Jacob interviews Austin Saylor, a motion designer and mograph community mentor from Arizona. Austin shares his story of getting into motion design, surviving an apartment building fire, quitting his job to start his own motion design business, building and launching an online course, and mentoring others in the motion graphics community.
Jacob interviews Austin Saylor, a motion designer and mograph community mentor from Arizona. Austin shares his story of getting into motion design, surviving an apartment building fire, quitting his job to start his own motion design business, building and launching an online course, and mentoring others in the motion graphics community.
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Austin Saylor
I can't back out. I could just say something happened. I can't do it, or just pretend like it never never said it. Because it was so freakin scary to put myself out there.
And so the first time launching was just the absolute worst. Just the whole process. I mean, it went really well. Like I sold 40 seats and made $16,500. And so I was like, oh, okay, so I'm glad I did this. I'm glad I followed through.
Jacob Miller
Hey, there, you're listening to never done this before a podcast where I interview humans that had the courage to start something new and take action. This podcast is for those that want to discover their purpose to understand what is possible.
To be inspired to start their own journey into something new, whether it's a new career, a hobby, starting something in your community, or changing the way you live your life. None of those things are simple, and they're not easy. I hope you find valuable insight and gain fresh new perspectives from each episode. I'm your host, Jacob Miller. On the internet, some people come and kinetic bear. Either way, I'm glad you're here. So thanks for joining us. All right, Episode Two. In this episode, I talk with Austin sailor emotion designer and community mentor from Phoenix, Arizona, I can say that I've had the opportunity to hang out with Austin a real life and it's been a pleasure to get to know him as a friend. We talked about getting into motion design, what it was like going freelance building an online course and launching it and so much more. I'm excited to share all the things we talked about. So let's get to it.
Welcome to the show, Austin. How's it going?
Austin Saylor
Hey, thanks for having me, it's, it's going well.
Jacob Miller
yeah, yeah. So this is Episode Two, it's kind of my first recording yesterday. So it's like feel like, I'm starting to understand not to say, um, all that kind of stuff. You know how that goes like you start to hear yourself. So it's been, it's been interesting. So let's kind of dig into who you are what you do. So, you know, some people might be listening, like, what is the motion designer? I think I kind of know what that is. Do I really know what it is? So maybe just talk about what you do and kind of what you've been up to lately?
Austin Saylor
Great. Yeah. So yeah, motion designer. I like to think of it as a mix of graphic design, and these kind of like animation and filmmaking, but it can be in short form or long form thing. So it could be the graphics that show up on a news, a news station channel, where like, the weather animates and that's motion graphics, or it could be an animated logo. I do a lot of animated logos for people on YouTube channels.
And then there's other things like animated explainer videos. Have you ever gone to a new tech
You know, a site or something and they have a video that's about a minute long. A lot of those are animated. And so I do lots of kind of a variety of types of animations for people. But then I've also more recently been teaching how to do that kind of stuff. So yeah, that's what I do.
Jacob Miller
Yeah, awesome. Yeah, I remember, we became friends through I think it's through Twitter. I feel like we had some random conversations happening on the Twitter universe. I don't know if you commented on something or I saw you in a thread and then we just it was a while back but I just remember I don't know if I was asking a question of like, how to do something and After Effects by just remember always going through the YouTube tutorials. And then I saw you had a lettering animation course, which is super cool. And then I think just like our, our, our friendship just kind of grew over, you know, either helping each other out or just like sharing cool things on Twitter. Do you remember like how the all that started? I'm not really sure, but
Austin Saylor
I have no idea how it actually started. I just noticed
It was on Twitter. And I feel like that happens sometimes you just like, hey, wait, how did Where did this thing begin? I don't know. But yeah, yeah, it's just a fun Twitter turn to actual friendship. Yeah, that's cool.
Jacob Miller
Yeah, yeah. And we've met in real life twice now. Right twice, I think, once or twice, at least twice. The first time was two years ago.
And then yeah, you came over to the Airbnb. We were staying. I was there for my for my friend's race. Yeah, I remember. Yeah. And then but we've hung out with three times because you hung out there. And then we went and got pasties
at the Cornish hen and then in Phoenix, and then we came back and went again to a different location, but we got passes again. Yeah.
But yeah,
but yeah, Internet's such such a strange place and I think to like the motion designer, world on on Twitter is so awesome. Like it's very supportive, very helpful. Like I
Everyone's like, if you have a question people usually answer. Or if you're looking for feedback people usually give it and it's like a very, like, what are your thoughts on like the Twitter like atmosphere with emotion design group?
Austin Saylor
Yeah, the motion design world is really awesome. I mean, there's, there's good people and bad people everywhere. But for the most part, I've found the motion design community to be incredibly helpful. And just, like responsive, they'll go out of their way to help you and figure things out or ask other people. It's not very cutthroat. I don't think I don't see much of that. But yes, it's awesome. Yeah, I agree. It's just it's already sunshine. Yeah. Yeah.
Jacob Miller
Yeah, for sure. So let's, um, and then I want you to kind of tackle maybe talk about full harbor. I know it's obviously you do freelance work. But I know full harbor has been kind of a newer endeavor for you, and kind of maybe explain that to people and why you're pursuing that a little bit.
Austin Saylor
Yeah. So I'll back up a little bit to get to it. So I would have been a
Motion designer for about five or six years I kind of bled into it from being a videographer and graphic designer. And so I basically figured out, oh, I can put my graphics on videos, and I can make a move, and then transitioned into just doing the animation side of things. And is designed for the animation. But I don't do static graphic design for clients anymore. But after getting into animation for a little bit, I started to develop this style of animating letters, which got me into animating or creating a course called the lettering animation course. It's a longer story of getting into that. But I created that and I've been running that for a couple years, two or three years. And then I had a business coach say like, well, what are you offering? How are you helping people when they get rid of or get done with lettering animation course and I was like, I don't really have anything yet. I was thinking of creating another course I don't know. And so basically for a year, this guy was like, you should create a membership on something that's
a lower price point, but less intensive in terms of the time you have to put into it. But you can keep serving the people that want to learn from you. And so I dragged my feet for a long time, like I usually do, and eventually launched full harbor. And I've been running it for just over a year, we had like 135 inaugural, calling the founding members. And, yeah, it's been a really great experience really changed my life a lot, because I put a lot of focus into that membership. And, yeah, I just love serving people in the capacity of like, we have a chat, and we do monthly, I do a monthly workshop for them that's more business focused, or mindset shifting something that's going to help them in their career. And then we do like there's some animation training and basically, it's like fireside chat kind of things where we just talk about a topic and get together. So
yeah, it's been really, really cool.
Jacob Miller
Awesome.
