Panic and Perseverance | Ep. 29

No, I was upset. I was like, I don't want to freaking die. So I, uh, I, I, I go over to Georgia and I'm like, Georgia, give me a hug, Daddy's going to go to the hospital. And she goes, no, bye. And she just walks up the stairs. I'm like, oh, that's how I say bye to my daughter. All right.

Welcome to the Rising Tribe. I'm Jared and I'm Austin, and our goal is to inspire young men to build strong families and discover their potential as men, husbands, and fathers., and we'll do this by having authentic conversations about faith, family, health, and business as we strive to level up our lives and the lives around us.

Welcome to our April episode of The Rising Tribe. We, this is, hello, Taylor here. Life just got really crazy.

People probably don't remember who we are.

I, uh, dude, I was funny cuz I told you as we were doing this, like, I don't think we've talked in a bit, man. It's been on my side at least. I've just been running 10,000 miles an hour getting— and I know you've got a ton of stuff going on.

Yeah, same.

Absolutely. And, uh, here we are. And so I don't even know where to start exactly other than the fact that a lot, a lot has changed for me in the last like probably 4 months because we had— yeah, dude, right after Greece, right?

And then Yeah, well, we recorded one. We did our episodes in Greece after the Spartan races, and then we recorded one in December. Um, and so all those are out. And, uh, but that, yeah, that's the last conversation we had. And in— what's wild is in that conversation, uh, you were still talking about, uh, how you were intending on starting this training company. And like, you, you I think you had made the decision, but you hadn't jumped in yet. And here we are now, it's what, April 12th? And you are like neck deep in all of this training and consulting. And I'm so excited, dude. I want to hear all about it. So from what I've been seeing, you had a guy follow you because you had said that you had a videographer that was going to fly out with you to make all of these videos and stuff of your training. Yep. And then You built an online, like a, like a membership page where you could go. And once you got access through, through paying for some of the services, then you would have access to the whole library of trainings. And then you have been, like, you've been reaching out to newer pest control companies who, one of their biggest hurdles is quality training. And so you've reached out to them and you've started both providing the actual online trainings and videos and scripts and whatnot for people to use, as well as doing like in-person trainings at different coordination meetings. And for people not in the door-to-door world, often you'll have all of your reps from a certain region, you'll meet up in the morning and have a, what they call it, like a coordination meeting where, like a training meeting where you practice, you learn, you go over certain details and there's like education and goal setting and all that. And you do that in your meeting and then everyone breaks and then you head out to your areas and you start working. And so you've been going to some, some companies' coordination meetings and then actually going out and selling with some of these companies to do like one-on-one or one-on-multiple trainings. So that's, that's as much as I understand is what you're doing. That and the fact that it has blown up. So I want to hear all about what's going on and maybe some of the things that you've learned along the way.

Yeah. Dude, I think when we did that December episode, I was still like really, really nervous too. Like, I didn't know if it was gonna work. And I don't think I was super open about this in our December episode, like publicly, but like in November, I had like a full-blown— I don't know if I talked to you about this off mic. Like in November, I had like a full-blown panic attack, like Wait, did I tell you this at all? Oh my gosh. Okay, this will be a fun thing to start with. Kind of like show the contrast of how life is right now. Yeah. So in November, I was like really, really nervous about what I was gonna do for work. And I walked away from Anthem who was paying me a salary to stay there and train all their guys. And I really I think as a dad, you really, and especially as a husband, but even more so as a dad, you really want to make sure you're providing for your family. And so actually right now I've got a lot of clients that are dads and they're like, yo, I'm broke. And I'm like, yeah, I understand where that pressure and that stress might be coming from because when I walked away from Anthem, I really felt like that was what I needed to do, but it was really scary. And so after nonstop traveling, I think, you know, going to Greece, going to my men's retreat, going on blitzes, like it all started to stack up. And I needed to be doing some of these things. Dude, Greece was so much fun with you. Like that was like, total, like, bro trip. It was so fun, dude.

It was, it was incredible.

Yeah, yeah. It was so dope. And I think it was just like this really strange time in life because like, I didn't know how things were gonna pan out, but we just got to go have fun. But then I got back home in November and we were in Arizona and I was going to do my third trifecta for the year out in Phoenix. And I think my body was just like, bro, stop. You're done. So I was just driving home one night. Actually, Parley, Parley Brown from our visit, he let me borrow a Tesla while I was in town. So I'm driving this Tesla around town and I, I'm talking to Allred. I still need to get back to him. This is the only time. This is the last time I ever talked to him. But Allred and I were talking and my dad came up, right? Like, like my dad came up years ago. Caleb lost his dad. So we were talking about— we should have him on here one of these days, dude. But we were talking about that. And then my heart rate just like went from 67 beats per minute to 140. And I'm like sitting in the car and I'm like, bro, I gotta go. I think I'm having a stroke. And that's the last time I physically talked to Caleb. Like actually talked to Caleb.

Caleb's in the medical field. Like he's probably like, wait, don't hang up. Hold on.

Yeah. So I texted Caleb. He texted me back and forth when I was at the ER. Cause like, I was like, yeah, Kai, I'm having a stroke. We gotta go. Because like my heart rate was going up. Like when your heart rate spikes up like that, um, you're— sometimes the blood flow in your body can feel a little off. So I'm like, oh, my left arm feels a little weird. So I was like, yeah, I'm cool. I was like, I'm dead. Like, I'm done. So I go in, I'm like, talk to Kaya. I'm like, yeah, we gotta go to the ER right now. I'm having a stroke. And of course, if you're like talking, like, I don't understand if it— I, I could have— I've never had anything like that in my life happen. Okay. So like my first thing is—

so it's just you have no, you have no idea what even to like look at because I know people who are prone to panic attacks and they know when they're coming and they know what they are.

But if you've never had one before, then like, yeah, I was like, yes, dude, I've lived a pretty good life. Just went to Greece with Jared. I'm like, all right. Like, I mean, but it was—

you can date me now.

No, I was upset. I was like, I don't want to freaking die. So I go over to Georgia and I'm like, Georgia, give me a hug. Daddy's going to go to the hospital. And she goes, no, bye. And she just walks up the stairs. I'm like, oh, that's how I say bye to my daughter. All right. But to give you some context, that whole thing happened. I went to the emergency room and they're like, dude, you're fine. You just need a chill pill. And they gave me some medicine and I chilled out and that's it. And I'm like, wait, wait, wait. No, I'm not. Part of me wanted to be like, there's no way. First of all, great. I'm happy that I'm not dying, but how is this? What's going on? Yeah, and they just told me it's a stress thing. I think it had— that might have had to have been like all the stress about not having anything set, being unsure about how I was going to run with my business and like not being sure where I was going to sell and everything. So the point is this is like it was really scary in November and in December. And one of the, one of the biggest blessings for my business has been finding Patrick. So Patrick is the guy that did all my recording out in— when we went out there in October, and he was the one that really helped me kind of see the vision of like where I could take this thing. Because Patrick, Patrick helped brand this thing called Black Wolf App, and it took them to like millions, millions of followers on, you know, so like on Instagram and on TikTok and all that. So he's really, really good at branding. Well, Patrick saw this vision, helped me create my logo, helped me find a course, uh, a course to host, like a website to host my course. And he's just been, he's been so freaking helpful, dude, in helping me kind of— I had this vision of like, oh, I want to become a trainer. He's helping me brand myself as a trainer. And so I hired him out to do all the stuff that people see online for like my videos and everything. For all the cutting of edits and everything, that's Patrick. And the ideas, him and I just think of fun ideas now of videos to do. You saw the Rex Kwon Do yesterday?

