← The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
The Billionaire Who Risks His Life to Save Trafficked Children ft. Paul Hutchinson
00:55:00
Loading summary
Transcript113 lines
- [00:02]
A
On WhatsApp, no one can see or hear your personal messages. Whether it's a voice call message or sending a password to WhatsApp, it's all just this. So whether you're sharing the streaming password in the family chat or trading those late night voice messages, that could basically become a podcast, your personal messages stay between you, your friends and your family. No one else, not even us. WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Welcome to the Level up podcast. I'm your host, Paul Alex. I went from being a cop to an eight figure entrepreneur that helps average people like you and me make money every single day. I created this podcast to help you get motivated and to crush your goals. Let's win together. Remember, I have your six. Get ready to level up right now. Hey, guys, and welcome back to the podcast. My name is Paul Alex and today we have a very special interview. Guys, I want to tell you that today's guest is Paul Hutchinson, an entrepreneur turned undercover hero. I like to call him Bruce Wayne. Serious? Okay. He is the real life Bruce Wayne. He built a billion dollar businesses, guys. Yeah, would be billion dollar businesses, but it's not about the money, guys. He then walked away to rescue kids from human trafficking. We're about to get deep, guys, because I have been in that field as well. I have helped fight against human trafficking and I'm a big believer against this. He now works side by side with his wife Vanessa to fight those who can't fight for themselves. Paul, welcome to the show.
- [01:37]
B
Thank you. Super excited to share with you and your audience today.
- [01:41]
A
No, absolutely, man. So let's go ahead and start this out. How was life for you growing up, man?
- [01:48]
B
It was beautiful. Yeah, yeah, it was beautiful. I, I, you know, I realized over time that very few people had the blessings I had as a child. You know, I, I had four younger sisters, I will say that. You know, and I started recognizing the darkness that existed when in high school, I was asked to be the president of what they call the Peer Leadership Team, which it was kind of a peer counseling because a lot of kids, if they have domestic abuse in the home or other things like that, if they go to a teacher and they talk about it, then legally that teacher has to go to the authorities. And so a lot of kids won't say anything and they just don't trust the adults. And so I went through a bunch of training paid for by the school that, that helped me recognize those things and became a peer counselor. And I, I'll say this, at that point, I recognized how, how many kids Deal with abuse in the home, physical sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and they carry that with them throughout their life if they don't get the help that they need.
- [02:52]
A
Wow. So you were out there helping the community, helping people that needed help at a very young age.
- [02:59]
B
Yeah, I remember had a party at my house. We were helping kids with drug and alcohol abuse and things like that. And I realized that I don't remember what it was, or there was something like the end of the school year where there was a lot of kids, a lot of parties. Parties with a lot of crap going on. So I said, you know what? We're gonna throw the party.
- [03:15]
A
Yeah.
- [03:16]
B
And multiple schools. My parents stopped counting it at. I don't remember, like, 300 and something kids that were there by the park, in the backyard and everything else that, that. No, no sex, no drugs, no alcohol. Just, you know, we had a live band and a bunch of stuff. So. So, yeah, that's. That kind of defined it when I was. When I was younger.
- [03:36]
A
And.
- [03:37]
B
And I've always had a heart for wanting to make a difference, but didn't know where that would go.
- [03:44]
A
And Paul, were your parents a big advocate of you doing this? Were they like, paul, go ahead. Were they enforcing that action? Were they like, paul, what are you doing? Why are you exposing yourself to that?
- [03:57]
B
They were supporting whatever. I remember when I was a little kid, I went in, I said, mom, I know what I. I want to know what I. I figured out what I want to do when I grow up. She goes, oh, really? What do you want to do? I said, I want to be a brain surgeon. She goes, well, why do you want to be a brain surgeon now? I had just gotten beat up at school, and whatever I says, because I want to fix how people think. And then later, I changed that to being a heart surgeon for real. I took all the pre med. Everything I think innately. I realized that in order to change that behavior that was plaguing me, that it wasn't about changing how people think. It's about changing the heart. Right. So I did. I remember doing a report in third grade on the human heart. And I. I had taken all of the required pre med classes. I was literally two months away from taking the MCAT when I. I got in a major car accident. I severed all the tendons in my hand. They didn't know if I'd have the dexterity to be a surgeon. They. They said, well, you can be a regular doctor now. I said, I don't want to be a regular anything. Right. If I'M If I'm going to be a garbage man, I'm going to own the dump. That's just how I think. I said I didn't want to be a doctor. I wanted to be a surgeon. Not a regular surgeon, a heart surgeon. Not a regular heart surgeon, but one who specialized with children. I wanted to be a pediatric cardiologist, but that accident changed everything, and I changed into business and finance.
- [05:17]
A
So you were very aware at a young age what type of person you were. Because I'll give you a great example for me. I was an introvert. I barely spoke to people because I was raised in a single mother household. So my mom, I was a latchkey kid. You know, I was raised on movies. You know, I used to watch Leave It a Beaver. I used to be like, wow, what a dream life. I wish I was able to live that life. Right. So for you, where did you get those traits? Was it your parents? Was it your dad? Was it your mom? Where did you learn that habit?
- [05:48]
B
You know, it's interesting. I. My parents were good people. They weren't. They weren't really involved with a lot of charity work.
- [05:54]
A
Did you have friends? Did you have a girlfriend at the time? Like, who? Did you have a mentor?
