The EntreLeadership Podcast

Episode: My Toxic Husband Is Hurting Our Business (and Our Marriage)
Host: Dave Ramsey, Ramsey Network
Date: November 10, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Dave Ramsey takes live calls from small business owners tackling deeply personal and professional issues. The central theme focuses on the intersection of business challenges, leadership shortcomings, and personal relationships—particularly how unaddressed emotional issues can impact not just a business, but a marriage and family legacy. Dave offers direct, heartfelt, and practical advice while sharing from his own extensive business experience and personal struggles.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. When Business Problems are Really Personal Problems

[00:49–06:14]

• Caller: Jennifer, from Indiana, co-owns a successful veterinary practice with her husband, Anthony.
• Issue: Anthony’s toxic leadership style. He is emotionally volatile, publicly vents frustration, disregards team well-being, and dismisses feedback with “that’s just the way I am.”
• Business Impact: Creates a negative environment, demoralizes staff, and threatens business stability.
• Personal Impact: Straining the marriage and Jennifer’s respect for Anthony.

Dave’s Advice:

• Not a business issue, but a personal crisis:
  “You don’t really have a business problem or a leadership problem or a donkey problem or anything like that. You’ve got a guy who desperately needs to sit down with a counselor and with his pastor and start some personal growth. And I guess it starts with your marriage.” (Dave Ramsey, 03:07)

• The need for marital counseling:
  Dave recommends Jennifer start with marriage counseling—even if Anthony refuses to join—so she can learn tools to communicate and cope.

• Prediction if unaddressed:
  “I don’t think we’ll be married five years from now. I don’t think you will if this continues the way it is... there’s something breaking down inside of old Anthony here that’s getting worse by the day.” (03:59)

• On self-awareness and change:
  “Anytime someone says, it’s just the way I am, then my answer is always, okay, change, because the way you are kind of sucks. So it’s time to change and you get to choose these things.” (05:37)

• Big Picture: Dave empathizes with Jennifer’s struggle, underscores that lasting business change depends on deep personal growth, and that immediate intervention is necessary before marriage and business fall apart.

2. Succession Planning Across Family-Owned Businesses

[08:08–11:17]

• Caller: Wayne, Texas-based IT services business owner.
• Issue: Should he keep the family business and its potential new Wisconsin branch under one entity, or split for clean future inheritance?
• Dave’s Guidance:
  • Advises keeping the two branches as separate LLCs.
  • Ensures each son/stepson can own and be responsible for their efforts’ results when Wayne steps back.
  • Legacy is cleaner: “That way they eat what they kill. So if the stepson grows it huge and the son doesn’t, then he got what he got, right?... It’s much easier and cleaner, and that way they eat what they kill.” (10:12)

3. Developing Young Leaders Without Setting Them Up to Fail

[11:17–16:45]

• Caller (email): Caitlin, Kentucky, sees untapped leadership potential in young staff.
• Dave’s Step-by-Step Plan:
  • Start by assigning projects, not people management.
  • Monitor closely, coach directly, increase responsibility as competence grows.
  • Use an analogy: “...the first time they drive the car, we don’t just toss them the keys and go, I hope you don’t wreck. We’re right here with them.” (12:21)
  • Emphasizes mentorship: “You walk right beside them, hold them up, show them what to do... That’s mentoring, that’s discipling, that’s training.” (12:45)
  • Purposeful leadership: Pull and influence, don’t push and dictate.

4. Recovering from Financial Catastrophe: A Candid Look at Guilt and Grace

[16:45–28:49]

• Caller: Paul, Alberta, Canada, AV equipment rental business.

• Issue: Emotional and practical recovery from business losses after a bank called in a commercial mortgage during COVID, leading to loss of business property and personal residence.

• Dave’s Personal Reflection:

  • Admits long-term emotional impact from bankruptcy: “I might still be recovering emotionally. That’s a little too much truth.” (18:15)
  • Remembers physical feeling of relief after signing the bankruptcy papers: “It was like somebody had been standing on my chest and they got off... there was this tremendous release, tremendous peace there.” (19:25)
  • Ongoing self-doubt and the journey to self-forgiveness: “I burned myself over and over again... And that probably went on for some number of months, not years or decades. And then I had another moment where I went, hey, I did all I knew how to do. I didn’t leave anything on the field. I didn’t bankrupt as a shortcut. I fought it for two and a half years.” (21:04–22:38)
  • On learning and moving forward: “I don’t borrow money... the next time a bank calls me, it will be to try to get me to buy them, not to call one of the notes because there are any notes on Dave.” (23:35)

• Dave urges:

  • Acceptance plus learning: “It’s forgiveness. It’s perspective. It’s an autopsy. And then we start looking at the windshield instead of the rear view mirror.” (24:29)
  • Not all blame is yours: “The reality is there’s part of this is your fault. The reality is part of it’s Covid’s fault. The reality is part of it’s a banker’s fault. And that’s the reality... it doesn’t really matter. We’re still sitting where we’re sitting.” (24:58–25:14)
  • Business is still viable: “The great news is you didn’t fail at business. You failed at real estate. So the business that you’re running is still incredibly viable, and you’re still incredibly good at it.” (27:11)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On toxic leadership:
  “How old is this little boy?” – Dave Ramsey (02:21)
  “He’s emotionally 14.” – Jennifer (02:27)

• On emotional honesty:
  “You truly don’t like this guy. I mean, it’s pretty crazy. There are days at a minimum, you don’t respect him. And I mean, you just called him a donkey on a major national podcast.” – Dave Ramsey (03:23)

• On the inevitability of change:
  “Everything’s growing or dying. And this has been deteriorating for a while. Probably five years ago, it wasn’t quite this bad. But there’s something breaking down inside of old Anthony here that’s getting worse by the day.” – Dave Ramsey (04:11)

• On learning from hardship:
  “The whole thing is there’s a lot of manure in the story. And the only good thing about that much manure is it’s really fertile. You can really grow stuff, you know.” – Dave Ramsey (18:40)

• Practical legacy advice:
  “I would just build two separate little companies because one of them is going to get left to the stepson and one of them is going to get left to the son in your will... that way, they eat what they kill.” — Dave Ramsey (10:07–10:14)

• On developing young leaders:
  “In the first time they drive the car, we don’t just toss them the keys and go, I hope you don’t wreck... you’re there real time while they’re actually doing it. And then the more competence they show, the more you lengthen the rope of control.” – Dave Ramsey (12:21–13:40)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:51–06:14] – Jennifer’s Call: Confronting a Toxic Spouse and Business Partner
• [08:08–11:17] – Wayne’s Call: Structuring Family Business Succession
• [11:17–16:45] – Caitlin’s Email: Coaching Young, Inexperienced Leaders
• [16:45–28:49] – Paul’s Call: Recovering from Bankruptcy and Bank Fallout

Tone & Style

Dave’s tone throughout is blunt, compassionate, slightly humorous, and deeply empathetic. He mixes personal anecdotes and hard truths with validating callers' struggles, offering not just business wisdom but life counsel. There is a sense of urgency to address root issues and break cycles for healthier businesses, families, and leaders.

Summary

This episode dives deep into the ways unresolved personal and relational struggles impact business health, how to plan for a family legacy without unnecessary confusion, the stepwise development of future leaders, and grace in the painful aftermath of financial catastrophe. It stands out not just for its practical business advice, but for Dave Ramsey’s authentic, tough-love approach to helping leaders grow—and heal—so their businesses, teams, and families can thrive.