Yeah.

It's so much fun with that, dude. Or going to the Indian restaurant. Did you see that one too?

Yeah, I saw that one.

Thanks. So I feel like as of this afternoon, it'll hit 100,000 views. So like, we bought it last. But to answer your question, yes. Like what I've done. So here's, here's the issue that I'm like resolving, right? Because every business has to solve a problem. So what, what the problem is right now in the pest control world is, uh, all of the really, really high level trainers are married to companies and Even if they're, even if they say they're not married to a company, there's always an ulterior motive to pull recruits over from other companies. What was my biggest weakness, which is recruiting, because I'm awful at it. I, I, I don't like to, I don't like to manage teams. I can train 'em, give 'em really good training, but I don't like the day-to-day management of teams. So what is my biggest weakness is now my biggest strength in my business because I'm like the least threatening person in the world. I don't think that any company is better than another and I just want to go train everybody. And so, uh, that's the hole that I've been able to fill is there's a lot of companies that don't have Golden Door winners. They don't have high, high producers, but they need somebody to come in and train their guys to get to that level. And so I put together— I, dude, I just give out my entire script free now because I'm like, dude, this is the easiest way for me to have the quickest impact with no cost for rookies that are like broke, right? So, right, just with my script alone, I'm having kids sell way more. And then with the reels, I mean, kids are in this— I shouldn't say this, but like, I mean, kids, if you just, if you just do my reels, you'll sell more. Like, if you just take advice from the reels, you'll sell more. But the products that I started launching are the actual course, which dude, I've got like 10 videos from this week and last week that will upload. And I have this little Insta360 camera and I, when I, if I either at the beginning of the door before, like before I knock the door or when I realize, okay, I could probably go somewhere with this conversation, I take out this little Insta360 and I say, and I have it recorded and I say, by the way, All of this is being recorded for quality assurance and training purposes. We show this to reps later on anyways, and I keep pitching. Nobody cares because it's like when you answer the phone with like TruGreen or, you know, Home Depot, whatever.

Dude, every time you call your bank, like everybody is recording all of the conversations that you have for training and quality assurance.

Dude, it's super normal. And so because I almost feel like it legitimizes everything more for me as a door-to-door guy. Because like, oh, he's recording this for training purposes. So that's even, that's even cooler. But I have some of the wildest film now and we've packaged it into a course and I made, you know, I made modules on how to sell, but now I actually allow reps to shadow me. And the reality is when you, when you, when you're like a second body shadowing me, it's good. There's a, it's a different like part of your brain that's learning because you're actually physically there. I would argue with like the videos I've put together, dude. Like it's pretty much this, you're like a fly on the wall because it's, I think it's better because you can pause, go back, listen to what I said, take notes. But it's so good. People know that they're being recorded and filmed and they still give the same good objections. The negotiation is still the same and it's awesome. So I've been doing that. And, and, and really on the other, I, I picked up 5 one-on-one clients that has been so rewarding. And so I guess I, I'm working with 5 individual clients. So Victor, Gabe, Madison, Ethan, and Beto. They're all people, very different situations. Beto's a business owner that wanted to go door to door and that thing, homeboy sold 4 accounts yesterday and he's, and he's never knocked doors until like this year. And like, dude, how cool is that?

That is so awesome.

Gabe's one of my clients who's like been knocking doors for years and it's more like we've been doing a lot of technical training. Ethan, Madison, they're brother and sister. And so I'm helping them have their biggest years, like really in-depth training, technical stuff and mental training too, because they both go hand in hand. And that's one of the things like, you know, I've hired coaches year after year And none of them had ever done pest control. They're all like mindset gurus, which is great. I don't say that in a bad way, but it's good to have somebody that's done pest control to coach you in pest control. Yeah.

Well, and for, and for, for everyone listening, um, the, the door-to-door world or direct sales in general, it also goes for like people who sell cars, who sell products for their businesses, like anyone who's in a sales position. Um, a tremendous amount of the job itself is a mental battle with yourself. The— especially when you're, when you're working on a commission-only basis, everything that you produce comes from you, and you have to go out and find people and make the sale and close the sale, and then like, and then start over again. Like, you're always starting back over. And then of course, you know, you have a bunch of— once you have a bunch of clients, then you're more likely to get more referrals moving forward. But, but really, it is a tremendous mental battle because there is no Like there is no coasting, there is no, uh, there's no ability to like kind of just like keep going to work and just get through another day. Like you've gotta show up and then every single day all you do is face rejection over and over and over and over again. Like you knock 100, let's say you knock 100 doors. How many doors are, how many people are gonna have a conversation with you in your case? Like if you knock 100 doors, not a lot.

Um, yeah, sometimes a lot, sometimes not a lot.

So let's say, let's say 20 people actually like, have a conversation with you that's more than 30 seconds long after 100 doors. Let's say 20 people actually talk to you. Out of that, you're probably going to have, depending on, depending on the rep, like if you're, if you're brand new, you might have 1 sale out of those 20. Well, which is really out of those 100, right? And then a better rep might have 8 sales out of those 100. And like, that's the, that's it. You know, like it's, it's, it's an, in one sense, it's a numbers game. But also it is a training and, and quality, like, like practice, like you've got it, you've got to practice. And so I think what's, what's huge is your ability to show people more reps, like not, not reps, like people knocking, reps, like repetitions, because now you're showing them a video of what you are actually doing. And I found when I was doing, um, when I was selling, they had a bunch of online videos of like walking through, um, sales and dude, I would, Like you just said, I'd pause, I'd go back, I'd write notes down, I'd, I'd play it forward. I'd go back. I'm like, how did he say that? How did he— well, he's okay. This is the way that he's talking. This is the way that he's overcoming these objections. This is how he is calming the person down who has a misconception about, you know, you or about whatever, whatever you're selling, like, and being able to go through it over and over and over again and then to get to practice that. And so I think to be able to do that, like online versus like being in person, there is a ton of value in shadowing someone. But to be able to play the same rep over and over again and like practice and then move on to the next conversation, dude, I think is super valuable.

Yeah. Well, especially when, so here, here's some, this is just an example from yesterday. I was a couple days ago, I was at the bagel shop out here and I'm in Washington right now selling. And there is this place called Seize the Bagel. And so I think it's a really good door-to-door, you know, breakfast place because you want to get your, you know, seize the bagel, which in door-to-door, If you get a zero day, it's a bagel. And the bagels are just freaking good here. But I get a call or text message from an angry customer that is just livid that there's— I told them it was going to be like $69 a month and he was just livid that it was like $74. And I'm like, dude, there's sales tax. We're in Washington. I guess that I told him that, but I guess it didn't just click. And so, you know, guy came from California. I guess there's not sales tax down there. Well, what's cool is instead of me being like, oh my gosh, like customer's upset, like I have to go save it now. I literally call them back and I go, hey brother, I have to record this call for training purposes. And I just hit record call. And now I have a full like 10-minute audio of me rescuing an account. Just going to go straight to the course. So everything that happens is an opportunity for me to be able to capture it and use it as training content. Now, obviously when we go through it, we doctor it, we get rid of names, we get rid of emails, phone numbers, addresses. No one will know who the heck these people are, right? But like, it's so, it's so cool recently, dude, because like I've been able to help out so many people, dude. And the course, the course is blowing up. Like, we had, uh, 2 weeks ago when I launched an ad, we had like 30 people hop on board. And then this last week it slowed down. I thought the Rex Kwon Do ad was gonna be like 50 people were gonna buy the course. Well, it only worked for 1 person. But I think that also goes to show with like marketing and stuff, sometimes the stuff that like you slap together and you think is going to be— and yeah, like, we're like, okay, we'll just put this thing together. It could work. It, it does. It actually ends up hitting really big. And the stuff that you think is going to go viral doesn't. But the thing is, I still had so much fun filming. We did this thing called Maser Kwon Do. And we stitched a video of me dressing up as Rex Kwon Do, overcoming spousal objections and do-it-yourself pest control stuff. So look at Maser Sales Training and go watch it. If you haven't yet, for all our listeners. But it's— I'm having so much fun, dude. And I think that's one thing.

