1211: Ask Ralph: Advocate Financial Evangelism Through Authentic Relationships and Biblical Principles with Ralph Estep, Jr.

Robert Plank 0:04 Hey, we're back here on the marketer of the day podcast with Ralph E step JR. He's a financial evangelist. He's an entrepreneur. He raises Black Angus cattle. He's a financial expert and entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience helping individuals and small business owners navigate complex financial challenges from a Christian perspective. So Ralph is going to be telling us about so many things if we do this right, right, telling us about life, about religion, about money, about being a good person, about being happy, etc. So Ralph, how the heck are you today?

Ralph Estep Jr. 0:41 I'm doing fantastic, Robert, thank you for the opportunity. Glad to have you.

Robert Plank 0:45 You know, I'm really excited about some of your your big ideas, because I know that you have these seven biblical principles, seek God's wisdom. First, work diligently, live below your means, avoid debt, save, consistently, give generously, be content. And we can find out about that where exactly

Ralph Estep Jr. 1:03 well, you go to my website. It's ask ralph.com that is the central repository of all that good, beautiful information

Robert Plank 1:10 wonderful, ask ralph.com and so we gave people a little bit of information, on, off the bean, but in your own words, I did my best to introduce you. But what did I leave out? What has you currently passionate fired up?

Ralph Estep Jr. 1:22 I said, let me give you the backstory. So this all started when I was about eight years old. And you're probably thinking, Ralph, were you really doing accounting work at eight? And the answer is yes. So picture this mom and dad split up when I'm eight years old. The last words out of Dad's mouth when he was leaving was, son, you're the man of the house now. So my dad's this accountant larger than life guy. He didn't move across the country. We just had two separate houses in the same town, but all of a sudden I've got these responsibilities to take care of my mom. And I'm eight years old, so I'm trying to figure this out. You know, my friends are figuring out how to hop on their bike and tear off down the street to the park, and I'm in I'm in the backyard help my mom start the lawn mower. I'm trying to figure out, how do we put heating oil in the house? I remember at 12. I'll tell you a crazy story. Robert at 12. Picture this my mom's car. Decided it was getting ready to die. So she says, Oh, I'm gonna go buy a new car. So she loaded up. My sister and I. Now, I'm 12 years old at the time. My sister's like, nine. Maybe we're sitting at the car dealership. My mom finds this car she really likes. She could afford to do it. So we're sitting there, and she goes, I really need your help to help me with the sales guy, Ralph, because I don't understand all the things he's talking about. Now, again, I'm 12 years old, so we get we figure this all out. She agrees to a price. We get ushered into the finance manager's office, and the finances office says, Okay, Mr. Such and such, here's your deal. And my mom. And now let me back up a step. So my mom had agreed to pay $300 a month. Now this was years ago when you could actually buy a car for $300 a month. So we get into the finance manager's office and he goes, Okay, I figured out your payments going to be 375 a month. And my mom looks at me, and she goes, Wait a second, if he told me out there it's gonna be 300 so I say to the guy, I'm like, Dude, where's this number coming? Shut up, kid. This doesn't involve you. And I'm like, well, there's Strike one. Because I come from an Italian family, you don't tell people to shut up. That's just not cool. So second thing he starts talking about, okay? He says, okay, but let me figure this out. And he says, Okay, we're gonna add credit life. We're gonna add credits. I was like, Well, wait a second, what are all these things you're adding? And again, he says, can you tell your son to be quiet? So my mom looks over me because she goes, we have to figure something out here. So long story short, here I'm 12 negotiating contracts for my mom to buy a car. So that's where it all started, and what that made me do, Robert, it made me realize that there are people out there that don't know finance, they don't understand these things, and so my passion is to help people do that. It's my mission field. That's why I call myself a financial evangelist, because I'm really marrying two worlds. I'm marrying the world of finance and I'm marrying the world of faith, because the two things really go hand in hand. Hope that answered your question.

