Katie Porterfield [1]

It is time for Brenda from Springfield to get to work. She's just told financial counselor Dave Ramsey and his legions of weekly radio show listeners that she and her husband have been hoarding 90 credit cards, all with zero balance, in a safe deposit box.

"Well, I've got four inches of Discover and..."

"Four inches of Discovers," Ramsey interrupts, cocking his head back and letting out a howling laugh from his Cool Springs studio. "We measure 'em by the inch!"

"Well, I'm sitting here looking at them right now."

"Ohhhh," Ramsey moans. "You're scaring me to death. Have you got a shredder?"

When Brenda says she does, Ramsey tells her to walk toward it.

"Are you serious?" Brenda asks.

"I'm really serious. I want to hear these things go away right now."

As the grind of the shredder signifies that the first two cards have met what Ramsey considers a well-deserved demise, he smiles with delight.

You might have heard (or heard about) The Dave Ramsey Show's "plastectomies"—when listeners call in and destroy their credit cards, chopping up the plastic with shredders or blenders or applying some other destructive method that they've devised. You're likely at least vaguely familiar with Ramsey's reasons for getting listeners to destroy their credit cards. (Ramsey says credit cards not only build debt when bills aren't paid on time but also facilitate 12% to 18% more spending because you can't "feel the money leaving like you can when you spend cash.") You may even have read his "Dave Says" column or one or more of his best-selling books, attended one of his live events or, as of October 15, seen his new television show on the Fox Business Network.

Yet, you may not know that in that same Cool Springs office building where Ramsey ministers to the debt-afflicted by radio airwave and television cable each day, he also runs a multi-million dollar company that employs more than 200 people. Armed with a story of personal financial mistakes and bankruptcy, and on what he considers a Providence-driven path, the 47-year-old has built his Lampo Group empire incrementally over the last 20 years, developing product offerings and services intended to help others "beat debt and build wealth." Today, Ramsey balances his time between twin roles—he's both the product the Lampo Group touts and the CEO who oversees the company's three lines of business.

Thus far, the Lampo Group's success in making money and reaching its audience suggests its founder is doing well in both roles. But as Ramsey and company stake out new frontiers for both CEO and product, the challenge of successfully maintaining the balance increases. That's fine by Ramsey, who aspires to nothing less than leaving a Microsoft-sized legacy for his employees and listeners.

Take Me Out to the Ballpark

Though Ramsey, like many private company CEOs, remains tight-lipped about just how many millions his company brings in each year, it's hardly a secret that business is booming. And while valuing such a company is hardly an exact science, there are a few means by which one can measure just how big a phenomenon Dave Ramsey really is.

There's employee growth. In 1994, the Nashville native hired his first Lampo Group employee; in 2003, he hired his 100th. The company now has about 210 employees, meaning it has more than doubled in size in the last four years.

And of course, there's revenue. As one would expect from a man whose mantra includes "Don't spend it until you have it," Lampo Group revenues have climbed alongside it burgeoning payroll. Over the past 10 years, Ramsey says the company experienced about 40% revenue growth each year. When one takes into account similar glimpses into the performance of the company's three divisions over the past decade, the Lampo Group is at least a $20 million to $25 million company. (See "Addition by Division," below.)

Yet, while at most companies revenue is king when it comes to gauging industry standing, Ramsey identifies an equally crucial benchmark by which he measures the Lampo Group's success: the number of families changed.

"We have to count the money because where there is no margin, there's no ministry, and you shut down," he acknowledges. "So, we set revenue goals and 'families changed' goals."

Unlike revenue figures, which one has to ballpark based on a percentage here, a quote there, it's easier to gain a handle on the "families changed" metric. The Dave Ramsey Show, the largest independently owned and operated syndicated radio show in the nation—everything from syndicating the show to selling ads is done in-house—is heard by three million listeners weekly on 345 radio stations. More than 450,000 people have attended a Dave Ramsey LIVE event, in which Ramsey dazzles audiences with his financial strategies and anecdotes. Ramsey has written five best-selling books, the latest of which, The Total Money Makeover (published in 2003), recently exceeded the one million copies sold mark. ("It's like the Energizer bunny," says Mike Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson, which published the book.) The "Dave Says" column boasts a circulation total of 4.6 million readers.

