EntreLeadership - #201: EntreLeadership Summit Day 1—Dave Ramsey

Episode Date: May 23, 2017

We’re broadcasting live from EntreLeadership Summit in Orlando, Florida, this week. We start with opening remarks from our own Dave Ramsey on the power of intentionality and an additional interview with Dave by podcast host Ken Coleman. Also on tap, Ken interviews two EntreLeaders who share their stories. Today is just the start of this special week. Check out new episodes each day and take part in the fun!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Helping business leaders grow themselves, their team, and their profits. This is the Entree Leadership Podcast. Now, here is your host, Ken Coleman. Broadcasting from Sunny Orlando, Florida, at the 2017-on-Trey Leadership Summit. This is the podcast of Leaders, by Leaders, Four Leaders. Thank you for joining the conversation. We're going to be bringing you a daily podcast over the next five days, as we bring you special content from this amazing event.

So on this episode, you're going to hear a bit of Dave Ramsey's opening talk. And then an interview I did with Dave for our Facebook live audience. We're going to give you an awesome giveaway. And you'll hear some feedback from real attendees. Well, as I said, Dave kicked off the event today. And it was a spectacular crowd, absolutely electric. Over 1,500 leaders from all around the country gathered in one room to grow themselves so they could grow their teams and grow their profits.

Now, this is our third Entree Leadership Summit. Over 700 unique businesses represented, and Dave kicked off the event with a talk on the power of intentionality. It is going to be a good week, isn't it? Wow! Man, I tell you, the energy in this place, this is fun, you guys. Thank you for being here. Woo!

Yeah! Good times. So I'm having this weird experience these days in that we've been in some of these spaces long enough, the different areas that our business attacks and touches and so forth, that we're starting to get some recognition because we're starting to own a few of these spaces. And so this reporter the other day was interviewing me, and I hate these profiles, you know, because they ask stupid reporter questions, but supposedly it's good for the brands. You all know what I'm talking about? And so this lady is interviewing

me for this Hall of Fame piece they're doing all the, and she's like, Well, did you ever have any idea it would be this big? Of course I thought it was going to be big. What I didn't know is how much work it was going to be. I'm not afraid of hard work, but I had no idea. What I didn't know was what I didn't know. What I didn't know was how many times we would try stuff that we thought was a brilliant idea and it turned out to be stupid.

And just about broke my head open. You know what I'm saying? As I grew and learned what I didn't know and started adding to my tool belt, the ability to do different things in business, that I would be able to gather around me. Unbelievable world-class leaders. Unbelievable people that are world-class and can put on an event like this. Give them a round of applause. You see, we're at a leadership conference this week. One of the best leadership conferences in the world, based on the speaker lineup and based on the production values and everything. And I got to tell you, I hear stupid stuff said about leaders. One of those stupid things was I remember being 32 and running a little company, had four people, and I was not a leader. I was a boss.

And people say stupid stuff like, he's a born leader. That's stupid. I've been to the hospital a bunch. They always say, it's a boy. It's a girl. I've never been in there one time. They went, it's a leader. The things that cause you to be able to lead are discharging.

decisions. You get to decide your character. You get to decide your level of integrity. You get to decide whether you care about your people. You get to decide whether you demand excellence and in what methodology you use to demand that excellence. You get to decide your level of education. If you don't have sufficient education, you don't know what you don't know, do what I did. Keep coming to stuff like this. Keep reading books. I've read every stinking book I can find. Some of them suck, but I've out of all. I'm going to know something next year that I didn't know this year. So I can be something next year that I'm not this year. And from 32 to 56, I've been doing that. So leadership is a choice. It's a decision. Decide to change. The act of intentionality is so freaking powerful. It's unbelievable.

Henry Ford said, if you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. I am amazed at the things we don't do because we have this little tiny bit of fear that offsets all the other data and all the other evidence in our life that causes us to not go do something. Because we just don't believe. And it's weird. When you start to believe, you become what you think about. So you have to have this act in these areas of your life where you are intentional, where you have. Happened to things.

Things don't happen to you. The number one habit, Stephen Covey says in the seven habits of highly effective people, the number one habit is proactive, proactive people, highly effective people happen to stuff. Everything doesn't happen to them. Oh, it's happened to me. They plant stuff intentionally. And if you plant stupid, you will reap desperate and broke, won't you? Been there, done that.

