Dave Ramsey at The EntreLeadership 2018 Summit

man oh man if we got a week ahead for you didn't you just want to be that guy hitting that anvil I wanted to be that guy for just a minute with a beard that good man absolutely crumble this is gonna be an incredible week we had a great start last night God moved the rain away just in time yeah that rodeo would have been less than fun in a thunderstorm baby but uh well we've got everything lined up man this is incredible this is an event I this is an event I would come to if it wasn't my event I mean we have the former president of Ford Motor Company who arguably has done one of the greatest business turnarounds in American business history with us Alan Mulally our Mullaly Isle and I miss your name up every time I say it but this guy's incredible Dan Kathy is here chick-fil-a CEO come on chick-fil-a people bring it my friend Arthur laughter laughter is here art Laffer and art has got some stories art was on Reagan's economic Advisory Council and part of the part of the cabinet at one point he is the father of Reaganomics supply-side economics as a phrase he invented that's how smart this guy is he's got some great stories and some great insights into the economy going forward our own number one best-selling author of the book retire inspired Chris all good yeah Juliette hunt is with us the CEO of white space at work this is solid information you're gonna want to see this stuff Christie right number one best-selling author of the book business boutique is with us another ramsey personality i don't our own from texas here i say our own we're in texas so our Gary Kelly is with us the CEO and chairman of Southwest air Southwest air bringing it yeah love it and you guys flew most of these people here this week so I hope you're happy yeah in some cases flying around in circles dodging storms but it wasn't your fault Donald Miller is with us how author of the book story brand and I got to tell you that this information has changed our organization Donald really close good friends I really love this guy he's brilliant do not miss a moment of any of these sessions probably the best marketing mind on the planet in my mind anyways my friend Seth Godin he will be here and he is Wow author of the book tribes he invented phrases like permission marketing and you've you ever heard the phrase going viral Seth invented the phrase that's how smart he is I mean this is unbelievable his writings and of course dr. Condoleezza Rice the 66th trade secretary of state is gonna be with us on Wednesday and there's over 2000 approaching 3000 of you in this room hey there's a lot of people here you're gonna want to meet let me tell you 60% of people in this room work for a family-owned business or operate a family on their back 60 plus percent of you work with or for or own a company that has less than 50 Tim team members this is small business people in this room so if you don't connect in the lobby if you don't connect at the events if you don't connect and talk to other people other than the people you came with you miss something a lot of smart people in this room a lot of people doing smart things all over the marketplace in this room and it's no coincidence that this summit is of course being held here in San Antonio Texas we were in Boston a little bit earlier and that town certainly symbolizes Independence and the Boston Tea Party and the shot heard around the world with the American Revolution and we did an event a while back in Philadelphia and got the tour and see all the places there and learn a little bit more of the history I'm kind of a mint minor history buff I just love hearing about how these things happened and right down the road here is a sacred place it's called the Alamo I picked up a and you know if you probably have heard the story I picked up a an autobiography by Davy Crockett now Davy Crockett was illiterate and so his autobiography if you ever get the chance to read it is in Hooked on Phonics it's done phonetic late and so bear is spelled ba are he killed a bar he killed a lot of bar he ate bar his family ate bar they ate a lot of bar and he could kill anything or the musket their the ability that those guys those front earrings Minh had with those muskets was absolutely uncanny and Crocket of course became a celebrity and during the time of Andrew Jackson's presidency served in Congress and had about all he could take of civilized people he spent most of his time in the back woods shooting bar and so he was pretty disgusted with the people of Tennessee when they did not reelect him and he and a group of his characters and this was a bunch of characters I'm telling you Scotch Irish descent they would fight a rock they're unbelievable I mean think William Wallace's descendants about five generations later about a handful of those guys came down to Texas because they heard there was a fight and they were just up for a fight and they became known as the volunteers which is how the University of Tennessee's football team and sports team got its name the volunteers the Tennessee Volunteers came to Texas and served there in the Alamo to their death as you know and pretty incredible so we kind of think there's some symbolism there have you ever heard the phrase draw a line in the sand I was a kid I didn't know where it came from but if you were on the playground in the neighborhood I grew up in you drew a line in the sand step across that line that's about time you get your nose bloody somebody's gonna reach over and black your eye or bloody your nose maybe you didn't grow up that way but I was reading that kid and that's how I grew up you draw a line in the sand it's a big deal and that story actually if you didn't know comes from the Alamo I didn't know that until recently and if you cross that line you are joining forces or you are picking a fight or both when you cross a line that's drawn in the sand Colonel William Travis in the heat of the battle he knew that there were a thousand Mexican soldiers outside the Alamo and there were only 200 people inside the Alamo and I didn't look good as a matter of fact they were pretty sure they were all going to die and they were right the women and children were spared but the the men were not and our legend has it and this was the witnesses the ladies that survived and so forth told the story that in the middle of that when it looked the bleakest Travis pulled out his sword one that looks pretty much like that actually that's the same vintage around the same time early 1800s and he stepped and drew a line in the sand and he said those of you that are willing to fight for freedom that are willing to give your lives for freedom step across that line and that will symbolize that you're on this team no shame if you don't but it's time for you to go because the rest of us are gonna give our lives for freedom draw a line in the sand and as legend says and it's accurate I'm sure they all stepped across the line and the Alamo sacrifice that was begun to become the battle cry for Texas as independence remember the Alamo was born with draw a line in the sand so that's gonna be our theme not that you have to give your life to something literally but when we're running a business metaphorically we pour ourselves out for it we get her done we get up we leave the cave we kill something we drag it home we fight we scratch with claw even when nobody understands and we draw a line in the sand and with our team we say you gonna be on this side because I'm of that same