11 Nov 2020 · 26 min
Travis Austin went from bartending to self-taught fashion designer, building his brand LAYRS by making custom pieces for nightclub DJs at venues like Omnia. Daniel and Tommy Wafford talk with him on Broadway in Nashville about entrepreneurship, confidence, and the emotional toll of building a creative business.
Chapters
What's up, guys? Welcome back to the Leaf Fast podcast. My name is Daniel. I'm joined with Tommy, and you may notice something very obvious. We're in a different location right now. We are downtown Nashville on Broadway. And so you'll hear a lot of probably country music in the background. I can already hear it a little bit now and more.
That's our intro music.
Yeah, that is our. That's our new intro music. More importantly, we are here with a very special guest, Travis Austin, and we're in a shop.
This is soon to be.
Soon to be shop. So that's the other thing. You'll hear other noise. You'll hear some construction. Because this is moving day, right? Is that right?
Yeah, this is moving day. 3 of 4. We'll be open in about 30 hours.
30 hours. Let's start the count. No, right now.
Go.
We talked about this right before we. We went live, but Travis does look way cooler than all of us. So let's get the elephant out.
Your podcast voice is just unparalleled.
No, it's just the mic, I promise.
Really.
It really is the mic. He doesn't sound like that. He actually is a soprano. When you get him away from it.
It drops down a couple of sense. Well, Tommy, you know, Travis, you. You have. You guys have had a relationship for a little bit.
Yeah.
Like, you guys met. How long ago was it?
Well, I mean, I've been a fan for a long time, so actually, I'm just going to tell everybody out there right now to excuse the. I had to have a talk with Daniel. I was like, okay, so obviously I'm going to fanboy a little bit. So my energy level is going to be up here.
He wouldn't even let me sit in the middle. He's like, no, I'm sitting by him.
That's sad because it's true. But. So anyways. But it was. So I've been a huge, like, fan of Travis's work for a long time and like, way back when. So the first time we met, I've been trying to come to his shop here in Nashville, which was, you know, located in other part of town. And. And we do a lot of stuff here and we film up here all the time. We're here like once a month and like four months solid, I've been trying to get into a shop and it just didn't work. It just. Whatever. We had somebody reschedule or something. So it ended up being more of like a pilgrimage than it was. Than it was a shopping experience.
I Mean, it's. It's not worth it unless it takes.
A little bit of effort. There you go.
It's funny. So Tommy came into my shop, like, two months ago. Yeah. And a lot of, like, a lot of people, like, when they visit Nashville, I'm very appreciative and humbled to be on the list for a lot of people, you know. Yeah. When they come here, there's a million things they want to do. You know, we have done enough, I guess, in the space to be one of the things. Right. So I'm. But I'm in this mind space and headspace when I'm in the shop all times where, like, I really don't really truly see you until, like, we start conversing. But it's funny. I won't forget it now that. Especially now that we've built a friendship. I was behind the counter, and then I see somebody pull up, but I don't really notice, like, the car or anything. And then I just. I'm looking down at the ground, working, and I see the Jordans, and then I slowly go up. I see, like, okay, well dressed person. And then I see the hair. And then I look out and see the car. I'm like, oh, Tommy alert. Maybe. Maybe we should pay attention. Maybe this is a cool guy. And then we have a conversation and we talk about the piece that we're doing do, and we talk about entrepreneurship and all this, and I'm just, like, completely enamored.
Yeah, no, same. Same, bro, same. So, like, here and there.
Just beautiful.
Yeah, I'll take it.
If I look like this when I'm 40, I'm. I'm happy if I look like that.
Any point in my life.
Also, can I. Is it.
I'm just going to stand here right now. Okay.
Yeah, yeah, go ahead.
All right. Sorry. Okay. Yeah.
No, man, it's. Everybody. Everybody understands that, like, you get what you get when you're online. Right? So we never ask anybody to be other than who they are. So, man, if you need to.
Yeah, it's Dennis.
Let's say it.
Yeah, that's okay. So this is going to be. This is going to be really raw, but I love it.
We.
We actually stopped in here, what, two days ago just to pay a little visit. And that was the first time I met Travis, but I have to say, I've seen his stuff. I knew, like, it looked cool. I was like, this dude's got an eye for it, and it's one thing to be a designer. But then we started talking, and it went Past designer really quick and went into, like, entrepreneurial. Like, that was just.
