EntreLeadership - The Most Overlooked Habit of Great Leadership with Daniel Ramsey and Willie Robertson

Episode Date: January 9, 2023

Join us as our host, George Kamel, talks with Executive Vice President of EntreLeadership Daniel Ramsey. They sit down to talk about why clear and consistent communication is an essential habit for leaders. Later, George sits down with Willie Robertson, the CEO of Duck Commander and a star of the hit TV show Duck Dynasty. Willie shares how consistent and clear communication helped him become a successful leader. You’ll learn: •      How to have meetings people want to attend •      How to communicate persuasively •      The secret to great communication •      How Duck Commander scaled their seven-figure business Support our sponsors: •      Hite Digital: https://bit.ly/HiteDigital •      NetSuite: https://bit.ly/NetSuiteEntre •      BELAY: https://bit.ly/351P9AE Links mentioned in this episode: •      The EntreLeadership Podcast: https://bit.ly/TheEntreLeadershipPodcast •      Register for EntreLeadership Summit 2023: https://bit.ly/3Uw3PMQ •      Watch Duck Dynasty: https://bit.ly/3OPl8Hj •      Duck Commander’s website: https://bit.ly/3ETpXL5 •      If you have a leadership or business question for Dave, call and leave a voicemail at 844.944.1070 •      Listen to The Rachel Cruze Show: https://bit.ly/3OU4TbX Learn more about EntreLeadership Events: •      EntreLeadership Summit: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipSummit •      EntreLeadership Master Series: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipMasterSeries   Learn more about EntreLeadership Coaching: •      Elite: https://bit.ly/3tI2fN8 •      Advisory Groups: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipAdvisoryGroups •      Executive Coaching: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipExecutiveCoaching •      Workshops: https://bit.ly/EntreLeadershipWorkshops Listen to all the Ramsey Network podcasts anytime, anywhere in our app. Download the Ramsey Network app: https://apple.co/3eN8jNq Learn more about your ad choices: https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're kicking off the year with a five-part series on the most important habits you need to develop as a leader. And this is the second episode in that series. So if you missed last week's episode, press pause and go check that one out first. Now, in today's episode, we are talking about one of the most overlooked habits of a great leader, which is clear and consistent communication. Welcome to the Entree Leadership podcast from the Ramsey Network, where we help you learn the proven principles for winning as a business leader. I'm your host, George Camel, and each week here on the podcast, I'm a new show. I sit down with some of the best leadership minds out there to help you grow yourself, your team, and your profits.

Now, communication builds trust and brings clarity to your team. So for our first segment, we've got a teaching segment with our friend Daniel Ramsey on why clear and consistent communication is an essential habit for leaders. And then stick around because Willie Robertson, CEO of Duck Commander and star of the hit TV show Duck Dynasty, will share how consistent and clear communication helped him become a successful leader. So let's get to that first teaching segment with our friend Daniel Ramsey, Executive Vice President of Entree leadership. Daniel, thanks for joining us. Man, George, always so fun hanging out with you.

You and Willie on an episode. That's a fun one. It's a fun one to remember. It will be, yep. So you have been honing in on the skill since I've known you. You've always been a great communicator, but you've been very intentional about it. So tell me why this is one of those habits that people really need to dial in this year. Well, let me correct you there.

I haven't always been good at this. This is something over the years I've screwed up my fair share. share and I've neglected at times. And I've often made the assumption that people know exactly what I'm thinking. And so why communicate? They're all on board. I told them a few months ago. They remember, right. There was that email back in the inbox somewhere. That's right. Yeah, that's right. And so, I mean, why communication matters is because communication is a habit you've got to get in the rhythm of because ultimately what you're trying to do when you communicate is to create clarity. And clarity has a shelf life. Clarity fades. It goes away. People don't remember what I said three months ago, even though I do

people may things may change and people may wonder is that still the priority things may change and people may think that something's on track and they're chugging along

when really, hey, we actually need to spend our time over here instead. And so bringing good communication, bringing good clarity ultimately helps people stay on track and unified. And business can move so fast

especially as a small business and so things can get missed if you're not doing it consistently. And so clarity and consistency is super important in here. And one of the ways we do this is through meetings. And a lot of people have feelings about meetings and obviously want you to do meetings the right way. But why is it important to have whole team meetings, all staff meetings on a regular basis? Yeah. So first thing I'll say is you got

really really clear on what the purpose of a meeting is. And different meetings have different purposes. If you aren't clear on that, man, things get off the rails really quick. And we could talk more about that later. But yeah, so we have a bunch of different types of meetings with very different distinct purposes. So you mentioned our big all-team meeting. We have a couple different versions of that here. We're a large company. So we have a staff meeting or a whole company, all 1,000 people get together on Monday mornings. But honestly, that looks a little bit different than what like our entree leadership, all-team meeting looks like. We do that on Tuesday mornings. And that's a little bit more organic, probably a lot more like what many of the listeners would want to experience in their meetings.

