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Do you need a mastermind? Want to launch one of your own? - Silent Sales Machine Radio
Feb 28, 2020
Today's guest has been a successful entrepreneur for a few decades. He's launched several successful businesses without one of them failing! What's his secret? He swears by the power of masterminds! You'll enjoy hearing how Aaron and Jim have both benefited from surrounding themselves with creative, like minded co-travelers as they've journeyed through the challenges and triumphs of business and life. See this episode on youtube (link in show notes). Get all links and resources at https://nerdpicker.com/SilentJim-Podcast Links: https://nerdpicker.com/ProvenMastermind - Jim Cockrum's mastermind that's launching in 2020 https://SilentJim.com/aaron - Aaron's "how to launch a mastermind" course https://nerdpicker.com/ProvenConference - our July 2020 conference in Florida Aaron's book: View From The Top - https://amzn.to/3chCfxO
View Video Transcript
0:01
hey this is Jim welcome back to silent Sales Machine radio this is one of those
0:06
episodes where we turned on the video camera so if you're listening to this right now not on YouTube but just
0:13
listening you should know that in the show notes today there's a link where you can watch on YouTube and if you're
0:19
watching us on YouTube hey thanks for hanging out with us here you need to know that most of our episodes are Audio
0:26
Only meaning if you only watch us on YouTube You're missing about 90% of our
0:31
podcast episodes in either case you need to get over to silent jim.com
0:37
podcast and you can see all of our audio episodes or see the YouTube link for
0:43
some of the episodes like this one today we're going to meet Mr Aaron Walker he's a friend of mine he's been a mentor to
0:50
me he's a guy who's launched multiple successful businesses and he's a guy who
0:55
you if you recognize the name Dave Ramsey might be interested to know that back before Dave Ramsey the number one
1:02
or two most listened to talk show host in the United States radio talk show
1:07
he's got a top show but before he was known he formed a mastermind group with
1:12
a handful of other guys and Aaron Walker Our Guest today was one of them and he
1:18
tells that story a little bit and that's actually the topic of our show today I love the power of masterminds and an
1:26
episode not too far from this one that you're watching today actually interviewed a guy who was in the only
1:32
Mastermind I ever launched and he's gone on to become the number four best
1:37
selling grocery product on Amazon and he credits a lot of his his success to that
1:45
Mastermind so I love the concept of getting together frequently and regularly with the same group of people
1:51
sharpening each other sharing ideas having someone that you can balance ideas off of it's a beautiful thing and
1:58
if you're not doing it you really should be so that's one of the things I'm going to talk about with Aaron today he
2:03
actually has some training that he's developed to help you form a mastermind and even monetize it if you're
2:09
interested and this is also a great chance for me to let you know and this is the only time I'm going to mention
2:14
this today but I want to let you know we're forming our own Mastermind group this is the second time I've ever done
2:21
it it in 17 years I've only done it one other time and like I mentioned before
2:26
several success stories popped out of that small group but we're doing it again and you can go get the details at
2:33
proven mastermind.com that link will be in the show notes with today's episode proven
2:40
mastermind.com you can get some details on what we're shaping out sign up to say if you're interested or not and see if
2:46
it's something that appeals to you but I'm excited to get our guest today he's he's launched so many successful
2:51
businesses he's a great family man raised an Incredible family he speaks from his heart with a lot of
2:57
authenticity and transparency I think you're going to be really inspired hanging out with Mr Aaron Walker today
3:03
so let's get him on the line well hey big a my friend Aon Walker
3:08
is on the show with me how are you my friend hey Jim man I'm doing really good thanks for having me on today always so
3:13
good to spend time with you even if it's in front of a few thousand of our closest friends today uh and you and I
3:19
go back a good ways but I think I'm just going to pass the ball over to you and tell us what you're working on what
3:24
you're excited about where life's taking you these days you've always got great stuff to share well thank thanks Jim I
3:30
appreciate that you know we're celebrating our 41st year in business this year so we're really excited about
3:36
that uh we are the host to iron sharpens iron Mastermind uh we have 15 groups to
3:43
date uh represented in nine different countries we have three groups that we just launched for women and so my
3:50
daughter and my wife and another lady is heading that up so things are good and
3:56
uh we've just released The Mastermind Playbook that we've been working on for about 18 months now and that's taken the
4:03
vast amount of our focus and attention and we're so excited today to share just
4:08
a little bit more with you about masterminds and the place that that can serve your audience yeah and just to to
4:15
remind the the listeners we're going to be talking about you know who needs a mastermind should you start one and if
4:22
either one of those questions are bounce around in your brain Aaron's the man to help you navigate that that's why we've
4:27
got him on the the show today listeners have heard me say many many times you've got to surround yourself with other
4:34
like-minded people that can challenge you forward you can bounce your questions around you know it's one thing to be part of a large active Facebook
4:40
group that's good but maybe we can start there eron what's the difference between
4:45
being in let's say an online community of of people that you can you know bounce similar challenges off of and
4:51
there's some good camaraderie there and and I certainly love our Facebook group but what's the difference between that and then maybe jumping into a mastermind
4:57
group and and talk to us about that littleit sure let me go back about two decades and give you context first Jim
5:04
if I could so back in the early 90s when I had a brickson mortar location I went to
5:11
Lu's cafeteria to a chamber of commerce breakfast and there was this guy there teaching us how to get out of debt and I
5:18
thought this is pretty interesting so I went up and introduced myself afterwards and met him and told him who I was and
5:25
told him I just built a new bricks and mortar store about a mile from there and I invited him down to to check it out
5:30
and he did and fell in love with it and he said hey I've started a new radio show here in Nashville Tennessee and I
5:37
want you to be one of my sponsors and I started laughing and I said there is no way I don't even know you like 30
5:42
minutes ago you didn't even exist in my world and now you want me to sponsor your show he said I think it's going to
5:48
