[00:00:15] Ryan Berman:[00:00:44] My guest today, as per his website, is in the liberate humanity business and This resonates deeply with me because I say our, our team are courageous that we're in the liberate business leaders business. We say fight fear, create change, save humanity. And I mean, you're actually saving humanity. Like you're in it.

[00:01:05] And I have to say before we really dive down into it, not that you need to hear it, but when I look at your, your choices, Paul, I mean, you are the epitome of courage. you've done 15. As a serial entrepreneur, 15 successful companies, and yet. Something in you said you needed to go on this next adventure or journey.

[00:01:28] And, and first of all, thanks for coming on the show. It's really nice to meet you. Appreciate your time. 

[00:01:33] Paul Hutchinson: Honored, honored to be here with you and, and with your audience. 

[00:01:38] Ryan Berman: So, so give it to me, man. why did you feel like, okay, and you've done plenty of pivots. So, why this pivot and why, why now, why are you on this, this journey?

[00:01:49] Paul Hutchinson: It's funny, I, I, uh, 10 years ago when I got a phone call from, um, a Homeland Security agent who already knew me and knew a little bit about my background and he, he asked me to Help with the undercover rescue mission of over a hundred children in Columbia. My, my business partner called me, it was like an hour afterwards.

[00:02:14] He had heard what happened. He called me and he said, he said, Paul, have, have, have you thought through this? He said, he said, obviously I hadn't. I just said Yeah I'll be there. He said, this is really dangerous. He said, you're set. you're on a trajectory. I mean, our, our fund had just passed 2 billion in AUM.

[00:02:33] And you know, now it's over 40 billion. And, and he, he, he said, Paul, he said, you've, you've arrived. I mean, you, you could, you could sell out, buy an Island, be happy the rest of your life. And I said, John, would I really be happy? If I bought an island, if I bought a yacht, if I bought a bunch of jets, would that really, does that really what creates happiness?

[00:02:59] I said, and tell me this, if I was doing something else dangerous tomorrow, if I was, uh, if I was climbing Everest, you and I would have the same conversation. He goes, yeah, we probably would. I said, when, when I'm 95 years old. And I look back on my life and I say, I climbed this mountain and I helped build this multi billion dollar company.

[00:03:20] And I helped rescue this many children, which of them matters at all. I said, I, I live life with purpose, with purpose. And if something about me and my resources and my backgrounds and my skillsets can help even bring one of these children back to their families. Then the risk is worth it. He said, yeah, Paul, I, I see, I see why you need to be there.

[00:03:49] So yeah, that was a, that was a huge pivot moment and, but it fell in line with, with that life mission of truly living with purpose in everything that you do. In fact, years ago when I. I, um, I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to be not a regular doctor. I wanted to be a surgeon and not a regular surgeon. I wanted to be a heart surgeon and not a regular heart surgeon.

[00:04:13] I want to be one that operated on children. I wanted to be a pediatric cardiologist because, you know, I I realized I've got, I've got one life. I got one. I got, this is it. I'm here right now. I don't know. Maybe I got a thousand lifetimes. I don't know. But what I do know, what I do know is that I'm going to make the best of what I can here.

[00:04:34] and when I got in a major car accident, I was literally, I had got all my pre med done. I would, I had like focused, even throughout high school, I was taking college classes just so that I could get my medical degree earlier than anybody. And, here I was at college and I was two months away from taking the MCAT.

[00:04:52] I get in a major car accident and I sever all the tendons in my hand. And they didn't know if I'd have The dexterity to be a surgeon. And so, uh, one of the doctors said, he said, well, you can, you can be a regular doctor. Now this is one of the surgeons. And I said, I said, bro, I said, I don't want to be a regular anything.

[00:05:10] If I'm going to be a garbage man, I'm going to own the dump. That's just, that's just how I think. And, and so, you know, if I can't be the best of the best at what I'm pursuing, then I need to pivot. And so I did, I, I was a hardcore pivot right there in changing my major from medicine to business and, and organizational communications.

[00:05:30] And, and then many, many pivots since then, but it all fell in line with that goal of truly living with purpose and maximizing my talents to make the biggest impact in the world around me. 