And so we have about 70 people on the entree team, and it's really simple. We get together in a circle, we just stand up in our regular work area. We don't have a fancy conference room or we don't book any crazy catering or build any fancy slides. We literally just stand up in a big circle. And the purpose of that meeting is to create unity.

And so unity happens a couple different ways. So what we do in our stand-up meeting, we call it a stand-up, but all-team meeting, what we do in that is leaders will give updates on some of the key initiatives of our area. And so we'll just pop corn around and say, George, George, you lead marketing.

What's happening in the marketing area? Give us an update on that big thing we've been working on. We'll be more specific than that. I'm just being vague for the sake of this conversation. But we'll go around to the different leaders and get updates on all the key things that are happening so that we're all unified and we all know what's happening. We also take time to pause and just give announcements.

Hey, we just hired a new team member. So-and-so just had a big wedding anniversary. You know, congratulations. Hey, this person left our team, and we want to unpack why. Hey, we're off track for hitting our financial budget, and let's take some minute to just unpack the why behind that and give them the level of information they need to know about that.

And so we talk about the good stuff. We talk about the bad stuff sometimes, which is hard, but really healthy and good. And then one of the other things, we talked about it here on the podcast before. We do shoutouts. We don't do this every team meeting, but if we ever have space, we try to do it,

where we allow the team to brag on each other and in front of their peers tell a story or an example of how someone else on the team really went above and beyond this week and then we clap them out and we, you know, we hoot and holler and celebrate them. So really the purpose of our all team meeting is to create unity.

And that's through updates and culture. And so sometimes we may also, another thing I just thought of is we may beat the drum on cultural things we're trying to change or update or remind people of, hey, here are our core values. hey here's our mission here's our vision all those fun things now when you say beat the drum i know

that the entree leadership team is known for literally making noise so when do you guys do that and why yeah we do a lot of different things uh noise is energy right so we we're a pretty loud team and we lean into that we take pride in that that's part of our culture so one of the things we do is we have a big bell in our area every time a salesperson close a deal they ring the bell it's a fight bell like a ringside boxing bell. And they ring the bell. The whole team stops what they're doing and claps and celebrates

and there's whistles and I don't know, just hoot and hollering, whatever that may be. And the purpose of that is because we're celebrating another life has been changed. We just got a new customer who's going to experience what we have to offer and we're all excited about that. And so that's a cultural example

of a way that we're allowed. Yeah. Well, I think there's power in that as well and it's one of those things that does build unity because it's kind of one of those, who does that? That's what makes you guys different.

And so I love for our listeners out there, find what that thing is for you. It may not be making a ton of noise. Maybe it is. Who knows? I know a lot of our business owners out there, they are loud. And so they love the energy. They love it all. They love the chaos.

Lean into that. But those team meetings, those stand-up meetings, how long do those generally go? Yeah, we just do 30 minutes. And oftentimes we end early. Oftentimes it's only 20 minutes and it's really fast. So for you, just as a way to get started, I'd recommend just putting a very light agenda together of, hey, these are some of the things we want to talk about. These are things are important to me. These are things I assume ever that are really important to me that I assume

know, but why don't I just get in the habit of saying that out loud? And so let's start that meeting. So it may be 10 minutes. It may be 15 minutes. It may be awkward the first time you do it. That's fine. Just like starting any new habit, it's going to be a little weird. And you have to just embrace the weirdness and just push forward. And the great thing about meetings when it comes to forming a new habit is From a willpower perspective, all you have to do is put it on the calendar ahead of time, and then naturally you're going to show up and other people will show up. It's amazing how that works. So long as they know about it.

Yeah. That's right. So make sure this is on the calendar every week and announce it to your team. Don't just like throw it on the calendar and everyone's like, what is this meeting that just showed up? That's right. Exactly. So what makes a productive meeting? Because a lot of people, like we mentioned, they dread meetings.

They might dread team meetings or they're not, they don't have an outgoing personality. They'd rather just be at their desk working and all of a sudden they have this disruption in their day. So how do we make sure that people walk away going, I'm glad we did that. That was worth my time. Yeah, most meetings are terrible. Most meetings are boring and people only go and show up to them because they're expected to. They don't actually want to be there. And that happens for a lot of different reasons. That happens because going back to what I said earlier, the purpose isn't defined. Hey, we don't actually know why I need to give up my time to attend this meeting. So when the purpose is defined and assuming the purpose is valid. Like, hey, guys, we're going to rally around this problem.

