Iron Sharpens Iron with Aaron Walker | The Better Than Rich Show Ep. 42

Iron, Sharpens, Iron

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Iron, Sharpens, Iron 〰️

Iron Sharpens Iron with Aaron Walker

Aaron Walker is no stranger to the success that comes with hard work and focus. He’s also no stranger to grappling with the challenges that come with personal tragedy. Learn all about Aaron’s amazing life story, spiced with a healthy dose of advice and lessons you’ll want to practice in your own life.

Imagine that you’re finally at the pinnacle of your life. Your business is thriving and growing beyond your wildest dreams, your family is happy and you have your health. It honestly couldn’t get any better…

Now imagine an indelible tragedy interrupting this wonderful life. We all know, either from our own lives or hearing the stories of others that impactful and tragic life moments can strike at any time and Aaron Walker talks about how he handled his experience with tragedy in our latest episode of The Better Than Rich Show.

When describing Aaron to others, the word prolific comes up more often than not. At 18 years old, he embarked on his journey of entrepreneurship and obtained a loan for $150,000 to open a pawn shop. Only a few years later, he would successfully sell his business before the age of thirty. Aaron’s success didn’t stop there.

He was on fire. He was on top of the world but soon began to realize he was coming home with a pocket full of money to a house full of strangers. It was at this time that he decided to set better boundaries and focus on the things in his life that really mattered.

When an unexpected tragedy occurred, Aaron took a breather from working and later joined Dave Ramsey’s mastermind, a place where he learned to be vulnerable and work on solidifying his core values.

Aaron’s journey is as remarkable as it is inspiring. Join us for our latest episode where Mike chats with Aaron as he shares his ideas on setting healthy boundaries, cherishing relationships and the value of accountability.

Andrew Biggs 0:00
Do you want to win back 13 to 37 hours of your week, every single week, if you do, please join us we are going to be teaching the foolproof method to identifying the bottleneck in your business and teaching you how to resolve that we're

Mike Abramowitz 0:11
going to teach you all about our three epiphanies around systems. Mike, where can people learn more and tell about the program? Well, you're gonna want to go to automate delegate systemize.com. And you will learn our three epiphanies, which is automation sequencing, how to delegate and use a virtual assistant, and how to step back as a CEO using strategic retreat. So again, go to automate delegate systemize.com That's automate delegate systemize.com and get more information now.

Aaron Walker 0:43
But what I learned probably more than anything, was that real strength begins at the intersection of vulnerability and transparency. And when you're willing to let that veil down and really expose yourself to a great degree, showing what you know your hindrances are some of your blind spots, understanding your kryptonite your superpowers. When you really start diving in and understanding it really helps you make decisions in the future.

Mike Abramowitz 1:16
Welcome to the better than rich show with your hosts Andrew Biggs and Mike Abramowitz. The better than rich show helps ambitious leaders who are on a mission to leave the world better than they found it. change their perspective on what's important, increase their income and impact and systemize your life in business. If you've ever struggled with finding your purpose have felt disconnected or distracted or found yourself going through the motions. This show will remind you that what you do matters and will re inspire you to chase your highest dreams. It's time for you to become better than rich. Welcome back to the better than rich Show. I'm your host today. Mike Abramowitz with season three and we have an awesome awesome guest today. Mr. Aaron Walker view from the top. iron sharpens iron. The only man that I've met that have retired but I think you've retired 17 times no exaggeration, but he's retired three different times and came out of retirement for he runs iron sharpens iron. He's on a mission to have over 150 mastermind groups over the course of the next blink X period of time, helping tons of men all around the world get connected to one another and continue to live on his mission live on his purpose. serial entrepreneur raised in a small little town in Nashville outside of Nashville and real Tennessee, Tennessee guy you'll hear his little twang, married to his wife Robin for 42 years highschool sweethearts. I am so pumped for this conversation. Aaron, welcome to the veteran rich show.

Unknown Speaker 2:46
Hey, Mike, thanks for having me on, man I've been so looking forward to being your guest. I'm just honored to be here today. Thank you.

Mike Abramowitz 2:53
Well, I absolutely loved your book. And it's what's fun is I met you at pod fest with Chris krumitz Those years ago in Orlando. And we were in a breakout speaking on the same stage. And I just like launched my book grab tomorrow and and you gave me your autographed copy. And, and I've had this book and I remember and what's crazy is I had a business card in the book, where I only read the first chapter can't couldn't do it and could do it all the lesson from your mom. And for some reason, I put the book down and just didn't pick it back up until I was like, let me pick it back up. And I was like I want you on the show. I was I love this book. And I'd love to pick it apart a little bit for our audience because there's so many fruitful lessons here that I think are relevant. And I want to it doesn't have to be in order. But I wanted to ask you a couple of questions around the book. Is that okay? Yeah, that'd be great. The first one is you got $150,000 loan from Roger and Dale. This was like, a huge amount of money. You're You're a young kid, for you to run, you know, a pawn shop. And how the heck do you number one encounter? If there's entrepreneur listen to the show? How do you come across someone that's going to trust you with $150,000? And number two? What did you do with that money to turn it into profits for them and profits for yourself?