[00:05:47] Ryan Berman: First of all, I love where you, where you, where you just went. I mean, one, I'm a little bit of a broken record that's of saying courage is regret insurance, you know, and it really is regret insurance.

[00:05:59] Like at the end of the day, when you look back at it all, you're going to remember the money or the mountain or the purpose to your point to, I think the universe, and I believe in the universe. I don't know what that means, but I believe in the universe, um, it, it serves up negative blessings. And do you wonder at all if the dexterity commentary, like, is this a negative blessing that sort of puts you on a different path for you than what you thought it would be?

[00:06:25] Or did you, or do you think you would have truly landed here? 

[00:06:28] Paul Hutchinson: For sure. For sure. I, you know, I feel, I've been told in my meditations many, many times, Paul, trust. The timing and trust that all of these things are for this great purpose. And, and I think the problem is with me is I, I kind of got a hard head, right?

[00:06:46] And so, so the universe has got to just hit it really hard in order for me to wake up because I'm so just blinders on running full speed and, and, and the universe is like. Yeah. Okay. You're going to, that's not where we want you to go. Boom. It has to be, has to be a full out. I mean, my car accident wasn't a little one, right?

[00:07:04] I mean, years later, I was in this, this group and, and for some reason people started talking about the worst car accidents they'd ever seen. And this girl was like, Oh, I saw one. She described it. It was the one I was in. She's like the engine separated from the car. Everybody was for sure dead. I'm like, yeah, they weren't all dead, but I was there in that one, you know?

[00:07:24] And so, yeah, sometimes I got to get hit really hard in these, these negative blessings in order for me to open up my eyes and say, okay, that's not the direction I'm supposed to go. And I need to recognize those things as blessings. . As ways to help me direct my life in a way that is going to be so much happier and so much more fulfilled.

[00:07:49] And so instead of just sitting back and being upset at all, it's horrible thing that happened to me. Now let's look at what happened and why and what I've learned from it and where I am today because of it. 

[00:08:01] Ryan Berman: Do you feel like you always had this drive to, you know, like you said, you're not really interested in just ordinary is not really in the, in the vocabulary, or was it a negative blessing that happened?

[00:08:15] And you're like, well, life time out, what am I doing? Let's be great if I'm going to take on this life. 

[00:08:21] Paul Hutchinson: Since I was a little child, I, I, uh, I felt like I was here to have a powerful, positive impact in the lives of a lot of people in some way. And in the beginning, I, I, I wanted to be a brain surgeon. Let's, let's help people fix their heads.

[00:08:42] Right? Let's, if they're broken there, I wanna help 'em fix. And, and I don't know if it was just an energetic awakening or what, but changing to being a heart surgeon and realizing if you help people fix their hearts, then you help them fix their brains. You know? And, and, uh, and I, I see that now in my life.

[00:09:01] You know, as I'm, as I'm battling the darkest of anything you can imagine, I'm, I I've led 70 undercover rescue missions in 15 countries in the last 10 years. I've been in the darkest recesses of hell and seen the worst that humanity has to offer. And. As I look back and say, okay, now, what do I need to do now that I've decided that I'm going to accept this calling of, of going public and using my voice?

[00:09:33] Am I, am I, is my focus being a brain surgeon here? Do I fix the heads of everybody? And is that how we fix this problem? Or do I focus on the heart? If I focus on changing the heart, then I believe we change the head and we change the problem as a whole. And so we can go deeper into that. But, but that, that is, that's something that I've, I felt a calling to my whole life.

[00:09:59] Um, in terms of my dreams of building a big company and everything else, those were things that were kind of implanted into me in my early twenties. I had some mentors that took me dream building a big houses, big cars, and you know, it's okay. And it's important for your entrepreneurs to understand this.

[00:10:17] There's nothing wrong with having a vision board with a supercar, a nice house traveling around the world. There's nothing wrong with that at all. I, I, I tell people this, I, I use things. To motivate myself to do the right thing long enough for me to realize the right reason to be doing it. And the right reason isn't things, it's making a difference.

[00:10:39] And so, but I wouldn't have made those extra phone calls and work those extra hours just to be a Mother Teresa, right? I, I have a beautiful lifestyle. I mean, I've owned jets. I've owned planes. I've, I've owned helicopters. I've owned lots and lots of vehicles. I've had what I thought was the definition of success, but what was beautiful about that is having the ability to write those big checks when they were needed and to really make a powerful, powerful impact in the lives of other people with the charity work as well.