- [06:01]
B
That's a whole other story. Yeah. Someday I'm gonna write a book called how the Hell Do I Get off the Short Bus? And that is gonna be all about the girls I've dated around my life, you know?
- [06:09]
A
Yeah, no, absolutely. I can't wait for that one.
- [06:12]
B
That's right. So. So I will say that, you know, from a charity standpoint, early in my career, not even my career, I was 20, 21, 22 years old, and I had a mentor. And he said, paul, he said, there's a few force multipliers in the universe that are. He Sundays, you have 24 hours in your day just like everyone else. He said, if you want to be infinitely more successful in your business. This is when I changed over from medicine to business. And he said, if you want to be infinitely more successful, you can't be trading time for money for. For things forever. You've got to figure out how to multiply your efforts. And I'm like, okay, what does that look like? You know, building the right team, whatever. He said, one of the keys is charity work. And I'm like, what do you mean by that? He said, this isn't a religious thing, but I'm just gonna tell you. He says, you know, Jews, Muslims, Christians, all of them believe in some version of the Old Testament. And there's the last book, the Book of Malachi. There's something in there that says, prove me now herewith, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, that there will not be room to receive it. And what's God talking about? He's talking about charity. He says it's talking. They call it the tithe, you know, giving at least 10%. He says, sadly, the average person gives about 2% of their income annually to making a difference in the world to charity work. He said, millionaires, it's even less than 2%. However, DECA, millionaires, centimillionaires, billionaires, the number is significantly higher. He said, if you want a force multiplier of a 10x or more on your efforts, he said, you can call it God, you can call it karma, you can call it the universal law of exchange, you can call it whatever you want to. There's a higher power very interested in us doing good. And when we do that, when we put that time or money into making a positive impact in the world, then those windows of heaven open. And I believe that's absolutely true in my life. I mean, how does somebody become a partner, let alone a founder of what is now well over a $50 billion AUM investment fund? You're not a University of Utah dropout, right? That's what I am. The only way that I can understand it is that I made that decision early on to give until it hurts. I remember I told him, I said, that's why I want to be rich. I want to be charitable. I never realized that I should be charitable so that I could be rich. And you don't want to just give out money in hopes that it's all coming back. But in real, that's what happens. Literally every bit of my actions as I was building those companies, there was an unseen force that was helping this success happen. As long as I was in alignment with showing that I was a good steward of the money.
- [09:10]
A
Yeah, you actually cared. You actually looked after people. You had the right intention, and people could see that, man. That's why that creates great leaders, great founders. Right? And not everybody can lead.
- [09:24]
B
Right.
- [09:24]
A
There's a difference between being a supervisor, being a manager, being an owner, and then being a leader. Right. I'm a big believer leading by example. So I would never ask my people to go ahead and do something that I've never done myself. So I like that man. So let's transition into the big turning point here. Paul, what happened that made you walk away from the business world?
- [09:50]
B
I saw firsthand the darkness that happens when we have an unhealed world. The high level story. I received a phone call from our attorney general, Said Paul, I know you've donated a lot of money to child related charities over the years. He said, I, I need to talk to you about something that's pretty dark. It's the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world and good people don't know that it's happening. And he started talking about human trafficking, child trafficking. He introduced me some operators and these guys were in Colombia, had found some kids that were being sold for the unthinkable and they needed some money to rescue the kids. And so I was already helping with a lot of different child related charities. That's where I had decided that I was going to put my, my money. I, I decided a long time ago that, that my charity money, although, you know, giving it to the guy on the side of the street who's asking me for money that may use it on drugs, I, I can't judge because I don't know if I wouldn't be there if I hadn't been raised in a somewhat healthy, healthy home. But I, I, I, I decided to focus my charity on the truly innocent. A nine year old child in, in a place completely outside of any decisions that she made. And a big part of it is on law enforcement. I know that you served as well, a lot of our close friends, anybody who puts their life in danger to protect mine and my family is something that I want to serve in some way. So that's where I put a lot of money. I was on the Make A Wish board of directors for about seven years. Incoming chairman in our area. My fund was growing huge, it was in the billions already. And I got a phone call saying, hey, you know Paul, I know you've helped with these rescues. He said, we found over 100 kids in Colombia in three different cities. He said we have a plan that if we can rescue them all on the same day. He says, because if we take down one operation, the others might go into hiding. He says we've got to do a simultaneous thing on three cities to make this happen. He says I need your help. And I said, well, how much do you need? He said I need you. Can you be in Colombia in two days?
- [12:09]
A
Wow. Wow. And when he told you that, what was your thought process? What was your thought process? Because not many people, man, I mean, it's easier said than done. It's easier because, I mean, obviously you have the money to go ahead and say hey, how much do you need? But it's another thing to go ahead and risk your life.
