Ep15 - Austin Larr - Booster 3 - Believe In You

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Start writing down things that really hit home and then making them your own. And if you start one thing here and you get really good at that one thing, then move on to the second thing. And so now all of a sudden you've got 10 things that are just your all the time day to day activities and it's building that plan of your own.

Yet attitude means how can I proactively change the way I think? How can I proactively increase my life? How can I proactively better relationships and better work situations for me to enjoy it and welcome again everybody to the Gap. The Get Attitude Podcast. The Gap. Bridging the gap from who you are to who you want to become. And bridging the gap from where you are to where you want to be. Hello, I am Glenn Bill, founder of the University of Attitude, keynote speaker and author of the ABCs of Attitude. I've been fortunate enough to help tens of thousands of people Get Attitude and Attitude, the secret formula to success in your business and in your life. And this podcast will help you get yours. So let's get some. I want to welcome everybody. Please remember to subscribe, rate, review and share. Today we are with a monster in the mortgage business, the one and only Austin lar. Austin is the number one loan originator out of 2800 loan originators at Fairway Mortgage. Certainly one of the best in the country. Somebody that is going to be able to talk to us about self belief. We are in Attitude booster number three month number three and it's an honor to be able to interview this top performer. He's number one in Indiana and Loans no matter what company you're comparing him to. He is the host of Real Stories of Success Podcast, one of my favorites that I listen to and he is one of the leaders of the Fairway Ignites training program which trains 700 loan originators throughout the country. So Austin, welcome to the Get Attitude podcast.

That is the best introduction I think I've ever had. If you are hireable, I'd like you to be my hype man.

Yeah, we can do that. Yeah, I have that. It's on our University of attitude website, bureau of speakers. And yeah, we can hype you however you want. I love it.

Well, thank you for having me. It's a real honor. I listen to the podcast. You have so many great takeaways for your audience and it's just truly a blessing to be on here.

That's cool. Austin, we want to talk a little bit about our gappers. That's what the people that listen to this and our gappers are, people that are trying to bridge that gap, trying to reach that pinnacle. They're folks that. We have a lot of successful people, but we also have a lot of people coming to our podcast to receive information and inspiration on how to bridge that gap between being new and being who you are now. I know you probably never woke up and said, man, I'm going to be the number one loan originator in America for a huge company. Talk to us a little bit about who you were when you walked through the real estate slash mortgage industry doors to who you've become.

Sure, sure, sure. I think I have a pretty funny story. Just being naive, right? Like a lot of people are. And bought my first house. I went to Ball State University and I was bartending. And it was back then when anyone could get a loan, right? So you could, you could walk in, say, hey, I make this amount of money and get a loan. And so I bought my first house and decided that I wanted to move back to Indianapolis and I sold my house and Ball State bought it from me for about 25,000 more than I had bought it from two years earlier.

Big money.

Big. And that's life changing money at that time.

Right.

And, and I, I remember like thinking, well, I got to get in this industry. This is super easy. Right?

Right.

So naive. So naive. And so on that drive back, that 45 minute drive back from Ball State to Indianapolis, I saw a bunch of new construction billboards and so I just applied at every single one of them.

Cool.

And a company called C.P. morgan hired me and. And that's how the whole thing started. So yeah, unfortunately that company went out of business about two years after I had started.

But they were wildly successful.

They were wildly successful and a lot of companies were going out of business at that time, so it was nothing against them. They were an awesome run company, very Christian, very good leadership. And it was just an economy type thing at the time, but I thought I was building a nice career in real estate. And once I went to go open my sales model and it was closed because it was closed for good.

Locks were changed yeah, yeah, yeah.

I decided to get into the loan industry and a guy named Barry Lux, who's still my business partner now, who is my loan officer at C.P. morgan, said, hey, why don't you come over and be my assistant? And I remember looking at my girlfriend who's now my wife, and I said, hey, I'm going to do this until I can't, until I can find something better. Right. And she reminds me of that all the time. And Barry and I together in December of 09 closed one loan and my take home pay was like $384. So I was still bartending on the side to make things work and make mortgage payments and all that kind of stuff. And so that's something I think about all the time. You never forget where you came from, all of those tough roads. It's great that we're doing the volume that we're doing and got a great team around me and all those kind of things. But remembering that $384 paycheck is still something that we keep in the back of our minds.

