The Ramsey Show - App - The Balance Between Work and Prayer (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 29, 2019

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Starting point is 00:00:00 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. You jump in, we'll talk about your life, your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Tori is with us in Kansas City starting off this hour. Hi, Tori.
Starting point is 00:00:56 How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm well. How are you? Happy Friday. Happy Friday to you. How can I help? Well, I have a question.
Starting point is 00:01:04 I am new to prayer and finding my faith and everything, and I'm wondering how do you pray for financial help or assistance without feeling selfish? Every time I try to, I just feel like, okay, there's more important stuff going on in the world. I should be praying for that versus help with my snowball. That's a good question. The Scripture says that if we, being evil, know how to give our kids good gifts, how much more so our Father in Heaven.
Starting point is 00:01:35 And so, yeah, there's a whole lot more important things than your debt snowball or my gas tank on my truck being full, running around out there. But the truth is god's so infinitely wise and powerful that he can handle the little stuff and the big stuff so it's not selfish at all um the thing i have always done as i'm have matured in my faith i mean when i first started i just said like god i need some money i mean i need some help i gotta pay the light bill i got a hungry kid over here you know i mean i would just ask straight up like that and there's nothing wrong with that
Starting point is 00:02:08 uh if you're you know just taking care of your family or your basic needs or something along those lines um and then the other part of it is is i asked for two other things uh as I got a little bit older. One was wisdom. Show me in your word what to do so that I can change and align myself with that rather than you just showing up at the front door with an Amazon box full of whatever, right? And show me how to live, in other words, because he's more concerned with our character than he is our circumstances. Does that make sense? Yes.
Starting point is 00:02:49 And so, you know, give me wisdom. God's people suffer for lack of knowledge, as Scripture says. And so if we can, you know, give me wisdom. Show me what you want me to do. Show me how you want me to live. And then usually that starts to give you the me to do show me how you want me to live and then usually that starts to give you the tools to solve money issues you know that and so you start to learn what the bible says about money like staying out of debt the borrower slave of the lender having a budget don't build a
Starting point is 00:03:15 tower without first counting the cost saving money in the house of the wise or stores of choice food and oil and so you start to get biblical wisdom and it applies in your life and changes your character changes your maturity um and you learn to say okay i'm going to delay pleasure no discipline seems pleasant at the time because it you but it yields a harvest of righteousness bible says in hebrews and so you start to learn you know that's god's word that's him speaking to me through his love letter, right? And so I asked for him to just keep feeding me those things so that he'd change me, God, to who you want me to be to solve this problem.
Starting point is 00:03:58 And that kind of falls under the heading not of God solving the problem, but, you know, St. Ambrose said, you work like it all depends on you, and you pray like it all depends on him. And so the farmer doesn't just pray, he also plants. He puts seed in the ground, he plows and gets the weeds out of the field, right? And he also prays because he needs sunshine and rain in a perfect proportion to have a bumper crop. And then the last thing I learned was from a good friend of mine uh who's an orthodox jewish rabbi uh rabbi daniel lappen and he wrote a wonderful book called thou shall prosper which is why jewish people have a tendency to prosper and it was a little bit of a
Starting point is 00:04:37 twist on hard work for me i've always been taught to work hard you probably were too tory um you know that works where money comes from and all that kind of stuff but he said the jewish he says in this book and again he and i become friends over the years he said the jewish mindset is don't ask for money ask for an opportunity to serve someone how give me a problem i can solve for someone. And by the way, they'll give you money when you do that. You know what I'm saying? So it leads to money, but rather than, Lord, give me a job. No, give me an opportunity to help someone,
Starting point is 00:05:15 and it bring economic value to them, and then want to give me their money. In other words, if you're standing around in a restaurant and it's empty, what you're praying for is, I need people at these tables so that i have someone to serve and if i serve i get tips you see the little twist on that it's more than just give me work it's give me an opportunity to serve help someone because money generally is attached to that and so that's the kind of thing i've done over the years i mean just to you that's a really great question to open up the hour with thank you um and so wisdom an opportunity uh to serve as a twist on the classic work ethic um you know those that won't work don't let them eat that kind
Starting point is 00:05:58 of thing is scriptural uh so you know you you got your part to play in this in other words and uh but but ask him to guide you in that give me opportunities give me a favor if i'm going in to sit down talk to someone about an extra job to make some extra money to pay off my debt you know um because the time the number of times he just bundles up money and puts it in an amazon box and drops it at the front door is almost zero. That's why they call it miracles, because it's so rare. Instead, he usually changes us and redirects our journey, the path he wants us on for our own good. Just like if you're raising kids, you're showing your kid, you know, I love my kid.
