CO-HOST | Make Money by Taking Control of Your Finances and Avoiding Costly Mistakes

Summary

---

Travis Makes Money – Episode Summary

Episode: CO-HOST | Make Money by Taking Control of Your Finances and Avoiding Costly Mistakes
Host: Travis Chappell
Date: April 14, 2026

---

Episode Overview

This episode centers on the critical theme of financial literacy—specifically, how even the highest earners can find themselves in trouble if they relinquish too much control over their finances. Using viral clips from the Iced Coffee Hour’s recent interview with OnlyFans star Sophie Rain—who publicly revealed a nine-figure income but was unaware of her net worth—Travis and his co-host discuss the dangers of financial disengagement, the importance of understanding where your money goes, and actionable steps for more secure wealth. The conversation weaves in cautionary tales, highlights predatory financial practices, and makes a compelling case for "trust, but verify" with anyone managing your finances.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Sophie Rain’s Viral Net Worth Clip

[03:15 – 06:12]

• Sophie Rain reveals her all-time earnings from OnlyFans—an astonishing $100 million—on Iced Coffee Hour.

  • Quote (Sophie, 03:20): “Last time I checked, it was a hundred million.”
  • Hosts and co-hosts are visibly shocked by this amount.

• Despite this, Sophie is uncertain of her actual net worth, offering a vague estimate of between $5–20 million.

  • Quote (Sophie, 04:20): “No idea. If you had to guess, probably like 5 million. 20 million. No, 5 to 20. 5 to 20.”
  • Graham Stephan and co-hosts attempt to reason out where the money could have gone, emphasizing the disconnect.
  • Quote (Jack, 05:08): “If I ask you what's your net worth and you're saying between 5 and 20, that shows to me that you have no idea what's going on financially, which is, like, insane to me…”

• The discussion pivots to how small, basic improvements in financial awareness can result in significant increases in wealth for high earners.

  • Quote (Jack, 05:34): “…just a little bit of time understanding your finances and that you'll make more money doing that. And it's not even close. Like five times more money doing that.”

---

The Importance of Financial Literacy—Even for High Earners

[06:12 – 08:10]

• Hosts explain what a fiduciary is and why high earners should consider employing one.

  • Quote (Travis, 06:38): “A fiduciary is a financial planner that does not make percentages off of the money that they move for you or their advice... they are fiduciary responsible to make sure that they're giving you the best possible advice.”
  • Flat fee arrangments are preferable to percentage-based fees, especially with multi-million dollar accounts.

• Sophie’s lack of financial awareness is not unique—a lot of people implicitly trust anyone with “a few letters after their name.”

  • Quote (Travis, 11:41): "It's wild to me how much people trust other people like that instantly just because they have a few letters after their name."
  • The co-host (B) agrees—many people accept a financial advisor’s word without question, often without understanding their motivations or incentive structures.

---

Stories of Financial Betrayal & Cautionary Tales

[10:08 – 14:14]

• High-earning individuals are prime targets for predatory managers (be they family or strangers)

  • Dane Cook’s story of his brother embezzling $12 million is recounted, illustrating even those closest to us cannot be trusted blindly.
    • Quote (Dane Cook Clip, 12:48): “He stole $12 million from you on the low end. He was nefarious. He was taking. I did what anybody should do. When someone steals from you, which is you put him in jail.”
    • The hosts discuss how more prolonged “access” often leads to even greater, undetected losses.
  • Parallel drawn between this and cases of church embezzlement, where sums can be siphoned unnoticed over years.

• Many artists and performers avoid financial details, believing it’s best left to “the experts”—leaving them vulnerable and unprepared if betrayal strikes.

  • Quote (Travis, 11:53): “Especially again for. For artists like that, you know. Cause like in their mind it's like, you know, I do what I do, they do what they do. ...this is like the bare. Like the most simple version of it is just park the money in the S&P and you're probably going to be better off doing that than just trusting that some other person who's going to take massive percentage.”

