00:00 Chris Grainger
Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast serving Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders guys intend you to be. I’m your host, Chris Grainger. Let’s jump in. All right, guys. This is your meat episode of the week, and I’m very excited to, for, for you to be here today. But you know how we’re gonna start every episode with scripture.

The scripture for this week. Proverbs 11, verse 14. For a lack of guidance, a nation falls, but victory is one through many advisor. Guys, that’s powerful scripture. Go back and check out the spiritual kickoff we did earlier this week. You definitely wanna see I, I’ll walk through that three areas, breaking that verse down to give you some things to think about on how you apply it and guys that that scripture ties directly into what we’re gonna be talking about today, the Power of Masterminds.

And I brought in the expert himself, , to help us walk through the power masterminds. Aaron Walker, affectionately known as Big A, he’s founded more than a dozen companies over 42. Has appeared on 2000 podcast interviews. He’s all over the place, guys. He attributes so much of his success surrounding himself with his mastermind counterparts, guys, okay?

So he spent, uh, a decade meeting every, every week with Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller, Ken Abraham, and five other amazing entrepreneurs. Guys. You remember Dan? He was on our show earlier this year, so go check that out. And he is the founder of the Iron Sharpens Iron Mastermind, and they have over 20. Uh, national, international, they’re doing some amazing things.

He’s an author of a, of a book called View From the Top. Must read guys, I I got this book. This was gonna be the book of the week, so there’s your spoiler alert for, for what you can expect. But guys, again, he has some just incredible resources out there to help men who are, who are looking for mastermind groups.

He’s married well to his amazing wife, uh, Robin, and they have two kids. Bunch of grandchildren and, and they live in Nashville guys. So I tell you what, it was really fun meeting big A and talking through the power of Masterminds. And as we get into this, I want you to think about this idea cuz part of our community at the line within, we’re building mastermind groups.

We have our first one going right now and we’re gonna be adding the groups and we set the same rule. It’s funny, when Big A, he starts talking, you’re gonna find out there’s numbers that he sets for his groups. We set the same. So guys, I really encourage you to check it out. Go to our community and dig into the idea of, of the area for the masterminds, cuz there is power in that, you know, meeting regularly, sharing, being vulnerable.

And being held accountable. A lot of power, sweat big a’s gonna unpack a lot of that for us guys. Definitely go check out the show notes at the end so that you, there’s some resources there. We wanna make sure we get those into your hands. I’m not gonna hold us back any longer. Really looking forward to you guys checking out my, my fun conversation with big A.

So our, our listeners just heard me do an intro, big A, but that’s just Chris reading words and, and I whole, I’d rather hear the story of our, of our guests directly from them themselves. So would you mind sharing us a little bit about your background and, and, and what led you to where you’re at now?

03:13 Aaron Walker
Well, thank you.

I’ll try to give you context, uh, for our conversation. Try not to make too much of this interview about me, but, uh, native Nashvillian, I’ve been here 62 years, this coming March. Uh, married to Robin for 43 years this coming June. So two beautiful daughters, five grandchildren. Um, we started our first business when I was.

Um, a year later when Robin graduated from high school, we got married and I went to her and I said, Robin, we both were broker than a convict when we got married and we can’t mess this up. And so God really put us on a really cool trajectory. Um, We had a measure of success early on and then, uh, I retired a couple of times and the Lord won’t let me retire.

He keeps bringing me back. He said, no, man. When I get done with you, I’ll let you know. Right. And 12 years ago, I retired for the third and final time and, uh, Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller and Ken Abraham, some of those guys that, uh, are in the Eagles Group Mastermind with. Encouraged me to coach. And I said, I don’t want anything to do with that.

And they said, why not? I said, man, I’m tired. I’ve been working since I was eight years old and I want to take a break. And Dan Miller said, uh, that’s the most selfish thing I’ve ever heard you say. I said, what do you mean? He said that you’re gonna quit, move down to some little Caribbean island and call it good.

And you’ve got a lot of wisdom to. Had a lot of business experience with the number of businesses you’ve owned. You and Robin have had a very successful marriage, and I think you need to coach. And so Dave Ramsey invited me to Entree Leadership Mastery. He gave it to me as a gift and Dan had me out at the sanctuary and we did, uh, innovate, which is a coaching program.

And, uh, I was on my way home about 9 30, 10 o’clock at night on that last night. And Dan text me. He said, Hey man. Did you see the way the people were leaning in listening to. That last evening and I said, yeah. I said, maybe I’m just a good storyteller. He said, no. He said, God has really gifted you to teach.

You really need to coach and encourage other people. So I prayed about it, talked to Robin about it, and decided to, and so couple of guys hired me to be their coach, started doing podcast interviews and. I look up and turn around and now we’ve got 15 mastermind groups. We have 150 members from around the world participating weekly, and it’s transforming lives.

Chris, like nothing I’ve ever done in my entire career, and I’m probably having more fun today than I’ve ever had of any business I’ve ever own.

05:52 Chris Grainger
Wow. What a story. What a story. And our listeners definitely, they know Dan, he’s been on the show before. Love, love that story there. And, but you mentioned a word mastermind and a lot of our listeners, they may not even know what that means.

Big a when you, when you hear, when they hear that term. Good point. So, I mean, how do you, how do you define what a mastermind

06:09 Aaron Walker
is? We make it way too complicated. Chris. Really what it is, is peer advisory group. It’s just your trusted advisors. It’s people that you are willing to go deep with. You’re really tough.