I have planted stupid and I got just like a bumper crop of desperate. a bumper crop of regret. You know what I'm saying? We all do some of that. But you just have to be real careful what I'm going to plant here, what I'm going to plant there, what I'm going to plant in the fertile areas of my life, because whatever our plant is going to grow. Your belief matters because we won't act if we don't believe. How do you do that?

How do you change your mind away from fear to big, hairy, audacious goals? How do you do this thing where you become what you think about? How do you think about something different? Well, you do what you're doing now, but you do it on such a consistent basis that it changes the makeup and the shape of your psyche, your spirit, and your future, and your destiny. And here's what I mean. All of us have put a certain amount of stupid stuff into our brain. It's called television. We watch some of the dumbest things on the planet.

And, you know, I've talked to many, many millionaires. Most of them can't tell you who got thrown off the island. Most of them don't spend their time on that. So we put all this toxic crap in our brain. We let people talk to us and tell us you can't do that. What's your endgame? Aw. And you store that in your brain and this toxicity builds up in your body, in your spirit, in your mind, in your future, and in your destiny.

And pretty soon, toxicity, we know what it does. It freezes to the pipes that stops up everything. And anything that stopped up eventually begins to stink. We know how this works, you and I. The most powerful thing the human has at our disposal. is the ability to choose as an act of my intention to do something different. I can just decide. It's amazing.

Now, it's going to be hard. It's not magic. It's not like I decided, and so now I'm going to sit in the recliner and watch it happen. No, no, no, no. Deciding means you're going to do whatever it takes. No one gets to the Super Bowl, and they're doing the interview after the Super Bowl, and they're going, so what does it feel like to get to the Super Bowl? Oh, this is the Super Bowl?

I had no idea. I don't know how I got here. I just showed up and they handed me the football. It never is an accident that someone wins the Super Bowl. It's an act of intentionality from age six to age 26. Everything, they would sleep with a freaking football. Everything is about accomplishing that goal. They pay whatever price, whatever they have to do to their bodies.

And they become one-half of one percent of the public in the U.S. in terms of physical intelligence and the things those men can do with their bodies to play in the NFL is unbelievable. The things they can do in mid-air and they're 375 pounds that you and I couldn't do off a trampoline. It's amazing. But it's complete and total intentionality and focus.

You become what you think about. Belief creates action. And action causes results. what has to be true for me to be there that's not true today and that's why I'm here. What has to be true for me to be there that's not true today and that's why I'm here? What has to be true? Really, I'm going to challenge you in this next section to do two things. One is take a refresher, but two, I want you to go back for some of your team that have never seen this

and you've seen it 100 times some of you. and I want you to go over it again with them. Goals that work and have a long-term positive impact will fall into one of several areas. You need financial goals, you need spiritual goals, you need family goals, you need physical goals, intellectual goals, social goals, and career goals.

You need goals in each one of these areas. Now, Zig Zigler used to say that if you, leave one of these out or it's completely deficient to the other areas, you overperform or outperformer, high perform of the level of excellence in all areas, but one, you have what's known as a flat tire. And if you've ever had a flat tire on your car, it does two things. One is it makes a lot of noise, and two is it generates a lot of friction and heat. And let me just tell you, if you completely ignore one of these areas, it will cost you the other areas.

because if all you do is just eat whatever you want to eat, they will do a biscuit ectomy on the ER table called a triple bypass and remove the gravy from your veins. I understand I fight the exact same equation. You're not looking at a runner's body. I get that, okay. But I mean, we all know that if you don't take care of that,

you get to stop and take care of that. You don't take care of your marriage? Guess what? You won't have one. you're going to put sufficient effort to keep this thing somewhat rounded, not perfectly, but intentionally you become what you think about. What has to be true today that's not true? Intentionally, what has to happen.

Now, every one of us have got areas that we're strong in, naturally, and weak in naturally. The next one is magical, because if you graduated from the sixth grade, your brain automatically starts doing long division. and as soon as you take a specific and measurable goal and you put a time limit on it. When? I want to make $100,000 a year. When? In a year.

Okay, we got the measurable time limit, right? I want to lose 30 pounds. When? And how many times? It's measurable. I want to lose 30 pounds. When? You can do it with me.

You ready? I want to do it in three months. How many pounds a month? Ten. How many pounds a week? Two and a half. It's not hard. Is this thing on?