And, hey, George, we got this problem in our marketing area, X, Y, Z. We're going to get together. We're going to brainstorm opportunities to really go solve that problem. That's the purpose of this meeting. And we're going to not leave this meeting until we get some good, you know, good things on the whiteboard, or we may have to schedule another meeting, whatever that may be. So getting really clear on the purpose really helps you set yourself up for success. Gosh, I was actually with a friend last night. we were having dinner. So he was telling me that their whole company is a big company here in Nashville. Since COVID

they all work remote. Now they're supposed to be in the office a little bit, but pretty much no one shows up, so they just do virtual which is terrible. He's talking about how the culture, he just never gets to see anyone and all that. That's a whole other subject. But they have these forced cultural

building, team building, Zoom meetings where they had one like the other night where there was like a cooking show that one of their VPs was showing everyone how to make one of their favorite recipes and they were all obligated to sit and watch this thing and no according to my friend no one wanted to be there

and very few people actually did attend and it was awkward for everyone even though the leader had good intentions if it's not a good use of time and it's not clear and people actually aren't excited to do it maybe don't do it right just don't do the meeting at all but there was an attempt I mean that well

I just get the heart behind it they're going hey this is one way we can build culture because we are remote. We're going to try to do something fun. And I've seen, you know, some friends, they have virtual happy hours, you know, and things like that. But again, there's, there's a lot of power. We've talked about this on the podcast about doing things in person. And I'd much rather have a drink with you in person than in front of a screen at home. Oh my gosh. Absolutely. That's just drinking alone. Yeah, like the other day, Entree, we had a, we had a dip off, meaning like a bunch of people on our team signed up to make different sorts of dips, like Buffalo chicken dip or

salsa or whatever, you know. And we made it a big contest, we made it a big deal. Everyone is excited about that because, uh, A, everyone loves food and they're going to show up. And it was during work hours. It was around lunchtime. And so like, you know, that's an idea that actually people want to show up to. And that's a team building type thing. And so if you're going to do team building, make it something people actually want to show up to. Yes. Ask yourself what I want to show up to this. That's right. If I wasn't the leader. So you asked about what makes a meeting productive. So purpose. The second thing I'll say is you need to stay on track. So when you start veering off and you start running down these different tangents and people just start talking about random things, the whole thing grinds to a halt. It becomes boring and useless. As the leader, I spend a lot of energy doing just this. So I spend a lot of time saying, you know, George, you may get off on some tangent about whatever. And it may be like a business thing somewhat related to what we're talking about. But I have to say, hey, hey, George, that's a really good point. why don't we write that down and come back to that at a separate time?

I use that line over and over and over in meetings to get us back on track to focus on the core purpose of the meeting. And so, man, I spend a lot of time keeping us on track. The third thing I'd say is, hey, the meeting has to end where the business is better off than when it started that meeting. If you're going to dedicate an hour to getting people together, that's a lot of payroll. That's expensive. And if you don't actually leave that meeting with the business in a better place, then you wasted your time.

And so there's a lot of ways you have to fight that and be intentional with that. And so some of it is prep work, some of it as being intentional during the meeting. Oftentimes, a third thing, though, is when you wrap the meeting, assign clear action items so that people have marching orders of what they're going to do after the meeting ends. And then you as a leader hold them accountable to finishing and following through on those. And that's my favorite part of a meeting is where we walk away and everyone knows exactly what to do. It wasn't just, well, we all got to hang out with each other for a half hour. We're glad we did that.

And a lot of the times, meetings don't need to take place. And so we talked about the importance of an all-team meeting, but a lot of times you just get a meeting on the calendar and you go, well, that could have been an email. Mm-hmm. You know, so at what point do you decide or how do you decide if something should be a meeting or, you know what, I'm just going to send an email, send a text, that kind of thing. Man, gosh, that's hard.

I do that all the time. So, for example, I have one-on-ones. One of the habits, one of the meeting habits I have is I have a one-on-one with all of my direct reports every single week. It's just 30 minutes. In a regular week, I may have several things I want to talk to you about. Like, let's say you're one of my direct reports. I may have a list of five things. I know we're probably only going to have time to get to two of them. So I'm going to decide which one's an email, which one isn't urgent, but it's important. And I'm going to save time for our next one on one the following week. Or maybe it's urgent and important. And I schedule a new

meeting that's not already on the regular rhythm to just tackle that one. So I'm always discerning that, always trying to figure that out. Oftentimes, too, problems need to involve more people, problems you need to collaborate with people. More often than not, I see too many people in a meeting. I think it's really good. Even though you want to include all the people and make them feel like part of it, I think it's really healthy and good to have the fewest number of people necessary to accurately or strongly tackle that issue. And so while you could have 20 people, because they all somewhat touch it, have the five or four or three right people and then communicate well to, the other people who are more loosely involved.

That's good. Because a lot of times you have 20 people in a room, and I'm going to shut down. In a room of 20 people, it's too many voices, too much to do. I'm not going to be as likely to pipe in. But when it's four people, well, now I feel like my voice is expected to be jumping in the conversation. So that's a great reminder.

So we know that this has a huge positive effect on the team, on unity, on culture. But for those leaders who maybe they don't have that right now, they may go, well, Daniel, I don't think I need this. We got four people. We got seven people. I don't think it's worth the time. They're on the road, they're techs. What is the best way to go about starting one of these if you've never done it before? I think, first of all, identify why you want to have it and what needs to be communicated. Once you identify that, then tell the team about that. Hey, guys, I as a leader have not done a great job at making sure we're in the loop on some of these things.

