0:09

From the headquarters of Ramsey solutions,

0:12

this is the entree leadership

0:14

podcast, where I take calls from leaders

0:16

like you about what it takes to

0:18

win at any stage of business and

0:21

leadership. I'm Dave Ramsey. I've

0:23

been actually running a freaking company for the

0:25

last 30 years and I've been running it

0:27

all day today. So

0:31

if you want theory from a finance professor

0:33

who's never made payroll, you'll have to go

0:35

somewhere else. I'm a guy who actually does

0:37

it. I'm just like you. I've

0:39

just been doing it a little longer than some of you and I got

0:41

a few more bruises than some of you. So we're

0:43

here to help you. This is all

0:45

based on the book that we did. That's the

0:47

playbook of how we've grown Ramsey. It's called Entree

0:49

Leadership, a number one best selling

0:52

book, continues to be a big

0:54

seller. And basically

0:56

it's how we've run our business and

0:59

a lot of scrapes and bruises and

1:01

a lot of PhD and DUMB got

1:03

a lot of degrees after us here. So

1:06

we're here to help you. If you want to call

1:08

in, this is your place. We're one of

1:10

you. We love small business people. We think

1:12

you're amazing. We think you're heroes. We're one

1:14

of you. The number is 844-944-1070. That's

1:19

844-944-1070. Or

1:25

go to entreeleadership.com/ask and

1:27

leave a nice voicemail. The guys will set you

1:29

up as a caller that way. Jared

1:31

did that. He's in Poughkeepsie, New York.

1:34

Hey Jared, what's up? Hey

1:36

Dave, thanks for having me on the show today. Sure man, how

1:38

can we help? So

1:40

I'm a second generation of a manufacturing

1:43

business. We've got a

1:45

top line of about 12 million and about 70 people.

1:49

I worked in the business for the last

1:51

10 years or so and after losing my

1:53

father Lester, who founded the company, now

1:56

at the helm of the business. I've been

1:58

working to improve the culture of the business. And I

2:00

feel like some of our team members who've been with

2:02

us for a long time are not Pulling

2:05

their way in terms of work ethic and the

2:07

culture that I want to build moving forward. How

2:09

old were you? I do I? 27

2:11

Wow What

2:14

point do I make my years? You've

2:16

been through a year you must have been scared of death part

2:18

of this year Yeah, we're

2:21

doing it So

2:23

my question is at what point do I

2:25

make the hard decisions to change some staff

2:27

despite their longevity? well

2:34

The good news is is that your dad mentored

2:36

you well I can hear it in your voice

2:38

that this is a painful thing Yeah,

2:43

am I right You

2:45

are yeah, because if you were just a punk kid

2:49

That got daddy's business you wouldn't

2:51

be worried about how you feel

2:53

about this You would have just

2:55

executed someone right and

2:57

so that means you're a good man And you're a

2:59

good leader, and you're a kind

3:02

guy, but you're also strong enough Young

3:06

leader to say I might have to make some

3:08

changes even though it hurts So

3:10

just just verifying where you are. I'm

3:12

hearing that already listening to you in

3:14

the way you put the story together,

3:17

so congratulations There's

3:19

nothing you're going to do here. That's

3:22

going to be easy or clean Or

3:25

that everybody's going to go along

3:27

with or understand You're

3:30

going to be the only one on the

3:33

planet that has all the information

3:37

and Can make

3:39

the accurate judgment about your

3:41

decision? Other people are going

3:43

to make judgments about your decision and

3:45

their opinion doesn't count so be

3:47

ready for that Yeah,

3:51

but the only thing I would concern me is

3:53

rocking the boat too much to where I just

3:55

you know Well, it doesn't rock

3:57

the ball pretty much if you observe

3:59

that someone Isn't working hard and you

4:01

confront them about working hard and

4:03

saying. My. Dad loved

4:06

you. He taught me to love you and

4:08

I love you. But you can't stay here

4:10

if you're not going to work hard. And

4:13

I'm developing a new culture here

4:16

where we're going to be a

4:18

little harsher alone, not harsher. Harsher

4:20

is not the right where we're

4:22

going to demand or excellence of

4:25

each other myself included. And that

4:27

includes a work ethic. And so

4:29

if you want to be part

4:31

of this team going forward, your

4:34

work ethics going to improve and

4:36

your attitudes going to improve. If

4:38

you don't want to be a

4:40

We, that's who we are. We.

4:43

Can work that out right now and

4:45

I'll help you gracefully retire. Yeah,

4:51

that's. Pretty

4:54

much have the nail the head. That's the

4:56

conversation. And. That's exactly how you

4:58

say it. And it's on.

5:01

Your eye on are you my Dad

5:03

honor to. This. Makes this

5:05

conversation hard. But. It's

5:07

still necessary because you're setting a

5:09

standard that no one else that

5:11

I don't want everybody else to do

5:14

here. And. Ah, that's that's

5:16

what I need. You know I

5:18

can't do that. Even though I

5:20

love you. I. Can't do that. I

5:23

can't let you. I can't sanction

5:25

this because it sends a signal

5:27

to everyone else that you are

5:29

in a separate class of people

5:31

somehow and you're not. And

5:33

I'm not. I. Have to do work

5:35

to. And you have to do your

5:37

work. you know, and soaps. Ah it. But it

5:39

you may not want to work for me, you

5:41

met you. May you know? your time here may

5:43

be done. Says you don't want to work for

5:45

the kit and I can accept that to. You.

5:48

Could just say that is your things you should say is what

5:51

I'm saying. I should set. So my

5:53

son as a little bit older than you

5:55

he became the President a Ramsey last year.

5:57

He and I are running this together right

5:59

now. But I'm.

6:02

That's the type of conversations he

6:04

would have to have as well.

6:06

I'm an M. What's interesting is

6:08

he sees things here. That.

