Mick Unplugged - Aaron Walker: Navigating Life's Journey Through Faith and Mentorship

Starting point is 00:00:00 Well, here's the thing, Mick, we're all leaving a legacy. It's just what is it? We can either do it intentional or we can do it unintentional, but we're all leaving a legacy. I want mine to be, I helped people over and above a level of success. Welcome to Mick Unplugged, the number one podcast for self-improvement, leadership and relentless growth. No fluff, no filters, just heart-hitting truths, unstoppable strategies, and the mindset shifts

Starting point is 00:00:37 that separate the best from the rest. Ready to break limits? Let's go. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Mick Unplugged. And today we have a powerhouse of wisdom, a mentor to the elite, and a man who's turned success into significance. From building million dollar businesses

Starting point is 00:01:02 to transforming lives through his iron sharpens, irons mastermind. My friend is back for round two, like we promise, ready to challenge, inspire and push us to greater heights. Everybody give a warm round of applause to the legendary, the visionary, the unstoppable Mr. Big A himself, Aaron Walker. Aaron, how you doing today? Come on, Mick. I don't know if I can align myself with such an introduction, but hopefully your team won't be too disappointed nor your audience. So man, good to see you today. Definitely not disappointed because the people wanted you back.

Starting point is 00:01:34 We promised that we would have you back because you know, there's so much that we talked about in the first episode that just felt like we could take people places, man. And again, you know that you are one of my mentors that I look up to. And I kind of wanted to start there. The power of mentorship, man. Like what has mentorship meant to you? You know, the iron sharpens iron. Mastermind is all about that. Like let's go deeper into mentorship for the people. You know, I've had two really strong mentors in my life,

Starting point is 00:02:06 David Landreth, and Bob Warren. I didn't really understand what mentorship was about until I was around 3940 years old. It was a new concept to me. Because I was kind of the lone wolf, you know, it was like, hey, I got it figured out. I can do this. I'm my own man. I don't need other people in my life. I want to create my own trail. And I found out that trail led to a dead stop. And I was like, man, I was at the juncture of making a terrible

Starting point is 00:02:36 decision or a horse decision. And I really needed God to intervene in my life and to expose me to something that was going to put me on a different trajectory. And he introduced me to a guy named Bob Warren lived in Hardin, Kentucky. Bob mentored me for about 20 years after that on a weekly basis and it changed my life. David Landerth was another one that did that spiritually for me and helped me understand what being a real man was all about. and so it's not about being the lone wolf it's about getting inspiration encouragement getting unbiased trusted advisors in your life that can breathe into you that can help take you on a path that you haven't been

Starting point is 00:03:17 before help you navigate those landmines that are out there that none of us want to step on and these two guys really enabled me to do that. So I get the distinct privilege now of being others people's mentor, their coach, facilitator in iron sharpens iron. We're the founder of that mastermind and we get to help people all over the world do that today. Amazing. And you know, like I told you last time how much of an inspiration you are to me and I didn't, I didn't get to elaborate and I wanted to take some time here to elaborate on on kind of why. And one of the things that I've loved about you from afar, and I'm trying not to get emotional now as we do this,

Starting point is 00:04:00 but is as a man, how open you are about your faith and how humble you are about how you can't do things alone. And that resonates so deeply with me because a lot of times as men, we put on our armor and then sometimes we forget to take it off. And by take it off, meaning, yep, we're men, right? And a lot of us are the definition of a man's man. But what I love about you, Aaron, is you also talk about faith a lot all the time. You talk about how you've needed your faith

Starting point is 00:04:46 in certain moments. And I know that with others that you coach and mentor, you tell people one, don't be ashamed of your faith, right? And it's okay to need others. And I just wanted to tell you personally, man, like when I tell you that I've looked up to you, that's the reason why. Yeah, I appreciate that. I'm humbled that you would say that. Bob Warren used to teach me, don't put

Starting point is 00:05:09 your confidence and faith in me, look to the source that gives me that power and that's the Lord and I'll let you down. I'm a man, I'm gonna disappoint you, I'm a man, I'm gonna make mistakes, I'm a man, but with God's instruction, God's help, our dependency on Christ, hopefully we can overlook some of those travesties within our life and our flaws and our shortcomings and maybe do this journey together. So thank you for sharing that with me. No, absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, one of the messages that you teach, and I'm going to ask the question to set up the

Starting point is 00:05:46 message, right? The world is so obsessed with quick wins, right? But there's a, I don't want to call it a game, but there's a long, sometimes a long waiting period because you know the saying, right? God may not come when you want him, but he's always right on time. And so, I know that, again, for the listener, the viewer, that's, I want to win now. I need this answer now. What's the message you want to give them about patience and waiting and planning? You know, Nick, none of us want to wait. We're all impatient. And we don't want to wait for the delayed gratification.

