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Unleash the Power of Masterminds (with Aaron Walker) · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hey friends, this is Kent Sanders from Inkwell Ghostwriting.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to episode one hundred and fifty one of the Smart Business Writing Podcast.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is the show that helps you grow your business, amplify your authority, and increase your impact through the power of writing.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for joining me on this episode.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: A few months ago, over Christmas break, I built a bunk bed and a desk combination for my son's bedroom.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: The most critical tool for this job, of course, would be my trusted DeWalt cordless drill.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: I knew I'd be drilling a lot of holes and driving a lot of screws, so it was essential to the success of the project.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: However, after I bought all the wood and other supplies and I started building the bunk bed, I discovered that the battery on my drill was really weak and it would hardly hold a charge.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'd had the drill for about 15 years, so this really wasn't any surprise.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I went to Home Depot and bought a new drill, and wow, what a difference it made.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: The new drill was so much more powerful and it made the whole project way more enjoyable.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: This one single tool made a massive difference for this project.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm thrilled that my guest on this episode, Mr.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Walker, is here to talk about an immensely powerful tool that can unleash all sorts of good things in your life and in your business.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that tool is a mastermind group.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron has founded more than a dozen companies over the past 41 years, and he attributes much of his success to having surrounded himself with a great mastermind.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: He spent a decade meeting weekly with Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller, Ken Abraham, and other amazing entrepreneurs.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron is the founder of the Iron Sharpens Iron Mastermind, which now hosts 15 groups with national and international members.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's also the author of View from the Top, a must-read book that will show you how to live with significance and success.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if that's not enough, Aaron is also the founder of the Mastermind Playbook, which is an incredible resource for starting, running, and scaling mastermind groups.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife Robin of forty years, and he has two incredible daughters and five beautiful grandchildren.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: In this conversation, you're going to learn what a mastermind is, why it's such a powerful tool in your personal and professional life, and also how to get involved in one.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron also talks about his writing, his system for repurposing content, and much, much more.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is a really powerful conversation that will inspire you to do what the character Red said in one of my favorite movies, the Shawshank Redemption.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever seen that movie and you remember any quotes from it, you'll recognize this quote where Red said, get busy living or get busy dying.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And Aaron in this conversation is definitely going to inspire you to live at a higher level than you've ever thought possible.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: After the conversation, make sure to check out the show notes at KentSanders.net slash one five one.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's KentSanders.net slash one five one.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's get to the conversation with Aaron Walker.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Aaron, thank you so much for being on the show today.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've been looking forward to this and I'm really excited to chat with you.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks, Ken.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate you having me on your show.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: So this episode is all about masterminds.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And when I think of masterminds, I think of the name Aaron Walker because you have talked so much about it and you've been so successful in building a business based around masterminds.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And this show is for people who are into writing, specifically business writing.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: So before we dig into some details about, you know, the structure of masterminds and why it's helpful, can you talk about what a mastermind is in the first place for those who aren't familiar with the concept?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, let me go back even further, if I could, and tell you a little bit about how I even got involved in mastermind groups because I didn't know what they were either a couple of decades ago.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um I owned a bunch of retail stores here in Nashville, Tennessee, and I met a guy named Dave Ramsey at the Luby's Cafeteria in the early 90s, and Dave and I built a real strong friendship together.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: And over the next several years, I continued to advertise and sponsor his show.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I saw him at the Curb Center here in Nashville.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: We were at a Mercy Me concert, and he walked up to me one day and he said, Hey, Aaron, he said, I would like for you to consider joining my mastermind group.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I started laughing and I said, Well, I'd love to do that, but what is a mastermind group?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: And he started laughing and he said, Hey, you just come to my office next Wednesday morning, seven o'clock.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'll tell you all about it and I'll introduce you to the guys.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I don't want to go.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: And he goes, No, come on.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Come on.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, I don't want to, what are we going to do?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, No, we're going to get real with each other.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, I know I don't want to go if we're going to get real with each other.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: He said, just come to my office.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think you'll enjoy it.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: So, Kent, just to be honest with you, I didn't want to go.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I don't want to go in there.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: I don't even know who these guys are.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: Dave and I've been friends for a long time, but I don't want to go in there and bear my soul to everybody.