The Power of Compassionate Capitalism

Hey, if you are looking to get into the game of raising capital, the easiest way to do it is through the fund of funds structure. And luckily for you, I created an incredible nine module course on the topic and I want to give it to you for free. To get access to it, just go to fundofundsmastery.com, put your name, email and phone number in and I will email you the full course. Look, we all know that real estate has created more millionaires than pretty much any other business. The problem is it's also created a lot of heartaches and bankruptcies. Sure, we can get access to a ton of real estate education on the Internet, but that's precisely the problem. How can we tell which strategies will consistently produce asymmetric returns and which should be avoided at all costs? My goal is to give real estate entrepreneurs, capital raisers and investors all of the secrets so that we can grow our portfolios without dealing with costly investment nightmares. And that's what this program is all about. I'm Hunter Thompson and welcome to the Cash Flow Connections real estate podcast.

Hello everyone and welcome to the Cash Flow Connections real estate podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Lyons and I'm very excited for the guests that we have here today. She has broad experience in the real estate industry and she's done everything from being the managing director of a real estate investment hedge fund, an owner of an investment bank, a buy and hold investor, Airbnb investor, Fix and Flipper, building developer, mobile home park investor, and even a private money lender. And she has successfully completed hundreds of investments with her raving fans, which are also known as her investors. She's also the co founder of Titan Impact Group and the nonprofit Bell Community Empowerment Foundation. Katherine Bell, welcome to the show.

Thank you. I'm super excited to be here with you. You know, I'm a raving fan of you and Hunter, so I really appreciate.

Katherine and the feeling is mutual. I'm really excited to have you here today and to be able to dive in a bit to your story. So, and getting to know you and understanding story a little bit, you've lived a very interesting life and your story, you know, it does serve as a source of inspiration and motivation for a lot of people. So tell us a bit about your personal story, how you found the world of real estate and kind of how you got to where you are today.

