The Grit Factor Podcast w/ Karl Jacobi

TGFP Audio Ep 38

00:00:00 Speaker: Average is the enemy of greatness. Comfort is the enemy of growth. Welcome to the Grit Factor podcast, where we strip away the highlight reel and get into the darkness beneath it. The real stories, the real battles, and the battle plans used to conquer them. I'm your host, Carl Jacobi, combat vet, entrepreneur, resilience and performance coach, keynote speaker, husband and father. I've built, scaled, and exited multiple companies totaling over forty million in revenue. But here's what that highlight reel doesn't show you. Life has been smacking me in the face with a two by four since I was just five years old. Broken home. Constant chaos. No playbook. No safety net. Just grit. And if you're anything like me. You know, you've got another level in you, in your business, your career, your faith, your leadership. You're just not sure how to get there. That's exactly why we're here. Be sure to follow me for more great content, and check out my website success with Karl dot com. Now that's Karl with a K. Now let's get to work. All right. Welcome back. Today I have an amazing guest. And before he tells you a single thing about himself. I want you to know the kind of person you're about to spend an hour with today. This is a man who built a whole life around one stubborn idea that I can totally get behind. You just have to start. And you do not stop. He's lived in twenty six countries and built something real out of a two. Only of two hundred dollars and a laptop in the middle of a global shutdown. And today, he gets to show thousands of other people how to build the same kind of freedom that he had to fight for. But the reason I want you to lean in on this conversation is not because of the business he's built. It is everything he was willing to walk through to build it. Brooke, in a foreign country more times than he can count. Forced to ask for help on the days his pride was screaming not to. And every time he got knocked down, he got back up and focused on being a little bit better than the day before. He is living proof that where you start has nothing to do where you finish. Austin Reed, my dude. Welcome to the show, my man. Thank you so much for having me, Carl. I really appreciate it. Me too man. I'm looking forward to this conversation, especially as we're just before we hit the record button, man, you're talking about you're a digital nomad and traveling. Um, I, I can deeply resonate with that. I love traveling and exploring the cultures and just what the world has to offer, man. So I'm already envious of you, my man. But yeah. Thanks, man. Yeah, man. All right, Austin, paint us a picture, dude. You know, take me back to who you were when you thought you were. You to who you were, thought you were chasing in those early days. And, uh, just paint us a picture. What life was like for you. Um, in early twenty twenty in when you were stuck in Indonesia on an emergency visa and during a global shutdown. Right on, right on. Yeah. So at that time, I was a full time musician, right? So I composed music for people. I was doing concerts not during Covid, obviously, but, uh, but yeah, I compose, write music record. I was recording artist. I also edited some videos from time to time. I just kind of did whatever came to me, and I lived kind of paycheck to paycheck right at that time. I was, uh, definitely shyer person. I would say I wasn't quite, I was very determined, but I wasn't quite as resilient and patient definitely was not as patient as I am now. And there's a lot of, um, lacking qualities that I guess over time I picked up and learned through, through time. But, um, yeah, I just, I really wanted to, to help people. I've always wanted to help people. And sometimes I tell people that didn't want help and I get burned. And it took me a while to learn that like, dude, yeah, like most people don't like unsolicited advice, you know what I mean? So yes, I can resonate. Yeah, definitely. So that, that took a while for me to, to pick up too. And, uh, yeah, I mean, it's just, I, yeah, I just don't think I was the truly blossom form of myself at that point of time, if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, one hundred percent, man. Well, the more that I learn more about you, the more I like you. Are you a musician? You know, um, I haven't picked up a guitar in a long, long time. Um, shamefully. I need to pick it back up, man. But yeah. Guitar, drums. I played a drum line back in high school and yeah, so I love, love the musician piece. My, my oldest daughter, she's definitely the, the, the creative musician type in our family. Uh, and I definitely see her being a digital nomad. She, she loves traveling. She loves, you know, going these different places, man. But, um, man, you told us that the company was born out of the one of the worst days of your partner's life, right? You were in Indonesia? Yeah. Matthias was in another country. And he texted you that he had been robbed at gunpoint. Right. I can't even fathom that, man. Um, you know, the laptop, the rent money, everything was gone. Right. So take us into that moment. Where were you when that text came in? What went through your head? What made you respond to a robbery? Saying, let's start a business? Yeah, man. I mean, I don't really remember the exact moment of where I was. Um, I remember that at the time I would play chess with him in the mornings. So he's from Brazil. He's Brazilian. Right? Um, and we would play chess together like remotely because like, that was just our form of like, staying connected with each other. Yeah. And so I remember I used to, like, sit in, uh, there was this little cafe that served, uh, I know it was, uh, nasi goreng, which in Indonesia that's like fried rice with chicken. And I would, I would eat that and it was like two dollars or three dollars. And it came like in a banana leaf. It was pretty cool. But I would eat that and play chess with him. Right. And then yeah, one day he texted me and he was he was really just complaining. He was like, dude, like I the shit happened to me. I got robbed. Fucking sucks. I don't know what