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, just trust me.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway, I went.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: I was very reluctant, hesitant, you know, and I sat kind of quiet in the room, Dave's conference room.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: There were 10 other guys, and we started introducing ourselves.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: And the next week I went back again.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, about the third or fourth trip in, guys started getting really vulnerable.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they started sharing situations with their wives or their children or their business.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, dang, you mean guys like this have problems too.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so week after week I would go back and I thought this is a safe place, you know, I can share some things.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I kind of threw my hat in the rink and I started talking about a few things in my personal life that wasn't going so good.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: And they started giving me this feedback, and I tried the feedback and it worked.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'd go back next week and same thing.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, man, there is something powerful going on here.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: So now, let's fast forward 20 years.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: I've been in a mastermind group every week for the past two decades, and I wouldn't do my life without it.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: And really what it is, the oversimplified version, is that it is trusted advisors that are non-biased that can help take your life to the next level.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: Now, we'll talk much more in depth and detail as it relates to that.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: But what I found out was these guys shared the same core values that I have.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Many of their mission statements were the same as mine.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: They were trusted confidants that didn't go out and share with the rest of the world what was going on in my life.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: And as a result of that, I felt that it was a safe place that I could go and share.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: And they really became my board of directors.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: They were people that I could go to, talk to about personal and professional things that were going on in my life that could help me achieve and accomplish my goals.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's a very simplified version, but that's what a mastermind is.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, I love that so much.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: I know they have been powerful in your life and they've been powerful in in my life as well.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: What if somebody is listening to this and they they're thinking, well, I'd love to be part of something like that, but I don't think I have anybody around me in my everyday life who could who I could join in a mastermind group.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Where does somebody get started with this?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we kind of solved that problem years ago.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: I own a company called View from the Top, and one of the divisions is Iron Sharpens Iron Mastermind Group.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: And everything that we do is virtual.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so if you can't find people in your immediate geographic area, there are people virtually that you can sign on to a video conference.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: We use the platform Zoom.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Many of you are familiar with that.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: And there's 10 people in a group.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: So now we have men.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: We have 15 groups that meet.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: We're in nine different countries now around the world.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: We have a women's division, which is uh led by my daughter Brooke and my wife Robin, and there's another lady named Sonia Wallenbach, which is the wife of one of our facilitators in the men's group, very successful family, and they lead that division.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have the emerging man, which is 20 to 25-year-old men that we are really mentoring and helping.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so we put you together with other like-minded people, whether you want to be in a women's group or a men's group or the emerging men's group, and we accomplish that problem by connecting you virtually.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there with those, there is an investment, correct?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, there is.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I tell everybody that uh anything worth having is worth investing in.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason that there is a charge, first of all, it's my business.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Second of all, we honor what we pay for.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: And if you've got skin in the game and you show up, you'll show up because you've got skin in the game.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: And as a result of that, everybody wins.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let me come at this from a little bit of a different point of view because a lot of people, whenever they're they're thinking about investing in something, their immediate thought is, I can't afford that, or that costs a certain amount, which I don't have, or whatever.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: What are some ways that you have seen people get creative with funding being a part of a mastermind group?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, the bottom line is you have to pay for it and whether you're creative and let your business do it or you do it personally.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: The thing is, is I think it's a nominal charge for the value.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: And when I say that, and I can give you story after story because we've literally had hundreds and hundreds of people go through our mastermind group, and we've had people that started in our group that are still in the group six years later, same ten people meeting in a video conference every week for the past six years.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: And people wouldn't do that if there wasn't a great amount of value.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't look at it as an expense, I look at it as an investment.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: And our yeah, our groups are$575 a month to be in, and you say, man, that's a lot of money.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yes,$7,000 or$8,000 is a lot of money, but when it exposes you to hundreds of people, uh it gives you resources that you never would have gotten, it gives you accountability that you never would have gotten, it gives you the opportunity to be introduced to people all over the world.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: What is that worth?
