EntreLeadership - How I Turned $5 Into a $10M Business with Mignon Francois

Episode Date: May 3, 2021

Owning a business takes grit and perseverance. When Mignon Francois found herself on the verge of homelessness, she took $5 and bought some baking ingredients—and she turned that $5 into a multimillion-dollar business. In this episode, she unpacks her journey to entrepreneurship and how she invests in herself so she can become a better leader for her team. In the second half of this episode, Ramsey Network Host George Kamel sits down with Luke LeFevre, chief creative officer at Ramsey Solutions, to talk about how to get in a rhythm of reading to grow yourself as a leader.   The EntreLeadership Podcast The Cupcake Collection’s website Ramsey Solutions' website Love Beyond Reason by John Ortberg The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey Wild at Heart by John Eldredge The War of Art by Steven Pressfield The Voice of the Heart by Chip Dodd Every Good Endeavor by Timothy Keller Download the EntreLeadership Reading Guide EntreLeadership Partners Schedule a call with Tim, our producer.   Want expert help with your business question? Call 844.944.1070 and leave a message, or send an email to [e-mail]. You could be featured on a future podcast episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys, I know how easy it can be to get caught up in the busyness of business that you end up not growing yourself and growing your team. There's so much going on. And you can get really distracted and look up and go, gosh, we're the bottleneck on the growth of our business. And the problem is if we're not investing in ourselves, investing in our team, we get stuck in the day to day. We're working long hours. And then eventually we're not seeing the growth that we're looking for. From the Ramsey Network, this is the Entree Leadership Podcast. where we help business leaders grow themselves, their teams, and the profits.

I'm your host, Daniel Tarty, and we're going to shake things up a little bit today, and we're actually going to bring you two conversations on this topic of investing in yourself so that you can invest in your team. Now, as you guys know, we're all about inspiration and application here. And so to double down on application, our second conversation is going to be with a Ramsey leader, somebody that's in the trenches with Dave Ramsey himself, leading day to day. we're going to talk about the first conversation and the principle that is here in the topic of the podcast, but then we're going to talk about when the rubber hits the road as a Ramsey leader, what's that actually look like?

And our thought here is that you're going to get some action items that are very practical, and you're going to be able to go back and execute in a whole new way. To be your guide on that part of the conversation, Ramsey Network host George Campbell's jumping in studio to host those conversations. And, well, you guys know them and love them if you've been to Summit. But if you haven't, you can have a lot of fun with that. And you definitely want to stick around for the second conversation. So make sure to tune in. So first up, we've got Mignon, Francois.

Mignon is the founder and CEO of the Cupcake Collection. She has 12 team members and two locations in two different states, and she's growing. Now, she's had to do a lot of work on herself, grow herself as a leader, mentor her team, so that she can work on growing her business. And her story is simply inspiring because the early days, Man, you talk about the odds being stacked against you. Mignon has a courageous, inspiring story. Because her husband walked out on her.

She was on the verge of being homeless, and she only had $5 to her name. And she used that $5 to buy ingredients to make some stuff for a bake sale. And now, because of her leadership, because of her courage, that little bake sale has turned into a multi-million dollar business. So let's go back to that moment

when she was about to be homeless. So you're living in this house. Yeah. But then you get to a point where you're going to lose it. Yeah. Scary? Yeah, I mean, because we were on the verge of homelessness. Like, where are we going?

We don't have any money. We don't have any credit. You were really thinking you'd be homeless. Oh, we were going to be homeless. I mean, that's, that's, I was terrified. I've always had really supportive parents, you know, but who wants to go back home with, you know, dragging their tail between their lays because nothing, you didn't do anything I told you to do. Like, my parents worked really hard for 35 years for the same company. My mother started out as a secretary in her company.

when my mother retired, she was being offered an executive level position. She climbed the corporate ladder, literally clawed her way up. And so that was the kind of lineage I'm coming from. Fighter. And this is what she expects of her children. And, you know, here I am playing life trying to do business. So when we started the cupcake collection, it was a secret. And I dared any of my children to tell my mother a thing about it.

And when we purchased the house that we purchased, it was a secret also. So we were already living there, had already moved into this house I just described. My mother knew nothing of where we were even living until things began to start to pan out. Then I started to give her snapshots of my life in WISD. Because she would have came in. She would have came. She would come to Nashville and to pack up my grandchildren. If you want to stay in this foolishness, you can, but what they're getting out.

And she just didn't believe in, you know, business ownership and that kind of thing. But I think that's a narrative across my community. My generation is the first generation of African Americans who have full access to opportunity. in ways my parents didn't have. So I'm a girl. I'm a daughter of the 90s. You know, I was in, I graduated and was in college in the 90s. And so we were being taught something different.

I went to HBCU, so, you know, that was different from anything that my mother had ever experienced a historical black college university. And so we were being taught things that, you know, we could do. When was it first real for you as an African-American lady that you believed that you were going to write a new story? Not that they were saying you could, but you actually internally realized I'm going to pave a path here. That's really good. When was the first time I noticed I was going to write a new story? See, I always knew I was going to be famous because God didn't waste this fabulous name on nobody knowing it. So I had to do my due diligence to make my name great.

