She Can’t Come to Work Because of Her Personal Life

Summary

Summary of "She Can’t Come to Work Because of Her Personal Life" Episode of The EntreLeadership Podcast

Podcast Information:

• Title: The EntreLeadership Podcast
• Host: Ramsey Network (Dave Ramsey)
• Episode Title: She Can’t Come to Work Because of Her Personal Life
• Release Date: January 6, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of The EntreLeadership Podcast, host Dave Ramsey addresses real-life business and leadership challenges submitted by listeners. The episode primarily focuses on balancing employee grace with setting clear boundaries, negotiating partnership buyouts, and fostering company culture within dispersed teams. Dave draws upon his extensive experience to provide actionable advice tailored to each situation.

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Caller Brandon: Balancing Employee Reliability and Personal Life

Timestamp: [00:54] - [05:39]

Brandon from Atlanta reaches out with concerns about managing a valuable employee whose frequent absences due to personal reasons are impacting their dental business, which employs 15 people and generates approximately $3 million in annual revenue.

Key Points:

• Employee Performance vs. Dependability: Despite being proficient at her job, the employee’s inconsistent attendance poses challenges for a small team.
• Financial Constraints: The business lacks the capacity to absorb ongoing absences, especially with an already limited workforce.
• Personal Circumstances: The employee has two young children who often fall ill, necessitating her frequent departures from work.

Notable Advice from Dave Ramsey:

• Setting Boundaries: "In an operation as small as yours, you cannot afford for them to just not come to work for a long period of time" ([01:36]).
• Communicate Clearly: "You have to talk it out loud. You have to clear the air on it. To be unclear is to be unkind in all relationships" ([05:15]).
• Temporary vs. Long-Term Grace: While temporary grace is permissible, long-term accommodations are unsustainable for the business.
• Solution: Encourage the employee to seek a role elsewhere that better fits her personal circumstances while maintaining professionalism and kindness.

Notable Quote:

"She’s not reliable, and that offsets how good she is. If she were dependable, we’d probably promote her" — Dave Ramsey ([03:32]).

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Caller Dina: Navigating a Partnership Buyout

Timestamp: [11:14] - [18:06]

Dina from West Palm Beach, Florida, seeks guidance on a buyout offer from the owner of an electrical contracting business. The offer involves her, her husband, and another key employee purchasing the ownership stake over seven years.

Key Points:

• Buyout Terms: The owner proposes a $1.2 million buyout at 7% interest, coupled with a $150,000 annual salary.
• Business Valuation: With a net profit of $360,000, Dave Ramsey evaluates the offer's fairness.
• Ownership vs. Compensation: Dina and her husband prefer compensating the key employee with performance-based bonuses rather than making him a partner.

Notable Advice from Dave Ramsey:

• Assessing Fairness: "He’s asking for 1.2 million, plus 7% interest and a salary of $150,000 a year. Nope, that's too much." ([12:21]).
• Negotiation Strategy: Suggest restructuring the buyout to be more favorable, potentially shortening the repayment period by leveraging profits.
• Ownership Clarity: Emphasize that ownership should be a choice, not an obligation, and consider compensating valuable employees without granting them ownership stakes.

Notable Quote:

"If you want to keep him, I don’t mind paying him some extra bonuses out of the profits as if he were a partner, but he does not need to be an owner with you and your husband." — Dave Ramsey ([13:04]).

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Caller Connor: Building Company Culture with Dispersed Real Estate Agents

Timestamp: [36:37] - [43:00]

Connor from Orlando contacts Dave Ramsey as the new Director of Business Development at a large real estate company in Central Florida. He struggles with fostering a cohesive company culture among 100 agents spread across seven offices, many of whom are 1099 subcontractors with flexible schedules.

Key Points:

• Dispersed Workforce: The agents work independently, limiting opportunities for relationship-building and cultural alignment.
• Current Efforts: Weekly branch meetings and monthly company-wide gatherings are in place but deemed insufficient.
• Challenge: Enhancing company culture without imposing rigid attendance that might deter agents.

Notable Advice from Dave Ramsey:

• Mandatory Meetings: "You could require attendance at sales meetings, treating agents like regular W2 employees, regardless of their 1099 status" ([38:30]).
• Establish Core Values: Engage long-standing agents to identify and codify the company’s core values, fostering a unified culture.
• Value-Added Meetings: Ensure meetings offer tangible benefits, such as training or motivational speakers, to make attendance appealing.
• Leadership Alignment: Work with ownership to secure buy-in and support for cultural initiatives, ensuring top-down reinforcement.

Notable Quote:

"Internal communication creates a knowledge of each other, and relationships build trust. And organizations move at the speed of trust." — Dave Ramsey ([39:12]).