[00:11:15] Ryan Berman: Paul, I want to get into. Um, the sound of freedom pretty, pretty quickly here, but you're reminding me of a, so I have this weekly dose of courage. It goes out every, every Thursday and you know, it's just like a little short circuit, right? Like I think a lot of us are, we've become robotic in the wrong places and I'm responding specifically to your, well, it's hard to get people out of their heads and into their hearts, right?

[00:11:41] Cause everybody, many people feel, not everybody, but many people feel like, dude, I'm just trying to get through. Today, you know, and, um, and I'm, I'm afraid, which is what having the courage is. You know, sometimes you're afraid of you do it anyway. And in this weekly dose of courage, I was saying, I tried to frame it as like once upon a time, there was a younger version of you and the one who graduated from college and who had entered here or there.

[00:12:04] And, but life after diploma, you start your business journey. And in the early years, you don't really get to choose much. It's, you're just trying not to get fired. And this first five years is, is survivor mode. So we call it survivor mode. And then things start to slow down a little bit. Maybe you become an entrepreneur.

[00:12:21] You're like, okay, I see the rules. Here are the ones I think I can break. I call that success mode. And then finally. Maybe you built your company the right way. You're not as needed in the day to day. I mean, you're less involved and you can get to this thing called leadership, mentorship, allyship purpose comes to the front.

[00:12:44] And I call that soul mode. So there's like survivor success in soul. And I think then you start to do your, use your powers for good. And it's. Today, it's like, how do we actually get to soul success and sustain? And as you've pivoted into this new universe, this new world, what advice would you have for a leader or, or someone that feels like, dude, I'm still in like survivor mode.

[00:13:07] Um, I want to be successful and I, I want to do the right thing, but I feel stuck in that world. 

[00:13:15] Paul Hutchinson: Here's what I would say. Um, first of all, don't wait until you have financial abundance to be in that purpose mode. Um, getting into that purpose mode early will bring all of those things to you faster. Uh, I had a mentor in my early twenties.

[00:13:34] He said, Paul, he said, the average person gives roughly 2 percent or less of their money to charity. To making a difference in the lives of others, he said, I would admonish you to decide now to give much more upwards of 20%, not only of your money, but of your time, pick something, pick something that you're passionate about it, whether it's save the trees, save the wells, save the kids, save the, whatever, you know, make the world a better place in some way.

[00:14:02] And, you know, back then I was earning 2, 000 a month. I was in survival mode. All right. And in giving away 20 percent of that. Living on 1600 a month instead. That was a rough decision,

[00:14:16] Ryan. I believe that that one decision made all the difference in my financial career. Now, there's something I call the, the, the Universal Law of Exchange. You know, if, if you are giving for the purpose of gratifying your ego, you have your reward, you got it. Your ego's gratified. But if you give.

[00:14:40] Without trying to gratify your ego, but truly wanting to help others, but realizing that the universe is going to reward you in, in things that are consistent with your primary goals. And if your primary goals are not your ego, but your primary goals are the financial security of your family and the growth of your company, et cetera.

[00:15:00] Those things will come, you know, some people call it gifts from God. the universe responds every single time. And this is a law. This isn't something that's a woo woo up there, but this is something that I have seen all the time. And, and so what would happen, let me explain it this way. As I started giving, if I worked really hard in my business goals, I had decent results.

[00:15:22] Because I worked my butt off, but if I worked really hard and strove to have a powerful, positive impact in the lives of others, I had enormous goals in my business. I mean, enormous results in my business goals and very seldom with those results come from things that I was doing, and I'd be working hard, but the universe would just put them in random places. And I'm like, wow. You know, and I tell people, God knows that Paul Hutchinson has a propensity to have an ego. So he wants me to know that I had nothing to do with the growth of a 40 billion company, right? What happened is as I focused on doing good and living with purpose, as long as I had clear direction as to where I wanted to take my life from a, from a, an abundance standpoint then those doors opened. And it was miraculously opened and they came over and over again. For example, Glenn Beck, he's a famous, a pretty big radio talk show host. He, he wanted to launch his anti child trafficking campaign from Bangkok, Thailand, and it was going to cost a hundred thousand dollars to take the entire team from the philanthropy that philanthropic.

