We were lucky to catch up with Austin Tran recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Austin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?
Am I happy as a business owner? Yes. Does being a business owner sometime drive me crazy to the point of having too many grey hairs? Also yes. But at the end of the day, being a business owner is an absolute blessing, something that I am grateful for everyday. Although it is not to be underestimated in the extent of challenges and hardships it can present. To be able to be responsible for the entirety of an operation, the liabilities it presents, every facet of a system running 24/7, it sure can take its toll and is not for everyone. Just in the past few years alone, I consecutively dealt with one of my buildings catching on fire and being near totaled, an ordeal that lasted about 2 years, then subsequently having to deal with running a business through the height of covid and everything that entailed. Did I consider leaving my career and getting a regular job? Multiple times. I strongly considered the magnitutude of responsibitilies I had at the time vs. what I would have with a normal job. What ultimately kept me going and enabled me to grind through the hard times was always keeping my vision clear and aligned to my future goals. Life is short, and all I want out of it is to be a successful businessman, make a meaningful impact on peoples lives through my own means, to leave something behind, and to have my business be self sufficient so that I may spend my time doing what I love. This future can only be achievable if I am able to make my business successful, so I resolutely stick with my choice to sacrifice what I need to now in order to live that life that I want. No time for regrets.
Austin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
As much as I love owning and running a business, I also have a strong passion for music and the arts. One quality of myself that I feel has benefited me on both ends of my life is I feel as if I have both a strong right sided mindset as well as an equally strong and creative left sided mindset. One part of me loves business and numbers and the other part loves the exact opposite. Businessman by day, musician by night, or sometimes vice versa. From being awarded “most talented in the musical arts” in high school, to opening for Bruno Mars at age 19, to then touring the country playing guitar in a rock band, my musically journey took off in ways that beyond my wildest dreams. I was fortunate to be given many lucky opportunities and to have worked with some of the best artists and producers of that time. It really shaped me to want to continue my musically pursuits, but along my own path and that I carve for myself, which is where I am the most fulfilled and satisfied. Currently, I still do work as a performing guitarist, and I also produce my own music as well as for other artists. Typically, my two separate lives do not coincide, but there have been many valuable lessons or skills that I could have only learned from one side that have definitely have my an edge and advantage in life when applied to the other side. Some things you can only learn on the road and through hardship.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
Apart from being a business owner and musician, another career/field that I am beginning to immerse myself in is audio engineering and music production. As a composer, I have always felt somewhat limited by what can be composed on just a guitar or piano. When I write music, Im always thinking about extra layers of harmonies, multiple melodies coinciding, transcribing sounds to different instruments, etc. I always knew that I wanted some aspect of my life to involve music production. Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to work with many highly acclaimed producers and some of the best studios around, at one point even interning at one. I set out the goal to learn how to produce myself, and to begin building my own recording studio. Since then I have started producing my own tracks with simple guitar takes, and have since since expanded into full scale arrangements ranging from everything from full scale orchestral tracks, EDM and synth based tracks, and tracks for other artists. It definitely feels like a completely separate aspect of my life from running my business, but allows for complete creative freedom and limitless potential.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Managing employees is a balance of nurturing relationships, upholding boundaries, managing emotions (both yours and others), and shaping people to be the best version of themselves. For both themselves and for the business. A business is a machine, one that need to be well maintained in order to run smoothly. Employees are not machines. Employees are people, and all people are different, ergo need to be managed differently in order to have them be the best version of themselves that they can be for the job. Direction and guidance that may work for one person may not work well at all for someone else. I also believe that an employee will work best when they are happy and proud of their job. That being said, as an employer it is your responsibility to create and maintain a work environment where one can thrive, grow, and succeed. People assume that being the boss must be such a luxary, but the reality is, its a heavily weighted responsibility. You have the be the 24/7 example and maintain a strong level of respect across the board. A team can only be as strong as the leader, so in order to suceed and thrive, you have to be the one who is always 100% focused and commited and can never slack. Negative work ethic will trickle down, so its the leader who has to work both the hardest and the smartest. If you want your team to be inspired and have a high morale, you as the example better have a twice as strong inspiration and morale.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.minatosushibar.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atran712/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/austin.tran.7169
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/atran712
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMRIyaVAq_faHu9fYd2WHzg/featured
- Other: https://linktr.ee/atran712
Image Credits
Ian jared Bell Bruce Smallwood