There's also some things that are really important to me that I want to be regularly reminding each of you about. and I want us to be on the same page. Sometimes I feel like we're not on the same page, and that's my fault, and I want to do better at that, would you guys be willing, if I put together this meeting, would you guys be willing to show up and give me a chance to do better at getting us on the same page? I really value this, and if you give me a chance,

I won't waste your time. Can we commit to doing that? Hey, what's the time? And yes, yada yada, no one's going to say no to that, right? But you're going to really have to show up and prove to them that it is a good use of time. and obviously you need to schedule it and find a time that works best and all of that. That's super tactical.

Well, Daniel, you are a great communicator, so take it back. All right, you're doing great. Thank you for communicating about communicating to our leaders out there today. Always helpful. Always a lot of nuggets of wisdom from you. Well, thanks. I still have a lot to learn and look forward to doing more of that. Appreciate it.

All right, I hope you guys enjoyed that conversation. I know I did. Folks, do you feel like you never have time to invest in yourself? Do you feel like the weeks and the months keep vanishing in the rearview mirror without any leadership progress? If that's you, it's time to break that cycle. And I've got just a thing for you. Entree Leadership Summit. It's the sledgehammer that will shatter that.

And you'll be amazed by just how much leadership transformation we cram into just three days. And it's happening in Nashville, Tennessee, May 30th through June 2nd this year. You don't want to miss it. Go to Entreeleadership.com slash summit to learn more and secure your seat. Up next, why consistent and clear communication is the habit that helped Willie Robertson of Duck Dynasty become a successful leader. All right, I'm joined now by our special guest, Willie Robertson. You know him from Duck Dynasty as a TV personality, but he's also an amazing entrepreneur, business owner, CEO of Duck Commander. And he's going to be joining us at Entree Leadership Summit this year.

You don't want to miss that. But for now, let's chat with our friend Willie Robertson. What is up? Tell me I'm the only person that. that's worn camouflage on this podcast. You know, I got to say, you might be the first and last to wear full camo on this show, and we would like it that way. I did it.

I pulled something off. Yeah, that's what I bring to the, that's what I bring the table right here. So I'm in the Midwest. I'm actually at a hunting camp, and I'm glad to join you guys. We have a bunch of veterans here that we are taking out in the outdoors, and it's been amazing. That's incredible. Wow. Well, we are talking about the habit of communication today, and you're a brilliant communicator.

People often forget that. They see you on TV and you're running a business, but communication is something that you do every single day, day in and day out. We want to help our leaders out there get a little bit better at it. And so first we have to mention, you had a transformation. You cut off all the hair and there was like an eat, pray, love journey you went on. Was this kind of a post-COVID thing? It was actually right in the middle of COVID. So I'd gotten so tired of this look. But, you know, I was so tied to it, you know, because, you know, when I go speak and when I was shooting video things, it was like everybody wanted to see that. And I was like, do I totally change this brand?

I mean, it's odd when your hair and your beard becomes your brand. And I thought, I'm just going to do it. And which will be kind of a new challenge for me. I was like, we'll see if I can, you know, maintain what I've done. So I actually went, cut the hair, didn't tell anyone. I found my wife tracking her phone. She was at a restaurant. I walked up to her.

I looked at her and she goes, hello, and walks right past and does not recognize me. We've been married 30 years. And that's how strong that brand was. And I got every one of my kids as well. None of them recognized me. And so it was fun,

but I'm actually, I may grow, you know, hair's hair. It can grow. It can come. I'm just glad I have it. So I can,

I'm exploring my options. But yeah, that was in 2020. I felt like a personal attack at Dave Ramsey. Yeah, for sure. 2020, I just did it and it was fun, but I can always grow it back. Well, it looks good and luckily you're the same person beneath it all. How amazing is that? That's it. That's it. It's all about what's underneath.

So I want to get into communication here. One of the George Bernard Shaw was quoted as saying, the greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. And I know early on in your leadership as you became CEO of Duck Commander, where are there times you were a bad communicator as a leader? Yeah, for sure. I mean, there were times that I didn't communicate properly or communicated the wrong thing. Now, you have to understand with my business, it was mostly family. And so it's a whole new game because you're having to communicate people that you've communicated with your whole life. And so you've said all the good and the bad. And so, yeah, there were definitely, there were definitely some communication things. I remember one time

telling, I didn't think we should make more duck calls when Duck Dynasty came out. Because I never dreamed that people would actually buy a duck call. I was like, no, it's a specific tool for duck hunting. So why would people buy that? And I just didn't see it. And my wife said in a meeting, Willie, I think we should order more duck calls. And I'm glad she communicated better than I did because we sold a lot more duck calls when that TV show came out. That is awesome.

Well, was there a time, I'm curious, when you realize that, oh, I got to get better at this skill. I have to get better at this habit. Communication is something that has naturally happened as a family. Was there a time where I got to really improve here? And were there certain things you did to do that? Oh, for sure. I would go over. Like, if I had an idea and I had something I really need to communicate, I had to get better.

