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Surviving the Side Hustle
Welcome to "Surviving the Side Hustle," the ultimate podcast for balancing the demands of entrepreneurship with maintaining mental, physical, and emotional well-being.
Hosted by Coach Rob Tracz, an expert in helping driven professionals achieve 'personal development for professional success,' this show is more than just storytelling—it's a masterclass in thriving amidst the entrepreneurial grind. Each episode features candid conversations with leaders who are rewriting the rules of entrepreneurship, sharing their unique stories, the creative solutions they're offering, and the everyday challenges they’re overcoming.
Whether you’re a side hustler looking for your big break or an established entrepreneur seeking fresh perspectives, "Surviving the Side Hustle" provides valuable insights that resonate with the movers, the shakers, and everyone in between.
Feeling burnt out and sidelining your own health? This podcast empowers you to overcome stagnation, build resilience, and optimize your life and business. We dive deep into your goals, identify obstacles, and share strategies to boost your energy, improve your strength, and keep the entrepreneurial grind enjoyable.
Join us for inspiring stories, expert insights, and practical advice to help you look good, feel good, and do great things at every stage of your entrepreneurial journey. Let’s not just survive the side hustle—let's master it.
Surviving the Side Hustle
Pathways to Peak Performance: Austin Glazer's Tale of Adversity, Insurance, and Unyielding Ambition
Strap in for a heartfelt ride with Austin "the insurance guy" Glazer as he takes us through the emotional highs and lows that paved the way to Safe Shield Insurance. His story is one of loss and triumph, underscoring the undeniable link between personal adversity and professional success. Austin's transparency about his journey—not just as an insurance broker but as an individual seeking happiness—will leave you contemplating the true meaning of fulfillment in work and life.
Ever find yourself dreaming about turning that side gig into your main hustle? Listen up as I spill the beans on how juggling stand-up comedy with real estate taught me the art of time management. We'll unravel the myth that there's not enough time, showcasing how prioritization and tools like Google Calendar can be game-changers. It's about more than just schedules though; we'll also dive into how keeping fit and mentally sharp can skyrocket your productivity.
But it's not all spreadsheets and schedules; we wrap up with some gutsy tales that'll have your heart racing. Imagine running two marathons in one day—sounds insane, right? You'll get the lowdown on how such a mind-boggling challenge ties into setting ambitious goals and smashing them. Whether you're looking to conquer the business world or just your personal bests, this episode is stacked with actionable advice that champions authenticity and the boldness to chase what sets your soul on fire. Join us and Austin in this invigorating conversation where passion meets profession head-on.
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What's going on, guys? What's going on? Today we got Austin the insurance guy Glazer on the show. What's up, dude?
Speaker 2:Hi Coach Rob, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Of course, man. Thanks for taking some time out of your busy schedule. Been trying to get you on the show for months now.
Speaker 2:It seems like the inverse. It seems like it's been me trying to get on the show. But that's okay, I'm happy to be here. I hope you're as happy as I am.
Speaker 1:Of course, dude, I'm always happy hanging out with you.
Speaker 2:I agree.
Speaker 1:So New Year, what do you got going on? How's the year starting off for you?
Speaker 2:You know. So the year's been pretty busy. I only needed to share as brokerage, as you know. But for those at home, and it's just like you know, we're approaching our one year of being open as a fully independent business owner and we have a lot of renewals coming up. So it's a lot of adaption, but you know nothing I can't handle. So a lot of busyness, a lot of chaoticness, but you know, it doesn't kill you, makes you strong.
Speaker 1:Of course I love that and yeah, I'd like to kind of dive a little bit more into before we talk about other stuff, like share your story a little bit more, because I know who you are, I know what you do, I know your story a little bit, but maybe some of the audience guys here might not have been in contact with you yet. So you've said you have an insurance brokerage and how'd you get there? What made you get into insurance? Let's start from the beginning.
Speaker 2:Sure. So when I was 16 years old my mother passed away with brain cancer. My dad didn't really want to be a part of the picture. I ran away, bounced around, ended up in Westchester, New York, went to college, you know, fought my way through college, you know. I had five, six jobs at a time. Eventually I went on the internet and I applied to 100 different internships and I was like in my mind, how can I make one job and make enough money as I'm doing with all six jobs and one of the largest insurance companies in the world? They took a shot at me. I have no idea why. They must have thought I had the gift of gab or something and they took a shot on me. I was an intern and I was basically cold calling all in all summer. Sorry, I have this phone ring in here. Let me close the Vonage app one second. Sorry about that, Rob.
Speaker 1:No, you're all good, we're human. It adds to it. Yes, let me come back here.
Speaker 2:Where are you Sorry about that? That's okay, you don't even need to call it it's. That's real life shit.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I basically was working full time while in college for this company. I was basically making cold calls. It was terrible. I wasn't learning anything about the business. It wasn't until one day I basically said, hey, give me a shot to go shadow this rep. Let me learn a little bit more about how all this works.
