Vegas Circle

Endzone to Enterprise: Austin Ekeler on NFL Fame and Entrepreneurial Strategy

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Discover how an NFL star maneuvers the complex intersection of elite sports and savvy entrepreneurship with Austin Ekeler. We sit down with the prolific running back whose playbook extends far beyond the turf into the business realm. Austin gives us a personal tour through his strategic touchdown in Las Vegas, revealing how the city's tax perks and networking scene bolster his pursuits off the field. His candid reflections on the transition from a Division II school to NFL fame, and the crucial lessons in financial savvy and foresight, make for an inspiring narrative for anyone eyeing success in multiple arenas.

We delve into Austin's power play in juggling the intensity of professional athleticism with the intricacies of spearheading tech ventures. He shares the playbook on avoiding setbacks like scope creep and the significance of a strong support team in business, just as on the field. Austin doesn't shy away from discussing the off-season – a critical period for growth, where he hones his skills not with the pigskin, but with spreadsheets and investment strategies. Through his story, learn the value of staying focused on your primary career while strategically chasing additional ventures, a tactic Austin masters with the precision of a finely-tuned athlete.

Finally, the episode wraps up with a look at the role mentorship has played in Austin's journey. From his cousin Bill to industry pros like David Meltzer, we understand the weight of aligning with mentors who resonate with your goals. Austin's Vegas recommendations provide a glimpse into his life off the field, infusing the conversation with the city's dynamic flavor. And as we part ways, we're reminded that the insights shared by Austin aren't just applicable to aspiring business moguls, but to anyone ready to tackle their ambitions with the same fervor they bring to their passions.

Paki:

Welcome to Vegas Circle podcast with your host, Paki and Chris. We are people who are passionate about business, success and culture, and this is our platform to showcase to people in our city who make it happen. On today's podcast, we got something special, man. We got one of the top running backs in the NFL League. Right now we're going to delve into what it's like being a professional NFL player, what it's like off the season and how to keep your money, man especially with all the stuff that you guys deal with being a professional athlete.

Paki:

So we're welcoming to the circle Austin Ekeler man. So welcome to the circle brother.

Austin:

Hey, I appreciate you guys having me. Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

Paki:

So shout out to Blake Winn man, our guy both from Mutual Frame and I appreciate him connecting us about a month back. But let's jump right in, man. So let's do it. Just move to Vegas. Are you been to Vegas for a little while now?

Austin:

Yeah, a couple years now.

Paki:

What brought you to Vegas?

Austin:

Well, first, my agent lived here at the time. He ended up passing away, but he was the person that was.

Paki:

I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah, I was really close with it, oh wow.

Austin:

He was a business attorney at heart and then had his agency on the side and he was actually the only agent that ever reached out to me and I was. I'm still with his agency to this day and he lived here, so I wanted to get closer to him because we had become really close off the field. You know, besides the business, that was kind of like an added part of it.

Austin:

And then you know, taxes was a little bit more, you know, beneficial over here when they came to you know 1099 money and then just really wanted to get out of California and then get around this networking hub here in Las Vegas because, as you guys know, vegas is like a big small town 1000%.

Austin:

There's nothing around. Everything stays in Vegas. A lot of connections that roll through here and it's really tight. There's not. There's a lot of old business. When you have old business, you have a lot of connections, that kind of wind together. So I want to get tapped into a new network out here, because I had been, I had been in LA for about five years and so it was okay, like I've really, you know, grown roots here. But let's, let's expand a little bit right across the board. About four hours away and here I am.

Paki:

Makes a lot of sense, man. I mean that's why, chris and I, we started this almost six years now. Yeah, the network is unreal. And people I'm glad you started off with that, because people don't give Vegas enough credit Right, what they're doing.

Austin:

What I've experienced is there's always someone coming into town, right? Or Blake say, hey, let me. I want to introduce you to one of my friends that's coming into town, or someone that I know friends are coming back into town, or there's a conference going on. You know, I'm speaking at tech conferences, I'm speaking over here, I'm I'm going to networking groups over here, so there's always something going on. And if, even if there's not something going on, I love taking the lady down, going to get dinner amazing restaurants down there too. So it's it's not always the nightlife that people think and you're on the tables and all that stuff. There's definitely a place to to build the other, your entrepreneurial spirit.

Chris:

And you kind of talk a little bit about, like, the tax implications, right Cause you're an employee of California, right? Like? Is that how it works?

Austin:

Well, I'm an employee of the chargers who are based in California, so I get W to pay for all of my football on the field stuff. But all my off the field stuff are through W nine right, so that's taxed back to the state my residency is in.

Chris:

Okay, you got to have a little bit of a chico.

Paki:

I get it, I get it and I keep seeing. I mean they'll say like the next seven years is just unreal with the growth that's happening in Vegas. So it's been so exciting to be able to see. So you were talking a little bit about building the office here. So what, what have you kind of been working on, you know, outside of football?

Austin:

Yeah, I have a little backstory about me that will be relevant to the story is I was going to school for business.

Austin:

I went to a really small school and actually no one from my school had gone to the NFL, and so for me, I went to a division two school. I was not thinking about the NFL. Okay, I'd never seen a scout on campus before. Like, the NFL is a foreign entity that I watch on TV. Sometimes I didn't even watch it growing up. I was. I was from the country, okay, I was watching from eat in Colorado. So I was watching bull riding and bass fishing.

Paki:

Oh, wow, that's what I was watching.

Austin:

Okay, so it's a little bit different upbringing. So I'm going into school using football. I had a hat, like a half scholarship to you know, go and pay for my school, but I was using football to pay for school and I was really dedicated. I went to a small school. It's easy to stay focused at a small school, especially in the mountains, Sure. It was like two guys to every one girl Party. Life wasn't that crazy Okay.

