ourselves because if not, things are not going to work. Yeah, one time, yeah, talk about needs. One time I gave Monica as a present, a ⁓ thing that holds watches and she doesn't have one, she has one watch. So you'd think, you know, so I thought she needed it, you know, it's in my side of the bed now, but yeah, but it's actually, it's the highest form of love when you make your partner's needs your needs. And it is incredibly difficult to do over time. You can get excited, do it for a couple of days. but then your ego, your self-talk takes over. Tony Robbins talks about if you can do that for 30 days, your partner will change. Because most couples will say, hey, this is wrong with you, this is wrong with this person, but you gotta look inside yourself. If you become the most lovable person, it's impossible not to love somebody that always gives and always gives value. Imagine if you have two people intentionally doing it for us, know? Little notes, I love you, little things like Monica brought me a coffee yesterday. I mean, melted my heart, you know, the littlest things now, you know, like money is great. We've made money, we worked hard, but now I feel like those that matter and that would truly keeps the spark alive. And this year we are aggressive about making sure that we do all the things we plan for ourselves because everything else will take care of itself. You know, we really believe that. think that's something we've learned too is like the more we, the more we do to take care of each other and make sure we're okay. everything else just kind of falls in line, you know? And it was probably, and you mentioned Joe Dispenza, that was, we were introduced to him and some of the, thought processes this year. And I will, I can't tell all our listeners enough. Like it's so life changing, right? And it takes such a shift, right? Of ⁓ looking at the world and understanding who we are as beings, right? So I love that you mentioned him and I, again, I fully can't tell everyone enough to go check out Joe Dispenza and his teaching. And I love Tony Robbins too. Like he's, I missed a chance to go see him a few years ago and I sort of regret it because it was super cheap to go and you know, it's good to go see him in an event. So yeah, absolutely. really is. Yeah. Yeah. If you need a ticket, I got you. I got a ticket for you, my friend. So we'll talk. We'll talk off a hundred percent. All right. Done. Thank you. Well guys, this This was so fantastic. Like I could keep having this conversation for another 45 minutes. You guys are so interesting and have so much to say. And I think so many things you could teach to our listeners. And I'm even seeing her taking notes as we're going like, ⁓ that's a really good idea. You know? So, but I just want to thank you guys so much for your time and how can people get in touch with you if they want to learn more about your businesses and what you guys do and just maybe follow you on Instagram, LinkedIn. Yeah, Monica is better with the social stuff. think you can. Yeah. there is Casa Amariz. That is our new venture. You can follow us at at Casa Amariz is my last name. A-M-A-R-I-Z. The same at Amariz Integers, that's our interior design company. And in Role United is our Instagram for the logistics company. That is R-O-W-L United. And both Anton and I are on LinkedIn. if anybody has a question, anything that we can do to help, like we love doing that. We actually mentor many of our employees in terms of, for us, like that meeting that Anton was saying on Thursdays that we've been doing for, don't know right now, how many years, probably five, six years, is a way to mentor our employees so everybody expands their mind and starts seeing things from a different perspective, which is... what Joe Dispenza teaches, what Tony Robbins teaches Simon Sinek. So we really believe in that. And as you said, I really recommend everybody that has the opportunity. Tony has some events that are actually event free and it's just people are starting seeing the perspective and Joe Dispenza, you can go online and start working on, know, like listening to him and following his teachings and anything that we can do to help, anything that anybody has a question, you know, we'll be more than happy. It actually will be a pleasure. to anybody that wants to start seeing things different for sure. For sure. Thank you guys. Living is giving. So if any of your listeners have any questions about relationship, know, business advice, happy to do it, you know, with my open heart. Certainly would love to see more business owners. mean, this incredible country was built on that, you know, so, and I'm, you know, very proud. yeah, thank you guys. Yeah. Well, Anton and Monica, thank you guys so much for being here and being guests. We're definitely going to do this again. Thank you very much guys. Have a good weekend. All right. All the best. Bye bye. Bye.