be amazing and I think this is just the kind of location I would like to advertise with us and I saidwell tell me
5:54
what you're offering and he told me and I said no I'm not interested he said what if I give you a week free of
6:01
advertising every day on my show we'll do a live spot and you can have a free
6:06
week and I thought well I can't lose on that I'm an entrepreneur and I know if I'm not paying anything I don't have
6:12
anything to lose and so I agreed to it he gave me a week free well that was my first encounter with Dave Ramsey Dave
6:19
that just started the money game here in Nashville and I'd never met him before up until that point so we built a
6:26
relationship over the years and I spent 21 consecutive years advertising and
6:31
sponsoring his show well a few years after that I was at a mercy me concert in Nashville at the curb Center and I
6:39
got up at intermission to go get some popcorn and a coke and Dave Ramsey got up in front of me I didn't even know he
6:44
was sitting there I said I didn't even know you were going to be here and he said yeah he said it's a great show and
6:50
I said yeah you're right so he said hey I've been meaning to talk to you about something anyway and I said yeah what is it he said 'I want you to join my
6:57
Mastermind group that I'm starting in my office and I said jooin your what and he said
7:02
my Mastermind group and I said Dave I don't even know what a mastermind group is and he started laughing he said just
7:09
be at my office Wednesday morning 7 o'clock I'll introduce you to the people that we've
7:15
invited I'll tell you Jim to be truthful I didn't want to go I was like I don't have a clue what I've getting involved
7:21
in so I go I sit down Dave introduces you know Ken Abraham and Jeff Mosley and
7:27
our friend Dan Miller and uh all the these guys sitting around the table like 10 of us and I'm like I'm nervous like I
7:33
don't know any of these guys but Dave and so we started talking and so week after week we met for an hour and a half
7:40
and these guys were vulnerable they were transparent I could see the authenticity coming out and I'm like I can't I've
7:47
never been involved in anything like this before and so I started opening up a little bit I thought what the heck if
7:54
these guys were opening up I'm going to do the same and then I started hearing stories about trials they were having in
8:00
their marriage and with their children and in their businesses and I thought these are all successful people I didn't
8:05
realize they had trouble in their life I'm not the only one dealing with these issues so I started sharing well I won't
8:13
take you through the whole journey but we spent the next 12 years every Wednesday morning for an hour and a half
8:19
in Dave's office and it radically transformed my life in every area personally and professionally because
8:26
what it taught me to do was to drop the facade I could be big a in there and
8:31
honest and I could be vulnerable about everything that Robin and I were dealing with and my businesses the struggles I
8:37
was having and it was a safe place I had trusted advisors that were nonbiased so
8:44
now for 20 years jim I've been in a mastermind group every week for 20 years
8:50
and it's just radically transformed my life I wanted to give a little background so the audience that's here
8:56
today would understand my passion about about Mastermind groups the difference
9:01
in being in a community it doesn't allow you to drop that facade we have this
9:07
Veil that is up because we want everybody to think we've got it all together right we got every answer we
9:13
know everything especially in social media I know right we're all heroes on social media we all look great you know
9:19
we're on the beach and we're working the 4 Hour Work week and everything is great but in reality that's just not true in
9:26
reality is we all struggle we have family issues we have business trials
9:32
and this just allows you to subject yourself to the scrutiny of other people that are non-biased and they're
9:39
non-judgmental there's no condemnation and you're able to be yourself and that is the vast difference in being in a
9:46
virtual community just where there is um those parameters are not allowed
9:51
allowing you to do that versus being in a virtual Mastermind group or an in-person Mastermind group that allows
9:58
you to really let people Peak behind the curtain so it was that initial experience you had with uh with Dave
10:04
Ramsey and our good friend Dan and those guys that kind of inspired you into
10:09
studying the impact that being a part of a mastermind can have on anyone's life
10:15
right is that what launched you down this road because you saw positive impact well see here's what happened was when I was in business for myself I was
10:22
very fortunate and cursed it depends on how you look at it to start my first business at 18 years old well I didn't
10:29
have anybody to help me make those decisions I was like I don't know whether to go left or right here and I
10:34
don't know whether to leverage myself I don't know whether to open the next location I had nobody I trusted in a
10:41
community that really knew my background and these guys started saying hey isolation is the enemy to Excellence if
10:48
you really want to propel your life to the next level you've got to subject yourself to people that can see you
10:54
differently than you see yourself they encourage those superpowers but they point out the Achilles heel and the
11:00
blind spots that can protect you long term and man listen I so invite that
11:06
constructive criticism now it has saved me so many times from making a
11:12
boneheaded decision Jim you're like me we're entrepreneurs I have 10 10 ideas
11:17
before I get out of the shower every morning and when I'm able to go to a group and start laying it out in all the
11:23
details they go that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my entire life or they go big a hold on tell me again
11:30
what you said and I tell it they say have you thought about doing this have you considered doing this with that idea
11:36
and now we've got something that's in the incubation stage that we can get beta testers and we can look at but see
11:43
when you're alone everything sounds great to yourself and this has just helped me in so many ways in my personal
11:50
life and professional yeah it helps you know there's so many times where we don't know what questions we should be
11:56
asking and there's I know know that I did this business as a lone wolf
12:02
probably the first four or five years and I was just not that I actually made
12:08
a conscious decision but I remember processing it this way it's like well the the internet's here I can communicate with anyone so I'm just gon
12:16
to plow through and if if I have a question I'll jump on some discussion forum somewhere and ask my question there and I'm just gonna make it happen
12:22
I'm gonna that that's Lone Wolf though yeah see the problem is they don't have context to your situation they don't
12:29
know your habits Floyd Dawson really did a study on me because I go to him all the time it's a guy that helps me he's a
12:35
