The Ramsey Show - App - Debt Is the Symptom, Not the Problem (Hour 2)

Episode Date: July 22, 2019

Take control of your money once and for all. The Dave Ramsey Show offers up straight talk on life and money. Millions listen in as callers from all walks of life learn how to get out of debt and start building for the future. Check out the fifth most downloaded podcast of 2018!   Tools to get you started: Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE   Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

🎵 Live from the new headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the new Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. Taking your calls this hour at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. We're celebrating today as we launch the Dave Ramsey Show in our new building

in our new studios. We're marking this moment, having all the Ramsey personalities join us for a moment for a look back in time and a look out into the future and taking your calls as well. Thank you for your patience with us just celebrating a milestone. But when something new is born, you need to stop and look at it.

You don't need to just drive past it. And that's what we've done. We've spent a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of energy getting these facilities in this place to where we can serve so many more of you so much more effectively. And we are very, very excited we're all like a kid on christmas morning around here all right we're going to start off this hour with kansas or i'm sorry with uh detroit andrew is calling hey andrew welcome to the dave ramsey show hi dave thanks for having me. Congrats on the new building, man. Thank you, sir. How can I help you today? So I'm 23 years old.

I just graduated from college in December. And so I'm on baby steps four, five, and six. Wow. And I'm calling because something's been laying heavy on my head. So just a brief history. I went to school debt-free. I had a full-ride academic heavy on my head. So just a brief history. I went to school debt-free. I had a full-ride academic scholarship to my university, except for the first year.

I was out-of-state tuition. There was a program where you could become in-state after the first year. But the first year I was short $11,000. So my mother didn't want me to have debt going to school, so she covered that difference. And now that I'm graduated and I'm working full time, I'm doing pretty well off. I make about $80,000 a year. Good for you. And I, thanks man. And I feel kind of guilty. I feel like I'm contributing to my mother's problem. I just kind of recently learned she hasn't done anything with that $11,000,

and I'm doing a little better well off, and I'm wondering if you think it's an ethical thing or if I should offer to pay off that $11,000 for her. And your mom's not in a good financial situation? No. I guess she's what you would call normal, Dave. She has quite a bit of debt she has a home with a mortgage uh too big for her um she's just got you know i don't know all the specifics but

you know she's she's really struggling and it really hurts kind of to see because you know she's the hardest person hardest working person i know in my life and she works more hours than anyone i know and makes half of what i make so so it just doesn't seem fair, you know? Yeah. Okay. So she makes $40 a year? My mom, probably about $40, yeah. And she's single, I take it?

Yeah. My parents are divorced. Okay. All right. And what do you do for a living? I'm a chemical engineer. Okay. Cool.

Cool. Well, one of the beauties of getting yourself in a good financial situation is you're able you're you're dealing from strength to where you're able to help people that you see that are in need and people that you love okay and so that that's where you are you're able you're not morally obligated or ethically obligated, but it seems like a reasonable thing to do to reach over and pay off $11,000. You make 80. You could do it very quickly and fairly easily, right?

Yeah, that's sort of what I thought. Yeah, just knock it out. What I would want to do is this in this situation. I try to, anytime I'm going to give someone my money, I try to influence their behaviors as a part of that. And if I can't, then I hesitate on whether I'm supposed to give them money. In this case, this money involves you. You got the education.

You know, she has continuously throughout her life bit off more than she can chew, and that includes when she lovingly helped her son in a stupid way, right? So what I would want to do is I want her to go through Financial Peace University in return for you paying this off, and I'll pay for it. That's very kind of you. Thank you, Dave. Okay. But tell her she has to go to class because you and I want to –

we don't want to just treat the symptom. See, debt is the symptom. We want to treat the problem, right? I know. And it's a longstanding problem. I feel like she likes to, I apologize for that. I feel like she likes to fall on the blade. That's always kind of been how she is.

A little bit of martyr syndrome. Yeah, a little bit of martyr syndrome. Yeah, she's playing martyr. You know, is she from the South by chance? No. It's an art form down here, man. She lived in Texas for a long time. It's an art form.