6:10

I don't see. My eyes are

6:13

a little bit blinded by my

6:15

loyalty to somebody who's been with

6:17

me twenty years. For

6:19

her, he's not as blinded by that. And

6:21

less. whereas the seat you're sitting at and

6:24

it doesn't make you wrong and it doesn't

6:26

make your dad soft, it just makes him

6:28

loyal. To. The guys that he wants

6:30

to dance with a girl that brought him to

6:32

the party than one just chop people's heads off

6:34

right in our and you don't either but you're

6:37

so I literally you're seeing this with clearer rise

6:39

than your dad did. Gated.

6:43

Off the rose colored glasses and single different skill

6:45

that what you just don't have the you know

6:47

you don't have a twenty years with this guy.

6:50

That. You're talking about he.your dad, debt. And

6:53

it it just makes it. It makes it even harder.

6:55

It's hard for you but for your dad if he

6:57

were here it be triple hard for him. He

7:00

answer. For. Me it's about building

7:02

up a place a team work for

7:04

everyone. Well for me to say or

7:06

your your dad would say the same

7:08

place but it's It's just an at

7:10

this hour of. Loyalty

7:12

Bone. In small business

7:15

is our greatest asset and

7:17

our greatest liability. And

7:19

so on. the lab partner and it's just

7:21

it's it's up. It's a wonderful thing to

7:23

be loyal to be. Book has corporate. America

7:25

is business on I'm you know and we'll

7:27

do that. We we hurt when we talk

7:30

about this kind of stuff. are your heart's

7:32

hurt? my heart certain talking with the about

7:34

it because I know have feals. I've been

7:36

there myself on. Have been there

7:38

this year making these kinds of decisions and

7:40

and walk in with my son doing as

7:42

I can imagine. You know you is down

7:44

there. Twenty seven, Two intercepts. I think you're

7:46

a star. I think you're going to do

7:48

it right. But I'm. Ah, Allen

7:51

Malloy that ran forward spoke to us

7:53

an entree leadership a couple years ago

7:55

and I picked this up from him.

7:58

A is is the quintessential. He

8:00

just said all the regional managers

8:03

at Ford are going to be

8:05

in a meeting on Tuesday. Am

8:07

a guy called up there was ritual matter said you know

8:10

our our okay make it I got this this this gone

8:12

out and he said. Oh, that's

8:14

okay, but all the regional managers

8:16

it forward. Are going

8:18

to be at a meeting on Tuesday. And.

8:20

A guy goes Mccain does of of have any

8:23

goes I know it's fine but in his know

8:25

that all the regional managers. Meaning

8:27

that you're not gonna be one anymore. If

8:30

you're not here, you know. He. Was

8:32

I just told you what the regional managers are

8:34

gonna do if you want to be a regional

8:36

manager Jurgen to be here Tuesday. That's

8:38

what he was science as as if you want

8:41

to be on this team, we're going to strive

8:43

for excellence and have a work ethic and I

8:45

don't know if you want to do that are

8:47

not. With that's passing and me coming and you

8:49

may not want to be in this transition that

8:52

we do where we turn up the heat about

8:54

three notches on each other, I'm gonna work super

8:56

hard and I'm on it or by else in

8:58

here to do that's and as one of the

9:01

gas has been here the longest, you gotta help

9:03

me set the tone and you may not want

9:05

to do that. If you

9:07

don't want do that. Let me help you

9:09

figure out a way Ominous. Bless you with

9:11

some money and on announcement of your retirement

9:13

an honor you as being one of the

9:15

people who helped form this company and build

9:17

a to this points an ominous a wonderful

9:19

things about you and you're gonna leave. Yeah.

9:25

That's to the point of and and and

9:27

he may not want to, it's but he

9:29

might go, You know what? I.

9:31

Have been screwing around. And I'm a

9:33

better man than that number. Quit screwing around. I'm going

9:35

to step in her journal myopia because I loved your

9:37

dad Olive this place on her. Do it. And.

9:40

Almost up on a might step up. You.

9:42

Might a my his honor might stick out. You know.

9:45

But. Armor. but if it doesn't. You're

9:49

doing the right thing and

9:51

one year later, not a

9:53

soul on the planet will

9:55

remember this transaction. Accept you.

9:57

And. The guy. No

9:59

One. On your team will remember it.

10:02

Your mom won't remember it's his mom

10:04

won't remembered if she's alive you know.

10:06

And so all right. I mean, know

10:08

the the. What? I

10:10

always think of these things with more

10:13

drama inside of my head like it's

10:15

gonna have this lasting effect or something.

10:17

It's It's like it's amazing. when you're

10:20

gone, nobody notices. It's.

10:22

Just it's kind of sad but on

10:24

which is gone the next thing you

10:26

know. And just how that got

10:28

our But I is. in your mind, don't let

10:31

the drama get too big because a year from

10:33

now it'll be a distant. Distant.

10:35

Memory be kind be from our

10:38

on severance. I'm always overly generous

10:40

for some on like this. and

10:42

let me tell you what why.

10:45

Has. Nothing to do with the guy. It's

10:47

selfish on my part, because when I'm

10:49

eighty two or ninety two lane on

10:52

my deathbed, I don't want to think

10:54

I should have been more generous. Always.

10:56

Want to be overly generous? and then I don't

10:58

have to worry about. It. And

11:02

so on our severance over the years as

11:04

can have been dorm at times. Spent.

11:07

Two months but it's all just so I don't

11:09

have think about against because not about what you

11:11

pay the got it's about eighty. stick free can

11:13

do is work. Yeah,

11:16

absolutely. The implications are not the dollars you

11:18

give him. You give him an extra few

11:20

thousand dollars more than is probably should have

11:23

gotten and severance you're going to make that

11:25

back in a month with increase productivity goes

11:27

or by also going to go day gum

11:29

Jarrett letting people go the don't work. That.

11:34

Does your send a message to the whole

11:36

teams because they know why he left when

11:38

he leaves. Because they know he doesn't

11:40

work. They.

11:43

Just wonder if you see it? That

11:47

is t. Yeah. That.

