Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 61: How to Build a Trusted Brand - Tim Newton, Ramsey Solutions
144 Plays5 years ago
Today we are chatting with Tim Newton, Senior Creative Officer of Ramsey Solutions. In this episode, Tim shares how Ramsey Solutions have built trusted brands for over 25 years. We chat about the importance of messaging in marketing, challenges Ramsey Solutions faces when it comes to marketing and the way that they create unity among a large arsenal of brands and products.
Ramsey Solutions personally helped Krista and myself to pay off more than $90k in consumer debt and we can honestly say that if it weren't for Ramsey, this business wouldn't be what it is today.
Recommended
Transcript
Selling Hope and Success Through Guidance
00:00:05
Speaker
That's what the people need that we're talking to. They are in so many struggles. And so we gotta sell hope. So the redemptive side of if you do everything that we say to do, you will become debt free. You will retire a millionaire. You will have a great marriage. You will have all this. That is a vision of success. And we need to be communicating that all the time because the people we're talking to, when it comes down to it, they just want some hope.
Introduction to Podcast and Guest
00:00:29
Speaker
Welcome to the Brands at Book Show, where we help creative, service-based businesses build their brands and find more clients. I'm your host, Davy Jones. Today is a special episode. I have Tim Newton, the senior creative officer from Ramsey Solutions, joining me on the podcast to discuss how they've been able to build a trusted brand for over 25 years.
Impact of Dave Ramsey's Teachings
00:00:51
Speaker
The reason this is a special episode is because Chris and I have used what we've learned from Dave Ramsey
00:00:56
Speaker
to pay off nearly $100,000 in debt, and that has been truly life-changing for us. It's awesome to find out that the companies you respect and look up to actually practice what they preach.
Building Brands with a Human-Centric Approach
00:01:07
Speaker
Something you'll notice in this episode is how excited Tim is to share about the work they're doing at Ramsey Solutions.
00:01:13
Speaker
We dive into how Ramsey Solutions goes about building their many different brands and personalities. I especially appreciated how human centric their approach is, even when building brands that don't have a face associated with it. If you're looking at the title, this might not seem like a super practical episode, but if you listen, I can almost guarantee you'll walk away with some insight that you can apply to your business and maybe your
Engaging the Audience
00:01:35
Speaker
life. Before we get to the episode, I have a request.
00:01:37
Speaker
If you've enjoyed the Brands at Book podcast, would you take a minute to rate and review the podcast on iTunes? Doing so will help this podcast get more visibility and it would mean a lot to me. Be sure to check out the show notes at DavianCrista.com for the resources we mentioned during the episode. And like I said, I want to hear from you. So feel free to reach out on any of our channels, whether it be email, Facebook, Instagram, or the blog to let us know what you want to hear more of. Now onto the episode.
00:02:09
Speaker
All right.
Career Growth at Ramsey Solutions
00:02:10
Speaker
Well, welcome back for another episode of the brands that book show. I'm really excited about this episode because we have a Tim Newton. He is now the senior creative officer for Ramsey solutions. And if Ramsey solution sounds familiar to you, it might be because you're familiar with something like
00:02:25
Speaker
DaveRamsay.com, or Financial Peace University, or Every Dollar, or one of a ton of other brands. And so this is a really exciting episode on a number of levels. One, because, and Tim, I was sharing this a little bit with you before the episode started, but Chris and I have used Dave's method to pay off almost $100,000 in debt, most of that being student loan. So that's made a huge impact on our life.
00:02:50
Speaker
Yeah, I love it. I love hearing and I love it. Well, I'm excited to have you on the show. Yeah, good. I'm excited to be here. I'm pumped. You manage pretty much all of the brands across Ramsey solutions. And as I got to know, Ramsey solutions a little bit more, there are a ton of brands to manage.
00:03:07
Speaker
Yeah, well, I don't manage all the brands. As a senior creative officer, I'm overseeing all the brands, but I do have a part of the business that I'm responsible for, which is most of the money stuff. We have business outside of money, but most of the money stuff is the stuff that I'm building those brands, but I'm overseeing all the brands within the company, just making sure that everything is aligned. We have a group of us that keeps an eye on all that.