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Dave Ramsey's Insights on Leadership and Personal Development

Timestamp: [19:20] - [36:37]

In a comprehensive monologue, Dave Ramsey shares his personal journey in building Ramsey Solutions from an 800-square-foot office to a thriving organization with over 1,100 team members. He emphasizes the critical role of continuous learning and reading in effective leadership.

Key Points:

• Self-Education: Learned leadership through "school of hard knocks" and by modeling successful practices from others.
• Importance of Reading: Advocates for leaders to be voracious readers to prevent stagnation and foster growth.
• Recommended Authors and Books:
  • Pat Lencioni: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, The Ideal Team Player
  • Jim Collins: Good to Great, Built to Last
  • John Maxwell: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
  • Jocko Willink: Extreme Ownership
  • Malcolm Gladwell: Outliers, The Tipping Point
  • Seth Godin: Linchpin
  • Classic Reads: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, The Richest Man in Babylon

Notable Advice from Dave Ramsey:

• Continuous Improvement: "You have to grow. The personal driver is the first driver of the six drivers in business" ([22:00]).
• Leadership Through Knowledge: "Leaders are all readers. Otherwise, you become stagnant pond water" ([25:00]).
• Implementing Core Values: Regularly reinforce core values within the organization to ensure cultural alignment and operational efficiency.

Notable Quote:

"You've got to be growing. You've got to be feeding your mind. It activates things in your brain that you come to work wired and fired and ready to go." — Dave Ramsey ([34:30]).

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Conclusion

In this episode, Dave Ramsey effectively navigates diverse leadership challenges, offering tailored solutions grounded in clear communication, boundary-setting, and cultural alignment. He underscores the essence of dependable team members, equitable business arrangements, and the cultivation of a strong company culture through consistent engagement and shared values. Additionally, his emphasis on continual learning and reading serves as a foundational pillar for effective leadership and organizational growth.

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Final Thought: As Dave Ramsey eloquently puts it, "better a weary warrior than a quivering critic. This world needs more high-quality leaders, so take courage and lead."

Transcript

[Dave Ramsey]

From the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions. This is the Entree leadership podcast where I take calls from leaders like you about what it takes to win at any stage of business and leadership. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host with over 30 years of experience leading in the trenches right alongside you. If you've got a question you want to ask on the show, fill out the [e-mail] ask or call and leave us a number and we'll get you on the air at 844-944-1070. That's 844-944-1090. Brandon starts this episode off in Atlanta. Hi, Brandon. How are you?

[Brandon]

I'm good there. How you doing?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve, sir. What's up?

[Brandon]

My wife and I have a dental business that we own. We have 15 employees and we do about 3 million annually in revenue.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good for you.

[Brandon]

Thank you. I had a question about setting boundaries and giving grace with one of our employees. So we have a really good employee. She's one of our front staff employees and she's really good when she's at work, but she's just not at work enough because of personal reasons. And we're just trying to figure out how to balance giving her some grace. Because I know you talk about a lot about giving grace to your employees, but also setting some boundaries with expectations.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Okay. Well, in. In an operation as small as yours, you cannot afford for them to just not come to work for a long period of time. I mean, regardless of what the reason is, if it's a good reason or not, you cannot have somebody out all the time when there's only 15 team members.

[Brandon]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

Let's say it was a legitimate thing. Their baby is sick and is in the hospital and is going to be there for a year and they're going to miss three days a week. You can't absorb that. You don't have the bandwidth to absorb that in an operation your size. So you can give temporary grace, but giving long term grace to a situation, if that were the case that I just outlined, she probably needs to get another job. Now, you can be gentle about helping her get another job, but she's got to do something else that she only needs three days a week because she's got to be with her baby the rest of the time because the baby's sick or something like that. What are the personal reasons? What's driving this?

[Brandon]

Exactly what you said. Like, she has two kids, two young kids, and they get sick a lot. And she had, she had.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm Talking about devastating sick. I'm not talking about got the flu.

[Brandon]

No. Yeah, yeah. It's like if the school calls her to pick up the kids, she has to go or she has to leave in the middle of the day.

[Dave Ramsey]

She's a single mom.

[Brandon]

No. Her husband works, but he's working two jobs, so he's working a lot.

[Dave Ramsey]

And he can't get off because his employer will fire him.

[Connor]

Right.

[Brandon]

And they're having kind of financial issues. So that's. That's kind of what's hard for us, is that they're having financial issues, but at the same time, she's just not there enough. And it's. It's kind of like this back and forth battle because she's really good enough, where we would give her promotion and say she was there every day.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Brandon]

But it's kind of hard.

[Dave Ramsey]

She's not. She's. She's good when she's there, but she's not dependable is what you're saying. She's not reliable.

[Brandon]

Exactly. Exactly.

[Dave Ramsey]

I think I would tell her that. So, you know, the fact that you just take off and are not here, that lack of reliability offsets how good you are. You are really good at your job. And if you were here, like 40 hours all the time, and we could count on you being here, we'd probably promote you and give you a raise, but we can't count on you because you just jet on us. And so that lack of reliability is not only holding you back from a promotion, it's also making us think about whether or not we're gonna be able to stay here or not.

