EntreLeadership - How a Leadership Problem Became a $20-Million Business with Dave Ramsey

Episode Date: December 20, 2021

The EntreLeadership book is 10 years old! (And a lot has happened since it published.) In this episode of The EntreLeadership Podcast, Dave Ramsey stops by to talk about what led him to create the EntreLeadership brand and how it's evolved over the last decade. Then George Kamel interviews longtime EntreLeader and small-business owner Stephen Capps. He shares his entrepreneurial journey and what role EntreLeadership Coaching has played in his success.   The EntreLeadership Podcast EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey Learn more about the EntreLeadership Framework: 5 Stages and 6 Drivers of Business TXGates' website Pull Up and Thrive with Stephen Capps podcast Learn more about EntreLeadership Coaching. Get the EntreLeadership audiobook, read by Dave Ramsey. Schedule a call with Tim, our producer.   Learn more about EntreLeadership Events: EntreLeadership Summit | EntreLeadership Master Series   Learn more about EntreLeadership Coaching: Elite | Advisory Groups | Executive Coaching | Workshops | Weekly Report Tool   Learn more about the offers from our EntreLeadership Partners: BELAY | Gravy | Hite Digital | NetSuite Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Remember the year 2011? Yeah, it's a bit of a blur for me too. But 10 years ago, this podcast had just started to promote a new book by Dave Ramsey. That book? You guessed it, Entree Leadership. From the Ramsey Network, this is the Entree Leadership podcast,

where we help business leaders grow themselves, their teams, and their profits. I'm your host, George Camel, and today's episode is going to be a little bit different. We're celebrating the 10th anniversary of the book, Entree Leadership. So our first guest today is the author himself, Dave Ramsey. He's the CEO of Ramsey Solutions and a seven-time number one national best-selling author, one of those being Entree Leadership.

He's also a personal finance expert and host of the Ramsey Show. In our conversation, you'll hear about the genesis of Entree Leadership, which didn't start as a book idea, but instead was born out of necessity. We'll also talk about the impact that these principles have had on leaders like you and what Dave has learned in the decades since the book released. Our second guest today is the CEO of Texas Gates, Stephen Capps. He's been a business owner since 2003 and has overcome unbelievable adversity both personally and professionally. He'll share his story of being on the brink of bankruptcy to now running a seven-figure debt-free business,

thanks in part to the Entree Leadership Principles intersecting his life. Up first, my conversation with Dave Ramsey. So Dave, we're here celebrating 10 years of Entree Leadership, The Book. In 10 years, what has aged better? You are the book. The picture on the book. You know, it stayed perfect, all these years. Well, this is exciting because the impact this has had, I know it's something that you've hoped for, that you expect it even, but it really has turned into so much more than the book. It's turned into an entire brand.

And I want to go back to over a decade ago when this was just an idea, something that you kind of stumbled upon. Where were you at as a leader and in the business? Well, we were starting to discover what we now teach in Ontario leadership, and I taught it just a few months ago in Antri Master's Series, this idea that delegation is only possible when you can trust someone's competence and their integrity. And competence includes, are they going to do the thing the way you want it done, the way you would do it? Can they finish your sentences? And so I had reached the point in the company that I had people who knew. how to do stuff, they just weren't doing it the way I do it necessarily. Or they'd be like 95% there, but that other 5% was an irritant. It was an aggravation. And it's like, no, no, if you would just do it

just a little bit over that. Now you got it. Okay. And so I decided that if we were going to have leaders that I could delegate to that I was going to have to teach them the Ramsey way of doing that thing, whether it's marketing, whether it's sales, whether it's accounting, whatever the subject is in business? What would Dave do? What would Ramsey do? And if they know that, then they had the opportunity to go do it. But I can't really hold them accountable or delegate to them if they don't know what to do. So we decided we're going to start teaching, okay, here's how we do marketing, here's how we do sales, here's how we do finance, here's how we manage cash, here's how we manage customer complaints, here's how we hire, how we fire. And that was the genesis of the whole thing.

So it was kind of in your head, and you had to put it on paper in order to teach it and go, here's how we do it. Yeah, I was already doing it. I just had to put it down, you know, and so I would get off the air and sit, you know, we were doing a, we'd do a lesson at 5 o'clock on Tuesday evening was our time. And so because we closed at 5.30 and it was an hour long, and I told them if you want to learn leadership, it's not required you come to this class, but you're not going to be a leader if you don't come this class. So it's okay.