11:50

Help? Yes! Yes it does

11:52

it serve as the guess it's a tough reality

11:54

of to face and I'm done. I'm proud of

11:56

your other a singer in your daddy bro have

11:58

yeah. Yeah. Hey,

12:01

thanks for calling him Mance your the

12:03

com people run the kind of businesses.

12:05

The cause America Work well done. rather

12:07

work literally and work metaphorically. very very

12:09

well done. That stuff. This is how

12:12

it's done. Boys and girls are so

12:14

small. business works like yeah, Right there.

12:16

for seven years old, taken for over

12:18

for his dad. passed away a year

12:20

ago. Wow. Wow.

12:24

Wow. This

12:26

is the entree leadership. Just

12:32

because you don't mind booking your own

12:34

travel or juggling your own calendar, doesn't

12:36

mean you should delegating tasks like that.

12:38

gets you off the treadmill to tackle

12:40

the big picture. Things that only you

12:42

can like: setting vision for your team,

12:45

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That. C N C R E to

13:39

Five Five One Two Three. Wanna

13:42

start doing? Was now called the

13:44

Ramsey Show about thirty years ago.

13:47

People were deeply under the threat, of

13:49

course. For

13:52

guess what? sorry years later people are still

13:54

the boy that with credit card. turns out

13:56

people can seem to live on what they

13:58

make the can't act. There are wage.

14:01

Some things never change. Same thanks

14:04

for about leadership. When. I

14:06

started running Ramsey thirty years ago for

14:08

growing in. From a card table my

14:10

living room there's all these leadership reports

14:12

out that people were dissatisfied with their

14:14

leaders in corporate America or they've always

14:17

been dissatisfied with the leaders in government.

14:19

Is also said a torch running around

14:21

out there doing it right. And.

14:23

There's always some good people and

14:25

corporate America even are pick on

14:27

him all the time. but a

14:29

bunch of the people running businesses

14:31

all over America the do a

14:33

good job with leadership or strong

14:35

leaders. They're kind, leaders are servant

14:37

leaders, They care about their team.

14:39

They're always out there, but there's

14:41

always your enough people that don't

14:44

lead well or don't lead at

14:46

all that you have negative surveys

14:48

coming in on this the state

14:50

of leadership in America today. So

14:52

Gallup. Dot. Com Six

14:54

worrying workplace numbers. Some things

14:56

never change and what you

14:59

can do about them. Are

15:02

the latest changes in the world of

15:04

work keeping you up at night? From

15:06

faltering trust and managers to the potentials

15:08

of robots replacing jobs employees and organizations

15:10

are like, May be concerned about what

15:12

the future holds for the workplace Air

15:14

Some of the most concerning inside Gallup

15:16

has discovered the Sheriff's. While.

15:19

Must go through. Number

15:21

One. Twenty. Three percent.

15:24

Only twenty three percent of

15:26

Us. employees strongly agree that

15:29

they trust the leadership. Of.

15:31

Their organization. Well

15:36

what we say around Ramsey is is that we

15:38

move at the speed of trust. And.

15:43

There's. Only took to possible reasons

15:45

why a team member would not

15:47

trust. The. Leadership.

15:51

Number. One, the leadership is not trust

15:53

worthy. They're

15:55

inconsistent, are horrible communicators.

15:58

They're. Not worthy of true. We're not

16:01

predictable in their environment. If.

16:04

You want to trust that that share is

16:06

not going to break and throw you in

16:08

the floor? Then you'd check it and if

16:11

the legs are steady, you sit down on

16:13

the chair. It doesn't collapse, you know, land

16:15

on the floor. You. Trusted

16:17

the integrity. Of

16:19

the chair. Because.

16:23

You checked it. It was trust worthy.

16:25

That's a leader. Has to be predictable. Environment:

16:27

Want to sit on the chair? It needs

16:30

to sit. It doesn't need to go on

16:32

the floor. They. Should

16:34

be predictable. Integrity

16:36

is predictable. Lack

16:39

of integrity is sadly. Predictable.

16:41

But it's really not as you don't know where they're going ago. But.

16:45

If you know if I do x

16:47

always wise gonna happen. Positive.

16:49

Or negative of I do x one hundred

16:52

percent dumps leadership around her does. Why? As

16:55

soon as we did, someone does that. They're

16:57

gone. As someone does that, they get promoted.

17:00

You know that's a predictable

17:02

environment, that's integrity. Then the

17:05

leadership is trust worthy. The

17:09

other possible reason that and employee.

17:13

says. They don't trust the leadership

17:15

of the organization is they're arrogant.

17:18

And mature. There

17:21

were born on third base and thought they had a

17:23

triple. Just

17:27

came out of college and of the answer

17:29

to everything and you know know spit. And.

17:33

So because some was my gone around with the earth.

17:35

Arrogant but little twenty four

17:37

year old idea that they're

17:39

not trustworthy. Whoa. You're

17:42

the idiot, not the leadership. And

17:45

so sometimes is not leadership spot. right?

17:48

Sometimes it slipped little arrogant, amateur idiot

17:50

rights and and that that's what years

17:52

as far as they hired that person.

17:55

But anyway, worse and that they cap

17:57

on. But but that's

17:59

you know, Not. But what?

18:01

These polls always indicators the that leaders

18:03

are horrible. Well most the time leaders

18:05

are medium. That.

18:08

They they're They don't have courage.

18:11

They. Don't communicate well and

18:13

they don't create predictable

18:16

integrity patterns. Values.

18:20

And. Then they don't trust the

18:22

leadership. And that's where leaders

18:24

fault else but isn't like the leaders

18:26

a crook? Now.

18:29

I mean you get trolled or whatever and

18:31

always tell the young people as never by

18:33

disagrees with is not a narcissist. They.