00:03:30
Speaker
Okay, awesome. It's funny because between the time that we initially got connected and this interview, you went from being the executive creative director to now the senior creative officer. I want to talk a little bit about that as well and the environment over at Ramsey Solutions because again,
00:03:49
Speaker
And I think Ramsey Solutions has been so impactful on Kristin and I on so many different levels from personal finance to even how we run our own business. But first, I want to hear a little bit more about you and what got you or what drew you to Ramsey Solutions. I know that before you went to work for Ramsey Solutions, you actually had your own agency as well. So tell us a little bit about your beginnings.
00:04:09
Speaker
Yeah, I did for a little bit. You know, I grew up in Texas. I grew up down in Houston. And it's funny. I was telling someone the other day, they're asking about how I even got into design. And I said, you know what it was? Was that movie What Women Want? You remember that movie? No, I don't.
00:04:24
Speaker
with Matt Gibson and he can read the minds of ladies and all that. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But there was a guy in the background who drew sketches of ads and I was like, I want to draw sketches of ads. I can do that. But I was telling someone about that the other day because I was like, wow, that was a long time ago. But you know, I started working in Houston and I became a creative director for an agency down there. Something inside me just said, Tim, you got to get out of this thing. And I was like, all right.
00:04:50
Speaker
So I said, yeah, I'll start my own business. And if I don't make this much money by this date, I'm gonna have to go find a job, like go get a job somewhere.
00:04:59
Speaker
and that time came and that money was not there. So I said, all right, got to get a job. But I had been listening, I was a painter in Houston, I'd been listening to the Dave Ramsey show. I'd become a huge fan just by listening. So through that, I started looking around and I looked in Nashville because I was ready to leave Houston and I saw that Dave Ramsey wanted a graphic designer and I was like, I can do that and I love that stuff, the money stuff that's being taught.
00:05:26
Speaker
So that's how I got over here. Yeah, and that's, I mean, you know, just, um, we've read, I think it's entree leadership. Yeah. And so we know that the interview process, even just to get in at Ramsey solutions is pretty intense. It's extensive. Yeah. I mean, was that intimidating going into that? Did you know a little bit about the interview process before you actually got there? Actually, I didn't know about the interview process, but when I started going through it, I was like, wow, this is a lot, a
Maintaining Company Culture
00:05:54
Speaker
lot to go.
00:05:54
Speaker
And now that i do a lot of interviews like i see it and the whole reason we do this because our culture is so important to us and we have to make sure that every step we're maintaining the culture that we have and so.
00:06:07
Speaker
It's a huge part of what we do, but it is so important that we keep the culture, but that's why we go so in depth on the interviews. Yeah, and that makes sense. And one observation that I was talking with you before we got on this call was about how over the course of what, 10 plus years now that you've been working for Ramsey Solutions, you've held a number of different roles.
00:06:28
Speaker
Yeah, I only have a very little experience working. I mean, I was a teacher before, you know, working with my wife on our own businesses. But in between, I worked for a tech company for a little bit. But my general observation was if you wanted any sort of vertical movement within the company or in your career, you really were going to apply to another company to get that.
00:06:47
Speaker
you know, even the company I was working for at the time, they had recruiters, their whole job was to go and get the best talent from other companies. So it's really hard to move up within the company. But it looks like Ramsey Solutions does things a little bit differently. Would you say that there's more opportunity to move up vertically within Ramsey Solutions than maybe other companies out there today? I'd say so. Like when I got here, one of the things I was most surprised by
00:07:10
Speaker
was how much we pour in the people of leadership principles like my goal is to train up my replacement that i'm planning to leave like i'm here for the launch of the long time but my goal is to train up my replacement to train up leaders and so we do internal training constantly we've been doing something you talk about your leadership that brand.
00:07:31
Speaker
every other week we do something called entre university which is teaching the whole company leadership principles because we want to train up more leaders and so when i started there was about 225 people and now we're almost at 900 within that 10-year period and so we we keep growing because there's a lot of things to attack in the money industry
00:07:51
Speaker
And so we keep going and we keep getting bigger and bigger so the opportunities keep showing up. And so like we're hiring all the time because we have so much work to do like what we're doing. It has so much of an impact on the country and there's just a lot of work to do. And so yeah we keep growing those.
