D1 Athlete Built a Startup at 21—The Leadership Framework Behind His Growing Team

What if you could lead a growing team, scale your startup, and stay grounded in your values—before even graduating college? In this episode of the Catalytic Leadership Podcast, I talk with Walker Ferguson, a Division 1 athlete and co-founder of the AI-driven wellness app Ascend, about what it really takes to lead without a title, manage a team without coding skills, and build a culture-first company under pressure.

Walker shares his leadership framework rooted in servant leadership, values-based hiring, time-blocking, and personal discipline—principles that agency owners and startup founders alike can implement to scale their businesses with intention. We explore how losing his lead developer became a turning point, the role faith and mindfulness play in his day-to-day, and how the GREAT team culture framework keeps his mission aligned.

Connect with Walker Ferguson:
Want to learn more about Walker's mission and how Ascend is helping people live happier, healthier lives? Connect with him directly at walkerferguson@ascendmeditations.app and explore the app at ascendapp.ai

Books Mentioned:

• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
• The Bible (Proverbs, New Testament)
• Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
• The Psychology of Winning by Denis Waitley
• Becoming Supernatural by Dr. Joe Dispenza
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
• The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey
  
  
  

Right now, you can get an extra 20% off your ticket for the Scale with Stability Summit with my exclusive code CATALYTIC20 at checkout.

Visit scalewithstability.com to grab your ticket—I hope to see you there!

Chapters

• 1:14 From Football Field to Founder: Meet Walker Ferguson
• 2:47 Leadership Lessons from Team Captain to Startup Leader
• 4:57 Discovering Mindfulness and the Birth of Ascend
• 7:52 Losing Their Developer and Learning to Lead Without Coding
• 11:03 Building a Values-Based Team: The GREAT Framework
• 14:17 Discipline, Time-Blocking, and Sharpening the Saw
• 17:45 Learning from Hiring Mistakes
• 19:00 What He’d Do Differently and Advice for Founders
• 24:55 Continuous Learning and Leadership
• 27:09 Advice for Entrepreneurs

Transcript

Dr. William Attaway: 0:37

I'm so excited to have Walker Ferguson on the podcast today. Walker's a student, athlete and entrepreneur, excelling both on the field as a safety for Wake Forest University and off the field as the co-founder of Ascend, a meditation and wellness app that uses AI. His journey combines leadership, innovation and resilience as he navigates the challenges of balancing athletics and business. Walker is passionate about creating tools that empower personal growth and wellness, while sharing his insights on teamwork, focus and building something impactful from the ground up. Walker, I'm so glad you're here, man. Thanks for being on the show. I appreciate it.

Walker Ferguson: 1:19

Thanks for having me on, Dr Attaway. Glad you're here, man. Thanks for being on the show. I appreciate it.

Intro/Outro: 1:23

Thanks for having me on, Dr Attaway. Welcome to Catalytic Leadership, the podcast designed to help leaders intentionally grow and thrive. Here is your host, author and leadership and executive coach, Dr William Attaway.

Dr. William Attaway: 1:42

I would love for you to start by sharing some of your story with our listeners, particularly around your journey and your development as a leader. How'd you get started?

Walker Ferguson: 1:53

Yeah. So for me, you know, grew up in Richmond, virginia, my entire life Played everything with a ball going baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse, you name it and then my leadership journey really started, I'd say, when I got to high school. I was team captain of the football team as well as the lacrosse team from sophomore year onward and I really learned how to put myself above others, right or sorry. Put others before myself, right, servant leadership, right. How can I serve someone and make their life a little bit better and how can I put my teammates before myself to get to the common goal. And that got really instilled at an early age, in high school. And then I was fortunate enough to play football at Wake Forest.