It wasn't the transitions and you weren't.
Trying to sound like you. Like, you just it. That is who you are. And I, like, as I was walking down, before we even got off the elevator, I was like, man, that. That blew my mind because it wasn't just like, okay, we said something catchy or he said something good. It was a whole next level. And so I was like, we could talk for hours. And so normally our podcast is what, 25, 30 minutes, 45 minutes? What we'll probably end up doing is just talking and then breaking this up.
Yeah, you're going to.
You're guys out there watching.
You're going to get Travis Austin Customs month of December on the F. Maybe, maybe quarter four.
Like, I don't know, man. Like, it's. If it's good, it's good. And we try never to do that. But, man, thank you so much for, like, seriously extending a lot of grace towards us to get in and, like, you guys were, like, carrying things up.
Yeah. In the middle of it. And I mean, we're. We're down to the wire. I mean, today is going to be a transformative day in this space and something we're really excited for. But you talked, you said it very briefly a second ago. Social media is social media, and I do my very best to be as transparent as possible. Everyone knows my ups, everyone knows, you know, some of my downs. Everyone knows the artist, the designer, the. The business leader, all that. And everyone knows my team.
And they.
I try to be as transparent as I can as a father and a husband as well, but there are certain parts of stories that, that people just, you know, you can't share that stuff on social media without being incredibly annoying.
Right.
So it's things like this, which I'm. I'm very picky as to what. Where I share and how I share, where I'm unbelievably appreciative that we have this opportunity to talk through a lot of those things because not only does that allow people get to know me a little bit better, but it provides a lot of guidance and coaching and all of those things for entrepreneurs that are maybe starting their journey or maybe trying to convince themselves to start the journey. I'm not only here to kick you in the ass to get you to start that journey, but I'm going to try to do whatever I can to help guide people through that wave of minds.
Yeah, that's awesome. So let's talk about that then let's talk about so that people can get to know you a little better before we get it. Because like, one of the things that struck me, man, is that like, it's always fun for me when I meet artists. It's always fun for me when I meet artists with a business mind, but it's always fun for me. It's the best when you get to get an artist that has a mind for business but has like some conventional wisdom. Like things they're like, oh, these are like you said earlier, NPR was my mba. Like, that's so good. Like that you can take that one statement and build an entire podcast episode off of like there. There is information online. You don't need a degree. Ye, like all those things. So, so let's get back to like, how. How did Travis also what were you doing first? Like, so.
It'S.
Even prior to Travis Austin, what was the dream?
So I was an athlete my entire life. My. My father.
I would have guessed that looking at you.
Yeah, no, no, not now. You see me 10 years ago now though, and you'll. You did it. My father was an athlete, Division one athlete. And in my entire not only goal, but my identity as a, as a child was, was to be that I played baseball 362 days out of the year. Woke up at 5am all the way through high school and went to the gym before school. And so I did batting practice and that was my whole life's work. I played in the Team USA 18 under team for a couple years.
Yeah, we're pulling back the Onion, folks.
Yeah, let's get in. And I, I thought that was gonna be my life, you know, unfortunately, you know, just some of the tools weren't there and I got hurt a couple times and I had to find a different path. And unfortunately I picked the hardest path possible. After college, I just, I traveled around a lot. I was a bartender and my identity for a long time until honestly three years ago, was food and beverage. I bartended all over the country. It's something that I competed in it. I was a communications major in school, so I think my ability to communicate to every single different type of person was something that I really pride myself on. And it was behind the bar where I found the most comfort and the most effectiveness in my abilities to do that. So ended up, I found myself in California in the early 2010s and I was bartending and modeling and, and kind of just doing my thing as a youthful 20, 20 something and eventually found my way into the world of fashion design in a real roundabout way. But it was really like, I say this all the time. Whenever I have any sort of conversation with anybody, it is solely because of who my parents are and the level of greatness that they hold and. And just my admiration for them. They're really, truly great people. They raised three amazing kids. We know how to treat people. We know how to earn trust. We know how to hold trust. And it's because of those. Those relationships and my ability to. To build trust within people that honestly led me to what I'm doing now. And it was solely that I shouldn't have. My. My very first jobs as a designer, I had no business doing. I had no business working for those celebrities or, you know, those DJs at all. I had no idea what was it?
What was the first thing? What were you doing?
