When Aaron Baeder started his masonry company, he thought he knew what success looked like. He had always wanted to own a business, imagining freedom, control and the ability to build something significant.

What he didn’t expect was how heavy leadership would feel once the business actually took off. As his company grew, Aaron found himself carrying more and more responsibility until everything seemed to rest on his shoulders. That pace wasn’t sustainable—and Aaron knew it.

His story shows what happens when growth outpaces leadership and what’s possible when a business owner decides to fully own the role their team and their family need them to play.

But with each new hire came a little piece of culture from somewhere else. And the close-knit feel that once defined the company started to erode. Morale slipped. Quality dipped. Projects missed deadlines.

And Aaron was carrying all of it.

So he reached out to another business owner for advice. That conversation led him to the book EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey, which he read cover to cover during a vacation. Every chapter felt uncomfortably relevant.

Now he had a long list of things to fix but no clear place to start. What Aaron did know was that insight alone wouldn’t change anything. He needed accountability. So in 2023, he chose to sign up for Executive Coaching with EntreLeadership^®.

Once Aaron accepted that leadership started with him, the work became clearer—and harder.

One of his first shifts was internal. He stopped apologizing for how he had built the business early on and recognized that what had worked still mattered. It just needed to be clarified and carried forward.

So, in mid-2024, Aaron and his leadership team traveled to Ramsey Solutions in Franklin, Tennessee, for an intensive coaching workshop to establish their mission, vision and core values.

His leadership team bought in to the direction immediately. The values they established together became part of hiring, onboarding and everyday accountability.

When they shared the fresh direction with the rest of the Ophoff team, something unexpected happened. The people who didn’t align—and didn’t want to be coached up—left the company on their own.

For the first time, culture wasn’t dependent on Aaron being everywhere. It was written down, talked about and reinforced. He realized the culture he valued from the early days was still important. And instead of disappearing, it was now becoming stronger.

Aaron is content with the impact he and his team are making, but he’s not satisfied. He’s still growing, still learning, and still owning his commitment to being a leader others want to follow.

The real win? Now his business is scaling without costing him everything.