scotch-irish heritage that Davy Crockett was and you're either with me or you're against our own din the marketplace I love those we've got lots of them lots of you were those kinds of folks and you're here but if you won't be on the other side you pick a fight or the hillbilly because a bunch on my side will take you on we're knit together we spent hours and hours and hours and thousands and thousands of dollars making sure that we trust each other and that we have each other's back we've drawn a line in the sand you see hillbilly is we don't do drive-by shootings we buy the house next door and lay siege so that's what we want you to do this week we want you to draw that line in the sand and say I'm gonna learn how to lead at a different level so that my team understands that there's a line and you're either with me or as we say in Tennessee you're again me that would be how Davy Crockett would have said it again me against me you're on my team or you're not and then I'm not gonna worry about it I'm gonna turn my back and not worry about my throat getting slit from behind and your team can turn their back and trust you because you're worthy of trust that's an intentional act and it's something you get to practice every single day when you're leading now I'll guarantee you we've practiced it we get to practice it over and over and over again so let's open up our workbooks we're gonna dive into the first lesson I thought it was appropriate to kick off a line in the sand with a lesson I love called spineless leader is an oxymoron as an entree leader passivity is simply not an option passive leader is by definition an oxymoron you can't sit back and watch everything happen and call yourself a leader by definition a leader is moving because the leader gets there first who's the leader in a race the one that gets there first I lead from behind no you don't you are a behind you're not a leader you're a cattle herder Oh you can't lead from behind you're gonna move at the speed of the slowest team member which as you will find as often not moving at all now we're gonna lead from the front nope we're going this way you went on this team this is where we're going and if you don't come with us you're going to be left and wondering why you didn't get on this train because it's trains moving baby we're going this way passivity is not an option for a real leader your business and your team will be paralyzed if you're an indecisive leader as a young leader when I first started I found myself in situations where I just didn't know what to do now I'm a high di on the DI FC which means I make decisions very quickly and if it's the wrong decision I'll just make another one so I wasn't always indecisive but I was insecure I didn't know if I could pull this off I didn't know if this decisions right now there's very few times you know where the decisions are at right or wrong but in you know these days after doing this for twenty thirty years now I kind of know certain situations and so might wait appears that my patience is running thin that's not it at all I just made the decision with a lot more confidence because I've already been there done that and I know what to do shut up we're going boom you seem to not think about that very much did you take all the things into consideration you know 25 years ago I did so it's easier now but when I first started I know what I was doing I'm scared every time you take a step is it the right step am I going you know is this one gonna sink am I going down here is there a problem and it scares you to death indecision truthfully in my case and in yours when I was indecisive in those early days or insecure those early days it's caused by one thing and that's fear the only reason people only make decisions is fear and if you don't say you're afraid then you're not being real you're a liar we all get afraid we don't know what to do every time you try something new you don't know if it's gonna work every time you launch a new product you don't know if it's gonna work every time you call somebody you don't know if they're gonna take your call you don't know if it's gonna work I mean we've been putting these screens up for three days we didn't know if they were gonna work thank you Jesus they worked our guys give our guys a round of applause I've been working our butts off man the team we've been working with has worked almost all night making sure this is dialed into perfection and absolutely incredible I'm so proud of them the fear will cause you to not do anything if we try this it might not work you ever said that if you try it it might not work if you don't try it it won't work it's normal to be afraid the trick is how to work through that fear and still make decisions and still make wise decisions that's the trick we're looking for Bible says a double minded man is unstable in all his ways when you are decisive when you can't make the call your team loses energy because they think they're following a wood because they're following a wood that's why they think that it paralyzes everyone when you don't know what you're doing and when you can't make a call again I'm from Tennessee so I've got all these Tennessee stories but some of your states they have the same thing we have a squirrel problem in Tennessee you ever driving along the road and you're almost total a 50,000 dollar automobile for a 19 cent squirrel I have seen people do this you ever see the squirrel he goes running out in the road and he goes boom boom it's what happens if you don't make the call you become roadkill you got to make the call I don't care where side you won't be on you'll be on the Left get on the Left you won't be on the right get on the right but don't be lukewarm Jesus said that make a call be is or isn't draw a line in the sand this is what we're going to do I'm not positive it's right but I own the freaking place this is what we're going to do as for me in my house this is what we're going to do we're gonna serve the Lord this is how we walk this is what you do when you're a Ramsey this is what you do when you're a Ramsey personality this is what you do when you're on the Ramsey team it means something to have that name and your name it needs to mean something it means something when you say chick-fil-a doesn't it instantly there's all these brand mechanisms that are turned loose inside of you because their whole culture has invaded ours it means something when you say Southwest air doesn't it it means that you're actually going to find smiling people who don't drag you off their airplane by the hair isn't it interesting I mean doesn't instantly you go that's different right it means something it means something to be associated once you draw that line in the sand and we tell you nothing moves unless it's shoved and every time something is shoved there's friction people are not going to like it when you do something and the more of something you do the more people won't like it and now they you know they live in their mother's basement and they write a blog about it people are stupid if you wait on people to approve everything you do you're never gonna do anything if you want to be completely liked stay at home and never leave your home and don't get on the internet there's no way no possible way if you have contact with more than two human beings ever you're going to find someone that doesn't like something about something that you said did wish desired whatever people will drive you crazy we bail our hate mail I use it for kindling in the