---

Actionable Tips & Mindset Shifts

[12:59 – 16:49]

• “Trust, but Verify” is the central message.

  • Always get a second opinion—even if you trust your current advisor, run major decisions (and statements) by a neutral third party or fiduciary.
  • No need for advanced finance degrees; understanding basic principles and where your money goes is often enough to prevent disaster.

• Retaining some financial control is vital, especially in careers with a short earning window (e.g., OnlyFans, athletics, entertainment).

  • If skills or income dry up, you need a fallback—don’t rely solely on others for your financial future.
  • Quote (Travis, 16:21): “You’re going to want to run that through a couple different layers of filtration because it’s literally one of the most important things that you are going to come across in your life.”

• Encouragement to use resources and lean on financially literate friends or podcasts like this one for education and accountability.

  • Quote (Travis, 08:02): “No, it's crazy simple. Yeah, that, that, that's. What's strange is that like what Jack was saying there, the volume of effort that goes into making all of the money that she makes, just the slightest tiny bit of effort could go into figuring out what to do with that money and the rewards would be massive.”

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Sophie Rain, on her net worth:
  “No idea. If you had to guess, probably like 5 million. 20 million. No, 5 to 20. 5 to 20.” ([04:20])
• Jack (Graham’s co-host), on the lack of financial awareness:
  “If I ask you what's your net worth and you're saying between 5 and 20, that shows to me that you have no idea what's going on financially, which is, like, insane to me...” ([05:08])
• Travis, on trusting advisors:
  "It's wild to me how much people trust other people like that instantly just because they have a few letters after their name." ([11:41])
• Dane Cook (clip), on betrayal:
  “He stole $12 million from you on the low end. ... It was the worst betrayal I'll ever experience in my life. And I'd never been sadder in my entire life. But from that and where I took my life and industry. If I could go back, I would not change a single thing because it made me who I am today.” ([12:48])
• Travis, on “trust but verify”:
  “It's sort of the trust but verify. ...get a third party, get a fiduciary, get another advisor, talk to a friend who does this a lot...” ([14:21])
• Travis, concluding reminder:
  "Remember, money only solves your money problems, but it's easier to solve the rest of your problems when you got some money in the bank. So let's start there here on the Travis Makes Money podcast." ([17:02])

---

Key Timestamps

• 00:42–03:33 — Viral Iced Coffee Hour discussion and Sophie Rain intro
• 03:15–06:12 — Sophie's earnings and net worth confusion
• 06:38 — What is a fiduciary? Explanation and why it matters
• 10:08–13:12 — Dane Cook’s embezzlement story and context
• 14:21–16:49 — “Trust, but verify,” skill-building, and practical self-defense

---

Final Takeaways

• Making a lot of money doesn’t remove the need to understand and protect it.
• Outsourcing your financial responsibility entirely—no matter how much you trust someone—puts you at significant risk for mistakes, mismanagement, or outright theft.
• The real path to wealth and security is to combine earning power with financial awareness and occasional, neutral outside oversight.
• Even basic actions—getting a second opinion, understanding fees, tracking your finances—can make a dramatic difference, especially over the long term.

---

For more on making, protecting, and growing your money, tune in daily to Travis Makes Money.

Transcript

[A]

You're listening to the Travis Makes Money podcast presented by GoHighLevel.com for a free 30 day trial of the best all in one digital marketing software tool on the planet, just go to gohighlevel.com travis. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to the Travis Makes Money podcast, where it's a mission to help you make more money. Today on the show, my producer is here. He's pulled up a couple of things to chat about. What's up, man?

[B]

Yeah. Hey, what's going on?

[A]

What?

[B]

Hey, you know what's going on there? Hey, gonna be here.

[A]

Yeah, it looks like it.

[B]

Hey, it's gonna be here. Back hurts. In this chair you got me in all the time.

[A]

I don't know how many times I told you just to grab a different chair, but.

[B]

All right, well, I got a clip here of your buddy from the Iced Coffee Hour.

[A]

My.

[B]

My pal, Newfound buddy.