At a place in your life where you let the veil down, where you’re not. So like, Hey, I don’t want people to know that I got difficult things going on. I was first introduced to this years ago. I didn’t wanna join the group. And Robin’s like, why? I said, well, you know how Dave is. He’s gonna be all up in my face and he’s gonna be asking me these hard questions and he’s gonna find out we’ve got some real estate debt and uh, I just don’t wanna face the music.

And she said, why don’t you just go. And so I did week after week, and about three months in. These guys started really becoming vulnerable with each other. They started talking about marriage issues. They started talking about issues with their children. They started talking about cash flow problems in their business, and I inside started smiling and I came home and I was laughing out loud when I got home.

Robbing goes, what is it? And I said, they’re more screwed up than I am. I said, I am glad that I have joined this group. I found my people and she started laughing and I spent the next dozen years meeting with those guys every single week. And Chris, it changed my life because they were able to help me make decisions.

Based on the data of me personally. You see what we do is take advice from people and they don’t know anything about our history, our propensity, our blind spots, our kryptonite, our superpowers. They don’t know our financial situation, they don’t know my desires, they don’t know my giftedness. And we take advice from people like that and I’m like, well, that doesn’t even make common sense.

Why would I take advice from somebody that knows nothing about. It just introduced me to a whole nother world that allowed me to be able to go to these guys in strictness of confidence. There was no judgment, there was no condemnation, and I was able to share exactly where I was at, and they helped build on that firm foundation up.

And so I was able to then make some radical shifts, radical changes, because they had the data to support the advice they were giving me. So it’s merely your trusted advisors board of directors. Peer advisory group, mastermind, accountability group, whatever you want to call it. It’s just people that know you well, that can help you along the way.

08:42 Chris Grainger
So, I mean, I’m the hardest part of being in a mastermind group. Is it, is it being vulnerability is, I mean, being

08:48 Aaron Walker
truthful. You know what’s funny? You know what’s funny when you say that? I think about this because for 25 years now, I’ve been in a mastermind group every week. What we’re saying is, as long as they don’t know the truth, I’m okay.

Right, and we’re lying to ourself. If you think about how ridiculous that sounds, it’s like, oh no man. If they find out, me and Robin argue, they’re gonna think less of me. Or if they find out one of my kids or misbehaving as a teenager, oh my gosh, my whole world will come to an end if they find out my kids misbehave or I’m having cash flow problem.

Like, what are they gonna think then? And I’m like, they’re gonna think a lot less about that than if I go bankrupt or if one of my kids get arrested, or if Robin and I get a divorce, right? And I’m like, why would I not want to go tell ’em the truth? People that love me and care about me that can walk with me, gimme advice and help me turn the ship around rather than dealing with a.

You see that’s what being vulnerable is, is dismissing those feelings of the imposter that is living behind things that are really not truthful. Mm-hmm. . And so we’ve gotta get in a safe environment where we can be authentic. Mm-hmm. .

10:07 Chris Grainger
It sounds like with in those groups, what you said originally, it takes a little bit of time to get there, I guess, that just for everybody.

10:16 Aaron Walker
Yeah. People have gotta earn that trust. Yeah. Right. You wouldn’t go up to just a whole group of strangers and spill all your dirty laundry. You know? You wouldn’t be real smart because you don’t know what they’re gonna do with the information. Right. But when you get in these groups and there’s confidentiality, Understood.

And we, we’ve even signed NDAs in the group where people brand new didn’t really know each other. That way they could come with total confidence that, uh, hey, I’m gonna share some things that are private in nature. So, yeah. Yeah, we, we do those things for people that are brand new. And then after I talk to Chris for a while, I find out, well, you know what?

He seems okay and I dole out a little bit more, and then a little bit more. And then one day you get to a place where I have total confidence that you’re gonna be confidential with my information. I know you care about me. You want good for. You’re a non-biased participant. Never be in a mastermind group with a family member or a business partner because it’s impossible for them, uh, not to be unbiased.

And so, yeah, and once you do that, you’re like, Hey, these, these are my guys. I mean, these are the guys that’s gonna help me walk this journey. Yeah. And when you do that, it just takes you so much further. You can go faster alone, but if you want to go further, you gotta go with a. Amen.

11:42 Chris Grainger
And, and you also talk about it in your book around Choose Wisely.

You know, I hear, I’ve heard you talk about that. So, I mean, as a guy listening right now, he’s, he’s, he’s nodding his head. You got him nod his head the whole time. How does he start? Wasn’t he be looking for in others to, to, to choose that right

11:57 Aaron Walker
group? Yeah. Couple things that I think you need to do.

Obviously I’m very biased for Iron Sharpens Iron Mastermind, right? Because it’s what we do professionally, but some guys maybe find themselves in a position where they can’t really do that right now. So the thing that you’ve gotta do is a couple things. One is, is that you’ve gotta get people that align with your core values.

Mm-hmm. , and a lot of people don’t even have their core values established. In a written document, we actually do, uh, I know what they are like intellectually, but when you start using your core values as a filter, I would suggest strongly that you write them down. So I’ll go over these, uh, for your audience and maybe it will help them identify what their core values are also.

Yes, my first core value is relationships matter. . It doesn’t matter if you’re selling a widget, providing a service, the person should always matter most. I’m a Christ follower, so the relationship that matters the most to me is mine with God, right? Mm-hmm. , that’s first and foremost. Then Robin, then my two daughters, then my grandchildren, then my business, right?