Starting point is 00:06:25 We want instantaneous and we live in a world today that delivers. If they take longer than 15 seconds to bring her hamburger to the window at McDonald's, we're like, where have y'all been? Are you on break? What's going on? And we can flip channels. And I've got a 22 year old granddaughter and she made a really profound comment. Recently we were talking and they called me big a as well.

Starting point is 00:06:46 And she said, big a, you can't impress my generation. And that really was profound. And I said, well, Abby, elaborate on that. She said, well, everything is at our fingertips now. We can see any and everything we want online. Uh, we can experience anything we want virtually. we want online we can experience anything we want virtually and so therefore nothing impresses us currently with my generation and I think it's the same way we're used to getting things instantaneously regardless of what it is

Starting point is 00:07:17 because of this fast-paced society that we live in well our time and God's time don't necessarily coincide. The thing that we've got to learn is to have our ultimate confidence and trust in his plan. Now that doesn't align most of the time with how expedient I want an answer, but I've got to learn that it's not just the destination, but it's the journey. And it's the process that we go through with Christ in getting to the answer getting to the outcome oftentimes I have found over the course of my 46 year entrepreneurial journey if I had gotten what I asked for it could have been detrimental and I wasn't ready

Starting point is 00:07:58 oftentimes for the answer or the outcome in many things in my life over the course of my career I'm grateful for the time that it took. In many things in my life over the course of my career, I'm grateful for the time that it took in order for me to get it because my appreciation level is far greater. The way I take care of things are far greater. My endurance abilities are far greater. My resilience is far greater as a result of it.

Starting point is 00:08:24 And I've faced some turbulent winds over the course of my career. And if I didn't have that stability, that endurance, that grit, that determination, I wouldn't be able to combat those winds. When I say winds, W-I-N-D-S, winds, the winds that come. And so I think that if we relax we'll enjoy the journey far greater than being impatient waiting and demanding an answer immediately and anything worth having is worth working for and anything really good has taken an extended period of time in order to achieve or accomplish and so I would just simply say put your trust and confidence in the time and

Starting point is 00:09:05 learn the lesson so you don't have to repeat the class. Mm-hm. You say these things so great, man, like just very relatable, you know, just all the things that sometimes I want people to just understand. And I was actually telling my son last week about you. And so he listened to our last episode and he said, dad, I love the way that Aaron Walker communicates because I feel like he's talking to me.

Starting point is 00:09:35 He's not talking above me. He's not talking down on me. He is literally talking to me. And my son who now is coaching high school football just said, I'm going to take those lessons and that's how I'm going to communicate with my football players. And so again, the lessons that we all learn from from big a man, like I don't sometimes I know how humble you are, but you don't realize how far reaching you have and the impact that you're having on just about everybody, brother.

Starting point is 00:10:05 Wow. That's very humbling. Yes, sir. Thank you for sharing that and show my appreciation to your son for his kind comments. Thank you. I totally will do that. You know, another thing that I know was important to you is legacy. And for me, it's been a part of the reason why I do what I do, right? Like from the age of 10, I realized I need to change the life of my mother, my brother, my sister, right? That was legacy. As I got older and had kids, it was, okay, it definitely isn't about me. It's about providing for them and giving them the standards that they have or that they should have that they can then pass on to other people and those in my circle. It's about the legacy, the promises that I keep for them.

Starting point is 00:10:53 What does legacy mean for Big A man? Well, here's the thing, Mick. We're all leaving a legacy. It's just what is it? We can either do it intentional or we can do it unintentional, but we're all leaving a legacy. I want mine to be I helped people over and above a level of success. I want to instill significance in the lives of others as well. I want people to say my life was better as a result of having known him.

Starting point is 00:11:23 I felt a sense of encouragement in his presence. It's not that I had a certain amount of money or tangible possessions. It was that my presence made a difference in their life because the only thing people remember is how you make them feel. That's it. They don't care about your possessions. They don't care anything about anything other than how you've made them feel important, unimportant, overlooked, heard, unheard. Your legacy is something that's going to carry on when you're gone. Right. And so I can make an impact while I'm here, but the systems, the processes,

Starting point is 00:12:00 the people I touch will give a ripple effect to generations. And we've all got to ask ourselves, what are we doing that my influence is going to have an impact to the second or third generation far removed? And so I think that's where we've got to start looking at legacy. Don't hear me wrong, I enjoy making money. I can't stand it when people with money go, money is not important, I want to go.

