Fishing Without Bait 531: From Wrestling Fan to Broadcaster with Austin Cairns
How often do we accomplish something meaningful and immediately start thinking about what comes next?
In Part 2 of our conversation with sportscaster Austin Cairns, that question becomes an important part of the discussion.
Austin describes himself as someone who spent a lot of his college years wanting to “go, go, go.” There was always another project, another opportunity, another goal. The problem was that constantly moving forward also made it easy to burn out and difficult to appreciate what was happening around him.
Over the last few months, Austin says he has made a more intentional effort to slow down. When he has a free weekend, that can mean putting down the phone and computer and spending time with his parents or revisiting something they enjoyed together when he was younger.
Jim points out something simple but powerful: time is one of the most valuable things we have because we get to choose how to use it.
Austin's own path demonstrates what can happen when that time is used with purpose.
He began his college education at CCAC before transferring to Point Park University to study sports communications. Rather than viewing community college as a lesser path, Austin made a practical decision that allowed him to stay closer to family, manage costs, complete prerequisite courses, and eventually focus on career-specific opportunities at Point Park.
One of those opportunities became much bigger than he anticipated.
Austin helped put together a live event for Point Park's Day of Giving, combining lessons he had learned from sports, television, entertainment, podcasting, and professional wrestling. The event ended with Austin being put through a table by a professional wrestler, but the much more important result was that the effort raised more than $365,000.
Even then, Austin struggled to know how to feel about what he had accomplished.
That opened the door to a conversation about confidence.
There's a difference between arrogance and allowing yourself to acknowledge that you did something well. Austin realized that he was always willing to celebrate the accomplishments of his friends while having a much harder time extending that same encouragement to himself.
The same realization began happening in his professional wrestling career.
Austin grew up watching wrestling. Today, he's calling matches, working around the sport he loves, creating media, and interacting with people he once knew only from television.
At some point, he had to recognize something important:
He was already doing it.
His entry into professional wrestling broadcasting didn't begin behind the commentary desk. It started with an internship, running cameras, handling cables, helping with production, setting up and tearing down shows, and learning how the business operated from backstage.
Those opportunities eventually led to his first chance behind the microphone. From there, Austin began learning the unique job of a wrestling commentator: not simply describing moves, but helping the audience understand the story unfolding in the ring.
That journey offers a reminder that mindfulness isn't only about stopping.
Sometimes it's about stopping long enough to look around and notice that the life you were chasing has already started happening.
Celebrate the progress. Appreciate the people who helped you get there. And don't become so focused on the next destination that you miss where you are now.
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