to do, blah, blah, blah. And like, I knew he had a master's in cybersecurity and I had some programming experience before from when I, when I used to do dropshipping. And so me being the person, I am always wanting to help people, I was like, bro, how about this? How about I'll send you a couple hundred bucks, go pick up some shitty laptop on Facebook and I'll try to, I'll try to sell a website. It wasn't like, hey, let's, let's start a business. That's not how it happened. It was it was like, dude, let me let me just get you. Let's, let's get some money somehow, right? So yeah, I hopped on Upwork. I, I was really, really good at optimizing product descriptions for dropshipping and getting people to buy. So I just optimized my Upwork profile the same way I would like dropshipping something. And I started applying for jobs, and I got a job within like five or six days. It was like a seven hundred dollars WordPress site, which we should have charged way more for. Right? Um, we didn't know. We had no idea what the fuck we were doing. It's usually hindsight. You're looking back like, man, I should have charged like ten fifteen X. Yeah, exactly. Exactly that. And so, um, yeah, I don't know. We, we got the site, we built the site, we split the money and it was like, it was, I mean, it didn't make up for everything he lost, but it was, it was definitely a step in the right direction. So I was like, okay, let's do a couple more. So we did a few more WordPress sites because there was like, the market was flooded with WordPress at the time and, uh, sure. And yeah, and then after a while, he was just like, bro, I think I'm gonna like quit my job and just do this. And I was like, shit, like I'm responsible for someone. And not only am I responsible for someone, it's someone who's like one of my best friends, you know what I mean? And so that was like a big shift for me because like before, like I had dabbled having like Vas and stuff, but I never really understood the importance. I was a little too immature at the time to understand the importance of that role and the responsibility. Right. And, uh, but it hits different when it's like, yo, if I fuck up, like my friend doesn't eat, you know what I mean? So that was a big shift for me. And that's kind of how we started. You know, that's a great story, man. I love these kind of stories where, you know, it's also listening. You know, it's ironic in how I listen to everybody's story and how they start something, whether it's a career, it's a business, it's something, right? It's always stemmed back to not something that they originally thought it was going to happen. Right? It's usually something that was completely off course, what they initially were thinking or something off base. So it's just ironic on how to listen to you real quick before we keep rolling. Maybe life hit you hard. Business fell apart. Career isn't working out. Relationship ended. Health took a dive. And now you're standing in the rubble. Trying to figure out what the next move even looks like. Or maybe nothing blew up at all. On paper, you're winning. Sure, but on the inside, something's off. If you're not in crisis, you're at a crossroads. And the playbook that built the life you have is not the playbook that builds the one you want. Either way, you're stuck. Not broken. Stuck between who you were and who you're becoming. Most self-help just piles more weight on the load you're already carrying. I do not want to do that. I put together a free video series called the Grit Code Exposed, and I want to invite you to check it out. Seven short videos. That's it. The five laws that change everything for me. In every client, I coach the same five. That every person who's ever come back from the fire has walked through where they had a name for it or not. No fluff, no ninety minute webinar, no bait, just the free video series. You can start it tonight. Grab it at grit. Code exposed dot com one more time. Grit code exposed dot com. It's free. You don't need any more hustle. You need the next version and this is how you find it. Check it out. See if it speaks to you. And if it does, I'll see you inside. All right, let's get back to the conversation. But would it be fair to say that if it wasn't for him that you probably like, it forced you to mature in a lot of ways, like in a sense of how you operate the business and just manage people and lead, you know, effectively help you mature as a leader. I'd say one hundred percent. Yeah, it definitely, I mean, not only that, but I don't think I would be in tech as much as I am now if it wasn't for him. Right. Because at the time, like I was one hundred percent on the music stuff, you know, I was yeah, I was doing like little side gigs or projects or whatever to supplement income. But for the most part, I was just, I was just one hundred percent like musician, you know? So yeah. Makes sense. Makes sense. Yeah. Oftentimes, man, I, I have found personally that, um, you know, we, we're introduced to the next level by hardships, right? Whether it's somebody else's hardships, our own or whatever. And that's how we level up, right. Is through those hardships, through whether it's our own or somebody else's. Um, and it's oftentimes somebody else's because we don't want to let that person down. Right? We don't want to disappoint that person. We don't want to let them down any of that. So yeah, you know, and that's why we have a hard time saying no to things, you know, especially when it involves helping other people because we don't want to let them down. Right. Um, but, you know, this has been an amazing story so far. So you send him two hundred bucks. Um, you, you, you find him a laptop. Four days later, you land your first gig. Um, you had a partner who just got robbed. All that good stuff. Uh, what a day to day survival look like for you back in that period of time. Like, just give us some, give us, paint us a picture. What day to day survival would look like for you? I mean, at that time, specifically, I, I had a small surplus of money of, well, not really, I had like For one thousand dollars. But for me, that was like a lot, right? So I hear you. Yeah. And