Starting point is 00:12:23 Well, that's not true. Money is very important. Right. We needed to live the life that God has allowed us to live. We have expenses. We like to eat. We like to take trips, buy nice cars. There's nothing wrong with that. But the thing is, is you've got to keep it in perspective in that you use money as a

Starting point is 00:12:40 tool because that's what it is. And most of the time though, money owns people. They don't own the money and so money is just a resource that God has given us some of it is is permissible to enjoy other parts of it is to give our tithe to the church other parts of it or to change the lives of others or encourage them or help them part of it is for investment for the future so we're stewards over the resources that God has given us. And God says, much is given to those

Starting point is 00:13:09 that can manage it on a small scale. And little is given to those that can't manage it or squander it in the onset. And so legacy encapsulates every area of our life, whether it's in our stewardship and resources, through our relationships. So I think we need to really pay attention to what the legacy is going to be after you're gone. When they lay you parallel and they put you six feet under, what are the people gonna say? I remember when my

Starting point is 00:13:37 dad passed away in 2006, I stood at his casket for six and a half hours. It was an hour and a half wait to get through the line. My dad was a man of little means. He never made over $15,000 a year in his life, but the day we buried him there were standing room only. They had to open up other rooms inside of the funeral home because my dad made an impact on the lives of people. He helped them. He cared for them. He heard them. He encouraged them. It wasn't about his boat, it wasn't about his house, not a person mentioned a tangible possession through that line. All they said was, let

Starting point is 00:14:13 me tell you what your dad did for me in my life. Every single person for six and a half hours. See I want people to be able to say that about me. I want them to say, hey because of Big A, my life is different in this way. And that's the legacy that I hope to lead. Amen to that, man. Amen to that. You know, last time, you know, we talked a little about the mastermind and I'd love to, to highlight the mastermind a little bit here.

Starting point is 00:14:41 So for those that haven't joined yet, and if you have it, I don't know why you haven't, but for those that haven't joined the mastermind yet, give us a peek into what that's like. So what are some of the conversations? What are the meetings about? Like take us inside the mastermind, the iron sharpens iron and mastermind. Yeah. Thank you for giving me that opportunity. Masterminds also 25 years ago was a new concept for me. I didn't know what it was. I'd never heard of it. A guy here in Nashville introduced me to

Starting point is 00:15:09 it and has changed the trajectory of my life for this reason. We weren't designed to be in isolation. We were designed to be in community. We don't know everything. We haven't lived all the life experiences and the most valuable asset of being in a mastermind is other person's perspective. Because when I present something to you, you can give me a different angle, a different perspective, a different insight. You can give me a different level of encouragement. You can tell me life experiences and I don't have to experience it myself. I say I'd rather learn on your dime than mine. And oftentimes you can help me navigate those landmines that I don't have to experience in order to be successful. So inside the mastermind weekly on the calls, they're virtual. You can be

Starting point is 00:15:57 anywhere in the world and we have people all over the world that participate. You're able to come and say I'm thinking about doing this business opportunity or I'm having this trial in my marriage or my children are misbehaving or we're looking at private school over public school or we're looking at homeschooling or I've got a son that's wayward or a daughter that's promiscuous or I'm wanting to scale my business whatever faceted is that you're currently dealing and you can get unbiased perspective from nine other people because there's ten people in a group. I gain wisdom through prayer, first of all, through solitude and hearing from the Lord, and then through the counsel of the

Starting point is 00:16:38 multitudes. When you have other successful people joined together and collectively they say, I think as a group, we would suggest you go this way. The success statistics are far over and above your single mindset of how you should do things. And so it just allows you to move a lot faster. It gives you courage. It gives you other people that can hold your arms up when you're tired. It can give you resources. It can give you networking. you other people that can hold your arms up when you're tired. It can give you resources. It can give you networking. There's people that can come along you and hold you accountable for the things that you want to accomplish.

Starting point is 00:17:13 There's so many networking opportunities and introductions within our community that just expedites your success because you don't have to learn the experiences on your own. So you can go faster alone, but you can't go near as far because there's other perspectives. And so that's just a little glimmer, a little insight. The live events are amazing. We get together twice a year that you can break bread, pray, do breakout sessions, TED Talks. I mean it goes on and on. So it just really expedites the things that you're wanting to accomplish in a meaningful way with trusted advisors. That's amazing.