I mean, it's like, you know, just Scarlett O'Hara, I'll wear the drapes, right? Yeah. So anyway, you just need to sit down and say, hey, Kay, Mom, I love you, and what you did for me is absolutely incredible, and I want to pay the student loan off. The only thing I'm going to ask in return is that you go to this class. Okay. And I'm going to pay you $11,000 to go to this class. Don't talk about, don't shame her on all the stupid stuff she's done,

that she's had a lifetime pattern of stupidity. Don't talk about any of that. It's a simple transaction. I want to bless you, and I want to pay off this loan because it was for me. But the only thing I'm asking in return is I want you to go this class. It's nine classes, and it's nine lessons, nine weeks, one night a week for nine weeks. And then there's a year thing you're plugged into online. And so that means you're getting paid over $ thousand dollars a night to go mom and don't don't don't yeah resist the urge to tell her

how dumb she's been and anything just be grateful and just say this is a requirement of the gift i'm going to pay off eleven thousand dollars and you're going to this class because this information has changed my life, Mom. And you raised me, and it's a way I can help you. And so you hold on, and I'll have Kelly pick up, and we'll get you signed up or get Mom signed up for the nine-week class or get you in touch with Kelly so she can sign her up after you have this conversation. But I always like to change the behaviors that cause the problem so the problem doesn't grow back. Because if you have a lifetime pattern of these problems growing back,

you have to change the behaviors. All of us do that, don't we? Every single one of us have to do this. So there's no getting around it, folks. The debt is, you know, it's never really the problem. It's always the symptom. It's a symptom of immaturity. It's a symptom of impulsiveness.

It's a symptom of greed. I'm trying to go too fast. Every one of those were what happened to me. Every one of those. I was impulsive. I was immature. That's why I went broke. I was greedy.

Not in the sense of stealing or like some kind of thing. But greedy just sometimes just means the desire, the overambition about money to go too fast. And I was all of those things. And, of course, going broke rubbed it out of me, right? Oh, man. It's tough sandpaper. But it works. Pain is a thorough teacher, right?

But all of us are just like his mom. Every one of us. Some are more extreme than others, so you can see the illness. It's standing out there. Others are just, it's subtle and you hide it, but it's still under there. You still haven't dealt with a core issue that's continually causing the money problems, continually causing the money stress. Opening day here at the headquarters of the new Ramsey Solutions, new headquarters,

the new Dollar Car Rental Studios. Joining me next, Ramsey personality Ken Coleman, as we continue our celebration here on the Dave Ramsey Show. This is big news, guys. You need to stop and listen. The Fed decided not to raise interest rates. That means you've got a small window of time before rates rise again. Here's the deal. Most people are paying too much interest on their largest expense, their home.

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Call 888-LOAN-200. That's 888-562-6200 or churchillmortgage.com. Well, we're taking your calls these hours of this first day, but we're also taking a moment to pause and reflect and a pause and look forward into the future from our new studios and our new headquarters where we bit like a kid on Christmas morning, and we don't really want Christmas Day to end. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, joins me for this segment and uh it's actually ken's birthday happy birthday thank you sir and what a birthday present yeah uh to get to do what we do is pretty much a gift every day but to do it in these gorgeous studios in this stunning building so unbelievable hogan and i were discussing

you a little bit earlier we're a little bit confused as to how someone arranged it that the very first broadcast from the new Ramsey headquarters was not the Dave Ramsey show, but it was the Ken Coleman show. You know, it's funny you say that. I did not even think about that. I just ran into Jeremy Breland, who leads the personalities team. He said, Dave said at the opening segment of his show that you were the first broadcast. I went, oh, that doesn't feel right. You should have thought of that before you did it ken yeah i know somebody missed that detail and i don't know how i should have started tomorrow but truthfully i didn't think about it it's apropos because this building

is aimed at the future well it's apropos and so we're proud that the show is here and we're proud that you're here and that is funny though it's pretty good Hogan by the way did he jumped in front of Rachel in line

oh yeah she was supposed to be on first but he got on first because he had to head to New York to do big time

media yeah he's going up there and doing a bunch of TV shows he's a big deal so he's been here longer than

me he knows he knows where he stands you get razzed here on the air you get razzed behind the scenes we're being pretty lightweight right now but and let me say this too let me say this on your show this is also apropos that i got to do this because of you and saying i want this to be something that lives for a long time and it's about multiple

people reaching as many people as possible and you've been so generous with your platform for all the ramsey personalities that we get to do work that matters so much to us. That's also congruent with the mission of Ramsey Solutions. So I just want to say that because Chris Hogan, Rachel Cruz, Chrissy Wright, Anthony O'Neill would all echo what I'm saying, that this whole thing today, that we get to do what we do is because of your generosity and your belief in us. So we're grateful.