00:08:07
Speaker
opportunities keep showing up. It's been helpful for me, but also being poured into all those years of leadership principles, things like that has helped a ton. Yeah. And that's incredible here because you hear certain things about the culture of companies, but you only have a limited perspective on whether those things are actually the case. And it's really cool to see or to hear that the things that we read and hear about Ramsey Solutions actually are true.
00:08:32
Speaker
And I would say that it's also true that there is no shortage of work for you all. I can't tell you the number of friends of ours who have been impacted in such a positive way by Ramsey solutions and the work that you all are doing. And it was actually a friend of ours who told us about Dave Ramsey to begin with and got us, you know, I guess it's a total money makeover is kind of the entry level book, you know, or at least that's what we started with to pay off all the debt and put together. Yeah, just a solid financial plan.
00:09:00
Speaker
I love you, man. I really do. I really love hearing that. Well, just the ripple effect too, like you're talking about your friends, the ripple effect of when this information reaches our hearts and impacts our lives and the ripple effect that people have from that to serve other people with this information, I just love it. I love it. So that story is so great. Love hearing it from you, man. Yeah. Well, it totally makes sense how much you're growing because I'm sure, again, it's just such a, it's done so much positive work for so many people's lives.
00:09:25
Speaker
I do want to start talking about some of the brands. There are a few brands that seem to be more closely tied to Dave, such as DaveRamsay.com or the Dave Ramsey brand, so to speak, Financial Peace University, and EveryDollar. There's all sorts of other personalities as well. Just by doing a quick Google search for your name, I told you beforehand I was doing a little bit of stocking before this interview just to prep, but a lot of the PDFs that came up, for instance, I saw your name and maybe it was the cover design or the interior design of that PDF.
00:09:55
Speaker
I know that you had a hand in helping build the brands of a lot of the other personalities within Ramsey Solutions. I'd be interested in hearing what the creative process looks like when building a new brand within Ramsey Solutions and kind of how you balance multiple personalities and brands within the umbrella of Ramsey Solutions.
Brand Consistency vs. Individual Personality
00:10:16
Speaker
Yeah, it's a really good question because we're really intentional about that.
00:10:20
Speaker
we understand here that it's because we have so many different brands we need to be able to transfer trust from brand to brand and so if there aren't similarities from brand to brand then that trust is gonna be transferred as easily and so we understand this but we also know that each brand needs to have its own personality at the same time so the point that you're calling out of balancing those two things it's an interesting thing to balance out so we've wrestled that over the years
00:10:45
Speaker
And we kind of have an 80 20 rule when it comes to brands within our money atmosphere, then we say, well, 80% of the brand needs to be the same. Like they all need to be consistent with each other, but that 20%, we need to find what are those differences and what is that personality? And I kind of look at it like a family. When a new baby is born into a family, that baby is going to have the same last name, probably the same kind of accents, speak the same language, have the same kind of facial features and all that.
00:11:12
Speaker
but he is going to have his own personality and he is going to have one way of thinking and all that kind of stuff. And so it's kind of like that. We need to understand what are the similarities, but then what's that 20% difference? And then when we have brands that are outside of our money atmosphere, like you mentioned, entree leadership and our personalities, you know, sometimes they're outside of the money atmosphere, then there's more of a 60 40 relationship.
00:11:33
Speaker
Because we still want that familiarity of the 60%. But there's more like a 40% difference we want to make sure we have because it's a completely different industry and a completely different mindset for the audience. So that needs to be a little wider. But that's how we think through it. And that's how we kind of balance it. Does that make sense?
00:11:48
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think the family illustration is super helpful in thinking through that. I'm interested in hearing too, if there is a way that you all come up with these other personalities. Obviously, you're not like the people that you have come in for these brands have their own personalities as well, so I'm sure there's that double movement there. But at the same time, do you all go and decide like,
00:12:10
Speaker
We need somebody who's really going to speak to the retirement piece of the puzzle and kind of go and search for a brand or a personality to kind of fill that gap. Is there any sort of method to that madness? Well, yeah, there kind of is. We said a long time ago that Ramsey as a whole, the company, it's not just going to be about money. That's where we've built a lot of the businesses. But long term, we also want to reach other parts of people's lives because, as you know, money affects
00:12:40
Speaker
It affects your life. You know, if your, if your money is going really well, we've seen a good connection of marriages tend to go well because the biggest money fights and money problems or biggest fights come from money problems, you know? And so there's a lot of these things that are connected. And so we have this wheel of life that we call it where we want to be speaking into money and marriage and parenting and personal development and businesses and careers leadership, you know, all that kind of stuff. And so we, uh,
00:13:06
Speaker
We've been branching out more and more like entree leadership has gotten into that, that leadership spoke, we call it. And then we have Ken Coleman, one of our personalities, he started here like maybe five years ago or something. And, and he has such a great mind for how careers, how to think through your career and all this. And so he's starting to lead the way in that career spoke, you know, and.
