Transcript of Aaron Walker's SHOCKING Journey to Building a Life of Significance

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Mic Unploaded. Today's guest is a seasoned entrepreneur, author, and coach who's dedicated over four decades to helping individuals achieve not just success, but true significance in their lives. As the founder of the Iron Sharpens Iron Mastermind and author of View from the Top, he's guided countless men and individuals on their journey to become the best version of themselves. Please join me in welcoming the Insight Rightful, the empowering, the transformative, my guy from Nashville, Mr. Aaron Walker. Aaron, how are you doing, brother? Come on, Mick.

How's it going, buddy? Man, it is so good to be here with you today.

I am truly honored to have you on, man. One of the things, Aaron, I've been a follower of you for a while, listened to your podcast, by the way. I know we didn't talk about that offline, but a huge fan of your podcast.

Thank you.

Iron sharpens iron, man. I want to get into that because, again, knowing you, one of the One of the things that I know, when we talk about iron sharpening iron, it's the sharpening, it's the friction, it's the heat, it's the resistance to change that really makes people become the best version of themselves. Not iron polishing iron, not telling you what you want to hear, but truly sharpening it. Tell us about the inspiration behind creating that mastermind.

I appreciate that. Pre-recorded, we were talking a little bit about our backgrounds and what we did and didn't want to do. I didn't want do a mastermind. I wasn't set out to do a mastermind. A matter of fact, I retired 14 years ago for the third and final time. My wife said, I've retired more than the law allows, but I've retired when I turned 50, 14 years ago, and I was in a mastermind group with Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller and Ken Abraham and Ron Doyle, some of those guys local here in Nashville. Dave and I've been friends for about 30 years now. I was one of his sponsors of his show for about 20 years, and he invited me to join his mastermind group. It changed my life. Radically changed my life because I had a veil up. I didn't want people to know that I was having problems with cash flow, or I didn't want people to know I was having trouble raising my teenage daughters, and I didn't want people to know that Robin and I fought sometimes. It was like the reality of transparency and vulnerability in a mastermind group allows you to take that veil down and says, Hey, I'm struggling.

I got this place in my life that it's not up to par. Got other areas in my life that I'm crushing it, but there are some areas that I've just not experienced before. It allowed you to share openly with unbiased, trusted advisors, people that could walk alongside you and go, Hey, have you considered doing this? What if you changed this? What if you didn't say it that way? What if you said... I was like, I didn't even know that was a thing. I didn't even know. You know what I'm saying? You don't know what you don't know. Over about a dozen years, these guys refined me to point that I was able to be vulnerable and honest and transparent because we all are knuckleheads sometimes, and we need people to rattle us up and say, Hey, you can't do it that way, or you need to do it this way, or they give you these resources, or this introduction, or You're involved in networking, and they introduce you to people that can help you. When I retired, Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller encouraged me to start coaching, so I did. I coached a bunch of people all around the country and really enjoyed it.

Started doing a few podcasts, and more people called me to coach them than I could handle. I couldn't handle that many people. I went to Robin and I said, Hey, I'm going to start a mastermind group. She goes, Why do you want to do that? I said, Well, I don't want to turn these people away. I want to help them. I want to encourage them to have a life of success and significance. I don't want to just turn them away, so I started a group. Well, I kept doing the podcast interviews, and more people would call me and say, Hey, I want you to coach me. I'm like, I can't, but you know what? I'll start another group. I went to Robin and I said, I'm going to start two more groups. She goes, Uh-oh. I see where this is going. I started laughing. I said, Well, I don't really want to do it, but I don't really want to turn them away. You fast forward, Mick, a dozen years, and here we are, 15 mastermind groups. We're in all portions of the world serving Christian entrepreneurs, business owners, decision makers, helping them have that life of success and significance.

I just get the distinct pleasure of being able to share with people like you what we're doing, what we're trying to accomplish. But the transformation that has happened in the lives of hundreds of men over the years has been absolutely worth every minute of this energy that we put in it.