counselor and he helps me really understand myself and he said what's interesting about you is you do
12:40
something big every three years well see if people didn't know that they didn't know I sold something or bought we've
12:47
owned 14 businesses in the past 41 years and he said you're a Creator developer you're not a maintainer manager and if
12:54
you don't have a challenge before you at all times nothing is going to keep you there no amount of money is going to
12:59
keep you there and he uncovered something that I wasn't aware of myself Jim I'll tell you a funny story Robin
13:05
and I got into a really bad argument about six months ago it was bad we've been married 40 years this coming June
13:11
so we're not going anywhere we love each other and it's been amazing but I fight just like you do with your wife and
13:17
everybody else does and so Robin walked through the kitchen and I was writing thank you notes and it was 830 at night
13:23
and I was sitting at the table and she looked over her glasses at me and she turned around walked off and sat down on
13:28
the couch house she didn't say a word and I could feel the tension with a knife man you could have cut it I was in
13:34
trouble so I put all my stuff up put it in the briefcase went sat on the couch well there was this 30 foot wall between
13:41
us man I could feel this thing we talked a little bit and you know went to bed and got up the next morning I kissed her
13:47
by and I leaned over and I said I'm going to see Floyd today and she said why and I said well I would have been
13:54
better off if you'd have gotten on me last night but you didn't say anything and when you don't say anything I know
13:59
it's bad and I said I know I'm working too much and I said I'm going to go talk to Floyd see if he can help me so I go
14:05
to Floyd sit down talk to him Floyd said Avery let me give you the good news he said the good news is all the businesses
14:11
that you've started have been successful he said the bad news is all the businesses you've started have been
14:18
successful and I said what do you mean he said you're working hard now to maintain your reputation and you'll work
14:25
twice as hard to do that you would have been better off to had two three good failures early on and you wouldn't be
14:31
working this hard to protect your ego and your pride you see I didn't know
14:37
that I was doing that that's the benefit of The Mastermind group that's the benefit of surrounding yourself with
14:43
competent people that can help take you to the next level and I went home and told Robin I said this is exactly
14:49
correct this is why I'm doing this and it heightened my awareness I was able to fix it and get on a good path see guys
14:57
when you're when you don't have anybody and you're in that office and you're trying to make these decisions it's just
15:03
difficult to do it alone and perspective is the best things that masterminds can bring you only have one filter one life
15:10
experience but there are many other ways to do what you're trying to accomplish that's right I mean this the the Bible
15:17
says within the first few verses Man was not made to be alone the first time God said it it's not good everything else he
15:24
did was good good good good the first time he God said now that's not good was when man was alone and it's not because
15:30
men need women although we definitely do big a it's saying none of us are designed to go through life by ourselves
15:37
male female young old we just can't that we actually torture the most hardened
15:43
enemy Soldiers by just putting them in a box and not telling them how long it's going to be before they see another face
15:48
that's a form of torture but we do it to oursel as entrepreneurs on purpose what what do we thinking you know I mean you
15:54
can drive yourself nuts but you take the opposite of that and hey surround yourself with people can be accountable
15:59
to be intentional about it get the right people in that group who are have like-minded value set but come from
16:06
different perspectives suddenly you're talking about something pretty powerful that develops yeah here's the thing is
16:12
that our ego and pride disallows that happening often times because we want the other person to think we've got it
16:18
all together and let me just tell anyone that's listening to my voice right now none of us have it all together no none
16:25
of us and we need help God designed us to be in community and right we can get so much more done together than we can
16:32
apart yeah and life has seasons and ups and downs and trials and things and and you're going to be very grateful that
16:38
that you have a a group of people around you that you can lean on when those when those times hit well let let's start
16:44
talking some specifics for people who are saying hey okay this is resonating with me I'm not doing enough of this
16:51
what Solutions do we have for people I know you've got some solutions I've got some solutions a good starting point is
16:57
go to live event I know you've got them I've got them a lot of other great people in this industry there's good
17:03
events just go and and don't go and sit and take notes go and have conversations
17:09
when you go to these things with the intention of creating relationships that you can you can get into these close
17:15
relationship but how do I go from just being a guy who kind of randomly attends events into maybe being a little more
17:20
intentional about this and connecting with a group in a in a mastermind maybe it's one of yours you know talk us
17:26
through that path sure sure um first of all I'm with you 100% you know years ago
17:32
when I started this business I would go to podcast movement and social media marketing world and podfest and you know
17:39
clickfunnels and all those things I would go all these events and Michael steltzner with social media marketing
17:45
World walked up to me one day when I was at podcast movement and he looked and he said what are you doing here you don't
17:51
even have a podcast yet and I hugged his neck and I said I can't do this sitting at home on the couch that's right and he
17:57
started laughing he said me too I said 'y you know the magic happens out here in the hall when we're drinking coffee
18:03
together and we're having this time that we can interact and we can get to know each other better and so that's just
18:11
what it is in masterminds but it's own steroids right it gives you an opportunity to be around people and you
18:18
pointed out something earlier when you said you want somebody with the same core values and you've got to have somebody
18:25
that's got the the metrics by which we can measure what success is is and what significance is and we do that through
18:31
our core values so it's really important if you have different core values than other people your Mastermind is not
18:37
going to be very successful and so I would just encourage you to really uh dive into making sure that the groups
18:43
that you're getting involved in you're headed in the same trajectory with the same core of values the thing that
18:50
really adds the most value is the different perspective a lot of people do Mastermind groups that are industry
