Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Hi and welcome to Confessions from the Home Office. I'm Wendy Hill and each week I have an episode about my marketing business. Working from home or another business that I want to share with you. And this week we kind of have a kind of an off the wall topic of how things work when you're an entrepreneur and you're married to somebody who's not an entrepreneur. And my husband Reggie, who's here. Welcome. Reggie was nice enough to agree to be on the podcast. He's upstairs in his office and I'm downstairs in my office.
And Reggie does not have any questions to prep for this. So we've been married what, little over five months now?
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Yep.
Yeah, over five months, five and a half.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: And so he's been in school for like the last 10 years, so I figured that he could go through one more test.
So yeah, I'm so kind.
So I want you to tell us about yourself. Like our friends know your story and everything, but I think you have a neat story on how you got to where you are now.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Well, it's.
When I tell the story, it seems like the most just average, everyday thing, but when you look back, it's kind of crazy.
Grew up in a really small town. I lived there through early teens and then moved to Taylor's, which is where I ended up going to high school, about 13, 14 years old somewhere around there.
Went through Riverside High School, where you went after that, where most people went to college and went into, you know, the family business. I went on the road with a band for 10 plus years somewhere around there. It was a long time, but a lot of fun.
Eventually the music started drying up and personnel changes in the band, things like that. I ended up getting a job, a little part time weekend job at an optical company.
And slowly as the music began to slow down, the optical industry began picking up. And it was just kind of a transition from one to the other. I ended up staying in that career for about 25 years. 20, 25 years, something like that.
Very long time.
I eventually kind of burned myself out doing it. I loved doing it, but it was just a lot for a long time.
And there's there was always had a passion to teach. It was there pretty much my entire life. And it came down to the trying to figure out if I was going to continue the path I was on or if it was, you know, time for a new path and had a couple little health issues. And that was kind of the deciding factor. I decided to leave the optical after 20 plus years and go headfirst into school.
And when I say headfirst, I really mean headfirst. I was able to get all four degrees, associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctorate in about 10 years. So with no breaks, no times off, no semesters off, it just.
It became a one continuous project.
And once I got the doctorate, I've been able to get a job as a professor. Adjunct. Currently adjunct history professor. And looking forward to moving up, actually, this coming spring.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: That's so awesome.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: It's been a lot.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: Well, and the funny thing is, when I met you, you were. Even though we went to high school together, we didn't. We didn't talk, we didn't have any classes, anything like that. But when we. When we. What did you say?
[00:04:30] Speaker B: Your fault.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: We'll talk about that later.
You were finishing up your masters, and so I would hear from you, like, late at night, and then you were, like, sleeping in the next day. And then you would start your research again because you were working on your thesis. And then you told me you were going to get your doctorate, and I was like, what are you talking about? Like, I.
What do you mean? And then as we started dating and I never knew Reggie was in school, like, if he hadn't told me, I wouldn't have known.
He wrote papers on his phone, he would work late at night. I don't stay up late at night. And even, like with our family, he never missed a beat if kids want to go somewhere or do something. He said yes. And he was just cramming it in, like, one day at a time.
I thought that was. That was pretty cool because when I finished graduate school many, many years ago, I never wanted to look at a book or write a paper again.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I mean, you know, your kids are fantastic, and I don't have any. So it was a welcome blessing to be able to finally do things like that. So I definitely weren't going to miss out on one opportunity for any of that.
And I'm very. I'm low key on a lot of things I don't like.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: I said, no kidding.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: Bachelor's degree with a legal pad and a pen. Just where everybody else was in class with their laptops and recording devices and everything else. It was just. I was staring straight ahead with a pen and a piece of paper, just taking it in that way.
So when it comes to, you know, writing papers and everything, I. I have word on my phone and it's just easy. So plus it just takes up less space and I don't have to log a laptop everywhere.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: I go, so like my office is full of notebooks and paper like which you can't see on the camera. It is like staples blew up and Reggie's desk is like perfectly clean upstairs. He might have like some Clemson paraphernalia. I don't know what else you've got up there right now. I haven't looked at it in a little bit.
