85. The Truth About Mastermind Groups

"I wanted genuine relationships with people where it’s okay to say 'I’m not okay.'"  Leadership comes with a side of solitude, and it takes a village—or in this case, a mastermind—to fill that void with true camaraderie and counsel. We're peeling back the curtain on the raw, unfiltered experiences that shape us, from the loneliness at the top to the joy of hitting those major milestones.

Key Takeaways:

• What Big A thought a mastermind was until he joined one
• What a mastermind is and why it matters
• How it's different from your church
• What does an authentic relationship look like?

 
"I was starving to death for authentic relationships." This episode isn't just a reflection but an open invitation to like-minded Christian businessmen ready to amplify every aspect of their lives. It's a testament to the power of authentic relationships and the courage borrowed from peers. Whether you're searching for connection, eager for growth, or both, discover how the ISI Brotherhood’s culture of continuous improvement and shared success can help you carve out a purposeful, fulfilling path. Join us for a conversation that's as transformative as it is enlightening, right here where iron sharpens iron.

Iron Sharpens Iron Community: https://go.viewfromthetop.com/community
LinkedIn Group: https://www.viewfromthetop.com/group
Local Roundtable Events: https://go.viewfromthetop.com/isiroundtable

Connect with Big A and Wally:
View From The Top Website: https://www.viewfromthetop.com/
The Climb Newsletter: https://www.viewfromthetop.com/climb
Big A’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronwalkerviewfromthetop/
Wally’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinwallenbeck/

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey everybody, welcome back to View From the Top podcast, where we help growth-minded men who desire momentum in their business, their family, their finances, their spiritual life. We help them get through the valleys and up the mountain to their very own View From the Top. So glad you're listening in today.

Speaker 1: 0:17

Hey, today we're going to dive into a topic today that many of you listening have either been involved with. You know groups, with groups of some sort in the past, like maybe you've been in a C12 or Vistage or even in a local networking group, BNI, or you've been in some type of group. Maybe you've been in a specific group about learning more about something in your industry, and there are lots of different groups out there. Well, today we're going to talk about how do you choose one? How do you choose a group? What are other different kinds of groups? Are you aware of all the different kinds of groups that are out there? And we're specifically going to focus on today what Iron Sharpens, Iron Brotherhood is all about and the different components that are in there and how those are some similar to some other groups and how they're uniquely different and how those what we call the five pillars of transformation can help you change your life and your legacy. So, listening with us today, let's get big A in here.

Speaker 2: 1:14

Big A you ready to go, Wally, I'm always ready to go. I get pretty amped up listening to your introductions and thinking man, I wish he'd hurry up and bring me in so I could have a chance to chat. Good to see you, man, how you been.

Speaker 1: 1:28

Yeah, man, I'm doing awesome. We had a great. I keep thinking about the Alex Sanfilippo interview last week. We talked about podcasting, but, man, the beginning of that, we had asked full disclosure. Part of our co-hosting when we allow people to come in and be on the show is that we ask them some questions, and so we actually got to dive into his life a little bit, right Outside of just podcasting, and, man, that was so cool, so cool and I'm excited for him and what he's doing this week for this episode as we dive into understanding better the different types of groups and specifically how Iron Sharpens, iron Brotherhood and what we're doing there. Man, it's just making a big difference in guys' lives. I'm excited.

Speaker 2: 2:14

You know, what's funny is now we're almost 100 episodes in. I don't know that we've ever really broke it down like we're going to today. We've mentioned over the course of time about Iron Sharpens. Iron People have a fundamental understanding of it. But we're going to today. We've mentioned over the course of time about Iron Sharpens. Iron People have a fundamental understanding of it. But we're going to dive in a little bit deeper and I was really thinking back almost 25 years ago now, when I first got involved in being in a mastermind and that's kind of what was the catalyst to this. It was, like, you know, I've got to revert back. I've got to think when I wasn't familiar with masterminds and what was going on in my life and what took place. And, wally, when you think about being in a group or being in a mastermind, like what immediately came to your mind before you were involved in a group? What was your hopes of getting out of a group? Or, yeah, what was your thoughts around that?

Speaker 1: 3:08

Yeah. So ISI Mastermind wasn't the first group like that that I was part of, you know I tried. I'm just gonna list them all out here because I think they're relevant to how our guys the guys listening today, like how we think. So I've been in, you know, was saved, came to Christ, accepted the gospel when I was eight years old, so been in church, you know, pretty much my whole life Been involved in a number of Bible studies and that's a group of people right, it's just a group, so we're just gonna call it a group. That's a group of guys. Right, it's just a group, so he's going to call it a group. That's a group of guys.

Speaker 1: 3:45

I've always been in guys' Bible studies pretty much, some mixed with couples and some marriage stuff and whatnot, but mostly with guys, and they were good for what they were. But the study itself didn't leave me wanting more. Me wanting more. The inability for people to understand me as a business owner, as a business leader, as an entrepreneur, left some holes in relationships that just couldn't be filled there. They couldn't. I didn't know that at the time. So I'm wanting this, desiring this, and you know, if I just get together, it's going to be great and it was good. It was good and I still involved in Bible studies small group today. But now I recognize that there's different areas of my life that I need to have relationships that that help me in the way God's designed me, and so I was learning that through that time I got involved in some local business network like Chamber of Commerce stuff, and that was good. It was helpful from a business perspective. It was good. I made some contacts.