18:36

Just told you you're wrong. That's all. And

18:39

you might be wrong. So. You need shut

18:41

up and think about that. But the Op

18:43

I'm it's so that's the trust or issue

18:45

with leadership. Leadership leaders. If your team is

18:48

not trusting you'd probably cause you're not telling

18:50

them enough. Information. In

18:52

our give him enough communication. And

18:55

you're probably not consistent enough in

18:57

the and the requirements of excellence

18:59

through the organization. Number Two:

19:01

Only twenty three percent of employee strongly agree

19:03

that they get the right amount of recognition

19:05

for the work they. The

19:08

human need for affirmations

19:10

is insatiable. There.

19:13

Are two things that never get enough. A

19:16

bulldog needing to eat. And.

19:19

A human being needing affirmation. I used

19:21

to have a pug that would eat

19:23

until it would die. The.

19:25

Only way you would not put no way quit eating

19:27

as we picked up the food or it died. It

19:30

was no stopping it. And. Were

19:32

the same way with our need

19:34

for affirmation. No one gets enough

19:37

out a boys. I'm

19:39

Dave Freakin Ramses. When I walk around out

19:41

there in public one of two things happens.

19:44

If someone knows who I am, they run

19:46

up and they say thank you for changing

19:48

my life or they say it's You're a

19:51

complete idiot. I hate everything you do. I

19:53

try to you tube all the time because

19:55

I hate you. One. of two

19:57

things happens in most some bad a map and does most be

19:59

either of courage, they tend to do that

20:01

in the comments instead of in person, right?

20:03

But anyway, but I

20:06

mean, that's the two reactions to me. But

20:09

my point is I get a lot of

20:11

affirmation and

20:13

even me, I could use some more, everybody

20:17

could use some more. So

20:20

you can always as leaders, the lesson from

20:22

this one is you can always give more

20:24

recognition. You can always say that

20:26

a boy, that a girl, way to go.

20:29

You're awesome. You can never say it too

20:31

much for God's sakes, walk around the building

20:33

and try to catch somebody doing something right.

20:37

Instead of catching everybody doing something wrong. It's

20:40

it, but it's, we have to, as

20:42

leaders, we have to actually almost like put it

20:44

on our calendar. Okay. I'm going to get up

20:46

from my desk at 11 15

20:48

and walk out of my office and find somebody doing something

20:50

right. Because we don't

20:52

naturally do it. We naturally gravitate towards

20:55

fixing broken stuff. Instead

20:57

of finding people doing something right and going,

20:59

you are amazing. You're a stud, stud at

21:01

get it done. Way to go. I'm so

21:03

proud of you. More than

21:05

half of employees, 53% say they don't feel prepared

21:08

to work with AI. Well

21:10

crap. Where's the other 47% none of us are

21:12

prepared to work with AI. That

21:14

should be a hundred percent. Who's

21:17

if you think you're prepared to work with AI,

21:19

you are AI. Oh

21:22

my God. There's no possible way. We

21:25

don't know this thing scares the crap out of

21:27

everybody. It's going to be the, there's

21:29

going to be awesome opportunities with it. And

21:32

there's going to be so much piracy and theft. It's going

21:34

to be unbelievable. We're

21:36

going to have Abraham Lincoln on the internet before we know it.

21:41

51% of currently employed, employed, employed workers around

21:43

the world say they are

21:45

watching for or actively seeking a new

21:47

job. Well,

21:55

we certainly have folks leave Ramsey from time to time. We

22:00

try to do that with class when they do

22:02

it with class and wish them the best because

22:05

we love them and we want what's good for

22:07

them. And if they get an opportunity to make

22:09

a lot more money or have us do something

22:11

that they love more than they love here, then,

22:13

you know, we try to help you do that. But

22:16

if you're going to spend all your time while you're at work looking for

22:18

another job, you probably ought to just go.

22:22

You know, so it doesn't take that

22:24

long to find a job in this economy. And

22:27

so if 51% are looking for a

22:29

job, that means some of them aren't looking real

22:31

hard. They're just

22:33

bitching, moaning,

22:36

you know, they're not really, I mean, it's just like,

22:39

hang, hang, hang, hang, hang, hang. Well, go just don't

22:41

do it then. I mean, why are you talking about it? Go do

22:43

it. You know,

22:45

that's the thing. So our

22:48

guys, I tell our guys all the time, listen, when

22:51

your spirit leaves the building, for God's sake, take

22:53

your body with it. That's

22:55

the thing. I mean, we don't even, I don't work

22:57

out two week notices hardly. We

22:59

work out a couple days of them

23:01

sometimes to get some stuff transferred. But,

23:03

you know, it's nice. It's classy for a

23:06

team member to turn in a two week notice. But

23:08

you know what they do the last week of the two

23:10

week notice? Nothing. So it's, you

23:13

know, other than talk about all

23:15

the reasons they're leaving, which is kind of dumb, leaving the

23:17

poison apple in the barrel. So let's get them on out

23:19

of here. So we just help you

23:21

move. It's good, good, good. Just move on your way.

23:23

Move on your way. When your spirit

23:25

leaves, take your body with it. Only

23:28

two in 10 employees, 20 percent, feel

23:30

connected to their organization's

23:32

culture. Well,

23:38

most of that is leadership. That is a leadership

23:40

breakdown. And you

23:42

have to spend a certain amount of time

23:44

in leadership building culture and

23:46

communicating culture and encouraging culture. If

23:49

you don't, you'll have a negative culture. Everybody has

23:51

a culture. It's just whether it's negative or positive.

23:55

The last one, by Gallup, only four

23:58

in 10 employees, only 40 percent. that report unethical

24:00

behavior at work if they have firsthand

24:03

knowledge of it. Hmm.

24:11

Well there would be two reasons

24:13

that you wouldn't report unethical behavior. One

24:16

is, is you think it's condoned and

24:19

reporting it is useless and might actually get you

24:21

in trouble. They

24:24

might give you an eye roll and go, oh,

24:26

don't worry about it. You

24:28

know, if you think they're going to do

24:30

nothing about it because you think it's condoned, then you wouldn't

24:32

report it. Or the second reason is,

24:34

is that you don't care enough about the organization,

24:37

the good of the organization,

24:39

to make sure that unethical behavior is removed.

