EntreLeadership - Shooting Straight: Built a $3.6 Million Business (and Still Has Doubts)

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

📝 Shape what comes next for the EntreLeadership show by participating in our 2026 audience study. After you complete the survey, you can enter for a chance to win a Standard ticket to EntreLeadership® Summit 2027. Sometimes the biggest thing standing between your business and the next level is you.  In this episode, business owner Waylon Hasty joins head coach John Felkins on the shooting range to discuss impostor syndrome, hiring people you can trust, and becoming the leader your growing business needs.   Next Steps: ·      🎯 Not sure what to do next in your business? Let’s figure it out together. Book a free 30-minute consult call with the EntreLeadership Team. ·      📞 Have a question for the show? Call 844-944-1070 or send us a message. ·      📚 Order Dave’s most recent EntreLeadership book, Build a Business You Love. ·      📧 Get EntreLeadership’s free weekly newsletter: expert advice and practical tips from the same playbook we used to build Ramsey Solutions into a $300 million company. ·      🌎 Attend our world-class leadership conference, EntreLeadership Summit. ·      📝 Stop guessing. Get a plan built for your business and someone who holds you to it. Find out which coaching option is right for you. ·      📈 Bad hires. Strategies that never get off the ground. Sixty-hour workweeks. Sleepless nights. EntreLeadership Master Series is where you trade all that for the exact systems our Executive Team used to scale to $300 million. Don’t wait until seats are sold out.   Connect With Our Sponsors: ·      Go to Belay Solutions or text ENTRE to 55123 for their free resource! ·       See if Christian Healthcare Ministries Groups are the right fit for your organization. ·      Visit NetSuite today to learn more.   Listen to More From Ramsey Network: 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💰 George Kamel   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, I would like to ask for your help with something really important. I want you to be able to shape what comes next for the Entree Leadership Show by participating in our 2026 audience survey. You need a text survey to 33789 to get the link or go to ramsysolutions.com slash survey. Once you've completed the survey, you can enter for a chance to win a standard ticket to the Entree Leadership Summit event in 2027. The survey closes September 30th.

Listen, this is a big deal. We want this show to be what you want it to be. So let us know. Waylon Hastie left a career as a lineman to build a school that prepares the next generation for the trade. Today, his business is thriving, but he still wrestles with the same self-doubt that shows up for many business owners.

On this episode, Entree Leadership's head coach John Falcons joins Waylon at the shooting range for an honest conversation about imposter syndrome, hiring the right people, and leading through the challenges that come with a growing business. Let's get to it. Pull. Pull. How long have you been in business? Seven years. Pull. Move that target.

Yep. Pull. All right, I'm going to make the questions harder on you because I missed. What was your revenue last year? Oh gosh, 3.6 million. Pull. Pull. What made you start your business?

The desire to serve and help. Didn't say, pull! Would you rather make more money or have more free time? Free time. Pull. What's your biggest goal for the year? More free time. That's your biggest goal?

For 100%. For your whole team or just for yourself? For myself. What about for your team and your business? Processes and systems. What's that going to do for you? Repeatable, right? It'll allow the opportunity to scale. More insight and vision for the future. Love it. Pull! Good shot. Pull. One word do you think your team uses to describe you? Bold. What about on your bad days?

It's probably not the best choice of word, but a turd. A turd. A turd. Pull! Ah, I got it! Pull! All right, Waylon, you got me on that one, but we're going to the next range and we're going to kick it up. a notch. Let's do it. All right, Wayland, we got five different targets with five different topics. And we've got three different questions. We've got green questions, the easy ones.

Those are worth one point. Then we got yellow questions. Those are worth two points. And then we've got the hard questions, the red ones, and those are worth three points. For each round, we're both going to shoot. I'm going to shoot first to pick the target and the topic, and then you're going to shoot. If you hit the bull's eye, you get to pick which question you're going to answer. But if you miss, you automatically are going to have to answer the red question and you're going to get no points.

Make sense? Let's do it. All right, let's do it. Money. Let's see what you got. You're in trouble. Bullseye, pick which one you want. Red, yellow or green?

Let's go yellow. All right, let's see what we got. When did you know it was time to raise your prices? I would say within the last probably 2020, is the first season of business where we had enough financial data and enough understanding, really with support, you know, we hired some help to kind of review that because I would be honest, I don't really, as a business owner, I didn't know how to do that. I didn't even know where to begin to look, right?