Dude, that's so good.

The money is already back. Like, the stuff that I was worried about at Anthem, like leaving Anthem and losing a salary and all this stuff, dude, like I've already made more money or now set up recurring money, right? Like for the course, that's recurring revenue. I have to keep people, which is actually another conversation. Like how do you keep somebody on there when it's not like a contract? Because like people technically could sign up for 2 months and get like $1,500 worth of value and then take it and run. So like I'm going to end up changing pricing again because I had pricing really low. People were— it didn't have as much value. Actually, less people bought it. When I raised the pricing to like $100 a month to where it should be, bare minimum, I had more people buy it, which goes to show like pricing is not— pricing is like shows value. So if your product's like super, super cheap, it'll be perceived as cheap. Whereas my product, I now I price it up at like $100 a month and I get more people buying it, the new pricing. So yeah, because that's what it, that's what it ought to be worth, you know.

Yeah, well, and what's, what's important, what you're talking about, um, with like split testing and not knowing, hey, is this gonna work or is this gonna work? I don't know. That is the beauty of the free market in that the market decides. Yeah, like you don't decide. There is no, there is no way for you to know exactly what is going to hit. Now people, um, you know, have like a better inkling of like what's going to be popular or maybe not popular and whatnot, especially the, the better that you know your audience. But in the end, like, you don't know, and the only way to know is to put yourself out there and just send it and see what resonates with people. Like, when I go through, when I look at the podcast episodes that I've done for the Military Miler, my credit card rewards podcast, the ones that like have taken— there were some that I was like, oh dude, this is definitely gonna get like way more views, and I look at it and I'm like, nope, that is like bottom of the barrel, you know, like this is not this one. But then some of the ones that have that really have attracted a larger audience. I'm like, how, how, why, why was that like, why did that one resonate with people? And of course then what you got to do is like try to look into and understand why people resonated with something over another thing and try to do more of the thing that resonates and less of the thing that doesn't. But ultimately there's no way to know until you do it. And I think that's what, like, that fear is what holds everybody back. It keeps everyone from like pursuing their dreams because they don't know that you freaking had a panic attack.

Yeah.

And like went to the hospital because you were so nervous about The uncertainty. Like, that's insane, dude. That's so insane. And here we are 4 months later and you've already like, you're already back on track, if not faster on track than where you were a year ago.

I think it's, and I think it shows too, like there was a, there was a, there was a need within the pest control industry and nobody had filled it. And I, now I have like within the, within the next year, um, I'll be like the name for pet. Like when people think pest control, it's Austin Maser, right? Like That's— and I already feel like I'm getting there. And we're only— we only have like 1,500, 1,600 followers on the Instagram page, but like it's grown so fast to where it's going to continue to grow. Yeah, this year. So the number one thing this year is finish Kaya's basement because that was the— that was the plan last year. But I didn't have a big sales year. I was just kind of meh and I didn't know what I was doing in life. And like I did, but I didn't have like the same fire that I have right now. Dude, I feel really alive right now. And, uh, good. So now, like, our goal is obviously we'll give Kaya her basement. So our basement, right? But it's mainly for her so we can homeschool our kids. Um, and then I'm gonna buy a Cybertruck and that's gonna be a big part of the branding. So, dude, dude, and we're gonna keep—

I'm jealous, man. That's awesome.

The Bug Killer license plate. Yeah. So we'll have it. I'll have a Cybertruck within the next, like, 16 months, hopefully sooner. But like, that's awesome. And I'll just slap a big old Major Spartan helmet logo on it, which is so cool because when, dude, us going to Greece, I was like, I love Spartans. I really like Spartans. Like, how can I make that part of my logo? And I think, you know, we just took it and made an M and now—

Yeah, turned it into an M. Yeah.

Yeah, that's our thing now.

So it's beautiful, dude.

Dude, I don't know if I told you this, but I committed to the winter death race. This is totally off topic, but—

You committed to the Death Race?

Yeah, I verbally committed, and so I've got to buy my flight to it. I'm just, I'm like, what have I gotten myself into? Long story short, there was a guy in my men's group that wanted free tickets to a Spartan race, and Joe DeSena had previously said, hey, if you know friends that haven't run Spartan races, send them my way, we'll hook it up. And so I was like, okay, cool, here's the email. It was after they had tried to rope me into doing the Summer Death Race. I didn't want to do it. Well, they respond back. You know how these people are. They're nuts. Then they're like, we will only provide codes when Austin confirms his attendance to the summer death race. And I go, no, but I'll go to the winter one. And so they sent the guy the codes. So I— there's like been a couple of times where I turn on my shower water just a little cold and I'm like, I'm like, This is gonna feel warm one of these days. Um, yeah, but yeah, that's, that's a little update. That, that's just something that's just like, I don't even wanna think about it too much.

I will pray for you, my brother. I will pray for you and, and Kaya and the babies.

If I lose a finger, I mean, if I lose a finger or anything to frostbite, it's good cuz in door to door you don't really need a whole lot. You just need your mouth and I mean, you need to be able to talk and that's about it.

Dude, that's awesome.

But yeah, dude, um, that's how the business is going, dude. And so like, we've got, I've got right now, as of right now, um, this is like you said, like the marketplace kind of, kind of determines like on how things go and how I need to adjust. But I, I'm, I'm trying to see how the fall-off is going to be on these accounts, right, for, for people studying. Because the whole idea is like to have kids make this a regular part of their routine, right? Where they wake up and they study Maser Sales Training. The kids who cancel are the ones that don't actually— the ones that I've seen cancel, I can look at their watch history. They've watched like 2 videos. So then that becomes, okay, how do I onboard people? Okay, now how do I make it more part of their daily routine? So which leads me to, we're turning the whole website into an app. So that it can be on the phone and then it can be part of their daily routine, right? So like we want to make it part of their life. So I mean, dude, it's just so, so much fun because we're learning because like I'm not hurting for the money right now. It's not about the money. It's about how do I create a good product to resolve a need for these pest control reps and the money. Money is just a byproduct of the value that I'm providing.

The money will follow.

Yeah. So it's so dope. Like I'm having a blast doing this. Now, I get to go to San Diego for 3 days. I get to coach them. I get to coach a team down in San Diego for 3 days. And I'm being paid as Major Sales Training to go coach these reps, which is so cool. And then I'm going out to Atlanta for 2 weeks. And I'm going to go coach the kids, the Canadian— there's a bunch of Canadians over at Anthem. I think the coolest thing that happened with, um, with my whole like journey so far is like taking the risk to leave Anthem. And then they later came back, were like, hey, we'd like to hire you for a 2-week camp. And that was just like really cool because number one, it shows that I did leave. Like, me and Anthem, Ben Morgan, that's like, he's my main guy at Anthem. Like, him and I are really close. We left on really good terms. I didn't do anything shady. He didn't do anything shady, which in business, you know, you hear a lot of stuff happen, specifically in door-to-door. It can get really nasty. I've taken a lot of pride in keeping really good relationships because you never know when it's going to come back around to where you could either help one another, you know. So, and life's too short to make nasty, nasty decisions based off of business. It's just so, it's, it's so dumb how people fight and ruin relationships over money and business. And so I made a good exit there and I was— I was like very professional about it and it ended up working to everybody's benefit. So like, I'll go back there for 2 weeks and coach them. And then there's this— okay, there's this other really cool market too where like small business owners, they don't have any accounts. And so I've picked up a couple of gigs. It's not a training gig. It's purely— they fly me out, they pay for my hotel, my rental car, and they just give me a truck and they let me go sell for a week. So I've set up a couple other of those gigs where they just want me to go pack on accounts and the ticket price on that, like what business owners are willing to pay to get 30 to 50 accounts on a route. It's, it's insane. Um, wow. Like it's more than what I make working in some of these other companies, like these door-to-door companies, but they just, they really want dense routes and so they need help, you know?