Yeah, I know, we can definitely go back into that. I think there's definitely a lot more there. So before we do, just I want to dig into talk a little bit more about like, you know, what's your personal life like? And then we'll kind of go back to the, the origin story of Austin as a motion designer. But like, yeah, so what, like what, you know, when you're not doing motion design, like what's your personal life? Like, do you know what's your family life? Like, you know, friends, hobbies, stuff like that, like, what do you do in your spare time?
Austin Saylor
Yeah, so I've been skateboarding since high school. So I do that a lot. actually met a great group of friends out here in Phoenix skateboarding last summer. I got there like 635 30 basically trying to get there before this, the hot sun kills you. And there was a bunch of people out there that I just kind of became friends with. We're in this big Instagram group now. And so that's been a big part of my life. A little bit less in the winter. And now that we're all kind of cooped up, we're not seeing each other as much, but that's been an awesome
to my life, and my wife and I moved to Phoenix like three years ago, so everything kind of changed for us because we uprooted from North Carolina. But um, yeah, let's I don't have any other like, actual hobbies. Like, I don't knit and I don't do any particular craft. But I do enjoy.
I don't know, what do I enjoy doing? I enjoy watching movies, walking with my wife and our dog and yeah, we used to make leather stuff into I did actually she used to make leather wallets and help belts and purses. And that's where actually the name full harbor came from. That was the night before my leather leather brand was called full Harper. It's all connected. Yeah, but I I don't have my tools anymore. So I don't do any of that.
Jacob Miller
Yeah, I totally get that. Yeah. Like I used to do screen printing. And I did that for years and but it's like take you know, it's just like takes up space and you know, if you sometimes you just need to remove things from your life to create room for the more important things and It just happens.
Austin Saylor
It does.
Jacob Miller
Yeah, yeah. Um, another one I know you're you're a music fan yourself on what music Have you been listening to lately?
Austin Saylor
Yeah.
I want to say something cool like, Well, I have been listening to some San Holo.
I don't know what type of music I think I looked it up a while ago and it was like a trap EDM I don't really understand that world a whole lot but I really liked the music and super fun. And the love the San Holo name just because like Han Solo, but he
so I've been listening to some of that LP. She's an amazing singer. He's just the letters LP, okay. And her albums are great. I saw her in in concert like a year ago and just shoot shit. It's the weirdest thing. She has his whistle. That sounds like a whip. And she can do it live like it's not just a they they cost A rare moment of a good whistle on recording like she does it live and it's just so powerful. It's super cool. So LP is awesome. But the more honest answer is I've really been listening to Justin Bieber's new album on repeat for
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, I watched
Jacob Miller
that interview that he had was like a month ago, just about how he's his life is just so different. Now. We know he kind of had like this crazy epiphany, and all this stuff like, with his wife and everything. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was like some heavy stuff to watch. Like, I was like, I've never seen him talk like this before. Like, it's just really cool.
Austin Saylor
Yep. Yeah, I've been funny. I've been a fan of his since he was a little kid. And it was kind of an accident. My wife was taking her younger sister who's like six years younger than her to Justin Bieber concert for her birthday. And you know, when you go to a concert, it's not fun to not know any of the songs. So yeah, she got her sister to burn her CD, and we listened to it all the way down like from North Carolina to Florida and back By the end of the drive, you know, they're like, I don't know we're in the car for like 20 something hours listening to Justin Bieber a lot of the time we're both singing and we look at each other like oh my gosh, I think I love Justin Bieber
Jacob Miller
there's worse things to fall in love with so I mean, I don't know nothing wrong with Justin Bieber at all.
Austin Saylor
Yeah, it's um it's a weird one but that I guess it takes people by surprise because also like hardcore metal stuff.
Jacob Miller
Yeah, cuz we were just talking about what band just well hardcore band just came back together and there were this year. Yeah, beloved. Yeah. And it's like, yeah, sweet. So yeah, actually totally forgot that was happening. And now they're just like, they're not going to do it now.
Austin Saylor
Yeah, so I know. It's so sad.
Jacob Miller
Um, yeah, well, cool. And then the other random question I always have, you know, if you weren't doing what you do now in money, you know, really wasn't an issue. What could you see yourself doing as a career like what other thing would you do?
Austin Saylor
I think that if motion design was off the table, I might do something along the lines of coaching or personal finance, I find money talking about money really fascinating.
Yeah. And
what I love doing is helping people kind of overcome blocks where that block is a creative one they don't understand After Effects and they need to help like Usher them into an understood a better understanding of After Effects so they can create more. Whether that's like create better art, or create more financially secure future. I think that that to me, was something that I would end up going down if motion design was off the table. Yeah, if money wasn't a thing, period, and I just had unlimited amounts, probably doing lots of like snowboarding and having fun, but yeah, I really enjoy helping people. kind of make breakthroughs. And so, and honestly, it's funny because I'm, I'm kind of moving in that direction, not as like a pivot but as an add on to Yeah. Just more personalized, deeper helping with,
Jacob Miller
with, I think, you know, with obviously, like motion design is very related to, you know, graphic design as well and even web design and other other things. And there's nothing wrong with coaching people, because a lot of times, like whether it's like a freelancer or like even a smaller agency, just knowing how to manage your money and prepare yourself for even times, like, you know, times that were you kind of, there's no revenue coming in this month, like we're kind of slow, making sure you have that, you know, little safety net. There's a lot of those different things that come into play, to kind of help you help you not survive, but thrive no matter kind of what happens to your business. So I know it's, there's opportunities for you to go even more if you wanted to. So,
Austin Saylor
yep, yeah.
Jacob Miller
Well, awesome. Well, so let's, let's, uh, now let's go back, we're gonna go back to To the beginning, there's actually like a there's a movie that Jeff Daniels created called escanaba and moonlight. Have you ever seen that before? No, I haven't. So he made this movie about people in upper Michigan in this deer camp, his hunting camp, and his dad is like narrating the beginning and he's like talking and he's like, you got to go back to the beginning like he says the head so I always think that in my brain when I read that line here, but can you say that again? Go back to the beginning. Like,
Austin Saylor
it's very like grandpa like, you need like a sound clip of that and you just
Jacob Miller
place I tried to find it on Google because like, I almost want to use it as like a soundbite in here, but yeah, I haven't found it yet. I must like, rip it off like a DVD or something. That's um, that means I have to get a DVD player and also stuff. No, it's okay. So anyway, let's go back to like when you you know that first like three months A year where you started kind of doing motion design and motion graphics stuff. And kind of like where I think I remember you said you kind of did. You did video in New York, I think you worked in a more corporate environment. And then you kind of get into freelance, maybe just talk about that kind of first phase of your life of getting into motion graphics, like what, you know, you know, what were you? What were you doing then? And what was it like? What was going on in your life and going on your head? And then why did you want to change to do I guess we'll just say, from working in a corporate to doing freelance, you know, what was going on in your head at the time, I guess?
