The Ramsey Show - App - How to Get Ahead when You're Behind on Bills (Hour 1)

Episode Date: May 20, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions Broadcasting from the 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. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Starting off this hour is Brian in Los Angeles. Hey, Brian, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi, sir. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I have a question. I'm an FPU instructor here at the military base, and we have a family of seven. They're getting ready to retire next year. Wow. I'm a FPU instructor here at the military base, and we have a family of seven. They're getting ready to retire next year.

Wow. And they're trying to change their life, get everything ahead, and they want to know what are some things that they can do to plan for their monthly budget with seven kids and the unexpected things. Their kids range from one to 21. One's getting ready to graduate this year, and then one's in college. How long have they been doing a budget in financial peace while they're in the military? We just finished week 4 last week, so they're on week 5 this week. And I plan on playing this in class.

Okay, so they've done a budget successfully for one month of their life? We can go with that as a good assumption. Okay, all right. Because that's the answer. I mean, the budget with seven kids is not going to change because they leave the military, except for the possible exception of housing or something like that. I don't know what their housing situation is. But, I mean, they still have seven kids kids and you still have to plan for the unknown

and if they've got one 21 years old they've been doing this a while they should have some instincts even if they haven't done a good written series of budgets they should have some good common sense that they can apply to the process so um it doesn't change because you've got seven kids. The only thing that changes, I mean, the process doesn't change. The dollars change, and what their dollars are going to changes. Obviously, you're going to buy a lot more rice and a lot more beans, and you've got a different car situation, and you've got a few things like that with a larger family.

But you still have to know where the dollars are going and have a realistic expectation we're going to spend x on food and y on transportation and z on housing and um you know they've already been doing all of that they maybe have not been tracking it well and now we're teaching them to track it but it doesn't change just because they leave the military. Does that make sense? It does. With that, like, how would you teach the teenagers to be able to help within the process? Just like they teach the teenagers to do everything else.

When you've got a large family, everybody learns to pitch in. It's not really optional. Right? Yeah, that's true. I mean, I've got a guy that works for me who's got really optional, right? Yeah, that's true. I mean, I've got a guy that works for me who's got eight kids, and all of those kids know how to take care of all the other kids in the family. Because you have to play zone. You can't play one-on-one at that point.

One-on-one won't work. It's a zone defense. And so you've got to have the older kids babysitting the younger kids, and everybody knows how to change a diaper, and everybody knows how to cook, and everybody knows how to wash clothes. And you learn to do chores in a large family. That's one of the benefits of it, and learn to serve and take care of each other. And you learn that the whole thing doesn't revolve around you because you're not the only one there. There's a bunch of you there.

And so that's the same thing here. You say, okay, this family has some debt, and so everybody's going to chip in, and we're getting rid of that debt. And chipping in means we're going to cut these expenses, and we're going to earn money to cover some of your school activities. You're going to get a job because we simply can't cover it all. But that's true of teenagers, whether you've got seven or whether you've got two. They're going to go along with the program because the family is changing. And so the thing I refuse to do, other than the math, other than the dollar amounts, the process isn't special if you've got a large family. And it's always humorous to me when I see on social media, well, Dave Ramsey's stuff doesn't work for large families.

Crap, it's the only thing that does work. That's the stupidest thing I ever heard. Like you're somehow special and you're exempt from math because you've got a bunch of kids? You know, you still have to do math. It's the only thing that will work. And so that wasn't your point calling in, Brian, but, you know, there's not something special here it's just

large that's the only thing special about it but it doesn't mean you like okay we don't buy insurance of course you buy insurance or we don't buy food of course you buy food uh you think about you know how's it going to cover our unique family situation but um you do not get a pass on math and you do have to address these situations just like you do anything else a large family like that expands opportunities and expands problems um and so you you've got a um whether they be money opportunities or money problems is irrelevant you still learn to deal with the differences, and it's not. The uniqueness of the large family is wonderful, but it is not so special that it removes you from the need to do common sense processes. You still have to do the exact same processes to get to common sense conclusions.

David is with us in Oklahoma City. Hi, David. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Yes, sir. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I have a question about a side business.