Well, we do believe in you. That's for sure. So we're going back with each of the personalities. Talk about how you became a Ramsey personality. Yeah, fun story. You and I knew each other for probably close to a decade, and we knew each other through a leadership event called Catalyst. I had had the opportunity to interview you several times.

Bill Hampton, who was a leader here at the time, was one of my closest friends in the world. My wife, Stacy, many people don't know this, but Stacy was the first Coleman to work for Ramsey Solutions back in the day. She sold radio. She did. And so we knew each other, but not super well, but had gotten to know each other. And you had invited me up to, on a contract basis basis to host the very first Smart Conference. And this was 2014. And I said, yeah, I'd love to do it. So I came up for a day, and we were meeting about the event itself, what I would do, programming ideas, things of that nature. At the end of the day, you walked in the room and said, hey, we've been talking about you.

And I said, okay. And we had been talking, you know, Jeremy Green and I had been talking about how could I do something at Ramsey Solutions. I had a feeling that this was a place that I could serve and do what I love, but it wasn't the right timing. And I had knocked on the door a few times previous, but it wasn't the right timing. And you said at the end of the day, you said, we've got a role for you. It's not a personality role. We know you've got a voice. We know you want to say something, but we also feel like you can help us. And where you can help us would be to be the video channel host, host the Entree Leadership Podcast, and host our live events. And that's what we need from you now. And if you're interested in that,

then we'd like to keep going on the conversation. And I remember getting in the car, Dave, about five minutes after that conversation ended with a few other senior leaders. And I remember getting in the car, Dave, about five minutes after that conversation ended with a few other senior leaders. And I called Stacey and I said, I think we're moving to Nashville. She said, what? And I went on to just say, I think the door is swinging wide open and I don't know where it's going, but I think we're supposed to be here. And we prayed about it not long. And about a few months later, we started. I think it was June 1 of 2014.

I came in that role and served in that role until 2017 around May. And that's when you and the leadership and Stacey and I had been talking for a while. And we kind of made it official. But I came in at a capacity to serve others, to lift other personalities, to lift other platforms. And I think it was the best thing that ever happened to me because I was able to learn more about this culture, grasp the vision of you and the leadership. And as I tell my callers, Dave, confirm that this, in fact, was what I wanted to do. And it was just a wonderful season. And then stepping into the personality role, Dave, has been unbelievable, to be honest with you.

It's been really rewarding. It is hard to sit on the bench though yeah it is it's very hard at times there are times where you struggle with i want to be the starter put me in coach i want a chance to shoot the ball uh when the clock is going down or i want a chance to be the quarterback. No question about it. But there are other times where you go, okay, at least I'm on the team. At least I'm in the field. At least I've got a uniform on.

And you have to wrestle with that. You're exactly right. That's real. It's a very hard thing to do. It takes a certain level of spiritual and emotional maturity. And you had all of that in spades to be able to walk through the process that got you to where you are right now. And now things are just booming. Number one bestselling book.

The radio show has now launched. Our first radio show that we've launched, other than this one, in syndication on regular radio, now with over 30 stations carrying the show and the SiriusXM network and the whole bit. It's all gone step by step by step and beautifully done. So as we move into this new building with the new studios and Studio B, which now everybody's calling Ken's Studio. You're going to be in trouble.

I can tell you. The other personalities are going to go in there and clean your stuff out of there. I'm just telling you. It's coming. But anyway. I have nothing to do with those rumors. Sure, yeah. The new building means a lot.

Yeah, it does. There's a lot of excitement around here when you walk around the floor. We've got the podcast studios, the video studios, these two studios on the glass that you and I are talking about, mine and yours. And, you know, how does that feel as you're walking around here? What are you sensing in the air? Yeah, that the future is bright if we stay faithful. It starts with, I got to come in every day with my bucket full because I put the right stuff in it. And I've got to pour myself out to those callers. I've got to pour myself out to those smart conference audiences when I speak.

I've got to help the people that God puts in front of me. And if I'm faithful to that, I think this entire building is a monument to your faithfulness. And I look at that, and I'm a pastor's kid, and my dad put me around some great men and women of faith. And if you look at the Bible, the great men and women who did great things for God were faithful first, and there were a lot of wilderness years, and you have to be faithful in the little. And I just see so many big things here built on little things.