And the last one is an act of intentionality. It should become what you think about, and you prove it by writing it down. It has to be in writing. A lot of what I've said on this stage this morning will come back ringing through your ears and your spirit because you've had a systematized process where I've walked you through a series of logical steps that are bringing you to a logical conclusion. In writing. The Bible says in Habakkuk, write the vision.

and make it plain, Habakkuk 2-2. This is my personal prayer journal and goal sheet from 1990s, 1993, 97 in there, and I used to type it out, my prayer list and my goals because I can't read my own writing. That's bad. And I could change it easier without having to rewrite it all every two weeks, right? True story. This page right here makes my throat get tight with emotion.

It says July of 1993. It's got my personal mission statement at the top. How does God wish to do this mission through me? Information marketed through the following mediums. I have Roman numeral one products, which includes books, videos, audios, newsletter, crisis book, secular biblical workbook, specialty items, software, none of which were in existence at the time except the financial peace book. out of all of that on that list, none of it existed. These were ideas, concepts.

Nothing works unless you write it down. Everything you write down works, but nothing works unless you write it down. But write it down. Put it on the mirror. Put it out there. And I know all that stuff's cheesy and hokey. And some of you, like me, you grew up listening that stuff, and you're like, oh, enough of that crap already.

But I tell you what, I can't argue with the results in my life. And I can't argue with the results in somebody I can't get to think that way, doesn't make it with our organization, because we have such a high demand of exercise. excellence. But then as soon as you do that, you know what goes through your mind? If we try this, it might not work. Well, let me help you with this. It probably won't. But 100% of the time, it won't work if you don't try it, right? So it's time to try something. I'm not talking about just jump and hope there's water in the pool, go out there, check the pool, look at everything,

make sure there's water, then jump, put your toe in, do a test market, do everything you can do to be wise, be smart, but try it. If we think we can, we think we can't, we're probably right. My friend Seth Godin says, I define anxiety as experiencing failure before it occurs. Winston Churchill used to say success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. That's what causes you to really win. These people that are on this stage this week are the best in the world at what they do, and all of them are colossal failures. Oh, they'll be dressed up nice and they'll tell you their stories of winning. I know most of them personally and they're failures, just like me. I'm an unbelievable failure. The only difference was I just didn't quit. I'm

standing on all that and still laying under it. That's the only difference. If we try this, it might not work 100% of the time if you don't try it. Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. It's the old saying Edison was being interviewed by the reporter and reporters like, Mr. Edison, you've tried 9,900 times to invent the light bulb and you've not invented the light bulb. It was public knowledge. And he said, don't you feel like an unbelievable failure? And Edison turned his head and looked at him and he went, no. I have successfully found 9,900 and something ways that the light bulb does not work. And it wasn't long after that, around the 10,000th try that he discovered the light bulb and changed the world, literally. and I'm saying you're going to become what you think about, who you read, what you put into your system. This is what this week is about.

It is about you intentionally imposing your will first in your own life and then on the marketplace. It is your time. You deserve to win. You deserve to take your business to the next level. That's why we work so hard at this because we believe in you. You need to believe in you. You need to take the steps. You need to say, seize the day.

Ready? One, two, three. See, Zay! Louder! Facebook live, how you doing? Dave Ramsey, Ken Coleman, coming to you from Summit, 2017. You've got a great crowd. Great crowd as you can hear and see. And Dave is fresh off of the stage just minutes ago.

He wrapped up our opening session. And Dave, I've got to tell you, it was really fun. You folks didn't see it, but Dave got over 1,500 leaders to stand up and scream from their guts. But, Carpe ADMC's the day. It was unbelievable. I had goosebumps backstage. Why do you do that? I've always wondered, because you're a master at that moment.

So at the end of a long talk like that, why that phrase? You know, we cheer for everything else. That's right. You go to a football game and you see a guy with his shirt off that shouldn't have his shirt off. You know, and he's cheering for a bunch of multimillionaires. And then he goes home and is mediocre in his life. You know, I don't want to do that. If we're going to cheer for something, we'll cheer for ourselves.

Because you guys deserve to win. You know, you deserve it. And there's no reason. You work so hard. You put yourself out there. You take a chance. You know, you open a business. You put up with all the stuff you put up with.

And so there's something visceral that happens when we yell. That's why we cheer at a football game. That's why we cheer at a hockey game. It's why we go nuts at these things. It's because something happens inside of us that raises us up to another level. And it's not like weird stuff or something. It's just if you believe about something, you get loud. And I'm a southerner.

