Start With A Win - Investing in Personal Growth Through Mastermind Groups with Aaron Walker, Founder and President of Iron Sharpens Iron

Episode Date: September 2, 2020

Our guest on this episode of the Start with a Win podcast is Aaron Walker (“Big A”), Founder and President of Iron Sharpens Iron Mastermind groups. Big A started his first business at age 18 and sold it 9 years later to a Fortune 500 company, essentially setting him up to be retired before most people have even found their careers. In the 42 years since, he has launched 14 businesses and attempted to retire 3 times, all the while participating in mastermind groups. After his most recent unsuccessful retirement attempt, Aaron was encouraged by the members of his mastermind group, Dave Ramsey in particular, to launch his own coaching platform to help ordinary people become extraordinary. And Iron Sharpens Iron was born. The goal of any mastermind group, but specifically ISI is to buy into a group of unbiased and trusted advisors who can provide encouragement and accountability. This is not a place to come to be comfortable and sip coffee, but rather a battleground intended to eliminate your bad ideas, shape your good ideas, and be spurred on to pursue new ideas. Big A believes that if you are breathing, you belong in a mastermind group. He says that the structure provided in these groups thrives on authenticity and transparency and cultivates a willingness to learn and listen to different perspectives. When you are looking for a mastermind group to join, Aaron says that it is of utmost importance that you vet and research the leader of the group as well as the stated mission and format of the group before committing to applying or becoming a part of it. Don’t rush into this decision but wait for the group that is the best fit for you and then commit to it fully. If you are interested in starting your own mastermind group, listen to Mastermind Playbook podcast as you walk through the process and you can find out more about the Iron Sharpens Iron Mastermind groups on his website. Connect with Aaron:https://www.viewfromthetop.com/startwithawinhttps://www.viewfromthetop.com/https://www.amazon.com/View-Top-Inside-People-Power/dp/111890110Xhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mastermind-playbook-with-aaron-walker/id1348461120 Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/ Leave us a voicemail:888-581-4430

Every day is filled with choices. You're here because you're choosing to start with a win. Get ready to be inspired, learn something new, and connect with the win nation. Not coming to you from top of the 12th floor of Remax World Headquarters right now, in the little recording studio here at Fort Contos. It's Adam Contos, CEO with Start With A Win. Producer Mark, how you doing, buddy? Hey, I'm doing so good. Awesome. If anybody's watching our video right now, Mark is sporting some Start With A Win swag. What do you got on there, buddy?

I'm swagged out today. I got my, you know, flat brim Start With A Win hat. I like it. My Start With A wind t-shirt. Yeah, it's nice. This is good. Hopefully, you go online, leave a comment on one of our videos on Facebook, and you might get entered to get some of this stuff. Whoa, I like that idea. And by the way, my wife is wearing start with a wind swag like two or three times a week.

So if you see Kelly out there with that stuff. Love you, Kelly. She's so cool. Oh yeah. She supports the show. I love it. So Mark, we have a really cool guest today who shares a lot of common thought process that I have. This guy, let's just get into this. Let's get going. How's that sound? That sounds good to me, man. So today we have Big A, Aaron Walker. He's the founder and president of Iron Sharpens Iron Mastermind Group. Aaron has participated, well, Big A has participated in a mastermind

with Dave Ramsey, speaker Dan Miller, bestselling author Ken Abraham for over two decades. And he's also the author of View from the Top and the podcast. Big A, welcome to the show, buddy. Hey, Adam. Thanks for having me, man. This is exciting. If I knew that we needed the swag, I would have put it on today. I'm sorry. That's all right. I didn't realize we needed the start with a win swag, but hopefully I'll get some of it soon. Yeah, yeah. I think you just might be getting some here, buddy. So, hey, give us a little bit of your background, Aaron. Where do you come from and how did you end up with Big A? How did that come about? That's a good question. I'm from Nashville, Tennessee. I've been here 60 years

now. We're three generations deep. Started my first business when I was 18 years old. And the guy that I started working for when I was 13 called me Big A one day. And I turned around and looked at him and he said, Averyn is too hard to pronounce and from now on you're Big A. Well, from the time I was 13, that stuck. So everybody now calls me Big A. And went on to start my first business at 18, sold out to a fortune 500 when I was 27 and called it quits. And I thought, man, this is the American dream. I go from broker and a convict to being able to retire at 18, I mean at 27. And that lasted about 18 months, Adam, and I got bored out of my mind. Since then, we've gone on to start

14 businesses over 42 years. I retired 10 years ago, I thought, for the third and final time. My wife said I've retired more than the law allows, but I was encouraged by Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller to coach. I didn't want any part of it. I said, no, I'm not going to do that. They talked me into it, so I started coaching some guys and started doing a few podcast interviews and couldn't handle all the people that were coming to me to coach them. So I started a mastermind group. Fast forward six years. Here we are today with 19 mastermind groups.