So you, so you've been teaching for a little while.
Was it everything you thought it was going to be?
[00:06:46] Speaker B: Yes, it's.
It is truly the best job I've ever had.
There is not one day that I don't get excited about going to work.
You have your occasional student that may give you a, you know, a little bit of trouble that one day. But from my classes are typically everybody's on time, everybody behaves and it's just, it's so much fun. I truly get excited to go every day. There hasn't been one bad day yet.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: So no downsides to it at all.
[00:07:27] Speaker B: The teaching part? No.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: You know, you know, behind the scenes I would like to, you know, fix but that's with any company. You know, we like, you know, pay to be a little different than the approach. How, you know, how we get from adjac adjunct to full time. Little things like that. It would be better if somebody knew about that ahead of time. Walking into it, what all you're to expect but the actual teaching. No, I wouldn't change it for a world.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: Well, and it's neat because you think about when someone has a full time job outside of the home. Usually they walk in and they're complaining about somebody or something that really blew up or it's kind of the same thing over and over and you just walk in like with hardly any voice left because you've talked all day, you know, and so of course I'm ready to talk, talk, talk when you come in and I'm sure you're just like, oh gosh, you know.
But no, I mean you don't complain at all and it's, it's good. Is there anything else you want to do beyond teaching with your, with your doctorate?
[00:08:34] Speaker B: I would love to write probably two books right now.
I have my eye on two different subjects. I really don't. The hardest part is knowing the exact approach to take. And that's where I'm leaning right now, which approach to take and which subject to do first.
But I would really like to do a few. Write a few books. One about an area and one about a person.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: Okay. I guess you don't want to give away any more than that right now, do you? No, you don't have to.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: No, it's fine. John Brown, if anybody, any history buffs out there knows about John Brown and Kansas and Harper's Ferry. And that is one of the most interesting characters I have ever come across in my life. That is, he embraces every quality in a person. Good, bad, evil, sad, loving, caring, humor, intelligence.
And he does a lot of bad things for all the right reasons. And such a fascinating story.
And also I would love to write about an area that my family once owned years and years ago and that's the Smokemont area just above Cherokee. There's a lot about that history of that area.
Things that my great, great great grandparents did and how the land was dealt with and all the governmental things that happened to the land. And it would just be a very interesting story for people to read.
[00:10:29] Speaker A: So I know when it's that time of the semester when you start teaching about John Brown because you come home and talk about it more. But that's usually the part of the semester where you're running out of time before you're having to do final prep. So I always wonder like, can you back it up a little bit? Because it's always like right before Thanksgiving or kind of right after Easter when Easter's in April, that type of thing.
So I know that. Really? You really like that?
[00:10:56] Speaker B: Yeah, it's in the particular book I use. It's a few paragraphs, but I purposely go a little longer on my lectures about him. There's even a particular video that I love to show about him. So he gets a very good amount of time.
And even people after the class, they always come to me because they had never heard of John Brown either. It's definitely a North versus south issue, whether you've heard of him or not.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: Right.
[00:11:30] Speaker B: But they're fascinated in learning about him a little bit more about him too. So we've. I've actually had a few after class discussions about him.
[00:11:38] Speaker A: That's really cool.
So we're going to switch gears just a little bit if you're ready. So what's it like being married to someone who doesn't have the traditional nine to five?
[00:11:53] Speaker B: It is, it is different. It's not different in a. In a good versus bad way. It's very different.
My day is pretty much set. I know what my schedules are, I know what my subjects will be. I know who's going to be there when I get there. I know what time I'm going to leave and with the occasional have to work over maybe an extra day on my day off to prepare for something coming up like writing tests or something, I'm pretty, pretty routine with that. My job is not a 24,7 thing. And yours 1,000% is.
I mean, you can tell a thousand more stories than I could. And I can tell a thousand stories just in the short time that I've, you know, watched you work.
There's really no off time. It's.
Which is good, but it also, it's as. It's really hard sometimes to schedule like a day off because there's always some possible emergency with a client that they really need something. It's not that they're just calling to talk or just calling to shoot the breeze. They have a issue, which sometimes they think it's five minutes. But by the time you handle the situation and contact whoever it is you need to contact, it may be a two or three hour fix. And you know, a lot of that happens more time than not usually so.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: Well, you know, and I see both sides to that. And I've been in that mode for so long.