- [12:32]
B
Well, and I don't think I recognized right at first how dangerous it was. You know, I'm like, okay, what do you need it for? He says, why do you need me there? He says, well, he said that there's a trafficker down here who's got 14 kids and he has access to over 50 through some other traffickers in Cartagena alone. He said, we've got to figure out how to get him to call the other traffickers and get them to bring all their kids together at the same time. He said, the plan is this. This guy's got this business dream of being able to build almost a Jeffrey Epstein island. He wants to have this resort that you can bring wealthy Americans in and sell his victims. And he believed he could make tens of millions of dollars a year selling these victims. But he needed a few million dollars to build it out. And it's like $8 million. And this operator's like, look, I can't teach my Navy SEALs how to negotiate this deal. These guys will see through fake money all day long. And, you know, I immediately said, yeah, yeah, I'll be there. What was interesting, I had one of my business partners that was in the room and heard me, overheard the conversation an hour later, John Pennington, he's the co founder with me of Bridge. He calls me up, he goes, paul, I heard what you just agreed to. He said, have you thought this through? He said, this is incredibly dangerous. He said, why would you do this? He said, you're set. You could sell out, buy an island, be happy the rest of your life. I said, would I really be happy if I bought an island? I said, tell me this, if I was doing something else dangerous. And so I told to John, I said, if I was climbing Everest tomorrow, you and I would. You probably have the same phone call, right? You'd call me and say, what are you thinking? He goes, yeah, I probably would. I said, and when I'm 95 years old and I look back upon my life and I say, I climbed this mountain, I built this multi billion dollar company, and I helped rescue this many children. Which one of them matters?
- [14:34]
A
Yeah.
- [14:35]
B
He's like, yeah, yeah, you're right. You need to go. Well, once I got to Columbia, a few things happened that scared the shit out of me. I thought, oh, my word. I said, maybe John's right, maybe I should have thought through this. You know, this is a dangerous place. On the way down there, I'm I'm googling, looking up everything. I realized at one time in the 80s that Pablo Escobar had a $200 price tag on any people involved in any law enforcement or whatever. So at one time, my life would be worth 200 bucks down there. And I was supposed to show up as a, as a wealthy Playboy. I've got $2,000 cufflinks on. I've got a $50,000 watch. I got a suit that cost more than my first car. And I'm there support, you know, playing this role. But I was dressed as a target in a country Now Columbia is, there's areas that place that we have a sanctuary down there in Medellin is literally safer than most US Cities today. But back then, I didn't know what to expect, and it was, it was pretty sketchy.
- [15:33]
A
And Paul, back then, are you referring to what year this was?
- [15:37]
B
2014. A little over 10 years ago.
- [15:40]
A
So 2014. 2014 is when I got hired for the police academy.
- [15:45]
B
Is it really?
- [15:46]
A
Yeah. So that was the beginning of my journey. What I needed to transition, to do a greater, greater good for myself and to help the community. But, man, that's, that's insane. So what did your wife, I, I, I just, One year anniversary with my wife just happened. We're expecting a baby boy. Okay. And I know my wife would be like, oh, no, you're not going to. I know for a fact because she won't let me jump out of a plane now. Right. And I should have done it before I got married, but it is what it is. Okay. Married, the love of my life. So how did your wife Vanessa react when you told her what you wanted to do?
- [16:22]
B
Well, first of all, congratulations on having a baby coming. That's super awesome. Thank you. Second of all, Vanessa's actually my third wife now.
- [16:32]
A
We dropped the gun. I was like, oh, my God.
- [16:35]
B
We met in Haiti. Vanessa and I met after I was doing undercover work. I had done 12 undercover missions in Haiti. I tell people meeting a beautiful Colombian actress is kind of cool, but when she's donating her time at an orphanage in Haiti, that's my kind of girl.
- [16:51]
A
Yeah, it brings it up. It's such a flex.
- [16:54]
B
No, back up. I, I was in unhealthy relationship at the time. You know, one where, you know, I've thought about it, I've looked back. I, you know, there was a part of me that was really looking for purpose. You know, I had everything. I had everything. I, you know, sadly, my first marriage ended in a divorce. I was in a second marriage or I was dating at the time and it was kind of toxic. And so I was like, okay, you know, is happiness going to come from one more party? One more girl, one more, one more. I had two helicopters, one more helicopter. Who the hell needs to helicopter, right? This was this energy of, of arrogance that just wasn't fulfilling in any way. And so I was looking for that. And so I didn't have to ask anybody, I just said, yeah, I'll be there. And that was the best decision of my whole life up to that time.
- [17:56]
A
So at that time, painting the picture here for the audience and the listeners is you could have anything that you wanted during that time, and you still can. But during that time, what you're saying is you were, you were looking for purpose fulfillment, right? You were trying to find it. So you were like, hey, you know what? Why not? Yeah, why not? Go ahead, do this for a good cause. Why not? Right?
- [18:20]
B
Well, and I, you know, I was donating a lot to child related charities. There's a big difference between writing a check and, and getting involved.
- [18:29]
A
It's huge.
- [18:30]
B
Right? When, when I got involved with the kids, with the Make Wish foundation that, you know, we helped to raise money, I was on the board there. But when I got involved in fulfilling the mission, the wishes for those kids, that was so much, so much more beautiful than, you know, we, we have a friend, he, you know, he's making a million dollars a week in his company. His wife every Thursday physically goes to feed the homeless. She's at the soup house type of a thing, because of the fulfillment of physically getting involved. In fact, early on, my mentor, I remember him now, he said when he was telling me I should donate 10, 20% of my income, he said, you should also consider giving 10% or more of your time to the charity worker.
- [19:19]
A
That's powerful.
- [19:20]
B
And so, so yeah, deciding to go was the first decision, but being there in person is what changed everything. Seeing that darkest part of humanity firsthand completely transformed my life.
- [19:45]
A
And Holland was the duration of that first mission in Columbia.
