With Aaron Walker, founder of Iron Sharpens Iron Mastermind, an international mastermind organization, and author of View From The Top, a must-read to fully understand how to live a life of success and significance. Poor as a kid, Aaron finished his education at 16 and immediately went to work. He was married at 19 and went on to create more than a dozen companies, including his first business which he retired from by selling at age 27 to a fortune 500 company. In the process of building businesses, and some influential twists and turns in his life, Aaron also learned to create success in his own life and for his clients through masterminds, which is his primary focus now.

Join us for this powerful and interesting conversation about purpose, about hard starts and hard work, consistency, authenticity and the importance of living life in accordance with your values. We also discuss the power of masterminds, and the importance of community, vulnerability, and constructive criticism for exploding personal and business growth and living a life with no regrets. Aaron is also the founder of The Mastermind Playbook, an incredible resource for starting, running and scaling masterminds.

>>> Subscribe to Guts, Grit & Great Business on Apple Podcasts

Biggest takeaways (or quotes) you don’t want to miss:

• “The trick is doing it everyday whether you feel like it or not.”

• You don’t need to attach your purpose in life to your occupation to be happy. 

• “We were designed to be in community. We weren’t designed to be alone.”

Check out these highlights:

6:00 How surrounding himself with smart successful people changed Aaron’s life. 

8:30 How you can retire at 27 years old like Aaron. 

16:20 “I’m probably having more fun today than ever because I”m helping make a difference in other people’s lives and it’s not just for my benefit.” 

17:15 Why you shouldn’t give up if you haven’t yet found your purpose. 

19:40 Why a coach is not a business, it’s a high paying job. 

22:00 How the Mastermind Playbook was created. 

25:10 “Isolation is the enemy to excellence.” 

25:60 How masterminds inspire ideas and help with growth in your business.

27:30 “You know what happens when you do things? You become successful.”

28:50 Why you have to be transparent and say, “I don’t know what I don’t know.”

31:50 Why Aaron says, “I don’t want you to come home with a pocket full of money and a house full of strangers.”

34:00 Why adapting the strategy to always being available for your family while at work is vital.

How to get in touch with Aaron:

On social media:

https://www.facebook.com/AaronWalkerVFTT

https://www.instagram.com/isi_mastermind/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronwalkerviewfromthetop

https://www.youtube.com/c/aaronwalkervftt

https://www.twitter.com/vftcoach

FREE GIFTS FOR LISTENERS:

Download the “Ultra-Simple 3 Step Framework to Launch Your First Paid Mastermind Without Guesswork, Frustration, or Overwhelm.” here.

---

Aaron Walker has founded more than a dozen companies over the past 41 years. He attributes much of his success to having surrounded himself with his mastermind counterparts. Aaron spent a decade meeting weekly with Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller, Ken Abraham, and 5 other amazing entrepreneurs. Aaron is the founder of Iron Sharpens Iron Mastermind that now hosts 15 groups with National and International members. Aaron is the author of View From The Top, a must-read to fully understand how to live a life of success and significance.

Also, the founder of The Mastermind Playbook an incredible resource for starting, running and scaling masterminds. Aaron lives in Nashville Tennessee with his wife Robin of 40 years and he has 2 incredible daughters and 5 beautiful grandchildren.

Find out more about Aaron here: http://viewfromthetop.com

Imperfect Show Notes

We are happy to offer these imperfect show notes to make this podcast more accessible to those who are hearing impaired or those who prefer reading over listening. While we would love to offer more polished show notes, we are currently offering an automated transcription (which likely includes errors, but hopefully will still deliver great value), below. 

GGGB Intro 0:00
Here’s what you get on today’s episode of Guts, Grit, and Great Business.

Aaron Walker 0:04
I don’t necessarily think that your purpose has to be derived out of your occupation. And most people think it has to be. A lot of people have a job and they’re whatever you fill in the blank. What kind of purpose can you get out of that? See, I believe that our occupation can be the source of the revenue to live the life that you were created to live and find your purpose in other areas. So don’t necessarily just attach your purpose in life to your occupation.