[00:16:32] Group that I was working with and his group and everything was gonna cost a hundred grand to get them all to Thailand and back. And at the time, the charity I was working with, there was a bunch of grandmas that were donating 5 a month to help save kids. And, and that was kind of sacred money. And so I'm like, okay, how do we, how do we work this?

[00:16:48] And so, I decided to write that check myself and my business partner, Don, we, we said, you know what, we're going to fund that. We're going to sponsor that. And we flew to Thailand. He, you know, 50 million people throughout all of his networks were able to see the travesties of trafficking firsthand. And then as the plane landed, In the U S as the wheels touched down, I had two voicemail messages pop up in my phone.

[00:17:12] One of them was from the, one of the founders of the largest hotel chain in the planet. And he said, Paul, he said, I, I, I've been looking at the numbers. I want to put another 10 million into your, your senior housing investment fund. And the other one was from the, the owners of the largest, um, gas station chain in the entire country with even a bigger number.

[00:17:34] My. Income from those two voicemail messages that popped up while I was flying back from, from Thailand, my income multiples exceeded what I had just committed to making a difference in, in the lives of others. So it happens every time. Start, start when you're broke to make a powerful impact and all of your goals will come into, to, to fruition faster than you imagine they would be.

[00:18:02] Ryan Berman: No, I like that strategy. It's like start building the muscle now. Don't wait. Right. And hopefully over time it's you blend into a full purposeful life in the decisions that you're making.

[00:18:14] I don't know if you have this data or maybe somewhere in your network, any, any idea what, what percentage you think of, of people, even if it's in the States are truly living their purpose. And if you had to guess, I'd be really curious. 

[00:18:29] Paul Hutchinson: I don't know what that number is, but I'm, unfortunately, I think it's, it's really low. And I think it's low because of fear. Um, you know, I, I had a, I had a license plate on my, it was in my early twenties. I don't know why I bought a Cadillac in my early twenties, that's an old person's car, but I did. Right. So I bought a Cadillac and I, and on my, my license plate cover. It said, feel the fear and do it anyway.

[00:18:57] Um, my, my first, my first company in my early twenties was I, I, I ran the marketing arm for the Midwest center for stress and anxiety. So we had over 50, 000 people a month calling in off of our infomercial to get help in overcoming anxiety and depression disorders and, and it all, it all came down to that one word.

[00:19:20] Is fear, fear versus courage and, and, you know, some people say fear is false evidence appearing real. That the reality is, is that, that those things that inhibit our growth. That, that anxiety, that depression, they come from negative habit, patterns of thought, worry. What if thinking negative expectations, the perceptions we have of ourself are, are coping skills in dealing with, with stress and other people.

[00:19:49] These are, these are all habit patterns of thought that are all rooted in fear. And if we can help people change. Those negative habit patterns of thought and focus on the, the truth of where they want to go, then all of that stuff disappears. this is super powerful every single, every single undercover mission that I have led, we were being directed by something far beyond just our five senses. And I, and I remember one time I had a brand new team. These are a bunch of Navy SEALs, Green Berets, you know, they're, they've got earrings and, and, and, uh, tattoos and, and we hadn't found any traffickers, nothing.

[00:20:32] And it was about two in the morning and I said, guys, can I take lead? And they're like, yeah, these guys say you're really good at this. I want to see what you do. I say, okay, you need to follow exactly what I say. First things first, I need you to understand how I see fear and faith. I said, most people think that faith is going to church and asking God to fix things in their life that they don't believe are going to be fixed.

[00:20:56] That's not faith. Faith is a, it's a universal law. It's it's, it's the most powerful law next to unconditional love. It's the most powerful law in the universe. And it's simply this it's the unwavering conviction. That what I want to have happen will happen. The problem is most people have a hard time with unwavering conviction about anything.

[00:21:19] Should I start this new job? Should I go to this new manager? You know, but for me in that position, it was easy for me to have unwavering conviction because I don't care if, if the higher power is the universe or God or a cloud or a mountain, it doesn't matter. There's no higher power. Anywhere that's okay with children being sold for those kinds of things.