Starting point is 00:06:41 And if me wanting my kid to win, if I get that, how much more so? God, that's what the Bible starts with. So he wants good things for you. He's crazy about you. But it's usually not a heavenly handout, if that makes any sense. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for your insight. That really helps me.
Starting point is 00:07:01 Cool. That's great. Thank you for letting me have a discussion with you on it. It's something fun to talk about because there's this interaction. You know, for the rest of you out there, and just kind of staying on this for a second, there's kind of two ends of the spectrum in Christianity that are both wrong. The middle of the spectrum is actually right, but there's the end of the spectrum that says, you know, you should never have wealth.
Starting point is 00:07:23 Anyone who has any material goods, you know, you should be poor if you're a Christian. And then there's the other end of the spectrum that says, if you just pray, God will just rain money on you. And that all Christians should, you know, have perfect health. And all Christians should have unlimited resources and prosperity. Both of those are toxic untruth, toxic heretic. They're really heresy when you really get down into what they are. Because what they're doing is they're twisting the relationship with your Heavenly Father. And so from a theological or a doctrinal standpoint
Starting point is 00:08:00 that's what you get into. But this balance between work like it all depends on you, pray like it all depends on God. So we understand his sovereignty. We understand his providence. We understand he's in control. We understand he loves us. We also understand we have a part to play in this life. And so, you know, you get up and you get moving.
Starting point is 00:08:24 And that's how it mixes in. Great, great question, Tori. Thanks for letting me talk about it. Open phones, this is The Dave Ramsey Show. The last thing I want you to feel is buyer's remorse, especially when you offered thousands more on a new home to win a bidding war. If I've taught you anything, it's that blindly throwing money at a problem is a stupid plan and something you'll regret for years.
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Starting point is 00:10:21 Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I'm calling with good news. We are pregnant with our fourth baby. Yay! And, yes, we're due in mid-June. And we were finishing up baby step number two when we found out we were pregnant. Well, we've got a big shovel and we had a big pile of debt, so we finished that up. There was about 9,000 left.
Starting point is 00:10:45 And then we started on baby step three and built that up and started four or five, but I'm struggling with going to six. And so I was hoping you could help me and let me know what you think I should do. What are you struggling with? Well, cause I don't know exactly. I mean, well, our income is great. And so I just kind of started piling the money and now we have a hundred thousand dollars sitting there in the last six months um and i don't know should i cut it back down to about 20 um i'm working two jobs because my one job does not have any benefits it's a small business so no short term so i'm working an as needed job as a nurse practitioner and so i've been bringing in an extra you know uh double six-figure income and so i'm not going to have any maternity pay when I'm on leave. So I'm going to have to use that income.
Starting point is 00:11:33 Are you single? No, I'm married. What does he make? He makes about $50,000. Okay. And you make what? I make $140,000 at the job that doesn't have any benefits, and then my side job I just pick up.
Starting point is 00:11:48 And it's a six-figure income. It just matters on how much I work, but I'm not going to be doing that once baby comes. I'm just doing it to prepare for baby. What do you do? Are you a doc? I'm a nurse practitioner. Okay, yeah, I was guessing.
Starting point is 00:12:01 All right, good. It's a pretty good side job, that's why I was guessing. Okay, so the deal is this. Yeah, I was guessing. All right, good. It's a pretty good side job. That's why I was guessing. Okay. Yeah. All right. So the deal is this. What does your household need while you're out on maternity leave to subsidize, to lay with his income to replace the fact that you're not making any money, right? Right. Probably about $3,000.