so, um, like I was doing, I was stable and doing well, um, at that point. And so I was sending him, you know, his half or whatever. And then me and my ex-wife, we decided, well, she wanted to go see her dad, which was in Mexico. Mexico was still open during Covid, so you didn't have to like have this weird border crossings and stuff. And so we decided to do that. And so we bought two tickets to Mexico, which was like 4K, pretty much everything we had. Um, but we had a little bit left over. And, uh, so we go to the airport and we ask him like, hey, do we need the rapid test or the PCR? And they're like, oh, the rapid test is fine. You can do the testing at the airport one hour before the flight or like sweet, you know? So we go to the airport, we do the test and we fly from Bali to Jakarta, and then we get on the plane or we start trying to board on the plane from Jakarta to Dubai. And they're like, yo, you don't have the right test. You can't put this plane. And I'm like, what? Are you fucking kidding me? Like I was, I was pissed, and so I called my dad and I'm like, hey, man, can you, like, send me a couple thousand dollars so that we could get a new ticket to Mexico because we're like, stranded in fucking Jakarta? Yeah. And he's like, he was, he was mad and he hung up on me. And then I called my mom and my mom was like, let me talk to your dad. And then she, like, poked the bear, you know? And he did it. But, um, but, um, yeah. And then, um, we went across town. There was another flight a couple hours later. The plan was, was, uh, we could catch up with our original itinerary because the layover in Dubai was like a really long time. So we got a flight from there to Dubai, but then the tickets for the rest of our itinerary got cancelled because we missed that flight. And so and they were non-refundable. It's fucking stupid. It was Kiwi. I hate Kiwi but um, but anyway, so so we ended up having to rebuy the same itinerary on the same flights for the rest of Mexico. So Dubai to Portugal and Portugal to Cancun. Right. And then we get to Cancun and, and then I'm fucking, I'm like, out, I'm tapped out. I got no money, you know, and we're still doing the, uh, the Upwork thing. You know, we're co working on projects and stuff. And I remember, so basically I was, her dad was kind of funding us a little bit. And, uh, so I was living with her and her dad and I just remember it was like I would and at the time, okay, it's a pain in picture. Mateo had to move out of his mom's house because she was being too distracting and annoying and a bunch of things. So Mateo's had a house that he inherited from his dad, but like it didn't have anything inside it. It didn't have furniture. It didn't have a fridge. It didn't have like, it was like empty. Right. And Brazilians, they like to sleep on hammocks. I don't know if you knew that, but I had no idea. That's interesting. Not not all of them, but but it's a more common thing, right? So so he's like sleeping in a hammock in this house that has no fridge and no stove. And you see what I'm saying? And so, and I'm in Mexico and I'm living with my ex-wife and her dad. And every project we get in, I was sending everything I had to Mateo's before they could get access to the money, which was just pissing her dad off and pissing her off. Um, I eventually paid him back, so it was fine, but but it was just, it was just making a lot of friction. Right. But to end the situation I had and, and because I was like, dude, you need a fridge. Like you can't, you can't even keep food in your house. Like, you know what I mean? And Brazil's hot foods can go bad really quick. Um, so get a fridge, get a stove, get get a fucking table so you can like work somewhere, you know. Yeah, absolutely. Actually live, you know. Right, right, right. So for the next couple projects, I just basically like sent everything I could to him. And I took a little bit, you know, and then yeah, me and my ex-wife, we decided to part ways. And, uh, again, I called my dad. I'm like, hey, man, can you, like, give me a ticket from Cancun to Denver? Because like, I can't do this anymore. She's getting kind of violent with me and like, I don't. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, it's a different story. But, um, but yeah. And so then I go and I live with my, my dad for a bit. And then I went to my mom. They both are still together, but they have like separate households because my dad traveled because of the military and stuff and they just kind of ended up that way. Um, so anyways, I was bouncing between my mom and my dad's house and literally didn't spend shit because my mom has a farm. And so, and she had, uh, a bunch of lambs the year prior and she didn't like the lamb meat for some reason. So there was like a fridge full of lamb meat there, like freezer. And she was like, hey, there's like one hundred pounds of lamb in there. You can just have it. I was like, sick. So like, yeah, right. I know I could, I could chow some lamb for sure, man. Yeah. And so everybody, I wake up, I go out, I feed the animals, grab some eggs, crack them open, do like a lamb chop, you know, and eat that for breakfast. And uh, nice. And I like didn't spend money for like six or seven months. And the plan was like, hey, we got to meet up with Mateos. And so it's like we just kept doing projects and working and, and, uh, we bought my ticket first. We decided we'd meet in Medellin, Colombia, because it was like a good, I don't know, point, no real logic behind it besides, like, it's something cool that we both could do and cheap. And so I went first, and then about four weeks later, he followed me there. And then we lived together for like two years, hopping Airbnbs and stuff and working on the business. Yeah, that's pretty cool, man. You know, outside looking in, I'm sure you're thinking at that time, man, this sucks, right? You know, and but looking back though, it is the I don't know, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, but it's usually after the fact. You look back on a journey. It's like, man, that really forced me to grow. And that really forced me to learn things and, and do things