[A]

Yeah. Is that safe to say newfound buddy?

[B]

Let me ask you this. What did you expect Graham from the Iced Coffee Hour to be like before you met him and what did you learn about him that you found beautiful?

[A]

I. I honestly, I didn't really know what to expect. I thought, like, I just from his content, he. He has this constant announcer voice, like podcaster voice that he talks in all the time on his show and then on his YouTube channel and all of the other videos they put out. And so I was. I was kind of curious if it was. If that was like a shtick, if that was just something that he does on camera. But turns out like, he is. He's the same person in person as he is on camera doing all the things that he does. And he was very kind, very humble, really cool guy. Genuinely enjoyed spending time with him. So, yeah, it was. It was really, really cool. I thought.

[B]

I think that's beautiful. He just said that. So. Okay, so you got to connect with him. They. They were going viral today.

[A]

They usually are.

[B]

That's true. It's another day at the Iced Coffee Hour office. Hey, boss, we're viral again.

[A]

That was the crazy one. I was doing a bunch research on all and on everybody there. I was like, man, they. They. They account for like 4 billion views between all their channels. It's pretty insane.

[B]

But yeah, they were going viral because Sophie Rain popular, I think maybe the most popular of creator.

[A]

I'm not sure, maybe peruxing most popular.

[B]

I actually feel like I've googled this before for the show and it's all like celebrities that created them for like stints, like badi B did it bad baby. Who's that?

[A]

I think that's her name. The girl from the Dr. Phil clip.

[B]

Oh, yeah. I thought it was Bad Bobby.

[A]

I don't know.

[B]

Sophie Rain, the highest paid of. I do. I like to do my research during the show. She's one of the highest, but she's not the clearly highest paid overall. Yeah, it's like Blac Chyna. Like, it's people that are like celeb.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, that did it. But crossed over, but she's like.

[B]

She's up there.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

And so they interviewed her and one, she showed her actual income, which is nuts. There's a spoiler. Don't read the text. I want your real reaction. But then it opened up a really good conversation about, like, financial literacy that I thought we should talk about. But here's. Here's her talking about how much she makes. Let's get your take here.

[C]

Have you made so far on.

[A]

Of course.

[D]

Last time I checked. Of all time.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Last time I checked, it was a hundred million.

[E]

Can we see that?

[D]

Of course.

[E]

I just want to see what that looks like.

[D]

This is the last 30 days. I'm going to hit all time. And these are the two, like, so this is the gross.

[A]

There's just.

[B]

Wow. Wow, great clip. Yeah. 100 milli. Confirmed.

[A]

Seemingly confirmed by Graham insane dude for $100 million.

[B]

$100 million. So. So they talk about that, which is just crazy. Like, I can't even fathom.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I don't know. Once I hit him, 100 million, it's like, you'll never see me again.

[A]

And. And that's. That's like earned income. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's not.

[B]

That's not gross revenue.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. More underhead.

[B]

So anyway, shopping, that one. So there was this other clip here where they start talking about, like, how much is your net worth? And this is what started going viral because people are like. And it was less than $100 million. There's danger here. So here we go.

[E]

What your net worth is today?

[D]

No. No idea. If you had to guess, probably like 5 million. 20 million. No, 5 to 20. 5 to 20.

[E]

No, it has to be more than that.

[D]

I don't know. I don't know. Like, I'm not like, that's why I pay someone to do all of my financial stuff for me. I don't know anything about this.

[E]

I was going to guess. It has to be 50.

[D]

Okay. I was like, 5 to 20 was my guess. Somewhere.

[E]

It has. It has to Be higher than that.

[D]

I pay a lot, like, in taxes, though. So, like, I don't.

[C]

Yeah, but if you made up.

[D]

I don't have that much.

[E]

If, you know. Well, let's. We do the math. I'm basically taking your total income, subtracting taxes, subtracting living expenses and other discretionary spending.

[D]

Okay.

[E]

Then I'm adding in the fact that you've been investing the money an extra 15% over the last two years, which is on the conservative side of things. And that takes me to 43.

