My Event Review: Dave Ramsey's One Day Entreleadership

First and foremost allow me to say that it was amazing and awe inspiring to be in an auditorium with some of the producers that make America great. This week I was in Indianapolis, Indiana in attendance at Dave Ramsey’s 1 day “Entreleadership” seminar. This event brought out small business owners and entrepreneurs, the real job creators of this country. The aura of the event was vastly different from the Total Money Makeover Live Event. Entreleadership was focused, intentional and I could feel that the participants in the room helped create an aura that was all about business. For me it was humbling and inspiring to be in a room with so many of the best and brightest in this country.

Although I myself do not own a formal business, there were a ton of great ideas and concepts to focus on when thinking about and building my personal brand that came from this one day seminar. Speakers at the event included the man, the myth, the legend himself Dave Ramsey along with Jon Acuff and Chris LoCurto.

Now the Entreleadership event in itself has a tough act to follow. The Total Money Makeover Live event provides tangible and real world steps to beat debt and build wealth. You can’t exactly translate that into a new forum to provide precise, “How to” steps in building a great company. But given the audience Entreleadership is targeting, I think the event is absolutely worth it.

At the event I was surrounded by producers, the real deal in people who create jobs and stimulate the economy. If they are Dave Ramsey fans then they know that there is neither get rich quick nor short cuts to anywhere worth going. The concepts presented in the one day seminar lead to a ton of internal dialogue and business assessment, almost like a process of connecting the dots to your own unique situation.

Now make no mistake, while the one day Entreleadership event provides a ton of great content, it is also a pitch to do the six day seminar version. Now while my wife would not personally use Ramsey’s company in the six day consulting environment, her family company did walk away with notes that lead to lots of discussion about direction and unity related to the family business. Ultimately, as I sat in on discussion, I believe that a few hinge moments were achieved. Of course Ramsey can’t spoon feed what business decisions will lead to success, but I feel that the material presented is solid in self-assessing your business and when unpacked with your team leads to reflection and discussion needed to get your business to the next level. I highly recommend it!

My Total Money Makeover Live Event: Grand Rapids, Michigan

Up until this past weekend I have only experienced Dave Ramsey through his books, radio show and FPU course. I now can say I have experienced Dave’s energy and straight talk live. I was in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and along with 8,000 of my closest friends got to be apart of Dave’s Total Money Makeover Live Event.

For long time members of the Ramsey Nation there’s not a ton of new material covered. For us it’s kind of like going to a pep rally before the big game. Thankfully the steps to a total money makeover are common sense, hard to do but still common sense. But the energy, the vibe, Dave’s straight talk, it can’t help but pump you up. One of my favorite memories was waiting in line at the concession stand. I waited with my budgeted dollars in hand to buy a pop and a few waters, and as I got closer to the cashier my grin turned into a full blown bright and glowing smile. I saw no one pay with a credit card and the cashiers were starting to run out of coin change. I love being in the Ramsey Nation, seriously people, we need to build and move to our Atlantis ASAP. It seriously was a breath of fresh air being around so many other weird people just like me. Letting my mind wander during the breaks, it was unbelievable knowing that the Ramsey Nation is out there alive and well, and in working the baby steps and handling money God’s way, that in just a short decade or two we are going to change the world. It’s motivating to me to know that my wife and I aren’t the only ones out there working the steps.

For the newbie to Ramsey I can see how the material presented can be intimidating and overwhelming. Essentially Dave covers the material in FPU – his 13 week course- and boils it down to about five hours with two 20 minute breaks. Without much time to catch your breath, Dave blitzes you through the baby steps and in his fun style tells you the smart and biblical ways to handle your money.

My wife also got to meet and grab a photo with one of her favorite authors, Jon Acuff, and even got a copy of his book, “Quitter,” with what I refer to as a truly quality use of entertainment budget! J So whether you are brand spanking new or a long time Ramsey listener I highly recommend attending one of Dave’s live events, so get those travel budgets ready!