Robert Plank 3:54 It doesn't. It gives us, in true podcasting form, gives us, like, four or five branches to grab onto, right? Because even in that story there, there's something about how, like, the faith and the morality connect also, like there's people say things like, well, look at how some if say you're on, like, a date or something, right? Notice how they treat the waiter, or notice how someone treats a kid or a dog. Like, if there's someone who has no benefit to you cannot serve you in any way. Like, how do you treat that person? There's something to be said about like, being a kind person, even if there's no, like, tangible benefit, just for the sake of the ethics of it and so and then when money comes into play, there's a lot of emotion wrapped up, isn't it. There's a lot of people who like, they're afraid of money. They ignore it. They don't understand it, they don't control it, and it's such a as a weird concept in general, right? Someone decided that gold coins or pieces of paper are now ones and zeros, just these numbers represent us and what our value is. And so if someone says. Oh my gosh, Ralph, I'm not a numbers person. Or how do I even begin to understand my money, my finances? What would you say to someone, even as a jumping off point?

Ralph Estep Jr. 5:09 and I'm gonna, I'm gonna address two things you just said there. First thing you talked about, you know, how you treat people? Well, the Christian bible talks about when you do something even for the least of these. Jesus makes a statement. He said, When you did it for the least of these you did it for me. So in my life, I look at every person has value. Every person is of that same level of caliber. To answer your second question, it's the biggest struggle for people. We have, so many people in this country, in this world, that are living paycheck to paycheck. They're under this this bondage of debt, and they just don't know how to get free of it. And unfortunately, I'm gonna say about the US in our country, we do a terrible job of educating children financial literacy. We're just terrible at it. And the problem is, you've got adults that aren't good at it trying to teach kids who aren't going to be good at it, and it's this vicious cycle of debt and impoverishment. And the problem is like, right now we are in, really in a tough time, because inflation is going through the roof. Things are costing more and more, but people's wages and salaries aren't going up. So people are struggling. People are looking for that lifeline. They're looking for somebody like me that comes alongside them and says, Hey, Ralph, how can I find hope? And that's why I tie that religion into it, because the two things really go hand in hand. If you can't just say, like, here's how I see this on the show all the time, Robert, I can teach you to be a really wealthy scoundrel. I could do that. I mean, I can show you how to do that, right? But then you're going to stand at some point in judgment and he's going to say, what did you do with your sorry self? Well, I did this, this and this. Well, get out of here. I don't know you. That's the scary part from the Christian faith, is that I know you not. So that's why I tie those two worlds together. And my goal is my mission field. To be honest with you, ever since I was a kid, I saw how my mom was treated. I saw how people took advantage of her because she wasn't financially sophisticated. And I said, You know what my whole life has led to this point, I've been very blessed. For 30 years I've been doing accounting. I've got this skill set, and now I'm putting that skill set to work for people who have questions on everyday things like, for example, I'm recording a show right now. I excuse my recorded this morning about what's going to happen with taxes in 2025 we just went through a tumultuous election. We've got a president coming back, we've got a Republican Congress, and we've got all these tax things that are getting ready to expire, and people are like, Ralph, what do I do? Good question. I'm not sure what's going to happen, but have faith. Have faith in knowing that do your best. You know, get your house in order. You can't fix the government. You can't decide how they're going to spend their money, but you can decide how you're going to spend your money, and that's what I talk about on my show, day in, day out. Take financial what I call stewardship, because here's my belief, Robert, nothing that we have is really ours, and a lot of people are taken back by like rap, but that sounds like you're anti capitalist. That's not what I'm saying. I believe that everything you have is a gift from God, and it's your responsibility to use it wisely. So that's the whole central point of my show is, how can I show you how to have that prosperous life using what isn't yours, but you've been charged to take care of it?

Robert Plank 8:15 I love it, and it's an interesting concept, right? That there's something that's been given to you, but it you also must not squander it. You also need to do a good job and take some responsibility with what you have. And people always talk about how they're blessed, and we are blessed, right? We grew up in the most amazing time in history. We, we can be communicating over video on Zoom, there is AI. We, we, you know, have all our basic needs met, but there's still a need to do more and to do our best selves. And as you said before, break those generational chains, right? Because you look at the national debt, you look at the federal budget, it's a joke, it's a bad example set for us. And then they weren't we were not taught this in school. So then we, ourselves as parents, do badly with money, and then we pass that down to our kids. It's time to make a change. And so as far as some new actions, some new ways of thinking, when someone comes to you with your all of your accounting experience, do you recommend that people like do better at setting a budget or having buckets of money or, like, what's a good action to take in order to get a better handle on our finances?