So we're just getting started on Baby Step 2, and I'm wanting to help increase the income to help pay that off faster. And to do that, I'd really like to start a side business doing custom software development and contracting IT work, that type of thing. But what I'm wondering is there will be some costs to get that off the ground, get that started. I'm wondering if I should take kind of a pause on maybe step two to cash flow the startup of the business, or if I should wait until I'm out of debt and do something that doesn't require any costs as a second source of income. Yeah. Well, it has to do with how quick you can get your money back.

I mean, if you think it's going to take 10 months to break even, no. That's not logical. If you can break even in 10 days, yeah, let's do it. So I don't know what you're talking about spending versus what you're talking about earning, but that's the, what's your break-even point and how quick can you turn this into money? Because you can turn Uber into money by the end of the day.

You can turn delivering pizza into money by the end of the week. And so if you're going to put this off 10 months because you want to invest $10,000 and you're going to make $1,000 a month, no, I wouldn't do that. But if you can spend $3,000 and make $6,000 the first month, yeah, let's do it. I don't know. What are you talking about investing? I think I could get going on less than $1,000. Great. And I would like to think that I could start making

money within a couple months. You're only going to make $500 a month doing this? No, I mean, I think it may take me a month or two to actually start making it profitable. And at that point, I think I could actually start making some money after maybe a month or two of kind of just getting my feet into the... I've never ran a business before, so I'm completely new to it. So I'm not really sure what to expect. Okay, so you're wanting to do what with, again, IT, what was it?

Custom software development and contracting IT work, that type of thing. Contracting IT work, you should get paid on the first month. It's simple. You're doing a job and you get a check. Now, developing software may be project-oriented on when you get paid. I don't know. And it may be on hitting certain milestones in the project development process to get paid as you go along. That's how I would pay you if you were developing it for me or at the end of the project. That might be different.

But IT contract work, you can start today and you'll have to go make more than $1,000 in a month if you're willing to work. I'd go line up some stuff and then buy the equipment. Let me tell you a story about two families that are very much alike in a lot of ways. Both families have two working parents and a couple of young kids. Each has debt and has struggled to make ends meet, but they're starting to make headway with their budgets and smarter decisions with money. They have dreams and plans, and the only real difference is that one family has the right amount of term life insurance and the other doesn't. Big difference. If one of the parents die, and that does happen. Their well-being would be destroyed.

Paying for the mortgage, utilities, food, and other bills would be impossible, let alone saving for education or retirement. That's why every day I talk relentlessly about getting term life insurance. Just go to ZanderInsurance.com or call 800-356-4282 and see how inexpensive it really is. Be the family that takes those deliberate steps to be different and responsible. It really does make you the hero of your story, and it and Rochelle are with us. Hey guys, how are you?

Hey Dave. Hey, good. Doing great. Good to have you guys. Where do you live? Nebraska. Oh, fun. And all the way to Tennessee.

Yes, it is. To do a debt-free scream. Yes. How much have you guys paid off? $106,000. Wow. Fun. And how long did this take?

31 months. 31 months. And your range of income during that time? We started out at $65,000. Then we ended at $165,000. Whoa! Nice jump in two and a half years. What happened to your income?

Well, as a way to earn extra income as we decided to get out of debt, we started a cleaning service. And what started out as trying to get a little bit of extra money to help the budget out has kind of blossomed into, wow. A big business. Well, it took off. There's 21 of us now. Yep. I love it.

Way to go, dude. Side hustle takes over the house. I like it. Good for you. So what kind of debt was this $106,000? Well, some of it was student loan debt. Some of it was house. Kind of normal.

We had a credit card and we had a car payment. So you paid off your house? Well, yes and no. Yes, we sold one. Oh, okay. And we used the proceeds to pay it off your house. Well, yes and no. Yes, we sold one. Oh, okay. And we used the proceeds to pay it off, and we were able to make enough that we were able to put a full 20% down on our new house. Got it. Okay, cool.

All right. Very good, you guys. Yeah. Good for you. So what happened 31 months ago that made you decide to go on this journey? Well, you want to tell them? Go ahead. Okay, so we were looking at the debt.

We were looking at, you know, how we were starting to get older. We were looking at our retirement, and we didn't like the picture that we were seeing. We knew that the government wasn't going to be able to take care of us. And so we wanted to do better. We wanted to have a better life for ourselves.

