Episode 077: Cole Hatter: Make Money Matter

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What's going on, everyone? Casey Adams here. Welcome to the Rise of the Young podcast today on episode 76. We have Mr. Cole Hatter with us today. And I know me and Cole have connected once in person at our good friend Tai Lopez's house, but we never had a chance to sit down. So I definitely appreciate you taking the time to sit down with me and be on the Rise of Young podcast today.

Cole, bro, thanks for inviting me on, man. I'm excited.

Absolutely, man. So, first off, I know the founder of Thrive, your T shirt obviously says, right now, make money matter. And I think I want to start it off with that and kind of just catch people up to speed. Up to speed. I know. I've heard you speak on real estate. You've dominated the real estate industry. But. But to kind of catch people up to speed really quick, just to kind of give them more about what you're currently working on. I'd love for you to kind of just touch on that just so we can kind of catch people up to speed, like I said.

Yeah. So like you said, what I've done the longest, for 13 years now, since I was a little older than you, 21, was real estate investing. I've probably started a total of 30 businesses in these 13 years. And, like, 25 of them failed. And like half of them cost me money when they failed. But the four or five I've gotten right have made me millions of dollars. And so maybe that's an important place to start for, you know, these young guns coming up, following you and hearing the different speakers or guests you have on your show is that I failed way more than I've succeeded, which is true of most entrepreneurs. But my success is more than compensated me for my losses, if that makes sense. And so real estate's I've done the longest one of the businesses I've started more recently that in 2015 that I love is what you're talking about. Thrive. It's A three day business conference. And the theme that you brought up is make money matter. And so what that phrase means is to not just make money to buy stuff. We say that a lot. You mentioned Tai Lopez. What you see on social media is Lamborghinis, Ferraris and that stuff and whatever else, Rolls Royces and mansions. But he also, very privately, is generous as well. And so what I found is that people get so wrapped up in buying stuff and then they arrive at that income level of having the things they've always dreamed of, and yet they're still missing something, they're still longing for more. There's that keeping up with the Joneses, it's never enough. And what I found is that just getting stuff is never enough. But making it matter, making money and then impacting somebody with your resources is where you start to feel that greater sense of fulfillment in your efforts and your work. So make money matter and what thrive is what I'm working on right now is teaching entrepreneurs how to not just make money, but make an impact by creating what's called a for purpose business. So whether they already have a company adapting a for purpose model or whether they're starting one from the beginning, make it a four purpose brand. And the easiest way to explain that for your listeners would be like Tom's Shoes. If you're familiar with Tom shoes, for every pair of shoes they sold, they gave a pair away. And so while Tom's Shoes was growing, Blake Makowski, the founder, is now worth over $350 million. It's a super successful company, but at the same time of being successful making money, they've given millions of pairs of shoes away to these kids and people in third world countries that were barefoot. And so they didn't just make money, they made it matter. And I guarantee you, Blake Makowski on his 350 million net worth, probably some of the greatest sense of fulfillment he gets of Tom's Shoes is all the millions of lives he's changed through his business. And so the evolution of my own, you know, experience is what made me come to that realization. And that's how I wanted to run my companies. Sharing it with guys like yourself, it being, it came very clear that others wanted it. So we started an event. That's basically it.

Bro, that's amazing, man. I appreciate you letting us know. So to kind of, before we get into the real estate, the business stuff, just when it comes to making money matter, you said you started this company 2015, so when was, I would say the transition point and really what Made that transition, transition in your life. Go from you making money to then actually pivoting and starting thrive and saying, I want to start a for purpose business, number one. When did that happen and why? When it comes to you?

Yeah, rad question. So I got started 21, like we said. I was originally out of high school, a firefighter for two years and I got a car accident, put me in a wheelchair. And I can't be a firefighter in a wheelchair. So became an entrepreneur out of necessity, then loved it. And I've stuck with right because I only made money in real estate. I lost everything in 2008, all of it. From 2008 to 2010. It slowly hemorrhaged until I had nothing left. I moved to Mexico to give up on business and literally just be a full time missionary. I was working with homeless families down there and started an orphanage that I still have to this day eight years later. And when I started that orphanage, living off my savings, I realized, oh my gosh, I'm going to run out of money in about three or four months. I'm going to have to go back to America and raise funds, try to become like a non profit and get people like you who are doing well financially to donate to me so I can keep feeding my kids. And as I was thinking about that, I was like, man, it's gonna be so much harder to ask Casey to give me 100 bucks than it would be to sell him a hat or a shirt or shoes or a product or a service. And I just build in the margins. I need to help my orphanage, right? So I decided on my own. This was Pre Toms Shoes, actually. I think they were in business, but I never yet heard of them. I decided I'm gonna go back to America, I'm gonna start some businesses. Not to get rich, but to give me the money I need to keep funding my orphanage. Very small thought at first, like all I need is a few thousand bucks to fund my orphanage. And so then I started my real estate business and ended up blowing up. We ended up making millions of dollars back in 2011. And I realized right then that making money and then like we said earlier, making it matter was how I wanted to live my life the rest of my life. And you know, right now, typically you have a for profit business like Nike and a not for profit like the Red Cross. And you rely on these businesses to be charitable and contribute to companies like, you know, the Red Cross. And no offense to Red Cross or any non profits, that's a it Sucks. It's a bad economic model that you can only make the impact in the world if people keep donating to you and they're, you know, continue to be generous. And so what I decided to do instead is make my money myself and then fund my orphanage. And it's spread like wildfire. And so all my businesses are for purpose now. We work with women and children who are victims of trafficking, we work with the homeless, we do clean water projects in Africa. There's about seven different initiatives in my business for fund now. And so what came to your final question to answer it to that aha moment for me was literally being in Mexico, feeding these kids, the most rewarding work of my entire life, realizing I was going to run out of money in a few months, and deciding it'd be easier to sell you a hat and have $10 extra come towards my orphanage than to just ask you for money.