If you don't want to be a leader, it's okay. It's not required, but this is not a mandatory, but come. I'm in there if you want, and we'll start at five, and I'll give you 30 minutes on the clock, and you give me 30 minutes off the clock for your self-improvement, and I'll teach a lesson. And I literally would come off the air at 4 o'clock and sit down and type out a lesson and run it, you know, fill in the blanks, because I knew what I wanted to say. It didn't take long. And then I'd just go to the copier, run them off, and three-hole punch them.

And, you know, there's 40 people in there, 30 people in there. So I just run them off myself. I did it all myself. Wow. Walk in there with the overhead projector and start writing on it and start to teaching. And this was all really birthed out of pain points you were feeling as a business owner and a leader going, hey, I need people to do it this way. And that's kind of a cool genesis for Entree leadership. You can't delegate. No one listening can delegate if the people that you're

delegating to don't know how to do it the way you want it done. Now, it, whatever it is. And so I can't delegate a difficult conversation. I can't delegate a handling a problem customer. I can't delegate whatever it is until they know how we're going to do it here. They may have done it a different way at their other place. They may have specialized knowledge in their particular discipline. All of that's a possibility. But I've got to have them in sync. You've got to be able to finish each other sentences. Yeah. So this started as a class, and obviously it worked as you started to develop leaders in the company and we started growing. But it became more than just a class at some point. Walk us through that journey from class to where Entree leadership

is at today. Well, we were doing the class, and Daniel Tarty was a young, you know, upstart with the company, and he was selling stuff over in the ELP side, in the endorsed local provider side, and he came to the class, and he was just enamored with the material. And he said, if we ever do anything with this, I want to help. I want to be part of it. So I went to the guy at the time that was running our live events. And I said, I think we can do a business event with this material. Let's see if we can sell a ticket or two on the radio. And Daniel Tarty probably helped us do that. So actually, the three of us sat down and said, oh, okay, let's have an on-trade leadership event. And we did. And there was probably 50 people or something like that. And then there was 100,

and then there was 150. And then we decided to do some events at some all-inclusives at resort areas, like down in Cancun. and that kind of thing. And it just, the brand kept growing and growing and growing. And these events were, you know, they were profitable and they were fun. And it was really striking accord with the small business community. Because I love small business people. I am one. And this was like, this is like real world stuff.

We really do this crap, you know. It's not just some professor that's on tenure that's never made payroll. You know, this is not business theory. I'm in the trenches every day. As a matter of fact, I did it 10 minutes before. I walked up on stage here and teach you the same stuff that I just, just did, you know. And so that's, it really resonated with what has become the Entree Leadership tribe, the community around this. And it's just, you know, because it was stuff we were already

doing that was successful. And so all of these events led to you going, all right, we need to put this in a book. We need to package this up so that anyone can go buy a book and get all of this information. I mean, we worked that event schedule for several years. I don't remember how many exactly. And then we finally just said, you know, this thing really could be, we've got enough brand momentum here. There's enough people involved in this tribe that I think we could sell enough books to make it a bestseller. And so, you know, we sat down and decided to begin negotiating with publishers on who would get the rights to the book and so forth. And we were right. I mean, it went Zoom, Zoom. It's a huge book.

Over the last 10 years that it's been out, I'm sure you've heard tons of stories of the impact it's had. You've heard personally from our attendees and clients at Entree Leadership events. Does anything stand out to you as far as the principles that were in the book and how they've helped business owners listening? You know, I think the times that I know that it's right and that it's the right book for the right time and that it's, and then the material is the truth and it's real and it's helpful. is when I run into someone who is very, very insecure in their business acumen. Like they got this thing going and it feels like they're riding the bull and they don't know how to ride a bull. I mean, it feels out of control to them and they've got that look in their eye that's a little bit, it's half fear, half desperation and half excitement.

There's three halves there. It's a wild time, you know. And then this material is inserted and I sit and talk to them afterwards and they go, But, you know, I read this book and, oh, my gosh, this really gave me the power to get up above this thing that was kind of writing me. I started writing it instead. So I guess I twisted the metaphor. But still, you know, that's the idea. And then the second thing that I've enjoyed with the book is we've hired so many people over the years.