As I'm sitting here, I can see the replica. You people, when you come here, you're going to see it. Am I giving this away? Because I don't want to get in trouble. I'm looking right now about 40 yards in front of me through the glass, a replica of the car that Dave was driving when he started selling his book, self-published book, out of the trunk. Now, that's amazing.

You talk about perspective. So I look at the future, Dave, and I say, wow, the harvest is huge. There's so many people we can help, and we've got to do it one day at a time, one person at a time. But I'm dreaming and praying as big as I ever have before in my life. No question about it. Yeah. So you guys are getting ready to launch the Ken Coleman Show on YouTube, right?

That's right. We're going to be live streaming pretty soon. Don't know an exact date. Stay tuned to KenColeman.com or just the Dave Ramsey social media channels. We'll let you all know. But, yeah, that's going to be really special as well. We've got all the audio up, but the YouTube feed is not even on this show right now. We're running best of.

That's right. And so YouTube feed is not open here. Hopefully in the next week or so best of. That's right. And so YouTube feed is not open here. Hopefully, in the next week or so, we'll get this one going. Yours will probably be around the same time. Yeah. Whole new tribe. I mean, look what your YouTube channel has done. It's staggering.

How many people consume the YouTube show? Mind-blowing. It just blows. It's something like 200 million downloads now. It's insane. Yeah. But that's where people are. The top 1% of all youtube brands

yeah absolutely amazing yeah i mean i and i don't i couldn't even spell youtube i don't even know how to do it it's just like you know it's unbelievable yeah so this is what's happened but so you you've got youtube coming streaming on your show you're the launch of your show the continued growth anything else right quick well the proximity principle continuing to sell well ken coleman.com just to connect with us on social media and that youtube channel if you search the ken coleman show we're putting out one call a day live video that you have experienced from the show you can see that now so go subscribe and be ready for it when we go live stream there we go good stuff thank you ken congratulations thank you and happy birthday thank you this is the d Ramsey Show. Thanks for joining us, America.

We're glad you're here. Peter is in Las Vegas. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Peter. Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I've got a question.

I want to see if this is the right time for me to buy a home. I'm currently 39 years old. I own a few businesses. I make about close to 500 grand a year. Wow. I'm dead 39 years old. I own a few businesses. I make about close to 500 grand a year. Wow. Yeah, I'm debt-free with the exception about four months ago, I bought a commercial center where one of my businesses currently operates. So I kind of have a mortgage there that is equal to what my lease payment used to be.

So do I still treat that as debt that needs to be taken care of prior to buying a home? No, it would be consumer debt I would take care of prior to buying a home. But I would put that on the list of things I would knock out. So you've obviously got the itch to buy a home, right? Right. Okay. So what price range home are you thinking about buying? I'm thinking about 1.1, 1.2.

Good for you. Okay, cool. Well, our rule of thumb is to be debt-free, consumer debt, other than the house, and obviously we're talking about a house. So before you buy, and have your emergency fund in place of three to six months of expenses. Goodness gracious, you should do that. And then have, of course, your, you know, a good strong down payment. And if you put down 20%, you avoid PMI.

And then I would put it on a 15-year fix to where the payments are no more than a fourth of your take-home pay. But the numbers you're giving me, that's all going to be. You're going to be well within that in every one of those cases. And so, yeah, I'd go ahead and buy if I were in your shoes. Then I would get about the business of paying that mortgage off and the business loan off or the commercial real estate loan off as well. Probably pay your house loan off first. What's the balance on the commercial center?

2.3. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead and knock out your home first then and then let's knock the other out and that gives you something to do with all this money because i mean it needs to have a target or it'll wander off right right right now now i have another question should i i mean i have my own uh emergency fund in place but should each one of my businesses also have an emergency fund like like you say, the three to six months? When you're in business, we call it retained earnings in a business setting, and retained earnings are used not only for emergencies but for expansion.

You become your own line of credit if there's a downturn and you need to cover something or an equipment purchase that's substantial or something like that. In other words, we're saving up to buy stuff and invest back into the business. But, yeah, we hold retained earnings at the office, and that keeps the business running as a standalone entity. And then we keep the household emergency fund, and that's really just for emergencies only. So it's a little bit of a nuanced difference, but saving money is always wise. Having liquidity, having cash around is always wise. And most people that are entrepreneurial like you and me don't keep enough cash around.