[Brandon]

Right, right.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so. No, let me tell you, everybody that has kids has kids that get ill in the school calls. That's life. Okay, but where there's a pattern that's so bad that it's affecting you to the point that you're calling me, then it's out of control is what that tells me. She's over the top. And so. No, I mean, you have a certain amount of pto, of personal time off, do you not?

[Brandon]

We do.

[Dave Ramsey]

Is she using that to check out and go get the kids?

[Brandon]

Yeah. So she. She's already out of town, so she basically goes unpaid.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And so she doesn't get paid when she leaves.

[Brandon]

Exactly. And the other issue is she's due to have another baby within, like, the next month or so. So she'll have three little ones.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, yeah. So obviously you're not doing anything until she gets back.

[Brandon]

Right, right. Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so you're stuck with that. But I think when she returns, you need to tell her, you know, we're, we're not going to be able to go the way you've been going, where you run out your PTO and then you just take off anyway. I wouldn't have this discussion until she returns, though. She might not return. She might not come back.

[Brandon]

Yeah, that's also true.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. I mean, three kids now, three sets of daycare now, three sets of everything. She may not be able to afford to work there. But the issue in general for our listeners that face the same thing, those of us that are employers are to be unclear is to be unkind. And you have not told her out loud that this is frustrating you and you need to. If she comes back after the baby. So you're gonna sit down and you're gonna say, look, the pattern you were on before burning through your PTO is not okay. We're not gonna go with that anymore. So you're gonna have to make other arrangements for your kids. You can't leave all the time. We have to be able to count on you. If you do, then you're making a decision to not work here anymore. Because I'm not going. We're not going to go there. And that's okay. That's okay. There's nothing bad about that. We've had folks that work on our team that have medical issues and they have to return to work at some point. We have to have a hope in the future that they're going to be here and get plugged in. Otherwise we talk about them leaving and dealing with their anxiety or whatever it is somewhere else and in a different setting, in a different way. Because we work 40 hours a week and we work at work, not at home. And that's who we are. And if you're going to be a we, that's what it's going to look like. And so we talk very clearly about that now. Again, one offs certain situations, but basically what we're looking for when we're giving grace past PTO or we're doing some kind of unusual extension of PTO or something like that, whatever you want to call it, those are all situations that are going to be temporary. And then when the person returns, they're going to return strong and better than they were before. But we're not using that grace to enable an ongoing pattern that we're not okay with. Even though we could, we could absorb it. You don't even have the choice because you can't absorb it. You don't have a big enough team to absorb it. So that is what we're facing. So there you go. That's the plan. Yeah, you got to talk it out loud. You got to clear it, clear the air on it. To be unclear is to be unkind in all relationships, particularly when you're dealing with your team. This is the Entree Leadership Podcast. What does the future hold for business? Ask nine experts, you'll get 10 different answers. Economic growth or a recession. Business taxes will go up or down. AI will help us work or replace us all. But there's no such thing as a crystal ball. That's why more than 40,000 businesses have future proofed themselves with NetSuite by Oracle, the number one cloud enterprise resource planning system. Ramsey Solutions uses NetSuite. And you should too. Whether your company's earning millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you respond to immediate challenges and seize your biggest opportunities with one unified business management suite. There's one source of truth for the visibility and control you need to make quick decisions. NetSuite's real time insights and forecasting help you see into the future with actionable data. And when you're closing the books in days, not weeks, you spend less time looking backward and more time focusing on what's next. And speaking of what's Next, download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning at netsuite.com it's [e-mail] Ramsey do you feel like you're running on empty? If you're leading a business, then it's no wonder. Business is hard. It's freaking hard. But that doesn't mean you gotta let yourself get burned up and burned out. Join me and thousands of small business leaders in Denver next spring to refuel your leadership tank with life changing insight from all of our speakers. Best selling author of Good to Great Jim Collins will be there. Argument expert Jefferson Fisher. He is a lot of fun. You don't want to miss this. The leadership expert of all time, John Maxwell, gonna be there. World heavyweight champion George Foreman and the George Foreman Grill CEO will be there. Seiko Designs, Liz Bohannon, CEO will be there. Seth Dillon, the CEO of Babylon Bee, that'll be fun. And by the end of the conference, you're gonna be refreshed, filled up, equipped, have new ideas and thoughts that you never had before. A new vision for your business. Mark your calendar. Don't miss this. There's just a few seats left. It's marked for a sellout, so we're not there yet, but we're getting close. May 18 through 21, in 2025, next spring. Get your tickets right now or you're gonna be FOMO. You're gonna be missing out, baby. Go to entreeleadership.comsummit and reserve your seats. Entreeleadership.comsummit. if you're listening on YouTube or podcast, click the link in the Show Notes to reserve your seats. Dinah is with us in West Palm Beach, Florida. Hi, Dinah. How are you? Hi.