Speaker 1:I went on.
Speaker 2:I did that and I eventually went well, I guess because they made me a full time sales associate while I was a full time student in college and I was basically doing the business while I was in college, which is unheard of. I was learning the business, I was creating referral partnerships and, before I knew it, I'd made a name for myself. I graduated college, went out as my own agency or as my own agent, still working at this big company. I'm going to become countrywide rookie of the year. Twice, four separate categories. I feel like I had a sweep. I swept every category. I'm actually going to become number nine in the country, number one for life insurance.
Speaker 2:And what happened was is when you work for a really big company, there's a big brand that surrounds you and they want you to build your brand their way. So we talk about branding Rob, me, you, brandon, all. That's one of the biggest lessons we've learned through Brandon. And they didn't let me build my brand my way. And by that point, I was using. I skipped over so many vital pieces of that story, but by that point, I was using social media as a crux. It was, it was 2020. So we were all home every day and I realized that opportunity existed by using social media and before I knew it, I created this brand of Austin the insurance guy, the Closer Conversations podcast, and you know, things started to really work for me and when I finally realized that they weren't letting me build the brand, my way I realized that I wasn't happy.
Speaker 2:right, I was making high six figures, I was doing very well for myself. But the reality is, rob, I wasn't happy. And if you're not happy, why bother doing anything? And that's why I quit. I started my own insurance brokerage, safe Shield Insurance, and I love what I'm doing. I have time to do whatever I want. Some days I get to the office of 10, some days I get to the office at seven. Some days I leave at three. Some days I leave at nine, you know, but at the end of the day it's on my vision and what I'm building. And to me, at the end of the day, coach Rob, that's all that matters. He's just doing it.
Speaker 1:your way, your way. Yeah, I love that and I'm glad that you came to that realization that you weren't happy doing things their way and you took that. You took that leap pretty much to dive into it and kind of go out on your own and really get rolling with it. I know you're probably in a pretty confident position there, doing well and really having everything under like skill wise, like you were ready for the results Skill wise, I say sure.
Speaker 2:It was still a big risk. I mean, you know, to go from making crazy money.
Speaker 2:I mean I took a massive pay cut in our first year you know, as every great entrepreneur does right, but we're young once, and when you're young, you can afford to take the risk. I don't have kids, I don't have a girlfriend, you know, and it was at the end of the day, like that was like. I think that's what drove me right, it's the ability to feel like I can do it, and maybe it was just that young confidence that, you know, might be for the good or the bad, but it pushed me in a direction that I'm very thankful for.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you here, because you were in such a great position financially, making money, do you think that made the leap a little easier for you? And I'm going to kind of give you a two part question here. The second part is because it is surviving the side hustle. So a lot of the audience people are working full time job and doing their side hustle if ever is the right time to kind of dive into the side hustle full time.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I don't know. Honestly, I think that it really depends on what you're sort of comfortable doing, right? I think that you know to answer the first question, which was that, like, does money help me sort of realize that I could do it? I mean, that's a two-parter right, because, sure, I had a lot of money in a 401k account that I was able to liquidate and eventually throw right into the business, but on the second tone of it it's you know, it was more actually hard to leave, because it's like I'm giving up making all this money and that's not easy. You know what I mean. Now, on the opposite end of the spectrum like that's that that was the hardest thing I had to deal with is like, do I have enough money saved or I could survive like this? You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that is definitely one of the hard things, because it's kind of like you kind of get comfortable making that money and then you get used to the certain lifestyle and things like that. I know, back when I was working tons of hours that was, that was the same reason. I couldn't come to the realization that I was actually going to be able to make more money if I had left the position. So I continued to work and grind because I was like so hardheaded I was like, oh, I could just grind out until I eventually ran out of hours in the day, and then that's when I needed to make that switch.
Speaker 2:And your second part of your question. What was the second question there? Sorry, what was it?
Speaker 1:Second part of the question was when. So someone is still working like a nine to five and they have the one.
Speaker 2:That's not. Yeah, second year, unhappy, right, I was at the point, rob, where I was so miserable with myself and like what I'd become, I mean. But also though, like we talked about surviving the side hustle, like I have several side hustles right, like I own real estate, I'm a keynote speaker, I do stand up comedy Like the reality was. I think that, knowing that I had some real estate and some equity and properties in my name already, that I felt confident in the decision that, if anything were to ever go belly up, like I have assets to fall back on, I guess you could say and in itself that is a side hustle.
