ISI Brotherhood Podcast

119. You Don't Have to Face Life Alone: The Value of Male Community

• Aaron Walker • Season 2 • Episode 4

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Brotherhood isn't just a nice-to-have for men—it's essential for growth, success, and fulfillment in every area of life. Having spent two decades without close male friendships, I discovered firsthand how isolation magnifies problems and leads to emotional suppression. When we try to shoulder burdens alone, we miss out on the perspective, accountability, and support that only authentic brotherhood can provide.

The biggest obstacle most men face is the belief that they simply don't have time for meaningful friendships. Between demanding careers and family responsibilities, relationships often fall to the bottom of the priority list. Yet the truth is that relationships must be built before they're needed—you can't create that foundation of trust during a crisis. Brotherhood requires intentionality and consistency, showing up even when it's inconvenient.

What makes male friendships powerful isn't formal, scripted interactions, but creating space for authentic connection. Whether through working out together, playing golf, participating in church groups, or joining structured communities like ISI Brotherhood, men need contexts where they can gradually build trust and open up. These relationships become catalysts for growth in every area—strengthening character, deepening faith, and even creating opportunities for professional advancement.

True brothers know your whole story—your family life, business challenges, strengths and blind spots. They provide meaningful guidance rather than simplistic advice because they have the context of your unique situation. They call you to your best self, holding you accountable while also celebrating your wins and supporting you through losses.

Ready to experience the transformative power of brotherhood? Visit isibrotherhood.com today and discover how joining a community of like-minded men can help you achieve your full potential in business, faith, and life.


Key Takeaways:

  • Learn the value of brotherhood
  • How to break the isolation barrier
  • What is trust and vulnerability in male friendships
  • How to make time for relationships
  • Should you leverage your community for growth
  • Practical ways to build brotherhood


Connect:

Speaker 1:

Have you ever felt like you didn't have time to have friendships? Listen, I spent 20 years without close friends. Today's episode we're gonna talk about the value of brotherhood, what those relationships can mean to you personally. We're gonna talk about making time for those relationships, because none of us think we have time, but I promise you it's gonna pay off in spades at the end. Then I'm gonna teach you how to leverage those relationships for growth for you personally, professionally and spiritually. Can't wait for you to tune in, and I'm pretty fired up that you're here today. Welcome to the ISI Brotherhood Podcast. What a great day it is in Nashville. Hopefully it's beautiful for you as well, Seth. How's it going?

Speaker 2:

Well, it's going really well, Excited to be here talking about this topic today with you. And, by the way, for once it is beautiful here in Southern Oregon as well, so I just want to give a shout out. When it's due Six days of the year, I think it's the sun. That's right we call it summer, but it's not.

Speaker 1:

We got the whole continental US covered here. You're on one coast, I'm almost on the other, so we got everybody in between. So I'm excited that we're able to talk to these guys today. But beautiful in Oregon today, that's what I love to hear. Send me a picture, because I'm not sure that I've seen too many sunshiny, beautiful days.

Speaker 2:

You're hurting me now. We had whiplash. I actually had like five feet of snow in one week, ended up up in the mountains and then it was literally 80 yesterday. So you know, you never know what you're going to get.

Speaker 1:

You have sent me some pictures out there, man, I've never been, but it's beautiful.

Speaker 2:

Well, it's not like you don't have an invitation, let's go.

Speaker 1:

I know, I know we need to do it's radically changed my life. We're going to dive into this topic and I don't think it gets nearly enough attention. Quite honestly, I think that men really need deep and meaningful male friendships, and it's something that I didn't have early on in my career. First two decades of my career, seth, I didn't have any of that. I was a lone ranger. I was going to solve every problem on my own.

Speaker 1:

But I really have found out that in a world where busyness and surface level connections really dominate our time, authentic brotherhood is rare and I've seen this over and over. I've got the privilege of coaching hundreds of guys around the world and having guys hundreds and hundreds in the mastermind, and I have seen this to really be rare, authentic brotherhood. But it's absolutely, I think, essential for our development, for our growth in every area of our life, and I think we're going to take a few minutes to explore how these friendships really shape a man's character, because we know there's nothing more important than our character, how it can also strengthen our faith and how it can even influence us on a great path to success. So, hey, let's jump in, let's talk about this a little bit, because I think it's something that's not talked about enough.