Austin Saylor
Yeah. So at that point in my life, I had been working at a software company for going on seven. I worked there for a total seven and a half years. So for some period of time, maybe a year before I left the job. I was starting to get more serious about motion design. And the whole time I was at the job. I kind of knew that wasn't my forever place. But I didn't know how to get out exactly because I wasn't doing the creative work. That Get me hired. And so I was trying things I was trying to do like branding as a freelancer, like in moonlighting. I tried doing some web design, and I was really bad, really bad at that. And so I had, like, you know, two clients, and I was like, Okay, yeah, this isn't for me. And I was constantly looking for the thing that could be the thing that would take me out of the job and either go get another job or start a business. And so things were always in the back of my head, like turning on, what can I do to you know, create the job or the career that I really want? And that was Yeah, so that was the thing kind of running in the back of my head. And then when I when I started to do motion design. The was funny the thing that really, I can pinpoint one, like super pivotal moment that changed a lot for me, and it was, I was about to buy a ticket to go to After Effects world, which I don't think is called After Effects world anymore. It's like more of a videoconference but I was going to go do that. And Seattle, in my, the company I was working for, they were going to pay for me to go they like they liked me to go do one kind of conference a year. And so right before I signed up for it, I saw a tweet from like somebody retweeted mograph mentor, and it was like, you know, four days until enrollment closes, join mograph mentor sounds like that sounds super interesting. I looked into it. And I was like, this is going to be the same price or cheaper than going to this conference. And it's going to be like, I can remember 10 or 12 weeks or something like that of, like, a couple hours a week of mentor time with a professional. Like, that's gonna be way more valuable. So I got them to pay for that. And that was the thing that really, I got such a deep dive into what it what it takes to be a motion designer, what it takes to be like, kind of, I don't know, go from from beginning like a concept into delivering a project and I was hooked. Like that was kind of the moment that I can look back and now say like that really changed everything. It says it was really, it was interesting because I was on the hunt on the lookout for the thing. And, and finally motion design kind of came in and grabbed me It sort of felt like,
Jacob Miller
yeah, yeah, I remember when mograph mentor came up to and there were so many times, I was like, I'm gonna sign up for this thing. But then I think I instead I did skillshare.com it was not really the same time, but it was around the same couple years. But yeah, I was also working and doing that. So. Okay, cool. So you were working in the corporate job at the software company. And you got them to pay for mograph mentor, correct. As you said,
Austin Saylor
yeah. And I used I got them to so basically what I what I figured out was I'm pretty sure I can do my own project inside of mograph mentor in one of my big projects and mograph mentor, I'll just do for the company. I work for you that way I'm I'm learning but I'm also giving value to the, to the company I work for. Yeah, for sure. And they were like, Oh, yeah, cool. And then they that paying for the second one too, because they saw like, okay, you're improving a lot. Let's keep doing this. Yeah. And the last one was marketed. The marketing copy on mograph mentor was very geared towards like getting you a job finding you a place at a studio. And so I didn't even ask for them to pay for that one. I didn't want them to think I was leaving. Yeah, yeah. It's a little different. And so I paid for that one. But it was really nice to have the first to
pay for.
Jacob Miller
It was Yeah, for sure. Yeah. That's awesome. So then you went through that, and, and then kind of what happened? What happened next?
Austin Saylor
Yeah. So what happened next was,
let's see. Yeah, so I took the mograph mentor, I ended up I was in animation boot camps. Beta class, so the School of motion. Yeah. And they were both kind of coming out around the same time. And that was another one of those like, that kicked me into high gear. I just I felt like I understood after effects as much as I needed to to be confident that I know what I'm doing and After Effects, I know that I can generate animations that look good every time even if they're not the best. They're not going to I kept getting the result of randomly getting, making things cool making good animations, but I didn't know what it was. And so basically, investing in these online courses really boosted my confidence in my ability to animate. And then there's a couple things that happened but one of the big things was my, my wife and I were living in an apartment, and in the middle of a night, I should about five years ago now. We heard a banging on the door and basically, somebody caught our apartment on fire by accident, and we were like, found ourselves rushing out of our apartment superfast barely made it out. And our whole place burned down. And so It, it gave us this like, crazy moment of life is short, you know, it felt very real, you know, you know that but then you have an experience of something that's near death. Because like we if we didn't hear him banging on our neighbor's door below us, there's a good chance we would have died like two minutes, two minutes after we woke up, fire was coming out of our windows, this smoke alarms didn't go off because there wasn't any smoke. It just happened so fast. So we were stuck there with like, Oh my gosh, wait, we feel so grateful to be alive. It was devastating. And that trauma of all that took a long time to kind of go through and work through but it definitely put us on this trajectory of like, we're not going to let this be a bad thing in our life. We're going to let like this is going to be a turning point in the positive. And so we just look for every opportunity to like make moves on the things that we really wanted to do. And we stopped hesitating on them. And we stopped you I don't know. We still waste our time some but it's like we we had this
fire lit under our butts literally.
Jacob Miller
I was thinking that in my head, I was waiting for the opportunity to
Austin Saylor
sing it. You took it. It's all got it. And yeah that that was just like a big day I didn't quit my job and like quit my job immediately. But I spent the next year waking up early and getting work done. I was like, my, my time in the morning. Nobody claims that the 6am to 8am Yeah. And so I just or 5am I was really dedicated to putting in the work to develop a skill that I could go, like market myself in other places. And yeah, and then about a year, no less than a year after the fire. I quit my job and went freelance.
Jacob Miller
Yeah, so So were you kind of building up clients like between, like that? No,
Austin Saylor
no, just jumped. I was just doing the Like I was networking with other freelancers, I was I was networking with the industry on Twitter, Instagram, I think Instagram was, it was kind of a thing at that point, up and coming place to be posting your work. But really, Twitter was kind of my, my place to I felt very connected. I've been going to some conferences, I went to blend fest. I was going to like creative south. And so I was listening to other people's stories and asking them questions about how they went freelance. And it wasn't a planned thing. I wasn't like on this date, I'm gonna go freelance and I'm ready. But I had been saving up money. And so we worked really hard to like pay my wife's school loans off and then start saving money. Because we knew that we were going to make some kind of leap whether that was to a new job or a new city or going freelance. So stuff at work happened that it was I was really ready to go. without going into too many details. I quit my job very suddenly because of some stuff. went down at work. And I just didn't feel like it was it was just too toxic. And I, I was like, you know what we have, I can't remember if it's three to six months of savings, maybe solid three months of savings. And I was like, if we cut back, we can make that four months. And if I get any jobs in between now and those four months, that would just extend the runway while I'm looking for a job, but I was like, letting the world know that I was freelance. I was vlogging. I've I think I posted like 10 vlogs.
Jacob Miller
I remember when you did that. Yeah.
