EntreLeadership - The Keys to Keeping Your Sanity While Growing Your Business

Episode Date: August 28, 2023

Today, we hear about: •       How you can leverage high turnover to your advantage •       A business owner who is struggling to balance his work life and relationships •       How to manage constantly negative employees •       The best ways to retain top performers on your team without going broke Links mentioned in this episode: •       The EntreLeadership Podcast •       EntreLeadership Master Series Have a question for The EntreLeadership Podcast? Leave a voicemail at 844.944.1070 or submit your question for a chance to be on the show with Dave Ramsey: https://www.entreleadership.com/ask Start growing in business and leadership with the EntreLeadership Newsletter. Sign up to receive tactical tools, advice and resources in your inbox every week: https://bit.ly/3IRWnsL   Support our sponsors: •       NetSuite •       BELAY •       Payority •       Trainual Learn more about EntreLeadership Events: •       EntreLeadership Summit •       EntreLeadership Master Series Learn more about EntreLeadership Coaching: •       Elite •       Advisory Groups •       Executive Coaching •       Workshops Listen to all the Ramsey Network podcasts anytime, anywhere in our Ramsey Network app: https://apple.co/3eN8jNq Learn more about your ad choices: https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy: https://www.ramseysolutions.com/company/policies/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is the Entree Leadership podcast where I take calls from business people and leaders, just like you, about what it takes to win at any stage of business. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, with over 30 years of actual experience in the trenches, which means I've done more stupid than you've done, and I can help you avoid it because I've already done the stupid thing you're getting ready to do, and I can keep you from doing it. the difference between listening to someone who actually does leadership every day instead of someone who talks about it or theorizes about it from some freaking think tank. Now, I actually run a business called Ramsey Solutions and I have for over 30 years. We're here to help you. We're glad you're here. I love small business people. I think you're heroes. Call me if you have a question. The phone number is 844-9-4-4-1070, 844-9-44-1070. And, of course, you can go to Entreeleadership.com slash ask and enter your question there.

Our team will get with you and set you up to be a caller like Jessica in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Hey, Jessica, welcome to Entree Leadership. What's up? Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. I'm excited to talk to you today, especially from the insights that we've gained from Montre leadership in the past. I'm sure you'll have some good tips for me. I'll give it a shot.

So my husband and I run a luxury pheasant hunting business, and last year's revenues were right around $5 million. We're looking at about a $5.5 million revenue this year. But we have about 15 full-time employees during our year-round season. But when we go into our hunting season, and we have to swell to about over 100. So I wondered if in this market where we're having the hard time of constantly recruiting, if you had any ideas or strategies that we might be able to implement to help us in that process. Man, I'm a customer, but I'm not sure. I mean, I go to a luxury lodge and hunt over in Peer over on the other side of the state from you,

and it's the exact same scenario of what you guys are doing. and that guy is a world-class operator and chef that runs that thing. And I'll steal his secret and tell you what he has done. It's very interesting because it's a very cool model of what he's doing. He has created a hotel and, I don't know, hospitality and hotel degree with the University of Auburn and somebody else. and the kids that are going to get that degree intern with him. Yeah. They come up there for work credit, and he's teaching them world-class service in a luxury environment.

So it's a really good deal for the kids that are coming in there. They're really getting hands-on stuff, and they're great kids. I've been hunting up there for several years, and they do a great job. So that's how he did it. I don't – let me think if you weren't doing – have you tried something like that? You said, yeah. We do. We actually work with Auburn and have several of their interns come in and have worked for us during the season.

And you're right. It's a great program and it's brought us some great kids, a couple of those anyway. Okay. One of the things I was thinking about that maybe you could give me some insight is some incentive models. What I'd really love to be able to do is create almost like you're passing the torch after you've been with us. You pass the torch of your seasonal position on to the next person or some sort of incentive bonus. or something that allows us to kind of move that. Let the latest batch of interns recruit their replacement and pay them for it.

Exactly. I like that. I think that's genius. Because, I mean, a thousand bucks will save you a ton of money. And that would motivate one of those guys beyond belief. Sure. The other thing that I was thinking about and wondered if you might have some insight is creating a scholarship program for kids like at a university like that,

where if you stay, if you're with us for a couple of years, you qualify for that program. I think that's another thing that's a home run. All of that's great. So what we have done in a different setting is we believe that thoroughbreds are who we want because you can't win the Kentucky Derby. You've heard me say this with the donkey. And so thoroughbreds run and they're off time with other thoroughbreds. So the kids are the same way.

