Navigating Life’s Journey Through Faith and Mentorship

Well, here's the thing, Mick. We're all leaving a legacy. It's just. What is it? We can either do it intentional or we can do it unintentional, but we're all leaving a legacy. I want mine to be. I helped people over and above a level of success.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Mick Unplugged. And today we have a powerhouse of wisdom, a mentor to the elite, and a man who's turned success into significance. From building million dollar businesses to transforming lives through his Iron sharpens, Irons Mastermind. My friend is back for round two like we promised, ready to challenge, inspire, and push us to greater heights. Everybody give a warm round of applause to the legendary, the visionary, the unstoppable, Mr. Big A himself, Aaron Walker. Aaron, how are you doing today?

Come on, Mick. I don't know if I can align myself with such an introduction, but hopefully your team won't be too disappointed nor your audience. So, man, good to see you today.

Definitely not disappointed because the people wanted you back. We promised that we would have you back because, you know, there's so much that we talked about in the first episode that just felt like we could take people places, man. And again, you know that you are one of my mentors that I look up to, and I kind of wanted to start there. The power of mentorship, man. Like, what has mentorship meant to you? You know, the Iron sharpens, Iron Mastermind is all about that. Like, let's. Let's go deeper into mentorship for the.

People, you know, I've had two really strong mentors in my life, David Landreth and Bob Warren. I didn't really understand what mentorship was about until I. I was around 39, 40 years old. It was a new concept to me because I was kind of the lone wolf, you know, it was like, hey, I got it figured out. I can do this. I'm my own man. I don't need other people in my life. I want to create my own trail. And I found out that trail led to a dead stop. And I was like, man, I was at the juncture of making a terrible decision or a worse decision. And I really needed God to intervene in my life and to expose me to something that was going to put me on a different trajectory. And he introduced me to a guy named Bob Warren, lived in Hardin, Kentucky. Bob mentored me for about 20 years after that on a weekly basis, and it changed my life. David Landreth was another one that did that spiritually for me and helped Me understand what being a real man was all about. And so it's not about being the lone wolf. It's about getting inspiration, encouragement, getting unbiased, trusted advisors in your life that can breathe into you, that can help take you on a path that you haven't been before, help you navigate those landmines that are out there that none of us want to step on. And these two guys really enabled me to do that. So I get the distinct privilege now of being others people's mentor, their coach, facilitator in iron sharpens iron. We're the founder of that mastermind, and we get to help people all over the world do that today.

Amazing. And you know, like I told you last time, how much of a inspiration you are to me. And, and I didn't, I didn't get to elaborate and I wanted to take some time here to elaborate on, on kind of why. Aaron, one of the things that I've loved about you from afar, and I'm trying not to get emotional now as we do this, but is as a man, how open you are about your faith and how humble you are about how you can't do things alone. Right? And that resonates so deeply with me because a lot of times as men, right, We. We put on our armor and then sometimes we, we forget to take it off. And by take it off meaning. Yep, we're men, right? And. And a lot of us are the definition of a man's man. But what I love about you, Aaron, is you also talk about faith a lot. All the time. You talk about how you've needed your faith in certain moments. And I know that with others, that you coach and mentor, you tell people one, don't be ashamed of your faith, right? And it's okay to need others. And I just wanted to tell you personally, man, when I tell you that I've looked up to you, that's the.

Reason why I appreciate that. I'm humbled that you would say that. Bob Warren used to teach me. Don't put your confidence and faith in me. Look to the source that gives me that power, and that's the Lord, and I'll let you down. I'm a man. I'm going to disappoint you. I'm a man. I'm going to make mistakes. I'm a man. But with God's instruction, God's help, our dependency on Christ, hopefully we can overlook some of those travesties within our life and our flaws and our shortcomings and maybe do this journey together. So thank you for sharing that with me.

No, absolutely, absolutely. And you know, one of the messages that you teach, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask the question to, to set up the message, right? You know, the world is so obsessed with quick wins, right? But there's a, I don't want to call it a game, but, but there's a long, sometimes a long waiting period because you know the saying, right? God may not come when you want him, but he's always right on time. And so I know that again for the, the listener, the viewer, that's, I want to win now. I need, I need this answer now. What's the message you want to give them about patience and waiting and planning?