Austin Saylor
And and that was actually pretty crucial. From what I can understand, like looking back at my, my trajectory was that I was telling the story of being freelance and going freelance and what it was like, and it was scary, but it was exciting. And that got the attention of people they were like, sending me jobs that they couldn't take so that's how I got a lot of my first jobs. And I got I was given the advice that being desperate really doesn't exist. Big, puts people off. And I took that to heart and I was like, I'm never going to be the kind of Freelancer who says, Oh my gosh, a job just got canceled. I need a job, can somebody send me a job help? I wanted to always provide something of value. And if I wanted people to know that I needed work, I was going to talk about how I love working with clients. I was going to talk about my process and let let the like show instead of tell I guess, and that seemed to work pretty well. So it's, it's one of those things that it's not what I advise, don't do what I did do what I say or whatever. But at the same time, sometimes you just know and you can just go for it. But it's also nice if you get some build up some clients beforehand, and you know, get comfortable sending invoices, quoting a lot higher than you, you know, get for your your normal day job. stuff, because we need more money because you don't know when you're gonna get paid. And you got to pay a lot more taxes and health insurance and all that fun stuff. Yeah. Did you
Jacob Miller
switching into from, you know, getting benefits and obviously a paycheck from a company to, you know, managing your own finances? Did you get advice and kind of like a starting point from mograph mentor to do that? Or did you it was, you know, how did that happen? How did you kind of figure out how to like start your business and manage what was happening?
Austin Saylor
CARE IF I GOT specific advice from mograph? mentor? I'm sure we talked about it in there a bit, huh? It was a little more focused on like the art direction and the creative side of the projects. Yeah. But I was also in the Sean West community. And in there, we talked a lot about money, money mindsets. Yeah, what it takes to do client work, and not in the sense that like, in the motion design industry, at least there's a lot of freelancers Who primarily are only work through other studios. So the thing that's really more technically what the word freelance means is like, you are going in and working part time at a place until they hit for the project for a couple projects, whatever. But what I was doing was really a lot more of like running my own business. So my style is newer, but yeah, I was taking on client work directly, primarily. And every once in a while working through a studio. Yeah, gotcha.
Jacob Miller
Yeah, cuz I think with everyone that's like, when they make that jump, they kind of know, if I can make this much money or in their head, they think, oh, if I made 50 K a year before, if I can make 50 K, I'll be okay. That's usually not the case. Usually, you know, obviously have operation costs you have, you know, taxes and all that stuff. So after all that stuff, then what are you getting paid from your money? Now, there's a lot more stuff to think about. Are there any resources you know, you said you talked about Shawn West a little bit, but any other reasons That you found helpful for like helping figure that out? Or do you know do you lean on other people to do that? Like, do you know obviously, I would think that you have an accountant that you might work with? Or do you do it to yourself? I'm just kind of curious like what you do to kind of help manage what you're doing?
Austin Saylor
Yeah, I've actually primarily done it myself. Funny. Every every year I've gone with a different way of filing taxes. I've never had an actual accountant myself. But I've had h&r block's do h&r block, do my taxes. I've had a family member do taxes I've done to myself. I'm trying to think there's another way I've done it. And this year, I'm going to go with an actual accountant. Who I don't know. Yeah, yeah. I'm excited to go to a person who does taxes for other creative people. Oh, cool, or other like solopreneur Freelancer type folks.
Jacob Miller
Very cool. And I can imagine just Go ahead Sorry, I was
Austin Saylor
just gonna say that in terms of other resources I don't I don't have any off the top of my head. The the main things I've gone by in terms of money, it's, it can be fairly simple. Basically, like, put away 35% somewhere between 25 and 35% it's going to be different for different states and different outlets, obviously different countries. But in the United States, I've been I've basically been putting away 25 plus percent for taxes anytime I get money that comes in, and then making sure that you're categorizing all of your, your invoices, or your, your all of your payments so that you can have that ready for taxes and setting up an LLC and like having your own business bank account that was crucial. Instead of trying to run things out of your personal bank accounts that gets real messy and just separating things is nice. I'm not this isn't legal advice. Okay, but you know, it's it's just smart business stuff to set up some some legalities and separating your personal money from your business money and pay yourself a regular salary. And just try to you know, get ahead of your your what you McCallum's expenses inside of your business and personal makes life a lot easier.
Jacob Miller
What's your McCollum sounds more exciting though? expenses? It's like expenses. Oh, what are my columns? Those are great. I love which columns?
Austin Saylor
Yes.
Jacob Miller
Yeah, cool. Awesome. Also to like when, you know when you're going through this transition, like what I mean, obviously, there's obviously like the, this fear of failure and stuff, I guess, you know, so that fire happened is super motivated you You made this jump, you know, as you're kind of going through that first, you know, three to six months of, of that runway, like I guess like what was going through your head and I guess you know, where there any, like certain types of struggles that you that were more to the front versus other ones or I'm just kind of curious.
Austin Saylor
Yeah. So when I first went freelance, I happen to have a pretty busy like first two or three months. And I was like, Man, this freelance thing is awesome. I was making at least twice as much money as I usually did. But I basically, we already had a vacation plan that was a two week vacation. And I was like, This is great. Like freelance is going great. I don't have to worry too much. I'll just work up until we leave. Well, then I started realizing Well, if my projects are typically one to two weeks long, then I can't take anything that's going to bleed into that vacation because I'll be gone. I can't work and then coming back so my two week vacation turned into I can't work for about six weeks. And that that started scaring me and I was like, oh my gosh. And then coming back. It had that kind of start over thing where I had to started marketing myself and putting myself back out there to start picking up projects. And so I've definitely had several moments of like, oh, man, is this thing gonna work? Am I gonna have to go get a job. And things have just always worked out. It has gotten stressful a few times. But it's, I don't know that there's a lot of risk when you go when you leave a job and just go out on your own, like you don't have that regular paycheck coming in. So to me, it's all about really knowing that when you do that you're you are a business. You're not just a freelancer, you have to take care of yourself and you have to take care of your business by securing jobs by securing great relationships with people and it's not for everybody. But for those who you know, want it bad enough and I don't know just are willing to take that risk, then the reward is really great. Like it Like, my life now is so much happier. I can easily slip into that place of thinking, like, man, things kind of suck, or this is rough. But I, I'm pretty good at going. But look at your life before this when you were told what to do at a job you didn't really like. And I had no control over the projects that I took or did. Yeah, that, that for me. I can't imagine going back to work for somebody else. Unless it's just like the crazy best fit. I don't know. I just I love the the freedom of figuring things out on my own and building what I want in terms of a business. Even if that doesn't work, even if when it fails. And I have to try something else. It's still just it's the life that I love. So, yeah, I've kind of went off topic from what you asked. No,
Jacob Miller
no, I think that's great. I think it's something that People need to hear I mean, I think we all know it's like risky and stuff. But I think just thinking about, you know, what's going through your head. And I think too, and I think now more than ever, like you talked about earlier, is that you're in a perfect position. Now it's been, you know, half a decade, five years, you've got all this experience, and you have like this, this very giving, you know, giving personality giving heart like you want to help other people. And now it's like, even more rewarding because you not only not only do you have more freedom with what you do and why you do it, but now you have freedom to help people more than ever. So I think that's, that's super powerful, too. So, I know you mentioned mograph mentor, obviously, because I want to go into mentorship a little bit and how, who, I guess who was in your life that kind of helped you grow? So were there specific people outside of mograph mentor, maybe you met them through that program that were kind of mentors of the craft and they they were people that helped like show you the way were there specific people or was it kind of just like, the whole community was great, like helping me go? I'm just kind of curious where if there was any of that happening?