winter we answer all letters that come to Ramsey except hate mail and there's no point in answering hate mail because they weren't asking the question they weren't seeking out advice they were trying to tell us how to run our business and we call it the Dave Ramsey show because it's my freakin show why is this hard if you don't like what I'm saying get you a show why is this hard but you know it doesn't matter I'm on the air 15 million opportunities for me to piss somebody off every day right criticism goes with the territory you better do it in spite of the criticism well there's constructive criticism not much not much there's market research where you find out what your customers actually like and you learn from your customers the people who care about you but we have what we've bred a whole new level of troll in this culture now and there's no sense listen these trolls well you need to respond I'm not gonna respond unless I'm just doing it for entertainment value on Twitter but I know that I'm not gonna respond I'll mess with you and just you know I got about eight hundred thousand folks I'll turn loose on you if you want to do something on Twitter will dance but I mean it's just that's for entertainment value and that's that particular type of social media it's very conflict based and you grow your listenership your viewership by your followership by engaging in those idiots but um really they're not gonna form my business model well Dave I don't I don't like that you talk about politics sometimes okay listen to something else I've been doing it 25 years I'm not likely to change well I wish you would just stay over here and just work on the debt snowball no you see what I'm saying do you have those opportunities in your business I wish we I wish you guys wouldn't I wish you would just do what I want why do you care about my but you've run your life you got a full-time job criticism is something a leader is gonna face am i right say yes and you make the decision in spite of it not because of it you're not going to make them happy 2% of the American public should be institutionalized you're not going to make them happy okay elements of good decision-making okay now in the midst of all that how do we make really great decisions the first thing is deciding not to decide is a decision and it can be the right decision how many of you are Heidi or hi I and you've taken the disk thing well everybody here is taking it I guess right now say okay there yeah and so you are going to make decisions too quickly like I do and you feel the need to make a decision because you should make a decision Dave just did a thing on decisions I need to make a decision and sometimes deciding not to decide and letting these things play out like he's driving his car over the cliff and you've got back and you go nothing I can stop it no matter what I do I can jump in front the car and die as he goes over the cliff or I can just watch have you ever been really angry and sent an email or made a decision you wish you didn't make say yes have you ever been really scared and made a decision or sent an email that you wished you hadn't done while you were scared say yes if you're breathing in your leader you have to answer yes to both those are you're lying to yourself I have I've violated both of those and sometimes I figured out if I just wait overnight my brain grows back because I'm not so pissed off I can't breathe does that make sense or if I wait overnight all those things that we're going to be the end of the world you get up the next morning it's a little mouse like it's nothing it's nothing just step on it done it's a lot of death of animals in this talk but um procrastination can be avoided by setting a self-imposed deadline if you're a high C or high s raise your hand should be roughly 40% of you in the room yeah that looks about right you were trying to decide whether to raise your hand or not right so C needs all the details the s needs to make sure all the people are in line and everybody's happy before they can move along typically so what you have to do in those cases is you have to force yourself to make a decision and the good way to do that is write a deadline put a deadline down recognizing a reality of an actual deadline or just set a deadline this is driving me crazy I keep putting up with it I keep kicking the can down the road and so I am going to decide August the first if this person is going to stay I'm not going to worry about it anymore I'm going to put it on my calendar and between now and then I'm going to continue to gather facts continue to observe continue to pray for them continue to think about how they think how they look and then on August the 1st I'm actually going to make the decision because I've been putting it off for no reason other than I've been putting it off does that make sense say yes you need a deadline write it down when you're making a decision take time that is proportionate to the impact of the decision if you're running a 10 million dollar top-line organization a year that's a bunch of you in here are based on those numbers I gave you a while ago if you're making a million dollar decision that's a huge freaking decision if you're making a decision to buy copier paper don't be paralyzed people get paralyzed about the wrong things on making a decision slow down on the big ones speed up on the slow ones on the little ones so that slowed down on the big ones speed up on the little ones and when you speed up on the little ones it gives you more time and margin emotional spiritual energy to work on the big ones because if you got fifteen little ones in your head while you're working on a big one it distracts you from what you should be focusing on make the call on the little ones clear your brain so you can focus on the big one or delegate them one get them out of your brain so you can move on if you're debating on copier paper and you miss you miss signing the lease on time on your million dollar deal that would be a problem because the copier paper distracted you the consumer does this all the time we see it in the financial world they they go opposite of what they should they impulse the purchase of a car but when you're in the gas station trying to pay for gas dude with his fanny pack is frozen he can't choose between dentine and eclipse gum it's freaking him out I'm like dude neither one's gonna help you buy one it says sexy on there it's not talking about you now can move on get out of the way little decisions should not paralyze you make the little ones fast make the big ones slow and if when you're making big major decisions which is kind of what we're talking about today it gives you time to do it properly when you're making a big decision the proper way to do this it's also by the way the proper way to win a negotiation is gather options options and more options if you think there's only two things you can do in this situation you have not worked on this problem enough yet and you become fatalistic fatalistic is there are two stupid decisions on the table and you want to choose between the two stupid decisions and I was forced to do this no you weren't you wimped you didn't work the problem hard enough well I don't know man the landlord he said if he's gonna renew our lease and we've been here for 10 years if we have to move we're gonna we're gonna die and so our two decisions are take on a lease that is going to put us out of business or move and then we're going to go out of business these are our two