These young college students, they don't run around with, if they're a go-getter, they don't run around with some pothead that sits around does nothing. Okay, they're running around with other go-getters. They run around with people who get stuff done, and they recognize who you want in the program. And so paying them a referral fee because thoroughbreds run with the thoroughbreds. They know with the thoroughbreds. They can access them a lot more than you or I can. That's a brilliant idea.

And certainly the scholarship thing in getting involved in. I don't know if Auburn is the only – I know they're not the only one with a hotel and hospitality degree, but they seem to be the only, apparently you've plugged into the exact same thing my guys plugged into, and that Auburn apparently has something that's amazing. I thought he had two universities coming in there, but I can't remember who the other one was. But anyway, I check on all that. You're way ahead of me on that. I'm not much help.

You're telling me how to do it, and you really got a good plan there. The one thing I will add to this is, okay, where do other, businesses like yours, what we're looking for is young talent who's passionate about the thing, okay, the hospitality, the hunt, they want to be in this environment, that kind of thing. I assume you've got guides that are coming in with dogs that are seasonal too. We do, yeah. The lodge I go, yeah, I think those guides might be a source for you and just say, hey, who in the community do you want to bring along and let them learn this?

because the guides are, you know, they're running the dogs, they're walking the corn and the mill and all that. And so they're running a whole different game, but they know what's going on in the lodge. So, I mean, they're not ignorant to what you're pulling off over there. So they probably could be a source, a possible source of leads. But the thing I was going to say before that is who else, what other industries, and I'll tell you other places I've run into it. And, you know, where do kids, young people go to have an adventure in their downtime between semesters or for an internship? Well, it would be snowsky instructor. Okay.

So where do they get the college guys? There's no ski instructors. Do they take a time off? Or are they working on their, you know, their PE degree of some kind? I don't know what this is. I'm making this up. But, okay, or where do the guys in, right? around the corner from you there in Montana when I've gone up there on the on the rowboats fly fishing

and I've got these young dudes that are fabulous guides and they come back year after year and uh they're they're you know they're in their 20s but they're passionate about fly fishing uh I'm horrible at it by the way but um but they're passionate about even teaching old bald guys that are horrible about it you know and so uh but those that you know I've gone to a couple of those things and they have a lot of repeats the guides keep coming back the snow ski instructor's keep coming back. The scuba instructor keeps coming back. That's the young guy, the guy that's the dive master at the local scuba shop. These are all things that are similar because you end up being a scuba bum or a ski bum or a hunting bum, you know, you can get sucked into the business

for life, in other words. And so that's the kind of thing. I'm going to talk to some of those businesses and say, how are they doing it? Because even though they're not competing for the exact same thing, they are in the same space where they've got something that's It's very seasonal and it's activity-based. And there's an adventure aspect to what you're doing and to what they're doing. And, you know, that makes it, you know, what you've got to offer is really fun. I mean, they work their butts off. It's very hard work.

But it is not a thing where you come back going, wow, I have no idea what I did. I was bored to death. No, I mean, it's a lot of fun to being out there out there in the, middle of that. And so it sounds like you've got a great business and need to come up and see you guys one of these times, I think. I'd love to do that. So cool, Jessica, thanks a bunch. Very, very incredible. We're fired up for you. We appreciate who you are. And truthfully, you answered more of this question than I did, but I'll take credit for none of it and let you take all the credit. So, yeah, I stumble around with you looking for ideas, but I think you've got really good ones.

And you're definitely on the way. This is the Entree Leadership podcast. Welcome back to the Andre Leadership Podcast where we help people with their leadership questions, particularly their small business ideas. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. If you want to join us, you can do that at 844-944-1070. If you want to help us out, we'd love to have your help. Click follow or subscribe, depending on where you're viewing

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So check it all out. The phone number again, if you want to leave a message and be part of the callers is 844-944-1070. Spencer is in Iowa. Hi, Spencer. Welcome to the Entree Leadership Podcast. Hey, Dave, thanks for taking my call. It's a pleasure to talk to you. Sure. What's up? Hey, man. I am a, I want a lawn and landscape company with seven employees, including myself, making about 3.30 a year.