And so what I felt was you have to find out what the motivation is from the person you communicate. and that's important as well. And so I knew with people on my team, I was like, what matters to them most? And so I would go after that. Like my father, it wasn't necessarily money. It was more like what he wanted to do like with hunting. And so I would communicate that with him.

And even during the TV show, I remember he didn't want to do Doug Dynastu. My dad was like, no, I don't think it's going to work. And I said, well, if we have a bigger platform, I think we could get the gospel out more and share the word with more people. And that's what got him. He said, oh, okay, well, if that's the case, then I'll do the show.

And so it was interesting, you've got to know what it is. It wasn't like, oh, we could make some money. It's what motivates the person. And so everybody on my team and people in my family, I know what it is that they care a lot about. And so I can try to communicate to them in that way. You cater to their different styles, their values. I love that.

And one of their values you just mentioned is faith, was that something that you early on said, hey, these are the values of our family, these are the values of everything we're trying to build. How did you start to build out those core values? 100%. We've always gone on this motto. We have faith, family, and then, you know, my dad says ducks.

I mean, but that can be whatever it is, whatever your vocation is or whatever it is that you're into. But the key is you have to keep them in that order. Because what happens is the job will start taking, and it'll start looking like it's number one. And so, and it doesn't work like that. So what we found is our faith will help keep our family together. The family will help keep you have better peace and joy at work and whatever that is.

And so when you keep those in line, that's what's worked for us. And because let's face it, I mean, if your family is struggling and there's problems at home, good luck when you're trying to do your job. You know, it's going to directly affect that. And so for us, we just always have to remind each other and say, hey, these are the priorities. So that faith and then our family and then whatever it is that you're into your job or whatever. Well, the Robertson family is famously known for the kitchen table and being very intentional with that quality time at the table. What power has that had in your life? How has that kind of

shaped you and your family? It's funny you mention that because that kitchen table is like, like I remember, as a kid when we sat around that same table. And we didn't have anything. We were really poor, but we were all around that table. And I've even said it was like an audition. It was almost like a stage, like, because we had, at the time, we had my grandparents, my dad's mom and dad, and then you had mom and dad.

And as the kids, we didn't really talk that much. And if you said something, you had to bring it. You know, you had to bring a good story. And so there was so much storytelling. There wasn't a lot of TV watching. We had like three channels. but it was more of these stories. And so we learned how to tell stories.

I listened to stories. And my parents and grandparents had these amazing stories. And they would just tell these stories and they were funny. And it's funny in life. That's, you know, what the TV show was all about. It's really about telling stories. It's about being a storyteller. And I learned that as a kid sitting at that same table that we ended up having the show

and their prayer around. So it was just amazing how we grew. And I remember dad saying like, boys we're going to sell a million dollars worth these duck calls one day and I remember thinking like how is that going to happen like how would how would I didn't really understand I thought maybe you know and uh but dad was always a dreamer and he would just he would cast that dream out and so it was fun whenever I became you know the CEO of the company is to was to be able to fulfill a lot of his dreams that he had for the business I you know had this a better skill set to do that but all

we all went together. And so it was amazing. It was all at that table. So many lessons learned. And so, and we had, even in my family, we have to be intentional about sitting around the table, having dinner, telling those stories. Because as life gets fast and a lot of families have just abandoned that, and they rarely ever sit together and have that meal and talk. Yeah, it's one of the most powerful ways to communicate is in person. And now with, you know, technology and everything post-COVID, we've gotten away from that. And so everything is a, it's a, it's a, message on Slack. It's a text message. It might be an email. Have you found that there's so, there are way more power and intentionality when you get to be face to face with people

communicating and sharing stories and laughing and breaking bread? Oh, 100 percent. You know, even, even business-wise, you know, how we, it was like we used to go. We'd have these meetings and you'd have dinners together, you know, and that, that's where, I mean, I got a lot of my start was, was doing that, but there was that face-to-face contact. And, and we have. We, We've abandoned that, and it's just not near as good. And so what I find with my family is, so I'm a cook, and so I cook food. And so if I cook the food, it's going to be on the table, and my family, my kids now, who have their own kids, I draw them in with that with the cooking, which is another lost

art as well in skill. So I was able to take that as well. And so it's been so fun because even my kids now, you know, even in their businesses, they're like, hey, we've got so-and-so coming in. Dad, we cook this meal, and I'm like, yeah, I will. And so, again, it just draws together back to that setting, back to that family time, back to, which is now our kitchen table, which is different than my parents. And so, yeah, it's a beautiful thing, you know, when we come together, have those conversations.