18:56
specific and I think that's amazing and you can get so much accomplished but a lot of the times Jeff Hoffman those that
19:03
know who he is Jeff started priceline.com and I talked to Jeff at an
19:08
event he spoke at and he's a multibillionaire today and he's had several very successful businesses and
19:14
he said you know 10% of everything I read has absolutely
19:19
nothing to do with anything I'm interested in he said but what's ironic out of that is the vast majority of the
19:26
big successes I've had have come out of that 10% % you see that's the way I view Mastermind groups you don't know what
19:32
you don't know and you don't know what you're missing until you get around other people with a different perspective and so I want to be a
19:39
listener right in the group and I want to be the person that's uh really soaking it in but I want to bring value
19:46
also see we really enlist givers not takers you see when you're in a room
19:51
full of givers the natural reciprocity everybody wants to give and I turn people away very uh much of the time
19:59
most of the time when all I hear is what am I going to get out of it what's the average income of the person in the group who do they know and I'm like hold
20:05
on let me stop you you won't be a good fit for our group and I turned down a guy recently and uh he he couldn't
20:12
believe I turned him down he said I've had all these multi-million dollar businesses and I said all you're interested in is yourself you're not
20:18
interested in the other members of the group wow so go slow go slow go slow
20:24
when you get in these groups you really want to think through it uh you really want to check out the facilitator or the
20:30
host of The Mastermind group listen you don't have to join one of my groups Jim has groups and other people have groups
20:36
there's amazing groups out there today that you can get involved in you can get in local groups the only problem that I
20:42
found Jim quite honestly U the virtual groups seem easier and they're easier to
20:48
get involved in and what we have found is people become a lot more transparent and vulnerable faster virtually and
20:55
here's the reason we discovered why when you're in a community group group my wife and your wife Jim play tennis
21:01
together right if we're I'm hypothetically stating this and you may question whether you can be totally
21:07
vulnerable with me because I may go home and tell Robin and then robin goes and talks to your wife about it when they
21:13
play tennis together or your Banker is in the group and you may have a financial issue that you want to talk
21:18
about you really don't have the freedom to do that because your Banker's in the room you can see how that these
21:24
interactions can get construed uh if you not careful so what
21:30
we have found and we're in nine different countries now what we have found is that there's no travel time you
21:36
can sign on you're on for one hour and you can say anything you want because you're not doing business with the
21:41
people in there on a regular basis in your community our wives are not playing tennis together and it allows you a very
21:48
safe environment and that's what we need see because if you're not totally candid
21:53
with me if you're not really telling me all the facts I can't give you good
21:58
advice because that one more piece of advice that you just or that one more ingredient that you just said changes
22:05
everything that I would say so we've got to get to a posture of authenticity and
22:11
vulnerability or people can't help you yeah and and you expressed in a recent conversation we had you know people just
22:18
want to feel like they can be heard by someone who understands what they're saying I would add on you know as
22:25
entrepreneurs it's a very isolating thing and it you need either a you know
22:30
I I've got a good handful of groups that I'm a part of uh some paid some not you
22:36
know but you need I've got the local group of guys that attend the same church we own businesses you know we're gonna get this Mastermind you and I have
22:42
been in masterminds together you know it's not like finding that one perfect group but you do need to find a group
22:49
where you speak the same language it's speaking to an area of your life where you can be vulnerable and you can be
22:55
heard because there's so much I think as as these independent-minded entrepreneurs and we want everyone to
23:00
think we're awesome but there's very few places where we can go and be truly vulnerable and be understood so often
23:06
it's not our spouse because they're kind of done with a thousand ideas a day right right at times like they need you
23:12
need to get into a group of people where they they speak the same language sure it's just it's invaluable I know it's
23:18
it's taken my business each time I've been a part of a group I've met people and my business has expanded and grown
23:24
in New Directions every single time you have to carve that time out because it's there's no instant return on investment
23:31
no for this kind of thing you can like well if I put a$ thousand dollars into this Mastermind am i g to get $50 the math that way it's those
23:39
relationships do lead to more money in the bank because you're improving as a leader improving as a business person
23:46
right so you've seen those positive rois right your biggest asset are your relationships hand down without a
23:52
question is those relationships I'll give you an example of something that happened yesterday in one of our groups
23:58
we have an accountability tool to digital tool that we fill out every single week there's 10 questions and you
24:04
rank yourself one to 10 for every question new guy joined about six weeks ago and he was in the group kind of
24:10
quiet getting used you know understanding the terrain that he's dealing in and he scored low in one of
24:15
his numbers and I was facilitating this group and we'll we'll call him Billy I said Billy I said uh what's up with this
24:22
three on this one to 10 and he said well things are just not going quite like I
24:28
like him and uh it was his relationship with his wife and uh I said well tell us more and he was very hesitant at first
24:36
and so he went ahead and shared a little bit more well you know me Jim I I didn't quit there I kept digging so finally we
24:42
ended up spending the entire hour and the truth of the matter was is his marriage is right on the brink of
24:48
disaster they've been married 15 years and to his own admission he said I would have never brought this up in here in a
24:55
million years had that accountability tool not been there because I didn't want to lie but you guys were started
25:00
digging and he said he almost emotional and he said the truth is I have nobody to talk to about this so we helped him
25:08
we worked through a number of issues and got him involved in some counseling and he text me later in the day he goes now
25:15
I get it now I get it he said I understand the value that's just one tiny example of tens of thousands that I
25:23
could share business the same way people come in there and they profess that they're doing certain things and they're