24:44

So like one of the examples around here at

24:46

Ramsey is, unethical behavior

24:49

would be when a man speaks

24:51

to a lady or treats a lady in a

24:53

way that makes her feel uncomfortable. We

24:57

don't tolerate that here. We don't do creepers. I'll

25:01

fire your butt if you're a creeper. Okay.

25:05

Um, and so, you know, I, my daughters

25:07

work here. We're not going to have sexual

25:09

harassment. We might have a murder, but

25:11

we're not going to have sexual harassment. All right. We

25:14

don't do creepers. And

25:16

so the ladies here, if

25:19

they identify that someone's doing that, I

25:22

have to have an environment where they know

25:24

we're going to act on them

25:26

bringing that kind of behavior forward. And

25:29

over 30 years, we've had it come up a few times.

25:33

Nothing's super serious, but you know, just people that don't

25:35

seem to like they were raised by wolves and they

25:37

don't know how to be a gentleman. You know, I

25:40

don't know. Uh, they think

25:42

it's appropriate to tell, say something and you know, no,

25:44

you don't say it. You

25:46

don't keep your hands to yourself. You goob. And

25:48

so, um, but anyway, yeah. So

25:50

you have to sit down and talk to some of these

25:52

guys and go, look, you know, we don't do creepers. And

25:55

so you have to keep your eyes and your hands to

25:57

yourself and certainly your mouth. and

26:00

your crude jokes or whatever it is you're doing, you're

26:02

going to stop that stuff. So, but

26:04

a lady has to feel a safe environment.

26:06

And I'm not talking about the legal aspects

26:08

of this, I'm talking about building culture of

26:10

trust. I want to have a

26:12

place at Ramsey, I don't care, the federal law, we're

26:15

going to abide by federal law, but this is way

26:17

beyond federal law standard. This is a standard of my

26:20

daughter's work here. If

26:22

your daughter works here, she needs to

26:24

be known, she's going to be treated

26:26

like a lady. And

26:28

she's going to be in

26:31

a safe environment because that's

26:33

the moral, principled,

26:35

correct, spiritual thing to

26:37

do. Not because it's the law, it also

26:39

happens to be the law, but that's a

26:42

side issue. So,

26:44

I've got to create that environment, our leadership team

26:46

has to create that environment, and our ladies then

26:48

have to be told, and our guys have to

26:50

be told over and over and over again, you

26:52

need to love this place enough that if you

26:54

see something going on that's wrong, that you need

26:57

to bring it to somebody that can help us

26:59

fix it. But we can't fix it if

27:01

we don't know it's there. So

27:03

you have to raise your hand and go, this

27:06

is really awkward and uncomfortable, but

27:09

I need to talk to you about this, this is

27:11

bothering me. And you go,

27:13

what? You're going to find out stuff at your organization is

27:15

going on, you can't believe it. What? Really?

27:17

That guy? I wouldn't have never thought. Oh well,

27:19

alright, well sit down with him. Sit

27:22

down with him and he goes, oh I didn't do that. Yeah

27:24

you did. Hey Ed, you're

27:26

full of crap. You know, I

27:28

believe that. I believe it for a minute. And

27:31

it's not because I believe her over you,

27:33

it's just you're wrong. You know, there's that.

27:36

So, you know, you just got to

27:38

create the environment where you're going to

27:41

act on the unethical

27:43

behavior. It's not whistleblower law, that's

27:45

a bunch of crap as far

27:47

as I'm concerned. I

27:49

mean, we abide by the law, so we don't

27:51

have to worry about all that. We're 92 degrees

27:53

inside the law, because we're more

27:55

concerned about the people than

27:58

some lawsuit. That's not the issue. What

28:00

we're concerned about is are we going to treat the

28:02

people right? And that's way before

28:04

you get to legal standard. So

28:08

create an environment where

28:11

people want to create the

28:13

workplace that they want to work in. And

28:16

so if they see something that's wrong, they raise their

28:18

hand because that's what they would do if they owned

28:20

it. You

28:23

have a self-employed mentality. It's one of our

28:25

core values here at Ramsey. Well

28:27

that's a pretty good little exercise to go through those.

28:30

Those are standard things that come up. And

28:33

the one that reminded me the most, I don't know what you guys got out

28:35

of this, but I think

28:38

I need to recognize people when they're doing a

28:40

good job. Will, you're doing a good job. Yeah.

28:44

You're doing a good job, Will. Good job. Right there

28:46

on the board right now. He just brought the music up right

28:49

when he was supposed to. See

28:51

how that recognition thing works? It's

28:53

powerful. This is the

28:55

Ontario Leadership Podcast. Money

28:59

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29:02

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30:00

Hey, this is

30:02

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30:04

your profits and losses were this week, would

30:07

you know? The

30:09

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30:11

business is going to fail. The

30:14

Bible says, be diligent to know the state

30:16

of your flocks and herds.

30:20

You can't out-earn disorganization or the

30:22

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30:24

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30:30

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31:04

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free guide. entreleadership.com/

31:14

finances. Taya is

31:16

in Yakima. Man, I got all

31:18

those names right. What's up, Taya? What's

31:21

up, Dave? Thanks for having me. I'm

31:23

honored. How can we help? Well,

31:27

we're in three years of business. We

31:29

own a non-medical home care agency that

31:31

serves our seniors and our veterans here

31:34

in our area. My

31:36

question was, how can we set up

31:38

our finances to create a marketing budget

31:40

and build a sustainable business? I've

31:46

listened to some of your podcasts

31:48

where you talk about how you

31:50

should put certain percentages aside for

31:52

different things. I just want to

31:54

make sure we're doing that, where

31:56

we're able to market and pay

31:58

ourselves And. You

32:01

know I am. Well, there's

32:04

a couple things about yachts arm.

32:07

If you're doing digital marketing.

32:10

Or you're buying key words Or

32:12

you're buying paid as Ceo. Ah,

32:15

that kind of stuff. Then.

32:17

You can say you have a very

32:19

clear. Ah, Instant.