Austin:

There wasn't. There was no malls or anything like that. It was like straight tourist town. So I'm locked in. Okay, I ain't got a choice. Okay, I'm not going to spend my time there. But really I was focused on getting getting my degree and getting into the business world and actually did that. I actually had an internship.

Austin:

My junior year got a job offer from noble energy who got acquired by I think it was Chevron and oil and gas. So I was going to go in and oil and gas want to start getting into house, hacking right, rent out my rooms and start getting the flipping. That was my plan. Okay, after my junior year also that same year had my internship. My coach comes to me and says Austin, you know, you've been playing really well, which I had been freshman of the year, sophomore of the year, all American, academic, all American, all that. Like I said, I'm all in, I'm going off and I'm trying to build this opportunity for my, for my business off the field. And my coach comes to me and he's like hey, man, like you might have an opportunity to play in the NFL. Like you got some scouts calling about you. Scouts, what are you talking?

Paki:

about you were playing division two, this division two, okay, like what are you talking about?

Austin:

Scouts coming to see me Like what I never. Who are these people?

Paki:

Yeah.

Austin:

And so, sure enough, my senior year I had a scout almost every single one of my practices coming to watch me practice and it was like whoa, wait a minute. It all became real for me, and so this is kind of the setup for where we're at now. Fast forward seven years. A lot happened through. I really applied myself, ended up making our career for myself and starting for the last four years now with the chargers, but my entrepreneurial side and my business side still stayed with me. But now we've got. Now we've got catapulted with with more resources behind it, right Cause now I have the capital now which we can get into.

Paki:

How you say we're talking about how to save money because I definitely touched the stove a few times, getting burned.

Austin:

Yeah, cause when you get, when you get exposed to capital right away, we can get to this, and later when you ask that question, but when you get exposed to capital right away, you haven't gone through the the the pains of getting it and building it up yourself, right, it's just kind of handed to you. Here you go, you're playing a sport, you're taking advantage of that.

Paki:

Yeah, really young, yeah, exactly.

Austin:

I was 21 years old, you know, when I first got into the league. But growing, growing to, or going to this the question that you were asking me what am I going off the field now At this point foundation a few other you know endeavors that I have going on out here in the office as well, and we can jump jump into them later, but I think it was important just to put that context and just to show where I, where I am, where my mindset is and kind of why I'm here.

Austin:

I love that you did internship.

Paki:

I was something that was very helpful for me, like I did an internship for three years at Tufts Medical in Boston cause I thought I was going to get an orthopedic surgery, and I'm glad I did that because it was not for me. Like you really get the experience of being able to do that. So I'm glad you talked about business. So magic Johnson obviously was huge right.

Paki:

Yeah 19 years old, was learning a lot about business and was building this enterprise. Outside of that, what did you actually learn, like just in general? Was it people that kind of taught you the basics of business, or did you just kind of jump right in and just get it out as you went?

Austin:

Both, both. So a couple of entities that I have going right now. One is called experience and it's a. It's an app, it's an engagement app.

Austin:

Okay, so one thing that it really irritated me was I had this big following and I'm like how do I monetize this following? And I could do it with doing brand deals. But then I'm like posting 15% off links on my socials and I'm like it's not you, it is. It is Like there's room for that, there's room for that, cause it's not all the time, but every once in a while. Right, you go do a brand deal, like I'm signed with Adidas, I'll post some Adidas stuff there. But it's like there's a living organism which is like my following, that's there. And it's like how do I get some type of value or make this work for me?

Austin:

And so I started this company called experience, where it's an engagement platform. It has six different offerings on there If you want to get something signed, if you want to do a video chat, if you want to game with me, if you want to do anything on social media, if you want to personalize video, you want an item. So those are the ones that we have now. So I started this app and you guys, like, did I get guys? I kind of just jumped into it. It's like a hobby, like I'm going to build this thing.

Austin:

I'm going to hire some developers and I'm going to just kind of just, I'm going to build something. I'm going to build an app, put it on the app store, see how it does. And so that was one of my first, one of my first big learning curves that I went through. That was about two and a half years ago. When I started learning, I didn't know anything about tech. I don't know anything about scope.

Paki:

These were scope creep. I don't know if you got her scope.

Austin:

That is real, so scope creep like, oh, I'm going to build this. And then you go to developer and they're like, okay, we're going to build that, but then you start building that and you're like, wait a minute, I kind of want this feature too, and I want this feature and this feature and it's a million dollars.

Austin:

It starts to create exactly right and all of a sudden I'm like whoa, and what I planned is now looking like this other thing that costs yeah, quadruple the budget that I had set for it. So I learned that lost a ton of money and luckily in tech you can write it off in the tech world. There's some advantages in the tech space. Okay, shout out to Uncle Sam for that one, as well, yes, beautiful, it's good to know too.

Paki:

They want you to get in the tech space. So there you go. They're willing to take some risks.

Austin:

So that's when I learned too. You asked if I had people guide me. So I didn't even know about the tax breaks in the tech space until one of my mentors comes to me and is like hey, you know, you can do this with tech and we were writing off. We've made a pivot since and we wrote off 80% of our tech build and all of the costs that were associated with that, because it was dead. We can only use some of it, but 80% of it was dead. So I've been both been touching the stove, learning on the fly, but also having mentors as I continue to go and as this project for me continues to get more and more real, and since our pivot now I've actually put experts in around. I actually had one of my mentors say, because I always kind of had like some friends helping me out, and they're like you wouldn't hire your mother to be an offensive lineman, would you? I'm like I get it now.

Paki:

That's great.

Austin:

Like no, I would never have my mom be my offensive lineman. I need an offensive lineman.

Paki:

A real person. I need a.

Austin:

CTO. I need a CMO, I need a CFO to be a CFO. Not my buddy, not my, you know, my friend who thinks he's good, he's got it. I'm like, I depend on him, like, hey, you got this, or me, me, I'm not an offensive lineman?