So I always kind of knew, but when did I know, I think when I knew I was going to write a new story, happened once the Cupcake Collection started becoming a thing. And Facebook happened? I didn't, I was talking to Tonisha on the way over here. She's my right hand, right? And I was saying to her, I never wanted to be on Facebook and Instagram and all that kind of stuff. It was a customer who made my Facebook page for me, because you need to be. to be on Facebook because this is a way to get customers and things like that. And so she made my

Facebook page for me and man did. That's what I want people to know. Like everything you need, God will send it. Like I didn't even know how to make a Facebook page. And someone who loved my business that much said, I'll make you one and I'll man it for you. And I didn't really even know what she was saying, but I just knew that was huge to me. And I think when people started knocking on the door and saying, how did you do it? And they started hearing my story and they would come to me in tears saying, I am where you were. This is my life. You're reading my life to me like a book. I knew I had to tell other people about what they could do if they believe. And that was my promise to God. When I was sitting at that crossroads of tired of being sick and tired, because there's a difference

being tired of being sick and tired of being tired. But when you're sick and you're tired, you're going to do something about it. So what happened? Because you're on the verge of being homeless, a little scared. But then you're thinking about your mom and this thing that's in you that you're not going to just stay on the ropes. Yeah. And you started a cupcake company. Yeah.

Did you think of it that way at the time, like I'm starting a company or was it just to make some cash? No, no, no. I was looking for field trip money. I was looking for field trip money and senior dues money. That's how simple my life was. So what'd you do? Dave was telling people to see, you know, how much my story is connected to this mission that, you know, they want to give financial peace. And I wanted to be a student.

And he was selling people, you could have a bake sale or you can have a garage sale and you could get out of debt. And I thought, well, I've sold everything I had to get here. so we're going to have a bake sale. One problem. I don't know how to bake. Not even out of a box. Because when I bake stuff out of a box, it still doesn't come out right. And to this day, I'm not really good at baking from a box.

Because I'm not a person who wants to follow instructions or go this exactly way. And it's just like, you know, when Duncan Heinz put out this picture on the outside of the box, he had instructions. And if you want a version of what the maker said, you have to follow the instructions of the maker. You have a beautiful story. And it's very inspiring the way that you went from, you know, on the verge of homeless to listening to God. You have this vision. You, you know, eventually get to this successful company that's got a great reputation here in Nashville and now you're in multiple states. Yeah.

At some point, every entrepreneur has this experience where they go from me. being the original creator to now leading people. And that's a whole different type of creativity. It's a whole different type. You talked about a muscle that we grow. It's a different muscle that we have to grow. When did you first kind of have this moment where you said, oh, I have to stop making things and I have to lead people?

Yeah. Probably when I needed to, I was, there were crews following me for, a show. And I needed to be in Carolina to tape. And I needed to leave the store. And it's like, oh, what's going to happen, you know, now? It was... You had employees at that point?

I was going to say, and I had employees at that point. So I probably need to even go back before then, because that's when I knew. That was a different place that I knew. that's when I knew I needed to teach. So I guess when I saw leadership, I don't think that I knew it per se, I think God slapped me across the face with it. When people started, the lines started happening because I used to do everything by myself.

I would get up in the morning at 2 o'clock. The bakery was in my house, so I'd roll out of the bed in another room, walk down the hall, and go into what was my ex-husband's man cave and work in there. I think it's funny that cupcakes come out of a man cave every day. It was that my kids, on the night before I opened, and I'll try not to take it too long of a story, the night before I opened, my kids came to me with something behind their back. I said, Mom, we made you something for your new store. It was getting ready to open.

It was going to open that next day. And they had a pickle jar. They had decorated this pickle jar. and they wrote tip jar on the outside of it. And they wanted people to pay me, because they knew that I wasn't going to really be making any money per se. But when you do good, mom, people are going to give you a tip. And then this can be your money that you have to spend, you know.

And so I cried over that tip jar. And I told them, if you'll come after school every day, and you'll help me clean up because that's, I would be in there so many. long hours cleaning up after my long day. Because I used to be open from like 7 a.m. to like 7 p.m. at that time. Just trying to get anybody and be available for everybody. And my children, I said, I'll give you whatever's in the tip jar.

And so they were my first employees and they worked for what was in the tip jar. But when it started being that people were coming and saying, I want to take this to a friend. I want somebody at my whole, my whole office to have. this. And they were bringing me more business that I can handle. There was a lady who we would see at the coffee shop every day. And she had gotten laid off from her job and she didn't have anything to do. And she said, well, I'm not doing anything. And so she came and she started helping me. And she became my first employee. My first employee. And then ultimately my first manager. And, you know, then there was a girl who came to my store and she was a chef. And she, every day

She would get off. She would come and buy a wedding cake cupcake. And she said to me, you can tell how good a bakery is on their white cake because it's basic. There's nothing there to mask it or whatever. And the fact that she was coming there every day, I was like, oh, this is huge. A chef is coming. She became an employee.