Speaker 2:

Well, let me throw a question at you right out of the gate.

Speaker 2:

So, you know we're talking about male friendships here and kind of implied in that is like, okay, you know we're talking about male friendships here and kind of implied in that is like, okay, as men we need friendship with other men. But I want to take a step before we get into that and say, as opposed to having friendship with women, right or as opposed to the way that women have friendship with other women, there seems to be a difference. There's something about men and our challenges with connecting with other men that seem to be rather natural. What are your thoughts on that?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it is natural for there to be a challenge, because we're male chauvinists, A lot of us are alpha male. We don't want anybody to know that there's a challenge. We don't want anybody to think that we're going to be transparent or vulnerable with them, because that feels kind of icky. With guys who are like man, we're going to get in there and talk about our personal life and I was raised under a father that had that pretense. He was like you don't tell anybody anything. Like you don't share anything. You don't want any man to ever know that you don't have it figured out. You want to fake it till you make it. You want to get out there and have that veil up where men just think you've got it all together.

Speaker 1:

And I was raised that way. So for the first 20 years of my career I didn't tell anybody anything. I barely told Robin anything, much less another man, until I really discovered what real male friendship was about and the value of authenticity and being transparent in the right setting. So let me start out by saying that I think it's imperative that it's done in the right setting. You can ruin yourself being transparent and authentic with the wrong people.

Speaker 2:

I agree. Yeah Well, there's no trust, there's no context, there's no shared values, it actually becomes dangerous. Right, it's funny. I'm thinking about a verse in Psalms where it's written you know where the king, or the leader, was about to like share all of the pain and agony he was going through, and he said wait. And he just kind of had this check in his spirit. He said that would be a betrayal. Right, there's not everybody that needs to hear all of our stuff, but there are certainly people who are worthy of us opening up to. And it's really a privilege, it's an honor to be able to build a community, find a community that you can do that with.

Speaker 2:

And before we dive much deeper, I want to also think about I think this might also be a little bit of an American thing I'm not certain, because I'm only an American, I'm nothing else also be a little bit of an American thing. I'm not certain, because I'm only an American, I'm nothing else. But like I know, for instance, in Australia, they have a tremendous bro culture, to the point where I've heard that one of the common issues they wrestle with is the women. The wives are often feeling like they're isolated and left alone because the guys are so tightly bound together and you know, I don't I've not been part of that tribe, so I don't know what they're talking about and what that, what that is like. But I'm wondering if part of this isn't how we roll as Americans. You know, individualism, this independence thing I don't know.

Speaker 1:

I'm like you, I've always lived here and I've really not been involved in that. We'll have to ask Jeremy Stritton.

Speaker 1:

You know Jeremy's been in ISI for nine years and he's our brother from down under. He lives there and so we maybe should ask him. I've never asked him that question. I'm going to see him next week at our live event let's do it and so I'll be excited to talk to him. A lot of you listening right now. You're like, well, what is the problem? Like I don't even understand what the problem is. Why are you even talking about this?

Speaker 1:

I think that the lack of strong male relationship often leads to the thing that I'm the most afraid of, and that's isolation, and isolation is the enemy to excellence, and if you want to go far in this life, you've got to do it in community. I think God created us to be in community, and isolation is a terrible thing. And, seth, I don't know about you, but when I get in isolation, all of my problems magnify 10x. I'm in my own head, I'm saying these things, and they get worse and worse the more I'm in isolation. It can also affect us with emotional suppression, and I've seen this firsthand, because there's things that's happened to me in my life that I did pull back and I was intentionally in isolation, and the emotional suppression that I had as a result of that is frightening, and I don't want to go back there again.