Book Review: "Entreleadership" by Dave Ramsey

Dave absolutely knocks the topics in this book right out of the ballpark. Entreleadership is a wonderful piece that touches on: self run businesses, staying motivated, how to deal with people, self-priorities and of course good old fashioned common sense that isn’t so common anymore. Now while on paper I do not own my own business, I like to think that for the duration of my life I am self-employed running Rob Inc., and even from this perspective there is so much to learn and gain from the book.

You definitely do not need formal business training or education to understand the content of this book, but I’ve always thought that formalized training ruins your ability to apply common sense. The intrinsic values and practices that can be implemented in your daily life without question perked me up in my outlook at my career. A big driving point is establishing your own goals, dreams and visions and putting together an action plan to make those things happen. For me this lead to a very uncomfortable but much needed look in the mirror.

Dave spends a good deal of time and indirect mention to being an “employee” versus being a “team member.” Every single example and discreet allusion without question brought to surface that at my places of employment I have been an employee and not a team member. Everything about my professional record shows, reflects and conveys corporation. I mentioned in an earlier post that a goal of mine is to be a valued and motivated team member for a company that I would be pumped up working for day in and day out. Dave Ramsey says J that this happens when a specific set of stars are aligned that creates an unbreakable synergy. A big portion of that is when your personal and the company’s values are in sync.

Am I enthused about the company I work for? Do we share the same values? Is the culture corporate or do they encourage Entreleaders? Would I use the products and services of the company I work for, or better yet, recommend and advise my closest friends and families to use them? These were just a few of the internal thoughts that ran through my mind while reading “Entreleadership.” I should have had these run through my mind decades ago, but like everything else I’ll avoid the pity party and go forward with the new outlook I have. I am already planning where my values are and what types of companies and the products/services they offer will be in sync on some of the most important values to me. See, this is exactly what I love about Ramsey. His ideas are thought provoking and challenge you to take actionable steps that are proven and not theory, to achieve success.

Book Review: "The Total Money Makeover" By: Dave Ramsey

            It is a distinct honor and privilege to provide my book review today. For me, this is the book that changed everything in my life. This gave me the power to stand on my own two feet, live as a responsible adult, and change my life for the better. The information in this book literally transformed my life and it will do no less for you. Dave Ramsey’s “The Total Money Makeover” is the one book that we all should have read and studied during school before we were unleashed into the real world. But thankfully, even for those of us that are already adults and have experienced stupid with 0’s on the end, this book gives the written game plan on how to turn your financial life around for the positive.

            Dave does an absolutely outstanding job in transitioning from real world true life examples, to the x’s and o’s, to dispelling popular money myths. My favorite money myth that gets shattered is the tax advantage of paying interest on your mortgage vs. living debt free. The myth is that it is a good decision to keep your mortgage for the tax deduction. The truth, we are paying $10,000 in interest annually to our lender rather than paying $3,000 to the government and keeping $7,000 for ourselves. The book is filled with gems like this one that will turn your views on credit completely upside down and rock your world.           

            Now I have probably read this book close to 50 times over the last two and a half years, but every time it puts a smile on my face and reassures me of the path that I am heading down and choosing for myself. Of course the memories of reading it for the first time are still very vivid in my mind. About ¾ of the book beginning from the front cover, challenged me and presented such a plethora of information that conflicted with how I thought smart personal finance worked that I had to re-read a lot of sections over and over again. The information is presented clearly and concisely, I just needed to get my brain on the same wavelength. The layout of the book, that ¼ of it covers the baby steps, really drives home the point that smart personal financial decisions are 80% behavior and 20% head knowledge. The KISS method also fits the bill (keep it simple…STUPID!!). So to the financial goobers who bemoan that Dave’s method is way too simple I’ll say this: I got out of debt, live on a budget and keep my investing style extremely simple and I LOVE IT! To everyone else, if you read one book in 20 years, let this be the one, it will rock your world!

Dave Ramsey

There are several descriptions that fit the bill: guru, sensei, sage, counselor…I simply call him Dave Ramsey. Dave’s overall finance philosophy is my bread, butter, main course and dessert when it comes to personal finance and in a way my general outlook on life. If you want to understand me, then you have to understand Dave’s philosophies and teachings.