You know, we've got a thousand folks plus now on the team. And the number of times I am with our team members after 90 days, I always get with all the number of numbers. new team members and go, okay, what kind of finish up your onboarding here? You're now officially a team member. And what is one of the things you, that's your aha moment from being here 90 days? You're like, wow, that kind of was awesome, caught me off guard. Give me something that you feel great about Ramsey now that you're here. And a lot of times, I read Hunteri Leadership and my aha moment is that the businesses really run like you said it was. the audio matches the video, you know, and he goes, wow, I was just, I was a little bit afraid that

the book said it was all, you know, skittles and unicorns or whatever and rainbows, and then we get in here, and he goes, we really do this stuff. Yeah, a lot of the times, you know, you work somewhere and they don't really practice what they preach, and the core values are just a thing they put on the wall versus something that we live out. These aren't aspirational, this is who we are, and I love that about entree leadership. And we make a required reading. A lot of people don't know that. you start here, you get a nice stack of books to read, and one of those is Entree leadership, because you have to understand the way that we do leadership here at Ramsey if you want to be here long term. Well, that's our current version of going through the class with the overhead projector

in the old days. You know, I mean, you need to know this is how we do it here, and that'll help you make decisions as a team member when you're faced with something, you know, because you read that, and then if you did something the way we said to do it in the book, and then we really can't complain. We really have to go. Way to go. You know, good job. Yeah. So in 10 years of this book being out, you've changed a lot as a leader. You've experienced a lot as a business owner. If you were to write Entree Leadership 2.0 today, what would you add to that? Entry Leadership has always been the material in general and included the book, has always been our playbook. This is how Ramsey does what we're Ramsey does. This is who we are. This is what we do.

And so the, you know, I think the biggest thing that has changed since the book was written, all the 10 years ago is the digital marketplace. And the way that we think about products in the digital world is a little different than you think about products in the analog world. You still have to do sales in marketing. You still have to provide value. You still have to solve a problem. You still have to scratch the it.

You still have to be entrepreneurial. But the process that you use for delivery of that product and for the design of that product and the production of that digital product, this podcast being one of those, you know, those things are different. And so, you know, we would probably rewrite some of those chapters. I think there's probably a chapter on advertising that's completely outdated or something, you know, because I used to teach on direct mail and stuff like that, which basically doesn't exist hardly anymore, to amount to anything.

It's not a valid thing that most people use. And, you know, by the time I write the chapter on email, then it'll be irrelevant, right? So, you know, the digital landscape has moved a lot of things. Here's the good news, though. The principles that really made Entree leadership great have not changed. Treat other people like you want to be treated. Whether it's your customer, whether it's your team members, be outrageously generous. Stay out of debt. Serve, don't sell. And the money will take care of itself. These principles are human principles and business principles that don't shift. How we get them done has changed.

Digital being an example versus analog. That's not a principle. That's how you get it done versus, you know, how you get your marketing done is way different than it was 10 years ago. Yeah. So some of the processes have changed just because of advancement technology and that kind of thing. But the principles, the values that are in this book, are timeless, absolutely.

So we have developed some new pieces in entrepreneurship. leadership that really aren't new to us. We've just figured out a way to put them in a framework. And one of those is the six drivers of business and the five stages of a business. Walk us through kind of how those were developed and how that interacts with the entree leadership material. And, you know, that would be in the new book. I should have said that. So thanks for circling me back on that. Because that is the clear path that we've always used, but it was a little fuzzy. We didn't know how to describe it. And so we needed to give how you get there a clear set of

narratives. And you need to clearly define what there is. And so the five stages of business were born from treadmill to legacy builder all the way through. And we started looking at, yeah, that's the stages we went through. And that's the stages that were observable with 10,000, 20,000 companies we've now coached over the last 15 years. or so. And so those five stages are very clear and then what it means to graduate from what you need to do, what tool you need to add to your belt to move from one stage to the next stage to level up. And then the six drivers, in a sense, we had spent a lot of time talking about. We've had so much success communicating with the customer and motivating them and giving them