that I was uncomfortable doing. Absolutely. Yeah. And just outside looking in, man, I'm just kind of picturing this journey you're on, you know, traveling all over the place and, and, uh, and again, in those moments, you're probably thinking, man, this, this sucks, bro. Um, yeah, the life is hard and so forth. But again, you know, looking back, it really makes you appreciate what you have today, right? It really just makes you appreciate everything you've learned, um, everything you've earned as well in terms of the skills and experiences. And of course, you know, the monetary aspect too, right? It really makes you just appreciate all this so much more because you've had to walk through this thing, you've had to do some uncomfortable things and, and tread through some treacherous waters. But, um, well, I want to sit with the hardest part with you. Right? Because you talked about, you know, quite a few areas here, um, Colombia, which you mentioned Mexico earlier. My wife is born and raised in Mexico, so. Oh that's cool. Yeah. Um, but, uh, but you mentioned Colombia, right? You and me living together, you know, almost nothing coming in and you pivot it from WordPress to Django, if I'm saying that correctly. Yeah. Um, and then went nine months without landing a single project. Nine months, dude, like nine days, nine weeks. A lot of people would just quit, right? Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people just quit. So walk us through like, what gave you the level? Like what made you keep going? Because again, nine months, bro. Like, like I said, nine weeks, nine days. You know, a lot of people would just quit. What? Yeah, man. I mean, what encouraged you? So like, I think if I remember correctly, the last project that I landed was in Cartagena. So it was right before we left Colombia and we landed two really big projects. At the time, they were like ten or twelve K each. So we had like twenty K something, right? So we had some money stacked up like a little bit. Um, and then, um, we were working with the designer at the time, Lucas, who I'm still really good friends with. Uh, he's also from Brazil. I also met him in Brazil. Um, and we were thinking about maybe having him as like a third partner for the business because it was like, hey, you know, this is a cool thing we're doing with friends. Like, let's all have freedom and work hard and whatever. Um, and so we, we had to, you know, move out of Colombia because our visas were expiring. And so we decided to go to Ecuador. I don't really know why. Oh, I, that's why we went to Ecuador because I still had to get divorced with my ex-wife and we had to finish the paperwork. That's why I went to Ecuador. Unfinished business. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we went to Quito. We stayed in Quito in a town called Sangolqui. And we flew out our designer to come with us. And at that time I had a girlfriend who's now my current wife. Um. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Yeah. And so it was Mateos, his girlfriend, Sarah, Lisette, my wife, and, um, and Lucas all in one house. Right. And it was that was cheap. It was only like four hundred and fifty dollars a month. It was like a four bedroom house. And it was pretty nice. Um, and, uh, and yeah, we're just like, I'm like trying to figure out how to do cold calling. I'm like looking at zoominfo. I'm looking at direct outreach. I have no idea what I'm that's like totally foreign to me because I'm used to like posting an ad and then waiting for people to come to me, you know, or like applying for like Upwork jobs. I'm not used to like attacking people. And I was like, I don't know, it was just really boring to me. So I can, I can understand, I, I can certainly relate to this man. I want to paint this picture, if I understand it correctly, there's three couples living in this house or two couples in a in a couples and actually. Dude. Yeah, man. I don't know about you, dude. Um, I we've been down this road in previous lives and initially, you know, for a couple days, it was great. You know, I say great, but it was, you know, livable. But man, after that, it just really like we had to get out of there ASAP and it wasn't anything against them. Right. It's just that, you know, we want our privacy. We want to, you know, but, you know, looking back, man, how did that did that course did did those situations cause you to get closer? Did it cause friction? Like, you know, in those times? How did how did you guys handle that? Yeah. I mean, the funny thing didn't really cause friction because they're used to it, you know, and I was too kind of like I had already fucking lost my income so many times and you're like acclimated to it. Yeah, yeah. I would say less now than I was then. Right? Yeah. That's another conversation. But, but, um, there was definitely, I think the biggest friction was between like, like, like someone would get something for themselves and somebody else would need it or something, you know, like that, that type of thing or, um, or like privacy is another thing. Um, and so like there was some friction around there and it was like, I go out with Mateos and he'd complain about Lucas and I'd go out with Lucas. He complained about Mateos or whatever, you know? And so it was like, there was definitely some of that going on for sure. Yeah. Um, and eventually in the end, when I stopped living with Mateos and Sarah, um, in the same house, there was friction between my wife and Mateos and Sarah, like so much so that now they hate each other. Oh, wow. Whereas yeah, before they could get along and they used to smoke together and stuff, but now they can't even be in the same room. And so definitely. But that took a couple of years to evolve to that point. Yeah. Um, back in the Ecuador house though, I mean, there wasn't like a shitload of friction. It was like there was little quarrels and stuff, but it wasn't like a, like we actually did pretty well together. We all like playing games, played games together, you know, like, um, Lucas was really into to Muay Thai. I am too. So we trained together sometimes. Nice. Um, things like that. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. I love, uh, martial arts of various, uh, various. I never did Muay Thai, but I did a lot of karate and, uh, Brazilian jiu jitsu. Wrestling. Jiu jitsu too. Yeah. Yeah. I love rolling, man. Um, but, uh. Well, good. I know there was another reason I liked you, man. So awesome. The more we talk, man, the more I like you. One thing you said on your bio, and I think I personally can resonate with this, and I know a lot of people can too. And I really want to lean in on this. Um, because everything you displayed at this point would make people think otherwise. But you said what challenges you most when life gets heavy is the fear of failure, right? And there you are, nine months deep, right? Broke in a foreign country, you know, you're you're asking for help. That is fear of failure. Staring right at you in the face. Right? Yeah, yeah. And those are listening. Uh, guys, this Austin just kind of shrugged his shoulders like, yeah, that, you know, but at that point, you know, it probably didn't. He probably didn't see that as much of a threat. Right. But looking back, when we talk about fear of failure, a lot of people stall on taking action because they're afraid of the worst case scenario that will likely not even happen, right? Yeah. Like, did you did that all register with you? Did you have did you run these scenarios out or did you just not even think at all and just go, go, go? Did you not have time to think about anything of that nature? I mean, at that time, I didn't think as much of that as I do now. It's funny, I might have gone a little bit backwards when it comes to that mentality. And that's actually something I'm working to actively reverse because now, like, I feel like I've built something that's worth having, so I'm afraid of losing it. Right. Whereas before I had nothing to lose, right. So it was totally different. The situation. Um, yeah, man. I mean, uh, the biggest thing is, is like, for me, it was like, if I could just have three thousand dollars in the bank, then I wouldn't be stressed. And then that number as the team grew, would grow. But, but for me, that was the number. It was like three thousand dollars. I was like, okay, cool, I've got three K. We're good. We can survive. We have money for the next two months. Like, you know what I mean? I do, I do. I'm chuckling because as I hear I've been there right. I've always I wouldn't say always, but there was this always this ceiling that I would establish like, man, once I get there, life would be good, right? And I look back like, man, I was so foolish. Like, yeah, you know, especially in today's time. But that's a very good point, man. And that's something I want to bring to the surface is at that point, you didn't have anything to lose, right? You're the underdog. Like, you know, there was nothing really for you to lose. But now in this stage of life, you do have things to lose, right? You have teams, you've built things, you've done amazing things. And, and you've made amazing progress and traction. So it only makes sense that not necessarily a fear, but you're being a lot more aware of what you may lose if something goes wrong. Does that make sense? Absolutely. And that's exactly what it is. And I feel like I went a little bit too much on the other extreme right, where I'm like, so risk averse that like, I'm not taking the risks I should be. Right. And so I've been, like I said, actively, it's crazy. We're talking about this because I'm literally working with myself over the last two or three weeks, working on my mindset to, to unravel that some more and go back to the other side. Right? Yeah. Makes sense man. I can resonate with that dude. I, I think especially in this season of life I'm in, you know, I, I've worked with so many people on this, just on that right there. And it's oftentimes the stories that we replay over and over and over again. And, uh, and I often tell everybody, and this is something I have had to learn in my own life. Run it through right? Like, worst case, run it through. Are you going to die? Likely not. You know, you've already proven like you've got the evidence. You've got the reps. You've put in the reps. Okay, so what? You lose everything again. Okay, well, you rebuild, but this time you're going to rebuild from what you already have established experiences, right? You've already accomplished amazing things. You've already built out a network. So worst case scenario, you may lose a bit of money or maybe you lose some relationships, but you can still always rebuild with things that people can never take away from you. What can they never take away from you? Things you've experienced, your skills. You know your stories, right? Your tenacity. Your. Your ability to show up every single day and still keep moving forward. That's what you've built, right? And too many people, man. They just they, they allow circumstances dictate their their environments. You know, I've been there and, and I still some if I told you I'm perfect at this lightning would strike. Um, which I'm kind of looking above me right now, but you know, jokes aside, this plagues everybody, right? The fear of failure does plague everybody. Even the people that we see in the spotlight. You know, everybody, they still battle with fear. They just know how to navigate that noise, right? Just as you've learned how to do right. But you just got a lot more aware of it because you have more to lose. At least that's what you think. And I get it. But man, oh man, this has been a great conversation, man. It really has. Um, for you, you told me that the one system that you credit everything to is daily consistency. And this is something I'm a huge advocate of, um, one of my other coaches. He he stresses to our to our, you know, mastermind and so forth. Almost every call focus on one percent improvement, right? Just being one percent better than you were yesterday, right? So for you getting a little bit every day, work out every morning. Content content every week, right. Give us a perspective shift. Like what is the day in the life of today? What does that look like for Austin today versus what he used to do, you