And as with most people who are at critical times in their life, right, they're going, oh my God, did I do the right thing? Talk to me. Did you have that moment where you said or did you ever. I mean guys, look at gaffers. This dude is killing the mortgage business. And you may be killing whatever you're killing in your business and you may be starting in a business that you're going, oh my God, what did I just do? Did that ever cross your mind? And how did that self talk go?

Yeah, sure. Well, what's really funny about it? So I had, after I had accepted the assistant position of commission. Right, right. I got a call from one of my former bosses at CP Morgan and they had flown down to Huntsville, Alabama and started working for a builder down there and said, hey, we'll give you this nice cushy salary, we're gonna send the jet up there to, to fly you down. And kind of look at this. And I remember, gosh, I'm a man of my words, right. About a week earlier I'd already said that I would take this assistant job, commission only. And so there was a lot of self doubt right there. Right. And a lot of reflecting. But I had to be a man of my word. I had to see it through. And it turns out that builder actually went under about two years afterwards. So somebody is up there looking after me. And it turns out I made the right decision that time. Not always do you make the Right decision. But. But that was definitely one of those times where. Where you're reflecting back and thinking, hey, did I. Did I really. Did I really do this? And what it really taught me was that I'm going to go really hard at this job. I'm going to give it the best I possibly can, even though there's some other opportunities out there that might be easier, might be. Might be better salary. Whatever it is, I'm going to be the best loan originator I possibly could be. Because that's what I said I was going to do.

Yeah. That's cool. And when you think about self talk. Right. When you. When you think about believe in you, you said, I'm going to be a man of my word. So I'm wondering who put that in your head? Yeah. What. Who gave you that attitude? Right. So at it. Number one, two questions. Number one, what does attitude mean to you? How would you define it? And then who put I need to be a man of my word in your head?

Yeah. So, you know, like, I think a lot of us out there. I had good parents. I'm sure they're probably out there listening. They listen to all of my stuff and always bring things back up.

What are their names?

That's Joe and Judy Lahr.

Joe and Judy Lahr. What's Joe's middle name?

So it's Joseph Austin Lar. I'm actually. He's Junior. I'm the third, so I go by my middle name.

And Judy's middle name is Anne. And what was her maiden name?

Cox.

And where are they from?

We grew up. I grew up here. I went to Lawrence North.

Cool.

Northeast side. I kind of joke. Right. One thing I love about Indianapolis is when I go to these other cities and get to talk and stuff. When people ask you where you're from when you're in Charlotte or in Phoenix, they mean where did you originally come from? When we asked people in Indianapolis, where are you from? They mean, what high school did you go to?

Sure.

Right. So that's why I always say Lawrence North. But, yeah, grew up with a great family. Dad, I got a little bit of both sides. Dad was just a small business owner. Right. Mom was a teacher, very disciplined, you know, got up every morning early way before kids came in and had her whole day planned out. And dad's out there talking to a bunch of people. And his. He still is working at 72 right now. And I'm like, dad, why? Why are you still working? He's like, all my customers are my friends. What am I gonna do. I go hang out every day. Right. I go talk to all these guys. What does he do? He sells municipality products, like signage to. To street. Street departments and that kind of thing. So, yeah. Yeah. So it was a good upbringing. One of my. Some of my favorite days growing up were we're going out with him, right. And just seeing how he did things and how he talked to people and, and I didn't realize it at the time, but gosh, I mean, I was probably learning more in those, those business trips than I ever was at school.

Sure, absolutely.

So. So that, that was a big early mentorship there. But I would say lateany, I've got a. I got to give a shout out to Sara Mid. A lot of you guys might know Sarah Middleton's name. She's. She's the VP of sales for Fairway Mortgage and probably the most energetic woman I've ever met my entire life. Such a, Such an influence in my attitude every day about how positive she is. And I can't only imagine what kind of stress she's under. And so when I look at that, I'm like, what kind of stress? I mean, what am I doing? You know, that I think is stressful when, you know, she's got 7,000 employees reaching out to her every day and she does it with a smile. And so those are two, three big influences in my life.

Yeah, that's cool. And Sarah's. Love Sarah. And we're hopefully going to get her on the Gap because when it comes to attitude, that girl's got some.