So interesting. I like that, that description. It's not how I would use my story, but so it actually goes back to my why and why I do everything that I do And I believe that everybody has a why. So everybody that's listening, I would love for them to listen to my story from their story from There's a common thread throughout your life that actually leads to what your purpose is and why you do what you do. And I discovered my why through my whole life story. And that's why I share my life story, hopefully inspiring people to find whatever their true why is. And what, you know, we talk about compassionate capitalism. So I was, my birth mother was 14 years old when she got pregnant with me and 15 when she had me, which I'm sure anybody that has teenagers can imagine the world of challenges that that comes with. And so I was in and out of more homes than you can possibly count. Grew up in northern Canada and went to 13 different schools and didn't actually learn to read till I was in the eighth grade. But I got straight A's because here's what I learned very, very quickly is that they didn't want you to think, they just wanted to you to get the right answer. And so what I learned very quickly as a kid is how to become extremely resourceful. Right? It wasn't about resources because I had none. It was about resourcefulness. Right. So that was a huge lesson inside of, you know, moving forward, being able to survive. Been working since I was 13 years old to take care of my brothers and myself. Obviously, eventually I worked to get my younger brothers adopted by their fathers. And then through a series of events, I was headed down a really horrible trajectory. And then new knew that if my life didn't change that it wasn't going to turn out well. So I ended up actually getting myself adopted at 16 years old. And because I was very, very clear that I needed to be able to graduate high school, go off to college and then create my life from there, which is what I did. And I ended up traveling the world doing a bunch of volunteering, which is how I eventually met my late husband. We got married in 2001. He's American, which is how I'm down here. And he had a dream. And so we took his dream and we turned it into a multi million dollar company. So the thing I love about this country is I came to this country at 26 with nothing. And by the time I was 30 we were millionaires. So when people tell me that there's no opportunity, I'm like, I don't know what country you're in, but I'm in the greatest one ever flied from Canada because that's always my love and so we created that company, later sold it, but in that period we discovered that I couldn't have children. And so, you know, again, it's not about resources, resourcefulness. And that's when we actually discovered something called fostadopt. And what that is is it's children that are in the US foster care system that the parental rights have been severed. So now they become adoptable, right? And it costs less than a thousand dollars to adopt. So we ended up adopting a baby boy and a baby girl. They were four months old, they were twins and now they're 19. My son is a US Marine serving over in Japan and my daughter is floating around figuring out what she's going to do, which is what normal 19 year olds do. So in that time I was super happy to be a stay at home mom. You know, still run the companies, but when they were in about kindergarten, first grade, my husband got really, really sick, which forced me to have to go back to work. And I ended up going and working for a company. And they were doing 2 million in revenue when I joined. In three years it took them to over 13 million in revenue and then went on to another company. They were doing 150,000 in the first year. Took to over 20 million in three years. And at that point got really clear. Like, honestly, I was done building other people's companies, so I wanted to build my own. So I had my own hedge fund, was running a program called the Flipping Females, teaching women how to invest. We flipped about 500 properties here in the Valley, had a ton of fun doing that. And at the same time, what I learned through real estate investing, and this is what I want to leave with everybody is like that. I gave myself permission to try lots of different ways of investing with real estate, right? Like I, I did the buy and hold and figured out what, what worked, what didn't work, what I liked, what I didn't like, and took that and went on to the next thing and the next thing and next thing, which is how I have all the experience I have because I didn't just pigeonhole myself, right? Like I gave myself permission to try lots of things and with mentors, right? So when we have mentors that walk in front of us and really show us the way and guide us, I mean it's that who, not the how, right? Finding somebody who's already been there and can take us and show us exactly what to do, what not to do, learn all the things and then go on to the next thing. If that's what calls to you and what? Eventually, you know, going through the completion process of what worked, what didn't work, what did I learn? Like all of that with every single one of the things that I did is that I landed on two things. I love being the bank and I love renting dirt. Those are my two favorite things. You know, being the bank is the safest position to be in any real estate investing transaction. And so leading up to that, I also learned that the average millionaire has seven streams of passive income, right? So I was like, okay, how many do I have? How many do I want? And so working as hard as I was working, raising my kids, in and out of the hospital with my husband, I mean, I was pretty tired and pretty burnt out. But in 2018, he ended up dying unexpectedly. And it was very tragic. It was horrible. I wouldn't wish that on anybody. So it left me a widow and, you know, now a single mom with 14 year old twins going through like puberty and just not fun. So the thing that had us be able to breathe is I had created 13 streams of passive income for our family, you know, and having that allowed us to like really breathe. So that, okay, now what are we going to do? What am I going to do? And so got really clear, ended up shutting everything down, taking some breathing room, grieving with my twins, going through all the counseling and the therapy and all that, and got really clear on the other side about what my why, like why I'm here, right? And so created our company, Titan Impact Group. And our whole vision is that we are the sentinels of the American dream. And we leave every person, property and community better than we found them. That every single project that we do, it is that. And what is the American dream, right? It's being successful business owners, investors, entrepreneurs, creating those multiple streams of income. Why? Because money is like oxygen. The more we have, the easier it is to breathe. And the more we have, the easier we can breathe, the bigger the difference in the world we can make, right? And everybody inherently, I truly believe, wants to make a difference in the world. So for me, inside of like that common thread, like what is the difference? What am I called here for? And I believe everybody else has a common thread that they're called here for. So if you can figure out what that is, I mean, really, this is what life is about, about making that impact that you're here for. So for me, it's our nonprofit Bell Community Empowerment foundation, and it focuses on that. There's over 500,000 children in the US foster care system. 350,000 are available for adoption today. And what's happening is it's costing taxpayers billions of dollars to keep these kids in foster care. If they're not adopted by their 18th birthday, they experience Black Trash Bag day, which means that on their 18th birthday, they're handed a black trash bag and they're told to put all their belongings in it, and then they're out on the streets and they're homeless. What people realize, 80% of the people who are homeless came out of foster care. They don't realize that, like, yeah, there's an epidemic going on. There's a reason there's an epidemic. So homeless, drugs, prostitution, trafficked, which is a huge other epidemic that's going on. And then incarcerated, costing taxpayers billions more. So here's what I believe I was put on this planet for is that there's more than 350,000 congregations in this country. If each church takes on finding one family to adopt one child, we can get this handled within our lifetime. But bigger than that, what if 1% of those 350,000 children? That'd be 3,500 kids that grow to be 3,500 adults just like me that are so inspired by having a family and being loved that they decide to go to make a difference in the world, like, really like. That, to me, is absolutely worth doing everything I do to get that message out and to make that happen. So, you know, that is the power of compassionate capitalism. So for me, my battle cry, for all of you being the sentinels in the American dream, is if you can add commas to your bank account, you must. You must add those commas to your bank account, and you must add as many as you possibly can so that you can make the biggest impact in the world that you possibly can. You know, that's why we're here. That's why this country is so freaking amazing. And there's other countries that are amazing, too. I'm not saying that. I just. This is my experience inside of this country. So, like, why not, right? If you can, why not? And so that's my battle cry for compassionate capitalism, you know, and what we do, you know, we know we've shared with you. We have a museum here in our home. It's a private museum that literally has founding documents from the country. And why we have this and we give these tours is literally teaching people why this country was founded and how it was founded. And the whole thing was on compassionate capitalism. If you actually read the documents, that's what it is. It's so beautiful. And somehow it's getting overlooked and missed, you know? And anyway, that's a whole other conversation. Yeah.