[Dina]

It's actually Dina, Dave.

[Dave Ramsey]

Dina. My bad. I don't. I'm looking right at it. I knew better. Thank you for correcting me, though. Hi, Dana. What's up?

[Dina]

So I'm the second qualifier for an electrical contractor that has nine employees, including the owner. We have about 1.8 million in revenue. I've worked for them for 24 years, and for the past two years, I've been running the business. My question is, do we accept the partnership buyout the ownership is offering for myself, my husband and another key employee.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm sorry, you and your husband want to buy out who?

[Dina]

The owner is offering myself, my husband and another key employee a buyout partnership to buy him out over the next seven years?

[Dave Ramsey]

Seven years?

[Dina]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And what does he do? He goes home and collects the money.

[Dina]

Right. He's pretty much retired.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. What's the other key employee? Why.

[Dina]

It'S. He's one of our lead electricians. He does all this service work, and I don't. I don't know why he wants him as a partner. My husband and I are both kind of opposed to it.

[Dave Ramsey]

But he's not going to be his partner. He's going to be your partner.

[Dina]

Exactly.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, no, I don't want him as a partner.

[Dina]

All right? That's what my husband and I feel.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, you're right.

[Dina]

We actually thought to possibly offer him a higher salary to keep him on and, you know, take care of him.

[Dave Ramsey]

I don't mind paying him some extra bonuses out of the profits as if he were a partner, but he does not need to be an owner with you and your husband.

[Dina]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

No. So the current owner's parting gift is to throw grenades? No, thank you. No. Okay. No. Not a plan at all. And I'm going to set up something that doesn't take seven years, too. So you got 1.8 gross. What's the net?

[Dina]

Around 360,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

And what's he asking for this?

[Dina]

1.2 million, plus 7% interest. And then he has a salary of $150,000 a year.

[Dave Ramsey]

Nope, that's too much.

[Dina]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

The thing's worth four times maximum. The net profit after all operational salaries have been paid, not partner salaries. Okay, but he doesn't get an ongoing draw and get a premium price for the business. No.

[Dina]

Okay. Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

No way too much. It's 150,000 plus 7% too much per year. So. No. So if you're netting 300k after operational salaries is the operational salaries thing. Change the 300k? No.

[Dina]

No.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so like if I bought this thing and wrote a check for it, I can operate it with the salaries that create a 300k net today? Correct. As an absentee owner.

[Dina]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

I don't work there at all. Okay. But the people I can pay, everybody that needs to be paid to run the thing right now and it'll make 300k.

[Dina]

Correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

Does that include the current owner taking 150 out that he'll be gone?

[Dina]

Yes, it does.

[Dave Ramsey]

Then it's 450.

[Dina]

Oh, okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Because he's not operational. He's not necessary to operate it after I buy it. Right.

[Dina]

Okay. Right, Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Now it's worth a little more. It's worth four times that. So 1.6. And he's asking what?

[Dina]

1.2. And then the interest.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Dina]

And then his salary.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Dina]

And he is. This is something also too is he's offering us to pay it out of the profits of the business.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that's how. That's what I was going to go to. That's how I'm going to do it. I pay. And so you give him 300k a year after he gets his 150. It's about the same thing then.

[Dina]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

But it shouldn't take 7 years. 300k a year. It's 4 years plus the interest. And if you increase the profits and just keep only taking your current pay. Right. Then you could even get out faster than four years.

[Dina]

Right. That's the plan.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. $300,000 into 1,200,000 is four and he's gone. But he doesn't get the 150 after I pay him off. Once he's paid off, the 150 ends.

[Dina]

Exactly.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so does the interest. Okay. And so yeah, that's. It's not as bad a deal now that I understand the numbers. Okay. I didn't. I thought, I thought the thing was actually making 300, but it's actually making. Once he's gone, you'll be making 450 exactly.

[Dina]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

If you don't increase it. Okay, that makes sense. Okay, cool. Yeah. I mean, if he wants. If you Want to structure it that way, that's okay. And we give you 100% of the profits after we pay you 150 or after we pay us our current pay. And we will put the other guy on a percentage of profits bonus. But he's not an owner and if you don't want to do that, then you have to work with somebody else and we're just going to have to go do something else. Right, because you're satisfying his short term guilt to take care of this one guy. And in order to satisfy his short term guilt as he walks away, you're signing up for a very long life that you don't want.

[Dina]

Exactly.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you gotta walk on. It's a non starter in the negotiation. And so. And you know, the only reason he's doing it is he loves the guy and he's trying to be loyal to the guy, he's trying to be kind to the guy. If he wants to do that, he can just give him some money.