GGGB Intro 0:35
The adventure of entrepreneurship and building a life and business you love, preferably at the same time is not for the faint of heart. That’s why Heather Pearce Campbell is bringing you a dose of guts, grit, and great business stories that will inspire and motivate you to create what you want in your business and life. Welcome to the Guts, Grit and Great Business podcast where endurance is required. Now, here’s your host, The Legal Website Warrior®, Heather Pearce Campbell.

Heather Pearce Campbell 1:02
Hello and welcome. I am Heather Pearce Campbell, The Legal Website Warrior®. I am an attorney and legal coach based here in Seattle, Washington. Welcome to another episode of Guts, Grit, and Great Business. I am so excited about our guests. today. We are new friends. We actually met through a mastermind group and I’ve got Aaron Walker here with us today. Hello, Aaron.

Aaron Walker 1:32
Hey, hey there. Thanks for having me on your show. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Heather Pearce Campbell 1:36
Oh, so good to have you. I’m really excited about our conversation. So for people listening, Aaron is a mastermind expert. It’s a huge component of what he does in his business. But before we get into that, let me introduce Aaron. So Aaron Walker has founded more than a dozen companies over the last 41 years. He attributes much of his success to having surrounded himself with his mastermind counterparts. Aaron spent a decade meeting weekly with Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller, Ken Abraham, and five other amazing entrepreneurs. Aaron is the founder of iron sharpens iron and I love your business name by the way, iron sharpens iron mastermind that now hosts 15 groups with national and international members. Aaron is the author of view from the top a must-read to fully understand how to live a life of success and significance. also the founder of the mastermind playbook and incredible resource for starting running and scaling masterminds. Aaron lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife, Robin of 40 years and has two incredible daughters and five beautiful grandchildren. And I have to include this one line from his LinkedIn profile. I’m a big LinkedIn connector, and I love some good time on LinkedIn. But Aaron has this in his summary. He says I can teach you the values of combining grit, determination and perseverance to achieve your goals in your business, spiritual and personal life. My experiences personal motivation and inspiration will help you to do your very best. I love that, Aaron. Welcome.

Aaron Walker 3:17
Thank you, you know, I’m not the sharpest tack in the box. But I’ve got a lot of perseverance and grit and determination that has really gotten us to the point where we’re at today. So and it ties great with your name, you know, guts and grit. You know exactly what I’m talking about. Heather?

Heather Pearce Campbell 3:33
Yes, I do know what you’re talking about. And I’ve said the same thing like I know, I think I’m pretty sharp. But I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed either. And, but grit. I mean, what has seen me through many of the very, very hardest times in my life is just the fact that, you know, I I tend to persevere, I tend to just drive and drive and drive. And usually when, you know, I asked people to choose one word to describe me it’s determination. So those words that you have on your LinkedIn profile, I mean, I, I appreciate them. I relate to them. I think that in business and the entrepreneurial path, the most important work that you can do is actually just stay committed.

Aaron Walker 4:13
No question about, you know, and I’ve really had to do that people ask me, How come I’ve got so much grit is because I was broker then a convict when I was a kid, you know, I was raised in a family that didn’t have the means and the wherewithal to do business like I wanted to do business and I had to go out and seek partners to start our first business and, you know, I didn’t get many opportunities, and I had to make good of the opportunities that I got. And so, you know, when I was 13 years old, I started working in a local pawn shop and then 15 decided that’s what I wanted to do for a living in an open mind. And I said, Hey, you know, you got to get out and make it while you can and then we sold out to a fortune 500 when I was 27. Nine years later, you So it took a lot of grit and determination to do that, you know, I didn’t go to college. Matter of fact, I graduated two years early from high school so I could work. And so, you know, from the beginning of my junior year in high school, I wanted to make money and I wanted to work and I wanted to be successful. And now looking back, you know, that was 12 businesses ago, four decades ago, and today, we’re getting to live a life that we really enjoy, because of that grit and determination.

Heather Pearce Campbell 5:28
Oh, I love that. What do you think was behind that level of hustle to be a teenager? And to really like have, you know, the drive and the ability to make a decision that that is what you were going to do at that age? What what was behind it?