We're in nine different countries now around the world, and I'm helping ordinary people become extraordinary in all they do. I love this. And everybody, all the listeners know, I am a huge fan of mastermind groups. In fact, I believe in three different aspects of the interpersonal accountability here. One is a coach, one is a mentor, and one, as we're talking about here, and I think this is incredibly powerful, is a mastermind group. So, Aaron, can you tell us, what is a mastermind group? Yeah, people overcomplicate this, Adam, just to be honest with you. It's unbiased, trusted advisors that kind of serve as your

board of directors. That's the most simplification that you could make, mastermind groups. You know, there's all kind of fancy terminology about where one mind comes together and forms a third mind. And that is great. And he did a great job when he described it. But the truth is, is we need people around us that can encourage our superpowers, point out the Achilles heel, and really heighten our awareness to our blind spots so that we don't make the same mistake twice. And so, man, I've been doing this every week for 21 years now, participating in these mastermind groups.

And I attribute the vast amount of my success to these trusted advisors. That's awesome. So a lot of people think that mastermind groups are for like CEOs or select business leaders or something like that. I mean, who's a mastermind group for? Yeah, it depends. There's niche markets out there that you can have. Listen, if you're breathing, you probably need to be in a mastermind group because we all

have challenges that we deal with, right? We all have upper limit challenges. We all have great aspirations and goals and dreams. And we were designed to be in community. We weren't designed to be in isolation because simply isolation is the enemy to excellence. And if you really want to take your life to the new heights that you're so dreaming about, it takes encouragement. It takes accountability. It takes people with different perspectives to get you there. So quite honestly, you hate to say it's for everybody, but the truth is, it's for most everybody being in some form of mastermind to accomplish your goals. That's awesome.

Isolation is the enemy to excellence. And you're right. A lot of people, they want to get better, but they just don't have somebody else to provide them feedback in their life that they're willing to exist. And I love this because when you walk in the door of a mastermind, you have to get a big dose of vulnerability and transparency and leave that ego at the door. In fact, you probably don't have one anymore if you're in a mastermind. What is it like the first time you go to a mastermind? Yeah. Well, let's go back on a statement that you just said for a second. First of all, authenticity and transparency is paramount because if we've got that facade and we've got a veil up, people can't help you because they don't know the truth. They don't

know what you're dealing with. And when Dave Ramsey invited me to join his mastermind group decades ago, I didn't want to go because Dave's a hard charger and I knew he was going to call me on the carpet and I was going to have to be real and vulnerable. And I didn't want to do that because I had things in my life that I didn't want everybody knowing about. I didn't want everybody to know. And I had cashflow issues sometimes. And Robin and I just celebrated our 40th anniversary. But man, we had some tough times early on and my kids weren't always perfect. And I'm like, I don't want everybody to know that I'm a knucklehead when it comes to being a dad. But man, when you really let that veil down and that facade down, everybody else, including you, Adam, are dealing with issues in your life, right? At some time or the other.

And we need people that can help us. So these mastermind groups, you go in and our mastermind groups are not for the faint at heart. I mean, if you're carrying your feelings around and on your shoulder, you're gonna get severely punished because it is to make you better. See, my job is not for you to like me. My job is to take you to new heights. And that is the attitude of the mastermind members. See, we all get advice,

but sometimes it's advice that's unwarranted or we haven't solicited that advice. It's from family members or business partners. See, what you need is unbiased opinions because then they're going to tell you the truth. They don't have anything in the hunt. And so, if they have nothing to gain, nothing to lose as a result of telling you the truth, then you're going to hear exactly that. And so, mastermind groups are scary initially until you get the lay of the land. We do all of our groups virtually now. So you can participate from anywhere in the world. If you've got a Zoom connection and an internet, you're good to go. And it just allows you to sharpen your skills, to be held accountable, to share your most intimate

secrets so people can help you work through challenging and trials and areas in your life to help you grow. So your mastermind group is called Iron Sharpens Iron, correct? Correct. Tell us a little bit about that. How did you put that together? How big is a, I know you have a whole bunch of mastermind groups in that. Give us a little bit of a flyover of Iron Sharpens Iron. Yeah, well, it comes from a biblical prophecy, Proverbs 27, 17,

as one man sharpens another as iron sharpens iron. And Adam, you know well as I do, sparks fly when you're in these mastermind groups. They get heated. I mean, people, you know, they share something they're passionate about and somebody challenges them on it and they're like, what did you just call my mama? I didn't call your mother anything. But that idea you have is terrible. You know, I'm an ideas person.

