In a recent episode of the The Jeff Fenster Show, entrepreneur and real estate investor Cole Hatter shared his insights on building mental fortitude, finding purpose, and achieving success. Here's a closer look at his journey and the valuable lessons he shared.
Physical challenges are essential for developing mental strength and protecting one's quality of life.
Having a bigger purpose beyond making money is crucial for long-term success and fulfillment.
Mentorship, reading, and personal development are essential for staying motivated and continuously growing.
Resilience and making a promise to live a big enough life drive personal success.
Knowledge, education, and preparation are key to seizing opportunities in the real estate industry.
Physical challenges are essential for developing mental strength and protecting one's quality of life.
Having a bigger purpose beyond making money is crucial for long-term success and fulfillment.
Mentorship, reading, and personal development are essential for staying motivated and continuously growing.
Resilience and making a promise to live a big enough life drive personal success.
Knowledge, education, and preparation are key to seizing opportunities in the real estate industry.
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NewsTranscript
00:00:00 Right after the accident, it's like, cool, I'm in a wheelchair, I have a brain injury,
00:00:03 I'm blind in one eye, I'm missing half the skin on my body,
00:00:07 what, who's gonna ever hire me or pay me?
00:00:09 That story would have derailed everybody.
00:00:12 The grief of losing them was a lot, but the guilt of surviving without them...
00:00:18 [Music]
00:00:31 On today's show, we have a multifaceted guest.
00:00:34 He's not just a husband and father, but also an entrepreneur,
00:00:37 real estate investor, and a true car fanatic.
00:00:41 He has a passion for investing, not only in companies,
00:00:43 but also in people, with a vision of making the world a better place.
00:00:47 What sets him apart is his discipline towards his calling.
00:00:50 After almost dying on two separate occasions, he has taken matters into his own hands.
00:00:55 His conference, Thrive, Make Money Matter,
00:00:58 is an event that's more than just a gathering of entrepreneurs.
00:01:01 It's a transformative experience that teaches individuals
00:01:04 how to excel in both business and life, while contributing positively to the world.
00:01:08 With a focus on fostering relationships, providing value to all those around him,
00:01:14 and serving his higher calling,
00:01:15 there's no doubt that he will continue to make an impact for many years to come.
00:01:19 So without further ado, let's dive into our conversation
00:01:22 with my good friend, the remarkable Cole Paddock.
00:01:25 [Music]
00:01:28 Welcome to the show, man.
00:01:29 Thanks for having me, bro.
00:01:31 So excited to have you.
00:01:32 I mean, we've been friends now since, I think, beginning of 2020.
00:01:36 It was, yeah.
00:01:37 We're COVID friends.
00:01:38 Yes.
00:01:38 COVID buddies.
00:01:39 I lost some friends in COVID, I got some friends in COVID.
00:01:41 That's right.
00:01:42 You're one of the ones I kept, so...
00:01:44 I really appreciate you coming down.
00:01:45 You're somebody that I have admired and looked up to as a friend,
00:01:49 which isn't always the case, but it's always fun
00:01:51 when I get the opportunity to have somebody that I do truly admire.
00:01:54 I just admire, most importantly for the audience,
00:01:58 I admire the person you are more than what you've accomplished.
00:02:02 Well, thank you.
00:02:02 Glad my mother's going to see this and hear that.
00:02:06 What you do from a humanistic side, from your charity down south,
00:02:11 and to the idea of Thrive and everything that you've done about helping others,
00:02:15 it's always been to grow and inspire people, make their lives better,
00:02:18 and be more than just a self-made individual.
00:02:21 And so thank you for coming on.
00:02:24 Yeah, man.
00:02:24 It's been an honor.
00:02:25 And I can repeat a lot of what you just said,
00:02:27 of similar admiration I have for you of Everbull's and incredible success.
00:02:32 Super excited to be one of your franchisees.
00:02:35 But I was shocked to hear that it's just one of several businesses you've started
00:02:38 and that you've successfully had exits in the past and everything else.
00:02:41 So excited that our friendship is just budding, in my opinion,
00:02:45 and that we've got decades of life experience and families,
00:02:48 vacations, and things that we're going to be doing together, I'm sure.
00:02:51 And fun fact, you're 11 days younger than me.
00:02:53 Yeah, just found out an hour ago.
00:02:54 Which kisses me off.
00:02:55 So we just had a birthday, didn't we?
00:02:57 Yes, we both turned 40.
00:02:59 Yeah.
00:02:59 I'm supposed to be younger than you, but that's okay.
00:03:01 You look great.
00:03:02 Thanks.
00:03:02 If I look like you, I would love it.
00:03:05 Right on.
00:03:05 So yeah, so as I kind of told you off air,
00:03:08 the premise of the show is success formula.
00:03:10 And I believe success is formulaic.
00:03:12 Success isn't an accident.
00:03:13 You'd be successful and you've proven it across whatever venture you do
00:03:16 because you have these non-negotiables.
00:03:18 You have these things that make you you.
00:03:20 And I just learned something about you five minutes ago that you've done
00:03:23 75 Hard five times.
00:03:26 And that demonstrates a level of discipline and commitment and perseverance
00:03:30 and mental toughness in and of itself.
00:03:32 And the fact that you've been able to do it five times and traveling as much as you do
00:03:35 with children as young as you have them,
00:03:38 being that you just even had a relatively brand new baby boy.
00:03:40 Seven months old.
00:03:41 Seven months old.
00:03:42 So your sleeping schedule is definitely not on par.
00:03:45 No, to say the least.
00:03:47 And you run multiple companies.
00:03:49 I mean, you are an investor.
00:03:50 You are an entrepreneur.
00:03:51 You are a speaker.
00:03:52 You're a father.
00:03:54 So you do so much.
00:03:55 How do you really get the...
00:03:57 What allows you to have that mental toughness and that commitment to your schedule?
00:04:02 The you time that is necessary to achieve something like 75 Hard?
00:04:06 I think mental fortitude and toughness is a combination of nature and nurture.
00:04:10 I think that it's part of how we're raised and the value system that our parents give us
00:04:15 and teach us that are important.
00:04:16 And so I'll start by giving my mom and dad credit.
00:04:18 They are an amazing couple.
00:04:20 They're still together.
00:04:21 51 years of marriage, 55 years of togetherness later.
00:04:25 That's incredible.
00:04:25 Which was a huge foundation of where so much of my success comes from.
00:04:29 So if I can digress for just a second,
00:04:31 any of the listeners who have children, man, fight for your marriage as best you can,
00:04:34 because my parents having a solid relationship was the bedrock for so much of where my success
00:04:40 has come from.
00:04:40 I can tell you that I would not be the man I am today if I didn't have the healthy upbringing
00:04:44 that I did.
00:04:45 So importance to, I guess, share how much we impact our children.
00:04:50 So I think that nurture has something to do with it.
00:04:52 I think nature does too.
00:04:53 I think God gives us gifts and drive and ambition and certain things that manifest as grit or
00:05:00 determination or resilience or mental fortitude that we're talking about right now, mental
00:05:03 strength.
00:05:04 And I think it's a combination of both.
00:05:05 But I also think it's a developed skill.
00:05:07 So anybody who's listening to this right now, who in a self-evaluation knows that when you're
00:05:12 facing challenges, physical or mental or emotional, that you oftentimes retreat and don't like
00:05:20 that discomfort, that this is an area you can grow.
00:05:23 And I can explain in 75 hard, having done it five times, the mental gains are even better
00:05:28 than the physical.
00:05:29 You were very complimentary on my physique right now.
00:05:31 I just finished 75 hard eight days ago.
00:05:33 So I've got abs and everything right now.
00:05:34 And we're going to make those last as long as we can off the program now.
00:05:38 But that physical transformation is just a small part of the mental and emotional transformation
00:05:43 that a program like 75 hard takes you through.
00:05:45 And so not that I just want to sit here and be a promoter for that, even though I love
00:05:49 Annie Fursella and would promote it with every ounce of my being that anybody out there who
00:05:53 wants to try a challenge, go for it.
00:05:56 But the results are I am growing mentally, physically, emotionally in all areas that
00:06:01 matter.
00:06:02 And so I think, I guess, the trifecta approach of how to have more mental strength to face
00:06:08 life's challenges, both professionally in your business or in your careers and personally
00:06:13 in your relationships and in your life.
00:06:14 You can't help how you were raised, but that's a part of it.
00:06:18 So we who are raising others should keep that in mind.
00:06:21 You can't necessarily do a lot with what God gave you.
00:06:24 God makes certain people more resilient than others by just to his design for whatever
00:06:28 his reasons are, but we can grow it.
00:06:30 It is, I would say it's a perishable skill and it will atrophy, but I think that it's
00:06:36 a growable skill, that being mental strength and fortitude.
00:06:39 And the way that I'm even defining it is how much stress you can manage while still having
00:06:44 a quality of life that you enjoy and being productive.
00:06:47 Like how much nonsense can I endure while still enjoying it all and having a quality
00:06:52 life on vacationing and I'm a full-time parent and I want to get into some core values too
00:06:57 in a second, but how do I protect my sanity and my quality of life?
00:07:02 The whole reason I'm even trying to do what I'm doing, how do I protect all of that while
00:07:07 still managing to make tens of millions of dollars in business and all that?
00:07:11 And it takes a level of mental strength.
00:07:13 And so, again, I would encourage people, you can read a lot, but physical challenges for
00:07:18 whatever reason, in my opinion, have the most mental gains.
00:07:22 Go do a triathlon.
00:07:23 That's before 75 hard.
00:07:25 There's one right here in San Diego that I do each year in June and it's a triathlon.
00:07:28 It's a half.
00:07:29 So it's half as long as a real one, but it still kicks my butt each year.
00:07:32 How long is that?
00:07:33 So it's a one-mile swim.
00:07:35 It's a 50K bike ride.
00:07:38 So it's like 38 miles or something like that.
00:07:39 And then a 10K jog instead of a marathon.
00:07:42 I like that you say jog.
00:07:44 Yeah.
00:07:44 Yeah.
00:07:45 10K run or jog.
00:07:47 And so 6.2 miles or something like that.
00:07:50 So it's a mile swim, 38 mile bike ride, six mile jog, something like that.
00:07:53 And getting ready for that, the training helped me grow mentally.
00:07:58 So I think I've made the point, but just mental strength, mental fortitude, mental
00:08:02 resilience is important.
00:08:05 You can develop it, you can grow it, and you can become more mentally strength if you try.
00:08:11 And I think that everybody should make that a point, right?
00:08:14 Not just measuring your physical attributes and what you look like as a reflection in the mirror,
00:08:19 but measuring how you're doing emotionally and mentally, I think matters.
00:08:23 And I think that that's something that isn't really talked about a lot in the entrepreneurial
00:08:27 space is mental health and caring for men.
00:08:30 It's all about personal growth and development, how to make more money, how to scale, how to
00:08:34 have systems, how to KPIs and all that.
00:08:36 But no one ever talks about how to be happy and how to enjoy yourself.
00:08:39 And I think that mental strength has a lot to do with that.
00:08:42 And I love that you've mentioned that it's a perishable skill, because I think so often we
00:08:45 see successful humans and we say, "Oh, they were born that way."
