I wish somebody had explained to me that the

definition of success changes.

And see, I didn't know that I thought it just meant make a bunch of money

and then you had plenty of money.

You could go do whatever you wanted at any time.

And I will say that success has really been redefined for me.

A number of times over the years.

How can you design a life that not only achieve success, but also

radiate significance in every aspect, business, personal, and spiritual today

on seek, go create the leadership journey.

We welcome Aaron Walker, a veteran entrepreneur who has spent over 45

years mastering the art of meaningful.

Success.

Aaron, the founder and CEO of view from the top has facilitated

transformative growth through his iron sharpens iron mastermind

groups, and has been instrumental in guiding men to lead purposeful lives.

Aaron brings a wealth of experience in cultivating integrity, perseverance,

and strategic leadership.

Aaron.

Welcome to seek, go create.

Thanks for having me on today.

I really appreciate it.

Glad you're here too.

I'm going to ask you, I think I told you this is going to be my

wimpiest, most, superficial question.

I'm going to ask it first.

And that is when someone is sort of an icebreaker, when someone asks you

what you do, what do you typically tell

people?

I help ordinary men become extraordinary in every area of their life.

no job

title.

No, I own this.

man.

No, it's not about a title.

It's about what we do, right?

the truth of the matter is after 45 years of entrepreneurial experience, 45 years of

marriage, we feel like that we can add a few nuggets of wisdom to each man's life.

And so we just help ordinary men become extraordinary.

In every area of their life.

All right, so that's going to open a lot of doors for

us to have conversation I think the first thing i'd like to do is I know

we have female listeners also i'm gonna ask you a question It's kind

of interesting is that if a female a wife or anyone a business leader,

whatever female has gotten this far.

Why should they hang around for the next 15

minutes plus?

is, yeah, we coach men.

We have masterminds for men and I coach me in one on one, but the women have become

our biggest advocate because they say a man that is involved in our community

is far more apt at helping around the house, being a good husband, being a good

dad, Being able to establish boundaries and understands what accountability is.

And we have women that often tell their husband, there's no way you're

getting out of this organization.

You get your butt in there because I like the ISI version of Tim way

better than I liked the non version.

And so, yeah, I would suggest highly that all the women continue to listen.

I think the thing that I'm getting to a place, I'm 60 now,

Yeah.

So we got some good, we got some maturity here on the line.

So young folks, y'all stick around too.

But, I'm, I'm finding that it seems as if everything in the world wants

to, Things to be binary, black, white, you know, absolute, et cetera.

And I'm finding, you know, going back to just like the women and men that there's

a lot more integration that needs to be discussed and had, we need strong

men.

We need strong women.

We need strong

children.

We need all of that.

and it kind of stops and starts with the individual that looks in the mirror

and it sounds like y'all take men on.

quite

the journey I want to talk about your journey briefly because I

think it's really, significant.

I'll use that word significant.

I think a few times today, but the, the first thing I want to ask about

is I read your book view from the top.

Living a life of significance.

We're going to discuss some of that, Aaron, but, I want to

kind of hit you with something.

I hope this is not like digging at you a little bit, but I lost

count of how many times you

retired when I was reading the

book

Yeah,

27 and then maybe it.

3940 or something like that.

So talk to me about retirement.

You're 64.

I'm 16.

A lot of people would say you and I should be retired now.

What is retirement and why do you either keep doing it or walk away from it or

whatever, whatever you want to talk about

retirement, talk to us.

My wife said that I've retired more than the law allows, but,

started working for myself when I was 18 years old, God really provided a

means and an Avenue, which I did retire when I was 27, I sold a company to a

fortune 500, that lasted about 18 months.

I woke up and all my buddies were building their careers and working.

And I was playing golf with guys, 70, 75 years old.

as much as everyone listened to this would say like, man, that would be amazing.

And it is for a period of time, but the truth is we've got to do something

purposeful and meaningful in our life.

You can only play so much golf.

You can only fish so much.

And, you know, I'm not one to watch reruns of Andy Griffith.

And so I'm like, Hey, I've got to do something that's more meaningful.

And I did, I went back, bought the company I started with when I was a

teenager and we grew it exponentially greater than it was prior to that.

I retired for the second time at 40.

It wasn't really as much out of desire as it was necessity.

I had run over and killed a pedestrian on my way to the office.

And it really, Put me back on my heels and took five years off,

kind of worked through that.

Got my legs back under me.

we went in partners with a guy with a construction company.

And then when I turned 50, 14 years ago, I retired for the third and final

time and then started coaching some guys on the side, just enjoying it.

Started doing some podcast interviews and, so many people reached out and

wanted me to coach them individually.

I couldn't coach that many people individually.

So I started iron sharpens, iron mastermind.

And here we are today, 15 mastermind groups.

We're in five countries around the world and we're helping men really

understand how to grow personally, professionally, and spiritually.

I chose to do three times and it didn't work out well because I

wanted to be meaningful and, I wanted to have a mission statement.

And so, yeah, I find myself back, really doing something a little

differently than I've done in the past.

but it's much more gratifying than anything I've ever done.