But when we hired a controller as a third party and we began to look at that, then we were able to hire a fractional CFO and we started I started learning about margins and you know gross margins and net margins and I didn't know about it then however I trusted those people that I hired enough to know it's time for a price increase how did you set them to begin with like just what other people were doing yeah just basically some Google and market search research you know and and we started out really low just to kind of get going so we each Each year we'd raise our price, but I didn't know enough to know about why the goal was to get started, get traction, and then stick with the market for what I knew.

Yeah. How did it feel? Like when it came time to do it, did you have some reservations? Were you a little worried about how it was going to go? Yeah, of course. I mean, with imposter syndrome for me, it was, you know, I didn't know how to handle the concept of a customer giving us that money. And I don't take that lightly, right?

So in that, it's like, where's the fine line of what I know now as a net bottom line in order that I serve well on the team and the business, right? So it was really hard when we got in a position to say, all right, it's time to go up. Because the fear that goes with that is how high is too high. Right. Will our sales go down? Right. Where your customers say, you're crazy.

Or would they say, this is the best place to go because of what they're the most bang for the buck? Yeah. But, you know, I mean, in that, what I've learned through that is, though, in that data, to follow the data, and ask the customer, why did you choose us? What appeals to us, right? And then that helps drive everything into that price change. How to go? How do people take it? Take it? Did they... It's from a sales perspective and a consumer perspective. And without studying the data, what I can recall in that is, you know, our customers choose us because of how we treat them. It has nothing to do with the price. It has everything to do with the culture that they're into. Why we teach what we teach, what we do when they get there, how they're welcomed, how they're taught, how they leave. It was learning that, asking those questions was a bit of a shocker for me.

as a business owner, when you start measuring that market and that price, mentally, there's a ton of weight there. And the reality is the customer calls the shot. Are you serving them? Do they get more than what they pay for? And that's always our goal. We desire to exceed customer expectations. So we want our students to leave with so much more than what they paid for. And mentally, it's easy to get hung in this financial picture.

when the realities of it is the customer is over here saying, this is why we pay you what we pay you. Yeah. All right, fantastic. It's time for the next round. We need some new questions. Let's do it. All right, next topic.

People. Got it. Good shot. Thank you. Right on the X, Whalen. Which one you want? What I'm talking about. Let's go yellow again.

We're going to go yellow again. Middle of the road. That's right. All right. Let's see what we got. What's a non-negotiable for you when you're hiring somebody? I learned this from executive coaching in that there were things and people on our team and people we were considering to hire that there was a gut feeling somewhat right, right? So in that, I wanted to know where does that gut feeling come from?

Why is that there? What is that there? Right. So obviously from my accent, there is no doubt. so as to where I'm from, I'm from the south. And context of that, I'm an extreme huge people person. I love people. And my gut was telling me, in just different scenarios of hiring, something's off.

Something's off. So I ask, I want to know, I ask more in executive coaching, where does this feeling come from? What's going on, right? So the deep dive into that is, what I wanted to do was say, This is my gut, but the realities of that is there were obvious signs about people, but because I'm a people person and I love people, I didn't want to acknowledge those. It was huge barrier for me, huge barrier. But you were starting to learn that just because you love people doesn't mean that they're

a good fit for your team. Absolutely. And some of the people that don't work on our team, I miss them, I love them. They're incredible people. Right. And we would not be where we are without the team we have now. And, you know, it was me and a secretary, and we have about 20 team members now. So that's a great challenge.

But I tell you that to say, I learned through that, it was a very long process, probably 18 months process of. For me, it went from, why does my gut say a thing? Why do I have a gut feeling to that it's not a gut feeling. There's a lot of obvious markers that I wasn't willing to call out because, you know, you feel judgmental. You feel very judgmental. And you've got a business around. Right. And if you're going to exceed customer expectations, you're going to have to have a team of people that will be willing to do that.

