IDL06 Season 1: The Value of Giving with Simon Arias
How can building values into your life change your world? What does it mean to lead by example? Can we become the mentors we had for our successors?
My friend Simon Arias and I speak about how he changed the entire trajectory of his life by building values. He is giving back to the community and setting a path for people to accomplish more in life.
Meet Simon Arias
Family first, but after that, Leader, Mentor, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist & Motivational Speaker.
Simon Arias was born in Youngstown, Ohio. During his youth, Simon was tempted by the negative influences that plague so many disadvantaged communities. Fortunately, through the support of his family, he was able to find his path as a leader on the football field. Simon played at Youngstown-Ursuline High School, leading his team to a state championship his senior year. This led to a scholarship at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania where Simon earned his bachelor degree.
Growing up in a tough neighborhood for much of his life, Simon knew what it meant to have good role models. Simon’s mother, Chrissy, his grandparents, and his coaches instilled in him the work ethic and mindset that forever changed his life. Inspired by those influences, Simon has taken it upon himself to seek out young people, often times from a similar background, to mentor in hopes to lead them toward the path of greatness.
After graduating college, Simon took his leadership skills and competitive nature that he developed on the football field and brought it with him into business. He was hired by the Surace-Smith Agency of American Income Life and quickly climbed the ranks, becoming a regional manager within his first year in business.
Simon became the youngest person ever promoted to State General Agent. He opened his first Arias Agencies location in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2008. Simon and his team at Arias Agencies hold multiple company records for being the fastest agency to hit company production milestones.
Find out more Simon here and connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.
In this episode we discuss:
How your values can make an impact
Why it’s important for leaders to exemplify values
HOW YOUR VALUES CAN MAKE AN IMPACT
The impact that good mentors can have on a person’s life is immense. They model behaviors, principles, and values in ways that make us want to mimic them to create the same positive impacts in our lives and the lives of our loved ones.
Giving is a value that we often learn from mentors. It is like a drop in water that creates ripple effects in each person’s life as it is performed, we learn from our mentors and our successors learn from us.
Another important and powerful value is the interchange between servant and leadership:
“Trying to make everyone feel important because they are important to you … you would treat those people the same way you treat me … just treat everybody with a certain type of love and respect. ”
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT FOR LEADERS TO EXEMPLIFY VALUES
Leaders should guide their organizations by example and actions, not by words. When leaders embody the message they want to portray in their company, family home, or business, the people that follow them will pick up those same values.
In this way, leaders who embody their values become mentors to those they look out for.
Resources, books, and links mentioned in this episode:
Visit Simon’s website and connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn
Listen to Tyler on Simon’s G.R.I.N.D. Cast podcast here and watch it here
Driven Foundation, Columbus Ohio
The John Maxwell Leadership Foundation
BOOK | The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Workbook by John Maxwell
About the Impact Driven Leader Podcast
The Impact Driven Leader Podcast, hosted by Tyler Dickerhoof, is for Xillennial leaders who have felt alone and ill-equipped to lead in today's world. Through inspiring interviews with authors from around the world, Tyler uncovers how unique leadership strengths can empower others to achieve so much more, with real impact.
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Podcast Transcription
[TYLER DICKERHOOF]: Welcome to the Impact Driven Leader podcast. This is your host, Tyler Dickerhoof. Welcome back. Even if it's your first time. Welcome. Appreciate you guys being here. Today, I got a special gift. Last week,, we listened to my friend, John Ruhlin. Here's another guy, another bad guy. It wasn't planned this way, but it is. I get to sit down with my friend Simon Aria. Simon Aria is from Youngstown, he is with American Income Life Insurance. He and I got to know each other through John Maxwell, we got to meet each other, actually in London. Kelly and I were there for John Maxwell event and I saw this guy and is built. You could just tell he was like a football player. I mean, he's just built that way. And he's with the former coach of Ohio state football, Jim Tressel. If you're not a football fan, that's right.
Jim, great guy happens to be friends with John as well and I see him walking around and I'm like, "Okay, who is this guy? What is this guy?" Well, he and I ended up meeting in the gym early in the morning and kind of was like, "Dude, what are you doing here? You're same here, same event?" We just got to be friends. And over the last year and a half now, we continue to check, continue to just understand, "Hey, how can we add value to each other?" And so, as we're talking about values, we're talking about changing the world. This is a guy that is completely, absolutely without a shadow of a doubt, changed his world and it started by building values.