I know you're a man of faith and I've joked with people before on this.

So I'll ask it this way is retire

in the Bible.

No, no, it's not mentioned in the Bible at all.

Maybe that's the reason that.

We're trying to fill that void with something else that's

not intended to be there.

So I think what I've learned to do is transform some of the skills

that I've got and put them in a different, venue and be able to share,

help people more now, personally, professionally, and spiritually.

we've owned a number of companies.

And so there was different widgets or services that we provided.

And now it's information.

It's encouragement is challenging.

It's helping guys accomplish their goals and dreams.

So the thing, yeah, I love the read again.

I read the book here over the last two days and it's got some

great story with your background.

Also some great principles that I think men need to pick it up But one of the

things I kept reading, and this is just whatever, a flaw or the way my mind works,

I kept reading as if maybe there was.

I don't want to say more to the story because you covered quite

a bit, But I always wonder when people are hard chargers That we

go go go we're success oriented.

A lot of that success is revolves around money We'll talk more about money

later because I think it's a factor But then I almost wondered if at times

you were burned out it was almost like you just got fatigued a few times.

One of it obviously was a traumatic situation that occurred.

I mean, do you think that's part of it that you went so

hard that you

just almost had to

stop?

let's break that down a little bit because that's true.

You're very intuitive to be able to read in between the lines, but I

discovered through the process of owning a number of businesses, this is our 14th

business that we've owned in 45 years.

And what I learned through that process is I'm a creator developer.

I'm not a maintainer manager and I get bored with things.

And even when they're going smooth, sometimes I'll break them and put them

back together because there's not a challenge in maintaining and managing.

And for me being the creator developer, I've always got to have

some new challenge ahead of me.

So we tease about this a lot internally, but I'm kind of a 10 year guy.

Once something reaches about 10 years, I broke it, tore it

up, fixed it about all I can.

And so we historically sell it, and go to the next thing.

And so I think that's different for every person, but what I've

learned over the course of my career is, is that I didn't put enough.

Boundaries in my life because I'm a red liner, like I'm all

in, there's no thermostat for me.

There's no dimmer switch.

It's either I'm all in, I'm going to go for broke or I'm not going

to be involved in it at all.

And you can only keep that up so long.

I don't care who you are.

You can only red line so long.

What I needed early in my career, the first two decades was I

needed more accountability.

I needed more trusted advisors.

I needed people that had context to where I was at.

I really lived my life in isolation.

I wouldn't let you know that I was struggling in areas.

I had challenges in areas and I would work really, really hard.

What we're about to talk about could be a whole episode within itself,

but what I discovered in that, that I was trying to prove myself worthy.

And what I mean by that is I had a dad that was a great dad.

I love my dad.

He was my best friend, best man at my wedding.

but my dad never told me that I remember I love you and I'm proud of you.

And so I was working really hard as a young man to get

that affirmation from my dad.

And I never got it.

And so I was looking from that for, from others from the outside world.

It's like, Hey, I want people to recognize that I came from a very humble

beginning and I made something of myself.

I was very desirous of some other male in my life to tell me, Hey, great job.

You've worked hard.

I'm proud of you.

And a lot of men don't want to admit that they need that.

And it's father wounds that we have in our life.

And it was only until about 20 years ago that I understood

that I went to a counselor.

His name's Floyd Dawson lives here in Nashville, Tennessee, where I live in

Floyd walked with me for a period of time.

And he let me understand that void in my life.

And he said, you're trying to stuff it with something else.

You're trying to feel that desire that you need your dad to tell you, I love you.

And I'm proud of you.

Any of you dads out there listening today, I want to encourage you, even

if it feels unnatural, go to your son, go to your daughter, lay across the bed

with them and say, Hey, I just want you to know how proud I am of you, all of

your effort, how hard you've worked.

I just want you to know I've noticed it.

and you'll really eliminate some of that.

Children's lives that I've had to work through and had to go through.

And so I think a lot of it, probably the first 20 years of my career, it was

in search of that, and then the second half of my career, these past 25 years,

it's been much more strategic in nature.

It's been very intentional.

And today, I think that we all need to have kind of a mission statement.

There's gotta be a reason outside of just finances, but don't hear me wrong.

I hate it.

When people with money go out, money's not important.

I'm willing to be like, it's very important, right?

It's a very much needed tool in our life, but if we're only

doing it to grow our revenue, there's always going to be a void.

And that's the reason I wrote the book talking about having a level of

success and significance in our lives.

the thing that is interesting with this theme that you just went on

with That comment, you just made brought up a recent interview we had with the

gentleman by the name of Alan Morris, extremely successful businessman,

architect, beautiful building.

oddly enough, the book he wrote was called All In.

You use those words also.

And one of the things he discussed was he was attempting to prove

himself and had father wounds and.

Things like that also.

It's real.

So this is, you know, this is not like something that's uncommon.

I think it is something that we don't discuss enough and which is also one

of the reasons we'll talk about as we kind of finish up the reason why it's

important for men to have relationship in situations like masterminds

or groups or something like that.

there's also something that bugs me a little bit that I'm

going to ask you about here.