[Dina]

Right. Okay. I agree with that. Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you can too for that matter, if you want to keep him. I've got people that work here that are paid on, off the bottom line as if they're partners, but they're not partners.

[Dina]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And I don't mind that comp plan, but that's different than an ownership plan. So. Dana, good question. Very well done. You are already on track, man. You're just. I'm just confirming what you're already thinking. So doesn't sound like a bad deal other than that one part. Now that I figured it all out. Took me a minute. Sorry about that. This is the Entree leadership podcast.

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[Dave Ramsey]

I opened our first office for Ramsey Solutions the spring of 1994. Me and another guy moved the card table and the old desk out of my living room with a U haul truck into a little 800 square foot office building. We're in 650,000 square foot now with almost 1100 team members. The kid that was 34 years old, 33 years old, that did that could not run this operation that I run today. He was not smart enough, he was not sophisticated enough, he didn't have enough leadership knowledge. So where did I get it? School of hard knocks. Yeah, I've done some stupid butt stuff that left a scar. Hello. That's a painful way to learn though. You want to learn by better than that. Where else did I get it? Well, I watched other people and I judged. Best practices, we call it in business. And it's a nice way of saying I watch what someone else is doing and I steal their ideas and use them. Not stealing their proprietary something, but I'm watching what successful people do and I model after it. Right. One of the things though that I learned in my youth going to motivational seminars with my real estate entrepreneur father, was that people who aren't growing don't have a growing enterprise. You have to grow. The personal driver is the first driver of the six drivers in business. And you have to get better if you want a better life. You have to get better if you want a better business. If you want a bigger business, your brain has to be bigger. And so leaders, all leaders are readers. Otherwise you become stagnant pond water. Water that doesn't have a flow through is stopped up. And you've gotta have some flow through. You gotta have some stuff coming into your brain that wasn't in your brain last year or you're gonna be doing the same stupid stuff you did last year. You need new information. And so I became a voracious reader. I became a student of business and leadership, particularly leadership. And I'm often asked, well, what's your favorite leadership book? Oh, crud. What's my favorite child? No, I mean, you know, no, we're not going there. But I can tell you, here's what I do. I pick out someone like my friend Pat Lincione. When I first picked him out, he wasn't my friend. I didn't even know him. And I read his book, the five Dysfunctions of a Team. And I read his book on silos. Then I read. Oh my gosh, my favorite book of his, the Ideal Team Player. The ideal team player is hungry, humble and smart. And ever since then, we've been using that lingo in our hires and in our decisions as to whether to keep someone. Now, this person's humble and smart, but they're not hungry. We gotta get their hunger level up or they don't get to stay. They gotta be an ideal team player. And so Pat Lincione, everything he's written, I've read. I love it. Every book he's ever written, I've read em. The latest one's called the Motive. So you need to be reading Pat. Pat'll be speaking this year at the Entree Leadership Summit in May in Denver. If you don't have your tickets, he's been at almost every one. He and I have become lifelong friends. He's been doing events with us for a decade, plus he's even moved to Nashville. He's now my neighbor and so love this guy. Anything Pat Lincione writes, read it first. Read the book Built to Last by Jim Collins. That was his first big hit. And then he came out with a book called Good to Great. And Good to Great has become one of the bibles in leadership out there. Most everyone that teaches or believes leadership tells you you ought to read the book. Good to Great. Why some companies make the leap and others don't. Good to Great. His latest one's called Thriving on Chaos. In between, he wrote a book that he didn't intend to be a big deal. It's a small book, but it took off and was huge. Called how the Mighty fall after the 2008. And he's looking at reasons companies crash. Jim Collins. Everything Jim Collins writes, I read. He'll be speaking at the Entree Leadership Summit in May in Denver. He's one of the best voices in the leadership world out there today. And he doesn't do a lot of events live on a stage. You really don't want to miss the opportunity to hear Jim in person. Absolutely incredible. Oh, and my friend John Maxwell. I just love John Maxwell. He and I have been friends a long time. When I was that kid, 33, 34 years old, I used to get cassette tapes from John Maximum Impact. I was a subscriber to a monthly tape, and I would open the tape with great anticipation, put it in my car as I drove home from work and to work, and I would listen to it over and over and over and over again until the tape came the next month to replace it. John has written some 80 something books. I have not read all of them. He writes books faster than I can get them read. My favorite of all of John's books is his number one best selling book of all the 80 something books he's written called the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. We actually went to the publisher with permission from Thomas Nelson and permission from John and formed our own Dave Ramsey version of the 21 irrefutable laws of Leadership that we sell in our bookstore and we give to our leaders internally. Rest assured, John is not only one of the most prolific writers in leadership, but he's one of the best. And his thoughts are amazing. The talks that he does and the books that he's written have left a lasting imprint on me and they're one of the reasons that I am as good a leader as I am today. And so anything John Maxwell writes, But particularly the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership. Oh, and by the way, John Maxwell will be at the Entree Leadership Summit in May. Those are three friends of mine that are some of the best voices in the entire leadership space. I will be sitting in the audience while they speak, taking notes because I've sat at their feet for two or three decades taking notes. Jim Collins, John Maxwell, Pat Lincione. But anything John writes, I would suggest, but certainly start with or end with the 21 irrefutable laws of Leadership. A couple of years ago we were introduced and this guy leapt onto the scene and has taken up a lot of space. I really like him personally. We've become friends as well. Jocko Willick. Extreme Ownership was the breakthrough book, How U.S. navy Seals Lead and Win. And he's got a great podcast and he does a great talk. He's spoken for us before at Summit. He's not gonna be there this year, but. But Jocko is writing some good stuff. He has some wonderful leadership thoughts. His podcast is great. I recommend it. I certainly recommend Extreme Ownership. You do not want to miss it. And I've read, I think, three Jocko books now. His first one is his biggest and probably my favorite, Extreme Ownership. But the others are excellent. He has a great thoughts on leadership and, you know, his, his military demeanor and the way he approaches this is fun. And he's a great dad by the way. Got some great kids stuff out there and so be sure and check out anything that Jocko is doing. I'm a Jocko fan. To say the least. Last year's summit