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♪ Got to sort of tell 'em ♪ Two destinations, one loyalty card. Visit yamava.com/palms to discover more. Today on Radical Personal Finance, I have an interview with Aaron Walker, serial entrepreneur and coach, and all around good guy. I think you're going to gain some words of wisdom about living a life of significance.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) Welcome to the Radical Personal Finance Podcast. My name is Josh Rischitz and I'm your host. Thank you for being with me today. Sorry for being away from the mic for so long. A couple of details in just a moment. It's going to be interview central around here, but don't fear, interviews are good, even though I don't love the show to be just interviews.

Today's a good one. You're going to hear from a guy who's got a long history of experience with entrepreneurialism, and even cooler, he's actually in a mastermind group with Mr. Dave Ramsey himself, which leads to some interesting content. (upbeat music) I had the opportunity to meet Aaron out at Podcast Movement in Fort Worth, Texas recently.

I had not known him previously, but we got to talk in there, and I immediately invited him on the show after hearing a little bit about his story. He's a really neat guy, and just the kind of guy that I love to learn from. He is, well, you'll hear in just a moment his story, but again, multi-entrepreneur in various businesses.

Tried to retire a couple times, now works in coaching, and as I just mentioned, very interesting guy. Especially, he's in a study group, or mastermind group, whatever you want to call it, with a couple of well-known people, but of special interest to this audience, Mr. Dave Ramsey and also Mr.

Dan Miller, two people that seem to come up on the show quite often, two names that we often hear on the Radical Personal Finance Podcast for various reasons. Before I play the interview for you, though, about 120 seconds of just a couple quick comments on the show. You'll have to forgive me for being absent from the mic for a few days here.

(laughs) Life's been a bit nuts recently, and just the challenges with our working with our little baby girl and helping her out. It's just been really a challenge. If I were working in a traditional corporate job, I would definitely have had to put in some time and take some time off from work the last few weeks just to keep my family steady and balanced, and so that's what I'm doing, and I apologize.

Then it seemed like problems on top of problems, so dealing with sick kids and sick dogs and getting the house sold, and I've been about at my limit, but it's all good. Working through it is just requiring a little bit of adjustment, and also I'm going to be heading out of town next week up to the XYPN financial planning conference where I'll be speaking, and also the FinCon in Charlotte, North Carolina, where I'll also be speaking.

So I have two speaking engagements next week, and then I'll also have a speaking engagement here in South Florida on Saturday evening. So with all of those things put together, I apologize I haven't been able to get the show done, and then tech problems. At the moment, I've just had to rebuild the computer, and we'll see if we can get it done to even get this show posted.

So what I've decided to do is I don't like to do just interviews. I personally like to have a mix of interviews in some of the podcasts I listen to, and I like to bring you guys some interviews, but also commentary. I like to bring you the Q&A shows.

I like to bring you the technical financial planning content. That type of content has been conspicuously absent over the show in the last couple of weeks, so please bear with me. Be patient with me. I'm working hard to get it better and to get things back. That's the show that I want to create, but rather than leave you with no content, I'm going to be releasing and scheduling here and releasing interviews over the next couple of weeks lined up.

Then if I can go ahead and get some of the other shows done, I will slide them into the queue, but at the moment, I've got my family out on a walk right now, which gives me a quiet house to be able to record and batch a bunch of intros and outros, and so that's what I'm doing at the moment.

So get ready for a flood of interviews over the next couple of weeks, and they're all good. They're all different. They're all good, so just listen to the intro, and hopefully there'll be a bunch of them that you want to check out. I anticipate somewhere around that last week of September and first week or first few days-- last few days of September and first few days of October, being able to get the show back into the normal ebb and flow.

We'll see how things go at home. We'll see if I can get into that regular rhythm. That's my goal, and that's what I'm working towards. So far, so good. Just still working hard to streamline life so that I can get the business and the show to where I want it to be.

So thank you all for your patience. I don't often get on the show and just record quick podcast interviews-- or excuse me, episodes with those quick updates. If you're interested in that kind of information, feel free to connect with me on Facebook. Just search Joshua Sheets on Facebook or go to facebook.com/joshuasheets, and that's where I post a lot of that personal information and be happy to have you connected with me personally.

And that's it except for just one final note. Thank you to those of you who have made the time to write me a quick note, just a note of encouragement over the last few days. I've appreciated each and every one of them. I feel so guilty when I'm not in front of the mic delivering content.

I don't know if I should or shouldn't, but I do. I do feel guilty. In the last few days, it's been sparse. And so thank you from the notes from several of you who have simply said, "Joshua, we get it. We understand. Keep going." So be back. Again, look forward to the interviews, but also we will be back to the show ebb and flow the way that I want it to go as quickly as possible.