with the seven baby steps on the financial side that we wanted baby steps for the business side for the Ontario leadership. And they just didn't work. We couldn't figure it out because the baby steps are linear. And business, you know, you get to baby step seven and what do you do, quit? You know, I mean, that's not the point. And so that's how the five stages were born. And then the six drivers are circular, meaning that as you move all the way around from the personal

driver, the first one to the six one profit, you start again. And so they're circular, they have a flywheel-esque feel to them. And we've spent years arguing through and wrestling these two concepts of stages and drivers to the ground to get it to work. And man, I got to tell you, we found it. This is the thing. As a matter of fact, just maybe a quick read, a small book could be written on exactly how the five stages work and how the six drivers work as you go through those five stages. Do you only spin them, do you only spend that driver, that flywheel five times? No, I think we've probably done it at least ten times here. I can go back to milestones and go, okay, and then we got the people thing to another level, and then we got the profit thing to another, we got the product

to another level, and then we got personal growth was in the way, and I had to become a different level of leader. You know, the time I distinctly remember. learning intellectually and then emotionally accepting this idea of strategic thought versus just tactically getting grab done. Because I was just scrapping and clawing. And I remember making that move. And then how the business just, once I got out of the way, and everybody started going, okay, we have to do tactical, we have to get our work done,

and we have to get above our work to make sure we're doing it in the most efficient way, the shortest distance between two points, because you can't see that when you're in the ditch, fighting and scratching and clawing. So I remember these milestones through this place, and a lot of them had to do with me being in the way. Once I would learn something and get out of the way,

then we could go there. So the personal, then that spins that wheel, and you go, okay, and then that affects the product, and that affects the profit, and that affects the people. And then you get to the top, and you've got a larger now organization, more people, more money, more sophistication,

then you've got to do it again. You've got to level up again. And so I think we've spun through those six drivers, probably about 10 times around here. Wow. Yeah, and in hindsight is where you learned exactly what you did and why you did it, you can point back to those moments.

And I've seen it with all the people we've coached in Entree, too. And our Entree leadership coaches have verified. You know, this is exactly what's holding that woman up, that guy up. And when they start doing that, oh, there they go, you know, and we turned them loose. And so I'm really, really excited about the clarity that the six drivers are giving our audience because it's kind of like we just sighed, we finally got it.

Because it was this pent-up frustration. We couldn't put a narrative to how to do it, how to visualize it. And we finally all got that dialed in, and the team here worked really hard on it. And I love getting into that kind of stuff, too. And so I was involved in it and certainly, you know, signing off on it because this is what happened. Yeah. Well, talking about these five stages, as we're kind of in this legacy building, stage and you start to delegate, Daniel Ramsey, your son, has taken over leading Entree

leadership as the EVP. And so I want to talk about the future of Entree leadership. What are you most excited about for the next decade of Entree leadership? Well, Entree leadership has world-class coaching right now. Our advisory groups and our executive coaching program is second to none. It is off the charts. We have world-class coaching. class, unbelievably fabulous events. The Entry Leadership Summit is very possibly the best leadership event in America. It's off the chain. And Entree Master Series is very much meat and potatoes and, you know, really hands-on stuff.

And people can. It's rich, rich of soul. Those two live event products are just stellar. And so now we've got to get the digital piece. of elite, where people can access the content on their own time. They can access coaching and community on their own time. They can access tools on their own time. It's good, but we've got to get it to world class.

And that's what Dan Ram and the team are really leaning in on. We're going to continue to produce the other stuff at world class level. But that's the thing that needs to level up around here. And as that levels up, the scale of the number of small businesses we can impact is going through the roof. and because the accessibility to the content is just 24-7, and we will have, you know, we will have gone through the iterations

to figure out exactly how the small business person is going to consume the material, consume the tools, use the tools, contact their coach, be in a community, be in a mastermind group, and have the discussions with their advisory group and all of those kinds of things. So how to weave all that together in a digital format,

that's the work that's in front of us, but it's also the opportunity that's in front of us. Yeah, I love it. talking to business owners and leaders at our events and just hearing their stories and how the Entree Leadership Principles interacted with their personal lives, their professional lives to impact their business. And it's fascinating to meet them year after year. And they go, oh, man, we doubled our business last year. We did this and we used the drivers and we're in this stage now. And I love hearing those updates. It's just absolutely inspiring.