And so my first employees were always customers that said, girl, scoot over, let me help you. That's the best kind. Like if somebody knows your brand or service or your product, like those make, we found here like that makes the best employees. Yeah. They've had their life changed or they've had an experience with us and they want to be a part of that. Yeah. That's, that's an alignment with what you do. And that's what branding is all about, right?

And if you can ever get that secret sauce and figure it out in that way that you have called people into this mission that you're on and they want to. to be on the mission with you to tell other people. And so eventually it just becomes this statement that we want to be a lighthouse in the community to show other people what good business looks like. And we want to light the way for other entrepreneurs to know what they can do if they believe. And people wanted to be a part of that. And so I guess, you know, that would be where I placed my finger on it. Once again, it wasn't that I could say it was anything of myself, but it was God sending people because I presented my plan to him. He said, I'll direct you. I'll leave him, make them knock on your door and say, listen, you need me. So scoot over and make room.

And I just was always obedient. Does that make sense? And it makes a lot of sense. how did you figure out how to lead these people when they I mean clearly you're asking God all the time that's the foundational piece but from a practical standpoint were you ever overwhelmed with I got people reporting to me I don't have a business degree I got to figure out how to get this business scaling and grow in the way I was always reading um there's another quote that said that readers are leaders um all readers aren't leaders but all leaders are readers and I was always reading But again, I think it was people around me. I had a new neighbor, and there's this house across the street from the cupcake collection. And it was the owner of that house who propelled me into business, my first big order, a big portion of my story where I said I was sitting in the dark doing the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps plan when my neighbor knocks on the door and says, I want to give your cupcakes to all of my clients. I wasn't even in business yet.

she was just trying to tell me, girl, you have something. And when she sold her house, the years later, now I'm a business, and the lady who moves in says, girl, you have something, you need to grow this. And she hand delivers me down to the Entrepreneur Center and says they have a program there and you need to be a part of this program. And so I applied to be in the program and I get in. You had to have made $250,000 by then to be become a member of this program. And I probably had well exceeded that by then.

I don't think I just literally knew that I was so busy in the weeds of the work. I didn't even know I was making money. You know, I just knew the lights were staying on now. And like, we were having enough to make it. And you're grinding. Yeah, I'm just like, doing it, right? And that same mother who didn't. And that same mother who didn't believe in business and all that moved to Nashville and became my administrator and brought all of her corporate 35 years experience from being in one of the biggest insurance companies, you know, in our country.

Changed your mind a little bit. Yeah, and started working my business and started putting process in place and things like that. And I was just head down grinding. Well, you know what? This is a thing that people need to remember, right? And this, I want to say this respectfully of your mother, but it just makes me remember. There are a lot of critics and naysayers. And the best thing you can do to shut them up is just go win.

Yeah. Like when you succeed, the critics shut up. Yeah. And so many people get caught up, though, because she still thinks she's the queen and she thinks she's running things. Your mom should always hold that seat. Yeah. But it fascinates me how many people trying to get started on the new thing. give so much energy and air time to people who are critical.

Instead of just going and proving them wrong. Yeah. You know, like, you get to choose where you put your energy. I love that. You can listen to the people who are putting you down or saying it's not going to work, or you can just go do it. Or you can listen to that spirit on the inside of you that's telling you that you can. That has, you know, that was my saving grace.

And so she came. But it was at the entrepreneur center, at the EC, where I learned how I sort of got, I like to say, my degree from the School of Hard Knocks, and they taught me things, it taught me words I didn't know. They taught me that I needed to work on my business, not in my business. And so the formal training began right there in the halls of the Entrepreneur Center. And I was in that program there for 18 months and I was always able to ask all the questions. And from there, that's where a business leader was really born, where I knew that I had business and I wasn't just baking cupcakes and that my cupcakes, what we do is about so much more than cupcakes.

And that's where I learned that people wanted what I had. And that if I would just be transparent about what I've been through and what I've done, I could save other people from the same plight that I had had. There were a lot of people who looked like me who were women who woke up one day like I did to a husband after 21 years. She said, I don't want to be married anymore when I've been a stay-at-home mom. You know, there are other women who look like me who just want, who might be being successful of being a household manager, who need to know that that's a skill set that you bring to the

table. And I needed to say that to them because I had this captive audience of people who were saying, wait a minute, she did not have to bake. Now she's got all these awards. And now she's turned this $5. into millions. Like, that's crazy. That's crazy.

We did that. And we actually put a whole little part of Nashville on the map where people were saying, like you say, your naysayers, no one's ever coming to Germantown, they said, to stand in line for anything, let alone it be gourmet. it's never going to work. In a house, they're never going to come. We just got voted as the best cake again in Tennessee. Congratulations.

Thank you. You know, most people will rise to what you call them up to as a leader. Yeah. If they trust you, if you give them dignity, and I love what you did, if you get personal and figure out how can you help them. because you didn't start with expecting something. You started with, I'm going to pour into you, and now I'm going to call you up to something. And there's a symbionic experience there.