- [19:51]
B
Well, the very first time I went down, it was to set up the sting. It was literally one day in and out, meeting with the traffickers, with the undercover operators. And in the middle of that meeting, we were negotiating this meeting, one of the traffickers, he was so excited I was willing to fund his project. He said, pablo, I have a gift for you. I said, really? What's your gift? And he hands me his phone and there's a picture of an 11 year old girl on his phone.
- [20:19]
A
Wow.
- [20:20]
B
He said, this is Princess. She's 11. She's 0 kilometer miles. You can guess what that means, right? And he was selling her purity. He was selling her innocence. And he just said something about he just took delivery or something. I don't remember. He. I realized that if we could get these kids out before they're ever trafficked the first time, that's a miracle. And I said, fuego. I said, you just took delivery. You have more like her. Zero kilometer, as you call them. He goes, oh, yeah, I got three or four more. I said, you're gonna bring those to my party, right? Because our sting was, hey, I'll fund your project under one condition. I'm gonna have a party in a week or two. I'm gonna bring a bunch of my rich friends. They're into this kind of thing. You show up with all of your inventory and any of the others that you're connected with down here so I can make sure that you have the inventory. You do that. I'll fund your project. So I told him, I says, you're bringing those too, right? He goes, oh, no. He says, they're too expensive. So I'm already paying $25,000 for this party. I'm paying $500 per child for 50 children, minimum, just for two hours in the afternoon. He goes, oh, hefe, you already paid 20,000, 25,000. You want to f those other virgins, it's going to cost you maybe 10,000 more. Maybe like 2,000, maybe 5,000 for that little one. Cost you maybe 10,000 more. Now, at this point, I'm legitimately pissed. No acting involved. I wanted to shoot him in the head. In fact, my Navy SEAL that was right behind me, he like, clears his throat. I need to check out the neighborhood, you know, the restaurant, make sure we're all good. Later, when in debriefing, he said, I almost unholstered my weapon right there. He says, that little girl looked like my daughter at home.
- [22:04]
A
Wow.
- [22:04]
B
And so I'm like. He's like, it's going to cost an extra $10,000. And I'm like. I put my hands on my chest. I'm like, you don't think I can afford an extra $10,000?
- [22:14]
A
Yeah.
- [22:14]
B
He said, oh, no, jefe, no. I said, I want every one of those newer models that you have right now to the party. And he goes, oh, yeah, Jef, I understand. And so two weeks later, we had the sting all set up, and it ended up being the largest child rescue mission in one day. That I knew of at the time. Largest we ever did, 124 children.
- [22:38]
A
Wow. How did you feel seeing the children in person?
- [22:45]
B
Almost broke me. We had rented an island, actually. The federal agents gave us access to one and had a beautiful palapa type house. And these two boats show up, 54 kids. And they get off of this boat and they're funneling them all into the house. And I recognized one of them is that little girl that he had shown me on the phone.
- [23:20]
A
That 11 year old princess.
- [23:21]
B
Yeah. Yep. The one that we kind of in the movie Sound of Freedom was the one that we kind of highlighted there. She was actually at the island in the movie. We did eight different rescue missions and put them all together. You know, the jungle scene with the doctor, that was actually a different country altogether. It was in Haiti, et cetera. So she was there and some of the others in the movie also. You know, in the Sound of Freedom, my character is Pablo Delgado, the billion dollar fund manager who quits his job to rescue kids and helps fund it. You know, when Jim Caviezel's like, hey, you know, if we can convince Pablo. Well, I. And in the movie, my character's like, I don't, I don't want to go, you know, and it wasn't until Jim gave a picture of this 11 year old girl to my driver. And you know, I look at this, this picture and see that face of what I knew was a traffic child. He says, don't do it for the 50s, just do it for the one in real life. I was already there. I was face to face with these traffickers when he showed me that picture. Fast forward, you know, we have the sting all set up. Boom. They show up with these kids and that little girl getting off the boat with all the others. She had red, long pigtails, braids.
- [24:33]
A
She.
- [24:33]
B
Had a little kitty cat on her shirt. And she was just a child. And about halfway through the negotiations, one of the traffickers gets up and says, I'm gonna show you the gifts that I brought you. He goes in the house. We could hear some of the kids crying, including this little girl. And they came back out. And the most transformational moment for me up to that point was when they had this little girl in front of me. And I'm sitting down, she's standing up. She's not much taller than I was sitting down. We're almost eye level like you and I are right now, this just child. And all I could see was fear in her eyes. And her makeup had been smeared because she was Crying And I made a promise at that moment to myself, to God, to that child, that I would dedicate my life to eradicating that evil. I couldn't imagine anything worse. All the other child related charities I was ever a part of, it was, you know, would I rather have a child of mine that was, you know, struggling with cancer or, you know, in an accident or in the hospital, whatever. All these child related charities, there was nothing I can imagine worse than what I was seeing in front of me. And the most beautiful moment was after the agents came and stormed the party and arrested everybody, me included. You know, the bad guys think we got extradited to the USSR on trial. And the Child Protective services people, there was about 30 of them. And in the house with the kids, I could hear them laughing and singing with the children. And that sound of freedom was the most beautiful sound that I ever heard, especially compared to the crying that we heard like half an hour before. And I turned to the operator, I said, bro, I spent my whole life making money making rich people richer. I want to make a difference. Oh yeah, like this kind of difference. I want to. What can I do? How can I fund things? And he told me at that time, he said, paul, he said that sadly there's a large demand for stuff like this that comes from guys like Jeffrey Epstein. You know, guys who are filled with arrogance and greed and lust and, you know, wear $50,000 watches. Now, they're not the only people that do the abuse, but in situations like that, it worked really well. He said, if you're. I can't teach my Navy seals how to pose like that. He said, and I don't know of any ultra successful business owners who've had the training that you've had. He said, if you're willing to be the bait, I'll change your whole life.