[D]

Okay.

[C]

If I ask you what's your net worth and you're saying between 5 and 20, that shows to me that you have no idea what's going on financially, which is, like, insane to me, because if you're grinding so, so, so hard to try to get to someplace financially, like, you could just spend a little extra time or even trade the time and work a little bit less, but spend a little bit of time understanding your finances and that you'll make more money doing that. And it's not even close. Like, like five times more money doing that.

[D]

I literally have considered, like, taking a college course online. Just.

[A]

You don't need to do.

[C]

Literally find someone that's financially literate. Talk to them.

[E]

Honestly, the money.

[C]

Talk to the money guys. Talk to Graham. Talk to me. Ask.

[D]

Because I really want to learn.

[C]

Like, even after this podcast, we can go over it, like, in 10 minutes. You should. You should have a basic understanding of where you're at. Because if you're saying between five and 20, imagine after. Imagine after you grind for five years.

[D]

I guess that is a pretty big.

[C]

And you learn that you have $10 million. What are you gonna say? Where did it all go?

[A]

Right?

[C]

Yeah, like, why did I grind so hard? Well, that could be the reality. You don't know how much these people, these money people that are, like, working with you are taking. Would you be able to say what percent they're taking? That's the thing you have, like, and they could be taking some crazy percent where, like, if you just spent a little bit more time finding someone else or seeing what they're investing in. What if they're investing in really bad.

[D]

I don't, like, I see. Like, I don't know any of this.

[E]

Just get a third party fiduciary to look it for you.

[D]

Fiduciary?

[E]

Yeah, Someone who's on your side or just a friend. Third party.

[A]

Pause real quick.

[E]

Who has no.

[A]

Yeah, so a fiduciary is an. Is a financial planner that does not make percentages off of the money that they move for you or their advice. So they're not, they're not selling you non advantageous financial products for the sake of making commissions and taking large percentages. They, they are fiduciary. They, they're, they are fiduciary responsible to make sure that they're giving you the best possible advice. And they get paid like a flat fee. So for a lot of people it doesn't make as much sense because they might be expensive to work with.

[B]

Yeah, but you're talking 20, 30, $40 million, right?

[A]

Then it's like, yeah, flat fee sounds better than 20%.

[B]

Better to give your money to a fiduciary than just a duciary.

[E]

That's what financial interest in how you're doing.

[D]

Okay.

[E]

Just to look it over and say, hey, thumbs up, this is good. Or hey, these things are questionable. Like we had on another person who had a very successful career, thought they made all this money and then realized, wait a second, the person I trusted with my money ended up squandering all of it and I owe taxes that I don't.

[C]

So he was actually negative net worth after it was RJ Mitty who is on Breaking Bad, like a main star on Breaking Bad. And Damn.

[D]

And he was negative.

[C]

He was, yeah, he was like severe financial duress.

[D]

So I definitely, I need to open a book or something.

[C]

Well, someone needs. You don't need to open a book. And they're like, listen to the podcast.

[A]

No, it's crazy simple. Yeah, that, that, that's. What's strange is that like what Jack was saying there, the volume of effort that goes into making all of the money that she makes, just the slightest tiny bit of effort could go into figuring out what to do with that money and the rewards would be massive. Like multiples on what her, what her current net worth is.

[B]

Right. But I thought that was the best thing that he said was like. And I, but I think, I think this is the thing because like, obviously, just given the nature of who it is, like there was a lot of people that are dunking like, oh, you know, like that's a clip that makes its rounds on X. And like you're like, oh, another dumb.

[A]

Right.

[B]

But it's also like, first of all, most people don't have enough money to even be thinking about this stuff. But like, typically, I mean, this is how everybody operates is like, my bank teller told me this.

[A]

Right.

[B]

My financial advisor told me this thing. They're the smart person, they told me. So I'm not going to question It.

[A]

And how did you meet that person?

[B]

Right. And who.

