Once, a young lady in Ghana was so passionate about her dfree® journey that she gave her copy of Say Yes to No Debt: 12 Steps to Financial Freedom to a friend of hers. A year later, she found out that the friend had taken the book and started a dfree® club in Accra, where people meet monthly to build upon the principles of financial freedom. Now that’s the spirit of igniting dfree® living.

I was in a church in another country and a woman bought 10 copies of the book, one for herself and one each for nine other family members. Last year, I received a letter from a gentleman who wanted to buy 150 copies of the book to give as gifts at his family reunion that summer. It’s wonderful when the financial freedom message resonates with people so deeply that they want to spread the message. It’s important for you to promote dfree® too.

Groups around the world are using the dfree® strategy because they realize the need for an accessible, culturally-relevant strategy and curriculum that helps people understand not just how to handle money but the emotional, psychological and spiritual drivers that pull us into financial problems rather than lifting us out of financial problems – and that’s what dfree® is.

dfree® addresses the root causes of spending more money than we make. dfree® helps us analyze the messages that we receive that are often deceptive and not very helpful to our financial future. dfree® promotes the principle of owning instead of renting, of spending less than you earn, of using legitimate financial institutions instead of alternative financial services. It is much more than reading a book; dfree® is a movement. Movements connect people.

No matter how much you’ve learned about financial freedom to date, you’ll learn more when you teach. No matter how focused you are on debt relief, your focus will magnify when you bring others into your dfree® circle or family. Not only have studies shown that it is easier to do difficult challenges in groups, but groups are just more fun. You have leadership, gatherings, structure, accountability and celebrations in groups.

So if you are part of the dfree® movement but not part of a group – it’s time. Either join a group or start one. Most of us are part of a group – a school group, a fraternity or sorority, a parent group, a block association, a tenant group, a church group, a sports team, a book club, etc. If you are not part of a group, start one. dfree® offers ample resources, most of which are free, to help and train group leaders and members. You may not think so but, you have the time and you have the influence.

There are 168 hours in every week. What I’ve discovered is that if you spend eight hours a day sleeping, if you spend eight hours a day working, if you spend two or three hours a day showering, eating and commuting, most people still have two or three hours left. That is two or three hours each day that could be used to do something redemptive and contribute to someone’s life. Suppose you gave only 10 percent of your discretionary time, suppose you gave two to three hours per week to an organization or individual to help them teach dfree® living? Any activity that teaches financial freedom would be time well spent. There are people who need you.

There are people who make decisions in their lives based upon you. You may be surprised to learn that someone bought a pair of shoes because you wear those shoes. Someone does their hair the way they do because they saw you doing your hair that way. Someone drives the kind of car I drive because they assume, if I am driving the car, it must be a good car to drive. Each one of us has a sphere of influence and all I’m asking you to do is to use your personal influence to lead people to a point where their financial freedom now appears to be possible to them and they commit to paying down their debt. That’s powerful. It helps remove stress from people’s lives. And, it gives you a chance to join a national movement without leaving your bedroom! You can connect with people and spread the word through social media.

In her day, my grandmother believed that segregation would end because nameless, faceless people marched down the dusty roads of the South to bring about a change. I believe we need today the kind of movement that addresses itself to financial challenges and injustices the same way, and at the same level, we had a movement to address the social and political injustices facing our people in this country.

We’re living in a culture where it’s normal to be drowning in debt. Debt is like a cancer that eats away at what would otherwise be a healthy body. Debt is like termites that eat away at the foundation of your home. This is a movement of people serving people. We need everyone who understands the severity of financial incapacity, everyone who understands the plight of people who are minorities yet represent the majority in negative statistics, to embrace and promote dfree® living today.