Unknown Speaker 4:18
Yeah, well, let's go way back. So I do live in Nashville, Tennessee, been here 62 years soon. So I'm a native nashvillian We're three generations deep love Nashville. People ask me all the time. If you could live wherever you want, where would you live? And I said I can live wherever I want. And I do and it's called Nashville, Tennessee. Man. I love it in Nashville. grew up poor kid didn't didn't have much at all. And then I started working at a local pawn shop when I was 13 years old. When I was 18 years old, I met a couple of guys Roger street Dale Garrett. They were buying diamonds and gold from me to hedge against inflation. They own the 21st largest insurance agency in the country. Tom and I approached him one day, I had graduated from school and I said, Hey, why don't we take your resources and my experience and open our own pawn shop and they started laughing. They said, How old are you? And I said, I'm 18. And they said, We've never had anybody. 18 years old approached us about going in business. And I said, Well, you know, it was first time for everything, but back to business. What are your thoughts? And they say, what would it cost to open a pawn shop? And I'm like, you know, I'm not sure exactly, but I'll do a little research on that get back to you. Two weeks later, I went back to him, and I didn't have a clue. Mike, I didn't go to college. I just graduated from high school, I didn't have any idea about putting a pro forma together or a business plan. But the best I could determine $150,000 should get that done. Now, this was in the 70s 150 Grand was a lot of money in the 70s. And so it's a lot of money today. But you know, when you're 18 years old, in the 70s, it was a lot of money. So I went back to them. And I laid out my plan. Well, little did I know they were checking on me in the background, they found out that was a pretty good kid did really well in school, and they said we're going to do it. And I'm like what? And they said, We're going to do it. And so I found a third, sweat equity. And so went and found a location, negotiate a lease, opened up a pawn shop, bought merchandise, started knocking on doors every night. A year later, I get married after robbing graduates from high school, and I sat her down one day at the table and I said, Robin, listen, we both have been broker than a convict our whole life, we might never get this chance again. And we've got to go forward. And it was a 10 year loan. And we paid it off in 36 months. And I said, Hey, I can do it again. And we did and we did that multiple times again until I was 27. When a fortune 500 approached us and bought us out.

Mike Abramowitz 6:53
Yeah. And then 27 is when you sold your first business or sold sold your business. And that's, I mean, that's where a lot of people's journey sometimes would end. It's like I worked really hard. I sold the business, I became, you know, multimillionaire, and you know, now I'm ready to live the dream. In your book, you kind of explain a little bit that that's if I'm here, if I read the book, right, you got bored.

Unknown Speaker 7:17
That's not what happened is, I took a little time off. And I don't want to mislead anybody. It was a phenomenal moment. I mean, it was something incredible. And that lasted about 90 days, you know how amazing it was, was about 90 days. And about a year later, Robin woke me up from a nap. And she said, hey, you've gained 50 pounds, you're getting into bed in the middle of the day, this is not what I signed up for. And I'm like, You're right, I gotta do something. So I went back and bought the pawn shop that I started with when I was 13 years old. And then we went on a process that we quadrupled that company in the next nine years.

Mike Abramowitz 7:57
It's amazing. And and

Unknown Speaker 7:59
the thing, the thing was, Mike that I discovered because I was broke as a kid, I didn't have any money. And what I discovered was is that the thrill of having a little bit of resources wasn't really what I had portrayed it being it didn't give me the sense of satisfaction. It didn't give me the real joy didn't give me the real peace that I thought it was going to give me. And it was nice. And you can buy things with the resources. I hate it when rich people go, Hey, I'm not rich, but I got a little bit of resources. But when they go money's not important, you know, and I want to be like, yeah, it is, it's really important. Like, when you want to pay your mortgage and your car note and buy groceries. Money's pretty important. But I learned not to make it my idle not to make it the thing that was the only reason I was getting up each and every day. And so money's got a great place. But it's a tool. And it's to be used properly. And I was unaware at that time really had to be a good steward to really take care of the resources that I had been entrusted with. And it was a journey. Many, many years after that before I really discovered what that look like.

Mike Abramowitz 9:07
And it's what I love about your story is some of these lessons that you learned in your late teens lessons from your dad lessons from things he did and things that he didn't do with business. And you essentially took a lot of these lessons from your adolescence from your teenage years from your 20s. And in a moment, we'll come back to a circumstance that happened at 40 years old. And what what how how the lessons that showed up in the early chapters of life were so needed during the later chapters of life I am before we kind of explore some of those later chapters. If there is anything that you if there's like a younger entrepreneur in their 20s Right, and they're, they're in more of that grind season, you know, probably that season where you're working real hard to try to build that business up and sell it. What is some counsel that you might be able to offer to some of these individuals that are just like Like, working so hard, but they really they're like I see other people like I want to systemize things I want to get things flowing, like with everything that you know now, I mean, you're you're you have your hands in 14 businesses is what you've worked in or bought and sold or had your hands in at one point 20 masterminds retired three times. So Cohen, back to if you had to relate to that audience, what might you say to them?

Unknown Speaker 10:25
I gotta be careful with this question. And the reason is because I don't want to demotivate your audience, because I think there's a time to be in the grind. I think there's a time and there's a season in our life where we've got to go above and beyond, it requires more work. If you really want to excel, it requires work, what I wish that I had done, and I'll even explain this now a little bit, what I wish that I had done was built better boundaries. And it's okay to work extra. It's okay to work long hours. But if you do it at the expense of your family, ultimately, at one point in your life, you're going to come home and you're going to be a loser. And let me explain what I mean by that. I came home Robyn had done a phenomenal job with our girls, Brooke and Holly got two daughters. One is 39 now wants 36 and beautiful, beautiful little girls now they're beautiful young ladies with family. They've given Robin and I five grandchildren best time of my life, you know, to have these grandkids. But I almost made a really big mistake because I came home with a pocket full of money to a house full of strangers. And Robin got me off to the side one day and she said I couldn't be more grateful. Like you've worked so hard. You've provided us a beautiful home a beautiful living, I'm able to stay at home. But I feel like I'm raising our girls by myself. I'm taking them to cheerleading practice and taking the ball practice. Sometimes we go to church without you I feel a little bit like a single parent might feel. And man it really dawned on me my that I'm really offering up some of the things that are the most precious in life to acquire something that has no real significant meaning. And so it was a real pivotal moment for me to go. You know what, I'm still going to work hard. And I do even now it's 62 years old. I work hard. I give it all I've got right I love it. I love to work and see that's one of the problems is I love it. And when you love something, you're going to pour yourself into it. And when you've got a real mission, you're even going to work harder. When you aspirational. You're very motivated. You have that grit and that determination and that perseverance, man, all that culminates into a point of extreme focus. And it did for me and I was like, Hey, I've got this one store did a 10 year loan in 36 months paid it off, I can do it again. And I did. Then I went down on Broadway and bought Broadway pawnshop and went to the Rose loan and bought it and then I went to Woodbine loan and I bought it in a rush to reload the streets, Jewelry and Loan and aprons on Gallatin road and all these stores. And I was like, Man, I can do this. And then I started buying out some of the rest of the competition. And I'm like, Man, I can do this, like, I've got the golden touch, right? You know, I'm going to work hard, I'm going to show you. And all that was going well, but I wasn't paying attention to the relationships that matter most. And that was Robin and my kids. Thankfully, she had the courage to come to me and talk to me and say, Hey, let's talk through this. What would it look like if you do it a little different? So I guess that's a long way around answering your question. But I would say be very determined, yet set very specific boundaries.