Speaker 1: 4:56

But, man, still, you'd go, you'd show up, you'd sit down, you listen to somebody talk for a little while Somebody does their spiel up front, maybe you have a sidebar conversation with somebody over a you know stale donut or something, and and then it's like you leave and there wasn't. It wasn't set up for relation like business, relationship for do business yes, that was what it was there for. But I left with a hole. I, I, it was just something still. But I left with a hole. There was just something still missing. I'm like what is missing? You know, I don't know, I had no idea. So I'm longing for this.

Speaker 2: 5:33

You didn't even know what you didn't know, like you were missing something, and you couldn't really even identify what that even was. You just felt empty.

Speaker 1: 5:41

There's a part that was like.

Speaker 1: 5:42

I mean, I didn't feel empty, like I was a empty vessel or anything, but there's parts you were unfulfilled, yeah you're just like man, there's something, and uh, and so, from there, um, I began searching, uh, you know, looking online and and and found one and kind of involved in that one and it was pretty lame, honestly. And then I found one that was like uh, again, I want to mention their name on the air, um, because I don't think it does them justice, and maybe things have changed since time has gone by, because this was I mean, this was you know nine, ten years ago, um, and it it wasn't good.

Speaker 1: 6:19

It was like we met, I think, once a month or month, or once every two weeks for like an hour and a half, I think, and it was mixed. It wasn't just men, it wasn't just women, it was men and women, which isn't nothing wrong with that. Sure, it was closer, I'm going to say that. So it was closer to what I felt I was missing and what I needed. What were you?

Speaker 2: 6:42

missing. That was my question. What did you hope to get out?

Speaker 1: 6:45

Yeah, I didn't know yet. Still, I still didn't know.

Speaker 2: 6:47

Oh, you still okay. No, I still didn't really know.

Speaker 1: 6:50

Exploring. Yeah, I'm trying. Like you know it's there, but it's like, oh man, like I can't quite put my finger on it. Yeah, it's elusive. Yeah, so I was in that, that how I got introduced to you. I was at a conference, actually a Ray Edwards seminar that he was putting on, and I was there and we had a lunch break and I went to and I was looking for something. I went to lunch at Chick-fil-A. Of course you wear the badges, you know, and I go. I'm at the counter, there's this guy standing in front of me that has a badge on and start kind of a conversation. Hey, you're at the seminar, yep, that's good seminar, yep, it's good. And talking to him and he's like hey, you want to sit down and eat with me? I was like, yeah, it'd be great. So we start talking and he's like I'm talking about I knew, I did know it's answer your, to answer your question from earlier, a little bit Like I did know that that I I I wanted to be men only, but there was a reason.

Speaker 1: 7:52

It wasn't because I'm against females or any of that, nothing to do with that at all. It was just that I knew that as a man, I had unique challenges in my marriage. I had unique challenges in my business. I had unique challenges in my business. I had unique challenges in my personal life. I had unique challenges in my finances. I had unique challenges like in these areas, these primary areas of my life, like I had these challenges and so I knew that I wanted to. So I'm asking this guy long story short, he it turns out to be David, I can't remember his last name. He took the picture of you guys, the Eagles, when you were in Dave Ramsey's. Uh.

Speaker 2: 8:29

David Molnar.

Speaker 1: 8:30

David Molnar. Yeah, so he's like man you gotta like. He says like Aaron Walker is here and I'm like yeah, he's like, yeah, you can. He says he just started this thing recently, like the mastermind. I think he's got this community thing and it sounds like it's what you're looking for and I was like cool. So I went back, went back to the, like the breakfast area at the hotel we were staying at and the tables. You know you're actually sitting up against the wall doing some work on your computer and I couldn't bring myself to go introduce myself. I was so scared so I sat down like three tables away.

Speaker 2: 9:03

I'm not that intimidating, I sat down three tables away.

Speaker 1: 9:06

And then after the seminar, I went home, looked you up, I looked up what you were doing, joined the community and we talked earlier about you know kind of how I went into that. So here's, here's where I, when I joined the mastermind, it was like maybe a month or two or three at the most where I knew exactly what I was missing then and that was unbiased, unfiltered, trusted guys around me that I could say the things that were on my mind, not without question or challenge, but with no condemnation.

Speaker 2: 9:49

Like they weren't condemning me for what I want to be judged and like you shouldn't be doing this and scold you and things.

Speaker 1: 9:53

Yeah, there's a difference between someone asking you a question about like right, is that a wise decision for you to be making that, doing that or this, this behavior, whatever? And so when I got into that and like and it, it's hard today if I partly why we're doing this episode. That's hard to explain. Somebody said a little while ago they're like man, there's a lot of masterminds out there that do, like you know, focus on business or marketing or a certain industry stack, or you know bni and c12 and bni, like all those kinds of things, vistas, all that. That. There's all these things out there. It's like now that I've experienced ISI Mastermind, it's like you guys are kind of in your own category, which is both interesting and scary at the same time because it can be hard to explain.

Speaker 2: 12:45

It is. It is hard to explain when I think back. It's a long time. I've got to go back decades now when I was introduced to the concept of masterminds. I didn't want to join at all, like I didn't want to do it. And when I start thinking about that I think you know I can't imagine getting around 10 other men and burying myself Like I just couldn't bring myself.

Speaker 1: 13:11

You're a private, I mean in general. You've been a private person your whole life too, right.