You both get something out of it at that point. And the best thing is, then your customers get more out of it. I mean, it's not about you and your team. We don't exist so that we can just have a team. We exist because we want to make an impact on the world. And you've done that in the whole community of certainly Germantown, but all of Nashville and now New Orleans, it's an incredible story. As we wrap up, what do you want to tell leaders who are listening right now? Maybe some of them are feeling defeated or they're wondering if they're going to make it.

Or maybe they've made it and they're feeling apathetic or bored and they need to find that spark again. I believe that God was the first and the best entrepreneur. And he showed us through the creation story how to be entrepreneurs, how to make something how to even expand on your creation, how to upgrade it. That's what he did when he made a woman. And then sit back and look at it and say that it's good and let it run on and let it grow and let it just begin to repeat itself. And that's when I knew that I had that job to do.

to that if God can sit back and watch his creation and it works and he doesn't have to show up every day to recreate it. If he is my example and if he says I can do all things through him who gives me strength, then I got to do the same thing with my cupcake place. It's got to run while I just watch it. And I can make myself available for any questions that they don't know. answers to and I can challenge them and I can say ask me a better question ask me that a different way that's the same thing that God is saying to us ask me a better question ask me that a different way

but what I'm never going to do is leave you or forsake you this is the last thing I think I would want people to know the Bible says that with God nothing shall be impossible so so talk to him asking what he thinks. And when you submit your plan to him, he'll tell you what I said to my team this morning just in our worship time, we have a circle time every morning before we open our door, that the word impossible is a contraction word. And so many successful people have seen this before. I-aposophy M-P-O-S-I-B-E simply suggests to us that the contraction is for sure. short for, I am possible. The I am makes it possible. The I am makes all things possible. The word of God says, when Moses got ready to go and talk to Pharaoh to free God's people, who shall I say set me?

Tell them, I am sent you. And when we think about I am, and we think about I am, and what it means, I am means I will be what I will be. I will become what I will become. And so God is saying, whatever you need me to be, I am. And I make it possible for you to be successful. That's what I want people to know. I love it. It's really cool that we have a creator and he made us creators.

He made us in his image and we have the ability to create. And you just beautifully described. this idea of entrepreneurs following in the path of the original entrepreneur, which is somebody who creates something and then gets it going and then it runs itself and then they're still available to engage. I never really thought of it that way, but that's a really cool word. My friend Jordan Rayner taught me that about God being the ultimate creator and when I sit down and I think about what I make. I'm just being a reflection of God what he's asked me to do when I make something to.

And I think that's ultimate worship. It's ultimate worship to be a reflection of God in your daily life or in the business that you do and the way that you lead. And so I'm just trying to worship God with cupcakes. That's wonderful. You have a beautiful story. Thank you. Mignon Francois, the cupcake queen. I'll take it.

But more importantly, incredible leader, Overcomer, and just somebody that has an amazing story. Thanks for blessing us with your time today. Thanks for being here on the Entry Leadership Podcast. Thank you for having me. Wow, guys, talk about an inspiring story. I almost want to stand up and sing I'm proud to be an American. I mean, seriously, for somebody to start with that humble of a position,

$5 to her name and then build a multimillion-dollar business. But of course, Mignon would tell you the money, well, that's just a measure of how much, How much she's grown. I mean, it's not about the money and the success. It's about she transformed who she was. She completely overhauled what it meant to be Mignon. And she did that by, well, certainly hustling and grinding and working her tail off in the early days.

And she's still working really hard. But she also started working on herself. She worked on her mindset. She sat in conferences and events. And she was telling me before the show all the things she's done to attend and actually figure out how to become. the business leader she wanted to be. And of course, she talked about it on our conversation. One of the best things she's done is she spent a lot of time and money investing in reading. Now, you guys know, we talk about this all the time at Entree leadership, that if you want to be a great

leader, you got to be a reader. You can't grow to the next level without putting new information into your mind, challenging the way that you've operated, and then transforming into something that's a better version of what you were before. That's how it works. So my question for you is what are you doing right now to grow yourself as a leader by reading? All right, guys, big fun. So as I mentioned at the top today, we've got a new thing we're doing, an encore conversation. And to help us out with this conversation, we've got Ramsey Network host and Entree Leadership Summit host, George Campbell. If you guys have been to Summit, you've come to know and love George, but it's his first time on the Entree Leadership podcast. George, welcome. I've been on a lot of stages and behind

a lot of mics, but this one is a true honor, Daniel. Thanks for having me. Well, we're glad to have you here. So the idea with this encore conversation is certainly we have outside guests that come in and they're very inspiring and they share their work. But we wanted to peel back the curtain and say, here at Ramsey for our leaders, this is what it's like. This is how our leaders are actually executing on these same principles. And we want to bring our audience things that are very practical, actionable, and steps they can take this week. Not just a great podcast that was a lot of fun to listen to, but actually a battle plan as they go back into the trenches. So you got to sit down. down with one of our operating board members, Luke Lefevre.

Yes, we had a great conversation. It was candid. It was honest. And what I love about Luke is that he's been here a long time. And there hasn't been a single year where he hasn't been intentionally growing and developing himself. And this stuff's practical. It's tactical like you're talking about.

