Austin Maser: Committed, Do hard things, Resilient, Kind, Focused | Road To The Golden Door #15

This is Road to the Golden Door, where we unpack the proven success formula straight from the minds of Golden Door winners, uncovering the motivation, methods, and the mindset it takes to become an elite performer in door-to-door sales and in life. This is Road to the Golden Door. Now here's your host, Mikey Lucas. What up? Welcome back to the show, Road to the Golden Door. We've got Austin Maser here. He is a 3-year vet. Kind of interesting story actually. Wait for him to be able to tell you that, but looking forward to it. Hit 1,067 pest accounts. That is not easy. So Austin, welcome to the show.

Hey, thanks Mikey. I'm happy to be here.

Awesome, bro. Yeah, we just had a really good 30-minute jam session, mostly me talking, but I'm glad to have you on here, man.

So looking forward to it. Yeah, I'm excited to talk about the year and just share some of the things I've learned about performing at such a high level. I think me and you just talked about it, but there's a lot more that goes into it. A lot of struggles that I think Golden Door Award winners go through. It's worth talking about. So I'm excited to share some of the lessons I've learned.

Love that. I love that, dude. Appreciate it. So for everybody that doesn't know Austin, Austin Maser, what do you, who is Austin Maser?

Okay. Well, my wife, I live in Winder, Georgia with my wife, Kaya Bramwell, and then my daughter, Georgia Grace. So we moved out here about 3 years ago. My wife and I met at BYU. And we moved out here so that my wife could pursue her career in weightlifting. And it's been such an exciting ride. We moved out here with nothing. We knew nobody other than my wife's weightlifting coach. And we live in this little town called Winder, Georgia, about 30 minutes away from UGA. But prior to that, I mean, I grew up in— my dad was in the Air Force. We moved all over the place growing up. My dad ended up getting stationed in Colorado Springs. And at the time, my parents went through a divorce. My dad got remarried. So I have a ton of stepfamily. And this is right around when I'm like third grade, but I have a ton of stepfamily. And my mom has been with her boyfriend for years. So I have a lot of family on that side as well. So in a nutshell, I think just I've learned to see the bright side in life because through a lot of like hard things, like divorce and, you know, parents getting split up, there's just been so much beauty in all the hard stuff, right? There's no, there's no way that some of the good things could have happened in my life without things like divorce. So anyways, my parents split up and dad got remarried. I ended up, you know, growing up with my dad, learned a ton from him, really positive guy, but more of like an introvert. And one of my biggest role models. So he just always did what was best for his family. So anyways, grew up with my dad and my stepmom. My stepmom was a Mormon. I had no idea what Mormons were at the time. And, you know, we thought they were crazy. My dad, before my dad met my stepmom, my sister was wanting to go to like some, you know, youth activity night at the Mormon church. And my dad told my sister, hey, hey, you can go there, just don't eat anything. Like, just literally thought they were crazy. Like, don't go, you could go, just don't eat anything. So we had this really crazy percent, really crazy idea of like, okay, who are Mormons? Ultimately ended up getting baptized, became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And that's what I ended up going to Brigham Young University. I was a cheerleader there for my entire time in school. And it was one of the most exciting things I ever did. In the middle of school, I served a mission in Santiago, Chile. And I love Chile and I love chilenos. I love Latino culture and just learned, I learned so much out there. And I'm sure we'll touch on this later on, but just another like core moment in my life while I was out there, my dad passed away from cancer. And so just a ton of, I mean, ton of stuff that has happened over the last 10 years, but that has also taught me a lot. And it's ultimately shaped me into who I am today. And, um, like I said, I'm sure we'll talk about this more as we keep going on with this show. But, um, ended up coming back home for my mission, and that's, you know, where I met my wife. And, uh, I'm in sales right now, and the hardest sale I've ever had was getting my wife on board to date me. And ever since then, it's been great. So it took a little bit of convincing to get Kaya to start going out with me, but it was totally worth it. Awesome. Yeah, a little summary of kind of what I've learned and what I've been through. Great. And I think, you know, despite all of the divorce and family struggles, I can say that I have a great relationship with all the members of my family, even though a lot of them have differences with each other. It's been rewarding to just cultivate all of my relationships with everybody. So.

Well, I appreciate you sharing that.

Yeah.

I look forward to, look forward to getting your story out there more. So tell me this, are you, is your whole family Bulldog fans?