Speaker 2: 13:15

Yeah, yeah, my whole career. My dad raised me that way. It was like hey, don't tell anybody anything personal, don't ever tell them about your finances, you know, don't tell them about your family. It was a very like that was instilled in me at a very early age. My dad was a really, really private man his entire life and so I couldn't even imagine getting around guys and being vulnerable. I was even taught that's less than manly. You're not vulnerable, you're not transparent. Man up, shake the dust off, don't do it again, move on. That was the kind of thing. It wasn't that my dad was doing anything wrong, it was just the era by which he was raised. You know, he was born, you know, 1930. So you know, men looked at things a little differently then, not saying it was bad or better now, but there was an era there that generation was raised. You was raised really, really hard. So my dad obviously kind of taught me that and to have them to know every dark corner in my life, it scared me to death. I started thinking about man. What would they think? Would they respect me anymore? Like, would they even like me? Like if I were to share something? This was the thoughts that were going through my head.

Speaker 2: 14:34

When this guy here in Nashville invited me to join his group, I was like golly, all these thoughts were just racing through my head and I started thinking, well, what if they find out that I don't have every base covered, like every area of my life? And I thought I've got debt, you know, and one of the guys in the group was anti-debt, he didn't want to have any debt whatsoever and I was like he's going to find out that Robin and I have a mortgage and we have other rental property with mortgage, you know, on it. What if they find out that I hadn't done a good job saving for the future? Like I didn't contribute to my 401k every year, or my SEP plan is like some years I've struggled financially and it was like I didn't contribute. Am I going to be looked down upon?

Speaker 2: 15:23

And there was blind spots in my life. Like I knew what blind spots were, but I had some of them and one of them was like scaling my business. It was like I don't really know the next right thing, but I had some of them and one of them was like scaling my business. It was like I don't really know the next right thing, but I'm going to fake it till I make it. That was my mindset. It was like, eventually I'll figure it out if I just keep doing the work. And then there was a period of time that I was talking to Robin about this, before I actually went to this mastermind and joined. She said why don't you just try it? And I did, and I was really quiet, wally, for about three months. I mean, I just sat there and which is hard to believe.

Speaker 1: 16:01

I'm not going to lie.

Speaker 2: 16:02

I know you have to believe it, though, because it's true. I've come out of my shell since then.

Speaker 2: 16:08

But, I was. But I was thinking about you know how embarrassed I would be if they'd asked me a question that I didn't know the answer to. Or how embarrassed would I be if I had to tell them, hey, I've been a business owner but I don't have the cash flow to cover all of my obligations. Like, how am I going to feel if they were to talk about those kind of things? Or there was a point in my business career I was over leveraged, like man. One bad mistake happened in the rental market and all the cards would come tumbling down and I was like, do I really want to face that? Do I want to tell these guys that that was going on? But then I had to be honest with myself and I had to really own the fact that being in business for yourself can be really lonely. And that's where I was at.

Speaker 2: 17:04

I was in a spot. You know there was a convergence of a number of travesties going on in my life. I was dealing with a real personal situation with Robin. I just had an automobile accident where I ran over and killed a pedestrian. I had a business that was doing okay, but not as good as I'd hoped, and I felt that weight and I thought if there's any opportunity to be able to work through these things, now may be the best opportunity and quite honestly and I don't say this tongue-in-cheek I really think it saved my marriage and it saved my business career, because I was willing to go in and say I've tried everything else and it's not worked out the way I'd hoped and maybe this will work, and I just want to be honest that that's two and a half decades ago Now. It probably saved those two things my marriage and it saved my career.

Speaker 2: 18:04

So, yeah, masterminds are really been a game changer for me and I thought, you know, it would be cool if we really talked about what a mastermind was to people that are unfamiliar with it and who's it for, like is that for you? And then why does it even matter? Anyway, I called a guy the other day and was talking to him and we were talking through some of these things and I said it's difficult to explain, like cause we deal with the whole person. You do get in some masterminds in their niche specific or their business specific, and it's like okay, I can explain that. But when you get in and you're talking about developing the whole man, like, how can we describe that? And a couple of days later the phone rang and I looked down and there was a guy Stephen Jones lives down in Jacksonville, florida, a good friend of yours, a good friend of mine, been in ISI for a long time and he said, hey, big A, how's it going? I said, hey, it's going good. He said I want to share a few things with you and I said, yeah, sure, what is it? He said I was asked a question by Matt Kinnaman, one of the facilitators in ISI recently, what ISI has done for him.

Speaker 2: 19:17

He said it was a very pointed question. He said what do you mean? He said, no, I mean specifically, how has ISI changed your life? And he said he had heard other guys make comments. He said, but I wanted to give some thought to it and he did. And he summarized it this way, which I thought was genius he said ISI, mastermind, shortens the learning curve of life. And I was like what did you say? And he repeated it again and I said, oh my gosh, like that's exactly what it does. I said I'm going to steal that. I'll give you credit the first time, but after that I'll own it. And he started laughing and I thought, man, that is going to be a topic that we're going to dive into today a little bit. And so, yeah, so that's what Masterminds I thought was going to be, and it proved to be something totally different.

Speaker 2: 20:13

You know, when I start thinking about some of the questions that I asked myself early on, I thought it hasn't really changed. You know that we still deal with the same things, whether we're dealing with a widget that we're selling or a service that we're providing. I started thinking about what are some of the questions that I ask myself that maybe our audience here at View From the Top is asking themselves. And I thought am I stuck wondering how to effectively grow my business? And that was top of mind for me, you know, it was something really important to me because I was stuck in a sense, and so for me, that was one of the questions. What about you, wally? Is there a specific question that you were asking yourself when you were exploring getting involved in the mastermind?