And it's why this is not brought up in

church world.

And

I tell people this, I was actually saved in a business setting.

So I'm a little bit different.

I don't usually go to church for some of my spiritual.

I was always in, I'm kind of always been like

marketplace guy.

Mm

you know, if you business owner successful 27 years old or

myself or someone listening in, if you walk in and go to most churches

and you're successful in business, and you bring up a few of the issues that

business owners may have.

Usually you get

stared at, like, whatever, whatever we can do.

Can you talk a little bit about it?

Cause I know you've got a

deep faith and you've also had this situation.

Why is that?

Or, or what's going on?

And I know we have some answers because you've got masterminds,

but a lot of people will say, well, I'm just going to go hang out

in my small group at church.

That just doesn't seem to

work well.

Yeah.

Tim, you may have opened up a bag you didn't want to, and you may go back and

scratch this part of the interview, but I'm going to be very candid and honest

with you in regards to your question, because it's something that I deal with.

First of all, let me say, I've been a believer since I was nine years old.

I've really given my heart, my life to Christ, and I've tried

to live that way, not perfectly.

I've had a lot of trials and tribulations in my life, and

I've had a number of setbacks.

But overall, the arching theme of my life is living for Christ.

My mom was an avid believer and took us to church.

And so I've been very involved in church.

I was chairman of the deacons at 25 years old, youngest chairman

of deacons we had in our church.

I've served in the church that I go at now over 30 years.

I've been at the highest level of leadership that you

can get in at the church.

I'm also a very staunch proponent of men being vulnerable and transparent.

And our churches have not presented an environment that's conducive to that.

Our church is built with flawed people, including myself, and we don't allow

people to be vulnerable and transparent.

We don't invite the questions and we haven't presented an

environment that people feel safe.

There's a lot of judgment and condemnation overall in most churches.

And I say that with the utmost of respect.

I love my church.

I'll always attend.

I love the people that are there, but I have these discussions regularly with

my pastor and I'm like, why aren't we calling men up and calling them out?

Why are we not calling them to a higher level?

Why are we not presenting places that is confidential in nature?

Where people could go without the condemnation, without the judgment, and

that we could walk alongside people.

Historically in churches, you get caught in some kind of transgression.

You're set aside, you're benched for a period of time.

And I'm like, Hey, Listen, we need to walk with those people.

We need to restore them.

We need to bring them back in fellowship.

We don't need to throw them away.

And a lot of people have seen that demonstrated over the years.

And so we've become calloused with being able to share things in the

manner by which I'm telling you in iron sharpens iron mastermind.

I've built an environment that is conducive to that level of authenticity.

And people tell me often, this is more of church than church.

Like we do things here that restores us back to the fellowship that gets us

off of pornography and we don't drink too much and we don't use substance

abuse and we're not involved with the secretary and we're not doing the

things that are in disalignment with the way Christ has designed our lives

to live because we call people out.

There's accountability.

There's questionnaires that we fill out.

And people get a sense of freedom once they've been in for a period of time.

And they're able to give context to where they're at in life

because we all have blind spots.

We all have kryptonite.

We all have superpowers, but the place at church is not designed

to unveil every area of our life.

We just go and we say, Hey, I'm doing good.

Everything's good.

And their world is really crumbling around them.

And I think it's because we're not asking the direct questions.

I don't know if there's a certain immaturity about

conversations, but being a business guy, since I was college aged, I

always wanted to discuss deeper things.

And it appears as if in many church settings, and I was around a hardcore

prosperity gospel for a little while where they talked about it.

They just didn't talk about it.

Right.

You know?

And, but Aaron, there was something that this one, I want to have a money

talk for just briefly, because I think money is a piece of why it's

not discussed within church world.

They won't.

They won't.

This sounds a little cynical, but I think they want the money, but they don't want

to discuss some of the ins and outs of it.

I was fascinated when I was reading your story that most of the early

years of your life, you were around a business, the pawn business that is

fascinating to me, but I don't think most people understand what it is.

There's, there's money that's flowing in a lot of different ways there.

And if you want to give someone that may not know how that business

works, just a brief, and the reason I'm bringing up, we had a friend

growing up that, I won't mention his name, but he was in that business.

He was friends with my parents.

I just remember he always was a little bit different about,

I'd never heard him poor mouth.

If you know what I mean, and this was not really a spiritual group, my parents,

friends and all, but he never would poor mouth and talk about, you know, we don't

have this, can't do this, whatever.

I remember we built a house and paid cash for it along the way.

He might've been doing some other stuff we don't want to talk

about, but anyway, he was, he was, and still is in that business.

What I want to ask is what I kept looking at when I was reading the book is how did,

I think that you started at the age of 13.

How did being in a business where people come in They may

have challenges with money.

They will pawn their belongings.

They get a short term loan.

They come back and also there's things being sold.

You could correct me if I'm wrong.

If that's the business model, how did that impact your money belief system?

Because I think that has a big impact.

Big deal to do with how people think about money when you're around it.