Starting point is 00:17:54 So the live events, where are they going to be in 2025? Yeah. Uh, in April of 2025, if it's after that, you're listening to it. We're going to have another one in October. Uh, it's going to be here in Nashville at the Sonesta hotel. We've already got a pretty extensive lineup. Uh, a lot of people have signed up. I think we've got 80 plus people that are going to be attending that.

Starting point is 00:18:17 And then in October, we'll have another one. Oh, right. That's amazing. And again, where can people get access to the mastermind? Yeah. The easiest thing to do is to go to is brotherhood.com. That stands for iron sharpens iron brotherhood.com. That's amazing. That's amazing. So big, a couple of questions before I get you out of here again, thank you for blessing us. If you had to read two books Thank you for blessing us. If you had to read two books over the next year,

Starting point is 00:18:48 or maybe that's a long time, two books over the next six months, what would those two books be? Well, first and foremost is the one that I always promote and that's God's word, the Bible. So I would keep that at the top of the list. How to win friends and influence people, it should be required reading for anyone and everyone to learn how to treat other

Starting point is 00:19:07 people, uh, there are so many books. I'll tell you what, I'll even go better than answering your question. If your audience will reach out to me at Aaron, a R O N at view from the top.com. I've got a reading list that I've kept over the years and I'll give you an entire reading list. How's that Mick? Will that work? I love it and I knew you had one so you set me up for a success. That's why I asked. Yeah just reach out to me. I'd love to give you that list and it's books that we read with Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller and the Eagles and then it's a list of books

Starting point is 00:19:43 that we've read over the past 10 years in the ISI mastermind. It is a treasure trove of books that will put you on the right path. So reach out Aaron at view from the top.com. Love it. And final question for you here for the listener or viewer that's looking for someone that they should follow or someone that they should follow right whether it's inspiration motivation mindset leadership who are a couple of people not named Aaron Walker that you would suggest people reach out to or look up or follow yeah there's so many out there that are amazing people. Scott Beebe owns a company called My Business On Purpose. You can find him at mybusinessonpurpose.com.

Starting point is 00:20:33 He is an amazing guy that can help you with systems and processes and core values and mission statements and values, an amazing, amazing guy. I would certainly reach out and follow him. Um, again, same thing. We have a list of people that we can give you that would probably be good within our mastermind and just ask for that list as well. And we'll be happy to give it to you. So you know, I'm setting that up.

Starting point is 00:20:59 I promise you. You're throwing me softballs. I'm telling you the reason I know is because Aaron always has the answers. He always has solutions. I'll say that if he doesn't have the answer, he knows the solution or someone who does. And that's what I appreciate the most. So Aaron brother, I appreciate you. Anything that you want to leave the viewers or listeners with before we disconnect?

Starting point is 00:21:20 Yeah, we deal with a lot of people that deal with fear a lot. And I did for a number of years when I was a young entrepreneur and the Lord really gave me this years ago. And I say fear, missing an opportunity more than you fear failure. A lot of people go out there today and they're afraid that they're going to fail. A sure way of failing is not trying. And so I want you to fear missing an opportunity more than you fear of failure. Be very consistent on your daily activities and you can have a level of success and significance like you've never experienced.

Starting point is 00:21:56 My man, big a Aaron Walker, brother. Again, I appreciate you so much. I definitely wanted this, this follow up episode just so I could tell you the things that I was telling you personally, because a lot of times, people don't realize the impact that they make, right? And I want you to really know that, brother. Like, the impact that you make

Starting point is 00:22:18 goes beyond the things that you see or hear on a daily basis. So, from me to you, I genuinely wanted to look you in the eye and just tell you thank you. You're a good man. You're a good man. Thank you, Mick. I sure appreciate it, buddy. I enjoyed being here today. Thank you. It was an honor. You got it. And for all the viewers and listeners, remember your because is your superpower. Go unleash it. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Mick Unplugged. If today hits you hard,

Starting point is 00:22:45 then imagine what's next. Be sure to subscribe, rate, and share this with someone who needs it. And most of all, make a plan and take action because the next level is already waiting for you. Have a question or insight to share? Send us an email to hello at mickunplugged.com. Until next time, ask yourself how you can step up.

Mick Unplugged - Aaron Walker: Navigating Life's Journey Through Faith and Mentorship

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