Starting point is 00:12:24 A month? A month, yeah month yeah okay how many months are you going to take off three that would be nine thousand dollars let's double that and call it 20 you've already got your emergency fund that were you called it 20 right yeah so we're going to have 20 as an emergency fund i'm gonna set another 20 over the side to make sure everything's okay uh you want to set 30 over there i don't care just to make sure everything's okay 50 000 on the house and then you know i'm just trying to make sure you're okay you know yeah while you're out you know sounds like you guys are saving almost all your income already we are yeah so i mean and and you know you've been working your butt off so what's the long-term plan with four kids for you um well
Starting point is 00:13:14 um i also have a direct sale company that kind of took off too i guess i didn't mention that but i don't know how that income's gonna go um like a multi-level marketing um so that i haven't touched that either. So I don't know. Maybe I can just live off of that and not even go back to work or just work part-time. Yeah. We don't need – as long as you go make one of these six-figure incomes somewhere and you've got two or three of them floating around to add with his 50,
Starting point is 00:13:42 you guys are going to be fine, right? Right. So we don't have to have a pile of money to offset that because you're not going to pull up and just stop is what you're telling me no i'll make six figures one way or another yeah that's what it sounds like um at least and then uh so you know i think you set,000 aside for maternity leave, set $20,000 over in your emergency fund. Does that make you comfortable? Yeah, I think so. We were in so much debt. I'm not trying to get you into debt.
Starting point is 00:14:17 No, no, no. It just, you know, we went from this frugal lifestyle that we just haven't maintained it. Yeah. And so. All I'm trying to say is let's just think through this logically and and it part of being logical with personal finance is addressing the emotional need and that's all i'm doing i'm saying you got an emotional need an actual need of maternity leave and we said it was nine thousand dollars we've upped it to 30 does that cover the emotions please yeah yeah really did i bump up my husband's truck that's i don't care if you want to move him up in truck that's fine what's he driving how old's
Starting point is 00:14:54 the truck oh it's a 2006 for a dodge pickup okay and so it's? Yeah. And he wants to move to a $20,000? Mm-hmm. Well, you got the money. I don't care. It doesn't matter if it's for a baby. This is the time you do this. You're working baby steps four, five, and six simultaneously. The extent you buy couches, trucks, and vacations slows down your six. Mm-hmm.
Starting point is 00:15:21 Oh, and stop and have babies. That kind of stuff, you know know slows down your six but so what you're going to be okay you're still going to hit all of your goals you're still going to be millionaires if not multi-millionaires when you get to retirement age so i think you're killing it you're doing really good i think you're doing better than you think you are i just want you i just want you to think through this from a critical thinking standpoint, what is needed here. And so if we put 10 on his truck and 30 to the side and 20 to the side, I think I still got 40 left to throw at the house. And if you want to wait until after the baby comes to do that, just as an abundance of caution, so what?
Starting point is 00:16:00 But don't be just piling up cash over there over the next five years and call me up and go, I've got enough in my savings account to pay off my house. No, you should have already paid off your stinking house. Okay? So, you know, five, ten months have already paid off your stinking house. Okay? So, you know, five, ten months, nine months, I don't care, whatever. But let's have a plan to systematically work these steps over time. That's the issue. Heather is with us in Sacramento.
Starting point is 00:16:17 Hi, Heather. How are you? Hi, Dave. I am so thankful to be talking to you. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I just wanted some advice on how to talk to my ex-husband about money.
Starting point is 00:16:38 A year ago, I got full custody of our daughter, and I had filed for child support, and he got really abrasive with me, and through just not wanting to have that confrontation, I dropped my request. Why? It's been a year and I went back and refiled because back in December. Because he should support his child. Hello. Right. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:16:57 Even if he whines about it. We have two kids. My daughter and his daughter live full time and he pays child support for his son. And in December, my ex-husband texted me and said he was going to claim our daughter on this year's taxes. He doesn't have that right. I know. I know. And so that just kind of poked the bear. And so I went back and filed and he texted me over the weekend saying, hey, I really want to work on communication, yada, yada. I'm like, okay, I can be decent. We can, you know, work on communication. And so –
Starting point is 00:17:32 Are you remarried now? No, I'm in a committed relationship with my boyfriend. Okay. All right. For how long? For how long? We've been together for two years. Okay.
Starting point is 00:17:43 I've been separated from my ex-husband for three. Yeah, all right. So, you know, we work together for him to see our daughter. He only sees her about four times a year. And so first thing Monday morning, he texts me asking, hey, you know, I really appreciated some compassion for my situation. If I have to pay a set amount each month, I'm not even going to make rent and this and that. Give him a total money makeover book.