Right. And it goes around. I mean, I've heard you say it. I've heard Dave say it. You don't try to motivate your people. And I was hung in that because I wanted what was best for my team and some of the individuals on our team more than they do. it. And that's hard. That is so hard. In that whole process, what is the most non-negotiable thing for you that you're just looking for? I understand what you said about. You can't just trust your

gut feel anymore. There's some core things. But what's that one filter that you're like, this person's either not going to be good on my team or they are going to be good on my team? When I think about non-negotiables for our team, it's going to be really in the ideal team right humble hungry smart those are non-negotiables and those are the markers we're going to look for we teach it you hear it in different ways some people say one thing some people say everything but the idea or the phrase and we've got this on a couple t-shirts at our place how you do anything is how you do everything yeah and that hungry humble smart because you cannot motivate somebody but somebody's

motivated they're hungry but if they're hungry and they're arrogant they're out non-negotiable you don't get to come here yeah the other piece of that is are Are they smart enough in a competency way to do what we're going to hire them to do? Because they may be incredible over here. So I would use the ideal team player as non-negotiables and split that out into those gut-feeling conversations and go a little deeper. And I would say those markers, you know, hungry motivation and humble arrogance, those kind of things are the things we look for.

And we vet even by resume from that. It's not hard to look at a seven-page resume where this guy are going to be. gal has, it's like, no, you're not coming to work here. No. I know that you're working in a space where at least the people going through your school. Yeah. They're not necessarily college, graduate, you know, PhD kind of people, but we have found the less you know somebody, the higher the risk they're going to be a bad hire. Absolutely. And so just slowing down, you talk about taking an entire quarter to hire somebody. Yes. You get to know them pretty well, don't you? You do. You do. And what we try to do is, and this is not me, because I have the

entrepreneur spirit. You know, I'm like, hey, Falcons, we're out hanging out. You want a job. You start tomorrow, right? So the team around me is like, look, dude, you guys slow down. That's not my nature. But the team has helped hold me accountable in those ways to say, look, chill out. Let's build this process. And it doesn't take long for that vetting to go. I mean, we've had that most recent job. I think we had like 86 applicants. Wow. And after what we posted it for 10 days and after the job come down, I mean, we had like nine people we were interested in out of 80. Out of 80. And then it's like, all right, how we, then we just kind of follow that calendar.

That's the reason we reverse engineer it is because if not, it's very easy to say, oh, I know Falcons. He's a great guy. Let's hire him. Hold on a minute. Let's go back to this. Right. So that's the intentionality of the slow process, for us, it's becoming non-negotiable to get to know them. We'll get right back to the episode.

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Now let's get back to our episode. All right, next round. Let's do it. Pick the topic. Growth. Got it. Great shot. You're up.

That is not in the bullside. That is not. That's wide right. That is 100% only. Let's go ahead and go with the red question. For no points. And it's the hardest question. That's all right.

Remember why that is? Yeah, because I missed. That's right. Okay. All right, here it is. What's the biggest thing standing between where you are now and where you want to be? The short answer, that would be me. Okay.

The territory or the season of business we're in, I've never been before. I have no idea what it's like to have a team of 20. I have no idea what it's like to make payroll for 20 people. have no idea what it's like to serve as many customers as we serve. So for the position I'm in, I literally have no idea how to do my job. Okay. Knowing that, it's like where do you go for the solution to that?

And I don't know that there is a one, I would say confidently, there's not a one-stop shot for that. Right. It is books, it is coaching, it is mentoring, it is teaching. it is experience, just to experience the things and to give myself, our team, our leadership the grace to go the wrong direction or maybe not as much the wrong direction as to make mistakes and fail. Right.

That's what's between us. That's what's between us and where we want to be. And I'm in a position where for probably the last 12 or 18 months, I'm in that concept of delegation of leading, leaders and I'm learning to do that and I'm figuring out what works and what don't work. And as an entrepreneur and a guy that's a high D type A personality, it is a huge challenge to slow down, even like the hiring process is a huge challenge. Where do we want to be and how are we going to get there? We are in a position that is much more applicable and efficient to be strategic.

First is to be scrappy, right? So where's the balance of that? Because by nature, I'm just a scrappy guy. Right. And that scrappy piece is not a bad trait. However, there's some balance in that because what we're learning is, how do we be a little bit more strategic and lead well?

Because our entire team is moving from, what I would call individual contributors to leaders, and I want that to be an overnight shift. I want it to happen today. Like tomorrow, let's do it, let's go, let's get it done. And that's just not the realities of the season we're in for leadership. So what's between me and where we want to go is me being able to lead leaders in a direction that maintains our culture, our customer service, our trust with a customer. That's what is between us and where we want to be.