- [27:26]
A
Wow.
- [27:27]
B
Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a.
- [27:37]
A
Thing Mint Mobile Unlimited premium wireless. Everybody get 30, 30. Better get 30. Better get 20, 20, 20. Better get 20, 20. Everybody get 15, 15, 15, 15. Just 15 bucks a month. Sold.
- [27:47]
B
Give it a try@mintmobile.switch.
- [27:50]
A
Upfront payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month. Required new customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow after 35 gigabytes of networks busy. Taxes and fees extra c mintmobile.com that's. That's crazy, man. And I resonate with your story so much, dude. I mean, being seven years in law enforcement, I've arrested anybody from murderers to rapists, child molesters. I mean, the worst of the worst. I worked in Oakland, California for seven years. It took a piece of me, man. I lived it. I lived it. But some of the scenarios that I've been in. Okay, when you speak about how you felt when you see the children, dude, it takes me back to this one incident. I was two years in patrol. I was very proactive cop. I wanted to make a difference in the community. I remember there was a wanted 261 suspect, meaning a rape suspect. It was a 35 year old man at that time that was raping his girlfriend's kids while she was at work. And I looked at that picture and the gift that God gave me, Paul, was I'm able to see people's faces and remember them on the spot. I'm not good with names, but I have that facial recognition. I remember doing my own research as a patrol officer, as a rookie. They considered me a rookie at two years. And I remember, I did my research. I found out where the guy worked. He was a chef at a taqueria. And I remember going to that taqueria by myself and I said, I'm going to take this guy in by myself. I remember we locked eyes, he started running, I chased him down. And it took everything for me not to beat him down. Everything. I don't know how you held your peace, man. Cause number one, I just. Hurting children is something that I cannot stand. When I watched your movie, dude, when it came out, Sound of Freedom, I'm gonna be very transparent with. I broke down in the theater because of the PTSD that I had from doing that type of work back when I was in Special Victims Unit. It is not the type of work that anyone should see, but it is the reality of what's out there. And I feel like it should be brought up to light even more. I was enraged that they didn't broadcast your movie. Even more. Why do you think that was, man? Why do you think they kept your movie from being broadcasted everywhere?
- [30:41]
B
Because too many people are involved.
- [30:43]
A
Too many people are involved.
- [30:44]
B
Yeah. I can't even tell you how prolific this is in the elite circles.
- [30:55]
A
Hmm.
- [30:56]
B
But the problem is though, it's. It's a problem everywhere. This isn't just people going to a third world country and doing these horrible things. Literally, if you walked out in your front door, I don't care if somebody's in an apartment complex or an affluent neighborhood. If they walk out their front door and look, they look left, they look right. There's a very high chance that one of those doors in their neighborhood is a dangerous place for children.
- [31:20]
A
Absolutely. I agree.
- [31:22]
B
People, people will leave the sound of freedom and they're like, oh, I want to do something, I want to help. You know, the worst thing you can do is go to Mexico and try to go undercover. You're going to get arrested, you're probably going to get shot, you're going to get killed. Yeah, yeah. The best thing you can do is go home and hug your kids. People are like, well, how does that make a difference? Well, the majority of children who are being trafficked or moved around don't come from a healthy home. They come from a broken home, a broken foster care program, runaways, et cetera. Those are the easy targets. However, however, the real number isn't the 10 million plus children that are being sold, trafficked, that are taken from their parents. The real number is this. One in every four women who are listening to this today. One in every four women that we know have admitted that they were a victim of this kind of abuse as a child. Sexual abuse, physical abuse as a child, as a child. That's one in four. And that's just the ones that talk about it. The average age of somebody talking about it is 52 years old. You know, that's my age. I've raised my kids. I have grandkids. Right. And so sadly, there are so many people that are holding onto this pain. And somebody doesn't just grow up and 45 years old, go to Colombia, go to Mexico, go try to, you know, do things to kids. Chances are it's already happening in their own homes, in their own neighborhoods. 92% of the victims of sexual abuse as children, 92% of them, it was familial. It was somebody they knew. You need a relationship with your kids where they can very comfortably come to you and say, hey, dad, hey, Mom. I don't like it when you tell me to go hug Uncle Harry. He touches me weird. He says that we need to have sleepovers at his house. He tells us that we should have secrets outside of you. He looks at me in a really weird way. Kids know when things are out of line. You need a relationship where they can easily come to you and say, hey, dad, I really screwed up. I was playing on this online gaming platform and this girl was on there and we started talking privately and she sent some pictures and I sent some to her. And now she Wanted more. And now they're videos. I don't even think it's an 11, 13 year old girl. I think it might be somebody else. And sure enough that's a 45 year old dude, right? That's using sextortion. That this telling the kids hey, if you don't do this and this send more. All of this stuff, I'm going to send this all over your school. It happens all the time. Even there's even apps out right now where a predator can we call them nudify apps. Right. They can literally take a picture of a celebrity or your child off of the Internet and use this app to take their clothes off and it looks real. And then they send that picture to your kid saying this is what I got. You know, so there's so many things that we can't be helicopter mom and dads and just control everything but it is so important when it comes to the safety of your kids. And in fact that's one thing. The movie created massive awareness. But I knew that parents needed the tools. It's one of the reasons, we'll talk about this later. But that's one of the reasons I put so much time into the Sound of Freedom book that's out on Amazon. Well it will be on the 29th. But it's, it's, it gives parents these tools the signs that they need to be looking for when something is off with their kids. You know, you're, you're 12, 13 year old daughter if all of a sudden she goes from being super outgoing to a recluse. It's. Don't just think that that's going through puberty. There might, that's the average age of a child brought into these horror is 12 years old. Right. So it's so important that we are hyper aware and have those healthy relationships where you are the 911 to your kids, you're the one that they call if something's out of alignment that they can very comfortably come to you and you tell them listen, I love you unconditionally. It doesn't matter. Because these perpetrators will use shame and guilt to control the kids.