32:23

Rate of return on each one of those

32:25

purchases. And so you

32:27

spend one hundred dollars and you

32:29

make acts. As

32:31

or as one hundred dollars plus act right? And

32:34

we call that a romance. And.

32:36

What you're looking for is the role as

32:38

as the return on your spend as what

32:40

amounts to. If the and

32:43

and so on his long as yours is,

32:45

if you're putting out a hundred dollars, as

32:47

long as you're making more than hundred dollars,

32:49

you can do that infinitely. Now. We

32:51

like to get in on a substantial more than

32:54

a wonder what we try to get it to

32:56

to one role as or we can on those.

32:58

Thanks for difficult to maintain that the South depend

33:00

on the south of campaigns but if you want

33:02

to roll stuff out. You

33:05

know, Advertising. That works

33:07

as free you follow me. It.

33:09

Makes you more to called yeah and so

33:11

if you're doing digital and you're getting a

33:14

row as that some positive. Ah,

33:16

you know you can do that. Mathematically.

33:19

And perpetuation. Now that what the

33:22

problem with that is is that

33:24

you can become too dependent on

33:26

one type of. Ah,

33:28

marketing. Or versus of

33:30

your by paid facebook. And.

33:32

You get really depended on paid Facebook

33:35

and then Facebook jax it up which

33:37

happened last year of cats. They checked

33:39

everybody on them for twenty twenty on

33:42

that. Then you know you're all sudden.

33:44

you're cost of customer acquisition just doubled.

33:47

Because. You pregame too dependent on one, so

33:49

you don't wanna just because there's a rate

33:52

of return. Go whole hog on one or

33:54

the others. But as long as you've got

33:56

a diversified. a whole series

33:58

of different marketing initiatives If

34:00

each one of them are monetizing,

34:03

then you don't have to limit it to

34:06

a percentage. Because again, as

34:08

long as you're getting the $100 back quickly that

34:10

you put out, then as

34:12

long as you can cash flow it, then

34:16

that's what you're looking for more than anything.

34:18

Now other types of advertising or marketing that

34:20

are not as direct response as a digital

34:22

ad where you've got a ROAS, I mean

34:25

if you put a Facebook ad or a

34:27

Google word out or something like that, you're

34:30

going to know in 24 hours if

34:33

you're making, you know, if you

34:35

know what a lead is worth, I mean

34:37

we know when someone goes for instance

34:39

to our budgeting software entre every dollar.

34:42

We know if a free user

34:44

downloads every dollar, on average

34:46

we're going to make X number of dollars.

34:50

Okay? And as long as

34:52

that lead cost us less than X,

34:55

we're making money. Right?

34:58

But it might be 60 days or 90

35:01

days before that cash comes through back

35:04

to us, so you got

35:06

to watch the cash flow on it.

35:08

Now the other types of advertising, like

35:10

for instance when I talk about percentages,

35:13

that's like if you're doing more of

35:15

a broadcast buy where you don't have

35:17

as closely tied direct response. So

35:20

if you're advertising say on radio or television

35:22

or something like that, you're

35:24

just putting an ad out there. It's

35:27

not like in 20 minutes or 24 hours you're going

35:29

to know that that ad was worth

35:31

what you spent, right? But

35:36

if you do that over a series of years,

35:38

then you know, well if we spend 6%

35:40

of our advertising on radio, we

35:43

keep that allocated. As long as we're doing that and

35:45

we're doing it in talk radio, we're going to be

35:47

fine because we do get a return over

35:49

a period of 12 months that's more than

35:51

adequate to suggest that that is a good

35:53

ad buy. That's where you use

35:56

percentages in your budget. But we

35:58

don't use those in Ramsey as much today. because we

36:00

do more digital buys

36:03

with our marketing stuff than we do anything else.

36:08

Okay. Well, I guess my,

36:10

like I was just wondering since we are a

36:12

new business and like, you know the percentages that

36:14

I was talking about was like, say

36:17

we put in 10% and that's gonna

36:19

be every time we get our income,

36:21

we'll put 10% towards marketing.

36:23

So we'll have a marketing budget. Well, what

36:25

that does when you're small is it keeps you

36:27

from putting too much in marketing. And

36:31

it makes you be careful with what you're doing in

36:33

marketing. Cause if you only got 10%, you

36:35

gotta be careful with it, make sure it's working. Yeah.

36:40

Sometimes if you don't put it. So that's kind of how I was trying

36:42

to structure that out. Yeah, if you don't put a

36:45

stop on the thing where at

36:47

10% we stop, then you could

36:49

look up and you spent 40% and you've

36:51

blown your margins on your marketing budget. So

36:56

you have to, the budget gives you a

36:58

constraint that says, I can't go

37:00

past this. And when you're limited, you

37:02

know, so I only got, you know, $10,000

37:04

or only got 10%, whatever

37:07

that represents, right? And so I've got to

37:09

make that pay. And

37:11

so it makes you very careful. Those are

37:13

precious dollars rather than sloppy, throw

37:15

it at the wall and see if it

37:17

sticks dollars. And that's what the,

37:20

you know, the budget gives you that, that sense of constrained

37:24

resources, limited resources, limited resources

37:26

of any kind always increased

37:29

creativity. People

37:31

are never creative when they're fat, sloppy,

37:33

and there's enough of everything. They're creative

37:35

when there's not enough. And

37:38

you have to make it work with bale and wire and fish hooks. You

37:40

know, that's when you get scrappy and

37:43

you create a false sense of limited

37:46

resources by creating a budget item. And

37:49

it's a, it's a foe. It's not false.

37:51

It's a real limit because you created it,

37:53

but you know, you force yourself to be

37:56

judicial with every one of those dollars. That's

37:59

what we're facing. Good question. I like that.