Starting point is 00:18:12 Yeah. Call the Wambulance. Child support's not 100%. Right. Not even in California. He can pay his child support, make his rent, and eat. Right. I'll give him compassion.
Starting point is 00:18:23 He needs to take care of his dadgum kid. He's a father right well and he's had he has five kids living in his house he's had two more kids since we separated and he wants to do a hey let me know what you need as far as money as you go and what i need is you to start paying child support right yeah this guy is a master manipulator and he's self-centered as crap i can tell that already yeah yeah i got no use for people don't take care of their kids man so what's the best way to approach that i don't think you're gonna fix him no i'm not i don't think he's gonna be happy i think i'm just gonna be okay with him being unhappy okay that's how i'm gonna approach i'm gonna be kind kind and gentle but firm.
Starting point is 00:19:07 Right. It's like, you know, you brought this child into the world. The law says and morality says you should take care of this child. It really is not rocket science, Bubba. Sign up and pay the bill. That's how this works. And, you know, I'm sorry. It's not, you know, he doesn't pay anything now.
Starting point is 00:19:25 Hello. So maybe it'd be a good idea if he just kind of got practicing again, taking care of his kids. It's a good idea. That's why we have this in the law, because it's the proper thing to do. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Do you know who is a prime target for identity theft? Your children. Kids have no debts or credit history. Their personal information is just as easy to get, but the theft could go completely undetected for years. Every day all over the country, young adults are starting down their own path in life
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Starting point is 00:20:42 And it's the only plan I provide to my team. Zander.com or 800-356-4282. Eduardo and Megan are in Augusta, Georgia. Hey, guys, how are you? Hello, Dave. Hey, Dave, we're great. Cool. I see on my screen you're debt-free. How much have you paid off?
Starting point is 00:21:26 We have paid $593,000. Goodness. How long did that take? We did that in 24 months. Okay. And your range of income during that time? Well, we started at $290,000, and then towards the end it went down to $245,000 due to a career change made by Megan. Wow.
Starting point is 00:21:49 What do you guys do for a living? We're both civil engineers, and I work as a construction engineer. Okay. I also worked in construction engineering at the beginning of the journey, but more recently made a career change, and I now can do engineering design while working remotely, and so I'm able to be closer to the kids now. Very cool. Good.
Starting point is 00:22:10 What kind of debt was this $593,000? Well, we owe $268,000 on two rental properties. We had a car loan, and everything else was our home. You paid off your house. We did. So you must have sold the rentals we did we sold both of the rentals and then we sold the car as well okay wow and what did the rentals bring uh they brought over well we had a total of 268 000 on the rentals they brought over around a hundred thousand dollars above. Okay, so you sold them for $368,000. Then you used the $100,000 to apply to the loan, right? Other loans, right? That's right. Okay,
Starting point is 00:22:53 so of the $593,000, $368,000 came from the sale of the rentals, paid off the rentals, and the other $100,000 went to the debts. And how much did the car sell for? Well, we just took it back to the dealership. We actually wrote a check when we took it back. You mean you sold it back to them? Yes. Okay. All right. And so how much of a check, how much did that car sell for after you wrote the check?
Starting point is 00:23:14 What was the net? $25,000. Okay. All right. Cool. So about $100,000, about $400,000 of this was selling stuff, give or take, and about another 200 of it, what you cash flowed in 24 months. That is correct, and it all went straight into our home. Wow.
Starting point is 00:23:35 And what's your home worth? Around $320,000. Very cool. Look at you guys. I'm talking to weird people. Yeah, it's amazing. It's a wonderful feeling. I bet.
Starting point is 00:23:51 Well, I mean, you're making $250,000 a year. You have everything paid for, house and everything. How old are you two? We are 38 years old. Wow. I was 39. Wow. You guys, they did all of this before 40 years old.
Starting point is 00:24:04 Very well done. So what happened? Tell me the story. What happened 24 months ago? Because you turned your whole lives upside down. That's right. So we went through Financial Tips University, and I think the trigger for this whole thing was the day we were at the house
Starting point is 00:24:19 and we added the debt, and I don't think we had ever realized how much debt we have. And then, you know, as we went through the class, you know, we realized that, you know, with the lifestyle that we wanted to have and a healthy lifestyle and our kids and a very young family, you know, really that wasn't going to support the lifestyle that we wanted and the path we were heading to. So, you know, we decided to get intentional and, you know, attack the debt.