You know, part of me is like, well, that's just how it is. And then the other part of me is like, well, I'm grateful that they keep sending work my way, you know, because I could be sitting around going, where's the, where's the money coming in next month? But I do think now that the kids are out of the house and it's just you and me going forward, I probably need to work on a little bit more of a stop time here and there. Or I've been able to tell some clients like, I'm not, I'm not working the next three days, you know, and so we'll just see.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: Yeah, right. And plus I've noticed, I've noticed that there's. You had a few clients in the past that were, that felt that they should be the only client and they would, you know, call constantly. And I think you've over time kind of put them in their place or just, you know, kind of.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: Well, I don't think I'm ever rude. But yeah, I mean, I've had to be kind of like, hey, you know, if you want full time service, you got to pay full time money. So I think everybody feels that way. I don't think that's just me.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: That's always what makes them run first.
[00:14:45] Speaker A: What'd you say?
[00:14:46] Speaker B: I usually makes them run.
[00:14:47] Speaker A: Oh yeah, Like I don't know, what's the marketing budget? I don't know what my marketing budget is. Yeah.
So what was it like moving into a house with two teens? Like, Austin was getting ready to go off to college, and then Perry, now she's off at college, too, and house full of dogs. And you've always had this, like, really quiet life. Like, I think you said to me before, you could go a day when you were in school and not talk to anybody because you were writing and researching and doing all that, and you move in here, and it is not like that in this house.
[00:15:18] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's. It's definitely different. And that is. That is true. I've. I've noticed I would sometimes be at home for an entire weekend by myself and realized on Sunday that I had not spoken one word.
I had all my food in the house and the dogs pretty much kept to themselves. And so I. 48 hours without speaking the word. And that was a very common thing, so.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: Well, I feel like writing your thesis was nuts, you know, I mean, your dissertation was crazy because all the steps and everything, but your thesis was just crazy. You know, you were heads down.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: Yeah, well, that's just. That's part of my upbringing. My dad was a quiet person.
And plus, I'm an only child, as you are. But the biggest difference is that my dad worked third shift, so even when he was home during the day, he was asleep, which means I had to be quiet, you know, even when I was playing. So even playing as a child was playing quiet. Usually it was either outside by myself or, you know, listening to music with headphones on, just doing something just to keep, you know, so I wouldn't wake him up during the day. So. Well, and that's.
You do that for all your childhood. It becomes normal just to be quiet.
So moving here was. Was great. It was really great. It was great to have somebody to talk to at all times. And, you know, if I needed something, there's always somebody here I could just run something by or bounce something off of.
And the kids, they were just. They have been absolutely great. They have been just a big. A blessing to me, as they were to you.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: Well, and you kind of caught them. You didn't catch them, like, as if they were starting their teen years, but you caught them, like, during driving and girlfriend boyfriends and graduating and all that. And that's really. That's a hard phase too. You know, they're wanting to be adults and they're turning into adults, but they still need help, but they don't want it.
So you've cut you've kind of seen that whole path and. But you're right, it's. It's been good. You were kind of like the piece of the puzzle that we hadn't had. And so I think that was great. But I was laugh about Reggie. Like, Reggie's almost like a ninja. He could get up and get ready and leave the house, and if I were sound asleep, I would never know it. And if I'm up, everybody knows it. It's. I just can't help it. Like, I will knock something over. I am loud. I will forget he's asleep and turn a podcast on and blare it in the shower. I mean, it's just. I don't know. We're just. I'd say. I feel like we're opposites, but we're kind of the same with certain things, too. And what do you think?
[00:18:22] Speaker B: Yeah. That all that was true.
Both sides of that. That was all true. I think we're. I think we're very much alike. We. We have a dog problem would be a good way to say that.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: Don't say problem. It's not a problem. It was an opportunity.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: Multiple dog opportunities.
And we love to laugh. And we both have a very.