That's awesome, Catherine. And this is. I love this topic, too, because on the show and for many people who follow the show, people kind of run in the same circles that we do. All of us are capitalists, right? We want to kind of get out there and make money and build businesses and do right by ourselves and our families. But I think a piece of this not spoken about enough is all the good that you can do in the world. If you do create abundance and financial freedom for yourself and your family, then you can actually kind of get outside of yourself a little bit more and pursue causes that mean a lot to you and help people as well. So I really. I love your story. It's really inspiring. And I love what you're doing with your foundation as well. It's really powerful. And, yeah, some of the statistics of your mentioning around, you know, foster kids and kind of where they end up, that's something that was completely new to me. So I'm really glad that you were able to kind of come on and. And share that with everybody. And, yeah, I really appreciate you sharing your story. There's a lot to unpack there, and I've got a million questions, so maybe we can kind of dive into some of those. But one of the things that was really critical for you, you know, as you kind of went through some difficult times in life and. And lost your husband and kind of bounced back from that, was the fact that you created many streams of passive income. You know, that gave you the flexibility to grieve and to kind of build your life back. So in terms of building streams of passive income for the listeners that are out there, what kind of advice do you have for people out there to kind of get out there to effectively kind of build and acquire streams of passive income? I'd love to just hear any relevant advice that you might have on that topic.