Starting point is 00:24:50 And, you know, we started planning for the future what we could do after we were debt-free. Very cool. So, Megan, you're sitting down that night after class, and you guys added up all the debt, and you looked down and you saw almost $600,000. What were you feeling when you saw that? Yeah, that class was such an eye-opener for me when we did the budget and checked our numbers. That, to me, it really made me realize that the lifestyle we had wasn't going to support this debt.
Starting point is 00:25:31 These payments we were making each month, we would basically be doing them forever. So it made me realize that each month we were essentially all our money was going to payments or they were slipping through our fingers on any kind of random or fleeting purchases. So it was an eye-opener. That was the monumental class for me was the budget class and the numbers. So when you saw that $600,000 number, did it make you scared or mad or how did you feel? I think, you know, to add the $600,000, you know, it was more, you know, on the scared side. You know, we realized with the dreams that we had and the life we wanted to lead,
Starting point is 00:26:12 we pretty much had to, you know, keep our jobs and, you know, continue the grind day to day because, you know, if one of the renters wouldn't pay or something was to happen, you know, I mean, with just one of our incomes, you know, it would have been very difficult for us to, you know, support our lifestyle. Amen. So now you're there. You don't have a payment in the world. How does that feel?
Starting point is 00:26:39 It feels amazing. I don't think we realized just how amazing it would, because before we were just normal, thinking that was normal. But once we got onto the plan and realized that we wanted to attack it and we hated that, it just changed everything. And now it just feels free. It feels peaceful. Again, we mentioned the career change I had made,
Starting point is 00:27:04 and I really believe that was from this plan that really made us kind of make decisions more guided with how we wanted to live, not from the payments. Yeah, way to go, you guys. Congratulations. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is now that you've done it? Well, I think the key is, you know, being intentional, as you say, to stay focused, you know, follow your key is you know being intentional as you say to stay focused you know follow your budget um you know and make sure that you know that that that that you realize you know what is a need versus uh versus a want and i think before before going through the program you know all i want were needs and uh you you know, and we learned that we were wrong.
Starting point is 00:27:46 Yeah. Well done, guys. Very well done. Proud of you. Did you have people cheering you on or people thinking you're crazy? Yes. Well, no, I mean, we had a lot of people support us, you know, and they understood why we were doing it. And, you know, mainly now after we're debt-free, I think a lot of people are curious about, you know, why we did it and how we did it.
Starting point is 00:28:06 And, you know, we hope that, you know, as all the people on your podcast that we listen to every day inspire us, you know, hopefully we can do the same thing for other people. Amen. Well done. Well done. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's Retire Inspired book for you, number one bestseller. That needs to be the next chapter in your story where you become millionaires,'re well on your way and uh be outrageously generous along the way well done you guys great thank you thank you eduardo and megan augusta georgia 593 000 paid off in 24 months includes the sale of rentals and a car totaling almost 400 of that 600
Starting point is 00:28:47 so still 200 of it cash flowed making 290 to 245 100 debt-free house and everything before they're 40 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one that's how it's done right there man oh man oh man i love it very well done now you just think about it a three hundred thousand dollar house is paid for so the payments what two thousand bucks a month put two thousand bucks a month from age 40 into a good growth stock mutual fund to age 65 you know how many millions of dollars that is just the fact they don't have a house payment. So their net worth, if they just continue generally on the path that they're on, if they fully fund their 401ks, the house continues to grow in value, their net worth by the time they reach 65, 70 years old is going to be in excess of $10 million.
Starting point is 00:29:59 But they make really good money. How many broke people do you know that make $200,000 a year? I know a bunch of them. I met a guy the other day making $175,000 a year and he didn't have nothing. He didn't have spit. But not that couple. No. They decided they were going to take control of their lives.
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Starting point is 00:31:41 That's puretalkusa.com. Matthew is with us in Bakersfield, California. Hi, Matthew. How are you? Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Hey, I work in IT, and my wife and I are planning on, well, in about three months to move to another state where I would start a business.