I'm a creator developer. And I can get out of the shower and have three new ideas, you know. And I'd go to the mastermind group meeting and I would be all excited and I'd share, you know, with the group. And Dave Ramsey would go, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my entire life. Or Dan Miller would say, wait a minute, Dave, hold on. If we do this and we tweak this and we give him this resource and introduce him to this new connection, this might work. This might be something. I'm like, I didn't even know to know what you just said. So it just gives you a platform to where you can get shot down.

I'd rather be shot down in front of 10 people as to be embarrassed in front of thousands. And so, this is a safe place that you've built that you can share all these ideas. Many times, I've gone to the group with ideas before and left there with a business model because I knew conceptually what I wanted it to look like, but I didn't know how the pieces fit together. You see, one of the best assets of a mastermind group is the varying perspectives. And so Jeff Hoffman, I talked to him one day at a meetup

and he said that 10% of everything that he reads has nothing to do with anything of any interest. And I'm like, man, you got to explain that. Like, what does that mean? He said, well, listen, you don't know what you don't know. And then when you learn something, it opens the avenue. It opens the doors to new possibilities. Well, see, that's what the mastermind group does.

It just enhances your idea or it opens up new perspectives. And that's the reason I love to go because you don't know all there is to know. You don't, you're raised in certain environments. You have certain filters that you were raised with. And then when somebody else presents something new, you can dovetail that in nicely with your idea. You said a couple of things that really, really touched my heart, touched my mind. One is you really talked about, you don't know what you don't know. And that's one of the things that I really have taken from the mastermind groups that

I'm in. And I'm in several, I'm in several actively right now, and they all have a different perspective. And when I go into those groups, I walk in with this mindset of, okay, I'm going to learn something here. And I don't know a lot of what they're talking about. I love that. That's one of the big key things. If I could pull something out and write it on the wall behind me for everybody to see right now, it's that you don't know what you don't know. You know, Adam, I was in a mastermind meetup.

It was a short one. It was an eight-hour Zoom call on Friday. A buddy of mine actually lives out there near you, Pete Vargas, and he invited me to an eight-hour mastermind group, about 65 people in the room. And I've been creating content for years. I feel like I've got a pretty good handle on it.

And one of the guys was given a presentation in this group and it was a very laid back kind of setting, some real thought leaders in this group. And he said, you know, I've learned how to take a digital product and make it a physical product. And now I'm selling it on Amazon. And I'm like, well, I got to hear more about this. What are you talking about? And he said, what I'm doing now is taking a piece of swag, like a t-shirt. Like for me, it would be how to live a life of success and significance. And I'm attaching a thumb drive to it. I'm bundling it with a thumb drive and I'm teaching a course and I'm selling it for $197, whereas the shirt was $12. But now I'm discounting it by 50% and I'm selling it on Amazon. And I'm like, this is genius. Like now we got 95% margins with a digital product being sold on Amazon. And I'm like, I went

away with the idea of so many things that we could do that same thing with. And see, I'm around these guys all the time. And I'd never even conceptually thought of that. And this guy comes out with it. I'm like, hey, I got a whole new model now. And see, if we're not participating around people on a regular basis, we don't get these ideas. And I could talk for hours, if not days about ideas that have been presented. And I'd go to a mastermind group meeting for weeks and weeks and months and sometimes years. And then somebody says one thing and I'm going to be like, wait a minute, what did you just say? And they repeat it again. See, what's ordinary to some is extraordinary to others.

And so when you are surrounding yourself with these trusted advisors on a regular basis, they just give you so many ideas. And then they help catapult you to the next level by holding you accountable to complete it. So I get fired up. I'm fired up now even talking about the things that you're going to learn in these mastermind groups. So big A, let me ask you this. People listening to this right now want to join a mastermind, but they don't know where to go, where to start. What steps do you have for them? What recommendations do you have for them? Yeah, there's a couple of different avenues that you can go to. First of all, you want to go slow. You never want to get in a hurry doing this because this is something that you want to do

long-term. You really want to vet the person well, vet the organization well, listen to a lot of their podcasts. You want to dive deep into them as an individual because if I'm sharing my life with you, if I'm letting you in on intimate details of my life, I want to be sure you're a solid individual. I want to be sure you know your mission statement, your why. I want you to know your core values. I want to really know what I'm getting involved in if I'm going to surround myself with these trusted advisors. So do your due diligence, do your homework. The other possibility is starting your own. And you're like, I don't even know