This isn't woo-woo. This is, hey, you can wake up tomorrow and do this stuff to grow yourself and grow your team. So I can't wait for them to hear this conversation. All right. Let's check it out. Luke, thanks for being with us. You got it. So I've known you in my eight years here, and you've been here a lot longer. How many years now?

12, working on 13. 12 years. And you did not start in leadership when you started here. And we've been talking about this whole readers are leaders, leaders or leaders type deal. And I know the last few years especially, you've gotten really intentional yourself, your leadership team, about developing yourself and taking time to do that and forming habits around that. So I want to know, when did that show you? shift happening for you where you went, yeah, I got to start reading more. Was it just a lifelong thing? Or was there a point in time you just drew a line in the sand and said, I'm going to start reading? Yeah. A pastor came to a church I was going to in 2006. And I've told some of the story.

I can't remember if I've done it on entree before. But at the end of his talk, he goes, I dare you to ask God to rock your world. and I remember that kind of it stuck with me and I did I was like okay god I got a new Bible out and I wrote a note in the front and I said I dare you to rock my world God I look forward to seeing what happens you know and it wasn't like lightning bolts or anything but over the next six months or so I was like why I might should probably read something that that is helpful and so I read I think the first book I read around making myself better was called Love Beyond Reason. It was by a guy named John Orberg. And I read that and I remember thinking, oh, this is helpful, you know.

And then throughout the next couple of years, that's when I got a total money makeover. That would have been 07, so 06, 07 kind of a thing. And then I moved down here and started working here the very end of 08. And so total money makeover was a big deal for me in my life. But then I got down here and a friend gave me Wilde at Heart by John Eldridge and The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield. He gave me those two books and was like, hey, I think you should read these. And I read Wild at Heart first. And it was like one of those things where somebody's just reading your mail.

It was super impactful for me. And he was just putting to words what I felt in my gut and then showing. there are ways to help that. And I was like, man, this is great. As far as books like that, like that were helpful books, kind of a thing. And then, yeah, Wild at Heart, War of Art were some of the more, I mean, that was like 10 years ago now. But those were some reasons when I started to really be helped by what someone was saying at the beginning. But I can go back to like grade school.

And I was, you know, read like any other kid, dumb things. But then junior year of high school, the teacher came in and she gave a book called Knight by Eli Vizel. He's a guy who was in the concentration camps. And it was this thin little book. And I remember reading that. And again, that guy just put to words what I had felt in my gut. And that's really what kick started reading for me. And then I read all the Stephen King stuff and Dean Coons and like these scary books.

So I've always been kind of a reader. But within the last 10 years, it was Wild at Heart by Eldridge. Stephen Pressfield, The War of Art, and then I'm just always looking for one that makes me feel the way those did. Yeah. Like, where I just learned something, and I'm like, oh, man, it's very poignant, and it's punching me in the gut and helping me change. That's interesting. Yeah. There was a shift, you know, we do our onboarding here, Ramsey.

So if you're a new team member, you get a stack of books when you start here, and that has only grown with time because we keep going, then you should read this one. Read this one, too. Read Entree, Entree, Read This One, Read This One Over Here. and we're very intentional about it. It's part of the hiring process when you come on board. We say, hey, read 10 books. And half of these people might go, I haven't read a books. It's grade school.

They want to read 10 in a row. Right, right. But there's a reason for that. What does reading do for you? Emotionally, practically in your everyday life. Let's say you took books out of your life today. Yeah. What would this shift be?

Man, it'd be a big deal. I think your question was like, how have I formed the habit and how have we built it into the team? For me, it was about 10 years ago, I started journaling in the mornings, basically, to, there's so much going on during the day, so much with my kids, my wife, the work, everything. And I just had to start getting up early. And it goes back to that thing in 2006, where I said, God, I dare you to rock my world. Over the course of those next few years, eventually, I just got to the point where, like, I was like, God, I have nothing to offer. I'm just going to get up early.

I'm going to read a chapter of the Bible. and I'm going to write what I think about it. And so that started the habit of getting up early and reading a chapter of the Bible. What happens for me is if you just start out the morning reading Exodus, like... A little dry. Yeah, a little dry, and especially if you're sleepy and stuff. So I would look for some kind of book that would be... Not that the Bible's not inspiring, but it was like, what is something that's just...

A little more conversational, a little more energy. Yeah. And so I would get up and I would read some book like that. So then I read it in the morning and then I would just write about it. And so the morning habit is where I started to read. And I was always looking for something. That's not where I'll read the how to make a website book or how to do branding. I won't read that stuff in the morning.

I'm looking for stuff in the morning that pushes me spiritually with work, with something that is more growth-focused. Yeah, growth-focused. And I would put, that's how the habit was built. So it's like, if it's 9 p.m. And I, and I, you're wanting to read a book that is like just going to speak to you emotionally and work-wise. My brain is just not going to take that in. It's like, I want to watch friends and go to sleep, you know, or something. So in the mornings is where I really push myself to read those books and get me in the right headspace.