Mike Abramowitz 13:35
And I love that response. Because I really love the chapter in your book where you talk about boundaries. In fact, you know, the boundaries that you said, even around your relationship with Robin, I just talked about this with one of my groups that I run, I run an accountability group. And I said, you know, I'm interviewing this man who won't take a photo with another woman doesn't do business with other women doesn't do anything to jeopardize the relationship with his wife at all, because he has a boundary that he's created. And I really love that that philosophy, if you want to just continue to you know, speak to that a little bit on number one, how do you stay so discipline to such a strict boundary? And number two, what why is why? Why did you choose that?

Unknown Speaker 14:20
So I get opportunities to speak at various places. That's actually how you and I met, I was speaking at the conference. And oftentimes I'll either sell or give away my book view from the top. And at the end of the presentation, people will come up and wanted autographed. And I don't know why they want my autograph. But they say hey, would you sign it? You even pointed it out at the beginning of the interview. And it's an opportunity for me to talk to people. And invariably women are in the audience and they're great. I'm glad they're there. But they'll say hey, do you mind if I grab a selfie with you? And you know, just to kind of commemorate this experience? And and I'll say no, and they look at me real offended at first I say Will you allow me to share why? And obviously, you know, they're a little bit ruffled, but they say, yeah. And I'll say I'm in San Diego, California speaking it, you know, one of these events, and my wife is at home sitting on the couch in Nashville. And the first thing you're going to do is take the selfie and post it on Facebook or Instagram or somewhere. And my wife's going to see it on the feed, because you're going to tag me in it. And my wife sitting at home, and I've got my arm around a good look and 25 year old in San Diego, what do you think that's going to do for my marriage? Like, what kind of doubt could that place in my wife's mind, I'm out speaking, and I got this good look, and 25 year old, holding my book smiling, posting it on Facebook. And I said, I've made a commitment to my wife, and nobody is more important to her. And I'm honoring my wife doing this. And you know what they say invariably, I wish my husband felt that way. And they really respected they honor it. Now, I'm not desking women, I'm not saying hey, I'm too good to do that. But you know, I don't go to dinner with women. You know, I'm never alone in any location with women. It's just the boundary that I've built, because I've been happily married for 42 years, and I want to be happily married for another 30 or 40 years. And I feel like as long as I'm showing my wife that I'm honoring her, I'm protecting her have established these boundaries, then there shouldn't be any reason that we won't have another successful many decades. And so it's just one of many boundaries. But you highlighted that one. So I wanted to give context.

Mike Abramowitz 16:34
No, that's it's really good. Because I mean, a lot of men, I can't speak on behalf of them all. But there's a fairer, the argument could be well, like, almost like I can I like my independence. I like to be able to do what I want. Like I love my wife, she knows I love her, I would never do anything like that. Why would I need to, you know, demonstrate it in this way. And what you're saying here is this was a commitment that you've made. And you want to follow through on that commitment. I thought it was beautiful. I thought I think the discipline behind it is beautiful. I love that I love the sentiment, I think the sentiment is great. I think frankly, the discipline is also one of the one of the most like the follow through of the sentiment, that's that's almost more powerful than then the sentiment itself.

Unknown Speaker 17:18
You know, this is I'm not saying we should impose this on every male out there that is speaking not to take a picture. But if you're placing any seed of doubt, if your spouse feels any sense of competition, if they feel second, they don't feel most important, that's not going to go well long term for your relationship. And I can give you countless examples as to where there's a lot of marriage counseling needed as a result of them being apart, connecting with old friends. So we could go on and on down that rabbit trail, but you've got to do what works well, for your marriage, you've got to do the thing where you and your partner both are satisfied and happy with the communication that you've communicated with one another in regards to the boundaries that you're building. And I'm probably more strict now than I was in earlier years. Because I've learned a little bit more I've learned the pitfalls. I've learned where the landmines are at, I'm trying to dodge those a little bit. I'm trying to share a few nuggets. But there's not a lady out there that wouldn't appreciate her husband taking that approach to honor her. So a lot of guys may say, Yeah, I like my independence, well, you made a covenant with this person, that you're going to honor them, cherish them. And a lot of guys often say my family is first. Well, if that's true, you need to let your actions speak loudly rather than just your words. And so for me, I've just elected to put these boundaries in place, not do certain things do do certain things, to honor my children, my grandchildren and my spouse.

Mike Abramowitz 18:48
And good thing, you put a lot of that in place in the beginning stages of your relationship, because when you did hit some of those obstacles and roadblocks when you needed them the most, you had a strong foundation. And I'd love to, I'd love to explore, you know, one of the big roadblocks that happened with Enrique that was, you know, I read that in your book. And I mean, you you you remember the date, you remember the exact the whole situation. And I'd love for you just to just to speak to this, because this is something that I can't say every audience member is going to relate to what you experienced. But I think some of the audience members could relate to a circumstantial challenge that's unpredictable. That's unexpected, that can throw you through a whirlwind. And I'd love for you to not only explain what happened, but I'd love for you to talk about, you know, the five year kind of drought that you were in and how you came out of that using your mastermind and, you know, getting connected with Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller, and like how you had that speaker. I love this whole story. So if you could, you could take us through that. That'd be beautiful.