So because of my years modeling and bartending, I had great relationships in nightlife. And I knew some people at Hot Design Nightclub group. If you're not familiar, Hot to Sound is the largest nightclub group in the. In the world. Hotasan Invadis, Omnia. Omnia San Diego, Omnia Bali Cabo. But they just opened a San Diego spot, and I was in San Diego at the time, and I just started making. It was. I think this was 2014. I just started making, like, dad caps and. And, you know, T shirts and flannels, but, like, not really doing it. Like, trying to, like, faking it and say. I. Saying I did it, you know, making dad caps.
Good for the gram.
Saying I was a designer. Yeah. For whatever the gram was back then.
Yeah.
But I was. I was learning. I was. I was feeling my way through it. You know, I'll never forget, right around this time, it was Black Friday. I went and bought a camera. I bought a box of Crayola colored pencils and a moleskin notebook, which I still have. And I named my company Layers L A Y R S. And it's. It'll be tattooed in my hand forever. I taught myself how to draw. I taught myself how to trace. I was never an artist in school. I was always an athlete. I taught myself how to order clothes, wholesale clothes, and I was kind of a designer. And. But because this is what I was doing at that point in time, and I built really great relationships and held onto those relationships for a number of years. At that point, Omnia nightclub, they just opened up and. And they called me and they said, hey, I know you're making some clothes. You know, now we have Jaws, who back in 2014, 2015, you know, wasn't who he is now, but now he's the. He's the, like, you know, voted the greatest American dj, you know, for the past couple years. He's huge deal. But he had just signed a residency with Hot and Omnia, and it was his first show. So Omnia wanted to make him some, like, gifts. So they called me, like, hey, do you want to make Jaws some. One of one, Some, like, custom pieces? We want to give them to him as a gift. It kind of, like, stand out, you know, amongst the other clubs. So I said, yes, like, absolutely, I.
Want to do that.
Like, yes, yes. Say less. I'm in. So I. I went to his merch site, I bought a bunch of his merch, and then I ordered some wholesale stuff and I cut and sewed, like, sleeves on. On shirts, and I made them a leather DJ bad. That was just beautiful. I made them, I think, like four or five pieces, and they turn out, you know, really well. Watch a lot of YouTube videos on how to do this. I went to Joanne Joanne fabric sewing classes, and I taught myself how to sew with a bunch of old ladies. And. And it worked. I. They invited, like, I got to go. I just started dating Christina, my now wife, at that point. I'd have to go on stage while he was performing and present him with all the pieces so they could take photos and everything. That very moment, I can actually turn back the clock and pinpoint the exact moment where I knew that this is what I was supposed to do. It is that moment when I was on stage, not because of the exhilaration of being on stage and being in front of a bunch of people, but I pride myself on my business mind, and I knew what I was very good at, and that's understanding how to build brands, understanding consumership, and understand how to market. And I can combine it with this thing I just fall in love with, which was clothing and fashion. So in that very second, I understood that I now have two or three different industries that I can mesh into one into my future. And that was it. It was off to the races. And because I executed Jaws, Omnia kept calling. And it was gorgeous. It was seven lions. And then it was Tiesto for his 40th birthday party. And I got to watch Tiesto put on my jacket during his birthday performance. And I cried. Like in. In the middle. Of course, in the middle of this nightclub, in the middle of this booth with all my friends, I was bawling.
Everybody's smiling.
Yeah. On cloud nine.
Everybody's like, what trip is Travis on right now? It's not good.
It was the trip of just pure joy.
Like I can't even imagine.
I had realized. Little did I know the hell ride I was in for, which was entrepreneurship, you know, but I knew, I knew I had found it.
So I want to, I want to time out because I want to back up to like something that just meant to me, meant something to me in what you were saying because I, I think there's like two people there that you talk to. And so I don't want them to. I don't want to go with your story and them listening, not if they need this, not get it right. And so there's, I think there's a group, I think there's. I think there's a 17 year old K needs to hear. Hey, your dream is about going to Joanne's, right? Like it's the doing what you can right now every day to get better, to do whatever. But I love that like the, those things led you to the moment where you. So there are, there are also people that are 35, 40 years old who feel like they'd never found out what they wanted to be when they grew up. Like, you know, that don't know. They just haven't found that thing yet. And that thing may just be waiting on the other side of the humility to go take a sewing class with old women.
Yeah, right.
You know, like that's what it did.