When those light bulbs come on above their head, it's almost like a cartoon, and then they run home and do the stuff. And then immediately, six weeks later, call us back and go, it worked. And of course it worked. We knew it was going to work. But it's just there's this excitement, this enthusiasm when you're, well, when you're frustrated as crud, and then you see a way through the forest. You know, you've got your machete out, but you're just tired of beating the trees and beating the brush with this machete. And all of a sudden there's light out there and you go, oh, you know, there's something that happens with that. It's powerful. Yeah.

We give them the tools and empower them to do it, and they go do the hard work. Exactly. I love that. So before we leave, I've got you here. you've been in leadership now for 30 years now. I want to know what is the leadership advice you find yourself giving the most? You know, I don't know if it's advice as much as it is, just empathy that I don't think you ever arrive when it comes to dealing with your team and dealing with people.

You ever arrive at a place where there's not something there that's not something there that's disappointing you inside the people side of the equation, and there's not something there that's really exciting and really rewarding. And so, you know, we've got people on our team that have just, they have become the best version of themselves while on this team, and that is what you want if you're leading. And then you've got people that have just done horrendously horrible. I mean, horrible things. And so you've got the scars. and you've got the, if you've been doing this a while, and you've got this richness of soul of the times it's gone right.

And there's plenty of both, actually. But to sit with someone and just share with them that that is the journey, and they go, oh, God, I thought it was just me. The empathy of just going, that's the journey. And instead they go, I thought I was the only one that dealt with my bookkeeper ripping me off. And I thought she was like a sister to me. And it's just the money's gone. But you know what?

I just, it hurts so bad. It's hard for me to trust again. Or I thought I was the only one that get tears in my eyes when I see one of my young leaders step up and really step into the shoulder and things go really good. And they open their mouth and wisdom beyond their ears comes out. And some of those words were my words that I inserted into them. And I get to see that as a leader. And when they, you know, this is an entree leader playing this back to me, they go, I thought I was the only one that had that joy, that richness of soul.

And so it's not really advice. It's just going, hey, this is the journey. This is what it's about. And the people piece of it is the most rewarding and the most frustrating and to just get to sit with entree leaders and say that out loud. And they go, I thought I was the only one. Me too. That's incredible. Well, I can tell you in my eight and a half.

years here. The way that these principles have impacted me personally and professionally is I can't even put it into word. So I'm just grateful for the work that you've done for 30 years, but especially the last 10 with the Entre Leadership book being out there and impacting so many business owners to lead better, to make themselves better. The impact is innumerable. So I'm excited to see what the future holds. And I'm grateful for your time, Dave. Thank you, George. You're one of the superstars I was just talking about. So we're so happy and so proud of you. Appreciate that. Thanks so much, Dave, for coming on the podcast and sharing some of those amazing stories. You know, the impact these principles have had is what keeps our team fired up here at Entree Leadership.

So up next, I talk to Stephen Capps, a small business owner from Texas and a member of Entree Leadership Elite. He shares his incredible story of personal and professional growth over the last decade. I'll be talking to Stephen right after this. All right, we're back with Stephen Capp's CEO of Texas Gates. We're going to talk about his story of going from the brink of bankruptcy to now running a debt-free seven-figure business. Enjoy our conversation. Stephen, it's great to have you on the Entry Leadership podcast. Well, I'm super beyond excited to be here.

We've had the pleasure of meeting before at some of our Entree Leadership events, and I love your story. And as we celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Entree Leadership book, you came to mind as someone who has exemplified these principles, overcome adversity, and achieved some amazing. amazing impact in your business. So I want to talk about your story here. You are the CEO of Texas Gates. How did you get started in business? Well, we have to back up just a little bit. It was 2001. I was 27 years old. I was at the last of my friend group to get married. I was like, I'm never going to get married, you know, because I'm so old, you know, 27. But me and my wife pull up to the private reception, you know, and it was like one of those top of the world.

epic moments, and we jump out of the chauffeur vehicle, and we get married by the house, because we've been married for two minutes, so we had to have a house. Well, we started working for her dad in her dad's still business, and a year later, whenever her parents moved out of town, they gave us the company. Wow. And people are like, oh, yeah, wow, that's awesome. Well, what it amounted to was he got a forklift, a welding machine, and a business that didn't make any money. but fortunately there was one big customer that was basically helping to keep the doors open and so we worked super hard we worked extra jobs maxed out our credit cards and in two years we made it and what what i mean by making it was we started paying ourselves and it was that moment where

i think all entrepreneurs have like this crazy idea is actually going to work and I had had a dozen hairbrain ideas, and I finally had this idea of making custom driveway gates, and it took off like zoom, zoom, and I was like, wow, this is amazing. And so we had a couple of employees, and then Elisa goes in for what we felt like was a routine surgery.