00:08:49 But you're a living example of someone who has made tens and hundreds of millions of
00:08:54 dollars and has a beautiful family and business success and a ton of great relationships,
00:08:59 and you are still working every day on your personal development to get better as a person
00:09:03 because you recognize it is a perishable skill.
00:09:06 And that is one of the ingredients that I think has enabled you to stay successful and
00:09:10 not just be one of these people who achieve a level of success and then it falls off.
00:09:13 Dude, it's the parallel between physical fitness and mental fitness is like perfect.
00:09:20 And so I'm going to stick with this for a second.
00:09:22 It's just like running.
00:09:23 And this is an analogy that I think even non-runners can appreciate.
00:09:26 But when I first started running with 75 hard, five 75 hards ago, my first was one mile was
00:09:32 as far as I could go.
00:09:33 And it took me nine minutes and 18 seconds to do it.
00:09:35 And that was my best.
00:09:36 Like I wanted to get my best time.
00:09:37 I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.
00:09:39 I thought I was going to die on that freaking job.
00:09:40 So that was my starting point was 9, 18, nine minutes, 18 seconds to run one mile.
00:09:46 By the time I was done, I was running a half marathon.
00:09:48 I ran 13 miles in an average pace of eight minutes and 15 seconds, right?
00:09:53 It only took me an hour and 45 minutes to do it.
00:09:56 And so my progress was incredible.
00:09:58 Well, then I got off 75 hard.
00:10:00 I stopped jogging and I took about six months off of running.
00:10:03 And then I decided, you know what?
00:10:05 I kind of miss running.
00:10:05 I'm going to get back into it.
00:10:06 And I was literally almost back to square one, almost back to square one.
00:10:10 So running is a perfect example of a perishable skill because you can get really good at it.
00:10:13 Running 13 miles without stopping once.
00:10:16 I never walked, not for a second.
00:10:18 And an average pace of eight minutes and 15 seconds is pretty good for someone that only
00:10:22 trained for 75 days, right?
00:10:23 Like I pulled it off.
00:10:24 - 13 miles is insane.
00:10:25 - Yeah, I pulled it off, right?
00:10:26 - Yes.
00:10:26 - But then I lost it again because I stopped using it.
00:10:29 And so I think we nailed this one, but it is a perishable skill.
00:10:33 Running is a good analogy.
00:10:34 And so the question is, how do you continue to grow the skill?
00:10:38 And I think that's through mentorship.
00:10:39 I think it's through reading, which is in a way mentorship, right?
00:10:43 But personal development.
00:10:45 But I think really it's through doing.
00:10:46 I think there are just certain things.
00:10:48 I can't get biceps by reading how to do curls in a book.
00:10:50 I got to pick up the weights.
00:10:52 And I think mental strength is something that you just, you accomplish by doing it.
00:10:55 And so I think people need to put themselves in positions of leadership and of discomfort,
00:11:00 of not continuing to always put yourself in the most comfortable position, but put yourself
00:11:04 in areas that grow because that's where mental strength can be developed.
00:11:07 - So when you say, put yourself in a position of discomfort, and I love that you say that
00:11:12 because it's something that I always strive for, which is I have this personal mantra.
00:11:16 And I say, if I don't want to do something, I have to do it.
00:11:19 And if I want to do it, great, I want to do it.
00:11:21 And that's how I push myself when I don't want to.
00:11:23 How do you, what do you lean on, on those days where you didn't get much sleep because
00:11:27 your baby boy kept you up all night, your wife and you are at the ends, you have a bunch
00:11:32 of meetings and you got to get your exercise in, or you got to get your reading in, or
00:11:35 you got to get your personal you time?
00:11:36 - Yeah.
00:11:37 - What do you lean on versus saying, I'll do it tomorrow?
00:11:39 - So honestly, dude, it depends.
00:11:42 And if I'm being totally honest, and hopefully everybody is on this show,
00:11:45 there are days where I do quit.
00:11:47 Like I quit sometimes five times in the same day, and I just will tell my wife,
00:11:52 I'm fricking sick of this, and I hate real estate and screw this and that, and well,
00:11:55 partners, you know, like we have some challenging partners that I deal with on occasion.
00:11:58 And so I do quit.
00:12:01 But I think that I have a big enough why that after I'm done feeling sorry for myself and
00:12:05 having a temporary pity party, and you and I have had this conversation before, I know
00:12:08 that you have a similar model where you give yourself like a timer.
00:12:11 - Five minutes.
00:12:12 - Five minutes where you're allowed to bitch, complain, and cry.
00:12:14 And then when it's over, you got to suck it up and get back to work.
00:12:16 I sometimes need longer than five minutes.
00:12:18 Sometimes I need an entire day where I'll just say, screw it.
00:12:22 And I'm a car guy, I'm a car collector, and I'll get in one of my cars and just go drive
00:12:25 the coast.
00:12:26 And you know, we live in beautiful Southern California, let's enjoy it.
00:12:29 It feels like communism nowadays.
00:12:30 So if I don't enjoy the ocean, why am I even here?
00:12:33 But bottom line is I'll get in my cars and I will quit.
00:12:37 But because I have a big enough why and a big enough reason that the money matters because
00:12:40 it's a four-purpose business, each of my companies don't just make money, they make impact.
00:12:44 And that impact matters to me.
00:12:45 We talked a little bit at the beginning of this episode, you were very complimentary
00:12:48 of kind of my philanthropic endeavors.
00:12:50 I have a big enough why that after feeling sorry for myself for maybe a whole day, don't
00:12:55 quite get back on my feet in five minutes, I come back to my business because I know
00:12:59 that it's a necessary vehicle for me to accomplish the work that God has given me.
00:13:05 And I know that is being a successful business owner, running my four-purpose businesses,
00:13:10 and making the impact in the world that each of my companies do.
00:13:13 And so I think that that's just it.
00:13:14 I've got a bigger calling.
00:13:15 I don't just want money.
00:13:16 And I have materialistic tendencies.
00:13:18 I like nice things.
00:13:19 I want to dress comfortable.
00:13:21 I want to take fabulous vacations.
00:13:22 I got home 72 hours ago from Cabo for my birthday, spent seven days down there on yachts and
00:13:28 fishing trips and excursions and all kinds of fun stuff.
00:13:30 So I enjoy the monetary things too, but honestly, I don't think I enjoy them enough for the
00:13:35 hard days.
00:13:36 As much as I love having an entire fleet of cars in my garages.
00:13:40 And you do, you have what, nine?
00:13:41 Yeah.
00:13:42 And as much as I enjoy-
00:13:43 I think your Viper is my favorite.
00:13:44 My Viper?
00:13:45 That or that Hummer.
00:13:46 Yeah, the Hummer, the Hummer's a beast.
00:13:48 The Hummer's a beast.
00:13:48 The Viper tries to kill you every time you drive it.
00:13:50 We'll go for a ride.
00:13:52 But as much as I enjoy those cars and as much as I love trips, like I just got back from
00:13:56 Cabo and as much as I enjoy those things, I know myself enough to know that those things
00:14:00 don't motivate me to keep me going through the hard times.
00:14:02 And this could be a really valuable lesson to some of the listeners is if your why right
00:14:06 now is just getting rich, you got a chip on your shoulder.
00:14:08 You were judged in high school.
00:14:09 They said you'd go nowhere and now you're making a little bit of money and you just
00:14:12 got this monetary chip.
00:14:13 Just dealing with all the nonsense that business can bring you for only making money usually
00:14:20 isn't enough.
00:14:21 When you find fantastically successful people, they're usually hell bent for a bigger reason
00:14:27 and their business is the vehicle to solve whatever that bigger reason is.
00:14:30 And I think that that's the key to be able to get through days where you feel like quitting.
00:14:34 There needs to be something that's so much bigger that you almost feel ridiculous for
00:14:38 having quit temporarily.
00:14:40 But people ask me that all the time.
00:14:43 "Cole, how do you stay motivated?"
00:14:44 And the answer is I don't stay motivated.
00:14:46 I have to motivate myself daily.
00:14:48 And there are easy ways to do that.
00:14:50 I look at my children.
00:14:51 I look at my wife.
00:14:52 I'm in a season right now, very blessed, where she doesn't work.
00:14:54 She works 24/7, 365 on the children.
00:14:57 And with a newborn, that's a lot.
00:14:58 She does more than I do.
00:14:59 But she doesn't have to make money right now.
00:15:01 So I have the financial responsibility and that's a motivating factor too.
00:15:04 And I've got overhead.
00:15:06 I've got employees, same as you.
00:15:07 I can't take my foot off the gas because it could cost them a career.
00:15:10 So there are motivating factors within the business itself.
00:15:14 But what really drives me is that underlying why.
00:15:16 And so when you were identifying that why, because since I've known you, it's always
00:15:20 been about make money matter.
00:15:21 - Absolutely.
00:15:21 - And I love that.
00:15:23 When I made my first million dollars in my life and I thought I was going to be the happiest guy,
00:15:29 and I didn't get fulfilled to what you just said.
00:15:31 It took me years later to realize I had to have something bigger than monetary.
00:15:36 Otherwise, it doesn't fill the cup.
00:15:39 It doesn't make you feel that.
00:15:41 Your whole concept of make money matter, it's not a new concept, but the way you quantify it,
00:15:47 the way you say it and articulate it puts it all in perspective because I have seen what you do
00:15:52 with your events.
00:15:53 I've been fortunate to be a speaker at a couple of your events.
00:15:55 I've been fortunate to come and meet your group and see how they are now taking that message,
00:15:59 using their business as a vehicle and making their money matter to have impact in the world.
00:16:04 You also have...
00:16:05 What do you... It's in Mexico.
00:16:10 - An orphanage.
00:16:11 - An orphanage.
00:16:12 Thank you.
00:16:12 I was starting to find the word.
00:16:13 An orphanage that you go to regularly.
00:16:15 Usually, I get to see you on your way south when you're going to or from your orphanage.
00:16:19 So I know the human you are and you're down there actually making an impact on
00:16:23 these children's lives.
00:16:24 How did you pick that as your purpose, as your cause?
00:16:27 - Which part?
00:16:28 The make money matter or the orphanage specifically?
00:16:29 - The orphanage specifically.
00:16:30 - So in 2008, we had a recession and I was a real estate investor at the time.
00:16:37 The real estate market crashed.
00:16:38 Most people listening to this might remember that.
00:16:40 Some of the younger gen, whatever gen they're called, X, Z, Y, whatever,
00:16:45 might not remember because they were in elementary school.
00:16:47 But I got my ass kicked pretty good.
00:16:49 And when I had lost almost everything and I was down to like my last thousands of dollars,
00:16:55 I decided to temporarily step out of business and go become a missionary full-time.
00:17:01 True story.
00:17:02 And so my dad was my business partner at the time in my real estate business.
00:17:05 I had started a couple of businesses and shut those down because they were failing miserably.
00:17:10 Went to my dad and said, "You can have my half of the company and make all the money by yourself
00:17:13 while I'm gone," which was laughable because we weren't making money.
00:17:16 And I moved to Mexico and I lived there full-time.
00:17:19 - Where in Mexico?
00:17:20 - Ensenada, Mexico.
00:17:21 It's two hours south of the San Diego border.