I wouldn't say dark, but it's a very unique sense of humor.
[00:18:57] Speaker A: A lot of the things close to dark. Yeah.
[00:18:59] Speaker B: A lot of the things that you say that make me laugh are things that, you know, probably shouldn't be said to anyone else. And same here. We just.
And one thing I love about you so much is how fast your humor is. That's. That's one of the greatest things. You know, waiting for a comeback is one thing, but when I say something funny and you immediately come back with something funnier, that's just the greatest thing in the world.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: Well, just enjoy it while it lasts. One day, that brain's just going to go. That's going to be the end of it.
[00:19:31] Speaker B: As for differences, I kind of like more of a. I guess this is everything else. I. I like the. The routine things. I like, you know, being able to come home and cook dinner.
I love that. That part. That's. That's one of the greatest things I don't. Again, going back to my dad and my mom, that cooking was always something fun to do. It was never, well, it's time to make dinner. It was. That was the fun part.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:03] Speaker B: I sat on the counter when I was little beside my dad, making practically every meal. So I learned how he did it from early age until I was finally tall enough to you know, use the stove myself. And so it's always, to me, cooking food is not a chore, it's kind of a gift.
I enjoy serving people and I enjoy, you know, the look on their face when they like something that I make.
[00:20:33] Speaker A: Well, and that's true because I always say by 5, 5:30 during the day, the last thing I want to think about is what I've got to make for dinner. You know, the kitchen is just a place to like store food and dishes and you know, I had a few things I made when the kids were growing up. And then when they could cook, they were doing a lot of the cooking too. Just because they knew by, by the end of the day I've made, I don't know, 400 decisions, 500 decisions about things. And that's the last thing I want to do. So I do appreciate that you, that.
[00:21:03] Speaker B: You cook made two decisions, you know.
[00:21:07] Speaker A: Ah, you made more than that. But it's just, it's just different. It's just different how we do things.
[00:21:11] Speaker B: My day is set up for, I know the class, I know the subject. It's just, it's more talking and, you know, answering questions and discussions and things like that. I'm not having to make life and death or financial decisions all day long.
So my brain is still going pretty good when I get home.
[00:21:32] Speaker A: Well, and it's like I get up early and I take care of the dogs in the morning and do all that. And Reggie's the type that he will sleep until his feet have to hit the ground to get ready to go teach. He's that way. But then at night, if I sit down, I'm out. I mean, I will fall asleep mid sentence talking to him. And he takes care of the dogs at night and does all the last minute stuff. It's like I open up the house at the beginning of the day and he shuts it down at the end of the day. And you know, I'm sure that drives you nuts sometimes that I fall asleep.
[00:22:04] Speaker B: I mean, it works. It absolutely works. We, we have that, that's one thing. We are definitely different. You know, doesn't matter if we're working or not working or whatever. You're still fine. Five o'clock, six o'clock a week.
And I always say I look at it whatever time I need to be leaving the house, I back up 20 minutes for my shower and that's when I wake up.
[00:22:33] Speaker A: Absolutely. I've never seen anything like it. But it works for you.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: It works for me. Always has.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: Right.
I'M up like pacing the house, stressing out, making lists, doing all that stuff. And Reggie's blood pressure is like super low. He's asleep. He's good.
[00:22:50] Speaker B: I'm good.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: So do you ever see us working together on anything or do you think that the way things are or how. Or how things will be.
[00:23:02] Speaker B: I'd love to work with you on something. I think we'd have to have the proper project. It would have.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: Right.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: Something we both are interested in.
Something we both had some kind of passion about. It would.
If it was only me or only you that cared about it, it would be hard to, you know, pull the other one across the finish line. But I think it would be great because I think the way we work each other is we would kind of balance each other out. It wouldn't be all stress and worry and. But it wouldn't be all passive, wait and see what's going to happen either. You know, you would push me to get things done and then I would kind of be the, the voice of reason. Yeah. Voice of reason. That's a good one. Yeah.
[00:23:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:00] Speaker B: I think, I think it would be great to have a project like that.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: Well, and I think, you know, you're all into music and food and cooking and wrestling and history and politics and you know, some of that. The politics has rubbed off on me and, and I'm not really any of those other things at all. But I do think I'm gonna keep.