Austin Saylor
Yeah. I didn't really have anybody like very specifically that I was like, This person is my mentor. But I looked up to a lot of people as my mentor, either mentor from afar or like online mentors. And people like yeah, Joey Wallace, a Michael Jones, who runs mograph mentor, a huge, huge mentor of mine. The three mentors that I had inside of mograph mentor were huge and very influential in the way that I approached my career. Shawn, Wes, or Sean McCabe, who runs Shawn Wes, another huge mentor of mine, Joey Koren Minh, he wrote an amazing book that really helped shape my freelance approach to reaching out to clients. He wrote the freelance Manifesto. incredible book Yeah, so I feel like I've had a ton of mentors. And it was funny as I've actually started to intentionally kind of call my thing as a photography term calling we, you, you like, take away the things that aren't working. And you, you're basically cutting some things out. So I've been trying to reduce the number of people I consider my mentor, because I had this epiphany standing in Barnes and Noble one day, looking at all these business books, I'm like, I love I love reading business books, marketing books. Just it, I love it. It's fascinating self development stuff. So mindset books. I wish that I could just ingest all of that knowledge all at once. And that's what I thought about like, man, if I could be in the matrix and download all of this. It would just be so amazing. And then it hit me. Well, it hit me I was like, if I could do that, that actually wouldn't be very good. Because they're all going to have contradictory And I'm not going to know which one is the right one to do what's best for me. And so it kind of hit me that more information isn't necessarily better. And choosing my mentors, choosing my role models, intentionally is going to be a little bit more powerful. And not thinking like, I'll be able to be successful when I read 50 new business books. Yeah. And so that's, that's kind of how I've been approaching the concept of mentors lately. And I've had some business coaches as well. And so that's, yes, it's mentors and coaching, anything like that can be very, very powerful. I know. Like, for real, I wouldn't be anywhere near where I am actually. I'll tell you my original mentor. This is another one of those. Like, if this hadn't happened, I wouldn't be where I am, are things would just be totally different. And it was my first year at my job. So right out of college 2008 I heard about this thing called audible. It's like, cool, you can listen to audiobooks, and it's like, I mean, I don't even think there was on Amazon at the time. Maybe it was and it you know, they're the same thing back then you sign up and you get a free book, the like, cool, sweet, free book, what should I get? And I saw on their like, suggested list, a book called The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. And I was like, that's so cheesy. And then I look to my right and look to my life. No one was looking so I bought it but that's my free book. Put it on my iPod, and listen to it probably like four times. And it just blew me away. I was like this. This is the life this the life I want. I want to be he called it the new rich. That is basically the concept of you don't have to trade your time for dollars. There is there are ways that you can use the internet and your wisdom and your knowledge your accumulated To create products or services or whatever, that you can, like, make money, not based on how many hours you put into a project. And I didn't know at the time what the heck I would do, but that was, that was the beginning for me. That took 10 it was 10 years later. So nine or 10 years later before I actually launched anything that was internet product related, which is the lettering animation course. Yeah, you know, I'd rather wait 10 years and be patient with that. I've learned that I'm a pretty patient person. in general. It pays off to be patient and not just give up on the notion that you can make money on the internet. It's kind of weird.
Jacob Miller
Yeah. What I know you talked about business and marketing books and how there's a lot a lot of them and I'm the same way like I just want to know all the things and I'm the kind of person I'll take like little bites little bites of each book in my car. And it just it opens up your your mind a little bit to like different ways of thinking to like I've been really digging in like, like understanding different mental models like basically how to analyze information, and then make a plan based off that information. Well, that sounds really cool. Yeah, there's actually I'm also sure I'll share with you later, I can't off the top my head, but there's a guy. He works for bear metrics. And he actually started an online marketing course. It's all about mental models for marketers. And it's just ways to approach problems or campaign ideas and like, how do you how do you kind of like, take all this information you have, and then create a theory and then pursue that theory?
Austin Saylor
Sounds awesome.
Jacob Miller
Yeah, I know. Right? It's like, it's like a note like you said, it's like another thing to add, like how many you know, but it is a tool in the belt, and we use all these different tools.
Austin Saylor
And I know I remember I remember when I saw you the first time in Phoenix, I gave you the building a story brand book. I was like, you have to have this book. And I like, it was like my other copy. I was like, as like here. I want you Have it. That's like one of my favorite books. And he I think he just released another one, Donald Miller. Cool What? What are your kind of top two or three, you know, like books, I guess when it comes to, you know, business or marketing or like just mental like leadership that you would recommend for people to check out. Number one, I would suggest deep work by Cal Newport. Basically that book is saying that the in today's world Yeah, for knowledge workers, which, you know, if you're doing any kind of creative work, or internet work, basically, anything that can be done from home, that you're a knowledge worker, and that the, the people who will be the most relevant are the ones who are at the edge of understanding like they're, they are pushing the boundaries they're under like they're really able to understand a depth that other people don't dive into depth that people never do not wording it very well but basically, he teaches you how to cultivate the space and the mental ability to stay focused for like 90 minutes at a time, basically, as I talked about that being a maximum that you should expect, and that by doing that, and cultivating this ability to stay focused, you will, like never become irrelevant. You can always learn something new that's hard and difficult. Because today's a day and age where like, it's so easy to get sucked into social media that pings of any kind of notification. I think we're all kind of aware that that's a problem. But deep work shows you why and how to kind of combat that issue and make yourself a better creative person, a better thinker and a better viewer. Yeah, so that's my first one I always recommend to people.
I'm looking back at my bookshelf.
Let's see
fully answered I don't have another recommendation off the top of my head. Because it's like there's so many that have influenced me and that's the deep work is one of those that's at the top of my head like always, it's so good. Actually, Cal Newport has another book called so good. They can't ignore you that book came first. Oh yeah, yep. There's a chapter in there about deep work. And then he kind of took it and said, Okay, this, this concept needs a whole book. And inside of that book, he talks about the digital. Like, what do you call that digital minimalism? Like basically reducing your digital footprint in terms of social media, and whatnot. And then so he wrote another book called Digital minimalism. I haven't finished reading it, but it's really good. So far. Anything by Pat Flynn, or Seth Godin? Yeah, this is marketing by Seth Godin blew me away.
Jacob Miller
I just picked that one up. I started Reading a little bit so
Austin Saylor
yeah, that's great.