So you are going to be blessed to listen to this. I love what the guy's doing. I love how he's giving back to the community. I love how he's setting a path for people to accomplish more than what he was ever able to do at an age younger, but also giving a platform for people to do things amazing in their life. Please listen and enjoy this episode with Simon. I'll join you at the end to kind of let you know where you can learn more about Simon, what he's doing. You're going to laugh and it's going to be serious, but it's going to be great. Enjoy this episode.
[TYLER]: All right. I'm excited here to talk to my good friend, Simon. I'm going to call you the Simon, the cat Aria. What's your nickname?
[SIMON ARIA]: I'll take it.
[TYLER]: Really?
[SIMON]: My nickname, I haven't went by my nickname in a long time, but since I had my personal friend in the studio watching me, I can't lie to you when he's looking at me. I got to give you the truth since nowhere that you didn't tell me this. So now here, I got to go all the way back to, and you know where I'm from.
[TYLER]: Let's go back there. Let's talk about that. Where are you from?
[SIMON]: Okay. So my town is Youngstown, Ohio right in the city, OHIO. Yes, sir. My friends used to call me little Luci, Tyler.
[TYLER]: Little Luci?
[SIMON]: Yes, but no one calls me that. No one knows that. I have no nicknames, no alias, just Simon.
[TYLER]: I mean, but everyone, yes, now that is out in the world. People listening to this podcast, they know Simon, the cat little Luci alias, right?
[SIMON]: Yes.
[TYLER]: Dude. Thanks for being here. I'm excited to chat with you, one as a buddy. We've gotten to know each other the last couple of years. And what we're going to talk about is, I just interviewed John Maxwell talking about values. I know values are a big part of your life and his book Change Your World that we're reading in my book club. And I want to have you come in because one, we share that relationship with John and understand those values. So to give our audience just a little bit of who is Simon and how have those values that John has, is kind of exemplified? How does that fit into your life? And we'll just kind of kick off.
[SIMON]: Yeah. If I could just start with, when I met John Maxwell for the first time, and then I'll kind of start from there, like go backwards. So, when I met John, I told him that in my life, no one has impacted my life more, that I've never met until that moment. So, there was nobody on the face of the earth that impacted me more than I'd never met other than Jesus, which I feel like I've met spiritually, but in person, no one I've ever met in my life, someone that I didn't meet before. That one person was him until that moment. So, I grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, sold our house for $11,000, going into my high school, freshman year of high school, just to give you kind of the demographic, where I was living the value of the homes and everything that comes with it.
And then my high school freshman year, my mom bought a house for $32,000. A single mom had me at 19 years old, no dad, played sports rough around the edges, got people taking care of me, trying to put their arm around me, grandparents, mom. It's a lot to handle. I was like almost a neighborhood kid or they say it takes a village. I really was a village, but in that mix, I would get caught up a little bit in the streets, so to speak. My house was shot up when I was 16. I was locked up in juvenile multiple times.
[TYLER]: I'm going to pause, because one of the things, I don't want to cut off your story, but I want, it's one of the great things that I appreciate about a relationship is that so far outside of the world I grew up in. But I love building the relationship with you because it gives me the ability to understand more in the world. And I think I've told you that, but I want to say that even more is, is our history sometimes is our history. And I appreciate you talking about that because it appreciates me understanding how you view the world and the values that you have because of what you've been through. So I just wanted to throw that in.
[SIMON]: So, from there I went to high school, played football, Youngstown Arsland, which was a Catholic school. So I got this mix of my grandmother, my mother, my grandfather, like people are trying to pitch in to make this work and I'm losing it. At eighth grade I'm starting to get bad. So they're like, "We're going to send you to this school." It was a better school than what I would have gone to, you know, the public school in the area. And so they sent me to this school and I didn't want to go and almost quit playing sports. Didn't want to play sports at all. At that point, I'm going down the wrong road. My grandfather forces me to play football. Fast-forward that, it was greatest thing that anybody's ever really done for me that forced me to do something.
It makes me teach and parent a little bit different because I didn't know enough at that age myself on what was best for me because of, he didn't urge me like that and forced me like that because I had so much respect for him. I would have, God knows what would have happened. So, we go on to win a state title, state championship. I'm a captain, play college football, start four years as strong safety at Mercyhurst, a division two school in Pennsylvania, come out and get a job at American Income Life. First job out of college in sales. And you know, I come from modest, nobody really makes a lot of money. My vision was to one day make a hundred grand when I'm like 60, and in my first year, I'm 22 years old, and all of a sudden I make $187,000 that year and in the next year just keeps going up and up.