I mean, that's Southern Yale. You got to go, here! You know, you got to get with it, right? Yes. That's a whole paragraph in the south, by the way, from there. Dave, you and I were spending a little bit of time last week in preparation for this event, and we started talking about what we call C3, which is such a huge part of what we do in Entree leadership, this idea of world-class content, which these people are going to get,

and then coaching, which we do through all access, but really community. And as I look just right here, not even the 1,500 in the room, this is amazing to see like-minded men and women together. Why does community at a live event matter so much? Community matters anywhere because we become who we hang around with. I mean, I was up in New York City the other day doing a thing. You know, those people all have accents. Yes, apparently.

And I told them, I said, well, we bring you down south. We'll teach you all how to talk. But you become who you hang around with. You pick up the accents. You pick up the vernacular, the pauses, the verbiage, the way you use it. You pick up the lingo. I've got a bunch of digital people. I was sitting in a room with them the other day.

The vernacular they're using is a completely. completely different language. I thought they were speaking German or something. What is a CTA? What you, you know, I'm trying to learn what all this stuff means and try to keep up with them, but you become who you hang around with. So it's very, very important to be intentional about who you hang around with. It's not that you're a snob. It's not that you don't reach out to people who are different than you or something like that. That's not the point. But the point is, be careful and be intentional about it. It's why we don't let our little kids run around with little Johnny down the street. Little Johnny's a weed head. Because you know your kid will be a weed head if he's running around a little weed head. And the same thing's true. in our lives, professionally, personally, in our marriage, our spiritual walk, everything. You become who you hang around with. You also mentioned that on the stage just moments ago, this idea of we become what we think, and you said it 100,000 times since I've been with you, this idea that words matter

and words obviously come from thoughts. You taught on that powerful thought itself, that how we think about ourselves, what we write down as goals and such, really do have an impact, and you shared it from your story. to our Facebook audience, summarize that humongous thought that you just shared. Well, it's from that old Earl Nightingale talk that we were all just talking about in there in the live event, that you become what you think about. If you think you can, you think you can't, Henry Ford said. And then, you know, in Stratops, we've learned strategically to say, what has to be true, this is not true today.

All of those things are the same thing when you say them. You know, you become what you think about, and if you think you can, you think you can't, you're right. That's the same thing, right? And the same thing is when you ask yourself the question, what has to be true about me today and my team that's not true now in order for us to hit our goals. And it might be something as simple as the day. We were sitting and looking at launching a thing and we said, you know, we need three more front-end developers. That was a fairly simple thing. You know, it wasn't like we had to metaphysically transform before your eyes to become something I'm not at some kind of philosophical level.

We needed three developers to be able to execute that project. That's what had to be true. That's not true now to put that on a timeline for an end-of-the-year launch on a product that. that we were all sitting and talking about. So you ask yourself those questions, but if you don't have something out there that you're aiming at, you never ask those partner questions. There's nothing that pushes you to ask that question.

You just wander along and we end up, the, you know, gravitational pull is not to excellence, it's to mediocrity. And you've got to fight the gravity. Thanks to all of our live audience are hanging out with us here at our very first live from Summit Hit. And to all of you,

for all of you that are watching on Facebook. Thank you so much for hanging out with us And here's the deal. Stay tuned to all things, Entre leadership on social media. We have some amazing content coming to you throughout the several days that we're here in Orlando. It's going to be on this stage and you don't want to miss it. And do us a favor. Tell everybody else how great it is if you're enjoying it. Share, share, share, like, like, like.

We appreciate it very much. And one more time, folks, for Dave Ramsey, Dave. Thanks for hanging out with us. Folks, I hope you enjoyed that time with Dave. And this was really fun because when we wrapped the Facebook live session, I had to quickly skedaddle backstage. to hang out with Robert Hershevik before I spend time with him on the stage. And so Dave, as he is want to do at times, just said, hey, let's answer a couple more questions.

And here's what happened. Two questions from the audience. Raise your hand. Right there. What was my most critical failure that I believe helped define me? Well, it became my story. Losing everything in real estate business and having to start over crushed me as a 26, 28-year-old young man with a dad, a baby and a toddler and a marriage hanging on by thread. So that was defining in that sense.

And what has happened since then is we've continued to fail, but the way we do things now, it's not a fatal error. We don't do James Bond. We don't push all the chips to the middle of the table and bet everything on one horse race. We're going, we'll try that. Let's try it. And if it doesn't work, it costs us some money and it hurts our feelings, but it doesn't put us out of business. And we don't have to fire four people, you know.