Profit or gross? Gross. Okay. What's your profit? What do you pay taxes on? We pay taxes on about 165. Good for you. Proud of you. Good work. The company has continued to grow, and I am a little, okay, I already talked about that, but, and let's see here, sorry, I'm a little nervous. That's okay. Okay, so the company has continued to grow, and I'm a longtime listener of years, and love what you teach. I started this company from scratch nine years ago.

My question is, as you scale your business, what do you implement to be successful? What have you implemented to be successful with time management, and how has this helped you with work-life balance? Was there any one breakthrough you had that made a huge impact? I'm trying to figure this out because I someday would like to have a family with time to spend with them. So far, what has helped me is a CRM and delegating tasks. Yeah, that's exactly right. What happens when you start, you start as a treadmill operator at stage one. You've moved past that now.

But the treadmill operator is the whole stinking thing depends on you. You're the CEO, the chief everything officer. and that's a problem for you, you know, and then you've moved past that. You've moved up to Pathfinder where you're starting to hand off some of the things. And, you know, it's, what you've got to do now is really lean into the delegation pieces to where you can afford to leave the business at the office, so to speak. The office in your case may be the cab of a truck, but either way, we're going to leave work at work and home at home. more than anything, that is not a business structure thing.

That's a mindset. And what I had to learn to do, and what we teach people to do on this, is that work-life balance is absolute mythology. It simply doesn't happen. When you're at work, you have to be 100% at work. Like I had a guy working for me one time that his wife called him like 22 times or something before lunch. And I'm like, dude, you just need to go home.

And he's like, I don't want to go home. And I said, well, I bet you don't. Well, guess what? His job didn't last and neither did his marriage. So no shock. But that was, you know, he couldn't work while he was at work because his personal life was interfering with it. And because his marriage was completely blown up.

It was sad. It was horrible. But the thing, the thing that, you know, when you're at work, you have to be 100% dialed in at work, not be dealing with a bunch of stuff from home. And when you're at home, the same thing. Turn to work off. I'm not sitting and doing emails at night. I'm not sitting appointments at night. I'm not on a bunch of important calls when I'm at night. You don't have, it'll wait. It'll wait. You're not Jesus. That's his job. It'll be there when you get there in the morning. You're not God. That's his job. And so you wait the morning to take care of this. And so I had to

quit. I enjoy my business, and one of the ways I relax in the morning over coffee is I clean out my email inbox. Well, I figured out if I'm doing that on Saturday morning, that that's relaxing for me doesn't interfere with my life or my marriage or my wife. But it does interfere with everybody I sent an email to on Saturday morning because I'm the freaking boss. They think they have to answer me. Well, I finally just start putting a delay on all the emails. So all my emails from the weekend go out at 5 a.m. on Monday morning, as if I did them all that morning. But I don't want to interfere with everybody else's brain space on the weekend because almost nothing I'm dealing with on the weekend is an emergency.

So I don't need to send that. But if I'm waiting to clean out my inbox until Saturday morning, I don't have to put that on everybody else. So that's the kind of stuff you do. You think about the impact you're having on the team when you're dealing with work in after hours, and you think about the impact you're having on your family. The biggest thing people do is they forget to be where they are. So when you're at home, be at home.

When you're at work, be at work. But they're at work scanning their stupid Facebook account instead of working. Or they're at home reading work emails instead of being present with their family. And if you really have trouble with quality time with your family, here's an idea. Throw a brick through your television. That's a stupid thing. That's a complete waste of life and time. I have television, but it's not used for hardly anything.

We, you know, we often are both sitting reading a book. We, you know, we're old people, I guess, but we figured out television is not sharing life together. That's just bull. Very seldom. Sometimes Sharon and I'll sit down and watch a documentary together or we'll sit down and watch a movie together or something. But we do it very intentionally rather than just have that squawk box on in the background running a bunch of negativity into my little brain. So, again, just think about the environment. One last thing that I had to learn to do.

And I got this at a marriage conference, not a business conference. The guy said, when you're at work, you're a soldier doing battle, and you have the sword out, and you're fighting with that sword all day long. You're fighting through the mass of the barbarians, right? Chop, chop, or, you know, we're just at war all day long. When you get home, you need to take the sword off and put it above the mantle, like the soldiers did in the olden days, or put the musket above the mantle. Because we're not using that on our family.

