Meet The Team: Austin Bryant
You woke up early to the sun rising above the trees and the wind making its appearance in the rustling leaves. It’s a cool summer morning— the perfect day for fly fishing. You quickly make a cup of coffee, grab your supplies, and head out the door to your favorite fishing spot away from the crowds, noise and hustle of everyday life. After a serene drive outside the city, off the gravel drive, and through the woods, it’s just you, the water and the fish (you hope).
If you’ve never been fly fishing, this idealistic picture may sound intriguing or boring, depending on your preference. But what you may not know about fly fishing is that it’s unique in its technique and not only requires specialized gear but also patience, honed skills and a willingness to learn.
In some ways, lessons learned through fly fishing can also be applied to the world of entrepreneurship. As both a fly fisherman and an entrepreneur, you must research to find the best spot, you must be patient and wait for the right opportunity, you must be willing to learn unique skills, and ultimately, you must be willing to fail and then cast your line and try again.
Austin Bryant is Griffin Brothers Companies’ newest entrepreneur apprentice, and you may have guessed it, he enjoys fly fishing in his spare time. He describes fly fishing as a “difficult but rewarding task” and his favorite way to disconnect.
Entrepreneurship can often be a difficult but rewarding experience in and of itself— something Austin is learning firsthand under the leadership of Mike Griffin and other ZoomUp entrepreneurs.
As an entrepreneurial apprentice, Austin is able to not only shadow Mike Griffin but also work directly with the ZoomUp entrepreneurs, some of whom were in his position only a few years ago like Austin Helms, owner of Ease Plumbing, Jordan Cupit, owner of Titan Metal Company and Nico Gomez, owner of Level Proof Foundation Solutions.
Many of Austin’s responsibilities revolve around the Griffin Brothers Acquisitions project at Brookhill Village and managing Skyline Terrace in Charlotte, NC. According to Austin, one of the things he enjoys most about his job is that it’s not a typical 9 to 5 job where you sit at a desk all day. Instead, he is often out in the community, building relationships, learning from successful entrepreneurs and finding ways to overcome obstacles and make an impact.
Austin shared that “even though it’s a job where [he] can’t give a real description because it’s constantly changing, it’s a learning experience and [he has] already learned, failed, and gone farther than any other job that [he’s] had before.”