And so much of that is just, is lost. And then I think later as we get older, oh, man, we really miss, you know, miss those times. Well, another lost art is storytelling of itself, and that's one of the most powerful communication tools out there that I think a lot of leaders, they kind of forget about it or they don't have that skill set. They think, well, someone's a great storyteller. I'm not. I'm just going to communicate the information really dry. If you could give someone a tip on how to tell a great story and how to communicate in a more artful way, what would you tell them? I think listen to feedback or watch feedback, you know, from a story. Yeah, storytelling is interesting. Because I still do it. I do it. You know, I'm constantly filming things,

and we're actually telling stories through cameras. And I think what's worked for us a lot is not taking ourselves too seriously. And so, and there's a lot of humor. And so, which is interesting. No one knew when Doug Noste came out, no one knew that it was going to be funny. I'm talking about the network, the production company. No one realized it was going to be funny.

They were thinking like, because if you look at the exterior of, me and my family thought, oh, these guys are just serious and, you know, really in your face. And then I remember when we found the pilots, they were like, this is actually funny. Like, we didn't, you know, and then we found Uncle Si. Like, he's funny. Solid gold. And so, yeah, and so it's like, and I think that helps is when we can laugh. And so the Robertsons of, we've always used humor, you know, to just to deal with life, you know.

And so when I'm around people that are so serious, it just makes me. me uncomfortable because I'm like, I just have to laugh and I just want to be like, hey, man, you know, it can always be worse. And so we've done that. I'm glad that's a gift. And my mother for sure had that. So she was always a lapper. And so we definitely took that as well. Yeah, humor and storytelling. That's got to be a part of good communication for sure. And you mentioned this, that your father had a vision and then you kind of carried that torch as you ran the company. How was that vision communicated and did it change as you kind of took over? Or did you say, I'm 100% on board? Was there any kind of grappling? Because I know with family business and succession and legacy, a lot of emotion around it.

Well, actually, my dad and our, actually, my mom and dad and are actually partners in our business. And so when I came to them, you know, gosh, I guess 20 years ago, it was like, I think I can do this. And they agreed. And I said, I'll put some money in the company. And I said, but I need to be able to make the decisions. And they were like, go ahead. So it's actually a beautiful transition. and communication was so funny, especially my father, because there were some ideas that I had that he thought I had lost my mind. Okay, one was when I said, we're not going to have VHS tapes anymore,

we're going to go to DVDs for our videos. And he was like, what is a DVD? And I'm like, dad, they're like way better. Like, like, you don't have to rewind them. And he was like, well, I still have one. I said, you've got to be the only guy in Louisiana who still has the DHS player. This was not like 30 years ago. This was, yeah, this was, this was in the, probably the 90s or early 2000.

Dad was like, you have lost your mind, you know, going to this. So that was one of the ideas. I remember I had this other crazy idea. I wanted to have a website. I said, Dad, I think people are going to go and order products from a computer. And he goes, no, he said, you tell people if they want to order one of our duck calls, they pick up the phone and call, you know, like he wanted that. And I said, Dad, I think times are moving.

And so these are some of the crazy ideas that I had, that I had to communicate and say, Dad, I think this is kind of going to be it. And so, and some of them I just did. I just said, I'm doing it. And then what I find is when you're successful and then when you have successes, that will be more confidence and you'll have better communication because it's like, well, hey, that worked. Hey, this worked.

This worked. And so when you stack up enough of those, I remember when I got our first sponsor, people actually pay us to actually wear their clothes. clothing and it blew dad's mind. He couldn't believe someone would actually, you know, this is like, I guess the influencers, you know, like we were going to influence people to wear clothes. And so, but when I got the check and I was like, hey, dad, look, this is what we made. He's listening to that. And he's like, you're brilliant. And then it just started, you know, breeding more and more success. And so he was more open to the communication. So you've got to listen. You know,

I've got to listen. But then I've got to say, hey, this is, I think this will work. And I think these ideas will work. And then you start stacking up successes after successes. Even TV, I mean, he was like, nobody's going to watch this. Who would want to watch us on TV? And even I kind of thought, I don't know if we're, you know, I thought we were fairly normal. And then my wife was like, Willie, you're not a normal family. I was like, you think.

She was like, you're not normal. And so it's listening, it's communicating and then also listening. Yeah, that's such a great reminder for leaders out there who have maybe younger people on their team, there's some generational diversity, and they're going, yeah, but that's not how it works. You don't understand. But man, when you take the time to really listen and go, okay, let's try that out, and let's see how that works. And it's one of the reasons businesses can grow and scale, and it's one of the reasons your business has. And so as you guys grew in scale, how did that shift how you saw the business? Did you start to look at it differently? Was it more of a legacy brand that you

thought, I got more to manage from God now. How do I deal with this? You know, I just spread it out. I just, I pass it to other people. And so I do what I can do. I'm really big on that. Like what I can do, I can do every aspect of our business in which I have. You know, if you go back in time, I've, you know, I've answered the phone. I've packed boxes. I've shipped stuff.