That's for the barbarians in the marketplace. Our family needs a different set of tools from dad or from mom. They don't need Conan the Barbarian mowing people down, right? So, you know, you kind of got to, what that represents is a mindset change for me. And what I would do, sometimes if I was so geared up, in other words, I'm so fired up from the stuff I've been working on all day. I'm excited or I'm pissed off or whatever it is. I would just stop at the bottom of my street and pull over the side of the road and turn on some smooth jazz for 10 minutes or five minutes and reset my brain or turn on some praise and worship music and reset my brain before I go home. And that was my visual thing of I'm going to put the musket above the mantle.

I'm going to put the sword above the mantle and I'm going to work it through that way. But yeah, you just got it. The biggest thing is to figure out little things like that. Throw your phone in a basket when you get home. Don't pick it back up, you know. and there's just very few things in life that are that big an emergency. So, you know, and, you know, Twitter is not going to send you anything but a bunch of crap. And the news feed is not going to send you anything but a bunch of crap.

And so what you've got is crap in your pocket when you're carrying this phone around all the time. Throw the thing in a basket, turn it off. Don't have your phone on the table when you're eating dinner with your family. You know, stuff like that. You just got to set some basic boundaries, some basic little, personal habits in place to be present where you are. And we always laughingly say, be where you is. Be where you is. That's the whole thing. So that's a really good question for a young business person at the Pathfinder stage where you're setting your clear direction. Now you're starting to

develop KRAs for the team. You're starting the mission and vision core values and all that kind of stuff. And so, you know, that's the thing. You've got to set the boundaries. You've got to push that through and when you do that then you're going to be able to keep your eye on the ball and be present where you is this is the entree leadership podcast i'm d'a ver amsy your host thanks for being with us on the entree leadership podcast america's best small business podcast where we help small businesses and the guy giving advice actually runs one wow what a novel idea this is not theory for us. Hey, we've been talking about the stages of business, the roadmap that's going to help you grow your business, and I hope you've been paying attention because the stages are going to

help you accelerate your growth like you wouldn't believe. If you're a business owner and you're trying to level up to the next stage, you're going to need more than just a podcast. You need to attend Entree Leadership Master Series, only you're not going to get to because you're going to goof around and not get your tickets, and there's just a couple tickets left. And you're about to experience big-time FOMO here, baby. so you need to step in, get the tickets, because they're just a handful left. There's not, seriously, it's not hype. They're about gone, boys and girls.

If you want in there, that's it. The best part is this is a tactical five-day crash course. It's not theory. It's like everything else we do. You're going, man, where are we? Why didn't I know this? Well, because you hadn't done it yet, and we've already done it. It's happening November 5 through 10 at our headquarters here in Nashville

in the new Ramsey event center, which if I do say so myself, is freaking awesome. You don't want to miss this place. You don't want to miss coming to on the campus here, learning from our guys and from me included. I love doing this. Can y'all tell? You can tell. Go to entrell leadership.com slash master series and get your tickets and do that today. That's not ad copy. That's like the way it is. Go today. Do you feel the urgency? I hope so. Isaac is with us in Houston, Texas. What's up, Isaac? Hey, Dave. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up in your world? Not much. I have a quick question. I run a flower farm in Houston. We have 10 employees, and I am a proud elite member. Thank you very much. Very cool.

And I use the weekly reporting tool every week. Good. Me too. We have great feedback. We have great employees, you know, the typical employee who's, you know, bubbly and happy, usually always is positive on their weekly reports. And then I have a couple pessimistic employees who I notice kind of have a pessimistic attitude. And I need to figure out how I can leverage this tool to help lead or change their mindset.

And they're typically in their life, they're pessimistic. And not so much in a negative way, but... How do you be pessimistic in a positive way? Sometimes they're positively optimistic people. Positive, you're a pessimistic, yeah. Okay. So I'm trying to figure out, I know it's not always work-related. They're being, you know, negative about, I mean, I know there's outside influences,

but I'm trying to figure out how I can dial in to those team members that kind of take a, you know, a victim mentality or a pessimistic mentality. Yeah. Well, ultimately, what we're going to just come alongside them and coach them out of that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're just going to come along and love them and listen to where they are and start talking to them about glass half full is a much better life than glass half empty.