Okay, so we moved out here, you know, 3 years ago and I just started watching UGA and, you know, they all cheer for Georgia now because our daughter is named Georgia. But, you know, Really, my grandpa's an Auburn fan. And so, you know, they always cheer for Auburn, you know, War Eagle. But he went to Auburn University. But other than that, I don't have any other UGA fans in the family. They all support him now. We love them. They're the best. So, and ever since we named Georgia Georgia, they, they've been undefeated, actually. So other than the day she was born, so the day our daughter was born, Georgia lost the SEC championship to Alabama. And so I told my wife, I was like, if they don't win the national championship to Alabama, we're gonna have to name our daughter Bama Grace. So ultimately, I would never do it. But it's just a joke. Anyways. But yeah, that's a little bit about us. I got into door-to-door sales. And So when my wife and I started dating, I told her like, hey, you know, I found this thing. And we're going to be filthy rich. Like, we're going to just have this crazy lifestyle. And you're going to get to lift weights and, and just be a mom. And I'm just going to go out and sling stuff. And when I got into door-to-door initially with Fluent Solar— no, Fluent Alarm— I, I was excited. I went to door-to-door con. I, it was his door-to-door con 3. I had never knocked a door at that point. And I went with one of my buddies, Jeremy Davis, who was like my mentor in that alarm space. And I don't know if this is a controversial opinion or not, but I think some of the best door-to-door salesmen are the alarm salesmen. I mean, there was only 6 alarm door golden doors this year. It's hard, but I just think they're really, really good at the psychology of sales. And so I learned a ton of my door-to-door skills from Jeremy. He took me to Door-to-Door Con. I was like, dude, I'm gonna be up on that stage one day for the Golden Door Award. And I had no idea what it was. I had no idea how hard it was. I was just like, yep, that's for me. I'm gonna do it. I've always been fascinated by, you know, like the, you know, hitting the standard or hitting that benchmark or being the best. I got my Eagle Scout in, in, in you know, when I was in high school, just because that was like the thing, you know, like you have to do this and to be the best. And, you know, scouting's a lot about giving, but for me it was like, no, I want to hit the Eagle Scout Award. And, you know, weightlifting, I've always wanted to hit— we had this 1,000-pound club in high school, which was like you had to, you know, have your bench press, your incline, your clean, and your squat all add up to 1,000 pounds. Well, I wanted to do that too. So anyways, for the Golden Door, I was like, yeah, I'm going to do this. And COVID happened and I didn't end up getting to sell with Jeremy. We were going to go out to Atlanta to sell with him and it was going to work out perfectly for, you know, our situation because my wife was going to come out here and train and that fell through. And so I ended up going to Fluent Solar and that's where I started actually knocking the doors. And I realized I was like, oh my gosh, this is so hard. Like, this is tough. And I would— I loved talking with people and I loved, you know, making those connections. I was studying sales every single day. I was really, really good at setting. But when it came to sitting across the table, I just hadn't developed the skills or necessarily the belief at the time in solar to be able to close the deals. And so I know solar is a great industry. I've got my brother-in-law in it. But I just wasn't sold on my product at the time. I was like really young. I had no idea what really solar was. It was a great, great start. The guys at Fluent did a really good job training me. I just couldn't make it. I didn't make much money. And, you know, I ended up— there was, there was so— I went so long without selling a deal. And then, you know, one day Grandma decided to sign up, which was huge. It was like, oh, a confidence booster. I got to go through the app and fill out a loan, all this stuff. And she signed up for solar. So it was a little confidence booster. And a little bit later, I had a day where I went out and I sold like 2 back to back and I was ecstatic. Like I came home crying, I was so happy. And then after that, like I couldn't, I didn't get anything else. And man, one of the deals that I sold to, we were at Lake Powell, like away from all, technology, so I had zero ability to know what was going on in the world. And then we got to this one spot where I got reception and I get a text and I'm like, hey man, we're not going through with your deal. So I was like, what? Like, come on. So one of the— one of the— I had a two-spot that day and one of the people from the two-spot didn't end up going through. And so I was like, man, this sucks. So I went back to Utah from our Lake Powell trip and I was like, I'm done. I can't, you know, I don't want to do this anymore. So I ended up DoorDashing.. And, uh, just, I just decided I'm not doing door-to-door anymore. This isn't for me. This is, you know, this isn't going to work. And I kind of just let, I just put that dream to the side and I was like, no, we're, I'm just going to figure something else out. Um, that was tough too. So it's like when you're married too, and I think we'll talk about this more about like marriage too, but when you're married and then your wife starts talking about joining the military to be able to provide for the family, it's like, holy crap. I, I better get this together, right? And so, um, I tried to apply to Home Depot, Costco, all of this stuff. I applied to Cracker Barrel and like, I, nothing really came, nothing really worked out. I was, uh, as I mentioned before, I was a college cheerleader and so I had a part-time gig at a cheerleading gym out here in Georgia, which was fun. You know, I always talk about like, I love working with kids, love helping them overcome their fears, you know. Teaching these kids how to do backflips, but it's not going to provide the lifestyle that we want. So, and I'll keep going with this until you have any questions. But we were out at a— we went on a trip to Colorado. And so my stepmom's parents, my grandparents, they had, you know, they had got every— they invited everybody to go to this ranch in Colorado. And, you know, they paid for the whole trip, got everybody's tickets, paid for the, you know, the trip to get everybody together. And I just remember being there in Colorado, you know, we were horseback riding, there were campfires, we just had such a good time with my entire family. And I just remember looking at everybody that like there were, I had several cousins playing volleyball, everyone's just having a good time. And I thought I was like, wow, I really want to have this type of lifestyle where I can get my family together. And I have all these grandkids and You know, we have a great time getting together and we have the financial means to be able to do that. And I thought, what I'm doing right now will not let me get to that point. Like, it is literally impossible. Like, if I get a job at Costco making like $40,000, I don't know. I don't know what you make at Costco, but I was like, there's no way. Like, I could work at Costco for 30 years and this would never happen. It would never be a reality. So I texted— I was really insecure about my door-to-door kind of skills, right? I gave up. It was really, really insecure about my career in door-to-door at that point. But I remember Mitch Matthews, he had started a company. Kaya had mentioned to me, hey, there's a company out here called Anthem and Mitch runs it. And I thought, okay, well, I don't want to do door-to-door. It's not for me.. But then when we were in Colorado, I texted Mitch and I said, hey man, like, I may want to do this door-to-door thing. Do you have an office out there? Do you have a job for me? Like, can I do anything? Because at the time we're chipping into our savings. I didn't have a job. And, you know, wife's still thinking about going to the military. Like, okay, that's still a problem. Like, I don't want my wife to have to work. I promised her this beautiful life. And so I texted Mitch. He told me, yeah, dude, like, sign up, do it. You'll be able to work. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, you know, whatever days you're not working at the cheer gym. And Saturdays will be your best day. I said, cool, sign me up. So we went back to Georgia. I talked to the regional manager on a Sunday, and I showed up on a Monday and I started working. The rest you could say is history. I mean, I did. I started August 10th with Anthem. Everybody went home the end of August. And so I had to learn how to like sell by myself. It's like I always, I always kind of laugh when people are like, oh, you know, it's so hard to go out and knock. And I'm like, dude, like, you just have to do it. It's your job. Like, you know, like I had to provide for my wife at the time. And just, there was never a, oh, I don't want to go to work. It was just no, like, do your job. And so I ended up working all through August, September, October, November, and then most of, you know, halfway through December. And made great money. I thought we're rich, you know, we're making like $100 per account. And I was like, this is amazing. You know, if I sell 10 accounts in a week, we made $1,000. So we just kept running with it. And I fell in love with selling, I fell in love with like how to sell. And I just, I became addicted to like hitting bigger numbers and, and beating my personal best. And I think everybody who is a Golden Door Award winner is like somebody who is obsessed with just being better than themselves, like outperforming themselves. So went into my second year with Anthem, just fired up, like not too many people really knew who I was. I was just the guy that was selling out in Atlanta. And had an amazing year. I mean, I was doing— I was just kind of average in the very beginning. And, you know, doing 2 or 3 a day. I remember my Regional, he called me one day, it was like probably in May, called me one day in May and he says, "Hey Austin, I want you to promise me never to go under 3 accounts in a day." And I remember being scared. I was like, "Uh, yeah." And I didn't even answer his question. I just changed the subject. I didn't even want to like address it because I was scared of the responsibility of selling, like of going under 3. I was scared. Like, I was like, I don't know if I can do that. And just to give you an idea of where I was at my second year. Well, halfway through my second year, I found out my wife was going to be pregnant with my, with my daughter, you know, well, okay, we found, I found out my wife was going to be pregnant pretty early on in the season. And then we did the gender reveal, and I found out I was going to be a daughter. I found out I was gonna be a father. To my daughter. And something about that just really, really hit me. And I was like, okay, I'm done being average. Like, I'm not going to like have this little girl look up to like, look at her daddy and be like, yeah, Daddy's average. And so I was like, no, no, no, like, I'm done. Like, I'm gonna go and throw down. And so the rest of the summer, right after the gender reveal, and you can look at all my numbers too, I just wouldn't ever go under 7 accounts. There's just, that was just the norm. I'd sell 7 a day. Started having bigger days, you know, 10 a day. If I ever went under 7, I was like, no, this is average. Like, that's dumb. I'm not gonna do that again. I'm gonna go sell more than that. And so finished that summer with 719 accounts. And I was totally just, I was determined to go hit a Golden Door my third year. And it just wasn't even a, oh, like, I hope I can do it. It was like, no, I'm doing this. Like, I told everybody, I made— I let everybody know that that's what I was going to do. And I think I'm pretty sure that most, most, you know, high performers, like, they'll agree, you don't really set a goal, like, hoping you're going to do it, you do it. And so one of the things that I see in the industry is when guys talk about their numbers, They say, oh, my goal is to go do 500 accounts. And the guys that always hit their numbers are the ones that say, I'm going to sell 500 accounts. It's a little shift in our language, but it was something that I was really big on before going into my third summer. If someone asked me what my goals were, I just say, dude, I'm just going to go do a Golden Door. Like, I'm just going to go do it. It wasn't my goal. It was, I'm selling a Golden Door. So fast forward to this last summer, I started the season and this was just a little thing I'll add in here, but I was driving this really like junky Honda Civic that my mom had given it to me. It was a huge blessing when we first got married. And I just remember driving it for a couple months and I'm like, this is silly. Like I'm about to make over a quarter of a million dollars. Why am I driving this? So, and I knew at the time Anthem was gonna buy me a car once I hit my Golden Door. Like, why am I gonna wait to live like I'm a Golden Door Award winner? So I just bought a brand new Kia K5. And I'm like, no, this is who I am. Like, I'm a Golden Door Award winner. Changed my plates to Bug Killer, you know, like just had fun with it, right? But from the very beginning, I'm like, I'm gonna hit a Golden Door. I'll just go get the car right now. Anthem will pay it off later. And I just got the title to my car. Today. And it's just— yeah, yeah, they paid it off, right? You know, like, and with obviously with incentives like this in the industry, they come with loyalty. So I'll be with Anthem for at least another 2 years. But it's cool. Like, my company gave me an opportunity to hit a big metric and I hit it and they paid off my car. I have both of our cars are paid off. And I forgot to mention, like, we just bought our first townhome a little while ago. Which, attaboy, dude, which I talk about the solar stuff and like that 2-spot day. So get this, had, had my, had I not sold one of those solar accounts, I would not have gotten into this house because you have to show like 2 years of employment. And my little, my little thing with Fluent Solar where I sold one account, it actually allowed us to get into this house in April. Because I sold that account in April of 2020 and I didn't get into this house until April 2022. But if I hadn't sold that account, like, I wouldn't have had enough income to show. And the funny thing is, I mean, we'll get into this too, but I'm super big on like work your hours just because it's like you, you have to follow, keep your commitments. We had this like, I was a Saturday, we had a big family event that I promised my wife I would go to.. And I just said, hey, look, like, I'll go to the event, but then after that, I have to go to work. Like, I have to go out and sell. And I remember being at this park with Kaya's whole family. You know, her grandma had bought KFC. I could have stayed at the park, and I was like, no, no, no, I'm going to keep my commitment. I'm going to get my work hat on and I'm going to go work. And I sold— I said, sorry, let me explain. I set an account, I set like an appointment that day that ultimately led to a sale. And so I just think it's really cool to see how everything kind of lines up when you're looking, you know, hindsight's 20/20, right? But man, like we wouldn't be in, we wouldn't have been in this house if I hadn't made that sacrifice. Well, if I hadn't kept that commitment to just work the hours I said I was going to work. So you never really know what, but basically the small things matter. But yeah, long story short, I mean, went out, did the Golden Door, had a great relationship with my tech. We killed it. We won every single competition. We, you know, I was the top sales rep at Anthem. I am the top sales rep at Anthem this year and just look forward to doing it all over again and just outperform myself. So went through a lot too, as far as like my second year. I was like, I had a great year. People were like, wow, Austin really, really like really got good. Like he really had that hockey stick year. But it always bothered me that I was like second best, you know, I was second in the company. I had lost in our big competition to a guy I respect a ton, Kony. And it just bothered me all year that I was like second place. And so going into the next year, I was like, nope, I'm gonna work on myself. And I'm just going to be the best I can be. And if I'm number one, I'm number one. And that's how it ended. So that's where I'm at now, man. And I'm just right now in the offseason, just finding things to be productive and to like attack goals and get ready for this next year. So that's a little bit about my life.