[A]

You know what I mean? Like, especially because in that space, specifically because that's the, the view that these, you know, quote unquote smart financial people have on these of girls. There's probably a lot of predatory wealth

[B]

management that's happening in that space in anybody. Anybody that's like suddenly very wealthy in general.

[A]

Yeah. Especially through art because like people are

[B]

going to go through, people are going to go to you and go, hey, I'll take care of this for you. And it's, it's because like that's the difference of like someone that's making like a normal amount of money is like you go say I'm going to go find a financial advisor. You do some research. It's like I have to imagine when it's like, oh, there's TMZ articles going, this person is now making $40 million. They were broke yesterday.

[A]

Right.

[B]

The amount of pitches of people coming in saying hey, you could be making xyz promising the world.

[A]

Take this off of your plate.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Do you really want to be thinking

[B]

about, you know, you're not wanting to be thinking about it, which is what puts you in these weird positions. So I thought that was crazy. And it immediately made me think. Every time I hear these stories I think of Dane Coates.

[A]

Oh yeah, totally. Like that's exactly what came to my mind.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And that was his brother.

[B]

Yeah. Like that idea of like oh, someone looking out for you but it's like you just trust whoever it is. Right. And end up in a really bad spot, you know.

[A]

Yeah, that, that, that, that one is, that one's the most obvious example because it was his brother. But it sort of just proves the point to say that like oh, if somebody's brother was willing to do that to them and you just met this random wealth manager through this only fans friend of yours. How much more so are they willing to take advantage of you if. If scenarios like this are happening with really famous people as well.

[B]

Right.

[F]

I put my brother in prison.

[A]

He stole $12 million from you on the low end.

[F]

He was nefarious. He was taking. I did what anybody.

[B]

That's what's scary. I just was covering a church. I'm still in the middle of covering it because there's so much to go through. Hopefully it'll be out Sunday. But there was, there was a church in North Carolina and basically the pastor and his brother in law and a few other people were all imp. You know, allegedly embezzling a lot of Money. And there was an investigation done by a third party. And you know when they do that, they pick a time frame to choose. And so they did, I think like two, two years up until it was discovered. So it was like a two year period. And they were like, they found $400,000 in missing funds. But like if you start extrapolating that go like they were there for 20 years.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like how much money was that over time? And that's what's scary is like he says on the low end, 12 million. But like someone has access to your funds for like your entire career or a good chunk. Like you don't even know. Like you don't even know what the. Where to start figuring out how much money is gone.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And especially again for. For artists like that, you know. Cause like in their mind it's like, you know, I do what I do, they do what they do. Let me. I don't, I don't. I shouldn't have to think about this or I don't want to think about this or I don't want to put the effort into learning about this. But like, like what J. Graham are saying, it's like you don't have to go to business school to figure this out. This is like the bare. Like the most simple version of it is just park the money in the S and P and you're probably going to be better off doing that than just trusting that some other person who's going to take massive percentage.

[B]

Second person look at it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like at the very least. Anyway, here's. Here's Dane. Honestly, I should have done this. Pastor, Maybe we should as a collab so I don't have to think of what to say for all of it.

[A]

Yeah, true.

[B]

I got tons of clips for you anyway. All right, here we go.

[F]

My brother in prison, he stole $12 million from you. On the low end. He was nefarious. He was taking. I did what anybody should do. When someone steals from you, which is you put him in jail. It was the worst betrayal I'll ever experience in my life. And I'd never been sadder in my entire life. But from that and where I took my life and industry. If I could go back, I would not change a single thing because it made me who I am today.

[B]

I love that I put my cope. I'm just kidding. I always think that when something really bad happens and people go, like, I wouldn't change the thing. Well, maybe some of it. No, but I. I get what he's saying though. Yeah. It is A big. A big lesson. What I was gonna ask you. What's the. Have you ever had. You've never had someone, like, backstab you, like.

[A]

Not like that. Not like that. Like, very small things or. Or people who tried to, like, kick me out of a deal that I

[B]

orchestrated or don't want to give you a commission, but you've never had someone, like, embezzling money or.