You know, Mick, none of us want to wait. We're all impatient and we don't want to wait for the delayed gratification. We want instantaneous. And we live in a world today that delivers. If they take longer than 15 seconds to bring our hamburger to the window at McDonald's, we're like, where have y' all been? Are you on break? What's going on? And we can flip channels. And I've got a 22 year old granddaughter and she made a really profound comment recently. We were talking and they called me big A as well. And she said, big A, you can't impress my generation. And that really was profound. And I said, well, Abby, elaborate on that. She said, well, everything is at our fingertips now. We can see any and everything we want online. We can experience anything we want virtually. And so therefore nothing impresses us currently with my generation, and I think it's the same way we're used to getting things instantaneously regardless of what it is because of this fast paced society that we live in. Well, our time and God's time don't necessarily coincide. The thing that we've got to learn is to have our ultimate confidence and trust in his plan. Now, that doesn't align most of the time with how expedient. I want an answer. But I've got to learn that it's not just the destination, but it's the journey and it's the process that we go through with Christ in getting to the answer, getting to the outcome. Oftentimes, I have found over the course of my 46 year entrepreneurial journey, if I had gotten what I asked for, it could have been detrimental and I wasn't ready oftentimes for the answer or the outcome. In many things in my life over the course of my career, I'm grateful for the time that it took in order for me to get it. Because my appreciation level is far greater. The way I take care of things are far greater. My endurance abilities are far greater. My resilience is far greater as a result of it. And I've faced some turbulent wins over the course of my career. And if I didn't have that stability, that endurance, that grit, that determination, I wouldn't be able to combat those wins. When I say wins, W I n d s wins, the winds that come. And so I think that if we relax, we'll enjoy the journey far greater than being impatient, waiting and demanding an answer immediately. And anything worth having is worth working for. And anything really good has taken an extended period of time in order to achieve or accomplish. And so I would just simply say, put your trust and confidence in the time and learn the lesson so you don't have to repeat the class.

You say these things so great, man. Like, just very relatable. You know, just all the things that sometimes I want people to just understand. And I was actually telling my son last week about you. And so he listened to our last episode and he said, dad, I love the way that Aaron Walker communicates because I feel like he's talking to me. He's not talking above me, he's not talking down on me. He is literally talking to me. And my son, who now is coaching high school football, just said, I'm going to take those lessons and that's how I'm going to communicate with my football players. And so again, the lessons that we all learn from, from Big A man, like, I don't sometimes, I know how humble you are, but you don't realize how far reaching you have and the impact that you're having on just about everybody, brother.

Wow, that's very humbling.

Yes, sir.

Thank you for sharing that and show my appreciation to your son for his kind comments. Thank you.

I totally will do that. You know, another thing that I know is important to you is legacy. And for me, it's been a part of the reason why I do what I do. Right. Like from the age of 10, I realized I need to change the life of my mother, my brother, my sister. Right? That was legacy. As I got older and had kids, it was okay. It definitely isn't about me. It's about providing for them and giving them the standards that they have or that they should have that they can then pass on to other people and those in my circle. It's about the legacy, the promises that I keep for them. What does legacy mean for Big?

Amen well, here's the thing, Mick. We're all leaving a legacy. It's just, what is it? We can either do it intentional or we can do it unintentional, but we're all leaving a legacy. I want mine to be. I helped people over and above a level of success. I want to instill significance in the lives of others as well. I want people to say, my life was better as a result of having known him. I felt a sense of encouragement in his presence. It's not that I had a certain amount of money or tangible possessions. It was that my presence made a difference in their life. Because the only thing people remember is how you make them feel. That's it. They don't care about your possessions. They don't care anything about anything other than how you've made them feel important, unimportant, overlooked, heard, unheard. Your legacy is something that's going to carry on when you're gone, right? And so I can make an impact while I'm here, but the systems, the processes, the people I touch will give a ripple effect to generations. And we've all got to ask ourselves, what are we doing that my influence is going to have impact to the second or third generation, far removed. And so I think that's where we've got to start looking at legacy. To don't hear me wrong, I enjoy making money. I can't stand it when people with money go, money's not important. I want to go, well, that's not true. Money is very important, right? We needed to live the life that God has allowed us to live. We have expenses, we like to eat, we like to take trips, buy nice cars. There's nothing wrong with that. But the thing is, is you've got to keep it in perspective in that you use money as a tool because that's what it is. And most of the time, though money owns people. They don't own the money. And so money is just a resource that God has given us. Some of it is permissible to enjoy. Other parts of it is to give our tithe to the church. Other parts of it are to change the lives of others or encourage them or help them. Part of it is for investment, for the future. So we're stewards over the resources that God has given us. And God says, much is given to those that can manage it on a small scale and little is given to those that can't manage it or squander it, you know, in the onset. And so legacy encapsulates every area of our life. Whether it's in our stewardship and resources, through our relationships. So I think we need to really pay attention to what the legacy is going to be after you're gone. When they lay you parallel and they put you six feet under, what are the people going to say? I remember when my dad passed away in 2006. I stood at this casket for six and a half hours. It was an hour and a half wait to get through the line. My dad was a man of little means. He never made over $15,000 a year in his life. But the day we buried him, there was standing room only. They had to open up other rooms inside of the funeral home. Because my dad made an impact on the lives of people. He helped them, he cared for them, he heard them, he encouraged them. It wasn't about his boat. It wasn't about his house. Not a person mentioned a tangible possession through that line. All they said was, let me tell you what your dad did for me in my life. Every single person for six and a half hours. See, I want people to be able to say that about me. I want them to say, hey, because of big A, my life is different in this way. And that's the legacy that I hope to leave.

Amen to that, man. Amen to that. You know, last time, you know, we talked a little about the Mastermind, and I'd love to, to highlight the Mastermind a little bit here. So for those that haven't joined yet, and if you haven't, I don't know why you haven't. But for those that haven't joined the Mastermind yet, give us a peek into what that's like. So what are some of the conversations, what are the meetings about? Like, take us inside the Mastermind. The iron sharpens. Iron Mastermind.