Walker Ferguson: 2:29

When I got to Wake Forest my leadership role was a lot different. I was a scout team player for my first two years. I wasn't traveling and that's really where a lot of Ascend came in. But through that I kind of had a different role of leadership where I was still serving leadership, but I was no longer the team captain, right. I was no longer the guy that everyone was coming to. I had more of a minor role where I could help others behind the scenes and build those relationships because I truly do believe you can love, you can serve and you can lead at any level, no matter if you're the team captain or you know your freshman year player on the team, right, you know your freshman year player on the team, right. So that's kind of like how I like my leadership, like through sports. And then like for Ascend, you know, that's been a whole whirlwind in itself.

Walker Ferguson: 3:09

So sophomore year, kind of like I said you know wasn't playing right, not traveling, still on scout team, you know things at home weren't great and same with, like the social life, right, and my partner Hampton, the same. He was going through something very similar at the same time. So from there, you know, we were about this low spot. We were either in the past depression or future anxiety, but we were never in the present moment, right. So from there, that's when we really learned, like the power of meditation, the power of mindfulness, how to breathe, what gratitude was right. So we ended up taking a step back and just realized, like you know, we are so blessed and like fortunate right now that we are at the University of Wake Forest, like playing football, Like not many people can say that, and like that's a blessing in and of itself, right.

Walker Ferguson: 3:51

So kind of my journey kind of like went on a little bit more, just kind of like learning, right, I'm a Christian guy myself, no-transcript, because for me prayer was speaking to God and meditation was listening, right, and Hampton was a little bit different. He's more of a, he took more of the stoicism approach, right, and we were both teaching each other a lot of things and learning a lot. Right, we had gotten a free application through a school called Calm, which I'm sure you're familiar with, and we loved how it gave, you know, base meditations, base sleep stories, right, and nobody beats a Matthew McConaughey or an Adam Sklar voice, right. But nothing felt specific for the user. Right For what we were going through when we weren't playing. Right, not only to reduce stress and anxiety but also to see ourselves achieving on the field. Right To get to where we wanted to be. You know, visualization to achieve a goal.

Walker Ferguson: 4:44

So that's kind of how the idea of Ascend transformed. And getting back to your original question about leadership, you know I'm a firm believer that you got to find the who before the what, and when you find the bus starts rolling, right. Jim Collins said it best in his book Good to Great, and you know that's what we've been able to do at Ascend. You know we've added three more people now to the growth team. We hired an intern and we're figuring out some tech things on the tech side of things. But you know, I've learned a lot. I learned how to serve others in a different capacity that wasn't sports and at the end of the day it's like how can we work together, allow everyone to maximize their strengths, to work towards a common goal? Right, because that's what life's all about is synergy. So a little bit about me and my story.

Dr. William Attaway: 5:24

I talk with a number of college students and I've got to tell you just balancing being a student much less being an athlete is a pretty full plate, right Running a startup. In addition to those things, that plate overflows. How do you do that? How do you balance and have any semblance of spare time?

Walker Ferguson: 6:00

right, it's showing up every day and being the same person, right? No matter what. It's like if I have a time I set to wake up, it's like I wake up at that time. It's like if I'm reading at this time, I'm reading my book at this time, right, finding ways to recharge, right. Um, there's another book I really like too. It's called all the seven habits of highly effective people, and that's unbelievable. But, like in the last chapter for the seventh habit, he talks about sharpening the salt, right. The spiritual, the mental, the physical and the social and emotional. And for me, I'm a big planner, so on Sunday I'll write out, kind of like, how I can do that this week and how I can mesh that in, because if I can take care of myself and recharge my batteries, then I'm able to give my energy to my team, I'm able to give my energy to the send, and that comes down to discipline too. It's just doing the things that nobody wants to do, just embracing the suck. So, yeah, that's what I would say.

Dr. William Attaway: 6:43

That's really good. It sounds like time blocking is your friend. 100% yes, sir. So what has been your biggest challenge so far? I mean, you're building something from the ground up and you've got a partner right. You've got a team. Is it leading the team? Is it building the product itself? What's the biggest challenge you've hit?