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: And here's the real key, though, for me isolation is the enemy to excellence.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: And if you really want your life to go to the next level, we've got to have new perspectives.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: See, God designed us to be in community.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: And if you really want to take your life to the next level, you've got to have non-biased, trusted advisors around you that will tell you the truth.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: And the truth is, Kim, we all have superpowers.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: We're all good at something.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: But more importantly, we have blind spots, and that's what normally gets us in trouble.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then when you have these trusted advisors around you, they can point out those blind spots.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Man, that is so true.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I have seen that in my own life.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: When you're isolated, you really are in a danger spot.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's not good because you're Well, you you believe in your own press clippings, right?
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: And the things that you believe.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: You only have one life filter, you only have one experience, and you can only see it from one way, no matter how hard you try.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: The most valuable asset that masterminds can bring to us is perspective.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: There was uh a group I just got through leading about 30 minutes ago before our interview, and one of the guys came on the call and he had a very, very touchy situation, and we shared with him what we thought, and he said, I didn't even know that existed.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't even know to know that.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's it, that one thing will save everything for him.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: We had another client recently that uh was on one of the mastermind calls, and he was selling his business for a large sum of money, and he said, This is what I'm about to do with my partner.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: And he went on and told us what he was gonna do with his partner.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: There was an unresolved issue between him and his partner.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Will it be detrimental to wait till after the sale to do that?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, uh, no, but I want to go ahead and take care of it.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, as soon as the new buyer gets a hint that there's a problem at the top, they're gonna disband this, they're gonna withdraw their letter of intent, and they're not even gonna consider buying your company.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: And he thought about it for a minute and he said, I didn't I didn't even know that.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't I didn't even know to even think about that.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: See, it's perspective because other people have been through sales before, but there's so many areas that I could share with you today that people have told other mastermind members that they didn't even know that that existed.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, amazing.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want to shift gears a little bit and and talk about the way that you are using content to actually grow your mastermind business because I love your videos that you share on Facebook and on link and on LinkedIn and other places.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: They're just they're just really wonderful.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And for those who aren't familiar with this idea, can you walk through a little bit how you come up with ideas for these videos, what you uh are trying to accomplish with those, why you chose sort of these walking videos along the greenway and so forth?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we do a very extensive content calendar.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: And years ago, and I'm gonna be totally transparent with your audience because I'm always transparent, but six years ago, someone told me, they said, you need to promote your business.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I was in bricks and mortar for 35 years.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we had retail stores, and I had always had bricks and mortar locations, and I had wasn't even familiar with this online world.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: And they said, you need to get on podcast.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, I don't even know what a podcast is.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: And they started laughing.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: And they said, Well, there's this guy that's got a great podcast, and I think you'd be good on there.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: You need to reach out.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I did, and now I spend about a third of my time doing podcast interviews because it's a great medium to share what we do.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, as a result of that, someone suggested you need to write blogs.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I started writing blogs, and we've written thousands of blogs now.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: We post two or three a week, and we have been since the start of this business some six and a half years ago.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: And then someone said, Well, you need to do Facebook Live.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I went, I don't even know how to get on Facebook Live.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: They said, Well, let me teach you and show you.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: So showed me how to get on Facebook Live.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so one day I was at the Greenway where I walk, and uh, I had a message I wanted to share.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, let me figure out this Greenway thing here with this Facebook Live.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I got my phone and hit Facebook Live and I threw up the phone.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I didn't even know what to say at first.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, how do I even get started?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so I threw up the phone and I said, Hey, it's Big A coming to you live from the station camp Greenway.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I went ahead and told a two or three minute message, something that was on my heart I wanted to share, and I hit off, and my phone lit up like a Christmas tree.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, people were commenting, they were saying things about it, and I thought, dang, they like that.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so I started thinking through it, and I thought, well, I'm gonna do this on a regular basis.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I started doing it a couple days a week.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, as a result of that, people started emailing me, started calling me, Facebook messaging me, private message, and they said, Hey, I want to know more about the mastermind, I want to know more about your coaching.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, man, what a great tool for free.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: So then I started shooting videos and then posting it on LinkedIn.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so we took our content from the blogs that I was writing, and I was repurposing those by doing videos because the people reading your content is not the same people watching your content.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then I said, Well, hey, I'm gonna hire one of our VAs to take the written content and do excerpts for Twitter posts.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so now we go through, so now we go to YouTube, we post the video on YouTube.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: YouTube transcribes the video.