Ralph Estep Jr. 9:28 That's actually a really simple question, Robert, and I'm going to give it to you like this, whenever I start working with a new client, the first thing I do is I assess where they are right now, for example, let's say I'm in I'm in Middletown, Delaware, okay, Mid Atlantic. Let's say I want to drive to New York City. Well, in order to get to New York City, I got to draw a map, right? Well, if I don't know where I'm starting, then how in the world am I going to get there? So that's the first thing I do, is I come alongside somebody. And this isn't emotional. This is where am I now? What are your assets? What are your liabilities? What do your bills look like? That's our starting point. Then I move right into what are your goals? I call them your big, hairy, audacious goals. What are those dreams? And I and I sit down with them, I say, Okay, here's what your dreams are. Maybe for you, Robert, it's we want to own a second home, or maybe I want to put my kids through college. Maybe I want to be debt free. Maybe I want to have a six month emergency fund. Everybody's different. There's no cookie cutter approach to this. So that's what I do. I help them develop those goals. Then I say, Okay, this is where Ralph's little different comes in. How do those goals align with your faith? And we talk about, okay, what is important to you. And then we create that, what I call that financial roadmap, that that that plan of what's going to get you from point A to point B, I act as an accountability partner for you, and then we measure your success. Because here's the truth, what gets measured gets done. And see, this came full circle for me. I'm going to share another story. So last October, my son, my oldest son's in the US Coast Guard, my and my wife and I decided to take a trip to Germany. Now I had never been overseas before, and my son's a big world war two history buff. My uncle actually was a commander in Germany for the US forces. And I said, I really like to go to Germany. So we get to Germany. And of course, you know, the Holocaust is a thing, right? So one of the days where we're in Germany, we decided to take a day trip over to Dachau, which was actually the first concentration camp in Germany. And, you know, coming from America, I've seen it on TV. I've seen it on Schindler's List. You hear about all this stuff, but Robert, what moved me was the day we went into doc out, and it changed my entire life. And that's why I'm doing what I'm doing now. I'm standing there in Dachau where they would assemble the people every morning, and let's picture this for a second. If you were the tallest person in line, they shot you in the head because you were too tall. If you were the shortest person in line, they shot you because you're too short. If you looked up all those things. And I said to myself, I'm standing on the same stone where so many people had lost their lives. And I said, and finally, kidding me is, Ralph, what are you doing to give back? Because I've been very successful, Robert, I've had the Corvettes. I own the Rolex watches. I've had the Breitling watches. I've had the beach houses. But you know what? At the end of the day, Robert, I was empty because I wasn't fulfilling my kingdom purpose. And so that's the other part of this. I try to help people find that kingdom purpose. Because here's a real basic truth, the Maslow's hierarchy needs says this, you will never attain higher levels of understanding until you reach that food, clothing and shelter. So my goal is to help you get those basic things found, because you'll never get to that higher level of self actualization until you you get those things squared away. And you might say, well, Ralph, what does that look like? Well, it depends. Everybody's journey is different. If you want to truly give back, guess what, you've got to get your house in order. First. You can never help somebody else until your stuff is in order. So, so that's what I do, Robert, I come alongside people, but I'm telling you, standing in that concentration camp, it changed my complete outlook on life, because these are people who had no hope. These are people who had no chance. I have that chance, and I can impart that wisdom that I've learned over doing this for 30 years to help people find that hope and to finally break free of that bondage. Because financial bondage, it it destroys marriages, it destroys relationships. It wrecks people's health. This is a crisis, and I see my financial evangelist role as helping people find that hope and get past that crisis