No, I appreciate you sharing that. No, I'm excited to continue to jam out. I mean, I basically already have two notes, two pages worth of notes already.

Yeah, you got a lot.

Let's, uh, let's jam in this. I want to know a couple things. Um, first off, congrats on the year. 1067 is not, not easy to do. How many months did you do that in?

It was 5 months, so started April 1st. Yeah, oh boy.

Yeah, and, um, let me, uh, let me— I don't want to start, I guess, backwards, but I, I, I You said something that was really interesting to me, and I want to, I kind of want to talk about it, kind of see your perspective on it. The goal here really is to, is to show other Golden Door Award winners really, you know, hey, look, you're not alone. You have a great community around you. And, you know, as top performers, we, you know, this is, this is our community now. So we can learn from the best of the best, you know, as a top sales rep in your, at your company and in the industry. Industry. So, um, let me, yeah, let me, and, and, and then also show like, you know, hey, look, we don't, we don't have it all together.

No, we don't. Oh dude. Not at all, man. There's a, there's a lot of things that I've learned throughout, like between summers too. I feel like every year I have a theme of kind of what I'm learning.

So on that note, what would you say your theme is for this coming up year?

Um, okay, cool. So this, the theme for this next year is just to create consistency and just to be better than I was before. And I think, I don't know if any other, I'm sure other Golden Door Award winners struggle with this, but it's like you hit the Golden Door and it's like, well, now what? It's like, well, for me, it's just I want to be better than I was before. And even though being better than I was before is still a Golden Door, because I think that's like repeating and And being consistent is really cool. Like, I want to— I'm going to keep that standard that I have in my life. I mean, we just talked about UGA football, they just went back to back. That's really hard to do, because people get complacent. And, you know, when you go up on the stage, you get that Golden Door Award, you kind of feel like, oh, well, like, I did it. But it was never about hitting the Golden Door. It's about becoming the person you need to become to do that type of thing. And once you've become that type of person that is able to hit a golden door, why would you go back and not do it again if you're the person that's able to do it? And I worked with my sales coach a lot this last summer on— and his name, Alex Cornwall, incredible coach. You know, he coached me through a lot. And whenever I would get worked up with numbers, he was like, dude, chill out. It's about becoming the— it's about It's about becoming the person you need to become to hit the Golden Door. It's not about the Golden Door. So for me, my theme going into this next year is just about being better than I was before and continuing with my standard and raising the standard. So that's a little bit about like my theme for my sales season. As far as the theme has been, the theme for this offseason has just been hanging like creating memories with my family. You know, life is short. I'm not promised tomorrow. And I work my butt off for 5 months. I love what I do. So I am going to enjoy the time that I have free with my wife and with my daughter. And it's hard. I think it's really hard to go from like, attack, you know, hit these high goals to, okay, now I'm going to be like a stay-at-home dad and hang out with my daughter. And it, there, there is literally a switch that you have to flip in order to really appreciate your offseason. So my first offseason after I hit 719 accounts, I really struggled because I tied up so much of my identity in my sales production that when I stopped selling, I just felt worthless, dude. I was like, well, what, like, I was like, what am I doing? Like, I'm not selling, I'm not producing income. Like, I had so much of my identity tied up in that. And it's dangerous, man, because like, if you tie up your identity in things that are external, when those things go away, you're not going to have like, who are you when those things go away? And I would even say, you know, if you identify, if you say I am a husband, I am a father, those are the things that give me the most motivation in my life. But dude, like, what if I lost— like, and I say this, I'm not promised tomorrow. What if you lose these external things and you're no longer a husband, you're no longer a father? So I think something I've worked on with my coach is just finding your identity in literally who you are as a person. And those are adjectives, right? Like, I am strong, I am resilient, I am persistent, I am loving, I am kind. You know, I like creating an I am list for yourself. So I answered to— I went into the theme I had for last year too, is just—

That's fine. I was gonna add, that was my follow-up question.

Yeah, no, I— and last year, I really had to learn how to be present in the now, how to be where my feet were. And I just had my daughter. I— well, I really was struggling during the offseason. And then I had my daughter, and that really forces you to live in the now. Because like, you're with this baby that's just looking at you as completely reliant, like completely relying on you. And it really helped me slow down a bit and to focus on what really mattered. So I've learned a lot. And ultimately, it's helped me become a better person, even though it's been really hard to learn those lessons.

Love that. Yeah, you've talked about lessons learned a lot. And I do want to get into that. Before we do that, you've said the word become a lot. So I looked up, I looked up in the thesaurus. The synonyms for become is develop into, grow into, turn into, mature, metamorphosis, shift, assume the form of, to be converted to. I think One of the key attributes that I have seen in Golden Door Award winners, whether they be in my program or guys on stage, the guys that I've interviewed like yourself, is they have become something before they hit it. It's not you hit it and you're it, which is, it seems backwards, Austin. And I kind of want to understand your opinion on that, but it seems backwards. Why is it that, like, the gurus on the internet kind of don't really talk about that? Like, I think, I think the gurus of like the 1980s and 1990s talked about it a lot. You know, the Jim Rohns and stuff like that. Dale Carnegies, right? They talked about, you know, it's not about what you're getting, it's what, who you're becoming, right? The old Jim Rohn quote. I actually sent that out to all my guys last night, that video, because I mean, that was like that video I've watched thousands of times. From Jim Rome talking about, you know, you got to focus on who you're becoming, not what you're getting out of it. Because we, uh, and indoor to door, I mean, you see this all the time too throughout the industry. It's like, what's— what, what am I gonna get paid per account?

What's, what's my—

what's my— in solar, it's what's my red line? What am I gonna get paid? I'm like, that's like you going up to your wife, me, and like, you know, what's your— you know, what's your bank account look like?

Yeah.