Unknown Speaker 19:48
Yeah, sure. So this happened at the very pinnacle of my career, things couldn't have been better. I was working three days a week my partner was working the other three days. probably making as much or more money than I've ever made in my career, two beautiful daughters, teenage daughters, they were just gorgeous. They were excelling in every area of their life. We had just built a new home. That was phenomenal. Things just couldn't have been any better. I was living like in Utopia. I mean, like I had to pinch myself. It was like, man here. I'm 40 years old. Things are just incredible. Getting to play golf, getting to fish getting to work three days a week. I was like, Man, I'm living the dream. And August 1 2001. I was headed to the office. It was 730 in the morning, and it's hot in Nashville. You know, I know it's hot in Tampa, too. But man in Nashville, the humidity was terrible. I had just bought a brand new 2001 Lincoln Navigator, candy apple red. It was beautiful. I mean, this was a tricked out Lincoln Navigator in my day was going incredible. I got within a mile and a half of the office. And as I was headed, there was a four lane highway I was going down. It's called Gallatin pike. I was in Madison, Tennessee. And there was a guy crossing the street ahead of me, I could see him up ahead probably was probably three blocks away at the time, probably doing 4550 miles an hour down this four lane highway. And I saw him cross the northbound lanes and he got to the median. And he stopped. And all this happened like four seconds. You know, I mean, I'm telling the story. But it all happened in like four seconds. And his shoulders slumped in his posture was I'm waiting, right? And obviously news waiting on me to pass and I looked to my right. And there was a city bus parked in the road, not at a bus stop. But in the right hand outside lane. I was in the inside lane closest to the median. And I knew just through observation, he was going to catch the bus. And that's where he was headed. But he was waiting on me to pass. So I sped back up. As soon as I got to him, he took off running for the bus. And you know the rest of the story, you know, I hit a guy. And I can still see it. Like in my mind's eye right now. I can hear it. I can see it. I can feel it in the steering wheel. And immediately a pulled over to the side of the road. And I started shaking Mike uncontrollably. It was like, everything slowed down. It was like slow motion. That's what it was like, and I don't want to make it too dramatic. But that's the way I felt. And I didn't have the courage to turn around. I was like, oh my god, what am I gonna see if I turn around and finally I said, You gotta turn around us turned around. Cars were stopping everywhere. People jumping out of their car. And there was this guy facedown. In the road in I got out of the car. And I grabbed my phone and I tried to dial 911 And I couldn't. Like my hand was shaking so hard. I could not control my hand to dial 911 Finally I put the butts of my hand together my palms and dial 911

Unknown Speaker 23:01
It wasn't a minute, I guess, man, I heard all the sirens and I went over and this guy was motionless, laying face down. He was an older guy. And the ambulance got there and they turned him over put him on a gurney and the police got there and they asked who was driving the car and I said I was and they said that you need to go back and the patrolman took me back, put me in the patrol car. And I sat there and watched all this unfold. And I was praying God, please let this guy be okay. Like, it was so surreal. Like, it wasn't me. It was like a dream. It was like wake me up that kind of experience. So finally the policeman goes around, they put the guy in the ambulance took him off and the policeman goes around, starts talking to all these people that you know, were present. He comes in, gets in the car, asked for my driver's license and gave my driver's license. So is that guy gonna be okay? And they said he's got severe head trauma. And I don't know, he's alive right now. And he said, Well, I want you to know, I've interviewed everybody here. Everybody said you weren't doing anything wrong. You weren't speeding, we're not going to charge you. But we obviously have to get all your information. I said absolutely. All these people started showing up blocking the road off setting these cones up. They were taking pictures. It was crazy. It was like the scene in a movie. So finally I got out and I went to the office and I finally told everybody I gotta go home. So I went home and I called my wife Robin was in Hakuna Mexico on a missions trip with our two daughters from our church and told her what happened. My buddies came over, consoled me, you know, and said, Hey, man, things are probably gonna be okay. And I'd given them my phone number, my address and everything. And I said, hey, when you find out something about this gentleman, please give me a call. So Saturday morning rolls around 930 I get a phone call. And it's the Vanderbilt hospital trauma unit. And they said Are you Mr. Walker? And I said yes. And they said we're calling about Enrique won't quote his last name, but Ms EDS, and they said, I'm sorry to inform you, he didn't make it. And I'm like, You gotta be kidding. And she said, No, I'm sorry, he had severe head trauma, where he hit the front left quarter panel on my truck, it spun him around in his head hit my mirror that spun him around again, and his body hit the left quarter panel on the driver's side. And then he fell facedown. It was the head trauma from the mirror that that killed him. And so, needless to say, Man, I was in a funk, really bad I've took about a week off, went back to the office. And about two weeks later, an incident happened at the store where something snapped, nothing's ever snapped. For me. It was like, but this emotional thing just snapped and told my partner, we've got to go have dinner tonight. We went and had dinner and I said, Listen, I've been chasing money since I was 13. I'm 40 years old, I got a pretty good life, I'm going to, I'm going to retire. And he said, What? And I said, I can't handle it. I'm going to retire. So we worked out a deal selling the business. And I took the next five years off. And so kind of got my legs back under me. Worked with counselors had a good group of guys around me. And that's at the time where Dave Ramsey invited me to join his mastermind group. Unbeknownst to him at the time, Dave, and I've been friends since the early 90s. I was the second person to sponsor his show sponsored Dave Ramsey show for 21 consecutive years. And we became very good friends as a result of that. But little did he know at the time that this shows you have God's always working in the background. He was formulating this mastermind group for me to join literally right after this happened. And I needed those guys in my life. And they spent the next dozen years, you know, helping me kind of work through some of those situations. But it took about five years to get my legs back under me.

