Austin Rutherford got his entrepreneurial start in middle school, with odd jobs such as cutting grass, shoveling snow, and selling candy. Since then, his career journey has been anything but linear.
He said, “At 19, I got my real estate license and hated it, so I decided I wanted to flip houses,” he says. “I paid a mentor to teach me the flipping game when I was 20, and then finally, 16 months after paying my mentor, grinding every day, working sixty hour weeks, and taking 15 credit hours in college, I flipped my first house.”
He continues, “I flipped my next house about four months later and made $40,000 and then quit my job, dropped out of college, and went full time in real estate. Over the last five and half years, I’ve moved about 200 properties.”
Austin was hooked. Today, having done multi-millions in profit at the young age of 27, Austin has no intention of slowing down anytime soon. “I always wanted to give back to my family and help the people that helped me get to the position I am in today,” he says. To that end, Austin started his own real estate education company, Elevate, where he teaches aspiring entrepreneurs how to grow their real estate business. When asked how he differentiates himself from others in the business, Austin notes, “I am actually doing the business. There are a lot of people selling education that don’t actually do the business. They just act like they do. My team is in the field every day, actively working in the business so we know what is working and what is not working, so when I coach others I can speak from what is working presently compared to what has worked in the past. I also am an open book; I share everything and don’t hold anything back.”
Austin’s greatest piece of advice? “Take the leap. Most never even start because they let fear stop them from ever taking that first step.”
Offering online courses and masterminds all over the world, Austin and his team encourage aspiring entrepreneurs to take the leap of faith to get started in the real estate industry. Although it took him sixteen months before turning a profit, Austin believes in the value of consistency, a lesson he hopes to pass down to those in his wake. He notes, “When you have fear or you are uncomfortable, you are at a place of growth. Any time I fear something, I hit it straight on. The business is 90% mindset and 10% tactics. I build up myself every morning, manifesting, affirmations, reading, journaling, working out. Your income will never outgrow you. You need to become the person you want to be before the money or success will ever show up there.”