And so I think a huge part of that was the first book that I had ever read in my life, ever, front to back, ever, high school, college, everything never read a book ever until I read the 21 Laws of Leadership from, from John Maxwell. It was the first book that I ever could say I read from front to back. And it was like at first you had to force me to read, and then I loved it so much and I continued to start to take in more and more content. And so with the combination of a couple of mentors that I was blessed to have in that moment. Now fast forward life and I got three, four kids at home, just had a new newborn baby. We got 24 offices all over the country, and about 400 people submitted business in. In my business, 400 sales reps. A big part of that, large part of that was, and still is in the culture of my organization, is the teachings and values and things that I learned through John Maxwell.
[TYLER]: And you just, I mean, you met John just over a year ago in London. We were there. That's when you met John the first time?
[SIMON]: Yes.
[TYLER]: And so what's cool is this is a 20 year history almost. And you said the guy who impacted you the most because of what you listened to, the books that you read, you had never met that guy in person until far, far down that path, that relationship. And to me, that's a testament of how your values can make an amazing impact. So let's talk about that in regards to what you're trying to do within, you know you have this, you've built this culture, this community with the Aria's agencies and just the impact that has. But how are you trying to then take the values you've learned and disperse that through a greater community?
[SIMON]: So, one of them is giving. Somebody taught me how to be a giver and made giving cool. Like when, as a kid, sometimes the reasons why you make certain decisions is because you think it's cool or somebody you look up to made you think that that was cool. And so when I got into this company, my mentors made me learn that, they were the ones that put Maxwell in my hands and they were the ones that would start to teach me. They made things that I didn't realize was cool, they made them cool. They made giving cool and started to teach me how to be a giver. And so I've carried that into our organization where it's a part of what we do.
Our people do it on their own. Like this year, one of our goals is we're going to give away a house in Thanksgiving to a family, completely paid off. It's a surprise for a family here in Pittsburgh. And we were looking for a family that's working hard, struggling, maybe have some kids and you know, we've been able to do some cool things in business for contests and prizes such as giving away certain cars or cash, or, and I said, "Man, wouldn't it be great if we came together and did something for, other than money?" We do something for somebody else that can maybe never repay us and doesn't have anything to do with business. And so that's something that we're getting ready to do now.
So that part, and I would say, I could talk all day on stuff that I got from Mr. Maxwell that I've tried to instill in our people but I would just say that servant leadership, trying to make everyone feel important because they are important to you. Just like you would treat anybody, the guy that we bumped into at the coffee shop, or McDonald's, or Chipola. You would treat those people the same way you would treat me, or the same way you would treat coach Cole Tressel. Just treat everybody with a certain type of love and respect. A lot of that, that has trickled down through our organization, I think also comes directly from things that I've read in John, and then the other mentors that I've had in my life.
[TYLER]: Why do you think as a leader it's important to exemplify those values? How do you think it makes it different in how people show up?
[SIMON]: John always says leadership is caught not taught. So, it's about ---
[TYLER]: Wait, wait. Just in case somebody didn't quite catch that. Do you want to say that again?
[SIMON]: Leadership is caught not taught. And so it's about exemplifying leading by example. And so at some point I realized that people that lead by example, for me, that I didn't even realize I was looking up to their example so much. I realized how much pressure, how important it was for me to try to live by example for people, because that's what really grabbed me, not what somebody necessarily said, but what I witnessed people actually doing and the impact that it had on me. So my mentor in this business, one of them was Jim Solace. And he is like, I tell people the fastest way I can describe him is the closest person that I would think that I could describe as Jesus walking the face of this earth. That's the best way to give you a picture of who he is. Like, I haven't met anybody that I would say, "There's Jesus," like this guy. So I fall short of that. You know, that's the expectation I have for myself.
[TYLER]: [crosstalk] You're like a built guy. You're like a built guy. I was like, here, I have no hair. You guys, you have yours, nice and tight. So I'm thinking, as you're saying that, of all the things I can think about Jesus, does he have like long curly brown hair? Because that's the pictures we see, right? He's tall, he's this meek, that's the guy you're describing, right?
[SIMON]: [inaudible 00:13:32] Pam looks a lot like a big Jesus. You know what I mean? Like you would describe.
[TYLER]: I've got to say that the audience really needs to either go back and listen to the podcast you and I did when I was on your show or I'll make sure I'll get a link to, you know what I should do for this show, because we're supposed to be having fun. It's been pretty serious, but you're like bringing your good stuff. I want to laugh a little bit more. We should ask Pam to come talk about cows, because I got some pictures of cows I need to send him.
[SIMON]: Oh, that was a great story inspired you.