So read. Read lots of. So I am voraciously curious, and so I ask a lot of questions. And so I love, you know, meeting successful people and finding out, what do you do? How did you get there? What do you love? How are we. Like, what are the things you're doing to make money? And I get, like. It's like, I don't know. It's a taboo subject to, like, talk about money and ask about that stuff. But it's like, what I have found is that people are actually more willing to talk about it if you're Willing to actually, like, listen and do something with it, right? So it's not a taboo subject if you're willing to do something with it. So I have had an obscene amount of conversations with some really cool people and learned some really creative ways to create passive streams of income. So again, it's that whole giving ourselves permission to be curious, to have the conversations, to be vulnerable, ask for mentoring and coaching, and try lots of different things. So throughout reading the books, going to courses, lots of networking, developing those relationships, I learned different ways. And all these passive streams of income came through, like, completely unrelated things to do, but I gave myself permission to try it. Why not, right? Like, what's the worst thing that could happen? You know, I fail. What's even worse is if I don't try and I do nothing, right? But what if I, like, try and shoot for the stars but land on the moon, okay? Like, I'm failing to see what the problem is there, right? So I, again, I talk to so many people, and it's like, we, for whatever reason, just get pigeonholed into. This is all the thing my family did. This is the only thing I know this is. Is, you know what? I'm limit. Like, stop it, Stop it. It's not about resources. It's about how resourceful can you be? And who do you know that is doing that thing that can. Maybe they're not the mentor, but they can connect you to somebody who is like, just keep asking, right? And when you ask better questions, you get better answers. So one of my favorite books is the Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham, right? And he talks about, we don't need to be making better decisions. We need to be making less stupid ones, right? And so. And then the whole other thing is financial literacy. Financial literacy is the unfair advantage, right? And so getting ourselves ongoingly educated for financial literacy. I came from extreme poverty, right? School didn't teach me financial literacy. College didn't teach me financial literacy. I had to seek it out. And. And each layer was a layer on layer on layer on layer. And I'm still, like, last night I was teaching another financial literacy class, and I had people come in and they taught me a whole bunch more, along with all of my other students, more on financial literacy. Like, I feel like it's a. Real estate and financial literacy are two subjects you can never, ever, ever get to the bottom of and learn absolutely everything about. So it's. I love it because you get just more and more and more and more, right? So I learned. I'm trying to think There was a ton of affiliate marketing that I did because I love connecting people. A bunch of real estate was the passive streams of income, but it was multiple different versions of it. It wasn't just like one. So allowing yourself to be curious and get excited and to be open to learn, like, why not? You know, and that's, that's how I created all of them. And then I learned about them. Created them, put them on autopilot, learn the next one, create it, put it on autopilot. Learn the next one, create it, put it on autopilot. Like that's what I did, you know. And still I still, I still get checks in the mail from some of those still. Well. Oh, look, mailbox money.

Okay, that's terrific. Yeah, that's excellent. It sounds like a few different things served you well as I kind of just think through your commentary there. So you've got some inherent curiosity which I think has served you really well. But then also a lot of reading, mentorship programs, you're asking people the right questions and good questions. So you're kind of getting in the right rooms with people and building relationships and building a network. And that's one thing that I've noticed that I really admire about you too, Katherine, is you have an excellent network. You're a very connected individual. You know, a lot of really smart people, a lot of interesting people, a lot of entrepreneurs. So two part question for you here. In terms of any books that you might recommend that people might read that have been beneficial to you, what have those been? But then also in terms of, you know, kind of getting in the right rooms in front of the right people and connecting with the right people, what kind of recommendations or advice might you have on that topic?

I love these two questions. So first of all, for me, relationships are paramount, right? Your reputation will walk in the room before you do. So if you don't take care of your reputation, I promise you, good or bad, it's walking in the room before you do.

Such a good point.

And there's this world, as we get older, gets smaller. Like it used to be six degrees of separation, it's now one. And if you've burned people, people talk. You think high school gossip was bad? Like, people will talk. You know that we have the Google reviews and Yelp and like all these reviews, people talk. And so if we don't take care of those relationships and make sure our word is absolutely honored, right? And keep that integrity. Like, what is integrity? Integrity is doing what you said you would do by when you said you would do it. And the minute that, you know you can't honor that, get in communication with all parties that are affected and make a new promise. That is integrity. Because the reality is when we are playing games, as big as we're playing. Yeah, stop. Not everything is going to happen exactly how we think it's going to happen. And so the worst thing we can do is just go out of communication and like, not deal with it, but instead the thing to do. Instead of leaving every person, property and community better than we found them, get into communication, get the impact, and then make a new promise. That is integrity. Right. It's not about being perfect because that's not what's going to happen. But when you're playing a big game, you need to make sure that you're taking care of the relationships and you're honoring your word. Even if honoring your word means repromising, like, do that, take care of them, you know, again, yes. I mean, again, relationships to me are everything. And when we take care of those, it's everything because there's no guarantee of tomorrow. Right. And when we can leave everybody better than we found them, like, that's how what people are going to remember, people won't necessarily remember what we said or what we did, but they will remember how we made them feel.