Speaker 1:

And then the last thing the reason that I think that we need to talk about this defining kind of the problem is that there's a real lack of accountability with all the things that we do today, and I know a lot of guys are resistant to accountability. We're going to talk about that in a few minutes but I think that without meaningful connections, men can really struggle silently with the stress, their identity and whatever purpose that it is they were created for. So hindering this personal growth and spiritual maturity is something not to be taken lightly. We've got to really think through the effects on us by being in this isolation, and so that's the reason that I'm so excited to be able to talk about this today. Besides, I love to talk about relationships. It's my number one core value. Relationships matter most, and that's the reason that we're diving into this today.

Speaker 2:

I love it and I think one key thing is that I don't consider this to be a go with the flow kind of topic meaning left to, I think, our natural devices, whether that's cultural, whether that's just the role that we find ourselves in as leaders. I do think we tend towards isolation rather than community and unless we have this kind of this intentional intervention that we really believe, despite the fact that sometimes we don't feel like it, we don't feel like opening up, we don't feel like revealing that next layer, you know, I just happened to have our ISI Brotherhood meeting today and I was the guy in the middle and you know I had to push myself to talk about the real feelings, the talk about why it's important to me reveal things that I don't talk to with other people. But the cool part was, you know, some of those guys have been in there with for five years Now. In some instances they're like, hey, man, we've heard this before in a good way and I'm like what's your point? You know we just jested back and forth.

Speaker 2:

But the other is they know me well enough to give me that kind of advice and it feels safe for me and if actually I come away feeling energized, not judged, because when I'm left in my own head, as you said, feeling those emotions, you know there's things that I'm disappointed in results, things I can't solve. If I'm left to my own, I could end up carrying around shame, I could feel disempowered, I could feel like it's going to define me forever and I feel stuck. You know, but get a little bit of light on that. You know, it's been said and I'm not talking about moral issues here, I'm just talking about issues. You know, what lives in the dark dies in the light, right. So you bring your issues to light around your brothers and all of a sudden you just, you know, you feel liberated.

Speaker 1:

Seth, you said something that I don't want us to gloss over, that I think is really vital to this conversation. You said they said we've heard this before. I think it's important to build that trust and that camaraderie with guys over a period of time, because they see a theme, they have context to the conversation. They know about your wife, your family, they know about your grandkids. They know about your financial wherewithal. They know about the different visions that you have. They know your superpowers, they know your kryptonite, they know your blind spots. How vital do you think it is for other people to know that to help you make a good decision?

Speaker 2:

You know, I think that there's two ways to make a decision. One is based or a recommendation, one is based on principles and the other is based on context. Right, and one of the dangers around gurus and principle-based everything is you know, everybody's got this drive-by solution to your complex problem. You're like, oh well, it took me 12 minutes of steady thought to think to how to identify the problem, but your principle is just going to be this magic bullet to alleviate that. Pretty rare that that happens it is sometimes.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes it's just that obvious. Somebody from the outside can call you on it. But more often than not for somebody to weigh in at that level, they need to know your background, your hopes, dreams, fears, issues, what you've tried before, how you're wired. They have to you know kind of this phrase call you to your best self, but it kind of implies that they know your best self a little bit. And so to me it's hugely important to have that trust, because you just weigh people's insights differently when you know that they've done the work and they've invested in the friendship.

Speaker 1:

How does it feel to you to be on those calls? You've been in ISI eight or so years now, give or take. How does it feel to be at that level of vulnerability with these 10 guys in your group, like it's still difficult. I get that because you know there's a certain level of like man. We want them to know we're crushing it. But when you're not crushing it, for example, how does that vulnerability feel to you and how beneficial and helpful is it when you do get it out?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I would say it's. At first it's challenging, and I'll tell you, you know, I think we talked about previously that relationship comes through disclosure, right, and so if I'm going to hold my cards so close and never disclose anything, then I'm not actually getting that relationship that I was looking for. So at first I have to overcome that natural temptation to self-diagnose and then just come to a call and report out Well, here's the problem, here's the solution, and I'll keep you updated. Well, that's not really inviting people in.