And I feel like that I’ve got ’em in a good order. I prioritize the priorities in my life, starting with my faith first and foremost. Our second core values make it amazing. Like, I don’t wanna do anything that is not as amazing as I know how to do it. Now that doesn’t mean it’s gonna meet your standards or anyone else’s, right?

But until I know differently, I’m gonna do it this way, right? Until I can figure out a better way to make it more amazing. Third core value, no excuses. Man, I hate excuses versus anything. Just own it. Just say, Hey, this is the way it is. This is who I am. This is why I did what I did. Just be a man enough to stand up and own it.

Right? A couple weeks ago I was, uh, sitting here at my desk working and I got a text message and I looked down and this buddy of mine goes, Hey, big A, are we having lunch today? Or, And I looked at it and I said, Hey, I’ll be there in 10 minutes. And so I left my office, ran up, walked in, and uh, normally people would say traffic was bad, got caught in an appointment, you know, whatever.

And I walked in and I said, Todd, I’ve got a good excuse. And he goes, yeah. And he looked at me cuz he knows I’m not an excuse guy. I said, I. I said, I didn’t put you in my calendar, I just forgot you and I’m sorry. Yeah. And he goes, big a I knew you wasn’t gonna gimme some line, some BS line that you were just in.

You know? It’s like, hey, you gotta own it. Yeah. Third, third core value, no excuses. Fourth core value is everything is figure outable. By the way, look that word up. It’s such a word. So I love it. Our team knows not to come to me and say, Hey, there’s no way to do this. I’m like, that’s not acceptable. Like, we’re gonna figure this out.

And I raised my kids that way. I talked to my grandkids that way. My mom wouldn’t allow us to say the word can’t. And the first chapter of my book is, can’t, couldn’t do it and could did it all. Man, we’ve gotta develop a mindset. That we can do things right, right. Physically, there’s some limitations I have, right?

We all do, right? I’m 62 years old, so physically there’s some limitations, right? But outside of the physical aspect, we’ve gotta develop a growth mindset and instill in ourselves a sense of confidence. If we tell ourselves we can’t, you won’t. There is no way. So everything is figure outable. And then lastly, truth Before.

And for me, I find my identity in Christ, and I look through the biblical lens to find out what truth is. I run it through those 66 books first, right? And then your opinion matters to me. And so truth before opinion. So the next thing is, is you want to align yourself with people of similar worldviews.

Okay? So if their core values don’t align, I’m not taking lifelong decision making processes from people that are core values and our worldview don’t align. Mm-hmm. . Now, don’t hear me wrong. I love diversity. I want diversity. If everybody was just like me, we wouldn’t need but just me, right? And so I love diversity.

I love new perspective, I love different. I want people that are honorable, trustworthy people of character, people have integrity. Those are the things I’m looking for. And once I establish that for me, now you’re gonna be in my inner circle. Okay? If you don’t have any of those qualifications, or you’re lacking in the majority of them, You’re not gonna be in my inner circle helping me make decisions for me and my family.

Mm-hmm. ? Mm-hmm. . So we created iron, sharpens iron. We go through an interview process with everyone that applies for our mastermind. We talk for 40 minutes on a Zoom call and we go through these questions. What are your core values? What is it that’s important to you? Are you a person that can be trusted?

Do you have that camaraderie experience with other. Are you a person that aligns similarly with my worldviews? Which core values do I possess that you don’t align with? And once we go through the weeds, we figure that out, and then we make a determination if you’re an adequate individual for our mastermind or not.

I may simply say to you, you know what? There’s a lot of red flags here in regards to the culture that we’ve created. And there’s probably a mastermind for you, but it’s not us, right? Or we say, Hey, you’re part of the brotherhood. I mean, I get you. I understand you. You’re similar in your core values. Your worldview aligns to some degree.

Now, there’s a lot of things related to the worldview that we can. Be a gentleman about and agree to disagree. Right. That’s okay. That’s not what I’m saying. But it’s a, it’s a radical opposition for the way I think. Why would I wanna surround myself with a trusted advisor that has, contrary to the things that I’ve been discussing, right?

And so you can do that in your community. It’s a lot easier to find people like that virtually. Because you’re not constrained to the demographic area that you live in, and you’re able to find, listen, we’ve created a movement in iron, sharpens iron. It’s literally a brotherhood. People are going in business together.

They’re helping each other. They’re loaning each other money to do certain projects. They’re partnering together to buy real estate. They’re starting businesses together. They’re growing personally, professionally, spiritually. They’re being held accountable. They’ve got a life plan. They’ve got a program that, uh, we’ve implemented called Come As You Will Be, where we focus on every day task and guys are crushing their goals as a result of having that type of fellowship every single day.

19:02 Chris Grainger
Powerful. Hey, we’ll take a quick break. We’ll be right back guys.

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Big A, you just unpacked a ton. For our, for our listeners right here, my friends so far is aligned. Those core values, those, those similar world views definitely gave me a better perspective. So there may be guys out there thinking right now, you call it Iron Shoppers. Iron. Love it. Yeah. And there may be a a, a guy listening and he’s like, you know what, I’m not sharp enough to to sharpen iron , so

20:24 Aaron Walker
tell I can help you with that.

Yeah. Help that guy out. You know, I think we all have those voices in our head that tell us, you’re not smart enough, you’re not good enough. I lay in bed sometimes at night. Now take it, uh, for what this is worth 44 years, I’ve been a small business owner and somebody will quit our mastermind group and I’ll lay there in bed and I’ll tell Rob and I.

