Dave Ramsey's Fearless Journey
Our group trip to Nashville visited the HQ of the radio icon who had to face down his own failures before leading others to move past theirs.
Last week, Fearless Journeys brought one of our group trips to Nashville. We had a lot of fun and I’ll share even more about it later. During our visit, we took a ride 25 minutes south of Nashville to Franklin, Tennessee to visit the headquarters or Ramsey Solutions, the company founded and led by Dave Ramsey.
Most of us know Dave Ramsey. He’s a household name and a popular voice on radio, currently broadcasting on over 600 stations across the country. His show can also be viewed on YouTube and found on all your favorite podcast apps.
But that’s just the tip of his media empire. He has a full publishing company, authoring many books and publishing many more authors. He also hosts high-level conferences all over the country with some of the biggest names as guest speakers — including Malcolm Gladwell and Jordan Peterson.
His organization also has a coaching program, that thousands of small business owners take part in each year.
When we arrived to his headquarters last Thursday, we were mesmerized.
Ramsey Solutions has two large office buildings, each about 6 or 7 stories each. How many people work here? 1100!!
Ramsey Solutions does so much more than you think. It’s not just a radio show. Then we learned that the entire headquarters was paid for in cash.
Why? Because “debt is dumb,” says Dave.
Some people take issue with this. Some go into debt to make money. We can quibble here around the edges. But there’s one big reason Dave Ramsey preaches so much against debt. After becoming a promoter of how to grow one’s own financial wealth, Dave Ramsey found himself in millions of dollars in debt. He had to file bankruptcy.
We learned this story because Dave does not shy away from it. There is an entire wing of his building that shows you his story. I am grateful my friend Carolyn Ohme, who works for Ramsey Solutions, welcomed the Fearless Journeys group here and showed us around.
Almost anyone can show up at Ramsey Solutions and sit in on a segment of his live radio show, on any week day. You might even get a chance to meet Dave or one of his other guest hosts. We did that here — meeting his daughter Rachel Cruze as well as another radio financial expert, Dr. John Delony. They were his guest hosts on the day we were there.
However, very few can get the kind of treatment we received. It always pays to have a connection and it seems the Fearless Journeys community has so many. We are leveraging our connections to give our members experiences of a lifetime.
While the Ramsey Solutions headquarters and its entire operation is so big, Carolyn started our tour by reminding us that Dave Ramsey started with humble beginnings. We took the photo below next to a remake of a trunk of a car. This symbolizes how Dave sold his first self-published book out of the trunk of his car in the 1980s.
On the wall behind us, is a picture of his actual car at that time — a 1985 Lincoln Mark VII. Remember, there was no Amazon Books to get your book out then. And I imagine much fewer self-publishing companies. There’s also a picture (below) of 12-year old Dave mowing lawns. In “his first business” he mowed 27 yards in his neighborhood.
But just because you have built a work ethic as one of your formative life experience, does not mean you won’t make mistakes. He said the wealth he accumulated was nothing more than a house of cards.
The Ramseys declared bankruptcy on September 23, 1988 and his bankruptcy petition is hanging on the wall at Ramsey Solutions.
While I don’t love the fact he went into bankruptcy, I do I love the fact that this very successful man has framed perhaps his greatest failure on the wall for all to see.
I imagine that during the time he filed it, he would have never imagined ever having it framed on the wall. Dave must have felt dejected. He must have felt embarrassed. He must have felt done.
He must have felt fear and all the anxieties about the future.
We all go through something challenging. We all have to face fears. No one is without fear. But as part of each of our Fearless Journeys, we must face down fear. We must keep moving forward despite the fear.
We learn through failure. We also learn through faith.
Dave said he “had met God on the way up, but I absolutely got to know Him on the way down.”
The next part of the story of Dave Ramsey is in 1991, when he started the Lampo Group to counsel people who were hurting from financial stress. Who could know better than someone who went through it himself? While the name sounded fancy, he started this venture on a card table in his living room. Part of the message here from Dave is to never give up. “Hope is still real.”
The rest is history. He went on to start Financial Peace University (FPU), a program that millions of Americans have taken part in. He released FPU on VHS, finding multiple avenues to get out his message. In 1999, he started the Dave Ramsey radio show. A decade later, he was a featured guest on Oprah and 60 Minutes, becoming even more of a household name.
In 2011, Dave released the book EntreLeadership. This was in response to the many things he learned about running a business. He continuously saw people fail at business or have internal problems in their companies. That book led to a full coaching program.
During our visit, we spent about a half hour with Nathan Janson, who is part of the EntreLeadership program at Ramsey Solutions. He talked to us how this program helps thousands of small business owners each year, who come to their conferences, engage in their online coaching programs, and really learn how to be both entrepreneurial and a leader, and how to instill those mindsets within their companies. He gave us all opportunities to engage with him in the questions we each have about our own business interests.
He emphasized the importance of doing the hard stuff and making sacrifices early in one’s journey will payoff later. If you don’t make those sacrifices now, you’ll be struggling for a long time, he said.
Prior to our visit, Carolyn had sent me an agenda for the day and I noticed that she had us scheduled to meet in the “Journey” conference room at Ramsey HQ. I texted her back: “Is there really a conference room named ‘Journey’ at Ramsey Solutions?”
She said yes. I should mention her dog’s name is also Journey — however that might be named after a certain band. She did tell me her dog is pretty fearless though.
When we arrived to the conference room near the end of our afternoon at Ramsey Solutions, we noticed the staff there had used magic marker on the glass wall of the room to rename it to “Fearless Journeys.” We all got a kick out of that, but it also showed me how intentional everyone in this company is about everything they do.
It also reminds me why we named this community Fearless Journeys. Every single one of us is on a journey — Dave Ramsey and his entire team understand that well. The concept of a journey is instilled in their company’s culture and in everything they do in advising those struggling to pay off debt or taking the next steps in their company’s growth.
We are each at different points along our journey at any given time. And that journey is not a straight line. It has downs before it has ups and it even has ups before it has downs again. No matter where you are on your journey, keep moving forward.
For millions of Americans who struggle with their finances and who have relied on a radio host to help inspire and encourage them and give them a map to help them chart their course, we can all be thankful that Dave Ramsey never gave into fear.
He pushed past it and kept moving forward. He is an example of a great American who can inspire each of us on our own Fearless Journeys. As we left Ramsey Solutions, I told Nathan and Carolyn they were welcome to keep the conference room named “Fearless Journeys.” After all, there’s few people who have completely earned that title. Dave Ramsey and his incredible team have.
If you would like to engage with one of his EntreLeadership coaches, we are very fortunate to be bringing one of them on our next Fearless Journeys live session on Thursday, November 10 at 4:00 PM ET.
Mike Howertown will lead us through a discussion of the business concepts that Dave Ramsey outlines in his monumental book, EntreLeadership. This is the book that members of the Fearless Journeys community have been reading during September and October.
If you are not yet a member of our community, please use this upcoming session as a trial opportunity to join us. I’d love you to be part of our live session with Mike Howerton on November 10. If you are interested, please reply to this email as soon as you can so we can make space for you to join us. And if you’re already a member, this is a can’t miss session! I hope to see you then.