Aaron Walker 5:45
Yeah, you know, Heather, as I said, earlier, I was raised in a family that didn’t really have anything, we had 600 square foot house, there were six people that lived in it. My dad gave 60 $500 for the house that we lived in. And then quite honestly, we later lost in bankruptcy and had to move in with my cousin. And I watched my dad physically work hard. He was a carpenter. And I saw him sweep the roof, the snow off of a roof during the winter, so he could reroute the house. And it did something to me. When I saw that I said, you know, this is really admirable of my dad to do that. But I don’t want to work that hard. Physically, I don’t want to do that. And I said, There’s got to be another way. And so I just started surrounding myself with competent people. And I started looking for people that could give me good advice. And I asked a lot of questions, even today asked a lot of questions, because it’s not really important to me what you necessarily think about me, what’s important to me is that I get ahead and I do the right things. I do it with character. And I do it with integrity. And my dad did teach me that he taught me to have a great amount of character and integrity. And, and so I just said that there’s got to be a different way. And so committed to working hard, I got married two weeks out of high school, my wife was 18, just by three months, and I was 19. And we got married, and I said, we can’t screw this up, we may never get another chance. And so we borrowed $150,000, from two guys, and we opened our business. It was a 10-year loan, and I set Robin down, and we bought a little one-bedroom condo, 500 square feet, and we lived in it. And I said, we’re going to take every bit of the money that we make in this business, and we’re going to pay towards that loan, we could increase our lifestyle, and we could do better, but we’re not going to do that. Well, I paid the loan off in 36 months. And so we had a paid-for business when I was 21 years old. And then I said, Well if I did it once, I can do it again. And we did. And then we did it again. And then we did it again. And so by the time I was 27, a fortune 500 contacted me wanting to buy our business. And I told him it wasn’t for sale. And they said everything’s for sale. And they came back three times wanting to buy the business. And finally they said hypothetically if you were gonna ever sell it, what would you sell it for? And I thought, well, this is my opportunity to get rid of them. And I just threw a number out. And they said, we’ll take it. And to make a long story short, 90 days later, I was retired at 27 years old. And I don’t say that boastfully, I’ve just say that anybody can do it, you can do it. Anybody can do it. If you’re willing to work like we did. And we work from daylight until we couldn’t and then we got up and did it again. And it’s the consistency. And that’s the piece that most people miss. And there is that grit and determination in me to not quit. And now there’s some things that we have to quit if it’s just not working. But overall, if you stay with something long enough, you’re going to gain momentum, you’re going to have that critical mass, and you’re going to be successful. The trick is, is doing it every day, whether you feel like it or not. And so that’s what we did. And we repeated that 11 additional times. Today, we’re on our 14th business. And it just works. If you’re willing to sacrifice you’re willing to delay gratification, you’re willing to do the hard things. it’ll pay off.

Heather Pearce Campbell 9:11
Hmm. I love that. What were along the way, did you make the transition to what you’re doing now? Right with the focus on masterminds? Where did you come in and talk to me about how masterminds became an interest?