Speaker 2:

So what I've had to learn to do is push myself to share the thing that I might not want to share, and then stop my mouth from operating for a minute and say what did you guys hear? Give me some feedback or ask a specific question. So I'm also communicating to those guys by my action and also by my questions. Like I, I want to bring you something that is sensitive, right, important to me, so that I can make a difference, or so you can help me make a change, because I don't want to stay stuck right. And so it's a two-way street, it's a relationship.

Speaker 1:

Here's the real value that I found for me personally those 20 years that I didn't really trust anyone else and I was in isolation doing business. I had some level of success financially, but the truth of the matter, there was some relationship capital that had been used in my family that I never shared with anybody. That caused me a tremendous amount of agony and pain in later years, and so the reason I really stress and encourage other men to be vulnerable is so that we really get down to the brass tacks, we get to the footing, and then we build the foundation and then we build the structure. But if you never do that, it's always on shaky ground, like we're building something on something that's false and eventually it's going to crumble. Scripture even teaches us that right, and so we need to build things on solid foundations. You know. It reminded me I was on a phone call earlier this morning with a guy and I'd never talked to this guy before.

Speaker 1:

He'd followed me for about 10 years and he was very complimentary of the things that we're doing and I was very gracious. But then he went on to tell me all the great things that he had done, all the numbers of companies he had owned and how good he was at this and good he was at that, and he just talked for 35 minutes about all these things. And finally at the end because I have had hundreds of men in the mastermind group, I knew a couple of the probing questions and I finally got to the end. I said can I ask you some questions? And he said yeah. I said how's your family life? And, man, the phone got dead silent.

Speaker 1:

He was like well, we're going through some challenges right now. I said, yeah, anybody that runs this many businesses, you're not going to have a lot of time left for your family and I can see where that would create some challenges. The conversation radically changed. It did a 180 from that point because I touched a nerve. I touched something that was important to him but he never offered it, he didn't want to share. We would still be talking, even as we're speaking now. We would still be talking about all of his success financially and all of his companies, had I not asked him that question, which inevitably, is going to come up, a pain point in his life at some point. That's why in ISI we have the five pillars. We want the whole man.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's right, and so it's one of the things. That's interesting is I've been in ISI, as you mentioned, for a long time and I had a funny experience one time when I met one of our brothers at a live event and he told me. He said, man, you just haven't seemed very happy. And it really knocked me over because I'm generally pretty upbeat, positive guy and I realized, in the context of our ISI relationship, I'd only talked about my bad news, I only talked about the challenges, and so I had to learn to balance it out. So today I had the call. I'm like, hey, here's where it's going great. It's going great with my health, it's going great with my relationships. I had a few wins, but, man, let me talk to you about the things where I really need some help from you guys. I had to remind myself not to just obsess over this thing, you know.

Speaker 1:

That's a good word. Yeah, you don't want to be that wet blanket. You don't want to be the guy that sucks the life out of every conversation. And so here's the biggest challenge that I hear from guys today, and this was a challenge for me as well. When I first started 26 years ago this year, I've been in a mastermind meeting every week for 26 years. It's radically changed my life. But here's my excuse I don't have time. Yeah, I would say I don't have time. And then I started sharing with other guys the people that I was in mastermind with and I said they're pretty busy and they make time an hour, hour and a half every week to be in these groups. Why do you not have the time? How would you answer that today, as a person that had been in ISI for eight years, when they say I don't really have the time?

Speaker 2:

What would you say to them? Well, I would say you know, we always have time for things that are important, just period. We make time for things that are important and you know, I'll be honest, I think there are times when in their moments, they're like, okay, I can agree with you, you don't have time, sure busy season.

Speaker 2:

This is a limited season and you need to execute ruthlessly to get to the other side of that so that you do have the time. You know and I've had things that I've canceled literally today that are important to me, that I'm like you don't have the time right now, that I'm like you don't have the time right now You're gonna be going through the motions if you participate in that, because you've got other stuff that you're not getting done, and so we're all accountable to God and to ourselves to manage our time well. But in our time we have to have intentional relationships with other guys. I mean, we have a cultural issue.

