#220 From Prison to Real Estate | How Kolaiah Lost Everything to Addiction & Rebuilt

At one point in high school, I stole my mom's debit card and I drained her whole account.

Uh-oh.

And I just kept taking money out of her account and using it to buy the drugs and just got hooked. And I couldn't stop. When I got caught, I realized that. I sat in the cells. I had enough time to realize, okay, what I was doing, the problem I had. It's a lot of making excuses, procrastination, but then the drugs was just hurting other people's families.

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So we were chatting.

We're just talking about you know not coming to Hawaii yet.

I don't know.

I gotta I gotta teach you how to surf.

You need to teach me how to surf. I gotta have somewhere to land. I got four daughters, so you gotta you know wife. Gotta have room for me, man. Yes. Well, we were talking about the weather being the same all the time out there.

Yeah. Yeah. So it's boring though.

No, it just gets boring living there. All the weather's the same all the time.

That's why we fly to like Utah to go snowboard or, you know, California too.

Utah's on your bucket list and all that. And somebody else has Hawaii, right?

Well, I, you know, I go to Utah because the snow is so good every year.

Oh yeah.

Every year we go to like, you know, Powder Mountain and Park City. Yeah. Park City is beautiful.

Yeah. There was a little stint in my life that I went up for, uh, to, uh, to Utah. I spent a couple weeks out there. This is a long time ago. And my business partner actually is, was from Utah, moved up to Idaho, but this is long before I knew him. And I went traveling out there at IBM and we played around. We ended up in Park City for a weekend and I fell in love.

Yeah.

Because I'm from Oregon originally. And so it was mountains, but they didn't quite have a Park City environment in Oregon. Not like that. Not the little streets, not the hilltops, not the venues, not the snow, not the outdoors and all this stuff that I loved.

I, I almost Got an apartment there.

I've almost lived in a lot of places that I just decided not to live. Have you been there too? I mean, have you been in Hawaii your whole life or is that?

Yeah, well, I've been to Oregon too. So I just came back from Hood River. We were, I do downwind foiling. I don't know if you know. Oh man. So that's my sport, you know, like ocean.

So Oregon, you as thrill seeker, that's twice now. You're a dangerous sports addict.

You know, when COVID came around, I just seen my friends, you know, who was able to just, you know, surf.

There was no work involved.

So we just— then I just seen my friends just doing it, and I was like, oh my gosh, I gotta learn this thing. And it was, it was just definitely the hardest thing in the beginning.

The Columbia Gorge?

No, well, I'm talking about the Frailing, but I've never been—

That's not where you were?

Oh no, I went through Hood River. But is that the— comes down from the Columbia?

Comes down from the Columbia Gorge. It's like always huge winds, and if you're gonna go out Foil sail or parasail up there.

Yeah.

So we went up there for like a trade show for a, you know, a foiling trade show. And then we, you know, did the downwinds. And then when you fall down, it's like freezing.

Yeah.

That's cold water, dude. That was one of the things. Yeah. I go out, all of our family used to go out to Hawaii from that side. At least all of 'em. I, I never made it, as we know. But they would get to the warm water because at the coast of Oregon, it's great. It's beautiful. It's fun. But you don't get in without a wetsuit. And when you do, even then it's freezing.

And then you guys got Bachelor, right? Up there?

Bachelor up there in Oregon, yeah.

So I snowboarded up in Bachelor in 2000, 2001, yeah, in 2000. That's where, you know, I snowboarded. It was beautiful. So there's Gerry Lopez. He's like the icon, the legend from Pipeline, Hawaii. And he is, he lives in Bend, Oregon.

Who knew?

We, you know, I got to go back up and visit him, but he makes surfboards in, in, in Bend in his beautiful place, surf shop, and then sends them all over the world.

So, so what keeps you traveling, man?

What are you doing?

That was one of my things, you know, why I got involved with what I'm doing is to be able to have free time to travel wherever I want to go surfing. I'm a surfer before real estate. And, you know, traveling all over, even snowboarding, right? It kind of was similar. So I've always started snowboarding in 1999 and just never stopped, you know.

