The Ramsey Show - App - My Side Hustle Is Wearing Me Out (Hour 2)

Episode Date: August 6, 2021

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Thank you very much. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out to have a conversation, get answers about life. I am Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, and you don't say fellow, would I say sister? You don't say that either.

Fellow. Fellow. Ramsey personality doesn't seem right, Christy Wright. We've got to figure out what the technical term is for that. You know, I know what that means in general. My colleague is what I would normally say, but my fellow, but you're not a fellow. We all know that. So we'll dig into that.

And then the next time on the hour, I'll just say that a little bit differently. We'll Google that at the next break. Yes. 2021, Christy. You got to be careful how you say things these days. Not with me. Not with you. Not with me.

Okay. I just, it flowed out fellow. And then I went, she's not a fellow. Listen, in a world where everybody has a chip on their shoulder, I just make it a point to not. Yeah. How about that? I just make it a point to just believe the best, assume good intentions, and go with that.

Because things turn out better, by the way. There's a little nugget for you guys. They do. It's going to be okay. And we have a tremendous amount of fun when we get to be together. We have a lot of in-sync thoughts and heart towards people towards people plus we can answer the money questions and we can talk about your business starting the side hustle christy with business boutique doing some crazy stuff hey you feel like life is spinning out of control and you're just like time is a real problem she can help you there it can help you with your work moving up

figuring out what you want to do with your life. What were you born to do? How do I make more money? And then, of course, the money question. So it's wide open. We have a blast working together to help you. It is a free phone call. I don't know why you wouldn't do it. 888-825-5225.

Christy said, if you've wanted to call in, but you're scared of Dave, you don't have to be scared of us. She said that, not me, Dave. We're not scary. In case Dave is listening. Do you think I'll watch this? I don't know. He might. I don't

think he does. I don't think he does. He's got a lot going on. No. 888-255-225 is the number. Oh, you got something? Hey, well, I was just going to remind people, when you're thinking about calling in, one of the things that you and I are great at in particular is helping you get your income up. Yes. So whether that's because you want to pay for Disney. Big shovel. You want to have a bigger shovel. You want to pay off your debt faster. You just want to make more money, period. Whatever that is, Ken and I, in our different ways, are great at helping you come up with strategies to make more money, whether that's a promotion through your job, through a business,

or some combination. So if you are thinking about how you can get your income up, how you can make more money to make more progress on your financial goals faster, we're the people to call. So give us a call. 888-825-5225. All right, let's do it. Justin joins us in Houston, Texas. Justin, how can we help? Howdy, everyone. I mean, baby's step four, five, and six. And first of all, that is a blessing to be in that spot. So what I'm about to say, I don't want to make it sound like I'm complaining, but we have optimized everything in our lives in terms of, you know, financially. We're exactly where we should be at this point in time.

But I've got to be honest, I'm a little bit kind of unmotivated because, like, paying off our house is still nine or ten years away, and kids' college is still a number of years away. So there's no, like, real immediate wins that I see in our future other than just every month, you know, the first of every month, it's like, to change, you know, a little bit more equity in the house, a little bit more money in the bank, a little bit more money in retirement, and a little bit more money to our church. But besides that, there's really nothing to get the juices going. So do you have any thoughts on that?

Yes, we do. We have thoughts on everything. So, Justin, I think, are we talking just money context? Because if we are, it might change my answer. Are you looking for a game to win with your money? Is that specifically why you're calling? I mean, I've got a beautiful family and a great job, and there's a lot of great things going on.

But so, yeah, I guess I would say more financially because I'm somewhat bored with it. Well, it sounds like you're a goal-oriented person that doesn't have a goal. That's exactly right. Well, yeah, because, I mean, I've spent the past six months, like, getting life insurance scored away, getting, you know, like, fine-tuning everything with our will. You're a doer. There's nothing left to do now. Yep, yep, yep.

You're a doer, and you don't know what to do right now. Go ahead, Ken. Well, I'll just say this. I think you've got a narrative problem. I don't think you're bored. I think you feel got a narrative problem. I don't think you're bored. I think you feel bored. I think that's real, that you feel bored. But I think you've got a narrative problem where you're like, you're just running this thing out.