know, back when he had a grind day to day. Not that you don't grind, but yeah, absolutely. So it's funny you say that I actually got that tattooed on my arm in Japanese. Oh, nice. Right here and right here, which is daily, uh, focus, consistency and improvement. Right. Nice. So yeah. Um. Yeah, man. Um, Back then it was chaotic, and I used to make these fucking crazy routines where I would like, like, plan every fucking minute of my day and I could never do it. I could do it for like a day or two and I could never fricking do it. And this was more just me learning about myself. Right now, I understand that I operate better with more flexibility throughout my day. Like I can have a couple of structured things during my day, but for the most part, it's like today's goal is this when I get that done, I don't know, maybe that's at night, maybe that's in the morning, maybe that's midday. It doesn't fucking matter. The point is, is by the end of the day, it's done right. That's the big thing, at least for me, that works. That being said daily, yeah. I mean, you nailed it. So I wake up, I spend about an hour staring at the fucking wall because like, I'm a horrible person in the morning and just like, I need some time to become my better self. And yeah, you know what I mean? So I do, I do. And then, um, the first thing I do, uh, Monday every day except for Saturday, is I go train with a personal trainer. Now, depending on the day, that's either Muay Thai, jiu jitsu or weightlifting. Like this morning was jiu jitsu. Um, so I have them come out to the gym. I built a gym downstairs and they come to the gym and they train me and um, and yeah, and then after that, um, usually I'll do thirty minutes to, you know, grab a quick bite to eat, take my vitamins, you know, maybe take a quick shower. And then I do my, you know, whatever meetings for the day. I try to stack my meetings on early in the day. So the rest of the day I can just do whatever I want. At that point, I kind of just depends on whatever the fuck I'm focusing on or whatever I feel like in that moment or I'm excited about. Right. So like most days, like, I'll, I'll work until like five or six p m, seven p m maybe, uh, yesterday I worked until like ten or eleven, I think. But it just depends on the day. And then some days I'm just like, fuck it. Like, let's just play games, you know? And that's what I do. Or I play music, you know? So yeah, real quick before you go, if you're still with me this deep into the episode, something in it hit you. Maybe it was the guest. Maybe it was one line. Either way, you're still here. And that feeling in your chest right now, that's the signal. Most people get a signal like that and do absolutely nothing with it. They close the app. Life rushes back in. The moment's gone. Six months later, there are the exact same spot. I don't want that for you. So I put something together. I want to invite you to check out a free video series called The Grit Code Exposed. Seven short videos. The five laws. I walk every client through. The same ones that rebuilt me when everything else fell apart. And if you listen closely, you heard them running underneath the entire conversation because everyone who's come back from the fire walks through these five laws. Some find them on their own, some get help, but the laws don't change. Free video series. You can start it tonight. No fluff. No ninety minute webinar. Just the series. If you're going to do something with what you heard today, do this before life talks you out of it. Go to grit Code exposed dot com one more time. Grit code exposed dot com. And hey, before I let you go, thank you for writing with me this long. It means a lot more than you know. Thank you. Well, see, you've given you see, you've allowed to give yourself that. You've given yourself that freedom to enjoy life, right? And I think this is where a lot of people get hung up. And I've been a victim of this too. But if I'm hearing you correctly, correct me if I'm wrong, but you've given yourself the freedom to actually enjoy life, right? Not to be so rigid, but actually to go out there and enjoy life. This is why you travel so much. To enjoy what the world has to offer, the cultures and the people that all these different things, right? And I admire that man. I admire somebody who's willing to go out there. Um, it reminds me of a video I watched. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Um, that life is meant to be a video game, right? We're supposed to have fun, chase what matters, right? Go after what matters, what's important to you. But other than that, life is supposed to be fun. Play it like a video game. What's your thoughts or take on that? No, I love it. And some of the best experiences come from the side quests, right? Like I see a lot of early entrepreneurs, a lot of peers in my friend groups and stuff that we hang out and stuff that are also in similar points of their business, slightly ahead or behind or whatever. Um, they're like twenty four over seven workaholics. And I used to be same way too. Like when I was in Bali, like working on music. If I wasn't when I first got there, if I wasn't doing that, like I couldn't go to a cafe to sit down without me thinking, oh shit, I'm wasting my time. I should be working on X, right? And so when I first got to Bali, I had to take fucking six months off. And the first like two, three months, I like, didn't know what the fuck to do with myself. Like I was so like overwhelmed with the idea of there's just chill, like, don't you know what I mean? And so I had to learn how to like disconnect, right? But once I figured that out, my first of all, less stressed, much healthier. Funny thing that I find that like, I mean, a lot of like Alex and Rosie and Gary Vee, they have this like hustle work culture where like you work all the time and the more hours I know where you going with this, go for it. Yes. Our more effective output. Whatever. Right. But I find for me that there's like, if I do that, I actually get less done than if I flow with life and really just focus, first of all, focusing on the right inputs. Yeah. Like I'm not an idiot. Like I do have goals. I