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: Now there's SEO value, and so now we go take that transcription and we have other places that we post that content.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: So it's multi-use of all of this content, and it generates usually from one post, and then I'll do video, Twitter, LinkedIn, things like that.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: See, that's great because you can create something once and then repurpose it a bunch of different places.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: See, I thought that your Facebook, or I didn't realize that your Facebook live videos were connected to your blog post.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: I thought those were just sort of random and off the cuff.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: But they're not.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well they they well, let me just say this.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them are.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them are just things that I want to say, some things I want to talk about.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: But what we've done is we've cataloged every single blog post that I've done.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: And there's hundreds, if not thousands, of blog posts.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'll go to the oldest five or six years ago, and I'll refresh myself on things that I talked about, and then I'll go do a Facebook Live.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then I date on the catalog when we've used it, how we've used it, and then we keep up.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: We keep up with the analytics, and then I start watching what people are commenting on, what people are sharing, and then I'll go back and talk more about that.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's of interest to them.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: My audience wants to talk about these six things.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so we'll go back and we'll restructure the content.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'll rewrite it a different way, saying about the same thing, but it's rewritten a different way.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm getting SEO value again from Google because it's been, you know, adapted to fit this situation.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: And now, so I'm just saying there's only what a handful of things that people are really interested in, but you can present it in a number of different ways.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: See what I love about your videos, and I keep mentioning the videos because I've I've just seen so many of them on Facebook.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever I see a video by Aaron Walker, I'm like, man, I gotta stop what I'm doing because I know whatever you share is gonna be pure gold, you know, as a dad and a husband.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I think what's so interesting is that really you don't talk about your business that much.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're just sharing life stuff.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: So would you say that's that's a general principle for those of us who are creating content to help promote our business?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Is there's a sense in which you're pretty careful about not talking about your actual business directly, but you're just delivering value.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I believe that as a salesperson, we need to quit trying to make the sale and we need to try to add value.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I've done that now in 14 businesses we've owned over the past 41 years.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: If you add enough value, it's the jab, jab, jab right hook.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's the give value, give value, give value.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then you can say, hey, we're launching a new mastermind group, or I'm starting a new coaching program, or we've got the mastermind playbook where I teach people to build their own mastermind groups.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think if you just keep sharing, you keep giving people value, you teach them, you lay all your cards out, you don't hold them close to your vest.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: You say, hey, here's how you do it.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: I want to help you.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: We had a guy call recently and said, I want to join your mastermind.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Okay, great.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, but I got to be honest with you, the only reason I'm joining is I want to see what you're doing.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I started laughing.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: I said, come on.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Really?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yeah, he goes, I want to coach and I want to lead mastermind groups.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: I said, we'll teach you everything we know.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Why would you do that?
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: I said, because I only have a small segment of the population that I can touch.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: You have a segment that you can touch.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: I have an abundance mindset, not a scarcity mindset.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: And if I teach you and show, here's what's happened, Kent, as a result of that.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: With that mindset, our business has grown exponentially because that's the way you grow businesses that last.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's by sharing and teaching and giving value and giving value and keep giving value.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: We give away 95% of the content that we create.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: And we make a great living on the other 5% because people want to be around people that are giving things away that are beneficial to them.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: You ever been around somebody stingy?
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, I don't want to share anything.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want to like like, well, I don't want to share with you either.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: But when you're around somebody that's very giving, hey man, let me introduce you to this person.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Let me show you how to do this.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, who can I introduce you to?
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: How can I help you?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just that natural reciprocity that people give when you're the person giving value.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: I love that you mentioned the mastermind playbook.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: That would you must have read my notes because that was actually my next question.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, cool.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to see if you could share some about the mastermind playbook, but also not just what it is, but how that product actually came about also because that that's a large piece of content.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I appreciate that.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so we started scaling the masterminds, and it started getting the attention of a lot of very influential people.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: And they started calling me saying, How do you have 15 or 18 masterminds?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like you're not running all those yourself.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, No.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm training people that are in our community.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: We're doing revenue share, and I continue to promote and get people into the funnel and get people into the mastermind, and we do revenue share.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: So they lead the groups, I produce all the content.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: So people started saying, Hey, would you train me to do this?