Speaker 1: 21:03

Yeah, for me, the number one thing was like I was a leader of my business. You know, I'd had a business at that point, the first, when I first started thinking about these types of groups and got in those earlier ones. It didn't work out. It was probably 2012, a couple of years, you know, before I joined the ISI Mastermind in 2016. And I'd had my business since 2003,. Really since 2005 that I went all in, so it hadn't been seven years, you know, and I'm like man, like I'm at the top of the food chain here as far as like you can't, you know, I can go home and go back. What's happening is I'd go to Bible studies and I try to bring some of these things up and they just look at me like deer in the headlights. I have no idea what you're talking about. It doesn't make any sense. Well, their answer was something really stupid, you know, like wow, just write it off. I'm like it's just how it works. I thought you heard that before and then-.

Speaker 2: 22:05

How many times do we do that, though we go into an environment that they don't have context to where we're at.

Speaker 1: 22:10

You can't possibly give it all.

Speaker 1: 22:12

There's no way you can get good feedback when they don't have any context, yeah, and I'd come home with Sonia and I want to be a leader in our home and I want her to. She's a great counselor, but I didn't want to weigh her down with everything I was dealing with every day. I don't think that was wise. And you know my mom a lot of us, you know, earlier in our careers we default. I love my mom, I default to her.

Speaker 1: 22:42

Her answer in 2005 was don't you dare go into business yourself because you won't have health insurance. I'm like, oh my gosh mom. She actually came and apologized years later. She goes. I'm so glad you went into business for yourself and and but you're are at the top of the of the food chain and you may have, like, I was starting to build a team leaders at that point in 2012 in my business and it was becoming a substantial business. You know millions in revenue and and very healthy profit margins, and so there's a lot of responsibility there. With you know, you grow a team of 40 people and it's a big deal and and I couldn't go to them when some of the things I was dealing with.

Speaker 2: 23:20

Yeah, I mean, you can be transparent with them to a point.

Speaker 1: 23:23

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:23

And then after that, it's not a safe environment, no, it's not the right space for some things.

Speaker 1: 23:29

Right, right, open book stuff, great, I mean I get that Open finance, you know, I get all that, but you just can't, you know you just can't, and so-.

Speaker 2: 23:38

They're biased. They can't help but be biased, and they're gonna make decisions based on what's best for their family. So I felt alone.

Speaker 1: 23:45

I felt alone at the top of the food chain and I didn't have other people that I could consistently trust, right, share with, invest into, hear what they're, hear what they're saying about other other people like in that group. I just I didn't have that and I felt alone. And I know, I knew there was a Bible talks about. You know, there's there's wisdom in a multitude of counselors and and I'm like, okay, well, where do I get this? You know, where is that wisdom?

Speaker 2: 24:19

And yeah, it goes on to say that there's safety. That's right, right In that counsel. One of the things that I had to finally do was do a deep dive personally and be honest with myself. People say, well, just be honest. It's difficult to be honest with yourself and we know things that we're lying to ourself about. It's going to get better. I just keep doing this. Well, I just want to tell you it's not going to get better. If you just keep doing the same thing, you're not going to get different results. And so I had to really do a deep dive and I really recognized that there were things I didn't know and I had to own it.

Speaker 2: 25:02

I don't know what I don't know, and, until I get around, some other people that have experienced it has a different set of filters. They've got different life experience. They've had similar life experiences with business or with children. It's like I got so tickled recently. One of the guys in ISI came to me and he said I'm going to go tell my wife she's going to do this and this. And I said how long have you been married? He said four years and I said well, I've been married 44 years and you do that and your hiding is going to be on the couch tonight, and so my point is is there's some things we don't know? Right, experience has to teach us, or we get around people that's even more competent, that can help us kind of work through those, so owning it, recognizing it.

Speaker 1: 25:48

There's some things I just don't know I was asking myself too, like when I started having wins, I didn't have anybody to share them with. I'm not talking about just the financial wins, like a funny story I heard. I heard somebody I think it was Dave Ramsey talk about one time like these milestones, right, that they did in their business and they would do something or whatever. So for me it was I was going to, I was going to get a Mont Blanc pen. When I hit a million dollars in sales and a million dollars came in. I never got a pen. So $2 million.

Speaker 1: 26:25

I was like, okay, I'm going to get a Mont Blanc. If you guys know, like Mont Blanc pens are like bottom line, like 300 to a grand or more, right. And so at 2 million, I was like, all right, we were in New York city for an event and I was like I'm going to go to Mont Blanc, so I get that. So I did, and I still have it here. It's sitting right here. But anyway, who am I going to tell that to? You spent $1,000 on a pen, right. So you have those moments. And then who's going to be brave enough to say why the heck did you spend $1,000 on a pen? But beside that when it comes to family things like I remember there was a guy in my Assight Mastermind group- my daughter started getting married and I was all excited.

Speaker 1: 27:11

I'm like, yeah, I'm getting married. And I was sharing that with him and he listened and some of his feedback was how much, uh, how much, how much you guys spend on the wedding? I never had anybody ask me that at church. I love, my church people I love. I was in my church for 22 years in Michigan at that time Like like no no one would have ever asked me that. And when I told him how much, he's like, oh, that seems reasonable. I'm like really Like it's like, yeah, yeah, that seems reasonable. Well, I was expecting something totally different. And so he, he, that's like celebrating with me that we get to do this. I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't a crazy amount of money or anything. That wasn't even the point. The point was, is that, having someone who can celebrate the things with you, that, because there's a common, they get it. You know, they just get it differently than other people.