We have a tendency to burn cash, and we see cash sitting there as being lazy, and we want to buy something else with it, do something else with it. We want it to have a little more action than that, and that can often be a mistake. So you need to have a good, strong retained earnings account as well. All right, Carrie is with us in Kansas City. Hi, Carrie. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So, well, I just inherited part of my mother's 403B account. It's about $ 000 and apparently i have a couple choices of either cashing it out with no penalty taxes obviously or i'm rolling it over into an inherited ira and i guess i'm kind of wondering your take on that. I'm still on baby step number two with about $13,000 left. Okay.

I would cash it out and pay your taxes and get out of debt and finish your baby step three. Okay. So you'll have your emergency fund in place, you'll pay your taxes, and you'll pay off all your debts. Okay. And if there's any left? If there's any left, then we move on to baby step four five six wherever you are in that process you know when you get to baby step four have you do you own a home um no okay all right if a home ownership idea is in your future you might set that

any balance aside beyond your emergency fund for your home down payment fund that you begin to build now that you're debt-free. Okay. And that'll go good. So I'm sorry for the loss of your mom. When did she pass? In May. Oh, wow. Just the other day.

And not long ago. Yeah. How old was she? She was 82, but she'd been struggling with Alzheimer's for quite some time, so it was a mixed blessing. Sounds like she was pretty good with money, though. She was. She made it all the way to 82 and wasn't broke.

No, but she bought long-term care insurance, which made a big difference for her. Ah, very cool. Well, I say all that to say one of the things I always judge in answering you guys' questions, but also in my own life, is if I inherit money or get money from something like that, I want to know that what I'm doing with the money is honoring to that person. And I suspect you becoming debt-free, having an emergency fund, you living out a detailed, clear plan like you're doing, you know, moving towards a house, you're debt-free, you know, all of that, I suspect all of those things would

make her smile. Yes, I think they would. Yeah. And that's kind of my acid test to go, is what we're saying smart? And I think it is smart because she was wise. You don't get to 82 and not be broke if you're not wise. And so congratulations. Well done, Mom.

And it's a good acid test for when you're making your decisions on this stuff. All right, Brianna is with us. Brianna is in Cleveland. Hi, Brianna. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you so much. I'm very excited. Well, I'm honored to talk to you. How can I help?

So, my husband and I are actually about to finish up Baby Step 1 by the end of this week. Yay! And, yes, super excited. So, we are having a little bit of a debate on how to move forward as we go into baby step two. So I have not read your book yet or anything, but I did start listening to your podcast. I don't know, maybe back in February. And I listen all the time. So my question is, is that the way that I have all of our debts set up is that I have medical mixed in with the rest of it.

Sure. And I have everything in order. It is debt. Right. So he feels that we should work on the credit cards first and then go to medical. And I was just like, well, you know what? I'm going to call Uncle Dave. Well, there's two answers.

There's two answers to this. The first one is the smart aleck answer. He's broken in debt. What he feels about money, nobody cares. That's the smart aleck answer, okay? Now I got that out of the way, okay? So it's like a fat person having an opinion on physical fitness. I mean, come on, you know?

So that's silly. Or like me telling you how to grow hair on top of your head. That's silly. Now, once we got that out of the way, now the real answer is this. You need to follow a plan that is proven, a proven system that millions of people have done. And that is where you list the debts, smallest to largest, regardless of interest rate, and attack them in that order. The reason is that personal finance is 80% behavior.

It's only 20% head knowledge. The problem with our money is our behaviors, not that we don't have math figured out. He knew how to do math when he was going into debt. You guys knew how to do math when you didn't have savings to cover those medical bills. Math is not your problem. Intelligence is not your problem. Behaviors is your problem. Same with me.

That's how I got broke is I did stupid stuff. It wasn't because I was stupid. It's because I did stupid stuff. There's a difference. And so you've got to say, all right, what is the proven way, the fastest way to get out of debt? When you pay off one, you get excited. When you pay off the next one, you get more excited. When you pay off the next one, you get more excited. And that's what the debt snowball does, listing them smallest to largest, regardless of interest rate. If you were doing math, you

wouldn't have credit card debt in the first place. So hold on. I'm going to send your husband a copy of the book, The Total Money Makeover, and you can read it too. Thank you for calling. It's an honor to talk to you. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. If you're just joining us, we're celebrating around here today. This is the new Ramsey, Dave Ramsey Studios, the dollar car rental studios in the new headquarters of Ramsey Solutions. And throughout the day, we've had all the Ramsey personalities join us. And joining us this segment is number one best-selling author, Christy Wright, the creator of the Business Boutique Movement and host of the Business Boutique Podcast.