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, well, I never thought about it.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: And they said, Well, we would like for you to coach us personally how to build and scale these masterminds.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, sure.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, I don't really know what to charge to do that.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought about it, and I thought, I don't really want to do this because it's going to take some time.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: But I thought, well, yeah, I'll do it.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so I trained a guy and he said, How much are you going to charge me?
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I threw out this big number and he said, Where do I send the money?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, well, I kind of like that.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: So then I had another guy call and say the same thing.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Yeah, for this much, I'll train you to do it.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Where do I send the money?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Wow.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: So my daughter, Brooke, is the COO of our company, and she walked in my office one day and she said, Dad, she said, why don't we create a playbook and teach people to do what you're doing?
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, that's going to be a lot of work.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, Yeah, it is, but I think it will be a great asset, and I think it'll be a great tool for everyone.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: So, Kent, it took our entire team a year, and we wrote out every system, every process from A to Z, and we teach you everything about how to start mastermind groups, how to develop them, how to onboard.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: We give you lead magnets like the personal assessment, what do I want, steps to a productive day, spouse survey, you name it.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: We've created a white label product that you can do the lead magnets.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: We teach people how to do the blogs, how to get on podcasts, we teach you how to do press releases, we teach you how to do live events.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: There are 90.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Worksheets and tools, and there's 30 professional videos that are in this mastermind playbook.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: A guy really tickled me the other day.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: He said, This is more beneficial than my college education.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I started laughing.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: I said, What do you mean?
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: He goes, I can make money with this.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: He said, with my college education, I'm not sure.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: Ray Edwards interviewed me the other day, and all of your listeners know who Ray Edwards is because of the writing that the business that you're in.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: But Ray Edwards went through it himself and he said, It's the best course he's ever seen in his career.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: For Ray Edwards to say that, that's a pretty big accolade.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, shortly thereafter, uh, we started getting other testimonials.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: Dave Ramsey did a testimonial on it, and he said, you know, this is amazing.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: We took his whole team through the Mastermind Playbook.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: They said, This is unbelievable.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Inc.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: magazine reached out to us.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: Normally, I'm trying to reach out to these magazines.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: Inc.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: Magazine reached out and they said, Can we do a story on the Mastermind Playbook?
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Are you kidding?
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: They said, No, we'd love to do a story.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: So they did a full-page story on the Mastermind Playbook.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: The reason it's really resonating with so many people is because we lay out everything you need to do.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to create anything.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: Ken, we've even created enough material, themes, book questions, the book that you should be reading, that you can lead a group every single week for 30 months and not have to create one piece of content.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: One guy bought it.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: He said simply the reason he was buying it is for that one page.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: He said, the rest of it is a bonus.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: He said, but that one page where I can lead these groups, we walk you step by step in how to do every single thing that there is.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have the biggest misnomer in mastermind groups is the facilitator thinks they have to know all the answers.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: You don't.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's like hosting a party at your house.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: You just provide the framework, you invite the guests, and the magic is done when everybody participates.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm telling you, it's literally a step-by-step process teaching people how to run masterminds.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: And here's the best part of all it transforms lives.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's what's so cool for me.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like I've been working a long time, 14 businesses.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I quit eight years ago.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: I said I'm retired, and Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller said, no, you need to coach, you need to train, you need to teach other people.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I get more joy today out of training other people to do it.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing an average cost in a mastermind is about$500, right?
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them are a little bit less, a lot of them are a lot more.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: But let's just use that for this analogy.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: If you had 20 people in your whole repertoire of guests out there, 20 people, that's a six-figure business that you have two one-hour mastermind calls a week.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Everything else we've created for you.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a huge add-on for people, plus it's a proven model.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like what I'm doing is not hypothetical.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: We've got social proof with almost 19 groups now that show that this works.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: And the longevity of these groups, we've shown up to this point, is over three years people participating in our groups.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: And just that I can relate to the guy you mentioned who said, I just want it for that one sheet.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I can relate to it.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've been a part of Masterminds for years, and I can definitely relate to that idea of, hey, what are we going to actually talk about this next week?