00:13:27
Speaker
We have Chris Hogan who speaks on retirement a lot, you know, and how to become a millionaire, you know, with our principles and all that. So we know that we want to be talking about these areas. And so we are looking around the country and looking at what personalities are out there that are speaking about these topics the way that we want to speak about the topics. Because as you know, our topics are biblically based. And so like we need to make sure that that level of truth is in how they're speaking about it and all that.
00:13:54
Speaker
And so we're looking around, but a lot of our personalities have grown from internal, like Chris Hogan. He's worked here a long time. Mitchell Cruz, who's Dave's daughter. She's worked here for a long time and she's ended up being a great person on stage and on video. And so yeah, we're now ahead of time. We want to speak into these folks and so we're
00:14:11
Speaker
usually look for that picture that they can deliver and say the kinds of things that are really going to reach people's hearts and change their lives. Yeah, and I can't emphasize enough how much I respect the fact that you all look internally for, I don't know, for people to kind of lead the way in different aspects of business. And that's been just such an example, I think, for Chris and I, as we try to build our own business, and we try to lead a team as well. And so for anybody out there who's looking for
00:14:36
Speaker
topics or resources on leadership. I mean, entrepreneurship is a great place to start. It sounds like there's so many different aspects to Ramsey Solutions that I'm hearing about for the first time, which is fun because Krista, my wife, she listens to the podcast pretty much every day. And she can almost guess what Dave's going to say. Are there areas in this, you call it the wheel of life, right? Yeah. Is this something public facing that we can look at or? I actually don't know if it's public. I haven't seen it public facing. That's just
00:15:04
Speaker
Short internal yeah what you all use are there certain areas that are on the wheel of life that you all really haven't tapped into yet. That's kind of on that you know road map so to speak well we've tapped into all of my guests but the ones where we're really into i guess is like the personal development stuff sure we have personality and christie right.
00:15:23
Speaker
And she speaks a lot on personal development and is great on that topic. She's a really great speaker on this. And she speaks from the heart and really connects emotionally with people. And so we're digging into that more. And the parenting, we do some talks on parenting. We have a guy named Anthony O'Neill, who speaks a lot to the kids. And so then we have events that speak in parenting a little more, too, where we have a couple people come in. But Anthony speaks about the kids. And we have guests like Meg Meeker, who's great parenting.
00:15:53
Speaker
person comes and speaks. So yeah, I was I'm gonna have to look into the parenting stuff. We have a 15 month old who has just started throwing some serious tantrums. We've moved into that that phase. So if you all can do for our life what you did, you know, in the money realm in the in the parenting realm, you know, that would be incredible.
00:16:14
Speaker
One thing I want to talk about also is just there's so many financial gurus out there. There's no shortage of people in the financial space. A lot of them promise kind of get rich quick schemes. Certainly not, hey, sit down, buy as much ramen as you can and save some money and pay off your debt, right?
00:16:35
Speaker
I'm really interested in hearing how Ramsey Solutions has been able to build so much trust in the industry. In an industry that's typically plagued with people who are just trying to get rich themselves and aren't necessarily preaching stuff that is financially sound advice for the general public to be taking.
00:16:57
Speaker
Maybe you could speak to how you all do this on the brand level. How on a brand level do you all build trust for Ramsey Solutions?
Trust and Empathy in Branding
00:17:04
Speaker
It's a really good question. You're right. The stuff we talk about is common sense. It's not like new information. Dave always says it's God and Grandma's way of doing money. It's been around for a long time. To get rid of quick stuff, that is all just scheme and everything. It's not reality.
00:17:22
Speaker
The way that I think we have been effective in building a brand that is going against that toxic money culture is by being a brand that is human. That is what it comes down to for the most part, is making your brand as human as possible. If you think about a relationship with a friend, what do we like about humans? We like when they're vulnerable, we like when they're empathetic, when they're giving, when they're serving, when they have great stories. We like these about humans.