00:17:23 And I lived there and I became a staff member on a non-profit called YWAM, Youth With a Mission.
00:17:28 It's a Christian non-profit organization that's a global non-profit.
00:17:31 They have bases all around the world.
00:17:33 And I joined the base in Ensenada where my job was to build houses for homeless families.
00:17:38 So these very poor Mexican families that live in these colonias,
00:17:41 which are the poor parts of Ensenada,
00:17:43 they've got a qualification process that they can qualify for where this non-profit
00:17:48 then builds them a home.
00:17:49 They need to own land, obviously, for the home to go on and some certain things.
00:17:52 They have to have at least one child under the age of eight.
00:17:54 And again, there are certain factors because everybody in Ensenada and these colonias
00:17:58 needs a new house.
00:18:00 And so that's what I did, bro.
00:18:01 I was just down there building houses for homeless families.
00:18:03 And one day I was asked to go and build a stage.
00:18:08 What was that thing that we're always standing on?
00:18:10 I had to go build a stage at a church.
00:18:12 And so instead of building a house,
00:18:14 me and my construction crew for this non-profit went out there and I met this couple.
00:18:18 And this stage in this little chapel that we were building,
00:18:21 this couple ran a ministry for women who were addicts who were recovering.
00:18:27 And I was like, "Oh, that's really cool.
00:18:28 You guys help women recover through alcohol or drug addiction."
00:18:32 And I noticed that some of these women were moms and the kids were there.
00:18:34 And I'm like, "What happens to the kids while the moms are going through the program?"
00:18:37 And then they were just kind of like, "Uh..."
00:18:38 You know, they hang out, they play soccer, and they just wait for mom to get better.
00:18:42 I was like, "Oh, this sucks.
00:18:44 Let's do something for these kids."
00:18:45 So without taking you through the play-by-play,
00:18:47 I ended up helping them secure some more land and starting an actual orphanage.
00:18:53 Where I was like, "Let's start an orphanage and let's take these kids
00:18:56 whose moms are going through the recovery process and foster them at the orphanage.
00:19:00 Let's have real orphans at the orphanage.
00:19:02 So we've got a mixture of either true orphans that are waiting to be adopted
00:19:06 or kids that we're fostering there while they're waiting for mom to get healthy.
00:19:10 And let's put some money into this and let's do this."
00:19:12 And they agreed and we did.
00:19:13 And so I spent what I had left on that orphanage to get it started
00:19:18 and had 11 kids at the time that I was taking care of.
00:19:20 I would bring them groceries every other day and I ran out of money.
00:19:24 And that was where Make Money Matter was born.
00:19:26 And we can get into that in just a second.
00:19:27 But I didn't find that orphanage, it found me.
00:19:30 And so finding this couple, Rebecca and Marcos,
00:19:32 who still live there and still run it to this day, was the beginning of it for me.
00:19:37 Seeing that need, identifying that there were these displaced kids that needed a place to live,
00:19:41 and having the entrepreneurial drive of being able to see the vision of like,
00:19:44 "You guys need an orphanage."
00:19:45 And these kids can't just wait for mom to get better.
00:19:47 They should be in school.
00:19:49 And so we built the orphanage and we now have 30 kids there.
00:19:54 And well, that's kind of our peak is we'll range anywhere from 20 to 30 kids.
00:19:58 And they all go to school and they all have healthcare and they all are taken care of,
00:20:01 and they're all fed and they're not hungry.
00:20:02 And it's amazing.
00:20:03 And we've turned it now into an actual 501(c)(3) called MakeMoneyMatter.org
00:20:08 is our nonprofit.
00:20:11 And we're just down there taking care of these kids.
00:20:13 And so how Make Money Matter was born was I ran out of money.
00:20:16 Remember, my businesses were failing and I took like my last $20,000 in my name,
00:20:21 which might sound, depending on the listener, $20,000 is a lot of money.
00:20:23 Well, when I was in my peak, it wasn't.
00:20:26 And so when that was all I had left, it was like I had lost everything.
00:20:30 So I moved down to Mexico with that 20 grand and was living off of it.
00:20:34 And then again, started this orphanage and ran out.
00:20:36 And so I needed to come back to America,
00:20:38 start a nonprofit and ask wealthy individuals like you to support me.
00:20:40 This is what I was thinking in 2011 is now where we are in my timeline.
00:20:44 And so I'm like, man, I've got these amazing kids.
00:20:47 I can't afford to take care of them anymore.
00:20:49 I'm in over my head because I can't just shut this thing down.
00:20:52 So I need to go to America and raise money.
00:20:53 But the entrepreneur in me, remember, I had been making money in real estate.
00:20:57 Prior to that, I didn't feel good just asking people to just charitably give.
00:21:01 I wanted to sell them something or provide a service or do something.
00:21:05 Well, coincidentally, at the exact same time, Tom's Shoes was taken off.
00:21:08 You heard of Tom's?
00:21:09 - Of course.
00:21:09 - For any of the listeners don't know what Tom's Shoes is,
00:21:11 for every pair of shoes they sold, they gave a pair away.
00:21:14 That's how they launched.
00:21:14 They've changed their model since.
00:21:16 But they were getting all of this PR and they were everywhere I looked
00:21:19 and people were wearing them and they were becoming so popular so quickly.
00:21:23 And I was obsessed with that business model.
00:21:24 I said, "This guy, Blake Mikowski, figured it out."
00:21:26 He didn't start a non-profit.
00:21:28 He didn't go ask people to donate.
00:21:30 He started a for-profit business that has a charitable aspect.
00:21:33 So it's not just a traditional for-profit,
00:21:35 but it's not a non-profit because he's getting rich.
00:21:38 It's something in between, which I've since coined and trademarked
00:21:41 for-purpose business.
00:21:41 He started a for-purpose business.
00:21:43 And I was like, "This is brilliant.
00:21:44 This is what I want.
00:21:45 This is what I need.
00:21:46 I'm going to go back to America, run businesses,
00:21:48 which I'm comfortable with, make millions of dollars,
00:21:50 and have them give back to fund my orphanage."
00:21:52 And that's where it started.
00:21:52 And so I was like, "I'm going to make money,
00:21:55 but I'm not going to make it like I used to.
00:21:57 I'm going to make money matter."
00:21:58 And I remember the first time I ever said it,
00:21:59 I was explaining it to my mom at a competitor.
00:22:01 I was at Nectar.
00:22:02 True story.
00:22:03 And I just got--
00:22:04 Damn you, Nectar.
00:22:04 No, good for you, Nectar.
00:22:05 I don't even think-- this was 2015.
00:22:07 You didn't even exist.
00:22:08 Yeah, you didn't even exist yet.
00:22:09 But we didn't have a choice.
00:22:09 So I didn't have a choice.
00:22:10 But we didn't have an uninvolved lifestyle even then.
00:22:11 I didn't have a choice.
00:22:12 I support you.
00:22:12 Thank you, bro.
00:22:13 So I'm getting a green juice with my mom,
00:22:14 and I'm explaining to her that I'm now back
00:22:16 from being a missionary, but I'm still going to be a missionary,
00:22:18 but different.
00:22:19 I'm going to be in the business field making millions of dollars
00:22:23 to fund the missionary field.
00:22:25 I'm not going to be a missionary in the field.
00:22:26 I'm going to live in America and fund that thing
00:22:28 that I thought I was going to be a part of when I lived in Mexico.
00:22:31 And I was drinking a green juice, I swear to God, at Nectar.
00:22:34 It's so funny.
00:22:34 All things start with what you fill your body with.
00:22:38 Look at that brilliance.
00:22:39 I've told this story so many times, and I always say,
00:22:42 I was having a green juice with my mom,
00:22:43 but now it matters because they're
00:22:44 a competitor of ours now.
00:22:45 But so bottom line is, I said, I'm going to make money matter.
00:22:48 So I started four-purpose businesses.
00:22:50 And the concept, again, is like Tom's shoes,
00:22:52 he didn't get rich and just write checks to charity.
00:22:55 His business model was philanthropic.
00:22:57 For every pair of shoes he sold, he gave a pair away.
00:22:59 Of course, he baked the cost of that into the first pair
00:23:02 that you were purchasing, but it was brilliant.
00:23:04 I loved it, and I did it.
00:23:05 And that's where Thrive was then born,
00:23:07 because people like you that were in my friendship circle
00:23:10 saw how I was running my businesses
00:23:11 and were inspired by it, because entrepreneurs
00:23:13 are thirsty for meaning and for significance in their lives.
00:23:17 They don't want to just be money manufacturers anymore.
00:23:19 They want to feel alive by doing their businesses,
00:23:22 and by connecting your business to a cause,
00:23:24 you can feel alive in ways otherwise you couldn't.
00:23:27 And so that's where Thrive was born.
00:23:29 And I started telling people how to make money matter.
00:23:30 I'm like, hey, listen, just take your business model,
00:23:32 find a charity, a cause, a need, something
00:23:34 that you can contribute towards that matters to you.
00:23:36 For everybody, it's different.
00:23:37 And run businesses that fund those initiatives.
00:23:40 And so I do it myself by running my businesses
00:23:42 that fund my orphanage.
00:23:43 But we have other causes that we support, too,
00:23:46 outside of my orphanage as well.
00:23:47 And that's what make money matter means.
00:23:50 Don't just make money, make it matter,
00:23:51 because while your businesses are generating revenue,
00:23:54 they're giving back simultaneously.
00:23:56 And to your point, I didn't invent this.
00:23:58 There are a bunch of businesses that are doing this.
00:24:00 I was just at a Starbucks the other day,
00:24:01 and I saw-- it caught my eye.
00:24:02 It says, this bar saves lives.
00:24:04 So I picked it up.
00:24:05 We should start selling those at Everbull.
00:24:06 And I looked at it, and I read the back.
00:24:08 And I don't remember, but it said something specifically.
00:24:10 Each bar sold provides a meal to a kid
00:24:11 in a third-world country.
00:24:12 And I was like, hell yeah, this is rad.
00:24:14 So when you're looking for it, you
00:24:16 see these companies all over the place that are just sprouting
00:24:18 out on their own because they're philanthropic entrepreneurs
00:24:21 that want to run businesses that make a change
00:24:23 in the freaking world, right?
00:24:25 And so these are just passionate entrepreneurs
00:24:26 that don't have a community to plug into or any guidance.
00:24:29 And I want to be that guy.
00:24:30 And that's what my whole community
00:24:31 and my whole movement and God-given calling on my life
00:24:34 is, is to talk to as many entrepreneurs as I can
00:24:36 about taking their traditional businesses
00:24:38 and converting them to for-purpose businesses
00:24:40 to make their money matter as well.
00:24:42 Because why do we even need charities
00:24:45 if all the businesses are solving the world's problems?
00:24:47 Right now, businesses give money to charities.
00:24:49 Charities go and solve problems.
00:24:50 But they have terrible economic models
00:24:52 because they need that support.
00:24:53 What if the businesses that had the money just
00:24:55 solved all the problems?
00:24:56 And that's the world that I want to live in.
00:24:58 Hey, everybody.
00:24:59 Looking for great insights?
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00:25:26 Hey, there.
00:25:29 It's your host, Jeff Fenster.
00:25:30 And I have something very exciting
00:25:32 to share with you today.
