Peter Krzyzek is the Co-founder and CTO at Chykalophia, a digital agency helping Femtech DTC and B2B women-led brands transform their websites into platforms that drive business growth. He is the co-author of the Top 3 Best Sellers book in web design, Made to Sell: Creating Websites that Convert, and has extensive expertise in analytics, automation, and integrations. With a master’s degree in computer science, Peter is renowned for simplifying complex technology concepts, earning him the title of “tech whisperer.” His passion for blending technology, strategy, and communication has made him a trusted advisor for businesses seeking sustainable growth and brand dominance.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- [6:49] How Peter Krzyzek transitioned from selling donuts to fixing computers
- [9:56] The challenges of helping clients with problems versus building something new
- [11:31] Why Peter decided to run a business with his spouse
- [14:03] The importance of communication in a spousal business relationship
- [17:36] How Peter and his wife discovered their ideal clients
- [20:16] Why Peter rejects traditional work-life balance
- [22:35] Lessons from a failed client relationship and poor scope management
- [25:06] How to transform a manufacturing brand with a cohesive strategy
- [30:50] Four key questions to define a brand’s identity
- [33:30] The impact of AI on the digital economy
In this episode…
Working with your spouse can be both a rewarding and challenging experience. How do you maintain a healthy work-life balance when your business partner is your life partner? Can a marriage survive the pressures of entrepreneurship without compromising personal relationships?
Peter Krzyzek shares his journey of managing a digital consultancy with his wife and how they navigated the pitfalls many face when merging professional and personal lives. He discusses the importance of communication and how he and his wife had to learn and adapt to each other’s strengths and weaknesses in business. They discovered that honesty and transparency with each other and their team were crucial in resolving conflicts and maintaining a successful partnership. By accepting that work-life balance is a myth for them and choosing instead to integrate their lives fully, they forged a path that worked for their unique situation.
Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Peter Krzyzek, CTO at Chykalophia, about the challenges of running a business with a spouse. Peter offers insights into how they overcame early struggles, such as defining clear roles and figuring out the right client fit for their combined skills. He also shares the lessons learned from failures like the “Project That Shall Not Be Named” and how they turned these into opportunities for growth.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- John Corcoran on LinkedIn
- Rise25
- Peter Krzyzek on LinkedIn
- Chykalophia
- Made to Sell: Creating Websites that Convert by Ari Krzyzek, Peter Krzyzek
- Never Eat Alone, Expanded and Updated: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi, Tahl Raz
- EO Accelerator
Special Mention(s):
Quotable Moments:
- “Caddying taught me about job satisfaction and the type of work environment I wanted to create.”
- “If you’re passionate about what you do, why not talk about it outside of work hours?”
- “Venturing into the unknown with a new project can either be a huge success or a wake-up call to reassess your capabilities.”
- “Embrace AI as a tool to augment human abilities, not to replace them.”
- “Communication is the lifeline of a successful partnership, especially when that partner is also your spouse.”
Action Steps:
- Communicate openly and honestly: Establishing open communication with your team and partners is crucial. This approach helps to address and resolve conflicts quickly, improving the work environment and fostering better collaboration.
- Learn from past mistakes: Regularly review past projects to identify what went wrong and what could be improved. Peter’s experience with the “Project That Shall Not Be Named” highlights the importance of learning from failures to refine processes and avoid similar pitfalls in the future.
- Utilize technology as an augmentation tool: Embrace AI and other technologies to enhance productivity and efficiency in your business processes.
- Identify and play to your strengths: Focus on the services or areas where you and your team excel to create more value for your clients.
- Cultivate strategic relationships and support systems: Build and maintain relationships with mentors and peers who can provide guidance and support.
Sponsor: Rise25
At Rise25, we’re committed to helping you connect with your Dream 100 referral partners, clients, and strategic partners through our done-for-you podcast solution.
We’re a professional podcast production agency that makes creating a podcast effortless. Since 2009, our proven system has helped thousands of B2B businesses build strong relationships with referral partners, clients, and audiences without doing the hard work.
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We’ll distribute each episode across more than 11 unique channels, including iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. We’ll also create a copy for each episode and promote your show across social media.
Cofounders Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran credit podcasting as being the best thing they have ever done for their businesses. Podcasting connected them with the founders/CEOs of P90x, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, Rx Bars, YPO, EO, Lending Tree, Freshdesk, and many more.
The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast.
Podcast production has a lot of moving parts and is a big commitment on our end; we only want to work with people who are committed to their business and to cultivating amazing relationships.
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Contact us now at [email protected] or book a call at rise25.com/bookcall.
Rise25 Cofounders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.