So true.

People are just coming in and, you know, all for them, all for themselves. Me, me, me, me, me. People remember that feeling and it's gross, right? But. And one of the other things that I learned forever ago is, rather than being the most interesting person in the room, what if you were the most interested person in the room? So I go into every interaction being extremely interested, super excited and curious about what people are up to, what are they looking for, how can I connect them to somebody or give them a resource or whatever that is, right? And so, like, I just love that, like, how can I contribute to you? And whatever your dreams are. So that, to me, I don't know, I think it brings far more value than trying to be the most interesting person in the room. Because we've seen those people. Yeah, right. And nobody's interested. They're like, get away from me. Right? But when we lean in and we're like, what are you up to? What are your dreams? What are your hopes? Like, how can I help you? Like, all of a sudden it gets really juicy and exciting, right? So which leads me to one of my favorite people gave me this piece of homework that I give, that I pass on. And what I learned was I have lots and Lots of friends who are millionaires, a couple friends who are billionaires. And so leaning in and asking them like, what are the things that you've done that you feel have led you to being successful? And there's definitely one common thread. They all read a ton. That's the first thing. And then it's what do they read? Right? And so every single one of them that I know has actually done what I'm about to tell you. So it's this fabulous little book. It's called the Science of Getting Rich. You can see I've got it all notated and marked. It's a teeny tiny little book though. And what the homework is is to read through it once. It takes maybe two hours to read, it's that small. And then for 90 days you read chapters 4, 7, 11 and 14 every single day for 90 days. You miss a day, you start all over again. But what happens is what's happening neurologically is it's building these new beautiful neuron pathways that are absolutely shifting how it is that you actually get rich. But more importantly, it's who this book has you become. Right? So this, this is a huge. And then of course, my other favorite, who, not how. And then of course, the Road Less stupid.

Excellent recommendations.

I have lots of, you know, obviously way more books based on whatever it is, but those are my go tos that when I need to get myself sorted out, I like to go there and be back, you know, back to like, okay, this is, this is what I'm being reminded of.

That's excellent. Definitely will add the Science of Getting Rich. That's what it's called, right? The Science of Getting Rich. That will get added to my reading list as soon as we wrap up this conversation today. So thanks for that excellent recommendation. I'm sure the listeners will get a ton of value out of that one as well. As we start to kind of wind it down here. Katherine, I've got one more question for you. Which kind of, given what we've talked about today and given your background, I think this is going to be really important for the listeners today to contemplate. But if people do want to really take this idea of compassionate capitalism to heart, if people really do want to get out there and give back and find a way to make a positive impact beyond business, what kind of advice do you have for them in terms of how they should think about that? Like, if they really do want to take this to heart and think about how they can try to have a positive impact on the world how can they go about navigating that and really thinking about where they should try to participate and try to give back?