Yeah. Which, because, uh, because dense routes means that you're like the technicians that you send who are going to go out and service all these routes. They're— it's making their time more effective, more efficient. And it's costing— I mean, it costs the company significantly less to have someone tack on, let's say, a third house on the same street, right, versus just like two houses. Now you're making that much more money, but also it's not costing you very much. So I can definitely see how that would be hugely valuable.

Yeah, a lot of these companies want to learn door-to-door too. Like, so there's a huge— there's a market there for like, hey, I'll come out and I'll sell for you. Or— and then there's these same companies have expressed, hey, we would love for you to come out and train our guys. Some of them are just building their door-to-door teams. Now back to my point earlier that I said, let's say there was a trainer from Aptiv, right? This is a very well-known name. The last thing that you want to do as a business owner is bring in homeboy from Aptiv to come train your reps that just started at, you know, John's Pest Control. Because he's going to poach them. He's going to pull them over to Aptiv. They're going to see all the flashy stuff, all the trips, and they're going to leave. And so, or, you know, there's always an ulterior motive with those big companies. And so as I have clients on my, on my course that are from Aptiv, well, they're like a juggernaut. Like, I went to a, I went to a, like, I got recruited by them over the last couple months. They tried to make a push to have me go sell with them. Bottom line, there were too many restrictions on you can do this, you can't do that. But they are huge. They're like, they filled up an auditorium of people and it was insane, right? Like, it's so freaking big. And so yeah, you don't want, you don't want a trainer coming from Aptive to come train your guys, but you do want a guy that just has no team that just is gonna come in and then after that he goes back home to his family and he doesn't want to recruit your reps, you know. So yeah, dude, it's been so much fun. I like, you know, I have a lot of— I've had a lot of— that dude, that's where I— that's why I've been kind of MIA too. Like, all the energy—

you're even busy.

Yeah, so I'm like, that's why I'm like, that's awesome though that we get to do this still. And I did— I don't know about you, like, my— the relationship with our podcast right now, I'm like, dude, I'm still having fun doing this episode right now. I think— I don't know what— I actually thought I'd ask you this, but like, I think it's good that we're just kind of just doing it. Like, hey, let's do an episode now. Um, yeah, I don't know what your thoughts are on that.

Well, it's interesting because when we, when we first talked about, uh, doing this podcast, we, I mean, we did it for a year once a month and then we decided, hey, let's try it. We nailed all of them. And then the next year we said, how about we, um, we'll do our regular episodes and we try and interview somebody as well every month. And it turned out that us living 8 time zones apart and then you traveling all over the country and And then me traveling across several countries back and forth for all this work stuff made the coordination that much more difficult. Um, and so we, and also like both of us have the, all the time and energy that we are putting into our, in this case now your, your full-time job. Um, this, this company that you started and, uh, I've been dumping a ton of energy and time into, um, both, well, both into work because of things at work are insane, but also into my, uh, my travel rewards website and podcast.

Yeah, so I want to hear how that's going, by the way, after this thought.

Yeah, yeah, we'll talk about here in a sec. So we're dumping all of our energy, time and energy, into these, uh, these creative pursuits. And now, um, that leaves the, the Rising Tribe to be our opportunity to, well, really just to like touch base and, um, and to talk about things that we're learning. That one of the things I love about the Beginning Balance podcast, which is, uh, Jesse Mecham and, uh, and his buddy. So Jesse Mecham started YNAB, the The company, it stands for You Need a Budget, and it's like one of the biggest like budgeting softwares out there. And it's super awesome. And I've been listening to their show. They've got a couple different shows. I've been listening to them for years. But on Beginning Balance, it's just him and his buddy who like runs an accounting firm. And they talk about entrepreneurship and like, they're like smoking and joking the whole time. But then they talk about just like random topics and things that are on their mind. And it's just like, it's really fascinating to listen to these two business owners talk about, you know, any, any number of, uh, any number of things. And so I see this as like our opportunity to do the same thing and to touch base and continue learning from each other. Um, and to catch up. I mean, a huge, a huge part of what we, we set out to do was to record our conversations that we were having on the phone anyway. So now we get to do video calls and we get to record them and then we get to go back and listen to them. And, and I still have people who reach out and they, like my buddy Jacob reached out and he was like, hey, recommendation for The Rising Tribe. I'd love for you to interview your wives and like ask them a bunch of questions.

And I was like, that'd be a fun episode.

That's a great idea. That's a great idea. So who knows how many people are actually watching this all the time, but like for us, dude, this is our like, this is our record keeping and our log.

Yeah.

And I think it's wonderful and fun and fun when I like go back and I listen to an episode. Um, or like when I'm editing, like getting to re-listen to the conversation that we had, I'm like, wow, that was like, what a, what a powerful thing that Austin said here. And every now and then I'm like, oh wow, I sound, you know, reasonably intelligent here, you know? And it's like, it's kind of crazy to like step away from yourself and then jump back into a conversation that you guys just had.

When I, uh, this is one random thought. When I listen to your voice, dude, you've got like one of the best, like if you could, if you had another Maybe in like a different universe you're like a radio broadcaster.

Dude, I get told that all the time. I'm not kidding. At work, uh, one of our, uh, senior master sergeants, he just like walks into my office and he's like, sir, have you ever thought about going into radio? And I was like, what? He's like, he's like, yeah, you, you just, uh, you, you just have this voice of like, you sound like you probably go like that. You would, you do very well in radio. And I was like, what? I actually host a couple podcasts. Like, I'm very, I love this medium. I love podcasting because it really is the new radio show, you know, right? So you get to tune into exactly what you want to do. And also I have dreams of like having, you know, like full-on studios with like with the lights and like the nice desks and the background of like the shelves of all these like crazy memorabilia and things that you've, you've accrued over the years and whatnot. But I love this stuff, dude. And I like, I don't know how much money you would have to pay me to convince me to not do this. Like, I just freaking love it, dude. Like, I spent also on the flight, uh, back out here from Venice to Philadelphia, um, because I'm in California right now, um, and same time zone.

Yeah, this is the first time that's happened in a while.