And that's how the habit was formed. And then just books come in. And I'm kind of always just like, look. Because everybody's suggesting books all the time, and you're like, I don't know about that one. But I'm waiting for just a little spark where, oh, man, there's something there. That sounds really interesting. I'm going to read that one. So gravitate towards books that you're actually interested in.

Yeah. And you'll have a higher chance of actually reading it and learning something. Yeah. Brilliant. Yeah. Imagine. Yes. So I'll be honest with you.

Every year I sit down, I write my resolutions for the year, write my goals down. Yeah. And there's always a section that includes professional and personal development around reading. And I was going, I read three books. I got to read more books this year. And so I start to make this master list. And it feels so good. I'm like, okay, 26 books.

I've got the dates mapped out of when I'm going to finish each one, how many pages. I've got this thing down to a science. And then February rolls around. And I'm like, okay, I've read half a book so far, not on track. How do the leaders out there who may be like me? And they go, I'm not a big reader. I consume a lot of things, but I'm not sitting down to read a book. How can those people, the people like me, form that habit?

I wouldn't put all the 26 books a day or a year and then go back two weeks. Like, that's impossible. That's maybe it's possible. I'm sure someone listening has done that. I would just find one that I am interested in like you were just saying. And then don't pressure yourself into it. Just have it be, hey, in the mornings, I'm going to read a little bit. Read for about 15 minutes on something you're interested in.

So it's less about the reading. It's more about getting up a half hour earlier or something and building it in like that. Because if you're doing it when you feel like it in the evenings or lunch, there's always going to be something that comes up during the day. There's always going to be something with kids or something in the evenings. And sometimes you just want to shut it off. So I would ease up on the pressure of this many books by this time and this kind of thing. I would just say, eventually, I'm going to work through Wild at Heart, and I'm going to get up 15 minutes early. and I'm just going to read a little bit of it.

And what'll probably happen is you'll get into the book and you may or may not want to stop. So then, but you're going to have to go take shower and get ready for the day. So the next day you might be like, I'll get up a little bit earlier because I'm actually enjoying what this is saying. Yes.

And I hear that a lot. People say, I've kind of pushed myself through it, right? If you want to go running, you may hate running for the first week, even two weeks. And then by week three, you start going, I kind of see the value in this. I kind of miss this. And so I think that's what it takes

is seeing the value in the habit. sticking it out long enough to get less sucky at it. Yeah. Where it's not as hard, you can focus more. You think of, like, reading to you is like a skill or something, like you call it so I can get less sucky at it. That level of focus and intentionality is the hardest part of just blocking out an hour to stare in silence at words, right?

And so what I found that helped me, honestly, read more books, is audio books. Okay. And not just audiobooks, because I found my brain drifts while the sound is coming into my ear. So what I'd like to do ideally is I'll have the physical book while listening to the audio book. And just read along with it. And someone's guiding me through it. And so my brain doesn't need to burn as many calories. So that may help some of the listeners out there if you are like me.

If you're like Luke and you're just a superhuman. Well, I don't. That's the thing. I'm not, I've always got a few books going, but it's not like I'm trying to finish it by the end of the month. Yeah. It's not a race to you. No. I've just got this one, and some days I'll read two.

pages and some days three and then there's a you know there's I usually I got a biography some kind of novel going and then some kind of growth one but this is not a fast process it's like oh man tonight yeah it feels like I should read some of the hobbit again that's what we're reading right now with the kids and stuff so it I don't know take the pressure off yes but when you're like I need to learn something today based off of the book because people said book leaders are readers and I'm going to, yes, build the habit, but give yourself a little break and just find something you're kind of interested in. And like, I don't know, what's something that you're trying to learn right now? Marketing and branding. Well, that's probably not going to keep your

attention at 6 a.m. Maybe not. I am reading Why We Sleep. You heard that one? I read most of it, but that was a tough one for me to get through too. A little heady. That's not like a, this is a great point. If I'm reading something in the mornings to get myself going, why we sleep isn't the book. Yeah. No, really. There's nothing against that book. But if you want to develop the habit of reading, like what's going on in your life

that you want some help with? Reading for me is a spiritual exercise. It's, I read sometimes to learn things, but it's more about like digging around in my spirit to see what some things I need to work on are. I would go there first before I need to get better at reading about marketing and branding. Bad goal. It can be boring. Like I would push something that can make you a better person.

Then you start to become a better person. Then you're like, oh, reading helps. And if you're just trying to develop the habit of reading, start with a novel and get yourself into it. You know, it'd be hard to read why we sleep early morning. Don't do that. So I was talking to Dr. John Deloney, one of our Ramsey personalities about this. And he had such an interesting take that rocked my world when it came to goal setting. I told them all these goals.

he said, well, you're setting really terrible goals. He's like, reading books is not a bad goal. Yeah. But reading books for the sake of reading 26 books, terrible goal. Yes. So what he was talking about was identity-based goals. What kind of person do you want to be, which is what you're talking about. And that's what I think all these business owners listening.

Yeah. That's what they're thinking about. What kind of leader do you want to be? And then if you go, okay, I'm going to read books because the type of leader I want to be is a leader who is a lifelong learner. Well, now you have a totally different reason and motive for reading books. it changes the way you see it. So I love your take on that. And a lot of reading I found when it comes to these goals and reading, accountability matters.