00:17:49
Speaker
And so we're always doing that. Like here, Dave on the radio, he always tells his story about going bankrupt and losing millions of dollars, but then tells how he got out of it. And so that makes our audience trust that they know we have felt the pain that they have felt before. And when we're always telling those stories and in our products, we're telling those stories, even us on the team, we have felt pain that the audience feels.
00:18:12
Speaker
And we know if we're doing that, we can connect with them on an emotional level, and they can trust us from that. And if we're, like we have this saying around work, that if we help enough people, we don't have to worry about money. It's core to what we believe. Like Dave always says, if we're helping people, they're gonna applaud us with pieces of paper with presents face on it. That's how they're gonna applaud us. But we have to just be genuinely serving and helping people. If we're doing that, we don't have to worry about money. And I think that a lot of those money
00:18:40
Speaker
companies and industries out there think it is money first. They try to sell. It's about the human first, but it's really not. Most of those companies are making money when people are in debt, and that is totally against what we're about. We build our brands around being human, just being as human as possible, telling great stories, reaching the heart of people, and we make sure with all of our touch points
00:19:02
Speaker
in our brands and with all the design, it's a reflection of those core beliefs. Would that be why for each aspect of your business there really is a person behind it or a face behind it? Because it would be easy enough too for Ramsey Solutions. You have Dave Ramsey and then maybe you have brands that are built more around the programs or the books rather than around some of the personalities. To me, when I think Chris Hogan, I think retirement.
00:19:29
Speaker
Would that be why there's that strategy of building personal brands around some of these elements like retirement? Yeah, it's definitely part of the strategy. That's why whenever we're looking at personalities, we want to make sure that their backstory really does help to tell the story of how it's going to help other people. The only way that it's going to work is if they have pain in their background of what other people feel.
00:19:55
Speaker
Cuz the other that our audience needs to know that we have felt that and we have found a way out like there's an on and Miller talks about that how we need to show empathy and authority so that people can trust us. It's really easy to trust a human a person when they're telling their personal story and so what we always try to do with our products is make sure that our products are doing that same thing.
00:20:15
Speaker
where we're telling stories on the front end and capturing people that way because there's that element to it. It's definitely part of the strategy and then we have to be thoughtful in how we're mimicking that with our products. We have a saying around here too, what would a helpful human do? When we're thinking about products, we think,
00:20:33
Speaker
If we want to solve this problem, what would a helpful human do? Oh, a helpful human would do this. So how do we mix that digitally in this product? You know what I'm saying? That's incredible. I just think that's an incredible framework in which to approach a product, which isn't human, right? And then maintain that human aspect of your business.
00:20:52
Speaker
So that's really interesting that you do that you take that approach I assume even with things like Financial Peace University or every dollar things that again don't necessarily have a face maybe other than Dave's associated with it. You had mentioned Donald Miller, which I believe Donald Miller is down by you guys. I think I maybe even I knew Donald Miller before he was story brand, you know, like I read his you know, blue like
00:21:14
Speaker
jazz. I remember that, you know. And so now he's moved off into the marketing world and done some incredible things there as well. Do you all use kind of that framework of story brand in your marketing at? Yeah, we definitely do. Yeah, we definitely do because we've known for a long time that we need to be human. But once started listening to Donald Miller, and he had that framework, then like a lot of the a lot of the dots made sense of how to
00:21:41
Speaker
to do a lot of that with our communication. And what's fascinating about the whole thing is, like Dave, for years, he's kind of done those things just intuitively. Because I think, you know, Dave is a storyteller. Overall, like he is a great storyteller. And so he's done those things intuitively. So when I see the framework of story brand, I'm like, wow, we've
00:22:02
Speaker
been doing that just on an intuitive level. And so it really helps us to be intentional with how to do communication in other areas, because it gives the framework. But yeah, it's really good stuff. So for those of you who are listening that aren't familiar with what we're talking about, Donald Miller has written a great book, and I forget the full title of it. But if you just go into Amazon, you type in Donald Miller story brand, it will certainly appear. We have sent this book to a few people, especially since, you know, one of the things or the thing that we primarily do is brand and website design. And we just think that
00:22:30
Speaker
those elements of Storybrand are so applicable to building a brand and website. And I can't tell you how many of our clients have written back to us and said, this has become my new favorite book. So I know that the principles in it are just so powerful. What are some other ways that you use those principles in products like Every Dollar and Financial Peace University? We just make sure that those elements show up. Like I was talking before about empathy and authority and all that kind of stuff. But in
00:22:59
Speaker
In Storybrand, it talks about the once, knowing the deep down want of the audience and what are the problems that's stopping them from getting that thing and all that. We try to make sure that we understand all that with every product so that we can address those things and how we're doing our marketing and how we're telling our stories and all that. Donald says, just play those pieces like a drum or like a drum set where you don't have to play all of them at the same time, but you can use a cymbal here and a snare here and then a bass on this thing with the tom and all that.
