The Ramsey Show - App - Hire Someone With a Purpose, Not Just a Pulse (Hour 3)

Episode Date: July 14, 2020

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Hey guys, it's James Childs, producer of the show. Dave and the team are out today helping thousands of small business owners at this week's Entree Leadership Summit event. But in the meantime, we pulled together some of the best moments from the show from previous episodes for you to enjoy. You are listening to the best of The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. You jump in. We'll talk Ken Colemanman ramsey personalities my co-host today here on the air we're talking life money jobs careers and in general just talking

about you right in front of you the phone number is 888-825-5225 that's 888-825-5225 jeff's gonna start off this hour in Indiana. Hey, Jeff, how are you? I'm doing great, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? How can Ken and I help? So I'm a second-generation small business owner, and we are hiring right now.

And I have a unique problem of needing some guidance through sorting through all of the resumes and applications we're getting. There's far more people than we could interview, and we put a lot of weight into how much time they spent at their previous job, and I'm not sure that's as relevant as it used to be. And I was just seeing if you had some red flags or some things that you would look for if you were in my position. Yeah, Jeff, I think I would love for you to start by a quick exercise. Tell us what will help you win the most. What are the characteristics, the qualities, the skills that you could identify right now, top of mind for an applicant? You say, you know what, they're the type of person that's going to help us win. What are you looking for? Team player. Team player. What else? Likes to collaborate, works well with others.

Okay, so. Not afraid to put their own two cents in. Great. All right, that's a great list right there. Team player, a collaborator, right? So there's a spirit about a team player. They're humble. A collaborator, again, that's speaking to their desire to actually get into the team environment, get their hands dirty.

They're going to contribute. It's not about them. It's about the mission. And they actually enjoy the creative collaborating the rest of those skills those top four or five things you listed off i'd be looking at the resumes for evidence of those things to start that's where i'd start yeah that's the best way to do it and then um you can do a quick phone call and look for those we picked up a book uh with for my friend uh pat lincione a few years ago, and we had people here, and we would say, well, so-and-so just doesn't get it.

And we didn't really know what that meant, although we just knew that they didn't get it, like they didn't get the memo. And when we read Pat's book, we started figuring out what we were meaning. And his book's called The Ideal Team Player, and an ideal team player here is hungry, humble, and smart. I'm listening to that book right now. Yeah, they're people smart, they're hungry, meaning they're a go-getter, and they're humble, meaning it's not all about them. And if you're missing one of those three, you're going to have a problem, especially inside a small business.

And you're looking for what you said is a sense of ownership, too. You want them to act like an owner, which is one of our core values here you're all self-employed um and so we want you to act like that when you're here think about what an owner would do and do that and that's how you're the right you're on the right track then now one of the things we do to call it is we'll do a quick phone call and just look for a culture fit on the phone call. And then the first interview is no more than 30 minutes long if they make it to an interview. Do not spend more than 30 minutes on the first interview, even if it's the best applicant in the entire freaking world. You're wasting your time.

Do not spend more than 30 minutes and spend two thirds of that because you have two ears and one mouth two thirds of it listening one third of it talking so you got 20 minutes of listening and 10 minutes of talking do not go 32 minutes do not go 31 minutes 30 minutes because what you're going to find if you haven't already found this and i found it back when i used to do the interviews i don't do them anymore but some people walk in the door and hadn't even said a word, and you're already, uh-uh. Yeah. It's all over them. Nope.

You got confused. Somewhere along the line, you got confused. You're not qualified. But you have to spend a few minutes with them. And then if you don't watch, you like people. And I would spend an hour with somebody that I was never going to hire in a million years, and it wasted their time, my time, frustrated everybody involved. So, no, just 30 minutes.

We're going to get in and out, and that sets the stage. Jeff, real quick, you said you have so many applicants, you can't talk to all of them. How many are we talking about, and for what type of positions or position are we talking about? So they're mid-to- entry level positions. And I would typically get, you know, three months ago, I would have gotten five to eight resumes, four out of five or seven out of eight would have went straight in the trash can. And today I'm getting, you know, 50 applicants to the same job. And I'm finding 15 that just look beautiful. Okay, so let me just give you one other thing. I think what Dave is saying is right.