we had Malcolm Gladwell. Malcolm Gladwell's first big breakthrough book was the Tipping Point and eh, not my favorite Malcolm Gladwell book but I think I've read everything Malcolm has written. Pretty sure I have. He's got a book on David and Goliath. It's really good. My favorite of his is Outliers. It's really good. I'm trying to think of what the brand new one is. I did it on audiobook and he spoke at last year's summit and then the other thing he's did is a cool book that has nothing to do with leadership but you don't wanna miss it and you for sure wanna do this. On AudioBook is the BU mafia so be sure it's excellent audiobook and Malcolm's really into audiobooks. He's leaning hard with all of his material into audio these days. So his audiobooks are highly produced and they have sound effects and they're very cool and audio clips from some of the people he's quoting, all that kind of stuff. So it's a. Well it's not a dry read audiobook, it's a well done audiobook. So I recommend anything Malcolm is writing. I enjoy him and I enjoy. He's always got a different take. He comes through a different door at things than I do. I don't think like he thinks another writer that I have become friends with and I love and spoke for several years ago at Summit. I don't have his book on the table because I forgot to tell our producer about it is Seth Godin. And if you've ever heard the phrase going viral, Seth invented the phrase. He's one of the best marketing minds on the planet. In the early days of the Internet, in the early days of SEO, in the early days of social media, he and Gary Vee were right on the cutting edge. As a matter of fact he introduced me to Gary Vee and Seth and Gary Vee and I did an event in New York City several years ago and we are three very different characters, I'll tell you that. But Gary's fun and Seth is absolutely stone cold brilliant. His book Linchpin. If you're in an organization and you want to lead up, not just lead down in the organization chart Linchpin by Seth Godin. Anything Godin writes though, I'll read. He's really good and again his marketing stuff is lights out. He's brilliant. I was in a bible study with a group of guys for 14 years and we Ended up reading a bunch of books. One of the books we read was a book called Thou Shalt Prosper by an Orthodox Jewish rabbi named Rabbi Daniel Lapin. And the premise of the book is 10 reasons that Jewish people tend to outperform the population that they're settled in throughout history. Financially, 67% of the Forbes 400 in America is Jewish. 3% of the public is. I rest my case. I want to know what the rabbi had to say about prospering. I want to know how his mind works from a Hebrew perspective on economics. It is one of my favorite books of all times. And I start talking about on the air and it starts selling. And he called me with his wonderful South African accent and said, who are you? I love you. My book is selling. And so I ended up writing the foreword for the book. When they reissued it and had it come back out again, a new version of it. This guy is lights out. Amazing. This book is very chewy, very thick, very hard to get through. But those are, you know, he's a guy I read. And this book is definitely where you would start. And you will see some things you've never seen in your life on leadership and on economics and on a view of prosperity, a view on wealth and that kind of thing. So absolutely stone cold incredible. There's a lot of other classics out there. You just have to keep reading. The Richest man in Babylon. Must read. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Must read. Absolute must reads. Those are all classics. They've been around forever. The Go Getter that we sell, written in 1926. The anguish. The language is antique when you're reading. It's very interesting to read. It's a real short little book, easy to read, quick read. You ought to read it. It's in our bookstore. Got a Ramsey version of it because it's in public domain. So, you know, just. You can check around and. But here's the thing. Leaders are readers. What I have done is I found authors that lined up with my value system and that were teaching me things. And then I just. Every time something comes out of theirs, I read it. By the way, I do that too with fiction. Brad Thor is a friend of mine on the spy novel side of things. He's written 30 some odd books. I've read every one of them. Read everything John Grisham has written. I've read everything Jack Carr has written. A new writer, A Navy SEAL that's doing spy stuff. He did the book the Terminal List that became a TV special. And wonderful stuff. So, I mean, once I get down one of these rabbit holes, I just keep reading until they're all done, and then I wait on the next one. And so those are all people I can recommend. You know, I mean, whether it's fiction or whatever. But, you know, I binge read, like some of you binge Netflix, and so do that. And I've done this over 30 years to where these people's words that are on the page start being imprinted on my mind, and then they end up coming out of my mouth as advice to you, or they end up coming out of my mouth as I run Ramsey. And I'm dealing with the issues and triumphs and challenges of 1100 people. Leaders are all readers. If you can't tell me a leadership book you've read in the last 12 months and something about it, you're not a leader. You're not going to be hired on Ramsey. We're interviewing you for a leadership role. You don't get the job. You're not reading, you're not leading, period. You've got to be growing. You've got to be feeding your mind. It activates things in your brain that you come to work wired and fired and ready to go. It refreshes the prefrontal cortex to throw ideas on it. It activates it. So. And Netflix doesn't do that. And for God's sakes, death scrolling through Instagram doesn't do that. Reading does that. And I read books like these. And then I've got a friend that's a pastor, and I've started doing what he does. He opens up the front blank cover and does an outline of the most important things he learned about the book. Does himself a small book report in the front cover. So then if he wants to pull the book off the shelf, he can look on that front cover and remember what it was. He forgot about what he learned. My comprehension level's high enough. I haven't had to do that, but. But it's a great practice, and it's a studious technique, so I like it. It's kind of nerdy. It's cool. So I can recommend it. Even though I've not thoroughly done it over all the years. I like to do that. I'll sit down and write on the inside cover of a book what I just learned. So not a bad practice. Leaders are readers, boys and girls. That's how this thing works. This is the Entree Leadership Podcast. Motivating your team to work and lead with the same passion you have is one of the toughest things in leadership. But it's crucial if you want to scale your business. Fortunately, Entree leadership summit is the leadership event that will equip you to build a team that fights shoulder to shoulder with you so you can grow like never before. Join US in Denver, Colorado, May 18th through the 21st by going to ramseysolutions.comsummit or click the link in the show notes. Thank you for joining us, America. If you want to help us out, we need your help here at Entree. Please consider clicking the follow button or the subscribe button. It changes the algorithms and helps us move this show along. You're our only marketing plan. Leave a nice five star review and click the share button or click the link and copy it and send the share link to somebody and say, hey, listen to this podcast. It changes everything because it does does this information is important. Connor is with us in Orlando. Hi, Connor. Welcome to the Entree Leadership Podcast.