00:23:28
Speaker
And so we just try to do that, take the elements of it and use it bits and pieces on all of our marketing and our communication. Yeah, one other thing that I keep on hearing you say, especially in regards to kind of the human story, is the pain that you make sure that people understand that you all really make sure that people understand that you can empathize with them, that you understand the pain and the kind of the struggles that they're going through, that you've kind of, to a certain extent, you all as a company have been there before.
00:23:55
Speaker
But there's also this element of redemption as well. That's not where you end, right? You tell people, hey, but we've gotten out of that and this is how. Do you feel like that's true?
Vision of Success and Hope
00:24:08
Speaker
Is that part of that story brand aspect of marketing? The redemptive part of it? Yes, that's right. Yeah. Well, you know with us, if you've listened to Dave Ramsey's show, we have our debt-free screams and all that. It's a huge thing. It's like this big finish line and this huge celebration, right?
00:24:23
Speaker
When we do these debt-free screams, it's giving our audience what a vision of success looks like. It's a big part of it. When we're talking to them in the beginning, we need to... I talk to my teams and I say, I don't want to just always show people who are sad and struggling and all that. I want to show people what's possible in their lives, not where they are today. I want to show them what's possible in their lives and that vision of success because what we're selling at Random Solutions, what we're selling overall is hope.
00:24:51
Speaker
That's what the people need that we're talking to like they're in so many struggles and so we got to sell hope and so the Redemptive side of if you do everything that we that we say to do you will become debt-free You will retire a millionaire. You will have a great marriage. You will have all this, you know That is a vision of success and we need to be communicating that all the time because the people we're talking to When it comes down to it, they just want some hope like they feel hopeless with debt and all this they feel hopeless and
00:25:16
Speaker
And so we need to be showing them that hope and showing them that business success and that they can do it. They can really do it. So that's a big part of what we're talking about all the time. And I know it was if for us, I think, you know, it's not necessarily that even we felt the pain of debt. You know, I think what what that vision of hope did for us was kind of illuminate that, you know, the way that we were living, it was not the best way that we could be living, you know, because
00:25:41
Speaker
We just kind of accepted that lie that, oh, you know, student debt is quote, good debt, you know, normal. Yeah, it's normal. Everybody has it. This is just a fact of life. And we'll just be paying this off for the next, you know, I don't even know how many years I want to say that there's a chance that if we had just been paying by the payment plan that we might still be paying that off. And then hearing kind of this, this other way.
00:26:07
Speaker
kind of made us realize, oh, wow, you know, like, no, this isn't right. This isn't how we should be spending money, or this isn't how we should be approaching money. And I can't again, I can't emphasize enough how happy I am that we came across Dave Ramsey's book and had encouragement from friends to read Total Money Makeover and go through the baby steps, because it really is a better way. So I do think that message of hope is so important, even for people who don't realize the pain. Yeah, yeah, it is. And you're totally right. So many people are just in this treadmill.
00:26:37
Speaker
where they have their car payments and their student loan payments and all that stuff. And we're told our whole lives that it's normal and you have to have a car payment and all that. But gosh, man, it's not true. Imagine if all that money was going towards retirement or going towards savings and all that. It's totally possible, man. So yeah, absolutely. We've been told. Yeah, it's.