00:25:33 You know, here on the Jeff Fenster Show,
00:25:35 we're all about growth, both personally
00:25:37 and professionally.
00:25:38 Speaking of growth, have you ever heard of Everbowl?
00:25:40 As the proud founder of Everbowl,
00:25:42 I can tell you firsthand that we're
00:25:44 on a mission to help everyone un-evolve,
00:25:47 to live actively and eat stuff that's been around forever.
00:25:50 Imagine stepping back into a world
00:25:52 where everything you eat is fresh, nourishing,
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00:25:56 At Everbowl, we've got you covered
00:25:58 with our wide range of superfood bowls.
00:26:00 But it's not just about the food.
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00:26:05 who are determined to embrace a vibrant, fulfilling lifestyle.
00:26:08 Join us on this journey as we redefine what
00:26:11 it means to be healthy and active.
00:26:12 So if you're ready to un-evolve and be
00:26:14 the best version of yourself, head over to everbowl.com
00:26:17 and check out our menu.
00:26:18 Well, there's a lot there.
00:26:23 Yeah.
00:26:23 But I want to go back to one thing.
00:26:25 When you went down to Mexico with your last 20 grand--
00:26:27 Yeah.
00:26:27 --to be a missionary, did you have an end game?
00:26:30 Or was it, I'm just tapping out and going down there?
00:26:33 Yeah, I was tapping out.
00:26:34 My business had beat me up.
00:26:35 My girlfriend that I was dating at the time broke up with me
00:26:37 on Cinco de Mayo, which is just un-American to dump somebody
00:26:39 on a Mexican holiday, right?
00:26:40 It's just messed up.
00:26:41 So she broke up with me at the time, which, by the way,
00:26:45 I love telling the story.
00:26:46 That's now my wife.
00:26:47 So the girl that dumped me, I didn't let her leave.
00:26:49 I ended up getting her back and marrying her.
00:26:50 And now we have three beautiful children.
00:26:51 And I love Sonja, so--
00:26:52 Yeah, Sonja, she's my better half for sure.
00:26:55 I don't even remember the question.
00:26:57 Oh, yeah.
00:26:57 So the last 20,000 that I took down there, the end goal was
00:27:01 that I would just be a full-time missionary.
00:27:02 So I was going to use my 20,000--
00:27:04 Forever.
00:27:04 --until I ran out.
00:27:05 Yeah, so my sister was on staff with a different non-profit
00:27:08 called Campus Crusade, and they raised money.
00:27:12 So I was familiar with, like, you spend a year asking you
00:27:16 to give me $100 a month.
00:27:17 And I get enough people to say, yes, and now I'm making five,
00:27:20 six grand a month, and I can go live as a missionary.
00:27:22 And you feel good because you're like, yeah, I give $100 to Cole
00:27:25 and he's out there, like, taking care of the homeless.
00:27:27 So I can feel good about that.
00:27:28 And so that's the missionary economic model is you go
00:27:31 and raise support through your local church and community
00:27:35 to try to get people to donate to you monthly so that you can
00:27:38 live and be a full-time missionary.
00:27:39 So I was like, dude, I'm going to use my 20 grand until it runs
00:27:41 out, and I'm going to go raise support.
00:27:42 I'm going to be a full-time missionary.
00:27:44 And it was when the 20,000 ran out that I needed to go raise
00:27:48 support that I was inspired instead to start non-profit--
00:27:51 excuse me, start for-purpose businesses making money
00:27:55 matter instead.
00:27:55 And that's what I did.
00:27:57 So the end game was to just be a missionary for the rest
00:27:59 of my life.
00:27:59 I was over business.
00:28:00 I was over life.
00:28:01 I was unplugged.
00:28:03 That was a long pity party.
00:28:04 Yeah, that one was.
00:28:05 But it wasn't a pity party because I was inspired.
00:28:08 And it all--
00:28:09 You got inspired.
00:28:10 Yeah, to go be a missionary.
00:28:11 And dude, it's what built my whole-- so that missionary
00:28:14 experience is what created the Make Money Matter movement.
00:28:16 I wouldn't be who I am without Mexico.
00:28:18 So you almost died at some point.
00:28:21 Was that in Mexico?
00:28:23 Nope, that was earlier.
00:28:24 Well, I almost died a couple of times in Mexico, but that's a
00:28:26 different story for a different podcast.
00:28:26 Because when you were telling me this story about you almost--
00:28:29 I mean, you got thrown out of a car--
00:28:30 Yeah, that was earlier.
00:28:31 --80 miles an hour.
00:28:31 That was before Mexico?
00:28:33 Yep.
00:28:34 OK.
00:28:34 Yeah, so that was 2004.
00:28:36 I'm a 21-year-old kid.
00:28:37 Let me back up even more to 19.
00:28:39 When I graduated high school, I went and started working with
00:28:41 the fire department.
00:28:42 And in high school, I did evening and weekend classes at a
00:28:45 local junior college so that by the time I had graduated from
00:28:48 high school, I had done all my prerequisites, and I was ready
00:28:50 to go into my fire academy to then go and work for a
00:28:53 department.
00:28:53 And so by 19 years old, I had my whole life figured out.
00:28:56 I would spend my next 30, 35 years at that department to get
00:28:59 my full retirement, full benefits, and I would be in my
00:29:02 late 40s, early 50s just chilling, right?
00:29:04 So that was my plan.
00:29:06 Pension.
00:29:06 Yeah, pension.
00:29:07 Exactly.
00:29:07 Benefits, the whole deal.
00:29:08 And then I knew, too, with the flexibility firefighters had in
00:29:11 their schedule that I would end up starting a business at some
00:29:13 point, that firefighting would be my bread and butter, but I'd
00:29:15 start something on the side.
00:29:17 And that was my plan.
00:29:18 And two years into that plan, I did get in the car accident.
00:29:20 My two best friends and I were leaving Orange County, California,
00:29:23 driving out to Las Vegas, Nevada.
00:29:25 I was in the back seat.
00:29:26 My buddy Steve was driving.
00:29:27 My other best friend, Matt, was in the passenger seat and I was
00:29:30 in the back.
00:29:30 And we got into a rollover car accident where I got ejected
00:29:33 going about 80 miles an hour on the freeway in the middle of
00:29:36 the desert.
00:29:37 And I got really, really hurt, as you can imagine, getting
00:29:40 thrown out of a car at 80 miles an hour.
00:29:41 Were you seat buckled?
00:29:42 I was seat belted.
00:29:43 Yes.
00:29:43 That's the first question everyone asks.
00:29:45 And what ended up happening was we flipped front, not sideways,
00:29:49 but bumper over bumper, end over end.
00:29:51 And your seatbelt stops you from frontal impact.
00:29:56 The seat itself is the only thing holding you from going
00:29:59 backwards.
00:30:00 Well, in the chaos of the accident, the seat of the car
00:30:04 itself broke, laid flat, and I shot out the back window with
00:30:08 my seatbelt still buckled.
00:30:09 My legs just slid out from underneath the lap belt.
00:30:12 The chest part didn't matter because I was going backwards.
00:30:14 Does that make sense?
00:30:14 Oh, wow.
00:30:15 Yes.
00:30:15 So as the car was flipping, my own body weight broke the seat
00:30:19 flat and I just shot out the back window like where you would
00:30:21 load groceries.
00:30:22 It was a SUV, a Toyota 4Runner.
00:30:24 And so the back bench just laid flat.
00:30:28 I shot out the back.
00:30:29 Crazy, right?
00:30:29 Yes.
00:30:30 So they had to shut the freeway down in both directions because
00:30:32 they had to land a helicopter to rush me to the hospital.
00:30:34 I was bleeding out of my eyes, my ears, my nose.
00:30:37 I had a traumatic brain injury.
00:30:38 My brain was bleeding inside your skull.
00:30:40 If you have an internal bleed in your body, your skin is elastic.
00:30:45 So you'll swell.
00:30:46 And have you ever broken a bone or anything?
00:30:47 You have a swell.
00:30:48 Well, your skull can't swell.
00:30:49 It's fused shut, right?
00:30:51 It's like seven bones that are all fused.
00:30:52 So when you have intracranial pressure like I did, it just
00:30:55 comes out your eyes, your ears, your nose, just any escape it
00:30:59 can.
00:31:00 And so they knew that I wasn't doing well.
00:31:02 And so they had to shut the freeway down, flew me to the
00:31:04 hospital.
00:31:05 And I had other injuries too.
00:31:06 I had a spinal contusion, so I couldn't walk.
00:31:08 I was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down and wasn't
00:31:12 supposed to survive.
00:31:13 Obviously, I did.
00:31:15 Spoiler alert, here I am.
00:31:16 But it took me about a year to learn how to walk again and to
00:31:20 fully recover.
00:31:21 And that's what took me to entrepreneurship is immediately
00:31:24 after that car accident, I was so hurt.
00:31:25 I had to move into my mom and dad's house.
00:31:27 I couldn't feed myself.
00:31:28 Like, bro, I was completely incapacitated.
00:31:30 I had to be carried to the toilet and picked back up and
00:31:33 carried to the couch when I was done.
00:31:34 And so had to leave firefighting, had to move back in
00:31:38 with mom and dad.
00:31:39 And it was in that season that I found entrepreneurship where I
00:31:41 was like, well, I don't know what my recovery is going to be.
00:31:44 I was blind in one eye for a while.
00:31:45 Took about six months to get my vision back.
00:31:47 But right after the accident, it's like, cool, I'm in a
00:31:49 wheelchair.
00:31:50 I have a brain injury.
00:31:51 I'm blind in one eye.
00:31:52 I'm missing half the skin on my body.
00:31:54 Who's going to ever hire me or pay me?
00:31:56 I need to figure out how to make money all by myself.
00:31:58 Like, I need to figure out how to provide for myself.
00:32:01 And so that was where the beginning of my entrepreneurial
00:32:03 journey began was sitting on my parents' couch in a wheelchair,
00:32:07 or I guess sitting in a wheelchair, trying to figure out
00:32:10 how to provide for myself.
00:32:12 And as I surveyed the wealthy individuals I had around me,
00:32:16 which was like my parents' friend and some family members,
00:32:18 it seemed like real estate was the common denominator.
00:32:21 Even if they were a doctor that made their money in medicine,
00:32:24 they like bought the building that their medical practice
00:32:26 operated out of.
00:32:27 And I saw this common denominator where it's like, man,
00:32:29 rich people all do real estate.
00:32:31 They either just do real estate or they do something else and
00:32:33 put all their money in real estate.
00:32:34 So if I want to get rich, I need to do what rich people do.
00:32:36 I'm going to do real estate.
00:32:37 And that was the beginning of my real estate business was
00:32:39 right after the accident.
00:32:40 So we told the story a little out of time.
00:32:42 - That's okay.
00:32:42 - But 2004 was my car accident.
00:32:44 - It's like the movie Crash.
00:32:45 We'll just jump around.
00:32:46 - Yeah, we'll go backwards.
00:32:47 So 2004 was my car accident.
00:32:49 2005 was when I started my business.
00:32:51 2010 was when I moved to Mexico.
00:32:53 So I had a four and a half year run of running my company
00:32:56 profitably, successfully.