Robin, do you think anybody else is gonna join? And she’ll say, why don’t you just shut up and go to sleep? Are you crazy? Cause I have these voices that say, Hey, you’re an imposter. Uh, you’re not smart enough. You’re not good enough. You’ve only got a high school education and it’s all gonna come crashing down.

I think Chris, all of us. Have these demons, right? We have these thoughts in our mind. It plagues us each and every day, and you kind of keep reminding yourself, Hey, I may not be as sharp in this area, but I’ve got it going on in this area. Right? We’ve got a lot of guys that do really well financially. And their relationships are a disaster.

Yeah. We’ve got guys that can’t make money at all, but their relationships are so strong and they’re teaching everybody. We all, God uniquely gifted all of us to be able to help to some measure. Right. Right. And so, yeah, don’t let anybody tell you that you’re not sharp enough, good enough, uh, to sharpen other.

Amen to

21:46 Chris Grainger
that. And I’m thinking through now, if, if you’re, if you’re in a mastermind, sometimes it can be hard as guys in particular to give feedback and to hear that feedback when the truth hurts sometimes. Cause it stings, like you mentioned you didn’t wanna go Dave Ramsey. Cause you know Dave, if he hurt about the real estate, you know how Dave feels about that, right?

Yeah. So how can we do a better job of as men, as of delivering? And on the flip side of actually receiving that feedback to, to, to actually move forward and make improvements

22:13 Aaron Walker
in our. Here’s the thing, and I tell everyone this, that joins iron sharpens iron. If you’re carrying your feelings around on your shoulder, you’re not gonna last long because we’re in here to move the ball down the field.

We’re not in here to pander each other. You know, just make everyone feel like, Hey, everything is good. It’s no problem if you’re not willing to throw the flag on somebody. Mm-hmm. , you don’t need to join because we all are a bunch of knuckleheads. We’re trying to figure it out, right? All of us, no one listening to this has it all figured out.

But man, what I have found is the most. Uh, valuable asset of being in a mastermind is someone else’s perspective. Mm. A couple of years ago I was at a conference and, uh, Jeff Hoffman was there speaking. He was the founder of Priceline and I got an opportunity to talk to him after the conference and, uh, he said, you know, 10% of everything I read has nothing to do with anything.

I’m interested. And I’m like, you gotta help me unpack that. Yeah. And he said, uh, it opens up a new perspective when you study or read something that you have no interest in, it opens up new opportunity. Here’s the irony of this. He said 90% of the great ideas he’s had came out of that 10% reading. No kidding.

You see, it’s a new perspective, right? Yeah. And when you get around other trusted advisors, , I used to go in and I don’t know Chris if you’re like me, but. I can get out of the shower and I got three new ideas. I’m like, Hey, this’ll work. This is unbelievable. And I would get to the Eagles Mastermind, I’d walk in, I’d be all excited cuz I’m a kind of an animated guy.

I’m very passionate and I would share, you know, the idea. And Dave Ramsey would go, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. And they, and Dan Miller said one time, wait a minute, Dave, hold on a minute. If we take this. And we take this and we get this resource and we introduce him to this person.

He may be onto something. And I was like, I didn’t even know that was a thing. Right? , like, I didn’t even know to know what you just said. See that’s the value of being in these groups is that perspective. We did a construction project at my house not long ago, and we were doing an addition and uh, we had the engineers out here, the general contractor, the subcontractor, and there was a connection point that they couldn’t make work, it just wouldn’t work.

And we looked at it and looked at it day after day. And so about a week later, I was sitting on the patio in the back of the house and I was on a coaching. And I looked up, and when I looked up, I solved it immediately. And the reason I solved it, I looked at it from a new perspective. Mm. See that’s what happens every single day in our businesses.

We only have one filter, right? We only have one life experience. Right. You can’t even think differently if you wanted to because you don’t have the ability to do that. But when you’re around other. And they introduce you to a new insight, to a new perspective. They give you a new resource, then you have an opportunity to implement a new strategy.

Right? And that’s the reason that I have subjected myself to the scrutiny of all these men. And I have let the pride, the ego, go by the wayside. Their insight, their encouragement, their edification, their resources, their life experiences has catapulted me to a whole nother level. Right? And so you’ve gotta be willing to let those things go in order to open yourself for a new vantage point.

Right.

25:58 Chris Grainger
I love it. Now I love to get a little more tactical with you, too big a, I’m just curious, you’ve mentioned, it sounds like it’s a weekly occur. When you, when you get down to, to actually moving the ball down the field, you know, what, what does a meeting look like? Is it, is it a weekly meeting? Is there an agenda?

I mean, does somebody come in as their week to speak

26:18 Aaron Walker
or, that’s a good question. Well, I’ll walk you through it. So, okay. We meet virtually, there are 10 people in a group. Okay. No more, no more than 10 ten’s. Your, because number ten’s the number because, uh, it gives a lot of energy. Okay. But if you have really more than 10, you don’t get any air.

Ah, okay. It. It’s less than 10. The energy’s low. So we found the magic numbers. 10 people, right? Invariably, someone may miss, someone may be out, they may be on vacation, they may be sick, and it still leaves a quorum, still leaves eight or nine people for a lot of the energy, right? So we start out with winds.

I always start meetings with wins because I’m excited to hear your win. Right? That’s the other thing, who you gonna share a win with, right? If you’re alone and you don’t have anybody, right? It’s pretty lonely , when you don’t have anybody to share a win with. So we start out with wins quickly. Yep. We then go to what’s called man in the middle.