do chase after my goals. And although I do have freedom throughout my day after the morning, right. Um, I still manage to hit my, my daily goals and stuff. But I do notice that for some reason in the gaps where I'm not working, some of my best ideas and best partnerships and best opportunities have came from me just sitting at a cafe, drinking a coffee. That's such a great point, man. And it's such a great point. I, I one hundred percent agree with you. And I think this is where a lot of people try to adopt their own lies into other people, right? At the end of the day, you just have to just go with what works for you, right? Like you found what works for you. And I, I can completely agree with what you're saying because for me, when I unplugged from the chaos and go to the gym or walk, go for a walk with a weighted vest, or just go roll or do something that's not involved in work. Man, I'm in my most creative state, right? Because I'm not so emotionally tied to stuff. I'm thinking of ideas and opportunities, and I found my best ideas not in the the business or, you know, working. It's oftentimes to your point, sitting in a cafe, sipping some espresso, right? Or just watching the birds fly around or around watching the waves on the beach. That's where I found my biggest goal. And that's why I think I'm hearing from you, too. Yeah. No, absolutely. And it's very contradictory to a lot of the literature out there. I'm not saying the other literature is wrong. I mean, it does work for some people, but I just noticed that a lot of the people that chase that end up being miserable. Because I think what's missing is those gurus never say, this is what works for me. And you might be different. You have to find out what works for you. I think that's the part that's missing. Agree agree agree wholeheartedly, man I agree. Just like for you, right? What? What's working for you? You know, it may not work for, you know, people that are listening to this or watching this episode, right? So, you know, our challenge to them is to essentially, you know, listen right and try things. But essentially, at the end of the day, keep trying until something finally clicks with you. Where you are having fun in your life. You're enjoying things. You. You're experiencing joy. You're experiencing fulfillment, right? But man, so fast forward to today, man. You know, what are you most fired up about today? You know, you've got horizon development with, you know what? You've been building a fifteen person team with everything you've got going on. What is something that you're most fired up about right now that the world hasn't seen yet? Uh, I mean, I guess that that question could be answered in a couple of different ways. Something that the world could be excited about or something that I'm just excited about. Something that something that you're fired up about that the world hasn't not yet seen from you. Well I'm fired. This is weird. I had a call with a new accounting firm and tax planning firm yesterday for doing tax planning and stuff. Yeah, I'm fired up about that. And I know that sounds weird, but no, I can understand shortly. And so and we're going to change how the company is structured a bit and how we do things. And that for me is pretty exciting. I'm leveling up my investment game now. Like I automated investments and stuff. I realized it was pretty weak. And so I'm working more on, on wealth generation. On the other side of things, that for me is exciting. That's more like personal and business stuff though. Yeah. When it comes to technology, I think I mean, the obvious answer is AI, right? But, um, but I think the way most people think about AI is they like talking to ChatGPT and telling ChatGPT to do something. That's not how we use AI. We, um, enable AI to have tools and powers and superpowers and then give it just very specific jobs, which allows it to do massive impact in ways that most other people wouldn't be able to do. Oh, and oh, this is an interesting one. I'm getting a genealogy test from sequencing dot com, and I want to build an AI to go through all my genes and analyze that stuff. I've done that. I've done that. Yes. That's cool. Yes. Um, I've learned so much about things that this makes a whole lot more sense now in the sense of my health, the way I operate, why I'm so why I was so foggy. Um, you know, uh, why I was so fatigued a lot despite how, you know, what my diet was and my exercise regimen and all those things. I'm still not me, you know? And so yeah, I'm excited to hear what your results come back as. Man, I definitely, you know, I was telling my group about this. Definitely recommend doing that. Um, I've gotten really addicted to finding out everything I could possibly find about me. What makes me tick. You know how I operate. Um, and just really trying every way possible to level up. Right. But, um, man, this has been such a great conversation. You know, especially, you know, talking about, you know, some of the things we talked about fear of failure and coming from literally nothing and building and traveling the world. There's so much to a lot of people just sitting down just can imagine. Right. You know, um, I always like to give the person sixty to 90s talk to this Austin from five, ten, fifteen years ago when it was very, in his mind, very unlikely that he would be in the situation that you're in right now. Right. So talk to this Austin from that period of time when he's probably questioning things, when he's probably looking at fear in the face, sweaty palms, racing heart rate. What would you tell him right now to pull him in those to pull him through, to help him encourage him? Man. I mean, I feel like I figured it out in a good way by the situations I was confronted with, but I feel like the biggest piece of advice that I probably wouldn't have listened to, but needed at the time, is to disconnect and have a little bit of patience. And I know, I know, that seems a little weird, but, um, I used to get overly emotional and involved with things and all I needed to do was just chill and ride it out and keep trying and I would have figured it out. I just, I didn't have to have as