00:32:57 And then the recession killed me in 2009.
00:32:59 - Did your two best friends survive?
00:33:01 - No.
00:33:02 So in that car accident, I lost Steve.
00:33:05 He was the driver.
00:33:06 He was also ejected out of the car.
00:33:08 He was also flown in the helicopter.
00:33:10 He was also in the same operating room with me,
00:33:13 but it was his time.
00:33:15 It wasn't mine.
00:33:16 And so I ended up losing Steve in that accident.
00:33:18 And it really screwed me up.
00:33:20 I not only had crazy grief from losing Steve,
00:33:25 but I had the guilt of surviving when he did.
00:33:27 And so that was tough.
00:33:30 And Matt understood my pain because he too survived
00:33:33 in that accident.
00:33:34 So it was Steve driving, Matt in the passenger seat,
00:33:37 me in the back seat.
00:33:38 Matt and I were the only survivors and we lost Steve.
00:33:40 And we had this galvanizing,
00:33:45 I don't know how you would explain it,
00:33:46 but going through that experience with Matt made us closer
00:33:49 because we just lost somebody together
00:33:52 and knew a hundred percent what the other person
00:33:55 was going through in a way where everyone else
00:33:56 who was around us was like,
00:33:57 "We're so sorry for your loss.
00:33:58 "We loved Steve too."
00:33:59 But they weren't in the car.
00:34:00 They didn't know what it felt like
00:34:02 to be the only survivors, right?
00:34:03 So Matt and I became inseparable.
00:34:05 66 days later, I had gotten out of a wheelchair
00:34:08 and onto crutches and Matt wanted to celebrate
00:34:10 that breakthrough by going dirt bike riding.
00:34:13 That was something that we loved to do.
00:34:14 And I was like, "You're crazy, bro.
00:34:15 "I can't, I'm hurt."
00:34:16 And he's like, "No, no, no.
00:34:17 "You sit in a wheelchair, you sit on a motorcycle.
00:34:19 "This is perfect.
00:34:20 "Let's go ride dirt bikes."
00:34:21 So long story short, he convinced me.
00:34:24 I said, "Yes."
00:34:24 He loaded the bikes.
00:34:25 We went out to the desert
00:34:26 and he and I were putting around real slow
00:34:29 and he was in front of me, I was behind him.
00:34:32 And we were on our last ride to load the bikes up
00:34:35 and to go home.
00:34:35 And he climbed this little hill
00:34:37 and disappeared across the top.
00:34:39 'Cause when you're at the bottom of the hill,
00:34:40 looking up, you only see the crest.
00:34:41 You don't know what's on the top.
00:34:43 I then, 30 seconds behind him, got to the top of the hill
00:34:46 and there was no top.
00:34:46 It was just a huge hole.
00:34:48 It was a 20 foot by 10 foot wide hole.
00:34:50 And I fell into it.
00:34:52 And as I was falling into it, I grabbed onto a bush,
00:34:54 literally about the size of this microphone,
00:34:55 like a basketball, just and held onto it
00:34:58 and was staring straight down into blackness.
00:35:00 And I couldn't see the bottom.
00:35:02 And so I was able to kind of grab that bush,
00:35:04 climb out, hold onto the edge of the hole by my armpits
00:35:08 and kind of roll out of the hole, get up,
00:35:11 start looking for Matt, assuming that he had gone around
00:35:13 the hole and continued on.
00:35:14 Long story short, couldn't find him.
00:35:16 So I called 911 thinking that he had fallen in this hole.
00:35:18 And this thing could be like 30 feet deep.
00:35:19 I couldn't even see the bottom.
00:35:20 He could be down there with a broken arm, broken leg.
00:35:22 It's pitch black.
00:35:23 You cannot see the bottom.
00:35:24 And so I was like, dude, I need to hurry up
00:35:26 and call 911 because he would be down there bleeding
00:35:28 and I need to hurry up and get down there and help this guy.
00:35:31 So called 911, figured out how to explain to them
00:35:33 where in the middle of the desert I was.
00:35:35 And they arrive, set everything up.
00:35:38 It took seven hours.
00:35:40 Finally, the police chaplain said,
00:35:43 "I need to speak to the family."
00:35:44 So the police chaplain pulled us away from all the chaos.
00:35:47 And he said that this is an abandoned mine shaft,
00:35:50 that this hole right here, a company came in,
00:35:52 dug out a bunch of silver and just left the hole.
00:35:54 And he said, "Unfortunately, in the California deserts,
00:35:57 there are tens of thousands abandoned mine shafts.
00:36:00 There's no law that requires them to put any fence
00:36:02 around it or cover it."
00:36:04 And so he said, "Unfortunately, we have people
00:36:06 that fall in mine shafts a lot."
00:36:08 And he said, "Sadly, that this was the deepest mine shaft
00:36:11 he had ever seen.
00:36:12 It was 780 feet deep.
00:36:15 The reason that it took so long to find Matt
00:36:17 is he had fallen all the way to the bottom
00:36:18 and he didn't survive."
00:36:19 And bro, I lost it.
00:36:21 So September 9th, Cole, Steve, and Matt get in a car accident
00:36:26 where we lose Steve.
00:36:26 November 18th, excuse me, November 14th,
00:36:30 Cole, Matt go down a mine shaft and Matt doesn't survive.
00:36:34 - And if you don't catch yourself on that bush.
00:36:37 - We would have just been missing people.
00:36:38 Yeah, our parents would have a day or two later been like,
00:36:41 "Why didn't they come home?"
00:36:42 They would have found Matt's truck at our campsite
00:36:43 and they would have never found us
00:36:45 'cause my bike fell in and Matt with his bike fell in,
00:36:47 my dirt bike.
00:36:49 So I climbed out without it, but have we fall,
00:36:52 there was no evidence.
00:36:52 We would have been missing people to this day.
00:36:55 My parents would have never known what happened to us.
00:36:57 They would have thought we were abducted
00:36:59 and kidnapped or something, I don't know.
00:37:00 But so in a 66 day period, I lost my two best friends
00:37:05 in accidents that I was in.
00:37:07 So the grief of losing them was a lot,
00:37:12 but the guilt of surviving without them was soul crushing.
00:37:15 And that was a part of my why is I had a really ugly season
00:37:20 immediately following those accidents
00:37:22 where I was a victim for a while.
00:37:24 I was just like, "God, how could you let this happen?
00:37:26 "How could Steve die?
00:37:26 "How could Matt die?
00:37:27 "Why is my whole life screwed up?
00:37:28 "Why did I lose firefighting?
00:37:29 "Why am I living with my parents?"
00:37:30 Like just why, why, why, why?
00:37:31 And then I realized that being a victim
00:37:33 doesn't give me any power
00:37:34 and it certainly doesn't honor Steve or Matt's life.
00:37:37 So I decided instead of victimhood,
00:37:39 that I would use my tragedies to fuel me for motivation.
00:37:43 And I made a promise to Steve and Matt
00:37:44 that I would live a big enough life for the three of us.
00:37:47 We were all 21 when that happened, all of us.
00:37:49 So I've now lived 19 years longer than they were given.
00:37:52 And I told Steve and Matt one day,
00:37:55 I just looked up and started talking to them.
00:37:56 I said, "I'm gonna do things in my life
00:37:58 "I never thought I could or would have ever tried before.
00:38:00 "I'm not gonna go back to firefighting.
00:38:02 "I'm gonna find something else and do something bigger
00:38:04 "and push myself further than ever
00:38:06 "so that when I get to see them again in heaven,
00:38:07 "'cause I'll be face to face with them again
00:38:09 "and I'm face to face with my creator,
00:38:10 "I'll be able to put back, I'll be able to,"
00:38:12 this is emotional,
00:38:13 "but I'll be able to point back in my life and say,
00:38:15 "I used every talent, every moment,
00:38:16 "every opportunity, every gift,
00:38:18 "every relationship I was given God.
00:38:19 "I used everything to the best of my ability
00:38:22 "and I did it all for Steve and Matt.
00:38:23 "And hopefully by the time that I do get to see them again
00:38:26 "face to face, there'll be millions of lives
00:38:28 "that have been changed through my work
00:38:30 "that I'll be able to share that credit with Steve and Matt."
00:38:32 And so back to your question 20 minutes ago
00:38:35 of what happens on days I feel like quitting,
00:38:37 I remember that I made a promise to two guys
00:38:40 that didn't get a chance to live.
00:38:41 And no matter if it's a stupid business partner
00:38:44 who's acting like a dickhead
00:38:45 who needs to be outed from the company
00:38:47 or whatever it is that's frustrating me at the time,
00:38:49 I realized that I made a promise to two people
00:38:52 who didn't get to live another day,
00:38:54 who they would give anything to live my worst day.
00:38:56 When my business is frustrating me or life,
00:38:58 if my wife and I are having a hard time
00:39:00 or whatever it is,
00:39:01 if I'm facing a challenge,
00:39:03 I remember that the fact that I'm even facing a challenge
00:39:05 is a gift.
00:39:06 And this is so cliche, right?
00:39:07 Like every day is a gift
00:39:09 and that's why they call it the present and all that.
00:39:10 I get that, but like I almost died.
00:39:13 And so there's a reality to that cliche.
00:39:15 - Twice. - Yeah, twice, exactly.
00:39:17 There's a reality to that cliche that I live now
00:39:19 where it means something to me about time.
00:39:23 And so I don't have time to feel sorry for myself
00:39:26 more than a day at a time
00:39:28 because I have a lot of work to do
00:39:29 because my life has to count enough for three people.
00:39:32 - So I've known you for a handful of years
00:39:34 and I never knew that part of your story.
00:39:36 - Yeah, dude.
00:39:37 - I almost want to just come give you a hug
00:39:39 because it just inspires me more about you, honestly.
00:39:42 And I'm not saying that just to blow smoke
00:39:44 because you've known me long enough.
00:39:45 I don't blow smoke for the sake of it.
00:39:47 But that story would have derailed everybody.
00:39:52 - Yeah.
00:39:52 - If I had to go through what you went through
00:39:55 and I lost my two best friends
00:39:56 and almost died in two accidents
00:39:57 and lost my career
00:39:59 and was at home in a wheelchair,
00:40:01 I don't know how I would have rebounded from that.
00:40:04 And to see how you've taken
00:40:06 what is the worst moments of your life
00:40:09 and turned them into the fuel
00:40:10 for the best moments of your life
00:40:11 and created a bigger why.
00:40:13 I mean, that's what everyone has to understand.
00:40:15 We all, no one's lucky.
00:40:17 - Yeah.
00:40:18 - We are all unlucky and lucky the same.
00:40:20 It's what we do after that.
00:40:22 It's what we do with that that dictates our outcomes.
00:40:24 - Totally.
00:40:25 - Because you could stop your story right there
00:40:27 and you're one of the most unlucky humans I know.
00:40:29 - Totally, yeah.
00:40:30 - I mean, right there.
00:40:31 If you just end at 22 years old,
00:40:33 I'd be like, "This poor man."
00:40:35 Like, your story's horrific.
00:40:38 - Dude, I've been blessed more than most
00:40:40 and I've lost more than most.
00:40:41 But I think it's just because I have a crazy calling on my life
00:40:44 and I think we all do.