We also wanted to have a better life for the kids. We wanted to, you know, have a different legacy, leave a different legacy for us. How did you get in touch with us? Well, it was, I remember it was during the summer one, back in 2007, actually. I heard you on one of the radio stations as we were painting the house. And I listened to you for a couple of weeks.

And I mentioned it to my wife and said, hey, you kind of need to listen to this guy. Kind of like what he had to say. And that's when she started listening to him. And that got it going, huh? Yep. Okay. Well, very cool. Congratulations, you guys.

All right. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is now that you've done it? Wow. Tell you what, it's going to take communication. It's going to take both of us on board. You know, we've had the opportunity to lead some FPU classes. Oh, wow. And so, yeah, and we've had different ones come up and tell us, you know, I might be on board, but my spouse isn't.

You know, is this still something good to go through? It takes both of us, you know. Definitely. That's a big deal. What about you, Rochelle? What do you tell people the key is? I think the biggest key is learning to say no to what we want for the future. Being able to just put things off and get what we need to right now to make life better.

Yeah, live like no one else so later you can live and give like no one else. That's right. There you go. Very cool. Very cool. So it looks like you've got four teenagers in the house standing here with you. You've got your own cleaning crew built in, I'm just saying. Yeah.

Put them all to work. Crack that whip, baby. I like it. And that's where it started at. I mean, they all did help, and they've all been with us through it, working with us to make it go. So what are their names and ages? Okay. We've got Megan.

She's 14. Tyler. We've got Aaron and his wife Riley. Okay. All right. Very cool. Well, it's good to have you guys. We're honored to have you with us.

Very well done. Proud of you guys. How does it feel now that you're free? Tell you what, it just feels awesome. There's just no words. How long have you all been married? We've been married, well, in a couple of days, it'll be 24 years. Wow.

Congratulations. Have you ever been debt-free while you've been married until now? No. No, this is the first time. I always had no loans. Yeah, it's always been there. But in the last 31 months, you clear them up. Yeah.

Well, congratulations. Very well done. I got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires. Yeah. Well, congratulations. Very well done. I got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires. You're definitely on your way to doing that. You're growing this exploding business, man. That's fantastic. Here we go. I love it.

Very cool. So has this whole tribe been practicing your debt-free scream? They know what to do. They're not just eye candy. They know how to do this, right? Okay. Yep. Alright. Steve and Rochelle, Tyler, Riley, Aaron,

and Megan from Nebraska. $106,000 paid off in 31 months, making $65,000 to $165,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Ready, guys? 3, 2, 1. We're dead free!

Woo-hoo! Yeah! I love it! I love it, I love it, I love it. Man, that's awesomeness. Very well done, you guys. That's how you play right there. Coming up at the

bottom of the hour, Christy Wright will be joining us, Ramsey Personality, the creator of Business Boutique. She's got a lot of things happening with the Business Boutique movement, and she's going to be with us for a couple segments answering your questions about ladies in business. If you're a lady in business or thinking about being in business with a question, you jump in and we will talk to you. Christy will be here again at the bottom of the hour for a couple of segments. The phone number here, 888-825-5225. James is in Detroit. Hi, James. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, so my wife and I just finished Baby Step 3 last month, and we're looking forward to Baby Step 4. We were curious whether or not you would have us delay Baby Step 4 because my wife is getting ready to go back to grad school

to get her master's in nurse practitioner. And then on top of that, we've been trying to have a child for the last few years, and it looks like it's going to require IVF, and we've been quoted between $10,000 and $15,000 for that. And so we're just curious if you would recommend us delaying in order to hit some of those goals, or what you would say. What's your household income? We make about $130,000 gross.

After taxes and insurance, we bring in about $100,000. And you're debt free with an emergency fund yep except the house okay uh yeah so we don't we don't uh currently own a home we rent okay so saving 15 towards retirement would be the tune of about twenty thousand dollars a year yep that's what i'm looking at yeah and um then you've got IVF and you've got to pay for the school. Correct. And the school is about $40,000 total for tuition.