Episode Transcript
John Corcoran: 00:00
All right. Today we’re talking about how to work with your spouse and not kill each other. I’m kind of joking there, but it’s true. My guest today actually works with his wife, and they also have a digital consultancy. So we’ll also talk about how to have a company that does digital consulting, especially in a time of major change in the digital consultancy, digital economy. His name is Peter. I’ll tell you more about him in a second, so stay tuned.
Intro: 00:26
Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where we feature top entrepreneurs, business leaders, and thought leaders and ask them how they built key relationships to get where they are today. Now let’s get started with the show.
John Corcoran: 00:43
All right. Welcome, everyone. John Corcoran here. And I’m the host of this show. And you know, every week I feel so privileged because I get to talk to smart CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs from all kinds of companies and check out the archives because we’ve got Netflix and Grubhub, Reddit, Redfin, Gusto, Kinko’s, YPO, EO, Activision Blizzard, lots of great episodes for you to check out in the archives. And of course, this episode brought to you by Rise25, our company where we help B2B businesses get clients referrals and strategic partnerships with done-for-you podcast and content marketing can learn more about that and learn more about what we do and our podcast co-pilot platform at Rise25.com where you can also email us at [email protected]. All right. My guest today is Peter Krzyzek. I’m hopefully saying that even close to correctly I kid you not. I, I tried about 4 or 5 different ways beforehand. He’s the Chief Technology Officer at Chykalophia, which is a company that he started with his wife in 2011. And Peter leads high performance teams in optimizing their clients digital and social consumer experience through business strategy and technology infrastructure. He’s the co-author of the book Made to Sell Creating Websites That Convert. And he’s based out of Evanston, Illinois. Peter, such a pleasure to have you here today. and I’d love to get to know my guests a little bit about what they were like when they were a kid, when they were growing up. And so we were going to start with, you actually went and did caddying. And you learned a lot about entrepreneurship, learned a lot about what you liked and didn’t like, about having your own company or you know, about working for others. And tell us a little bit about what that was like being a caddie out in the sweltering fields. I’ve been there in the summer in Chicago and man, this summer is no joke.
Peter Krzyzek: 02:32
They’re not. And thank you for having me. Caddying is not something I’d recommend for most people. It’s grueling, and I don’t want to say bad things about people who golf, but generally caddies are a tool and they’re generally treated as such. Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely some great and wonderful people who go to golf clubs, but by and large, you’re Not seen. Not heard. You are a golf club carrier and that’s it. And that made me absolutely hate this whole idea of a job just over broke.
John Corcoran: 03:09
I think the book Never Eat, Never Eat Lunch Alone, is that what it’s called? Am I butchering the name of it? Something like that. I think that’s what it’s called. I believe that the premise behind that book was the story that he tells. It was about being a caddy at a golf club. And that he found that it gave him access to, like, this kind of wealthier society. And he kind of used it to, you know, network his way up. And it led to other opportunities. Did you find that there were opportunities that came from it, or do you find that you just kind of couldn’t bridge that divide with the members there?
Peter Krzyzek: 03:51
Back then, I was just a guy, to put it bluntly, I didn’t think much about anything other than what am I going to eat for lunch? And now the negative way. I’m just like, hey, if I get a burger, maybe I’ll get a steak or something. That’s it. So I never thought too much about networking, but also that particular club, it’s you don’t talk to the golfers. I tried once or twice. Getting reprimanded is putting it nicely. Shortly after that, I realized that they just don’t care. So if you try to network, maybe if you’ve been there for a long time, they’ll be like, oh hey, finally! Great seeing you again. But beyond that.
John Corcoran: 04:26
Yeah.
Peter Krzyzek: 04:27
Totally young guy. They’re not going to talk to us. So you are kind.
John Corcoran: 04:30
Of realized that you didn’t like this idea of being at a job. You wanted to control your own destiny, have your own company. And I guess a couple of years later, you had an experience where you were in high school. Someone brings in a box of Krispy Kreme donuts, and that leads to a business idea.
Peter Krzyzek: 04:47
It did. So we all love Krispy Kreme donuts. They’re the devil’s fruit cake. And I realized, though, that at that time that anytime somebody brought in Krispy Kreme, they were devoured within a few minutes. So I thought, well, hold on, what if I just start carrying these things around and sell them for a few bucks here and there? Lo and behold, I asked that teacher, hey, can you you know, when you’re driving by and bring these donuts, can you get a few boxes for me? Like, sure. Just pay me for the box. I’m like, easy peasy. And so the box cost me at that time about 12 ish bucks, give or take. And I sold donuts for $2 or $3, sometimes five, if I was coming at the end. And they really wanted one and a real good buck. As a teen in high school, not doing any job thing, just carrying out a box of donuts, paid for pretty much every little fun thing I wanted in high school.
John Corcoran: 05:37
That’s great. Did you ever get busted by the principal saying like, oh, you can’t sell doughnuts here?
Peter Krzyzek: 05:42
I was encouraged to not be so flamboyant with my sales. Beyond that, they didn’t stop me.