And so, you know, we're going to, you know, this is you parenting somebody more than it is you leading them, because I'm guessing also that they're young or no one's ever bothered to talk to them about actual success. What does success look like? You just don't find a bunch of people that Eeyore is their spirit animal becoming successful. Oh, it's bad. It's always been bad. It's always going to be bad. These are not successful people. They, People don't gravitate to them. They gravitate away from them. So, yeah, you need to sit down with them and go, okay, look, if there's something going

on at the business that I need to address, and if they're putting that in the weekly report, then we talk about the business thing that's negative. And we go, okay, how are we going to make this negative thing go away in the business? Is it a temporary thing we just got to plow through because we hit a rock? Or is it, you know, is there a staffing problem and I got too much work on you? Or you don't know what the flip you're doing, so you're straight. stressed out. We need to train you up. So your stress level goes down because this starts to get easy for you. Or, you know, or it's just, you know, they're just generally going to be a

negative person because, truthfully, nobody, you know, one negative person can bring three down, positive people down more than they'll ever bring that negative person up. So you really do need to get the vibe shifted over time. Now, can, I'm not saying you can never have a bad week. I'm not saying you can't go through a bad period of time. You know, I've got team members right now that are going through tremendous health struggles. And so obviously, they're not in their A game. And obviously, I mean, you're fighting cancer and you're fighting, you know, all kinds of other major health thing. You know, that's just, we give those people grace. But I'm talking about just, I'm sad all the time and the world's out to get me. Well, I mean, we got to, we got to turn that

around because we're going to be positive and happy here and we all have a good time here and we got life to you know we're doing life together and uh how can i love you well and how can we help and you know we're just going to have to kind of get like this is all good but if if life is drudgery eventually you're going to exit yeah eventually but i sometimes it's like and i've talked about this in training and entree leadership and you may have heard me since you're an elite but you know when i first started doing these weekly reports they were hand-referred or they were turned in on an 8.5 by 11 of a computer page. You know, and it wasn't a sophisticated piece of software like we use with Elite now. These weekly reports are amazing now. But people would

type in there, and I thought, you know, I said, I first came up with this idea, put a weekly high and a weekly low, something good that's going on, something bad that's going on. And I'm so stupid that I thought they were all going to put stuff in there about business. Like my sales suck this week, and I lost a big sale, and that's my low. Or I just closed the best account of my life. And That's my weekly high. But I'd get stuff on there like my dog is sick and I'm sad. And I was like, what are you people doing, man? I mean, what are you thinking about?

I love dogs and I don't want your dog to be sick, but this is not a business reporting thing. Okay. But then I almost made a big speech about stop doing that. And then I figured out I've actually got the tools I need to lead now because in that case, that's a true story. This young lady had a dog that was her whole life. She was single. The dog was her companion.

Her dog being sick was a big deal. And it was interfering. It was part of her life. And so just come by and check on her and takes me 30 seconds to say, hey, how's the dog doing? Because I do love dogs. I just never thought about it being in a weekly report, you know? And so, you know, I stopped by her desk and just go,

how's the dog? And she is like I changed her whole life because I actually noticed her. I actually read the report. I saw the negative thing. I responded to the negative thing. Sometimes that clears it up. And she goes on with her life. And, you know, she was not a sad person. She was a happy person. And the dog got better. Thank goodness. And we go on our way. And so, but I mean, if your kid is sick or your kids having the struggling in school and you put that on the report, then, you know, hey, her Johnny struggling in school. How's it going? Are you having a good response from the teachers, are they helping you out? Is there anything we can do here? And, you know, it takes five seconds to make a comment like that and move on. But it actually lets them know that they are seen

and sometimes just being seen blows off the negative vibe. Sometimes just being noticed is a big deal. And because somebody actually cared. And you might be the only person in their life that actually cares. What's going on with them? And so you go, hey, what's going on with you? You okay? You okay? and just sit down, you know, I keep seeing this negative. I keep seeing this and I'm worried about you. You okay? You don't have to sit down and go, hey, quit being negative or we're going to fire you. That wouldn't do that.

That's not what I'm talking about. But eventually they do need to turn because eventually they're going to cause more problems than they are blessings. And you'll get into that mess as well at that point. So, hey, Isaac, I love the weekly report to it's one of my favorite things we do at Entree. It's in the Entree Leadership Elite, which is, for those of you don't know. And by the way, you can do a free trial on Entry Leadership Elite. Did I mention it's free to try it?