00:40:45 And we all have our own unique stories
00:40:47 of things that God will allow us to go through or not
00:40:49 to mold us into the work that he has prepared for us.
00:40:52 And I don't know that I would have picked my life story
00:40:56 because that was 20, you're right.
00:40:57 That was all by 22.
00:40:58 By my 30th birthday, bro, I've got more stories just like it.
00:41:02 People who know my 20s, by my 30th birthday,
00:41:05 are like, "You need to write a book or a movie."
00:41:06 And it's like, finally now at 40, I will.
00:41:07 - Yes, which I'm excited for.
00:41:10 - Yeah, it's gonna be these stories
00:41:12 and the lessons learned living through them
00:41:15 to share with people so that you don't have to go through
00:41:18 what I did to learn what I've learned.
00:41:19 - And it's important, I think,
00:41:20 because there's a meme that travels
00:41:22 to Instagram and the internet.
00:41:23 I've seen it a handful of times,
00:41:24 but it usually shows a poor family
00:41:26 in some third world country.
00:41:27 And it's like, this family would do anything
00:41:29 for your problems.
00:41:30 And for most of us, that's true.
00:41:32 Obviously not the problems you went through,
00:41:34 because those are life changing
00:41:36 and unfortunately people passed away.
00:41:37 But our worst day is traditionally that week at home
00:41:40 and we're stressed and we're just like,
00:41:42 "Oh, why am I so unlucky?"
00:41:43 And we feel like a victim
00:41:44 because a business partner is being whatever,
00:41:46 an employee, a customer.
00:41:48 We didn't get the job we wanted.
00:41:49 Things didn't go our way.
00:41:50 We got cut from the team.
00:41:51 Like whatever those little things are
00:41:53 that are big in the moment,
00:41:54 but trivial in the big scope of life,
00:41:56 for us to all take a step back and realize,
00:41:58 we have it so good being an American in this country,
00:42:02 having these opportunities,
00:42:04 having the ability to rebuild your entire life from scratch,
00:42:06 being in a capitalistic society
00:42:08 where you can reinvent yourself
00:42:11 with the snap of a finger.
00:42:13 You can turn tragedy into triumph.
00:42:16 You can turn a failed business in 2008
00:42:19 because of a recession
00:42:20 that had nothing to do with you individually
00:42:21 and unluckiness into a multimillion dollar fortune.
00:42:25 And a multimillion dollar four purpose empire.
00:42:27 As an entrepreneur,
00:42:28 I know how meaningful it is to invest in the people
00:42:31 and causes that are close to me.
00:42:33 And on GoFundMe, it's easy, safe,
00:42:35 and powerful to do just that.
00:42:37 Whether you're supporting a family member,
00:42:39 friend, local business, or charity.
00:42:42 And whenever you make a donation,
00:42:44 you're protected by the GoFundMe giving guarantee.
00:42:47 Visit GoFundMe.com today
00:42:50 to help make a positive difference in your community.
00:42:53 (upbeat music)
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00:43:16 Eos Fitness, better gym, better price.
00:43:20 Now let's get after those goals.
00:43:22 - Yeah. - And impact millions.
00:43:24 - I like the way that sounds.
00:43:25 - I mean, you did it. - I know.
00:43:26 - That's why when I got the opportunity
00:43:28 to come and speak on your stages at Thrive,
00:43:30 your audience, your community,
00:43:33 they're one of my favorite communities.
00:43:35 And we talked about it off air,
00:43:36 but I let some of them use my studio
00:43:38 just because I love them.
00:43:39 I genuinely love your community
00:43:41 'cause they're all for-purpose entrepreneurs.
00:43:44 - As soon as you get a group of people
00:43:45 that wanna use their businesses
00:43:46 to make the world a better place,
00:43:47 they're a good group to hang out with.
00:43:49 - 'Cause sometimes, I mean, you're a speaker too.
00:43:51 You travel, you go on stage,
00:43:53 you speak, you get hit up after by 20, 30, 40, 50 people.
00:43:57 Everyone wants to talk to you.
00:43:59 It's tiring.
00:44:00 You go home and you're kind of spent.
00:44:01 - Yeah. - Your events,
00:44:02 you go home and you feel inspired.
00:44:04 - Yeah. - As a speaker.
00:44:05 Like I love, and that's why part of me was sad
00:44:07 when you stopped doing the events short-term.
00:44:10 - Yeah. - I know I'm waiting
00:44:11 for Thrive Revive.
00:44:13 - Yeah, I'm gonna bring it back.
00:44:14 Yeah, we had a great seven-year run.
00:44:16 It's been amazing.
00:44:17 I have no regrets,
00:44:18 but it's been talking a lot about God's calling on my life.
00:44:22 I just know that there's a lot of people
00:44:23 that I know that this is a season
00:44:24 where I needed to step out of the public spotlight
00:44:26 for a moment to build some things
00:44:28 that really matter to me to then relaunch
00:44:30 bigger and better than ever.
00:44:31 It's not a step back, it's a sidestep.
00:44:33 As I shared with you, I don't do podcasts anymore
00:44:37 except for great friends.
00:44:38 I don't speak on stages anymore except for great friends.
00:44:40 I'm just working on my real estate business
00:44:42 and working on my fatherhood.
00:44:44 I've got young children, 10, seven, in seven months.
00:44:47 10 years, seven years, seven months.
00:44:49 And so he'll actually be eight months in a couple of days.
00:44:53 But my kids are obsessed with me right now.
00:44:55 And even though I will have my children
00:44:57 the rest of my life, I won't be as cool as I am right now.
00:44:59 Like my 10-year-old still kisses me in public.
00:45:00 This is not gonna last long.
00:45:02 And so I'm just in this season
00:45:04 where I've listened to my elders enough
00:45:06 and heeded their advice
00:45:07 that I'm not gonna have regrets
00:45:08 on fathering my young children.
00:45:10 I will not have regrets.
00:45:11 There will not be a 60th birthday where I say,
00:45:14 "Man, while my kids were young,
00:45:15 I wish I worked harder and made an extra million each year."
00:45:17 I can maybe give up one or $2 million a year
00:45:20 and still make plenty of millions to pay my bills.
00:45:22 But that extra one or $2 million
00:45:24 that would cost me sacrificing
00:45:26 what my kids need and require from me right now.
00:45:29 So anyway, long story short, I've temporarily stepped out.
00:45:31 I'm tripling down on my real estate business.
00:45:33 I'm gonna write my book that's half written right now
00:45:36 and got a literary agent and a publisher and all this stuff.
00:45:38 And I'm finding out in the world of book publishing
00:45:41 that you don't really get to write your own book anymore.
00:45:43 There's a lot of opinions,
00:45:44 but I'm heeding that advice as well
00:45:45 because they're experts and they know how to create hooks
00:45:48 and tell my story in a way
00:45:49 that keeps people flipping the pages.
00:45:51 So at the beginning of that,
00:45:52 and I think that I'll be in a quiet season for a year or two,
00:45:55 write that book, get it out there, publish it, launch it.
00:45:59 And then with that would be my like rebrand,
00:46:01 re-entering the public space,
00:46:02 launch a podcast that goes with the book,
00:46:04 back on stages and then that whole season.
00:46:06 But right now I'm loving it, dude.
00:46:08 It's been great and I have no regrets,
00:46:10 but the season I'm in right now is totally fulfilling me.
00:46:13 - Well, before I ask you about real estate,
00:46:15 I wanna tell you my favorite story about your daughters.
00:46:18 - Okay.
00:46:19 - This was, I don't know if you remember this,
00:46:21 but this must've been two years ago.
00:46:24 And your wife posted on Instagram a picture
00:46:26 of her coming home and your daughter set up
00:46:28 with her own toys in her playroom,
00:46:30 a fake Everbull with the sign at the top
00:46:33 and she was playhousing Everbull.
00:46:35 And that moment of all the Everbull moments,
00:46:39 and we've had a lot of highs and lows
00:46:41 and all these great moments.
00:46:42 That's one of my top three favorite Everbull moments
00:46:44 is that kids were inspired with their imagination
00:46:47 to build a fake Everbull in their playroom
00:46:50 and serve Everbull like they would a tea shop
00:46:53 or a ice cream store.
00:46:54 - The listeners need to know, they built an Everbull.
00:46:56 It was like 10 foot by five foot.
00:46:58 There was a countertop, there was a sign
00:47:00 that was like six feet long that said Everbull.
00:47:02 Like this wasn't make believe.
00:47:04 They built like a kiosk for Everbull
00:47:08 and had fake ice cream that they would serve
00:47:12 that came from some target gift, I'm sure.
00:47:15 And they loved it.
00:47:16 So I'm glad that meant something to you, man.
00:47:17 - It meant more to me than you'll ever know.
00:47:19 It was one of my favorite,
00:47:21 like we could sell this for a billion dollars
00:47:23 and that story is still gonna be one of my top five.
00:47:25 - Yeah, they served Everbull, man.
00:47:26 - Because money and adults are fine,
00:47:27 but when you can light up a child,
00:47:29 I mean, children have the greatest imagination.
00:47:32 And your kids have, I mean, your home is beautiful.
00:47:35 They have toys, they have pools.
00:47:36 Like they built an Everbull.
00:47:38 They wanted to be part of this thing,
00:47:40 which means we're doing something awesome.
00:47:41 - Yeah.
00:47:42 - And so I just wanna tell you that.
00:47:43 But pivoting to real estate,
00:47:44 because this is something you said it
00:47:46 at the beginning of the episode,
00:47:47 all, and I've learned this just from being around people
00:47:50 like yourself over the last 10, 15 years,
00:47:52 all successful people I know are involved in real estate.
00:47:54 All the wealthiest people I know are involved in real estate.
00:47:56 I've never been a really good real estate investor.
00:47:59 I've dabbled poorly.
00:48:00 I ended up buying houses that don't make me money
00:48:03 because for some reason I buy them
00:48:05 and I don't rent them out.
00:48:06 I don't know what I'm doing.
00:48:07 I majored in real estate.
00:48:09 I tried, bought my first house in 2007
00:48:11 and the recession hit me as well.
00:48:13 So I just realized like, okay,
00:48:15 I'm gonna focus on my four-purpose businesses for myself,
00:48:17 my for-profit businesses for myself
00:48:20 and real estate on the side.
00:48:21 Lately, I've been dabbling.
00:48:22 And so entering this new period we're in
00:48:26 where real estate has surged in value
00:48:28 over the last three years,
00:48:30 interest rates have surged from free money to now,
00:48:33 what we, you know, maybe not historically high,
00:48:35 but high interest rates for us over the last decade.
00:48:37 - Yeah.
00:48:37 - What is the opportunity you see today?
00:48:39 - So there's a lot.
00:48:43 This is probably the most exciting time
00:48:45 that I've seen in real estate for a long time.
00:48:47 Right now, the news and the general attitude
00:48:51 towards real estate is sour because of interest rates.
00:48:53 Like you said, we've just had consistent increases
00:48:56 of interest rates that have harmed the lending world
00:49:02 and therefore impacted the real estate ecosystem quite a bit.
00:49:05 But where there's disruption, there's opportunity.
00:49:09 Where there's chaos, there's opportunity.