And the IVF was between $10,000 and $15,000. Over how many years is the school? Two years? Two years, yep. So $20,000 a year for that. And you guys are how old? I'm 28 and my wife is 24 okay all right well here's the thing okay if you the thing i don't want you to do is i don't want you to develop the muscle of kicking the can on down the road right and that's the problem with

going oh yeah that's a good idea. Although probably it's a good idea. But I just don't want you to develop the muscle of kicking the can on down the road because the next thing comes up, you go, oh, we want to buy a car. Oh, we want to do this. Oh, we want to do that. And then you look up and you're 46 and you've still not started saving for retirement. Right. And so we don't want to develop the kick the can down the road muscle because that's what we all have a tendency to do rather than deal with the issues. And so what happens if you're – wait a minute, stop just a second.

What happens if your wife – it just occurred to me these two things aren't congruent. What happens if your wife gets pregnant in the middle of her nursing? We've talked about that. Right now she works 312, so she's looking to be able to do school. Other than that, if she gets pregnant, she'd probably stop working, finish her master's, and we would try to figure out how to... She's going to work after the baby comes? Yes. Yeah, let's do one first and then the other. Okay. Because I think first and then the other. Okay.

Because I think they might affect each other. Yeah, they will. But if you want to do this, just be careful to get back on the game plan of saving soon. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Ramsey Personality, Christy Wright, the founder, creator of the Business Boutique Movement, number one best-selling book, The Business Idea Boot Camp is a four-step course to help you find your best business idea business boutique academy the business boutique podcast and the business boutique conference is coming back to nashville october 24th through 26 gonna be a big one oh my gosh it is absolutely the best one yet which we say that every year but this year you can really see it we're half sold out vip is sold out premier

seating is sold out like these ladies are excited and we're gonna have a lot of fun very cool so we're gonna have bob goff yes that's a big everyone loves bob goff like he's everyone's best friend right he is he's just a great guy the lineup is incredible we got uh ian cron from the uh enneagram i can't even say it but it's that's everybody's talking about enneagram how to use it how to understand it. It's like around the Ramsey dinner table. It's ridiculous with Rachel and Daniel, everybody talking about it. I know, and it's amazing because a lot of people, I think, don't realize that it was his book, The Road Back to You, that really brought life to this whole movement around Enneagram because it's been around forever, but people didn't know it until he wrote that book, brought it back, and he's an Enneagram expert.

It's really interesting to see how he's going to bring this to the conference of understanding our strengths and how to stay in our strengths so we can be successful. We're really excited about this. Yeah, very, very cool and just a great lineup. You can learn about all of it at businessboutique.com. Now this conference runs how long? Two and a half days? Two and a half days, yep. October 24th through the 26th and we really cover everything from your practical business stuff, marketing, selling, social media, managing the money, all of that good stuff. And then also we cover the less tactical things, but that still affect your business. Like how do you push past your fear? How do you do it when you're not sure you're cut out or you feel unqualified? How do you gain confidence in a new area you've never been in? And so it's fun that we really tackle both, you know, the inspirational but also the application to give them what they need to win when they walk out the doors. Yeah, very cool. Good stuff. Good stuff.

Businessboutique.com or call us for tickets at 888-22-PIECE. The Ramsey Concierge team can help you. 888-227-3223. If you've got questions for Christy, she's going to be here with me for a couple of segments answering questions for ladies in business. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Bianca is with us in Reno. Hi, Bianca. Your question for Christy.

Hi, guys. How are you doing? Good. How can we help? I am in Baby Step 1. She, coming up with my emergency fund. I'm a social developer, and I have a few ideas to make money. I really want to get into making games, but I have no experience on it at all. I could make money just making websites. But my husband keeps

bringing up like, my passion is gaming. You should get into that. What do you think we should do? Yeah. So Bianca, I'll give you a really kind of simple answer to get you started for this season of life that you're in. This doesn't have to be the forever one. But if I were you, I would start with what you have. And this is what I tell people all the time. When you're starting a business idea, start with what you have, especially because you're still working on the baby steps. So you want to keep the cost as low as possible, the risk as low as possible, the barrier to entry into the marketplace as low as possible. So if you have the skills to develop websites and turn a profit tomorrow, that could be a side gig that helps you pay off your debt even faster. It doesn't mean you're going to have to do websites forever.