So we don't ever do all in. And that way we don't have, we have non-fatal failures, which are experiments versus life-defining crap, which will knock the hair off your head. Yeah. So, yes, sir. How do you transform what? I don't know. How do you transform I think I can to I think I can't? You know, I think it is a matter of belief. And faith and belief are mystical, spiritual things that God gives us. And it's a sense of faith. And for me, it does come out of my faith. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. For me, it does come out of my Heavenly Father is crazy about me. He's got a plan for me and it's not to bring me harm, but to bring me hope. Does it guarantee it's going to be all Skittles,

rainbows, and unicorns? No, it pretty much Bible guarantees it's not going to be that I'm going to wait through some muck to get there. But the muck's called fertilizer. It's what stuff grows in. So it's a part of that. And I think sometimes that's just in a psychological sense reprogramming some of our childhood where you were told you can or you can't. I'm blessed. My parents told me we could do anything and I was so dumb I believed it. And so I went and built a house of cards in my 20s thinking there was no way I could fail. So I kind of went too far the other way and I had to reprogram him and go, no, you can fail if you're stupid, you know. And so I had to really kind of balance that out, but they instilled in me this entrepreneurial belief versus I know other people on my team

who had the exact opposite experience who are vastly successful, but no one in their life told them they could growing up. And instead they've had to say, I'm going to be the opposite of that part of my life growing up. It's the old thing. What is it? Tony Robbins talks about the two twin brothers, their dad's in jail. And one of them robs a bank and they interview him and he shoots a guy and he say, well, why did you do that? And he goes, with a dad like mine, why wouldn't I end up this way? And the other one becomes vastly successful and owns a huge business, very successful helping people. And they interview him. They said, two twin brothers, same dad. How'd you turn out this way? And he With a dad like mine, how could I be anything else?

You know, and so you're stuck in one or the other, but it's a decision still, you know, that kind of thing. And yet it's very hard because sometimes parts of our spirit are broken by our developmental years. Are there falsely built up? You know, I meet kids who are not nearly as cool as their parents told them they are, you know. And so you see them in restaurants, don't you? Yeah. You ain't that cool. Sit down, brat.

But then on the other hand, you know, you want people who have a sense of destiny about them. And, you know, the cool thing is is we can just decide that. It's kind of weird, but you can really just decide. Very few people. You ever met somebody just quit smoking? No patch, no dock, no nothing? They just quit. And all they did was just decide, you know?

It's the power of the human spirit to do that. And I'm enamored with that idea. I really am. I think it's so powerful. That's why I did this talk this morning. It's not a talk I've ever done in this setting. None of you have ever seen me do this talk unless you went to something else I did somewhere. But it's never been around the Entree brand before,

because I just think it's so powerful for you guys. Thank you all for being here. God bless. Always fun when Dave takes questions spontaneously from the crowd. And listen, I want to make sure that you know the entire talk that Dave gave that we played an excerpt for you just moments ago is available for a limited amount of time. Now, when people say things like that, they never know how long limited is. So just assume you need to get there quickly because I have no idea how long limited time is. It means get there.

So go to the Facebook page of Entree Leadership and get the entire talk. It is worth it. I promise you. Let me tell you what else is worth it. The amazing team at Entry leadership have put together a summit swag bag. Now, I know thousands upon thousands of you are immediately saying what is a summit swag bag? Well, this is a digital swag bag. So Dave explained in his talk, the power of writing things down.

And so we're going to provide for you the workbook that our attendees here at Summit have been going through. This is a phenomenal resource. So as you're watching or listening to Dave's talk, you can fill in the blanks as well. And so it is a downloadable version of the event guide for Summit. We're also going to give the Entree Leadership e-book. Remember, that's a number one best-selling book that Dave wrote several years ago and literally gives you the playbook for all things, Entree Leadership. So to get all of that goodness, you're going to text the phrase, Summit Show.

That's Summit Show, no spaces, just cram the two words together for one phrase. that definitely pays Summit Show. You're going to text that to 33444. That's 33444. Last night, we had an amazing opening reception. Imagine 1,500 people together in the lobby of the beautiful J.W. Marriott in Orlando, Florida. It was really a lot of fun. And Eric, the producer, was walking around because he just likes to do this, with a microphone.