Somebody who's not like, always super palatable, but has been a big inspiration for me is while Gary Vee and Wow, what's his name? grant, Cardone? Yeah, they're wild personalities. But that's really cool that laughs let me rephrase that. It's really important to be able to be like a gold miner and find the value inside of what somebody is saying. Because you're never gonna find anybody that you're like, that's exactly who I want to be through and through you. You can't be anybody else. You have to be yourself. So you're always listening to what people say and seeing what they do and taking little snippets for yourself. There is no one formula that anybody can tell you. That will make your life perfect. But there's always something you can grab from what people are saying even people you don't like a whole lot like I think it's very important to be open. And kind of Humble yourself in a way that you allow others to speak into your life even if they're not like you're not 100% on board with everything. It's a good person a good trait to be able to like, yeah, goldmine what people say? So yeah 10 to 10 x rule by Grant Cardone can be it's one of those books I pick up when I'm feeling lazy. And I feel like I just like don't have the motivation. He's He's like a drill sergeant for sales. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And Gary Vee, I can't handle him for too long. But when I need some motivation, I'll watch like 510 minute videos and I'm like, Alright, let's do this. I got this.
Jacob Miller
Yeah, both Yeah, both of those guys. You just watch it and sometimes you'll send like a clip to somebody that's like never heard of them or they're like they maybe they saw one of their pieces of content and got a bad taste because like that person's too intense. But I think like you said, it's a matter of, you know, watching it but filtering what what you want to get out of it because both of those guys are sharing like really bad. valuable pieces of information. But there they're speaking to so many people, you know, all the time different types of people, because they get questions about so many different types of things, especially Gary, like he works in so many different industries and people from all walks of life are asking questions. But he always goes back to goes back down, you know, to the like, the basic roots of everything of like how you have to find what people value, and you have to understand why they value it, how to sell it, you know, get good at selling talks about garage saleing, all that kind of stuff. And then just put it in the work like you can't just expect people to show up and buy your stuff.
Austin Saylor
Like totally
Jacob Miller
Yeah, I think that's like with it both those guys, they just like you have to put in the work. It's like there's no other way like, yeah, you see all these things on the internet, like it looks easy. But you don't see the 10 years before that this person actually worked at a call center did sales for like five years, and that's why they're really good at selling. But then they finally decided to build their own business and they that's why they're good.
Austin Saylor
And I think another important piece to the like, it takes 10 years to get good at it. Something, it's not just like it takes 10 years, there's 10 years of like, Am I good at this? am I ever gonna make anything of myself? And so there's 10 years of doubts and hard work and fear. And we all feel that like, everybody feels that maybe some people are born with a natural, like ridiculous level of self confidence. But most of us aren't. dealt that that card. So it's okay to feel that doubt that you're not good enough that you're not going to make make a name for yourself or be able to make a career out of something. But most people do feel that at the beginning. Yeah,
Jacob Miller
yeah. So actually thinking about that now, I kind of want to go into full hardware a little bit. You know, when you obviously you were doing you know, you were a solo entrepreneur, had your own business, doing motion, graphics and motion, motion design work. But then, what was the point where you're like, you know, you said your code, your business coach was like, Hey, you should think about doing this. You Kind of what was going through your head to like start doing consulting or coaching and starting for harbor? Like, obviously you probably had doubts like, Am I off how to do this? Like who's gonna pay me like who wants to pay? Who would pay me Austin sailor like, I'm just a normal guy. So maybe walk through that a little bit and how kind of like the transition of starting that and kind of up to where it is now.
Austin Saylor
Yeah, it's like everything you said there. I'm like, yep, yep. Yep. I think it it Hit me harder when I was launching the lettering animation course it's a little higher price point than full harbour love a little bit, but it was the first thing I ever did. So while I was actually going through the launch process, I had sent out emails saying like, we're going to start some free training. And then I knew that after the free training, I was going to make this offer for the course. And no joke. There were three times like three very specific times when I broke down. I was like, can't do this. I'm not going to do it. But I had already kind of done that telling people I'm going to do it. It was like, I can't back out. I can just say something happened. I can't do it, or just pretend like it never said it. Because it was so freakin scary to put myself out there. And so the first time launching was just the absolute worst. Don't know, the whole process. I mean, it went really well. Like I sold 40 seats and made $16,500. And so I was like, oh, okay, so I'm glad I did this. I'm glad. Yeah, and then I happen to actually love doing it at the same time. So it was like, Okay, wow, I'm so glad I didn't give up because I almost gave up right before I mean, like, it was I can't tell you how close I was to pulling the plug. My wife was very instrumental in like, taking like walking me off the ledge to talk to me off the ledge kind of deal. Yeah, and but I heard someone recently talking about how Five minutes before you do the thing, that's the most important, your body is going to start freaking out and it's gonna start sending you these signals that are like telling you to stop what you're doing like this is just gonna destroy your reputation. You people, you're gonna look like an idiot in front of people, but what your body is doing as it's trying to protect you. From what you know, the the thing in our brain that goes we need to be part of this tribe. We need to be accepted we need to be loved because that's how we're safe in our body and our brain is like telling us like no no, no, don't do the scary thing. But quite often, right like literally right before you do the scary thing, it gets so intense, that you just start not lose your mind necessarily, but it can be really, really intense thing. And, and so that's I didn't feel like quite as much with full hardware. It was like an easier thing for me to offer is lower price and I was giving a big discount. But I also had that fear of I'm doing something different. This isn't just animation training, I'm trying to help people with their career. And I'm putting myself out there in a different way. And so there was definitely that that sense of like, oh, gosh, like, what if people think I'm an idiot? What if I'm found out to be the fraud that I really am that whole thing. But every time I launch a course, or anything, it, it does get incrementally better. And yeah, or less, less scary. So actually, that's one of the things that we talked about might be moving into some coaching. That's something that's scary to me. I've never officially coached anyone, specifically wellness, like that's not totally true. I've kind of coach to people, but I didn't call it coaching at the time, but that's what I was doing. And I've never offered it in public. And that's very scary to me. And so I'm like, okay, that's probably what I should be doing next. And adding that as part of my services because it is scary, but it's all Something I'm really passionate about. So I think you really should let fear be a barometer for the things that you probably should be moving towards. Yeah. When you when you feel that fear and excitement at the same time, it's like, Don't Don't let fear tell you not to do it.
Jacob Miller
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. No, that was awesome. That's, like all everything you said there. Yeah. Actually, that reminds me I wanted to ask about because you said you know, you said that your wife was a really important person in that moment of pushing. Go live that button. Yeah. And like, you know, do Is she kind of one of those people like she's kind of like a she kind of coaches and mentors you a little bit as a spouse or whether you know, other other people like your parents or anything like any other people that are the they're like the mentors of compassion and love and tough love like in your life that helps. Yeah, push through these moments.