Starting point is 00:32:09 I'll be doing what I currently do, supporting other companies' technology. Our plan is to sell our home in California, purchase a modest home for cash, and then have between $30,000 or $60,000 left over in equity. We plan on living off that equity until I can get the cash flow up. My question is, what would be the best way to quickly build up clients in another state, knowing that it's kind of hard to do it without boots on the ground right now? What size companies are you working with, planning to be working with? Well, I think at the beginning, I'm have to choose to you know work with whatever side of the companies i can currently i work with companies they're anywhere from eight to fifty employees okay so in that area you're dealing with a principle
Starting point is 00:32:53 that can you're dealing with a principle that can make a decision really fast so this is not a fortune 500 company takes them nine months to decide what they're going to do okay correct somebody takes about nine minutes to decide if he's yeah yeah true so um what that what that tells me is a pipeline isn't really long but you've got to get in front of some people without boots on the ground um what what what area of it are we talking about um basically companies that are generally small enough or small enough that they don't need their own it provider or they choose not to have their own internal IT staff. So hardware, software, what are you talking about? Actually, in my current job, I kind of handle it all from the firewall through all the software.
Starting point is 00:33:35 I'm my client's IT guy. Okay. So for the small business guy, you're going to handle all of their computer and networking needs. Exactly. Hardware, software, and so on. Okay. Just making sure I understood what we meant by IT, because as I've learned recently, people define things differently.
Starting point is 00:33:49 Let's just say that. Okay, yeah. So it wasn't like you're just going to do security or you're just going to do, you know, Ruby on Rails or something. You're not a dev guy. If it beeps, blinks, or is broken, I do it, yeah. I got you. Okay.
Starting point is 00:34:03 Hmm. I got you. Okay. So that's a great question. I don't know how. Do you have vacation time that you can use to go start kicking something off? At least make it some contacts? Just go knock doors for two weeks? I think I don't really have vacation time. The company that I work for doesn't really do vacation time. They're just like, Sally Forth, be productive, and if you need to take some time, take it.
Starting point is 00:34:31 And the fact of the matter is I'm the only employee in Bakersfield, so I handle all of our people here. It's kind of hard to take time off. Gotcha. Have you ever gone out and acquired clients before? In a limited fashion for my current employer, yeah. I've gone out on sales appointments. I've acquired some clients here. I'd be doing a slightly different model up in Idaho simply because of the market.
Starting point is 00:35:02 Okay, you're going to Idaho. That's settled. Okay, what part of Idaho? South Central, Twin Falls area. Okay. Is that market big enough to support what you're talking about? It's about a quarter million people in the area. Alright. Just making sure I understood where you're heading.
Starting point is 00:35:16 Alright. Alright. You know, what you're saying is not illogical. It makes sense that it could be done, and I think you can hit the ground and go collect some pay. What do you make now?
Starting point is 00:35:33 I know I'm going to take a hit. I'm making $82 right now. I figure, yeah, I know I'm going to take a hit. You probably make the same standard of living on $60 there. Oh, not only that, but my a is a genius with a budget i we could live off of 14 or 1500 a month does she work outside the home no no she's a stay-at-home mom okay no debt no nothing so okay if you can live on 2 000 bucks a month um and you've got 30 000 dollars in your pocket you can deliver pizzas at night and support your family until you get
Starting point is 00:36:05 clients. So I'm not as scared. I'm not as scared now. You're not even going to burn. You're not even going to have a burn rate on the 30 grand. That's much. And so the thing you've got to do is I would pick up an old, old book called Gorilla Marketing, and it's not gorilla like the monkey.