Aaron Walker 9:26
Thank you. I have to take you back and tell you a little bit of a story that I don’t like. But it’s an integral part of my story. So when I was 27, and sold out, I literally retired and in 18 months, I gained 50 pounds. And I was getting in bed in the middle of the day. And my wife woke me up one day from a nap. I was literally in bed and she said this is not what I signed up for. And she said you’ve got to do something and I said, Well, I don’t know what to do. She said go buy another business. start a business. How Don’t care, but you got to do something. And so I went back and bought the company I started with when I was 13 years old. And we grew the company four times the size it was I had the resources to put into the business. And we did extremely well. My life was amazing. Just to be honest with you, I work three days a week, my partner worked three days a week. And we grew the company four times the size it was, well, August, 1 2001 19 years ago, I was headed to the office, I had always gone to our church every Wednesday morning and with a group of men, we met and prayed for our families and pray for our church and just pray for our community. And we did that every Wednesday morning. And we did that for years. And I’d left there at 730 in the morning, and I was headed to the office. And there was a guy crossing the street ahead of me to catch a local bus. And when I got to him, he didn’t look my way. And he ran out in front of me to catch the bus. And, you know, unfortunately, I ran over him. And so I pulled over to the side of the road, and I was shaking, you know, really bad. And I was scared to turn around and look. And I said, God, this can’t be true. I mean, it’s like a dream. And Heather, I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a really bad situation or not. But it was almost like I was watching it out of body experience. Everything was in slow motion. And I didn’t know what to do. And so finally I got the courage to turn around look, and there was a guy face down in the streetcars were stopping everywhere as a four-lane highway. And I got my cell phone and finally dial 911 and got out of the car and I walked over police, ambulance, fire trucks, people were coming from everywhere. And he was motionless. This guy was motionless. And I said please tell me he’s okay. You know, they said he’s got severe head trauma. And so they put him on the gurney. And they put me in the police car, obviously. And they had to ask me questions. They had testimonies of everybody and wasn’t my fault. He didn’t see me. He just ran out in front of me. His name was Enrique. He was 77 years old. He was originally from the Philippines. And they called me I was on a Wednesday morning. And they called me nine o’clock on Saturday morning. And they said he didn’t make it. And it rocked my world. I mean, literally, my life was amazing. I had a beautiful home, we had a second home in the mountains. You know, I had the resources I needed. I was working three days a week, I had two beautiful daughters at the time that were you know, teenage daughters. And my life was just amazing. And I said, How could this happen? Like, how could all this happen? In a blink of an eye, just absolutely in a blink of an eye. And what I discovered through that process, and I don’t mean to take your audience down, but the truth of the matter is, it was a paramount time, there was a paramount shift in my life that happened at that time. What I had realized Heather is I’ve had great financial success, but I had no significance. And I started thinking about what if I’d been killed that day, I was 40 years old. What if it had been me? What would my legacy have been? I said my legacy would have been poor kid from Nashville, Tennessee, makes enough money to retire at age 27. And nobody cares. It made me sad. I mean, I was extremely sad when I thought about my legacy being that. And I said, That’s not what I want my legacy to be. I want my legacy to be Heather’s life is better. As a result of having no me. I was able to help her and inspire her and encourage her. That’s what I wanted my legacy to be. And so I said, God, if you’ll give me another chance, I’ll change the way I do business. And I did. I started focusing outward, more than inward. And I started helping people accomplish their goals. And I became the connector. I started helping people and encouraging them. And I had people that worked for me that I helped go into business against me, they became my competitors. But I helped them physically went to their locations and help them set up their business. And as a result of that, when you’re a giver, the natural reciprocity is everybody else wants to help you. Right? We think that we had the secret sauce, and we don’t tell anybody gets you ahead. There’s nothing further from the truth when you really try to help people. They want to do things they want to be around you. And you can be the beacon you can be the person that helps and so that’s what I elected to do 20 years ago. So as a result of that we started other businesses and they were very successful. Well, when I turned 50,10 years later, I retired for the third and final time, I thought, and Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller looked at me and they said, What are you going to do now? And I said, I’m going to go to the Caribbean and I’m going to buy Little Tiki hut. And I’m going to sit on the front porch and look at the ocean and rock myself into an oblivion. And Dan Miller, those that know Dan, Dan owns 48 days to the work you love. He’s a very successful coach and written a number of books, he leaned over the table, and he looked at me and he’s pointed his finger and he said, that’s the most selfish thing I’ve ever heard you say? And I said, What do you mean? And he said, what you’re saying is, is I’ve got enough for myself, good luck to the rest of you. And I said, That’s not at all what I mean. And they said you need to coach. So after a long conversation about coaching, I agreed to do it went to entree leadership, mastery, Dave gifted at Timmy went to the sanctuary, learned how to coach through innovating. And then I started coaching two guys while I started doing podcast interviews to promote my coaching business. In Heather, it just blew up. JOHN Lee Dumas had me on Entrepreneur on Fire years ago, and I had 15 clients out of that one interview, and I said, I can’t coach all these people individually. And I’ve been in Dave Ramsey’s mastermind for a dozen years, and I said, I know how to do masterminds. And so I started, a mastermind group kept doing podcast interviews. And here today we’re about to launch our 19th mastermind group, we’re about to create a new division with 15 other groups in that as well. And I’m probably having more fun today, Heather than I’ve ever had in my career, because I’m helping make a difference in the lives of other people. And it’s not just for my benefit.

Heather Pearce Campbell 16:32
There’s a lot of things I love about that story and your path. And I think, you know, first of all, one is the sense of purpose that you have now. And that probably brings you the amount of joy that you’re getting out of your work. I think a lot of people feel like if they don’t have that, at first, like if they, you know that they’re not going to get there, if they don’t have that sense of purpose. They don’t know how they’re going to figure it out. And what I love about your story, I actually just read a book the other day on grit, right, Angela Duckworth book.