It just simply means you're going to do them for this season while you're working on your debt snowball. And then maybe in the process, maybe in the future, you learn more about gaming. You start to hang out with people that are doing gaming. You do a little research about gaming. You learn that industry. But when you're starting out, you want to make it as easy as possible on yourself to win. And the best way to do that is start with what you have. So Dave, what I tell people all the

time is start with your skills. So what do you know? What experience, certifications, credentials, etc? What are your strengths? What are you just naturally good at? Maybe you don't have a background in that. You don't have a degree, but you're good at it. And then your stuff. You've got a computer, a sewing machine, a swimming pool. What do you have around you? When you start with what you have, your skills, your strengths, then your stuff you've got a computer a sewing machine a swimming pool what do you have around you when you start with what you have your skills your strengths and your stuff you make it so much easier on yourself to win because you're not going out learning something completely new having to buy a bunch of equipment take a new class you can start you can start with what you have and uh and turn a profit tomorrow yeah the um just low-hanging fruit is what it amounts to.

Yeah. And the interesting thing is, as far as rolling out new things that are harder that you don't know about, they're a lot easier to do when you're not broke. Right, right. And so, matter of fact, you and I were just in a meeting with our leadership team, and we were saying, okay, let's make this thing make some money, the thing we were discussing. And when it makes some money, we can staff the crud out of it. That's right. You know, and so it's kind of the same thing here. Go make some money.

Right. And then you can go, okay, now I got a little room to wiggle. I can spend some time. Right. I could buy another piece of equipment if I needed to, but I need to make some money. And it's more fun. It's more fun when you have money and you have the freedom to explore this new thing versus feeling like, oh, I'm coming from this place of desperation and it's a burden

because I have to turn a profit because I don't have any money. You get to have a little bit more fun with it in the process whenever, like you said, you have that margin, you have that cushion. Yeah, absolutely. Wow. Yeah, that's a good thing. Very well done. Good for you.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Cody is in Indiana. Hey, Cody, how are you? Dave, I've had it. I'm doing all right, though. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can Christiana help?

Okay, so I've just been following you for a couple of weeks now, and I've read through the majority of your book, and I'm having trouble getting to step one, so I need to become current. I owe about $900 in rent, and I can't get out of a vicious cycle of getting it paid off. And way back when, working on a working on a budget that needs some tweaking. So I didn't know if you had any advice for me, perhaps. What do you make? So I'm a part-time employee at UPS, currently waiting to be full-time as a driver.

And on the side, I freelance cleaning houses and hauling junk away. That makes about $20,000 a year right now. What did you make in the last five, six weeks? Five, six weeks? About $2,500. Okay. So you're starving to death? Pretty much, yeah.

Yeah. You have an income problem, don't you? Yes. Okay. Because that's income problem, don't you? Yes. Okay. Because that's why you're behind on your rent. I mean, people, you don't get behind on your rent if you've got extra money laying around. Correct. And it's been coming for a long time.

It's just finally bit. Yeah. Yeah. So I think you say out of these different things that are in front of me, I'm not going to sit around and wait to be a UPS driver much longer. I'm about to get my butt in gear and go make some money. Because if $1,000 changes your life, it's time to go make some money. Does that make sense? I think I lost you there for a second.

I said if $1,000 changes your life, it's time to get your income up. Correct. And so what you've been hobbling together with these different sources of income has not been working. It's kind of been hit or miss. Are you seeing the same thing, Christy? What are you seeing? Yeah, I was actually coaching someone, just an acquaintance over coffee a couple weeks ago, and it was a similar situation.

And whatever, whether it's through more hours or through getting more clients with your cleaning gig, that type of thing, taking on a second one, getting a full time job, getting that income up is going to take that income to be able to get to where you're feeling like, okay, I'm starting to sense the progress. But more hours, more clients, a second or third job, whatever you've got to do to get out of that hole that you're feeling. The reason I jumped on this so fast, Cody, is this. I know from talking to listeners that are calling in and getting out of debt all the time that you can deliver pizzas five nights a week and make an average of $1,500 a month. You're not even making that. And that's at night only. And that leaves you the whole day to do something else. And that's Uber.