Speaker 2:

If you look at television, it portrays men a certain way. It's been argued that our culture has become somewhat feminized. Right, we're kind of seeing this moment where it's swinging a bit and there's a fair amount of misunderstanding, maybe just even a lack of vision of what does it look like to have healthy male friendships. Do I have to have a beard and drink bourbon and drive a four-wheel drive truck and vote one way or the other?

Speaker 1:

Smoke cigars.

Speaker 2:

Right Exactly. Do I have to talk about jets and Lambos, right? Or do I have to cry and sip tea with my pinky high in the air. I mean, there's both ends of that spectrum, and for me it's people that are on the same road that you can. My dad used to say you know that, run the race with you.

Speaker 1:

You know they're, they're running the race with you, that's what you get that's an important thing is because oftentimes in these groups I've gone in, I've been. You know me, I'm like man, I'm all in or nothing. And I'm like man, I'm winning, I'm crushing it. But there's other times that I've gone in there it's like, hey, you know, my life's falling apart. Right now I've got a daughter.

Speaker 1:

You know, years ago those that have followed me for any length of time know I've got a daughter that was facing a liver disease and they gave her 90 days to live. And I'm like, hey, you go from high highs to low lows at those times. And here's the thing that was really valuable to me If I had needed those relationships at that time, it's too late to build them when you need them, agree. And so you need to invest in these relationships so that they can loan you their strength when you're down and they can celebrate with you when you're high and up, and when you get too big for your britches, they can call you down and go hold on a minute. Let's not forget where these things came from.

Speaker 2:

I agree with that and that's an investment. I had an experience not long ago where I was at a trade show and I was inviting one of my friends if he would go there and he said I've never been able to justify the ROI on that and I was just like, wow. But like to your point, when you invest in relationships and you have a need in the future, you've got the capital and the bank to draw down from and if you don't make the investment, you'll come across as entitled and needy. When you finally reach out and say, hey, I need something desperately, People are like where have you been the last few years?

Speaker 1:

Right, you only call me when you need something.

Speaker 2:

And that's a terrible place to. That's a terrible feeling to feel like you're the guy that only calls somebody when you need something right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, here's the thing, and we teach this a lot. And when coaching people one-on-one, I'm like call a handful of guys all the time just to check on them. You don't ask them a question, you don't tell them you need to borrow something. You don't need a resource, an outlet, a networking, like you just call and say Seth, how's it going, how are the kids, how's your wife, how's things in Oregon? Is there sunshine today? I don't know Something. You need to ask them and just check on them. Oftentimes it's the other way they do those things and they say hey, while I've got you, let me ask you a question. You're like now we're getting to why you called me right? Yeah, and so we need to invest in people genuinely, because we really care about them and we're really interested in them. Then, when it is your turn and you need something, it's a lot easier to get.

Speaker 2:

Not just when you have time. You didn't say oh, when you have some time on your calendar, that's not otherwise booked?

Speaker 1:

No, make it a priority.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, make it a priority because you believe that the benefits there for you and your family.

Speaker 1:

I get this question also like how do we balance that? It's like when you have a young family and you got a new business and you're just starting and you're working 12, 14 hours a day and, like they say and they think I don't really have time to balance friendship with that. And I would just encourage those listeners and I know the feeling. Listen, I was in the grind for years and years and I get it. I totally understand it. If I could go over again now this is my 46th year being a small business owner I would do some things differently because they're invaluable. Those relationships are invaluable. We're living our life right now.

Speaker 1:

This is not a practice run. This is the real thing. We're going through it right now. This is not a practice run. This is the real thing. We're going through it right now. And sometimes the journey is as good or better than the destination and so we've got to enjoy the process. We can't miss little Billy's ball games and Susie's piano recitals all the time, periodically. It's okay and I get that. But you're going to look back one day and you're going to have a pocket full of money and there's going to be a house full of strangers and that's not going to serve you well. The same way with your friends, it's like, hey, where have you been? We've been asking about you. You're grinding away, you're working all the time. Now you're ready for a relationship. They've already moved on most of the time. They've already established other relationships.