So were you snowboarding and then got into real estate or was real estate what got you back into snowboarding?

No, when I, when I, I got into snowboarding prior to, you know, and I got into real estate when I came, came outta prison. So that's kind of what happened. Like, went to prison because I was going down the wrong path. The choices I made got me in there. And then, I made the choice of changing how I think, the people I surrounded myself with.

Yeah.

And then, when I came out, I was looking for programs that was out there. There was nothing really in Hawaii. But what happened was, in fact, there was a lot of people in Hawaii that did real estate, but their scarcity mindset, they didn't want to share Their, you know, strategies and secrets. So I ended up— that's, that's how it was. Something just came across the commercial on the radio station, and I, you know, that made the whole difference.

Yeah.

Yep. The Fortune Builders was the program I signed up with, paid big money that I borrowed, you know, I borrowed from a loan and then a credit card, and I still have the tickets, and I keep it because It's proof that, you know, if you're in a situation or wherever you're at, at then I had 3 jobs. I was working for 3 bosses and, you know, I had to work for somebody else's dream and not mine. So when I got involved with this real estate thing, I was able to quit my 3 jobs and create, you know, residual income through the strategies, you know, that I learned. And then we, you know, I've got rentals, you know, 12 rentals, always adding at least 1 or 2 more every year to put onto my portfolio and house local families that's on Section 8 or nonprofit organizations that have like HUD families that need homes to rent.

Let's go back up just a second because you glossed over this and I'm going to ask the question and you can shoot me down. You know where I'm going with this, right? How do we end up in prison, man?

Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, growing up in Hawaii, everyone has family members, they drink alcohol, they party. Everything's a party in Hawaii. You get a child that makes 1 year old, there's a big party. The child's not partying, the family's partying, right?

Right.

Everybody, but people get together. But my personality is addictive. So, when I hung around with my family members that were doing the drugs, the marijuana, and then the harder drugs, well, got involved with my friends who was doing that, it just took me down a path that went down real quick, right? At one point in high school, I stole my mom's debit card and I drained her whole account.

Uh-oh.

And, that was You know how far that drug took me. I was, you know, on, you know, I don't know, get, it's like crack. I got stuck on crack and this was like when I was like 14. And I just kept taking money out of her account and using, you know, using it to buy the drugs and just got hooked and I couldn't stop. And one, one day she told me, hey, did you take my card? You know, I was like, no, fully, you know, letting, telling her no ways. And she said, well, I got videos that prove that, you know, someone, someone took, was taking it out of the ATM machine. And then right then and there, I was like, oh my gosh, you know what, Mom? I'm so, so sorry. I need help, you know? And it was a blessing that my mom forgave me for that. And, you know, I went to rehab and, but that rehab, you know, got me thinking, okay, your friends is really not your friends. They were around there when you had the money and had the drugs and It just kept spiraling.

Yeah.

I think that wasn't even the end. I stopped for a little while, joined the military after I went to high school. I went through the Army Reserves, but I came back. That wasn't even for me. So I started hanging around with the uncle who was a drug dealer, and the drugs was always there. So I was thinking like, he has a house, he has a nice truck, fat gold chain, always smoking. At that time, I was smoking. And just wanted to be like him, you know? And they say, you become who you hang around with. And I became, you know, I became my uncle. I mean, not like he was a bad person or anything, but the choices that he was making at that time too was not, you know, like things that, you know, normal people do. The drugs hurt people's families, you know?

Yeah.

You know, when I got caught, I realized that and I sat in the cells. It wasn't really a cell, but it was like open bay. But I had enough time to realize, okay, what I was doing, the problem I had. And it's a lot of making excuses, procrastination, but then the drugs was just hurting other people's families and that's not what I wanted to do anymore in my life. So I really had to make the decision to change and that was one thing I did. So I I hung around with most of the people that were in there for white-collar crime, and they were businessmen. One guy who sat on Chicago Board of Trading, Paul Carney, you know, and he, he made a bad, you know, decision on— because he holds the people's investments, right, as a stockbroker, and they lost a lot of money. So this wasn't the reasons why he went to prison. So, but he was definitely, uh, Guy who was teaching me, okay, this is how you dress when you go out to get a job. And then when you own businesses, like we sat for hours talking about how to get started in business. And then one guy that just stuck with me was this guy named Joel who educated on how to do 101 real estate or Real Estate 101.