That's part-time UPS. That's whatever you need to do. Cut grass, walk dogs. I don't care. Get you a leaf blower. Rich people are afraid of leaves. And, you know, you can get you some money man and that's what i would do is i would just focus on not long-term career goals but just go get some

money right now on the short term and get the wolf away from the door then you then you clear your mind to go on and self-actualize and do things that you're passionate about and good about and all that kind of thing answering your questions this hour, Christy Wright is with me. Ramsey Personality, the creator of the Business Boutique Movement. The phone number, 888-825-5225. Ramsey Personality, Christy Wright is with me this half hour to answer your questions about ladies in business. She is the writer of the number one best-selling book, Business Boutique, and also the host of the Business Boutique podcast and the host of the Business Boutique conference. Coming back to Nashville on October 24th through the 26th, she does the majority of the speaking, but there is quite a lineup of top stars there to speak. Heading off with Bob Goff and Jasmine Starr, photographer and business strategist Ian Crone,

the champion of the Enneagram and best-selling author. Kelsey Humphries is the emcee and the host of The Kelsey Show. Our friend Mignon Francois, she is a force of nature, man. I mean, she started from $60 and now runs a $10 million business called The Cupcake Collection. She is fun. Ashley Lemieux, I can't say it, lifestyle influencer, founder of The Shine Project. Am I speaking this year? You are.

Congratulations. I'm glad I could let you know. I guess I should put me on here too huh so um all right there you go business boutique.com for tickets at 888-22-PIECE 888-227-3223 the ramsey concierge team will help you get signed up christy this is not a conference this is an experience. It really is. And we designed it like that on purpose. From the moment you walk in, and we talked about this before, Dave, to see the transformation that occurs between the moment they walk in, they're kind of that new kid in middle school holding the lunch tray going, is there a seat for me? Do I belong here?

What if all these other women are real businesswomen and I don't belong here? I'm not a real businesswoman. And then to see the transformation, to realize that they all feel that way. And there's this unbelievable journey they go on as they gain confidence and information and they make great friendships. And they walk out of there and they're ready to charge hell with a water pistol. And they're like, I can do this and I'm going to do this. And I can't wait, you know, to see what God is going to do in my business.

And so just getting to see that from stage, the transformation in the audience and each individual person and their identity and their confidence is really incredible to watch. And you can see an absolute difference between day one and day three. It's really, really cool. It's fun. Yeah, the countenance changes. It does.

The energy changes. Everything's different. It's fun to watch. Wendy's with us in Maryland. Hi, Wendy. Your question for in Maryland. Hi, Wendy. Your question for Christy. Hi, Christy. I have been married 30 years.

My husband and I are on baby step two. And 10 years ago, I did professional photography full-time for about five years. And then 2008 came, and then I had to get a job that produced some money. I now work full-time doing marketing, graphics, and photography. But in light of a side hustle, I am trying to get my confidence up to do my photography again, and I am really struggling with my fears, and I just cannot get past them. But what I'm worried about or scared about is now, you know, I'm a grandmother at 50, and, you know, I'll be competing with some much younger, fresh photographers.

And also social media was not around before when I did it full time. And those are the hurdles that I need to get over so I can make some money. Sure, I hear you. Well, I'll tell you this. You can look at it either way. You can look at it as, hey, I've been out of the game for a few years and I feel behind and I'm scared because we've got all these young, new, trendy people. Or you can look at it as, hey, you know what? I was back there from the beginning.

I've got tons of experience. And you know things that they don't know. Now, I'll tell you the thing about social media, if that overwhelms you and social media can be a great resource for you, especially in the area of photography, because you can highlight your work all day, every day. Wendy, what I'll do is I'll send you my social media simplified course. This breaks down the basics of social media. You go through this course. This will teach you how to use it in your business. And then when it comes to the fear, I'll tell you nothing will silence your fear of doing the thing like doing the thing. I tell people all the time the antidote to fear is action. So maybe you don't want to just launch your business and say, I'm doing it and go all out. But maybe just say, hey, ask a few family friends, send out an email,

put out a Facebook post. Hey, I'm going to start taking pictures again if anyone's interested. You get that first client, you get that first raving fan. You're like, oh, my gosh, I'm doing it. And they tell their friend and you get a second one and a third one. You're going to look up in three months or six months made up of a bunch of little tiny baby steps and realize, wow, I can do this and I am doing this. Are you a mother? I am. I have two grandchildren.