In a cliff notes kind of way I’ll try to summarize: Dave teaches that simple, slow and steady planning wins the race. Through a seven baby step process, I learned to budget my life together and tell my money where to go rather than wonder where it went. The baby steps are:

I.                   Save $1,000 baby emergency fund

II.                Pay off all debt with the debt snowball

III.             Save 3-6 months of expenses in a fully funded emergency fund

IV.             Save 15% of pre-tax income to retirement

V.                Save for kids’ college

VI.             Pay off mortgage

VII.          Build wealth, give, have fun

Through Dave’s plan I have learned to hate all forms of debt, pay myself first and live below my means. As a couple, my wife and I have cut our living expenses down to $1,681.41 per month, or $20,176.92 per year. We save and allocate the rest, period. This is a difference that we consciously choose to use for ourselves every year instead of paying payments and interest to: banks, auto dealers, furniture stores, credit card companies, sallie mae, etc, etc, etc, etc…

Did this lifestyle encourage me to live like a hermit…ABSOLUTELY!! But thanks to my wife, the free-spirit, we’ve become crafty and rather sly at re-learning how to enjoy and have an active social life. I already can’t wait to get into detail about every aspect of this, but I’ll do my best to stick to a general overview for now.

Dave’s message is simple: live below your means and pay yourself first. I have learned that wealth is not built with get rich quick schemes, day trading or even having an exorbitant income. It is built with steady and small steps that incrementally change the way you look at your own life and money.

For me growing up in Southern California I had a sense of entitlement that limited where I could see myself in life. My parents sent me to mediocre private schools, essentially paying (extra on top of taxes) for public school education. I “was destined” to go to college, get a great paying job and never go wanting. Well I came out with 20 grand in debt, unable to “find” a job and scared. I dreamed of marrying my college sweetheart and buying a home together, but after crunching numbers wondered where I was going to get $400,000 from. “Job hunting” for that perfect white collar job left me feeling hopeless, desperate, depressed and worthless. This diploma I was “entitled” to, what was supposed to be my ticket to success, seemed to never have a boarding call.

Somewhere in the flurry of online resumes being sent out I was recruited to work as a temporary employee through a firm that provided temps for what is now my current employer. I hit and hustled from the first day I stepped foot in the building, and after a month was offered full-time employment.

A year of working had passed and I went from near-suicidal to feeling like a hamster on a wheel. I worked hard, put in serious overtime, but still only had student loans and a pathetic bank account to show for it (less than $1,000). I revisited again the numbers I would need to marry my girlfriend and buy a home together, and I was nowhere close to it. It was this frustration being revisited that helped my mind to be open to any and all possibilities that could help me reach my goals. Thankfully, I didn’t open a newspaper or click a get rich quick link, because believe me, I may have done it. But instead that year for Christmas, my girlfriend’s (FYI the woman now my wifeJ) parents bought me a copy of one of Dave Ramsey’s books, “The Total Money Makeover” and man did I read that thing. I think in the span of three months I read it about 20 times and knew it cover to cover. The next thing I knew I listed the baby steps on my fridge along with all of my outstanding debts and started attacking with a sharpie, in a timely manner that is.

Looking back on it, it had all happened so fast. I had my $1,000 emergency fund, then I had paid off all of my credit cards and student loans, sliced and diced my credit cards never to be re-opened again, and in a split second had 6 months worth of expenses sitting in the bank and had the freedom to invest 15% of my income for retirement. I know all of this happened within a period of less than a year, but I was so focused, so intense like a gazelle J, that all I did was eat, sleep and dream of financial security. And man, even now looking back, it brings a smile on my face to know where I was, where I am and where I am going.

We did get married (more on that in a future post) and are still working hard for our goals. Only this time we have our marks set and a solid plan of action to get there. And this time if my world is flipped upside down, I will not have the sense of entitlement that held me back like before. As long as I am breathing, I will always be working, earning and striving to live like no one else, so that I can live like no one else.