25:28
business you then we discover shortly thereafter they don't even know how to read a profit and loss statement or a
25:34
balance sheet they really don't even know the nuts and bolts of their business and then we get them help and
25:39
we say hey you need to meet this person they can help you understand this then we can start tracking your business in a
25:44
very positive professional way and so other addictions that people are involved in their situational with
25:51
relationships with children that people deal with a lot of people are wanting to take their business to the next level
25:57
and what got you here is not going to get you to the next level so you need people to surround you to go hey let me
26:03
introduce you to this person that can help you take your business to that level Jim it's just every area of our
26:09
life that The Mastermind can help you on and I'm pretty passionate about it obviously I wouldn't be involved in it
26:15
to the degree that I am I wouldn't have gone to a meeting for an hour and a half
26:20
every Wednesday for 20 years A Dozen Years whatever the case may be if it wasn't valuable because I'm busy I have
26:26
a lot going on but protect that time and it has helped me immensely over the course of my life well I think you're
26:33
speaking I know these are things that you share frequently but but I don't hear you share them frequently and I
26:39
think we're touching a lot of people's hearts right now with what we're saying so thank you for for speaking not just
26:45
business but you can't succeed in business if if you're not healthy in the other areas of your life and surrounding
26:51
yourself with people who can help recognize those areas of need building true relationships you know I've been
26:57
doing this long enough now Aaron that I never dreamed but we're seeing you know marriages happen you know we're seeing
27:04
Partnerships form and people launch incredible businesses together and sure and I feel like if I had to boil all
27:10
down I I only had 30 seconds on stage I had to Ted talk like hey here's what I have to offer it used to be I'm the guy
27:16
that can teach you how to use the internet creatively and here's the ticks tricks and strategies and we're still better at that than anyone in my opinion
27:23
but the true power of the foundation that needs to be under all of that is relationships and we're talking like
27:30
people who truly know you that you con connect with you've given them permission they've earned permission
27:36
right ask you those hard questions right so many of us don't have that so we're talking about Solutions in that area and
27:42
I think some people are going to listen to this podcast episode Aaron and just go out and make it happen and I hope so
27:48
Jim because yeah their life will change right it will change out tell you a quick Story related to that that helped
27:54
me and I don't mind sharing because people that are in our community and in our masterminds they know that I'm very
27:59
transparent and I almost lost my family several decades ago because I was so involved in chasing money you know I was
28:07
very blessed early on to start our first business at 18 I retired at 27 years old I'd sold out to a Fortune 500 company
28:14
and I don't say that boastfully I almost say it the other way the reason being is because I became very arrogant and I was
28:22
cocky and I could be condescending as a result of it because I thought poor kid from Nashville makes a lot of money
28:28
retires at 27 and I thought well I can do it again well some guys started coming around me and sharing a little
28:34
bit saying hey I'd be cautious with this or that so when I got in The Mastermind group U I had this dark time Jim I don't
28:41
know if you've ever experienced a really really dark time in your life but this was a point in my life I'd never been
28:48
and every week I would go to The Mastermind group and I would talk about it and I couldn't get over it I just
28:53
couldn't shake it I just was in this Valley and I I couldn't get over it
28:58
so I was at the Ace Hardware here in Hendersonville Tennessee on a Saturday morning and the phone rang and I looked
29:04
down and it was James R some of you may or may not be familiar with that name he was a promisee keeper speaker traveled
29:11
all over the world speaking and he was in our Mastermind group with Dave Ramsey and best Storyteller I've ever heard in
29:18
my entire life this guy was amazing had been in prison he told the story about being in prison well he called me and I
29:24
looked down at the phone and I knew one of two things this was going to be really good and I'm really excited or
29:30
it's going to be really bad because we didn't bother each other on the weekends so I looked down and I answered it and
29:36
James RI said Hey Big A he said if you got a minute and I said yeah hold on let me go out in the parking lot I'm inside
29:42
I can't hear very good so I went out in the parking lot and I could tell by the tone of his voice something important
29:47
was going on and I said okay James I'm here he said I was reading this morning in the book of Isaiah and God gave me a
29:53
word for you and I said okay what is it he said it's time to take the chains
29:59
from around your neck and move on and I sit there and I didn't know how to take that he said can I be very honest with
30:05
you and I said sure he said you're wearing the hell out of everybody in our
30:10
group and I started laughing just like you did I started well he didn't he just sat there and I said excuse me he said
30:18
do you realize how sick we are of hearing you talk about this same issue week after week month after
30:24
month and I didn't know what to say and I said James I'm sorry I I don't even
30:29
know what to say he said it's time you were moving on my friend I'll see you and he hung up what Jim I wanted to bite
30:37
a nail into two I was so mad that this guy had called me that I'd been with for years he called me and upset me on a
30:43
Saturday so I calmed down the next Wednesday I went in Dave's office and I walked around the corner and I'm a big
30:49
guy Jim you know I'm a big guy I'm 64 away 235 well James ri's about 56 weighs
30:55
about a buck 50 right he's not very big so I walk up to him and he told me later he said I thought you were going to hit
31:00
me and I hugged him and tears were running down my eyes and I said thank
31:06
you for loving me enough to tell me the truth Jim it changed the trajectory of
31:12
my life it got me off of what I was dealing with and I decided to pull myself up by the boots and move on see
31:19
if I hadn't invested all those years he wouldn't have earned the right to tell me the hard things so things may be
31:25
going right for you today but if you can hear my voice you're going to have trials you're going to have times in
31:30
your life where you're going to need those guys to embrace you and edify you and encourage you but if you don't
31:37
invest the time now they're not going to be there when you need them so I just want to tell you whatever it is whatever
31:43
it takes you need to be in a group of people that can speak that kind of Truth into you over the course of your life