Before you get to the phone call, I think in these times with the amount of applicants that are coming in due to the massive unemployment numbers, I would email all of these people, and I'm going to test one of the qualities that Dave talked about in Pat's book, Ideal Team Player. I want to test for hunger. See, because Pat and I have actually talked many times on the Entree Leadership Podcast. He used to host the program here for Ramsey Solutions. And Pat and I, and I think Dave's in agreement, you can't teach hunger. I can teach humility, I can train humility, and I can teach people smart and train people smart.

I cannot put an appetite in somebody that does not exist. And he agreed with me on that. I would send an email to all 50 and I'd say, some type of quick assignment. Doesn't have to be a long thing. You're not trying to scare people, but you're trying to delineate, Dave, between the people that are hungry and the people that are just looking for, give me an interview. I want to see some hunger. And I'd say some type of question like, could you send us in 300 words why you want this job and why you think you would be better than other people that are applying? Something like that.

You can make up your question. Make it relevant to you. I think those that respond, I'd look deeper at their resume because I think they're showing some hunger, at least some initial hunger. Just an idea. Give them a little thing to jump over. And people that aren't serious will go, eh, I'm not jumping over. Absolutely right. Okay, you self-select.

You might get 28 out of the pile. Because they may just be mass emailing resumes like everybody does. I'm telling you, that's happening. Yeah, it's definitely happening. So what we're trying to do is get the riff off. I mailed out 500 resumes. I got no responses. Well, that just crap doesn't work is why.

That's right. We're not looking for people with a pulse. We're looking for people with a purpose. Questionable on the pulse, yeah. No, yeah, people that are wired up and fired up. And so, yeah, give them. I mean, I've known guys that were more manipulative than I would suggest. But if it was like a sales thing, you know, I'd send out something and then not respond for three or four times

and see if they'll keep coming at you. That's right. Because sales is about rejection, and are they going to keep coming at you? I don't do that. I think that's a wee bit manipulative. It is. But it still makes the same point of if you put just a little bit of a filter up, it'll screen out a whole bunch of it.

That's right. A whole bunch of the lacies. You can test for hunger. And by the way, to your point, Dave, because you really created the interview process that, of course, we still do, and we teach at Entree Leadership. And it's one of the hottest lessons every year at Entree Master Series, how we do interviews, our interview process. It works, folks. But I'm going to tell you something. If you can get to the point where you come up with some of your litmus test questions to gauge hunger i'm telling you to really help you because people will fake hunger but the ones that are really hungry they'll stay on the line so to that extent that you can really do that it's going

to really help you get the right people look for hungry people you can train them to do just about anything yeah i mean you can you can really test for all three things. Well, you can, but I think hunger is super important. Yeah, I agree with that. It's hard to light wet wood, you know. That's true. I was burned out. Not possible.

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We'll be back soon with more live content. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run all the time, you'll save even more. There's a magic word you use to get the free money. It's called a promo code. Ramsey! Use the promo code Ramsey. John, our question of the day. Today's question comes from Heidi in Michigan. She visits DaveRamsey.com to ask, I am 26 and realizing that I need to get my life

together. I have been very reckless with money in my past and I'm trying to get myself out of debt so I can achieve these huge goals. Goals such as owning real estate and running a property management company as well as living a life that no one else can. What is your advice on just getting started? There's so much information out there and I don't know where to begin. I'm surviving but not living. My parents are offering me to move back home for a period of time but I don't want to feel as i've failed i just need guidance that's all over the place we've talked about this 10 times on the show today this is a question that's bigger than money yeah how do you eat an elephant a bite at a time one bite at a time you listed 16 things in here you're wanting to do you need to line them up in order. What is the most important thing?