Okay. And you know, three months in advance every time you’re up for man in the middle. So Chris, today, if you were man in the. You would’ve already emailed us or you would’ve put in boxer or in the text thread or in Facebook group that you have for each group, and you would’ve already said, Hey, these are the three issues I’m dealing.

Like, my wife and I are struggling with this because of this, or my kids and I, or my business. Like I need to hire a marketing director, but I’m not sure if I’m qualified or capable, or am I at a revenue place that I can hire? Like these are the questions you’re like, so it gives us time to kind of think through it.

You get in and then we go around and share our thoughts and ideas. We’ll ask other probing questions. Mm-hmm. , but we may ask for more financial data. We may ask for what is it that you really. And you’re like, what? It’s like, well, we could do a number of things, but if it doesn’t align with your vision, Then it doesn’t matter, right?

And so you’re like, oh wow, man, I didn’t even think about that. See, we do long term visions. Also, I created a program called Come As You Will Be. And what that means is, is you think 36 months ahead and you say relationally, Um, financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually, this is where I wanna be. Like, these are the goals that I have for the next 36 months.

So we reverse engineer that and say, okay, Chris, if you want to be here financially, you’ve gotta add 10 more clients and you’re gonna do it over a 36 month period, then every year you gotta add three new clients. What are you gonna do to get the first client? When are you gonna have the first client? So let’s tactically work on the task.

And the goal will take care of itself. Then we have what’s called the success and significant scorecard, where in all five key areas of your life, I see the data. I know exactly how you are in your relationships. I know where you’re at financially. I know where you’re at spiritually. I know where you’re at physically, and then you share that every time you’re a man in the middle, and we see if you’re making progress.

Oh, see, a lot of people don’t keep up with the data, so they don’t know if they’re making progress or not. We keep up with the. That way each and every time you’re a man in the middle. Then we know if you’re making progress or if you’re going backwards. And then we do what’s called a full cup, okay? Where you share a tip, a trick, a hack, a book, a resource, a connection, a podcast with the group.

So these guys are getting constant feedback on things that are working right in other business people’s life. It could be personal, it could be professional, it could be s. And so here’s the reason we do it that way. A lot of masterminds today are just business focused, right? I gotta be very transparent with you.

In my mid thirties, I came home with a pocket full of money to a house full of strangers. Mm-hmm. . I had a lot of success financially. We sold out to a Fortune 500 when I was 27 years old. Went in business, uh, bought a business. I started working for when I was a kid and had a lot of success in that. And I came home one day and Robin walked up to me and she said, thank you for all you’ve provided for our family.

And I said, well, you’re welcome. She said, but I feel like I’m living like a single mom. Mm. I went, She goes, yeah, I’m taking Brooke and Holly to practice and I’m taking them to gymnastics and to girl Scouts and to cheerleading practice, and, uh, I need, I need you here. Mm. And I’m like, man, I’ve gotta build some boundaries.

Yeah. And so that’s what we do in the Mastermind. See, I don’t want other people coming home with a pocket full of money to a house full of strangers. And so we deal with men in their entirety because I can promise you there’s men listening to this interview right now. Mm-hmm. and women. And they’re sacrificing their family for the greater gain financially.

Right? And I wanna tell you, that’s not gonna serve you well long term, right? Money’s not gonna scratch the itch like you think it’s gonna scratch the itch. I’ve had a lot of success and I’m grateful. I don’t wanna underestimate or undermine what. Success means it does a lot of really good things. It makes you able to go on vacation, provide education, like I like to make money, but if I’m sacrificing the relationship with my kids and my wife, you still go home a loser.

Yeah. Yeah. And I don’t want people to do that. So we cover every dynamic, every aspect of your life in our mastermind. Cause we want you to win in every area. I love

31:51 Chris Grainger
it. Hey, let’s take a quick break guys. We’ll be right.

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You mentioned that these, these, uh, masterminds meet virtually, primarily, and we do a lot of stuff virtually at the line within us too. And what I have found with the virtual meetings, and it’s just very interesting with guys cause we’re talking about a lot of spirit, you know, spiritual things with guys, you know, uh, they’re, they’re more apt and willing to open up with us virtually Yeah.

Than they would be at their local church. And I’ve, I’ve even had guys say that just flat out. I’m not comfortable about talking about some of this stuff at my church, but with, with the line within us, with the groups, the stuff that we’re doing, yeah, they will, I feel very, so do you see that? Is that kind of

33:18 Aaron Walker
I can tell you why.

I can give you the reason why. Okay. So if you’re together in person, in your local community, and let’s just use something hypothetical, okay? Okay. So let’s just say that you’re, you’re working at your business and you have an attraction to the opposite sex. You haven’t done anything, but you’ve got this attraction and you willing to share that.

Like, Hey, this girl’s got my attention. Like I don’t really want her to, but she does. Never in a million years are you gonna share that in person. You know why? Because your wife and your buddy’s wife play tennis together, right? And you have no idea if he’s gonna go home and share that with his wife, and then now the cat’s out of the bag and you haven’t dealt with it right?

When you’re dealing virtual, And you live in Texas and all the people on your call is in every other state, uh, the chances of that happening are remote, slim to none. Yeah. And you’re willing to be more vulnerable. The other thing that we don’t do, we messed up initially, we don’t record any calls. Okay. No call.

No call. And I’ll tell you why they never know where that recording’s gonna end up. True, true. And a lot of very successful business men need to talk about things that are sensitive in nature that could be used against them, right? And they need a safe place to share. So, years ago, we quit recording the calls.