Speaker 2:And I think that a lot of people often think well, when is the time to make my side hustle my reality? And you know, I'll be honest with you, I don't know that that's always the right approach. I think that some people like when it's a side hustle, it's better kept a side hustle. And but for some people, if your idea is good enough and you're passionate about it, then it's worth making it your full time game. But you know, I think that there's such a stigma around the word side hustle. It doesn't have to be called a side hustle If it's making you money, it's making you money, you know, and maybe it's just because I'm in a sales position where I never really had to work a true nine to five. But you know, that's just, that's just me, I guess you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I hear you with that. I think the I agree too with the side hustle thing. It's sometimes it can people think of it as like just a hobby and other things. But if you're genuinely starting a business as a business and that's your goal to grow it into something I think that's you got to treat it like that. You can't just treat it as, yeah, this is just a hobby that I happen to be doing and making money. If your goal is to grow it, you got to do everything you got into it.
Speaker 2:Right, like you know, I think that my least favorite thing in the world is that I hear when people tell me they don't have time. Okay, I wake up at four am every day. Coach Rob, I see you on Instagram every day posting your wake up Like you're one of them too, like you're just like me in that sense, you have that drop. I'm up at four am and you know what I got to tell you? I'm in the gym a lot of the time today, two times a day, okay, and I own a company, I own real estate. I do this, I do that. I'm constantly on the run. The concept of not having time is fucking bullshit, and nothing drives me more crazy than when I hear people say they don't have time Because you have time for whatever you allow yourself to have time for. If you're going to limit yourself and say, oh, I don't have time today, someday, sure, you might not actually have the time, but chances are, if you woke up a little earlier, it went to bed a little later, you have the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel I feel you on that. It's usually not a not having time issue, is a prioritizing and planning kind of issue.
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, I mean I do so much like planning actually drives the bananas, but I do so much of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, you have to if you want to perform at a higher level.
Speaker 2:Do you have it off the calendar? Do you use a calendar?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I use Google Calendar and it's like pretty much my life and before.
Speaker 2:I kind of-. Do you believe there are people that don't use calendars?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I can. I know of a lot of people who don't use calendars, so a couple of clients. I got to kind of push to all. Right, hey, this is a new calendar. This is called like digital calendar. Use this and it'll help your life. People still writing like notebooks.
Speaker 2:And I'm like, listen, that's not the worst thing If you're using, at least you're using something. Yeah, I'm the people who just like to live on the like the seam of their pants and I'm like I don't even understand how you like wake up in the morning, like how do you? If I didn't use a calendar in my life for being shambles. I you know. I think that there's one characteristic that I attribute to most of my success is being that I'm a calendar guy. Everything's written down, you know, like everything is on my like.
Speaker 2:I know every minute of my day, for the most part, what I'm going to be doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and that's how you squeeze in the gym and stuff like that, and then you can look ahead like, oh damn, tomorrow is going to be super busy. I don't know if I'm going to be able to get my workout in. I got a little extra time today. Maybe I should squeeze it in now instead of not getting it done at all. 100% taking that proactive approach. Yeah, love that. And yeah, and I love that you're also getting back into the gym and prioritizing your health too, because so many people they talk about how they don't have time to hit the gym and, like I was saying, it's more of a prioritization and planning problem. And I love to ask people who are like yeah, I just don't have the time, I don't have the time. And I tell them I'm like do you think there's anybody in a higher position than you? Like same job, same everything with kids, or making more money? Like, how do these more? How do the more successful version of yourself, how do they make time to get to the gym and still get everything?
Speaker 2:done. That's a good question to ask people. Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1:And then they're just kind of like, oh, I don't know, and I'm like, well, probably planned it out, so look at your debt, figure it out.
Speaker 2:You know, and as you said, that like, maybe, like I love working out, like it's in the last six months, it's like taken, I've always worked out, I've always gotten in the mornings, but like it has taken such a different approach to me the last few months, like it has become truly my life and, you know, maybe it's become the gym is like a side hustle for me and that's okay too. Like I don't know that your side hustle necessarily has to make you money. It has to fulfill something for you and mentally, being at the gym fulfills my mental fortitude, right, and I think that that's a really good thing. That people often overlook is like everything's about money, right, but if you put in the time and the effort, I believe the money will always fall. That's just me and maybe I'm a wishful thinker, but I think that that's can't hurt to think that way.
Speaker 1:No, definitely I love that and yeah, I mean there's a reason why I have fitness and like training as like the first pillar of my coaching program, because it's a huge representative of who you are, how you conduct business, how you plan and prioritize. It shows discipline, it's your walking billboard. So the better shape that you keep yourself in, chances are your business is probably running a little bit better too because of those same things 100%.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, what? So what are you doing now? Because I know you were cycling a lot. Are you now shifting into some more weight? Since what are you what's your kind of like game plan looking like in the gym?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, good question. So I mean, like I've always been in the gym lifting, always done cardio.
Speaker 2:I think that in the last couple of months, though, like it's shifted so dramatically like I'm doing like cardio and lifting like to a point I've never done it. Like I'll do like a workout class in the morning and then I'll lift right after and I'll do a workout class and I'm killing my body. I'm almost benching 300 pounds and squatting like almost 300 pounds as well. So it's like the gains I'm seeing are tremendous, and it's Again I find that this is a very big thing that I have with people that was like they're like what's your fitness goals?