Aaron Walker 17:05
She does a great TED Talk to By the way, yeah,

Heather Pearce Campbell 17:08
It is a great TED talk for anybody listening, you definitely should check out her TED Talk. But in the book, she talks about how people usually start from a place of self-interest, right, they usually start with something they’re interested in, they learn it and they master it. And then at some point, they transition when they’re truly in their purpose. And they find their purpose. They’re able to transition that what originally started as a self-interest and then became mastery to then how do they serve others. And so the thing I love about your path is, it’s another reflection of that development and kind of the natural way that things happen. And for people that are listening, what I want them to hear out of that is that if they haven’t yet determined what their purpose is, if they haven’t yet figured it out, like Don’t give up, there’s there’s so many ways that you can attach meaning to your work and take something that may be started from a self interest into serving others.

Aaron Walker 18:06
So I want to expound on that just a little bit, if I may. I don’t necessarily think that your purpose has to be derived out of your occupation. And most people think it has to be a lot of people have a job and they’re whatever you fill in the blank. What kind of purpose can you get out of that? See, I believe that our occupation can be the source of the revenue to live the life that you were created to live and find your purpose in other areas. So don’t necessarily just attach your purpose in life to your occupation?

Heather Pearce Campbell 18:39
No, and it’s a good clarifying point. I agree. And I think that our occupation is one way that we can express our purpose, but it’s not the only way.

Aaron Walker 18:49
Right? Yeah, it’s a, you know, resources are tools that we use to live a very productive life. And many people may have a job that they don’t necessarily gain their purpose out of. But there are many other areas of your life that you can gain a significant purpose out of using the resources that you gain from your occupation.

Heather Pearce Campbell 19:12
Absolutely. Agreed. Agreed. So let’s look at where you’re at now. And you said you get you to know, you’re getting way more enjoyment out of your work right now, how did you go from the one to many approaches, right, you got overloaded with work, you’re now running, masterminds and you know, 15 countries around the world?

Aaron Walker 19:35
Well, the thing that I discovered quickly is because I’ve got a lot of business experience and no knock on coaches because I’m a coach. But a coach is not a business. A coach is a high paying job. And when you’re not coaching, you’re not making money. And so the mastermind I just got off of a two-week vacation. went with Robin, we complain unplugged and celebrated our 40th anniversary. Congrats. Thank you, I appreciate that. And when I got back, we had new applicants to join the mastermind group, and all the revenue was still there. So I didn’t miss any revenue, because the mastermind groups continued because, you know, I appointed facilitators to lead the groups while I was away. And so it’s not hinged just on me as an individual. It’s the consensus of the multitude, right, it’s the group, the benefit is in the group, in the 10 people that are in the group is so it’s not group coaching, it doesn’t rest just on my shoulders. But I create the framework by which we allow people to mastermind. And so that is a business. And so I’ve creating revenue in perpetuity, right? We’ve got people that have been with us six years that have been paying the meeting in the same group. And one day, because of the framework that we’ve established, I’ll be able to sell this business, well coaching, I realized I couldn’t do that one day, I would just quit coaching, the money would go away. And so what Ah, and so I said, I don’t want to devote my time, effort and energy to something that there’s going to be no return. Because I’m used to selling businesses that are going concerned, and then you’re able to get revenue. And you’re able to, you know, have a really big payday at the end, or you can finance the business. And I wanted something that I would be able to do that with.

Heather Pearce Campbell 21:29
Well, I love that when you came with the business experience, right, and applied it to this particular area and focused. So within your mastermind groups, what, what are people using it for? Is it across all areas of life? Like how do you create a framework that supports everybody who participates?