[00:21:39] So it's easy for me to have that unwavering conviction. I said, it's also important to understand as I'm telling these Navy seals, right, it's important to understand that fear and faith cannot exist. In the same person at the same time on the same subject and the reason behind it, in some way, they're the same power.

[00:21:59] People that believe that bad things will happen, actually attract those things into their lives and create those things. People who believe that good things will happen, actually attract those. And it's more than the law of attraction. In reality, it is the law of creation where not only our actions, but our words and our very thoughts are creating a world of abundance or a world of scarcity, a world of happiness or a world of sadness.

[00:22:26] So it's so important that we harness that power of belief, that, that faith and, and, and step away from fear and step forward in courage with everything that we do in our life, because that is the only way to harness the powers of the universe and create that life that you're wanting to create. 

[00:22:49] Ryan Berman: I am, uh, I'm head nodding here for the, the audio listener.

[00:22:53] And one of the main reasons Paul's. The second lever that we always talk about when it comes to courage, if you're going to deconstruct it, like a salad, one of the pieces is faith and we call it, it's knowledge plus faith plus action equals courage. And, and I haven't heard those two words connected together to define faith, unwavering conviction, but as sure as heck can use it moving forward, because that's really what it is.

[00:23:19] It, it, we always say knowledge and faith without action is paralysis. And faith in action without knowledge is a reckless move and and knowledge and action without faith If you're numb on the inside, you probably don't have your purpose on lockdown. You're just going through the motions and your own status quo.

[00:23:37] You kind of already alluded to this at the beginning of the hour. I mean, you've personally participated in 70 rescue missions to liberate kids from abuse and save them from trafficking. We've got, you're also the producer of the movie, the sound of freedom, which I think you're portrayed in the movie as well, right?

[00:23:56] For rescue leading rescue missions. First of all. How has the response in your words been on the movie and has it done what you wanted to do or, or what are you hoping it can do for humanity? 

[00:24:12] Paul Hutchinson: You know, as a, as an investor, one ofthe dumbest things you could do for a good return is invest in the movie, you know, a movie and it's kind of like, you know, let's go to Vegas and make a million dollars.

[00:24:23] No, that's, you know, there's, there's, especially in, in the, in the light that I had no idea what I've never invested in film before I was a real estate investor. And, and, uh, but the purpose of it, yeah. Was to create a movement, was to, was to help millions and millions of good people throughout the world.

[00:24:46] See that darkness firsthand so that they could feel what I felt and come forward in a way where they have a new commitment, a new purpose, that they want to do something, they want to make a. Powerful impact. They want to help save the kids. They want to, they want to keep them safe. These are all things that needed to happen back at the time of, in the 1700s, there was a man by the name of will William Wilberforce.

[00:25:13] And before his time, it was legal almost globally to own another human being. And he was a, uh, a wealthy. Well spoken, connected businessman who had seen children in chains, who had seen the travesty of what, what slavery did. His goal was to show people what that looked like, whether it was, you know, testifying in different places and drawing out what was happening, or even there's, you know, there's, there's some, some people that say that he took, uh, dinner parties with, Powerful, uh, political leaders and influencers and on his yacht, his ship at the time and had during the middle of the dinner party, he would take it and have the captain park it next to the slave ships.

[00:25:59] And you could hear the chains and smell the blood and it just shook up his group. And then he said, okay, now I have your attention. Now let's talk about this. And that's the purpose of the movie. Sound of freedom. Now I have your attention. Now let's talk about this. Let's talk about where this is coming from.

[00:26:20] What needs to happen, not just to liberate a 10 year old from the clutches of a trafficker in, in, in Columbia. But to rescue the 10 year old inside of every one of us who dealt with some kind of trauma as a child, who some people are passing that on and in unhealthy ways and through anger or physical or even physical and sexual abuse of others.

[00:26:43] And so these are all things that, yes, the purpose of it was to create an opportunity to have those conversations. A year ago, two years from now, or two years ago, there wasn't the opportunity to sit down at dinner and say, Hey, let's talk about what's going on with child trafficking and child abuse. It was a taboo subject.

[00:27:03] Now we can talk about it so that we can fix it. 