If you don’t show up, you miss out on the call. And it will also up your attendance guys don’t wanna miss. Right. And if you record the call, they know they’re gonna get to watch the replay. Right. And so yeah, we really take confidentiality, uh, to another level. Yeah. Uh, because it’s very important because it gives you a safe place that you can go and share and get honest feedback.

Yeah. Uh, that’s the reason guys will share quicker and more virtually. Yeah. Uh, than they will in. I

35:11 Chris Grainger
love that. I mean, and we’re definitely seeing that same thing too, and I mean that, that weekly touch point, you know, I think just that repetitive, it kind of builds into their routine. I’m sure a lot of the guys just look forward to that hour or 90 minutes, whatever the link is.

Just being able to, to, to be able to know they can bring it to that, to that meeting and get it addressed.

35:30 Aaron Walker
Chris, here’s the other thing that I wanna hike and before we move off this topic. Yes sir. Let’s just say you don’t have anybody. Isolation, right? Is the enemy of excellence. Mm-hmm. , if you want to go further, you’ve gotta be in community.

God designed us to be in community, but let’s just for a moment. Just for this conversation’s sake, let’s just say you don’t have a group. Mm-hmm. . The number one thing that we find out that guys do is procrastinate. Why would you not? Right? Like, why would you not just kick the can down the road? I’ll do it later, but when you have committed, somebody’s pushing, you open it audibly, right?

And you’re in a group and they’re holding you accountable, right? Every week you’re gonna go back and they’re gonna ask you, Hey Chris, you said you were gonna do this thing. Did you do it? Well? Nobody wants to go in there and say they didn’t do it. Well, what happens when you do the work, right? You become successful.

Yeah. And see, there’s accountability. Accountability is not to harm you. It’s to help you. It’s to heighten your awareness to the things that you say are important, that you want to subject yourself to their scrutiny so that you will accomplish like, I have a trainer at the gym. I don’t need the trainer to tell me what to do.

I pay the trainer so that I’ll go right, because I’m not gonna pay somebody and then not go. Right? And so it’s accountability for me cuz I hate going to the gym, I loathe going to the gym. I just do not want to go, but I need to. And so I have that accountability. I have three men that I meet with every Monday morning at six 30.

I’ve done that almost 30 years. Wow. You know, the reason I do, I know if I’m left with no accountability, the sinful nature of man, there’s no telling what I’ll do, what I’ll say, what I think, and when I have accountability, and they’re asking me very, very important question. I’m gonna do the right thing.

I’ll give you an example. So, um, we coach men. This is no knock on women at all. I, you know, there’s a lot of great masterminds out there for women as well, but I coach men, so I don’t really need to have a social media following with women. And so one of the boundaries that I’ve built to protect my marriage is that all the people that follow me on social media, and we have about 15,000 followers, Because that’s my avatar, that’s my audience.

So one day I’m sitting in my office in the standard protocol for me. Is every time a woman asks to follow me is I hit delete that. That’s it. I just hit delete standard protocol. I’ve always done it. There again, I want to emphasize it’s not a knock on women. Like I’m not a male chauvinist. That’s not what I’m saying.

I’m saying that God’s called me to coach men, right? I’m gonna make your man a better man. So be thankful that I feel that way. So one day, not too terribly long ago, uh, this lady asked to be my friend on Facebook. And she was a 15 on a one to 10. Right. I was like, oh my gosh, who is this? Right. Wanting to follow this old baldheaded 62 year old, and so my mouse hovered over her name.

I was gonna click on her profile and I’m just gonna be gut level, honest. You know the reason I wanted to see more pictures. Yeah. That’s the truth. Right. And so I immediately hit delete and I called my accountability partner and I said, Hugh, I said, let me tell you what I just did. I need you to ask me periodically if I’m still hitting delete.

And I’m not opening profiles, going to places I shouldn’t, just to save my own conscience just to see more pictures. Right. Because then that can take you down a dark road. Yes. That I don’t need to go. Right. Right. And so it’s accountability. If we, if we don’t have people asking us those questions, we don’t have people asking us if we’re accomplishing our goals.

Listen Chris, we have an A responsibility. To lead our families? Well, yes, we need to show up and give our best. We need to show up and accomplish the goals that we were tasked with accomplishing our spouses signed up for us to do our best. Mm-hmm. . And when we don’t have these trusted advisors, accountability groups, we’re not showing up.

Growing in personal and professional development, we’re cheating not only ourselves, but our whole family. Right.

39:51 Chris Grainger
I love that story and I think that accountability. So many of us guys, we, we, we run from that. It’s funny, we started our bible study a few months ago in line with them and part of it big A is they had to do a commitment at the end of it.

So we go through a Bible study, some scripture, we try to simplify and then apply it. Then how can we apply it to the next week? And the guys, the feedback I’ve gotten so far is that’s their favorite part because they know when they come back the next week, I’m gonna start that meeting. Did you follow through?

Mm-hmm. and, and some guy, some weeks the guys that were like, I screwed up. You know, I did. I wasn’t able to get it, but I commit to, I’m doubling down this week, and I tell you what, there you go. We’ve seen some incredible change just by that and. So, I mean, there’s power in that accountability for

sure,

40:35 Aaron Walker
man.

Yes. Hey, plus we gotta build boundaries. We’ve gotta do things for our family, for ourselves. We gotta, we gotta create a vision. We’ve gotta create a plan. We need trusted advisors, we need accountability partners. We need to be able to say, Hey, I’m doing all I know to do, to do the right things. Right. Right.