Aaron Walker 21:51
Well, we started being pretty successful. And some of the influencers started reaching out to me saying no one’s ever scaled masterminds. How are you doing this? Surely you’re not leading all these groups. And so one guy from Dubai called me and noticed what we were doing. And he said, How in the world? Are you scaling all these masterminds? And I started telling me a little bit and he said, would, would you coach me and teach me to do that? And I didn’t really want to do that, to be honest, because I knew it was going to be time-consuming. And he kept on. And finally, he said, if you were gonna charge me to coach me, how much would you charge? And I didn’t want to do it. So I threw a big number out. And he said, Where do I send the money? And so I said, you really want to do this, don’t you? And he said, Yes. So he sent me the money. And then it wasn’t too long. Someone else called me back, same proposition. And I quoted a number and they said, Yeah, we’ll do it. Well, my daughter, Brooke, is the CEO of our company. And she walked in my office one day, and she said, Dad, we’ve got all the systems and processes that we run our business by, why don’t we create a playbook. And we’ll allow other people to do exactly what we’re doing. We’ll start training and teaching the very thing that you are accustomed to because you want to give back. So we took us about a year took our entire team about a year we hired a product developer and copywriters, and graphic artists and designers and managers, and we put together the playbook. And so now we have the mastermind playbook. And there’s about 11 steps about 100 tools and templates, swap files, 35 videos, and this professionally done. And we teach people to start, grow and scale mastermind groups, and people are having huge success with this. And so we’ve established a framework to answer your question, everything that we do monthly is thematic. And then we have a book that coincides with the theme. And then we have an accountability tool, things that are very important in our life. There’s 10 things that we have to answer each week. Every group is structured the same in regards to the hot seat, we call it the man in the middle. We have the book discussion twice a year, I get everybody together at my expense. And I bring them to Nashville, Tennessee from all the countries and from the States here locally, in all across the US and we have a mastermind meetup for two and a half days and we do that every six months and we’ve been doing that for years and years now. And then we go back with our assignment we do Brian Moran’s the 12 week year, we do Mike Mcallawitz, the profit first. And so we have all these systems in place that get people on the path that they need to go in order to be successful. We have accountability partners that we assign every single month. And so we’re very structured, very regimented. people’s time is valuable. We have people that are barely afford to pay their dues, and we have other people that are Uber successful, that have really grown their business because Heather you know as well as I do, when there’s a group of like minded people around that have the same core values and principles and mission and your values. And you’re apt to go much further than alone, because isolation is the enemy to excellence. And if you really want to go to the next height, you’ve got to surround yourself with people that can help take you there. We were designed to be in community, we weren’t designed to be alone. And so I need people around me, and I’m sure you do Heather that give you input. We all have superpowers, we all have Achilles heel, and we all have blind spots. Well, I can’t see my blind spots. And I know that’s the thing that’s going to harm me the most. And so I subject myself to the scrutiny of other people, and invite their constructive criticism so I can get better. And as a result of that, our people are just growing exponentially, because we have that weekly meet and the weekly accountability.

Heather Pearce Campbell 25:53
I love that there’s, I mean, there’s a couple things that you have said, one is that, you know, we’re really not designed to do stuff in isolation. And yet, how many times do entrepreneurs find themselves there?

Aaron Walker 26:07
Right, but they don’t have anybody to ask. And that’s one of the main things that masterminds give us a new perspective. And it gives you someone else’s. I talked to Jeff Hoffman, Jeff Hoffman was one of the founders of Priceline. And he’s a multi-billionaire. And he spoke at an event. And I was able to go to the event. And he said that 10% of everything he reads, has no bearing whatsoever with any interest that he has. Yet, he said 90% of his best ideas came out of the 10% of the things that he wasn’t accustomed to reading was the same in a mastermind group. So we don’t know what we don’t know. And then when we can see it from a different perspective, you’re thinking, what application can I make to my situation with that perspective? And then oftentimes, I have a new idea, every time I get out of the shower, right? I get out of shower, and I’ve got three ideas. And I would go to my mastermind group, and I would go man, let me tell you what I’m thinking. And Dave Ramsey would go, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Or Dan Miller would say, wait a minute. If we do this, and we make this modification, and I’m like, I didn’t even know you could do that. He said, Yeah, I’ve got this guy I need to introduce you to that can help you modify that. And I’m like, and if I hadn’t been in this group, Dave wouldn’t have told me it was a stupid thing. Dan wouldn’t have encouraged me to do this, nor would he be introduced me to somebody. And then they go, Hey, next week, you need to have this done before you come back. Well, now I don’t want to go in there and look like a loser. So I’m going to do it. Well, you know, what happens when you do things you become successful. And so every week, see, procrastination is our biggest enemy. And if you have no accountability, and you have no persons that are trusted advisors around you, you kick the can down the road. And the next thing you know, you’ve lost momentum, you’ve lost interest in your own to the next shiny object. Well, for me, I’ve been able to really narrow my focus and be an inch wide and a mile deep, rather than an inch deep and a mile wide. I have a plan that’s written. And I know that if I implement my strategy every day, I’m going to gain momentum. And then I’m going to be successful because I’ve reached a critical mass. And so that’s the reason I need people around me to help me accomplish my goals.