possibilities not really don't we get don't we get little drama queen or face and stuff like that and we get fatalistic and so what you got to do search out more decisions I had people call me on the radio if you listen the radio show you heard all the time they say stuff like Dave there's there's mold in my house my children are dying possibly I don't know how much mold you got that's a lot of mold but we're all dying everyone's sick we have to move okay move but but but but the only the only rental properties in the whole city of Denver are 62% of our take-home pay we're going to take on a three thousand dollar rent with a four thousand dollar take-home pay this is the only way my family can live otherwise so do we go broke or do we live the hyperbole is unbelievable isn't it the drama is off the charts and I'm just sitting there going really here's an idea and leave Denver then you don't go broke and you don't well we couldn't leave Denver well then find a real property's cheaper there's no rental properties in Denver none you don't know the real estate market in Denver don't get this call all the time these people have already made up their mind they're going headlong into stupid and I'm going stop because they've got two possible options and both of them are bad it's like you want to go on a date and you got two possible options with two ugly women no biggest problem is one of them has you as an option so there you go you gotta have options the more options and options and options you have the more power you have because if you go and you survey all of the rental landscape for your business because your landlord is jacking the lease up on your location and then you've become an expert on real estate in the area you may find that there are properties out there that are actually cheaper than what you're currently paying not even counting the increase now you may or may not want to make that move but it sure does make the discussion with a landlord different because he's gone into the land of stupid he's a little over market and he's wanting to raise that and now that I've got other options I've got power my body language changes when I'm sitting and talking with him or her my vocal cords reshape you don't sound like a 13 year old in the middle of an adolescent crisis you're trying to negotiate instead it's like you sound like Chris Hogan dude really you want me to pay more do you see what I'm talking about then they change that's exactly what happens when you have options your power changes even your body language and it's not some kind of false power it's just confidence where you were afraid now you can go do something else if we have to I would rather stay here if you and I can work this out but if we can't I can go cheaper over here why would I accept your increase and the landlord has to look at you and go only if you were brain-damaged would you accept my increase in this scenario because you presented a completely illogical thing in front of him for you to do his increase but you didn't know that when it was on going out of business or we're taking the increase in going out of business because we're bankrupt it's always hop her balae more options gives you power now I'm old Shannon I've been married 37 years Wow I go all the way back to high school in the 1970s junior high school in the 1970s see if any of you remember this I actually had a little black book anybody know what that is that's a list of girls I would like to take out and their phone numbers and they were in order now I met Sharon at UT so full disclosure she was not in that little black book and that little book black book has been all but it's been completely destroyed I wish I had it because it was so cute it had a little little ring binders in it and you could open it up it was like a little tiny little notebook and you could change out the pages if you wanted to and people used to go you are scrawny you're not that good-looking your hair's kind of funky because when I had hair it was funky and you get all these girls to go out with you how do you do that I'm going because I got options and when I ask it's like I don't have no it's more like you know when I go out long time ago options give you power options give you confidence gather more options when you're making a decision especially when it involves a negotiation you might find some options where you can help that landlord it decrease some of his costs because you learned something about real estate that he didn't know as you're negotiating with him and you craft a win-win situation options and walking through your worst case scenarios can eliminate fear I get this call on the radio and Shannon and I went through this and so I'm not being sarcastic without having lived in these shoes but they will call up and go dead my house is being foreclosed on on Thursday can you help me stop it it's Wednesday no you should have called me a week ago maybe though let's talk about it though before we talk about it though let's talk about this let's just pretend for a second okay well the house is going to be foreclosed on tomorrow and you're going to move where you gonna move oh yeah you can't lose the house you're gonna lose the house the house is gone where you gonna move it where are you gonna move have you heard this call I don't know there's no I mean good school district there's other houses in that school district and some of them are for rent they're called rental properties have you gone and looked yet oh I can't even conceive you need to go look and you need to know where you're gonna move because your house is gonna be foreclosed on tomorrow yeah called you for help once I get them to emotionally move out of their house into the new rental property now they're in the best possible position as a matter of fact the only possible position to call that mortgage company and try to negotiate the stop of that foreclosure because no one on the planet cares about that guy losing his house except that guy and me for just a few minutes to help him the people at the mortgage company it's their J OB they don't give a rip and they're jerks most of the time and even if they're professional and not jerks they don't care they're going home to their house that is not being foreclosed on after they get off this call they are not emotionally invested in this decision so negotiating with that person when you are completely into drama mode into hyperbole mode is virtually impossible so you've got to emotionally move out of the house into the rental property and then go hey dude you really want the house back you're gonna lose your butt it's upside down I'm the only one willing to stay and pay these bills because my kids are here and we'll do it but if you want to take it you can take it good luck with that changes the whole tenor doesn't it you've got to work through your worst case scenarios when you do that you ever had a team member that you thought if this team member leaves the whole place is going to fall the first guy that ever quit when we had five people or six people I thought we just lost 20 percent of our labor force this guy and he was smart not by today's standards but back then the bar was low and I thought if he left I don't know how we're gonna make it then it suddenly occurred to me I'm not leaving and I was here before him and this is here because I made it we're gonna make it I wish he wasn't leavin now I look back that particular guy a long time yawns okay but you know what I'm saying I read somebody leave and