You're going to love the weekly report, too. I'm just saying, guys. This is the Entry Leadership Podcast. I'm Dave Ramsey. This is the Entree Leadership Podcast. I'm your host, Dave Ramsey. Thank you for being with us, America. We appreciate all of you telling people about this show,

and the number of you that are dialing in and listening. Our numbers are way up, and we are, Grateful. Thank you. We really do. We carry on with a lot of sarcasm and bombastic stuff here, but we really appreciate you guys. David's with us in Detroit, Michigan. Hey, David. How can I help? Hey, Dave. First time, long time. Huge fan. Love what you do every single day. I think you're a treasure to all entrepreneurs, so appreciate you. Bless your heart. Thank you. How can I help? Well, I'm in a little bit of a pickle here, so I own a franchise staffing business in the Detroit area. and I have a staff about 10, including myself, on payroll.

And this year has been a challenge. So I'll give you a little bit of history. In 2021, we did $6.5 million in revenue during the peak of the pandemic, hiring blitz. In 2022, our revenue went down to $5.6 million. And currently, we're on pace to do $5.2. So the staffing industry has taken a hit. and this year especially has been really challenging. Back in 2021, I had a lot of my top performers, a lot of my seniors.

Let me stop you a second because I want to learn from you a second. We've obviously gone through the Great Resignation where there's been more turnover than any time in history, in recent business history in the last 50 or 100 years anyway. And a huge turnover, the Great Resignation, followed by the Great Regret, followed by the Great I Want to Work from Home and I don't know what I'm doing movement. And so how has staffing gone steadily down when there's a huge demand for staffing giving that there's turnover?

Yeah, and that is definitely the magic question. So there's a lot of variables that go into that. So what we've seen, especially in this recent year, is that overtime is that. overtime is not being offered as much as it was. So our buildings have dropped significantly. I think the mass hiring blitz that happened has now cooled off. And a lot of companies are overstaffed. So that's been a challenge.

Our orders have definitely reduced over the past couple of years. So the economy has slowed. And so the demand for the type of staffing you're providing has slowed. and so this is not a recruiting operation. You're staffing hourly workers. We're doing the business staffing for light industrial and the skilled trade. Okay. But we also offer professional direct hire search as well.

You get paid an ongoing trail when you provide a factory 10 workers to work at the factory. Correct. So at any given time, we have anywhere from currently from, from 110 to 120 contractors out to work each week. Okay, that's what I'm trying to figure out. Okay, thank you, because I'm a little slow. So when the economy slows and they can avoid hiring permanent people and instead use you. And so you're the first on and the last off.

No, I mean, you're the first off and the last on. Correct. If things slow down, they dump your guys first. Correct. And don't bring you and don't bring them back. And so, you know, in other words, they take care of their permanent people first. And then as things gear up beyond permanent capacity, you guys are there. And then when things drop below permanent capacity, your guys are the first out of the building, right?

Yeah, unfortunately, that's the way it works. I'm trying to figure out, yeah, because that's how most businesses would use something like that, I think. But I'm trying, I'm just, I'm trying to learn about it from you. Okay, now I understand. And now I see why you've had a slow down, because you had a huge blitz with supply chain. stuff in labor shortages in 21. 22, it leveled off. In 23, we've got the economy slowing down.

And so your revs are down. Now, I understand. I'm sorry. Now, thank you for let me catch up with you. Now, how can I help? Well, so I, so back in 21, I had a lot of my top performers. My senior people were poached during the great hiring blitz. They went to corporate staffing companies that offered higher salaries, 100% remote work.

all the bells and whistles I went with it. So in order for me to stay competitive, I decided to increase my base salaries as much as I could to attract the better talent. Well, I ended up with great talent. Everybody in my team is wonderful. They all align with our mission, our vision, our values, our culture. Except now I'm stuck with these high salaries

and I have some team members that are even bonusing and we're not making any money. I've only had a few months where I've been profitable, and it's nothing to write home about. So I don't know if I should even... There's only 10 people there. Only 10. Yep. And I would say...

So the root of this is three. About four. Yeah, okay. All right. Yeah. Good guess. So four revenue generators, four producers. All right.