- [35:22]
A
Absolutely.
- [35:23]
B
So you help them get out of that shame and guilt. You let them know it doesn't matter, doesn't. I don't care. I don't care if I need to, you know, if you, you knock somebody off, I don't care if you got drunk on your way home. Whatever it is, let's talk about this so that we can resolve whatever it is. Right.
- [35:36]
A
You know, a few Things that you said. Well, number one, being a former police officer and specifically the city of Oakland, City of Oakland has a very, very, very problematic issue with underage prostitution. The average prostitute or escort in that city would range anywhere from, I believe the youngest I've seen was 10 years old, all the way up to 17. And you seek these 10 years old with a face full of makeup and you're like, hey, what are you doing here? I ran away from home. Where's home? We're in Oakland, Northern California, Bakersfield, Louisiana. I'm from another state. I was like, what are you doing? Where are your parents? My parents don't know I'm out here. I'm out here with a friend. And my friend introduced me to this guy and he actually dropped me off here and told me to make him money. These are kids, kids that don't even understand what's going on. And it happened over and over and over and over. And mind you, Paul, I was in Special Victims Unit for only two years out of my seven year career. I primarily was taking down cartel members and narcotics. So when I went in there and I saw, I was shocked. It's a big problem and they're not putting the awareness out there. Watch your kids. Be a parent. Tell them the hard things. Now, see, the reason why I was so aware is because my mom cared. Even though she was a hardworking Latina, she wasn't able to go ahead and afford a babysitter. Say, Paul, a stranger goes and tries to get you in their car, what do you do? You run. You run. You ask for help, she would make it aware. And that's what we need to have those hard conversations. So you're absolutely right, dude. Everything to the T, Paul, that you are saying is absolutely correct, dude. And this is coming from somebody that's seen the worst of the worst. So I agree, dude. Kudos to you, man. No, seriously, kudos to you, dude.
- [37:36]
B
Super great.
- [37:37]
A
You're the real deal.
- [37:39]
B
Well, and you know so many parents, it's important to know that in today's age that the dangers for our kids isn't lurking in some dark alley. The dangers for our kids is in their backpack and in their back pocket.
- [37:51]
A
Yeah, right, Absolutely.
- [37:52]
B
I can't tell you how many of the operations that the perpetrators identified their victims through online contact, whether they were traveling to Cancun, whether they knew a lot about their personal life and their home life, et cetera, so they could identify those who were the easiest targets, the soft targets be able to bring into this. And sadly, sadly There's a huge percentage of kids who are being trafficked by a trafficker who sleep in their own beds at night and their parents have no idea because that trafficker's got some dirt on them or whatever. You know, they. They go to a friend's house and the friend's brother takes pictures of them while they're tra. While they're. They're changing and says, hey, I'm going to use these all over the school unless you come every Tuesday after school here. And we're going to do some things with my friends, whatever it is, these kids are being controlled through fear, guilt, manipulation. And it's so important that we have a healthy relationship with our kids where we can find out when something's not right.
- [38:54]
A
Absolutely. And it goes to, number one, your environment. That's why every entrepreneur that I've interviewed on this podcast, I always ask them the question, was your parents a big impact in you being successful in life? And every single person that I've interviewed this week, every single one of them said, yeah, they said that I could do anything in this life. And I look at them, I'm like, dude, you're so lucky. You're so lucky because you're not limiting your kids belief even to reach out to you, even to communicate to you, man. The first time I ever experienced depression in my life was at the age of 29. And the reason why I say this is because I wasn't able to reach out to anybody, not even my own mother. I love my mother. She is everything. She's my heart. But at the end of the day, she raised me to be hard. And me, as a new father in the next couple months, I told my wife, yes, I'm going to be strict. I believe traditional values, but I'm going to have an open line of communication with my son. So at the end of the day, best believe, man. We're going to have those hard conversations. It's needed.
- [39:58]
B
You're going to be a great dad, dude.
- [40:00]
A
I can't wait. I can't wait. Dude, you don't understand. I used to mentor the police officers to become detectives. And I loved it. I loved it. And I do the same thing with the guys that work for me. I trained them to be like me, a carbon copy to me. I'm a big nurturer, dude. So I have a big heart for sure. So, Paul, I want you to give a little bit of advice to our viewers because you're a man of purpose, fulfillment, dude. You have a big heart. What advice would you give to someone that is chasing money but feeling lost right now.