[Connor]

Hey, Dave, thanks so much for your time. I really, really appreciate it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure. What's up?

[Connor]

Yeah, I'm the new director of business development at a real estate company. We're in central Florida. We have about 100 agents and last year we did a little over 500 million in sales volume. I don't know the revenue on that, but basically my role is to recruit new agents and then also to help with company culture. And I'm struggling in this new role. I've never been in a role like this before and I don't really know how to help build company culture when we have a lot of, you know, 1099 subcontractors over multiple offices, you know, and they're not required to be in the office at any given time where they are like at Ramsey. So I don't really know how to build that company culture where we're so spread out and we don't see each other all the time.

[Dave Ramsey]

How many branch offices are there?

[Connor]

Seven currently.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Do they not have sales meetings?

[Connor]

We do. We have. Each office has a meeting on a weekly basis and then we do like a company wide meeting once a month, which is great. Not all the agents can come to all of them, which, you know, those are helpful, but I'm looking to do more. That's kind of what has been done here.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Connor]

And I'm looking at it.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, no, let's stop a minute. My parents ran a real estate company when I was growing up. I got my real estate license when I turned 18 years old in 1978. So I've been in the residential real estate Industry. And I still have my license. Okay. Still a broker in one form or another. Today we have a network of people we endorse in that world. So I would have no trouble at all requiring the agents to be at sales meeting.

[Connor]

Just as a company policy. If you want to hang your license here, you're required to come.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Connor]

I mean, I think that makes sense. I don't know if that would turn people off.

[Dave Ramsey]

I don't care.

[Connor]

But at the same time, I don't really want them there if they're not going to be turned on by that exact part of the team.

[Dave Ramsey]

Exactly. You're going to be part of the team, and we're going to have a culture here that we're all in agreement of. And one of the places we confirm and spread and define that culture is that sales meeting. And so sales meeting, you don't miss. We have a staff meeting here monthly, I mean, weekly and every week, and a devotional, and it's mandatory. You cannot miss them. You cannot be sitting at your desk. You don't book a dentist appointment over that. You're here, period.