Speaker 2: 28:15

You know, what's cool is we have a whole celebration service at our live event reading off the wins that people have and people are cheering and the guys that want to can get up and say, hey, we did a million last year in business, we did a million, five this year, or three million or whatever it is, or 500,000 or whatever it is. That's an increase and you're able to share that in an environment where guys celebrate. You don't feel bad, like I shouldn't have shared that. No disrespect to anyone's family, but it's hard to do that with family. It's hard to go into your family you have, you know, brothers and sisters or your mom and dad and say, hey, I just did this or that. It's like, well, they think you're bragging or they're one up in their sibling, and so we've really worked hard to foster that environment that you're able to share those wins. You know, another thing that really was piquing my interest about the time that I gave in and said I'm gonna be involved in a mastermind was that I was starving to death for authentic relationships.

Speaker 1: 29:24

Like it wasn't a facade. What do you mean by authentic?

Speaker 2: 29:26

Yeah, because you go see people, you know we've used church as a couple of examples.

Speaker 1: 29:31

I don't mean to beat up church, I'm not. We love church, I love church.

Speaker 2: 29:35

I've been at my church 30 years.

Speaker 1: 29:36

We're leaders there. Like that's leaders there, it is, it is.

Speaker 2: 29:39

But it's hard to go there without seeing somebody and saying, hey, how you doing, I'm doing good. When there's even a friend of ours right now that's in a really tough spot and he's not going to go there and just share this tough spot because they're not doing life every single week, they're not asking questions, they don't have contacts, they don't know where he's at and you've got to subject yourself to an environment that gives you permission to share these things on a weekly basis and it's just not the framework that's set up outside of these small, closed groups that I'm talking about. And so I was starving for going in and saying you know, right now things suck really bad and me and Robin are not getting along very good and my cashflow is terrible and I've got a grandkid that's doing this and I don't know what I'm going to do and not be looked down upon but given encouragement, them loaning me. You know their courage when.

Speaker 1: 30:38

I don't have any.

Speaker 2: 30:39

I love that I sigh all the way me.

Speaker 1: 30:40

You know their courage when I don't have any.

Speaker 2: 30:41

I love that I say all the way borrow courage, yeah. And so I wanted a place that I could do that. I wanted genuine relationships with people that it's okay to say I'm not okay, and so for 10 years we've been building that culture that guys can go in. There's no mask, there's no pretense, there's no facades. We are who, we are right, and we, hopefully, are the same way in front of each other as we are our families. We're authentic, and so that's one of the things that I was really starving for, that the masterminds gave me or has given me now weekly for 25 years.

Speaker 1: 31:24

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 31:24

That was something that I really really wanted.

Speaker 1: 31:27

I've definitely found meaningful relationships and meaningful connections. I love that word. Meaningful, authentic, genuine, like yeah, bragging on, I mean it's weird in some ways, like bragging on ISI, but dang like the difference.

Speaker 2: 31:43

I think we've got something that's good to brag on.

Speaker 1: 31:46

I see these guys in my own life right, like I could sit here and I actually made a little list and I don't know I'm going to read it off, but like I was thinking about everything from relationally to you know, having those meaningful connections with other men. You know, having those meaningful connections with other men and some of the conversations we've had like you man alive, like I don't, it's not like you're, it's not like you're talking about that to everybody all the time it gives you a place that, when it's appropriate to be able to have deep conversations about intimacy things, potentially with your wife, and like financial struggles and, like you mentioned, things with your kids. And as a business owner or a business leader or an entrepreneur, there is a unique aspect that you bring to your family. There just is. It is unique, it's different than I've done the nine to five thing, and the nine to five thing is great. Like it's great, it has its own unique challenges. So does being a business owner, and so ISI is for Christian business owners, leaders and entrepreneurs, men, and I'm bragging on that man Cause, like I think one of the final things for me of like that I was asking myself was those kinds of questions that you ask yourself, or maybe I discovered it later.

Speaker 1: 33:06

I didn't really know what it was at the time, but it sounds like a prideful thing to say and it's not how I mean it. I think you hear it in good, my motive is right I love being able to give back to guys Like God has allowed me to learn so much from my own mistakes, from my own successes right, raising three daughters that are all married now and out. Right, building a business 100% remotely, doing it well, having a 93% employee retention rate. Over that, 18 years I owned the business. That comes with a lot of hard work and selling.

Speaker 2: 33:44

We need to do an episode on that. It's not.

Speaker 1: 33:47

I'm not saying that like I have all the answers. I just know what God taught me when I learned through that and I'm able to share that with other people, other guys in the same that are going through very similar things, and what I learn. People, we have this thing called man in the middle in our, in our ISI mastermind groups, right, I mean obviously in there. So you know, but it's like every week there's one or two guys, depending on the schedule, that gets to show up and like they get their half an hour, 45 minutes of of like airtime. So you know, if you're being in a group, I'm getting that every, usually every six to eight weeks myself.

Speaker 1: 34:26

Other groups that I've been part of before and I've heard from other people, the groups that they're in. You might get that once a year, you know, and you get it once every like what? Two to three months, two months and I saw, and so some. There's been times when I go to calls and I'll sit there and I might not say hardly anything the whole time because what he's going through I don't have quite that experience or something to say to that other than be encouraging for him or pray for him. But there's somebody else in the group that's really leaning in hard. You know what I'm doing. I'm not on my computer typing something up. You know. Shut my screen off and hide. And no, I'm learning by proxy.