Walker Ferguson: 7:05

Yeah, I think the biggest challenge has been more like on the tech side. I think Hampton will say the same thing. You know I'm not a comms side guy. You know Hampton's not a comms side guy, and that's tough, right. Um, and we didn't really think getting on the play store for Android would take that long and you know, to be truthful, it's been a very long time and we're still pushing it on Android. And then from there, yeah, we'll still have it, we'll have a true MVP out on both and then from there, you know we have big dreams and goals.

Walker Ferguson: 7:35

We want to really get the app to that calm level of an app right, to get our voice actors implement them into the AI, animations, user flow, better homepage, all these new features that we really want to get out in 10 to 12 weeks when the true MVP is out on iOS and Google Play. And it's just so tough because that's when I've really been tested as a leader too, because it's like I don't know how to do those things right. It's like anything else. If it's like I don't, I don't know how to do those things Right, it's like anything else. If it's like growth related, sales related, like I can learn, I can spend the time to do it and figure it out, but like I don't know how to code, so that's been really tough and a really tough challenge just to find the right people to kind of learn and grow, cause we kind of hit the jackpot early on, to be honest, with you, with our developer Colin who, with you, with our developer Colin, who's unbelievable, but he ended up having to resign because he had to go work for Vanguard and they had to non-compete, so we lost a pretty heavy player on the team.

Walker Ferguson: 8:28

But our hand-to-nose attitude was always like, well, good, we'll figure it out. Right, because it's like with the right team, with the right people, you learn and grow. And right now we're trying to figure out who we can get on the development. The development team that you know, with our bootstrapped budget, you know can help us grow and get to where we need to go. So I would definitely say the challenge most challenging part, without me blabbing, is definitely the tech side of things to getting the product up. So how?

Dr. William Attaway: 8:48

do you find new team members? How do you find that right person?

Walker Ferguson: 8:52

Yeah. So a lot of it's through. You know, just life like relationship building. You know, there was two really good guys that really stuck out to me as soon as we started to send. You know, hampton and I were like we're going to ask them to join the growth team because they're a great salesman and they're hungry, right. They like to do things that nobody else wants to do and they like to go the extra mile. And they're both. They're a little bit weird, kind of like myself, right. So getting those people on the team was like instant, right. So as soon as we were at that stage, I recruited both of them and we got them going right away because I was like you guys are going to be great on growth. God's so good too, and life is about synergy and who you meet.

Walker Ferguson: 9:32

I reached out to a man named Mark Oldham who is a golf professor. He's in the golf world, right, and I was reaching out about advice to connect us with some golfers to help spread the word about the app he ended up connecting me with one of his daughters, morgan Lee Oldham, and she ended up becoming our CMO after Hampton I had met with her and talked to called Alpha Sites, which was a knowledge on demand firm, and from there I really got good at using LinkedIn and like Sales Navigator to find the right people. So, as weird as it sounds, I was able to use like Boolean strings and find like really specific people on LinkedIn, be able to contact with them and then connect with them, send them a note and then try to get them on the phone. And when we got on the phone, I was able to talk with them and that's how we found our UI UX developer, as well as the other developers we've been talking to. So that's fantastic.

Dr. William Attaway: 10:26

What kind of culture are you building at Ascend?

Walker Ferguson: 10:29

Yeah, so our values. Actually, we use the acronym GREAT, which is gratitude, relentless effort, excellence, action oriented and then trust. And that's the culture we're building. Right, we want to be a team that all of us are all seen as equals. Right, it's like I'm not above somebody else. Right, it's like Hampton's not above someone else. It's like how can we all use our skills and our attributes to get to where we want to go, but keeping the end goal in mind, while we started this thing, right, to not become a billion dollar company, but to help a billion people live happier, healthier lives. And we truly embody that. And that's why that, when you ask anybody on our team what great means, they'll spit it out for you just like that, because that's the values, right? And without your values, without your vision, you're never going to get to where you want to go, because everyone's got to be bought in and believe in.

Dr. William Attaway: 11:14

Is that? How do you get your new team members to buy in? Is this something that you're sharing with them during the interview process?

Walker Ferguson: 11:23

For sure.

Dr. William Attaway: 11:23

And you want them 110% bought in before they ever step foot on the team 100%.

