Ken Coleman has inspired many by having the courage to leave an unfulfilling career and pursue his dreams. He is now a well-known personality on The Ramsey Show, a nationally syndicated program, and a two-time Wall Street Journal best-selling author. His work on the show allows him to engage, provoke thought, evoke emotions, and inspire action to improve people’s lives.
Almost a decade ago, Ken Coleman realized he wasn’t on the path he truly desired and was still unsure about his future. However, he summoned the courage to take the necessary steps towards his happiness and never looked back. This journey has eventually led him to the pinnacle of his success today.
Since the onset of COVID-19, The Ramsey Show has undergone some changes, including a name change to reflect the involvement of multiple hosts. Dave Ramsey now shares the spotlight with his team numerous days weekly, with Coleman often stepping in to substitute for him. Along with Rachel Cruze, Jade Warshaw, and George Kamel, Coleman carries The Ramsey Show forward, aiming to engage and entertain millions of listeners while improving their lives.
Ken Coleman often reminds his audience that persistence and being in the right place always lead to opportunities presenting themselves. His success is a testament to this, having gained clarity on his chosen life goal and embarking on the journey towards achieving it, consistently handling even the most modest tasks.
Ramsey Solutions is highly confident in its product. Ken Coleman advises talk radio executives to recognize the abundance of political talk shows available, whether local or national that provide a wide range of content for radio broadcasts. However, he firmly believes that no show can match The Ramsey Show, which has been consistently present for over 30 years.
During an interview with Barrett News Media, Ken Coleman discusses the biggest benefit he’s received working alongside Dave Ramsey, how The Ramsey Show is consistently able to connect with the news/talk audience, how the Ramsey brand prioritizes content for social media, and what he wants radio executives to know about The Ramsey Show.
Ryan Hedrick: How long have you been with Dave Ramsey? How did the relationship start?
Ken Coleman: 9 years. We have mutual friends. A few of his employees were also long-time friends of mine, and my wife worked for Dave many years ago, for about two years. So, we had all those mutual connections, and so we were acquaintances, and he was aware of my budding broadcast career and was following along.
RH: How did your career start?
KC: I was in my early 30s, and I was beginning to question the path that I had been on, which was the path to run for political office. I began to question that and lost the fire in the belly for that. In the process of doing some self-discovery to try and figure out what I was going to do, I got to a point where I realized there were some similarities between the public service role and broadcasting.
So, I started small. I took a broadcasting class with a bunch of 20-year-olds, started doing high school football play-by-play, and through a series of hustling and connecting, I built my way onto a Saturday morning radio show and, from there, started hosting a daily drive-time show. I was doing a podcast in the leadership space, where I interviewed Dave for the first time. I had all these irons in the fire. That’s how that happened.
RH: What is the most significant benefit and lesson that you have gained while working with Dave Ramsey?
KC: The most important blessing I’ve received from him is his unwavering belief in me. He has provided me with an invaluable platform. The biggest takeaway is that for Dave’s persona and gruff kind of irritating tough love, he does have a good thermometer to hear what’s going on with people. Some of those calls are not boilerplate problem and answer. Some of them have a lot of deep issues, scary things going on behind the scenes, and sometimes there’s a lot of confusion, and he’s able to see through that, and I’ve learned how to read people, even if you can’t look at them you can listen and hear things in their voice, even if they’re not saying it.
There comes a time when you are watching him (Dave), sitting next to him, dig behind the question; there’s always a question or two or three behind it, underneath the questions. That’s been something that I’ve learned.
RH: When creating content for radio listeners, how do you think your show connects with the news/talk audience?
KC: The Ramsey Show is caller-driven. Dave has instilled in us that when you’re taking that call, you have to take it and do it in a way that helps the rest of the audience. You’re addressing the caller’s need, but you’re addressing it in a way that the rest of the audience can get it. A caller-driven show is an intimate conversation that people are eavesdropping in on, and if you do it right, they feel like they’ve pulled up a chair and they’re listening in on that conversation.
RH: How do you prioritize and adapt content for Ramsey’s social media channels?
KC: With all the social platforms, you have to program to the platform. It’s important that in 2023, any media company or any media personality understands that you can have one clear message based on some principles, and so the principles don’t change, but the platforms dictate that the process has to be different on how you deliver the principles.
So, if you go on LinkedIn, that platform offers a lot of written content. Facebook is leaning more towards that. Instagram is video content, TikTok is video content, and YouTube is all video. But now you have to look at what works and what people want on YouTube. If you juxtapose that with a podcast audience, podcast audiences skew a little bit older, they’re wealthier, more educated, and they’re looking for more personal growth content. You have to program to the platform.
With every social media platform, you’re delivering the same content, but you’re delivering it in a different way.
RH: Has radio become a secondary priority for the Ramsey brand, or is it merely a bonus for the social content created by The Ramsey Show?
Ken Coleman: Radio is still the platform by which everything is standing. You’re still talking about 600-plus stations, the second-largest radio show in the world. The show that is distributed via YouTube, podcast, and social media is still from a radio format. We are still doing a traditional radio format every day, three hours a day, and then that content is being cut up and distributed on those other platforms.
Make no mistake, it is, first and foremost, a radio show, and everything else comes out of that. If you’re going to be a radio show or a television show, you are going to have to diversify. The digital world is here to stay. The Ramsey Show started as a radio show, still a radio show, but now it lives on multiple formats.
RH: As the show continues to grow and evolve, is there one important thing that you would like news/talk decision makers to understand about your team and the future of your show?
KC: I would for every talk radio executive to understand that there are plenty of political talk shows. You look at local, regional, and national political talk shows; there are more than enough to fill the airwaves but there is no show like ours that has been consistent for over 30 years beating the drum beat that is as important to your listeners as political talk.
In fact, I will remind you of a famous political moment when James Carville took a shot at George Herbert Walker Bush when he was running against Bill Clinton and said, ‘It’s the economy, stupid.’ He was reminding the president that it’s not about foreign policy; it’s not about any of that. People vote their pocketbooks.
The Ramsey Show is the only show in America that has taken on money, which is the most important thing to Americans. We’re certainly not hurting for radio exposure, but I would be baffled by any major talk network or station that doesn’t have The Ramsey Show in its daily lineup. All the policies and all the politics in the world don’t matter because it’s up to you to figure out your policy and your pocketbook and figure out your household budget. The money conversation we bring is more relevant than any political talk show. That is my very bold belief.
Every radio station in America should be carrying The Ramsey Show because of its relevance, not because we think that we’re good, not because we think that we’re better than anybody, but because for over three decades, we’ve met people where they are in the most intimate and most stress-filled areas of their life, and that’s their money.
RH: What are some of the individual and show goals you and your team have for the future?
Ken Coleman: Dave has said that your income has been your greatest wealth-building tool for decades. We know that from the largest net worth millionaire study ever done by Ramsey Solutions, ten thousand plus millionaires, 96 percent of millionaires said they enjoyed their work. We want to expand into work; we want to expand into relationships. Dr. John Delony has been a great success as well.
So, he and I represent the non-money personalities. If you look at the content of The Ramsey Show, obviously, it’s always going to be money-focused, but we’re now talking about work and relationships. You can’t talk about money without talking about relationships; you can’t talk about money without talking about work.
Expanding the content to meet people where they are and bring those three areas of life into balance through hope and practical steps for people to win in all three of those areas.