Yeah, you definitely need to.

And her story is amazing. So when you think of attitude, Austin, tell me what, how do you define attitude? And when you're looking, because, yeah, hey, look at. Some of our gappers are looking for a job. What are some of the. When you're interviewed, do you interview people?

I'm guessing absolutely.

Right. Like, so, like, I know you look for attitude, right. What are some of the key things that you look for that you hear or that you see to say, now that guy's got some attitude. Yeah, I can work with him.

That's an excellent question. I love that you brought that up. So I think, don't get me wrong, I think I'm still a little traditional in our hiring. Everyone wants that top producer out there. That's proven. And so first we're going to look for, just like you said, a positive attitude. Right. Someone that's happy, someone that's coming in. You can go scroll back through their Facebook, right. And see what they're doing right? And is this. Is it. Is it all about, oh, woe is me, this happened to me today. Or is it, man, this happened to me today. But guess what? I'm going to make tomorrow a better day.

And to interject, because we find people, too, and I think it's great that you share your misery on Facebook. And I think all of us go through misery. All of us go through adversity. But for those of you who are hiring people to scroll through that Facebook feed. Yeah, boy, you can learn a lot.

You can learn a ton.

And so awesome, awesome thought. All right, keep going. Didn't mean to interrupt.

No, no. Add anything you want. I highly respect your opinion on a lot of this stuff. So I think the traditional business model in our side of things and even in the real estate side of things is let's go look for that top producer. Let's go offer them a whole bunch of money and have them come over. And that's worked, you know, a little bit on our side, and we've been very lucky that we've really gotten some good people first. However, I've. I've found some real good success in hiring people that have zero experience. Right, Right. And taking a chance on them.

Sure.

And, and, and letting them grow and providing them this career. Right. And this mentorship that I can, you know, and this leadership that I can. And letting them. Letting them blossom. Right. And so we've looked for people in the service industry. I like. I'll. I'll have the neighborhood, you know, watering hole, and I'll see the one person that is taking tables at the end of the night when everybody else wants to go home. They're. They're hustling and I'll take that table. I'll take that. Hey, we should go have coffee tomorrow.

Right? Cool. Let's.

Let's go talk. Let's see, you know, let's. Let's kind of explore what you're about. And so looking for good people first has been kind of our mantra as opposed to going out and getting that.

Big producer and then how many are on your team?

So I am lucky enough to. I have all of Indiana.

Right.

First off. And so there's about 102 employees all through Indiana. We have about 14 locations.

Wow.

So we go all the way close to Chicago up to Crown Point, all the way down into Louisville, kind of where everywhere in between. And then there's about 40 originators inside those 102. And then out of the 40, I have a personal production team that's about eight loan officers.

Wow. And this all started from one deal in December. It did 360.

I still remember the guy. He was that Applebee's manager in Castle. Yes, I still. Shannon Gilbert, if you're out there listening to this, she sent the deal over, but. But, yes, it all started from that one.

And Shannon's a local real estate agent. Is she with Tucker?

I think she is with highgarden.

Okay. Right.

Yeah.

Well, that is so cool. And so I think it's important, you know, everybody wants to get to the end quick, but Austin has built in 10 years quite an organization. And if you're somebody out there that's going, God dang, I only did one deal this month. You need to understand that that one deal can turn into a thousand every year. And obviously you had a. Did you envision this, Austin, or did it kind of organically happen? You went, holy moly, I'm really good at this. Was it a vision? Was it a goal setting?

I still not sure that I'm good at it yet. Right. We're still always, you know, refining our craft, but out of probably like a lot of you guys out there, I was just. I was overworked. Right. I was trying to do everything myself. And. And so the very first thing I did, I was like, well, I'm going to need some help. And probably one of the smartest things I ever did. I didn't go to my boss at the time and say, hey, go pay for me to buy to get help. I'm going to give up a little bit of my pay. Right. But I want to hire the person that I want to hire. Yeah, right, right. And then. And then that worked. And then so I was like, well, wait a minute, I can do this again. Right? And I can do this again. I can do this again. And every single time, I wasn't going to my boss at the time and saying, hey, I want you to pay for this person. I might ask them to help a little bit. Right, sure. But. But I went in and I gave up a little bit. I took one step back to take three steps forward.