[00:24:25] Speaker B: Working on the wrestling.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: I don't know. We'll see. That is a great way to fall asleep. And when that comes on tv.
I know.
But I do think we've. We've started cleaning up my grandparents property and feeding animals over there every weekend. And that is one thing that we've taken on that's not like a business or anything, at least for now.
But we've enjoyed doing that. Getting out and doing something. I've never been an outdoors person. You've always been out in the woods doing things and I love it. I look forward to it every weekend. It calms my soul getting out there, getting dirty and, and just doing something that's not in front of a computer, you know?
[00:25:13] Speaker B: Yeah, that's great. It's just, it's. It's.
Sweeping them up in the floor is a chore. But you really. Not a lot of satisfaction when you're done. But getting out of the woods and you know, taking care of some limbs and trees and making sure the deer are taken care of and the animals, that, that's, that's actually Harder work. But you just. You have a sense of accomplishment and.
And like you said, it just calms your soul. You try not to have a lot of work thoughts when you're there. You just. There's so much beauty and sounds and everything else. It's hard to not just want to be there all the time.
[00:25:55] Speaker A: Well, I feel like when we go, it's something new every time that we find, you know, something. Either it's something new we need to clean up or something we didn't notice before or a path or a trail that we didn't see before. You know, the deer are hanging out looking for us a little more when we show up. Now, my, you know, my goal is for them to like follow the car and come up. That may never happen.
But no, I think it's been good. We may work on something else together at some point. But now I appreciate that we're so different and I think if we were just alike, we'd hurt each other.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. We don't. We don't need two high strung people, but we don't need to.
[00:26:39] Speaker A: How strong?
[00:26:42] Speaker B: Yeah, okay. Strong.
And we don't need to stoic corpses in the background either. You know, we just.
You know, I love the fact that you always have something to say. Always, you know, have something going on, something funny, some kind of story.
I love it. It keeps my day laughing all day long.
[00:27:11] Speaker A: Well, I feel bad because I always walk in the den, I'm always like, I have an idea. And so I've gotten where. I don't even tell you all the ideas because I'm sure you're just like, here we go down another rabbit hole. Here's something else, you know, so who.
[00:27:24] Speaker B: Knows, who knows, who knows? I love the ideas. I mean, it just lets you know that you're still thinking about tomorrow.
That was always a very big deal for me. You know, when you get into a routine, it's kind of. You really end up thinking about today.
[00:27:40] Speaker A: Mm.
[00:27:41] Speaker B: You know, yesterday was okay, and today is today, and then tomorrow is going to be another today. But the biggest blessing, other than the kids and everything, the biggest blessing that I've gotten because of you is the ability to think about tomorrow and to be happy about tomorrow and to be excited about what's up ahead versus same old, same old, Right?
[00:28:09] Speaker A: So sweet.
Oh, there's always something going on. And if we don't have anything going on, I'll make it up. We'll just go. Yeah.
[00:28:18] Speaker B: No truer words.
[00:28:21] Speaker A: All right, well, I think that's about it. Do you have anything else you want to say? You have any questions for me, or are you gonna give me a pass?
[00:28:32] Speaker B: No real question. Just always fascinating how I noticed you all through high school for years and years, yet you never knew that I even existed. But.
[00:28:46] Speaker A: Well, I think after you looked at my latest glasses prescription last weekend, you realize how bad my astigmatism is. And if I refuse to wear my glasses in high school, I didn't see much of anything.
So.
[00:28:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm about six. Six. So.
[00:29:03] Speaker A: You never came over and talked to me. I was kind of shy.
We will keep having this discussion until one of us is gone. But all you had to do is come over and say hello.
[00:29:16] Speaker B: I don't know if you'd have saw me if I did.
[00:29:22] Speaker A: All right, well, we'll wrap it up. That's it for this. This week on Confessions from the Home Office. Those glasses are strong. I got to take them off.
And I'll be back next week with another episode. Thanks.
[00:29:35] Speaker B: Thank.