So I haven't worked with a lot of folks in coaching that are in the seat that you're in today. I know that's not the first time you've reached a threshold where you had to reinvent yourself or do something new, right? Because I know from your story, you started this business. You had never started a school before. No, no. You didn't know what to do then either, did you? That's right. So each time you've come up against one of these thresholds, like the one you're talking about now.

what do you go to? What is your fallback position or your touchstone that you try and re-center on when you have to figure something new out? Maybe it's ironic, maybe it's not. But recently, I have chosen to hire a personal trainer for me. Okay. The goal in that personal trainer

is not for me to run a marathon. It's not for me to be the super fit guy. This is the goal. It's coming through the threshold. So I take that back to before I started the business, I commuted from North Georgia to Atlanta every day. It's about a 70 or 80 mile commute when I built power lines in linework. And the most, there is something about that ride that I miss. Some people would tell me, you are crazy.

Nobody wants to be in Atlanta in traffic. I'm in that category. And there is a lot of truth to that. But there is something I miss about that. There is a rooted thing in me where it was me and my time and my vehicle. And there wasn't necessarily a consistent tool that I used. Sometimes it was no radio. Sometimes it may be a podcast.

Sometimes it may be just music. Most of the time, it was nothing. It was riding back forth in that vehicle with nothing. No sound on. And I missed that. And recently, how do I get through this threshold? I'm up against this barrier. What do I do?

It's probably since February this year. I've really been reading and doing some research locally where I live about personal trainers. And just last week, I started seeing a personal trainer. And the first question they asked me was, what's the goal? And it's weird to tell a personal trainer, I want to feel better and I need headspace to be locked in and focused into something.

And I need accountability and a coach to take care. there. And that's in a new way because you are working with an executive coach. You're working with Leanne on our coaching team, right? That's right. And that's been, that's incredible. I mean, we're four years in. Would you mind sharing a little bit? What's the focus of that right now? What's the biggest thing that you're getting out of executive coaching right now and how's it helping you? So really from the beginning and we have some strategic planning sessions coming up that are off-site strategic planning sessions here at Ramsey. And, and Leanne, will facilitate those what's happened in those and I'm so encouraged by this like it just makes me

want to shout because go ahead you can shout we have had off-site strad op sessions really for about five years and for the people that have tenure with us and it's true and it sucks to hear it but it's so true they're like I feel like we go do this thing and we get this desired future and we get these defining objectives and we know who's got to do what to go a direction. And then that, for lack of a better term, it trickles down and it kind of fades. Fades. Right. I believe the reason that has faded is because we've come into those as a team. And before we get into the strategic planning session, there are things we know we need to address and we're not willing to. So on the backside of the strategic planning session, we come out of there with accountability to address those things,

and it trickles off. So this is the first strategic. We had a leaders meeting earlier in the week, and from that leader's meeting, someone else around the table, not me, said, if you got something you need to get off your chest before we go spend seven hours trying to take this business in a direction over the next five years, let it out now. Get it out. Let's do it. And that wasn't you. That was one of your leaders. That was somebody on our team. That was not me. That's a moment, isn't it? Incredible. I'm talking about, it gives me coachills to think about it, because we've worked the muscle of being consistent with those. And looking back on those, they were applicable. They moved the needle. But we had issues we knew we needed to address before

we went into them. And when we got into them, those issues come up. And on the back side, we addressed them for where we sit today. There is no emotional riff. There is no beef. There is no disunity. There is no division. Now we get to go into this thing as a seven-year-old business and say, all right, now where are we going? And that is so encouraging to me, right?

I tell you that to say that came from, this feeling where I sit today came from executive coaching. Because what would happen as a team is our goals or desired future may fade a little bit. But for me, they never did because every two weeks, have you moved the needle? Have you moved the needle? What did you do about Sally? What did you do about Tommy? What did you do about team meetings?

What did you do? Your coach is asking you all those questions. Leanne is asking me those questions every two weeks in a very rhythmic way and just in a competitive way. I'm not going to shy away from it. I'll tell you exactly what happened with Bill or exactly what happened with Sally. Here's what I did. Here's how I handled it. And, you know, sometimes it's not always like a report back.