Mike Abramowitz 26:58
Wow. It's a it's a remarkable story. And I really appreciate you sharing that because it is again, not something that everyone's going to experience specifically, but the idea that you're at the pinnacle, and life happens and life got life, shook you a little bit. And from that you really connected with this mastermind now are on a mission to also help with a ton of people with your masterminds, which we'll talk about in just a moment. I want to bring up the Dave Ramsey situation because you said you worked with him in the early 90s. I had one question selfishly selfish question for myself, because I was interested. I heard you tell the story. But I want an answer. I want an answer here. You said Dave Ramsey is your charter gave you like a free trial, like something like that to trial on his radio show. And then he's like, all right, you start blowing up with all these touches, and you got all these things. And he's like, alright, we need a contract for a year. So I want to know, how much did it cost to become friends with Dave Ramsey? Like how much was this how much this friendship costs? Back in the night? That's good. Yeah, I was.

Unknown Speaker 28:06
It wasn't cheap back then either. I think Dave was snow balled and me and let me just tell you the story real quick. I was on my way to work in the Madison Chamber of Commerce, where I had my business, I just built a brand new 10,000 square foot store. It was state of the art. I mean, it was a beautiful place. And this is in the early 90s. There was a speaker at the Luby's cafeteria, a guy was going to be talking about a radio show, he was starting here in Nashville. And that piqued an interest and I went in, heard him speak. And when up afterwards, there was probably 20 people there, went up afterwards introduce myself and I said, Hey, once you come down a mile down the street, don't you see my new store? So he got in his car, and he drove down there and walked in. And he goes, Oh, my gosh, this place is beautiful. He said, Tell me more about your business. And I did. And he said, This is just a kind of business, you know, that I want to advertise on my show. He said, Would you be one of my sponsors and advertise on my show? And I said, No, I never even heard of you. You know, 10 minutes ago, he was first time we met, you're wanting me to advertise with you, like what are you even about? And he started telling me what he was going to do teach people to get out of debt and all this stuff. And I thought to myself, that'll never work. That's what I was thinking to myself. And then he came back in the course of the conversation and he said, let me ask you something. If I give you a free week, would you try a free week? And I said, Yeah, he said, My audience is local here. He said, people are going to hear all about your business and let's do it for a week and I said, Okay, I got nothing to lose. So, man, he started talking about our store. He got me on the phone, we do a live spot and for three days people were pouring into our store. And I was like, Man, this is like, what's that guy's name Jones or whatever drink the Kool Aid. I said these people have drank the Kool Aid like what in the world I started listening to the show, and he was ranting and raving about get Now that that cutting up your credit cards, and I said, this guy is about half lost his mind that these people are listening, they're loving the show. So I called him three days in and I said, Hey, listen, these people are buying this hook, line and sinker. And I want to be involved in it. And he said, Okay, you'll have to sign an annual contract. I said, three days ago, you gave me a week. Now you're gonna make me sign an annual contract. And he goes, yep, if you want on this show, you're gonna sign an annual contract? Well, I don't mind sharing. Now, I don't even know what the spots cost now is $300 for a minute spot, and we would do them live. And we did that every day. I call in he gave me the time to call in. But then it got about a month or two in where I was doing two spots a day. And so I would call it the beginning of the show, I call it the end of the show, we do a live spot they would get me on, I would tell about a special and people would come in, they would stop their cars, they would come in and say hey, I want to see that special. Every day. It didn't matter what I was selling, they would buy that special. Well, that turned into a 21 year commitment that we sponsored a show we were second. So I guess you could say $600 a day is what I was spending. But I can't even begin to tell you what that what that gave back. And Dave and I became friends. And then he invited me to join his mastermind group. I didn't need this as you did ask for the story. But I'll tell you

Mike Abramowitz 31:23
just so everyone knows. It's only about 200 grand a year. That's all?

Unknown Speaker 31:27
Yeah. Well, you know, that was a lot of money in the 90s. To do that for 21 years. I need to go remind him of that and tell him that house. He's gonna help pay for that. Anyway, so I saw him at the curb Center in Nashville, Mercy Me was playing. I didn't even know he was there. And he was going to the concession stand and I said, Hey, and he looked over and he said, Hey, what are you doing? I said, I just enjoying the show. And so he went to the concession stand, and he came back, Sharon was sitting with him just few rolls in front of us. And he came back there and he goes, Hey, I want you to come to my office next Wednesday morning. And I said, for what? And he said, I want you to think about joining my mastermind group. And I said, I don't even know what a mastermind group is. And he said, Just come to the office Monday morning. I mean, Wednesday morning, seven o'clock, and I'll let you in and we'll talk about it. Well, I went home and told Rob and I said I don't want to go. She said why? And I said you know how they Vyas he's going to be all up in my face. He's going to find out we've got debt. And I don't want to tell him that I've mortgaged some of these real estate properties that we bought. And he's going to be asking about all this personal stuff, I don't want to go she goes, Just go and try. So I went, met all the other guys. Following week go back. This was every week, we met in his office, he had a conference room. And about three months in, these guys started really letting the veil down. They started sharing intimately about their relationships, about their kids about the challenges. They were facing problems in their business. And I started going oh my gosh, and I went home and I was laughing when I got home. Robyn goes, What are you laughing about? I said, they're more screwed up than I am. She started laughing. And I said, I have found my people. It's a good chuckle out of that. Well, that gave me permission, Mike, to really let my veil down, to really let the facade down and say, Hey, I got struggles, challenges. Like I've never been a dad to a 16 year old. I've never been married 25 years, I've never had issues financially like I'm confronted with right now. And it was a safe place. And it changed my life. Everything about my life personally, professionally and spiritually, it changed.