John Corcoran: 05:49
Can’t be like a carnival barker yelling, hey, get your donuts over here! If you’re more subtle about it, it was okay.
Peter Krzyzek: 05:55
And I bribed them with a whole box. So that helped.
John Corcoran: 05:58
You? You bribed the leadership of the school. Brilliant, brilliant. Drop off a box in the principal’s office and they probably will look the other way. That’s a smart idea.
Peter Krzyzek: 06:09
Indeed. I’m East European, I’m Polish, so in Polish culture, it’s. How shall we say? Expect that you will get something for doing something for somebody. You can call it a bribe if you want, but that is just the way that world works here in America. Generally, bribes are seen as a horrible evil thing. And I get that to a degree, especially with politicians. Though for us plebeians who are not politicians and oligarchs, you sometimes have to grease the wheels. Yeah. Open doors. Yeah. And it’s a box of chocolates, wine and flowers. Goes a significantly long way in Poland, right?
John Corcoran: 06:49
Right. Yeah. That’s interesting. It’s an interesting way of framing it, actually. So you figure out that you want to work for yourself one day. What? What’s the next company that you start after the doughnuts and things like that?
Peter Krzyzek: 07:07
So I realized that donuts can only take me so far. One because I actually have to get donuts, which I couldn’t do every single day. And then I actually have to do something. I was a nerd, and I didn’t particularly like walking around with a box of donuts. They’re also kind of big and bulky, so I figured out what I know now. Logistics are a pain in the butt. I didn’t want to do that. So I realized that, hey, I’m a nerd. A lot of people need nerdy help. So I started with pretty much what every single nerd my age does. I started fixing computers and thus then led to people saying, hey, you’re a nerd. You know, programming. I’m like, yes, of course I do. Like, can you make websites? I’m like, sure thing. And learned how to make websites and things took off from there. Well, I should say they didn’t take off, but I started getting some momentum from a few people asking me to fix up their computers, make them better, do some, like tech support. And that’s when I learned I hate tech support. Will never ever do that. If you have a printer problem, there’s tech support people for that.
John Corcoran: 08:09
So you like the building of a website, but you don’t like the idea of the ongoing maintenance of being the person that they have to call or that has to solve the problem.
Peter Krzyzek: 08:19
Funny enough, that is actually one of the services we currently do. But you’re not.
John Corcoran: 08:23
Not the one answering the phone, I imagine. Yeah.
Peter Krzyzek: 08:25
No. Yeah, the whole team for that and they’re good at that. And clients seem to really appreciate that because it’s not just Joe Schmo that they don’t know who or whoever or wherever they might be in the world. It’s us. They know who our team is. They know them generally personally. They can contact us in many ways. And that’s what I learned from that tech support stuff. It’s tech support, really. No matter what you try to do, people are going to see tech support as tech support. And I mean that in the most negative way. That’s just how the world sees it. But websites consult, helping them figure things out. That is far more valuable than can you tighten a screw? And that’s not to say anything bad about people who are mechanics, plumbers and all that, but tech support specifically is just always seen as the worst.
John Corcoran: 09:13
Well, you know, I mean, I practiced law for a lot of years and lawyers at their heart, sometimes you’re helping people to create a business. Other times you’re helping them with something that’s gone wrong in existing business or a business partnership that went wrong, or an, you know, maybe a business that had a bad relationship goes sour with a client. And those are very different things. It’s very different to be helping someone to build something new that they’re excited about, that they are asking you to help with versus helping someone with a problem. And then they have to sink more money, time, and energy into fixing that problem. So I’m catching that. Maybe that’s kind of a distinction between the two different types of services that you were describing.
Peter Krzyzek: 09:56
That’s a really good way to put it, because people who are in need, generally they are either in a panic mode or they’re just not thinking straight for whatever reason. The medical world is a wonderful example of this. If you have an emergency, you don’t care. You need to go get this thing fixed and heaven forbid something goes awry. People hate doctors for the smallest little things. There’s some good reasons, mostly wrong reasons. And for tech people, it’s computers. They should just work. And they don’t. Computers are literally going to do exactly what they’re meant to do. If there are no faults. But code is problematic. Look at the windows. It’s full of holes. But so is Mac and Linux. They’re just not used as much. Code always has problems. The hardware always has problems. Put those two together. You’re going to have things that just cause problems and people. Thus it was easiest to blame the person trying to fix it. And I just couldn’t take that kind of negative energy. Yeah, from this kind of people. It’s kind of also when I realized that it’s not the kind of people I want to associate with ever, so why should I take their money? And also they don’t really pay good money for that anyway. Yeah. So they don’t pay well. They kind of always hate you no matter what you do. And they’re always mean. Yeah. Like that. No. So building stuff.
John Corcoran: 11:21