I love that, Aaron. And that's where I actually wanted to go next, because, again, I know that you're a servant leader, and I know that you did this not for self, but to continue to be selfless and to inspire and help others. When you talk about some of the transformative journeys and transformative sessions that you've been able to have, you don't have to name any names, obviously, but are there any moments that just stand out where you can look back and say, if it were not for this mastermind, this probably would not have happened.

We got two guys that live in Dayton, Ohio, that joined their brothers. One was 31, one was 34 when they joined. One of them was a state trooper and the other one worked at a HVAC company, and they said they wanted to learn to buy property. Their groups started teaching them how to raise capital and how to scale their business and how to delegate responsibilities, and started teaching them methods to acquire property, and one thing led to another. Well, they've been in about five years now, so 60 months. They've been in the group. One of them now is, what is what? Is that 40 years old? The other one is 35 or 36 years old. They just bought their 500th piece of property as a result of being in the group. Now, that's an exception to the rule, obviously. But my point is, one of them had a $40,000 a year job being a highway patrolman, and the other one worked at an HVAC company in their finance department. These guys got together with their 10 unbiased, trusted advisors, their board of directors, and they listened. They did what they said. They showed up consistently.

Today, they have a little over $60 million in property that they've been able to acquire and rent out. They're changing the face of one of the cities there in Ohio. They're helping refurbish an area that was destroyed. Thought. They both say that they never dreamed in a million years that they would be able to do something like that. It's not because they were inept, it was because they didn't know what they didn't know. They were able to get around other people that could help them scale. There's many, many, many guys. Here's what happened to me. I'll tell a little bit of my backstory. When I was 40 years old, I was headed to the office. It was August first, 2001. Mick, I was headed to the office, and unfortunately, I ran over and killed a pedestrian on my way to the office. My life come to a breach and halt at that point. It was like, what in the world? I had a successful company, had a beautiful wife, Robin and I now have been married 45 years. I've got two beautiful daughters, five grandchildren. My life was amazing. But what dawned on me is that the brevity of life.

I could have been killed that day just as easily as the gentleman that I run over. What I learned through that experience was that I had a great amount of success financially early in my life, but I didn't have any significance. Zero. I hadn't touched the lives of other people. I told God, if you give me another opportunity, I'll face outward instead of inward, and I'll try to help other people accomplish their goals and their dreams, but simultaneously be significant. See, I came home at 40 years old with a pocket full of money to a house full of strangers.

Wow.

My wife came up to me and she said, Thank you for our second home, our beautiful home, our automobiles, our lavish vacations that we're able to take. Thank you for all that, but I feel like a single mom, and it broke my heart. I was like, I'm so focused on accomplishing financial goals that I did it at the expense of my family. There was a lot of relationship capital that went into those decisions. What I'm trying to teach me today to do is to be very successful. Don't lower your aspirations, but don't do it at the expense of your family. We focus on five principles. There are five pillars that we've identified. There's personal, professional, relational, emotional, spiritual, and financial. If any of those are off at any time, it's like a three-legged stool with two legs, it's going to wobble. That's what happened to me. I put so much energy and effort into making a living that I forgot about the relationships to my family. My number one core value now is relationships matter most. I think that we can always aspire to do better, but we don't have to do it at the expense of our family.

That's what we've been able to accomplish in Iron Sharpeens Iron Mastermind is helping people like these two brothers that I mentioned earlier make a fortune, but they're not doing it at the expense of their family. As a matter of fact, honestly, they have more free time now than ever because we've taught them to delegate. Yeah. And so, yeah, marriage is something that's really, really vital. We need accountability. I've only been a husband to a lady close to 50 years, but I've never been a husband to a lady for 50 years. I'm learning every day. My point is, is right, and we're all on that journey. Whether you've just been married five years or 10 years, it's the first time you've only been married five years or 10 years. We need other people around us to help instruct us. Same way with kids. I told my daughters, I said, Listen, I've never had a 16-year-old, and I'm going to make some mistakes. I would go to other guys that had 25-year-old kids, and I go, What did you do when your kids were 16 or when I bought my first business, it's like, I've never owned two businesses.

