The saying goes that life isn’t about finding yourself, it is about creating yourself. One year ago, down to the day, I started a journey to do exactly that. If you know me, then you know my love for Austin, real estate, and travel runs deep. On November 16th, 2011 I asked myself what it is I enjoyed and what made me happy. I will go out on a limb and say at that moment in time, I was the most unhappy I have ever been in my career. Although I knew I was only temporarily doing this to learn one last skill to add to my toolbox, I was cold calling over 100 people a day to see if they wanted to sell their home. Totally lame, lacked creativity, and was not me at all! Out of frustration, and from that day on, I made a promise to myself I would never do anything or work with anyone I didn’t enjoy.
Having been in real estate for seven years, the first step I took to correct things was to start working with people I enjoyed. Switching from investment real estate to lifestyle real estate allowed me to interact with people on a more intimate level. Meeting new people in Austin, and folks relocating to town, I started to feel more connected to what I was doing ever day. Next, I wanted to share something I was passionate about with other people. I love the lifestyle that Austin offers, and being gay, it only made sense to write a blog about gay life in Austin- and GayinAustinTexas.com was born.
A few months back, I decide to enter a competition to become GayTravel.com’s next Gay Travel Guru. The competition had close to one thousand contestants, so I figured it was a shot in the dark. Today I just submitted the final video for round 3 and we’ve gone from hundreds of contestants, down to 32 people. The video required us to show why we should become the next Gay Travel Guru, so I took my camera to the streets to show life in Austin. What I learned is that Austin is a genuinely cool city, with the emphasis on genuine. I already knew that, but the experiences and characters I met along the way were awesome! After weeks of filming at night and on the weekends, I couldn’t be more pleased with the final video I created. I feel proud and I don’t know if it’s because I was able to capture the love I have for our city on camera or because I felt the love from the characters I met around Austin. Either way, the video will be put in front of 4 million viewers and the finished video shows a vibrant city that is filled with characters that all share one commonality – the desire to make Austin a unique and exciting place to live.
I find it interesting that exactly one year later, from the most frustrating point in my career, I’m at a point in life that allows me to combine the three things I enjoy – living in Austin, working in real estate, and the possibility of being paid to travel. Every morning I wake up and I look at this magnet on my fridge. I feel like it’s not only an opportunity to fulfill my promise to myself one year later, but an opportunity to share Austin with the rest of the country and show them how lucky we are to live in such an amazing city.
Until I’m given that opportunity, I need your help to share my video with as many people as possible to get me to the next round. If you enjoyed the video, I ask you to take a moment to share this page, or the video itself, on your Facebook wall. Because sometimes, life takes a little extra help from friends to create exactly what it is you’re dreaming of…and for that, I thank you in advance.