Paki:

I'm not an offensive lineman.

Austin:

I gotta play running back, right. So I'm the visionary of my company. Right, I'm the spokesperson, I'm the person behind it of the energy. Right, I'll go out and raise money, do all that stuff, but I need everyone else to be the experts in helping me run it. So that's where I'm at now.

Chris:

That's awesome, kind of talking about energy, right. I think one thing is immediate you have a high energy, right. Like you're in it, you're passionate, you do it well, right. But when you're doing something at such a high level, like being a running back in the NFL and then also trying to pivot to be a high functioning owner, right how do you run these things parallel, because they both demand so much time and effort and attention?

Austin:

So I'm learning the hard way and I learn why most athletes really just focus on the sport, and it makes so much sense now that I'm starting to kind of venture out and poke into these other things, because if you're an expert in something, just like our guys that have been playing football I've been playing. I just passed my 20 year mark. I've been playing since I was eight years old. I'm 28 right now and I've been playing for so long and gotten so good, because that's what I've done every single season for 20 years. You're building the same thing in the business space right the people that, as you're professional, you're doing the same thing. You're building your skills, you're building your network, you're building your capabilities, you're building your experience. You're building all of these things that are making you a professional at that, and so it's not as easy just to say, oh, now I'm going to start this on the side. You're missing 20 years of experience that other people have been building up, just like you did for football, just like I have for football, and so that's where it kind of goes back to what I was saying. I need experts in that field because I'm not that yet. I want to build myself up and I'm putting myself in that position.

Austin:

But that's one of the biggest things that I've learned is that there's so much for me to learn. I'm so far behind the curve as far as what I want to do and my capabilities to actually go out and actually execute that. So it's also fun, right, because now it's like a new thing, but I got to keep football the main thing. When it is that time and I've gotten to a point where I can continue to be a pro, I get all my training out in the morning. Then I have the rest of this time to kind of right. It's not like we're in the basketball gym and I can shoot a thousand shots. You know I can't. I can't go out and hit people. You know all the time.

Austin:

So, it's a different type of sport, two different type of offseason, so I do have some time to take advantage of learning and growing myself in those other fields.

Chris:

That makes a lot of sense. That's going to be my question. Like, do you have that ability to pull away and separate and really give the attention to one thing or the other? And we're doing that, like, say, there's times where you're needed in both spaces. Like, how do you make it to say, oh yeah, like example experience.

Austin:

I've been building this. I build it during the season, so we'll get done like 5 30. It's like a nine to five really during the season. Like you get up, well, I'll get there before then, but then I get home around five o'clock and then I got a couple hours from six, seven, eight, though I'll jump on experience. That's where I I remember when I first started out. I was on Canva. I'm putting these like sketches together and putting all these ideas, it looks terrible.

Austin:

I'm going to save them, because this is where it started and so it depends on what you. What you value is as time, and the value is quality time for yourself, like for me. When I get home, I want to build stuff. You know, kind of going back to my upbringing, I was around a lot of building as far as manual labor, building I realized I don't want to be around that, but it was. That's basically what I grew up. Grew up building barbed wire, fence, and it was always building something, building something, building something.

Austin:

It's kind of been ingrained in my head to to build and also build as efficiently and effectively as you can, which, when you don't know what you're doing, you get like you get, you get burned as and you think you know what you're doing. Then you go out and you then you learn, oh, you don't know this, you don't know this, and then you learn that you get mentors, that kind of help you. So that's kind of what I've been going through, but for me it's just been hey, what do I want to do my free time? And it's build stuff yeah, that's fantastic.

Chris:

You know, I wish, I wish it was. Is that a train skill? You think like I learned? No, no, it's not, it's a blessing that occurs blessing it occurs.

Austin:

I'll say that because you know, I'm sure, if you look at me from the outside, if, if someone like, oh, like you play football, like is that enough? Like it has never been enough, like I want to play football, but I also want to build, I also want to have my foundation, I also want to make an impact on and build the community, and so it takes away from other things that you could see as quality time, you know, with my fiancee and things like that. So it really just depends on how you're setting up your life and who you're around. You know, I have this thing that I call the neighborhood.

Austin:

When it's a, it's a group that I'm involved in and it's it's a lot of people that are very similar to me had the entrepreneur drive, that want to continue to build, like Blake, for instance, yeah, right, where this man, he's always in his office, he's. I was just talking to his fiancee like we need to like watch more movies, and I'm like I was get that same thing together with my fiancee, like, okay, we got to make sure I'm being intentional about my quality time with my lady, my significant other, because that's absolutely important to me, but it's, it's that type of energy where you just want to build, build, build, build, build. Is that?

Paki:

I love to be around yeah, we learned this because I've been with my wife almost 20 years now coming up in May yeah, we put it the point, missy. I appreciate that we literally put, put it on the calendar. Yeah, that's the only way to be able to do it. Man, absolutely busy seven days a week. You live by the calendar to.

Austin:

I try to. Oh my goodness.

Paki:

I try to.

Austin:

Yeah, I try to so I have I have my assistant who runs my calendar and it is just it's full, like today, like it was like hey, move out, and I was packing. It's just it's not necessarily packed with, like always busy stuff, but just like hey, eat lunch, like because I don't know. You guys have probably been there before where you're like you're just in the zone and you're just going going. I'm responding to emails, I got investor calls, I'm trying to raise money for my app. I got this. I gotta go to this. And it's like I don't even eat. I'm like, okay, like put on a schedule, yeah smart man.

Austin:

Yeah right, check it off because for me, I have an excessive personality again, one of those a blessing and occurs, but when I get into something like I'm, I consume myself within side of it. Right, and I'm really. That's all. I got to where I am today. That's my.