much of the negative impact that I had going through those processes. Had I known how to reduce stress and disconnect, right? One hundred percent man spot on. I, I can resonate with the, you know, not taking advice, as you know, at a younger age. And that's I mean, unfortunately, I see it my kids too. Not not that there's, you know, I was the same way, you know, when I was eighteen, nineteen, twenty, I didn't take advice from anybody, especially not my parents. You know, I, I had to experience life the hard way, you know, and, uh, yeah, that's just the way I grew up. But I, I feel like that's important in a lot of ways because how else are you going to learn? Right? How else are you going to, you know, learn life, you know, by life, life in you, you know? Yeah. And I mean, like, I did take advice, but the thing is, is like just that one subject of disconnecting and patience. Yeah. Like fucking I was like, in my mind, I was like, dude, I'm like twenty three now. And I didn't make any music yet. I think I fucked up. Like, what kind of mindset is that? That doesn't make sense. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, but yeah, no, I, I get it for sure. Man, I agree, man, I agree. Well dude, where can people find out more about you, man? They want to connect with you. Maybe they want to support you, encourage you. Maybe they want to learn more about your services and what you do. Where can they learn and connect with you? Absolutely, man. Uh, just check out horizon dot dev. Uh, we have a YouTube channel there at the bottom, uh, where we teach other entrepreneurs how they can automate processes and utilize AI to empower their businesses. Um, I've been on podcasts too. So you can see it all listed there. And then you can connect with me on LinkedIn if you want to have a chat. Nice. Awesome, man. We'll definitely be including that in the show notes and providing all the information in there. Um, as we wrap up, man, I've got some rapid fire questions for you, some of which I've already prepared you for in the green room before we hit the record. Um, but in this season that you're in Austin, what is your definition of grit? uh, patience, the ability to, to make a decision and stick with it over a long time frame. Waiting for a feedback loop that could take months or longer or longer. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So good, so good, I agree. All right. This last question I prepared you for when you're in a thick of it, you're in the trenches, man. Maybe it could be for a day or a week. You're just man. You're in the thick of it, right? Lights are out. What is a quote or directive or a scripture that you tell yourself to pull you out of those trenches? So this is my only other tattoo that I have on my other arm, which, um, it's not done yet. I still need like twenty more hours on it, but right there and then back here. Yeah. It says to be so optimistic that you're fucking delusional. Ah, I love it. So optimistic that you're delusional. Yep. I think that might be the title of this episode. My man. Sweet man. Let's do it. Hell yeah. That's awesome man, I love that. I love that mantra. I get I get it, man. People, you've got to be so optimistic. You are viewed as delusional, you know, or, or psychopath or whatever, whatever label people want to assign. Right? So all right, man, this last question comes in two parts. And those are listener watching, especially for the first time. I'll always love to give my guests an opportunity to challenge my future guests with a question of their own. And guys, the anonymous, the lineup is completely anonymous, so Austin has no idea who my next guest is. Right? And I do mix up these episodes just for that reason. So Joshua Lee had this question for you. What is stopping you from doing the thing that you've always wanted to do deep down in your heart. Uh. Visa situations at the moment. Uh, I want to this is weird, but I want to go do some tactical arms training for a couple weeks, and, uh, I have to stay here a certain amount of time out of the year to maintain my residency until I get citizenship. So, yeah, um, I gotta wait for that to, to really jump on that. And I spend all my time seeing family. So I'd rather do that than the other. Right. Interesting. Nice. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. What would be the question that you would love to challenge my next guest with? Uh. If you had to restart from zero tomorrow, what is a system that you would put in place to guarantee success? Ooh. Like that. Like that man. Well, awesome. Well. Good deal. Well, Austin, my dude, this has been such a great conversation. Unfortunately, you know, we do have to wrap this up. As much as I enjoy this. I know we could probably talk a whole lot longer, you know, especially on martial arts and lifting and, you know, tactical arms, you know, especially our military here. I could definitely, you know, fall in love with that already, man. So I know we could jam for a lot longer just on that kind of stuff alone. Dude stuff. Right. But at the end of the day, we do have to end this conversation. But Austin, again, thank you for so much coming in here and not just talking about, you know, the things you've accomplished and how amazing life is now, but allowing us a glimpse of your story and what's worked for you and really hoping to inspire other. Austin's in this world that they too can travel twenty six countries or twenty seven countries and come. You know, and build something from a two hundred dollars in a laptop. Right. That gives a lot of hope and aspirations. So thank you Austin. Thank you so much, Carl. This was a very lovely conversation, I appreciate it. Absolutely, absolutely. All right. To those who are listening or watching. The gap between average and excellence is just action guys. Even in perfect action. Don't just listen Austin here, take one thing he shared today and use it in the next twenty four hours. Be the reason someone doesn't quit today. Don't just keep this to yourself. Someone in your circle needs this right now sent to him. Austin again, my dude, thank you so much for stepping in arena. Thank you. Absolutely.