00:49:11 What I always tell people is,
00:49:14 if you can create a disruptive brand,
00:49:16 then usually you can get a disproportionately large amount
00:49:20 of market share and be super successful.
00:49:21 You've got the Airbnbs that was disruptive
00:49:23 in the hospitality space.
00:49:24 You've got the Ubers that was disruptive
00:49:26 in the transportation space.
00:49:27 You've got all these disruptive brands, right?
00:49:29 Well, starting a disruptive brand is hard to do
00:49:32 because not only do you need a good idea,
00:49:33 you need a good idea that's like,
00:49:35 has to do with timing and certain factors
00:49:38 that are outside of your control too, right?
00:49:40 To have that disruptive brand.
00:49:41 Well, in a season where your industry is being disrupted,
00:49:46 then every brand automatically gets to be a disruptive brand.
00:49:49 So right now in real estate, things are so chaotic
00:49:52 and there's so much uncertainty
00:49:55 that that's where the opportunity comes.
00:49:56 And so we're at the very beginning of some
00:49:58 of the best deals I think that are going to be coming out.
00:50:01 You can talk big money, like institutionally wise.
00:50:03 A lot of these banks, like hedge funds,
00:50:07 bought a bunch of real estate, like strip centers
00:50:09 and apartment buildings and hotels
00:50:11 at low interest rates on arms, adjustable rate mortgages.
00:50:15 And as those rates are now adjusting in today's new rates
00:50:20 being double what they were when these banks got these loans,
00:50:22 they literally have to dump assets in cheap.
00:50:25 This is Grant Cardone's whole strategy right now
00:50:28 is he's just going up and buying up
00:50:30 all these massive A-class buildings
00:50:32 from these REITs and these hedge funds
00:50:34 who got good financing when we were running the country
00:50:38 like we should be.
00:50:39 And in today's economy
00:50:41 and the interest rates where they are today,
00:50:43 those assets no longer make sense to them.
00:50:44 So they're dumping them for cheap
00:50:45 and guys like Grant Cardone come up and picking them up.
00:50:47 So where there's disruption, there's opportunities,
00:50:49 is the point in all sectors of real estate.
00:50:51 In the residential part, we're seeing the exact same thing.
00:50:54 What's interesting right now and why home prices are holding
00:50:57 is because people don't want to sell
00:50:59 because they know they're going to get rid
00:51:00 of their 3% mortgage to then go get a 6% mortgage
00:51:03 somewhere else.
00:51:04 So even homeowners that would be trading or upgrading
00:51:07 or getting a new house aren't right now.
00:51:08 And so we're seeing that slowdown.
00:51:10 What I think is going to happen,
00:51:12 like everything else is people will adjust.
00:51:14 And so people will get used to the interest rates
00:51:16 and we might even have that come back down.
00:51:17 The Fed has said that they may have one or two more increases
00:51:20 than they're going to hold for a while
00:51:21 and they're going to start peeling back a little bit
00:51:23 because they've seen that we still have high inflation
00:51:27 but interest rates can't keep going as aggressively
00:51:29 as they were at 50 basis points, at 75 basis points a pop.
00:51:32 That can't happen anymore.
00:51:33 And I'm getting a little bit in the weeds right now.
00:51:35 - No, but it's good.
00:51:35 - But--
00:51:36 - Because I think we have some listeners
00:51:37 that are looking to get involved.
00:51:38 They want to capitalize on this,
00:51:39 but they're, like me, unsure how.
00:51:41 - So I'll go through the weeds
00:51:42 and then I'll go back high level and make it easy
00:51:44 so everyone can benefit from this.
00:51:46 But you've got homeowners that are reluctant to sell
00:51:48 because they're going to upgrade a home, sure,
00:51:51 but they're going to triple their monthly mortgage
00:51:53 because they're going to get a new interest rate,
00:51:55 which is much higher than the one they've already got.
00:51:57 But I think as people start to settle in,
00:51:59 once the Fed's done raising rates,
00:52:01 once they hold and even start bringing them back down,
00:52:04 people will get used to it.
00:52:05 Just like we have in business,
00:52:07 our costs have been going up at Everbolt
00:52:09 because of shipping costs
00:52:11 and supply chain disruption from post-COVID
00:52:14 and all this stuff that we've seen.
00:52:15 So we've had to adjust our economics accordingly.
00:52:18 And then our customers had to adjust
00:52:20 and everybody has to adjust in an economy like this.
00:52:23 The same thing happens in real estate
00:52:24 to where people will get over it
00:52:25 and they're going to buy anyway.
00:52:26 They're not going to die in the house
00:52:28 that they're living in right now.
00:52:28 They're going to start selling again.
00:52:30 And in that season,
00:52:32 I think we're going to see a lot of discounted real estate.
00:52:34 So what I'm doing personally right now is stacking cash.
00:52:37 I've transitioned my strategy within real estate right now
00:52:41 to focus on a specific strategy called land entitlement,
00:52:44 which would take 20 minutes to explain in full.
00:52:47 But basically what I'm doing is I'm buying raw land
00:52:49 that's zoned like agricultural or residential,
00:52:53 and I'm changing it so that a commercial
00:52:56 or industrial property can be built there.
00:52:57 So all I'm doing is working
00:52:59 with the various municipalities and saying,
00:53:00 "Hey, there's this four acres of dirt
00:53:03 that's zoned agricultural.
00:53:04 We're going to spend the next year changing that
00:53:07 so that it can be a strip center,
00:53:08 so that we can put Everbolts
00:53:09 and Starbucks and things like that in."
00:53:11 And it takes about a year of paperwork
00:53:15 and legal process and court hearings and things like that,
00:53:18 but you can eventually get it done.
00:53:19 Well, what that does is it doubles the value of the land.
00:53:22 So I have a deal right now
00:53:22 that I bought in April 8th of last year.
00:53:25 So exactly a year ago.
00:53:26 - My birthday.
00:53:26 - Oh, it's April 8th.
00:53:27 - April 8th.
00:53:28 - Right on.
00:53:28 Well, April 8th, happy birthday to you.
00:53:30 I bought myself 4.2 acres-
00:53:31 - And happy birthday to you.
00:53:32 - For $4.2 million in a place called Bloomington, California.
00:53:36 Okay, so it's in the Inland Empire,
00:53:38 maybe an hour's drive from where we're sitting
00:53:40 recording this podcast.
00:53:41 I bought it for $4.2 million.
00:53:42 I spent 300 grand in titling it of my own money.
00:53:46 So I'm into it for four point,
00:53:48 probably all in six and change, 4.6.
00:53:51 I sold it for 9.5.
00:53:52 It's under contract right now.
00:53:54 I did nothing to it, bro.
00:53:55 I didn't even pull the weeds
00:53:56 because I just got a letter from the city
00:53:58 for asking me to do a weed abatement.
00:53:59 So truly, I didn't even pull weeds.
00:54:01 I did nothing.
00:54:02 I bought 4.2 acres for 4.2 million.
00:54:06 I then rezoned it from general commercial to industrial.
00:54:10 It took me a year to do.
00:54:11 We then just sold to someone
00:54:13 who's gonna build a warehouse and it's cold storage.
00:54:15 Someone that we might be buying our produce from.
00:54:17 And he's bought it for 9.5.
00:54:20 This isn't theoretical, it's under contract.
00:54:21 Now it hasn't closed yet in real estate.
00:54:23 Nothing counts till the ink's dry
00:54:24 and the money's in the bank,
00:54:25 but I just gotta wait for him to go
00:54:26 through his due diligence process.
00:54:27 And if it's not him, it'll be somebody else.
00:54:29 We listed it at 10 million.
00:54:30 He offered 9.5 and I accepted
00:54:31 because he was gonna close in 60 days
00:54:33 and there were some delays that came up, but it's fine.
00:54:35 So that's my new strategy.
00:54:37 Now I'm gonna make $4.7 million net on that deal.
00:54:40 After everybody gets paid, after everybody's won,
00:54:43 there will be an extra $4.7 million
00:54:45 sitting in my checking account from just that deal.
00:54:47 And this has nothing to do with any of my other businesses.
00:54:49 What I'm gonna do with that is reinvest it into real estate.
00:54:52 I'm gonna take all of it
00:54:53 and I'm gonna go buy asset classes
00:54:55 that other asset managers are dropping for cheap
00:54:58 or homeowners are dumping for cheap.
00:54:59 And you're in the same boat in your own world
00:55:02 of Everbull and having influxes of cash
00:55:04 and then reallocating it.
00:55:05 And so I think now getting out of the weeds
00:55:09 and going more high level,
00:55:10 I think that in the next year or two,
00:55:12 we're gonna see a lot of real discounted real estate.
00:55:14 So people should be getting themselves ready financially
00:55:16 to capitalize on that opportunity.
00:55:18 This is not get rich quick.
00:55:20 This is buy a cheap asset in 2024
00:55:22 that makes you rich in 2030.
00:55:24 That's what this is.
00:55:25 But it's gonna be a transfer of wealth
00:55:27 like we've never seen before.
00:55:29 And we as a nation are becoming a renter's nation.
00:55:33 And so I would encourage anybody
00:55:35 who's a homeowner right now,
00:55:36 don't sell your house unless you're buying another one
00:55:38 because eventually real estate will be so unaffordable
00:55:41 that it's just the wealthy that have it.
00:55:43 If you look at the data,
00:55:45 less and less people can afford home.
00:55:48 The home price index, what is it?
00:55:50 The affordability index is low.
00:55:54 It should be double digits and it's not.
00:55:56 It's single digits in most parts of the country,
00:55:57 meaning that of that local area,
00:55:59 the affordability index,
00:56:01 less than 10% of people can even afford to buy a home.
00:56:03 And it's only getting worse, that trend.
00:56:05 So there will be a day in America
00:56:07 where just nobody owns homes anymore,
00:56:08 except for people like you and I that were smart
00:56:10 and bought them and held onto them, rented them
00:56:12 and got wealthy over time.
00:56:14 And so that's my play is I'm doing land entitlement
00:56:16 to generate a bunch of cash to get as liquid as possible.
00:56:19 I'm not buying and holding like I know you're closing
00:56:21 on two or three rentals right now.
00:56:22 That's not what I'm doing.
00:56:23 I'm keeping all my cash and I'm waiting
00:56:25 because I'm going to be able to get those two or three rentals
00:56:27 for another 20% off in two or three years.
00:56:28 - So my last two quick questions.
00:56:31 When you buy a rental, what's your formula?
00:56:34 How much does it have to cashflow day one
00:56:36 for you to pull the trigger?
00:56:37 - It's more percentages.
00:56:39 It's not necessarily dollars,
00:56:41 but I like double digit returns.
00:56:42 So I'm shooting for a 10% passive cash on cash return.
00:56:45 - So if you buy a house for a hundred grand,
00:56:47 you want to make 10 grand in rental income profit
00:56:50 after all expenses year one.
00:56:52 - Which is possible, but it's fewer and further between.
00:56:55 Yeah, usually you're going to see like seven or 8% returns
00:56:57 on just any random deal,
00:56:59 but getting 10% or more on passive income
00:57:01 is not that complicated to do.
00:57:02 So that would be kind of my minimum
00:57:04 because if not, Jeff, I've got other things
00:57:07 to do with my money.