I've done every job at the company. But what I can do best and how I can make the company the most, that's where I put myself. And then I just pass it to other people and say, hey, you're great at this. You're great at this. Hey, you're smart. You're, you know, you're a C.P. you'd be great, you know. And these are things that I don't, that I'm horrible, you know, I'm so, I'm so bad with numbers and I always get a kick out of people ask me about business because I'm like,

you know, as far as numbers and I was a terrible student and didn't do good at math, but, but I find people that can do that. And again, find what, what makes them happy. What do you want, what do you need, put them in the right place and then watch them just, you know, go. And so, and then that's how you can get bigger. And so, because, because if we're talking about, I'm about ideas that didn't, if somebody says, oh, that's not going to work, but I want to know why. Like, well, we tried that years ago. Well, how did you try out? What did you do?

What exactly did you do? Because I don't, just because we tried something, it didn't work, I don't take that as a fact and say it didn't work, you know, so I'm always open. And that's communication. I got to be listened to other people. Times change, you know, and the older I get, I'm kind of like, man, I am so out, you know, I'm not good at technology. but I stay where I'm at, and so I just get more young people that say, where is this?

And so I think the combination of all that is what can make a company great and grow. And I think this is a legacy brand. But again, I don't take myself too seriously, so it's not, you know, we do what we do, and it's not at the end of the world, and go with it, trust God, and say, hey, God, you got this, you lead us, and as long as he is in our hearts and working, and we can see that manifest, out, then I think our companies will follow suit and be good as well. Yeah, so many lessons there with just delegation and not being the bottleneck and having that humor mixed with that humility. I think it's one of the reasons you guys are so widely loved today. I'm curious as to the ways

you communicate now with your team. I mean, you're running this thing from all over the country. You're a busy guy. We do at Ramsey, we have staff meetings and we do stand-up meetings and one-on-one meetings and weekly reports. What are some of the, you know, you guys run a business very differently, I'm sure. What's the common ways you communicate with your team, with your leadership? Okay, so I'm not a good meeting guy either. But, so you go from, like, my father, he doesn't have a phone. He doesn't have a cell phone. Wow. He doesn't have a computer. So if you want to meet with him, you have to go find him in the woods. That's literally, I'm like, where's dad? He's somewhere on the back of the property. And so we've got that. Now, I'm not that bad. I have a phone, but I'm not

into meetings. I rarely show up and do meetings, but if for the people at the office who, you know, need to have meetings and do all that, they do that as well. And so I think we, but again, I'll come in and then, uh, I'm more of kind of the vision and, you know, let me know this, where are the big things moving. But again, I get out of the way. I'm like, I get out of the way. Because there's so many decisions that have to be made. And the people that are involved in that day and day out are the ones who really need to make those decisions. They make and ask for some wisdom and say, hey, what you're, experience to tell you on this, but I pretty much just let people go. And so I tell people,

hey, get your job done. You know, you're not going to hear much from me as long as you get your job done. And then obviously, I look at the bottom lines. I look at, you know, how it all's going, but I have a lot of different, you know, a lot of different companies, a lot of different things going on as well. And so I have business partners in tons of other businesses that I, you know, that I have to meet with and communication is huge, you know. And so, and it, and it's gotten better. And just because you're successful and just, you know, it doesn't mean that you still have to communicate. I mean, one little, one thing goes wrong and the whole thing can go south. And so, but that's what's able. It's a great team that can allow me to do the other things that I need to do

and continue to grow and, you know, stick my toes in other businesses. Well, part of that is you have a high level of trust with your team and you have a respect for what they do. And you know, hey, this is, this is not a strength of mine. I trust you to do your job. And that empowers. them to then do that job. For sure. And so there's a lot of lessons even in there what you just said. So I'm curious as we wrap here, Willie, you mentioned a lot about your kind of the vision behind this. You're the engine. What is your vision? I mean, you're a grandpa now. That's got to be crazy. Yeah, I am a grandpa. And so you start thinking differently about legacy and what does the next 10, 20, 30 years look like. Has that changed your vision and legacy for yourself,

for the companies that you run? Yeah, well, I just try to pour into my kids and pour into them and their businesses and what they're going to do. You got to remember this, too. I didn't come to work for Duck Commander until I was 30. Wow. And so I always tell people that, like, I think people think they've missed it. You know, it's like, oh, I think I've missed it. I'm, you know, I'm too old. I didn't get started. I mean, I didn't start working here until 30. Doug Dynasty didn't start until I was 40. And so, and now I'm 50. Isn't that crazy that? And my parents were even older. Like, Uncle Si was retired from the military and pretty much. retired and going to do nothing.

And think about how his life changed in the past, you know, 10 or 11 years. And so you never know. You never know what opportunity is around the corner. And so for my kids, I think they're, you know, I just pour into them to watch, I help with their businesses and help with experience and help with wisdom. And really just, you know, because I know what it's like when your kids are little, you know, we had little kids. And so you really need, you know, when you're really pushing and, you know,

you're trying to establish that family, again, faith. family and then whatever that is. And so if I can be there to help and Corey helps a lot with that as well. And so, yeah, I think that's what I'm focusing in on now and trying to take opportunity. You know, I still love opportunities. I still love businesses. And I mean, shoot, I started a couple this year, you know, a couple of new things. You know, I'm in the dog business now. And so I think it's a great business. I was like, I love dogs. And so now we have a dog business. And so, uh, also I stay local. So you can't get so national and around the world that you miss local. And I think it's important for my faith.