Did that go well? Sometimes it's like, that was terrible. That was not good. Yeah. You know. But just having somebody look you in the eye and ask you that question. Yeah. That makes a difference.

Absolutely. The same concept is a personal trainer. It's the same concept. I need, I need accountability. Yeah. Because I know what to do, but I don't do it. That's the same for all of us. It's the same for all of us.

I know what to do. And I'm not a guy. in a humble way, I'm not a guy that's going to say, yeah, John, I know what to do, but I'm not going to do it. And then I see you back in two weeks and you say, hey, did you get that done? And I'm like, no, I didn't. That's not me.

If I'm tasked and I know this is what we got to do to go there, sign me up. Even though I know it, I need somebody to say, are you going to do that? And this will be from that executive coaching over four years, this will be the first strategic planning session. that I am so pumped about because I can be extremely honest with you and say, I have no idea where we'll come out the backside. Before that, I could have written down one of four things that we need to address. Yeah.

I have no team issues and no culture issues for where we sit today, so I'm really excited about where we'll go with that. Yeah. I'm excited for y'all. It's going to be a good session. Yeah. And I'm excited because it's time for the next round. Let's do it.

All right. We're going for mental. Let's do it. Got it. Here you go. Is that high left? High left. I get two shots. I'll take it.

I'll take a group. All right. No bull's eye means we're going to take the hard question and no points. Bad ammo. It's bad ammo. All right. Let's see what we got, Waylon. Here's the question.

For no points. For zero points and all the heartache. Tell me about a time when you felt like you didn't have what it took. to be a business owner. Drinking coffee this morning. Literally, I mean, that's imposter syndrome I wear every day. Every day. Because you say every day, go back.

I know your story, but I'd love it if you'd share your story a little bit. When you started the business, which is just automatic, oh, I'm going to do this, it's going to work, and I know everything I need to know? No, and, you know, I deal with that probably almost as, just, you know, just. strongly now as I did then. Really? And it's hard. It's so hard, right? Because in the skill trade I was in, by no stretch of the imagination or any measure was I the best, right?

However, I had a lot of comfort because I had done that role for 15 years. And I remember the day, literally the day, that God said, you need to do this. And it was a calling on my life that was more clear than audible voice. And I, it's so big to me. It's so big because from that, and it's something I still deal with, comes a huge imposter syndrome. There's so many more qualified people. There's so many more credentialed people. There's so many bigger resumes. And the goal in that thing was if I can just help people get into the trade that I was in, if I can be an arm for them, and really from an industry perspective,

it's probably what is it's almost like a micro thing right it's this dirty jobs kind of concept because I made an incredible living building power lines with a high school diploma okay and there was a vibe in the air of for me generationally you need to go to college right right that's shifted thank goodness right there a lot anymore right but when I started the business I mean I literally had no idea if it would even work to the point where I talked to some people in management where I did work probably seven months before I left. And I was so nervous about it working as a business for income to feed my family married with four children. Actually, when I started the business, I was married with three children. When I turned my notice in to leave my job,

my wife was eight months pregnant with our fourth child. And I started that job at age 18. So it's the only career job I had ever known. So you walked out with you. with a pregnant wife. Eight months pregnant. Eight months pregnant to start your business. I did. How many, how many linemen schools were there?

Well, in the nation or just even in Georgia? Yeah, I would say regionally or in the nation. I would say there's probably at that time, 10-ish, right? They were kind of, yeah.

Nationally. Yeah, national. There was 10 of these schools. And there were the ones I'm aware of. Okay. So I had no idea. I mean, I didn't. I knew this, though.

it was more clear than the voice that you and I use right now as to what I'm supposed to do. And what's crazy about that is the imposter syndrome that goes with that, the challenge that goes with that, and the desire that I have from the very bottom of my heart is to be extremely obedient to that calling. And it's not easy. I have, I mean, so the biggest kind of growth in leadership, when I started, it was that scrappy concept. of can we make payroll because it was two employees. It was me and another. We had seven students in our first class. The next class had nine students. We had two in the first year. That was in 2019. We had two classes. Starting in 2020, it was great. You know, I was able to bring on some business

of business revenue and hire some more team members, which is absolutely no process. It's like, hey, I need help. Come help me. You know. And that was great. And COVID hit. You know, we all experienced that pandemic. And I remember clearly getting calls from people that I work with at the utility company. And they said, look, man, what are you doing? Like, you hadn't even been gone for a year. What are you going to do? There was two phone calls I remember in particular during that time.