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: So just having something laid out sounds really refreshing.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the other thing, and of course, there's a cost associated with this, it's a$7,500 program.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people go, well, that's a lot of money.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's a business in a box.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's very relatively inexpensive to get an entire business in a box because it teaches you everything.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: The thing that's amazing about it is one mastermind group in 45 days, you get 100% of your money back.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's not many businesses you can start and get 100% of your money back in 45 days after you launch your first group.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: The guys that went through it during the beta test were starting their groups before we were finished with the beta test.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's really cool.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was neat.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, since this is a writing podcast, uh business writing podcast, my final question for you has to do with your book, View from the Top.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, I got to throw that in there since this is all about writing in books and stuff.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: Can you talk a little bit about how that book came about and what your experience was with writing that book?
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: And how did how did having a book out there with your name on it affect your business?
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: I can't even begin to tell you in this short interview how this book has impacted my life and others' lives, but I'm going to be totally candid with you.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't want to write the book.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't want to write it at all.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you why.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: Ken Abraham said on my left in our mastermind group, The Eagles, in Dave Ramsey's office.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: Ken Abraham has written over a hundred books.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: He's a very prolific ghostwriter.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: He's written Who's Who's of the World.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: He's written their book.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: So he's got, you know, millions, tens of millions of copies sold.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: Dave Ramsey sat on my right, selling millions of copies.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: Dan Miller's across from me.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: He's written a dozen books.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, who's going to read my book?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: Why would I want to write a book and go up against all these guys?
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: And Ken Davis, in a mastermind group I'm in, looked at me and he said, Big A, he said, time out.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: He wrote a book called Fully Alive, and I'm sure many of you know who Ken Davis is.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: He said, You're writing the book for the wrong reason.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, What do you mean?
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: He said, When I wrote Fully Alive, he said, the first year I got 17 emails from people that said I was going to commit suicide, but I read your book and I didn't commit suicide as a result of that.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: He said, that alone was worth me writing the book.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: He said, if you change one life, will it not be worth it?
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, You're dead gonna write it, it'll be worth it.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I sat down and I started writing and I hired a coach, and it took me about 18 months.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: I know for all you writers out there, that's a long time.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, big A, it shouldn't have taken you that long.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: But I wanted it factual.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted it real.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted it authentic.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted it genuine.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so I gave it everything.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: I put everything I had into this book as candid and honest as I could.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: I can't tell you how many people have read that book, have called me, joined the mastermind, they've hired me as their coach.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: I got invited to speak recently at a conference in Oklahoma.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: Bobby Bowden was the guest speaker last year, and they called and invited me to be the keynote speaker this year, and it was as a result of that book.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to be speaking before 2,500 men in April.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: We're recording this a little bit before that, in April, uh speaking to 2,500 people because of that one book.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: A guy heard me, my Facebook lives from the Greenway.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: He liked what he heard.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: He got my book and he read it and he called me and he said, Hey, said I want you uh to do the keynote at this year's event.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, man, I can't even tell you what that's going to return to me financially, much less the lives that could be transformed as a result of what I might share with them.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: So kudos to you authors out there, man.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: Keep up the great work.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: This book has radically changed the way I do things.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I love the book, by the way.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: It it's really, really impactful.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad that you wrote it.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: I really am.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate that.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: And also, I got to throw this in there.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: I've interviewed a lot of authors on the show, and uh a lot of them have published with Morgan James.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I just I love the way that they run their publishing business.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I know you publish your book with them as well.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, total thumbs up with that decision.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: David Hancock, that owns it, is a good friend of mine, and we've masterminded together for years.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: And uh when I was talking about writing it, David said, Man, I would love to do your book.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm how was I gonna say no?