First time since we were in Greece, and then before that it was when we were— I was in Atlanta like 6 months before that. But, um, yeah, on the flight over, because you're going from Europe to the United States, you're like moving backwards in time, and so If you leave in the afternoon, it's like still afternoon the entire time you're flying back. Uh, and so I was like wide awake. Everyone else is like sleeping on the flight. And I was just grinding through. I was, I was prepping an episode. And so for, for my episodes, what I do is I, I write out the entire script and then I, for the most part, I, I sort of read it. I kind of like riff off of it, but I have to write out the entire thing. Um, and I, I found that out after doing a few episodes because here you and I can have a conversation. And we could just go. We're just ready, set, go, and we're having a conversation. By myself, I cannot teach a subject like that. I mean, if you were here, I could sit down and like walk you through this thing and kind of go in whatever direction we wanted to. But when it comes to prepping like a solo episode like that, dude, I have to write it out. And so, um, I write out— I write out everything I'm thinking about. And I'm— the subject I was doing was how we earned Hyatt Globalist status last year, uh, through some work trips. And what all the different, like, impediments that being in the military caused to almost get us to the point where we almost didn't get the status. And earning that status is worth— it's already been worth, like, hundreds of dollars to us. And we have some stays coming up the next couple months that are going to make it worth well over a couple thousand dollars, like, of value for our family, which I was, like, so stoked about, which is why I was willing to go to, like, these extreme lengths for us to be able to stay at these super bougie rest— uh, hotels in Vienna and in Budapest and in Prague and like all over the place. So I was, I was super stoked, but I, dude, I prepped this. I'm not kidding. I think I wrote this outline for like 2 and a half hours. And because like the ideas are just flowing, they're like, oh, that's right. This is really important. Oh, and this is really important. Oh, and we should talk about this. Oh, and if we're gonna mention this, we also gotta like backlink to this other episode where we talked about this and dude, it just, it's going. And now I have to record that episode too. It's probably gonna be an hour and a half. Like, I'm not kidding. It's, it's gonna be a long episode. But I am so freaking stoked about it. Like, I love this stuff. And so, um, as far as like, how's the podcast going? It's going really well. Um, as far as like views and downloads go, um, this year's going a lot better than last year for sure.

Cool.

Um, but also one of the, uh, one of the struggles I've really had is getting in an episode every week. Um, cause that was the goal and I've missed, I've missed a couple weeks. Um, this year, I think this calendar year, I think I've missed 4 weeks total. Okay. So like 2 weeks here, a week there and a week there. And like, that's something I— it's something I wrestle with because I very much struggle with perfectionism and wanting it to be exactly perfect. And, and so like when I— as like the week's going on, dude, and I'm spending like I probably spend 12 to 14 hours at work every day and then on weekends I'm on phone calls like it never stops. And so then I like, I, I like run home. We, I play with the girls for like maybe an hour and then we put 'em to bed and then we go to bed. Cause then I gotta get up early to lift and go back to work. Like it, the grind just does not stop. And so the, the time that I used to have to like, I used to have like about a half an hour to like work on the podcast every day. Now, dude, I'm like, it's, it's not there.

And is this work, work's calling more of you right now?

Yeah. Yeah. Cause we're, we're prepping for our deployment in October and we've got a bunch of exercises that we've gotta do. Between now and then. And there's just like things in, in, in the military in Europe, things are a little bit bananas right now. And so we've like, it's just, it's taking a lot out of us. Um, and so it's just, it's just more, it's more than it has been in the past. And so we are, um, and I think, I think there are also definitely some time management improvements that I could make, um, abilities to like delegate responsibilities to others and, um, making sure that I do the most important thing first.

Yeah.

And not like, okay, I'm gonna do a couple of these things because I could do them right now and I can knock them out, which is an easy win, but it's not what I actually need to do before I can even go home today, you know. And so there, there are improvements there. I don't want to make this sound like I'm, you know, I'm perfect in all those aspects, but it's just taken a lot more out of me than it used to. And so yeah, now I'm like struggling to make the time, to find the time to, to actually prep episodes and record them and get them out there. And on top of that, like, just the, like, the recording, editing, and publishing side, like, there's, there's a good amount of legwork required for that. But then also, there are so many other things that I want to take care of as well. Like, there are certain, uh, pages on my website that I still need to get up that I've been, like, working on piece by piece by piece, and a couple of them are almost there. Um, and then there are a few, a few things I want to do with, with the Instagram page. I've been, you know, saving, like, reels and stuff, but I have and I have all this like footage that I need to then go through and create the reels and create all of the, like, the content and put them out there. And, um, and so I'm like, there's just, there's just like a lot of work to it. But what I have found is that like so many times people come up to me and they say, hey, I have a friend who's interested in credit cards and I told them you would be the person to talk to. And I get text messages all the time like, hey, uh, I, I think I remember you talking about this podcast, or that you have a podcast, something to do with credit cards. Like, another, another family member reaches out who's like not in the military but says, hey, uh, can you send me your podcast on credit card rewards? Like, like, the word, the word of mouth is moving for sure. And, uh, just the other day we had some friends out of nowhere like dropped into Europe, and they came by our house for a couple days, and we were talking, and I don't even remember how the conversation got brought up— I didn't bring it up because I try not to bring up credit card rewards because the moment I do, then all I do is talk. But if it comes up, you're gone. And, uh, and so he, uh, I think we were talking about— oh, we were talking about a trip that we were going to take and how we got a hotel on points. And he was like, oh, we, we opened, uh, we opened this card because, um, you mentioned it in your Facebook group a while back. And I thought, oh, that, that's, that's a pretty good deal. So we hopped on it. And I was like, dude, Like, that's awesome, you know, like I— there's— there was no way for me to know that he went in and did that and made a change in his life because of stuff that I put out there. Yeah. And what I— what kind of really keeps me going with respect to this is like there's a lot of like upfront legwork that's required in doing like in recording episodes and putting out and putting the content out there. But I know that this is all like, let's say, let's say an episode has 50 views, like Basically nothing. An episode has 50 views. Well, right now it has 50 views, and maybe in a month it might have like 55, maybe in 2 months might have like 65 or 70 or something. And you're like, you're still pumping out all the new episodes, but these ones in the background, like, they're just kind of like, they're just kind of simmering in the back until you have crossed a certain threshold, until you've like hit some sort of catalyst. Like once, for example, once all of the a, uh, like Reels go up on Instagram, once a Reel's going on TikTok, then all of the traffic— or you start casting a net and dragging it all towards the podcast, right? And so then all of the, the videos that you already have out there, now they all start to get more views, they all start to get more, and you have the, the baseline, like, or you have your foundation already built. And that was one of the most important things my brother talked to me about when, uh, when I first started contemplating doing a website, he was like, you have to write 50 articles. Like, sit down and come up with a 25 idea, a 25 article idea list first, and then you have to write. You have to write all 25, and then you gotta write 50. If you can do that and not get bored, if you can do that and not get tired of this, then you can make it. But if you can't get through that, it's never going to take off. So it's not worth it. It's not worth it. But you've got to find out because we all have good ideas, but we've got to figure out how much it really matters to us.

Couple, a couple thoughts I had. So first thought, do you have an Instagram page for Credit Card that people can follow right now?

I do, I do. It's called the Military Myler.

I think I might, might be following.

It's empty right now. I think you might be. Um, the page is empty. So, uh, the page is there and I have, uh, I need to go in and post, uh, and post some of the reels that I have because I have a couple that are already created. I just haven't uploaded uploaded them yet.

Military, uh, Myler.

Myler.

Yeah, okay, it's underscore Myler. I just followed it. Dude, your logo is sick. It's got like the orange.

Thanks, man. Yeah, it's, uh, I've really, I've really taken to the, uh, like to that branding. Um, created the logo and then, you know, changed some of the colors, and so now it's, it's the same theme that runs through uh, runs through all my stuff. Uh, I think I'm gonna get some hats made, um, because I really love, I really love snapbacks and, uh, like flat build hats. And so, uh, I was thinking, I was like, you know, how dope would it be to make like, just place an order just for kicks of like 10 of these and maybe like number them? And then like I'll always get to wear like number 1 and then like just wear it around because I freaking love it. This is like everyone Everyone who asks questions, people ask all the time, you know, like, oh, like what, you know, do you have any hobbies and whatnot? And I'm like, you're like, just beware, beware the territory we enter into, my friend, because this is like, this is my life, dude. I freaking love this stuff.