Speaker 2:And I'm like you know, I don't really have any. I think that my goal is more like to just be as healthy as I can and again mentally fulfilled. So, like what I'm doing in the gym, like I mean, I'm on a routine, like I know like what my like, I'm a routine driven person. So I know what I'm doing, I know like what I want to happen, but like that's not the reason I'm there. I'm there, like today, for example, my body is destroyed. I killed myself the last three days, my ankle shirt, shoulder shirt, and you know what. I just I had to go to the gym this morning and you know what I did, cause I, my body doesn't work right now. So I literally sat there in the leg sleeves, put some hip sleeves on, I did some some massage gun, I did sauna steam, I did recovery because at the end of the day, it's so important to start my day at that gym. It's what kick starts everything and that down, when it doesn't fall, the rest won't follow you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. You said that too, because I was just having a conversation with somebody where they made a commitment of going to the gym at least three times a week and then they they bailed twice at the times that they were supposed to go, and on the third time they didn't go to the gym but they got to work out in at home a small court one and I said, yeah, that's good, but remember, the commitment was to get to the gym because you're building this trust and building the discipline to change yourself.
Speaker 1:So if you're going to do, if you're just going to do stretches or something, just go to the gym and just get some of that in, so you build that, because that's the hardest part is just getting into the gym.
Speaker 2:I don't know about you, but like part of going to the gym for me is also like I see people and it's more of like it's become like not that I stand there and I talk and I bullshit, but like it's become more of a social thing for me too. Like I mean, I work in an office in chap. I've got more often than not I don't have people here with me If I don't have a networking event like dude. There are days like if I don't go to the gym, that's actually very, very. But let's say I didn't go to the gym, right, and I came to my office in chap, wow.
Speaker 2:And I'm not even actually having a conversation with someone in person is zero, like it's it's. It's so much more than getting in shape and and and lifting weights and being strong. It's important to your mental to get there and do the things and like my routine and like it is the most important domino. Like you were saying, the first pillar of your coaching program is talking about fitness and and and training. Right, and for me, the first pillar is waking up in the morning and doing something, cause you know one of the funny things he's talked about going to the gym a second ago.
Speaker 2:Like you said, I was a cyclist. I really did cycling. I love cycling, but I always preferred going to the gym and cycling in the morning. It's like cycling was sort of reserved for the weekends because it's harder to control things. Like you know your times and stuff like that. If I'm just doing an outside cycle, like I don't know what the weather is going to be, like I just like knowing that I have a set plan. That's what's on my count. You know it all ties back Like it's not about having time, it's not about getting strong, it's about routines, calendars and mental fortitude.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I love that calendar reduces decision fatigue so then it just becomes automatic part of it the plan, the routine, all of that. And mental fortitude too. That's awesome too, because I wanted to ask you your training in the gym. You are pretty confident guy, you love to talk. I know we've been through speaker school. That's kind of a little bit of a push in in essence of challenging yourself mentally in your comfort zone and you're, like I was just saying, you're very confident, easy to communicate with. What are some other things that you're kind of challenging or pushing yourself? I guess in like the mental game of pushing yourself in the comfort zone, that's a great sense.
Speaker 2:I don't know if that's too confusing. No, that's a great question and I don't think people ask that enough right? Because I think when I did one of my public speaking, I said something along the lines of if you're the smartest guy in the room, you're in the wrong room, and I think that if you think you're the best and you're not working on yourself and continuing to evolve, you're again doing the wrong thing. So some of the things that I'm working on right now, just mentally, is, for one, being able to delegate. I have a great team that works with me here at Safe Shield, and while I bring in most of the clients, when they get to a renewal point, I can't be the person that's on the phone with these people. I have to be focused on bringing in all their new business and while I know I could save that client from going somewhere else, I have to have faith that my staff that I've trained can do it too.
Speaker 2:The hardest thing for me is kind of I wouldn't say letting your ego. I mean yeah, no, like letting, like checking my ego and saying you train them like they're good, like they know what they're doing, like work with them. So I'd say delegating is a really big one for me right now, like just being able to say to someone you can do this. Like I don't need to be involved, like it'll still get done, the world won't stop if Boston doesn't do it. I am also trying to just be more conscious of my spending not spending as loosely, because you don't know what tomorrow will bring, and they're, most importantly, just making sure that I wake up with a smile on my face every day because I chose the path that I'm taking, even when it gets tough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's love that dude. And yeah, and I was leaning towards more like I wanted to bring up the fact because you had mentioned when you first got started with the big insurance company, you were kind of just going nonstop with the cold calling and you said you weren't really growing or learning much.
Speaker 1:And I wanted to ask do you think it you were still growing and learning, but in a different terms or way? I guess because in a way you were growing and learning skill development of the cold calling, building that confidence, and now that kind of carries over. And now you see yourself trying to teach that to the people that you hire, where they're already coming on. They're already pretty good.