Yeah.

And I don't even sell clothing. Right. I'm just using that as an example. Right. But it would be easier for me to generate business that has enough profit to fund my orphanage. And that was the beginning for me. And then I saw Tom Shoes and all these other companies doing. I was like, there we go.

That's amazing. That's amazing. I caught a lot of things in there. So when you said, you said when it comes to real estate, like leading up to everything, you said, losing money in this, the crash, all that sort of stuff. So you started at 21 doing what exactly? When it comes to real estate, was it single properties? What was, what was your life looking like at 21, coming out of high school, you said you, you want to be a firefighter. And then how did that kind of transition into real estate? When it comes to the entire entrepreneur journey, was it always an entrepreneur or was your family entrepreneurs or how did that pivot point happen in your life?

So for me, I feel kind of like I was always the entrepreneur. The first thing I remember doing entrepreneurially was I was like 8 or 9. And you know, most 8 or 9 year olds, for Christmas, your parents give you the money to buy like the other parent gifts. And I at that point realized, dad, I don't want you to give me money to buy mom a present. And I'll never forget it. I was at Macy's at the mall. I don't even know if Macy's is still. Yeah, I think it is. Amazon hasn't put them out of business yet.

Right.

But they were selling mistletoe, and I was like, dude, this stuff grows for free in my backyard. So I climbed the tree and I pulled out a bunch of mistletoe, and I went door to door and sold it like one bundle for $3, two for five. And I ended up making like 80 bucks and buying my parents their own Christmas presents.

Yeah.

And that was my first aha moment that, wait, if I need money, I can do something about it. And so then I. Throughout junior high and high school, I always had some side hustle. In high school, I had a clothing company called Compulsive with a K. And like, I guess I always had those side hustles.

Yep.

Graduated high school, got hired by the fire department at 19, worked there for two years, got in the car accident at 21. And then that's when the real entrepreneurial, like actually paying taxes and having employees in a business started. Right. And that was real estate. And so it was 2005, there was a boom. The way that I made money was two ways. It was doing pre construction flips in Austin, Texas, even though I lived in California. And it was buying, fixing, and flipping houses. So all active income, which is why I ended up getting beat up in 2008, because all the money I was making in real estate required the economy to continue to go up. And if it went up forever, I would have made money forever as soon as it stopped going up and started going down. Because I didn't know how to make money in real estate in a flat or crashing market, I lost everything. But it was a few three years of a lot of money. 21, 22 years old, having six figure months, not every month. Yeah, but you know, flipping a house in California, you might make 130 grand on the flip. And so I'm 22 years old, getting $130,000 check.

Yeah.

Total idiot. And I'm buying escalades and putting five TVs in it, because four is not enough. And I'm buying wakeboard boats just being an idiot. And so that's when I had my, again, four years later, my aha. Moment. I should have done something that mattered.

Okay, wow. So I want to bring a car accident because I had a very bad neck injury that put me in a neck brace, 25 weeks, almost paralyzed. Had. How did that kind of transition your life? Because I think that kind of stuck out to me when it comes to something like a car accident or a major injury. So what did that kind of do to you mentally in that moment? And how old were you when that kind of tragic moment happened?

So I was 21 years old. I actually ended up having two accidents 66 days apart.

Wow.

The aha moment for me was I survived. Obviously, here I am. But in both those accidents, other people did not survive. So I was in an accident where I made it and they didn't. And then I had six, six days later, another one where I made it, they did. So I had a hardcore realization that, you know, you hear it all the time, but how precious and short life can be. Because I almost died. Like people will tell me, oh my gosh, this guy ran red light. Almost died, right? But like I almost died. Like I was bleeding my brain out of my ears. Like I got ejected out of the car at 80 miles an hour. I did a helicopter to the hospital. I had his traumatic brain injury. I had a spinal contusion. Like I was really, I should have been dead. And so the fact that I was this close to death and the surgeon that worked at me at the hospital, once I came back to consciousness, literally kneeled down next to me and said, I'm your surgeon. And I want you to know that with your injuries, you should have never left this hospital. You should have been dead. So I was literally that close to death. And then the fact that people who I loved passed away really freaked me out. And I realized, oh my gosh, I'm 21. If I had died like I should have in that accident, what would I have to show for it? I got not great grades in high school, but passed. I was a great athlete, you know, I was the star and the captain. So if I had died and gone to heaven at 21, I would have had to show 21 years of just athletics and friendship and nothing that I really did for anyone else. And so that's where that fire got lit inside of me. To do more than just the ordinary. I don't want to go climb the corporate ladder to try to get some nice benefits, to try to have enough money to pay for my kids college and then save up for retirement, which is all noble, you know, if anyone listening to this isn't young and is in their 50s or 60s and that's what your life looks like, is saving for your kids college and weddings and retirement cool. But how sad would it be to have 85 years on life and all you did was worked to pay for college and retirement, I feel like there's more impact we're supposed to do in the world. And for me at 21, that was my aha moment. That if I had died, which I probably should have in those accidents, it's literally a miracle from God that I'm here. I would have done nothing exceptional with my life other than what everyone told me I should do. Get good grades, work hard, sports, and that was the end of it. So that was the big realization. And then where I connected it to entrepreneurship was I realized the dreams I had would need money. And I realized the only way I was gonna make the type of money I wanted to make was by running my own business. No one was gonna pay me what I'm worth. So no offense to anyone who goes and climbs that corporate ladder, but the corporate environment wasn't for me. I wanted to wear board shorts and make millions of dollars. Flip flops, shirts optional. Right. That's what I've done.