Speaker 2: 35:06

Here's the thing you don't have to go through that. You're learning on his dime, that's right, that's right.

Speaker 1: 35:11

It's so invaluable. It's so invaluable.

Speaker 2: 35:14

And here's the thing is, so much life happens so fast. Now Once a year is not going to get it. Like I got so much stuff happening week to week, like I can't wait for that time. It's like, oh my gosh, you know. What's cool is they all have the group's text threads, whether it's Voxer or one other platform.

Speaker 1: 35:34

We have an iSci app and some use texting yeah, and so they're able to communicate daily.

Speaker 2: 35:41

Many of these guys are literally talking daily through text messaging, asking questions, getting feedback, getting other resources, networking, getting introductions, like it's the very fabric by which we operate daily, and so it's not just that one hour, it's like it's there for your utilization, ongoing all the time. Guys are pouring into you. You know, what's cool, too, is that periodically, we do the monthly focus topics. You know where we bring in phenomenal guests. A lot of them are from within ISI. We have some incredible teachers and educators and speakers and authors and coaches that will come and they'll do a breakout session. They'll have a focus topic that they'll talk about. And we created some really cool tools also. One of them is a scorecard. It's called the Success and Significance Scorecard, where a couple of times a year some guys do it more often, some guys do it once a quarter you can look at everything that you're doing in one fail. You know peak.

Speaker 1: 36:49

All five of those transformation pillars that we have.

Speaker 2: 36:52

Are there and so you can see at a glance, a lot of people say, well, what if guys are not honest? Well, what are you doing in here to begin with? Like, if you're not telling the truth, you're not going to get better, and so you've got to be like, hey, I wish that this were a five, but right now it's a four or it's a three or whatever it is, and I want to aspire to do better and we can look at it. That's the reason that we do this is because we can give you good feedback when we have the context and we have the data to support it.

Speaker 2: 37:25

There was a guy years ago probably eight or nine years ago now, before we started doing the Come as you Will Be program and started doing the scorecard to where, quite honestly, we didn't ask specific questions related to some of his finances and we were giving him horrible advice. For about a year I had to go to him and apologize. After we did the scorecard. I was like you're a train wreck and you're not going to be in a good position here pretty soon if we don't get to the bottom of it. Now the guy's flourishing. For a number of years he's done this process and now he's flourishing. So we've created the tools within the organization to give us good data, so we can give you good information. So it's pretty cool that we've got the tools. Hey, talk about the live events a little bit, wally.

Speaker 1: 38:11

I mean, actually a couple episodes ago we did a whole episode coming out of the live event where we bring. So the EyeSight Mastermind is. We've got you know, in my group, uh, I'm in the gunslingers group there's a groups called a hundred percent co-pilots, true North, like they'll have fun names. Um, there's one, I don't know why they call themselves what they do, but but uh, everybody else has really cool names and and they kind of get around that idea a little bit about you know, uh, with one called the forge. I mean there's some cool stuff, uh, the sages and so.

Speaker 1: 38:45

But I'm in gunslingers and, um, we meet, you know, weekly, uh, via zoom, and then twice a year, spring and the fall we have uh meetups where we get together, not just the, you know, sometimes it's just like this fall actually, it's going to be just our smaller groups. Maybe we'll meet up with another group at a city you know around the country, and we decided on that as a group where we're going to go. But this last spring was and every spring is always the full one where everybody comes. So all the groups, all 15 groups and their guys, like they all come, and not that all of them show up, obviously because of family commitments and things like that sometimes, but the vast majority of the guys I think we had, like I don't know what the percentage was this time it was pretty large, I mean very significant percentage that showed up that came to the live event in the spring.

Speaker 2: 39:34

It was broaching 90%.

Speaker 1: 39:36

Yeah, it was awesome and, man, the relationships are really cemented there. It's cool Like the first you know I've been in eight years eight years in October and the first few years that I that I went, I felt like it get to reconnect with some relationships and, you know even some business partners that I've made over the years and invested some money and, you know, get to connect with those guys that are in person and, without having to travel, you know who knows where to see them.

Speaker 2: 40:17

The opportunities it presents is phenomenal also because there's like deal flow. It's like, hey, you get an opportunity to hear what they're working on. People are going in partners together, they're doing business together, they're buying real estate together. There's so many opportunities you and I both personally have gotten involved with some ISI guys that we wouldn't have had that opportunity had we not been in this group. One of the things that I failed to mention, often related to the live event, is that currently we pay for the live event.

Speaker 1: 40:49

It's part of your dues. This is rare. It's so unique that doesn't happen anywhere else that I'm aware of.

Speaker 2: 40:54

I don't know of anybody else that does that, but all you got to do is get there. And then we pick up the hotel, we pay for all the food, we pay for the event, we pay for the speakers, we pay for the breakout sessions, we pay for everything. All you got to do is get there. And I told that to a guy today that's joining and he was joining and he didn't even know that you got to stop telling people. He's like yeah, I know, I know. But he was like, oh my gosh, are you kidding me? And I said no. I said what's pretty cool is hundreds and hundreds of guys later, the vast majority say the live events alone are worth what the dues are annually, and there's so, so much more than that.