It's, um, and I'm following it, right? So I followed it on my, on the Major Sales Training page. So, so what I was gonna say is this, so like when you start So what we're trying to do, a couple of things, and this is going to be something that I might like throw your way to see what your thoughts are.

Yeah.

What are your thoughts on outsourcing some of the stuff that's bogging you down? Are you worried about like, like there's got to be some Filipino guy that on Fiverr or something, you know what I mean?

Like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That can edit it for because like I've even thought with this, so Back when me and you first started this, it was like, okay, Austin, because we trying to like share responsibilities. I suck at editing stuff. I suck at video stuff. I'm not good at it. And so what I've done for the major sales training is I just hired it out. I honestly think like for some of the stuff with this, I like to kind of help push our message for the Rise and Thrive. The best way for me to get my part done, I think, is just to have somebody do it for me. Like to just pay somebody to do it, right? Like, so like, that's what I would say. My question is this: is there a world where you offload some of that editing for the military Mylar? And is it realistic, like, to where you do it?

Or there, there is. But one of the, one of the struggles I have is that I love doing it. I actually love, I love the editing. I love, like, I, I use Descript for like, we're, we're recording this on Squadcast and Squadcast and Descript merged as companies. And so, um, it take the file and I put it in, in Descript and for, for the Rising Tribe, it's super easy.

Like, is it really?

You put it in there. Yeah. There are a couple like AI, um, tools that, that we pay for. And, uh, and dude, it's just like click, click, click, export and done. And I always just have, I like double check to see if like, if we had any, like if we had, we had an issue, you know, like one of our kids hops on the call and like starts yelling or something, you know, you know, like I take, if that happens, I go in and I just like, you know, delete whatever like small piece of it is.

I had a, I had a livestream for like major sales training and I told Kaya, I was like, please be home. I have a livestream. Like these people actually pay money to hear this stuff. It's so, George is asleep. I'm like, please come home. And she stays, I'm not upset here, but she was at, stayed after at burn bootcamp and talked with her girlfriends. And I'm like in this, so Georgia's asleep in our bedroom, I'm in my office and I'm just talking about like this sales training aspect and all I hear is, "Mama!" It's just bloody murder, just like screaming. And I had to like totally like hold her. She's like screaming her head off. I'm like, "I'm sorry guys." So that was like right after we had a huge influx of, of, uh, new buyers. So I still haven't even published that thing because all you hear is just like this, you know, those like Harry Potter plant things when you pull them up and they—

oh yeah, the mandrakes, and you pull them out.

Yeah, basically there's like a mandrake in the background of my, my last livestream. But yeah, so like going through and editing it out, kids stuff, like, yeah, yeah.

But really, like, and because it doesn't happen very much, um, for this show, dude, it's, it's pretty quick. And, um, And then, uh, same for, well, honestly, same for the military, Myler. Like going through, it's, I've gotten, I've gotten very used to the tools and so like we can crank through them. Um, and then it's, uh, like, like exporting all the files and then getting ready to upload them. Like I love doing it. I really do. I love building the YouTube thumbnails, like to put on YouTube and whatnot. And so that's, I think that's also part of the issue is that I really love doing it. I'm probably not the best at it. You know, there are probably people who spend all their time doing this, who would be even better. And maybe, um, I, like, I can very much see a world where like I'm offloading this and it's not, and it's like, it's, it's not a big deal and it's a huge win, but for the time being, like, I freaking love it.

So, see, that would be the— so as long as you love it, then it makes sense to continue doing. Um, and then what, what you had talked— so, okay, that was my first question. My second thing is, um, what's gonna be cool for you. Is, and for both of us too, like you have the YouTube page, you have an Instagram page, and then a TikTok, right? And then they'll all start linking from one to another and just start funneling into each other. So that's what we're— so what we've done is we've purposely held off on like Instagram, sorry, on TikTok and on YouTube. And so we just have right now We're looking at like 43 reels that we just have kind of in our pocket and then we're just going to dump one a day, one a day. For TikTok, it's really easy to go viral. And so, so we're going to hold off and then put a bunch of, put a bunch of content on TikTok. And then we already know from the marketplace which one will be our viral one. So It's me ordering Indian food. That'll go really well. Oh yeah, that'll be a good boost. And then there's a couple other. But like, back to what you were saying earlier, like, yeah, it's kind of just fun to create something, dude. Like me and you both, like, this is what I like about doing this because there were some parts where I'm like, like last year I just felt bad. I'm like, man, I feel bad. I let Jared down because I'm like, I want to— we want to do 2 a month. I'm like, dude, the whole purpose hasn't been about volume with this. It's just about, hey, like, connecting, growing together, sharing what we're learning. And so, uh, I've kind of come to terms with that. I'm like, I don't— so, okay, this is a third question, but, um, it's cool that we both get to share about these little things that we're growing, right? Like, you're growing Military Miler, I'm growing Major Sales Training, and we can continue to reflect ideas off of each other. Um, but dude, do those, like you said, those like 4 things that you've missed those weeks, Do those ever haunt you at all? I'm asking because, okay. Cause I'm like, I ask cause I'm like, how do you, how do we move on from like, how do you move on from that? Does that actually, does that haunting make you want to do better or does it actually make you miss more weeks? That's me kind of like picking your brain, kind of like how you operate with that.

Um, well, last year, um, last year I worked very hard to not miss, Uh, well, once I started recording, I worked very hard to not miss, um, to not miss weeks. And when I— like, the episodes go out on Monday, and so if Monday would roll around, like, if I didn't record, I'd record like late Monday night and still like publish it and get it out. Um, and, and as time has gone on, like, if, uh, or if I, if I missed a Monday, I would record 2 episodes and then like backdate one of them to the Monday. And then like I'd still— and then I'd get the next one out. Um, but this year there have been several things that have come up. Um, and the— I've like, I've, I've had to like sit down in the mirror and like have this conversation with myself of what matters most. And are you going to— like when we have like a bunch of family visiting and like we're, we're out and about and we're traveling and whatnot, like I— what I should have done, I as I should have prepared for this and recorded, you know, 2 weeks ago and had a backlog of episodes. Like, that's the answer. That's what I should have done. But here we are and I haven't done that yet. So now what do I do? And what I would have done last year is I would have had to then try and like make it up and then like backdate the episode and like put it back in. But this year instead, like when it comes up, I still work very hard to not miss one, but Like, if I miss it, then I just need to prep the next episode. Like, I just need to get the next one. Yeah. And instead of trying hard to not make it a second one, just keep going. Just keep going. And this was a huge thing last year. So in, uh, during Come Follow Me, when we're reading the Book of Mormon, dude, I was starting to get behind about halfway through the year. And every time, like, a new week would come out, I'd say, well, okay, well, I just got to finish last week's. And then I'll jump onto this week's, and then I would get a little bit more behind. And okay, well now I got it. I still got to finish that week and then, and then I'll catch up and then I'll catch up. By the end of the year, dude, I was like a quarter of the book behind. Like I was so far behind. And, uh, what I realized is I ended up missing out on so many of the conversations that we'd have on Sunday about like the current material or like with my wife who's, you know, she maybe doesn't get to all of the readings every week. But she just continues on. She just keeps going. She just keeps going. So like, if you're supposed to read chapters 1 through 5 and she only reads 3, well, then the next week, like, she just reads 6 through 10, you know, like she just, she just gets to the next part to try and keep up. And that is kind of towards the end of the year. She was like, she's like, honestly, you should probably just try to keep, just try to keep up, you know? And if things fall through the cracks, they fall through the cracks. But you're going to miss out more by trying to catch up because eventually you get to the point where like, you can't, you can't catch up. There's too much. There isn't enough time to do it all. And, and so you're, you're just gonna, and, and at some point when it seems like infinity, then what's the motivation to keep going? What's the motivation to try and, to try and do a little bit more? Like there isn't because the hill's too tall, too tall to climb. And, um, and so the, the weeks that I've missed, um, like it, it sucks and it eats, it eats at me, especially when like the, there were 2 weeks that I missed that were right after one of my biggest weeks. And, uh, and I was like, dang, like I really, I really kind of let myself get in my own way by like not planning ahead of time, but I'm gonna get the next episode out. Like that's what I gotta do. So we're just gonna keep going.