And Christy's right. You got it on the rails. This thing is on the rails. But I think you're forgetting that each month that this thing just stays on the rails, that you're just doing all of the stuff you're supposed to do. You are making massive, massive progress. Don't forget that you've got to kind of get in this routine to end up where you want to get to, where the end of the road and the house is paid off,

and then maybe step seven, you're living like no one else. The only other thing I'd say, I'll turn it over to Christy on this one, but the only other thing I'd say is that's the first issue that I see. The second thing is I think you could carve out something to do with your money and make some progress in another area, maybe in a form of giving or investing into something or somebody outside of our traditional 15% towards retirement. That's what I'm saying. I think you could find some type of incentive to do something with your money. I would challenge you on that issue as well. Justin, I just want to say one thing.

No, it's not just one. That's totally false advertising. I have several things to say. Justin, first, how you're feeling is normal. A lot of people in four, five, and six feel this way because you've been so gazelle intense, and it's such a specific milestone when you've accomplished baby step one a thousand dollars baby step two debt free baby step three emergency fund funded it's so specific that when you get into this that's more of a marathon not a sprint

and it's just this kind of great area it's not like you're still investing you're gonna be doing this simultaneously for a while that's super normal so let me just encourage you that it's normal second thing i would say is um you can choose to get intense about any of those things anytime you want to. I have been hosting the show with Dave and the last few times I've hosted with him, almost every single debt-free scream is someone that's paid off their house because they just chose to get intense about their house. You can always do that if you want to. Don't have to, but that's an option if that would motivate you. And then third, and this is something just like Ken said, if you're a goal-oriented person and you don't have a goal, just make a goal. Just decide. Just make something up. Justin, I'm going to make up

something. Just say, what if this Christmas we went to Walmart and paid off the layaways of $10,000 worth of people? And you save up between now and December. That's exciting. I made that up, but you can do that. Let me give you a running example. When I get bored with my running, because I love to run, I just make up new goals.

I have run the country music marathon normal. I've tried to PR it. I've run it pregnant. I've run it 12 weeks after having Carter. Pregnant with Conley. Okay, we know you're awesome. Could you please stop for those of us who don't run a lot? Jeez, I'm feeling more guilty with each time she ticks off another thing.

It's not impressive to you if you don't run. I did it with a bag of rocks one time. I did it with a person on my shoulders. What else is left? Hey, I should run it with you on my back. That would be so... Ken is so pissed. Are we close to a commercial break? The point is not that I'm impressive.

The point is that I set new challenges. I know. I set new challenges. Yeah, I know. Justin, if you're good with your money, set a new challenge for yourself that excites you. Find something that excites you. I'm actually not that great of a runner. Okay.

I just challenged myself, people. It was slow. Yeah. It was slow. Yeah. It was a slow run. And I was... Okay, so we got to do this thing called a commercial break. I'm going to go set some goals and set some physical challenges and do some push-ups in the studio just to be able to sit at the desk with the force of nature that is known as Christy Wright. Hey, don't move.

The Ramsey Show. Hey, I'm Christy Wright. Do you struggle to find time to connect with God? Well, I have great news for you. Glorify is an app that makes it easy for you to have a quiet time practice that works for you. In fact, it's the number one daily worship and well-being app trusted by over 1 million Christians. And the great news is the app is free to download. Just search for glorify in your app store. You could

also access their entire content library at half price by using the promo code Christy. Download the glorify app today. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality and host of The Ken Coleman Show on The Ramsey Network. I'm joined by my colleague, Christy Rice. She's the host of The Christy Rice Show and is also a Ramsey personality. Thrilled to have you with us. And we are taking your calls today on your life, your money, your work, and beyond. How many of you are working your dream job? Turns out most people aren't.

But work doesn't have to be a four-letter word. You are meant for more than mediocre work. My new book is entitled From Paycheck to Purpose, The Clear Path to Doing Work You Love. It's now available for pre-order. So it doesn't matter who you are, where you are, what industry, what type of work. If you've got a place you want to be in the marketplace, work, money, all of it, and meaning, we've got a step-by-step plan. You can get the Get Hired Bonus Pack and the Get Promoted Bonus Pack free when you pre-order the book. That's over $100 of value.