Speaker 1: 41:32

Hey, quick question. Quick question for you. Yeah, so you know we're talking about all the good things. What and there's tons of good things what are some of the challenges like in a whether it's an ISI, mastermind or other groups? Like, what are some of the things that guys like? Well, you're saying all this rosy stuff, right, it can't be that good Like, what are some of those challenges that that we have inside ISI or other groups have?

Speaker 2: 41:59

Yeah, you know, one of the things for me that I haven't really figured out yet, and we're working on it as a team. It centers around accountability, and a lot of people misuse that terminology. It's really nobody can make you do anything, right? You've got to show yourself accountable, right? That's what we're doing. Yourself accountable, right, that's what we're doing. Some guys will say, hey, I don't need any accountability, and I've stopped debating that and used to. I was really angry, if you will not like terrible, but I was like why don't you fill out this digital tool Every week? It heightens your awareness to where you're at, keeps it at the forefront of your mind Just context to the other guys that are in your group.

Speaker 2: 42:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and that's for me the most important thing is like I'm heightening my own awareness by writing it down like I need to do better at this. The other thing is that on the call, you don't have time to go over every single thing with every single guy, and it's like it gives you an overview.

Speaker 2: 43:02

Yeah, that'd be terrible, yeah single guy and it's like it gives you an overview. That'd be terrible, yeah, and it's like there was a guy recently filled his out and I wouldn't have known this, but he and his wife weren't in a real good spot and he put it on the accountability tool. He said my wife and I've not been in a good spot recently and I just thought I needed to mention it and I was able to call him afterwards and actually found out they were worse than he was portraying on that document and I was able to kind of work through that with him. They got help, they got some counseling, they got back on track, but I wouldn't have known it had he not filled it out that particular week. Right, and so that's a challenge, though, because a lot of the guys they don't want to take the time to fill it out and I keep saying the guys that do it are having more success because they're showing up accountable. Other guys are able to ask and so, yeah, I would say that's one of the challenges.

Speaker 2: 43:56

I wish that there was a higher percentage of guys and I'll be honest with you and you've seen this to be true since I've stopped preaching about it it seems like that the level of participation is increasing and guys are having more success, and I guess maybe it's a lesson. To me, it's like lead through example and demonstrate. You do it and I do it every week and it works. And so, yeah, it's working good. So what about you? What's a challenge for you?

Speaker 1: 44:21

Yeah, I think that you know when you think about in the mastermind. So in the ISI Brotherhood we have the ISI community. We've had well, let me back up for a second. We've had the ISI mastermind for a long time and then a couple of years ago we added the ISI Summit, which is actually just a. So the Summit is a like once a year, a weekend, um, deep dive, uh, eight guys only for the weekend.

Speaker 1: 44:48

Uh, there's some criteria to get there, certain business things, because we what we've found is that some guys in ISI were raising their hand saying, hey, like the weekly stuff is great, I'm going to continue doing that, but there's a, there's a specific problem that that I'm looking to solve and can we get more of these guys from the IS, from the ISI, all the groups that that can come in Like? And so we did that and that's been awesome the last couple of years, huge, huge leaps, uh, at that event, um, and that's a. That's a more costly event, right For that that weekend. But then the mastermind is kind of in the middle. That's a weekly commitment, um, and then you get the live events with that, and then just recently, actually last week well, it's been a little while longer now because we're recording a couple of weeks at a time, but we recently launched the ISI, relaunched the ISI community, and that is a man. I'm excited about that, but it's a-.

Speaker 2: 45:38

It's taken off too. It's pretty cool.

Speaker 1: 45:41

It's a lower price point, so it's $150, $149 or less and uh, depending on what offer you get at a time. So we, we watch them for that, if you're listening to this, um and uh, it's, uh, it's. We still focus around those five transformational pillars. But some guys we were talking to were like man, I just can't commit to, like once, you know, once a week. Um, we're like man, well, we could create a similar environment. It's not like the mastermind exactly, but it's close in the sense that it like delivers, uh, the value similar to a mastermind, but doesn't in a, in a monthly format, and so it's 90 minutes once a month. And we've already guys are like oh, I can totally do that, like that makes sense, the price point's right.

Speaker 2: 46:23

Um and uh yeah, so we're excited about that. We're excited about that. That's cool.

Speaker 1: 46:27

Yeah, that that coming out and uh, so that's what we do inside, but not every week in the mastermind. The question was not every week in the mastermind that I'm in my call is every week like at home, run right, there'll be maybe a week here or or once a month or maybe two weeks in a row sometimes where you're just like huh, like that was an okay call, but you know, the guy didn't really come prepared that that time and um, or maybe his topic wasn't, you know, just didn't resonate with it and there wasn't. Uh, it's just something you know, and then they'll be like the next week.

Speaker 2: 47:01

And it's just like game changer.

Speaker 1: 47:05

Game on Whether that's in your finances, your business, your family, your relationship with your wife, your ability to minister and serve in your local church.

Speaker 2: 47:20

It's just so good I'm glad we share that with people too, wally, because we don't want to paint a picture that your life is going to do a 180 in 30 days and every call is amazing, like this is reality of dealing with real people. But when you do the reps, long-term the benefits that you get are phenomenal. It's a game changer in every aspect of your life personally, professionally, spiritually but it doesn't happen overnight. We don't want to mislead anybody to think, oh yeah, in 30 days I'm going to be a new guy launching a new business. That's not realistic and that's not authentic. That's not genuine. It takes time to build these relationships and it takes time for guys to get to know you and it takes time for you to build the courage to be as vulnerable and transparent as I'm talking about. You don't go in day one doing those things. We give trust and we earn your trust and then you give it back, and so it takes a period of time to do that, like if you were to quantify for the audience today who ISI is for.