Austin:

When I had my first opportunity to play in the NFL, that was what it was like. I'm gonna treat this like my life depends on it and I mentally tapped into and I was the most stressed I've ever been in my life. But it allowed me to make an impact. Enough. When I was six string on the depth chart where I made, I was able to be seen. Hey, this guy, he's not the biggest but he makes a huge impact when he's on the field and I get that all the time. Oh, I thought you'd be bigger. It was like it's not about my, it's not about the stature, it's about, it's about my impact.

Austin:

What contribution are you making? Measure that. Don't measure what my body looks like right. Measure what I do on the field and when you apply yourself, when you're there, when you're in the right place, right time, you've done the preparation right. You put your body through it. You can go and make an impact regardless of you know what your body looks like and a lot of times you can outwork people that are even more talented to you, and that's that's what's ended up happening. I beat out first string or first rounders. I beat out other drafted people like it's just and how. I continue to stay at a high level because of that, because that's just my mindset, that personality that I have, and I apply it to other things yeah, that's powerful how do you stay?

Chris:

humble because you know, when you go through all those challenges, right when you've been in, you know some lower spots. Right now you're seeing those high levels of success. How does that keep? How do you stay humble? Because I think that's a hard part for a lot of people.

Austin:

I think I still live by similar principles, now I just have more stuff yeah whereas, like, I've always wanted to build.

Austin:

I wanted to build stuff even, especially like when I was getting into, you know, school, and I wanted to build my education up so I can go into the business world and start building up my real estate portfolio. But now I'm just building in this sector, now I'm gonna build in that sector and now, okay, now I have opportunities to build over here, and so it's it's really the same principles that I live by. So, as far as staying humble, it's it's easy because I I feel like I am the similar type of person that I was like the same type of mentality that I'm applying to different things. I just have I've done more. Now. I'm just, I'm just more evolved than I used to be, but it's not necessarily like, oh, I'm the best, or that is that you just keep going. It just doesn't end. I'm just saying person which is fulfilling for me, because for me, I find fulfillment within building things and there's no really end, and so it keeps me humble because I'm still always working towards something.

Chris:

You need more stuff, exactly. I've never once heard anything negative about you. I hope not. I hope not. Nothing but positivity there.

Austin:

I kind of see with my energy I really want to just continue to build things that people can use to better themselves, and so when you're on that path, I feel like it's really hard to talk negative about somebody because, I'm trying to help myself, but also trying to use that same tool to help other people.

Paki:

That's good.

Austin:

Like, for instance, my foundation. We renovate weight rooms for high schools because when I was growing up, my getaway from building fence all that was sports in the weight room. And I love the weight room. That's where I'm like passionate, that's where I feel like it's like my therapy and so it's like, okay, let's go renovate these gyms that need it in these high schools that are torn down 20 years old floorboards coming out and give them that opportunity back that they're actually encouraged to go and do that because there's so many transferable skills. So those are examples of things that we're implementing. And I have another project called Pro Athlete Ventures, which is a project it's a media company where we're highlighting NFL players right now, just starting that. We'll venture out, but NFL players off the field endeavors.

Austin:

Right so you can bring light, because right now the NFL PA, we don't do a good job of measuring our things, that we're impacting the society with which we're doing tons of them.

Austin:

Organically too, oh yeah absolutely Organically or even just, you know, there's so many foundations, so many podcasts, so many different camps, things like that, and so I want to bring. So the things that I'm doing are like hey, how can I help others empower themselves or spring light on the things that they're doing to help the rest of the world as well? I love this man.

Paki:

I really do. I appreciate it Because it gives, because it's like you know I hate to say like LeBron or people like that, but you're not just an athlete Right You're doing. I mean, they always talk about NFL, not for long and obviously you've been.

Austin:

I think in the league for about seven years, seven years now, so you went past that. Two years set up, yeah, so I wanted to talk a little bit about that.

Paki:

So are you currently a free agent right now, or are you signed with the church?

Austin:

At this time when we're recording this podcast. I'm not a free agent. Oh, you're not a free agent. In about three weeks, I'll be a free agent.

Chris:

So, lebron, we're recording this.

Austin:

I don't know when it's going to be launched. But, yeah, this year I'll be a free agent and so there's going to be some new teams interested. I've already been talking to teams right now, so that's encouraging. So I'll have a new home, potentially could be going back, but who knows how it's going to play out.

Paki:

You know when I, of course, I'm going to ask you this. So where do you want?

Austin:

to be at See. People always ask me that and it's not necessarily because I didn't grow up watching the logos.

Paki:

I didn't have.

Austin:

Oh, this is my favorite team. I told you Bass Fish and Bull Riding Chris Shivers look them up.

Austin:

Professional Bull Rider. So for me it comes down to who wants me, who wants Austin Neckler in their program, who feels like Austin can actually fit into their scheme, and what capacity Are you going to be? A one-two punch? That's how I got my start. You want me to be the starter, you want me to be a backup and, depending on that conversation, it's going to put you on my priority board when you go. And then I'm going to have to go right, kind of reprioritize Okay, what's the appetite for having someone like myself at my age, my impact on their team, and kind of go from there. And then now the numbers. The numbers have to fit in too, because, look, I've built up, I have a lot of stuff going for me. You know I could transition into something else off the field. I don't want to yet. But if it's like I'm getting disrespected by every single person, I got to know when my time's time, when it's time to go and time to go to the new thing. So I doubt that. That's where it's at right now.

Paki:

Can we say the Raiders? The Raiders are going to need a back.

Austin:

I would be surprised if they got rid of Josh. To be honest, I think they're probably trying to get something done over there, but who knows what's going to happen.

Paki:

I got to put you on the spot. It's crazy.

Austin:

The NFL is crazy, you know you saw New England, you're rid of Tom Brady. So, no one is safe. I don't care who it is. No one is safe and he went to Super Bowl with a different team. They got rid of the GOAT.