Robert Plank 13:28 100% and I love your mission, and I'm here to help you on that mission, because you think about all the money baggage, right you feel about the childhood trauma, and even like you know, you told a story about your childhood and money. And I think everyone has something like that along those lines, right? Like watching mom and dad argue about money or some kind of drama, disappointment and and you know what Shane, you mentioned, like your wife, what changed my marriage was we used to fight a lot, and then I found some statistic that said, like this, huge percent of fights in a marriage are about money. And I thought, hey, kind of like you're saying I need to go back to basics. I need to get my own house in order, because I can't help anyone else if I myself am struggling. And even it's you must see this a lot, where it's not always about money coming in. It's just like, what a tangled mess it is once you get the money and money and going out and not even knowing what you're at, not even measuring as you're saying. And it's always great when you find a good accountant or CPA like yourself who just gets excited about this, right? Because even if we ourselves tell ourselves these unhelpful stories that I'm not good with money or I don't like numbers, if you have a buddy in your corner who can provide assistance, who is excited, who lives for the stuff that can really change quite a lot. And I love the larger than life concept that we mentioned a few minutes ago, because just right before this call, I looked up some some youtubes. We already know each other, right? You're a done for you podcast. Client, but I'm always like, Okay, what research can I do about my guests? And I watched a couple of other YouTubes, and I found myself less like, getting sucked into the magnetic personalities and the stories. And even so far, you've shared a lot of these, like, Pivotal aha moments, and there's some value in that for all of us, right? To say, like, Well, how do I communicate what I do? And my kind of on the surface, the the dullness of it, right? Like you say, You're a accountant, that's kind of dull. But then you can make it exciting by adding the stories, by telling people about the mistakes. So as far as, like the the podcast, radio, DJ, type, influencer personality, do you have any advice to pass on to us? As far as how you have been a larger than life personality.

Ralph Estep Jr. 15:45 Yeah, I'll give you an example of that. So every Tuesday night I do a live show. I just started this about two months ago. I do it on YouTube and rumble and this past Tuesday night, and I'm gonna cut tackle a couple different things while you're talking about it. This past Tuesday night, I did it all about how to find financial harmony with your partner. So it was all about those things you were talking about, because you would be shocked like I truly believe that financial intimacy is 10 times stronger than anything else in a marriage. If you can't get on the same page as your partner financially, that marriage is doomed to fail, because most of the time people bring one person's a spender, one person's a saver, and so that. So that's what I want to talk about that. But second thing you ask that question about, How do you, how do you, how do you get to that audience? Well, so one of the reasons I do the Tuesday night show live is because I want to interact with people. People ask questions right in the chat, and what you find is when you break down that barrier and people start to know you for who you are. See, I put it all out there like there's no secrets at Ralph. I don't play that like I'm a straight shooter. I'm gonna call it as I see it. If you don't like me, that's cool. You'll probably still listen, because you want to see what I'm going to say next. So, and I think that's the thing, you have to be authentic. Because if you're authentic, compassion comes through. And you're right. A lot of people say, Well, you know, accounting is kind of dull. You know, when I was in school at the University of Delaware, we studied alongside engineers, and I always said, the accountants are the engineers with personalities, okay? And that's what it comes down to, if you want to attract an audience, but not just an audience. Because here's the thing about life, Robert and you know, Robert, you know this as well as I do in business, it's all about the relationship. If you want to be successful in anything in life, it's that relationship. For me, it's that relationship with Jesus Christ that's important to me. It's the relationship that I have with my customers here in my accounting practice. It's the relationship I have with my farm hand who takes care of these Black Angus cows on the farm. It's the relationship I have with my wife, and it's the relationship I have with my viewers and listeners, whatever you want to call it, that is where the secret sauce is. A few years ago, I hired a marketing guy to come into my accounting practice to see what I could do better. And he's sitting in front of me, Robert, and he says, Raph, what business are you in? And I said, Did you miss the sign as you walked in the door? And he goes, No, no, I want you to you to tell me what business you're in. I said, All right, knucklehead, I'm in the accounting business. And he goes, No, not really. And I said, Oh, this is going to be an interesting conversation. I said, Okay, I'm in the tax business. I do a lot of tax work, Rob. He goes, No, no, no, that's not it either. I said, All right, I got it. I figured it out. I'm in the consulting business. And he says, No, Ralph, you're in the relationship business. And that is the truth. That is the secret sauce. Robert, to all of this, you want to be successful in business. You want to be successful in life. You want to be successful in finances. Develop those relationships just like your business, I interact with you. I interact with the people on your team. We build relationships. And that's the key, that's it's not more complicated than that. People get all kinds of hung up on you got to do this and watch this person listen. It's not that complicated. Build that relationship. If you build a relationship with your podcast or your or your show, whatever you want to call it. I moved away from podcast because it's on so many different it's on so many different platforms. I call it a show. Build that relationship. People will come back because they want to know what Ralph has to say about it, or what Robert has to say about it. You can talk about the dullest thing ever, like the other day, I recorded a show to come out next week on on seven sides that your computer has been hacked. It's not a very exciting thing to talk about, but it's an important thing to talk about. We live in this site. We live in this cyber, digital age, but people want to know what Ralph has to say. And you are people that are listening to this are thinking that same thing. How do I grow an audience? How do I find that connection? It's all about the relationships.