The most important thing is for you to create a personally sustainable situation. You need to sustain Heidi first before you worry about buying real estate, before you worry about owning a property management company, before you worry about anything. Get stable in your career, stable in your finances, have a nice, neat little apartment, and everything is under control. company before you worry about anything. Get stable in your career, stable in your finances, have a nice, neat little apartment, and everything is under control. You've been in a chaos for a long time. It's all between these words. All of these words say you've been partying your butt off, girl. All of these words say you are disorganized and you haven't had a plan and

you just had something gave you a wake-up call. And that's cool. And we're here to help you. And we love you and we'll walk with you. But your first step is very not flashy. No. One of the things I'm getting grumpy about in my old age, Dave, is our obsession with pathologizing everything. She says this in this line,

I don't want to feel as I have failed. We are so terrified of feeling uncomfortable, of feeling hurt, of feeling sad. And we are robbing ourselves of transformative moments when we do that. And we hide and you compress those things and you numb out from those feelings. I think the most important thing she needs to do if she's 26 and realizing i don't have any i'm nowhere near my goals well yeah i mean i just now have something feel it feel it you're not where you want to be yeah and let that be the catalyst for what tomorrow's

going to look like i mean it can be um i can speak from personal experience on this from you know when we went broke the thing i had to first go through was um feeling stupid because i was right yes i had to feel like an idiot talking to my wife because i was an idiot yes and you just kind of got to live in that a moment, and then that helps you not do it again. Yeah. It's conviction. It's not condemnation. That's right.

And it's when the guilt is appropriate versus I'm going to put that in my backpack and turn that guilt into shame, and I'm just going to carry that around with me forever so what we're saying is um heidi you don't just go from disorganized having no plan misbehaving chaotic life party life whatever it is is going on here or whatever combination those things are going on and you flip the switch and now you own real estate a successful business and your personal finances are all lined up perfectly right there's no microwave there's no pill there's oh, I'm going to get a life pill. No, you're going to build a life brick by brick, board by board, and you start with the foundation, which is just you get stable. And there's no soundtrack that swells.

There's no big moments. There's no firework show for you. No cymbal hit. You wake up and say, today I'm going to put on my running shoes and I'm going to get as far as I can. I'm going to walk back home and start again tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. One more day. One more day. And then if you've done that a little while, then you're going to feel really comfortable and kind of calm and peaceful about taking the next step. Because you can have little wins. Yeah. Next step. And then the next step. And then the next step. Quit trying to do everything at once uh and it it is the beauty of a wake-up call and i am not disputing that you've had a wake-up call it looks very

thorough no whatever it is it woke you up but but the other thing is want to high-five heidi good for you you had it you had it don't waste this moment yeah it's a this is the thing so but don't also don't despise we have a thing on the wall over here, a replica of my old car that I used to carry books around and sell books out of the trunk of my car when we first started this thing. Now we're in this 250,000-square-foot, $70-million building. But over the top of that old trunk over there in our bookstore right across the lobby, you can see it from sitting here. You can see it.

It's behind a wall from me. It says, Don't despise small beginnings. Humble beginnings. Yeah. Don't despise humble beginnings. So don't do that. Just because it's a humble beginning doesn't mean it's not going to end up. You get every one of the things on this list, you're just

going to get them in order. That's how you eat an elephant a bite at a time. James is with us. James is in Texas. Hi, James. How are you? Hi, Mr. Ramsey. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up in your world?

So I've been a fan for almost a year now. I know that you never say debt is smart. I just want to get your opinion on what I'm about to say is going into just a little bit of debt. I have a full tuition scholarship to law school. Good for you. Thank you. Where? I also have a university at Richmond, Virginia.

Awesome. Very cool. So the tuition is all covered. You need room and board. Yes, sir. Good. Way to go, man. And you start in the fall?

Thank you. Yes, sir. I also get a – you can pursue a dual degree with this scholarship, and it covers about 75% of it. So I'll also be getting my MBA as well. Okay. So I just wanted to know – so I plan to room and board, books, all that good stuff, living expenses.

It will be about $60,000 to $80,000 by the time this is all said and done because I do have to pay 25% of the MBA as well. And I'm planning, like you say, I'm a broke student, and when I graduate I'll be a broke lawyer. You know, beans and rice, don't go to a restaurant unless I'm, you know, clocking in for an extra shift to pay off my debt. And I'm fully on board with that. So what I wanted to know is, with all of that being said, is this a stupid decision?