Okay.

And the house hack part was what I Really, really liked where you live in, you know, you buy a house, you fix it up, you live in it for 2 out of 5 years. And then when you sell it, it's like a house hack where you sell it, the profits. If you're single, you don't have to pay, I think it's up to $250K. If you're married, $500K, you don't have to pay taxes on that. So my idea was like, oh my gosh, this is something that I want to do when I get out. So When I got out, like I said, no one was wanting to teach this thing, and it was just by chance, the radio station. At that time, I had 3 jobs, and I was overworking the 3 jobs. But, you know, that got me to learn these strategies of where I'm at today, you know, living financially free and working for no boss but myself.

And clean and sober.

Clean and sober. No drink, no, no Drugs. Yep. I, I separated myself from that. I kissed the ground when I got out. I was in Arkansas and kissed the ground, got on the plane and said, I'm not going back. You know, not going back.

Did you ever meet God in that process?

Yes. So definitely Jehovah has, has been in my life. My grandmother was a Jehovah's Witness, so she was always, you know, preaching to me and studying with me and talking to me about, you know, God and And Jesus and, and it was all, he's, you know, if it wasn't, you know, he's always blessed me, Neil. Like I've always been blessed, but it was me who left, you know, left him. And, and he's still there for us. Like it's, it's, it's amazing of where I'm at today. And it's because of him, you know.

We'll call you the prodigal Fuzzy. That's amazing.

Thank you.

Actually, it's not the return.

Koliah, my, my name is a biblical name. So the real name is Koliah. Fuzzy is just like the nickname. And my my mom found Kolai in the Bible. It's a it's a Hebrew name, and it means voice of God or voice of Jehovah.

So you've always had a blessing on you, brother. Ready to escape your grind? We help entrepreneurs build real wealth with private label brands. Visit voltage dm dot com to start now.

I've been I mean maybe that's one of the reasons why we connected and we can you know. Sure, it's possible that, you know, when God's in your life, you know, and, and you, you make the change, you know, he, he'll bless you.

Yeah, no doubt. Your connections will change. Your opportunity changes. There's, it's not, a lot of people wanna call it that prosperity gospel side, but I know that it says all through, all things through Christ are possible. And it literally means that if you follow him, then those things will be possible. And we got a society that puts everything upside down.

Yes.

You know, and everything's upside down. It's gotta be my priorities first. And, and there's so many different topics we can cover.

Well, we, we seem like, you know, like we are living, you know, in the last days because of so much turmoil. Like, you know, you, you just see it all. The prophecies is just unfolding right now.

A lot of things in there. Yeah. Time is short and yes, you need to be doing what you love. And that's what I like to hear in your story is you're doing what you love. You do what you enjoy. You. They're a part of the family. Your mom's still alive?

Mom's still alive, yes. Grandparents no longer here, but yeah, mom and dad still alive.

Excellent.

Stepdad is still alive, so.

Good. Well, family's important, right? And sometimes family are closer than friends and sometimes vice versa. Just depends upon, you know.

Well, some family members, you know, they choose the wrong decisions and those are the ones you want to separate yourself from. Still got to love them and, you know, support them, but I was one of those rascal family members, you know, and at one time in my life, but no longer. I'm a, you know, testament of someone that did make the wrong choices but changed and, you know, for the better.

Yeah, that's amazing. And yeah, Arkansas is probably not the best place to be in. No offense to my Arkansas listeners. It's a nicer place to live than to visit inside of a prison. I'm sure. But you obviously moved to a different place in your life. What has that taken you in your real estate business? Where did you find like, you know, your sweet spot, your business type?