So with that, let's get to the interview. Here is the interview from Podcast Movement with Mr. Aaron Walker. Aaron Walker, welcome to Radical Personal Finance. Thanks, Joshua. Appreciate you having me on, man. When we met yesterday here at the conference, I immediately knew that I was interested in some of your perspective for Radical Personal Finance.

This is a personal finance show, but I've noticed in my time dealing with personal finance and also as a financial advisor that finance is driven by the technical decisions that people make, but it's also often largely driven by the overall decisions, the life decisions, the direction, the clarity, the focus, the motivation.

So I wanted to invite you on to share with us some of the insights that you gleaned from your years of living. I'd like you to start with a little bit of your professional resume and background, but give us the non-modest version so we can get an idea of where you're coming from.

I know it'll be hard, but give us the non-modest version. Oh, no, man. Listen, thank you. I will give you a little bit of my backstory. I'm a native Nashvilleian, Nashville, Tennessee. At 13 years old, I started helping my dad in the construction industry, and we remodeled a pawn shop in Madison, Tennessee, about 11 miles north of Nashville.

And a guy named Herb Berry hired me on the spot at 13 years old to help clean up the store after school, and so I started that process. When I was 15 years old, I found out I loved that business. I went to summer school and night school, had enough credits in the end of the 10th grade to graduate high school, so I didn't even have to go my junior and senior year.

Met a couple of guys that had a lot of money. They owned the 21st largest insurance company in the nation at the time, Property & Casualty, and they were buying diamonds and gold from me to kind of hedge inflation. At 18 years old, I went back to Herb Berry, and I said, "Listen, will I ever own part of this company?" He said, "No way, not a chance." And so I went to these guys and said, "Let's take your money, my experience, open our own pawn shop." And they said, "How old are you?" And I said, "I'm 18 years old." He said, "I can't believe you're approaching me at 18 years old to open a business." I came from a very humble background.

My dad never made over $15,000 a year in his life. I know all about being poor. We lived in an 800-square-foot house, four kids, two adults, and it was tough, just to be honest. My mom used to put canned goods in the pantry during the summer and nail a board over them so we'd have things in the winter.

So I'm all about knowing what coming from a poor environment is. And it gave me a lot of inspiration to do better. And so we went to the bank. We borrowed $150,000 in 1978, which was a lot of money, Joshua, in today's dollars. It was a lot of money then.

It's still a lot of money. So we paid off a 10-year loan in 36 months. God really blessed our business, and it was just phenomenal. At 21, I saved the money. We bought another store, and it did equally as well. So I bought my third store when I was 25.

At 26, I opened my fourth store. A company called Cash America came along there in Fort Worth, Texas, actually where we're at today. And they made me an offer I couldn't refuse, so I was done at 27 years old. I thought I'd made the best decision of my life.

It ended up maybe one of the worst. But I sold my business for enough money to retire, take it easy, and I became extremely bored because I had no purpose. There was no meaning in my life. I gained 50 pounds in 18 months. I was getting in the bed in the middle of the day, and my wife come woke me up one day, and she said, "Man, you've got to do something else." So I went back to Barry's, remember the place I told you I was never going to own?

Made him an offer, bought 50% of the business. We spent the next 10 years growing that business. We took it to another level. And then, Joshua, my life changed forever. 2001, August 1, I was headed to the office, and I hit a pedestrian crossing the street. And at that moment, I didn't know that the paradigm shift of my life would change, not to focus on success but to focus on significance.

And so I went back to my partner, and I said, "I'm done. I'm retired. I'm through. I'm finished. I'm through chasing the money." Sold him the business. Did they die? They did. He didn't make it. He lived three days in the Vanderbilt trauma unit, and it rocked my world.

Wow. So I took off the next five years, and we traveled extensively. I built a new house. I had to have a change of scenery. And for the second time, my wife said, "Okay, you've rested long enough. Win the construction business." Spent eight years in it. We took it to number one builder three consecutive years over an eight-year period.

And then at 50, I retired. For my third and final time, I said, "I'm done." I said, "I've retired more than the law allows." And I started coaching. And I'm in a mastermind group with Dave Ramsey and Dan Miller and Ken Abraham, some of those notable Nashvillians. And for 20 years, Dave and I have been friends, and Dan Miller is my personal coach for 15 years.

And he said, "Man, you've got too much experience to sit down. You've got to coach." So I started View From the Top. Now I spend each and every day coaching men, helping them to become extraordinary. And I've got clients all over the world. I have Iron Sharpens Iron mastermind groups in the community, which we have guys that belong to that.

And that's what I do now. And I'm having more fun, Joshua, now than I've ever had in my life. And I'm helping guys to excel in their personal lives. It's kind of a Nashville cohort of, I say men. Maybe there's some women there, but most of them are men.

There's almost a Nashville cohort of men that seem to be all connected with one another. And so it's Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller, Michael Hyatt, Ken Abraham, some of these guys, and there's more, that just seem to really be connected and all really active in the business world. Are you able to, since maybe you're a little closer to that, why?