Mike Abramowitz 33:37
That's beautiful. And with the the mastermind, what your core values, the relationships matter most to make things amazing, I'll let you speak to those did those come before the you join these masterminds and they come as a byproduct of these masterminds that you create is a

Unknown Speaker 33:53
byproduct of the mastermind. It was a byproduct like some of those terminologies, I'd never been exposed to some of the things that we taught. And that we teach now that I learned through that process, I didn't even really know that much about a mission statement or a purpose statement or core values, like kind of knew what some of my core values were, but not easily identifiable, like I do today. Like we use them as a filter today to make every decision and so just learning that process. But what I learned probably more than anything, was that real strength begins at the intersection of vulnerability and transparency. And when you're willing to let that veil down and really expose yourself to a great degree, showing what you know your hindrances are some of your blind spots, understanding your kryptonite your superpowers. When you really start diving in and understanding it really helps you make decisions in the future. A lot of people tell me when I do these interviews, well who wouldn't want to be in a mastermind group with Dan Miller and Ken Abraham and Dave Ramsey? I want to remind the audience, they weren't then who they are now. And that's the value of being in these masterminds is because everyone's business up levels, because you have huge accountability. You have people that you can confide in, you don't know what you don't know, in the greatest asset of being in a mastermind group is someone else's perspective that has similar or alignment in their core values. And then you can go and share, they give you resources, ideas, accountability, they hold you to the task, they check up on you they follow, you're somewhat of in like a board of directors, people that can help you make decisions. And when you do that, every area of your life you'd level up.

Mike Abramowitz 35:43
And for those of you listen to the show, we have Episode 21, which is how to find your core values. So you can always go back and refer back to Episode 21, about how to find your core values. We also have the power of purpose and helping you craft your purpose statement on episode 17. So if you wanted to check those out, and Aaron, would you would you mind sharing with your core values, they're beautiful. And I'd also love for you to share the process of what you went through to come up with revealing some of these core values.

Unknown Speaker 36:11
Yeah, I appreciate that. There's a guy in iron sharpens iron mastermind or mastermind group, his name is Scott Beebe. He owns a company called my business on purpose. Scott was a one on one client, and then he joined our organization, he was very instrumental in helping us build the systems and the processes out really helping me understand what crafting a vision statement was helping me understand my unique core values. There's a lot of things that people say integrity and character. Well, that's just the foundation of being a human being right, we all should have those. But what are your unique core values? Like? What are the things that really resonate with you? What is it that you stand on principle about what is it that really is a matter of the heart, and when I started thinking about all the businesses, you've made reference to those earlier than number that own I thought relationships matter most to me, in every area of my life, like personally and professionally, I mean, the relationships are the most important thing. Now, I did get those out of balance initially, because I didn't have huge accountability in my life. But understanding now the value of accountability and having these in front of me matter of fact, you can't see it. But to my left, there's a stainless steel plaque in on it are my core values. And everyone in our organization knows these core values. And the number one core values relationships matter most. The second one is make it amazing. Like, I don't want to do it, if we're going to halfway do it. I brought home a C on my report card once and my mom said, Never again. I said what I tried, and she goes, No, no, no, I know you can do better than this. And she said, that's average. And I said, What's wrong with average, she goes well, averages, you're just as close to the bottom as you are the top. And you can do much better than this. We need to make it amazing. And I know you've got the determination to make it amazing. I want to see it amazing. And I've lived by that principle my entire life. The third thing is is no excuses. I hate excuses. I don't want to excuse I was late to a meeting the other day when I walked in the guy text me I was only 10 minutes from my home where we were meeting. He goes, Hey, big AR we're still meeting today. And I said, Yeah, I'll be right there in 10 minutes, I walked in. And I said, I've got a good reason that I'm late. He goes, you do? And I said yeah, forgot you. As he started laughing. He goes, I know, you tell me straight up big I could have said I was in a meeting. It went long, the traffic was bad. It's like no, just own it. Just own whatever it is, and people will respect you more as a result of it. Our fourth core value is everything is figured out double. People laugh at that word, it is the word look it up. My team knows that when we're in a discussion. They can never say there's no way we can do it. Like everything is figured out double. But we'll figure this out. I don't know what it looks like today. But we're gonna figure it out. Right? It's having that confidence void of arrogance. It's like, Hey, you get in the trenches, let's figure it out. It might not look exactly like you thought it was going to originally. But let's figure it out. And then the last core value is truth before opinion. And for us, I'm Christian by faith, I look to the biblical lens to establish what truth is, and we'll run it through those 66 books. And if it's in there, okay, then I'll honor and listen to your opinion but for us it's truth before opinion. Those are our core values. It's awesome.

Mike Abramowitz 39:28
Yeah, I when I heard those I had them written down relationships matter most make things and making those no excuses. Everything is figured out double truth before opinion. And I liked that you just shared because one of my questions I have here is how to find the lens for that. Like how do you find the lens for truth versus opinion? And you just said that your your lens comes from your faith if I heard that, right.

Unknown Speaker 39:50
Yeah, you know, otherwise, really, if we don't have something to establish truth, right, a lot of the stuff in the Bible I don't understand, right. That's why we have faith but It's a reference point, it's a line in the sand. I can point back and say I established truth here. And if you don't have that, what are you establishing truth on? What is it? And just saying, Well, this is the way I see it for me is not a real good answer. Because we have to have something to establish what truth is in our life. Otherwise, anything goes, and we know how that works out.

Mike Abramowitz 40:24
I have I have like, three really good questions I still want to ask. So the first one is, in no particular order. These are the ones I want to ask. The first one is I want to talk about your technology addiction that you've referenced, and why you got the two phones. And, you know, because I think a lot of our audience can can, you know, experienced this, myself included. I also want to talk about how your mastermind group brought you to a cabin to go on a hunting trip, and you happen to be with a guy that you wanted to shoot. I'd like to I'd like to, you know, dig into that just for a smidge. Second because I thought that was a really fascinating story, especially how you responded to it. And the last one is in the actual mastermind group, your process of the mastermind group like the wins the accountability, man and mill abundance, I just like to explore that each of those. So in in, those are the three final questions before we wrap the head for the exits here. If you don't mind, just speak into each of those. And again, whichever one you'd like to jam on first, it's up to you.