Robert Plank 19:35 I love it. And you know the this, when you make a video saying, here's seven signs your computer's been hacked. It might be still on the surface, but if someone's worried that their computer is hacked, that might be the most interesting topic to them right now. And just looking at the videos that the team puts out, there's a lot of like, just, let's hit this SEO, hit that SEO. There's like, there's no limit to the questions that people. Ask and and we're living this age where so much is free, right? YouTube is free. There's cloud storage. There's no more VHS as take we can crank out the content, and sure, it has to be good, but there's no reason why we can't put out 10 little reels a day or put out a daily show, because people have all these specific questions. And you and I both know we're living in this age where I don't want to think I want to type in my phone into the chat GPT search or the Google or the YouTube I'm like, I have this exact specific question, and I want this exact specific answer. And so you mentioned about relationships, and what I got from all that was how important it is to show up and put in the hard work and be consistent. And I'm always a huge supporter of someone who does something daily, because it just shows that you're a serious business person, right? That you just, oh, it's not just when I feel like it, or every couple of months, it's every day, there's something new. So that when that audience gets to know you, then they begin to then expect it. And so do you have anything to share with us along those lines, like about your work ethic or your habits? If someone has a mission such as you do, and they know that they need to talk to people every day, put out the videos every day, how do we show up daily?

Ralph Estep Jr. 21:19 Well, I think you have to have a mission. And I think that's the key to it. There has to be a reason for it. And that's what I'm saying, is if you're just doing it to make $1 it's not going to last. There has to be some underneath the hood. Reason for doing it. And for me, it's really simple, and it's the parable the lost sheep. So picture this. The Bible talks about the lost sheep, right? And the Shepherd has 100 sheep, and one of them wanders off. Now, what did the shepherd do? The shepherd left the other 99 to go find the one. My My mission is the same, if I can reach one person today, whether that be with an audio podcast with a video podcast with a real with a blog post, with an email post, then I've done my job. And that's the secret to the whole thing, Robert, that's what keeps me going. Because as I'm working, and I put about two to three hours a day into this, which a lot of people are like, Ralph, where do you find the time? I don't know. God's given me the time. He's given me the tools to do it. And I really enjoy it. Because, like I said, I'm looking for that one person. I'm looking for that single mom who's struggling, who's trying to figure out, how do I put food on the table? Yeah, I'd like to put an emergency fund aside. Ralph, but dude, I'm trying to figure out how to put food on the table for this week. If I can give them one little nugget, one little ounce of hope with this idea, do this or do that. Man, I'm gonna tell you what the best feedback I've ever gotten was I got a text from somebody after I released one of my shows, and they said to me, this and Robert, this changed my complete life. It said, Ralph, it was like you were talking to me directly. And see that made it all good, dude, I don't you could throw me all the money in the world. It wouldn't make me feel any better than that text message that said it was like you were talking to me. Because then I go and I think about that day of judgment when when the Lord Himself says, Well done, good and faithful servant. Because that's my focus. So you might not be a Christian, you might not have the same belief I have, but work for a purpose. So that's really my takeaway, Robert is, what is that purpose? Because money isn't going to do it. You're going to find, look, some of the most, the most wealthy people I know are the most miserable people I know, sure, because they don't have that purpose. They don't have that, what I call Kingdom purpose. So, so my secret to that is, develop that purpose. Can I work with a couple different coaches, and we worked a long time to develop what's Ralph's why? You know, do I want to build more business? Sure, I'd like to have more clients. Do I want to do this? Do I but the real why for me was that one person, you know, that person, maybe they're sitting in their car on the way home, they're listening to my daily podcast, and they've had a really tough day, and I say to them, Hey, there's hope. Here's something you can consider. And they get a smile on their face, and then they go into their home with their wife and kids, and they're in a different mental place that saves a marriage, saves a relationship. Dude, that's that's what it that's what is for me. So every day when I get to doing this work, dude, it's like the greatest thing ever for me, because it's my way to impact humanity. And I know that sounds like a big, hairy, audacious goal that I talk about do, but when you can find that the rest of it just falls into place,