Starting point is 00:36:21 It's gorilla like the hand-to-hand combat gorilla. Like warfare. Yes. And so it's hand-to-hand combat, and it's just inexpensive and free ways to get your name out. And so you're going to do some SEO-type stuff. You're going to put your little website together, and you're going to try to scare up some stuff on social media. But you can't just sit in your living room and work the computer and the web. In a market that size, you need to go out and meet people. You need to go to the Chamber of Commerce and market that size you need to go out and meet people you need to go to the chamber of commerce and join and you need to go to the lunch uh you just need to
Starting point is 00:36:50 get some business cards old-fashioned business cards and just start walking from business to business and knocking on their door and saying this is what i do do you know anybody uh the other thing the thing you can do if you can find someone that will sniff at the edge of this you can afford to give them your services for 30 days improve improve your value and so you know you listen that could be your pitch i mean you find a heating and air guy that's got 35 people working for him and three or four trucks you go listen i can show you that I can make myself worth more than what I'm going to charge you as your part-time outsourced IT guy. And I'm going to come in and fix a bunch of stuff for you that you don't even know is
Starting point is 00:37:32 broken, just like when you go in someone's home and you fix their heat and air stuff that they don't even know is broken. And I'm going to make your life better, and I'm going to do it for free for a month, and then you're going to die to hire me after that. And you're going to tell everybody you know about me after that, aren't you? That's a great idea. It's the equivalent of the pizza shop giving away pizza for the first week for free. There you go.
Starting point is 00:37:51 It's exactly the same thing. It's sampling. I mean, you know, it's the old lady at Costco handing out samples of biscuits or whatever, right? That works so well. Same deal. You know, everybody goes there for lunch. But, you know, you're getting your foot in the door because do you know anybody in that market? I know a guy that's in construction up there.
Starting point is 00:38:10 I know very few people up there. My family lives nearby there, but not within where I'd be doing my business. But what I want you to do is get your foot in the door with two or three people that will tell everybody. Because it's a small enough market that there's a pretty serious good old boy network i think so yeah especially on the local rotary joining joining the chamber yeah and then and then you get a construction guy you'll get three other construction guys you get a heat and air guy you'll get two other heat and air guys you get the veterinarian you get the local doctor you know and and it's just gonna the word's gonna go like that and you gotta work you gotta ask for the referrals. Of course.
Starting point is 00:38:45 But the thing about what you're doing is you're going to businesses that are not economics. Their economics don't allow them to hire a full-time person. I did. As a small business guy, I hired a guy just like you when there were 10 of us. Right. His name was Jay. I remember him. I mean, he came in and fixed stuff I didn't know was broken and made things plugged together that i didn't know could be plugged together
Starting point is 00:39:07 and it was the first time we had anything that looked like a network right and uh this was before there was an internet but anyway you know so and there's a lot of so yeah you you can do this you can do this so you just commit to pizza and shoe leather and networking and sampling and you you you get guerrilla marketing and you get your website up and you work you know any downtime you got you're just working on your seo on the website you put your name out there that way you're working facebook um you might even purchase maybe no i wouldn't i wouldn't buy facebook ads but uh i'd bounce around with a facebook location i'd have a twitter site an instagram site. I'd put out free tips on how to
Starting point is 00:39:46 fix something on your computer, on your Facebook, or on your website, and email that to anybody who will take it. And then people start subscribing and messing around, put out, you know. But everything needs to be geo-targeted. You don't need to, you're not trying to attract people in Nashville. You're trying to attract people in South Central Idaho. And so it needs to be geo-targeted. And you know what I mean when I said that. So yeah, you're going to be fine. Yeah. Guerrilla Marketing, Jay Levinson wrote that book. I would pick that up and read it. I'm also going to send you a copy of our book, Entree Leadership, which has got some great marketing input in it as well. And it'll help you do some of the things we're talking about here. That's a neat discussion. Thanks for letting me join in on your life there i think you can do it
Starting point is 00:40:28 nothing you're telling me sounds like you're got your head in the clouds or you're crazy or something like that you've got a good solid plan and uh you the only thing that's getting ready to change is just your the culture that you live in is getting ready to completely change from bakersfield to idaho is a is a different move and so you live in is getting ready to completely change. From Bakersfield to Idaho is a different move. And so you just, you know, be ready. The pace of life is going to slow down. The connectivity among people is going to increase. And the good news is you get inside that good old boy network,
Starting point is 00:40:57 your business will shoot through the moon. Yeah, that's good. Hey, good question, man. Thanks for calling in. Get after it. Hold on. Kelly will pick up and give you a copy of that book, Entree Leadership. Kelly Daniels is our associate producer and phone screener.
Starting point is 00:41:09 James Childs is our producer. Blake Thompson is our chief production officer. We call him C-3PO. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about a product or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything that is mentioned during this episode in the podcast show notes section. Thanks for listening.

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