Unknown Speaker 41:22
So we're recording this in August of 2022. In October of 2021, I hit the wall, like literally hit the wall, I was like toast. I was having some sleep disorder problems found out my oxygen level was going down to 82%. At night, it was causing a brain fog. I had worked probably more than I should at my age and went to the doctor and did a lot of tests. I found out some other issues that were very minor that we had to adjust. But I went to our team and I said, Hey, I'm taking a sabbatical. And I've been encouraged to take two months off. And they went okay, when do you plan on doing this? And I said in two weeks, they said, you're gonna be off November and December. And you're gonna do that in two weeks. And I said, Yes. And so our team is very competent, very capable. And I said, You got this. And so I literally went dark on plugged literally from everything. No social media, no calls, no office, check in no emails, no, nothing. My wife and I traveled pretty extensively through that I took some trips, I rested, I sat on my patio, I really thought through what I wanted my life to look like in this fourth quarter of my life. And the day before I checked out, I took my phone and I looked at it. And I looked at the times I picked up my phone. And I was averaging 1050 times a week picking up my phone without because it tells you on that phone that tells you how many times you pick it up. And I went to Robin and I said this is one of my problems right here. Like there's this addiction. It's real, like it's a real thing. And so I got another phone, that nobody has the number two but Robin Brooke and Holly my three closest people, my two daughters and my wife, they have the phone, if they need me, they can get me on that phone, the other phone, I set aside and I just said, Hey, I'm done. I'm taking a break my system took care of everything my calls, took care of, you know, emails and everything. What was remarkable is that when I came back, I had five emails I had to deal with, I get about 150 emails a day. On average, sometimes more, sometimes a lot less. But we get a lot of emails and she took care of all of them. There's very competent, capable people out there. They can take care of these things you feel delegated. But what I realized through that process was I was feeling the phone vibrate in my pocket. And I didn't have my phone with me. And then I would stand in the grocery store in line when I had my other phone with me and I would pick it up to check something and there's nothing on it. But it's the ability to use the phone. And I was like I literally kind of had the DTS like shaking, like, I gotta check something. I've got to tweet something. I've got to do a Facebook Live. I've got to send an email, a text message, I've got to do something. And it took about two weeks. I'm embarrassed to admit this publicly, but it took me about two weeks to get through that. They're again trying to build boundaries. And to be honest with you, I haven't been as disciplined. I'm being totally transparent here today. I haven't been as disciplined with that is I have other areas of my life related to my wife and kids. I'm working on it. I'm doing better. I have accountability partners. We meet every Monday morning at 630. I've been doing that 30 years. Every single week we meet and we talk about these things to hold each other accountable. And so yeah, technology is a real thing

Mike Abramowitz 44:52
I learned so you share that and that and thank you for sharing it because I relate fully I just looked at my phone. I'm at 14 Turning 27 times is my average for the week. So it's an unhealthy addiction, but it's also at the same time. For some of us, we feel like it's necessary. And I love the two things that you said is how much can you delegate an offset to someone else? And number two, I love the second phone idea where it's like, I have an emergency, but there's nothing else on there. And that's sometimes where it's like I convinced myself No, I need my phone on me just in case something happens. And then I use my phone for all this other stuff. So I really love I love those two pieces of nuggets, golden nuggets that you just shared there.

Unknown Speaker 45:31
Yeah, yeah, there's a book out there. The name of the book escapes me right this minute Joe Han Hooray wrote the book. And I'm trying to remember the name of the book, but it's about social media, stolen focus. That's the name of it. The dopamine hits that we get there is truly an addiction. So you get that book stolen focus, Joe Han Hooray, read it. It'll scare you to death, what they're doing with the technology. Second question you had asked was a hunting trip I went on. So I was a young guy years ago. And I did a business deal with a local known person in our community owns a big company here sold him a piece of property and we get to the closing table. And he looks, brings his glasses down and looks at me over the over his glasses, and he laughs and he sits back in his chair. And he said, I'm not going to pay this. I'm going to pay this. And I said, What do you mean? He said, Well, it says on page X, that I don't have to do this, and I'm not going to do it. And it cost me like $40,000. And I looked at my attorney that was there. And they said, he's right. And he looked at me and laughed at me in front of a couple of bankers and a couple of attorneys in this business deal that we were doing, and signed the contract. He said, hey, you know, this is the deal, you should have paid better attention. He was kind of mocking me a little bit. And he was a little older than me. I was a little younger, and I really needed that money. I mean, it was important to me, you know, it doesn't sound like that much money. No, but at the time, it was a lot of money. And I really needed it. And I grew to hate that guy literally grew to hate that guy. And that's terrible, you know, to say, especially in public, but I became very bitter. And about two years it about destroyed me, because I was the prisoner. You see, because I was in this bitterness in this hatred. And I couldn't get over it. I was conniving and thinking how I could get this guy back there. Again, I'm really embarrassed to be admitting this businessman here in Nashville. But I'm just being honest. You know, I'm just sharing the feelings that I had. Well, about two years into that process. A buddy of mine invited me to go to Buffalo, Wyoming on a mule deer and antelope hunt. And I said, Yeah, be great. I'd love to go. And I said, Who's going? He said, Oh, there's a bunch of about 16 I was going and I said, Yeah, I'd be great. I'd love to go. So Robin got up 430 in the morning and drove me to where we were meeting because I was riding with somebody else. Got my gun out, got my luggage out, kissed her boss. She got in the car and got on the interstate headed back. And I turned around and when I turned around, we'll call him John. That was the guy there he stood. I'm like, You gotta be kidding. I turned around to see if Robin was still there. And I turn around and look and I went up to my buddy and I said, You didn't tell me this guy was going he said, what? I didn't know that. I need to tell you that guy was going. And I told him the story. And he goes, Man, I'm sorry. He said, I didn't know. And I said, Oh, man, this is unbelievable. So I got in the truck with my buddy. We drove to Buffalo Wyoming took us about 23 hours to get out there. Hunting the 67,000 acre farm Johnny Ziza sounds the property out there. And we found all kinds of antelope and mule deer. And I thought, Man, this is awesome. You know, I'm gonna get a nice deer. So I get up on this he'll everybody's hunting. Everybody's got their locations, huge farm and I'm scoping out the bottom and I'll be dead gum. Here comes John walking down through the bottom. He's got an orange vest on, and I'm looking at him and I'm I'm like,

Mike Abramowitz 49:04
I'm gonna kill him.