You can go to RamseySolutions.com and you can pre-order From Paycheck to Purpose today for only $20 and get the $100 worth of free bonus items. Give me that book. Let me see this while you're talking about this. I want to show your book for YouTube people that are on YouTube because it's so beautiful. I've never been called beautiful in my life. Could somebody record this? I said the book was. I said the book was.

Oh, I'm sorry. The design. You just happen to be a part of it. Selective listening. Hey, explain for people that have never pre-ordered a book before, because you and I do this all the time, so we know. Explain why you should pre-order. Explain why we do pre-order and what they get for pre-ordering because we know that

it's not going to get mailed to you until your launch date of November 9th. November 9th. Yeah. But if you pre-order, we are going to bribe you with all this stuff

slash reward, say thank you with all this stuff because it helps us with our marketing and all of that good stuff. We drive, we try to drive to bestseller lists so that more people

outside of Ramsey Solutions, right, those of you that listen to the show, will buy the book. And so we drive that. So there's the strategic reason, but we also bribe you with $100 of free stuff. And depending on if you want to get hired or get promoted,

that's why we have those two different bonus offerings. But I also have to mention, the deal that's popping right now at RamseySolutions.com is the assessment, the Get Clear Career Assessment, which will measure your talent, passion, and mission, fill out your purpose statement, and show you professional possibilities. You get that for $30, and basically the book's for free. You get the assessment and the book all for $30. So that's kind of stupid.

And this is such a good assessment because it shows you what you need to do. I love the cover. When y'all were testing it, this was my pick. Christy did pick that one. Do it was just like what we were talking about, it shows you what you need to do. I love the cover. Thank you. When y'all were testing it, I was very nervous. This is my pick. You did pick, Christy did pick that one. Do I look just like it?

Leaned it like a, seriously, you look so approachable. Thank you. It's so relatable and it was amazing. It gives me anxiety as you know. Hey, it's like what we just said,

the clear path to doing work you love. The clear path. But here, hand me yours for a second. We just talked about my book, so now I gotta look, because you said all these nice things, but look at this guy. I mean, path. Here, hand me yours for a second. We just talked about my book, so now I've got to look. You said all these nice things, but look

at this guy. I mean, this guy or this gal. I'm never going to be able to look like that. Feet off or hands folded? Feet off? Feet off. Shoes. She does have feet. That alarmed a lot of people right there. That was scary. I am the most talented footless runner in the

United States. Here we go again with the running. By the way. And I tried to run a marathon with actually no feet. That's true. Oh, my gosh. I meant shoes. I meant shoes.

Listen, it's Friday. This is what you get if you put me on Friday. So there you go. And by the way, you can get her book as well. So I don't know why you wouldn't buy both right now. RamseySolutions.com. We're having fun. Call us.

Call us. Call us. I got to mention this because there's cash involved before we move on. Oh, yeah now. RamseySolutions.com. We're having fun. Call us. Call us. Call us. I got to mention this because there's cash involved before we move on. Oh, yeah. Tell them about that. Yeah. Because it's the pre-order of the book here, the launch of From Paycheck to Purpose, they're giving away $500 cash every week this month, Christy.

And then, I guess, at the end of the month, they're giving away $3,000. So if you text the word cash to 33789, like you could not even, I'm just helping people. You could care less about my book. But if you text the word cash to 33789, you might win some money. So I would at least do that. Yes. Yes. Just trying to help people out.

Get cash. Get cash. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. 888-825-5225. Aaron joins us in Portland, Oregon. Aaron, how can we help? Hey, how are you guys doing? Thanks for taking my call.

You bet. Sure. What's going on? Hey, so quick, I just need a question for you guys. My wife and I are both debt-free. Congratulations. Including thefree. Congratulations. Including the house. Wow.