Austin Saylor
My wife is that like, all The way
that the rest of my family is supportive.
I think they've started to understand what I'm doing. But I'm also kind of the first, as far as I understand first entrepreneur of sorts, that I know that I haven't yet that I'm aware of, in the extended family. And so it's kind of like, uh, you know, my parents want me to be safe, and not having a job doesn't sound safe. So there was a little concern when I left my job, and they're, they're kind of like, oh, okay, so you made how much of the lunch? Oh, okay. Wow, like, that sounds like a legit thing, you know? Yeah. And so everybody seems to be coming around to understanding that. Okay, yeah, you you're doing your thing. It's not just a temporary thing between jobs anymore. Yeah, my wife is definitely that that rock. We kind of call each other our rock like, with we're just there for each other no matter what. And I like
Jacob Miller
rock and roll love song.
Austin Saylor
Hey, yo, yeah.
But, yeah, we both believe in each other. Sometimes we have to believe in each other for each other. She's doing her own thing. She's writing books and novels. And actually, she's coming out with her first book, which is a memoir about the fire experience in the tropics. Awesome. So that's launching in like a month. And so there are moments that she has where she's like, I just, I reread my book, and I don't know. I'm like, Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me right now? And I just have to like, tell her the for about five minutes straight. Like why this book is amazing. And why people need especially right now, like, you know, just, it could be easy to you know, we're recording this during Coronavirus stuff. And it's like she wants to do a book launch and there's, we can't do in person things anymore. She's like, well, maybe we should push it off. And then we both realize like no, but we don't need to stop our businesses. Because of this. Let's lean into it. What can we do? How can we be creative Yeah, and soon as you have all that to say, we are each other's like full support in terms of when each other when, when I'm feeling down, she's always there to be like, you felt like this before and you've come through, I've seen him do this. I'm always impressed by how you pull it out at the end, you make it happen, even if it doesn't go as well as you thought, you know what? It's, it's good to have that kind of person in your life. Whether it's a friend, coach that you pay a parent, whatever, find that person that will believe in you. supportive. Yeah,
Jacob Miller
absolutely. Oh, cool. You know, some, I mean, I don't know how you could do it better. But this is a question I like to ask towards the end is, um, you know, if you were to start your path over today with motion design, and getting to where you're at now, and you know, say someone wanted to start this journey or you're, you're you're 18 years old again. It's 2020. You know, what would you recommend somebody that wanted to get into motion design and kind of start their career,
Austin Saylor
I would say, practice more than you think you need to. Don't be afraid to, to stick with something specific, and test and taste other things outside of that. I think that it's important when you're young to try to figure out what you want to do. And the first thing you try won't necessarily be the thing that you that's your thing or whatever. I was doing a meditation this morning, and I was thinking about this notion of like, what what would you do if you had to start over and the meditation started with, I wish someone had told me I wish someone had told me that it all needed to start by sitting on the floor and turning inward. And basically like discovering that you are enough, and that really hit me hard because that I didn't necessarily have some coffee. Complex where I didn't feel like I was enough per se, like, I wouldn't have known that I would have thought that. But I definitely thought I need to be better to be enough. I need to get this raise to be enough or worthy or whatever. And there was a lot of internal work that I've done since then, that has helped me realize, like, I have everything I need. I am enough, I don't need more, it's enjoyable to get more money or to have more time off or help more people but like, who I am as a person is plenty and enough. And it's, it's one of the things I just didn't hear growing up. Not that it was a neglectful kind of thing. It's just not the messages I heard. You know, whether I was growing up as a kid or in school or getting out of school. And it's, I don't know, it's kind of a meditative Zen woo thing, I guess. But to me, it's a really powerful notion that you don't have to just Be you're not enough because you've succeeded in something that other people go wow. $16,500 in your first launch, that's great. Like, that's not that shouldn't be your validation. And the other kind of bit surrounding that is, I think that it my whole life, I just wanted to find something that I was good at. And I but I wanted it to be like, the kid who started playing basketball and all of a sudden he like, realized he was a prodigy. Yeah, and I just I wanted that like child prodigy thing. And as I grew up, and I'm like, I'm not a child anymore, but maybe I'll be that middle aged prodigy. And it just, it's dawned on me over time that the passion comes from developing a deep appreciation for a craft, a deep appreciation to the thing that you just find yourself drawn to so I like helping people. That's where I find The greatest joy. And by couldn't have known that by becoming amazingly good at a sport or a particular craft, or whatever, you know, just happened to kind of fall into motion design at a time where I developed some, some personality and some some ability to talk with people and communicate. And it just happened to be motion designed at that time. But if it if I'd done things that in reverse order, and I'd started trying to do motion design, when I first left college, I would have not succeeded very well, because I wasn't very good at talking to clients. So to left that, you know, I could have developed a passion around something totally different than what I'm at now. So I don't think that I was born to be a motion designer per se, I can find stories that tell me that like, Oh, yeah, I played with my GI Joes and made them run realistically, instead of just smashing them together like most kids do. And so like I can find little stories that say like point at, was meant to be a motion designer, but honestly, I could have been anything if I had stuck with it and really develop deep relationship with the the transformation that it causes in myself and other people. And so for anybody who's like, wanting to get started on something, especially for young folks, I think that knowing that you're going to potentially weave in and out of different crafts, it's all gonna add up to something beautiful in the end, or whatever the end is. And everything is additive, like all of your experiences, the seven and a half years I spent at a software company that at the time when I left, the job was like, this was worthless. I was frustrated, I was mad, but now I can look back and be like, man, I learned a whole lot. It's really helped me a ton. So that's kind of I don't, I don't think I would, I don't desire to ever go back and change things because life happens and you move on. And I wish you know, I've all at the time when I was in a place where I was really frustrated. I wished constantly that I had something better, but it was worth pushing through and fighting Doing a pass that I could make that I really enjoyed.
Yeah,
Jacob Miller
yeah, it's awesome.
Austin Saylor
Yeah, this is my monologue.
Jacob Miller
Yeah, yeah. No, that was great. Like, Austin, Sylar TEDx talk. You know, I like when you were talking about, you know, like when you're starting, and you're probably not going to do the same thing. And there's nothing wrong with like doing something for two years, this for three years, whatever. Like, it just made me think about my whole path and how, you know, I wanted to pursue music for a bit even though you know, I was like, in school, but I really liked music, and I was, but I was still going to school for like, you know, photography and in video production, and then I got a job in a corporate environment doing video production, and that's where I learned more motion graphics too. And, and you were like, you go through that phase and like after a certain period of time in that position, you just like, No, I don't think everybody has this opportunity or has is taught this but you know, hopefully at some point you get you have self reflection or someone has that conversation with you like, Hey, have you ever thought about this? Like, you would be really good at that? Or do you like your job anymore? You know, like those weird questions. And I think when you have that self reflection, you start to learn where you want to go. And sometimes it's a timing thing. And then when your mind's in that place of like, I want to go to the next step. those opportunities, either you either have to create them or they or they arrive, and then you're ready when they arrive because of everything that you did before.