Yeah, I don't know. There's a culture in Nashville of entrepreneurs. Recently, the Frist and the Ingrams and some of the local institutions there have started the Entrepreneur Center, a very, very nice center. And there's been about 400 highly successful businesses come out of that. And I know their strategy, they want the companies to remain in Nashville, and so they've put up the money.

It cost $150 to join the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. It's full of coaches, any type of help you need at all, it's there. I'm a member of that as well. But there is a culture there of being able to be a servant leader, if you will, to others. And so we're all about helping each other to grow your business.

And the reciprocity out of that comes naturally when it's not all about yourself to help others, that they want to help you. And so we have built a culture in Nashville of enabling and helping other people to propel their business. And Nashville, quite honestly, is just a mecca now for entrepreneurs.

When you think back to--in your story that you shared, it's unusual for an 18-year-old to be involved in the business that you're involved in and to take those steps. Are you able to identify anything in your character, in your early training from your parents, that any factors at all that contributed to your willingness to press the bonds of what was normal?

You know, my mom was a real catalyst in my thinking, my early development, because there was this little saying, Joshua, that she would say, "Can't, couldn't do it, and could did it all." And I grew up under that and have kind of made it a life mantra for me to think, "Why not me?" I mean, there's no reason I can't do this.

I mean, those guys just know something I don't, so we've got to figure it out. And through grit, determination, and perseverance, there's so many things that we can do. The trouble is, Joshua, you know as well as I do, people don't want to put out the effort. But if you're willing to put out the effort--a lot of people say to me now, you know, "Yeah, well, sure, I would be in a mastermind group too if I could be with Dave Ramsey or Dan Miller or Ken Abraham." But those guys weren't what they are now 20 years ago.

And so we got in there and figured it out. We grew our businesses together, and I just want to encourage the people to get the trusted advisors around them that will give you a non-biased approach that you'll get an honest answer. If you ask your wife something, she's going to kind of err on the side of what you want to do.

Your dad's going to kind of tell you what you want to do. But when you have somebody that doesn't have skin in the game, somebody that can give you an honest, non-biased answer, now we're talking about somebody being totally honest with you. And that's been a real, real catalyst for my success is having those guys around me to tell me the truth.

Did you know Dave back in the very early days when he was, you know, on just the one local station? I started with Dave. He was on one station. I heard Dave speak at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast in 1995. I went up and introduced myself, never heard of him, invited him to my store.

He came and looked at it. He said, "This is exactly the kind of store that I want to advertise on my show." And I said, "No, thank you. I'm not advertising. I've never even heard of you. You're on one station here in Nashville. No, thank you." And he said, "Listen, I'll give you a week of advertising if you'll just try me." And I thought, "Well, that's a no-brainer.

You can't lose on that deal." So I signed up for a free week, and in three days, Joshua, my business absolutely exploded. There was such an air or a need for this type of talk that Dave was doing to get out of debt, and he was really promoting my store.

I signed an annual contract for a year worth of advertising, and we've been on his show now every day for the past two decades, either a company I own or have owned previously. I've owned eight companies. And so we've been on his show every day. I was his second advertiser.

As a result of that, Dave and I are very close friends now, been in mastermind together. We've been together 20 years now. So yeah, now he's got 800 radio stations. He's got 8 million listeners. It's amazing. He's done phenomenal, and I've got to see behind the curtain. And I'm releasing a book in the spring, and it's called "An Eagle's View," and it's about my experience with the Eagles--that's the name of our group--for the past decade.

When you look back, I'm just interested because you're the closest. I was a longtime fan of Dave Ramsey, and he really was an encouragement to me in my financial life. When I was in college, I first came across his book, "Total Money Makeover." It was a gift from my brother who listened to his show.

At that time, I was kind of a brash, arrogant young man. It was shocking. We all go through that, right? You wouldn't have me on your show 20 years ago. It was like, "Who is this guy?" I was a business major, and I thought I had all my big plans to be a big Fortune 500 CEO, and I was all into other people's money and real estate.

I read the book and thought, "This guy's an idiot." And then I read it again, and I was like, "This guy's dumb." And then I read it again, and I said, "You know what?" It really captured my vision to say, "If I didn't have any payments, how much money would I have?" And so all through college, that was my junior year of college, somewhere between that point in time.

My junior year of college, I decided to get out of debt. And so my senior year of college, I had a full-time job, worked like a crazy man, took 19 hours of class to finish my college, cash flowed my senior year of tuition. And then two weeks before I graduated, I wrote a check to Sally Mae for all my student loans.

You kicked Sally Mae out of the house. That's what that is. Exactly. You kicked her out. I did. Good for you. That was awesome. And so for all that time, I was doing a job where I was doing some graphical work on the computer, and I would just play the three-hour podcast of his show every day, and it was an encouragement and a continual source of encouragement to me.