you thought oh god how we gonna do it without sewing so it turns out it's okay turns out you start quoting scripture to yourself if all things work together for good for those that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose it all works out we're gonna be okay something you know but we get hyperbole out does anybody do drama queen like I'm talking about like I do in my head say yeah tell me I'm not up here by myself doing drama queen because I do this stuff man huh to this day I do it but again with 25 or 30 years experience I do it a little less than I used to but when that first guy left his name work through your worst case scenarios we had a radio group many years ago that had five of our biggest cities I think we were on probably a hundred in some cities and they had five of our biggest cities and the guy calls up and comes to my office and says in talk radio mainstream talk radio we do not pay to be on these radio stations and they don't pay us we take a piece of the clock so in a four minute commercial break I sell two spots one to Churchill one to Xandar right our timeshare x18 right and then they sell local this isn't one of you guys heating an air company or something and I might endorse that but it just plays in San Antonio right that kind of a thing they make their money on the San Antonio spots I make my money on the National ads and that's how we pay our radio team okay but I don't pay Katy si here in San Antonio money to be on their station and they don't give me a dime for being on their station so this guy calls up that owns this company that we're on major cities and he comes to my office and he sits down and he goes I've been looking and I realized that because you're on the radio in these cities you make a lot of money in these cities selling books and doing events and I want some of that money and I said well it's not your company he said we're going to start charging you to beyond these cities three million dollars I said I don't think so you don't charge the other people that are on your stations as well but they don't have a business model so you're gonna take some of my money you know you are really pissing me off here um I'm trying to be nice because these are five or six major cities and I don't want to just you know destroy him right there I may wait a while but you know you it's too big a situation I can't just blow up on the guy but inside I'm my and so he leaves I sat down on the radio team and I'm like crap what we gonna do this is crazy and we started working the problem working the problem working the problem worst case scenario is we lose them all or we give them three million dollars well both those ideas suck we're gonna lose them all if we don't give him three million dollars but can we get other companies that own radio stations in those cities to put us on we started working he gave us 90 days before we had to decide to give him money and we started working the plan and oddly enough out of the five cities we replaced four of them with better stations and started relationships that to this day are bearing fruit that was ten or fifteen years ago but this guy put us in the corner and aimed at us and we were scared and we had to go worst-case scenario we gave him three million dollars can't do that worst-case scenarios we're just off and we start without those five well five years ago we didn't have those five let's go again when you start again I don't wanna take that for a step back we did not end up taking a step back we ended up taking a step forward we not have gone and done those deals had he not pushed us out in the middle of that I have all these weapons that have been used as props apparently I'm big on props that are weapons I have a Braveheart sword a spear from a cannibal tribe in the Amazon and I have a samurai sword a guy gave me from the shopping channel because I'm a boy and I needed one so and Daniel was like my son was a little guy and you can't take you can lock up a gun you can't walk up a samurai sword so I can't take it home because the dog would not do well with this sword and Daniel so you know so I got this collection of and I got a baseball bat that they gave me when I was in Louisville from the Louisville Slugger company you know all this stuff and so all this stuff these weapons are leaned in the corner of my office and so I go in there I grab the samurai sword I grab the bat and I went into staff meeting and I said drove that sword up in the stage like that poured a guy on the front row it was his first day working there and uh but I mean it was you know bombastic we're not gonna take this we're not taking this you know these guys are after us and we're gonna figure out a way if we have to start again by God we'll start again if we have to start again with 10% less market share by God we'll start again but we're not giving we're not gonna be blackmail we're not gonna be put in a corner with a gun aimed at our face and cave he doesn't get our money and we're not doing this right you ever been there sometimes you cave but we went and got better outlets for our distribution because the weaker distribution guy got arrogant and greedy interesting the bigger the decision the more information is needed become an expert on the problem if you're going to build a building become an expert on building a building if you're going to move become an expert on the leasing environment around your business if you're going to go into a space you've not been into before become an expert gather the experts around you start learning the verbiage I've learned more about technology and digital verbage and words that I didn't even know existed or went together in the last 36 or 48 months because our business is moving very heavily digital we're always going to have an analogue presence because we love doing stuff like this right here but this right here is being streamed so on YouTube and Facebook live so there you go you know so you know I'm having to learn I was in a meeting the other day these guys are throwing these initials around I thought I was in the army or something with all their initials I didn't know what all this meant it's like we need a new CTA and I'm like call-to-action Dave Oh got it okay you're trying to sell something now I'm with you okay all right so I having to learn this stuff gather more information it helps you make better decisions train your team to bring you several possible solutions not just bringing you problems as I said 60 plus percent of you in here have 50 or fewer people so let me tell you what is happening in here if you have 27 people it happened to me all the time someone would drop by your office with a cup of coffee looks like office space the movie leans up against the doorway and says have you heard about the problem there the bearer of bad tidings they come to your office twice a week to bring you crap and shovel it into your office you're not talking about right the buildings on fire did you know why aren't you putting it out because I'm just in I'm over there in that other department and I just thought you'd want to know though because you're building you know who talking about you had them on your team so I got those people off of my team by doing two things one is I'd either fire them that's pretty effective or two is I would train them before I fired them give them a shot at turning this around and so they would come into my office and they would say you have a problem if somebody come in your office to say you have a problem you ever