00:57:08 I can just lend my money out at 10%.
00:57:10 So if my real estate isn't going to give me 10%,
00:57:14 then why bother?
00:57:14 Now real estate has other benefits like tax depreciation,
00:57:17 things like that and check sheltering.
00:57:19 But the reality is my real estate needs to be giving me 10%
00:57:22 because at the end of the day, I'm a private lender.
00:57:24 I lend people money for their real estate
00:57:26 every single month and I charge them 10 to 12%.
00:57:30 And that's the money that I stick away.
00:57:32 So like when I make this 4.7 million,
00:57:34 I'm going to wait for two years
00:57:35 before I redeploy it into real estate.
00:57:37 It's all going to go into loans.
00:57:38 So I'm going to take my 4.7 million
00:57:40 I'm making on that land flip.
00:57:41 I'm going to loan out $4.7 million at 10 to 12% interest
00:57:44 on one or two year notes.
00:57:46 Then it's all going to come back to me
00:57:48 and I'm going to go buy an apartment building
00:57:49 from Goldman Sachs who needs to get rid of it,
00:57:53 and it's too small.
00:57:54 Grant Cardone didn't want it or something like that.
00:57:56 Right?
00:57:56 So anyway, that's the point is it needs to make about a 10% return
00:58:00 because I know if I'm going to go buy a house that's paying me 7%,
00:58:03 I would have been better off just loaning my money out.
00:58:05 - Sure.
00:58:05 So my last question, because we have an audience of aspiring
00:58:09 and entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs,
00:58:12 middle of the road entrepreneurs,
00:58:14 even successful entrepreneurs.
00:58:16 They want to get involved in real estate,
00:58:17 but they don't have $4.2 million or 4.6
00:58:21 to put all their money in on a land entitlement deal.
00:58:23 They don't have all the means and the resources,
00:58:27 but they want to get involved.
00:58:28 They want to start in the real estate journey.
00:58:29 What's the one thing you would say they could do today with,
00:58:32 let's just say they have a hundred grand or less.
00:58:34 - They're going to hate this answer,
00:58:36 but it's the right answer.
00:58:37 You got to get educated because guess what?
00:58:39 Of the $4.6 million I put into that land deal,
00:58:41 only 300,000 of it was mine.
00:58:43 And as of yesterday, it's not anymore
00:58:45 because I just raised 500,000 for that deal
00:58:47 to get it the rest of the way through.
00:58:49 So the reality is,
00:58:50 I won't bore your audience with the details,
00:58:54 but I got what's called seller financing on the land.
00:58:56 I bought it for 4.2 million,
00:58:58 and I only needed to bring a million to the table.
00:59:00 The guy carried 3.2 million for me, right?
00:59:03 At 5% interest last year when interest rates were rising.
00:59:06 That other million plus that I had to bring to the table,
00:59:08 I raised through our mutual friends.
00:59:10 I won't say their name on the air,
00:59:11 but you know every single person
00:59:12 that gave me money for that deal.
00:59:13 - Sure.
00:59:14 - I only put 300,000 of my own dollars in.
00:59:16 - I should have given you money for that deal.
00:59:17 - Yeah, I would have paid you,
00:59:18 I think I'm paying 15% on that deal.
00:59:20 But I just raised the last 300,000
00:59:24 'cause I wanted my money out.
00:59:25 So long story short is,
00:59:27 you don't even need your own money.
00:59:28 You do need money to make money in real estate,
00:59:30 but it doesn't have to be your own money.
00:59:31 And this is all totally legal.
00:59:32 Real estate, everybody understands
00:59:34 you borrow money for real estate.
00:59:35 Well, you borrow money to buy it too, right?
00:59:37 And so long story short,
00:59:39 where people should start is knowledge, it's education.
00:59:41 I don't make millions of dollars in real estate.
00:59:43 Every single year, because I don't know what I'm doing.
00:59:45 The reason that I'm successful in real estate
00:59:47 is 'cause I know exactly what I'm doing.
00:59:48 And the reason I know exactly what I'm doing
00:59:49 is because I've been doing it for 17 years now,
00:59:51 but also I've had great mentorship along the way.
00:59:54 I've read books, I've gone to seminars,
00:59:56 I've gone to workshops, I've joined masterminds,
00:59:58 I've put in the work and I've spent the money.
01:00:00 I've spent $500,000 on my brain.
01:00:02 Probably 480,000 of that was in the last four or five years,
01:00:06 because that's the next question is,
01:00:08 "Cole, you've spent half a million dollars
01:00:09 on your personal growth and education.
01:00:11 What if someone doesn't have a half a million?"
01:00:12 Well, neither did I when I started.
01:00:13 That was once I started making money,
01:00:15 I would join wealthier or more expensive things.
01:00:18 But the reality is I've spent a half a million dollars
01:00:20 on my education.
01:00:20 I don't have a degree, I didn't finish college.
01:00:22 You heard my story, I was a firefighter
01:00:24 and then went right into real estate.
01:00:25 So I never ended up finishing my four-year degree,
01:00:28 but I have knowledge, I have an education.
01:00:30 I spent a half a million dollars on it
01:00:32 and 17 years using it to get where I'm at.
01:00:35 And so I guess the point I'm trying to emphasize
01:00:37 is success isn't free.
01:00:38 You have to pay rent and it's due every day.
01:00:41 And if you wanna be a successful person,
01:00:44 it looks like mentorship and constant, constant growth.
01:00:47 I saw in your office, you have like 60 books in there.
01:00:50 You're reading, I know you're mentored
01:00:51 by mutual friends of ours, like Meltzer and others.
01:00:53 And so you are a phenomenal success
01:00:56 because you put in the work and success is only rented
01:01:00 and the rent is due every single day.
01:01:02 Success is an atrophying skill, if you will.
01:01:05 And so anyway, back to real estate,
01:01:07 and this is true of all industries, by the way,
01:01:09 if you wanna be a successful e-commerce person
01:01:11 or it doesn't matter what the industry is,
01:01:12 it all starts with your knowledge,
01:01:13 but that would be where I would start.
01:01:15 And then the next question is, well, where do people begin?
01:01:17 And there's a couple of reputable companies out there,
01:01:20 but the reality is I would start with
01:01:23 "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki.
01:01:25 That's like the staple book that almost every entrepreneur
01:01:28 that does real estate reads.
01:01:29 And so start with some books to even figure out
01:01:31 what part of real estate you're even interested in,
01:01:33 'cause there's a thousand different ways
01:01:34 to make money in real estate, literally.
01:01:36 Figure out where you even wanna make money
01:01:38 and then go obsess over that thing.
01:01:40 And get great at it.
01:01:42 That thing, that strategy within real estate.
01:01:44 - Cole, I could sit here for hours.
01:01:46 - I know, I kinda wanna keep going.
01:01:47 - I know, I love it, and that's why we've hung out for so much.
01:01:50 I'm actually gonna be with you this weekend,
01:01:52 speaking at an event on stage with you.
01:01:53 So I'm excited about that.
01:01:54 We're gonna be hanging out.
01:01:56 I'm gonna pick your brain some more about real estate
01:01:57 and get involved in your next deals,
01:01:59 because I need to learn and be obsessed and get involved
01:02:02 and understand that this is such a vehicle
01:02:04 for wealth generation and creation.
01:02:06 So I can then turn that into a for-purpose initiative
01:02:09 that fills my cup up.
01:02:10 - So I have a cap table of everyone who's given me money,
01:02:13 and then I have a list of everyone
01:02:14 I've always wanted to reach out to.
01:02:15 And you know, you're at the top of that list,
01:02:16 and I've just never reached out to you,
01:02:18 'cause we've never had this conversation.
01:02:19 So I'm glad we have this podcast,
01:02:20 'cause the next time I do a deal, I'm gonna call you.
01:02:22 - I'm in. - And get you in on it.
01:02:23 - And you heard it on this podcast.
01:02:25 I'm in on his next deal, because I wanna be part of that.
01:02:27 I wanna utilize, if you don't know how to do something,
01:02:30 partner with someone who does.
01:02:32 - Yep, our next deal's probably 60 days out or so.
01:02:35 But yeah, and this is a real example,
01:02:37 'cause this is actually gonna happen.
01:02:39 This is not staged, of me about to do my next deal,
01:02:42 and once again, not needing any of my own money to do it.
01:02:44 I'm going to have my own money in the deal,
01:02:46 'cause you gotta have skin in the game,
01:02:47 but wouldn't need to if I didn't want to.
01:02:49 You just raise it,
01:02:50 and that all comes with knowledge and experience.
01:02:52 So I think that anybody who wants to do real estate can.
01:02:55 The entry of barrier,
01:02:57 the barrier of entry to get started is your knowledge.
01:02:59 - And if you wanna get involved,
01:03:00 and you don't know where or how, reach out to Cole.
01:03:03 He's doing deals all the time.
01:03:04 How should they hit you up?
01:03:06 - Really, I'm active on Instagram only.
01:03:09 So that's just @colehatter.
01:03:11 I don't really post or do much.
01:03:12 This is my season of stepping out of social space,
01:03:16 but I do respond to my DMs.
01:03:18 Yeah, and I have Andrew who helps me with that.
01:03:20 So I'm pretty good at DMs on Insta.
01:03:22 It's just Cole Hatter, my name.
01:03:24 No letters, numbers, underscores, dots, just Cole Hatter.
01:03:28 - You can lead a horse to water,
01:03:30 but you gotta step and take that drink.
01:03:32 So if you wanna get involved in real estate,
01:03:33 and you're not sure how,
01:03:34 you can follow me and be part of his next deal,
01:03:36 or just reach out and learn,
01:03:37 'cause this man truly does care.
01:03:39 He does reach out and respond.
01:03:41 He does educate.
01:03:42 He has groups.
01:03:43 He's not just someone who does it on his own
01:03:45 and hoards the knowledge.
01:03:46 He's a giver.
01:03:47 He is a for-purpose individual.
01:03:49 He's someone I've always looked up to,
01:03:50 and I'm proud to call a friend.
01:03:51 And dude, thank you for actually coming on the show.
01:03:54 I know you're not doing podcasts,
01:03:55 and when I reached out, you said yes.
01:03:56 And so thank you.
01:03:57 - Of course, man.
01:03:58 Thanks for having me on the show.
01:04:00 It's been a pleasure.
01:04:01 Love your studio.
01:04:01 Congrats on your success.
01:04:03 Can't wait to subscribe and listen, man.
01:04:04 You've already had amazing guests on the show.
01:04:06 I'm excited to sit in the same spot, guys,
01:04:09 who our legends have sat in.
01:04:10 - Well, thank you.
01:04:11 - Hey, everyone.
01:04:13 First, I wanna thank all of you for tuning in.
01:04:15 And if you guys haven't heard about my new book,
01:04:17 Relationship Bank Account,
01:04:18 click the link in the show notes
01:04:20 or search the title on Amazon.
01:04:22 This book is packed with all my secrets to success
01:04:25 in both relationships and life.
01:04:27 Make sure to pick up a copy,
01:04:28 and if the book helps you on your journey,
01:04:30 let us know by leaving a review.
01:04:32 I appreciate all of you
01:04:33 and can't wait to see you on the next one.
01:04:36 (upbeat music)
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