That's amazing, man. I definitely appreciate you sharing that story, man. I'm sure that wasn't an easy time in your life to go through and. Sorry to hear all that, but glad you're here, man. Yeah, I bet, man. I can't imagine. So. So that was your 21 and previously you were a firefighter. Right. And that was like, that kind of limited you to not be a firefighter anymore. Am I right?

Yeah. So immediately after the accident, I was literally in a wheelchair. I had to move back into my parents house because I was so hurt. I had to be fed, I had to be like, carry. Like I was, I was completely done. And so I had to rehab and learn how to walk again. And you know, I'm sitting down now, but I can, I'm totally healthy. But in that year of rehab, we didn't know how well I'd recover. And you can't be a firefighter unless you're in personal, you know, perfect personal health or physical health. But by the time I was up and walking again, I had already started my real estate business. And yeah, you know, I'm making $42,000 a year as an entry level firefighter. I'm making a hundred thousand dollars a flip in real estate.

Yeah.

So I was like, you know, firefighting is great and I got to help people. That was really what I was doing it for. Not, not the paycheck, but with the type of money I'm making over here, I can help people too. Yeah. So I never looked back and never went back to firefighting.

That's amazing. So for like, for the young people listening, like, was college ever an option for you or how did that entire thing look like from your standpoint? I know we're years apart, but is because I feel like nowadays when it comes to young People, it's like they're now looking at college as like optional. And they're like, I may not want to do that and I may want to do my own thing. But when you were going out of high school, was that like a must or were you like, hell no, not doing that or what was your situation like?

Yeah, I think my generation is kind of the first one where we started saying, why would we want to do college? You know, as far as millennials go, I'm on the old age of fitting into that two decade demographic, whatever. But so for me personally, I did do a lot of college. Not for a degree, it was for firefighting. So to go to paramedic school, I have to take anatomy, physiology, I have to take microbiology, I have to take medical terminology, I have to do all these college related classes. But it wasn't ever with the intention of getting a degree. It was if I have to get my Firefighter 1 certificate. Here's the required classes, fire science and all that stuff. Okay, I'll take it. If I want to be a paramedic, here's the prerequisites. Okay, I'll take it. So I ended up getting like 40 something credits of college credits, which again, if I went back to college and took like math, history and science, I'd probably have enough to get a degree and like a BS of science I guess would be. But I didn't need it to be a firefighter. I didn't need a formal degree. And then when I. My accident came and I became an entrepreneur. I've never needed it since. My wife, on the other hand, is a double major, has two degrees. So people ask me this question all the time. Here's my answer of my thoughts towards college, especially for guys your age. If you want to do a career that requires a degree, like you've always wanted to be a doctor, or you've always wanted to be a dentist, or you've always wanted to be an attorney, then absolutely try your hardest to get into the best medical school or the best legal school or whatever it is that you can possibly get into. But if you're not sure what you want to do yet, you're like, I may want to pursue this, or maybe not, then I would highly recommend not starting college yet. Not saying don't go at all, but instead of like, here's what a lot of my friends did. They didn't know what they wanted to do. So they spent four years of their life and $100,000 of student loan debt to try to Figure it out. Graduated with a degree in business administration or whatever was communication, right? Like the most generic degree ever, and now have massive debt. And a lot of them went back to being waiters, which is what they did in high school, because they now have a degree but no idea what they want to do and no jobs wanted to hire them. That's the worst thing, because now you're just as confused. Except you've lost four years and 100 grand in student loan debt. So if you're 19, 18, 17 years old, listening to this podcast right now, and you've just graduated high school and it's about to go off to college, if you're absolutely certain you want to be a doctor or an attorney or again, anything that requires an actual degree to do that profession. Absolutely, yes. Go to college, put your head down, study, work your ass off, get good grades. If you have no idea what you want to do, the worst thing you can do is go spend tens of thousands of dollars and years of your life at college trying to figure it out. What I would recommend doing is going intern for now in areas of your interests, right? If you're always interested in being in real estate and you think being a real estate investor like me would be cool, awesome. Then this summer you should be interning for someone like me. And then you'll be like, oh, hell no, I have no interest in doing that. Or you'll be like, wow, that looks bad. Yeah, that is what I want to do. Right. And so I would really recommend putting at least a year or two into interning or working alongside of someone. That's your area of interest, to get an inside perspective on whether that's something you want to do or not, and that's what you should do. And if you're like, you know what, I don't want to be an entrepreneur. Too much stress. I don't want to worry about payroll taxes. I just want to get a solid job with benefits like corporate America's Do Cool, then go to college and get your degree.

So I love it. I love that answer. Fire. Alright, so I want to talk about real estate now. I think a lot of people, and you're very, I would say, skilled in the real estate industry when it comes to if someone was to be, let's say, 18, 21 right now, obviously when you started, it was different times than today. What should someone know when getting into real estate? When it comes to like the bare minimum. If someone wants to go flip a house today, where should they start? Even when it comes from an Education standpoint of just, like, getting started, getting more knowledgeable in that area.

I'm glad that you caught your name catch or something, but threw in education. So I always get this question all the time, because people see my success now, right? And they're like, how do I get there? And I think Gary Vee, who I know you're friends with, is very open about saying, everyone wants to know how I got to where I am. Remember, there was, like, 17 years of me grinding my face off before the first camera ever rolled.

Yeah.

And so what you don't see is the 21, Cole. You see me now with my success. Where it all started was education, and so I'm glad you pointed that out. If you said if. Let's say I'm a doctor and you've got me on your podcast right now, and I'm talking about my, you know, my medical practice. And you're like, cool, I want to have a medical practice, too. What should I do? My answer would be go to medical school, become a doctor, then go start your practice. Let's say I'm talking about I'm a dentist and you're. I'm talking about my dental practice. Cool. I want to be a dentist. What should I do? Go to school. Then it's real estate. Because there's no formal degree or anything required to be in real estate. People like, where do I start? Same place you start. With an education. People lose money in real estate every single day. Let me ask you a question. If making money in real estate was easy, who would be doing it?