[A]

No, no.

[B]

He doesn't know. Guys. Me and Jackie have been slowly siphoning money.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, I would be impressed, honestly.

[B]

You think Joanna's moving because, you know, she's got a little extra money. You know what I'm saying?

[A]

Have extradition onto docs.

[B]

Joanna. Yeah, Try to find her in Italy. Joanna, you cut that if you want. I don't know. You edit.

[A]

Yeah, I've not had a scenario like that where. But I also.

[B]

But also, you don't.

[A]

Pretty close eye on my finances and have a pretty good 10 years.

[B]

This month is going to be. Yeah, it's like milk anyway. Okay. Well, I thought it was. I thought it was good, honestly. Well, we'll talk.

[A]

It's wild to me how much people trust other people like that instantly just because they have a few letters after their name.

[B]

That's your secret? You don't trust anybody?

[A]

Well, with some things, like, it's sort of the trust but verify. It's like, like you said, get a third party, get a fiduciary, get another advisor, talk to a friend who does this a lot and just be like, hey, this is what they told me. This is what they're doing with it. This is where the. You know, I had this much. They use this much. They took this fee. Is this normal? Is this typical? Should I be pushing back on that? You cannot just. Especially for somebody like Sophie Rain Man. Like, that would just be a really big bummer of a situation to put all that effort and time and energy into that for that long and then be in a position. Yeah, exactly. And be in a position where in 20 years from now, your only option is to go be like a cocktail waitress somewhere. Because that's. That's the downside of something like OnlyFans. It's like it doesn't. It maybe for the really big creators, they have to get creative in terms of their social media following and they have to learn about marketing and things like that. But if they have mainly rested on their laurels or they found partners for the marketing side and they're truly just almost the talent in that situation, like, there's going to be People who abuse that power and abuse, use that trust, and then you end up at the end of your quote unquote career without a ton of skills to go make that money back. And then you again have like, your only option at that point is what, what, what exactly are you going to do there? Because even, even like Dane Cook is, you know, when his brother stole his money, he went out and did an arena tour after that happened and made a bunch of the money back, you know, and then like, now he's got a documentary coming out this year and he stayed doing stand up comedy and he's writing stuff and pitching stuff, and it's like he still has that core skill set that can go earn him more money to, like, repair the damage that that did to his bank account. But not everybody has that, you know, which is also why it's important to, to learn about some of these things, because you have, you. You got to come out of the experience with some sort of a skill that allows you to go earn that money back. If something like that were to happen to you, whether it's, whether it's onlyfans or it's movies and comedy or whatever, that's like, especially in those artistic lanes, like, you can't just completely outsource it and then, and then just tr. Running the numbers and say, like, oh, you know, like, it's my brother. You know what I mean? Like, I, I trust him completely. It's like, yeah, trust, but. But verify. You. You're going to want to run that through a couple different layers of filtration because it's literally one of the most important things that you are going to come across in your life. So.

[B]

Right, 100%, but absolutely. 100%. 100%.

[A]

Is that what you say when you don't know what else to say?

[B]

Yeah, well, you know what? Hey, sorry. Way to be a doucher, bro. All right, go ahead and close this out.

[A]

All right, well, that's it for this episode of the show. Thanks for tuning in. Remember, money only solves your money problems, but it's easier to solve the rest of your problems when you got some money in the bank. So let's start there here on the Travis Makes Money podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Catch. Next time. Peace.

[G]

High interest debt can be a real vibe killer. Credit cards, personal loans, and more can make you feel uncomfortable even in the sanctuary of your own home. Well, what if you knew that Sofi could help you leverage your home's equity to feel more at ease? It's called a SoFi home equity loan, and it could consolidate your debt at a typically lower interest rate than existing debt with lower monthly payments, and all while keeping your existing mortgage rate. View your [e-mail] payoffdebt today. Mortgages originated by SoFi bank and a member FDIC, NMLS 696891 Terms and Conditions Apply. Equal Housing Lender.