What would you do in this case? They would give you insight. They would give you advice and help and encouragement because they didn't have a dog in the hunt, so they could be honest with you. The other thing, Mick, that I think is vital is that we go out every single day. I'll tell you a quick little story. I invited a guy to have coffee with me not long ago at Starbucks, and we went up there, and my grand My granddaughter went to West Palm Beach School in West Palm Beach, Florida. I went down there and I said, Hey, I want to buy a condo in Palm Beach. What do you think? He said, Yeah, Big A. I followed you for years. I've watched you. I see what you do. I think you should buy it. I said, Why do you think I should buy it? I was setting him up, Mick. I was setting him up bigger than Dallas. He said, Well, you said your granddaughter's down there and you don't like cold weather in the winter and West Palm Beach is warm, and I'm sure you can afford I'll afford it, and you should go buy it.

I said, Well, it's a million dollars, this little two bedroom condo on the beach. He said, Well, you've owned all these businesses over the course of 45 years. I'm sure you can afford it. I said, Well, we'll call him Bill. I said, Bill, you don't know my blind spots. You don't know my aspirations. You don't know my kryptonite. You don't know my superpowers. You've never met Robin. You don't know my grandkids, and you sure don't know anything about my finances.

Yeah.

He said, No, I don't. I said, You really can't help me, can But, Mick, we do that every single day with people. We go out and we try to enlist people's advice, and they have no context. You may give them good advice, but for them, specifically, it may not be any good at all. That's right. In a mastermind, you're able to lay out everything. We know your family, we know your finances, we know your history, your aspirations, we hold you accountable weekly. These guys that have gotten in or accomplishing their goals so much faster because we have that level of context. But see, we got to have people that are the real deal that really want to aspire to do the right thing and be vulnerable and be transparent and go, You know what? I've got a responsibility as a husband, as a father, and I want to do my very best. When you get those guys in the room, you can rock their world.

I totally agree, Aaron. I totally agree. I want to unpack and plug a couple of things that you've been talking about here. One, And going back to what I'm going to call, and shout out to my accountability partner, Carlester Crumpler, being present. That's something that even myself, over the last 12 months, with everything that's moving so fast and always remembering to be present, because to your point, Aaron, physical things are good.

There's nothing wrong with it.

Just don't let it own Mental freedom is good. Yes. But if you're not present to the people that matter the most, and I'm always going to say that matter the most, if you're not present for them, nothing else is truly going to matter because those physical things that can be gone mean nothing when your spouse says, I'm gone, when your kids say, Hey, we never really had this relationship with mom or dad or whoever, when your parents, if they're still around, don't feel that you're there. That's the most important thing. How did that being present, how did that start to change your outlook and change your focus on what truly mattered to you?

Well, Here's the truth, Mick. I don't want to sit up here and say I'm that guy that's got it all figured out. Even after 46 years of small business ownership, I still learn every single day. I'll be honest with you, I love to work, and it's a challenge for me even today. I have to consciously turn out the lights, turn out the computer, leave my phone, and go sit with my wife to be present because I love to work. I love to talk to people like you and other guys in the mastermind. I'm always like, Hey, I can help Mick. I can help Billy, I can help these guys. Just a little more time, it just like, You know what? God called me first to my wife. He called me first to my family, and I better be guarding that time. See, I didn't do that the first 20 years. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I didn't do that. I needed something like that accident to wake me up to go, Hey, Big A, you better pay attention. You better sit up and take note because the brevity of life can switch in a nanosecond.

One phone call away, one doctor's visit away from our whole life changing. Year and a half ago, we got noticed that my daughter had cirrhosis of the liver, 38 years old, and the doctor said, You got very limited time to live. Went to Vanderbilt Hospital, we spent two and a half months there, couldn't get a donor. The doctor said, In 90 days you're going to be dead if you don't get a donor. We had to leave, go to Memphis University in Memphis, and praise God, they got her a liver in about three weeks. That was a year and a half ago, and today she's healthy. But here's my point. That all changed with one phone call. No amount of money that I've got, no amount of prestige that I've got, no amount of influence that I've got could change that situation. Our total focus went to our daughter for 18 months to help her get a liver. We were willing to do whatever we had to do to help get her a liver. Well, see, I was present as you can be in that 18 months, right? But we're smart enough, Mick, not to have to have an automobile accident that kills a pedestrian or a daughter that's about facing a life-threatening disease, to get our attention.