Everyone.

Everybody. Now, the good news is it's not complicated, but it's not easy. There's a system. There's a process. And so for me, at 21, I didn't have much money, so I started reading books, and I started going to the cheapest live events I could, which are really just a bunch of pitch fests. But I would try to take as much notes around the content as I possibly could before they got to the pitch, because even if I liked the program, I couldn't afford it anyway. I also joined what are called RIA groups, if your listeners want to write that down. Stands for REIA, Real Estate Investor Associations. And those are like 20 bucks to attend. 20 to 40 bucks. They'll happen locally in your cities where it's maybe 100 people getting together. Realtors, contractors, investors like myself, lenders. And there'll be one speaker who teaches that night, and you're networking with. Again, depending on the size of the Rio group, a dozen people to 300 people, depending on how large it is. And that's what I did for like a year. I started going to Rio groups. I was doing this training, and then that's where my education began. And then as I made some money, I always reinvested it. Right. So I still do this to this day. I just spent $50,000 two weeks ago on a mentorship thing where I'm the mentee and I'm paying a mentor. So even to. I've spent almost 400 grand. Also, back to the education part, by the way. I don't have a degree, But I've spent $400,000 on my education.

Yeah.

Is it worth it? Well, I make millions of dollars, so I guess so. Right? But that being said, back to this. As I started making money, I didn't go blow it all on cars. I was at least smart enough, even though I was a dumbass and blew a lot of it, to continue to buy more education and coaching as I could afford to. And I remember I signed up for a guy to train me for $2,000 a month, and my knees were, like, shaking. I could not believe I committed to paying two grand a month, because I think at that point, my rent was less than that. Right?

Yeah.

I was like, ah. But then he mentored me. We had one call a week for an hour, and so it's basically $500 a call. 2,000amonth. And that was the most I'd ever invested in personal coaching and development. And that was the beginning of what eventually has become 400,000. So long answer. And it's not the answer people want to hear. They want me to give them a website where they can learn everything in 15 minutes. There's no such thing. So start where you can get your education. And remember, the upside of real estate is endless. There's no ceiling and how much you can make. But the downside of real estate is endless. There's no floor on what you can lose. There's literally no ceiling. You can go make 100 million a month if you really wanted to. There's no floor. You can lose everything on your first deal. Get educated first.

I love it. I love it. And I know when I saw you speak at Ty's house, you spoke about Fortune Builders that we talked about before we started this podcast. And I know that you spoke on how many stages are in front of how many people total combined.

Oh, gosh. Hundreds of thousands of people in the various events, not just for Fortune Builders, but on all the talks I've done. And I've been on stage for over 5000 hours. Wow, this stuff.

So I want to talk about that. So when it comes to I would say public speaking now, and so you said 5,000 total hours put together on stage. What would you say? What have you learned from when it comes to your first hour speaking on stage to now speaking over 5,000. What have you seen breakthrough wise when it comes to public speaking? Because I think a lot of people that are young are either afraid, don't want to do it. And I've had some experience began on stage now, and I've learned a lot. But what if someone like you learned from 5,000 hours on stage put together?

Right. And so it almost sounds like I'm full of crap when I say that. So let me clarify to your audience for Fortune builder Specifically, it's 27 hours a weekend. It's nine hours Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It's a three day event like you saw Ralph do.

Yeah.

And I've done like 200 of those. So take 200 multiplied by 27. That's where thousands of the hours come from. Over the last six years, I've done about 200 events with him and then all the stuff like with Ty, where I met you, et cetera. So it really is 5,000 hours. Here's what I would learn. When I started, I was in my. I was like 24. So I was, I was older than you, but still younger than everyone in the audience. And I tried so hard to impress them so they would believe me that I would talk about the most complicated, like high level stuff and that my message wasn't hitting because it was over people's heads. Even though they're 50 years old and I'm 24, I'm trying so hard to be taken seriously that I'm like up there trying to make real estate sound like quantum physics. Like, wow, he's smart.

Yeah.

And I was blowing it because they weren't getting anything out of it. What I found is that old saying, kiss, keep it simple, stupid.

Yep.

By taking complex things like raising private money and collateralizing the debt and promissory notes and deeds of trust or mortgage deeds, like all the finance mechanics, and taking that complicated stuff and breaking it down into being easy and literally trying to sound, I don't want to say sound dumb, but speak on stage so that a sixth grader could understand me. People freaking love me now. And so for anybody who is an aspiring speaker, especially in your demographics, since a lot of young guns follow you is screw age. People will judge you but the second you start talking and you know what you're talking about, age is no longer an issue. Again, I'm 21 years old, sitting in somebody's couch, convincing them to sell me their house so I could buy and flip it. And they're 60 some odd years old. I had a lot of uphill battle to do being 20 something, buying homes from 40, 50, 60 year olds.

Right.

But as soon as I had answers to their questions and I was competent, they didn't care how old I was anymore. So that's a side note in just general for you guys. But what that would do is then manifest on stage and be trying to like earn the respect of the audience. It's not needed. Just make sure that by the time you're done talking, whether it's 10 minutes or 27 hours, that people have notes and understand what you were trying to teach them. And you will impress them more that way than trying to confuse them. To smell, to smell to sound smart. Does that make sense?

Yeah, totally, totally. Because I want to bring that up because I think a lot of young people that follow me, they're always asking me about whether it be public speaking or just communicating effectively. And I think when I, when I first saw you talk at Ty's house, the way that you were speaking is what we. I forgot what you were talking about. It was something where like you know what you were gonna say before you said or you know, how are we going to respond? And I just want to say I want to touch on just communication because I think for me doing podcasts and interviewing people, I've kind of opened a lot of doors to my network, but then also learning how to communicate effectively. What would you say is the best. I would say tip or thing that you've learned throughout your journey when it comes to just building genuine relationships with people. Because I think a lot of people and what I've learned from my mentors is just building a relationship is the name of the game. And I think a lot of people take that to heart. So what would you say when it comes to just building relationships with people really means the most and can actually.