You know, how much money does your family have? It's like, wait, what? Like, we are so— our generation is so— 20, 30-year-olds, we're so focused on money and not value and becoming something. Like you said earlier, if your value is placed in what you have, even in your wife or your daughter, when that thing is taken away and, you know, obviously I my condolences for your father. When that thing is taken away, do you get derailed? You know, I heard Tony Robbins talk about that. You know, he's like, you know, your mom is eventually going to die. And then it really hit me and I was like, because, you know, I was doing my best to— it's one of the reasons, one of the reasons why for the first at least 3 or 4 years of why I stayed sober when I journeyed into sobriety, my first 3 or 4 years was because I wanted to give my mom a return on her investment. Then what happens when my mom does pass away? It's not that she's sick or anything, but, you know, her mom passed away and I was like, you know, I mean, I really saw it really, really, really throw my mom off. And I was like, you know, and I watched, you know, I'm sure obviously you like Jordan Peterson and he spoke at the Ocon this year. And, you know, he says, you know, you got to be the strongest person at your father's funeral. And I was like, man, like, this is an interesting point. Of where we get our value from and our belief systems of, you know, do I need my dad to be there for me to, you know, tell me I'm doing great? It's like, well, no, I don't. Do I need my mom to be there for me to tell me, you know, that she loves me to feel loved? No, I don't. You know, I need to go through the self-mastery journey and, you know, through self-awareness, understand how to get there. So I just brought my hats off to you. I've got literally 2 and a half pages full of notes already. So let me talk about this become thing first. Yeah. To become a Golden Door Award winner, you must become— I mean, I'm paraphrasing what you said, but to become a Golden Door Award winner, you need to become it before you need to— You need to mold into it. You need to be converted into it. You need to mature into it before, be transformed into it. It's a good verse. I love this verse, Romans 12:2. Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, right? So to be transformed into something that is better than what you were or what your old self was. I don't know, that was really cool, man. I really liked that you said that. I think a lot of people struggle with that. The guys that are not Golden Door winners and girls that are not Golden Door Award winners, I think they become so fixated, like you're saying, on the award rather than— and like you said, it's hard. I mean, I don't know anybody that's ever said getting a Golden Door was easy. Now, they— most guys, most people, when I say guys, I mean everybody, right? Most people, when they hit the Golden Door, usually say the Golden Door year was the easiest year of their life. It was actually significantly emotionally harder before that because they had become that before. So they were walking through saying, I'm, you know, I'm a Golden Door Award winner. I'm going to act like one. I'm going to drive a car like one. I'm going to, you know, date my wife like I'm a Golden Door winner. I'm going to, you know, treat the grocery store clerk as I'm a Golden Door winner. I'm going to, you know, hang out with my daughter like I'm a Golden Door Award winner. And I just love that you did. You said that, you know, most of that you said. I've done that with my opinion, but Yeah, I just, you know, I really think that's the whole manifesting. There's like a cliché taboo, like, you know, manifesting, you know, prophesying, like, you know, because of the law of attraction, the people have like kind of gotten, you know, turned off at like, you know, I'm the best, you know, the whole incantations, if you will, right? Like telling yourself, but you are already using incantations. I suck. I'll never be good enough. I'm the worst. I'll never get, you know, I'll never be a good husband. I'll never be a good father. Like, you're already using incantations, brother. Like, you know, you just, you're not, you don't realize, you're not conscious of those negative incantations that you're using. You have some words on that, bro?

Uh, well, you're like, the language that you, that you use with yourself is so important. Um, you know, I talked a little bit about, you know, when people say, oh, my goal is versus I'm going to do this, it just it just sets the intention as to what you're going to do versus what you hope to do. But as far as just, as far as becoming, it just, it's, it's a decision, right? So where the effort, where the emotional toll was really difficult during my, you know, during my Golden Door year, like there were some days where I broke down crying, I had to call my sales coach, you know, like it was hard.. And once I made the decision, though, to do it, like, there was never a question of if I was going to hit it. But there were things that I had to go through that summer, and lessons I had to learn that, you know, helped me become a different person. But I— one thing that you said that resonated with me was the hardest points came before And I'd have to agree with that. Like, I've had so many other hard things happen in my life, man. Like, going way back, man, like, like my parents getting divorced, going through the drama of, you know, separated family, like, and feeling like you're being torn, you know, to different sides as a kid. Like, dude, like that stuff's way harder than, than hitting a golden door. Like, like losing my dad, like that was one of the hardest things ever. And You know, hard is relative, I think. And, but a lot of those hard things that have happened in my life have given me, like, the strength and the ability to tackle other obstacles. And so, you know, I, man, I, and what the other thing that you said that resonated with me was just like, do you need your dad to like become to be happy all the time. It's like, man, like, it'd be really nice if he were around. But he isn't. And so like, I've had to figure out how to be happy without my dad, you know, like, and that's also been hard, right? But, and I just, all of it's been important to shape me and who I am today. And just touching on my dad for a bit. I mean, One of the things that my dad always said, like, was everything happens for a reason. Even before he was involved in, like, the Mormon Church and we got all involved in religion. I would say we were like C&E, we were C&E Catholics before.

Priesters.

Yeah, dude, we went to church on Christmas and Easter. We went to mass, you know, and that was it. And even then, you know, before we had like a really strong foundation in church, our foundation was everything happens for a reason. Even through divorce, everything happens for a reason. And there were like some days where like I didn't even know how my dad was holding it together. You know, he was raising me, my sis, and me and my two sisters, because that's just how court worked out, you know. And what a blessing that I ended up, I love my mom and I love that, you know, like I have such a good relationship with my mom still to this day. But it was a blessing that I ended up with my dad because I got to grow up with my dad. And, you know, had I not grown up with my dad, I wouldn't have had any memories with him, you know, or as many, right? But yeah, so I mean, it's everything happens for a reason. And I think that's something that I learned even. And it's been a constant through my whole life. And when something hard happens, I can just tell myself everything happens for a reason. But just something I wanted to touch on with, with everything we're talking about, man, because, you know, we, I think, as high performers, we have these high standards for ourselves. And then we can let these, like, if we have a bad day in sales, for some reason, we forget that there's a bigger picture. And, you know, we forget the everything happens for a reason. I, sometimes we forget so quickly. But there is, and that's something that I experienced during the summer. If I had a bad sales day, I thought my life was bad. I'm like, oh my gosh, like what happened? It's like, no dude, like it's fine. Like, like you had it, you had a crappy day. Who cares? Move on. Like that. And I, and a lot of times my, uh, if I called my mom, she was like, dude, you had a humble pie day. Like just swallow it. Like eat up the humble pie and move on. So man, just a couple of thoughts from what you had to say. But ultimately a lot of these hard things in my life. Have allowed me to become the person who I am today. And I'm really proud of who I am today, even though I don't have it all figured out, man.

Like, um, was there ever a time that you didn't feel proud of yourself? Because I know now you're saying a lot that you, you feel proud of who you are. And I think that's a really, really, really important thing as a high achiever, because if you're going to stay consistently as a high achiever, um, you know, being proud of who you are, looking at your— being able to look at yourself in the mirror and look at yourself in the eyes is something that's super important. If, um, before you get into that, I think it's going to sound— I haven't, I haven't really talked about— I don't think I've ever talked about this. I would say the only people that know that I do this is the people that go to my gym that probably think I'm weird for doing it, but I did it for like probably 3 or 4, 3 or 4 years. I still do it today. Um, I started in like 2000, I think '12, 2013, where I would go up to the mirror in the middle of the gym and I would just sit there and I would literally go face to face and look at myself. And, um, eventually I started to like kind of like talk to myself while I was there and, you know, I was like, hey man, you got this. Like, you're, you got this, bro. Yeah, let's go, let's go. And it wasn't like, yeah, let's go lift some weights. It was like, it was more, it was more or less life, life stuff. Like, you got this, bro. Like, you know, you're— like, I was looking in the depths of my soul through myself in the mirror. Mind you, I was as high as a kite on endorphins because I was lifting weights. Yeah. But it was a really, like, anchoring time for myself. So practicing looking in yourself in the mirror is really important to me. That being said, when did you not feel proud of yourself?