And then after that, I actually would teach financial piece of university to other people. And so I was really engaged in his community. It was an encouragement to me. Years went by, I went into the financial planning business, and it was actually even still an encouragement to me in starting Radical Personal Finance.

Radical Personal Finance exists because I feel like, well, we need more options. Once people are done with, okay, get out of debt, start a budget, we need something more. And so he's kind of a hero, kind of a nemesis, kind of I think of him as a friendly competitor.

He doesn't know I exist, but it's kind of fun. He will after this interview because I'll tell him. But what fascinates me is just the process of success. It's the reason I'm probing. You're the closest I've ever been to him, and I'm interested as much as you're willing to share.

When he started, did he have a long-term vision? Did he expect what he has built now, or was it kind of one step lead to another, and he kind of fell into it? How much it was planned versus -- Yeah, Dave is very, very thought out. I want to say first and foremost about him, you know, Dave can be brash.

You know, we all know that. That's no secret. But because he tells the story like it is. He doesn't candy-coat it. He doesn't have time to beat around the bush, so he just says it. But the truth of the matter is he is a man of character. He's honest to a fault.

The man is absolutely living proof that you can take nothing. You know, he bankrupt 20 years ago. I don't know that he even publicizes this, but we had a real celebration several years ago in his office. He came in one morning on a Wednesday. We met every Wednesday in his conference room, and he came in.

He kind of did his arms up in there, and he said, "Well, I made my last payment today." I said, "Payment? What is that about?" He said, "No, it's not a debt." He said, "I went back and paid off everybody I bankrupted on." And you know what? Maybe I'll get in trouble for telling this story.

I don't know if that's public or not. But, you know, he didn't have to do that, and that was a lot of money. And he went back and made it whole with all the people that he bankrupted on. Well, to me, that speaks highly to his character. He's also generous to a fault.

People have no idea what he gives away and how he helps people. And I can just recite countless times that he's done things that he didn't have to do. So I've so enjoyed living my life with him for two decades now, seeing what's behind the curtain, seeing the guy that's really there.

It's a lot of show business to all of our businesses. Of course. But behind the scenes, Dave's the real deal. And so I just want to mention that, first of all. Second of all, he is so well thought out. He really, really exhausts the possibilities of what things could be and couldn't.

And so, no, I wouldn't say--you know, we all have things that happen that we can't explain, obviously. But he is very deliberate in everything that he does to answer your question. I appreciate you sharing that. And I--whether it's secret or not, it just--that makes a world of difference because I've struggled with that question.

My grandfather did the same thing. My grandfather, he was a farmer, and then he got into the road clearing business, road creating business. And he got himself with a business partner into a deal in Texas. They signed up for a contract. And what they didn't count on was the quality of the dirt destroyed their equipment.

And in order to finish the job, they destroyed all their equipment. He went deeply into debt to buy more equipment and finished it. His partner walked away, and then my grandfather spent the next--I don't know how many years, maybe 30, 40 years paying that debt back. And he finally finished it when he was in his, I think, about 70s.

I'd have to ask my mom for the exact dates. But to me, that spoke so much of the character of a man, and I've always admired that. And I think, you know, personally--I don't share this much on the show because it's pretty countercultural, but I believe personally that from a biblical perspective, you know, Scripture teaches to pay your debts.

And in the Old Testament, it was if you stole from somebody, the instruction was to go and to repay that with interest. And so I've always--I don't put that on other people. I'm trying to stay clear of bankruptcy court myself. But I've often thought that that is the mark of character is, all right, bankruptcy exists for a reason, but there's a time in life, if God changes your heart, go back and pay your debts.

And whether that's a token amount or whether it's an amount with interest, that's up to you. It's not the law of the land, but in my mind, it's a good moral principle to follow. Yeah, you know, Dave's a man of faith, and so he feels the same way. And so that's exactly what he's done.

And, you know, I want to talk a little bit more about this Mastermind group. It's been one of the catalysts to my success, being surrounded with guys like Dan Miller, 48 Days to the Work You Love, Ken Abraham. Ken's got about seven or ten, number one New York Times bestsellers, got 100 books in print.

And being around those guys for two decades and seeing the quality that they are, the honesty and the integrity, it's really, really helpful in promoting your own personal business and the way you see things. And, you know, we have all heard, you know, the five people that you're around the most, that's what you're going to be an average of.

And there's nothing more true than that. And so it's just been an absolute joy to be with these guys, to experience life, to grow our businesses, and to help empower and encourage one another. So if you're not even in a Mastermind group, you know, it's a plug for Mastermind groups.