Yeah, great question. Yeah, so, you know, when I first started, yes, it was hard. Like Hawaii, the amount to purchase a home here, not a nice house, well, a nice house is $1 million and up for sure. But the ones that's busted up is like $600,000, $700,000. You need to put at least another $200K into it. So it's super expensive. So the mindset of a lot of us here in Hawaii is like, I can't afford that. I cannot get in. I don't have the money. And that was my mindset too before I got into real estate. But then the coaches told me, erase everything that you've learned because there's outside-the-box strategies That, you know, 'cause a lot of us just think about using the conventional way to purchase property.

Yeah.

And never thought about using other people's funds, right? And did I, my mic, my stuff go off?

Oh no, you're still here.

Okay, sorry.

You're still here. I was just giving you the focus.

So yeah. Oh, sorry. So, you know, using these strategies that these successful real estate investors are using.

Yeah.

And when I signed up and I started using these strategies and doing the things that they told me to, it's like I met up with other students who had brought an opportunity. I had no money. The coaches brought the money to the table. My first opportunity was a fix and flip. We helped out a lady who would've lost her home. So we ended up giving her money upfront. Well, my coaches did give money upfront, Put her into a place, helped her pay for like 3 months' rent, helped her get a car. And then also we fixed it up, renovated it, and then we also gave her money at the back end. And then I profited, we all profited from it. Everyone won. So giving back to our community and doing things, and I call it the pono way, which is the right way or righteous way. You know, not doing things that, you know, when people are not looking, you're doing it the right way. And, you know, it's amazing where real estate has taken me. Now, I've built over 150+ homes on the Big Island where it's more affordable, and I'm employing local contractors, subcontractors. So, you know, helping people put food on the table. And then not only that, selling these homes at affordable prices. And when I say affordable, they're like $325,000 to under $400,000 with a quarter acre of land, about a 1,600 or 1,700 total square foot, 3-bedroom, 2-bath homes.

Excellent.

In Hawaii, right? And it's been a blessing for me to help communities. And then also now I have a business partner who we started the Hui Mastermind together, and we also teach other locals that's from Hawaii or moved away on the same strategies where they can copy and paste what we did. And we're abundance mindset. We share all of that. And that's kind of like my— I found a mission now is real estate is a way that I can teach us, people that live in Hawaii to be able to survive and thrive here. Because there's other people that come, it's the 50th state. Anybody can Foreigners can buy here in Hawaii. So why let— we watching these people come and do it, why can't we do it too? Well, because a lot of us choose not to educate ourselves.

Mm-hmm.

And I'm glad that I was the one that didn't have the money for the education, but I had the credit to borrow the money to pay for the education, to learn, And show it's possible coming from out of prison with $0 in my pocket, getting 3 jobs, working my way up to management. And then, there's ceilings at every job, but real estate has opened up doors and has created an unlimited future for me and my ohana. I'm able to leave generational wealth to my family when I'm not here.

That's an amazing gift, dude.

Yeah.

An incredible story.

Thank you, Neil.

Where can people check out more what you're doing, brother?

Yeah, I mean, I'm at fuzzyjardine.com. On Instagram, I'm @HIFUZZ. That's HIFUZ on Instagram. And then we got the huimastermind.com, our coaching program that's here in Hawaii.

Excellent.

And then I also wrote this book just recently.

A few years ago.

Priced Out of Paradise, right?

Priced Out of Paradise.

How to Build Wealth Investing in Real Estate the Pono Way. And, you know, it's Lifetime, you know, my story's in there, and then how I've helped other students, and then the framework of being abundant and showing how step by step how you can, you know, find fun deals with none of your own money and using other people's time.

A real rags-to-riches story, man.

Great.

That's why I wanted you to come on and talk to people, man, because I want people to see that, you know, There, there's a story that everybody has. It's not always positive. It's full of potholes. We all make mistakes, right? And you know, we shouldn't be boxed in by those when we have an opportunity to help others, which is exactly what you're doing. Does it have to be something that I do on the island or can I do it anywhere?

Real estate can be done anywhere.

Your strategy per se. I mean, my strategy.

Yeah. So it's brand new. Like think about it, a lot of people skip the development side, development side. There's way more wealth that can be built.

You mean they go to like the door, they go to the multi-tenant, they go to the Airbnb style of real estate? Is that what you're referring to?