Like you were, if I'm wrong, you could say now, but

any thoughts on that

Let me

answer your first question.

Those that don't know pawn shops are simply a place that you pledge

merchandise for a short term loan.

You pick it up, and you pay a service fee on top of what you borrowed.

Okay.

That's a simplistic explanation of what a pawn shop is.

And it's serves a purpose because the vast majority of those

people can't go to the bank.

The bank doesn't want to loan a hundred dollars or a

thousand dollars or even 5, 000.

You know, the bank wants to loan.

Larger sums of money.

So it does provide a very good service for a lot of people.

Now, let me say this historically here in Nashville, I was the only

Christian in the palm business.

They're historically Jewish owned.

And there was 17 families that were of Jewish origin that owned

the pawn shops here in Nashville.

Herb Berry was the guy I started working for when I was 13 years old.

He was 23 years old.

I fell in love with the business when I was 18, I got two partners, went

out on my own and I was completely ostracized by the whole Jewish community.

They said, you're going to ruin this business.

You don't know anything about this business.

One of the greatest successes of my career was when I was 25 years old, they

made me president of their organization.

And so I went on to become the president of the Palm Brokers

Association in the state of Tennessee.

it was a very, honored position to have at that time with all the

Jewish owned folks that owned the companies and I was the only Christian.

I will go on to say that my past.

Partner in that business later accepted Christ and he raised

his family in a Christian environment, which was really cool.

But it did give me a different perspective on money.

And there was a lot of pawn shops that had sleazy operators.

They operate under the table.

There was nothing like that for us.

We have very large, we had 10, 000 square foot stores.

We sold more diamond and gold jewelry than most stores in middle Tennessee.

That's the reason that a company out of Fort Worth, Texas, it's a

fortune 500, one at our stores.

And so they came and bought me out when I was 27.

So we had a very legitimately run business and I was used, as an example,

how to run those business correctly.

And so it was very good for me.

I went back later, bought the pawn shop that I started with when I was a kid.

And we quadrupled that business over a 10 year period, with my direction

and leadership along with my partner.

And so that was a very good run for me, you know, over two decades in

that business and really enjoyed it.

But it did give me a real good perception of how to manage money.

And we dealt with a lot of cash.

You had to be honest or you could really be taken down a path that dealing with

diamonds and gold and guns and jewelry and things like that, you know, it would have

been very easy to make some bad decisions.

And because of my faith, because of my willingness to be credible and

honorable, it kept me kind of on the straight and narrow, not always.

I even tell in the book a little bit of story about where there

was a period in time I was taking 600 a week just to spending money.

And the Lord really convicted me of that.

And I went back and told my partner, never going to do this again.

he made the same decision and I can show you on a graph.

Where our business took off.

It was unbelievable.

It's no question about God was honoring that decision that we made.

met a guy here in Nashville, became a sponsor for his radio show, and it

really poured gasoline on our efforts and really grew our businesses.

And so, yes, that's a long way to answer your question by being around that

kind of finances on a regular basis.

It gave me a new respect for finances.

Well, I guess the, maybe I'm going to ask a followup to that

because I'm guessing you dealt with a lot

of people

Oh yeah, we

that were in various aspects of financial situations.

follow your question better now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's like what did that do for, because I know, listen, you talk about delayed

gratification, which is important.

I guess I'm looking what are your views about material

possessions and

listen, 'cause we're, wired

for money,

but yet it seems like you were in an environment that also maybe made

it healthy, maybe caused issues.

I don't know.

So anyway, let me follow up

and give me a little bit more on that.

Well, it gave me a whole new respect for how to manage

money because I was dealing with people that primarily didn't know how.

And I didn't want to become destitute, as I grew my businesses and by

overspending, over leveraging, not managing my money properly.

And so by seeing hundreds of people daily that was mismanaging their finances,

gave me a whole new direction and respect for managing, for saving, for

investing, because I was broke as a kid.

And I remember that feeling, you know, of not having anything

and living in a 60 rental house.

You know, when I was kids, my dad bought the house we were living in

when I was a kid, gave 4, 500 for it.

And we later lost it in bankruptcy.

And I was like, I don't want to go down that path.

I want to be surrounding myself with people that can teach me and show

me and how I can invest properly.

And, over a course of time, you know, that's paid off handsomely,

but it wasn't without his trials.

It wasn't without struggle.

we.

watch people every single day, how to mismanage money.

And it taught me a lot about how to manage it properly.

Yeah, that's good.

And one of the things that I think I picked up on this, or you may have just

blatantly said in the book was this aspect of more and the way we've termed

it here, and you may have termed it even similar, is that many of Us, those of us

that are wired for business, or we think we're wired for business, or we think

that's what we're created for, And we are in pursuit of something, and it may

be significance, it may be how we define success, it may be some financial gain.

But for me, I've defined it, Aaron, is that I was

addicted to more.

And we've had a lot of interviews and conversations here on Seat Go Create

certain age or men of a

certain makeup

sure.

So just,

I don't even know if I have a question there, but

when I say that,

I have an answer for your presumed question.

we're tracking.

That's a good thing.