get to the end of the day and you go home and you collapse on the couch and your spouse goes what did you do today I have no freaking idea but I'm exhausted I'll tell you what you did all day you put out other people's fires you were not working a strategic plan that indicated your time management and your tactical movements instead you ran around and put out other people's fires that they come in with their coffee government ago you have a problem if you spend your whole day fixing other people's problems that are on your freakin payroll that's backward did you get it you're gonna fix their problems you're gonna be exhausted all day so I decided I hired you to help me with these problems that was the whole concept let's work on this so they would come in and go you have a problem I said no no do you collect a check here yes are you part of our team yes so I don't have a problem baby we have a problem change your pronouns there's no they there's an us us got a problem now what are we gonna do about it I don't know I just thought I'd let you know no no no you're part of the year here what what are we gonna do to fix this problem matter of fact I need your suggestions right now I don't know I just thought I would come in here and bring you the fire okay I leave my office what leave my office and come back in an hour I want three or four possible solutions to the problem that we have that you brought me I'm going back to work now I have stuff to do leave my office come back in an hour or two with some solutions to the problem that we have that you noticed because one of the things that happens inside of our building is if you recognize a problem it is God saying you are appointed to help us fix it it's a Holy Spirit directive they come back in they go I got these four options and going okay option D straight-up sucks here's why don't even don't even talk that doesn't work but teach them option D doesn't work option B is week when here's the weaknesses so we really got two players in this one a and C and which one of those you think we ought to do well huh I'm just kind of scared right now cuz I brought too bad no no no what do you think we ought to do and tell me why and you take so much time you could have just made the decision right but now you're teaching and so they go okay okay I'm gonna go with a all right close but let's let's go with B and here's why next time they come in your office they go ah Dave we have a problem takes him a second right yeah we've got a problem so what are we gonna do about I knew you were gonna say that Dave you're right I'm predictable so I came in here I got only found three options this time and based on what you taught me I think in this case we should go with B and here's why and they make their case knowing that's pretty good and you know but here's something you didn't know about I was in a meeting yesterday and you didn't have this information so unfair to you but here's something that's going on on the other side of the company and so for that reason this particular case we're gonna go ahead and go with a and you teach them not the one they picked but another one but here's why and they get the why not the what you give them the why on the decision-making not the what and then the next time they come in your office they go Dave we've got a problem here's the four options based on what you taught me I think we should do B in this case here's the weaknesses of the other three as opposed to B that's really good dude go do it me yeah you go do it if you do this for a little while here so it's going to happen they won't come in their office anymore with a coffee cup going you've got they'll come by your office and wave and go Dave we had a problem and I fixed it and they keep moving and you go now I'm running a business my business isn't running me now you're working on your business not just in your business decision making and the transfer of decision making is powerful Steve Brown and old motivator from back in the 70s used to do a course out of Atlanta Georgia on leadership and management and he says when someone comes in their office with a problem you need to pretend they have a monkey sitting on their shoulder and when they say you've got a problem that monkey jumps off of their shoulder in the middle of your desk going and if your job as a leader is when they leave your office they need to take their monkey with them because otherwise people drop off monkeys in your office all day long and you're running a freaking zoo take your monkey with you when you come in bring me a problem you're gonna leave with the problem defined and and you will be deputized to fix it Barney Fife have at it when you're making decisions follow the golden rule this one's you know you don't really need a big class on business ethics treat other people like you'd want to be treated tada just got a graduate course in business ethics you just got your masters in business ethics treat other people like you don't to be treated yeah but shut up treat other people like you won't be treated if you screwed up the customer and you were the customer how would you wanna be treated treat them that way I won't be refunded I want to make a WoW moment surprise and delight them with how overcome you are with their sadness take care of that customer blow their minds treat other people like you'd wanna be treated a lady in our we deputize our whole organization do this culturally lady in our customer care team that our customer care team takes about thirty thirty five thousand incoming calls a month and a lady in their got the funniest call the other day it's guy called any sent pictures by email we had shipped him some DVDs and his Labrador Retriever found the we're the FedEx guy left them before he got home and he was laughing and he said well the at least the Labrador Retriever has financial peace because it had chewed every one of them up this dog will never get in debt we were laughing about it and the next morning with no prompting from him he just called us to tell us a funny story he was going to reorder and we went ahead and said don't worry about it and the next morning on his doorstep scheduled where he was there with the FedEx guy was a brand new set was that his Labrador Retriever our fault no but we had the opportunity to surprise and delight one of our precious customers and have a moment with them my cost of goods sold was less than the shipping my people are using their brains they were deputized to fix a problem they knew where to go how to do it treat other people like you'd want to be treated what do your guiding values tell you about the issue we have a rule that people don't like outside of our organization the politically correct world gets very angry with me which means I'm probably right on track but in our organization if you decide you're going to have an affair if you're going to sleep with people that you are not married have sex with people you are not married to we will fire you because my theory and I'm right is that if your spouse can't trust you how can I trust you and organizations move at the speed of trust I mean if you'll slip the throat of your own spouse what would you do to your balls lord help us you just back the truck up steal everything in here you know so well you don't have the right yeah I got all kinds of rights I own the freakin place you can't fire people for being adulterous yeah adulterers are not a federally protected class under the law I don't know if I like that or not I don't care