Heather Pearce Campbell 28:19
Well, it sounds like, early on because you made a statement earlier in the interview about you didn’t you cared less about what people thought of you?

Aaron Walker 28:27
Not in an egotistical era?

Heather Pearce Campbell 28:30
No, no, no. I thought that like that just wasn’t your concern, because you’re on your path, trying to do a certain thing. And so to ask the questions, you were willing to get the right. And I think that’s what it takes. There’s either a certain level of humility or openness to get that feedback so that like.

Aaron Walker 28:46
Well there’s transparency right? You’ve got to be transparent. And you got to say, Hey, I don’t know what I don’t know. And you can’t know everything. But most people have a facade, they’ve got this veil up, and they don’t want you to know that they don’t know, and then they can’t go be successful, because they really don’t know. And I’m like, Hey, I don’t understand. I don’t get it helped me understand. And then when I understand I’m like, Oh, I can apply that to this. Well, people are afraid that if you say I don’t know that they won’t be around you. What it does is it endears you to other people. Really what it does is they go, Oh, well, he doesn’t know everything, either. It gives me permission now to say, I don’t know. You see, the facilitators need to be vulnerable and authentic. Heather, here’s the thing. Our nation is starving to death for authenticity. They’re tired of the polished, they’re tired of the hypocrisy. They’re tired of the line. And I do videos all the time. And I do interviews all the time. And I’ll go, I just don’t know, I don’t know the answer to this. Or, hey, I do know I’ve got 41 years of experience in that and people tell me all the time, you know, these guys have been married five or 10 years, they’ll say I’m gonna go home and tell my wife this. I say you’re having to be sleeping on the couch too. And here’s what you need to do with your wife because I’ve got four decades of experience. It’s okay, if I’m not the first rodeo here. Here’s what you need to do. And they’ll come back and they’ll go, man, you know what that really worked. And that’s what we need to surround ourselves with. We need to surround ourselves with people that you can be honest and transparent, and get great feedback.

Heather Pearce Campbell 30:15
That’s right. Well, and there is to that point, there is something magical about a mastermind when it’s done, right, that allows people to drop, you know, drop the regular barriers or facade that they hold up, because they think that that’s how they have to be. So your masterminds then or it sounds like are for people that are really wanting to learn masterminds, and turn around and do that in their own.

Aaron Walker 30:40
No necessarily. Now, we have almost 200 people in our mastermind groups now. And we have women, we have emerging men, we have men, groups of just man groups of just women. My daughter, and my wife, and another lady are leading the women’s groups and doing an unbelievable job. It’s incredible, what they’re accomplishing. Out of that we started with just a men’s group, my wife came to one of the live events, and she said, we got to do something for the women aren’t gonna ask you about that. It’s incredible, they’re killing it now is just really amazing. And a lot of the guys that are in the men’s groups are getting their wives to join in, you can imagine, you know how much they’re growing now as a family as a result of everybody growing, you know, personally and professionally and even spiritually in some cases. So it’s just incredible. We spend about 60% of the time professionally, about 30% of the time, personally, and about 10% of the time spiritually. And so we really try to cover every area of your life, because I can teach you how to make money, right? It’s not that hard to make money. But if you do it at the expense of your family, you still go home a loser. And we just don’t want people to do that. I don’t want you to come home with a pocket full of money to a house full of strangers. And what happens is, you’ll die rich old guy with no relationships. And I almost did that. I got so involved in making money when I was young, just another store just another $50,000 I can do it. And it almost cost me my family. And I said, Man, I only get one go through with these kids. I’ve got a daughter, 37 and 135. I want to know my kids, I want my kids to go My dad was the best dad, my dad was available. My dad was always there. I don’t want my kids to go, you know, my dad was rich, he was never at my ball games. He was never at my recitals. He was never at my cheerleading practice. It’s just not worth it to me, because you only have one go through with that family. I make money, I lose money. Nobody cares. Nobody’s got a memory. But my kids do. And my wife does. And I just don’t want to sacrifice everything at the altar of money at the expense of my family. So we really teach family values, and the importance of being home being present being with your kids, because they do have a memory and they’re going to remember, mom or dad was at work, they never had time for me. And Heather, I don’t know that you I just don’t want to have that regret. And we really teach that strongly.