So here's the thing, and you got to be really careful,

interpreting what I'm about to say, because when you're in a position like

I am, it's easy to make this comment, but on the other side of it, you're

going to see similarities in the way you feel once you reach a level of success.

Now, I don't have all the statistical data to support this exactly,

but I can get pretty close.

Once you pass your basic needs.

70, 000 to 75, 000 is the national average.

Once you pass that, the happiness that you experience is almost infinitesimal

compared to what the desire was.

If that makes sense, it's like you think I'm going to get

more, I'm going to be happier.

And what I share with people that happiness is a choice.

It's not a trait.

And scripture even teaches us to learn to be content in our present environment.

And some of you are not in great environments right now, but Paul teaches

us in scripture to learn to be content.

Now, here's where people get confused.

Don't confuse contentment with complacency.

Because I don't think we're to ever become complacent.

Like I'm still even today, red line quite a bit.

It's like, I want to go, I want to use the talents that God's given me to

encourage, to call them out, to help them aspirationally accomplish their goals,

their dreams, but also on the other side, I want to help them put guardrails up.

And I want to say, these are the boundaries that you need to have.

Most people want bigger, better, shinier, faster.

Just give me more.

And it's kind of like the dog that caught the car.

Once they get it, they're disappointed.

They're like, I don't know what to do with this.

Now, this doesn't give me or scratch the itch.

The new wears off pretty quick and then you've got to insure it,

store it, keep it up, trade it in.

It's a depreciating asset.

And then you go, wow, man, this is really more of an expense than I realized.

I had a client lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

And I said, man, that's a beautiful camper.

You've got there.

He said, thank you.

And he said, how often do you use it?

And he said, you know, last year, I think we used it three times the first

year, I think we used it six times.

And I said, do you have a truck big enough to pull that?

He said, well, I had to buy a dually to pull it.

And so I left, got back on the plane, flew back to Nashville and I wrote

a blog post on the way back and, itemized the cost of the trailer.

The cost of the dually, the fuel, the insurance, the maintenance,

the upkeep, the depreciation.

And I wrote this blog post and he read it later.

I didn't even tell him I wrote it.

And I said, your stay at the KOA was 1, 125 a night.

I hope you enjoyed your stay.

And he got to doing the math on what it really costs to own

things, not lying to himself.

And he sold it.

He sold the truck, sold the camper.

He said, I had no idea of the investment and see, we think all these things

are going to scratch that itch.

And it's nice.

Now hear me out.

So don't throw me under the bus.

Like I have nice things.

I like nice things.

I have a nice house.

I'm an avid fisherman.

So I've got kind of a Cadillac of boats.

I got a Tundra truck.

I don't subject myself to just getting more things for the sake of getting more

things, if I can afford them, I buy them.

I'm not going to put myself in bondage to come up and buy these things

that are going to, Keep the golden handcuffs on, like I can't quit work

or I can't have any margin because what you're going to find out is that

you become a slave to those things.

And you can't stop once you get on that, you know, that Ferris wheel.

And so I just want people to buy things that they can afford, that they can

manage and not let the aspirations of more and bigger and better, become

your focus, because it's just not going to do for you what you think

Well, and I just want to remind both you and the listener

that on this end of the mic is a guy that lives in a 39 foot motor coach

and most of what we own is in here.

It's actually, it's fascinating.

We went from the 6, 000 square foot house down, sort of forced when

we went through some challenges.

And then now we've got the finances to go back.

And every time my wife and I, once a year, we talk about this air and we say,

okay, it's a time to get some land, build us a Barndo, whatever, blah, blah, blah.

We just haven't been able to pull that trigger and

we're kind of content.

lot of freedom in the way you're living right now, isn't

I, it's, it's so hard to describe the liberation that

comes without having a lot of stuff.

It reminds me of two things and then I'm gonna let you respond to this because

I think you wrote some things about it.

It reminds me of embedded within the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus, this is gonna sound, Jesus goes off on you can't serve God and mammon.

And then he goes through all these things and material

possessions and things like that.

I realized that I was serving mammon and acknowledging God

as opposed to doing that.

But you set it in view from the top and I'll say this and

then let you respond to it.

In our culture, in our modern day society, this is how we define

success by how much we own.

Ownership is very, very important.

do you have the title?

Do you have the deed?

You own your business?

Do you own this?

Do you own that?

Whatever.

Cars, boats, whatever.

When stewardship, we really, I've come to terms with this.

Spiritually, maybe even practically, we really own Nothing.

We're stewards.

And I think I picked up on that from the book, so do you want to just say anything

about stewardship versus ownership and why it's important to think like

a steward instead of an owner?

well, this is not going to make any sense to people

that are listening to this, that are not Christ followers, right?

You like that doesn't even make sense until it's a transformational experience.

You have to go through spiritually to understand that you are just a steward

over what God's entrusted you to manage.

You know, we were talking about church earlier.

This is not a slam on churches, but it coincides with this part

of the conversation is that you hear it church all the time.

It's confusing.

You hear don't chase money, you know, don't go out and do all that, you know,

but yet when we have a fundraiser and we need to build a 7 million building,

all of a sudden it becomes important.