00:26:56
Speaker
so we're trying to break everybody from that and it really is a debt snowball in that it's you know i mean we paid off all of that debt in a matter of a few years and um i mean it really it really does work one one other thing i want to talk about in kind of in light of that point i'd mentioned that my wife christa uh and and i have to give her a lot of credit she is the one that really i think as a family gives us the discipline to uh to complete something like uh total money makeover um she listens to
00:27:25
Speaker
Yeah, she listens to Dave's podcast, pretty much every day, so much so that she, you know, she can pretty much guess the advice, you know, so for listening to on the car ride, she's going to be like, Oh, Dave's gonna say, you know, this, I think it's just so funny. But one thing, as I think it through the questions that I want to ask you was that, to a certain extent, and we mentioned this earlier in the episode, it's not like, like you said, it's the way God and Grandma does finance, right? It's not, I guess, for lack of a better way to put it like this sexy, here's how you're going to be a millionaire advice. Yeah.
00:27:53
Speaker
How do you all and do you do all find it challenging to basically, I guess, to continue marketing this in a fresh way, even though the advice is very much common sense? Yeah, it's a good question. And it's interesting, because yeah, Dave has said the same lines over and over and over again for years. But that's part of the beauty of it. And that's part of the success of it is because our our message is so clear, we don't we don't change it.
00:28:20
Speaker
It's the same message is the same tips and it has worked for thirty years you know and so it's part of the beauty but yeah how to keep it fresh and how to keep it interesting exciting for design. I find it that it's not actually too difficult because we are on a crusade to change the toxic money culture in america.
00:28:40
Speaker
When I think about it like that, it's so much fun because we're trying to take down these companies in the money industry who are destroying people's lives. To me, that's fun. It's this huge battle. We always have to figure out ways to fight this fight. It's not like just making a widget thing and selling it. We're on a crusade to change this stuff. Everybody who works here, we have so much passion for this crusade. It is a fire that burns in us.
00:29:08
Speaker
The reason that we have so many new businesses that we do in new products is because there's always something new to be making to attack something in that toxic money culture.
Mission Against Toxic Money Culture
00:29:18
Speaker
There's always something to go after. Even though our stuff is staying consistent and staying the same,
00:29:24
Speaker
The market is always changing. Our audience is always changing. The companies and the money industry is always changing. There's so much that's changing in the country when it comes to money. And so we have to be the symbol of strength and stability because, again, it's gotten grandma's way of making money. It's always worked. Yeah. Yeah. And we have to be that symbol of strength and stability. But the way that we push against everything else and the way that we fight this battle is what makes it fun.
00:29:51
Speaker
And you'll notice a lot of our designs a lot of our creative and a lot of our messaging it is really bold and it's really going in people's faces you know because it's it's such a big thing to battle and to me that makes it so much fun to work on and all the new products we get to work on all the new events that we put on all that stuff it's fun because that stuff's new. No we just get to figure out different ways to fight this battle and go against it and so it actually is quite a bit of fun.
00:30:17
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that's just, again, just as I hear about the culture at Ramsey Solutions, I can hear the joy in your voice as you talk about how much fun it is to go on this crusade, as you put it, to educate people about how they should be approaching money. And like you said, I think money just bleeds over into so many other aspects of people's lives that when you have that under control, you'll likely have things like a better marriage as well.
00:30:41
Speaker
I do think that one of the most powerful aspects of I guess of the brand in general is just that I mean, I could be hanging out with friends and oftentimes they'll repeat certain lines that Dave says on his podcast or in his books over and over again. And so I definitely think that there's power in hearing that message over and over again in a short, you know, concise ways that's easy to digest. But I also love how that plays out in your brand as well in the bold in your face, you know, bright colors, that sort of thing as well. How long has Ramsey Solutions been around?
00:31:10
Speaker
Ramsey Solutions has been around, I guess, about 30 years. We're actually this year celebrating our 25th year anniversary of Financial Peace University.
00:31:21
Speaker
Financial piece is the 25th year anniversary and Dave, you know, he was coaching people Even years before this and had his show called the money game years ago, you know Yeah, so I think around for about 30 years. Yeah as you were talking I was just thinking about how you show up or I guess I forget what you said it specifically but it was something about how you have to continually show up and be this beacon of hope so to speak and you know, the internet has changed a lot over the last 25 years and
00:31:46
Speaker
But you all continue to show up in new, relevant, and fresh ways, which, I mean, again, I think just knowing how much success that you all have had as a company, all of that just makes sense. So whatever you're doing, it certainly does seem effective. Yeah, I hope so. We've got a lot to do, but it's funny because 30 years ago, it started with Dave selling books on the back of his car, you know, in that way.