I would just go find the $80,000 or the $60,000. You don't need it all today anyway. What do you got, a two-year program or a three-year program? Three. It'll be three years and a summer. Okay, so you need $20,000 a year. That's pizza delivery money. And, James, what is this?

What's the MBA? You don't know this about me. I was a dean of students at a law school for five years. What's an MBA on the back end of a J.D. going to get you? Well, first I want to know how to manage my money for starters. I want to go into corporate litigation, and I know that getting a hold on how corporations work, I can better represent a corporation or multiple depending

on what that litigation brings me to. Okay. So A, you're way smarter than me. Way to go. And B, what I want you to do is to sit down and talk to folks who went through the JD MBA program and find out the ROI against that MBA. Because I want to know if it's worth that gap money. And I know that every law student I've ever worked with, and they are brilliant and smart and kind and ready to go attack the world. And they are looking for every single advantage on planet earth to get them to the top of whatever applicant pile they want to be a part of. And I have never sat down on the back end and said, are these extra things? Is that extra $80,000, $60,000?

Well, that's mainly room and board. Right, or $30,000. How much of this does MBA cost? I bet it's a chunk. I talked to the advisor. They said it'd be about $20,000 that's like a high end estimate it depends on how quickly I can

I can take care of it let's say we've got $60,000 and $20,000 of it's that and $40,000 of it's room and board so going back to John's idea let's double check and make sure there's an ROI on that extra $20,000 for the MBA as far as covering the other stuff in 30 years I've never told someone to take out

a loan of any kind, especially a student loan. They almost got you, Dave. No. It's like they're still trying to get you. Didn't even get close. I know. And so, didn't even get close. I love that they keep trying.

I just yawned. I love that they keep trying. So, no, you're going to get a job, son. And you're going to work 80 hours a week between now and the time you go to college. And you're going to do it again next summer. And you're going to be the craziest kid in law school because you're not allowed to work, but you're going to work 80 hours a week between now and the time you go to college. And you're going to do it again next summer. And you're going to be the craziest kid in law school because you're not allowed to work, but you're going to be working. And it doesn't cost you. You can make it.

You're not that far off. You're almost there. So close. Don't cave in and be broke when you come out with $80,000 in debt because you didn't have a better plan. Go get you some money. You're listening to the best of the Dave Ramsey show. We'll be back soon with more live content. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, humans are here! It's awesome! On the debt-free stage, right here in the lobby, real humans are here.

Jeff and Darcy are with us, along with their kiddos, Logan and Ella. Hey guys, welcome! Hello, how you doing Dave? Where do you guys live? Just south of Birmingham, we're in Alabaster, just south of town. Nice, okay, cool. Welcome to Nashville. Thank you. And up here a couple of hours drive north to do your debt-free scream.

That's what we hear. That's the rumor. I love it. How much you paid off? $69,000 in about 17 months. Wow. And your range of income during that time? $130,000.

Cool. What do you all do for a living? Well, I work. I'm a salesman in the outdoor industry. I kind of have the cool job as far as men are concerned. I sell hunting and fishing equipment, work for a lot of big national and global brands that you probably recognize. Yeah. We're going to talk after this. And I'm thinking, all John's thinking samples right now.

He's just thinking samples. Well, I got them in my truck. I'll wear your T-shirt. And I brought the cue with me, too. And then Darcy stays at home to help raise our children and also teaches after-school art classes to both children and senior adults. What kind of debt was the $69,000? Well, it was a little bit of everything, kind of like a lot of your listeners. We did not have credit card debt, oddly enough, but we had a student loan.

We had two cars, and we had a pile of medical debt that we had to work through just from not being educated on. I mean, we had insurance the entire time, but much like what I've heard you talk about in the lessons, we just didn't know what we were doing there. And so it was a mixture. Yeah. Cool. Well, I understand. So what happened 17 months ago? What was the wake-up call? Well, Darcy had kind of been there, right? We took your class and failed it about 10 years ago so we're flunkies and uh we went through this and i knew all the one-liners i drive a lot so i knew the program and just never applied it to my life whatsoever and um i guess about 17 months ago in

august i was traveling east of atlanta one night and got a phone call she and i had already started in a little stewardship class at our previous church home in birmingham and i was traveling in georgia i gotta call it two in the morning calls at two in the morning you're never good right so uh our two oldest kids aren't here today uh we sold them during a debt snowball we took your advice but my oldest son jacob called me at 2 in the morning over there in Georgia, and I answered the phone. I can't believe I heard it, but I woke up, answered the phone, and on the other end of the line was Jacob.