38:01

That's a good discussion. Sounds like you're running

38:03

a wonderful business. Congratulations. Thanks

38:05

for calling in. Love it. This

38:08

is the entree leadership podcast. Business

38:13

owners are passionate folks. In fact, they go

38:15

into business so they can do more

38:17

of what they're passionate about. But

38:19

that passion doesn't usually cross over to

38:22

the financial side of their business. The

38:24

good news is you don't have to

38:27

become a money expert to handle your

38:29

finances wisely. And you

38:31

don't have to become a financial

38:33

expert to do it. In the

38:35

entree leaders guide to business finances,

38:37

you'll learn the profit principles and

38:40

key practices we use here at

38:42

Ramsey solutions every day. Download

38:45

your free guide

38:47

at entreeleadership.com/finances today.

38:51

Thanks for listening to the entree leadership podcast. I

38:53

could use your help. Want

38:57

to help us? Thanks. Subscribe.

39:01

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39:32

you. Ah, Aaron

39:35

is with us Bloomington, Illinois.

39:38

What's up, Aaron? Hey, Dave,

39:40

how you doing? Better than I deserve. How can

39:42

I help? Well, real excited

39:44

about this. Thanks for taking some time for

39:46

me. Um, I work with a solar company

39:49

and we have just been on a

39:51

growth trajectory ever since I've been a part

39:53

of the company for the last five, six,

39:56

go on six years. And

39:58

we're now getting to. about 80, 90 people

40:00

were about 20 to $25 million a year. So,

40:04

and again, I was the first employee. I

40:07

remember when it was nothing like that. That's

40:09

fun. So how many, how many years ago

40:11

was it 10 people? Um,

40:14

10, we would have been probably

40:16

by the end of the second year.

40:18

So maybe like four years ago. Oh, wow. That's

40:20

a pretty heavy curve. Okay. So there's more of

40:22

them than you. Oh

40:25

yeah. So quickly. Yeah. Yeah.

40:27

Quickly. Like we had a quarterly meeting today and

40:29

I just. I'm kind of sh odd by all

40:31

the people in the room now. Yeah. You're the

40:33

old guy. Yeah. Yeah.

40:36

Yeah. And that's good. That's kind of how it feels some

40:38

days and it's really not been that long, but

40:41

yeah. So we're, we're, we're playing in a

40:43

bigger boy league and kind of feeling our

40:45

way through it and what's happened

40:48

is I've gone from it being employee number one. Now I manage

40:50

the sales department. That was kind of the side of the company

40:52

I've always stayed on. And just,

40:55

I, I, maybe it's new to me. Maybe it's just

40:57

new to our level of things. You

40:59

know, we've really tried to push on. We need

41:02

to have core values and we've got some written

41:04

down. We, those are crystallized on kind of an

41:06

executive level. And what I'm just thinking

41:08

is, man, there's people, it feels like constantly coming

41:10

into the door to jump in

41:12

and some of them are seasonal, but on my

41:14

side, they're not, they're all

41:16

salespeople and the administrators accordingly that just

41:18

make the ship run on my corner

41:20

of things. And I just, what

41:23

have you guys found in your growth and

41:25

maintaining some of the cultural pieces that

41:27

these are, are non-negotiables while

41:29

you've just got, again, just things

41:32

and work kind of coming in the door and

41:34

that can kind of overwhelm sometimes the cultural values.

41:36

Cause after a while it's like, you just got

41:38

to get stuff done. Yeah. You know, you don't,

41:41

you're very wise because if you don't start looking

41:43

at it the way you're looking at it right

41:45

now, um, you're probably a little

41:47

bit late actually to do it, but you're very

41:49

wise to recognize this need because,

41:52

um, what happens

41:54

is you have this neat culture and

41:56

everything's purring along. Everybody trusts each other.

41:59

There's a family. feeling with 20 people

42:01

and then you add 30 more. There's

42:03

more of them than you. That's what I was talking

42:05

about and all of a sudden they are

42:08

dictating culture instead

42:10

of you dictating culture. And

42:13

so all the new

42:16

people are bringing the culture in rather than accepting

42:18

the old people, becoming acclimated

42:20

to the old, right? So

42:23

what you've got to do is get around

42:25

in front of it which is what you're

42:27

describing and what can we do proactively to

42:29

maintain or reinsert, in your

42:33

case you may have lost some of

42:35

it, reinsert the values and the culture

42:37

that got us here. Okay

42:39

so it's number one the leadership

42:41

team needs to huddle up and be in agreement on

42:43

this. We need alignment with the leadership team and then

42:46

we need to implement you know

42:49

culture mandates

42:52

so to speak. Now that

42:54

starts with the higher. We're

42:57

not going to hire people who do not

42:59

want to engage and align

43:01

themselves with our values. In

43:05

the interview process these are our, at

43:07

Ramsey we have 14 values or

43:10

the principles are who we are and if

43:12

you do not want to align with those you

43:15

don't want to be here because you won't be

43:17

here. We're gonna move, we'll

43:19

move you out if you don't quit. This

43:22

is who we are and if you're

43:24

gonna be a we that's at the

43:26

interview and then it's again on the

43:28

onboarding. We onboarded eight people on Monday

43:30

here just a

43:32

couple days ago all right and all

43:35

eight of them in the two-day

43:37

onboarding they're going through. One of

43:40

the things they're going through is the core

43:42

values so they know who we are. They

43:45

don't get to bring their

43:47

culture to us. We

43:50

have a culture and they are joining

43:52

it. This is

43:55

a very very clear distinction and

43:58

what happens is if you just hire people left and right,

44:01

they just bring in their stuff if you don't demand

44:03

they adhere to yours. Does

44:06

that make sense? Yeah. Yeah.

44:10

So let's get alignment on what's important here

44:12

and who we are and then

44:14

in the hire, in the onboarding,

44:16

and even in the discussion with some of

44:18

the people you've hired in the last two

44:20

years that didn't have the benefit of the

44:22

new onboarding and hiring, where you say this

44:25

is who we are. Do you want to

44:27

be a we? You

44:29

know, our culture is we have

44:32

a level of customer service. You don't seem to care about

44:34

the customer. You just want to make the sale. That's

44:37

not okay. We do this.

