402. From Welding School to $100K: The KWI Kids Proving Everyone Wrong w/ Landon Earlywine & Jackson Settler
About this episode
Landon Earlywine and Jackson Settler share their journey from welding school to earning $100K in their first year.
Think fresh-out-of-welding-school means starting at the bottom? Landon Earlywine (19) and Jackson Settler (18) are about to change your mind. Six months after graduating from the Kentucky Welding Institute, these two are working 60-hour weeks doing TIG stainless pipe fab for data center infrastructure up in Logansport, Indiana — earning $38/hr plus $120/day per diem. In less than seven months, they've pulled in $95,000 combined, started Roth IRAs, bought reliable trucks with big down payments, and are on track to blow past $150K in their first year. Jason sits down with both of them to find out how they got here — from a high school ag teacher who flashed some money at them sophomore year, to grinding the third shift at KWI, earning their golden arm certifications, and landing a stainless schedule 10 TIG test in Indianapolis the morning after getting the call. They talk about the real curriculum at KWI beyond the booth — financial management, CCO rigging, CPR, and OSHA 30 — and what actually separates the students who land good jobs from the ones who don't. Plus: a totaled '92 Sonoma, a story about driving from Kentucky to Texas at 82 mph at 6 AM, a job box that survived a crash…
People in this episode
Host: Jason Becker
Guests: Landon Earlywine, Jackson Settler
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Kentucky Welding Institute
Places: Logansport, Indiana, Kentucky, Texas
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- Weld Wednesdays w/ AWS| Resistance Welding Demystified with Don DeCorte — The Process Hiding in Plain Sight
- 401. Data Centers, Nuclear, and the Steel Boom Coming for Welders w/ Stephanie Hoffman
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