Robert Plank 24:32 that is very motivational and inspiring, this idea of the self awareness and the focus and the categorizing, and I get a lot from you with the like, the storytelling and the imagination, and I think there's definitely value in keeping that in your head sometimes and saying, like, hey, you know, one day is when I say, Well, should I really put in the two or three hours recording? Should I really get out of bed in the morning? And you think about those people that you're helping, that you. Have help that you will help that's a great driver in moving forward and in our last few minutes here of our conversation, I want to make sure that we talk about what excites and energizes you. So in this conversation we're having, is there a missing, hidden, invisible question that I should be asking you, but I just don't know to ask it

Ralph Estep Jr. 25:19 so and I'm going to go back to go back to what you just said, and that is, you can make an impact on people you may never meet, because you may make an impact on a grandfather that shares an idea with a grandson who then puts that into practice. So, you know it's just they talk about in the Bible, some people plant seeds. Some people water seeds. Some people fertilize seeds. Well, think about your mission in life to be that same thing, because you're not always going to get that direct feedback. You're not going to always get that text message. You're not always going to get that customer to sign the bottom the bottom line and say, Yeah, I want to do business with you, Ralph, but think about all the impacts you're making. So that's really the question is, you know, you have to look at it like this, Robert, is how much of an impact Am I making? Because the day in and day out, man, it's a hustle. It'd be honest with you, there are days I get here in the morning in my office early, and I'm like, I'm getting ready to turn on my prompter. I'm getting ready to turn on the microphone and the camera. And I go, Oh boy, here we go. So my secret is prayer. To be very honest with you, I just say this. I made a real simple prayer, Robert, Lord, give me the wisdom to know who you want me to talk to today, and then I just go. Because I figure, you know what? He's got that figured out. I'm gonna do my part. He'll do the rest of the part. So that's the that's the secret thing, I guess you could ask about is like, what is your internal motivation? Ralph, and my internal motivation is knowing that I'm just one of those people that maybe they're planting seeds, maybe they're watering, maybe they're fertilizing, I don't really care, dude, because at the end of the day, there's an impact, and I may never see that impact. Just think about it. It's that energy that goes outward from you, and all of us have the capacity to do that, because we can do the same thing and tear people down. Let me tell you another little secret, Robin. I don't want to take up more of your time, but what you need what you need to understand about me is, eight years ago, I was a tyrant dude. I was a controlling person. My wife and I split up. My wife filed for divorce. She moved to another state. We both met other people and got engaged to other people, and I finally said to my sorry self, I said, Ralph, what are you doing? And I went and started working with a counselor, and we fixed that. And I'm happy to say that we're going to celebrate 25 years of marriage in September, because two days before divorce was going to be finalized. Robert, I called her and I said, Hey, you want to try to make this work, because both of us had just had these new relationships which were just not working. So think about it. I've been through the fire, Robert. I get it like I'm not one of these guys that tells you about these pie in the sky ideas. I've lived it, dude. I've been that person that was tearing people down. I've been that person that didn't have the right mentality, who was the negative guy, and I flipped the script, dude. And that's because God got a hold of me and he said, Ralph, I have a purpose for your life and and stop trying to do it on your own. Let me lead you. So that's where I'm at, dude, and it's powerful, dude, but I just have to share that with you, because that's who I am, that I was that controlling guy. I was that negative guy. I was that, you know, they talk about is the glass half full. I was that guy that says, might as well be empty. But look where it was getting me. It got me nowhere. And then when I flipped the script, dude, it's all just clicked.