She was in having her gallbladder removed, and they were doing some other exploratory surgery. So not a big deal. Well, about an hour into the surgery, her doctor comes into the waiting room, and I was there with my parents and a few family friends, and the doctor drops a bomb. Says, you need to get your wife's affairs in order. She has stage three ovarian cancer. And that began a journey for you guys personally while you're trying to run this business. Right.

And so the game plan was three rounds of chemo, cancer surgery, to go in remove the tumor, and then three more treatments. And so it was like, hey, no big deal. Well, if you've ever gone through cancer or you know someone who has, it's brutal. But we were like, game on, we are going to fight this thing, we are going to beat this. after the third round of chemo, we go in for the surgery. And at this time, all of our friends are having kids. But instead, we're going to the hospital for cancer treatment and a full hysterectomy. But we had made the decision that we're going to adopt.

So this is just one more hurdle to get over. And then three more treatments and it's over. We're done. So I go in for the surgery and the doctor comes out. and we're expecting for him to say that the surgery went great, and she's in the recovery room. But instead, he says that the cancer is spread, and there's nothing that we can do.

So over the next 15 months, we prayed, we believed, we questioned, we doubted, and we fell more in love. Then one week before Christmas, 2006, Lisa passes away. And we had no life insurance, no health insurance, no savings, just a pile of debt. So I had no other choice but to go back to work immediately. And she ran the office and the books, and I ran the shop. And I knew nothing about what she did.

I mean, I knew enough to get myself in trouble. and so I go back to work and hire a string of the wrong people and just trying to make it from one day to the next. I'm trying to keep this business going, trying to keep my life going. I didn't know anything about finances or a business. and so here I am a man that's a dead inside. And all my friends are like,

oh, you are going to get married again real soon and all this. And I was like, no, I could be single for 10 years. And I didn't have friends trying to set me up with their friends that had a good personality, you know. And then out of nowhere, Sarah comes in to my life. I wasn't looking. I wasn't, you know, I'm just minding my own business. So Sarah comes in to my life

And so a man who was dead inside I'm alive again And our wedding was three months later Which is crazy It was a whirlwind And everyone was so excited Because everybody knew what I had Gone through, the hurt, the paint

And the loss And the wedding was like redemption It was I was being restored So it was another one of those epic top of the world feelings like wow I am starting

a new life because whenever Lisa died and I turned and I walked away from the grave site I felt like my life was over but really that was this that was only at the beginning of my hardship yeah so you had this moment of redemption

as you get married to Sarah but it was just a moment what happens next well we go on our honeymoon, and it was like an East Coast journey. We flew into Portland, Maine, and we drove down the coast to a New York City in Washington, D.C. And it was like, this is awesome. But then I get two phone calls. And this is what I call the beginning of the crashing and burning of my life. The first phone call was from one of my employees saying his payroll check just bounced.

and the second phone call was for my secretary saying that the largest customer just canceled a $30,000 purchase order. So we were crashing already, but now we're on fire. So we're crashing and burning. And I hang up the phone, Sarah doesn't know anything. And I didn't know what to do, what to say, and I just continued to work hard in the business. Because that was all that I knew was hard work. You thought I could just outwork all of my problems. Right, right.

You know, I will just work harder, longer. And there I am on the treadmill. I'm on the treadmill, metaphorically speaking. And Ian walks one of our vendors, and he says down across from me at my desk and says, you owe us $6,000 and we need our money. It may as well have been $6 million because I didn't have it. but I owed them 6,000 plus I owed about a half dozen others that or more.

What did your debt amount to at that point? Around 250,000. Wow. And you just felt this mountain of debt you couldn't crawl out of, and at every corner people are saying, hey, you owe me money. Right. And you lost this client. Wow.