And you know when you can hear fear in your kid's voice, right? And I answered the phone, and Jacob had shared with me that his mom had taken her own life that night at home. Oh, my God. had shared with me that his mom had taken her own life that night at home oh my god and uh that was probably that was probably the one thing that kind of got us going see i knew everybody lost money on this bet so but that was that was probably what got us really motivated that got that's what got me on board and i'm not sure let me make sure i understand there's your ex-wife yes okay i was married when

i was younger in college okay so the other two kids okay i got it and uh anyway we um we had divorced and we had a son together and she struggled for a long time and uh anyway that was probably the one thing that's kind of sparked the fire under me and got me moving and got me on board where she already was and we kind of came together which as you know is is paramount to this program and uh at that point we came home and decided to get serious about it i was sitting in the carpool line one day to pick up ella from school and on your program you guys were giving away leadership materials on on your program for 100 people and i happened to win it never won anything on the radio in my life before but i won that and i thought if that isn't god telling me it's time to get involved and get focused.

So you not only went from just listening and not doing it. You went ahead and just became a coordinator automatically. Coordinator, absolutely. We've done multiple classes. We do them all. We do the online events. Wow. We're leading classes now.

John and Madeline Scully in San Antonio, who you know. John and Maddie, I sit in on their classes and vice versa. They sit on ours. We've gotten to be friends through Facebook. So we're doing it, man. Wow, very cool. And I plan on doing it for a long, long time. Not only do I plan on continuing to coordinate, but you don't know it yet, but I'm coming to work for you.

Okay, all right. We'll take the notice right now. Let my boss, if he's listening, not right now. Yeah. Eventually. That's not why you're here today. That's not. But the, you know, I was speaking at a friend of mine's funeral with another, two of us guys were speaking that were our speakers.

And he said something in that funeral that I've never forgotten. It was many years ago. He said, death and births when a baby is born are a tuning fork for your life. You suddenly go, bing. And with her, your ex-wife's suicide, it just, bing, and you went, this is out of tune. I got to get lined up. You're absolutely right. And I want to be clear, that was definitely the one event I can point to.

But I also knew in my own life, I had a great godly example. I just ignored what I knew to be right for so long. And I knew what was right. And that was just the one thing that lit the fire. But there was more to it than that for sure. I want to do it for these guys in addition. Darcy, the problem with Jeff is he doesn't do anything halfway. No.

And so when he decided that this was going on, you're like, I kind of wish I hadn't brought this up. Right? I mean, you were thankful that you were going to finally do it. But oh, my God. Yeah, he does. He takes it and runs. You know, I came home, Dave, from traveling one week.

I had my guitar with me. I play guitar every day. And one of the few material possessions I really love in this world is my Taylor guitar. And I was driving home, and I got a call from the credit union about the brand new Highlander that I deserved and we weren't making the payments on and I just was so infuriated I was like why in the world are we behind which of course I call her and like why are we behind and she goes I've been telling you we're behind you're just not listening and so I stopped and I was going to sell that guitar to the guy that sold it to me to make that car payment,

which, as you know, was like sticking my finger in a hole in the side of the hull of a boat and knew that wouldn't fix the problem. Came home that night. We sat down until 2.30 in the morning, and we laid it on the table. It was a school night. We laid it all out there and said, this is it. This is where it ends, and we're changing direction. And, buddy, after that, like you said, it was on.