[00:27:06] Ryan Berman: I mean, here we are, right? I mean, this is exactly the intent of the movie. And I mean, look, I know it's not about the finances and yes, you, you, you are, we're competing against Barbenheimer, but like done just fine. I mean, raked it over, I think 180 million at the domestic box office in terms of getting the awareness out.

[00:27:29] It's clear that you have our attention. And so, to your point on the now what, and I know you've funded dozens of like rehabilitation centers around the world and there's education for, and job training and holistic healing for survivors. What is the, obviously, if you haven't seen the movie, we need to go see the movie.

[00:27:48] But what else? What next? Like, what are you hoping comes next from all this? 

[00:27:51] Paul Hutchinson: So many teen people, they, they leave the movie and they're like, okay, I'm so inspired. I want to do something. And, and the worst thing they can do is go be a Rambo and go down the Columbia and go to rescue kids. You're going to get shot.

[00:28:03] All right. And you'll, you'll get arrested. That's not, that's not how you fix this. The best thing you can do is go hug your kids. People are like, well, how's that going to help? Well, the most common kids that are brought into this horrible world are ones that are coming from a broken foster care program or, or runaways or broken families, or even more likely than a child being taken, if you walked out in front of your home and you look left and you looked right, there's a very high chance that one or more of those houses is a dangerous place for children, right in your own.

[00:28:41] Street, the, the, the numbers are these literally one in every four women who are listening to us today, one in every four, we're a victim of sexual violence as a child, as a child for men, it's a little bit less it's one in every five at some time in their life, but even them, one fourth of them. It was under the age of 10 years old.

[00:29:07] And most of them never talk about it. They never do. The average age of somebody talking about that kind of abuse as a child, the average age is 52 years old. That's my age. I have grandchildren. I've, I've built my career and people are holding on to this pain, this anxiety, this depression, this low self esteem.

[00:29:27] It comes out in, in, in, in anger issues that it comes out in unhealthy sexual relationships and unhealthy relationships as a whole. And God bless them. Two thirds. Of everybody who's dealt with that kind of abuse, two thirds of them grow up to be protectors to make sure that their pain doesn't ever get passed on.

[00:29:47] However, one out of every three. Become contact offenders themselves in passing it on in some way. And so people ask me all the time, Paul, how can you go face to face with traffickers selling children and not have them see the hatred and the anger in your eyes? And my answer surprises them. And, uh, and it makes some of them mad and it's simply this, I, I don't hate them.

[00:30:18] Oh, how, you know, they're selling you a child. Now I will do everything in my power to ensure they never hurt another child. I, I preserve innocence at all costs and make sure that that, that happens in a way where they are not going to pass that trauma on ever again. However, what I wish more than anything is that I had a time machine and I could go back five or 10 years before they ever took that road.

[00:30:43] And figured out what was going on in their life that made them think that that was okay. Most of them were abused as children themselves. Most of them had a thousand bad things that happened in their life and a thousand bad decisions that they made. That still doesn't justify crossing that line.

[00:30:59] However, we don't, we don't have a time machine, but what we do have is hundreds of millions of people who, if they're holding it inside and not sharing it and not working through it, if they're holding it inside, it has a chance of coming out in the generational abuse. That creates this kind of a problem that we've been fighting.

[00:31:22] So if you imagine these chain, this chain, and you want to break this chain and the end of that chain is somewhere we don't ever want anybody to get near, which is the abuse of a child. You have to ask yourself as, as good loving adults. We have to ask ourselves, what are the links in that chain that led to that?

[00:31:43] Yes, we can point fingers at child pornography and even hardcore pornography, even pornography as a whole. When we're taking a woman from a divine feminine to an object, but even more than that. We have to change how we interact with each other every single time that I met traffickers, I met some of them that were wearing crosses that had, had, had statues of, of Jesus or Buddha in their, in their houses.

[00:32:08] I mean, these were people that claim to be spiritual or religious in some way, but the, the, the defining characteristic. Among all of them was greed, was this arrogance of seeing other people below them, especially the, their ability to, to, to harm children in that way. And we look around, we can even look in the mirror and say, okay, are there things about me?

[00:32:33] Yeah, I'm not going to be a pedophile, but are there things about me as I look in the mirror? That are that are out of alignment that are acting from a place of arrogance or pride or greed or envy and, and all of these things that that lead to these travesties that we say in the world. And so, so as a, as I'm focused on liberating humanity.