Yeah. So there's a— there's a— it all kind of stems from when I— when we first got married and I was just, you know, there's that pressure to be a provider as a man. And, um, you know, there— there— after I had quit the door-to-door thing and I was like, you know, I, I'm just gonna go find some other job, and my wife had to start looking into possibly being the one, like the sole provider for our family, like that was hard. But I mean, if there's like a core moment that still drives me to this day, I talked about it at the panel for Door to Door Con. But there was a day I was knocking for solar and it's starting to— and it started to rain. And I came home and I cried to my wife. And I was like, I can't do this. This is hard. And You know, my wife is amazing. She comforted me for a second and she's like, "Hey man, time to go back out. Go finish the day." And you know, that was a moment where I wasn't really proud of myself and she told me to get back out there and go finish the day. So she was there, she's like, "Hey, keep your word, keep your commitment." But ultimately, I just had to tell her, I was done, you know. And so everything after that, even though my wife and I, we made some good memories like DoorDashing together. I remember we listened to a Hunger Games book together. There were some good memories there. But internally, I was really, I was not proud of like my ability to provide for my wife. And I wanted to have this family one day and have kids. And I was like, I just don't think I'm Like, I wasn't— I wasn't even— I didn't even have a job at the time. So it was just a tough time for me, man. And, you know, that's not to say that you can't be an amazing husband, an amazing father working other jobs. It's just like, I just had a vision for my life that I wasn't living up to. And, um, I know plenty of amazing fathers and amazing husbands that aren't doing door-to-door and they're not making six figures. It's just for what I wanted in my life, I, I needed to be able to have like that flexibility and that financial freedom for my wife to be able to follow her dreams. And she's still like, she's still lifting weights, man. It's really cool to see my wife. She's doing her weightlifting and 7 months after she had Georgia, she was already competing and she did awesome. You know, she won a gold medal in the U25s. Under 25 category. And then she just competed a little while ago and had her best total postpartum, right? And so, dude, it's, it's so cool to see, um, her progress. And it's like, for me, when I go out and knock doors, it's like, hey, I'm gonna go work really, really hard so that I can give my life, give my wife the, like, a beautiful— my wife and my daughter an amazing life. And I have a lot of fun doing it too. So But yeah, that's one of those moments that I was not super proud of myself. And then I touched on it a little bit ago, but when you tie your income up and, you know, when you tie your identity up in your income and your production and your sales numbers, you can get really down on yourself. So after my, after my second season knocking doors, I had, you know, become like, oh my gosh, this is, you know, one of Anthem's top reps. You know, it's really And I had really adapted that identity. And I loved the, you know, the adrenaline boost of getting sales. And when the season went over, I wasn't really proud of myself because I wasn't focused on the right things. I didn't, you know, I wasn't really appreciating the now. I wasn't appreciating that I was going to be a father soon. And so it's hard. It was a hard time. And ultimately, What got me through a lot of that was just coaching. I hired a coach to work with. Her name was Lindsay, Lindsay Tionfu, and she worked with me on kind of balancing out that, you know, that goal-driven side that I have, and then also like that tender father side where I can learn how to turn that off, do that off and on switch, because I love competing and I love producing.. And I also love being a dad and I love being a, you know, tender, loving husband. But those two don't really mix when I'm, you know, selling. I like, I'm not, I have different kind of like, dude, I have a different person. I am a different person when I sell. Like I still have the same moral compass, but I am very driven and I don't, I turn, basically tell everybody don't call me like I'm working. And then when I'm back home from work now, I am dad, I am, you know, the husband. And so having an on and off switch really helps. And it's something that's helped my relationship with my wife, that when I come home from work, I'm home. And when I am working, if she calls me, I think that something is wrong. And the only time she ever has called me is like when something has gone wrong, like she, you know, rear-ended somebody in the car, like something like that, you know, where it's like, hey, there's a serious issue, I need you to answer the phone. But we also set expectations as to like how we're going to go about the summer. And that's, that's one of the things is that when I'm home, I'm home. When I'm at work, I'm at work. So, yeah. Awesome.

Let me do that again. If you're not taking notes on this, guys, I literally have almost 3 pages of full notes. I've got a lot of things that I'm looking for. Austin Maser, when I, when I, when I interview Golden Door guys, is the attributes of a Golden Door. Winner. One, so that I can learn what is important to Golden Door Award winners and how they stack their life to win more. Two is just things that you say that are like, yeah, man, this is something that has stayed consistent in what you're saying, your topics. So things like becoming, you know, staying focused, obviously your family, what your value is, what your identity is and how you define that. I kind of want to hear, I kind of want to transition and talk to you a couple things here. Let me, let me take you back. So I know you just came off your Golden Door year. Yeah. It sounds something like when you got on stage and got that award, you got the recognition that you wanted. And there's a, there's an Eric Thomas video that talks about Emmitt Smith. Do you know which one I'm talking about?

Dallas Cowboy?

Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know the video, but I know Emmitt Smith.

He said, he said there was a, I think it was like a Nike commercial, maybe Gatorade commercial. And he said Emmitt Smith, you know, he won, just won the Super Bowl. And it was a video of Emmitt And I have the video, I can send it to you, but I would have pulled it up, but I was so intrigued on what you're saying, taking one of the— take as many notes as possible. You could— the video goes like this. He's like, yeah, it's a video. It's a video of Emmitt working out on a bench press and he's just, you know, he's racking 225. He racks it. He goes, yeah, with his ring, goes, yeah, I won a Super Bowl. I can rest now. All right. And then he goes back and starts racking 225 again. And he was like, yeah, like, you know, isn't that interesting how these top performers, they, they— I've seen it where certain guys can have it, and Ed Mylett talks about it a lot, you know, a lot of, a lot of guys, they can do the 1, 2, 3 years in a row or 1 year in a row, but they have a hard time after that. And it kind of sounds a lot like you're going to continue to hit Golden Door Award because because you've worked on that self-mastery, you've worked on the brain side, you've worked on— really, it's what it sounds like— you really have worked on getting, like, being— and this is super important to me right now. The coach that I work with right now, one of my coaches, Paul, he's like, man, you got to get grounded. Like, you got to, like, take your shoes off, go walk on some grass, literally, literally, uh, whatever, like electrically ground yourself, like ground yourself, um, you know, get in tune with with, you know, the earth. And it sounds a lot like you're not going to be one of those hit and miss guys. And nothing against those other guys, because don't get me wrong, hitting a goal— yeah, is an outstanding achievement. Like, you know, there are certain times where guys, you know, it's like, hey man, like, that was my goal to hit the 1 year. Now I'm gonna go help other guys make money. Like, there's nothing— there's nothing— there's no shame in that.

I'm not—

and I don't want people to think that I'm shaming them at all.

Yeah.

Um, but it's just, it's just interesting because no matter what you do, Austin, you've got it. No matter if you lost everything, you still have the— you still have this person that you've become. And it's cool because no matter where you're at, whether it's pest control, you know, indoor to door, whatever you do, you're going to be outstanding at what you do. And I'm really excited to watch and continue to follow your journey. And you've— yeah, man, you've just— again, the things that I wrote down, a lot more of it, you know, the lessons learned these things, you really, you really don't let— there's a John C. Maxwell book. It's like right here, like right here, wherever in my— right there. Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn. The little red and white book. Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn. And it sounds a lot like as a Golden Door Award winner, one of the key attributes that you have is that you learn from the lesson. You learn something from your failures and it's not really failing. It's a lesson. And I think that that's probably one of the key, you know, pivotal points or deciding factors, I guess you can say, of what a high achiever, consistent high achiever in business has is when they can go through the muck, the mire, get, you know, backstabbed, turned on, name-jugged through the dirt like I have many of times and still come back and achieve high, high things and great things. And, and, uh, you know, I just— I'm— my hat's off to you, man. So I want to know a little bit about, um, the recognition side of it. Um, it sounded a lot like, you know, you fought for your— you fought for your wife, you fought for this Golden Door. It sounded— it sounds a lot like— and there's nothing wrong with this, I just want to know, is this— is recognition something that's really big to you? Being that, are you— I mean, I Let me ask you this first. There's a layup question of that. What, what, um, it's a personal thing. So what, how many kids were in your immediate family?

So I have two sisters and then, uh, one oldest, older sister, one younger sister. And then my dad married my stepmom, Kelly, and my stepmom has, um, you know, 2 sons and 1 sister. So those are my 3 step-siblings. I'm older than my stepbrother, my stepsister, and then I have a stepbrother that's about the same age as me. So him and I grew up at the same— him and I grew up in the same household, like same grade. And man, that kid was always better than me in all the sports, man. And it's cool that you bring this up. But like, there, before my dad got married to my stepmom, I was kind of like, just, I just played Call of Duty. And that's it, just played Super Smash Brothers on my GameCube.

What was your gamer tag?

Oh, I don't remember my gamer tag. But my character for Super Smash Brothers was Kirby. I love Super Smash Brothers. And then, you know, like Call of Duty, all this stuff, but I never, I never was athletic. And so being in a household where like, I had a, I had a brother, like my stepbrother, who was like extremely athletic. It kind of made me want to get involved in sports. And yeah, man, I remember just getting in like, getting in fights with my stepbrother, and he would pin me. That just made me so mad. But, you know, him and I are buds now. And we, you know, it's been really cool to connect as adults and talk about some of the things that we went through as kids. But Yeah, man, that's a little bit about like the dynamics. But as—

Kind of sounds like your love language is words of affirmation. Is that— would I be correct there?

I love it, dude. I love just like it more than anything, like from my wife and like people that I care about. Like if somebody comes up to me and just compliments me, it means a lot. Now, on that same note, like, hey, like I've had to learn how to have my own words of like everyone, I've had to learn how to find my own words of affirmation because you can't always rely on that from other people. But if you wanna be my buddy, like just come and say something nice to me. That's it. You know? So that's it.

Yeah. That's a, uh, it's a, it's a common trait in, in, uh, in high achievers is what I've seen is that, uh, you know, we, we try to a lot, sometimes you wear your heart on your sleeve like I do, but Sometimes these like big, strong, I'm cool, you know, Golden Door guys, they try to act like it's not that big of a deal to them, but it's a really big deal to them. They want recognition. Why in the heck would they do that? I mean, it's like doing hard things is awesome, but if you're not— you're doing hard things behind closed doors for no reason when you're on an island all alone, I don't believe you would do it. Most people wouldn't. Um, there's not really a point to, so having recognition is important. I just wanna, I, I thought that was really cool.