Robert Plank 28:28 And now that you flip the script, now that it's clicked, you're here to pass on these words of wisdom with the ripple effect, because especially on the internet, right, there's so many lurkers or so many spectators, and so who knows if one sentence you say, save someone else's marriage or save someone else's lifestyle. I think there's some kind of saying of like, if you want to have the tallest building in town, you can either build a taller building or just knock down ones that are taller than yours. And that's very powerful, right? And many times, even in our conversation, conventional logic or emotion doesn't get us there, but then the power of a story or your faith or some passage or some words to wisdom, or just the perspective of someone else saying, Hey, I was in this way worse situation, can sometimes wake us up and change our course of action and help us to do better with our faith and our finances and our life and everything else that goes along with that. And so what are some next steps here, Mr. Ralph, what if someone says I was really impressed with what Ralph had to say. I want to contact him. For what reason would they contact you, and how can they do it?

Ralph Estep Jr. 29:35 So I am a financial evangelist. I'm a financial coach. I do tax work. I help people get from where they are now, whether that's an individual or that's a business, best thing you can do is go to ask ralph.com you'll see a little icon at top says, book a call with Ralph, and we'll sit down together. We'll talk about how to move forward. I've written two books, both of those are on the website as well. I do this daily podcast. It's on all the normal platforms. I release video. On YouTube and rumble. We release shorts, we release reels. We just launched Tiktok. I read a daily blog article. Man, I'm doing all kinds of stuff, so find out where that meets with you. And let's get together. Let's have a conversation, because you have to surround yourself with good people. This one of the biggest problems, I think, business people don't realize they're so afraid to spend a little money. But what they don't realize is they can't do everything. They can't be the captain of this and the captain of that. Let me be the captain of the financial side of this, and let's work together, and we'll take it to the next level. That's really the answer, Rob.

Robert Plank 30:35 Let's do it. And that website is ask ralph.com A, S, K, R, A, L, P, H.com, and as we're heading there, I know you're a pro podcaster, Mr. Ralph, and this is the part of the show where I like to put my guest on the spot, try to stump them a little bit. It's a little scary. I asked them about a helpful quote or lesson that has served them, that can serve us. And you've already shared so many but there's there one that works well as a grand finale is there a quote or lesson that you've come across that you live by, that you can pass on to us?

Ralph Estep Jr. 31:07 I'm gonna go back to that Dachau visit. And then when I got back, I watched Schindler's List for the second time. And right at the end of Schindler's List, when Oscar Schindler was looking at the people that he had saved, somebody said, If you save one person, you save the world entire. Each of us has the ability to make that impact, impact one person and just watch it go from there

Robert Plank 31:35 time to get to it. And the very first step is to go to ask ralph.com dig in. Whatever your level of awareness, temperature, action, taking it is. You can read the blogs, you can watch the videos, or, better yet, contact Ralph and have that conversation. Talk to them about your needs. Mr. Ralph V east, step Jr, wonderful speaking with you today.

Ralph Estep Jr. 31:57 Great, Robert. I appreciate the opportunity, and I wish all of the people listening God's blessing.

Robert Plank 32:05 This is Robert Plank from DFI podcast.com. Forward Slash Free. Me and my team are super excited to jump into your podcast, whether it already exists, whether it's brand new, whether it's just in the idea stage, set up a call and contact us today. Claim your free gift at DFI podcast.com/free and we will see you there. You. Transcribed by https://otter.ai