It's. There's so much in our world today and a lot of that comes from insecurities. And another thing that I. Another reason, a huge reason why I do what I do is I was born. And maybe I was born with it. Maybe it was Maybelline. Maybe, maybe my parents, maybe my parents just instilled it in me. I, I probably a little bit of both, right? I am unbelievably blessed to be a confident person. And I always have been. Yeah, I've always been kind of an alpha, you know, And I've always been very supremely confident in who I am. You can tell by the way I look like, yeah, I look like I'm. I just out of jail. But I like, I know, I know exactly who I am and I'm. I'm proud of it. I always have been.
That's cool.
And I also because of, maybe because of my travels, because I've lived in so many different cities, because I love conversing with different types of people, I know that 98 of this world is not the same. Like it's not common for people to have that. That confidence within themselves or the ability to become it or go find it or. Or how to be confident. So as a designer and as the leader of a fashion house, I have this innate ability and almost responsibility to instill that into others.
That's so good.
And it was. It was that having that confidence allowed me to kind of look past, like, maybe what people thought of me going to Joanne's, you know, sewing class. It was that. That allowed me to do that. But whether it's you listening to this podcast or me going to other speaking engagements and talking directly to. To young kids or. Or old kids, it's being able to look past that perception of other people and other people's advantages of you and just do it. Especially if you're at a position where you're working a job where you're not happy, just fucking do it. Like, be terrified. Be uncomfortable. Be all those things, which we're going to talk about tons today, because being terrified is my number one moniker. And I'm good. I'm terrified every day.
I'm terrified all the time.
Yeah, and you should.
I'm a little scared right now. I don't know why.
I mean, hey, that means you're in the right spot. And if you're not terrified, you are doing something wrong.
No, I agree.
You're probably just miserable. But allow yourself to be staring. Allow yourself to, like, be vulnerable to these things, and I promise you, on the other side of that, you'll find something great.
Well, when did you. When did you realize you had this confidence? Because I'm a designer. Not enough with clothes, but, like, for graphic design. So I can relate to that a little bit. And I didn't realize that till later on in my. I guess you call it, career, because you start out and then people say, oh, he's doing this. And then he kind of, like, the feedback dies out, and then you're just like, am I doing this okay? You know, and then once you get to a place where you're actually. You go past where your peers are at, that's when people start pouring in some other stuff. And even then when you start hearing that, you're like, okay, well, I got lucky on this.
Yeah.
But then after a while, I'm like, okay, you. You can do this, man. You got this.
You.
I mean, like, I realized I had my own style. I realized I had my own. But if it had been there for a while. Yeah, I think a lot of people, even me, I got. I got really close to this point where I got to that level where I'm like, am I. Is this. Do I just get lucky? Like, how am I going to do. And then they drop off, but. And they never get to where you're at or get to that level where they. Okay, they've set themselves apart from the people who do that. When did you realize that you had that.
It's funny that you said what you just said, lady, exactly how you said it. Did I just get lucky? Like, you have no idea how many times I think to myself, did I just get lucky? Because. So I'm growing as a. I grow as a designer every single day. I'm still growing as an artist. I study art every single morning. And every day when I contemplate a new project or when I get hate online, all these things, I think to myself, did I just get lucky?
But do you actually get hate online?
Like, every single.
Give me the names. I'll take care of them.
Yeah, right. I've had a lot of people offer. Offer that, but I did. I did. And I don't want to get dark, but, like, I did death threats and. And daily, like, daily hate. The art world is a. Is a weird space.
Yeah.
And social media is a really weird space, and I'm sure we'll get into all that stuff, too. But I think, going back to your question, the confidence to just do whatever I want, I've always had. And that comes from, you know, probably be an athlete and being better than most, you know, like, competitive. Yeah. I mean, I'm. I'm very competitive. Like, my family won't play Monopoly with me because I'll flip the board if I'm losing. Like, But I also know I'm probably gonna be. I'm probably gonna beat you. Yeah. I've always been like that. So that confidence has always just been instilled. The confidence. I had the confidence to dive into what I wanted to do. But that doesn't mean I'm confident every day within.
Right.
Within this chapter and phase of my life, because I do wake up every day terrified. I wake up every day pretty much questioning where I'm at and what I'm doing. And if I did just get lucky or not I put out art or I put out a collection or a capsule of clothing, and I'm biting my nails until people actually, you know, buy it or. Or react well to it.