Austin:

So same thing with us. We got rid of Phillip Rivers, then he went the next year and went to the playoffs with the Colts. It's like the NFL it's fluid, it's fluid and sometimes, well, a lot of times you don't get a decide because there's caps, there's new turnover and you don't know what's going on in the front office, what they really think about you. You hear what they say, but how do they really feel? And they'll do that through their actions. So we'll see how it plays out.

Chris:

It seems like an interesting dynamic. The sentiment for running backs doesn't seem to be last year or two years ago. It's kind of not favorable. Yeah, they're franchising our guys. It seemed like it's shifting back a little bit more in your favor now, so hopefully they take care of you.

Austin:

We'll see, I know there was a big old thing about oh, austin Eckler puts the running backs together. We did a Zoom call. Basically, we're just talking about all of our strategy of what's going on and putting a narrative out there that we're pissed off. We don't like that. You're putting all the risk on us on a one year deal that we don't get to negotiate, I agree though.

Austin:

That makes it very good, so I'm definitely an advocate for not only the running backs for all players, though, and making sure that we have a fair opportunity in this game, because this game is so brutal. When you put us on a one year deal don't let us negotiate the price and you say, okay, this is what you're playing on Any position that's not favorable for any player, and so I'll always fight against the franchise tag and just for our players to have the best opportunity to extend their career and make a big impact in this game.

Chris:

Well, most fans support you in that. I know that for sure.

Austin:

Yeah, the fans do, and I would say, for most part, the owners do too, but they want that too. However, they have tools that they're going to use, and it's like oh, if you have something that you can use to your advantage in a negotiation situation, guess what You're going to do it? And so it comes down to us hey, how can we actually get this out of there? Because it's actually detrimental to our players. And look, we all want the best thing for football owners and players, right, and we come together and try to negotiate. That's our CBA, our collective bargaining agreement that we try to make for the best possible route to go forward, and we've done a great job so far, but we're always trying to fine tune it.

Paki:

For sure what's the most valuable lesson you've learned in NFL just over the last seven years.

Austin:

This lesson applies to so many things, and it is why I've gotten into the NFL, but what you do with the opportunity that you have right now is going to lead to the next.

Austin:

Yeah and that is the most valuable thing I have learned and where it really shows me is when I I dropped out of my last semester Right before I graduated and I'm like I'm gonna go all in, I'm gonna go train right now, I'm gonna just keep training, I'm gonna do everything I can to train so I can get. So when I get into a camp somewhere that I'm ready to go, my body's physically there. Then once I got into a camp, it was okay. I'm bringing all the playbook, I'm staying after. I'm talking to coaches. I'm going up after, after practice, I'm going to talk to my special teams coach. Hey, let's watch this film together. What can I do better? Coach me. I want you to coach me because I'm making this team and I need to know what I need to do better so that you like what you see on the film and my effort relentless.

Austin:

I had my head coach come in one time. He didn't know my name. I'm wearing number three you couldn't even wear. Number three is running back there. They just gave me a random number and like he asked our special to go. Hey, who's number three running down there? He's like, yeah, that's Echler man. He's been giving us a hell of a look.

Austin:

So I immersed myself in that opportunity and what led from that was, hey, you got yourself on the roster. And then, not only that, I had I was only special teams guy. Really my rookie, my rookie year, I led the entire NFL. And tackles on punt, I'd never, I'd never, I'd never played defense, never play special teams. That went down in my life. But I immersed myself in my current opportunity and it gave me what came next right and you can't always control that, but we can control what I have right now. So it's the same thing going right now. I'm relentless and trying to build my business. I'm trying to raise. I have like a few that are going on right now. I have teams that I'm building because I know I to. For me to be focused, I need to bring experts into so I can continue to be the vision, be the vision, to be the spokesperson. I'll let them build it.

Austin:

And so I'm immersing myself in this opportunity and into your listeners out there, like if you immerse yourself, like what kind of energy you're putting into what you have right now, because that's probably gonna reflect right what comes next Right and it might be the size of it, of your next opportunity. It might be just in a different direction, where you actually want to go, or even just further along in your career. Right now of, maybe, if you're climbing the, you know the management chain and what you have right now is your biggest opportunity to get the next one. So that's what I've learned the most from the NFL, because if you look up for my career, rookie Barely made the tee barely, maybe, I don't know, depends on who you ask for me Barely made the team. Special teams started getting an offense. One, two punch was a starter for the last four years and then now going into looking for my third contract. So yeah, it's been the same kind of principle and that same thing that I've learned and applied.

Paki:

Yeah, that's powerful man yeah you motivated me.

Austin:

I have it's tough, though, because, like I said, you know you, you want to, you want to do so much, right, I have opportunities and it's like, okay, I have to have to narrow down some things. Right, that time will come. Always be able to speak, always will be. Right now, I don't think it's the time, because I'm still. I'm still writing that journey, I'm still gaining that respect right now, and that's respect will still build and I want to continue to build right. And then once, as you continue to build that respect, the power of your speech becomes in the story of your speech becomes a lot, a lot bigger, a lot more impactful. Because if, if you travel a distance, that's great, right, if you travel a whole journey. Right now, I have many stories that I can share that are more applicable, and I'm just, I'm just not in this in the space right now where I have enough bandwidth to really hone in, because when I do something, I'm like, I'm in, like you.

Chris:

I told you.

Paki:

I'm an obsessive Personality, so yeah, yeah.

Austin:

So if I if I go into speaking. I'm all in on speaking. I'm trying to go key. No, I'm getting on. You know, I see as a Dan Fliesman. He's the guy who sets up all the speaking for all Goggins, all the top people, tony Robbins, he sets up the stage for those guys, so I would get it. I already I know I'm part of his group, that neighborhood that I was talking about, so I'm in the speaking neighborhood, but when that time comes, I'll definitely, definitely be there.