Sure.

Every time. And so that's how it kind of evolved. And then, you know, as you get older, you start doing some out, like reading and podcasts and all these other things, and then a vision starts to take place, and you're learning what maybe this person did over here and what this person did over here. And no one person, if I had advice for anybody out there, don't try and replicate what somebody else did. But listen to as many people as you possibly can. Doesn't have to be industry related at all. Right. But start writing down things that really hit home and then making them your own. And if you start, you start one thing here and you get really good at that one thing, then move on to the second thing. And so now all of a sudden you've got 10 things that are just your all the time, day to day activities, and it's building that plan of your own.

Yeah, that's cool. And I think, you know, again, great lesson in believe in yourself.

Right.

If you're out there right now and you own a business or you're in a business, do you believe in yourself enough to invest in someone else?

Right.

And that's, I think, Austin's message. And are you willing to take a little bit off the table to get a little bit more? And it takes guts. But most of all, it takes self belief. Talk to me about what does self belief mean to you? Maybe you don't believe in yourself. What do you do when it comes to belief? Or you coach a lot of loan originators. What's your mantra? What are you telling all these young loan originators? Certainly you're talking to them. You better believe in yourself or no one else's. Talk to me a little bit about your path there.

Yeah. So I think where a lot of people go wrong in our industry, you make a lot of money. Right. And you can let that go to your head pretty easily. And so the people that stay humble, the people that stay humble no matter how much money is coming in, and you talked about it on our podcast, it's not just about the money. Right. It's about the things you can do with that and the lives you can change and that kind of thing. And so people that keep that part of their attitude are the people that are going to be very successful. I'm a huge believer in karma. Right. You got to give to get.

Right.

And so we talk about that a lot in our coaching company is that you gotta every day stay humble. Remember where you came from. Remember that $384 and everything else will kind of take care of itself.

Yeah, that's cool. And I think the lesson there is to find people who have true self belief. It's the people that actually believe in others. The road to self belief comes from believing in others. But also what you hit on was this thing called humility. And Steve Jacobson, we're working on getting him the humblest, most successful person.

Such a great guy.

Unbelievable.

If you can get him.

We're gonna get him.

I wanna maybe co host that one with you.

Okay, well, I might let you do that.

Yeah.

Yeah, that would be good. But you know that humility piece? The reason people aren't humble is because they really don't believe in themselves, right? They're creating all this talk and all this justification on why I'm great and I do believe in myself. But you're like, no, dude, you don't. It's all said and done. When you think about, I don't know, in a personal or a business life, a story of great self belief, somebody that's come from nothing. Your story is fantastic. But is there anybody that you looked at that you said, God, they went from nothing to something that maybe inspired you?

Yeah, well, actually, I mean, I would have brought this up if you didn't just bring up his name, but Steve Jacobson's a great one.

Sure.

So he's the CEO of Fairway Mortgage and he runs Fairway like he grew up. And he grew up in this small little town, right? And just in Wisconsin, kind of nowhere. Wisconsin works really hard. If you saw the guy, he's definitely shorter than both you and I, right? But he worked really hard to, to. To be the best basketball player he could possibly be. And at some point, he was the leading scorer in the state of Wisconsin at this small little school. You know, no one's telling him that he can make it to D1. He makes it and walks on at Wisconsin University, right? And, and not just D1, but a major D1, Big Ten school. And, and you can still see that fire every single day when you talk to him. Right? And so hearing his story is just, it's. It's mind blowing. You think to yourself, well, gosh, if he can do that, I can do that. Right?

Right.

And so there's no excuses out there. When you see these people that just set their mind to something and they just go and they go and they go every day. And it's literally that easy. If you find that vision and you strive towards it every day. But what people, a lot of times they quit. You can't quit for one day.

Sure.

Cannot quit for one day.

When you're engaging with the 700 Los that you're coaching right now and we can talk specific about loan origination, I'm definitely interested in that. But it's like, again, people need to understand the level of success you have hit and that you're around. People want answers. I'm like, you don't want advice you want answers, talk to me. What are the three most important things an LO can do to better their business? I'm an lo. I'm not with Fairway. Whatever. Doesn't matter. Like what are your. Like look at you talked about the 10 things you do. Really great. I'd love to know those three things too. But like what's your best advice for independent contractors and or commission. Are you. You were commission only. Yeah, commission only. Salespeople, Business owners.