anything about that. And I'm teaching and training people today with the Mastermind Playbook. I've created a resource for you to start your own group. And you're like, man, I'm all in that. Well, this walks you through the process that you can start your own. So you have two avenues. First of all, we'd love to have you submit an application to viewfromthetop.com. That application pops up. We have women's groups, men's groups, emerging men's groups. We can help you there. But there's so many qualified persons out there today. A lot of people say, well, hey, this COVID thing is really messed up in-person meetings. There's so many awesome mastermind groups that meet virtually now. And that's what

we do exclusively because we can enlist talent from all over the world to participate in these groups. And so just go slow, do your due diligence, interview the founder or the persons that are representing the mastermind and really go through the application process slowly so that you fully understand what it is that you're getting involved in. All right. And I got a question for you here because I know a lot of people are thinking that this is something that is just, okay, I'm going to go join the book club at the library and sit and chat with people. The mastermind groups that I'm in, I pay money to be part of, and they make money for my business. They make me better as a human being. So I

personally believe for accountability reasons, you need to pay to pay attention. What are your thoughts on that? Well, we've tried it both ways. And what we find out is, is when there is no skin in the game and you don't have some pain point, when an opportunity comes up to go make money or your buddy wants to play golf with you, you'll default to that, right? But when there's a pain point, you're going to show up and you pay attention to what you pay for. And so you've got to invest in something that there is perceived value. And if it's free, a lot of the times, not always, because there's some great groups out there that are free, but historically, people don't stay with those long-term. Historically. Now, there's exceptions, and I know some of you listening to me are in

groups that are free. You meet in person. That's great, but historically, that's not the norm. And the norm is that you get somebody that's been there, that's done that, that has a framework. They know how to enlist other competent, capable people that can surround you to take you to new heights. And you want to get into a room normally with people that maybe you're a step ahead in some areas, you're a step behind in others. We're big in giving.

And if you're just going to suck the group for all it's worth, it's really not worth getting into because they'll find you out pretty soon and you won't last long. You've got to come to this with a giving mentality. And when you do that, and the natural reciprocity is, people will give back. And so just take your time, find a good group that's competent, capable people around you that's going to show up. And when you're paying, you're going to show up. Awesome. I'm glad we're on absolutely

the same sheet of music here because I've been paying a lot of money for a lot of masterminds over the year. But I tell you, the ROI that I have gotten is crazy on this. It is an investment in yourself and your personal growth, your business, your leadership, and relationships, frankly. And Adam, you pointed out something. You said something that's very good. It's key here. It's not an expense. It is an investment. And I spend 10% of my gross revenue annually on personal development. And my income has grown every year for the past 21 years. And it's because of the things that we've already, not to be redundant, but it is the networking.

It is the perspective. It is the accountability. It is the systems, the processes. It's all those things coupled into one that's going to really help you. See, because procrastination is our biggest enemy. And when we really prioritize our priorities and we really focus on that in a very systematic way,

you're going to be successful. Awesome. So, Big A, on Start With A Win, I have a question that I ask every guest. And I love the answers for this. And you've already dropped a ton of value on us, but I'm excited to hear what you have to say. Big A, how do you start with a win? Yeah, that's a great question, Adam. I like that question. The way for me that's paramount in starting my day, because I'm a busy person, needless to say, we're in nine countries now

with all these groups and I do coaching one-on-one and we're always creating new products. And so we're busy, but I start the first part of my day every morning for an hour to two hours in solitude, in meditation. I'm a Christian by faith, so I'm reading scripture. I'm listening to praise and worship music. I'm just being still and I'm being quiet and I listen. And I do that every morning and I've done that for decades now.

Because if you just jump up, you grab your clothes, you run out the door, you're not organized, you're not ready for the day. And so for me, that first hour to two hours is paramount to get my day headed in a good direction. Aaron Walker, big A, founder and president of Iron Sharpens Iron Mastermind Group. Where can we find you on social media, Aaron? Yeah, the easiest way to find me is viewfromthetop.com. And all of our social media platforms are there. Listen, I've got a gift for your audience if they want it. And it's three documents. What do I want? Personal assessment and spouse survey. And these

are three things that you can find at viewfromthetop.com forward slash start with a win. And if you go there, I've taken the prices off. I'm just going to give them to you. Hopefully it'll help you live a very productive life. Thank you so much, Aaron. We're so happy to have you on the show. We appreciate all that you do in helping people find a greater self. And thank you for starting with a win. Thank you so much for joining us on Start With A Win today. If you'd like to ask Adam a question and potentially be on our next episode, give us a call and leave us a message at 888-581-4430. Don't forget to go onto iTunes and subscribe, write a review, and rate the show.

For more great content, head over to startwithawin.com, follow Adam on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and remember, start with a win.