And I get one of those little private letters where there's a hundred.

Guest invited to hear the pastor share the vision.

And I'm like, how come I got this letter and other people didn't get this letter

is because I'm able to give financially.

the people that got that letter are financially secure and they

can make larger contributions.

So why don't you just say that from the pulpit?

Why don't you just get up and say, Hey, money is a great tool and we need it.

If you're the type of person that you've got the skills and

the abilities to make money.

Like let's reinvest it in the kingdom and let's do amazing things with it.

Don't sit over there and say, money's not important and don't follow it.

Don't chase it until we need it.

Instead of just being forthcoming and saying out of the gate, some

people are gifted in making money.

They are.

And so it's a lot easier to steward it than it is to protect it.

And what I mean by that is when you give up the ownership of the It's like I've

given 10 percent of my gross income, what Christians call a tithe since I was

nine years old and God has done so much more with the remainder of that income

of mine than I could have done with 100 percent because God teaches us in

Malachi to give back and he'll open the floodgates of heaven and he'll bless us

in ways that we can't understand and that doesn't always mean financial, right?

But it could mean financial.

And so for some people, they have that talent and skill.

Let's just be honest and above board with the uses and the benefits of money.

Where we get in trouble is when money owns us.

That's when we get in trouble.

When we over leverage, we over commit, we buy things that we shouldn't have.

We put minimum deposits down and now we have no margin in our life.

We couldn't quit that job if we wanted to, because you're making

six figures and you're like, Hey, I hate it, but I gotta go.

And it's like, that's no way to live your life.

And I want to encourage those that are listening to me today

to work yourself out of that position, because that's miserable.

We're not promised to tomorrow.

And we want to live a life that's fruitful, that's meaningful.

Because you're probably miserable to be around.

If you're not enjoying your occupation, your spouse is probably miserable.

Your kids are probably miserable and I know you're miserable.

So I would encourage you if you don't get anything out of this episode, other

than the fact of sit down and figure out.

How you can use the talents and the skills that God's given you in a way

that's meaningful, that you're happy, that you enjoy what you're doing.

We never know.

And the older I get, man, the more people around me that are dying.

I just lost my sister 24 months ago, pancreatic cancer, no sign, 65 years old.

And in eight months we buried her.

We have no idea what the future is going to bring in life is

too short to live it miserable.

Don't stay in that situation.

Yeah.

And I'll, I'll pour some gas on that fire and say that.

If you're in that situation, there will be a time that it'll

have to be reckoned with either.

It'll be on your own terms or some of the things we dealt with.

It was situations that occurred with economy and, you know, I don't think

God brought what happened in 08 on, but once it did, he said, Ooh,

okay, now I've got Tim's attention.

Now.

We can do some things.

So, you know, one of the things that we, and I'll, maybe we'll call

it men, just, it seems like women don't struggle with this as much.

Maybe they do it in a different way.

It's, it's words like success and significance that, that you

definitely use a lot in the book.

And I know it's important when you gather men in mastermind settings.

What do you want to say one of the things we used to have a tagline here It's

still in some of the things we do is this thing that I never could define it Well,

it's like how do we redefine success?

It's like making success mean what it's supposed to mean, but I don't

even know if that was very clear But what do you want to say aaron?

We're about to talk about masterminds and how important those are But what do you

want to say about just the words success?

And significance that might

be applicable here

Well, here's the thing that I wish someone had explained

to me, and I could have understood it better as a young businessman.

First of all, I would say, don't go it alone.

You need unbiased, trusted advisors all the time around you to help you.

Cause you don't know what you don't know.

And I wish somebody had explained to me that the definition of success changes.

And see, I didn't know that I thought it just meant make a bunch of money

and then you had plenty of money.

You could go do whatever you wanted at any time.

And I will say that success has really been redefined for me.

A number of times over the years.

when I first started, success was all about making money.

It really was.

I had two little girls.

I needed to make a lot of money to give them a life that we wanted to give them.

But today I would say it's kind of a mixed bag.

Success is, it used to be all about the money, but today it's more about impact.

It's more about free time and it's more about legacy.

And so as I think about what's going on in my life, because there's nothing

tangible, I really desire or want today, I love to fish and I'm on the

lake, I tournament fish for 35 years.

And so I love to fish.

And so I went to bass pro just before this interview and was just.

knocking around for about an hour.

I could have bought anything I wanted in that store, but there wasn't

really anything I wanted today.

My focus really is on more margin for time.

Robin and I enjoy traveling.

So I want to do that.

And then it's about legacy.

It's about iron sharpens, iron mastermind and the transformational

experience that other men are having.

And I don't want them to go through the challenges and the trials

that I had as a young businessman.

And I want to help them dodge some of those landmines and help them build a

parameter around their business, around their family, around their wife, so that

they can have not only a successful life.

But a significant life and significance for me is pouring

back into the lives of others.

Success historically points to yourself and significance

historically points to others.

So when I had the accident in 2001, it was August 1st, 2001.