Go out there, get in a great group. I'd like to ask you about your advice for, and this is indirectly connected with Ramsey, for dealing with criticism. The man takes more criticism than anything. In fact, I've heaped plenty of criticism on his head. I'll tell you, a year into Radical Personal Finance, I don't have as much criticism as I had when I was a financial advisor and wasn't doing broadcasting.

I've got a lot more understanding of some of the criticism that I put on him in the past. But the toughest thing for me in my journey has been learning how to deal with criticism. Because when you do something that's public and you do something that matters, you're going to pull critics out.

And I would imagine it's not all fun and roses when you're a public figure like he is. Do you have some tips and strategies that you've learned in talking together that you guys have developed for dealing with public criticism? You know, I don't think anybody wants criticism. I don't care who you are, Dave or Dan or myself or you or anyone.

I mean, no one likes criticism. But if you take a public stance, you're going to receive criticism. And people say, "Well, get people that are very diverse around you." You know, if everybody was like you, we wouldn't need one of us, right? You would have just your own thoughts.

But the truth of the matter is that every financial decision that we make or every decision that we make is not a financial decision, even when it's related to money. There are certain things that we want to do. I do things personally now that don't make sense financially, but it's just the way I want to live my life.

And I'm going to do it, and I'm able to do it, or you're able to do it, Joshua or Dave or whoever. So people are going to be critical of that because they have a different lens by which they're looking at your decision. Our life experiences oftentimes will be different, and you'll have a different lens by which you look through.

So we've got to be careful with criticism because you don't know the perspective by which that person is coming from. So I would just say take a stance that you believe in, that you can not straddle the fence. I don't like people to straddle the fence. If you've got a strong position, be tactful and take a strong position the way you see it.

Be able to back it up and support it with either the analytics or personal experiences. Be able to support it. Don't be adversarially just for the sake of being that way. But if you've got a real strong position, take it, and Dave's been able to do that. And I admire that situation.

I've been with him on countless times where he took a very tough stance. You may or may not agree with this. This is the way I see it. He is a Christ follower, so a lot of the things that he does is directly out of the Scripture, and a lot of people are vehemently against that.

And so I just think through life when you're successful and you become a public figure, you're going to take criticism and just take it like a man and stand up and be cordial and polite, but take the criticism. You shared that a turning point in your life was the accident with the pedestrian.

What was missing that caused you to close your business at that time? When I started at 18 years old, I'm like every 18-year-old, I want a big house, a nice car, and all the shiny stuff. And so I just realized that chasing money for that period of time was good, and I did good.

I had the grit and determination, the perseverance. I had all those things in order to get that. But the accident showed me how fragile life is and how quick we can absolutely be taken out. So I told you earlier my dad never made over $15,000 a year in his life.

My dad died in 2006. My dad loved people. He was all about relationships. So I stood at the casket in 2006, and the line started at 2:30 in the afternoon. So the line was to the parking lot. It was an hour and a half wait to see me and my brother and sisters, for people to pay their condolences.

Six and a half hours I stood there. Not one person, Joshua said, "Your dad had a nice boat, a nice house, a nice car." Every person said, "Let me tell you the difference your dad made in my life. Let me tell you what your dad said to impact me.

Let me tell you when your dad was there for me when I needed him." Nobody was interested in the tangible possessions. And I thought, "But we spend 95% of our time, effort, and waking hours gaining more possessions." And the relationships are what are paramount. And so for me, realizing I'd been chasing the dollar instead of having significance in my life, investing in other people that couldn't repay me, or taking time out of my busy schedule to impact the lives of other people, being significant was what was missing.

And so I've dedicated my life since 2001. The paradigm shift has been you can have success, and I'm having as much or more success now financially as I've ever had, but I'm being significant in impacting the lives of others. That's the component that was missing. Could you not do that within that business, though?

Or did you just feel like it's just taking too much time? I didn't have the wisdom that I've got now to understand that the life that I want to live can be successful and significant. I thought it was all about success. I thought you had to pick one or the other.

And what I teach people to do now is don't do it at the expense of your relationship. Don't do it at the cost of losing your family. And when you're climbing that ladder, whether it be entrepreneurial, whether it be corporate, be sure your ladder's propped on the right wall.

Don't get to the top and realize I've leaned it on the wrong wall. And I look back and now I've got a wife I don't know or children that I have not invested time, effort, and energy with. You know, for me, I want to encourage people to, you know, if you're going to cheat, cheat at the office.

You know, don't cheat at home because the office doesn't have a memory, but your wife and your children do. And you only get one opportunity with your wife. You only get one opportunity with your children. When they get 16, 17 years old, basically they're gone, right? And so I've got a daughter 29 and a daughter 32 now, and they tell me, "Dad, one of the things--I did a lot of things wrong, but one of the things you did do right was you spent time with us." And I just don't want to have a regret someday, look back and say, "I got plenty of money, but I don't have a family that cares anything about me." How do you know if your ladder is leaned against the right wall?