Paki:

Yeah, we touched a little bit about mentorship. Mentorships, extremely important to me is help me all my life. Who's in your circle that speaks into your circle? Are you? Let's be into your circle. Yeah and what's the biggest impact you know with that especially with us being Vegas.

Austin:

Yeah, mentorships interesting and I've learned a little bit about it over over time and it's, it's, it's tough to. It's tough on both sides. But as far as the people that are at my circle, really one of my, my closest people to me was was bill Echler. He is my cousin. He really came into my life when I started to build my foundation. I've been around him a lot but he's super entrepreneurial and he had an exit back a few few decades ago and has been in that space and he's really helped me really come on to the scene of learning the ins and outs of building Plans, building strategy. Another one His name is David Meltzer and he's he's just like a super connector of entrepreneurs, speaker, that type of person. He was an agent for a while.

Paki:

So he gets it.

Austin:

Yeah, yeah so why I say it's interesting with the mentorship? Because I was thinking about starting a mentorship early on with my foundation and I was actually advised by bill at the time. He's like you got to be careful because you can bring in people to mentor but you don't know their capabilities, you don't know their intentions, you don't know what they're going to got an angle.

Austin:

So so it's the whole. You can lead a horse to water, like you. You can put a path there for somebody, but if that's not the path they want to go down, then you can't force it. You can't force it.

Austin:

So what I've learned is you gravitate towards people that you're trying to kind of right, build, be in that, whatever type of energy, whatever type of sense that you're trying to go into. For me, anyway, I've gravitated those to those type of people. So that's how I found my mentors, because I'm like, okay, you're right, like I don't want to mentor, I don't want to bring on, like I was thinking, high school kids, things like that, where, hey, I'm going to help you build yourself, maybe get an opportunity in the nfl. Where it's like, okay, maybe you're not there yet, maybe you need to go through some different growing pains. So I want to differ around with the foundation. But, yeah, mentorship, as I've continued to find out and find out where I want to go in the path I've been, it's been even more crucial to have the mentors, because now I can be really intentional with what I'm asking about and I know the questions and I know where I need help at. You can use them as a backboard.

Austin:

Exactly what I don't have when I don't have clarity, how can you mentor me? Because I don't even know what should I be like, what I don't, I don't know where I'm going. But now I have clarity in my life, and so it's. It's made my mentors even that much more impactful, because I know exactly what I want to do and I want to know. I know who knows how to do that around me got it.

Paki:

Yeah, I love that you talk a little bit about mistakes, right. Oh yeah, what's up you can share what our listeners and maybe a player that's, you know, just getting in or might be Signed right now, so I give this to share with them.

Austin:

I give this to all of my rookies because when I first came into my second contract, which is usually a big one, mine was like four years, 26 million. So boom, big checks now.

Paki:

They're big before. Now they're really big.

Austin:

Yeah, right, and I'm like, oh, I got money life changing. And then, oh, life changing. And so when I came into that, I'm like, okay, I have opportunities, people are asking me to invest and I'm invested in companies like a target, like I know, oh yeah, like I, like I know something.

Austin:

I'm investing in companies and I remember investing in this company. It's still around, so I'll I'll you know to keep the name out, but I did not do my due diligence. I didn't even know what the heck due diligence meant. I didn't know about that word, you know.

Paki:

Or those words are for reason yeah, I'm like a great idea.

Austin:

Yeah, this is a great idea, like I love this idea and I put the minimum was like 200,000. I put a little bit more than that in there and oh, it's pretty much gone.

Austin:

Like I said, they're still, they're still around a little bit, but they're, they've, they've pivoted like eight times. And then I was talking the other day I'm like what's the business plan? And they got like six different business plan Is it's taking advantage? So what I always tell my guys is do not be in a, do not be in a rush to invest your money.

Austin:

They do like you can let it ball up. Here's what you need. It you need to learn. You need to learn what you need to learn. That's that's where you start, and for me, I learned really a lot about real estate. That's where I was gonna go and so that's where I actually felt most comfortable. That's where I was investing first and that's where I still have. Those investments are still working out, because I understood the landscape, I understood the numbers, I understood right, the multifamily houses, all of these different Inns and outs of real estate had take advantage of that, and I had connections in the space as well.

Austin:

And so I always tell my young guys I'm like you either need to learn about it so that you can make connections in it, or you need to have connections in it so you can learn about it. But you need both of those before you start actually putting any money in this. And so guess what if you got $300,000 in the bank from your rookie year? If you don't, if you just sit there and learn, learn, learn, you wait one year and now you have actually more, more knowledge. Guess what? That 300,000 still gonna be there. Now you can go deploy it. You know you don't need to worry about. Okay, I got this money I need. What do I need to do with it? I got you know, I got people, my got families reaching out. I need to start restaurants, like that's just actually happened to me, to like, yeah, like my mom's very my mom out there like she's.

Austin:

She's entrepreneur, she wants to do these things, like my, I don't know. Thinking about restaurants, we'll be starting this restaurant. What do you mean?

Paki:

I do no restaurant.

Austin:

And so, yeah, just just be patient and learn and learn and then hopefully find someone that you can trust and that you can connect with in a Certain space and learn from them. But don't do not be in a rush. Do not be in a rush at all.

Paki:

Love that yeah, take your time, man. Yeah, take your time, yeah, for sure.

Austin:

Yeah, sure with us.

Paki:

We always talk about business, right, we business culture. That's, that's our mix. You know, how you impact in. You know Vegas, a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of people trying to build in Vegas. Specifically, what's the business advice you would tell them? Maybe they in league right now. They want to start another business. What would you share with them?

Austin:

One is you know you wouldn't, you wouldn't hire your mom to be an offensive lineman like, make sure you have experts around you. Yeah, they actually know what they're doing. And it's not and look, doesn't always have to be a true expert, right, depending on how much, how many resources you're putting to it. Sure, if you're trying to start something up and you're very frugal with it and you're starting to write, kind of both build and learn at the same time, but you're keeping it slow and keeping it manageable as far as the spending, you know, I think that's okay to go out there and kind of just, you know, go through some growing pains that way, but just make sure you don't, you don't, you know, bet the farm on it. You know, keep it within your means, but go do stuff, go, go do it, experience do it.