Right.
So to answer your question in a roundabout way, I don't think I've. I. I forced myself to be confident, and I understand that. You know, that things are working. And I. I let my team. I think my team is a big part of it because I'm. I have these big crazy ideas or I put out these. These, you know, skeleton men. Like, you know, I put out my or, and my team, they. They support it, they push it, and they get excited about it. And if. If. If that was different or if my team didn't support me and everything that I. That I did or we did as a group, I think that confidence would be lost or much harder to combine.
Wow, that's interesting.
When you surround yourself with 4, 5, 6, 7 people that believe in it and have dedicated their life to it as well, it's impossible not to feel that confidence.
Yeah.
Yeah. No, I. We talk about that a lot. And, you know, the guys. A lot. The guys with Mackenzie 2, she's over here sitting on the floor. But, like, my team will laugh because I get. I get called arrogant all the time, but they see all my insecurities, so they know that that's not true. But. But if they're with me, like, I know we have this. Like, I don't even think about it. Like, it. Yeah, whatever. Our team's gonna handle it. And having that. That they are my confidence when I don't have my own.
They're your. I mean, cheesy, but, like, they are your armor.
Like, yeah, for sure.
They're what me? I can. I take shit online. I feel it. These guys see it every single day. But then we all just get together and put together a space like this, and I realize I'm okay, and it's going to be okay.
Yeah.
So the confidence is an everyday battle. It's. It's a game with. It's a game with myself. Every day, I win. Every day, I might lose, you know, a quarter here and there. And I hate that I'm making all these cheesy, you know, analogies, but I win every day.
That's cool. I'm still trying to figure out how to win every day. Me too.
I do. I do the same thing. You know, you say you wake up and you think about it every morning. Like, for me. For me, it's end of day. I have this, like. It's like the panic hour for me. And I literally think about my future and what I'm doing now and where I want to be in the exact same way. Freaks me the hell out because I'm like, can I. Can I wake up tomorrow and still do this?
You understand how healthy that is?
Like, I didn't till. Till Now. But I'm glad we're having this conversation.
Yeah, I've said this. I'll bill you for that.
Okay. I'll pay, man.
I. I've said this before in. In podcasts and other interviews. People have asked me, like, okay, you have one piece of advice to young people or artists, and this is like my piece of advice one through five.
Yeah.
Is just. Is allow yourself to be terrified. So every night. And this is as true as it gets. 2019 was a. Was a very, very, very hard year for the growth of my company and allowing people into. Into our lives that probably shouldn't have been there and bad partners and things like that. At the end of every night, I would, mind you, my wife was very pregnant at this point in time, and we'd get in bed and I would stay up on purpose until 3 or 4 in the morning because I knew the second I fell asleep that I would wake up the next day and I'd have to go through all this shit again. So the end of my days, every single day, for hours and hours, laying in bed was just me being terrified. And when I woke up, the competitive nature in me, like, I. I drove that to, like, just surviving and getting through. And we got through it and. And we're in a great spot now. But I was like, every single night I would avoid going to bed out of just pure fright of having dealt with today.
So let's extend today.
Exactly.
So they don't have to deal with tomorrow.
So. And then when I. When I wake up, you know, it's now easier because I have my son to kind of go through it with me, but I. I allow myself about an hour because once I step out of the house, I know I can't turn off. And it's not for myself. It's for the 10 people around me. I don't turn off for them. And I have to feel everything and I have to carry everything and all these things, but I allow myself about 45 minutes to an hour every morning to really just be scared and channel that the best I can. And that may. That might seem abstract to some and that might seem, you know, that might not make sense. Once you're in the spot, like the right spot in life, I promise you it'll make sense.
Yeah. That's so good.
But every morning I. I really, truly allow myself. I allow myself to feel that, and then I use that energy and that momentum to. To go and win that day.
Yeah.
Wow, that's so.
All right.
So here's what. Here's What I know is we've been talking 25 minutes, and I can't think of a better way to end sort of segment one than. On that note, that felt like a good, complete thought. So you're gonna get to tune back in for episode two, the next time of 27. Yeah. Two of 27. His motto is one of one. This is actually one of 400. We have.
We. We have 10 hours that we can record, so we can do this as long as we want to.
I'll just push back to the opening a day, so don't worry.
Do it.
Let's do it.
No, because I want my hat or not.