Yeah. Um, it's funny 'cause when you're, yeah, I'll let you go to that same question, but when I, when you're in the middle of trying to accomplish something though, it's like you, you, you kind of have to shut it all out. Um, one of the biggest differences that, that last summer made was like I was off social media all summer.. And I just didn't care. It's like, I was like, I just have a goal for myself. And, but yeah, in the moment, like, I try to shut out a lot of that stuff. Because even though I could get a lot of recognition during the summer for like, hey, I sold 10 or this or that. Well, I'll just let Anthem post about it. Like, I'm not gonna, you know, they can post about it. And yeah, that really did, you know, from a top performer standpoint, like, yeah, that makes you excited when, when your company makes a post about you. It's like, hey, this is fun. You know, it's fun to win. It's fun to be recognized. So yeah, just, just thought I'd add that in. But I think one of the things is like staying off social media. And more than anything, time wasters. If social media helps you, then great. But just trying to stay, stay away from things that, that take away from what you're trying to do. So I stayed off social media most of the summer just to stay honed in on what I was trying to do.

I love that. All right, so let me, let me, let's go back to this Golden Door year.

Cool.

Um, you said something about hindsight's 20/20.

Oh yeah.

And then you said the small things matter right after that. Yep. Do you remember what we were talking about there? Can you talk about that?

Uh, selling, like setting an appointment for the, for this, like for a solar deal.

Um, yeah.

Crazy.

Walk me through how hindsight's 20/20 In other words, this is something that I've struggled with, got told about this, and then realized when hindsight is 20/20 how much different I would act now if hindsight's 20/20 for me in 2027, 2030, 2040. So explain to me that, Austin.

Okay. Are you asking me how I would act differently or just my theory?

How do you act now? How do you act now? Now that you see all that worked out together for the good?

Well, short answer is the same. I just have the same systems I had when I was, you know, when I was knocking solar. I had the same systems I used then I'm using now, you know, to be successful in Pest League. I worked the hours. This is before I ended up quitting solar. But dude, it's just, it just shows that everything you do adds up, like who you are today and it is all a culmination of who you are right now, like everything that you do on a daily basis. And so consistency compounds, and that's a good way and in a bad way. If you're consistently doing things that make you better, in 2 years from now, you'll be in a, you know, you'll be in a heck of a lot better spot. But if you're consistently doing things that, you know, take away from who you're trying to become, then yeah, you're going to be in a tough spot in 2 years. It's like if you eat McDonald's every day for 2 years, like, hey, you're not going to be in great shape. One of my focuses going into next season is, you know, taking better care of my health. I ate Chick-fil-A every freaking day, man, and I gained a ton of weight. But, you know, it worked for my system at the time. And, but just, just, just the point there, like, who— what you do on a daily basis is who you are. And that's where we talk about— that's where we talk a lot about our identity. And a lot of times these Golden Door Award winners decided to become a Golden Door Award winner before they ever got a Golden Door. That's how everything is in life, you know, before you become in— before you're in shape, you have to decide that you're going to be the type of person that is in shape. You got to decide that you're going to be the type of person that makes healthy decisions. And for me, it was like, you know, if I'm going to be successful, I just have to have systems in place that will lead to success. Even though I can't, even though I don't know when the success will come, I know that certain systems will lead me to be successful. And one of my biggest mentors, like Jeremy Davis, taught me like, hey, put systems in place in your marriage, in your, in your job, in your fitness, and eventually it'll get you where, get you to where you want to go. So hindsight's 20/20. I look back even on like the crazy things that have happened in life for me. It all makes sense because it's helped me, you know, helped me learn how to— like, for example, like divorce and having split family has helped me learn how to just be a peacemaker too. You know, some people think that's a bad characteristic, but in my mind it's like, no, I want to be able to learn how to see the good in everybody if they matter to me. Um, you know, losing my dad, I still don't know exactly why Dad's gone, but it's like, hey, well, I can, I can make a difference. And, and I'm writing a book right now about my life right now where I can share to other, you know, potential— maybe missionaries down the road can read it and be like, wow, like I had the same thing happen while I was on a mission. Who knows? Um, but yeah, hindsight's 20/20, man. Everything makes more sense when you look backwards. So you just have to have the faith, like that same certainty that I have in saying that. I just have to have the same faith moving forward. That's it. And then life becomes a lot easier.

So now do you still struggle with that? Is that still a thing? Is it some, is you have a standard operating procedure for your life where you're like, hey man, I'm going through the, I'm going through the thick of it. You know, is there anything that you do, you look at, you listen to? Do you have anything in place that when you're in the middle of it, like you said, you had a middle of the season cry moment, called Coach, like that would be like a technical, like, I mean, is that, was that like a, hey, I know I need to call Coach now? Or, you know, what are some other—

Coach called me. Really? Yeah, no, I've had a lot of—

You weren't responding and coach called you or something?