Yep.

Tell me what, tell me what you're preaching up.

So you got to, you got to start a schedule. If you don't have a schedule, right. If it's not, if it's willy nilly every single day, you're going to fail. You got a time block, right. So you work out from 5:30 to 6, right. You, you start prospecting from 8 to 9, whatever that is and don't let anyone get you off your schedule. It is so easy to take that extra phone call or to whatever but turn your phone on silent and just prospect or just set in blocking. Set a goal. Set a weekly goal. So we have for our coaching company we've got a mobile app. It's kind of like a Fitbit. So that Fitbit tells you every single day that you got to get 10,000 steps in. This mobile app tells you you're going to set your goals monetarily and then it reverse engine what activities you got to do. Right. I've got to attend a realtor event this week. I've got to, I've got to write 50 thank you cards, whatever that is, right. So you got to set those goals. That would be, that would be.

Definitely set the schedule. And I'm just going to add when my career really took off is when I hired somebody to set my schedule. So setting your own schedule is great, but all of us with entrepreneurial attitudes and that are full of excuses, we can always find a way to not set our schedule. One of the greatest entrepreneurial benefits or pieces of advice I can give the gappers today. If you don't have a schedule, Austin's advice is great, get on one. But if you have trouble saying no, hire somebody. And you can hire them literally for $100 a week. And just you say all you're gonna do is jump into my outlook when people need to meet with me and set my schedule. Huge, huge, huge uptick in my productivity.

Shout out to Erica on that. I don't know what I'd do without Erica.

So Erica, she sets your schedule?

She does. Y.

All right.

Number Two goal setting, right? So goal setting, you've got to. Whether that's a, that's a weekly goal, that's a, that's a monthly goal, that's a, that's a yearly goal. But you got to have a goal, right? And don't make it too easy, but don't make it too hard. And, and so I've heard that from a lot of people, but it really is true is that, that you've got to have something to strive for every single day. And, and I don't know, I'm sure a lot of you guys are out there and, and I guarantee, Glenn, you are like this too. Is there something in the back if, if you aren't, if you don't have an activity going, there's something back there that's saying, go do this, go do this, go do this. And so, so having that goal that, that you got to strive to, it's going to lead to all of those activities that you need to be doing. And if you're not checking up on your goal and get a coach right, a coach will hold you accountable to those goals. So, so that would probably be number two and number three would be to have a vision. I wish if I could go back in time 10 years ago, I would have had a vision. I didn't know I was just kind of willy nilly in it this whole entire, you know, for the probably first two, three years of everything, have a vision. And really that vision should be something that guides you every day. My vision was to make a difference in everybody else on our team, in their lives. And so that guides you every single day when you're time blocking, when you're setting your goals is having that vision, right?

Yeah. That's great. So when you talk about number two on the card is have a big goal share with us any goal that you have personal or business that you are dialed in for, for maybe let's call it, I don't know if you've done goal setting for 2020 or did you hit a goal for 2019?

Yeah, so we definitely, like a lot of people out there, had probably the best year we've ever had. So we, we absolutely destroyed those goals and we destroyed them probably in like September or October this year. So it's gotta be one of those, you know, and that's a product of the market a little bit too. And so we're very fortunate to that. But goals for maybe not 2020, because we're bit farther out, but we'd like to have 40 locations so we like to have 40 locations around Indiana and surrounding states. So that's definitely a goal for us. Another goal would be to every one of our loan officers to at least be five loans or above per month. Right. And that's a really good income. That's a life changing income for a lot of people. And so getting everybody to that will be what we're probably looking at more 20, 20, maybe 20, 22, 2023. You'd like to have at least 40 locations.

That's cool. And then on a personal side, I know you're married, you got kids and what are the goals for your family? Yeah, what?

Actually no kids, so good for you. Yeah. Married, no kids. I think that, that, that allows me to do, you know, the full time coaching too, is Right. And I have an awesome supportive wife. She gets to, she gets to travel around with me too. And so, so that's fun. But, but our goals are, are really to kind of, we don't need to go buy the biggest houses or drive the nicest cars or anything like that. We've done a lot of giving this Christmas season.