Way to go. Thank you. And we have a pretty good amount in our IRAs and non-IRA accounts. So I am thinking of the company I work for merged with a bigger company last February, so 2020, right before COVID hit pretty no communication and all of that, so it's just been a struggle. So for a whole year, I've been thinking of making a change and went through the master's program for coaching, got that all done. And I think we're at that point where I was going to call you and just say, hey, is this a good time since we're debt-free, have emergency funds, have a good retirement? Is it time for me to spread my wings and look elsewhere? Well, maybe.

Let's go to the coaching thing. Why did you do the financial coach master training here at Ramsey Solutions? Tell us. My wife and I went through financial university, and that's how we became debt-free. Sure. After that, at work monthly, I actually put in a little financial spot in our newsletter for our company.

We talk about the baby steps. We talk about debt-free. We talk about budgeting. Patients that I deal with and work with are a lot older, so you can see the struggle that they're having with cataract surgeries or some things like that. So I tend to sit with them and we visit about budget and all of that. So, you know, it's just something that I've always wanted to do for the last three years when it took my wife and I to

pay off the house. So Aaron, you should do it. You should do it, but this does not require you to leave your current job. But you should start coaching. You should start saying, all right, I'm going to charge for my coaching. Our FCMT program is fantastic. You've been through the training, but they also help you grow your business. And you know that you're going to have to get out there and one foot in front of the other. We've got to get one client.

We've got to coach them up. We've got to keep coaching them, and then we've got to move on to the next. This is an entrepreneurial journey. Christy could speak to this, but I think the answer is absolutely yes, you started. I don't think you leave it. Quick question, how much money do you make right now? What's your salary? Well, we have household income of about $100,000.

Okay, so if I told you that you could make $100,000, okay, being a financial coach, would you hesitate or would you jump? I'd jump. All right, there's your answer. All right, Christy, tell him how he does this. How does he build this from scratch? Yeah, you just – On the side. Exactly like you said, it's not going to be a jump.

We're going to build it up towards a step. And that's what we tell people when you're starting a side gig. You keep the full-time job. You keep the steady salary. And you start this on the side and you build it up so much that you're getting more clients and more hours and more revenue, more income, up, up, up, up, up, until you can live on that amount of money. Now, it doesn't have to be 100 grand when you take the step or jump, as you want to say it. Maybe you build it up to 50 or 60 and it's just continuing to climb. Then you can quit the full-time job and work on it full-time,

working towards a hundred grand on that side business. But I just want to encourage you. We have a ton of resources here, Aaron, through our financial coach team. They do coaching calls. We do events in the fall. I'll be speaking at their event called Enrichment in September. I'll be there. And we'll, yeah, Ken and I will both be there.

So we love to help coaches build their businesses into profitable businesses because it's not just the coaching. It's not just what you're doing. It's the business aspect you need to know as well. And I just want you to know, Aaron, those resources are available to you from a support standpoint and ongoing standpoint. So just know if you want to do it, we'll help you do that. And Aaron, you have worked so hard. You're doing awesome. You have the financial freedom to do

this. But we're still not going to jump. We're going to just build this thing. I would re-engage, as Christy said, with our financial coach resources, build this thing one person at a time before you know it, you're going to be doing it full time. I love your heart. You love coaching people. Pursue it. Don't feel the pressure to do it all super fast and super big. You've got this. Thank you so much for the call. My colleague is Chrissy Wright.

I'm Ken Coleman with Ramsey Personality. You are listening to The Ramsey Show. If you've got debt, it might feel like you'll have it forever. But here's the truth. You are not as far away from being debt-free as you think. Most people who do what we teach pay off all of their debt in 24 months or less. So why not you? When you're debt-free, you finally get to enjoy your money instead of stressing about it. But what if you want to get there fast? You need the right plan. With Financial Peace University, you'll learn step-by-step how to pay off debt, save, and invest for the future. Then you'll put everything you learn into practice with a budget using the premium version of our tool, EveryDollar.

And you get it all only in a Ramsey Plus membership. When you commit to this plan, you will become debt-free faster than you think. To start your free trial of Ramsey Plus today, text TRIAL to 33789. Text TRIAL to 33789. Welcome back, America. You have joined the conversation here on The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, Christy Wright. We are thrilled to be together to help you, to serve you. Here's how we do it. It's a free phone call.