Well, what I'm saying is you buy the land and then start building, you know, building houses. And that's kind of where I'm a developer now. A lot of people go to doing wholesaling, fix and flip, the BRRRR strategies, which is, you know, awesome. But the development side is where, you know, you can make bigger chunks of funds to be able to pay for your long-term plays, which is, you know, like you said, apartment buildings or, you know, long-term rentals for your portfolio.

To hold it on, hold on that asset.

Yeah.

Do you have any concerns about the market right now?

You know, I think real estate is in a macro, it's, you know, everybody's waiting for The interest rates to drop, which it will. We're not sure what's going on politically around the world, right? There's so much turmoil going on.

Who knows exactly what's happening.

But I think because Hawaii is such a, not to say that wherever people are from is not a special place, but I think because it's so beautiful and the weather stays, that we don't have to change our time difference, right? We just stay the same.

We have to, everybody, especially little kids. I have 4 kids under the age of 5. And the time zone had changed. It was like chaos for a week in our house, like trying to put them all to bed and waking up. It's like, come on, man.

Yeah, but I think it was like one of the only places, you know, that don't change their time. We just stay behind time, I guess they call it.

They cool, man. They cool.

But yeah, I think because what's Hawaii's— Hawaii's is it'll hold its value, right? So, but every market is different. Your town might be different from the upscale town. When the market changes and it dips, a lot of the areas that are more expensive start to drop a little. So it's just really looking at knowing your numbers, analyzing the numbers that surround you. I've been in this business for 12 years and I've been building homes for that long, and I have not had a problem selling these houses because of the system that I use. I buy the land in the areas that I know houses have been selling, and then I know how to buy these properties at a discount. And then because I have construction background, and then one of my friends is a general contractor, I'm able to manage these projects and build them at a cheaper price. So there's a huge buffer. So the market would have to drop at least $80,000 to $100,000 for me to break even. So there's definitely a stop loss that I put in place before I pull the trigger on purchasing a property and going full on into the brand new build.

So are your properties going to be in the size of just like a residential area? Yep.

Yep.

Like a quarter of an acre, less than half an acre or more?

Yes. So there is areas that I build that's an acre, but then of course the acre costs about now about $100,000, $120,000 for the acre, but I shop around and I get them for about $80,000. So I got discounted already. And then I build the house and then they're $100,000 more than the other areas that's like quarter-acre lots.

Yeah. So they're all new build and then—

All brand new builds.

Yes. List yourself or are you an agent?

No, I have a real estate agent or prior to me finishing the properties, I've also sold it directly to You know, people who are interested in buying it directly because it saves— I can give them a bigger discount instead of having the realtor fee. I can, you know, give them that discount directly to them working through a, you know, if they have a loan officer or broker that they're working with and just purchase a sales contract and just, you know. Yeah.

How much cash does it usually take for somebody to kind of get started in this?

Nothing really, right? It's just the mindset. You can start watching a lot of the videos that there's so much, so much on. So it's ChatGPT, you can talk to ChatGPT, you can use social media. But I think an education, if you got like $5,000 to like $20,000 to put towards education or getting a mentor, like you go faster. If you go out and work on it alone, I think you can do it. It's just going to take you longer because there's more mistakes that you don't see without someone that can guide you.

It's important to pay for the right education. We're definitely for that. I don't agree with all education must go through institutional education. Yeah, it is right for some people. Building a business is right for some people. Building a business is not right for some people. But if you're going to go after it, always, you know, encourage people to get the right information.

Well, you go towards the people that you want to be like, and if they're doing the thing that You want to be, you know, doing life, like no better way to like, hey, can I get some of your time? What is that cost?

Might have to pay for that time. I've paid for a lot of time in my life. Some has worked out great and others not so much. But I would say that the great has overpowered anything that didn't work in terms of what I got out of it and what I was willing to get out of it. That's the other thing, right?

Yeah.

You have to be willing to get something out of it and actually take action and do something, which is an important part of, I think, your entire story is that you actually took action. You did something, you made amends, you made it right. You went out there and you hustled. Yes, and you did what it take to change it, and that's kudos to your brother. You're a high voltage business builder in my mind.