Go far off stage.

Yeah, yeah, yep. Off stage.

Gary comes back but 5149 mentality, bro. I over deliver on every relationship I have. I want guilty that I'm. Because after interaction I've given more than I've taken. And so that's philosophy that I think a lot of influencers, you know, some do or the practice, it just sounds.

Oh, you're Kind of lagging. Yeah, I can hear you fine. It's just kind of a little glitchy in my end. I think we're good now. Go ahead.

Yeah, you look perfect on mine.

So I don't know where it cut off.

So I'll start back.

But so always over deliver again.

In every interaction I have, with every.

Relationship of every single person I have.

I want to give more than I take. I want to bring more to the.

Table than I take. And so even if I'm paying, I'm taking. You know, in a mastermind, I'm in, I'm a paying attendee. But I went right to the facilitator, the mastermind, and said, I want to train too. He's like, no, dude, you paid to be here. I'm not going to make it work.

And I was like, nah, dude, I.

Want to pay to be here and create value because there's things I know that your mastermind can learn from. And so I went up there and I taught. And so again, it's just always giving more than you take as a lifestyle, not with an agenda, because people will do that. And I'm sure with your, with your platform and your level of influence, people come to you too. People come at me all the time wanting to help, but always an angle. Hey, Cole, let me set up and Thrive.

Let me, let me get there early.

And set everything up, but can I come backstage and meet Tai Lopez or. It's like there's always an angle. I just freaking want to give with nothing expected in return. And then what ends up happening is you get relationships even if I give and they don't get anything back. I now creating what's called, like relationship capital with that person. So I don't give and then expect anything back.

But I am now, what would you.

Call favored with them? And that's where the relationships are born.

Dude.

It's, it's, you know, all the obvious stuff too. Like, you know, do what you say.

You'Re going to do.

Have integrity, you know, be, be, be.

Cool with these people. Don't lie to them.

Like, that's all obvious, but really did. It's that simple.

And that might be like, you know.

People like, oh, gosh, cool down devices. Too simple, go deeper. That's literally what I do.

Yeah, totally. No, they keep it simple, stupid. That's what you said. That's what Ty always says all the time too. And I take that off heart. So I want to talk more.

I'll give another example. So, like, even at Thrive, you know these guys are coming to speak here. I get to know my speakers and what it is they need and it's connecting them to other speakers. Like, you know, last year Grant Cardone came and spoke at Thrive and his event is 10x, which was four months after Thrive. I got him six speakers. So he came and spoke at Thrive and so did his wife Elena.

And then I introduced him backstage to Naveen Jain and to Lori Harder and all these different speakers I connected to Lewis Howes and all these different speakers who then went and spoke at 10x. So Grant came and spoke for me and got six speakers at his next event as either an introduction in person, like hey, Naveen, meet Grant. Grant, meet Naveen or, or through email or whatever it is. So it's like again, how can I serve you, Grant, so that you'll come and speak at Thrive? Oh, you've got your own event coming up. Oh, you need speakers.

Cool.

Mine are badass. Let me make some introductions. And he's Grant Cardone. He probably doesn't need me, but I'm just giving you one example of how I over delivered.

Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. I want to talk about Thrive too. So when it comes to the event that you're having, Ox, I'm gonna be there this year. This is my first time, so I'm looking forward to it. But when it comes to having an event flow, talking about 10x and thrive in particular, what. What do you think you've learned from hosting your own events rather than being the person speaking there? Was that a massive transformation or was that any. Was there any learning curves or what? Exactly. How did that look?

You want the good or the bad?

I want the bad because that's the, that's the valuable.

Okay, so what I learned by doing Thrive is doing events. Sucks, man. They are so hard. The first Thrive was only supposed to be a one off to raise money for charity. And then we saw the impact we're making in people's lives. They're like, okay, let's do it again. Knowing what I know now, I probably wouldn't have started Thrive, especially because we give all the money to charity. If I was making millions of dollars, it'd be worth it, right?

Yeah.

But we it all to charity. The reason I still do it is it's. It's my mission now.

Right.

It's become like literally my ministry. But originally I had no idea be so hard. So events are hard. Your podcast is awesome. There's so much content out there for free to get someone to pay me to come and see these different speakers who have their own podcasts and YouTube channels and stuff. They're like, well, I already heard everything Grant has to say. Why do I want to come to Thrive? And so you and I get the value of relationships. I met you at an event. Tai Lopez is in his backyard, I think it was.

Right.

And so. So we know that there's no way to network on a podcast. And I know personally, when I'm at the gym listening to a podcast, it's food for thought. When I'm in a chair taking notes, it actually makes a difference. And I. That makes sense.

Yep.

Something about being there in person commits me to the information more than, like, while I'm jogging down the street.

Yeah.

So there's a lot of reason why events make sense, but communicating that to the masses is hard. So I've. It's way easier to do real estate than. Than it is to do live events right now in the way that our world works with free information out there. So that's hard. I learned that the hard way. Hotels suck, right? I mean, you ask for the bad.

So here's the totally. Totally.

Hotels are about as dirty as banks and insurance agencies are. And, you know, you're just getting into the game, but when you're in real estate investing, you learn pretty quickly how dirty banks are.

Yep.

So hotels are absolutely trash. They just literally screw you every way they can. There's nothing you can do about it. It's like, oh, you don't like it? Okay, cancel. We're going to keep your money, and you got to refund all your. Like, they caught you by the balls.