Unknown Speaker 49:06
I honestly was gonna kill him. Now I've been hunting and fishing Mike my whole life. I'm a really good fisherman. And I'm a really good hunter. I've tournament fish for 35 years, and I've hunted since I was born. So you do not want me shooting at you with a rifle. I am really good with a rifle. And I pick the gun up. And I looked at him through the scope. And I'm like, and then I thought and then I said, I'll never convince everybody that that was an antelope wearing an orange vest. That was the only thing that saved him. And I started shaking like a leaf and I put the gun down and I said what are you doing? Like you're a reputable businessman. I'm a deacon at my church. I'm teaching Sunday school. Like everything in my life was the opposite of what I was thinking about. See, that's what bitterness does to you. A lot of you listening to my voice out there Today, you're bitter about something, somebody's cheated you. You've had a spouse that's cheated on you. You've had parents that have done you wrong, and you're living in prison. So on the way back, obviously, I didn't kill John. So obviously, I'm still here today. I'm not in jail. So we get back in the car. And we're out there. 10 days. He and I haven't spoke in 10 days. We get back in the car, we drive we get 60 miles outside of Nashville. His truck breaks down on the side of the interstate. Now why did this I have no idea the caravan. There were four of us. In four people in a truck for, you know, SUVs, we stopped in a caravan go up to him. And I don't know why. At that moment, this dawned on me. But I got out of the car and I walked up to him. I hadn't spoke to him the whole time. I walked up to him. And I said, John, I said, if we tell you back on my house is the first one we come to come to the south of Nashville, we're coming in on. I've got a K five blazer sitting at home. You can drop my blazer until you get yours fixed. First time we spoke in 10 days. And he looked at me and he goes, Why are you doing this? And I said, I gotta forgive you. And he goes, Man, I'll pay you that money back. And I said, I'm not doing this for the money. I don't want the money. I said, I'm doing this because I have to be set free. I'm the one in captivity, and I'm forgiving you right here. He came in, got it. He came and got my blazer and he drove it for about a week. I didn't take any money from him. I didn't want any money. But let me tell you what happened. My life changed that day for the better. Because I wasn't any longer carrying around bitterness. I wasn't carrying around hatred. I forgave him in, you know, you have forgiven somebody when you quit demanding justice. And never again thought about getting him back. hoping he served some type of consequence as a result of it. And it set me free. You know, to be honest with you, I don't know that he deserved being forgiven. He didn't ask for forgiveness, I went to him and gave him forgiveness. And I would encourage you, if you're listening to this interview today, somebody you need to forgive, you need to let them go so that you're set free.

Mike Abramowitz 52:09
Oh my god, I love love when I read that story in the book. And then I just I love hearing you tell it, I love reading it. And then you even talk it talks about it in the book, like taking it to a woman at Starbucks you're pissed off at for like taking so long. And then it's like, Ah, this bitterness is showing up. So I gotta do a random act of kindness to kind of offset this bitterness because I just don't want to I gotta set myself free. It's not even about giving the gift. But it's also about setting myself free. And I really love that. Before we wrap up. One more. One more thing is process for a mastermind group. You said wins accountability man in the middle and abundance. Is that right? I just want to make sure

Unknown Speaker 52:49
there you go. That's great. I mean, that's what we do. We meet virtually every single week and we start out with big wins, I love to start out with wins. Then we go to man in the middle and guys get their opportunity to share the challenges that they're faced with. We share what's called a full cup different ideas, different processes, different resources. And then we wrap up with a great encouraging word and we meet every single week on a video conference call. And guys laughs are going to levels that I've never seen. And we have 150 members in 15 groups right now we've got a real aspirational goal ahead of us. We're opening up groups for the first time. If you want to get involved man, I encourage you to come to view from the top.com fill out an application. Let's have a conversation and see if you're a good fit for our mastermind.

Mike Abramowitz 53:34
Erin, thank you so much. Final 30 seconds three hitting questions. What do you think the world needs most of today?

Unknown Speaker 53:40
Yeah, I think the world needs more of people that have the same core values. My number one relationships mattering most if we had that it would solve 99% of the other problems.

Mike Abramowitz 53:50
Great. Number two, what are 123 books that you think people should read?

Unknown Speaker 53:54
Who not how is a must read Chris Voss wrote a really good book that I read not too terribly long ago called never split the difference. It's a phenomenal read. And of course, as a Christian, you know, my go to book is the Bible. So that's the one I start the day with each and every day you read those three books, I think you'll take your life to new heights.

Mike Abramowitz 54:13
And lastly, what does it mean to be better than rich,

Unknown Speaker 54:16
better than rich, you know, Rich is just a terminology that we've created as individuals. What I really want to be is joyful, not necessarily rich. And if you want to be rich in every area of your life, adopt joy, and really live your life to its fullest and it will be far better than being rich

Mike Abramowitz 54:37
and Walker. Thank you so much for being here. And listener thank you for tuning in. Assuming this episode helped you. It's your turn help others by sharing it with a friend you could subscribe to the YouTube channel. Submit a rating and review on Apple Spotify. Until next time leave today better than you found it thanks for listening in If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the show, please share it with others post about it on social media or leave a rating and review. To catch all the latest from us. You can follow us on Instagram at better than underscore rich and join our Facebook group at the better than rich show. Thanks again for listening. We look forward to seeing you next time and remember, leave today better than you found it .