888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. We'll talk about your money. We'll talk about your side hustle, the business. We'll talk about your time. We'll talk about your work and career and moving up, getting that bigger shovel, making more money. We'll even talk leadership. You know, Christy, it occurs to me that the other day, you know, it's like people want to get promoted. It's one of the stages. My seven stages, get promoted. But if you're going to get promoted, it's almost guaranteed you're going to be in some type of leadership role. It's very rare that you would get promoted and not lead.

So Christy and I are very involved with Entree Leadership, and we can answer your leadership questions. Here's a fun one. Some of you are in a very toxic work situation. And I get those questions all the time on the Ken Coleman Show, but I want to take on one of Some of you are in a very toxic work situation. And I get those questions all the time on the Ken Coleman show, but I want to take on one of those with you because of the leadership component. Do you know what I mean? Like, okay, what do I do here? Or how about I'm running a small business and I got a high performer who's a cancer, but it's a little, I mean, I'd love for you to take those kinds of questions on too. It's all over the place. It's so interesting too,

because a lot of the questions we get, they come in as like, oh, this is a leadership question or this is a business question or this is even a money question and we dig into it and it's actually a people question. It always comes down to a relationship issue and Ken and I love helping unpack that with you. So give us a call.

888-825-5225. Alright, let's go to Pensacola, Florida where Jody joins us. Jody, how can we help? Thank you kindly for hearing me out. Sure. What's going on? Thank you.

I'm a retired military officer. Thank you for your service. Yes, thank you. You are a great American. I discovered Mr. Ramsey after I became debt-free. Wow. All right. And I also own my own home.

Awesome. And I, yes, thank you. I'm flying solo now, operating a small hobby farm, and I'm looking for a less painful side hustle than what I do now. Yeah. You mean like physically taxing? Mentally and now. Yeah. You mean like physically taxing? Mentally and physically. Yeah.

What I'm doing now as a side hustle, it's a lot of work and it's just becoming less enjoyable. Okay. How much money is it spitting off for you?

How much money? Yeah. How much you make it off of it? I started doing a side hustle September 2nd, and I have total, now this is gross, I've made $10,900 from doing it. And this is this past September? Yes. Okay. Yes, ma'am.

Okay. All right. Well, let's just start with your ideas. Let's just kind of walk through this. What ideas do you have for something that you would like to do on the side? Have you been working on that and thinking about it? Oh, yes. Yes, I think about it every day. What I've been doing since September, since I have a small hobby farm,

I joined a couple agri-tourism venues where dry campers, RVs, fifth-wheel tent campers, boondock, stay overnight on my land in exchange for either paying up front or with the other, the second venue, they stay overnight here free with the suggestion that they buy a product from me in exchange for the free stay. And from that, I average about $40 per reservation. But I'm enjoying doing that less and less. It just seems to be becoming more toxic. I used to enjoy the interaction with people, the old school RVers who are genial, cordial, and very interesting.

But increasingly, there's just become more drama, more problems. Jodi, here's what I want you to do. I want you to tell Christy those things that you're really excited about. When she asked you that, you were like, oh yes, there was a little bit of a spark. What are these ideas that you've had? It's not these toxic RVers. Yeah, what are you excited

about? What's the idea that sounds good? Let's start with that one. Doing what I do now without the element of them staying on property overnight. I love teaching. I've been making kombucha beverage every week for 16 years, and I've been selling that to my guests. And I also teach workshops. There's an increasing number of folks who are interested in micro brewing or becoming a micro brewery or a brewmeister, making their own kombucha as a health beverage. I'm sure you're familiar with it. Yeah, sure.

So, yes, doing the workshops. And my claim to fame there is that I've kept my cultures alive for 16 years, which I understand is very rare. So I love teaching. I come from a long history of teachers. I love sharing knowledge. I love helping people. I love mentoring newly formed boomeisters. I'm also a writer.

I have four books that I've self-published. I'm working on a fifth one. I love mentoring people. I love fixing things. My ideal job, or not job, but side hustle would be buying old Toyotas and fixing them. Okay, so hold on a second. So that was a really long list to get to my ideal side hustle, which is why I think you called. So how much capital do you need to start buying Toyotas and fixing them?