[00:32:57] Not just liberating the children. I believe if we can identify those people who are stuck in those, those, those ruts of dealing with all of their trauma from, from their childhood and help them break free and let go of it, realize that stuff does not define them today and step into a place of integrity and light and, and recognizing that, that light of divinity inside of each of us and looking at every single other person truly as an equal.

[00:33:27] Not based on your checkbook or your, your, your skin color, your, your, your gender, none of those things. You look at everybody as, as, as divine as you are and respect them across the board. Then we'll start breaking down some of those things that are creating trafficking and, and we'll save millions of children.

[00:33:49] Ryan Berman: Paul, you had said, I mean, the numbers on one in four, one in five or is not small. And I'm curious, I look and we're kind of back to the head and heart comment from earlier. There's probably somebody listening. To the show, the numbers say it all that have, they're bearing, they're bearing trauma and it's easy to do.

[00:34:16] We, we suppress fear versus address it all the time. I suspect that if we could just get the wheels going right and progress begins, but that's almost the hardest part. And what advice or feedback do you have for anyone that's listening? How do they just start on, on, on this healing process? How do they truly address it what needs to be addressed? 

[00:34:41] Paul Hutchinson: First of all, you have to identify your why, and this, this goes for your business owners. This goes for people that are dealing with trauma. If you don't have a clear reason why you want to build your company, if you don't have a clear reason why you want to overcome your trauma, if you don't have a clear reason why then, then the how doesn't matter.

[00:35:01] I can give you how statements all day long. Okay. Read this book and look this workbook and change your thoughts here. You have to have something that motivates you, that inspires you that, and, and it might just be your own kids. You know, you might just look into their eyes and say, okay, if I don't. If I don't figure out this shit, then it's going to get transferred on my anxiety, my depression, my low self esteem, my anger issues, my, my way of, of dealing with the world, this heaviness that I feel in some way is going to be transferred on if I don't fix it.

[00:35:34] So find your reason why, you know, if it's just being free and living that life of abundance and visualize what that feels like, what that tastes like, what that, what that looks like in your life. That's, that's always step one. That's always step one. And then from there, the, the how starts falling into place.

[00:35:55] I I've always said that a, a person who understands why is never at the mercy to a person who simply understands how finding that dream, finding a reason why finding that purpose. Just what we started about on this, this whole conversation, that purpose in your life of, of what are you living for? Where do you want to be?

[00:36:16] Once you've identified that, then be okay with getting some help, especially you guys that are listening. Okay. So many guys are like, okay, yeah, that's some crap happened to me as a kid, but that's going to make me less of a man if people know, are you kidding me? Less of a man. You were eight, you were eight years old when a horrible person did a horrible thing because they were passing on their own trauma to you.

[00:36:44] That does not define you today. It doesn't define you, not in any way. And so being able to, to, to, to talk about that with your wife, with your coworker, with somebody, and just simply talking about it, not holding it until you're in your late fifties, just talking about it will help release that. And, and, and help you get the help that you need.

[00:37:06] And you may say, Oh, I don't need no help. You know, I'm good. No, maybe you don't need help, but talk about it anyway, release that and understand that that is not what makes you less of a man. And so, so I think that that's an important first step for sure. Um, we have a lot of different tools that, uh, that we use.

[00:37:27] Um, I will say this, I'll just go there. Um, in the late sixties. The U S government through a bunch of things under the bus classified them as schedule one drugs. And you and I, our entire life have been told that, that certain like psychedelics are as dangerous as cocaine, right? Now it's, it is, if you're not, if you're not using it in the right way, but understand this, um, John Hopkins University did a study of people, uh, in a guided meditation, uh, plant medicine healing experience.

[00:38:07] And 76 percent of them said it was the number one most transformational 24 hours of their life. So we're working on changing some laws here in the U S. We do a lot of healing ceremonies in Latin America right now because the laws haven't changed here, but that's, I'm just going to just drop that in there as something to be looking forward to over the next few years and understanding that trauma therapy using some of these tools is miraculous. 

[00:38:34] Ryan Berman: You may have just answered where you would go with this next, but I was curious how you protect your mental health through all of this.