Heather Pearce Campbell 33:07
So well, it’s you know, it’s great that you incorporate that into your training. I mean, so many people get that backwards. And they learn that lesson too late. I mean, I come from an industry full of that struggle, right? I mean, and I don’t know what comes first the chicken or the egg like a rookie workaholics drawn to the legal industry or the legal industry, you know, take a type a behavior and then shape them as well. And but it’s tough. I mean, people learn that lesson too late. And so to have it built into your messaging and address balance early on, I think is critical.

Aaron Walker 33:42
Well we need boundaries. Henry cloud wrote a great book called boundaries, and we need to create boundaries. And I know we’re getting towards the end of our time, but I want to leave you with a quick story. I did do one thing, right. I didn’t do everything wrong. I did do one thing, right when my children were little all I’ve never worked for anybody since I was 18 years old. 60 my next birthday. I told everybody that worked for me, if my wife or my daughters call, I’m available. I don’t care what I’m doing. I’m available. And I want to encourage your listeners today if you can. And if you work for yourself, if you work for somebody else, that’s not always possible. But if you work for yourself, I want you to adopt that same strategy. Because my girls Tell me today and they’ve got beautiful children and very successful in what they’re doing now. And they said that you were always available. And that’s made a lasting impression on them. And I can’t imagine having the regret of having to redo something that I can’t redo. I can’t raise them again. Right. And so, I’ll just leave you with that today is really get your priorities right prioritize your priorities and really think about what’s important to you. You can say audibly what’s important, but your actions speak louder. loud. And I just want you to implement the strategy of what you say audibly to implementation in really prioritize your priorities.

Heather Pearce Campbell 35:10
I love that. I mean, it’s a great point to end on that, regardless of what we say, what we do in our life and how we’re showing up. I mean, that that says it all. And so for people that have a misalignment between what they say and how they perform and how they show up, you know, we’ve got a chance to reevaluate. So I’m so grateful to have you here today. I know we’ve got a link to I think maybe a page on your website, people can find it through my show notes, which is legalwebsitewarrior.com/podcast. And I I’m not sure if it’s just a gift or a way to get connected into you. How do you like to connect? If somebody is thinking, I’d like to know more about his mastermind experience?

Aaron Walker 35:51
Yeah, the easiest way is to go to View from the top.com. And I make myself very easy to get in touch with and so you go there. There’s all kinds of connections there on social media. My email is there, my phone numbers on there, people say you put your phone number on there, I said, Well, how do people call you if you don’t put your phone number out there, it’s really easy to get in contact with and if you want to create your own mastermind, that sounds like something that’s exciting to you, you can go to the mastermind playbook.com. And really check into the playbook that we’ve created to grow, scale and maintain mastermind groups like we have, and I think it will be very beneficial to you, Heather, it’s been a delight to be with you today. Thank you for having me on your show.

Heather Pearce Campbell 36:37
So good to see you Aaron, I will share both your mastermind playbook link as well as all of your other contact links on the show notes so people will hopefully get in touch and reach out. So I appreciate your wisdom and being with us today. I look forward to connecting again soon.

Aaron Walker 36:52
Thank you. Bye bye.

GGGB Intro 36:58
Thank you for joining us today on the guts grit and great business podcast. We hope that we’ve added a little fuel to your tank, some coffee to your cup and pep in your step to keep you moving forward in your own great adventures. For key takeaways links to any resources mentioned in today’s show and more. See the show notes which can be found at legal website warrior.com slash podcast, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and if you enjoyed today’s conversation, please give us some stars and a review on Apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast so others will find us to keep up the great work you are doing in the world and we’ll see you next week.