- [40:43]
B
I'll say this. It's okay to create value in the world and to have wealth because of it. There's nothing wrong with that. You know, I had. At one point, I had a house that had 10 bathrooms, eight private suites, three kitchens, seven fireplaces, a basketball court in my basement, and I lived there by myself.
- [41:05]
A
That's crazy.
- [41:06]
B
It's crazy.
- [41:07]
A
Bruce Wayne.
- [41:07]
B
I'm just saying, off the charts, just crazy. You know, it was funny you say that, because I had. I was living there when I was doing some of the undercover work, and I had a guy came in and put in a new camera system, and I wanted, like, four cameras. And he said, paul, he said, I have to tell you this. He says, you're the closest thing to Batman of anybody I've ever met. He said, I'm not trying to upsell you, but kind of. He said, you need more. So we put in 32 cameras for.
- [41:32]
A
A spot like that. Absolutely. 100% so.
- [41:36]
B
But here's what I will say. Yes, it's okay to have a vision board that's got Lambos and jets and nice houses and everything else. And I talk about that. Well, you know, we'll talk again in a few months when my next book on infinite abundance and being a conscious capitalist, what that is how you can create massive abundance in the world while creating value for yourself. But one of the most important pieces of that puzzle is ensuring that your heart's in the right place and the contributions you're making to the world. You know, you can make people say, how do you make a billion dollars, Paul? Well, create a billion dollars worth of value in the world and set your. Your system up in a way where you have a billion dollars. That's all money is. Money is simply reward for. For your efforts and your contributions. And so I encourage people to have a vision board to work hard to create value. I use things, you know, jets and cars and boats and stuff. I use things to motivate myself to get out of bed. So I'm not as lazy, right? To motivate myself to do the right thing long enough until I realize the right reason to be doing it. And the right reason isn't things is making a difference. But it's hard to make a massive impact if you don't have the resources to do so. You know, I'm the primary investor in Sound of Freedom movie, and investing in movies is usually a waste of money. Right. I knew that even if we had a chance of getting these stories out to the world, it was worth the risk. So the money that I put into Sound of Freedom was considered in my book. Throwaway money. You know, if I never make a penny off this, but we have a tool that can show. I knew that we couldn't take millions of people to see what I had seen, but we could help millions of people feel what I had felt.
- [43:27]
A
Oh, I felt that. Trust me, dude.
- [43:30]
B
And that's, you can use money for good. You're using money for good. I mean, you've been very successful in business, and you're now saying, okay, how can I use that to create a beautiful studio, to build an audience so that I can make a powerful positive impact in the lives of others. I had a poster on my wall when I was a kid, and it had a bunch of Lambos and Ferraris and a nice house and a helicopter on the side. And I had a sign that said, he who has the most toys, wins. I now have one that says, he who has a powerful positive impact in the most lives, wins.
- [44:06]
A
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I love that, man. And it's actually going to tie into my next question now that obviously you've mastered what I like to call life by design. Life by design. Guys. You guys always hear me saying this. Life by design is not only being financially successful, but it's also having core values, having faith, having fulfillment, helping other people, just being a good person. Right? So now that you've done everything, man, you're still doing it, right? What does success mean to you? Now today.
- [44:45]
B
I believe that at the end of this life, when I'm meeting my maker, the conversation is going to look like this. Paul, these are the gifts that you received in this life. The ability to communicate, the success in your businesses, you know, your childhood. All of these. What did you do with them? You know, success is a journey, not a destination. Every single day, we wake up and we can choose to contribute positively or negatively to the world. And that all starts with the man in the mirror. I love the story of a man that's sitting on a couch and he's reading his newspaper, and his little boy comes in and says, hey, daddy, Daddy, I want to play. You having a little boy or a little girl?
- [45:36]
A
Little boy.
- [45:36]
B
Little boy. So magic Maverick. Okay, so imagine this little boy comes in and says to his dad, hey, daddy, I want to play baseball. You want to play baseball? And let's say this guy didn't have it together like you do, right? He's reading his newspaper. I'm busy. Right now. Not prioritizing that time with his son. And the little boy comes back a little bit later. Daddy, Daddy, it's a beautiful day outside. Can we play ball? Please, please, please. His dad turns the page of the newspaper, and on the next page, there's a map of the world. So he has an idea. He tears out that map, tears it up in little pieces of paper, throws it on the floor, and he goes, son, you need to learn your geography. You go get some tape. You tape together every single country, every single state exactly where it's supposed to be. And if you do that, I'll go play baseball with you. Turns the page of the thing. Think it's going to be a few hours, like, five minutes later, this little boy comes back, and the map is taped together perfectly. And the man's like, whoa, how did you do that? Did your mom help you? That's great. And the little boy says, oh, no. He turns it over. He says, there was a. There was a picture of a man on the other side. I just put the man together, and the whole world came together.
- [46:46]
A
Wow. Wow, that was good.
- [46:50]
B
That's the answer. It starts, you know, we can sit here and say, okay, I want to change the world. I want to fix this. I want to fix this. You know, start with yourself. Start with that man in the mirror.
- [47:00]
A
Yeah.
- [47:01]
B
You put that together, you find the ways to fix that, and you can heal humanity. And that's really what's every single day. My goal is to be a better version of me than I was the day before, because in doing so, I know that the ripple effect of my words, my thoughts, my actions will show up throughout humanity. If I start with the man in the mirror.