Okay. am doing this are you are you a mother i am i have two grown children okay and um did you when you were shooting before did you have a good eye yes i'm actually a certified professional photographer there's um so you have a good eye okay so let me tell you my perspective um what kind of photography are you thinking about doing well um i and i really enjoy portraits making someone really feel good about themselves who otherwise doesn't you know let me just tell you people with like you and i that have got a few miles on us uh we have a much greater ability to do that than some 23 year old yeah and you know about handling babies if you want to take a picture of a baby i think you can handle a baby a whole lot better than some fresh face that doesn't know anything about babies you're a freaking baby expert

i did actually i think you have a brand advantage not disadvantage okay i need to look at it that way i don't think it's just look at that way there's a fact oh you're so right okay i mean you're good i don't am i missing something christy no i mean it really is you can look at it from either angle and when you start you got little babies if you're gonna have somebody come take a picture and you got somebody never handled baby up there flipping the kid around versus grandma who knows how to handle this can get this kid to sit up there right been there done that that's right it's a different thing man i mean uh it's a different thing to somebody who's has lived a little life and knows about children i mean it's a and for that matter

you're working with another lady who's you're trying to get her image right and um you know you see stuff down in her soul that uh someone who hadn't lived life can't see in her soul. And you can pull that out through the picture. I think you're sitting on top of the world. Oh, gosh. Okay, I'm going to do my best. You can do this. You got it, Wendy.

We'll send you that course so you can get your social media going. And, you know, if you don't have my book, we'll send you my book as well. I talk about fear in the second chapter. It's the longest chapter of the book because it's one of the real things we face. And I think that'll give you what you need to go for it. And like you said, like Dave said, just look at your situation from the place of strength you're already coming from. You don't have to prove yourself. You've already done this.

You're just going to do it again. Yeah, I mean, certified and knows how to shoot. I mean, there's just this is this is a doable deal. Yeah. So we're going to send you both the book and the course free that's right kelly will pick up and get you signed up jamie is in indianapolis jamie your question for christy hi thanks for taking my call sure what's up um i've been a stay-at-home mom and i feel like it's time for me to get out there in the workforce and i am really wanting to start a career in real estate.

My main concern is I don't have a lot of connections and basically I'm just wondering how to market myself and find clients and leads as a real estate agent. Are you an agent right now? I am not. I'm getting ready to sign up for school. Okay well I'll let Dave speak to this because he knows real estate better than I do but I'll tell you a lot of it is and this is what Ken Coleman talks about. Ken Coleman's on his book tour right now. A lot of it is being around the right people. So if you want to make those connections, get to know real estate agents, get to know people in the industry, get to know people in your area, start to get out there talking to people. You can talk, you know, you can obviously leverage social media as well, like we were just talking about. But it's just

getting started. I think it just feels overwhelming because were just talking about. But it's just getting started. I think it just feels overwhelming because this is all new. But if you get started, one connection will lead to another connection and so on. And once you get your license, I think you'll have even more confidence to be able to start actually doing it. But, Dave, you've done real estate for years. How long have you lived in Indianapolis? We actually live outside of Indianapolis in the country. We've been here for probably eight years, but I've been a stay-at of Indianapolis in the country. We've been here for

probably eight years, but I've been a stay-at-home mom in the country. Okay, all right. Well, I mean, you still have a network of friends through kids school and soccer and church and whatever, right? Yes. Okay, and that's where you start. That's called your natural market, and it's not that all of them are going to be putting their houses up for sale just because you got your license. But you get in touch with all of them and just say, hey, I'm in the business. And any help you could give me as a friend, I'd appreciate it. I don't expect you to do anything. But if you hear of somebody, a friend of yours, tell them about me that's selling a house or buying a house.

And you just dig around with people that know you and love you already and would want to see you become successful. And that gets you going. And then from there, real estate business is a referral business by and large. You work with people you know or someone that you know that you know. So I'll send you a copy of Ken's book, The Proximity Principle. And he's out book touring on that right now. Christy, thanks for dropping by. Thanks for having me.

Glad to be here. That puts this hour of The Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to National and tell Dave your story.