[TYLER]: So, I'm going to make sure that, we'll link the YouTube video in the show notes so people can appreciate because you are talking [crosstalk]
[SIMON]: We should at least tell him what happened. So I got ----
[TYLER]: Well, that will be good. We got tease.
[SIMON]: We got to surprise my friend that I grew up with that we didn't grow up around any cows or far anything like Tyler's passionate about.
[TYLER]: I did.
[SIMON]: So, because you got to watch the company you keep. And he could sell. So Tyler's all of a sudden he gets me excited about Pam milking a cow, next thing I know we did it. So you're going to see somebody that should never, has never milked a cow before live. No practice, no reps. There was no like, "Let's practice." It was like right at it with the cow. So for some laughter for people.
[TYLER]: I'm still going to make sure. So we didn't talk, this went off a tee, but this to me, there's a value in this. There's a value in when I talked to John, listen to the podcast, it's like not taking yourself too serious. And that's something you and I can get pretty serious. I can be intense. I know you can be too, but I also know you've got a fun side about you as well. And that's simple people. Like one of the things that, Simon is, for those of you who listen, maybe don't know him. Dude is well-dressed, carries himself very well, carries himself with this confidence, but probably has the biggest heart and caring heart of anyone that I know. And that shows up in everything that he is and in that I know sometimes it's kind of, you got to have fun to let that come out.
And so, as you're talking about Pam, I still, this is my plan. At some point here in 2021, I am going to make sure that I get him to show a cow. So would you show a cow? Imagine, like you watch the dog shows [crosstalk] in show. I just happened to see one the other day. A guy walking a cow around in an arena.
[SIMON]: Amazing.
[TYLER]: We're going to make it that.
[SIMON]: I love the vision.
[TYLER]: Somehow, somewhere, to have fun. Here's another. One of the things that I'm going to kind of tee this off, because I think it's, another thing that I love and appreciate about you is you're non-profit, what you're doing for the youth in Pittsburgh and Youngstown. So we want to talk about that real quick, because I'm going to segue where I think there's kind of from cows to that. Do you want to talk about that for me?
[SIMON]: Yes. You know, in a nutshell, it's a youth program for inner city youth, afterschool and summer where we feed them, tutor them, take them on college tours, different field trips and kind of provide things that they normally, people in that area typically wouldn't get exposed to. We get to expose them to all those things, started out in Warren, Ohio. I was just a donor to that. I fell in love with the program, opened up the second one for them in Youngstown with them and then seven years later we're just doing it now, launching it here in Pittsburgh in a similar situation and excited to make an impact here in Pittsburgh now.
[TYLER]: Now it's, Imagining Minds. Is that ---
[SIMON]: Inspiring Minds.
[TYLER]: Inspiring Mind. I'm sorry dude, I just should have, Inspiring Minds. I'll make sure in the show notes that we have a link to that because I'd love for you guys to be able to see what's going on. We've talked about it, my friend, Roy Hall, who has driven foundation in Columbus, I love what you guys do, because again, that's not a world that I ever grew up in. So I don't get it, but I see the need. And I see the need to provide a service. And what I'd love is I want to see those kids get to know cows, because just imagine if Pam would've known cows, when he was that age.
[SIMON]: Don't tell him where we would be. He loves milk.
[TYLER]: He could have been a nutrition [crosstalk].
[SIMON]: He loves milk.
[TYLER]: He does. I mean, he could have ended up like I did as a nutritionist for cows. [crosstalk].
[SIMON]: Never too late.
[TYLER]: Never too late. As you move forward in life and if you get to a point and we're old and we're watching the Buckeyes, and when I say old, I mean, you're not as old as I am, 41. You're in your thirties still, but in 20, 30, 40 years, and we're at a Browns game, because the Browns have already won the super bowl, you know, the highlights. What's the legacy of values that you want to leave to your family and to those that you impact?
[SIMON]: There will be a list but I think loyalty would be a value, the balance of what it means to have toughness, but also being empathetic. You know, I think people struggle with should I be soft or am I being too strong? And you know, at times you need to be strong. Like even Jesus is strong. Even being around John Maxwell, I could realize how how much love he has and how he has a soft side to him. But I could also tell you don't want to get on his bad side. He ain't afraid to hold somebody answerable. You know what I mean? I could just tell that. And so I think teaching that balance, family would be a value, hard work, work ethic.
I never want to lose the work ethic that I learned from coming up in a blue collar environment. I don't want it to skip a generation because they're growing up completely different than I grew up. So values, giving, being a giver, being, you know, I already tried to take some steps that would leave some things behind to foster and facilitate my daughter already. She's five, she's always talking about giving and always asking me questions when I'm doing stuff with Inspiring Minds. And I could tell she has just this heart to always want to help people right now. And so I'm thinking ahead of like how do I make sure that that legacy of wanting to give stays behind other than what I teach?
