Several people over the last few weeks have congratulated us for being married to each other for 34 years without even 1 separation. Sometimes we marvel at it ourselves. Yet we cannot take credit for it all. You see if not for the grace of God, and a bit of comedy in the Reed home business household,  we’d probably be a statistic like they love to gripe about on FOX noise.

So we’re gonna let y’all in on a little marital secret. It’s got nothing to do with that niagra or that his and hers magic boom boom rocket gel stuff….it has to do with communication.

What is it that causes most relationships to cave? You’re right….it’s due to:

 Grumpiness. Being a Forrest Grump will make you no friends in business, and especially when your spouse is your business partner. And “zero communication” usually is a clue telling those closest to us people how we feel….Hopefully this will not lead to one partner wanting to dump a pot of boiling hot grits over the top of one’s head (i.e. The “Mabel Madea Simmons Crash Course Method of Crisis Communication).

Free advice guys: Don’t tick off your woman when she’s in the kitchen. What’s in the kitchen drawers is worse than encountering a criminal with a concealed weapon on the streets having severe nicotine withdrawal at the 7-11.

Therefore, to make a long story short and a short story shorter: You gotta have some comedy in your life. We ain’t talking bad “don’t quit your day, your night, and your bootleg job” comedy because this only works if you both laugh about the same thing.

No, laughing at each other DOES NOT count.  So here’s a story for y’all, told in 3^rd person:

Cynth’ya and Ken were in their office talking about their list of “non-business” maintenance to-do’s for the following week. Three phone messages indicated that Cynth’ya needed to get a medical check-up, a six-month dental check up, a hair appointment, a nail appointment, a prescription refill, not to mention Kenny reminder her that she needed to change her eye glass prescription.

Ken’s reminders had to do with the following: Monday Night Football. . . . . . that’s it.

He looks at Cynth’ya and says to her: Baby it’s more and more expensive to maintain you every year!

Cynth’ya looks back at Kenny with a grin and says:

”How much was YOUR big screen tv?” 

Ken replies with “you know how much it cost.”

“Okay, now add up the cable bill every single month—(tax deductible because we get “the Weather and the Travel Channel” and travel professionals need that!)”

“So, what’s your point?” (Notice this is turning into a partner to partner home office staff meeting, which we have every Sunday night after a business conference call…)

“My point it this dearheart. . . . Nails: $25 every two weeks. Hair…depends on my mood. Teeth, Eyes & D.O. visits: soon to be covered 100% by corporate YTB PPO Blue Cross Blue Shield Anthem insurance when we hit director level inside of a few more months equally zero payout on keeping me up-to-date.”

“So….” He says. (Remember ladies, when it comes to processing information, women and men tend to process things a bit differently in the brainstem—human females are “broad-band,” and human males are “Commodore Y chromosome 286….” Google says so.)

Soooooo, she says, “it one has an old house, the roof, the lawn, the water heater, utility bills etc. etc…it has to be maintained. Correct?

At this point Ken is just staring at Cynth’ya.
Remember that Y chromosome 286 Google thing. . .

“Well, I’m a lot more fun to be around, I don’t charge you “interest” rates, I’m insured, and COMPLETELY tax deductible.”

And Ken says, “What’s your point, babe?”

“My point is that those other things don’t keep you warm at night.”
(Cable modem & 286 compliment each other well.)

End of meeting :-)

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Myths & Truths

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