- [47:30]
A
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And I always get asked this question, what keeps you pushing when you already obtain majority of the goals that you've had in life? And the answer that I always give, and I've said this in a few of our podcasts earlier this week, is I'm always chasing the better version of myself, man. Kudos to you, brother.
- [47:53]
B
Right?
- [47:53]
A
Kudos to you, man. Let's talk about your book. Let's talk about that book. Now, I know you have another book coming out, but specifically, what can people look forward on this book? You're saying that you. You wrote it with the intentions of helping parents understand their kids. So specifically, what can they go and look forward in your book?
- [48:16]
B
So there are the stories of the rescue missions, the one in Colombia, the one in Haiti, a bunch of others, different missions that we put together as part of the Sound of Freedom movie. And through those, I take the reader through the emotional transformation that I went through in seeing that darkest part of humanity and then going from that darkness into the light with the kids, with the rescue, rehabilitation, reuniting of the kids with their families. But the first part of the book is all about. I call it the making of an Undercover Operator. And it goes through the training, the situational awareness training, how to read a room, how to identify where there's abuse going on, all of these things that I learned in that peer leadership team in high school, all of those things so the parents can say, oh, wow, that makes sense. Okay, I'm gonna write that down. And write that down. Now I see ways to keep the kids safe. And then I go through some of the rescue missions. The last part of the book, I call it liberating humanity. Because I recognized after 10 years of doing undercover work, over 70 undercover child rescue missions in 15 countries, I recognized that just pulling the children out of hell was never gonna fix the problem. We needed to pull the hell out of humanity.
- [49:32]
A
Wow.
- [49:33]
B
We need to take away the demand. How do we fix that? How do we fix humanity? Why in the world is there something like trafficking even going on? Why is this the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world? Why do we have one in four in their home that have been abused as children? Why do we have one in five men at some time in our life and the majority of those as kids? Why is this even a thing? What is it that needs to heal? And so I talk about, you know, creating global awareness as step one. Realize this. Back at the time of Abraham Lincoln, it wasn't guys like me and my team that created that rescuing the slaves that created the biggest difference. It was people like you. It was influencers. So people like back at the time of Abraham Lincoln, it was people like Harriet Beecher Stowe. She wrote a book called Uncle Tom's Cabin, which was the media. It was the podcast of the age, Right? Created an awareness with good people of what was going on in the South. In fact, years later, when Abraham Lincoln met Harriet, he shook her hand. He says, so you're the little lady that wrote the book that started the big war.
- [50:31]
A
She made the noise.
- [50:32]
B
Exactly. So that's. That's the key. So. So creating awareness. And we talk about that here. We talk about identifying those traits in the kids so you can keep them safe. We talk about situational awareness. And most. That whole last section is about us as adults, about the guy in the mirror that say, I put the man together and the whole world came together. Right? That's what it's about. And I talk about some things in some healing retreats that I did that completely transformed my life in every way because I was still living in some of this darkness, even after I had started doing some of the undercover work.
- [51:07]
A
Wow, that sounds amazing. When is this book coming out?
- [51:10]
B
It'll be out July 29th.
- [51:12]
A
July 29th.
- [51:13]
B
So it'll be in bookstores everywhere. Well, it'll be on Amazon for sure. They're coming out in bookstores as well later. But yeah, July 29, you can pre order it today. You can go on Amazon, just type in Sound of Freedom. It's there. Or you can go to liberatinghumanity.com and you can get information to keep your kids safe there. You can pre order the book there. You can get information on personal healing and what that looks like. All of that is right there on Liberating humanity. And the Child Liberation Foundation, There's a link on that as well. In order to help the foundation in fighting trafficking.
- [51:47]
A
I love that, Paul. I love that. And the last and final question, my friend, if you could say one sentence to the world, okay, what would it be?
- [52:05]
B
I have to limit it to one sentence. Let's figure out.
- [52:07]
A
That's it.
- [52:08]
B
I would say. I would say recognize the divinity within yourself. Learn how to love yourself with infinite unconditional love and release all those things that no longer serve you. And in doing so, will save millions of children. Not just 20 at a time, not just 50 at a time. Will save millions of children.
- [52:44]
A
I love that. And that's what we call the level up guys. Paul Hutchison, an entrepreneur turned undercover hero, built billion dollar companies, but left all of that to go ahead and battle. I'm gonna say the worst of the worst, man. The worst of the worst. And he's making a big difference, making a bigger impact. And that movie made a big impact. When it came out in my life, dude, I was just like, wow, this is as real as it gets. Watch it, guys. If you haven't watched Sound of Freedom, get the book when it's coming out. And also it's gonna be in the link in the bio, guys. And that's it, guys. So the level of podcast guys, we're currently ranked number one in business on Apple Podcasts, ranked number 19 in all categories right now. And if you guys love this podcast, make sure to share it with someone that you care about, okay? We need to spread the message. Spread the message that Paul started out here. With battling human trafficking. Guys, he is doing it for a real good cause. Dude, you're amazing bro. With that being said, guys, we will catch you on the next one. Thanks for listening up to the Level up podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to share with a family, friend and everyone you know who's ready to level up. Leave a five star review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever you tune in. It really helps spreading the word. And don't forget to check out officialpaulalex.com for more episodes and resources to kickstart your journey. Let's level up together.