Yeah.

But there's a lot of good, too, also that I've learned, which is why I'll never stop.

But.

And it's also a business. That's another thing I should say is I didn't realize doing event I thought would be a side hustle. Thrive is its own company. It has its own marketing team. It has its own employees. It has its own expenses. It has its own income. So although it's an event, it is actually its very own company. It started off as a side hustle, and now it is a standalone business in and of itself. I didn't know that it would grow to be like that. We're going to have 1500 people there this year, and it literally is its own business. So those are all lessons I've learned along the way. But I don't want to give it all negatives.

Let me use these two.

The positives are Thrive are From the romantic side, the impact I get to change all these people's lives, you'll see that this year. And I don't just say that. I have a book that's like 4 inches thick that my wife made for me of plastic sleeves on a three ring binder, of thousands of notes that people sent me saying that their lives will never be the same. It's like literally thousands of thank you notes. That's cool. Meeting these influencers is cool. My very first event, I had Gary V. And Robert Herjavec from Shark Tank come. Gary Vee and I were one person removed. And of course I knew he was and he had heard of me. But when it came to thrive, we got to bro out for an entire weekend. And then that resulted in some cool things Gary and I did together back then. Robert Herjavec from Shark Tank. How would I ever get to hang out with that guy? So a podcast is a cool way for your listeners to reach out to these people and get big influencers on your show to say, hey, can I ask you questions for an hour? They'll say no, but what if I record it and share it as a podcast?

Okay, yes, exactly.

But beyond just talking them for 60 minutes on a podcast and saying thanks for your time, peace, how do you hang out with them? That's a live event. And so for me and for everybody, listening to this podcast is a great way to have a one on one conversation with people who otherwise you couldn't talk to. Because for me personally, I don't have a lot of time and you're a bro. I would have done this for you. Anyway, if you want to call me bro, this is a true story. And you want to talk for an.

Hour, I got you that.

And men did that for me as I was coming up. So, you know, if I can help you any way I can, that's cool. I can't extend that to everybody though, right? But you record this and you get 20,000 downloads. Well, now I'm interested.

Yeah, totally.

However, how am I going to hang out with you for three days, not just get you for 60 minutes, eat lunch with you, go out for drinks with you, you're coming to thrive. And Now I get 72 hours to make you like me and start a friendship. So that's probably the big thing around events that you can't do in any other way is getting these influencers that are busy people to come to your live gathering. And now you've got them like they're captive, like you know where Their hotel room is because you're paying, paying for it and you get to meet them.

Yeah. Another reason that makes perfect sense. And I'm glad that we ended on a good, because now it gets me pumped up. And so with Thrive, I want to touch on it before I have a couple more questions. But with Thrive, for people listening that may have just heard about it, when is the event this year? Just to kind of give them some context if they're interested.

Yeah. Thrive is September 14th, 15th and 16th in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. We rent the entire hotel, which is pretty, pretty cool. I imagine most of your audience will need to bring a parent. That's cool. We have a map, a massive discount on our room block and stuff. But it's three full days of training from, you know, some of the people I'm talking about, like the Gary Vee's and the Robert Hershveck's this year. Tai Lopez will be speaking there. Ed Mylett is speaking there. Eric Thomas. If you go on Google and you type motivational speaker and you press the space, it auto fills Eric Thomas as the number one choice over Tony Robbins. Like, this guy's a big deal.

Totally.

He's gonna be there. And like two dozen other like absolute badass entrepreneurs who don't just make money, but they are in alignment of what we teach at Thrive. There's a lot of people out there that make money who are total douchebags. We curate that because we get over 600 requests now that Thrive's a big deal. Yep, over 600 people reach out and say, hey, if you need a speaker, I'll do it for you. And I'm like, thank you, were full. But to curate, who not only would do well on stage, but represents what we're teaching is hard too. So anyway, that's Thrive. Amazing speakers, amazing content, amazing networking. We rent out the whole place. Like I said, we even do a pool party Saturday night where we rent out the entire pool deck. It's, it's rad. It's a lot of fun. So if you're, if you're not 21, you need to bring a parent. That's not my rule. That's. That's the Hard Rock. You can't check into their hotel unless you're 21. But that said, dude, we'd love to have you all come out.

Totally.

We do, for under 21 year olds, have partial scholarships. So for your audience, bro, I don't know how we would do that. They can just email us supporttendthrive.com and I'm happy to. For anybody listening to this podcast. Right. Who wants to come? If you are, you know, high school, college age, we will do scholarships because it's that type of information when I started that I couldn't afford when I was younger. So I want to make Thrive affordable to everybody.

Totally. I appreciate that. Like you said, I'll definitely. All the links, email, like you just said, I'll put that in the description. So if people want to check it out, they can go right there. But I want to touch on because I think a lot of the stuff that we're talking about regarding social media, real estate, obviously I followed Ty, ended up following him, went to his event, we met and for me, social media has opened a lot of doors. But I want to ask you from someone that I'm young, I've kind of grown up with social media and I know that you're on social media now. How has social media played a role in not just marketing and business building, but your personal life? When it comes to building your personal brand and all the stuff in between, what's been like your, I would say, takeaway from everything social wise?

Yeah. So it's interesting. I hate social media. I make all my money offline. I only just started an Instagram account since Thrive because I had to. And I don't put any emphasis on growing. I think I'm like 60,000 followers. That's just because of Thrive. Right. And so it's interesting, and maybe this isn't the answer you wanted, but I grew up, like you said, without social media. It was, you know, I was 23 or whatever when it started getting popular. And I. Since I've made literally every dollar outside of Thrive, every dollar offline.

Yeah.