you run your business this is mine this is what my guiding values tell us by the way we tell you this when we're hiring you we tell you this when we're hiring you and so you know one of my top guys about 15 years ago that I really depended on a lot said call me Saturday morning I need to come over and talk to you and he sat down in my rec room in my house I started crying telling me how you've been sleeping with him one of the other guys secretary I said what were you thinking he goes wasn't yeah he goes yeah I knew as soon as I left that room that I was fired it was just a matter of when you found out and I'm here to tell you so you have to fire me I said you know by the way he and I are still friends I didn't throw him out of my life he just can't work for me what do people that have messed up in the past work for you yep but not while they're there this is this is our deal that's our one of our guiding values it's very very very clear in other words the decision is already made when we get the information it's just the pain of implementing it so I don't have to have an indecisive moment I just got a cry while I'm doing it because I love this guy I hate that he had a stupid idea and I'm looking at her going that wasn't worth it and you know that was expensive right knowing you really are stupid on a lot of levels but I love you anyway man and I get it I understand but oh my gosh right boom Wow simon Sinek says that leaders and by the way Simon was with us last year and he's going to be with us again soon int and he wrote the book start with why but he wrote another book called leaders he lasts and he was doing a TED talk on the subject and this is powerful give this watch you when you're making decisions don't let your principles change but frequently change your processes if you do the opposite and never change your processes we change principles all the time here what's known as a bureaucrat is there a way to minimize the risk by making the decision bite-sized can we run a split test on our website if you don't know what that is you can channel portion of your traffic to your website over to the side and to a different website your customers have a new experience 10% of your traffic and test and see how they're reacting to your new page without launching the whole thing to a new page without having tested it and then find out it's wrong so do split tests as a matter of fact we have at any given moment in any given department right now a culture of testing we're continually iterating and testing little tiny slices all the time one department right now has 300 tests running at this moment on just their section of the website and so if you come you may get one of two different experiences in 300 different places within that one brand because we're finding where the color works where the button is every little nuance of the thing and we're checking we don't have to you know do new coke and then find out nobody likes it and have to go back to original coke it's a bad idea so you want to do it in little slices one of the financial implications of the decision we all read books in our world particularly those of us that run small businesses we read books of the guy who took out a loan on his house and he started with nothing and he had a big SBA loan and he barely made it and now he's a Multi bazillionaire and I won't name the three of them that come to mind right now for every one of those that win the lottery there are the 90 million people that went broke using the same system and did not win the lottery so we have a rule at our place we do not do James Bond financial decisions James Bond financial decisions are this in any episode of a James Bond movie somewhere around the middle to the three-quarters of the way through in the story arc James finds himself in a casino the beautiful evil woman is on his left the nice hero beautiful woman is on his right and the whole destiny of the entire human race rests on this one hand of whatever Roulette and that's not a hand but maybe one hand of Poker of some kind right and at some point he pushes all the chips to the middle of the table and we all tremble because if he doesn't win we're all going to die of course we know in our subconscious how this is going to turn out but we still tremble because we're caught up in the story don't do that in your business that's stupid when you push everything to the center of the table meaning if this doesn't work we go broke that's a bad strategy try little pieces you took too much work to get here we're gonna give it all up on one play I don't think so no little strategies little strategies little strategies and so we had a big retailer which shall go unnamed that wanted to carry our stuff and it was like 10 million dollars worth of stuff and we weren't that bigger company and ten million dollars but they wanted full returns and we were doing custom-made stuff for them that if we didn't if it did if it didn't work and they returned it got all their money back all our stuff had to go in the dumpster because it had their freaking name printed on the front of it and so we're like you want full returns yeah that means if it doesn't sell we get them all back and we lose ten million dollars and they said well yeah I guess that could work that way and I went no you're gonna miss doing business with so-and-so and so-and-so yes but I didn't miss doing business with them eventually he came around and some of them carry some of our stuff some places but we didn't do a deal where if it didn't work we went broke that sounds like it's a good deal for them and a bad deal for me all the chips to the center of the table on one play no thank you I'm out in the multitude of counsel their safety the Bible says gather learned and wise people around you people who have some experience and let them talk to you ask experts find people that know more than you I have an estate planning attorney who is very expensive and he knows a lot more about estate plan than I do I ask an expert in that area I know a lot about estate planning but mine is a barrel of fish hooks trying to keep the government's hands off of all my work I have a tax guy god shoot me if I had to do my own taxes unbelievable I have I have experts in at different areas of our business we bring in you know specialists in the law in certain areas if we have an issue in a certain area of the company we learn we have general counsel on staff but he can't know everything about every piece of the law so sometimes he leads the team that solves the problem asking an expert by the way someone who's done it lately not someone who has an opinion I'm in the broadcast world and in the radio business there are these things called consultants now in some businesses there are consultants that are legitimate consultants they really know what they're doing and they can teach you something about that area in some businesses when you have a consultant it simply means unemployed so I'm between jobs so right now I'm a consultant I'm freelancing with my advice that didn't work at the last place and that's the case in radio there's about two consultants out of 14 that know what they're doing in the rest of them just muck up everything and so they basically are wish they could be on the air they wish they had a successful show like a Sean Hannity of Dave Ramsey or a Glenn Beck or a Oh Rush Limbaugh somebody like that you know they wish they could be that guy they once were on the air on Saturday morning so now they have a lot of opinions