Austin Saylor
Oh, man, yeah, yeah,
yeah. That Go ahead.
Go ahead. I'll add to something
Jacob Miller
it's like this whole thing of like, I think James clear talks about luck. And he's like, luck isn't like obviously luck can happen to some people where they you know, they win the lottery or they something crazy, significant happens. But for the most part, luck happens when you're consistently doing a good thing. And it's like this cumulative experience that it then becomes physically in front of you, after you put in all this effort, like you increase your chances of luck by being consistent and doing something that creates positive gains, basically 100% Yeah. So yeah, I don't know if what you're gonna say, but
Austin Saylor
I don't even remember exactly. You said something that triggered something. But that thing about consistency and showing up. So when I, when I really started getting serious about well, it wasn't even motion design at the time. It was I was doing leather work, but I joined the Sean West community and one of Sean's kind of isms is show up every day for two years and don't expect any results. Yeah, and while that's not an exact formula, that's what happened to him, but it's not an exact formula for everyone. But the notion the principle behind it is really powerful. And it's something that I've kind of taken it taken to heart which is like, you've got to show up. It doesn't matter what you show up in and it doesn't No matter if it shifts and changes, but showing up intentionally, and not expecting results will give you so much better results than trying really hard for a month or two or three or six and not seeing results getting frustrated. Moving into something else before you in happening.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah,
Austin Saylor
the gains you get from being consistent over a long period of time is so powerful.
Jacob Miller
Yeah, I think like, for me, it's always been a matter of, like, practice putting in the practice. And then people like it's like people in practice you have, like you're doing the work. Like every I remember, like when I started shooting photos, like I would shoot photos, like every day, I would like take pictures of like a leaf on the ground and I was like, Whoa, I did such a cool thing with the aperture it looks like so cool. And now I take a picture like that and I'm kind of like I'm now I can do better. Like you just like keep thinking like, after a while you just get to a point where like you it's hard to impress yourself anymore sometimes. But you know, it's a great Pictures though. But I think what, like what for me what happened is like, over that first two or three years is like I was shooting all the time. I was just super excited to just like, learn new things. And then at the same time, I was like, connecting with new people that I, you know, I'd see him on Facebook groups or Instagram and I was like, that person is really cool. I want to connect with them and learn how they're doing what they're doing. I want to know, and you know, and but I always remembered, I always remember to be more like, I had to be reserved about how I approached because it wasn't like, Oh, I want to get this out of this person is usually like a mixture of like, one this person seems really cool and really kind and like really, really great person. But they're also super talented and I want to be I want to create a friendship here. I wasn't like expecting the outcomes. It's just kind of like, I was selective on who I spent my time with because that was also important. It wasn't just about learning the craft from anybody because there are definitely people are talented that are like, you know, super buttheads. So it's like, you Don't want to like soak, you know, you don't want that toxic super,
Austin Saylor
super, but super badass. Get that butthead out of here.
Jacob Miller
But like, yeah, I think it was a mixture of, you know, finding the right people to like passively mentor you like they didn't spend time with you but you learned like through them just by being around them or seeing what they were doing, you absorb that. And then you put into keeping the practice. And it's just like, you know, in overtime too. And I think like the feedback is super important too. Because if you just never asked for feedback from people, like you never like I'm super thankful for all my time that I was whether it was in a corporate job, or when I worked in an agency and like doing products that you're not really either you're excited about them or you're not and you're like doing this work and like, Oh, I made this video. It's like super good. It's awesome. Like no changes, I bet. And then there's like all these changes and then you remember it's like, oh, yeah, I like the mission of this video isn't to make a cool, it's to make it communicate something clearly like so. It's like all those things like add up, like, you know, it's like the the people that practice in that, that feedback, that criticism. It's all like, they're all super important. And sometimes it's hard to find all of those, those three tiers, like in your life, like some people have to go like really far or, like put a lot more effort into find those three things. And I feel like I was fortunate enough to get them all, like through work. And then also just because when there was an opportunity for me to help people, I would do it like, whether it was like a fundraising event. Oh, yeah, I can make a I would love to make a video and share the story here. Or, like, you know, my friend has started a nonprofit and I would help them make video content and do photography and stuff. You know, just because I wanted to help like I you know, they were fighting sex trafficking in Wisconsin. I was like, this is really heavy subject and I feel like this is a great challenge for me and I can help you, you know, make a difference through through my craft. So
Austin Saylor
it was just like,
Jacob Miller
find out opportunities to work with people you admire, to help people get that feedback and like just try different things. And like there's no like, wrong way. Like there's no like perfect way perfect path. Like you just have to kind of like, taste things and keep going and
Austin Saylor
yeah, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I like the way you put it the people that practice
Jacob Miller
which is another key word is their portfolio. That's not really like
Austin Saylor
the turkey proach
Jacob Miller
Yeah, I don't know. I needed something. Some kind of cool marketing terminology.
Austin Saylor
It's a Sunday.
Jacob Miller
I know. I know. And then I'll write my book. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, right. I write in the books weird. It's definitely a weird thing to do. Yeah, I'm not going to go into that right now. It's my own. That's my own story.
Austin Saylor
Lots of time. Some time.
Jacob Miller
Yeah, yeah. Um, but yeah, I think it's super awesome that that your wife's really, really sent her book. We can definitely put it like in the show notes. Cool. link it up. All that stuff. So we're super excited to share that. Yeah, we talked about a lot of cool stuff in here. Is there anything else you want to share with folks before we kind of kind of close out here?
Austin Saylor
You're awesome. You're enough. Keep doing what you're doing. And don't listen to people that don't have your best interests in mind.
Jacob Miller
Yeah, awesome. Well, so where can people find out more about you? Full Harbor, what you're doing how can they follow you and, and keep learning and growing with you?
Austin Saylor
Yeah, so I'm most active socially on full frontal harbor on Instagram. My handle is at full harbor. And yeah, Austin sales calm for harbor calm. I'm also on Twitter. It's Austin sailor. I said, I post a lot on Instagram stories and make getting into writing more posts but a very communicative and like to have threads and conversations and whatnot on Twitter. They both feed my soul Yeah, I can find me there and say, hey,
Jacob Miller
yeah, I think yeah, if anyone's interested in getting kind of a jumpstart into the motion design world that like, reach out to Austin on Twitter, there's a bunch of other great people on there that are super helpful. I like for me that's been a huge help when I'm stuck or like just want advice like Twitter's the place to be so? Yeah, cool. Well, thanks, Austin. We had some great conversations here. Like awesome, just awesome little soundbites. I was like, wow, that's That's powerful. So excited to share to share this with everyone. Yeah, so have a great day, Austin. Thank
Austin Saylor
ya.
Jacob Miller
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