00:32:07
Speaker
this company that's able to affect all this stuff in the country and all these lives. It really is cool. I'm definitely proud to be a part of it. Yeah. And you all seem to show up on all these different mediums, whether it be podcasts or the radio or TV or Facebook or whatever it might be. Yeah. I mean, that's awesome. Are there any projects that are coming up in the next year that you're really excited about?
00:32:30
Speaker
Well, there are some that I probably shouldn't talk about because a lot of the companies out there, they obviously don't want us to win. And so there's some things I'm like, I'm not going to say that thing, but I will say. And we want you to win, so definitely don't share it if that part gives you a competitive advantage. Yeah. But no, one thing I am excited about is that we are
00:32:54
Speaker
like we're really starting to attack student loan crisis pretty hard because the more we're looking at the data and the research, gosh man, student loans, it's become a bigger debt than credit cards and a bigger issue than credit cards and it's so frustrating because
00:33:12
Speaker
these like sally may and all these companies they're going after kids basically who don't really understand money yet and they don't understand what debt can do to your life and all this so the student loan crisis it's really it's really terrible but it definitely gives us something to be going after you know and try to take down so i'm really excited about that because the stories that we hear of um of kids whose lives are destroyed like we've heard of
00:33:38
Speaker
Young people committing suicide because of debt from student loans like yeah, and it's just terrible but you know, we talked about how these a lot of these companies are making money when people are in debt, you know, and that is just not right.
00:33:50
Speaker
So being able to attack the student loan crisis and in all the ways that we're doing it and with our personality, Anthony O'Neill, who talks about that a lot, like I'm really pumped because the stuff that we're working on, I think is so good. It's so good. And it reaches the hearts of people and it gets them to see a vision of life without student loans,
Tackling the Student Loan Crisis
00:34:08
Speaker
you know? And it's such a better life, you know? So I'm really pumped up about that. I think it's going to be great stuff.
00:34:13
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. I'm excited to see what you all have in store, especially around the student loan crisis. I mean, it definitely has taken center stage in many ways in kind of the political climate, especially as, you know, we see democratic debates that always seems to come up. So it's definitely issue. It's definitely something that needs to be worked out. And I have a feeling that whatever Ramsey solutions is coming up is probably, you know, the best way to tackle it.
00:34:36
Speaker
I do want to end here. So for those people listening who are like, all of this sounds awesome. I want to learn more about Ramsey solutions. Maybe there's some sort of aspect of their life, especially around finances that needs improving. Where's a good place to get started with many of the resources that you guys offer? Yeah, actually, if people go to Dave Ramsey calm, and then just click on the get started link in the navigation, we actually have an assessment on there that that kind of lets us understand where you are.
00:35:05
Speaker
And then what's the best thing for you to do and what's the best track for you to take? If we talk about what would a helpful human do, you know, we say, well, that's what we would do. We would ask people some questions to understand them, what's the best path for them, and then lead them down that path. And that's basically what that does. So if you go to DaveRamsa.com and then just hit that get started link, it'll take you down the right path.
00:35:25
Speaker
Okay. Awesome. And so I'll make sure that I posted that in the show notes for sure. And I want to say, again, the products that Dave Ramsey has put out and just the general outlook. I mean, you can learn a lot of this in total money makeover as well. We put that system into place. And again, we paid off tens of thousands of dollars in student loan. And I think one of the things that we found hopeful in that process is that the stories we heard, we heard from people who had paid off way more, sometimes double
00:35:52
Speaker
what we had in student loans. And so what seemed insurmountable to us, we heard stories of victory from others who faced an even larger debt to pay off. So if that's you, I really very much highly encourage you to check this out. Tim, I want to thank you for your time this morning. I know you all have so much work to do over at Ramsey Solutions. I'm glad we got an opportunity to chat and hear a little bit about your role and behind the scenes at Ramsey Solutions. Oh, me too, man. This was a blast. I really appreciate you having me on. This is a lot of fun to talk about. Thanks.
00:36:26
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Brands That Book Show. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving a review in iTunes. For show notes and other resources, head on over to dvandchrista.com.