Speaker 2:

Or not right, or they're equally isolated and waiting for somebody to call them. And sometimes we can get a little aggrieved. We're like why am I always the one that has to reach out? My wife and I have this conversation all the time, you know feel like we have to be the ones to reach out, especially to the people we want to hang out with right, and that's not necessarily, you know, the right question. You know I think it's incumbent upon us to see it as a priority, to make the outreach. And also, you know, as much as I love peer groups I love the ISI Brotherhood, you know you need some people with skin on that you see regularly around town too.

Speaker 1:

Hug their neck and shake their hand and eat a meal with them.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know that requires some intentionality around calendaring, Like one of the things I do. I think I've shared this is we have guys that get together three days a week at my office to work out, and then we've added a fourth where we go jump in the cold river and then do a sauna afterwards.

Speaker 1:

No, thank you, count me out on that one.

Speaker 2:

I'm not, I'm not jumping in the cold river. You'd love it. We were in 39 degrees, not long ago. Oh, not long ago, oh, I couldn't do it, but it's not that I love cold water, you know, it's that I realized, uh, and it's not even that we're we're planning these deep emotional conversations. Uh, we're just, we're just spending time together.

Speaker 1:

Some might even argue wasting time together right, it's not wasting time, I can assure you.

Speaker 2:

But even if it were, it would still be worth it, right? You know what I'm saying? It's this idea of sometimes we over-script it like it's got to be formal or it's got to be intense and it's like no man, sometimes with genuine friendships, you're just hanging out, you're just doing stuff together right.

Speaker 1:

I got a buddy of mine. We rode to Chattanooga together and I don't think we spoke. He was having a difficult time and he just needed some time and we rode to Chattanooga together. It's like he doesn't have to perform, he doesn't have to entertain me, he doesn't have to ask questions, like just being there. Some of the things that I have found have really worked well. Everybody's got a different list, but for me it's being very intentional. We talked about that earlier. It's like, yeah, do it when you don't have to do it and do it when you don't have time. Like, do it anyway. Be intentional. And I think we got to do that consistently Years and years.

Speaker 1:

I've had some buddies at our church Alan Lindsey and Chris Freeman and Hugh Morris and some of those guys Like we talk all the time Riding down the road. You know I got five minutes, I'll call Alan or I'll call Chris and we'll just talk. Just catch up. Just hung up five minutes before this call with Patrick Lewis, a guy that we've been friends for a decade and he just called just five minutes. Hey, man, checking in, How's it going? Just like those are those friendships and we've got to make time for that.

Speaker 1:

So be consistent. Don't go off the rails and be gone six months. Nobody's heard from you. The other thing is keep it real and guys can smell it a mile away. Don't blow smoke up their rear end. I mean, be real with guys and when you're happy, be happy. When things are down, say I wish things were different. But right now I'm going through this challenge. I could use your prayers, I need your help, Just as you did today on the call, Like some things are going good, some things are not going good. Just like I know I get the real deal when I'm talking to Seth, because you're not gonna patronize me.

Speaker 2:

Well, thank you, and I would say there's a few practical things I would encourage people to do. First is, look around you. Where are there hobbies that you can use as an excuse to create genuine male friendship? Where is there commitments like going to the gym? Can you invite somebody that you consider a brother, a friend, that would join you with that? Are you part of a discipleship group or a community group?

Speaker 2:

Discipleship groups, particularly with the church you're in, which I love Robbie Gallaty and the crew there at Replicate are big on discipleship groups where there's, you know, men getting together, gathering around scripture right. Or community groups, which tend to be a little bit more around married couples getting together with other married couples from church doing life together. And then, of course, there's something like Iron Sharpens, iron Brotherhood or other peer groups that are very intentional and structured mostly around business and faith right. Peer groups that are very intentional and structured mostly around business and faith right. There's a wide range of options and I've just given about half of them that if this becomes a priority for somebody, at least one or two of those are well within reach in the near term if they just take action.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, guys do things together. It's easier to talk when you're playing golf or you're lifting weights or you're doing a cold plunge Oftentimes that's been some of the best discussions rather than just face-to-face, because that even feels more difficult. But if you're doing some of these activities together it's a lot easier to be vulnerable, for sure. The final thing I wanted to talk about a little bit is kind of leveraging community for growth, and we've seen this in ISI. I've seen it personally even out of ISI. You build trust. That's the most difficult thing to come across and after you build trust with guys.