Speaker 2:So my sister and Eric, like I've tried to get him on cold calls and learn that stuff.
Speaker 2:But to be honest, I don't find the cold calling is effective anymore. I mean, there's a saying that if you're in sales, the way you sell is how you're sold Right, and what that means is basically, if you sell on a very direct basis, you're going to buy from someone who's very direct. Now, for me, my selling style is not that of cold calling. Like I'm more of a handshaking person. You get referred to me and we do business together. So, in terms of cold calling, no, I'm not teach. I mean like a little bit I'm teaching him because I'm not looking for him to bring in leads by cold calling.
Speaker 2:What I'm looking for is for him to be able to get on the phone and talk to someone and be confident. So we work on that stuff. Sometimes I've thrown him on the phone a bunch of times and I would. I really do those where I was. I throw them all the clients. You know, if I don't close a deal, it's okay, you got experience. I'm here for the teamwork. Like I love my team and I'm all about whatever helps them grow. That's why we have weekly meetings where we kind of go over what we think are some things we should be working on and then we put them into action.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you said if they don't necessarily or if you don't necessarily close a client, it's still good because you're kind of learning your experience there. And I really appreciate you saying that because as you know my challenge, I just did that 53 miles and it's pretty big failure.
Speaker 2:I don't even ask about that. How did that go? You didn't get 100, right?
Speaker 1:No, I ended up finished at 53. So two marathons.
Speaker 2:What did you think you were going to get? 100?.
Speaker 1:You know I didn't at first. I just really wanted to kind of set the bar high and push myself in a way. I was kind of like as I would continue to think about it mathematically, you just need to maintain a 14 minute mile to get 124 hours. So I was like, all right if I'm running.
Speaker 2:That's literally a straight. That's no stop on that right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm like all right, I could probably continue going and if I run at like an 838 mile pace comfortably, then I could probably slow down and go at a like much slower pace and I was like I could probably do this. So when I was running the first marathon, my girlfriend checked in on me. She's like how are you doing? And I was like right now I'm on pace to finish 100 miles by hour 19. So I was like way ahead.
Speaker 1:And then that just kind of like yeah, so I was a little ahead and then things started falling apart around mile 30.
Speaker 2:So did you go straight for the first mile?
Speaker 1:For the first mile.
Speaker 2:Not first, first 26.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I basically I went from start. That's great. I started at 2pm and I went until mile 41. And I was basically hobbling. So I had shifted to go inside on the treadmill because it was getting dark out and I couldn't even maintain a 0.5 on the treadmill. I was like barely moving. So then miserable.
Speaker 1:Are you the next day? It was. It was tough and so I couldn't even move my legs or anything. It was like I had two peg legs and I called it around like 1230 right after mile 41. Went upstairs, I elevated my feet, went to sleep, woke up around like 838 o'clock in the morning, strapped the shoes back on and continued, because the original goal was to run for 24 hours. The target was 100 miles in 24 hours. So I got back down and I continued going and that little bit of sleep there helped reduce some of the swelling and then I was able to kind of pick back up and finish out.
Speaker 2:What'd you do? Gifted you through the miles, yeah, 53. So as I was getting closer to that 50 mile, you understand it's like unbelievable right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, I was talking to a body of mine who actually coaches ultra endurance running. Yeah he was like the fact that your longest run in training was only five miles and you did that a week before the competition. He's like dude. I'm surprised you even made it to like 15 miles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you should go run a real marathon now.
Speaker 1:Well, I ran like a fake marathon a couple of years ago, and that's without training, right.
Speaker 2:26 miles counts, no matter what I call it a marathon, if you hit 26. That's the most impressive shit I ever heard.
Speaker 1:Well, a couple of years ago I did 27 miles, no training, and every mile I had to do 150 reps of exercises. So, I ended up doing like 27 miles and like 4000 reps of these different exercises. So me doing that on training dollars, like you know what, maybe I could do this 100 miles, no, without anything.
Speaker 2:That's unbelievable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it was good. We raised some money for the kids Laureus Foundation, which was founded by Nelson Mandela, so that's kind of cool. It is cool, pretty good stuff there. But tell me, dude, new year, what are some goals you got going for the year? Like, what are you looking to do with the business? I know you said you have some of your own personal kind of things you got going.
Speaker 2:But for the business itself, the business itself is to continue on the same trajectory. I have some like internal financial goals that I want to hit for the agency. I want to keep hiring. You know, rob, at the end of the day, I'm looking to build a largest insurance agency in the Northeast and hopefully, the world, and I think that all my goals are long term goals and I think that 12 months are just benchmarks. They're just checks and check ins to make sure that you're on your path. You know, my biggest goal, rob, is just to make sure that I'm smiling when I wake up. I'm serious Because I've been really low before and this business can do that to you and if you let it do it, you lose and I just want to win baby Nice, win, win, win.
Speaker 1:So what is the size of your business? Right now, it's just you and Eric.