Good.

Yeah.

So you have giving goals, contribution goals.

Yeah, yeah. You know, actually Steve Jacobson said if you're not giving 20% of your income, you're probably failing.

Right, right.

So that's a big thing for us. We're excited. Toys for Tots. We are going shopping this Saturday. Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For a couple guys. And so we love, we love to give back that way.

That's great. So Toys for Tots, super. Are there any other charities that you're involved in that you want to promote here? But hey, anybody that's listening, if you've gotten value from Austin, which I'm sure you have, go hit Toys for Tots. Give one toy. Right? What else? What other things you.

Well, you said that you talked to Louise Saxton, right. American Warrior initiative is such a, such an amazing, amazing charity. If you guys don't know about that, go Google American Warrior Initiative. Awi. It's all about giving back to our vets.

Right.

And so I don't actually know the stats, it's all gonna be on their website, but it's mortgage free homes, it's service dogs, it's business grants. You know, locally here we've, we've completely renoed a home. So it was wheelchair friendly.

That was cool. I saw that.

Yeah. So if you guys don't know about American Warrior Initiative, get on it.

Yeah. And that'll be in our 10th month of the podcast. Louise Thaxton who runs that's going to talk about being a part of something bigger than you.

Yeah.

So, guys, if you and ladies, if you're in the mortgage business, if you want to learn from the best, the most successful, the number one person, if you want to join his team, if you want to tune into his podcast, Austin, talk to us a little bit about how people can reach you, how they can follow you, and how they can reach out to you if. If they need a change.

Yeah, I'm an email junkie, Austin lairwaymc. So Austin lairwaymc is the best way to reach me. The podcast is real stories, real stories of success with Ryan and Austin. We're on itunes and all stitcher and all YouTube and that kind of stuff. But I'd love to hear from you guys. Love to hear your thoughts on this podcast or our podcast or, heck, let's have coffee.

And now we are in our closing podcast mode, which is called Knowledge through the Decades. Austin, and we're gonna put you on the spot, okay? I don't want you to feel too much pressure. Knowledge through the Decades is just a little exercise we do with every guest that asks you to start from infancy and walk your way through life and the biggest lessons that you've learned. Okay. The first one's always tough because you don't really remember being born. So what we try to do is help you out and say, well, if you were a new infant or if you've seen a new infant, what is the lesson that you can learn from birth?

Yeah, well. Well, you know, when you're an infant, you need to rely on others. You still have to rely on others right now, today. Right. So no matter how successful you get, you need to have those. Those people around you to help support you. And that would be something that you need in infancy as well.

That's cool. That's cool. And to identify them. And you talk, you talk a lot about your team and how you rely on your team. And my hope is that for those gappers that are out there listening, take 30 seconds, identify the two or three people that you're relying on your life that are making a difference in a positive way. Write it down, recognize them, reach out to them, thank them, be grateful. And I think that's a wonderful thing to be thinking about. Who do I rely on? Some of us are relying on people we shouldn't be relying on. So sometimes you may look at those names and go, oh, maybe I shouldn't be relying on those people. And I want you to wrestle with that. Gappers. That is something you need to think about. Who do I rely on most? Who are my partners in life? Who are my partners in business? Are they the right partners, and should I rely on them? So, Austin, I want you to think about growing up in Northeast Indiana. I'm guessing. Did you go to Belzer?

I went to Craig. It doesn't exist anymore. Craig doesn't exist anymore. Yeah.

So you're 10 years old. I'm thinking that that's third grade, roughly. You're on the playground, whatever. Do you remember being 10 and what was the attitude lesson that you might have learned being 10?

Yeah, 10 to, you know, 10 to 15 or in that range, you starting to come into your own, right? So now, as opposed to maybe having to rely on others, you're starting to gain a little confidence, right? You're starting to. To learn who you are. Your. Your. Your attitude is. Is kind of forming. Right. And so. So I learned really early that I was a little bit of an entrepreneur and started, like, a little landscaping business, you know, when I was 12 and, you know, and had my dad have to drive me around to the places because I couldn't drive or carry the. Carry the lawnmower. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which he made me rent, by the way. I didn't get to just use the lawnmower. And I thought that was a great lesson. I had to rent it from him. So that would definitely be from that. That 10 to 19 range.