Paki:

You need to get burned a little bit. You know Like I said, keep it manageable.

Austin:

But you need to go out there and try something. You know I want to do this, this and this. Pick one and go and then just try and pivot on the way. Pivot on the way because if you, if you don't go out there and take the risk, you're gonna be stuck and you're gonna be making decision you can be wishing you would have, but also know that you're probably gonna get burned and know that you don't have the Completed product right away, like there's gonna. There's gonna be things that come up, there's gonna be new people.

Austin:

You get met, you get in and introduced to, and that's the best thing. When you have done something. Now you have a story to tell. You have a story to tell now, when you walk in a room, you go to network oh, this is what I'm doing now. Hey, what do you think about that? Now you have a.

Austin:

Now you have a focal point that you can ask questions about and so, even if it might Not be the best or the biggest or the way you exactly want it, get out there and start, and start slow. It doesn't have to. You're not gonna build room overnight. You know you're not gonna build the best new thing overnight. It's not how this stuff works. It's just too competitive on markets out there to really to really do that. If you do what I mean, it's very, very rare good for you.

Austin:

But it just realized it's a slow build and honestly I think the the best part about going out and doing stuff is you build yourself. And when you build yourself now you know that you've heard of shoot for the stars, like, don't shoot for the star, build your floor up, right, build your floor up. So, even if something fails, I'm still up here, I still got these net connections, I still got this knowledge, I got this experience, I got the XYZ the list goes on and now you can start from there. You know how to start all over, because you thought you could just skyrocket something and you forgot to learn all the ins and outs of the actual business and a bit Just a business model in general. Do you even know how to build a business model? Hey, you guys.

Paki:

Start just a business plan in general.

Austin:

Start the fundamentals right, and so start slow, but go out there and do stuff.

Paki:

Yeah, I remember we had somebody on a while back. Tea, I'll be coffee. Remember that owns all the stuff and one of the one thing she had always stuck with me.

Austin:

She's always said learn bookkeeping Literally learn your books for the Beatles of everything and learn that foundation, which is oh yeah.

Paki:

You seem like you read a lot, man. Is that something I have been reading a little bit more?

Austin:

Lately actually okay, but I used to stream, so I streamed for like two and a half years. Okay just listening to stuff, talking like I would stream right, I would, I'd be on the chat, we'd be talking, talking motivation, we're talking. People ask me that's how we got started. I wanted to connect with with fans, okay and so I.

Austin:

Opened myself up. Hey, you guys want to come ask me questions. So I spoke about my story a ton and really have kind of gravitated towards the lessons and the learnings that are in my story that people gravitate towards and those are the things that express so I really clear on them. So that's probably why it seems like it's powerful.

Chris:

Just get out there and do it, or do you take a time to learn about it before you jump in? I'm a get out there and do it, but that was.

Austin:

That was when I was early.

Austin:

I'm learning now. Okay, there's actually a lot of value that you can build in the planning phase and because I used to just like, I started this streaming company called Gridiron Gaming Group and I was streaming. I was like, man, I'm getting I'm at Verizon's hit me up, bud Light's hit me, I'm getting all these sponsors coming to hit me up to get on my stream Like, dang, other athletes should be doing this. And so what I did I was like I'm going to start a company I call the Gridiron Gaming Group and what I was going to do was it was going to leverage all of other athlete streamers, not just athletes. I had, like an ID card driver in there, an actor in there. So I was like, let's get all of our streams together, leverage each other. We're going to do big events. We're going to, you know, actually, you know, get together, do fun things for our communities, bring them together. And we did that. And it was. It was incredible, but I did everything. I did everything.

Paki:

No time so.

Austin:

I'm reaching out to the sponsors, I'm trying to. I'm putting the creators for like a Super Bowl event together. I'm getting everyone you know organized and I'm gas. It was not sustainable but I just went out there and did it. You know it failed. You know, ultimately we did. We were probably around for like a year. We did stuff for the Indy 500. We did stuff for the Olympics. We had Alicia Gray in there.

Chris:

She was a gold medalist.

Austin:

We had actors this is something for the NFL draft as well and Twitch actually came up, put us in a studio like we're rocking, and I just fell off a cliff because I'm like, yep, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good no time. This is. This is a COVID too, so we'll get a little more time.

Paki:

I can't go anywhere, so I'm going and going and going.

Austin:

Covid starts now. We start going back into the office. I start getting back in the building. I'm like, ok, yeah, no way. But guess what? I went out there, I tried some, I did it Right.

Chris:

You learn a lot from it.

Austin:

Super low cost. Learned tongue I've. That's. That's what actually has built experience. My other app that I was telling you about that's today, so it transformed into that. I'm a jumping guy but like I said, been learning, been learning on the opposite.

Chris:

I'm going to learn and no jumping.

Austin:

So you got, bill is the same way. Bill is the same way, but I think it's. I think it's because he's been around so much and he's got burned like I have and I think I'll probably progress towards that I get older, but right now I'm in this like energy risk mode. We can build it, I can do it.

Paki:

I'll stay up for 12 hours a day.

Austin:

I'll make it work, you know I'm in that zone in my life which is I understand that, but it's also actually did like a message today. I do like these messages of the day. It was like be intentional with your, with your time today, like, make sure you're absorbing the knowledge that you're that you're going through, or absorbing the experience that you're going through, because this is how you build yourself up for the next thing, right, and so that's that's what I'm doing right now. I've been a jumping guy, but I'm learning. Ok, I need a better plans. I need to think through these things a little bit more, because that's what, when I bring experts around me, that's what they do.