There wasn't a need for me to get online. That said, I see where I've missed huge opportunities by having essentially no brand online because I've never needed it. And it's funny how I'll see someone who has a hundred thousand followers, who's getting booked on business conferences and stages, getting paid 20, $30,000 to speak there. And I make more money every month than that person makes every single year. Yeah, they want that person to come and talk because they're cool online. They don't know who I am because I don't make any effort to get found online. Because for me it was zero sum game in the sense that it's like I'm. I'm putting energy into building social media, which is costing me time, where if I put that same energy into my real estate business and flipped one or two more houses. That could be another quarter million dollars of the profit.

Yeah.

So get followers for ego's sake or make another quarter million bucks cash. Right. So that's been my problem. However, I now realize Thrive will never get to the level it needs to be without building a brand. Right now I leverage my speakers brands. Hey, everyone, Gary's coming, everyone, Tai Lopez is coming. So like, okay, I'll come. And it's like, hey, it's my event and I am getting my following now. Right. But, but in the beginning, like Thrive one, they're like, who the hell's Cole? We don't care. But Robert Herjavec's there, Gary V is there. And it works. We're getting thousands of people there. I need people to be like, this is Kohl's event. I'm going to. Cuz it's Cole's event. And. And that's starting to happen now. Right. I am now starting to put an emphasis on building that. And so what are my thoughts on it? For me, it was unnecessary for my income, but it's 100% required for my future. And I don't think. I'm a real estate investor, right? And I invest in other things. I have cryptocurrency, I'm an angel investor. I've invested in a lot of startups, I have a lot of equity in companies. So I don't just invest in real estate. That's my primary gym. But I'm in the financial game. And as someone to the financial game, I will tell you, the most valuable currency in the world is attention.

Period.

There's no more from an investor. There is no greater currency in the world today than attention. Best place to get attention, social media. I've learned that the hard way. So now I care. But that's my story, bro. So for. For those of you that have it your whole life and are already using it and getting a following, continue. Because I don't see that landscape changing anytime soon. That attention is literally the greatest currency in the world.

I love it. I love it.

Yeah, cuz I know more example on that. Like Tai Lopez could sell tissues if you wanted to.

Like totally.

This is the knowledge. He could sell toilet paper. If Tai Lopez got on his Snapchat and his Instagram stories and said, I have my own roll of toilet paper called Knowledge toilet paper. It'll make your butt smarter. Buy it. He would probably sell a million dollars of the toilet paper because he has attention.

Yep. Damn. That makes that makes total sense. It's funny because I think, especially for me, when it comes to social media, like, that's been like the gateway to connect with people the way that like young people, the way going to events. And I've been to a lot of events, but it's like I've been able to DM people like Ty, and then he ended up flying me out to his house from a simple dm. Right. And it's funny to kind of see the, the way things have changing, and that's what I try to emphasize with a lot of young people is like building a brand's important if you make it important. Right? So I'm glad you brought up those kind of key points because I think it's different for everyone. But I'm glad that you brought up those points for sure.

Yeah. And I still don't monetize my Instagram other than to say, hey, buy tickets, thrive.

Right?

But like, I don't have coaching programs or any of that stuff, like a lot of people do. But where I'm going, like Grant Carter. And one last example. Yep, the dudes raised tens of millions of dollars in his fund from social media, from sending out emails, and from talking about in his stories. He has his followers call in and say, okay, I want to contribute to your fund. And he has literally raised tens of millions. Last I heard, it was over 70 million all in. And a lot of that's his relationships. Right? But a lot of that's also random. People in Arkansas seeing grants say, hey, minimum $10,000 investment to get my fund and then say, okay. And so that's what interests me is real estate to say, hey, everyone, I'm raising money for this fund. Or, hey, if you live in Indiana, I want to buy a 50 unit apartment building right now. Which is true. I'm going out there next week to look at apartment buildings. Someone can hit me up and be like, I'm a broker out here. Let's talk.

Yeah.

So doesn't even matter what your business is. If you're not selling coaching or VIPs or any of that stuff, which most people do online, it can help your business. That's offline too, because people in that industry might follow your social media.

That's, that's, that's sick. So with the way that Grant did that, do you plan on doing something similar to that? In a way, I'm just curious about that.

Maybe I'm in our fun already. So I've already done that offline. And I'm not the fund Principal. I'm one of the investors in a fund. I'm one of the founding investors. And so I'm good on the fund. Right now we have 75 million in there. But if, you know, if. If I wanted to again, I could see myself doing that, like, smaller, like, hey, we're raising 5 million. I don't think I'll raise 75 million again, but I'll be like, hey, we're gonna. We're gonna buy this apartment building. It's, you know, 88 units in Austin. We. It's $20 million purchase. We're gonna raise 5 million. I might do something like that in the coming years. Not anytime soon, but like, 12 to 36 months.

Cool. Cool. And I have a question for young people out there, too, that may want to have more contact. So when it comes to a fund raising something like $75 million, like, what's the process with that? Why do you do that? Just to kind of give some people some, like, in depth kind of contacts and expertise. Just kind of like, let them know.