I thought about what my life's legacy would have been at that

point had I been killed that day.

I was 40 years old at that time.

And it would have been this poor kid from Nashville, Tennessee.

It makes enough money to retire at age 27 and nobody cares.

And I was like, golly, man, that is not what I want my life to reflect.

What I want my life to reflect is that Tim winders life was better

as a result of having known me.

I gave him a sense of encouragement.

I challenged him.

I lifted him up.

I walked with him.

I helped him with his goals, his dreams.

I helped him with his podcast.

Hopefully get some other listeners that their life was going to transform.

And when I do pass, he can say that rather than, Oh, big, I had a nice boat.

Well, nobody cares.

Big A's got a nice boat.

Right.

And so I think that our focus needs to not only be on success, but it

also simultaneously needs to be on.

One of the things that I wasn't going to bring this up

and I'm watching our time here, my father passed away probably about 18

months ago, had cognitive decline.

The last few years of his life, probably.

He was a very quiet man.

I was going about my business, doing all kinds of stuff.

But one of the things, Aaron, that's very interesting to us as he was

going through cognitive decline.

He kept telling us stories from his life, and I'm going to word it this way, it was

almost as if he was trying to convince us of his significance, some of them

dating back to his high school years, and he was in his 80s when he passed.

So the reason I bring it up is, and I know you interact with a lot of men.

And so I'm kind of moving here to where I'm going to ask for some

things that we could glean from you to learn from not just Aaron's life,

but all the others that you've been interacting with for the last 10 years.

Do we have a significance deficit?

And is it because most of us.

Most of our lives are so self centered and we don't focus on showing other

people how they're significant.

That's a theory that just popped in my head, but significance or anything

you want to respond to with that

rant that I just went on.

Well, it's good.

And the truth of the matter is you hit it, the nail on the head.

And I'm just going to call it what it is.

We're so selfish.

With our time and our resources.

And it's so sad that we are because no one else cares about what you've got.

No one else cares that your financial position, your tangible

assets, the only things people remember about your encounter with

them is how you made them feel.

That's all they remember.

And when you can help somebody feel important to feel noteworthy, to feel

adequate, to feel welcomed, that is going to leave a legacy that no amount of

resources or showmanship will ever leave.

And so I would just suggest that a percentage of our time is allocated

and dedicated to helping others accomplish their dreams and goals.

There's such more gratification Out of that, then there is getting other

people to recognize what you've got.

I teach people this, and I know we're nearing the end of our time,

but I've got a little saying that I say, let their story be their story.

Let me tell you what I mean by that.

When you're having an interaction with anybody and they're

telling you about something.

I years ago, I was showing a buddy of mine, a picture of a deer that

my grandson killed on our property.

And he never commented on it.

The only thing he did was get his phone and he pulled up a picture of a deer.

His grandson had killed on his property and he started telling me all about it.

And what that told me was he didn't care about my story.

And so I want to encourage you when you're talking to other people,

be inquisitive, ask questions.

Where did you go?

How big was the deer?

Was it his first deer?

Did you have it mounted?

Was he excited?

Now what you've done is endeared yourself to that person.

But if you are the person that says, yeah, we've been there on vacation too.

And we went to such and such what you're telling them is your story doesn't matter.

And I just want to encourage you ask a lot more questions and you don't

have to tell everybody everything, you know, you don't have to tell

everybody, you've been there too.

Just ask more questions and you watch how the conversation goes.

You know what'll happen.

They'll tell everybody that they know that you're the most interesting person

they've ever talked to because you're inquisitive about what they're doing

rather than trying to prove yourself and show yourself worthy of the conversation.

So just let people's story be their story when you're talking to them.

Yeah, that's good, Aaron.

I appreciate you reminding us.

There's something, a dis ease that is self

and you know, as

followers of Christ,

we want to feel adequate and see, we tell all these

stories and we say these things because we want to feel adequate.

Let me just share this.

Men have such a desire to feel adequate.

And when we don't feel adequate, we feel inadequate.

And when we feel inadequate, we have shame.

And what we try to do is overcome that feeling of inadequacy because

we don't want to feel the shame.

And that spins off into all kinds of things

like porn, substance abuse,

infidelity,

the stuff and,

something in there that's never going to

replace what really goes there.

well, there's some men that are even maybe wired the way

we are, that will throw themselves into a work situation that isn't

always the correct answer to.

So,

Aaron, I want to, make sure I get to this.

Because, you know, 10 plus years ago, it sounds like you decided you were going

to shift from, you know, business that was, I'll say it sort of about you,

but it was your business.

it was just about making money.

Yeah, to business that involved others, which is, you know,

masterminds, coaching and things of that nature, which those have

always been baked into my ethos.

I mean, I, when I was growing up, I wanted to be a teacher and a coach

because both my parents were educators.

I did other things and always migrated back to coaching and things like that.

But what I'd love for you to share in whatever way you want to.

Is what have you learned in the last 10 years?

Not necessarily about yourself, but just about say men in general.

here are the challenges here, the issues, here's what men are facing.

I'd love to hear that, but I want us as we're wrapping up here to be.