That, that whole idea of like, like I miss this, therefore I've gotta go back and do it. I, I feel like that hits a lot of the door-to-door sales reps too. Like the, the, The frames, like people don't frame their goals very well sometimes when like they'll have maybe for me example, like let's use me as an example right now. Like I could have like, I've had a very like average week. It has not been a very large sales week. I think I'm sitting at like $15,500 in revenue of pest control. Dude, I've done $10,000 in a day before and now I've done 5 days and I'm at $15,000, right? So I think there's two kind of mindsets I can have. I could be like, oh my gosh, like my goal was $30,000 this week. I only have one more day. I need to do $15,000 a day. It's like, dude, if I think like that, like it's okay to think like that. Like I'm capable of having a big day, but if I let that compound throughout the month, like, oh my gosh, I'm $60,000 away from my monthly goal or X, I'm just sharing random numbers right now. No, it just takes away all motivations. It's like, dude, just reset, start today, right? And so that's the mindset I have going into today, for example, where it's like, dude, if I can finish this week with over $20 grand in revenue, huge win. Was it the original goal? No, but sometimes it's okay to pivot. Like I have this conversation with sales reps when they're like 2 months left into their summer. It's either, are you gonna change anything? Are you gonna change what? Are you going to dramatically change what you're doing or are you just going to adjust your goal to where you're not just completely depressed every day? If a kid's rep is to sell $750K and they're at $200K at the very end of the summer, they're going to constantly feel like a failure unless they say, okay, the new target is $300K or whatever. Like, now, okay, now we're excited because now it's actually attainable, right? So, um, yeah, I just— you sharing that because I, I just thought like it's, it's that, that skill set of just being able to be like, well, crap happens, I'm gonna keep going. Like, that's a really good way to look at it.

So have you, have you ever played, um, like, are you, are you a big, uh, board game player? Like playing games and stuff?

Which one?

Uh, I'm just thinking like about board games in general, but they're in a lot of games like kind of strategy-based games, you're like, you're kind of setting plans in motion and trying to like set yourself up so like later on in the game you have some like big wins and stuff. Um, and maybe you're like holding on to certain cards that you're like, okay, it'll be really great to play this card, you know. Oh, but I still, I got to wait a little bit longer. I got to wait a little bit. Okay, now it'll be really great to play this card. But sometimes you get so far into the game that that card is now not worth very much to you because it's, it's a card that's worth playing at the beginning of the game because of the number of times you'll get to use it. But if you wait too long, long, then its value isn't very high and the cost is still the same. So, uh, the— it's the, it's the idea of learning when to cut your losses. And the— like, we hold on to, uh, we hold on to things, um, I think too long, and we get to a point where it starts to drag us down because of the guilt behind it. Like, I, you know, in this case, like board games, I've been— but I've been saving this card, I spent this time holding on to this card, to this whole time. Now I have to play it to justify having spent all this time like prepping for this, when in reality maybe you just drew a new card that is a better fit for you right now to play. And if you can't— yeah, it is, it's the sunken, the, the sunk cost fallacy of like, well, I, I've got it, I've already paid it, so I have to now get my value out of it. The answer is the money's gone, like it's already gone, the time's gone, there's nothing you can do about it.

So that's funny.

Um, yeah, I, well, and so, so like something, something I'm thinking about, very real thing. Um, so, uh, Marisha and I, I say Marisha and I, I, I signed me and Marisha up to go to a, uh, to a Tony Robbins conference. Um, oh, cool. Later on this year in, uh, in September.

Yeah.

Yeah. One of the in-person ones. He's doing one in-person one in Europe and I'm super excited. And I did, I did the, uh, I did a free, um, a free like 3-day event back in March, and it was, it was phenomenal. I loved it. And the, they, you know, at the end they always like, they always try to like sell you a package of, you know, self-improvement package, etc. Well, one of the, one of the packages that they offered included a ticket to, uh, the Unleash the Power Within, like the virtual event in March. And, uh, through some like back and forth, um, kind of in like the QA section they said that if you wanted to trade that, uh, virtual Unleash the Power Within for an in-person ticket, it would cost $300, like, extra. And I was like, sweet, like, that's great, because, you know, I'm only paying this much here. And so then if I could do that— and someone asked, like, would this all also be available for the Unleash the Power Within in Europe? And they said yes. And so then I was like, okay. So then I'm like running the numbers. I'm like, okay, so then if actually if I if I purchase this package, and I purchase— and you could purchase an additional ticket for someone else so that both of you could go. I was like, if I purchase that, it's going to cost this much money. And then if I go through and I try to upgrade this to an in-person event in Europe, then it's going to cost this much. I'm going to save, you know, $400 on the tickets, like altogether, which would be a huge win versus like just buying the tickets to Unleash the Power Within in Europe. Just like right off the bat. So I was like, sick, this is going to be a win. Well, after— so I purchased the thing and then we go through and I didn't really— I kind of like talked to Marisha about it like one of the nights. And she was like, because it would be— we would go for this, we'd go up for like probably 5 days up to Germany, just me and Marisha. We're going to fly my mom out to watch the girls. And so Marisha and I would just go, just the two of us. I got us a really nice hotel and like a nice suite for us to have for like that, for that week. And then we would just kind of get to do this thing together, the two of us, like a few weeks before I deployed for probably 6 to 8 months. And so I was like, I really think this would be a really beneficial thing for us, for our relationship and for us individually, just before we go and do this hard thing. And I talked to Marisha about it. I didn't give her any of the numbers or anything, but I just told her, I'm like, hey, I'm really thinking about this. And she said, She's like, yeah, absolutely. Well, I'm also doing this like online conference thing at like the, it's the middle of the night. It starts at 11:00 PM for me because of the time zone difference. And so, uh, you're muted.

I said, I, I remember when you were doing this. Yeah.