Austin:

So, what's the plan? Hey, who's doing this, who's doing that? I'm like, ok, like I haven't been doing that as much lately with my past companies, but now we're really getting in the weeds on the stuff and then it helps us go forward because now we have, like things that I can actually hold you accountable with, like hey, is this getting done, or is it not? For the tech, for the, for the money, for the marketing plan, for the business development side, so all of these things. So there's a ton to learn.

Chris:

And it's harder to do what you do versus go back.

Austin:

You go back and learn.

Chris:

Right, exactly, I would be sure, exactly.

Paki:

Exactly, that's powerful, man. No, it's exciting. I mean everything that you, that you're doing, man. We always transition a little, but we always talk about asking guests about restaurants.

Austin:

So now, since you've been in Vegas.

Paki:

Ok what's your favorite restaurant that you might take your fiance to in Vegas?

Austin:

I'm actually going to one of our favorites. We have a few OK Italian. There's a place called Spaghetti Western. Spaghetti Western is very good.

Paki:

You know Southern Island. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, very good food.

Austin:

So love there. There's a. There's a place called Caysans. There's a few places, places called Caysans. It's all the all you can eat sushi in Henderson, caysans there's a few other ones, but that all you can eat. One is phenomenal Love. It's my favorite sushi spot in Vegas. There's another one that is called Sparrow Wolf and Sparrow.

Paki:

Sparrow Wolf, sparrow Wolf. Natalie talked about that Unbelievable. Ok, I heard great, it's one awards All of that.

Austin:

The thing is it's kind of strange because they don't put. They put like half, only half the menu on there. When I go there I'm just like just bring out some good stuff and love that. It is phenomenal what they bring out. So it's a little strange, but you get.

Paki:

You gave us three gems, though. Man, there you go, there's three gems. Ok, what else is on that? We might have forgot to ask you that you maybe want to leave us out on.

Austin:

Look, I have a lot of stuff coming up and it's it'll come out, you know, and so that it'll be appropriate when it comes out to come out like things are rolling out slowly.

Austin:

Sure, got big things happening for all of them there in the pipeline, but really I think my message is is really I want to encourage other people to kind of go out there and be a better version of themselves too. That's, that's really what I want to highlight. It's what I highlight every day, like I'm living my journey but also find fulfillment and hopefully encouraging other people to go live their journey too, because I'm from a little swan stoplight town in Colorado and I've just continued to build myself and build my capabilities. And, as I said, you ask what's the best advice. It applied back to even before I even know about it. You know going into NFL, but just making sure you're taking advantage of what you have. Now I, like I've talked to people on my stream. They got a registered job, they're working at the front desk somewhere and I'm like, practice your social skills, practice organization, like like you should be challenging yourself, like, how can I continue to keep a conversation and give great customer service?

Austin:

Like, because these things are going to help you when you're trying to network, help you when you're trying to transition into the next thing for yourself, and so I just hope you know the list is out there.

Austin:

That's what I would want to really highlight is just continue to be intentional with, with your time. When you're working there's you're not working all the time, but when you are in the zone where you're trying to like, like, be about it, be about it, do a good job. And what does that mean? That means, like, learning about asking your boss, talk to your peers, learn from other people that are maybe in the industry as well, or new industries that you're trying to get into. Reach out to people, watch YouTube videos about a learn, get in there, like be, be excited about it. And if you're not doing that right now, guess what you have free time Go learn about on the side and build yourself up, and maybe you'll get an opportunity. Or go to a seminar or learn and network and just continue to grow yourself. Continue to be a better version of yourself in any way that you can, because that's where you're going to find the most fulfillment.

Paki:

Yeah, I love that man. You know so many key nuggets I've been talking to my kids about, you know, maybe getting a finance degree, getting a communication? Degree and I'm glad you're mentioning that because it's and they're going to, they're going to listen to you more, being a professional advocate in the spotlight, so I'm glad you mentioned that.

Austin:

So you got kids? Are they college?

Chris:

No, no, I got that old yet, OK I don't know Nine and seven, but we talk a lot

Paki:

about you know, just foundation and what you're doing.

Austin:

Oh, the foundation of what you build is it's huge, like last thing here I'll leave you with, like my little brothers in college.

Paki:

OK, I'm like why?

Austin:

I know you want to, you want to go to the NFL and stuff like that. But even more you don't want to be a knucklehead coming out of coming out of college. One thousand, yeah, I don't care if you like your degree or not. You need to learn how to learn. You need to learn how you can apply to like, apply yourself, how you can bring in information and then go take a test and get it right. Or go to the network Like you need like and it's going to help you in football. It's going to help you in everything. It's so transferable to everything. So I don't care if you like your degree or not. Like you need like hopefully you do, if not change a new one. But whatever you're in like, take it seriously, not because, oh, you need to learn this and that, but because you need to learn how to learn. You need to learn how to communicate. You need to learn how to, like I said, be a better person yourself.

Austin:

So, 100 percent, the foundation that you're building is it right. It puts you on a trajectory. It puts you on a trajectory you know, and what trajectory you want is you know it's.

Paki:

At least you got it, so you can at least go for it. Yeah, so now I love that man. Man, we applaud you. Man, we had to have you come back on. You know, once a year we need to have you on the speak and drop.

Austin:

Yeah, talk to me here, and I got a couple of projects in the pipeline that are really on the verge of being really big. Be a national, and so would love to come on and talk a little bit.

Paki:

We love that man. We love that man. What's your social handle? People can check you out. Yeah, just.

Austin:

Austin Eckler on everything Okay.

Paki:

Just check it. Yeah, google Austin, everything I'll pop up. Yeah, appreciate your time, man, absolute pleasure. And you check us out to VegasSarccom, so I appreciate you, brother.

Austin:

Thank you, man, that was great stuff. Man, it's really good stuff.

Paki:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.