We gotta have, we gotta protect our. I was speaking in San Diego recently, and uh, this lady came up to me with a book, one of my books, view From the Top is the book I wrote, and she wanted me to autograph the book. And I did. I autographed the book and she jumped up beside of me real quick and she grabbed her camera.

She goes, Hey, I’m gonna do a selfie with me and you. And I stepped aside. And I said, no, ma’am. And she looked at me like she really offended her. And I said, would you allow me to. And she said, yeah. I said, I don’t take pictures with women. Mm. And she was really ticked. She got really hot there again, she felt like I was a male chauvinist and mm-hmm.

I said, can I explain why would you gimme a minute? And she said, yeah. I said, uh, my wife is sitting on the couch right now in Nashville, Tennessee, 2,500 miles from here. You’re a good looking blonde. You’re 25 years old, approx. And you’re gonna take a selfie. The first thing you’re gonna do is put it on Instagram and Facebook.

She goes, yeah. I said, how do you think my wife’s gonna feel with my arm around a 25 year old, good looking blonde, and I’m in San Diego and she’s sitting at home on the couch. Mm-hmm. . And I said, I do this to honor my wife. Right. And she sat there. You know what she said, Chris? She said, I wish my husband felt that way.

Mm. And see, we don’t do things to demean people. We do things to protect the people that we love. Amen. So I want to continue to be married to Robin. I want to continue to have a great relationship. And when we make them feel like they’re priority, like they’re number one because they are right. Uh, it really strengthens your relationships.

And so we just gotta build our own boundary. Maybe that’s not a boundary for you. People listening to me today, and that’s. But that works for Robin and I, right? And I want to do things for our marriage to protect our marriage.

42:53 Chris Grainger
Well, I would also challenge you guys listen today that, that think that that doesn’t apply to them.

I think you need to go back to your core values. Cause if your core values are right, I think then you do put those boundaries in place like that. Cause I’m a big, I’m also a big aid the same way. You know, don’t. Not going to lunch. I’m not doing selfie, all that stuff. It’s, it’s if it’s a female Billy Graham rule.

Right. Not even gonna be in a room by myself. Just, just not going, I’m gonna remove myself from that situation. Yeah.

43:20 Aaron Walker
Well, that way you lessen your chances for any innuendos or accusations or temptations. Right, right. And so, yeah, none of us are saints. Right? I have messed up so many places, so many ways.

There’s so many things. If I could get a redo, I would do differently. And, uh, our objective today is just to encourage some of the guys to dodge some of the landmines that I’ve had to go through over the course of my career.

43:50 Chris Grainger
I think you’ve definitely done that big a and I tell you what, for the line within us, we, we, at towards the end of our interviews, we always have a little fun.

We call it feeding. Yeah, it’s feeding time. It’s, it’s a quick fire, like a lightning round. Let’s do it. I like it. If you wanna jump in, let’s, let’s, let’s have some fun here. Let’s do, I’m curious for you, big A, you know, again, we’re serving Christian men. What’s your favorite thing about.

44:14 Aaron Walker
Yeah, I think my, well immediately, I didn’t know these questions beforehand, so I’m having to think here just off the cuff, but he always connects the dots.

Mm-hmm. , uh, he’s always working, uh, in the background. I can always look back and connect the dots. I can never look forward and connect them, but I think it’s the level of trust that I have in my faith that I know Romans 8 28 is playing out. And, uh, I’ve just gotta hold onto that. So, I would say his unconditional, unwavering love for me is what I hold onto.

That’s what I like best about God. I love it.

44:49 Chris Grainger
Now, uh, I flipped this, this next question on his head. So what’s your least favorite thing about Satan?

44:56 Aaron Walker
Yeah, he’s, uh, he’s a snake. He’s a conniver. He’s, uh, makes things look attractive that are in reality going to destroy us. Mm-hmm. . And so, you know, he’s got a tackle box full of lures and he’s gonna find out which one you’ll bite on.

Right. So he’s, he’s a conniver. Yes.

45:18 Chris Grainger
What’d you spend too much time doing last year?

45:23 Aaron Walker
Yeah, I’m, I’m pretty much into productivity and I do things proactively, not reactively. Uh, I’m gonna have to take a pass on that because I don’t have any regrets about the way I spent time last year. Okay.

45:35 Chris Grainger
Well, that’s good.

That’s a, that’s a touchdown right there. How about, how about something maybe you’re struggling with right now? Anything pop to, to the front? Yeah,

45:43 Aaron Walker
yeah. That, that I can answer. . I’m kind of transitioning, um, into a new space at 62 years old, of working more on the business, creating value, not working in the business as much, but my role, I’ve got a really fantastic team.

So I spend all of my time now thinking six to 12 months down the road to add more and more and more value. Yes sir. To iron sharpens iron. And so it’s a pretty new role for me and uh, I’m more of the visionary instead of the integrator. Yeah. And so, uh, yeah, it’s just a struggle getting used to that new role I’m playing.

I understand.

46:26 Chris Grainger
I understand. So two more questions. So what’s, what’s a new habit that you like to create moving.

46:33 Aaron Walker
Yeah. Uh, practicing the banjo, really, I’m not musically inclined. Yeah. And I just bought a banjo, a five string banjo. I wanna learn to play bluegrass. Nice. I, I can’t carry a tune in a bucket, but everybody says that, and I’m gonna prove I can do it.

Yeah. And so it’s just a challenge for me. You know, I speak a foreign language as well. People say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. And so I’m like, yeah, you can. And so I constantly try to do things that I’ve never done before. So this year it’s gonna be, uh, playing the banjo. Well, you

47:07 Chris Grainger
live in Nashville, I think.