31:51
and and not to open up a whole new D this could probably be a whole podcast and we need a female on here to handle
31:56
it properly but I think as guys we tend to fall into bad habits here by default
32:04
ladies got this down they've got their crew sure right I mean most women most
32:09
healthy women that I that I can think of off the top of my head they've got their crew that they can be very blunt with
32:15
very open with they go to the bathroom together right I mean it's like come on they've got this stuff down as guys we
32:21
struggle with it more we have to be more intentional about it our default setting is I'm going to pull up my own
32:27
bootstraps I that phrase because that popped in my head but you wouldn't have pulled yourself up by your bootstraps if he
32:32
hadn't hit you upside the head with a 2x4 first no and he had to earn the right to do that yeah and it's only by
32:39
being in the group for years that he was able to earn the right to say hey dude you got to get on with your life and he
32:46
said I nudged you I said nudged me you pushed me off the dead gum Cliff what do you mean you nudged me but I needed it
32:52
see I needed it and then Jim you know the story of when I ran over and killed a pedestrian
32:58
years ago it's been 19 years ago now but if I hadn't had people around me at that time I still would be under my desk in
33:05
the fetal position not working through that and guys we got to have people
33:11
around personally and professionally to help us work through these situations in our life that's right let's start giving
33:17
people some specifics and I'll go first and I want to hear from you and I want there'll be a link at silent jim.com
33:25
Aron with two A's silent Jim /ar with 2A
33:30
and that is Aaron's training and he's going to tell us a little bit about it here in a couple minutes where if you
33:35
think I would like to start a mastermind maybe you're a leader in some capacity
33:40
uh and you want to start a paid Mastermind or just learn how to have a mastermind Aaron will tell us some of the details here in a minute but we've
33:46
got a special deal set up for you over there you can see a really cool video Dave Ramsey did by the way on that page
33:51
too talking about Aaron and their relationship uh and just I've always been a aaz
33:58
by all the quality people that came out of that this is back before Dave was anybody nobody knew who he was he was passing out free advertising on his
34:05
radio show so I love the history there but it's cool seeing Dave what he's the probably second or third most listened
34:10
to radio talk show host in the world or at least second he's on 800 stations now
34:16
yeah incredible incredible influence it was an honor to have him he endorsed one of my books man I couldn't believe and that's Dan Miller our buddy pulled some
34:22
strings there and uh when I actually finally got a chance to meet Dave I said hey thanks for uh thanks for giving me
34:29
an endorsement and a blurb for the back of my book and he's like now who are you again I'm like like okay okay I know who
34:34
you like it wasn't anything I did it was just again it's the network you know it's the network um you know Dan's been
34:41
my coach right for 20 years I love that guy he's been my mentor he's the reason I'm even in this business today because
34:47
eight years ago I retired I said I'm done and Dan Miller leaned over the table and he goes That's the most selfish thing I've ever heard you say in
34:54
my entire and I thought what are you talking about he said you've been married 30 years you've had a dozen
35:00
businesses you need to teach and train and Coach and he's the reason that I even started this business listen I
35:06
wouldn't have got that and wouldn't be here today if I hadn't been in a mastermind group and you know I I'll
35:12
take it I'll take it uh a few steps further he may have saved your life too because statistics tell us you know
35:18
these guys who retire in their 40s and 50s and think I'm just going to play golf and buy the toys I want to buy
35:23
those guys Die Young yeah yeah you're right I need to give him another hug for saving my life you're right he probably
35:29
did and that's no joke man yeah because statistics tell us that retirement is a is is a scary dangerous place to go the
35:36
minute we stop serving others we become we start feeling useless inside and we wonder why sometimes as a culture that's
35:43
a dangerous goal to have is retirement let me tell you a little bit about this Playbook that has been absolutely a
35:49
blast for us to put together so uh when I started coaching eight years ago I
35:54
only were going to coach two people that's it I was going to coach two Two Men and that was it well I started doing
36:00
podcast interviews and my business just blew up I couldn't handle all the one-on-one people so I thought you know
36:05
I'm going to start a mastermind group because I know how to do this I've been doing this for years and years so I started a mastermind group and filled it
36:12
up instantly and I said well I'll just do one more I do one more and then I kept doing podcast interviews and got on
36:19
Pat Flynn's show smart passive income and I filled up two groups in a 30-minute interview and I went dang I'm
36:25
on to something and so I kept doing interview and kept filling up groups well here we are today with 18 groups
36:30
you know and so I thought I'm going to turn this into a business and I thought well I can't coach all these people and
36:37
Coach all these Mastermind groups and facilitate all of them and so we started training people to lead the uh The
36:43
Mastermind groups facilitate so one day people started paying attention about three four years ago and they started
36:49
calling me saying how are you scaling these Mastermind groups and so I started telling them what I was doing and they
36:55
said would you teach me and I said Ure and then I thought I don't really want to do that you know that's going to take
37:01
a lot of my time so I thoughtwell I'll run them off and so I threw a big number out there and they said where do I send
37:06
the check and I'm like are you serious and I said yeah man you're scaling these things and this is going to be a very profitable Venture for me and so they
37:13
started paying me this crazy money to coach them so one day my coo walked in my office which happens to be my oldest
37:20
daughter she runs our company she said dad why don't we create a Playbook and
37:26
teach other people people how to do this so I started mulling that over and I said I wonder what that would look like
37:32
so we hired a company to come in and help us kind of set it you know set the framework out and started looking
37:38
through it and praying through it and thinking through the value so we got our whole team involved and so it took us
37:44
almost 18 months to completely work through this and I I leave no stone
37:50
unturned in this Playbook and the reason that I do this people say this is kind of crazy you're doing this because what
37:56
you're doing is building competition for yourself and I said well you have the wrong mindset because I have an