I wanted to have each of the personalities stop by and just kind of reminisce with us as we're kind of marking this milestone. Kind of exciting. Thanks. I'm so glad to be here. It's kind of exciting in this building right now. A lot of people moving around. A lot of excitement. There's a lot of energy in there to be here it's kind of exciting in this building right now a lot of people moving around a lot of excitement there's a lot of energy in there yeah it's amazing we have so much space and just having the room like you feel like you have room to breathe but there's

also room for more energy it's really fun yeah it's very cool so go back um i had each of the other personalities do this as well go back and tell the story of you becoming a ramsey personality all right i feel like you should tell the story do you remember this i do okay so i'd been a speaker for years and had been on the team and you know we went through the reorg in 2012 and we rolled up the personalities and i was kind of in this split role still doing youth products still speaking and then i just remember one day you pulled me into jeremy breland's office and you're like hey we want to talk to you about becoming a personality which for you you'd been working on thinking about talking to people about for a while but for me felt like brand new news and i was like oh my gosh okay you know and then we started brainstorming what the message could be and who

the market could be and it felt really fun and exciting and new but it also felt crazy in the best way yeah yeah Go back before that. You were working on youth products, you said. And Rachel was in earlier, and we talked about her first year here and how she got married, came to work, and left and was gone for almost two months. Oh, like two weeks later, yeah. Yeah. And you jumped in the middle of that, too, because we actually booked her on more than she could do. That's right and it was interesting because i remember two weeks before she was supposed to go on the road uh we were supposed to write a talk that she was going to deliver at these 20 keynote presentations

and i talked to bill hampton who was here at the time and i said let me go to knoxville let me rent a car go to knoxville and interview rachel and we'll put together this talk and that's what i did i met her at panera in knoxville in the strip and we sat down i was like hey i'm christy that was the first time we ever met. Oh, wow. And I interviewed her, all her information about money and her story

and we kind of worked together to put that talk together and then, yeah, when it came time to go on the road and the travel schedule was crazy, we kind of did a

divide and conquer thing and I remember talking to the guy at the conference and I said, yeah, I don't think she's going to be able to do all of them because of the travel schedule

and he said, well, what am I going to do? And I said, well, I'll do them and he said can you speak i said i think so i'd never spoken in my life but i was like i'm gonna figure this out as i go you had got you done a bunch of young life stuff young life yes but we're talking about a thousand teenagers like 20 students in someone's house to a thousand teenagers i was like you know what i was like we're gonna figure it out as we go and we went on the road and talk about being thrown in

the deep end i was thrown in the deep end but it was awesome it was this amazing training ground as a speaker because if you can speak to teenagers you can speak to anybody rachel and i were saying earlier thank god for anthony o'neill so we don't that's right oh we are so thankful for him he's got he actually likes teenagers we like you too teenagers but yeah but he likes you more so more. So you got thrown in the deep end. And prior to that, you were working on stuff like Financial Peace Junior, right? Yeah, all of the youth products. So anything that fell in the youth department. When I started here, it was 10 years ago actually, this month, this coming month, September,

we had about 200 team members. And so now, how huge our organization is, it's hard to imagine that so many things would fall in one department. But it was publishing, it was products, it was kid books, piggy banks, Bible studies, Generation Change. I went to a ton of conferences, and we'd set up booths at the expo selling our Bible study, Generation Change. And so it was just a variety of things. But it's interesting to see how that has evolved based on my strengths and the need and what

we're doing as a company. And Sheryl Sandberg says in her book, Lean In, she says, some of the most amazing career opportunities are not positions that are posted, but problems that you solve and that thing becomes your job. And that's certainly been a piece of my story in those early days when you're just kind of jumping in there and doing what needs to be done. So I pulled you into Jeremy Breland's office, who's the executive vice president of runs all the personalities and sits on our operating board and we said all right let's talk about what it would

look like if christy moved full time from the speaking thing on the you know the tour with the you know fixing rachel or covering rachel's back in back slots she couldn't cover all that kind of stuff and um i think the next thing i remember was we were sitting and doing a strat op trying to figure this out i don't know if those are an in-between no it was pretty quick from there i remember you saying uh we need to figure out what your message is and i said well dave i know what my message is because from five i think years of speaking at that point um really the sweet spot up to that point had been women and life balance and that was really connecting with people and so um you said okay well we'll do and life balance. And that was really connecting with people.