And both of them asked, what are you going to do? I said, I could tell you really clearly what I'm going to do. I'm going to keep working. And they're like, can you do that? And I said, we're going to find out. And we did. We took about two weeks off. We picked back up for lost days and we kept working. We had some, you know, we made some adaptations and how we did it. We kept going. Right. And they had excitement, rightfully so, because they were at that utility company in a secure way, still getting the income sitting at home.

And I was still getting to do what I love and help these people. And I say that to say through all that. it didn't arise or dawn on me that I was a business owner until I was about two years in. And then it's like, dude, you own a business. And the next piece of imposter syndrome I had was at that time, there was one person on our team of like five, maybe six that was younger than me. Everybody that worked on my team was older than me. And I'm going, who am I to lead people with more. life experience and more. And that was the beginning of getting connected over with advisory groups and executive coaching. And that's that that that imposter syndrome is something that I still

deal with, but I have accountability to go through those barriers and those thresholds to get us where we got to go because of that. You started. You had just a couple of team members, as we call them, right? Now you've got 20. paint the picture a little bit for me. You're graduating people regularly from the school. Our program is a quarterly program. We run in the quarters. We do four groups a year.

And the way we view that is every 11 weeks, we get a brand new mission field. If we're doing what God's called us to do, he's going to send them. And our goal is to make a great investment in them. That's the goal. I'm assuming something. So you tell me if I'm wrong.

Sure. But I've talked to you enough to know that. When you see somebody graduate, you see the family they came from. Oh, yeah. Right? There was a reason that you started the business, right? Yeah. Do you see that reason regularly lived out in front of you? A hundred percent. What is what is that moment that you see? What is that scene you see with your students that caused you to start it to begin with that you get to see now come to life? There is so much information. I would like to share out now, but it's what I would call a nutshell of that is we have literally been a piece of similar to coaching to coach those students in a position for a life-changing family tree or a family cycle to be broken.

What is that cycle that you see get broken? So I come from a manufacturing town. Everything in the town we live in is manufacturing. And there are people that live in the town we live in that's been 25 years and the same manufacturing meal. And we see second generation students come in there. And man, it's incredible. More than once.

I would say consistently with every class, although I may not be the person that it's with, it could be someone on our team. We have parents and grandparents come up to us and they go, change this kid's life. And we always say, we didn't do it. We just had the opportunity, right? We gave them the tools.

And it, Knowing that, it has come to the point where recently, very recently, we've met with some nonprofits locally where we're at, where parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles want to contribute to a scholarship fund for someone who can't afford it because what we were able to do with whoever they had there they were supporting. There is a bit of a weird transition for me in this 20 team members, and it's maybe it's ironic or maybe it's, I don't know where it came from, but. Just this past Monday from one of the guys that fits the stereotype on our team of a trade skills lineman. I mean, this guy's a big old dude, he's got a big old beard. And to my knowledge, it's the first time I've ever seen what I would call like a full paragraph written in the weekly report tool.

Slow down and reflect on how many people we get to help now because we can see nervous energy in you. And you are doing an incredible job leading us well and the better you can lead us, the more impact we have with the students. Nothing's changed with what goes on with these students. And I mean, it literally brought tears from my eyes to know just through that tool that I got that message. That's incredible. When you're in that moment reading that or watching that kid graduate and break that family cycle, where's imposter syndrome in that moment? There is zero. There is zero.

In that moment, you know it's a lie. And we all have our doubts and insecurities, and they all creep up heavier on different days. But in those moments, when you talk to those students and those parents, and you see these young folks, sometimes it's men, sometimes it's women getting a job, getting married, having children, buying a house. You can't replace it.