I love that. So it goes back to raising my twins. So as my kids were going through school, I always let them choose, right? And they always had to choose their. Their extracurricular activities. They got to choose them. So here was my criteria, and I think it works for adults too, is I want them to be in an activity that taught them leadership skills. So they had to choose some sort of something that gave them that they. And then it was another activity that taught them team building skills. We always need team. And then the third is some way that they get to be a contribution to the world that lights them up. So they get that they're not the center of the world. So whatever that is, that lights you up. But again, it's like you're not committing to it forever. Like, good Lord, if you just commit to it for like, you know, a quarter, one quarter of the year or six months out of the year, whatever it is, but put yourself out there and try something and then from that, reevaluate and tell yourself the truth. What worked? What didn't work? What would you do differently? What lessons did you get? Now take those nuggets and then go try something new or stick with that, whatever it is. You don't have to start your own nonprofit. There are more than enough nonprofits out there that are making a difference, and that will absolutely make your heart single, right? And so it's that continuing to be curious and explore and what would make my heart sing. And so here's the new chapter that I'm in in my life. Okay? So my whole life has been about my kids. For 19 years, all my fun, my joy, everything I've done has been like, kid related, right? And I've loved it. And now that they're, you know, they're off, it's weird for me to show up for kid related events with no kids. So given every. All my joy has been wrapped up. And then now, now I'm like, wait a second, what? What do people do without kids? What kind of fun do you have without kids? So I'm now in this new journey. I'm asking, like, what do you do for fun without kids? What do you do for fun? What do you do for fun? So now, like, I'm asking everybody, what do you do for fun? And so it's this whole new adventure of like trying all these fun things. And some of them, they're not as fun for me. And some of them are super fun for me, but it's just being on an adventure and trying everything that's out there. Like, why not? What's the worst that can come from it? Right? Like, the. The. The thing that I'm clear about, you know, with Christopher dying is the biggest regret people have when they die is regret. The regret of not trying things, of not doing things, of not saying things, not experiencing things. That's the regret. It's never the regret that they did something. It's the regret that they didn't. Right. So for me, it's like being really clear. I want no regrets that I didn't try something, you know, which had me go on and figure out what I was going to do, you know, with my life and the bigger thing. So just got back from the Tony Robbins event, Walk Through Fire. And what I experienced walking through the fire, was that I've been through way worse things than actually walking through fire. You know, like, that was an extraordinary experience, changed my life. But what the power of it is that the bigger thing for people to understand what got me through all those horrible things, what got me through walking through the Fire, all of that, is because I have such a powerful, clear vision of what it is. It's on the other side, you know, and having a vision for the other side is critical. But I had to let go of the picture. There's a very clear distinction between picture what it has to look like versus the vision of it actually being fulfilled, you know? So, for instance, it's like my picture was that I was going to be married to one man my whole life, and that's how it was going to be. Right? Well, he honored all his vows, including till death do his part. That sucked. That was the picture. The vision is that I build a life with somebody extraordinary, loving, amazing. We build this amazing, adventurous life together. That's the vision. So I had to give up how it was going to happen for that it was going to happen, right? Same with our business. We get so stuck, especially, you know, the economy that we're going into. People have a picture of it needs to be this way when it's like, stop. It's not going to look that way. You're probably going to have to pivot. Thanks to Covid, we all pivoted a lot. And hold the vision of this is what I'm building, and is it going to look this way? Probably not. So do yourself a favor and let go of the picture and just be open to the vision if it's going to happen, however it's going to happen. But keep holding on to that. Right? So inside of contributing, let go of the picture that it has to look this way. Hold on to the vision of this is what I'm called here for. This is what my heart makes my heart sing. And this is why I believe that I'm here. Right? So let's do that. So let go of the picture, hold on to the vision. It'll make your heart sing. You'll get it.

That's awesome, Katherine. I've really enjoyed this conversation too. It's a really important one. It's a little bit different of a twist, you know, I think it's so important for entrepreneurs out there to really think beyond themselves and just making money. And hey, look, if you do have some success, what are the ways that we can give back and really contributed positively to society beyond just kind of building a business? So really important message today, Catherine, I really do appreciate it. If people want to follow you and what you've got going on at Titan Impact Group, what's the best way to do that?

Titanimpactgroup.com My contact information is there, my calendar link, it's all there. And I'm on all over social media too, so you get to hear my quirkiness all over.

Sounds good. Katherine. Again, thank you so much for your time today. I truly do appreciate it.

Thank you. I appreciate you and your whole team. You guys are amazing.

Hey, how would you like to get into the game of raising money right now by partnering with a company that already has a massive infrastructure, already has boots on the ground, already has a big team. If you want to learn more about that. I created a course on how to do this. It's called Fund of Funds Mastery and you can get it all for free at Fund of Funds mastery dot com.