38:02
abundance mindset and the more we share and the more we teach the more awareness it brings to iron sharpens iron
38:08
Mastermind group we're having people now join our group because we're teaching people how to do Mastermind groups and I
38:15
said listen I've got a sphere of influence but I can only touch so many people you're a leader and you've got a
38:21
sphere of influence that I'll never come in contact with so let me teach you to start and grow and scale your own master
38:27
mind groups well the beta testers that started doing this started filling up their groups while we were in beta test
38:33
and I started laughing and I said this is going to be so much fun it was a lot of work don't hear me wrong but we
38:39
created 30 videos and 90 worksheets and tools in 11
38:45
different steps and we start you at the beginning asking why do you even want to
38:50
build a mastermind we work through that and then we identify your ideal audience
38:56
and how to focus Fus on Mastermind groups as a whole we go through the programming and creating the right
39:02
content mix that you need uh we teach you how to fill the masterminds a lot of people say it's a great concept but I
39:08
don't know how to fill it it's a lot easier than you think and I teach you the strategy what to do to fill your
39:15
groups we teach you how to organize and then streamline your promotional calendar and you're like I don't even
39:21
know what a promotional calendar is and we walk you through that I teach you the things that we've done the podcast
39:28
interviews I've done over 1500 in the past 60 months and we lay out the framework and we teach you how to become
39:34
a guest on podcast and we show you exactly what you need to do there we do
39:39
a hight touch onboarding process it's a course within this Playbook that teaches
39:45
you how to onboard people properly we give you wh labeled lead magnets that
39:51
you don't even have to create the lead magnet you can put your logo on it and you're set up with a personal assessment
39:57
what do I want steps to a productive day it's the way to attract people and it's
40:02
already done for you we give enough content the book the book questions and
40:08
the theme for you to run your Mastermind group for 30 months every single week we give you
40:16
enough content to lead the group minute by minute we lay it out what to do we teach you how to build a directory we
40:22
teach you how to do all your marketing we do Live Events we do two a year and we teach you in there how to put on your
40:28
own live event we even have in there the the expenses for running the live event
40:35
we we have a proforma calculator that you can put in listen here's what's cool here's what people love two Mastermind
40:42
groups with 10 people is a six-figure business you run that group it cost you
40:49
an hour of your time virtually now there's more time involved obviously I don't want to make this sound like oh
40:54
man I invested that's not the case it takes time to set it up but we developed all the systems and processes that you
41:01
have to do in order to start grow and scale your Mastermind and I've been through a significant portion I'm not
41:08
all the way through it yet because we are shaping out our own Mastermind there's actually several different
41:15
different processes we're launching right now including one where you're hanging out with just the core team and you know my my son and Brett and I and
41:22
you know just my core team we're talking about other we're calling them accelerator groups it's another form of Mastermind with a specific goal so you
41:30
can build relationships with people who these are your fellow podcast listeners who listen every week to this show but
41:36
there's a business opportunity there and I'm learning how to do these things from
41:41
my friend Aaron I'm going through this course it's a fantastic course I know our mutual friend Ray Edwards went
41:47
through it recently and he was saying that it's the he's been through probably hundreds of courses he called it what
41:52
did he say the best course he's ever been through that's what he said that I mean that speaks very highly for the
41:58
time effort and energy and I know you don't do anything at a b-grade level you go for Big A Plus right and you nailed
42:05
it on this I mean the content is phenomenal because I'm a student of internet marketing and Leadership I'm reading four or five books a month but
42:11
when I start going through your content your heart's there and I think that showed today in this episode I think
42:18
people feel like they could walk up to you in an event and know who you are where you've come from you've been
42:23
vulnerable you've put that into this content and the reason I thought that this episode would do well for for this
42:30
audience is because we talk all the time big a I don't know if you've heard me say it or not but I really have no need
42:37
for fans and followers you know it doesn't do anything for me if if I saw a t-shirt one day I'm like hey I love
42:43
silent Sales Machine radio I'm like you know okay but you know I want you to have your own podcast I want you to be
42:49
out there leading I want you to be out there launching your own Community I want you to be in the spotlight on a
42:55
stage that you built that's I want a community of those kinds of people you know it's it's great to look at your
43:00
listener stats and know people care but I want to launch leaders and this is something leaders do you surround
43:07
yourself you you with other people that you can be vulnerable with you start a mastermind you go through excellent
43:13
content like yours big a and and you learn this stuff uh the link again is silent jim.com
43:19
Aron he's got it all the details laid out you can see what's in the what's in the course and this is for people who
43:25
are thinking about starting their own Mastermind mind and then you can be a part of you have a couple Live Events
43:31
you said per year how many people were at your last event just give us an idea how yeah well the live events that we do
43:36
are for our Mastermind members and here's what's really cool it's like we have 150 men and 15 different groups we
43:44
had 125 of them from nine different countries show up so we had a 90% attendance this is our 10th event that
43:51
we've done and every year our percentage of attendance increases it doesn't decrease and it's because they're
43:58
getting value right and Jim you said something that I think is so important and different people are at different
44:04
stages in their business and I get that and we all need to make money and do things for our family and I get that but
44:09
is nothing excites me more than for somebody to be in our organization and I help them be successful a guy recently
44:17
joined our group and he said I've got to tell you there's a caveat in me joining your group and I said okay what is it he
44:23
said the only reason I'm joining is that I want to learn exactly what you're doing he said I want to coach and I want
44:29
to do The Mastermind groups and I just really want to learn what you're doing I said praise the Lord come on I'll teach
44:34