Yeah, that was a client that was going to help us get out of this. It was like I owed friends and family money, money. It was like, I owed everybody money. But that was at the moment that I was like, all right, no matter how I got here, it's my responsibility to get out of this mess. So you took ownership.

And I have a saying, no excuses. Because I have a thousand reasons why I should be a mental case. First of all, I'm a PK, a preacher's kid. And if that's not bad enough, I don't know what it is. But I had an older brother that was killed in a car wreck when I was nine. I had a severe stutter

Like I could not get my name out Whenever I'm first meeting someone And we moved more than 20 times by the time I graduated high school So I'm always the new kid I move out at 19 Go to college, made it about a year I drop out And I start to get traction in my mid-20s

But by the time I'm 33 I'm a widower So no excuses and I'm going to take it one step further, don't use your life as an excuse. So at this time, I'm just trying to work harder. I'm, you know, got grit in my teeth that I'm not going to quit, but I didn't have the steps. And then a friend of ours tells us about Financial Peace University.

And we go to the class and we go nuts. Because now I have the steps. You got a plan. Now I have a plan, and we are getting out of debt. And then we worked extra jobs. We drove junk cars. I took peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to work every single day. And it was just that moment of, I'm going to get out of this.

Because whenever you would go from, how in the world am I ever going to get out of this? My wife dies. We lose our largest customer. and I suffer near financial ruin and get remarried all in under 12 months. So we're working the baby steps, and so we have around $250,000 in two years, so we're a debt-free except for house.

Amazing. But our business still wasn't stable, and so it was still a struggle. But during that time, we hear about an entrepreneur leadership one day, and I fly to Georgia, Georgia, go to the entrepreneurship one day, and back then they gave you a big box of books. And in that box was John Maxwell's 21 irrefutable lives of leadership.

And I had been in business for five years, and I'd never read a book. Because that wasn't how I thought about a business. A business was hard work and, you know, your work ethic and, you know, we're going to muscle through this. So I took that book back and took my whole team through. that book because I found out that I am the lid of my organization. So I have to grow in order for this to grow. And that was in 2008, and every one of those team members are still with us today. Wow. So you had all this personal stuff. While this business was starting to grow and you started to get it in a healthier place and set yourself up with a foundation, what were some of those

leadership principles, entree leadership principles that helped you as a leader? and a business owner? Well, I was on a call and I got these three steps. Step number one, mission statement. Number two, core values. Number three, strategic priorities. Because whenever you have a mission,

you know where you're going. Whenever you know what you stand for with your core values, then you can hire and fire based on the mission statement and the core values. Because what I was doing was hiring

out of desperation. I need help and they need a job. Hey, it's a match made in heaven. This is perfect. And then they don't work as hard as you do. They don't do the job as well as or even close to how you would do it. Well, who is the fool right here that is hiring all these crazy people? So we did a mission statement, core values, and then I started to hire the right people.

So we were 13 years into business, and I was the only salesperson for 13 years. So we finally hired someone to come and work in the office as an office administrator, and she could sell. So I took Dave's advice from Montre Leadership book, and I hired someone that had both integrity and the capacity to handle the job. and the capacity to handle the job that I needed to delegate to them because I was making the mistake over and over hiring people with no integrity and they didn't have capacity to handle the job. And then I'm mad at them because they can't do the job. So I hire this gal, Alisa Stokel.

She's like, go get her hard worker, get the job done, and I'm dumping everything on her because she has a capacity to do it. I was entering receipts. I was updating the check register. I was doing sales, bids. I was doing it all. But I realized that delegation is multiplication.

It takes you from going 5 plus 5 to 5 times 5. And all right, as I'm able to get this stuff off of my plate, I'm able to work on the business and not just in the business because I was on the treadmill for 13 years. Yeah, our first stage of business treadmill operator. You live that out for a long time. And that is no fun. That is no fun because it makes you despise the thing that you love to do

because you have this heart to serve, you have this heart to bring excellence to the marketplace, but then you're on this dad-blame treadmill, and you begin to despise it. So I begin to delegate, and that was a game-changer, because it had been basically me and three folks for 13 years. Now, we're a local, regional business. We had worked our way up to a little over 500,000 in revenue, okay? the year that we joined the elite program, we did 730 in revenue. Wow.