And then there is the breadwinner—Financial Peace University, a 13-week course consisting of video classes and group discussion geared toward putting the knowledge in Ramsey's books and seminars into action. Since its inception in 1994, more than 500,000 families have graduated from the program. Louis Falzetti, the executive vice president who oversees the FPU division, says that more than 150,000 families will complete the course in 2007. In 2008, his goal is to graduate at least 180,000 families. The Lampo Group recently spent $1 million reshooting the videos and developing new products for the course. Not bad for a program that Ramsey describes as consisting of nothing more than him "in a bad suit with an overhead projector" when it began in 1994.

Two hats and counting

But managing growth, problematical for any company, is even more challenging when the principle manager is also the core product. Every good idea that proves an immediate or long-term success means more obligations for Ramsey. Before the television show debuted, Ramsey estimated that he spent about 60% of his time being the product and the other 40% being the CEO. He says he is gradually relinquishing more and more of those CEO-like responsibilities to those he calls his "band of brothers" (his division heads). After all, the new television program means one more hour on-air for "the product" each day, in addition to a no doubt substantial amount of off-air preparation.

Yet, Ramsey's "at work" preparation for being the product is just the tip of the iceberg. Even outside of his business, when he's not on the air or at a live event, he's always "on." This product simply can't falter. Rush Limbaugh can bounce back from a pill addiction, but Ramsey's mission to provide biblically based education and empowerment means that the slightest departure from morality undermines the product and could be a virtual death sentence for his company. Or, of course, there's also the unmentionable—getting caught with a credit card.

While Ramsey discounts these so-called pressures associated with being the product by saying "what you see is what you get," it doesn't change the fact that his responsibilities encompass more than most every other CEO out there. Along those lines, there are also some logistical issues to consider.

It goes without saying, for example, that there's only one Dave Ramsey, which begs the question—what will happen when he's not around? Establishing a transition plan is a must for any "small business" owner, but it becomes even more imperative when the CEO is also the product. So, though he's not yet 50, Ramsey says he's been spending quite a bit of time trying to determine what the Lampo Group will look like when he can't wear either hat.

He's not sure yet whether that's a transition strategy that involves his now college-aged children and/or their spouses. His 19-year-old daughter Rachel recently hosted Generation Change—a new product for youth groups in churches, and though he believes she's "got the stuff" to fill his shoes, it's hard to say whether Rachel, his other daughter or son will "want to involve themselves in this organization."

The other part of leaving a legacy, he says, involves something that he decided he wanted to do about 10 years ago when he was on his first book tour.

"I was in Seattle having lunch with a guy, and we were looking out across this beautiful patio at all these houses," Ramsey explains, "and he said, 'There's 25,000 Microsoft millionaires in Seattle alone, people who worked for Microsoft and became millionaires working there.' I thought, 'Yeah, that would be nice.'"

He says he has several millionaires working at the Lampo Group already, and many more are debt-free and have paid off their houses.

"When these executive VPs or some of these department leaders or some of these guys that took one of these ideas, gutted it out and ran it down and stayed with us 10 years and made this stuff happen, I want to see them win big," Ramsey says. "I want to see their family tree be completely changed, and that's a part of leaving a legacy, too."

It's a legacy that, despite revenue figures, growth indicators and the estimated families changed numbers, is still hard to measure. After all, how do you weigh the impact of a marriage saved before financial stress could tear it apart? Or of an employee who's more productive because the credit card companies or creditors are no longer calling him at work? And how does one track the amount of money that Ramsey followers have given to nonprofits (as he advocates) after they're debt-free?

A product that dispenses advice promising to change lives. A CEO who manages a team of people striving to make that product a household name so that together, they can change more lives. A legacy that leaves millionaire employees and debt-free masses in its wake. That's some business plan.