Walker Ferguson: 11:29

So, like I said, the two guys on the growth team, we kind of knew right away just because we knew who they were and we've had relationships with them for so long. With Morgan Lee, when Hampton did the interview process with her and then I was able to join in after we just knew she checked every single box for our values and the way we wanted to be. And then, regarding the tech side of things, we will interview the tech guys with Colin, who is, like I said, resigned, and he'll make sure that they have the base understanding, the base knowledge to be able to do the best job, that they're qualified. And then from there, me and Hamp will do a behavioral interview and just make sure they meet the team's values and where we're going Because, like I said, if you don't have the right people on the bus, the bus isn't going to move, and we definitely figured that out pretty early on with a couple of employees that we had to let go as well in the first year.

Dr. William Attaway: 12:21

Let's talk about that for a second, because a lot of startups are trying to figure it out and they're building the plane while they're flying it, and sometimes you bring somebody on the team and you realize pretty quickly, or they do or both, this is not the right bus that they need to be on. Yes sir, what was that experience like for you?

Walker Ferguson: 12:42

Yeah, it was pretty tough for me, for sure, because I love believing in people and I love giving people the benefit of the doubt. I'm a firm believer in second, third chances, right, because I like to see the best in people and I truly do believe that a lot of people really do have good hearts and they want to serve others and get to where they want to go. But we had, you know, one, and we had a one team that we hired for like a marketing company in reels, and you know, we were just getting them like two, three weeks late, like they weren't good quality and it was just we just rushed it. To be honest, we weren't ready to be getting anywhere. So that one was a little bit easier, just to say, like you know, it really wasn't working out. You know we'll pay you for you know, the reels, but then after that let's kind of just part ways. We don't necessarily need to be doing business together because we definitely don't have clear expectations, and that's a really good learning experience. So glad it happened to be able to define your expectations upfront and make sure every single team member is on the same page so we all, like I said, can contribute to that common goal, right, and that was definitely a big learning one for me. And then the other employee we had we hired off LinkedIn too.

Walker Ferguson: 13:48

She definitely promised a lot of things with, you know, getting in the newspaper a lot of like journalism things, pr, like all of these things, and it wasn't being delivered and there was constantly just like I have a migraine. You know I have to do this, I have to do this, x, x. And you know, I just got to a point where it's like this has happened like 25 times now and it's like it's just this is just a habit, right. It's like how much grace can you give? Because I'll be the first one to say that like I love giving people grace.

Walker Ferguson: 14:17

Like if you can't make a meeting, someone comes up with your family, like I get it like a hundred percent like family's, always first in my book, um, but when it's that like that, that was definitely tough. So that was the first like true conversation that I had to have, like face to face um with him and really just have that tough conversation and just be like. You know, this isn't working out and now we want to part ways, but, like I said, you know God's so good. It was another learning experience and everything was a blessing because I got to learn and I got to know what I'm looking for in team members in the future, what we are looking for for team members in the future and how we can learn and grow together. So you know, it was a blessing in disguise, because it was a great learning experience.

Dr. William Attaway: 16:03

I love that mindset. I always say there's no such thing as a wasted experience. You know it's either something that's going to benefit you or something that's going to benefit somebody else around you if you have a teachable spirit about it, and that's something that is so evident throughout this conversation. Have you always operated from a mindset of teachability?

Walker Ferguson: 16:23

I'd like to think I'd always try to be open-minded, like my life philosophy is like be curious, not judgmental. I like one of them, so every single day I want to learn something new, and obviously not, like you know, pass any judgment on others, but just try to learn from them, right? Because everyone has something to offer this world and everyone's story is so powerful. So just being able to listen, it's really good.

Dr. William Attaway: 16:42

So you know the discipline that is required to accomplish what you're accomplishing is not small. It's a significant amount of discipline We've touched on that as you get out of school and are able to focus on this full time. Where do you see this going? Like? Is this going to be like? The next 10 years are Ascend. Do you have other ideas? What's next for you? What's?