Give me a quick example. Well, I have savings. Capital's not a problem. No, no, I'm saying give me an example. A Camry, a Tacoma, what would you buy and fix it up and flip it? Give us a quick run-through of how that would work. I'd buy an older Toyota, preferably manual transmission, which is not that many of them, but older Corolla, older pickup truck,

SR5. And you put how much in it? Two or three grand, five grand, then flip it for what, eight or nine? Not even five grand. Sometimes people will ditch their older cars because they need a new alternator and they don't have money. I guess I don't understand why you wouldn't do this. You've got this all figured out.

I do. I know why she wouldn't do it. Listen, Jody, I have one challenge to the Toyota idea. I'm not against the Toyota idea, but the very reason you told me you want to get out of farming is because it's so physical. We're going to go from physical farming to car flipping? That's part of it. I'm going to keep the hobby farm.

It's a lot of work, but I grow my own food. That's the whole point of my... What's the part that's physically taxing you that you don't want to keep doing at the hobby farm? I'm going to have to keep interacting with campers staying over night on my property. All we've got to do is get rid of the campers. They're all late. They have the drama.

Waiting for them to come. I have 24 percent no shows yeah got it this is a very simple answer about that piece of it you got a lot going on you got a lot of ideas and i think that's awesome we need to get rid of the campers that's that's something you can do as soon as your latest reservation is we're not offering this anymore we need to be done with that it's stressing you out you know it i know it we can all hear it all of america can hear it in your voice as As for the other ideas, what I find interesting is that you spent a lot of time saying teaching, writing, teaching, writing,

workshops, micro brewing. You spent a lot of time on that. And then you came to my ideal job as Toyota's. I'm not saying it's not. I'm just saying what I heard you say over and over again was the teaching writing. I think you need some clarity on what this next business idea is. And then when you know what that is, then you'll know what action to take, but you're trying to do all the things I heard teaching and writing. I heard teaching people how to micro brew. You're making your drinks and all your stuff on the side, selling that as a product line and also having an online stream. Now, if you want to do the Toyota thing, that's cool. So hold on. You're absolutely right, Christy.

But I want to ask you, Jody. Christy's right. There was a lot there. And then you just went, but my ideal job is fixing Toyotas. So which one is it? Let's do the old fun quiz. There's no wrong answer. There's no wrong answer.

But if you had to choose today, guaranteed success, which one would you choose? If you could only choose one? I would actually do both. I know you would. I'm saying right now, which one do you think you get most enjoyment out of? Learning how to make videos and post them on YouTube. Okay. All right, here's what I want to do.

Jody, I want you to stay on the line. I'm going to have Kelly send you two things. First, I want her to send you my course business idea bootcamp. This is a course I created years ago to help you come up with your best business idea. I want you to list all your ideas and you got a lot, put them all in there and you're going to run them through several tests that

I have to find your best business idea. And then I want you to come to my conference business boutique in October. You can come in Nashville in person or you can watch on live stream. You come to that conference with your idea that you found from this course. And then we're going to show you how to act on it and build it. But you need to figure out which idea you're going to act on or else you're going to keep running in a million directions and making progress and none of them. So those two things is the one-two punch, business idea boot camp,

and then the conference will give you what you need to do. And one other thing. Jody, please bring a case of kombucha, please. Please. Please do that. That's awesome. I would like to have some. The homemade kombucha, I'm in.

She had me there. I love it. Hey, she's Christy Wright. I'm Ken Coleman. This is The Ramsey Show. Don't move. Welcome back, America. You are listening to The Ramsey Show.

I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, Christy Wright. We're taking you through this hour as we answer your questions about life. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Does it feel like no matter what you do, how hard you work, you just can't get ahead with your money? Well, we've been there before. But you don't have to live like that. If you're sick and tired of being sick and tired, decide now that you're ready to do something different.