I think you need trusted advisors in your life to run this by and say, "Am I doing it right or doing it wrong?" I subject myself now to scrutiny and say, "Joshua, do you think that I'm doing well at home? Do you see me paying attention to my wife?

Do you see me at the ballgames with my kids? Or am I always at the office? Am I always chasing another dollar?" And there's a lot of professional people that have made a lot of money, but their life is hollow and empty because they don't have a family that cares anything about them.

So I'm just saying be careful when you're climbing that ladder. Is it possible to live a balanced life? You know, the tension I tell everyone to embrace because at some point you're going to feel the tension, "I can make more money or I can be at home." And then when you're at home, you say, "I need to be working more." I don't think it ever reaches a point where you just say, "Okay, I'm in the center of the road and I'm doing great." I tell everyone to embrace that tension because if you do embrace the tension, more than likely it's going to keep you front and center because you're always consciously thinking about it.

It's a challenge I face in my own life. I've got a young son, two years old, and a one-month-old daughter. And I'm working building a brand new business and probably-- I know there's some tough businesses out there, but the business that I'm pursuing is one of the toughest. And it's always a challenge because I work hard to maintain things.

I've got many great things. I work out of the house that has benefits. And I try to work when the family's asleep and catch up on the sleep at some point. But it's a real challenge because there's no external guide. There's no handbook. And in rankings of my values, I'll always put family ahead of money.

I'll always put family ahead of business. But still, at some point, you also got to build the business. And that balance is a real challenge for me. Here's what I help people understand, Joshua, is Robin and I have been married 35 years. Last month, we celebrated 35 years. We have four grandchildren.

We've got one on the way. We've got two daughters. And it's been a balance for us as well. It's been a challenge. Do I go to this? Do I go to that? It's always. But the good communication, living your life intentional, living it on purpose. Robin and I many, many times have sat on the front porch and said, "What do we want our life to look like in three years?

What do we want it to look like in five? When we retire, when we're in an empty nest, how do we want our life to live?" And we've set those metrics and said, "When we reach this, we're going to do this." What happens is no one lives intentionally, and you keep moving the bar.

So you don't have a plan. And I tell everyone, you know, there's nothing worse than to live your life, and you get back and you look and you say, "We didn't do it intentional. It wasn't on purpose. It was by accident. I made so many errors, so many mistakes." Dan Miller is my personal coach and been my mentor for years, and he said, "Plan intentionally.

Set out what you're going to do. Look forward and do these things intentionally, and then you can say, 'I'm not going to do anything next week but be with the family. I'm going to work these many hours.'" And what your wife understands, you're doing it on purpose. There's great communication.

If you're not doing that, I would suggest that you have these conversations regularly and you do it on purpose and you do it intentionally. Do you have any thoughts for how to practically engage with your wife on that? I'm a goal setter. I think obsessively about what's coming. My wife is not like me in the sense that she's more thinking about today.

And so we talk a lot about it. Do you have any practical tools or tips of how to engage in those conversations? Yeah, I do. I've written a document called "A Personal Assessment," and you look at your identity, you look at your ideals, you look at your needs, your career, you look at your family and your relationships individually, and you kind of do a deep dive into yourself.

There's another document that I wrote called "What Do I Want?" Most people live reactively. They don't live proactively. And so this document is three pages, and it asks about 35 questions, and it goes through a very extensive questionnaire as to what do you want. Most people, Joshua, just want bigger and better, shinier, faster, more, and that's not really a goal.

And what I tell people to do is be specific and really write down how you want to raise your children, what kind of house you want to live in, what kind of income you want to have. If your passive income gets to this point, what are you going to do?

Live intentional. The third one is called "Steps to a Productive Day." It's a course that I wrote. It's also kind of a to-do list on steroids. And what we've done is you're able to start out your day. I'm very methodical, regimented, scheduled. I go through the same ritual each and every day, because if you do that and you're productive that day, well, our life is a succession of successful days.

And you can look back and say, "Hey, I did it right. I did it intentional. I did it on purpose." We created a landing page, viewfromthetop.com/radical, all in lowercase letters, and I'm giving these three documents to the listeners. I'm not going to sell it to you. I want to give it to you.

So if you'll go to that landing page, viewfromthetop.com/radical, "Steps to a Productive Day," "What Do I Want," and a personal assessment. So you guys use it. I hope it's a catalyst to help you live a life intentional. Do you recommend both husbands and wives do it together? Absolutely. Without a question, do the personal assessment on your own.

You both can do it. You download this document so you can have as many as you want. Just repurpose it. Give it to whoever you want. I want it to be a helpful tool. But then the "What Do I Want," I would do it if you're married. Sit down together and go through these 35 questions and answer them together, because we need to be pulling together.