about how what you should do when you're on the air and they will tell you if you give them money that's just no we've figured out real quick in the radio business they're just a couple of them actually have a clue most of them are stupid so be careful when you're picking out experts ask your spouse when you're making major decisions Bible says who can find a virtuous wife for her worth is far above rubies the heart of her husband safely trusts her and he will have no lack of gain we do not make decisions at the Ramsey house without Sharon speaking into it big decisions I'll make a lot of decisions that in the old days would have been called big but now they're just operational inside of our organization but if we're making a big decision we're building a 50 million dollar building right now 200,000 square feet 10 million dollars to buy the land I'm from Antioch Tennessee that makes my throat tight um so to say that Sharon was involved prayerfully in all of those decisions was oh definitely was Sharon an expert on real estate and business know Sharon has a degree in home AK but she has these antenna on top of her head that tuned in to the Holy Spirit in places I don't and if she gets a bad feeling she's from the hills of East Tennessee it's a failing if she gets a bad failing and I go against that feeling they cost me 10 grand minimum every time I do it I quit doing it I don't make major decisions Sharon doesn't make major decisions by herself either the two of us make major purchase decisions giving decisions life decisions together we check in now sometimes it doesn't mean much to her or me she wants to do this thing and I'm like yeah that's cool go um do it have at it she likes to travel I don't and but I do with her for her and that kind of stuff right but I travel to do this kind of stuff traveling is no it's only glorious for people who don't do it and so anyway she's right so so yeah go go go but she doesn't come in and go I'm going to Israel you doing what which she did do a while back she went to Israel but she came and goes I'd like to go to Israel what do you think about that huh definitely I think you should go who it was when who she was going with that lady's trip bunch of them went the great trip and so but when she didn't just come in and tell me what she's going to do and I don't come in and tell her what I'm gonna do on something that big we work together make better decisions that way when you use your whole brain making the so if all else fails write yourself a report describing the problem now a high D or high is unlikely to do this we'll just make a decision and if it's wrong we'll make another one but you sees you high sees that like details write yourself out a full report but you know footnotes and everything by the time you finish writing the report you will have process the information and the logic portions of your brain have to go to a different level of process in order to write it down than just jumbled even if you're a high C this works and by the time you finished writing the report it's just like when you're having a conversation with your friend to tell them about your problem by the time you finish telling them about the problem you know the answer they don't they just look at you and go what was I here for you were a sounding board you ever heard that because you processed it to get it out verbally and that that extra level of processing caused you to know the answer process it one more time to do it written and you'll know the answer I'm not gonna do this I'll just make a decision just so I don't have to write a report I'll just make a decision but here's the deal about decisions making decisions will set you free the most anxiety-ridden people on the planet are indecisive people they can't make a decision they're the squirrel on the road as a leader it freezes your whole team up and it adds stress to you and stress to everyone in the organization if you don't make the call again sometimes slowing down to make the call is good sometimes speeding up to make the call is good having options having power having information all these different things work as a matter of fact let's go back through and look at the list of what we've talked about so you'll know what they are one more time decisions make decisions in spite of being afraid sometimes you're afraid it's okay to be actively passive deciding to wait until you've calmed down is a good decision take time equal to the size of the decision big big decisions big time little decision little time set a self-imposed deadline on the calendar if a natural one doesn't exist we knew this event had a set date so we knew those workbooks had to be in your hand so the creative team had a built-in deadline they didn't have to make a decision on that deadline in order to get it to print in order to get it here in order for it to be in front of you yeah there are options options and more options if the only two options you have sucked you are in drama mode hyperbole mode back off don't be a fatalist he with the most information makes the best decision gather information and from and more information it will give you options clearly state your values and make decisions that match that will set your team free to because then they think you are a leader of integrity because you're a leader of integrity when your decisions match your values when your decisions don't match your values we don't know if you have any values break the decision into smaller bites determine the financial implications of decision we don't do James Bond we don't do all in ask real experts with the heart of a teacher how to do your investments how to make your decision how to do this seek the counsel of your spouse and write yourself a report if all else fails making decisions is a an art form it's both science and art art and science and it can be done and your organization will be changed as you implement some of these really basic ideas now we are really blessed inside the Remzi organization to have an incredible amount of talent which means that the next generation this organization will be not only bigger but better than when it just to be used to belittle baldev on the stage by himself and that is called the ramsey personality it's one of our aims and personalities we launched a radio show with last September on Sirius XM and to say that the numbers on it have exploded as an understatement this guy and I have been friends a long time he's been on our team a long time and to have him see him have this unbelievable level of personal success on Sirius XM has been really rewarding from a business and a leader standpoint but just also as his friend to watch him win makes me smile and he is going to be our host this week he's author of the book one question and be sure and check out the Ken Coleman show on Sirius XM ladies and gentlemen the Ken Coleman you you

Channel: EntreLeadership

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Keywords: dave ramsey live entre, entreleadership summit 2018, dave ramsey entre, entreleadership live, dave ramsey summit 2018, dave ramsey entrepreneur, dave ramsey summit, dave ramsey leadership summit, entreleadership summit, entreleadership dave ramsey, entreleadership 2018, entree leadership, dave ramsey entreleadership, dave ramsey leadership, entreleadership, dave ramsey leadership training, entreleadership podcast, leadership, dave ramsey 2018, dave ramsey live, dave ramsey

Id: E-5FwiYL1mg

Length: 66min 48sec (4008 seconds)

Published: Mon May 21 2018