And if you do, you'll get different results. It's time to commit to a plan that works. Financial Peach University is the step-by-step plan that's helped nearly 6 million people pay off debt and take control of their money. You combine that with a premium version of the EveryDollar budgeting tool and you will make progress instantly. And it's only available with a membership to Ramsey Plus. Decide today to break the cycle

of living paycheck to paycheck. This month only, we're taking $30 off the price of a 12-month membership. Start your free trial of Ramsey Plus today by texting TRIAL to 33789. That's TRIAL. Text that word to 33789. All right, Kansas City, Kansas is where we go next, and Brett joins us there.

Brett, how can we help? Hello? Hi, Brett. Hi. You're on the Ramsey Show. It's all you, buddy. What's your question? Sorry.

I'm just having trouble hearing. That's all right. I've got an idea for a product that I think would be pretty cheap to manufacture and retail. I mean, a pretty good price point. I've never done that before. Should I try to bankroll the whole thing myself? Should I take out loans? I know you guys are pretty against financing.

Yeah, so we'll go ahead and answer that part of the question. We don't want you under any circumstances. And then just any other, again, having never walked this path before, if there's any caveats you can throw out there, you know, don't take any wooden nickels kind of stuff. Sure, so let's start with. And listen, okay, hold on a with... I'm so confused right now. First, Brett, you should not take out a loan. We do not want you to take out a loan anytime you're getting into any kind of business. There's so much involved,

and a loan is a bad idea regardless of how great the idea is. And it's certainly a horrible idea when we're not even sure if this thing's going to work. So no loan. And also, we would not take on investors or partnerships. We're not a fan of that. That eats into your ownership. Christy, what else would you be walking through here on this? Brett, I'm curious.

Can you share the idea, or is it a secret? It's such a simple idea. It would be really easy to steal it so yeah so I'm sure that's cool yeah I figured that was okay so I'm just gonna I'm gonna give you some general advice then it's a it's a computer accessory okay all right here's a life hack computer accessory got it got it okay cool so stop Brett you're gonna give the idea away I'm gonna give you I'm gonna give you some very simple I've. I've been Googling for something like it, and the only things that are close on the market wouldn't even touch it. Great.

It would outpace anything in its class. Great. That's on the market right now, and it would be probably $19.95. Perfect. I believe that, and we're going to prove it through starting small, growing slow. So here's what I want you to do. You've already done some research to see what's out there, and there's not much So here's what I want you to do. You've already done some research to see what's out there and there's not much. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to look for manufacturing options for a prototype. You can pay a very, very small fee

to get different manufacturers to create a prototype for you where you can have a mock-up. You can say, yeah, a little bit more of this, a little less of this. And you can actually source it from multiple vendors to see who's going to give you the best price point, how they do their pricing, and also just what's the quality, what's the functionality. Because I don't know the exact product,

I can't advise you to a specific direction, but you know what I'm talking about. You're going to, whatever this thing is, if it's plastic, if it's material, it's whatever, you're going to source different manufacturers. I would say get at least three. Get them to create three different prototypes. You're working with each of them and comparing the minimum orders, the turnaround time.

Do you like them? Are they good with customer service and responsiveness to you because you're depending on them? And what's the quality? Does it have the functionality that you want and so on? And then from there, while you're doing this, because this will take a little time for them to create, while you're doing this, I want you to start working on validating the concept.

Now, you can do that through surveys. You can do it through asking friends and family. You can do it through social media. Ask about the pain points that this thing solves. So let me give you an example. Okay, my book, it's not a product. It's what you're talking about with like something with your computer.

But before we created this book or before Ken created his book, we did research. Hey, do you struggle with managing your time? Do you feel like you don't have enough time? What's your biggest frustration with your career move? We do research to understand the felt need of the people that we're gonna help with this thing that we're gonna create. I want you to understand the felt need of the people that we're going to help with this thing that we're going to create. I want you to do that, Brett. I want you to understand

the people that need this product. What are their pain points? How do they talk about it? Guess what? That's going to become your marketing language. The things they say are the things you're going to say when you market this. And then when you do that, you can even begin to create an email list. You can create some social media pages, start to generate interest in this area. And then when you do that, you can even begin to create an email list. You can create some social media pages, start to generate interest in this area. And then when you have it, you have a group of people to market it to. From there, you can look at selling it into retail stores if you want to go that route in addition to selling it independently yourself. But really, just the first step for you is you're going to take your money and go get a prototype made.