We need to be smart enough to go, You know what? I'm cutting the light off at five o'clock in my office, and I'm not going to take any other distractions, and I'm going to pitch baseball with my little boy. I'm going to go to my granddaughter's recital. I'm going to sit here on the couch and watch football with my wife, whatever you do, and I'm going to be present. It's a challenge that we have to stay on top of every single day. I've had accountability partners now for 30 years. I've adamantly been with them for 20 years. Every Monday morning, 6: 30, we meet, and I've got to have accountability in my life, or I'll do a stupid, bone-headed thing and fall back into these old habits. I need people around me to hold me accountable.

Yeah, I love that. I love that big A. And I'm right there with you, man. I don't even want to say the little things because your wife, your kids aren't little things. It's those moments that we create. To me, my day isn't about hours anymore. It's about moments. Can I have big moments, impactful moments? That's what I focus on. If I go, literally, I have it on my calendar. If by one in the afternoon, I haven't had either for myself or for someone else a moment that mattered, then my mission is to go find that and create that moment. Because that's what life is about. When we think about and we reflect We don't reflect on the full day. We reflect on the moments of that day. We reflect on the moments of the week. And so I challenge everyone, and I got this from Big A, and we're going to talk about view from the top in a moment. No pun intended. Life is about those moments moments. And if you don't create those moments, if you're not inspiring those moments, if you're not crafting those moments, you're going to have a life of meaningless hours, of meaningless minutes, and that's not what it's about.

And so I want to transition that to View from the Top? And what inspired you to, I'm going to say, write one of the most powerful, not even a book, manifestos that exist today? What was that moment? What was that reason for Big A?

You know, Mick, you're going to laugh at this too, buddy, but I've just straight up forward with people. I was sitting in Dave Ramsey's conference room. Ken Abraham sat with me on my left. He's the most prolific ghost author on the planet, written over 100 biographies for some of the most prominent people in the world. Dan Miller sat across the table from me, 48 Days to the work you love, authored about 15 books. Dave Ramsey said at the end of the table to my right for a dozen years, and he's written two dozen books. One of the guys, Ken Davis, had said to me, he said, Don't you want to write a book? I said, Who is going to read Big A's book? Who's going to read my book with all these authors that I'm friends with? He said, No, but nobody can tell your story. It really resonated with me. He said, If it changes one person's life, will it not be worth it? I said, You're dead going to write It took me 18 months to write View from the Top. But I want to tell you, the lives that it's changed, the inspiration that it's given has all been worth it.

I can't tell you the opportunities that it has afforded me for writing the book. I'm very vulnerable in the story. I even tell about a story where I was out West, where I was so upset at a guy that had done me wrong, that ended up on the same hunting trip with me. I was going to kill him. I literally was going to kill him. I had the rifle in my hand. We were antelope hunting, and God really intervened and softened my heart, and I didn't. But it tells about in the book what I was thinking and what I was up against. See, we're carnal beings, and we have anger, we have all range of oceans. That's why we need people around us to help us. Isolation is the enemy of excellence. If we want best, we've got to be around people. God designed us to be in community to help us overcome these obstacles in our life. That's what I offer up in the book, is just telling the value of being in community.

Since you went there, I want to talk about that story a little bit because you said it all, I'm not going to say nonchalantely, but I was going to kill somebody. Then I decided not... That emotion, that carnal emotion that we all have as humans that you just eloquemmently talked about, to say, as you said in the book, your intention, not even you wanted to, your intention, your actions were to kill someone, to harm someone. What literally was like, No, I'm not going to?