So I've been thinking about, you know, putting a freeze on bonuses, but I'm afraid I'm going to lose these people and having to replace. How entrepreneurial are they? They're salespeople. Have they got a little bit of an entrepreneurial bone? I think maybe two of them might. Okay. So I'm probably, so one thing we figured out is where there's an awkwardness or where

there's a problem. Sometimes people don't know there's a problem and they appreciate first knowing there's a problem. and so there's an old story of Nehemiah was sent back to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and he didn't walk in and say, okay, we're going to rebuild the walls. He went around talking to all the nobles and the craftsmen and said, did you all notice the walls are down? Did you notice there's a problem? Did you notice there's a problem? And he did that for about a month? And then one of them walked up to him and said, hey, did you all know, did Nehemiah, did you notice the walls are down? He went, okay, now we're ready to rebuild because now everybody knows there's a problem. And so I think

I think we're going to start with that one. And so I'm going to sit down one-on-one with each of the four and tell them what you just told me. I did 6.5. I did 5.6. A bunch of people got poached. I've got really good talent. I'm down to 5.2. You guys are making more than I make, and I own the place.

I'm not greedy, but this is weird. And I've got to rethink this, and there's a problem. And I'm not announcing anything. I'm just letting you know there's a problem. I'm not trying to tell you there's a layoff coming. There's not. I'm just telling you there's a problem, and I've got to think about how I'm going to solve it. Let that sit for a day or two, and then swing back by and go,

I might have an opportunity here for you to make more than you've ever made in your life during good times, but you're going to be in more of an ownership-type position than you are now. And so when the profits are there, you're going to get a big chunk of the profits, but you're not going to get a big chunk of the gross anymore. I think we're going to have to change our comp plan to follow the profitability of the company rather than the gross revenues. You might make more somewhere else,

but I doubt it over a 10-year period of time because I'm willing to share profits with you at an unbelievable level when there are more profits. But for right now, I need you guys to stick with me and help me turn this ship around. you will lose one or two of the four when you have this conversation, but you can't afford them anyway. Right.

So. Yeah, and we've toyed with that, and we have been constantly talking about the challenges, so it's no secret that we're down. I don't have to give them ownership position to pay them off the bottom line. I've got 17 people at Ramsey that are paid off the same line. 100% of their income is off the same line I get paid off of, the bottom line of Ramsey. They're operating board members. And all of my operating board members are

paid like partners in a sense. Now, I'm not suggesting you go to 100%, but I am suggesting you get this salary down where it doesn't matter. And then when things come back up, they make more than anybody else in the business, and you don't get greedy and you let them do that. So what do they, what do they make now? Let's say what are they going to make this year? What's the best one going to make this year? The best recruiter that I have right now is probably going to pull home around 80, 90K. Okay. And so what if he could make 110 in the year that you made 6.5? You'd be just fine, right? Right. I mean, if he made 110 because he was sharing in profits and had a smaller salary. So of that 90, how much is salary?

Of that 90 right now, he's at 51. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, your salary pretty low already, buddy. That's bad. Okay, anyway, but still the concept stands. I'm doing math is all I'm doing is just saying from a comp standpoint, a comp design standpoint, I would try to convert them to getting more of the profit than they get now,

are getting more of their income from a profit formula, and then that formula stays in place, and you have to be emotionally ready for them to make a pile of money when you're making a pile of money later. More, like you may have the best paid people in the whole business because you're not going to get greedy if they ride down with you, they're going to ride up with you. And that's what we did here with these operating board members.

And it also causes them to not just think about their job only, it causes them to think about the health of the whole business overall, and that's what you're looking for. So I'm going to reset these comp structures so they don't run you out of business. Ultimately, that's what I'm saying. So first, let's identify that there's a problem, sit down and go, got any suggestions on how we reset comp? Because I don't mind sharing with you when times are good, but I can't go broke covering you right now. So we've got to figure this out. I want you to eat.

I don't want to lose you. But also, you know, if this trend continues, we've got to do something different. and we've got to figure this out. Thanks for being with us, America. Remember better a weary warrior than a quivering critic. Leaders serve. Leaders are active, not passive. They act on principle, not appearances.

This world needs more high-quality leaders. So choose to lead. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thanks for listening to the Entree Leadership podcast.