And so I started a foundation right now that I plan on having if I make it another 10, 20 years to be on this earth, something that will be left with her to be able, or my kids to be able to carry that tradition and legacy of caring and giving, treating people different when they need it, but equally just like we talked about, treat and the janitor, the same way that you would the CEO and not feeling like you're better than somebody else. So I think those are a couple off the top of my head values. I would like to pass down.
[TYLER]: I love it. I love it. I thank you for joining me today. I thank you for sharing what you're doing. And again, it's people like you that I feel privileged to be able to put into my inner circle to say that helped me be better and help me say, "Hey, how are ways that I can continue to grow and evolve?" And I just appreciate that and appreciate again how we have that connection and understanding these values. We got to work at it. Doesn't just happen. You have to work at that, and so I appreciate that, man.
[SIMON]: Appreciate you, appreciate you for having me and thanks for fueling my workouts. I've been crushing the pre-workout from your company [crosstalk].
[TYLER]: Do you like that?
[SIMON]: I like it. Not too much caffeine for me, just to know, so I'm not speeding. You know what I mean? But I'm doing the speed limit. You know, I got enough energy to, I like a lot of that. So appreciate that.
[TYLER]: Here's something, because I know you've been getting up. Your son ends up just a little guy, so you've been getting up a little early. I got up this morning, it was at 4:15 this morning and I ended up doing two and I had a phenomenal workout. I mean, we're pretty close in size. I mean, you're built, you're jacked. I'm just a little taller, but you're jacked. So that may be something you want to try. Just if you need a little [crosstalk]
[SIMON]: Okay. I'll let you know. I'll send you a video.
[TYLER]: Okay.
[SIMON]: Thank you.
[TYLER]: When you take down the next UFC champ in your jujitsu session, then we'll see how that goes.
[SIMON]: I like it.
[TYLER]: Dude, I know you got to run. I appreciate you so much, dude.
[SIMON]: Appreciate you.
[TYLER]: I can't wait to go to a Browns' game together. It's going to be fun.
[SIMON]: Let's go. I love it.
[TYLER]: Let's do it.
[SIMON]: All right. Talk to you soon.
[TYLER]: All right. So hopefully you enjoyed that episode. Hopefully you got a lot out of that. So I think what's really cool is I had John Ruhlin as a guest, we talked about generosity. I didn't say anything to Simon about the value of giving and generosity, but you could tell throughout that that's a major part. And I see that what he does in his organization. I see that what he does as a leader. He is truly a giving person that gives from the heart. As I mentioned, I see that first and foremost in him. And it's something that continues to urge me to say, "Hey, how can I challenge myself?" I talked about that with John and even Simon kind of brought it up. It's giving things outside of the norm. You know, if his organization is going to give away a house, well, they could just give somebody money, but no, that's a value that really speaks a lot to who he is as a person and the impression that he's trying to make on the world.
So go check it out, simonarias.net. That'll be in the show notes. Go check out Inspiring Minds, great organization. He's got some really cool things going on. I love to see and get to know those stories as well. I mentioned it in the podcast, I'll get you guys the YouTube link of one Pam and got to meet a cow. It's great stuff. I hope you're valuing this. I hope you're getting more out of just some of the author interviews. If you're enjoying this, review it, rate it, let me know. I want more people to hear stories of Simon. I want more people to hear from our next author, as I have that interview drop.
And at the same point, part of what Simon talked about, and I know him growing up being a part of a football team, he said, it changed how we did everything in life. We didn't talk about it in the episode, but a big part of that is being part of a team and learning and growing and developing together. And that's what we do with the Impact Driven Leader book club. If you haven't checked it out, go look and see what we do. We have a book club, we also have a deeper dive where we have a once a week Zoom, where we talk more about the leadership lessons that we're going through in life and that's the round table. And so I encourage you, maybe right now is not the right time, but go check it out. And maybe you could share that with someone else. I would be greatly appreciative. Remember all proceeds, go to the John Maxwell Leadership Foundation.
Thanks for joining in and listening to this episode. Share it with someone who got value out of it, even if it's just saying, "Hey, look at the pathway that Simon took from his humble," very difficult. He didn't get into the difficult stuff, the difficult stuff that he went through in life, and yet took himself out of that and took himself out of that to be really a major impactful leader that I just love and appreciate. Again, thanks for joining. Rate, review, share. We'll see you on the next episode.