Hey, Neil, thank you so much. That really, you know, hits me right here. Thank you so much. It's been, you know, if you stay still, like it's 2026 is coming right around the corner. If you keep doing what you're doing, are you gonna be in the same place next year?

Like, nope.

You know, you gotta. I mean, success is not gonna. Like just hop in your hand.

No, it's not going to just pull itself out of the paper and suddenly jump onto your balance sheet. Yeah. But I will tell you that reaction is important. Activity's important. Getting victimized by change is not cool. So if you have an opportunity to get something moving, get it going in business or real estate or otherwise, the 2 ways you will make yourself a millionaire in this opportunity for business is real estate and creating a business. So pick which one you want to ride and keep riding it until you're successful.

You know, I think you got one of the best businesses out there, e-commerce. Like, you can make some really, really good money if you set up the businesses correctly and, you know, you create something that people want or need. Like, really a need. They will be buying from you all day long and you can be sleeping and the money gonna be coming in.

So they need ice cream. I can tell you that firsthand. They need ice cream. They're about to need some waffles, I'll tell you that. They definitely need some coffee from what I can tell, and they gotta sleep.

So, so far we're doing pretty good.

The things people need. Thank you for that. Yeah, it's find a need, fill it. And, you know, whatever business you choose to get into, I always wanna encourage people to, you know, do the diligence, but also remember that it's tenacity and perseverance. For most of us, it's more than a decade of effort to get to the place where we want to get to. So remember to cut that piece of string way out here and not in here.

Start early.

Let it keep going.

Start early. Cause you know, like, never, never listened to my parents. Never listened. You know, I was a hardheaded kid and Yeah. Had I listened earlier on in my life, I would've been— but hey, that's who I am today. I had to go down that path to be able to— I guess that's what the mission God had me to be able to— this rascal kid did all these naughty things and then when he turned his life around and then look at where he's at, he can be an inspiration to others that are going down that same path. And if they want to make the change, it's possible.

Well, there's mentoring and then there's discipling. So let me ask you, who are you mentoring and who are you discipling? Right.

You know, to me, my passion is I love Hawaii and it's sad to see so many— there's over 15,000 locals moving away. I mean, they don't have to be Hawaiian, but they're born and raised here and then moving away. So I'm preaching to those people, you know, those people that, that, you know, it's facts that it's expensive here. It's definitely facts. But the choices we make, you know, the people we surround ourselves with is who we become. And then, you know, how can somebody come out of prison with $0 in his pocket, become a multimillionaire, right? I put myself in, in places where I could educate myself, put people myself in front of people that cared about me and wanted to uplift me and show me it's possible. And I'm that person now. Like we call it the crabs in a bucket in Hawaii. When someone wants to get out, family members that's in the bucket or friends, don't do that. You're going to lose money, blah, blah, blah. Don't do that. So they pull you back down. But it's me now that I'm successful real estate investor, developer, I'm tilting that bucket, reaching in to try and, you know, show it's possible and reach in to bring someone else out of that bucket because you can, you know, if I can, like seriously, you can.

Yeah, it's a good message, man. Any questions or anything we didn't cover you want to chat about?

No, I mean, this is awesome. This is definitely a cool, calm, and collective conversation. And, you know, I'm glad I'm able to You know, talk story with you and share this with your audience. And it's a blessed day.

Seriously.

It's a blessed day for me to be here with you today. And for anybody listening, I hope we feel the same way. As always, I remind you guys that, you know, if you don't like or comment or share, poor little doggies are going to get killed.

I'm just kidding.

Small cats. No, I'm just kidding. So, you know, remember to get the message out there, share with anybody who needs to hear a good story today. And as always, you know, come back to the next episode, check out what we're doing on the other episodes and like, comment, share, engage, leave a snarky remark.

I don't care.

It's gonna help me with beat big tech anyway. And Fuzzy, I appreciate you coming on, brother.

Yeah, right on, Neil. Mahalo. Big, big mahalos from Hawaii. Yeah, big shakas.

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