Speaker 2:No, we've got four producers and we've got me.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool. So is your target like trying to get more producers, or you trying to bring, because you said you want to grow it?
Speaker 2:So like ideally. What are you looking? To do a year, so primarily like we have, you know, two of the people that work here.
Speaker 2:they work directly on my team, so like I'm bringing in such a volume of leads that I can't work them all myself, and all myself and there's a lot of evolution that's taking place in the insurance industry that's causing me to have to pivot and change the way I do things. So it's getting people that are experienced to be here, and no training, just jump right in, start selling, start working, because the thing is when I have a bad week the entire agency has bad numbers wise, and if I could bring someone else to establish you know, they could kind of salvage what the agency does.
Speaker 2:I mean personally, Rob, I'm writing enough business a year that is basically more than like four or five producers at like a big company. So it would be better if I could bring in like one or two more people that are established and do this for a bit.
Speaker 1:Nice, where do you find these, like qualified guys, I don't know? Just kind of meet them randomly and network events and such. I haven't had any luck yet. Well, guess you got to get a connect CTNY out there and start having more events.
Speaker 2:I'm very lucky with the staff I have. I truly do love everybody that works here. We need some more experienced people, though, and that's the ones where it's going to be hard to. It's hard to get someone from working for a big company, where they offer you all kinds of shit, to come believe in a pipe dream and come work for you, and you know, being young, as I am not many people want a young boss, but you know you got to see how it goes.
Speaker 1:Sure, I can see that. So you got the insurance thing going. You got a couple of other little things like real estate and such. You've got the connect CTNY which I just mentioned. You want to share a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:Sure Connect CTNY. We're just a networking community designed to change the way networking is done. My partner, mike Spindler, and I we found that networking was sort of just this buttoned up approach where you'd go and you would just talk about what you do for a living. And the one rule I have in business, rob, is when I'm at a meeting and I'm talking to someone, you'd still talk about business. I may be really great at what I do, but one of the things I hate talking about the most to people that I don't know that well is business, because that's not what makes me successful. What makes me successful is I'm a great talker. I know my products better than anyone, but I'm really good at getting to know people because I genuinely enjoy meeting new people.
Speaker 2:I don't want to know what you'd like I want to know the 30 second spark notes of what you do and then we can talk about stuff like what are you doing your free time? You know, like I like that, like I love telling people that I do stand the calendar, I love telling people that I'm a keynote speaker. Just to me that's fun, that makes me unique, that makes me memorable. So we designed Connect CTNY as this unbuttoned networking approach. Come get drunk, have a great time. You know a lot of my friends and the crazy thing is that people that go to these are people that I met through business, that have now become friends and they become family and when they come we can welcome new people into our circles. It's one of the most rewarding things and Connect CT is one of the things I'm most proud of that I've been able to build alongside my partner, mike.
Speaker 1:I really like the unbuttoned approach to it because it kind of gives everybody permission to relax, chill out and kind of just be their normal self. And it's pretty. It's easy, when you're working like an animal all the time, that you don't prioritize like downtime and kind of relaxing and stuff like that. So how do you attack that? How do you make sure that your and your batteries full and you kind of like separate yourself from work to kind of chill out, kind of thing?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I think that's a really good question. I don't think there's. This might be frowned upon. I don't think there's a balance Like there is to a degree.
Speaker 2:Like one thing I'll tell you on the weekends I don't carry my work cell phone. I mean I don't answer any work emails. I don't do anything for work. Sundays I do literally nothing. I don't even leave my couch. 99% of the time I'll clean my house, I'll go to the grocery store and it's back on the couch. It's like two hours of activity and then I consume like 7,000 calories, which is crazy.
Speaker 2:But like there's no turning this off, rob, like an email comes in, I answer it and maybe that's what makes me different than my competition and everybody else in different industries who are trying to make it pay. The reality is, is there's no turning off because I love what I do and I've ingrained what I do into who I am. Austin, the insurance guy, isn't just a brand, it's the way I live my life and being that I'm able to live my life like this, it doesn't even feel like work. The only thing that sucks is this commute to my office. Like I hate that, but other than that, like I'm very happy with who I am.
Speaker 2:What I'm doing I wouldn't change for the world and that's why, if there's anybody who you know I was doing something maybe is a side hustle and they think it can be something and they want to take that leap, they should, because at the end of the day, nobody's going to tell you what to do. I mean, complacency is the best friend of the devil and if you let the devil win, guess what you lose. So take the chance, take the leap, see how it goes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let me ask you though, because you've really made your career out of who you are, but who helped create you who you are? Because had a little, if he, it was a kind of crazy upbringing who are some like role models or like mentors you kind of look to like that helps you kind of shape who you are?