Walker Ferguson: 17:04

next for you? Yeah, so I definitely. I think the sky's the limit with the sun. Truthfully, we really started our development in May, so we're really just coming up on one year and we've made a lot of significant strides. We're talking with a lot of universities to essentially get into their athletic department where they'll pay us X amount of dollars for all their student-athletes and then they give us all the student-athletes' emails and we give them a free subscription to the app. And now I feel pretty good about that and the avenues of growth there, especially when we get on android um for monetization as well as just growing organically um through individual subscriptions and on our social media, because they're doing a great job. And I really do think the sky's the limit, because when you have the right people on the bus and you have the team going, you're obviously not everything's always sunshine and rainbows, but we learn, we adapt, we overcome and we keep moving forward. So I'm really excited about the future. I think that you know, in the next year we could really scale and close a lot of deals with universities and really get the name out there.

Walker Ferguson: 17:56

But, regarding my future, you know it's going to be Ascend, like all in Ascend. That's my life passion. And as of right now and you know, I'm sure you know, I'm sure you know I definitely am going to start a couple of other businesses down the line for sure, because I love it. I love seeing something start from nothing and learn and grow and come, see it come to fruition. So, as of right now, it's a sin. And then I also got into UVA for graduate school. Congrats, masters. I appreciate it.

Dr. William Attaway: 18:23

So, contemplating that as well, so your company and your team need you to lead at a higher level today than they did a year or two ago, and that same thing is going to be true a year or two or five from now. So how do you stay on top of your game and level up with the new leadership skills that your team, your company, are going to need you to have?

Walker Ferguson: 18:46

100%. I think the first thing is kind of goes back to like the being curious, not judgmental, right. It's like network with as many mentors as I possibly can and just be quiet and take notes for them, learn from what's worked, what hasn't, and how I could implement that into like what I'm seeing. For instance, if I meet with a mentor and we're kind of talking about a scenario and they've been through what I'm going through before, it's like, oh, that didn't work, that's what I was thinking about, Maybe I should do what they're saying, and then that grows. That's the first one. Second one is reading books.

Walker Ferguson: 19:16

I think reading is so powerful and it's just a recharge. I mean, I love all the books you got. I could tell you're a big reader Just finding new ways to read books, whether that's spiritual books or that's business books, philosophical books, whatever it may be just reading in general, because our minds are so stimulated, so much with our phones, with TikTok and Instagram Reels, twitter. It's just like dopamine hit, dopamine hit, dopamine hit. And it's like I never have time to think when I do that. Right, it's being able to constantly remind myself like, hey, I need to read for an hour today and that's my recharge, recharge, along with like meditation, and I'm able to learn and grow from there.

Walker Ferguson: 19:48

Definitely say that. And then you know, the last one is uh, yeah, just like learning, like podcasts, just network with as many people as I can and just being very open-minded to uh new ways of growing, because at the end of the day, you know, the company's always going to move forward, things are going to change. So it's like how can, how can we be innovative as possible, learn, adapt?

Dr. William Attaway: 20:11

grow and get to where we want to be. You know, I work with a lot of entrepreneurs in my capacity as an executive coach and the one non-negotiable that I have for somebody that I'm going to work with one-on-one is that they have a teachable spirit. What you just described is not just a mindset, but a habitual practice of how you live, constantly learning, constantly seeking to grow, looking for where you can absorb new information that's going to help you grow, and you're very intentional about that. I just want I wanted to call that out and I want to encourage you don't lose that. That is so important and I see that in the most successful people.

Walker Ferguson: 20:46

I appreciate that it means a lot.

Dr. William Attaway: 20:48

What in thus far in your journey and you're still early in the journey- I'm very. Imagine there are no shortage of people who have given you advice. What is the best advice you've gotten so far?