So it went from 500 to 730. And then we outgrew our facility and we had to move. And I knew that these are the types of things that put people out of business. So I have the Entry leadership tribe that I can get wisdom and counsel. What is the best way to do this? So I made a budget for our move. So we move, which was awesome, and we hired a second gal in the office, Atlanta, total rock star. So I have an office in the back, and now I have two ladies working in the office.

So it's moving me further back from the front lines. And so we got together as a group, wrote our mission statement, you know, hey, what do you think our mission should be? What do you think our core values are? Because whenever you do it together, you create buy-in. This isn't me being a boss. Now, I have been a boss in the past. This is what we're going to do, and everyone's going to like it. Things are about to change around here,

and then it doesn't change because people don't have the buy-in. And you've, since you started, you know, you've joined Elite and you've been in the program and following these Entry Leadership Principles, you have doubled your revenues, over-doubled in the years. Yes. incredible. And so 2020 comes and we all know what

2020 was and our goal that year was to finally break the million dollar ceiling and then corona hits on the shutdowns and it's like what's going to happen? So we got together as a group and I over communicated with where we're at and what's going on

and which all these principles are things that I've learned from the Armed Leadership book and from the elite coaching program. And I said, our first step is Sarah and I will not take a paycheck until this thing is over. So we didn't take a paycheck for about eight weeks. And everyone's going to cut back their hours by four. And we're just going to hunker down and see what happens.

Well, Texas is a pretty open state. So bars and restaurants were shut down for a few weeks, but we were able to continue our business. and then we landed three of the largest jobs we've ever had right in the middle of this pandemic. So we were hoping to do a million that year. You know, finally break that ceiling. Well, we ended the year at $1.3 million. And it was like, I could not believe that I was able to go from the treadmill stage, just trying to make it, just trying to keep the doors open.

open to now I'm in the back working on the business and not in the business. And so it's been a wild, wild ride. Yeah. So as we wrap here, I want you to speak to the listener who may be in that treadmill stage, who's trying to figure out how to get to the next level. And since you're living proof of these principles, what would you tell them that they need to be doing to get out of that treadmill phase and actually be working on the business?

Well, first of all, you have to grow yourself. You have to invest in yourself because your organization will not outgrow you. So you have to hire the right folks. You have to delegate. You have to communicate over and over and over again. My job is I am the chief repeating officer. I have to repeat myself over and over again.

And then you need to serve. and I have a sort of a saying that you have to be a servant warrior you have to be able to serve your team and your customer with the warrior spirit there's a story that came out of the Civil War where there was a colonel

that he was in charge of holding the ridge at a little roundtop and it was just outside of a Gettysburg and the battle of Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, more than 50,000 casualties. So it's the day two of fighting. All of the men are hungry, tired, war-weary, but worst of all, the union is out of ammunition.

And Colonel Chamberlain knows that he has to hold that hill. So he tells his men, put your bayonets on your weapons. And whenever I give the signal, we're going to charge down the hill. So he was being a servant warrior for his team. So he yells, bayonets! And the union rushes down the hill with no ammunition towards the Confederates, and they win the day.

So be that servant warrior. Be that leader that your team will follow you into battle. Be that leader that they will follow you into battle. Be that leader that they will, follow you with no ammunition, but you have such a mission. We will not lose this hill. So I ask, what is the line that you are holding? What is the hill that you are defending?

Be the one that holds the line. Be the one that does not quit. Be a servant warrior. Inspiring stuff, Stephen. Awesome story. I appreciate you coming on the podcast and exemplify these principles and inspiring the leaders listening to get to that next level and do what they need to do. So I appreciate you being on with us. Well, it's been a privilege.

Huge thanks to Stephen for making the trip to Nashville and for sharing his story. Listen, if you don't have the Entree Leadership book yet, what are you doing? It's time to get it. To celebrate the 10th anniversary, we are giving away the audiobook read by Dave himself for free to the first 100 people. So stop what you're doing right now and go click the link in the show notes. When you get to that page, all you have to do is add the Entree Leadership Audiobook to your cart and then apply the promo code 10 at checkout. That's promo code 10, T-E-N, to get the Entree Leadership Audiobook for free. And if the code doesn't work, sorry, you're too late.

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