Yeah, well, you know, it was that particular instance was I was on a travel trip to Texas because I work with a lot of Anthem's sales teams in the different markets. So Texas, South Carolina. And it was competition week and I was getting my butt whooped, like just getting killed, right? Like the guy that I was going up against was, I think, double digits ahead of me. And, you know, I'd made that very clear to my sales coach and I had a slow start that day. And, you know, he just called me. And to answer your question, do I have systems in place that allow me to get back on track? Yes. And it's like I have people that care about me, like my wife. My sales coach, like I have people that, like my mentor, like Jeremy Davis, like I have people in my life that are going to help me stay on track. And I personally, if I feel like I am having a tough moment, like I know how to take a step back, sit, breathe, reset, reset my intention and move forward. Like that's, that's the way I deal with it. But if things are really hitting the fan, like I have people in my corner that are going to be there for me. But that particular instance, I was so focused on— I was so focused on competition season. I was so focused on getting to the next round of this bracket that Anthem had. And I had lost the vision of like what I was trying to accomplish. And I just had to go out and serve as many people as I could. And so my coach knew that I was having a tough day. It's a funny story. And he called me and just said, dude, like snap out of it, like stop. And he's like, I want, he's like, why, what's going on? And I talked to him, I told him my story. That's all it was at the time. It was like how I was perceiving things. And he was like, you're in your head about all this competition season. And I don't know if you do language on here, but he just told me, he's like, repeat after me. He's like, he just said, repeat, F competition season and just scream it. And so I'm in the middle of Texas, like, and I'm like crying on the phone. And he's like, say it. And I'm like, fuck competition season. He's like, say it again. I'm like, fuck it, fuck competition season. And I just had to just scream it, right? And afterwards he's like, now go out there, like you're gonna fucking win this thing, go out and throw down. And that day, like I did like maybe 2 more, but then I just was like, okay, like I don't really believe in myself right now, but my sales coach like believes, like Alex, amazing guy. He believes that I can do it. And dude, this guy believes that I could win the whole thing. And at the time I was like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna lose this thing. Like I was literally like, I was like, I'm gonna lose. And, uh, anyways, I, I hang up the phone.. And prior to Alex calling me, I had pissed somebody off at their door. You know, it was a no soliciting sign. And I left and they had called the cops on me. It was completely unrelated to me screaming in the middle of the street. But they had called the cops on me. And so the cop pulls up, sees that I'm crying right after my coaching phone call.. And like this, this, uh, this coach had to like, I'm sorry, this policeman was like, hey buddy, you doing okay? If you just had somebody call the cops on you, like, are you okay? And I told him, I'm like, yeah, dude, I'm just having a hard time. I, uh, I can't find anybody to buy from me. And the cop was like, dude, you're, you'll be all right, man. Someone will buy from you. And so then I just finished the day, um, ended up fin— you know, knocking till dark to like 10 o'clock at night, finding 2 more people to buy from me. And then I went on to finish the— finish that, that week, and I ended up winning. But it was just through trusting in the process. And that's one of the, one of the things that comes, uh, that's going to come up a lot as we talk. But, you know, I think hindsight's 20/20. Like, when you look backwards, hindsight's 20/20. But using that same forth— using that same faith moving forward, it's like, hey, trust in the process. Trust in the process, and it will all work out. I've had similar, similar things in like competition time when you get so in your head about the scoreboard. It's like, dude, no, like the only thing you can control is yourself. Trust in the process and it will all work out. So that happened the very final day of our competition this year. Man, I was, I had a really, it was, you know, Kony and I were going head to head and granted I had lost to him the year the year prior. So I was like, okay, I gotta beat him. Like, I gotta get him. And so I was telling— man, I'm gonna go off. If you want to pause me, stop. Go ahead and pause me. But I had a— I had a call. I had a whole call with my sales coach. And I'm like, dude, I lost last year. Like, I failed. And like, I'm a little nervous. And then my sales coach was like, dude, like, you didn't fail, man. You just took a loss. Like, we— it's so weird. In the whole entrepreneur world, we talk about failure. It's like, failure is good, failure is good. It's like, dude, failure isn't— like, failure is just taking a loss. And you learn from a loss. But it doesn't— it's not like a loss has to be a bad thing. You know, I don't like to lose, but I had to reframe how I was telling myself that story. And Alex, my coach, was like, dude, like, I want you to just think about that in a different way. Like, you went— you, you— a year and a half ago, like, you— 2 years ago, you quit door-to-door, and then you got back into it, and now you're going head-to-head. And then last year, you went head-to-head with a guy that's been doing door-to-door for like 5 years. It's like, dude, that's super cool. Like, you need to reframe the way you're telling yourself that story. And I didn't lose by much the year prior. And so all I thought was like, hey, I took a loss. I learned things from that year. And my sales coach invited me to write down like, hey, what did you learn from that year and how are we going to move forward from it? And one of the things I had to do to kind of like overcome that was just say, like, I reached out to Kony and I left him a voice message and I was like, dude, I just want to let you know, like, hey, you've played a big role in my sales career and I appreciate you and you've done a lot for me. And ultimately, he's been a huge— he's been a huge guy for me to like look up to when I first started because he was selling by himself with me when we first started. Just an incredible guy. In fact, you should get him on here one of these days because he's awesome. Like he— he's got it. He's got an amazing story. But I had to reach out to him and I was like, dude, like, I appreciate you. And I had to just overcome that, that like mental barrier, right? And that's One of the reasons I love— man, one of the reasons I love Georgia football so much is because they got their ass kicked by Alabama year after year after year. And eventually they're like, no, we're done. We're gonna win. Right? And so I love, I love that football program to see what they've done. But anyways, moving forward, like I was doing really well in this competition. And then, man, like, we had a day where I, you know, I had Monday and Tuesday. I did really well in this competition against Kony. Wednesday, we kind of tied it up. But then Thursday was the final day and this guy just goes nuts. And by like 5:00, by like 3:00, he's already at 20 deals or something. I don't even know the times, but he's already at 20 pest deals and I'm sitting at like 11 or 12 and I'm like, well, shoot, I'm done. I lost. I had to over— I don't know what to do. And I remember my wife at the time, she— I was like, I got to get set because I started, I started knocking at 8 a.m. every single day of this competition. And I told— I had to have my wife pick up a Segway, go drive it home, charge it, and drop it back off to me. Like we were— everybody was on board. Everyone's trying to make this happen. And I remember I knocked my townhome area with like, with like 11 deals. And I just looked at my wife. And we always joke, I just had this like, I just had this like face of just like, well, here goes nothing. And I just like, I just did the shoulder shrug and like the, like this, I was like, here we go. I'm just gonna go for it. Dude, Kony finished with like 30 deals that day. He, he literally hit 30 deals that day. And while I was, without going too far ahead, I was like, I, I went and I'm, I'm, I parked my car in this other neighborhood like 10 minutes down the road from where we live. And my sales coach just texted me. He said, dude, forget everything. Just trust in the process. Like, forget it all. No more of this. Like, Kony's at this number, you're at this number. He just said, forget about everything and trust in the process. And so I just said, okay. And I went out and then we just did like 8 in a row and it was insane. Like I had literally had just, and you know, granted, like I don't like to swear a whole lot, but like when I'm in my sales mode, like, okay, I adapt a little bit of other like mantras that help me out. And I was like, okay. I was like, fuck it, let's go. Like, I'm going for it. And I said, I'm just gonna go for it. And anyways, I ended up doing like 8 in a row. And I like, meantime, like my wife, my sales coach, and my mentor are all texting me, like hyping me up. Like, let's go, you got this. Like I had a support system, right? And it was really cool just to see like when you trust in the process, everything works out. I finished with 20 deals that day. I kept my margin on the competition and ended up winning. But like for me, man, it was just like, oh my gosh, it worked. Like how? But it just, that was one of the biggest lessons for me up to this point and just trust in the process and everything works out. And the craziest things happen when you just forget about the result and you focus on the process. And the hardest times during that summer for me like for during my Golden Door summer, the hardest times, dude, were when I would look at my numbers on the day. Um, well, on the— I'd look at my numbers on the day to kind of get an idea of where I was at. That wasn't super stressful. The hardest time for me was when I would look at the numbers for the summer. And so I only looked at my, my summer numbers probably every month, every, you know, I'd look at my numbers every 3 or 4 weeks because I didn't care. Like it didn't affect what I did on a daily basis. Like, I knew that I needed to sell 8 to 12 a day, and that's what I did. But yeah, I mean, it's trusting in the process, man. Like, if you focus on numbers, it drives you nuts. One last thing, and I'll— I've talked quite a bit, but thanks for listening. But around like 600, 700 accounts, I started getting in my head a ton. And I was like, oh my gosh, like I did that once, I have to do this again. And I, like I did 500, I have to do this all over again. And like, oh my God, like it, it just freaked me out. And so instead of focusing on every, every single time I sell an account, I se— I send, uh, a bug emoji with like the, with the account stat— like with the account data on it. So I'd send a bug emoji. With the contract value, with how long the contract is, 12, 24 months, with the type of payment, because our company will track whether or not it's credit card or ACH, because ACH just is cheaper for the company. And they, you know, they say it's better on retention too, which it is. So I track all that stuff. You know, I like to make sure I have high-quality deals. Well, instead of sending bug emojis, I changed the group chat to Building the Brick Wall. Like, that was the name of the group chat. And so every single time, and I'll continue to do this moving forward, Every single time I sell a deal, I just send a brick emoji. And for me, it was just super simple. It was like, hey, I just laid a brick. I don't care about what the brick wall looks like right now. I'm just laying down a brick. And I know that eventually when I look up at the end of the summer, it'll be a brick wall and it's a freaking golden door. But I can't look at the brick wall right now. I don't care if I'm at 600, 700, 800 accounts. I just care that I'm putting down bricks because that's all that I can control on a daily basis. So huge adjustment that I made, and it worked out really well. So but just focus on the process. Life sucks when you're so focused on the result. It's just like, dude, have fun with the process and focus on that because you can't control the results, but you can control what you do.

So, dude, selling— I put you that your sales are a routine.

Teen.

Yeah. And I was like thinking, I was actually, it's funny that you said that. I was actually thinking about the, uh, like how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time? How do you build, you know, build a, a, you know, a house, whatever, one brick at a time.

Yeah.

Funny that you said it that way. Cause that's like literally what I was thinking. I was like, dude, this kid is so process driven. Um, because, uh, even myself, dude, like I, I, I mean, I can't say as much recently, but as much recently. I still get it. But it's not like for a couple days, couple hours, really, it's a few minutes at a time. But I still get in my own head. And I'm like, I don't deserve this. I shouldn't be here. I'm no good.

Yeah. Well, I think we— yeah, I think we all struggle with that. Like, but it's like, what do you do when you feel it? You know, what do you do?

Personally?

Mm-hmm.

So there's a couple things that I do. Um, one, one of them is I will do breathing techniques. Um, one of my favorite ones is the, uh, the power pose. So the whole Tony Robbins stand, stand with your hips on your hands and your hips, right?

Yeah.

And, um, so I'll do that. Um, I, I change my, my state. So I have to change my state. So it's almost like you're like, if you like, you're sunk in the couch And you're just stuck. You get more stuck and more stuck and more stuck, right?

Yeah.

So if I have to move, I have to get up and move. So I use Mel Robbins, the 5-second rule, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, boom, I gotta go.

Yeah.

Blast off, change it up. I do that a lot. I do, you know, I use essential oils. So I use a couple things, peppermint oil, things like that to help recenter me. I use a lot of sensories. I got a Boom Boom Stick. It's really a Vicks Vapor thing, a stick that I use to recenter myself. I've got a I Am Grateful album.

Oh, that's so cool, man.

Don't Forget This album on my cell phone. And I've got a, like a wins, especially when I'm like, I don't, I I didn't close that deal or I didn't get, you know, that guy didn't invest in my fund and, you know, he says I suck.