Speaker 2:So when my mom died, after bouncing around for quite a bit after quite a few places, I ended up living with my uncle in Westchester and my aunt and my uncle would never admit to this. But one of the things is he was so hard to be still as to this day. It's kind of mean to me, honestly, but the way he treated me after being someone who had everything handed to me growing up, it taught me the value of the dollar more than anything in the world and I don't know that I'd ever tell him that he did this for me and there's a 0% chance he ever sees this because he doesn't follow me on social media. I attribute a lot of this to him. He really motivated me to. I was told when I'm 18, you're out of the house, you know, like we're not giving any food, like you were not giving any money, like you gotta go figure it out. They always give me food. We're not giving any money to do this, go figure it out. And that sort of like was a motivator. And then, if I had to give you another mentor, like there's two, there's this guy I used to work under. His name's Ian. He taught me the business itself, but learning the business I don't think made me who I am.
Speaker 2:The person that I think really made me who I am is my grandfather, ronnie Popkin, one of the coolest dudes you'll ever meet in your life. It's funny. I stumbled upon a picture tonight from five years ago. I put on my Instagram story and it's just, this man was the coolest motherfucker to ever do it. You know, I wear like four gold chains, ronnie Popkin, how you doing? And that's just who he was. He was me in 60 years. You know Love to golf. He was a big part.
Speaker 2:A human, national hot dog company, love music, love golf, you name it. He was the coolest guy in the world and the reality was he built everything himself too, him and my great uncle, harvey. They used to work for, or they started a company called Poker Pack and what they do is they were kosher butchers and they would sell all the meat to all the big companies and they were kingpins. They had hundreds, thousands of employees at their warehouses in Brooklyn and eventually Hebrew National, the hot dog company, was just getting off the ground and they bought Poker Packing, which went on to be their kosher division, which became everything. My great uncle, harvey, was the president of the company and my grandfather, ronnie, was the vice president of the company. So their business acumen was unprecedented. But the way they lived their lives, man, they lived their lives with as if tomorrow was their last day and every day was about just having to smile on your face and do what you love. So those guys, man, they were special.
Speaker 1:So did you get to hang out or spend a lot of time with your grandfather growing up?
Speaker 2:I lived with him for so actually, I mean I did spend a lot of time. So I moved to Florida in ninth grade. I was there for two and a half years but I was with my grandfather every weekend. When my mom did die, I went and lived after a few house. I lived with my grandfather for about six months where I was going down a bad path and that's why I got out of there.
Speaker 2:But those were special times, I mean. But really though, I always made an admission Like I would go down three or four times a year and I would just stay at his house and vote for him.
Speaker 2:And I mean Rob, I'm not kidding, I'd go down there, just me and him, 85 year old guy 80 year old guy my grandmother. She passed away eventually too, but before he only passed a few years ago. My grandmother was before that, but I would always make an admission to go down to Florida. I'd been going to that house my entire life. And the crazy thing is is my great uncle, harvey. He had a house right down the block in the same gated community, so every Christmas there'd be 20 of us between the two houses and that generation is unfortunately all gone. Now they've all passed. My Harvey's daughter, jill. She bought a house right down the block and after my grandfather passed my uncle, my uncle that took me to my sister bought my grandfather's house. So the generations continue to take over Bokeh Woods and like, for example, I just got back a few days ago, all 20 of us were back there and now it's a new generation and we're still taking over Bokeh Woods.
Speaker 2:And to me I said this in a eulogy I've never really gotten a detail about my family or anything on a podcast, but the coolest thing about my grandfather was not who he was, but the legacy he left and the legacy he built for us, which was Bokeh Woods, because that's where our family goes every Christmas. A few times a year, we all spend time together and we love being around each other. We play golf I mean listen, I'm a guy that has ADHD and can't stop moving. I go down there for 10 days. I do nothing, I don't think about work, I think about nothing but being with my family and to me, that's the most special thing and that's why, when you ask who is someone, that's like a hero and a role model for you. Ronnie Potkin, all day and night. That man made my life what it is and I'm so thankful and I miss him tremendously.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, dude. Oh man, yeah, I appreciate you sharing a little bit more about your family, because I haven't really heard you to share too too much about your family over the years and I can see how, like Kinect, how you run your business, how everything kind of flows together, you place a lot of emphasis on the relationship building and kind of community building and I can see how that helps a lot.
Speaker 2:Like Rob, I just believe that, at the end of the day, like I think, a lot of people fail in business and a lot of people make it in business, but the reality is a couple of things.
Speaker 2:I wanna make it in business on my terms and I wanna do it my way right and I think that kind of what you were saying earlier, like I want my pillar, my first pillar, will always be insurance. That is who I am, but everything that feeds in through it, it's all what I've built and it's all methodical, like every move I make, like I never want anyone to think that I do anything spontaneous, is everything I do is thought through and it's all based on relationships, you know, and it all ties back to like I don't give a fuck what you do for it.
Speaker 2:If I like, you, like let's do business. You know what I mean? Like and it just listen. I keep saying this, but at the end of the day, if you're happy and you love what you do, it's not work. It's not hard to think these things through. It's not hard to find the time and go to the gym. It's not hard to be you. It's not hard to make money.