47:09 Aaron Walker
Wasn’t that a requirement? I tell everybody in the music business, right? You would think I would play

47:13 Chris Grainger
something. Yeah. I thought I had, it was a requirement. You had to play an instrument to

47:16 Aaron Walker
live there or something, you know, . But maybe it is, and I’m jumping on board. Check back with me. I’ll play you a song.

Well, I can’t wait.

47:23 Chris Grainger
I love some bluegrass. I can’t wait to hear. Hear you playing there. So last question, big A, you know, what’s one thing you hope that the guys listening today remember from our conversation?

47:34 Aaron Walker
Oh yeah. You know, uh, we talked on it at the very outset of the interview about developing a can do attitude.

Mm-hmm. , I want you guys to have, uh, a growth mindset, not a fixed mindset. And I want you to go out and try some things, uh, that are gonna stretch you. Uh, people are always afraid to fail. They say, man, if I fail, I’m like, well, okay, so what happens if you do? And they’re like, well, I don’t know. And I’m like, I would fear missing an opportunity more than a fear failure.

I couldn’t lay in bed at night and think, would it have worked? I gotta try it right That way I at least know. And so develop a positive can-do attitude, fear, missing an opportunity more than you fear failure, and you’ll have a very successful and significant life. I.

48:25 Chris Grainger
Thank you so much. So where do you want guys to go to connect with you or to learn more about Iron Sharpens iron?

We’ll, we’ll make sure we sync up everything in show notes, but if you wanna shout it out now, that’d be great. Yeah,

48:35 Aaron Walker
man, I didn’t know I was gonna get that chance, but I’ll take uh, advantage of it. Go to view from the top.com. That’s spell with a v like Victor View from the top.com. People say why view from the top cuz nobody wants a view from the.

And I want to help you design your view from the top. Hey, fill out an application to join our mastermind. It doesn’t commit you to doing it, but it does put you in front of me for 40 minutes and we have a conversation to see if we can help you design your own view from the top. So, Go to view from the top.com, fill out an application, let’s have a conversation and see if we can add value to you, helping you build your view from the top.

Amen. And

49:16 Chris Grainger
again, guys, go to the show notes. We’ll have it there as well as the link to his book, you know, view from the top. I’ve read this cover to cover, made a bunch of notes in it. Highly recommended that this, uh, spoiler alert for our listeners for our Fun Friday. This will be our featured book of the week.

So we wanna point push this to you guys. So, uh, go check. The line within a slash book and you’ll be able to connect directly with view from the top. But big A, this has been a ton of fun. Thank you so much. I really got so much value out of our conversation. It’s a blessing and an honor to meet you, sir.

49:48 Aaron Walker
Yeah, thanks Chris. I appreciate it. Thank you.

49:53 Chris Grainger
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That was a powerful conversation right there with big A. I tell you what, as I mentioned the Power Mastermind, there is so much there that can be done, that’s can help you guys grow in your, in your walks and. Just to remind you, I know Big A, he has some wonderful things going at Iron Sharp Designer, and if you wanna check that out, by all means, but I would highly encourage you as well.

Go to the line with us, check out the things that we’re trying to put together. Cause we’re here to serve you as well. Guys. We were, we have our first mastermind going, we’re still learning, so I get it. We’re still in early phases, but guys, what better. To get going right now at the gate, you know, work with us and, and we’ll be able to be able to come along right beside you, serve you right where you are, and help be that, just that the iron that you need to sharpen you guys.

That’s what it’s all about. As you start thinking through your week, I want you to think about this. Have you built a team that’s gonna help you win big a big a And I talked a lot about that, right? About the, those accountability groups and, and the peer advisory groups and what that looks. That doesn’t just happen guys.

You have to take action to make that come to fruition. So guys, if you don’t have that group, we’re here for you. Go to the line within.us. Check us out. Right there. I’m telling you. Join the community. You know, he talked a lot about the power of community. Join the community and just see the threads. Lets see what the guys are talking about.

Cause each week, each day guys are going in. They’re. And they’re, and they’re, they’re, they’re, they’re being vulnerable. They’re bringing up topics and ideas. It’s a safe place as well, guys, right? We’re not being shut down by social media or anything like that. It’s our own platform. So again, go to the line within.us.

Join our community, and then you’ll find all the resources there. You’ll be able to join our Bible study, our line lunches, our mastermind, all those different resources, our courses. We have two courses out there now. We have an ebook, we have several guides. Guys, we are building stuff every week to serve you, but you’re not going to get it unless you take action.

So again, go to the line with n.us and join that community. The only thing you can do, share this episode, share ’em out. We need people. So the only way, the best way to do that is for you just to send it to someone. If, and if all you do is one thing is this, give us a rating in review. And I know I say this week in and week out, guys, we don’t have enough of them.

We need more ratings, we need more reviews. All this stuff matters. It does, it makes a big difference to the algorithm. So please give us five stars, right? It could be a one or two sentence review. That’s all we. Makes a big difference. So guys, come back on Friday and I’ll unpack some really good tips, a health wealth, self tip, give you some, uh, couple dad jokes.

I think you’re gonna enjoy going into the weekend as well as guys, you know what the book of the week’s gonna be coming. But anyway, we’ll have some fun on our fun Friday. So I hope you see you back here on Friday. Enjoy it. Get after it this week. Have some fun. Lean on others. And remember that scripture, A lack of guidance, a nation falls, but victory is one through many advisor.

We wanna be here for you guys, get after it. Unleash the lion within.