Yeah.

I go and look at pictures of recordings of wires that have come through of $200,000, $300,000, $100,000, $150,000 that of deals that have come through that I'm like, if these guys trust me, this guy just wasn't a good fit for my fund or this guy wasn't, right? I've got the big wins so I don't forget that I still know how to do my job. I just— it's like a door, right? It's like, you know, instead of raising $200,000, I raised zero. So I think I can never raise money ever again. You know, I go back to wins. And another one is the— I've actually done this quite a few times too. I actually created a motivational video for myself of me talking to me.

So cool.

And I put it behind, I put it behind some motivational music and it was just me like rapping about, not rapping, rapping, but me rapping about certain things that I was, you know, about talking to younger Mikey. And it was when I was in a super, I always record them when I'm in a super, like, that was outstanding, really good. Wow, dude, that was outstanding. And so I could feel the energy and I talked to myself just like I did in the mirror. And at the gym and I talk to myself and yeah, it's because it's hard sometimes, you know, you got— they say you got to be your biggest cheerleader and those videos of myself help out a ton. So that's, that's what I do.

That's really cool. You talked about— and this is something that Jeremy taught me a lot about, was just creating anchors for yourself. And man, the boom boom stick, I did that this last summer when I'd sell some deals. I just, you know, I'm like, my technician's out there with me. He's like, dude, you look like a crackhead. Like, what are you doing? And so my technician, he, you know, he kind of bought into the whole sales thing. He wanted to win all the competitions. He would just laugh at me, you know, like it was fun to have a buddy out there. But no, on more real talk, like creating anchors, man, like I still reflect on anchors from when I first started in door-to-door. And there was a night where I had 19 accounts. Dude, my wife's been such a huge support for me, but I had 19 accounts and it was a Saturday night and it was right when we first started and I had never hit 20 accounts. And, you know, we had a date planned to go to Cheesecake Factory. And I remember telling her like, hey, like, maybe I'll just come home, like, maybe I'll hit 20 next week.

Ooh.

And tell me more. I was like, yeah, I don't— I wasn't really sure of myself too. I was like, I, I may just come home, like, let's just go out for dinner. And my wife texted me back and she's like, no, no, no, no, no, like, go try a little bit longer. Like, I think you can do it. And so I went out and it was like, I just looked around the corner and there was a house on the corner and I just decided to knock it. And these people had had Anthem several years ago. They no longer had a pest control company. And they're like, hey, yeah, we wanted to sign up for a company again. And it was just a complete laydown. And if I, if I had gone home, I think like the course of my door-to-door career would be different. Because that was the first anchor that I was able to lay, like to able to set. And from that, I started to create other anchors, 30-account week, 40-account week, 50, 60, 70, and I ended up doing an 82-account week. But the building block for all of my other anchors came from that one anchor. So I think that just shows the importance. Hindsight's 20/20. Put in the extra effort. The little things matter. Like, do the little stuff. Because like I said, if I didn't sell a solar deal, I wouldn't have been in this house right now. And if I didn't have that one anchor, man, I don't know what else would happen. I mean, other anchors I have, like the night I sold 10 accounts, I got in my car with 9. And this isn't a day. I got in my car with 9 accounts. This is my first year selling. I texted Jeremy Davis and I'm like, dude, 9 accounts, like, let's go. I was stoked. It was a PR. It was previously I did 8. And Jeremy texted me back and he's like, dude, go get 10. And I texted him, I sent him a screenshot of the neighborhood. I'm like, it's dark out here, dude.

No.

And he texted me back. He said, no, get out of your car, like drive around, go find somebody and get your 10th account. He's like, get hungry. That's all he texted me. I was like, this guy's serious. Like, so I kind of rested on my laurels, right? Like 9 accounts. I was like stoked to go home. And he encouraged me, get back out. So I drove my car around. I saw this little tiny light and it was a guy smoking a cigarette on his patio. And I got out, I parked my car in front of their house, walked up to him, gave him my little short spiel. Hey, I need to go home soon. It's dark. But hey, I gotta help out one more person before I go home. Who's the boss? You know, and ended up being his wife. His wife's in bed, like in bed. And it's like 10 o'clock at night. And so I'm like, dude, I gotta talk to her. Where's she at? And he goes, she's in bed. So I like, cool, that's good. And I did the old school, like put your head down, scuff your shoes on the rug, and like walk into the house. So I was like, dude, just let me talk to her. And I put my head down and then I just scuffed my feet on the rug, walk in. And I literally pitched this lady and her name's Milagros, right? Like, and it means miracle in Spanish. I'm like, this is it, right? It's going to be the miracle. I pitch her, she's in bed and, and she signs up. I hand her the iPad and she literally signs up in bed. Like, what the— and I was like, it worked, Jeremy. And he's like, no way, let's go. But that was an anchor that I used forever. And I'm like, I always know that I can sell—

Gordon Gordon needs a reality TV show, bro. That is stuff that I swear you can't, you can't, you can't make that stuff up.

No, it's insane. And I still have the picture of me taking a selfie with this lady. She's in bed. Her daughter's there smiling because they got signed up for pest control. Just crazy. But, but then again, I just, I just have to share that because anchors matter. And like, if you don't do the little things, you don't get the victories. Like, if you don't do the little things, you don't get to celebrate victories. So like, you have to do the little things in order to create victories. That's one of the things I share with a lot of the guys that sell with Anthem. I'm like, dude, put in the little extra work. It will pay dividends like more than you can realize. So anyways, I just— so I still reflect on stuff like that, man. When I sell, when I sell now, I still reflect on, you know, little Austin selling 10 or you know, selling 20 in a week. I'm like, no, like, that came from keeping the systems I still have.

So I love that. All right, brother, well, it has been an absolute freaking pleasure talking with you, getting to know you more, dude. I, I love your journey. I love what you're doing. I love what you stand for. Yeah, um, you are, uh, you know, somebody that's worth following and a leader, a leader worth following. And, uh, I think it's really cool because you went from— you went the opposite way. You went from you know, you went from alarms to solar, back, back to pest. Uh, I went from alarms straight to solar and I skipped pest. I've done a lot of roofing. I've actually never sold— I've knocked a lot of pest guys. I've never once in my entire life ever sold pest control, even though I know it's like the best thing since sliced bread. I'm sure I can do it. I— one of these days I'm gonna— you know what, one of these days I am— one of these days I am gonna sell some alarms.

So do it.

Some pest control just to see how good I can do it. I'm gonna do the solar alarm. I'm like the best on the door. I don't know very many people that are better than me on doors. Anyways, dude, it's been a pleasure, dude. I love your story. I love, I wanna obviously support you. I know you got a podcast that you're about to drop. So why don't you talk about the podcast and then where can we find you? Where can we follow you? I know obviously everyone's gonna wanna follow you now. So, you know, and to watch your journey to hit another 1,200 year. I'm calling it 1,200, you're gonna hit this year.

Let's go. Yeah, um, so, uh, my, my Instagram account is just Austin Maser. You can follow me there. And my, uh, my podcast that I'm starting with a buddy of mine, it's called The Rising Tribe. It's just a podcast that we're starting right now just because, you know, we feel like today we got to touch on some of the emotions that kind of you can experience as a man. I feel like there's, there's not a lot of places right now where men can go and like have a safe place to kind of talk about those things. So Our goal in this podcast is to create a space where men can go elevate themselves as men, husbands, and fathers, and also to inspire younger men to take that higher road. You know, there's so many distractions in the world. So podcast is called The Rising Tribe. Um, and then as far as just, you know, follow me on Instagram, and in the next year or two I'll have a book out. And, um, yeah, I'm excited to share my journey with everybody as I continue to learn. Like, like we said, don't have it all figured out, but That's what makes it fun.

I love it, dude. I appreciate it. Any final words for the Golden Door Award winners?

I'd say just stick to the systems that you've been doing because they've given you success and avoid complacency. Just always want to be better. And that's something that, you know, hitting a Golden Door is an event.. But becoming a better person and improving in all aspects of your life, that takes a lifetime. So don't, don't base your, don't base your success off of event, off of an event, like continue to want to be better. And that's long lasting, you know.

I love that, dude. All right. Austin Maser, appreciate you, man. God bless. Looking forward to seeing you on stage again this year. 1,200 accounts, I'm calling it right now.

Let's go.

Talk to you later, brother. Thanks so much, man. Thanks.