I think it's important, you know, locally to be in a church and locally to do things what normal people do. Because I think sometimes, you know, I can see how people, you just get so, when you become kind of celebrity and kind of in fame, you know, you're not real present locally. And so it's always helpful. And so I do these things. You know, I play golf every Wednesday afternoon with these older guys. And so I just love, you know, listen to them talk, listening to their stories.

And I do that. I clear my schedule and I'm like, this is what I'm doing, you know, this day so that I can just remember like, hey, don't get so, you know, out of it. And you're not present with, you know, with your community and where you live and where you shop and where you go to church and all these kind of things. That's important to us as well. Yeah, it helps you stay grounded. And you mentioned a lot of these hobbies. And I think a lot of leaders, especially entrepreneurs, you're running a small business. They're like, I don't have time for a hobby.

But what I can tell with you and Dave Ramsey is the same way. He loves golfing and hunting, and you all just went on a hunting trip recently, is that it energizes you. It refueles you to then carry on and do the hard work. What is the power in being able to unplug like that? Oh, it's so powerful. And I've just, I've learned that because when you're talking about communicating, I can watch somebody.

I've always said I can play around the golf with someone, and I can tell you your whole personality after that. I can see how you deal with, you know, with so many. many things, I can just watch that. And so I can, and you can communicate in these different settings. And so, again, I'm outside the box. So I'm not like in a box. We have to be in a meeting and have to wear a suit and all these things I don't like to do. So I'm like, if I can get you somewhere and then we can really find out where that is. The communication could happen at 9 o'clock at night. You know, it could happen at a hunting place. And so I'm just intentional about doing those things,

because I can do both at once. I can work and I can also have fun at the same time. And so so many of the early Doug Commander was golfing. It was out playing golf because I could tell stories and then I would get, you know, I'd have companies say, hey, we'll bring Willie in. He's a funny storyteller. And, you know, he's just fun to be in, you know, the deal. And then we would come out with three deals, you know, we'd have three great deals that we would have buyers. And so still to this day, even at, even at hunting places, to where I'm meeting with buyers, I'm meeting with people that buy products. And so we get them in a different environment, whether it's golfing or hunting or whatever it is and we do that. And then we can also do that with our kids now

that my kids are old enough. So I just came from another state where I took my sons and my son-in-laws. And so we were all hunting together and in camp. And again, just making memories, just, you know, watching them learn. And they reminded me of when we were younger and doing this, but I was doing it as a business. And I was like, this is what this is like. And so, I mean, I think if you can make something that you love into a business and, and it's weird, I've been able to do that. I can tie these things, you know, I'm, you know, I'm a shareholder in LA golf, which is a golf company. So, now, part of this is for your spouse, so I can say, look, I've got to go do this because I've got to go to work. And so it's actually, I'm hunting. And so the camouflage

four-low is a deal I just made, and this is a made-in-America company. So I can turn this into business, but it's something that I love. And so that's just awesome. When you can do these products, you know, whether it's grilling, you know, like with pit boss smokers. Like I have all these things where I'm like, I can figure out to do this and so enough. I can influence and have passion. And it's normally things that I love to do and love to be around. And so it's a beautiful thing. It's awesome.

I love it. Yeah, that sums up this whole conversation as you putting work in quotes going, I'm going to figure out a way to have fun and do business at the same time. And you only do things that you love to do and you delegate the rest. And there are so many amazing leadership lessons you've laid out for us today, Willie. So we're so thankful to call you a friend, excited to have you at Entree Leadership Summit, and appreciate your time today, my man. I can't wait.

Great talking to you. You as well. Well, hope you guys enjoyed that conversation with Willie Robertson. I know I did. And if you want to hear more from him, good news for you. He's going to be joining us at Entree Leadership Summit, 2023. So if you want to hear him alongside the rest of our incredible lineup, speakers like Dr. Jordan Peterson, Malcolm Gladwell, Dave Ramsey, and so many more than you've got to get your tickets now.

It's happening in Nashville, Tennessee. May 30th through June 2nd, but you got to go to entreleadership.com slash summit to secure your spot. And a quick reminder, we announced last week that Dave Ramsey is going to be the host of this podcast in just a few weeks, and he's going to be taking your calls. So if you have a leadership or business question for Dave, we want to hear it. You can leave us a voicemail with your question at 844-944-1070. If you enjoyed today's episode of the show, be sure to follow or subscribe wherever you're listening and give us a five-star review. And share this episode with your team, with a friend on social media with someone who needs to hear about it. While you're on social, you can follow us there at Entree Leadership.

And if you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to check out some of the other great shows we have on the Ramsey Network, like the Rachel Cruise Show. All right, until next time, folks, keep learning and keep leading.