Well, here's what happened is two years prior to that hunting trip, I was in a business engagement with a gentleman here in Nashville, a very prominent businessman here, and I sold him a piece of property for a substantial amount of money. We were at the closing table, and there was a paragraph at the bottom of the contract that I had missed. It cost me a substantial amount of money. It was at a time I needed the money. I could use the money. He laughed at me in front of attorneys and bankers and pointed his finger in my face and said, I got you. I at you. I became enraged, and I became vindictive in my spirit, and I sold him the property. I lost the money. Two years after that, I was invited to go on a hunting trip with other businessmen. When I When we got there, this gentleman was also invited by a different person. We were on the same trip for 10 days together, and we never spoke. I was trying to be cordial in front of all the other guests that were there. We get out West, we're hunting in Buffalo, Wyoming, John Ezeiz's property.

It's got 67,000 acres out there, and I'm sitting on top of a hill, and I saw this. I didn't know who it was. I saw somebody walking, and I looked through it, my binoculars, and it was this guy. We'll call him John for the story. I'm a very good shot. I was raised hunting, and I've shot my entire life, and I'm a very good shot. He was about 400 yards away. The thought went through my mind, I can kill him right here. He's not with anybody. I'll take him out. I had the gun in my hand and I started shaking. I was thinking, I'm an elder in my church on the deacon body. I'm a Sunday school teacher. I'm a prominent businessman. I've got a family. What am I doing? The Holy spirit just touched me and said, Put it down. I put it down. I obviously didn't. On the way home, this is part of the story. You may not have to read the book after I tell you this, but on the way home, his truck broke down on the side of the interstate, 60 miles from Nashville. I don't know why, but I got out of the truck and I went up to his truck, and we hadn't spoke the whole time.

I said, John, I've got a K5 Blazer sitting at home, and No, if you'll get somebody, one of these other trucks, to carry me home, you can borrow my truck until you get yours fixed. He looked at me, he's like, What? And I said, Yeah. We got in the car, went to my house, got my Blazer, and he goes, I'm going to pay you that money back. And I said, No, I don't want the money. I didn't do that for the money. He goes, Why are you doing it? I said, I've got to let myself out of bondage. I've got to allow you to do what you've got to do. I've got to forgive you because I'm commanded to. And I I gave him on the side of I-40 interstate, right outside of Nashville, for myself, not for him. Because see, when we're harboring bitterness, that's a filter, and it taint our life. Those that are listening to me right now, you got somebody you need to forgive. They probably don't even deserve it. But yourself is in bondage when you don't forgive somebody else. We're commanded to forgive. I want to encourage you right now, if you don't get anything out of this interview other than Forgive the person that you're holding in bondage right now because you're the one being held captive.

When you do that, the freedom that you'll have is indescribable. I want to encourage you now, whoever you are, forgive that person so you can go on and be the person that God called you to be in your life.

Big A, you're talking to me, brother. I needed to hear that. I needed that literally right now.

We're the ones held captive. Right? Right. What is that old saying? It's like drinking poison, hoping they die, and that ain't going to happen. You've got to be set free. You've got to be let go.

I needed that big Dave, I know that we need a hard stop right now. You've got another commitment. Can we do part two?

Yeah, man, I'd love that. Let's do it. Let's go ahead and book it, and let's do part two. I would love that. I'd love to hang out with you more because 30 minutes is not enough It's not.

For the viewers and listeners, your because is your superpower. Go unleash it, definitely. But we're going to do part two, and I'm going to have links to view from the top. I'll have links to everything that Aaron Walker, AKA Big A, is doing that we've got there. Aaron, 30 seconds. Where do you want people to follow you, find you, do whatever with you?

Oh, man, I appreciate that. Thank you for giving me that opportunity. I'd love to connect with some of you guys that are out there that are small business owners or your decision makers and you want to experience having trusted advisors in your life to help you go further. You can reach me at isib Brotherhood. Com. That's iron sharpens iron. Isib Brotherhood. Com. All of our social media links are there. Just come and follow me, hang out, and let's get to know each other. I would love that.

I love it, Big A. Brother, I appreciate you. I know you got to run. We will get part two booked right now. Let's do it. You're the bomb. Yours was with us. Part two is coming, I promise.

Come on, I'm ready for it. Big Mick. We'll see you, buddy. Have a good one.

Love you, brother.

Love you. We'll see.