Yeah. So a fund is. There are laws in America, and the governing agency that cares about funds is the Security Exchange Commission. We call the sec. And so you have to get all registered and get all your regulatory paperwork and what's called a ppm. This is all legal stuff. Apply replacement memorandum made up. So you don't just go raise money. You first hire attorneys. And I spent almost $50,000 in legal fees and paperwork before I raised a dollar. Because you cannot go take people's money any way you want. You have to follow the legal process. And a lot of it's just the government trying to make money, Right? But, yeah, that being said, once you paid the sec, you regulate subchapter D. It's called the Reg D. Now, you can go out there and raise money from people who are what are called accredited investors. You can raise as much money as you want. And so it's a pot, if you will, of cash that is then allocated towards investing. And you can do one of two ways. You can then pay an interest rate on that fund. So everybody who pays me, let's just say I give them 8%. And then with that fund, I go and buy something that's paying me 15%. I'm now creating arbitrage of 7%. Right. Because I pay 8%, but I'm collecting 15. So that's one way to do it where I just pay a set interest rate, and that's what the 75 million is. Another way of creating a fund is Actual equity partners, I say, yo, for every hundred thousand is 10%. So you know, Casey, you give me 100 grand, you own 10% of this building with me. Something like that, yeah. And now you're a minority owner in my real estate deal. Maybe I pay half and I own 50% and I have five people who own 10%, also a fund. But you're an actual equity owner. Those are the two ways to do it. And again, for a lot of us that are buying big real estate deals, we either don't have the money or don't want to use our own money. And so you, you spread out that liability or that risk by raising a fund. And it's very common. Like there's a ton of money, but he's, he doesn't have enough to buy 400 million unit apartment buildings, you know, yeah, $100 million down on that thing. So he goes and raises the money.

Makes sense. I appreciate the info. That was super cool stuff. So I have like two questions, two questions before you probably let you go, man. And I want to kind of end it with the making money matter because I know that's important to you. And I think when it comes to the forward looking statement of Thrive and having the events. This is your third event, correct? This year? Fourth. So it's fourth this year. When it comes to moving forward with the making money matter movement, what would you say is the next steps to kind of taking that brand and I would say entity to the next level. Where you like, I would say where you want to take it. When it comes to the impact, like what's the higher purpose impact, what does that look like? Where are you going? I know that you said you've helped a lot of homeless people, whatever it may be, but where does that look going forward just to kind of give people some context?

Moving forward, totally. So for me, I want to completely disrupt consumerism right now. Thrive's a three day conference. And it's more than that. It's a movement because we do stuff around the year two with the Thrive Academy. But right now it's in its stage, it's in its infancy stage of bringing entrepreneurs together to teach them how to make money and to make it matter. Thrive, the reason I want to do that is I literally want to disrupt consumerism right now in America, actually right now, globally. Again. The way that these nonprofits work is they have to raise funds. I don't think that makes any sense at all. I want businesses to take care of the world's needs because they're the ones that have all the money. And there's all this Consumer Reports that shows that a consumer would leave their brand they've been doing business with to go to a new brand if it's actually giving back. I did a whole TED Talk on that.

Right.

And so, you know, people can Google that. It's a TEDx talk I did last maybe a year ago. And there's literally science that says if you're Nike and Tom's shoes comes out, people will stop wearing Nikes and start wearing Toms because Tom's gives back. And so I want every single product and service in the world to have a four purpose business, from buying clothing to having a pool installed in your backyard. There's a guy named Tommy who is one of the Thrive tribers since day one and he literally puts pools in people's backyard, like brings in tractors, digs a hole and gives you a pool. He gives 10% away of his total profits to a charity that feeds 1200 children a day that are homeless in a part of Houston.

Wow.

And so yeah, point is every single business in the world having a for purpose option so that what consumers start doing is they start curating these different companies and finding the ones that are for purpose. So the companies that aren't adapting and changing either have to change or they go out of business because they're losing so much market share. So the big picture is that this isn't going to be new, that this is just the way the business is run.

Yeah.

One of the things every entrepreneur does is pick what they want their business to do. Like hey, I want to be real estate investor. And then the very next thing they do is all right, how am I going to give back so people will actually do business with me? So that's the big picture is have tens of thousands of entrepreneurs come through the Thrive, I guess you'd say incubator if you will come out the other side as a for purpose business times a decade. So we have hundreds of thousands of business owners now running these for purpose organizations. And then the world's problems are being solved because where the money is, the efforts of changing the world is happening too.

I love it. I love it. And I think we can end on that one man. I think especially for my company, build your empire. I'd love to have a chat with you, with my partners because that's sort of the direction we want to go in as well when it comes to our brand. Build your empire is actually helping people not even build their empire, but give back. So I think, definitely. I think I want to wrap it up there. Cohen. I think when it comes to Thrive, I know that we already talked about where people can get tickets, but I really want people listening. I know I will be there this year and I really want people listening that are young. I know that you've impacted me in a great amount of ways listening to you speak at Cut Ties and also this podcast. But I really want people to actually take action and go because I think, number one, it would give them insight to making money matter. And I. I know that's important to you, and I think it's. It's rub. It's rubbing off on me the more I talk to you and listen to you. So I definitely appreciate you calling. I think. Last thing to wrap it off, where's the best place for people to connect with you when it comes to you building your following? Is it Instagram? YouTube? Where is it exactly?

Yeah, it's Instagram. Just at Cole Hatter. Well, I guess on every social media, it's at Cole Hatter. But the only thing I do personally is Instagram. My team does all the rest. And then Thrive is attend thrive.com so if you want to say what up to me, shoot me a dm, let me know you heard this. It's at Cole Hatter on Instagram. And then if you want to come to Thrive, hang out with me and Casey for the weekend. It's attend thrive.com and before you buy a ticket though, reach out to us because I will give your listeners a student scholarship.

Perfect. I definitely appreciate a lot and everyone listening, make sure you go email Cole and his team and the email will be down below. And what will it be again? Just to kind of give them some context.

Supportattend thrive.com just put in the subject, Casey Adams, discount or student whatever called scholarship discount. And 100%. We'll hook you up because Perfect. If you remember the beginning of this talk, I didn't have any money to get started, but it was the things I could afford as I went. So I want to make Thrive affordable for you guys. If you're just coming out of high.

School, perfect means a lot, man. I'm sure a lot of people will be taking action on that. So to wrap it up, Cole, I just want to say thank you for coming on the show and everyone listening. Thanks so much for tuning into the Rise of Young podcast.

Thank you.

Make sure you send his team an email and I hope to see you at Thrive. Thanks so much, Cole.

Peace, bro.

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