And he was getting people's comments. And this is really cool. We selected two attendees to hear a bit of their story. stories. Why would they take time out of their busy schedule and come to summit? Well, Troy has been coming to Entre Leadership events. Get this for 12 years. Now, either Troy really loves Entry leadership or he can't remember anything that he's learned. I don't know which, but we love Troy. And he and Jen, who was at her first Entree Leadership event and traveled from Germany. They are our feature stories. Take a listen. I'm Jen Walk, and I'm a speech therapist. I live in Ramstein,

Germany and I own a private clinic over there and we service primarily American military kiddos who are stationed there and need our services. I hire primarily American military spouses who happen to have their credentials and who are available and willing to work. So that's been a bit of a challenge because they PCS or move out every two to three years. So trying to stay ahead of that hiring curve has been difficult. Actually I guess it was December. I came home from work one day and I just I was at my wits end with business, and I said I needed to go back and get an MBA. I'm just not qualified for this. I'm a speech therapist.

I'm not a business owner, but now all of a sudden I am a business owner. And so my husband, thankfully, listens to a lot of podcasts, the Entree Leadership podcast. And so he said, that's not what you need. This is what you need. And he sent me the link, and I joined All Access. And it's been amazing. It's been the best decision I could have made, just not even just for my business, but just for my personal life and even spiritually.

So I traveled from Germany. This is my first entree leadership event. My flight, total transit time was about 13 and a half hours. The first flight was about seven and a half and then I layover in Philly and then on down. And when my head hit the pillow that night, I had been awake for 24 hours. Why? It's just because it's worth it. It's worth it to get away from my business to work on my business and not just working in my business. Definitely a sacrifice.

We have three small kids that I had to leave in the time. trusted hands of my husband and I know he'll do a great job while I'm gone. But I'm just really excited to get kind of an adrenaline shot of encouragement and to remind myself of the why I'm doing what I'm doing. And then some key principles that I can really apply over the next few months. I think for me, the biggest challenge for me, because I do hire entirely just contract laborers that are very, very ultra part-time, it's been really challenging for me to build a team environment. My leadership has lacked in that in terms of regular meetings. And so that's the biggest thing I think I need to really ramp up when I get back and lead. You know, right now I've been

kind of managing and putting out fires and I want to lead well. It's not just going to be an emotional high of being here, but that I actually have a structure in place to go home and implement it. And I know there will be people on the on the backside asking me and holding me accountable to how I'm applying, you know, the, you know, the, the things that I've learned at this conference. So, thank you soon, entre leadership, and be spelled. That means see you soon. Troy Meacham with ACR Supply Company.

We're based out of Durham, North Carolina. We are in the wholesale distribution business for commercial refrigeration, HVAC. We have about 90 team members. We've been in business since 1977. My dad started our company, and I joined him in 1980. In 1997, we kind of really came to like a crossroads for our company, our organization.

And we really had to ask ourselves some hard questions. Not long after that, I attended the doctor leadership, the very first one, it was 12 plus years ago. During that season of time is when I really began to ask myself a hard question, that was, are we building a work culture where people get up every day and they want to come to work? And to be honest, we weren't. It wasn't horrible, but it was more of a 70s, 80s style of management, command and control, top-down leadership. But one of the things that was the most instrumental in that change was when I attended the Master Series, I learned so much it was like drinking from the proverbial fire hydrant.

and you come back and you want to do everything overnight, but you don't. And Dave told us not to. I just slowly but surely begin to implement one little thing after another throughout the company organization. Since that time, I've come to the Master Series about five times, been to a couple of these summits. And here's the reason I come because, first of all, I know as the leader, I must continue to grow. I must continue to be stretched. I can't sit still. I can't just become apathetic and just come complacent because if I do, our people will.

If I preach growth through our people, guess what I got to do? I got to continue to grow as well. And that's what happens when I come. And so I'm always challenged in new ways. I always learn new things, learn new tools. And I'm able to go back and implement them throughout the organization and learning the things that I need to know to pass on to our team. So what I have done in this particular time, my wife and son are with me.

And he's just entering our organization. He's got to earn his way, as I mentioned earlier. I want him to learn these basic leadership principles as well and continue to learn and grow and be challenged. We're setting his foundation for the future right now. I know this stuff works. And it's changed the game. I'll give you a real-life number.

Back in the late 90s around 2000, we were right at $4 to $5 million in gross revenue. As we began to build this organization and build the culture, the culture where people get them every day and want to come to work, where they want to be a part of it this year, we're going to end up right at $30 million in gross revenue. So there's proof we are really growing our people and growing our organization. All right, folks.

That's going to do it for our first daily. podcast from the 2017-on-Trey leadership summit. Make sure that you're subscribed in iTunes so that you're automatically going to get these daily episodes. And as I always say, back in Nashville, but I certainly mean we really, really appreciate you. Thank you so much for listening. We'll talk with you again real soon, like as in tomorrow.