And so you said, okay, well, we'll do your life balance talk at our EMS, our Entree Leadership Master Series event in November, which I think was about two months away. And that was my first kind of audition. You know, it was kind of a first chance for me to be on a stage and speak for our company. And it went really well. It did.

It was a big hit. And then we ended up doing that talk, you know, multiple events after that because it really hit home. And then, yeah, that led to a startup where we got in a room with board members, leaders, my husband, Matt. And we looked at different pieces of my story. And I always refer to that day as just a really pivotal moment, not just because we were planning the future, but because we were looking at patterns. And people ask me all the time when they're starting a business, even, you know, how do I figure out what business to start?

And we started looking at, okay, my story of being raised by a single mom that started a cake shop when I was six months old. Well, I, you know, pursued a degree in business in college. I became a certified business coach. I'd started multiple side businesses. Like you start to see a pattern here of business and my heart for women and also what we're doing as a company. And then the need of the marketplace with millions of women coming into starting side gigs and side hustles, but they need help.

And so it was just really cool to see us spending some time unpacking that that day that helped us figure out the future. I remember you've used the analogy or the story many times because it's so poignant of the four-year-old Christy sleeping on the flower sacks in your mom's cake shop. And I remember just instantly seeing a picture of that little girl with flour on her face. And I said, that's a story. You're going to tell this story the rest of your life. And what's so interesting, Dave, is I didn't know that day how healing that story would be for people. I thought it was more giving people context for me, my backstory, why I have a passion for women in business. But at our very first business boutique event, Jeremy Breland, who you were just mentioning, was walking around the lobby

and asking women, you know, how's the event? What do you think? It was our first time doing this. And he walked up to a woman and said, Hey, my name's Jeremy. I'm on the team. You just want to know what you think. And she grabbed him by the shoulders and just tears started streaming down her face. And she said, I got everything i needed out of this event in the first 10 minutes she said when christy stood on stage and talked about her mom pulling her out of bed at two and three and four in the morning she said and she turned out okay i have a 10 year old and a 12 year old and i'm a florist and i get him out of bed at three in the morning every day to go to the shop to prepare flowers and all i think all the time is i'm harming my kids i'm harming my kids

they're not going to make it because this is such a terrible childhood. And seeing that story was so healing for her. And I would have never known how God was going to use that story in ways that I can't even imagine. I could just see that little blonde-headed kid with that flower on her face finding her voice that day in that room. And we said, this is what you're going to do yeah you're you're this is what this is why god positioned you at least for this time to show ladies how to do that and to show ladies it can be done and uh to to uh you know to be able to speak the right language and to be able to be the right person of character in front of them and uh you you've been every bit of that so the new building is a lot for the team here we've got the podcast studios

seven of them we've got new video studios and tv studios of two large ones downstairs we've got these two studios up here palatial on the glass out here for sure um and all in the midst of all of that what does that do for christy wright christy wright brand what are you seeing happening that you can talk about that you're allowed to tell? You know, we talked about this a lot, so it may have already been said today multiple times, but I just think even more than the building or in addition to the building, the fact that we're together. You know, I've been over at Dover, so I've been away from the main building for about a year now, sitting with a different team, my team, but, you know, we've been split up.

And so just being back here in this space where we're all in the same place feels very powerful. It's more than just productivity. It's more than just energy. There's something about the spirit of us getting to be in the same place that I think, for me, we're going to see the ripple effect in more ways than we can even fathom. I'm most excited about that. And I'm a high I. I'm like 99% I, so I'm like people.

I want to be around my people. So that's what I'm most excited about the people the people that get energy from people have got a lot of energy right now there's 900 well there's 600 of us moved in another 300 move in next week and um it's it's really happening out there so very proud of you thanks so much day congratulations and baby's coming on okay yes yeah we're excited counting down have you announced the name publicly mary grace she'll go by mary grace i knew her name but i didn't didn't know if i was supposed to or not that's okay i mess that up all the time rachel rachel warns me about that so christy wright ramsey personality

number one best-selling author be sure and check out the business boutique podcast and everything else she's doing lady is on fire to say the least thanks for dropping by thanks for having me this is the d Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for the Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about a product or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything that is mentioned during this episode in the podcast show notes section.

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