A little more positive.

I want to hear some of the good stuff you're seeing from men

that are gathering and learning.

So hit some of the challenges and issues, but then let's move

towards the positive as we,

as we land the plane.

Is that okay?

Yeah, I'll give the negative side, if you will, that

will explain everything that we deal with on an ongoing basis as men.

So a few months ago, a buddy of mine invited me to go to

Starbucks to have coffee,

And so I met him up there and I'm just going to be honest with you, Tim.

I set this guy up and I did it on purpose.

And so here's what I went to him with.

I said, listen, my granddaughter.

Goes to school, Palm beach, Atlantic and West Palm beach

in Florida, about to graduate.

I said, she's going to be living down there.

And my wife and I are thinking about buying a condo.

And I said, do you think I should buy a condo there?

And he thought about it for a second.

He said, yeah, big a, he said, I think it'd be good.

Cause I know you'd like to be around your granddaughter some.

And he said, I think that would be good.

And I said, well, let me ask you a couple of questions.

And he said, yeah, I said, this condo is a million dollars that we're looking at.

It's two bedroom, two bath on the water in West Palm beach.

And he thought for a minute, he goes, well, yeah, you've

owned a bunch of companies.

I think you ought to do it.

I think your granddaughter would love it.

I said, you've never met Robin.

You don't know anything about my superpowers, my

kryptonite, my blind spots.

You don't know anything about my aspirations and you sure don't

know anything about my finances.

And he goes, no, I don't.

I said, you really can't help me answer that question.

Can you?

And he said, no big AI really can't you see, Tim, we do that every single day

to some degree, we're asking for advice and support and they have no context.

Masterminds have changed my life for 25 years.

Every week.

I've been in a mastermind group.

Dave Ramsey invited me to join his group years ago.

I sponsored his show for 21 years when he first started in business and I didn't

want to go because I knew how hardcore Dave could be and I didn't want to go.

My wife encouraged me to, and I'm so grateful that she did because it changed

my life because in that group, I was able to be authentic and transparent

and vulnerable, and they had context.

They knew who Robin was.

They knew my kids.

They knew my aspirations, my blind spots, my propensity, my desires.

They knew everything.

So when I ask a question, they could give me solid advice.

That's what we've created in Iron Sharpens Iron Mastermind.

We've created an environment that's conducive to wins, to successes,

to authenticity, to transparency.

We had two guys that joined four years ago that owned two duplexes

when they joined their brothers.

In over a four year period, they just bought their 500th rental house.

And the reason that they did that is their group taught them how to scale.

They had resources, they networked, they were able to get investors

and you have to have people around you on a consistent basis in order

for you to accomplish your goals.

Our propensity is to procrastinate, all of us, but when we have somebody

every single week that's asking you the tough questions, that's pushing you,

that gives you a platform you can share wins, that call you out when you're not

behaving properly, you walk the straight and narrow in every area of your life.

And when you're that focused, you can accomplish a lot.

You can go much faster alone, but you can't go near as far.

And so for me, 25 years of experience, I could talk for days about the

successes that people have had because they subjected themselves to scrutiny

of 10 people that know exactly what it is that they're dealing with.

So they can give them good advice.

Yeah, that's very good, Aaron.

Tell us where people can connect and find out more.

Oh, that's

Where can they get more info?

Well, so the easiest way to find me is to go to view from the top.

com and, you can find me on Facebook, find me on LinkedIn, Tim, I've got a little

gift for your listeners if it's okay.

So here's what we, we have what's called the community iron sharpens,

iron community, and if you will private message me, I'll give you a promo code

that allows you to check out our community for three months, I'll pay for it.

So you come in, I'll give you the promo code and you get involved

three months, you're around the people that I'm talking about.

We have hundreds of people in our community and it's an amazing place

to network, to be called up, to be called out, to hear guest speakers,

to mastermind with these guys, and I'll gift you the community.

If you'll just private message me and tell me that you heard me on Tim's show.

I'll be happy to give you that promo

Do you have, the specs on private?

I owe it at view from

the top.

Is that where you want them to go?

View from the

top.

go to view from the top.

com.

They can get ahold to me and then I'll send them a link how

to get involved in the community.

But, you can go to, yeah, just go there, contact me, private message

me on LinkedIn or Facebook, and I'll give you the promo code.

Once you told me you've heard this on Tim show and, we'll get you in our

community and let you test drive it.

Aaron, we'll include those links and all down in the notes for those

that might be checking things out, Aaron, we are seek, go create those three words.

I'm going to allow you or force you depending on what your

personality is, allow you or force you to pick one of those.

And why is my last question, seek,

go or create, which one

means

I'm create.

Yeah.

I told you early in the interview, I'm a creator developer and I'm all about

creativity and I'm ready to create.

And then.

I fire the gun and ride the bullet.

Right.

Then I seek and go, but I'm going to create something and I'm going

to go out here and go after it.

Excellent.

That sounds great.

Thanks for listening in and go check out Aaron's stuff.

We're Seat Go Create, new episodes every Monday until next time.

Continue being all that you were created to be.