If you've got separate objectives, you obviously are not going to get there when you need to. So you need to get on the same page. And then each person, your wife and you, you have different tasks that you perform each and every day. Use the "Steps to a Productive Day" to make your day individually productive.

You mentioned Dan Miller a couple times. If you're willing to share, and obviously you've got to consider what you want to share from the personal perspective. I understand that he's had quite a substantial change in his life over the last 10, 15, 20 years as well. Are you willing to share anything about his story?

Sure. No, Dan's an open book to that. Dan also had a business that failed. It was a health club business. And he did the same path as Dave Ramsey. He went back and he paid all these people, and slowly but surely got them all paid off. He's also, as we've already talked about, a man of character.

But Dan is a career coach. And he's done extremely well over the past 15 years in helping people devise a plan by which they can live their life intentionally. Get out of the job that you hate and do something you enjoy. And Dan coaches. He has coaches of excellence.

He has Innovate. He's got a number of programs. He's got a lot of curriculum and courses out there that can help propel your life forward. But he wants you to enjoy what you do. But kind of like the book, Business Brilliant, you can follow your desires, but you want to be able to monetize those.

I'd like to be a professional golfer and be a professional basketball player, but I'll never make any money doing that. So I better enjoy what I'm doing, but you want to follow the money as well. And Dan helps you figure that out as well. I've taken solace personally from the fact that so many entrepreneurs that are widely respected have been through failures.

They've gone broke. They've been bankrupt, and they failed multiple times. I can't remember the statistic, but it's something like 2 point something times that millionaires have gone broke before they made their million bucks. Why does it seem that failure is such a consistent theme in the lives of those who achieve great success?

Well, you don't hear a lot about the guys sitting on the couch watching reruns of Oprah, right? They're not going to fail at anything because they're not going to do anything. And these guys make attempts to do things, and sometimes they're successful, sometimes they're not. And if you fail, it's not -- see, I don't consider failure in not succeeding.

What I consider failure is in not trying. And I wouldn't want to lay at home at night thinking, "Could I have done that deal? Would it have worked? It might have." I'd rather try it and find out, Joshua, that it didn't work, rather than thinking, "Would it have worked?

That would have killed me." So I taught my children, "Hey, go out there and try it." If it fails, just look at it from a different perspective and try again. I want to ask you about retirement. It seems to me an obvious truth, or an observation as I survey the marketplace, being a retirement planner, that the people who can afford to retire don't, and the people that are desperate to want to retire are the ones who will never be able to afford to.

Why? I can tell you exactly why. I've done it three times. I did it when I was 27, and when I was 40, and when I was 50, and I'm probably not going to retire ever, and I'll tell you why. It's pretty selfish, quite honestly, if you've got some value to add, because what you say is, "I've got enough for myself, so good luck to the rest of you." And that's really not the attitude that we should take.

We should -- whatever our skill is, whatever the thing that we do, what about let's empower, encourage, and lift other people up? Let's teach them how to do that same process so they can be successful. And my focus was wrong when I was 27. I said, "Hey, I've got enough for me now." And what you find out is you can only hunt so much, you can only fish so much, you can only play so much golf, and you wake up in the middle of the day, and Robin goes, "What are you going to do today?" It's like, "Well, I don't know.

I don't know what I'm going to do today because I don't really have any purpose. I don't have anything else to do. I'm not building anything. I'm not creating anything." And that's what I am. I'm a creator/developer. I'm not a maintainer/manager. When it starts maintaining and managing, I get bored, and I'm ready to sell it.

I build businesses to sell. I don't build businesses to manage long-term. That's just not my personality. Some people want to do it generational, and they want to transition into the next, you know, their son or daughter, whoever to run the business. That's just not what I do. So I found that when you get to that point, you realize that it doesn't scratch the itch like you thought it was going to.

What scratches the itch is being purposeful and meaningful to others, being the servant leader, reaching out there and helping other people obtain their dream and their goals. So you get the big house. We had a nice big house. We had a vacation home in the mountains, and then we had one on the beach, and that's good.

It's fun. But when you get there, you go, "Well, it doesn't really do it for me like I thought it was going to do." And then you say, "I want one more store," and you get it. And you always live your life wanting one more thing. "If I can have this, I'll be happy.

If I can just get that, then I'll be happy." You see, happiness is not a trait. It's a choice. And whatever position you're currently in, you can choose to be happy. I want you to learn to be content but not complacent, and there's a big difference. See, I elect to be happy today in my present situation.

Yeah, I'm successful financially based on what? I look at this guy to my left and say, "I'm a lot more successful than you," but I look to my right and there's dozens more that are much more successful than me. Don't compare. Just choose to live a life intentionally and on purpose and choose to be happy in your present situation.

But don't be complacent. Don't sit down on the couch and quit. And that's what happens a lot of the times in retirement. We become very complacent and you just find out that we need more purpose and meaning. If you'll get out there and change your focus and look outward, you'll go back to work like I've done three times to help other people.