[Connor]

Right. And so treat them like they were, you know, regular W2 employees that work here, even though they're not.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. The 1099 is a technicality. 1099 is a technicality. If you want to be on this team, this is what the team looks like. This team does this and this and this and this. We have values that we uphold. Okay. And we have ethics that we uphold. And we have cultural icons that we're all aligned to and in agreement to. And one of those things is internal communication creates a knowledge of each other, and relationships build trust. And organizations move at the speed of trust. A group of agents that know each other, like each other, and trust each other will do more business than a group of renegades running around under the 1099 heading.

[Connor]

Brian, I completely agree with all of that. That makes exact. That makes sense to require them to come.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. And that's how I'm going to tell them that, you know, if you want to be part of this team, this is a winning team, and this is what it looks like. Okay. We're not going to charge you for this. And then make it worth their while when they come in, have something to say, don't waste their time. And, you know, have a great sales trainer stand up in front and give a short lesson, whether it's an internal person or an external person. Write some checks. Hire some outside speakers to come in that are motivational, and that will Lift you. And, you know, you don't have to do that every time, but make it, you know, make it where I want to come because it's a value add to my life if I'm an agent. And then it's not a have to, it's a want to. And yes, it's mandatory. Our staff meetings are downright entertaining.

[Connor]

Right, People, all your staff want to go there.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Connor]

They want to be a part of it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. That's what I'm saying.

[Connor]

That's not why they go. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Then that sets you up for. Okay, here's what we're doing. That's thing one. Thing two is the owners of this real estate company, how on a scale of 1 to 10, how invested are they in you and them together strengthening and building and defining the culture? 10 being they're on fire for it? 1 is they don't give a crap, but they hired you anyway.

[Connor]

Yeah. I would say, intent wise, a 10. I would say in practice like a six or seven. Which is part of the reason that I'm, you know, taking this role is to help.

[Dave Ramsey]

They don't have the bandwidth to do it themselves, but they think it's a great idea, Correct? Exactly. Okay, good. Then what I would do is sit down with them and say, here's three or four things I want to implement. Can you help me by doing this, this, and this? Because basically they've got to, from the top down, give you your Barney Fife badge and bullet to be able to enforce this process.

[Connor]

Right, Exactly. That makes sense.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you don't have to throw your weight around. You want to use persuasion more than you use anything else. But one thing I would do is ask them. And ask the five or 10 people that have been with this company the longest that are agents, what do you think our core values are? Give me three, give me five. What do you think? What are the things that we value here that we could put on the wall? And it's not what we wish we were. It's not what we aspire to be. It's who we, we are. And if we align ourselves to core values, that by definition is culture.

[Connor]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

Then you could say, okay, so like our. One of our core values is we do our work as unto the lord. Okay? Colossians 3, 23. And so we work with a zest as if God is our boss. And another one is we have a no gossip policy. That's one of our core values. If you gossip, if you hand negatives out all over the building, we will warn you once and Then we will fire you. You can bring your negatives in, but you have to hand them up to leadership. We as a culture, do not gossip. If you want to be a we, this is how we perform. Now, that might not be you guys. I'm giving you a couple of mine. I have 14 of them, and they're all over the wall. And we talk about them around here all the time to where we're all sick of them, but we're all aligned. We talk about so much, everybody can spout them back and make fun of me talking about it. That's okay. But we're all aligned. And that, by definition, is culture. So core value, definition, the way you could talk about those and implement them is in by putting them on the wall, by handing out cards with them, stickers for their computers with them. This is who we are. We are. And look up some other companies and what some of their core values are that are published. Pat Lincione does some stuff with Southwest Air, and he's got their three core values nailed down. I don't have them memorized, but that's something to look at. And then just start asking yourself a question. Okay, what can we do to create a culture of relationships, quality relationships internally, where we aren't just a bunch of disconnected joint venture people on 1099? Instead, we're a family that's pulling for each other. That new agent that comes in gets 26 listings and then gets ill. Well, everybody jumps in and helps him or her with those listings. So they don't. So the customers don't get messed over because the guy's ill. They might not make anything, but they take you. They got each other's back. They love each other, that care for each other, and that's gonna be. Your job, is to create that environment. It's gonna take a while because the typical real estate agent is a loose cannon out there hanging on by a thread, and you're gonna reel them back in and make them part of a family. And it can be done. It can be done, and it can be done without destroying their productivity and requiring too much of them. But we need to say who we are, and we need to talk about that. And then we need to stay aligned to it. And then when we're not aligned, we take action on that. And that's your owner that takes action on it, not you. You're the one helping to define and refine and communicate. But the alignment, the requirement of the alignment, or let them go, that's on the owner. They're the ones that have to do that. So very cool stuff. Hey, guys. That puts this episode of the books. Remember, better weary warrior than a quivering critic. This world needs more high quality leaders, so take courage and lead. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thanks for listening to the Entree Leadership Podcast.