Their fixed costs are 92% of their income?! OMG. And they make $140k a year. That’s a huge salary! Just started listening so no other thoughts yet.
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Omg just wait til the end, Ramit kinda roasts them? Even tho IMO he didn’t make a compelling case for them to change. (Which is maybe not his job.)
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I was like, Honey have you finalized that business loan yet? Their only hope is for her to get out of that. If she’s spent that money I fear they are screwed.
He told us at the end, I don’t know if he told them so clearly, they either need to change some things or things will be changed for them and that will be much more painful.
IMHO She needs to let go of her fantasy car, stop the business loan, and perhaps get a job that pays more. Maybe liquidate the business if there’s anything of value in it. He might have to take a second job too. But it didn’t sound like they understood at all how serious their situation is.
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Teaching people how to be rich means making a convincing argument against wasting a bunch of money. Unless he really does only focus on actual rich people who are afraid of spending money, but in that case don’t get guests like this on the podcast! (She says, not having listened to a single second of this episode, but always up for criticizing Ramit.)
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Agreed! By that sentence, I meant, no one can make anyone do anything they don’t want to do! These people have to want to change
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True. Lily mentioned that her advice column is more targeted towards readers and commenters than the actual person who submitted the question, so maybe that’s what he’s thinking too, focus on the listeners.
But I still bet he could’ve done better.
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I really don’t understand why he structures conversations the way he does. He always spends like 80% of the conversation beating around the bush and asking the callers for their solutions to their problems, which they are obviously unable to solve. Then at the very end he’s kind of like, “gotcha!” and they’re like, “wut?” and then he says he will teach them how to change but the listener to the podcast doesn’t actually hear that part? It’s beyond bizarre.
I thought it was weird how soft he was with this couple. I don’t mean he should be rude but as someone who is often asked for advice (it’s like there is a sign over my head, since I was a kid too) there is nothing that annoys me more than time wasting repetition. When someone comes to me frequently with similar issues and wants my time and energy, but then shoots down everything I say or seemingly makes no changes…I tap out. Like the third-fourth time they come back to me with the same types of issues I’m like, “ahhh, ok, got it. you’re an emotional vampire.” There is no point in dealing with someone like that.
These two definitely struck me that way. If I were him I would have asked, after like the third or fourth shoot down/excuse, “would you like it if I told you that you shouldn’t change anything you’re doing?” I would love to hear their response to that! I also found myself wondering if they secretly want to declare bankruptcy. A lot of people with their mentality see bankruptcy as the escape hatch.
I also wonder why he isn’t more blunt about values? Like, these people are in love with their car, their this, their that. Why doesn’t he ask, “are you comfortable being the type of person who chooses a car over longterm stability? because that’s what you’re doing.” Or like, in past episodes with problematic men, “are you comfortable being so sexist?” or “do you like having so many double standards for you and your wife?” I mean like, just SAY IT.
People, IMO, go to a radio host to ask questions because they want real answers not polite friend answers. I just find his total lack of bringing morality into it super weird but also very of the current zeitgeist. It feels like it’s allowable to discuss morality if it’s political or oriented towards large scale social justice (taxes, charity, prison reform, lgbtqia+), but like it’s illegal to talk about actual IRL behavior from human to human. It’s something I struggle with because it makes a lot of interactions feel hollow to me.
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I can never figure out why he goes so hard at some people and then is so soft with others! The inconsistency is maddening. Like here we have a truck guy and a house that’s obviously too expensive and we know he can go IN on those problems because he’s done it before in other episodes. So confusing
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It kind of felt like he gave up on this one. Like he sounded frustrated? But even if the callers don’t “get it” he could have still said more to connect with listeners who maybe relate to the callers? It’s like if he doesn’t get the reaction he expects/wants he has no idea what to do and chokes. That’s what I think it is, honestly. He’s not good at improv, lol.
And yet I can’t stop listening 
I’m too nosy! I want to know people’s weird financial details.
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Hahah exactly!!
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Hostess: “Hypocrite, party of one?”
Me: jumping over other people whilst raising hand
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Can they add another chair? 
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Remember that couple a while back where one partner kept referring to themselves as an “entrepreneur” but had made no money in, like, 5 years? They never said what their business was in, but I’m currently in the handmade/ crafters/ “surface pattern design” space and there are some aspects that make me give it serious side-eye (im describing the most visible aspects, not the same as the whole profession etc)
- Huge overabundance of white women
- Who claim to do this “in their spare time” i.e. around their kids while their husband works, but there are also some that work/ have no kids etc
- Lots of courses that honestly sound pyramid schemey but are missing some elements of that. But yeah. Work in spare time/ follow your dream/ do my course and you can make a big income like me
*Less obvious hustle/ girl boss vibes than I suspect there were 5 years ago but the echoes are absolutely there
Would 100% believe she forgot to actually implement any of the advice on what is guess are multiple courses she’s done in it/ free advice from people she’s following. Theres absolutely heaps of great free advice to get you going.
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Something that feels like an essential red flag to me is the idea of entrepreneur classes (different than business school IMO) of any kind. Like to me, someone who is entrepreneurial is by definition someone who wants to strike out on their own and innovate/do/create without the boundaries that come with school and traditional work.
When I quit my office job and started working for myself it was largely because I am not a big organization/school type of person. I never wanted that kind of prescriptive environment because I find it super stifling and limiting. I think that’s also why so many wealthy entrepreneurs drop out of college or don’t go at all. It’s like, part of the personality type to a degree. And I think having a business sense is part of it too, which to me means understanding value and risk.
So like, someone who says they want to be an entrepreneur but who then ALSO likes the idea of a bunch of courses with homework and work books and meetings and camaraderie with other people doing the exact same thing they are, and lots of guidance and clear steps (from someone else) on what they should do…like…to me that seems like excellent evidence you are not cut out to be an entrepreneur? And the willingness to PAY for it on top of it? IDK. It’s like that sounds like someone who really really really wants to be in an organization with lots of guidelines and rules, etc. Not someone who will make it on their own?
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I think these are some really good insights.
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Absolutely. God there are some real dodgy ones out there. The ones I’m looking at are less “how to be an entrepreneur!” And more “how to work in this particular industry” but there’s still a lot of hype that there shouldn’t be. A bit of language like MLM schemes.
I find laying out money to learn skills easy and these courses… Look I’ve screenshotted all the course outlines so I have the right terms to search for elsewhere…
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I didn’t know you were starting a business?! How did I miss this??
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Oh! Maybe you were on a forum break at the time? I started one at a week’s notice back in March so my husband could take his parental leave (and took leave from my PhD, still working on quitting that) and I’m wildly unsuccessful but I think most people take a bit more time to organise themselves before actually starting 
its very learn-as-I-go on limited time
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when i started my dressmaking business (as opposed to my album cover purse business), i signed up for marie forleo’s b-school and ended up getting a refund. it was way too girlbossy/“one-of-us” feeling and it gave me the squicks. ramit’s courses give me the same feeling!
like if what you want is for someone to tell you what to do … maybe just get a job??
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Possibly! I have trouble keeping up with all of the journals here! I don’t know what surface design is- like graphic design sort of? But for other materials?
ETA: I googled. Cool! So it’s like what’s on Society 6!
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