Speaker 1:What's hard is finding what you love, and that's why yeah, and to piggyback on that, it's a little bit harder, even when you get stuck in a job or a position where you don't feel fulfilled and you're trapped under that paycheck and you're like I can't leave, I can't do anything else because you rely so heavily on that paycheck. The rabbits, yeah, that's tough. So if you were to boil it all down and pick one piece of advice to survive the side hustle or just be successful in general, curious to see what would you say? Is that one piece?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's funny. I have a brother that I never talked about. I used to be really close with him when I was growing up and up until I left that really big insurance company. Him and I would speak every fucking day, texts every day. And one of the things when I was a kid because he's 12 years old when I was a kid and, by the way, we worked for the same insurance company we were like the Glacier Brothers. We took over the goddamn world together and one of the cool things you know that cool I mean.
Speaker 2:I always think it was crazy. He would always say to me just be you, just be you. And that was the voice he would do. He would go low and just be you. The end of the day, that's all you can do. Just be you, be the person that you want to be and watch what happens.
Speaker 2:Everybody is out here trying to be something. They're not and I've been guilty of it in the past. You know you wear a crazy watch, you live a certain lifestyle, you drive a crazy car, you have the biggest house. You know what the best thing is Having a car that's fully paid off, a house that's fully paid off, living below your means so that when it gets tough, you don't have anyone who will press and you don't have anywhere to go because you're fine. Everybody is so focused on what everybody else thinks, but not enough people are focused on just being themselves and being happy in their own skin with who they are. And you know where that all starts. It starts on your calendar, when you create routines and you build out blocks to get your ass to the gym and make yourself more confident in your own skin. So my one piece of advice that I'm giving to everybody Rob, just be you.
Speaker 1:Be you. Yeah, I love that dude, but that could be difficult, like you said. So some people struggle to kind of figure out, like what it is exactly they want and all those things too, and don't you have a coaching program?
Speaker 2:Can't they call you?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I mean I, I help people figure that out. That's the special thing, all right good, so we're plugging you here.
Speaker 2:So listen, if you don't, if you can't be you and you need somewhere to go, I got a coach just for you, call Rob Tracks and it'll help you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, love that dude. Shame with shout out.
Speaker 2:What about for?
Speaker 1:yourself. Now, how do people get in contact with you? I need insurance. Where do I go?
Speaker 2:Don't call me no, I'm just kidding. Just looking up on Instagram, austin Glazer, you'll see everything you could ever need to see from there.
Speaker 1:We got planned coming up. You got any performances, stage, stand up, anything speaking. Anything on the calendar right now.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, I do. I'm actually speaking at A to B. It hasn't been announced yet, but you know I was actually thinking about something pretty cool. Today, rob, we could say we're staring to share on the stage at Mylet and Jen Gottlieb. I don't know who these people are, but like I've heard they're pretty powerful people and like we're sharing a stage with them, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, between Alex Morton and Jen Gottlieb, I think they've got.
Speaker 2:Oh, I was wrong, it's not Ed Mylet, it's Alex Morton.
Speaker 1:I don't know. Maybe Alex Morton is definitely confirmed, but I don't know about Ed Mylet. Okay, I'm kidding. Between those guys between Jen and Alex. They've got over 2 million followers, so it's pretty.
Speaker 2:Right. And then there's little old us. Now it's a speaker school. I think you're going to be at Dude. I got to like step that up. I like love doing it. I got to be honest with you. I love the public speaking stuff like probably more than I do anything else. I love just being able to get on a stage and just like helping others like truly realize their full potential. You know what I mean. I think that one day when I retire in the next nine years, I want to fully just commit myself to helping people live a better life.
Speaker 1:All right. So there you go, heard it first. Stay tuned for Austin Glazer, the coaching program coming out in the next nine years.
Speaker 2:Retirement coming, baby, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, man Dude, I appreciate you taking the time and hopping on today. I know you're pretty busy fitting me in the calendar, love that Calendar baby. You got anything else you want to share, promote real quick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you guys should buy insurance for me.
Speaker 1:I'm the man there you go, you're going to find him.
Speaker 2:You should get coach, rob, if you don't have the time to call me.
Speaker 1:There you go, two of them Boom, boom, hey, don.
Speaker 2:Hey, Alex.
Speaker 1:Seriously, dude, though, I appreciate you taking the time. We got to connect again. We got to go out grab some food or something, Some beers. I'm waiting for the next CTNY event. I don't know when that's popping up.
Speaker 2:Oh Mike, Let Mike plan the next one. Tell Mike to get his ass on it and we'll get an event going soon.
Speaker 1:All right, I'll get on it right after this call.
Speaker 2:All right, good, but on the calendar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, dude, appreciate it, man, we'll see you again soon sometime, all right, all right, peace, peace, peace, bye.