You cannot put money on that. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome Waylon. And you are a fantastic leader. That wouldn't be happening. I'm thankful. I'm very grateful you would say that. It's very encouraging. All right. Next round. All right. Hot takes. Oh, good shot. Thank you. It's got to be in the red, huh? Is it? I can't tell if it broke the line or not, but I think it is. Well, I think it's on the right side. I do, too. You know, it's just like an accountability thing. Do you want to say you? It's a, it's. the bullseye or uh oh i'm not doing that from an integrity perspective yeah let's go i want the points i hit it you hit it all right which question i were head you're gonna go with the points you're gonna go for the points yeah all right here we go what's one piece of business advice everyone repeats that you think is total garbage takes money to make money it's garbage that's garbage that's garbage why is that So I have some scars that go with that. My dad filed bankruptcy in 1992. I had a brother who filed bankruptcy in 2008, 2009.

And they had money. They had money. And they worked so hard. They worked so hard. And it is very hard to go down a path as a business owner of a disciplined trail of what I know now. I didn't then. But a discipline trail of capital. Like how far ahead do we get?

to grow into where we want to be. And I argue maybe with myself sometimes, I don't know that I still got that bounce right. But what I do know is, just because you have money, does not mean you're going to make money. I mean, you know, I say that not in like a Ramsey setting

and a debt kind of conversation, but just the mindset around that. Yeah. It's really not even like a financial, the mindset, the how you do anything, how you do everything, comes out of me when I hear that because I'm going, you have no idea what you're talking about.

You know what it takes to make money? You got to serve somebody and work hard. You solve a problem and you work hard and you take care of people. And that's how you make money. Don't take money to make money. You can do that with nothing. Yeah, sometimes we say to succeed at business, you know, you don't necessarily own your success. You rent it.

That's it. And the rent is due. Every day. Every day. And it's an honor to do that, too. You know, it's like for us, it's incredible to be able to be in a position to serve well. And, you know, I've got stories of, you know, I drove, I drove a 1996 Toyota Tacoma up until three years ago, maybe, 2023. And that was hard because even in 2023, I had a wife and four kids and I didn't even have a truck with an air conditioner.

So it's like my point in saying that is this concept. It takes money to make money and you got to have all these things to do the things. The things ain't what make the things That's where our name come from. So Maybe it was divine intervention, right? But the idea of us calling ourselves the elite lineman training Institute Has nothing to do with the facility. It has everything to do with the people we serve We want our students to graduate and be known at home and to be known at church and to be known in the community and to be known at work as set up part. They got something different. We want them to be elite. And it doesn't matter what kind of building you do that in or what kind of truck that happens in. It's about them. It's about the person.

That's it. I know you work with all these guys into school. Yeah. What would you say holds people back? Just gut reaction. When you see guys get jammed up, what do you think holds people back? Mindset. Perspective. No doubt. Without anyone's shadow of a doubt, it's, you know, there's a lot of metaphors that of the one mile record, right? The track record. Right. And there's a lot of like, that's a beautiful picture of the human mind and what we're all up against.

And we try to teach that in a way to the students and our team of, you know, if you want to be a trillionaire, just because you think it you're not, right? Right. However, the concept of being the lid on your potential is a choice you make. And really that's a choice you make when you wake up every single day. It's not one day.

It's not one week. It's not one month. It's not one year. It's how do I view this day? Does somebody owe me something? And we teach that from a perspective to our students of what we believe, right? So a lot of the things we teach in lessons are biblical principal lessons, right? We don't necessarily open up scripture.

And some of it has got some scripture in it, but most of it is a principle. And the idea there is, is your perspective, I'm grateful for this day, or somebody, something, this earth, this job owes me something. Because there don't nobody owe you anything. So how do you approach today? And we lead that. I would say that's the biggest thing is we call it,

what lens do you look through every single day when you wake up? Because you got a choice. And it's somebody owes me something, or I'm grateful for what I've got, and let's go get it. All right, Waylon, that's it for shooting straight. And you're the first person that's ever done this. So you're at the top of the leaderboard.

Thanks for being here. My pleasure. Waylon's story is a reminder that every leader goes through seasons of self-doubt. But the leaders who win don't wait for the doubt to disappear. They keep moving forward anyway, even when they don't have all the answers. And if you're facing a challenge in your own business,

you don't have to figure it out alone. Our entree leadership coaches have held thousands of business owners work through the same kinds of obstacles you're facing. They'll help you break through the roadblocks and take your business to the next level. Schedule your free 30-minute consultation with a coach by clicking the link in the description. And if you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, share, and subscribe for more real-world leadership content. I'm your host Dave Ramsey and this is Entree Leadership.