Speaker 1: 48:26

How would you position that? We kind of say this even in the opening of the podcast, but we've been even narrowing it down even more lately, so that serving who we feel God's called us to serve, and that's the important distinction. People say, well, why do you only do this or why do you do that or why do you use that word? Because this is what God's called us to do. Like I'm not going to argue, we've tried arguing with that and it doesn't work out well. And so really leading into growth-minded men, growth-minded Christian businessmen, whether they're business owners, leaders in a business or entrepreneurs like that, that's pretty much like the, that's who at the core level, that's who we're for and who we feel we've been able to, called to be able to help, and and those are the guys that we've seen the greatest life changing over time as well.

Speaker 2: 49:26

You know, you think about it. It's people that are trying to really catch up and level up. They're trying to scale their business. They're aspirational, they're like they don't want to be status quo, they don't want to be average. You know, my mom used to say you're just as close to the bottom as you are the top when you're average. And these guys don't want to be average. They want to level up with their wife. They want to level up with their kids. They want to grow their business. They want to be a good steward over the resources that God's entrusted them with. They don't want to do it average. And so these are guys that really want to go forward. They really want to level up.

Speaker 2: 50:05

Why does it even matter? Anyway? You're like big A, I get it, I know who it's for, I understand ISI and like I understand who it is that you serve. But like, why does it even matter? Anyway? I just want to tell you you can go much, much further together than you can go alone, and I've proven that to be true over the course of my career. The first 20 years I did it wrong, I tried to do it alone, and I just want to tell you straight up that you can go way further when you're authentic, you're transparent, you're vulnerable to other guys, you have people around you that you can subject yourself to their scrutiny at a very, very deep level. And so I just want to tell you why it matters is because it's going to change the trajectory of your life.

Speaker 2: 50:52

It also matters because now you're purpose-driven. It's not that you're acting reactively, you're acting proactively. You're like what do we want? Where do we want to go? Why do we want to go there? What are we going to do when we get there? There's a purpose behind your activity. It's not just simply reacting. The other thing is that you get to do life with aligned type people businessmen, other husbands, fathers, husbands, fathers.

Speaker 2: 51:25

I can't even begin to tell you the success that the men have had as a result of being around other people, that they did learn through their mistake and they were able to go home and say I'm not going to repeat that, like, I'm going to do it differently, and the results are going to be way better.

Speaker 2: 51:37

And so it's being able to constantly get information from other people that have different life experiences. Listen, the perspective from other people could be one of the most valuable assets in the mastermind completely, because you can only see it one way. You've only had one life experience, you've only done this one way, and even if you wanted to think it differently, you couldn't, until someone else introduces you to that perspective. Now you've got this banded together trusted advisors that are striving towards success and significance at a whole nother level, and so for me, those are some of the reasons that it really matters. Anyway, robin says I'm a much better husband, dad and granddad when I'm around these trusted advisors. So those are for me, wally just a few, anything come to mind as we end up today, anything else the reason it matters.

Speaker 1: 52:38

I've heard you say this before. I don't know if you just I don't think I heard you just say this, but it's resonated with me, since I heard you say it years ago and the older I get, the more true it becomes Is that we get one shot.

Speaker 2: 53:00

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 53:02

We get one shot at this we get one shot at this and I know in earlier seasons of my life when I wasn't involved and connected, engaged with guys that I trust on an ongoing basis, that I made some terrible mistakes and I still get to choose today these guys are not my governor on an ongoing basis that I made some terrible mistakes and.

Speaker 1: 53:29

I still get to choose today. These guys are not my governor they're not, but they're my sounding board and I know that I got to hold myself accountable. These. I've been married 30, going on 31 years this year. I'm a little behind you, but I want it to to be 44 and I want to do it with excellence. I've got, uh, three daughters and three awesome son-in-laws.

Speaker 1: 53:51

Now that that, uh, I, I I texted them this morning. Um, I just want to read this. The only reason I texted this was because of ISI. I never would have done this. There's no way I ever would have done this without ISI. So I texted, I said Morning, sons, I'm abiding with God this morning, thinking of each of you praising God for his goodness, his forgiveness, his grace and mercy. Lots going in each of your lives right now Big transitions, challenges and blessings. Remember who you are today. You're a child of the one true king. You have the rights and privileges of being a son of the kingdom. Who are you showing up as today? A loved, forgiven heir of the kingdom of heaven or downtrodden stuck in the ditch? Woe is me vessel of fear. Choose well this day. Love you, man.

Speaker 2: 55:00

Wally, you're so right man, it's not a trial run. We got one shot and we got to do it right. Listen, guys, if you're looking to level up in the five pillars of your life, I want to tell you straight up we can help you. We're only looking for men that want to do the work to live a more fulfilling and purposeful and meaningful life. If that's you, please reach out. We want to help you enjoy your view from the top.

Speaker 1: 55:36

Easiest way to reach us here at View From the Top. If you're interested at all in Iron Charm, iron Community, mastermind or Summit, you can email us at pod P-O-D at viewfromthetopcom. You can go to our website. There's multiple forms there and all the different areas that we just talked about. Man, we would love to hear from you guys. Please reach out, see how we can help, see how we can be a fit in your life and you might be a fit for ISI, and we will see you next week.