One of the questions I get asked most often is "what is it like to work with your husband? Doesn't that get annoying?" The short answer is no :) Daniel and I just celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary this past August and we thought it was a perfect time to share a little bit about working together.
A great throwback of me and Daniel from NYE 2009! Oh the fashion 😂
Before deciding to take the plunge and open this business, we both had incredibly demanding jobs and spending time together was a rare luxury. Daniel was working in aerospace and I was a costume designer in the film industry. We were quite often ships passing in the night so time together was not very frequent. This new business has been a really nice change of pace.
Originally, Daniel was only supposed to help for a short amount of time. The pottery business was really picking up and Daniel was looking for something new. So the thought was; Daniel would quit his job, help me catch up, and then look for another aerospace position once things slowed down. Fortunately, we ended up staying busy! It turned out, it was such a good fit for Daniel. He came in and made everything so much easier and more efficient. It had me asking myself "how on Earth did I do this before him?!" My brain just does not work like his. I have the organized chaos and he has the charts!
Daniel comes from a manufacturing background so it was an easy transition to the production side of the business. He came on board and immediately saw ways to help streamline all our processes. He is great at finding all the ways to keep production time down. The shorter the make time; the lower the cost! He is really good at taking a process that was already started, but not perfected, and finding ways to help it operate more smoothly.
While it can get challenging to "turn off work mode" at the end of the day because there is always something more to do, we have learned to read each other's energy. We can see when we have the energy to do a little more and, more importantly, when we do not. The balance we have found is prioritizing ourselves without impacting the business. It did take some time, but we finally have it. It will be especially important to get that dialed in now that we are adding a baby to the equation too!
While we do know there will be challenging changes ahead, it makes it a lot easier knowing we have each other to lean on!