you everything I know and he said are you kidding me I said why would I not why would I not teach you listen he was
44:41
our biggest cheerleader he was the biggest Advocate that we had he could not believe listen guys we've got to
44:47
share our cards we can't hold them close to the vest if you really want to grow have an abundance mindset teach and show
44:55
and share and help help other people be successful and you too will be very
45:01
successful yeah it comes back to you in big ways that's a lesson one of my mentors told me at the point I was bouncing him off I was a little
45:07
frustrated I said I feel like I'm just spending my time and energy training my
45:12
competitors how to go out there and beat me in the marketplace and he said no you're not he said that's a that's a
45:19
that's a scarcity mindset talking right now he said you've got to decide if which is bigger the man or the mission
45:26
and once you're ready commit to the mission is bigger you go out there and you help and you serve and yeah charge
45:32
money for your time and create great resources but if if you end up with creating some competitors along the way
45:37
they're going to give you credit if they're good people and if they're not good people no one's going to want to work with them so they're not GNA last
45:43
long anyway if they're not a good person right they're gonna wither away that's one of the truths of business it took me a while to learn bad guys flame out they
45:50
go away sure you know all I know about you is you've run a successful profitable business for about you know
45:55
several years I know a lot about you yeah I know you've got some good things going on internally right um okay so
46:03
there's a couple different things going on here and we'll put all these links and resources in the show notes today for the listeners um but one thing I
46:10
don't want to miss is if someone's saying hey um Aron I want to get into your Mastermind I want to be a part of
46:15
one of these groups how do they do that yeah the easiest way is to go to view from the
46:21
top.com and fill out an application there here's what I want you to do though I want you to do your on doal
46:26
diligence I want you to really research don't take it just at face value of me saying I want you to get online and
46:33
really Google Aon Walker listen to a lot of my interviews call the people that have been involved in our groups we'll
46:40
give you references if you're a person of faith I want you to pray about it think about it talk to your wife or husband whoever it is because it's a
46:47
long-term commitment that we're wanting you to do to get the long-term results we're not looking for people to get in
46:52
stay a month or two get what they can and leave that's not who I'm looking for we've had people in the same group gym
46:58
now for five and six years we've had the same guys meeting in our groups and people say wow that's a long time well
47:04
why would you leave when your businesses are growing exponentially you're growing personally exponentially your
47:10
relationships are better why would you want to leave because these are the people we've had people now going in business together two guys that joined a
47:17
year ago didn't even know each other and they just bought a $3 million piece of property together they're starting
47:22
businesses everywhere it's amazing at the community we' built so women we have that for women also iron
47:30
sharpens iron for women and we have it for men also we're just launching
47:36
emerging man 20 to 25 year old men listen do you only know what my life
47:42
could be today if I'd been in a mastermind group when I was 20 years old I can only imagine and so we're starting
47:47
a group for emerging men also so men women or emerging men we can help I love
47:54
it and view from the top a fantastic book you have a copy handy you can show people view.com I don't know if you got
48:00
a copy I I don't have one within Arms Reach you sent me a nice signed copy there it is fantastic book guys if you
48:07
want to get into this guy's head a little more and hear from his heart great book pick up a copy um but I think
48:14
we give gave people some really good content today we challenged them and and there's some leaders listening who are thinking yeah I need to start a
48:20
mastermind or maybe thinking I need to be a part of one we gave you some great resources and and know this as well
48:25
since we're on the topic of M masterminds we've got some cool Mastermind things launched in this community come to The Proven conference
48:32
th proven conference.com has all the details in July and uh eron if you can make it down buddy I know you've been to
48:37
one of our events before i' love to have you down again everybody I appreciate that it's on me buddy take just come on
48:43
down bring whoever you want to bring and you'll be a guest thank you I'll certainly try to make that we'll talk more about it offline I'd love to come
48:50
that be beautiful but we'll be making some big announcements between now and that July event on the masterminds for
48:56
our community as well so lots of ways for you stop being a lone wolf if we had
49:01
to sum this episode up into a 15sec sound bite it'd be stop being a lone wolf if you're trying to do life alone
49:08
you're gonna flame out you're going to crash and burn you can't do it that way you need a group of people that can ask you those hard questions and that takes
49:15
time to earn the right to ask those hard questions you need to be part of a group
49:20
like that and Aaron and I are kind of here to push you in that direction if you don't have it yet hey buddy any
49:25
closing comments or final thoughts before we land This Plane you know the thing is is develop a mindset of can do
49:31
not can't my mom said when I was a child can't couldn't do it and could did it all and stop being so afraid fear
49:38
missing an opportunity more than you fear failure and you will be successful and significant in your life as well Jim
49:45
I enjoyed hanging out with you buddy you're a Val valued friend and partner and brother in in Christ and uh man I
49:51
just I sure appreciate you my friend and to all the listeners who hung out with us a little bit today thanks for hanging
49:56
out while Aon and I had a good old time just getting caught up and sharing some stories I hope you enjoyed it as much as
50:01
we did I'm sure you did good good content today you know we'll have another good episode for you real soon
50:07
so God bless all the business building Warriors out there making it happen every day we're in your corner we're
50:12
here for you we're here with you hey if if you don't have an online group yet where you can kind of hang out our Facebook group there'll be a link in the
50:18
show notes there's 55,000 plus people in there every day encouraging each other now it's not a replacement for a
50:24
mastermind group as we learned today but it's a great step in the right direction to start to surround yourself with
50:30
people who are thinking and doing life the right way all right God bless you guys have another episode real soon
50:35
thanks Big A
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