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: He's in my mastermind.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, sure, David, let's do it.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so he took it and ran with it, and uh, we've just had a great time with it.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Aaron, thank you so much for doing the show today.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: This has been a blast.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: And um, gosh, I could talk to you for hours and hours.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Ken, thank you, buddy.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: I really enjoyed being here with you today.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: If I can ever help any of your audience in any way, if you're looking for a great mastermind, reach out.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'd love to have you.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: And also, if you're looking to start your own mastermind, just go to the mastermindplaybook.com forward slash Aaron, A-A-R-O-N, and we'll try to help you all we can meet your needs.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate it.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Kent.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see you, buddy.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Aaron.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: This was a ton of fun, and I learned so much from him.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Here are my three biggest takeaways from this conversation.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, start or join a mastermind group.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: So that this first takeaway should be pretty obvious because this is what the whole episode's about.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna say it anyway.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: You should start or join a mastermind group.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: A mastermind is a powerful tool to grow you both personally and professionally.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: I've been part of many mastermind groups the last few years, and one of them has met every week for the last five years or so.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Another of my groups meets every two weeks at a local coffee shop.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, right now we're not meeting in a coffee shop because of the pandemic situation.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're actually meeting online on Zoom, but we meet every two weeks, nevertheless.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I've also been a part of other mastermind groups that have lasted for a specific amount of time, like eight weeks or three months or a quarter or whatever the purpose of that group is.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: So all that's required to get started with a mastermind group is one or two friends that you want to meet with.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: The formats can vary for a mastermind group, but here's what I would recommend keep it to an hour with each person having an allotted amount of time to share about their business and also get feedback on projects or ideas that they're working on.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you follow that format, that's actually a very simple way of doing it, and that will get you started.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: The point here is don't wait until you have the perfect setup or the perfect mastermind members or the perfect idea or the perfect time to meet.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: Don't wait until things are perfect.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: Just get started.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: Do it badly, do it imperfectly.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: Just get started, and you'll immediately start seeing the benefits of a mastermind group.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I can tell you with 100% certainty, and this is without any equivocation, without any wavering, I'm telling you for a fact, 100%, that masterminds have been the biggest single thing that that has helped me start my business and keep it going these last several years.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing else even comes close, and that's just a testament to the power of community and of mastermind groups.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that's takeaway number one start or join a mastermind group immediately.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, use video to promote your business.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron is a master at using video, especially on Facebook, although he also puts his videos on LinkedIn.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron's videos are directed toward adding value to men, and usually they're just a few minutes long.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not using video, I encourage you to get started and to not put it off.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm kind of preaching to the choir here because I've not been super intentional with using video and uh actually it's taken me a long time to get comfortable with video.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm much more comfortable with writing and just being behind the mic on a podcast.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a I'm just a lot better with words and with audio.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not really a video person.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: However, if Aaron can do it and if so many other people can do it successfully, then you and I should be taking a look at that as well.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason is because when you do video, it adds an emotional and visual element that makes a huge difference.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: So this is why we all need to get more comfortable with using video.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, takeaway number three is stop trying to make the sale, just add value.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's really easy to focus on getting that client or customer as fast as you possibly can so you can get paid.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, we all want to get paid, let's face it.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: But we have to give and we have to add value before we can expect that.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: People don't buy in a vacuum.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: People first want to see what we have to give, they want to know what we're about, and they want to know that we can be trusted before they're going to hire us um and be our client or be our customer.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in practical terms for writers, I think this means a couple of things.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: It means being generous and it means helping others and giving them solutions.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: As a writer, you can create all kinds of content and material that helps people.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: Personally, what I focus on is creating books, a podcast, which you're listening to right now, and a blog and social media post.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: But like I said a minute ago, video can be a great tool for adding value as well.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, friends, this was a uh really packed episode with lots and lots of good stuff.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron is the kind of guy who, whenever you talk to him, it's like wisdom is just pouring out of him.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's like this flood of wisdom and great ideas.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I encourage you to go back and listen to this episode again if you need to, and you'll pick up even more great stuff from this conversation.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I do want to say thanks to Aaron Walker for being a guest on this show.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate your time and uh your friendship and adding so much value to so many people over the years.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, thank you for listening.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: I always appreciate you tuning in, and I don't take you listening for granted.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm grateful that you're listening to this show because there's lots of other stuff you could be listening to.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: I truly do appreciate that.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, as always, remember that you can find lots more resources for writers and creatives at KentSanders.net.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: And until next time, remember that your writing has the power to change people's lives.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in the next episode.