I mean, it was. What do you tell people? You've done multiple classes. you've been highly successful uh you've been a coordinator multiple times what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is there's several um and i think it to each person it applies differently but first and foremost you've got to decide yep you've got to draw that line in the sand and you've got to decide it's time just like what you say i hear you say it all the time you'll clap your hands and it's we're going and uh so you've got to decide first of all and then i always tell our classes i stress to our classes which shout out to our classes out there in birmingham we love our support group but uh we tell them all the time

you've got to find your why just like simon says you got to find your why you got to know your why and then you've got to have your i've had it moment and you got to decide and once you do that but you got to do it i mean i tell guys all the time you got to love your family and your legacy more than your stuff and you've and you got to be ready to to shed it and just rock and roll and lock down on this stuff hey darcy to the lovely, passionate husbands out there who sit next to quiet, brilliant, beautiful, wonderful wives. What's the one thing that you want to tell those men? Just be there for your wife and be there for your family and listen to them and just support them. Oh, you said the l word listen right listen

good for you let's go back let's go back today let's get for you darcy uh john john you're just causing trouble i'm telling you darcy right there is a ninja you can see it you can see it you know, she was there first. She was ready. I mean, she figured out a way to make it his idea. She is the side of the mountain that he tethers off of and goes, woo! Well, I mean, we got serious. I mean, I sold one of the companies I work for. I don't know if I can even say who I work for.

Let's get straight to it. I don't want to lose our time here. Sure. $69,000 paid off in 17 months, and we see why. Making $130,000. These guys are rock stars. You guys are heroes. Jeff and Darcy, Logan and Ella from Birmingham, Alabama.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Whoa! Two, one. We're dead free! Yeah! Woo! That's how it's done, baby. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's Everyday Millionaire's book for you.

That is definitely the next chapter in your story. You guys are incredible. Thank you so much. What a great story. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. You're listening to the best of the Dave Ramsey show. Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 22, 6. Train up a child in the way he should go.

And when he's old, he will not depart from it. Franklin D. Roosevelt said, We cannot always build the future of our youth, but we can build our youth for the future. One of my favorite things is Proverbs is not written, Christy, as you know, in sequence. It's not a line upon line. It's a series of statements or quotes by and large. But it is interesting to me that Proverbs 22.6 is train up a child in the way he should go

when he's old enough to depart from it. Proverbs 22.7, if you keep reading, says, the rich rules over the poor and the borrower is slave to the lender. Hmm, like train up your kid to not go into debt? That's what I heard. Yeah, that's what we've been teaching for a while. That's what I heard. I don't think it we've been teaching for a while. That's what I heard.

I don't think it's accidental that those are back-to-back. If you're like most Americans, your car may have gotten a little dustier this year. And it's not because of the pollen. It's because you've been staying at home. And with less cars on the road, there's less risk for your insurance company, which means you might pay a lower premium this month. Some car insurance companies have already started giving credits for about 15% of your premium. Now, obviously, if you're confident that you're paying the lowest price, well, go ahead and take the credit.

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And, of course, after coronavirus, every penny counts. Never again should you put your insurance on autopilot and just keep overpaying you got to continually shop it continually to make sure you're getting good deals click elp at davramsey.com and click on insurance and get a quick easy quote from your endorsed local provider joy is in virginia hi joy welcome to the dave ramsey show hi dave and christy i had a question regarding my husband's job search he has been unemployed only a couple weeks now but i have a we saw a position open up the company that i'm working for that he would be a great match for but given my husband i'm not sure how i can make that referral do you want to be working even in the same building or even in the same city as me,

but we go to the same human resources, and I'm wondering how you would recommend I make a referral for him. Does your company have a policy about that? Not that I'm aware of. Okay. I think I would just be funny about it. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Yeah, just call it out.

I have a good time where they go, hey, this guy's a really good guy maybe a little biased i don't know it's just me yeah he makes me breakfast well on occasion he does well mother's day i mean we could call it out i don't know have some fun with it though and just tell tell HR, obviously I have a conflict of interest, but you hired me, and I'm working out, which is a good indicator that people like our family are good folk. Mm-hmm. Right. And he's a great match for it and has all the education, all the requirements that they need, so I was hoping, you know, that's way something.