Walker Ferguson: 21:01

Wow, that's a loaded question for sure. I think for the business it's definitely stay within your niche for the first year. Find whatever market you're going to dominate, dominate that market, get through that proof of concept phase and help those people and then branch out. You know college athletics and like student athletes because you know that's who I was, that's my story, that's kind of why we started it. It's just like how best to assist them, dominate that market and then kind of branch out. That was definitely the best piece of advice I got early on from a business perspective. Just because I did that right, I was kind of all over the place and we weren't seeing growth. And then when I kind of tailored it back then things started going good. So and I you know the mentors are so good Winston, starr, stan and Mike, who really have helped us out every week they just start accelerating in downtown Winston, they're just unbelievable. And then the best piece of advice I got from like just a mentor as well, I'm like on a personal level was just start now right.

Walker Ferguson: 21:59

It's like people talk about it all the time, but it's like the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. It's like you can plan all you want in your life and you can have the best plans, the best ideas ever, but without action you're never going to get anywhere, and vision plus action equals change. My partner, hampton, is very good with vision. I'm very action-oriented and that's why I feel like we make such a great team and that's going to equal a lot of change in this world where we can help people. So that's kind of like another one of my life philosophies is you know, if I have an idea, if it's something I'm passionate about, it aligns with my purpose, my why? So? I can go for it because you know I got one life, so why not start now?

Dr. William Attaway: 22:31

Love that, If you could go back to the very first day that you started Ascend and you could tell yourself something based on what you know. Now you can go back and talk to that version of Walker. What would you love to?

Walker Ferguson: 22:48

go back and tell yourself Less money, yeah, it's good. But yeah, I would definitely just say that just continue to be open-minded. You know you're going to have days when you think things aren't going right, but it's like it's always dark right before the light, right? So just to keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep going and I think that the walker from a year ago would be very proud of the walker that's here now but definitely cutting back on expenses too for, like some stuff that you know, learning experiences, right.

Dr. William Attaway: 23:18

So yeah, no wasted experience. Right, right exactly.

Walker Ferguson: 23:36

You've mentioned a number of books so far. I'm just curious is there one or two in particular that have made a really big difference in your journey that you'd recommend? The second one that I really liked a lot was Thinking Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill Definitely changed the way I like and the way I think, and definitely even the practices too. Same with the psychology of winning. That one was great and it's a lot very interactive, and I'm reading one right now that's a little bit different. I'm called Becoming Supernatural by Joe Dispenza. It's definitely really helping me with my meditation practice and learning about the energy centers and all that good stuff. But other than that, oh and obviously how to Win Friends and Influence People, that one's unbelievable. One of my favorite books ever. And then Speed of Trust, which is actually written by the son of Stephen R Combe that wrote Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Definitely recommend that one for team building as well. Great list.

Dr. William Attaway: 24:26

We'll have those links in the show notes. If you could share one piece of advice with the people who are listening today, the leaders, the entrepreneurs who are tuning in, what would you love to share?

Walker Ferguson: 24:38

Definitely a couple of things, but I think the biggest one would just be put your head down and work. I think that the thousand steps, or thousand miles, begins with the first step. Right, and to learn and grow every day. Be curious, not judgmental. Right and get started, Because if you don't start and you don't have that action, no, you're never going to get to where you want to go. It's like the old philosopher said I forgot who it was, but he's like. You know, the best time to plant a tree was, like 20 years ago, but the next best day is today. So why not start now?

Dr. William Attaway: 25:06

Love that bias for action. That's brilliant, Walker. I know our listeners are going to want to stay connected to you and continue to learn from you and more about Ascend. What is the best way for them to do that?

Walker Ferguson: 25:18

Yeah, all of our social media is like Instagram, twitter, tiktok, linkedin, all Ascend appai. And then my personal email is walkerferguson at Ascendmeditationsappai, and then my personal email is walkerferguson at ascendmeditationsapp.

Dr. William Attaway: 25:32

I'd love to connect with you guys. We'll have all those links in the show notes as well. Walker, thank you for sharing from your story so far what you've learned, the insights that you've gleaned, and I know that your best days are ahead of you, man. I can't wait to see what's going to happen next.

Walker Ferguson: 25:43

I appreciate it. Thank you, Dr Attaway.