And something I've seen our team do really well is you might go, hey, I read this book. I want the entire creative team to read this book. And talk to me about the process. How do you choose that book? Let's say a business owner says, yeah, I think it's a good idea. We're going to read a book as a team to help us all grow in this area and give us all the same language. At some point, it's more about just doing something together in a mentality. I want people to take.

So when I push for a book like that, it's not about we're going to learn the story brand process better. Because that could be helpful, but it's going to be more than that. What I push books for is a mentality shift. So I remember back in the day, I did want the whole creative team to read The War of Art. Because what that does is it helps people push through resistance, and it pushes through their mental blockers. And so what we did was we had, speaking of accountability, we said, okay, in your team meetings for the next two months, we're going to talk about chapters one and two,

or page zero to 55 or whatever it is. And then we had questions. We just wrote two, three questions, and we're like, hey, talk about these in your small groups, in your one-on-one meetings. And there were people who loved that book, and there were people who hated that book, and all in between.

But you're going to have opinions. If you're the leader and you're like, no, I like the mentality of this thing. And I want the people in this room and on my team to think like this. Like, just make the choice. If it's something you like, I've usually read it first. You wouldn't have to do it like that. But if it's, I usually have read it first and I'm like,

everybody needs to hear this and push through. And then just make it happen. Just decide. And people aren't going to like it. and that's okay. Like, just do it anyway. That's huge. So let's bring it to present day.

What is something that you've read recently that you've really implemented in your day-to-day leadership? One is, I think Chip Dodd's been on here a couple times. He wrote the voice of the heart. And I know it sometimes sounds alien to some people where you're like, no, I'm just trying to get the thing installed

at my customer's house, and you're talking about people's feelings and what they're feeling. I just need them to get to work. That's what the feeling is I need for them to do. But what I've found as I'm running the business, not running the business, as I'm leading the team and somebody comes in and they got a problem. All I want to do is connect with them.

If I can get them to feel like they're safe to tell me what they're thinking, then I can help navigate to the right thing. if they're all nervous around me or worried about what I'm thinking, then they're not saying what's actually going on. They're more nervous about anything. And so the voice of the heart was like, it's just digging around in the feelings we all have, and then I can help people navigate through what it is that's actually going on.

Yeah. And honestly, you're one of the best leaders I've seen around here do that well, where people do feel like, okay, I can share with, Luke and if I can share this with Luke, I can build trust with Luke. If I build trust with Luke, we can move at the speed of trust and move a lot faster. Like, okay, with my kids, same thing. My daughter's 14. If she comes in and she's like, oh, there's this, there's this boy I'm starting to like and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, nah, that guy's an idiot. Stop it. You know. All the such is what you want to say. Yeah. What I want to say might be that.

But if I immediately do that, she's going to be like, oh, I'm not going to be. I'm not going going to share that again. I'm not going to share it again. If I have a team member that comes in and says, why are we doing it like this? I feel like we should be doing it like this. And I think this. And I'm like, well, we can't do it like that because that's the dumbest idea I've ever heard. All of a sudden, they're like, oh, it's not safe to share what I'm thinking here. Even if I think it's the dumbest idea in the world, a lot of times I'm like, okay, all right, all right, tell me more about that. Explain this. What do you think here? And if I do think it's a terrible idea at the end, I'm just like, all right, let's talk about this more next time.

And then they come in and I'll be like, all right, hey, I was thinking about what you said, we're not ready for that. Or what's causing you to think this? Because there's a bunch of stuff going over here that does not align with what you're saying. But if I'm immediately smack them with my attitude or my response, they're not, they don't feel safe to say what they're thinking. And I would rather, I would rather have them feel safe to say it than them think something over here and just trying to appease me. Like, that's not the point of this. I need everybody. We all need our team's help. Like, they need to be doing the things and owning the things.

And so I'm more interested in figuring out how and why they're thinking what they're thinking and to get them to what the best answer is. That's a great next step is to kind of, I've seen leaders do this in my time here where, you know, one of my leaders, Pete, on the live events team, when I first started getting on stage, he said, hey, read this book. Ego is the enemy. Ryan Holiday. And I was like, whoa, dude, this feels like a personal attack. But it was one of the most impactful books that I read regularly now. Once a year, I make sure to keep that in my toolbox because it was that good. So as a leader, the more you read, the more you can pull out of that toolbox and go, oh, my team member needs this.