And it was, it was fantastic, but I'm doing it from like 11 to 2 o'clock in the morning, or I don't remember exactly the times, but it's like, it's all in the middle of the night. And Marisha was, um, understandably a little bit upset because I did— it's a 3-day thing. It was a Thursday, Friday, and a Saturday. And I took Thursday off from work and then Friday was a holiday, so I wasn't going to have to work anyway. But I did that so I could like— so I could attend. But that also meant that I was eating into our weekend because now I'm like, I'm up super late and then I like sleeping in and then I'm like, not, you know, I'm just not as available for, for, for my wife and for our daughters. And, and so then I— one of the nights I talked to her about the the in-person thing, she's like, she's like, I don't know who Tony Robbins is, but like, it sounds like, sounds like a great thing. And I was like, perfect. And I took that as a go ahead, buy the tickets, do all the things. And, and so then I go, I go back and I, you know, hey, this promotion is only going to run until here. And I'm like, wow, but the numbers make like the numbers make sense. So, so I purchased like the, that initial package. And then I sent the customer service reps like my information so I could do the upgrade. Well, The upgrade to Europe was significantly more expensive than what the upgrade to the United States was. And this, this is information I didn't know at the time. Right. And so I'm, I'm emailing them back and forth. I'm like, hey, you said it was only going to cost this much. Like now at the discount that you're giving me, it, it's like, it's the same price. If not, like, you know, maybe $100 more expensive than if we just bought. The tickets outright. So like, what am I— or no, no, it's not. Sorry. It's not $100 more expensive. $100 more expensive because it's in the prices in euros, not dollars, which then adds like a 10% difference. So anyway, I'm like, so this is like, this isn't— I mean, it's not a loss, but it's not the win that I thought it was based on the information I had at the time. And so now they're like, like, we're sorry. Like, if you want a refund or if you want to go to a different event in the States, you can, but like, this is it. And I was like, well, frick, dude. And so now I'm looking at like, for us to go, it's going to cost us another $1,000 to like attend this thing compared to, well, compared to like what we've already paid. But it's, it's going to cost us about $400 more than what I thought it was going to based on, um, like that, that, that initial purchase. And so I still think like, I still think it's worth it for us to go. But, um, like Marisha and I have had to have conversations about like, like You know, I'm sorry that I, I kind of like jumped on this. I can be impulsive at times and I committed like a bunch of money, uh, for us to go to this thing. And also now it's gonna be more expensive than I thought it was gonna be. I was trying to make it cheaper, but in the end I, I didn't. And now it's just like the same price as it was gonna, it was gonna be all the time. So like now we have to cross that bridge and the question will be like, do we go? Because Marissa's also talked about this, like she doesn't think this is something she's really going to enjoy. Like, she— because she doesn't know who Tony Robbins is. She doesn't— she's not like super deep in like the personal development world, which is like where we live, you know, where you and I live. The constant like mindset and improvement and limiting beliefs and overcoming them and doing hard things and like moving forward. And she's like, spending 12 hours a day for 5 days at this event does not sound like a party to me. Like, it does not sound like something I want to do.. And I'm like, I don't even really know how to like explain this, but I still think this is so valuable. And so like, I, um, like we, things have been going so crazy, uh, when people visiting and stuff, we haven't had a chance to like sit down and really like talk about it. Um, and so now talking about the sunk cost fallacy, like the question will come up, like, do we, do we just let it go? Do we just not get tickets and do we just not go? Um, like, I can't recoup the money that I've already spent on, like, on the package. And there were some benefits and trainings and course stuff that, that I got from, from paying, like, that, that upfront package anyway. So I did get value out of it. But do we commit the extra money to go and to, like, make this happen and fly my mom out here and go get the hotel and all the things? Or, or, like, do we let it go? And there's the part of me that's like, well, we already spent the time and the energy and the money and the difficult conversations. So like, we still need to go, but also we don't need to go because there's not like, we're not, we're not committed to it in that sense. And like, money's already been spent, time and energy has already been spent. So like, do we just not do it?

Um, we, we had, uh, I had the same thing happen, like, like with that Spartan race that I was gonna go do in Arizona after the, after like the, at the ER trip. Yeah, I think it was like $1,800 that I paid for that. I'm like, this is the cost of not managing stress. Also, it's a— it's also just like the reality of like jumping into scary stuff, right? But, um, yeah, I haven't had anything since. But what I'm going with this is like, I was like, yeah, I'm not doing the full 3 races, even though that was harder for me not to do. It was like harder for me to be like, no, I already bought the 3 tickets, but I'm not gonna do the other 2 races. So I just did a 5K and then we got home and there was another marathon I had signed up for. I was like, dude, like I bought the ticket. There was that big pressure to go. I was like, do I really even want to go? Like if I hadn't bought, if the ticket were free, would I want to go? And I'm like, probably not. The only reason I want to go is because of the money. But I was going to tell you, if you have an extra ticket and you need someone to go with, I'll go with you. So I was jumping on that. I was like, I'll jump on that. Thanks, dude. But no, but with that, like, I feel like I've got to try to get my wife into like the, the, like, hey, you should do this event with me. And I think it's okay to want to do that because it's like bonding time together. Yeah. I wonder where that desire comes from. It's like, hey, you should come do this with me because I get— me and you both get really excited about that stuff.

Oh yeah.

I really want to take my wife on like a couples retreat through that one men's group that I did. Well, it's not men's group, it's, you know, the collective.

The collective.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So like Dude, if you're ever in a position where you can go do it, that was a dope program to go through. Yeah, just because you have to be there in person though. Otherwise, it makes no sense. But like, yeah, Corey's put together something special, but he's got like marriage retreats, which will be kind of fun. And I think I finally got Kaya open to the idea of it. I like doing experiences and those were so fun. They do the breathwork stuff and like group work and It's dope. So hikes, yeah, you know, events. I think there's a big market for that, for like, you know. Oh yeah, well, experience.

And I think it's— I think part of it's also like the, the time and place and, uh, location where you can have all of the conversations. Like, yeah, this, uh, you know, like this, this hotel room that I got, I used a suite upgrade, got this nice room. I'm like, when I was looking at it, when I looked at the room, I was like, this is a place where we can sit down and talk, like just us, you know, where we can have these deep conversations. And I was thinking about the event. I was like, yeah, there might be, you know, several thousands of people at this Tony Robbins event, but what matters is that me and my wife are next to each other, right? You know, like that the two of us are doing this together. I do not care what the dude all the way over there is doing, or that person, or that person, even the dude like 3 seats down from me. Like, none of them matter. None of them matter to me at all. Like, when I'm here It is, it is me and the event. Like it's, it's just us. And then in this case, like, I want to do this with my wife and yeah. And what I'm, you know, they, they have like the, the firewalk event, you know, where you like walk across the coals and stuff and like, you're like, uh, Tony Robbins events, you know, they're pretty like upbeat and like you're moving and like shouting and there's tons of music and like you're really getting your, you're changing your state, uh, before you change anything else. And I'm like, I'm I'm like stoked about that. And there's definitely like that anxiety of like the social, uh, we'll call it social impacts of like you being with a bunch of other strangers all doing the same thing. And to me, I'm like, well, great, they're all strangers. I don't know any of them, so who cares? And to, but like to my wife, it's, they're a bunch of strangers and they're all going to be judging us the entire time. I'm like, no, they don't matter. Like none of them matter, you know? Um, but I think like, I really think it, it would be the opportunity. It's an opportunity for us to have some like some breakthrough. It's not that we're having issues, but like for us to dig deeper and find, you know, maybe what things are we doing that could be better, like between us as a couple, as parents, like with our kids. And in what ways am I just not living up to everything that I could be and not realizing it?

Those, those, those events are huge. So I mean, If I'm you on that one, I'd— as long as it aligns like with what you want, like it could be something fun to do with her.

But yeah, yeah, I very much want to do it. And she's already like, she talks about it like we are going and we're going to go do it. But like, she's kind of like mentally preparing herself. I just have to tell her it's going to cost us $1,000 though.

So I think it's going to— I think you're going to make more than $1,000 off of what you learn there.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, but yeah, but dude, this has been fun.

This is, yeah, this has been awesome. We should probably wrap it up since, uh, I know you got to head out to the doors and I got some stuff I got to take care of.

But I love you, man.

This has been great. Thank you so much, Austin. I love you too, man. This has been a great conversation. I'm glad we've been able to just sync up and just catch up, dude. And I'm so happy about you and your business right now. Like, I love seeing I love seeing it like explode and I love watching your videos, dude. I'm like, this is, this is gold. This is so, so good. So I'm wishing you all the success, man.

Really am. Thank you, man. We'll, we'll do another one in the next month or two and just keep it, keep it going, dude.

All right. All right, dude. I'll catch you later. See ya.

Bye.