Speaker 1:

We got guys in the mastermind today that had no community whatsoever. Today one of them is my CFO and he does an amazing job. Another guy that I've coached for 11 years Brett Barnhart. You know he was a young guy, 29 years old, I think he's 41 now Coached him every week for 11 or 12 years and today that guy is phenomenal in the connections, the networking that he can do with people, the resources that he can provide. It's crazy to see these guys and it's all because of these relationships that he's built. I invested a lot of money with two guys five years ago. I didn't even know, and it's because I learned to trust them. I like their product and I'm willing to invest. So what about you? What have you seen that's been able to leverage your opportunities We'll call it financial opportunities even for growth by being involved in a community.

Speaker 2:

Well, you know, I do believe to some point that that maxim, your net worth, is your network Just being available, asking people at the end of a call. Is there anything I can do for you Always being ready to make an introduction? Is there anything I can do for you Always being ready to make an introduction? Doing those introductions quickly when somebody you have a thought, write it down and follow through because people really appreciate that you'll go out of your way to spend a little relational capital to say a good word for them, to weigh in on their behalf, make that introduction and then next time they need something, presumably they know whatever service we offer, I happen to be in the world of mergers and acquisitions and strategy, so you know I'll help people any way I can with it. And you know those things tend to come back around. And to your point earlier if people feel like you're being transactional or programmatic about it, it doesn't come off as authentic. You got to genuinely want to help people, right?

Speaker 1:

You know, relationships trump everything. Also, it doesn't matter what you do, that relationship is going to be the thing that's going to trump everything. Someone recently asked me to help them with a job application, and I knew the owner of the company and I made a call and within 48 hours they had an interview and there's hundreds of applicants for this. Now they're not going to hire this person if they're not suited for the job, but the point is they at least got a foot in the door because of a relationship. If I hadn't invested 26 years with this person, he wouldn't have done that for me, because he knows that he can trust me. I'm not going to burden him all the time with that kind of request. It's just you build this trust and people know your heart, they know who you are. But a lot of people ask me all the time introduce me to this person or that person, and I'm like I'm not gonna do that.

Speaker 2:

Like you, just wanna take advantage, right.

Speaker 1:

Of this relationship and I'm not gonna do that. You have to be in fellowship with people on a regular basis and they earn your trust that you can be able to do that.

Speaker 2:

I love that. Well, you just hit on the. There is an economic part, a commerce part, like doing business in God's economy. That does happen in relationship and that's huge, but kind of bringing this to a close Big A, you know. I think we can agree that when we're in fellowship, when we're part of a brotherhood, it really does strengthen our character, strengthens our faith. That very word iron sharpens. Iron comes from that biblical maxim right, and prioritizing our friendship pays off in a ton of other areas.

Speaker 2:

You're going to have people who listen to you talk about one area but ask you about that thing you didn't talk about. Check in on that thing that you were struggling with in the past. They have enough context to make sure that you're a well-rounded person. You're not just celebrating your business wins or your whatever wins. And then this community also helps us grow. We all want to push to make the most of the gifts we've been given. We all wanna reach for our potential.

Speaker 2:

When we're part of a community, just that extra measure of accountability helps. Just the reality that I've got to get on the phone with some of my peers and I've got to get real makes me get on my horse a little bit and try to go get that thing done. So I think there's a tremendous amount of reasons why everybody that's listening to this podcast should focus on who are those male friendships and how are they going to intentionally invest and if they feel like something like ISI is going to be important and a catalyst to them as I do, just visit isibrotherhoodcom. Get connected. We'd love to hear who you are. If it's a good fit, I think you'd find a great home with us, Big A, any kind of parting thoughts as we go?

Speaker 1:

No man, that was really good. I appreciate that Relationships are important. Relationships matter most, and I'm so thankful that you tuned in with us today, so we'll see you again next week.