By Ava Simone Collier

Ron Stokes is the owner of Three Leaf Productions. His wife, Lavita, is the author of A Father’s Love and she also works with him at the office. Together they manage a thriving business, have four children, Laurel, 22, Amber, 19, Ron, Jr., 14 and Sydney, 13 and still manage to have a loving marriage. When I asked him how he makes it work, he explained that mentors are an important part of being successful professionally and personally. “The one thing as I relate to my marriage is that I have an understanding of my goals. I go back to my wedding vows to provide and protect. That’s my number one goal. I have people who I mentor with who have solid marriages who help me to understand what it takes to be a good husband to my wife. These mentors in my life set great examples for me and I follow them.”

“Although we take family vacations,” adds Lavita, “Ronnie and I do our getaways; just the two of us so that we can regroup and take care of one another. We get busy with taking care of our children and the business and sometimes you fall short and forget about yourselves. We do ‘date nights,’ we go to the movies and dinner. We understand that in order to make it work, we have to continue to care about each other.” They both agreed that long term relationships take a lot of work. Ron and Lavita have known each other since Kindergarten, began dating in high school and have been married for 22 years. “We also have things that we do individually,” says Lavita. “I have dinner with my girlfriends, he’ll be in the basement in his ‘man cave,’ or I’ll be upstairs watching T V. We still know how to come back as a couple.” Ron spoke about what is necessary to keep the love alive. “You have to do the things that you did when you were first dating. When you’re going after the lady that you desire and want, you buy her flowers, write notes, poems and take her out to nice restaurants. Why should it stop once you get married? Continue to do those things that you did when you first fell in love.”

I wanted to know how they handled any disagreements that may come up between them at the office. Lavita laughs when she shares that she sometimes tells him to stay out of her office. “I know what my role is so let me do my thing.” She says. “We meet when necessary but when we get home, we don’t bring the work with us. It’s about knowing our roles, both at home and at the office.” Ron adds, “Many people say they couldn’t work with their spouse. It’s not easy but we learn to understand that we’re business owners and that our professional and personal goals are the same even though we may look at things differently on how to get there. It’s not always easy, but it’s fun going through the journey.”