Yeah. That's great. And I think the lesson again in there for our gappers is you're never too young and you're never too old to start your new business. You know, it doesn't matter what age you are. With the proper attitude, look it, you can start today, right? And you're never too young or too old. So now you've made it through high school, and now you're in college. Did you go to college?

I did. I went to Ball State.

BSU. I like that. And so you're 20. Were you in a fraternity?

I was. That doesn't exist anymore either. Beta Theta PI.

Yep. Beta Theta PI. Oh, yeah. I had some good buddies that were Beta Theta PI guys. So as you think about being 20 and you think about being at Ball State in college, what was the attitude lesson that you possibly learned there?

Yeah, and it's still something I think about all the time, is have fun. Right? Cool. If you're not having fun every day, you, you know, you're just going to a job. But when you're having fun and you're Definitely having a lot of fun at Ball State and in your early 20s. But growing those friendships, having fun, those are something that's going to continue with me for the rest of my life. And I'll always be thankful for those early 20s.

That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. The question is, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much fun are you really having? You want to affect your attitude immediately, go have some fun.

Right.

Like, life's too short and it's not that serious. So you're at Ball State. You're having a blast. Right. And then you went and worked. Where did you say you started?

Right out of C.P. morgan.

C.P. morgan. And now at 30, you're sitting there going, oh, I got. I'm in the mortgage game. Right. So talk to me about when you were 30. What's the attitude lesson?

Yeah, definitely the attitude lesson is becoming humble. Right?

Right.

There's a lot of success thrown on a lot of loan originators, and very fast. Right. They come from, you know, maybe 30 or $40,000 salaries to making six figures. Plus and. And keeping. Keeping that humble attitude has been huge. Huge. Huge. And something that we look for in employees. Really? Yeah.

That's cool. And so what's the trick to being humble?

Like we said, it's remembering that paycheck of 384. Right.

Cool.

It's not making it just about the money. It's making it about changing lives. That's one of the best things about our industry. Not only are we changing employees lives, but we have really cool clients.

Right.

We're not selling them anything. Anything.

Well, you're selling them money, which is always nice.

Yeah. They're getting their dream answered. They wanted to own that house. They wanted to have their family in the house. And so at the end of the day, it's such a fun industry to be in when you're changing lives.

That's cool. And I want to hope, I hope that Austin did that for our listeners today. I hope that Austin changed your life. I hope that he helped you think about some things. I hope he helped you think about. Number one, who am I relying on? Number two, do I need a new beginning and do I need to start something? Number three, do. And am I having enough fun? And number four, how humble am I really being? Right. And hopefully number five, which is what we were going to be talking about today, which I think we've done a pretty good job on covering, is you got to believe in yourself to make all this happen, I guess. One last thought, Austin. When you think About I got to believe in me. And if you look at. If you look at Austin's he actually is wearing, how funny is that? It says, believe in me. Yes, I can. I believe in me. He's handing that out to 700 people. There's a reason you're handing that band out. Tell me, did you design that or did somebody.

Ken Peterson out of Pennsylvania.

Ken's my guy. I need to have him on. So Ken Peterson said that. Why do you think he made that band that said believe in me? What's the message there?

You know, every day it's so easy to get caught up in what's happening around you. And you can go from a good day to a bad day in a snap of a finger, right? So every day, when you look down at I believe in me, y. I can. Things can change on a dime. Things can change on a dime, and it's never nearly as bad as it feels like in the moment, right? And so when you believe in you and you think about that all the time, you're going to have a great day, you're going to have a great week, you're going to have a great month, and it becomes a pattern. And that is why we wear them, right?

And I think it helps you bridge the gap from where you are to where you want to go.

Absolutely right.

It helps you bridge the gap from who you are to who you want to become. Self belief is your ticket to freedom. It's your ticket to unlock your passion. It's your ticket to unlock your dream. Don't be afraid. Put the key in the lock, turn it, and believe in yourself. Austin, it was an honor to talk to somebody of your caliber.

I really appreciate it. I can't thank you enough for having me on here. I've had an absolute blast.

All right, from the Gap from Studio J with my main man, Jason Jollop. We want to thank you, and we will look forward to talking to you on the next Get Attitude podcast. This podcast is a part of the C Suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit C suiteradio. Com.