And so you've got two main avenues, two tracks you're walking at the same time. You're getting the prototype made and getting all that figured out and fine-tuned while you're doing market research and testing and understanding your market. If you do that, you can start to put it out there. And then guess what? You're selling this thing. Now, if it does not skyrocket overnight, like you hope and dream that it will, don't be discouraged

because you're starting this thing from scratch. It doesn't mean it's not a good idea. That's where you put fuel on the fire of marketing and you've got to broadcast it and get it out there to the right people in the right hands. And if it is as good as you say it is, then it will sell itself

when it gets in the right hands and the right people know about it. So there's some tactical things for you to do. Guess what? Every person that's ever created a new product does that exact thing. It's not some special secret that they have that you don't. They didn't know what they were doing either and they did it anyway. So you can do that too. It's great advice that you just got, Brett. And don't forget what she said earlier. You're

starting small and growing slow. Everything she gave you tactically has to come back to that. Your first order. If you feel like you're not starting small or going slow, then you need to slow down and just back off. Your first order should be less than a thousand. If you feel like you're not starting small or going slow, then you need to slow down and just back off. Your first order should be less than 1,000 if you're starting with no email list. Now, if you're starting with some major platform you did not mention to me, maybe it's a bigger first order. But if this is top secret and you don't have a platform, your first order is less than 1,000, period. For sure. And you can reorder as needed.

That's after you've done all that testing that Chrissy told you. You know, one of the things I find, Chrissy, that it's so exciting, you know, for entrepreneurs, certainly inventors or something like this, they come up with an idea and they're like, everybody's got to have it. It's going to be an absolute big success. I mean, we've both been down that road before. Personally, we certainly understand that. But what happens is if you aren't willing to let this thing get ripped apart by people,

like certainly a gadget, let's call it that. You've got to test that and put that in front of people and be willing for people to go, I'd never buy this in a million years. This sucks. Not to be discouraged, but to make sure that you don't order something and you don't go down the road with something that in your mind's eye was this wonderful idea and you never truly get real feedback. And it's got to be people beyond uncle

larry so i'm you make such a good point because i think so many people it's this fine line of you don't want one critic to derail your whole plans if it's just one but if everyone's saying this then like you should pay attention to it and listen have you ever had a product before where you used it you're like like, what idiot created this? Or like, how did they miss this? Like, did they not test it? Did they not think when they created this? And it's just so funny because it's like we've all been there and you want to avoid your

customers thinking that and you just listen to them. Ask for their feedback. Good, bad, ugly, everything in between. They're going to tell you what they like and don't like and then you can go fix it in order to make it closer to what they need. And I'm glad you brought this up. You're right, Chrissy. That doesn't mean they're haters or doubters. These are people just testing your product.

There's a difference. Yeah. If one person, your friend, goes, that's a dumb idea, and you just stop everything because of that, well, that's the opposite of what you just gave the advice for Brett to do. But we're saying you really test the product, consumer testing, user testing, because you may have 20% hate it, 50% really like it, and 15% are indifferent, whatever, and you don't hear anything, whatever it is.

But you've got to be able to lean into that, because when you do, it's invaluable information so that you don't get too far down the road. Well, let me give you an example. I will not buy a handbag that I cannot put on with one arm because the straps are long enough. If I have to take this arm to slide it on because the straps are too short, I won't buy it. Someone that has kids and is busy, they know that.

They make the straps longer. They figure that out. Just think through the functionality of what you're using and who's going to use it. It's going to help you. Good stuff. Thanks for the call, Brett. Great advice. Christy, I want to thank my colleague Christy Wright. It's so much fun this hour. I want to thank my colleague Christy Wright. It's so much fun this hour. I want to thank our producer, Ben Hill, our associate producer, Kelly Daniel, and you, America, you're listening to The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer for The Ramsey Show.

This episode is over, but if you heard about an event, product, or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything you've heard about during this episode in the podcast show notes section or head to theramseyshow.com. Thanks for listening.