44:39

This is what we do. Do

44:41

you want to be a we? And

44:43

we talk like that around here every

44:45

day at Ramsey, all day long. And

44:49

anytime we have to have a difficult

44:51

conflict conversation with someone on a performance

44:53

issue, it always has to do with

44:55

that kind of a thing. It's

44:58

a we thing. We don't do that here

45:00

or we do this here. And

45:02

you need to align with what we do if you want to

45:05

be a we. And then

45:07

you can create what you've got is

45:09

a uniform culture expectation that you're measuring

45:11

against, just like you were measuring against

45:13

a sales metric. You

45:16

know, if you say, okay, here's your key performance

45:19

indicators on sales, you have to make this many

45:21

cold calls, have this many actual contacts, you have

45:23

to have an average order value of this size,

45:25

you know, the kind of thing I'm talking about.

45:27

You're working through the rejection ratios. What

45:30

you do as a sales leader right now, you show them

45:32

how to do that. And then if they're making half that

45:34

number of calls, you know, they're going to fail. And

45:38

it's because they're not aligning to the metric.

45:41

And in this case, the metric is a soft

45:43

skill called a value, and they need to

45:45

align to the metric. And then the last

45:48

piece of it is, I

45:50

told our team this last night at every 90 days, we

45:53

have a final

45:57

welcome to the people who have been here 90 days. Because

46:00

during the first 90 days you're on probation and

46:03

we are on probation. And

46:06

at the end of 90 days we have a little

46:08

celebration that you've been here for 90 days and now

46:10

you're part of the family. We

46:12

used to bring in raps from Chick-fil-A and

46:14

I would just sit and answer questions and talk

46:16

to them. We called it Rap with Dave. Nowadays,

46:19

it's a little more complicated than that. We did this

46:21

thing, but we had about 50 people last night that

46:23

were at their 90 days and my

46:26

son, the president, and I both got up,

46:28

talked to him, welcomed through what it

46:30

means to be Ramsey. Again, this is

46:32

our values. Again, this is who we are.

46:35

And I'll tell you how we capped it off. It's

46:37

fresh on my mind and so it's a great question.

46:41

What we do now is I

46:44

sit and explain to those 50 people, when

46:46

we were a company of 50 people, people

46:49

told me you will never be able to maintain the

46:51

culture that you've got now when you get to 100.

46:55

And then when we got to 100, we did. And

46:57

they said, oh, well, you guys did it at 100. But you'll never be

47:00

able to do it at 200. And then when

47:02

we got to 200, it was even better. Now we're at

47:04

1,000. It's the best culture we've ever had.

47:06

How is that possible? Well, we spend some money

47:09

on it. We eat

47:11

together. We talk together. We laugh

47:13

together. We play together. We communicate a lot.

47:16

We're very intentional about it. But you can do

47:18

those two things and still have a screwed up

47:20

culture if you allow everyone in the building to

47:22

not function to the values. You've

47:25

got to function and align your

47:27

behaviors and your belief system to those

47:29

values. And if you don't want to adhere

47:31

to that, you don't need to be in our building. So

47:33

what I tell the team is I have

47:36

figured out the secret to having a world-class

47:38

culture with 1,000 people in

47:40

one building. You

47:43

want to hear it? Yeah. We're

47:45

not the creator of culture. They are. And

47:49

I tell those people sitting in front of me, a lot of

47:52

them young people, of course, right now. If

47:54

you go create the place that you

47:56

want to work in, if

47:59

you say, I'm going to be kind

48:01

because I want to work in a place with kind people

48:04

I'm gonna pray with my friend who's sick because I want

48:06

to work in a place where it's okay to pray with

48:08

my friend Who's sick I? want

48:10

to Perform with a level

48:12

of excellence And a desire to win

48:15

because I want to be around a bunch of people who drive the

48:17

ball and put it in the end Zone win the Super Bowl. I

48:20

Want to you you need to go

48:22

be the kind of person that creates

48:24

the place that you want to

48:26

work in and if you guys don't All create

48:29

the culture that you want to work in we're

48:31

gonna be one of those sucky corporate America companies

48:33

And then I'm just gonna shut it down because

48:35

I don't want to own one of those I

48:39

Can't do it. I can't

48:41

run around like a little bee

48:43

pollinating culture for a thousand people

48:45

all through this building It's it's

48:47

logistically physically impossible If

48:49

you don't create the place you want it to

48:52

be it won't be and they got it and

48:54

then we hand them a little glass We have

48:56

a glass that's etched it says culture creator So

48:59

every time you take a drink out of this

49:01

glass you remember your job is to create culture

49:03

while you're here create the culture of the place

49:05

you want to work in and Deputize

49:10

them as Culture creators

49:12

everyone in here make this the kind of

49:14

place you would want to work in if

49:16

you owned it How would you want it

49:18

to look how would you want people treating

49:20

each other? How would

49:22

you want people? You know

49:24

coming in late leaving early Would

49:27

you want people working 90 hours? I don't I want

49:29

them going home being with their families But

49:31

I don't want them coming in late leaving early and sitting

49:33

on Facebook all day Unless their

49:35

job is to sit on Facebook all day like

49:38

social media people or something, right? but I mean

49:40

you see what I'm saying and so You've

49:44

got to go through and first

49:46

get the values clear then

49:48

create some of the positive things and then

49:50

tell everybody make more of that That

49:54

was the formula I just gave you Yeah,

49:59

got it helpful Yeah,

50:01

immensely. Thanks. Hey man, we appreciate you. You're

50:03

amazing. I love the growth story on what

50:05

you're doing. You guys are getting it done,

50:07

man. The economy's bad.

50:10

Not if you work with Aaron. He's

50:15

not whining. He's getting it done, man.

50:17

Hey, remember better a wary warrior than

50:19

a quivering critic. This world needs

50:22

more high quality leaders. So take courage and

50:24

lead. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thanks

50:27

for listening to the Entrez leadership

50:29

podcast.