So I just don't want it to be just too weird to make a referral. No, I don't think it's weird unless you make it weird. I mean, I think, like Dave said, if you just call it out. See, things get weird when you try to avoid the awkwardness, but if you just go head into it and have fun with it, it's disarming. And then it makes you and him that much more likable and them that much more open to it. I mean, obviously they'd want to be interested in his experience and skills but i'd open it with something funny and fun like

dave was saying and it just opens the door for them to consider him uh for his skills but also knowing that he's your husband so yeah i think you can have some fun with it i think the other thing you need to consider is the downside to not the organization but to you guys if um if he got in even though he's not in the same building or whatever, and he got in an apartment and had a bad experience, is that going to sour you on your job? I don't know. I work public health, and he'd be working more public relations.

I know, I know. But it is the same organization. Right. And if someone in leadership pooped on him, even if it's in a different building, it's still poop. Yeah. So the same company that might poop on me or make me sour towards them. Yeah. And you got to think about that. It's one of the reasons we don't hire. We our policy is we almost never. That's how we say it, because sometimes we do, but we almost never hire relatives.

And that's the reason is because if I have to reprimand or even fire your husband, it's very hard for you to stay engaged and love in this place, you know? Right. Right, that makes sense. Yeah, blood is thicker than water in that regard. So you guys just need to talk through that potential awkwardness as well from your perspective if you want to do it or not. Because my fear is that if I lose one team member because of something's going on,

I may lose two just because they're connected at the hip, you know, and that's the problem. Now, if they're distant cousins and it just that's the problem not their distant cousins or something that's different but husband and wife you know that's that's tough we did we have hired you know occasionally but but it's a very you know we talk about it openly we like you said we approach the awkwardness I think a lot of times if you just say stuff out loud it does away with the demons it's amazing how disarming that can be, because I think people try to keep the peace and keep things normal by avoiding it.

That actually just makes it weirder. Just go straight into it and call it out and be like, hey, I'm married to him. This is uncomfortable. This is maybe a little bit, you know, obviously I'm biased, but hey, let's talk about it. Are you open to it? We've talked about it. You know, here's the potential concerns or whatever. Like you said, I do think it's interesting with the aspect of the effect on their marriage because that's a lot of time in the same worlds your home world and your

work world even if you're in different departments it's the same type of world you may want to have like some rules like we don't talk about work yeah but a certain time yeah at home yeah and then we turn it turn work off yeah um that'd be a good idea all right mary is in texas hi mary welcome to the dave ramsey show hey dave how are you and thanks for taking my call sure how can we help so um i have a question um my husband was in the oil and gas industry here in texas as you know um it's not doing very well nope uh so his company uh laid off about% of the employees and he was caught up in that. And he created a consulting company, found some part-time work for maybe the next three to five months for about 20 hours a week. But we're still not where we need to be. At the end of the day, he got like a settlement type thing with his company.

They paid him a couple years of his salary, and we got 18 months of insurance. So how much money did he get? He got about right under $600,000. Okay. Wow. Not bad. And so his concern is that he came to me the other day, and this just happened like a week ago. He said he wanted to invest in an oil franchise, like an oil change franchise.

And I, you know, just almost fell over, and I said, well, wait a minute. You know, the economy's not really great right now, and i don't know how many people are getting oil changes i'm not sure if that's where we need to go maybe we just need to sit for a little bit and and really think this through so he's been watching these sales things and these people for franchises that's been calling him and yeah once you get on that list you're going to get hammered with sales people and franchises that's been calling him and yeah once you get on that list you're going to get hammered with sales people and franchises um i don't think he needs a franchise i think he needs to stop he needs to figure out who he is and where he wants to go and then decide if a franchise is going to take you there franchises are not success in a box and they sell themselves sometimes as

that and so uh christy i'd want him to go back and learn think about who do i want to be when i grow up now yeah yeah and you have what's so great is you have the time to do that and you have the money you're sitting on a ton of money you've got some freedom and options i wouldn't just look into this next thing because it's in front of you man take some time to really figure out what this next step is because because you got all the options that's a good place to be. Sometimes franchises are a good idea, but when they're sold as success in a box, it's a bad plan. And you need to be

successful. You need to be doing something God designed you to do. And you need to think through what that is and then figure out if a franchise fits that. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, guys, it's James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. You've been listening to the best of The Dave Ramsey Show.

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