And then it's not him telling me, hey, watch your ego. Yeah. It's, hey, read this book. I think you'd really like it. Then you connect with it. So I love that tool that leaders can use. And then it gives you both a language to use. and you can almost like, if you're a leader and you're nervous about having a hard conversation with a team member like that, like maybe he was thinking George has a little bit of an ego, but let's read this together. And then you can kind of blame the pain on the book a little bit. Yeah. Like you could talk about the book. Hey, what stuck out to you, George? Well, it was this and that and the other. And you're like, oh, man, I can see that. Let's work on that. And you kind of, I don't know, it like diffuses the leader boss man thinks that I'm failing at something. Yeah. And no, we're going through this together. And,

what do you think about that you know that's a good idea so let's end on this okay what is a book that you've read recently that you think every single business owner listening needs to read is there that book there's so many of them i don't know if there's a single one we'll give them a reading list i'm sure um what's the one they should start tomorrow let's let's go there order this on Amazon, go to the local bookstore, get it. I mean, I talked about it already. Wild at heart is that one for me. Like if somebody is looking for something to push themselves personally, that one's a big

one for me. There's also every good endeavor is by a guy, a pastor named Tim Keller, and it's all about work and the meaning of work and things like that. And he talks about this old story. that J.R. Tolkien wrote in there and about this painter who had a vision for this future, future land, and the painter could never get to actually painting it the way he wanted it to be. And as a leader, as a business owner, you're like, ah, it should be this way. And it should be that way. And in this book, Tim Keller talks about that. One day it will be full. And,

filled. It might not be in your lifetime, but like, we should be frustrated as leaders. Like, if we're not frustrated, then that means we don't have a vision for what the future could be. If you're like, no, man, everything's great. Like, I think we should be a little frustrated that it isn't the way we want it to be. And that's okay. We still need to show up and keep painting, you know, keep doing the thing. And over time, we show up, we do the work, we do our best, we try to lead our team well. And you'll look down the road, 10 years from now, and you have that focused intensity over time, multiplied by God, you'll see, oh, okay, like it's, we're doing something here. It's not going to be fixed tomorrow. So I think if I had to

pick one that had to do with work between Wild at Heart, I'd do every good endeavor by Tim Keller. Final answer. That's the one that's on my brain. Yeah. That's good. Well, Luke, I love the way you lead by example. I love the way you walk the talk and how you lead others so well at this organization. Thanks so much for being here. Yeah, thank you, George. Happy to be here. All right, thanks, George. You know, a lot of fun to hear from a Ramsey leader

who's actually in the trenches doing it. And as you guys know, Dave Ramsey built this company from a card table in his living room to a world-renowned brand, and it didn't happen on accident. It happened because of leadership. First of all, Dave's leadership. But then he's built a rock star team of leaders

who are actually doing this stuff. Guys, entree leadership is not a theory for us. It's not a bunch of rah-rah. It's not just, here's how you get your kind of feel of motivation for the day. It's nuts and bolts. This is what we do. It's actually how we lead our teams. It's how we hire, how we fire, how we do all the hard things and have a lot of fun doing it.

And so we want to share with you guys, this is behind the scenes, the real, real. And so what a fun way to do that today with a conversation with Luke and George. Now, you guys have heard us reference throughout this podcast that if you're going to grow in your leadership, you have to be reading. seriously in a world of Instagram likes and tweets and sound bites and snapchats and there's so much white noise out there the leaders of tomorrow are the ones who are going to turn all that stuff off at least temporarily okay doesn't have to be all the time but shut it off long enough to read a freaking book to get deep into a body of work and study and go to school on how you're going to get your business to the next level because you're

always going to encounter problems. Sometimes it's with your people. Sometimes it's marketing issues. Sometimes it's customer issues. Sometimes it's your own personal growth and development. But you're going to get stuck. And when you get stuck, there's thousands of resources out there on how to get unstuck, nested, and a book. There's some great books out there. But you might be overwhelmed with the millions of choices. So to make this a little bit easier for you guys, our Entry leadership team put together a free resource. That's the top 100 books that we recommend, business leaders be thinking about reading, diving into. And so when we give you guys this list, you're going to recognize some of them, but you're also going to go, oh, here's some new

inspiration. Here's a book that I haven't heard of yet. And we want this to be a great tool for you to use and have on the ready next time you're in a book buying rut. So to get this free tool, just download the Entry Leadership Reading Guide and text the phrase 100 books to 33444. That's 100 books, one phrase, no spaces to 33444, or just click on the link in the show notes. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this episode of the show today. If you did, be sure to leave us a review and subscribe so you don't miss out on the next episode. And hey, look, if you're a small business owner between about two and 200 team members, we'd love to hear your feedback on the show, learn how we can do a little bit better, and well, we really do listen and we'd love

to get your thoughts. So if you'd like to help us out with that, you can take a brief survey and click down on the show notes to schedule a call with Tim, the producer. Thanks for helping us out there. You can follow us on social media at Entree Leadership. You can follow me on Instagram at Daniel Tarty. This episode was produced by Tim Hull. It was edited and mixed by Will Rutter. I'm your host Daniel Tarty.

And on behalf of George Camel and the entire Entree leadership team, thanks for listening. Until next time, keep learning and keep leading. If you enjoy this podcast, you should check out other great podcasts from the Ramsey Network, like the Rachel Cruz show. Hey, guys, it's Rachel Cruz. and I'm so excited to tell you about my podcast. A lot of people are living paycheck to paycheck. They're in debt. They don't even know where to begin,

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make sure you do it today. To hear full episodes, just search Rachel Cruz, wherever you listen to podcasts, or go to Ramsey Solutions.com, slash shows.