If you know that you're not going to retire--let's say I assume I believe everything you say, "I'm not going to retire because I'm focusing on providing contribution," is there any point to saving money then? Absolutely, you should save money. There's going to be rainy days. Absolutely, you want to save money.

I think it would be crazy not to save money and make investments. But here's the thing. I love to make money. I make that no bones about that. And people that say, "Oh, money's not important," it's only the people that have money that say that and they're liars. I just want to tell you right up, money is important.

But don't make it your central focus. Don't make it your primary aim, right? Make your primary aim something much larger than money. Money has a value that we place on it. Don't give it a bigger value than it deserves. Money can do a lot of cool stuff. I love to have a nice house.

I love to take vacations. I want a nice car. But I don't want it to be my sole focus. So give the value that money deserves. It's a tool so we can live a life that has meaning, that has purpose, that we can do it intentional. That's all money is.

Don't give it the sole focus and your primary aim. Last question is this. You have a 15-year-old grandson, and your grandson comes to you and is willing to listen to you and ask your advice. He's a wise young man, and he says, "Grandpa, what do I need to know to be successful?" What type of advice and personal development plan, what types of habits and practices and overall, I guess, framework for success would you give to your grandson in that situation?

I do have a 13-year-old granddaughter, so I'm going to pretend like I'm talking to her instead of the 15-year-old grandson, and I would say, "Abby, listen. If you want to be successful, I don't care if you have a service business or you're selling a widget. What I want you to do is build relationships intentionally.

Each and every day, I want you to reach out to people and see how you can better their life. I want you to call them when you don't need anything. I want you to go to that person and see if there's any way you can help move the needle in their life, whatever they're doing.

The natural reciprocity out of that will be a catalyst in furthering your life successfully and significantly. If you will focus on the people rather than the money, if you'll focus on the people rather than making the sale, filling their needs, trying to meet their goals, you will be successful at whatever you're doing.

-Aaron, thanks for coming on. Viewfromthetop.com/radical for the freebies. Tell us also about the other services, the coaching, the mentorship that you offer through View From The Top. -Thank you. Viewfromthetop.com, all my personal information is there, my email, my cell phone number. We have Iron Sharpens Iron mastermind groups where 10 men come together virtually on a weekly basis, and I facilitate every one of these groups.

What I'm really excited about right now is we started the community, and you can go to viewfromthetop.com and you can see the community. We have men from all over the world that are coming there to join. It costs $37 a month to be in this. I have a webinar every Wednesday at 5 o'clock that I teach.

We have an open forum that these guys communicate with on a daily basis. The relationships, the businesses that are being formed out of that is phenomenal. I'd love for you to come and participate in the community. Joshua, man, you've been an awesome host. Thank you very much. It's been an honor to be on your show.

I certainly appreciate it. Interesting guy, Aaron. I enjoyed talking with him. That's one of the things I love so much about podcasting is we have the opportunity to enjoy spending time with people like him who have a story to share, have some wisdom to share, but who aren't necessarily trying to become media moguls in their own right.

What a cool opportunity. Aaron, I enjoyed meeting you, and I hope that all of you listeners really enjoyed that interview. Feel free to go out and check out the landing page and the resources that he mentioned. The link, the URL again is viewfromthetop.com/radical. Check out everything that Aaron Walker is doing there if he's a good fit for you, if you think he can benefit you and help you get involved with his community.

I am convinced personally of the power of coaching. In fact, I'm actually going to be launching in coming days. I hadn't planned to announce it, but I guess I'll do it. This is not trying to go against Aaron's coaching services, but I'm actually going to be opening up some coaching personally as well, kind of bringing my brand and flavor of financial coaching the way that I think financial coaching should be done.

I've built the time in now to be able to offer that to some listeners of the audience. I have coaches. I think it's incredibly valuable, even as you've heard. I'm going to be opening that up even as well. So if you're interested in that, feel free to email me, joshua@radicalpersonalfinance.com.

Still working out the exact details, and that'll be done after I get back from FinCon, where I'll do formal announcements and all of that. But feel free to email me on that. Thank you all so much for listening today. Thank you especially to the Radical Personal Finance supporters on Patreon.

I want to thank you for several of you who have signed up in recent days, working hard to get the number of Patreon supporters up to 250 total. That would be a really thrilling milestone to get to, 250 people supporting the show on Patreon. So if you benefit and find yourself benefited from the content, then please consider going to radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron and signing up to support the show directly.

radicalpersonalfinance.com/patron. Those of you who are going to be in Charlotte next week, connect with me on Facebook and on Twitter @JoshuaSheets. I will be putting out a lot of info as far as where I'm going to be. I'd love to connect with as many of you as possible who are going to be in the Charlotte, North Carolina region next week.

I think that's it. Thank you all so much for listening.