Yeah. Thank you for giving me that opportunity. Masterminds also, 25 years ago, was a new concept for me. I didn't know what it was. I'd never heard of it. A guy here in Nashville introduced me to it, and it's changed the trajectory of my life. For this reason, we weren't designed to be in isolation. We were designed to be in community. We don't know everything. We haven't lived all the life experiences. And the most valuable asset of being in a Mastermind is other person's perspective. Because when I present something to you, you can give me a different angle, a different perspective, a different insight. You can give me a different level of encouragement. You can tell me life experiences, and I don't have to experience it myself. I Say, I'd rather learn on your dime than mine. And oftentimes you can help me navigate those landmines that I don't have to experience in order to be successful. So inside the Mastermind weekly on the calls, they're virtual. You can be anywhere in the world, and we have people all over the world that participate. You're able to come and say, I'm thinking about doing this business opportunity, or I'm having this trial in my marriage, or my children are misbehaving, or we're looking at private school over public school, or we're looking at homeschooling, or I've got a son that's wayward or a daughter that's promiscuous, or I'm wanting to scale my business, whatever fact facet it is that you're currently dealing. And you can get unbiased perspective from nine other people because there's 10 people in a group. I gain wisdom through prayer, first of all through solitude and hearing from the Lord, and then through the counsel of the multitudes. When you have other successful people join together and collectively, they say, I think as a group, we would suggest you go this way. The success statistics are far over and above your single mindset of how you should do things. And so it just allows you to move a lot faster. It gives you courage, it gives you other people that can hold your arms up when you're tired. It can give you resources, it can give you networking. There's people that can come along you and hold you accountable for the things that you want to accomplish. There's so many networking opportunities and introductions within our community that just expedites your success because you don't have to learn the experiences on your own. So you can go faster alone, but you can't go near as far because there's other perspectives. And so that's just a little glimmer, a little insight. The live events are amazing. We get together twice a year that you can break bread, pray, do breakout sessions, TED talks. I mean, it goes on and on. So it just really expediates the things that you're wanting to accomplish in a meaningful way with trusted advisors.

That's amazing. So the live events, where are they going to be in 2025?

Yeah, in April of 2025. If it's after that, you're listening to it. We're going to have another one in October. It's going to be here in Nashville at the Sonesta Hotel. We've already got a pretty extensive lineup. A lot of people have signed up. I think we've got 80 plus people that are going to be attending that. And then in October, we'll have another one.

All right. That's amazing. And again, where can people get access to the Mastermind?

Yeah, the easiest thing to do is to go to ISI brotherhood.com that stands for iron sharpens iron brotherhood dot com.

That's amazing. That's amazing. So big. A couple of questions before I get you out of here. Again, thank you for blessing us. If you had to read two books over the next year, or maybe that's a long time, two books over the next six months, what would those two books be?

Well, first and foremost is the one that I always promote, and that's God's word, the Bible. So I would keep that at the top of the list, how to win friends and influence people. It should be required reading for anyone and everyone to learn how to treat other people. There are so many books. I'll tell you what, I'll even go better than answering your question if your audience will reach out to me at Aaron Aaron. Viewfromthetop.com I've got a reading list that I've kept over the years and I'll give you an entire reading list. How's that, Mick? Will that work?

I love it and I knew you had one. So you set me up for success. That's why I asked.

Yeah, just reach out to me. I'd love to give you that list. And it's books that we read with Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller and the Eagles and then it's a list of books that we've read over the past 10 years in the ISI mastermind. It is a treasure trove of books that will put you on the right path. So reach out. Aaronviewfromthetop.com Love it.

And final question for you here for the listener reviewer that's looking for someone that they should follow or someone's that they should follow.

Right.

Whether it's inspiration, motivation, mindset, leadership. Who are a couple of people not named Aaron Walker that you would suggest people reach out to or look up or follow.

Yeah, there's so many out there that are amazing people. Scott Beebe owns a company called My business on Purpose. You can find him@mybusinessonpurpose.com. he is an amazing guy that can help you with systems and processes and core values and mission statements and values. An amazing, amazing guy. I would certainly reach out and follow him. Again, same thing. We have a list of people that we can give you that would probably be good within our mastermind and just ask for that list as well and we'll be happy to give it to you.

See how I'm setting that up?

I. I promise you throwing me softballs.

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

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

My man, big A Aaron Walker. Brother, I again, I appreciate you so much. I, I definitely wanted this, this follow up episode just so I could tell you the things that I was telling you personally because a lot of times people don't realize the impact that they make.

Right.

And I want you to really know that brother, like the impact that you make goes beyond the things that you see or hear on a daily basis. So from me to you, I genuinely wanted to look you in the eye and just tell you thank you.

You're a good man. You're a good man. Thank you Mick. I sure appreciate Buddy, I enjoy being here today. Thank you. It was an honor.

You got it. And for all the viewers and listeners, remember your because is your superpower. Go unleash it.