[00:38:42] What do you do? Where do you go? What's your ritual? Your practice? 

[00:38:47] Paul Hutchinson: Yeah. Well, since you asked, I'm just going to tell you it's, it's, it's down that road. I, um, Um, I have a, I have a meditation that I do every day that is, that is, um, you know, you can call it prayer, you can call it meditation, you can call it connecting with the universe and the world around by getting to a quiet place.

[00:39:10] And learning how to listen from the heart. I, I have a book that'll be coming out later this year called, are you listening with my hand on my heart? Not are you listening with my hand on my ear, but here on my heart, because every one of us were born with the ability to feel and recognize truth and understanding that all of us are truly connected heart to heart to heart throughout the entire world and, and can help each other heal through that process.

[00:39:38] Um, in addition to that, um, about seven and a half years ago, one of my undercover operators came to me and he said, Paul, do you trust me? And I said, yeah, I trust you with my whole life, you know, we do undercover. And he said, you need to come and, uh, Join me in this, this meditation ceremony.

[00:39:56] Cause I, you know, yeah, I was rescuing kids, but I, I had my own trauma. I was, I was, I wasn't Paul Hutchinson. I was Paul f'in hutchinson. Right. I had built this huge company and I had, I had biggest parties at my house and all this, this, uh, all this focus on, on things that really weren't fulfilling and, and going into the darkest pits of hell and seeing children being sold, was super heavy on me and my operators and, and we were able to join you on a, on a guided, um, ceremony using psilocybin and, uh, you know, psilocybin is the safest table sugar. There's no cases of addiction or overdose, but, but used in the right environment with, with the right words, with the right people who understand how to work with the, with the medicine.

[00:40:48] In 24 hours, I was able to shed so much. Of that pain, so much of that ego, so much of all that crap that I saw when we were under cover and, and come to a place of love and light and peace and, and healing for myself and for others. So yeah, that's, uh, that's part of the process. In fact, I just got back from Latin America in which we connected with some just beautiful healers down there who had some of the most.

[00:41:19] Horrific things happen to them in their lives that we're able to use some of these tools to overcome them. 

[00:41:26] Ryan Berman: Paul, I mean, this might be in the spirit of the courageous podcast that I, and I never would have thought that this would be the most courageous question I'd ask you because we're having a pretty heavy conversation in the right way today.

[00:41:39] When you think about. Party version, party throwing version of Paul versus Paul today, honestly, what number, what percent of people did you have to shed from that last life to this life? And I think this is, this is real for a lot of us. I'm just curious. 

[00:42:00] Paul Hutchinson: Well, the first person I had to shed was Paul Effing Hutchinson.

[00:42:05] That man in the mirror who thought that that was success. Had to go. And, um, and there were so many people who were, who are still in that energy and, and, um, thinking that, that that lifestyle defined success and created happiness where, where in reality, a lot of that destroyed marriages and families and, and, um, and.

[00:42:32] And destroyed personal connections with what was really important and, um, and what was so beautiful about it was that myself, um, close friend named Jimmy and Andy and Jeremy, uh, we were all doing undercover work together. All of us were brought in for the same purpose is that. The guys that were, that were buying these children in these third, second and third world countries were guys like Jeffrey Epstein, right?

[00:42:59] We had, we had big, big checkbooks and big egos. Now, all of us had had some training, um, to keep us safe in a dangerous place. But the thing that the traffickers were looking for was, was that arrogant energy. Those were the guys that were throwing these parties down and with these horrible things. And so that's why we were recruited is because we had that, that, Hey, I can write a check for whatever type of an energy and, and it brought in children, like I say, over 70 undercover rescue missions between my foundation, the child liberation foundation and others that I have helped to start and fund over 5, 000 victims have been recovered and, uh, brought back to their families.

[00:43:40] There's, you can't put a price tag on that. Um, but all of us together. Transformed our lives together and, and going through some of these ceremonies and holding each other accountable. And I remember at one of them, um, I was sitting there, I was talking to Jimmy. I'm like, ah, Jimmy, you know, I'm, I'm glad, I'm glad we're not like we used to be, you know, that one day when we had, you know, we had 150 half dressed girls at the house for that party and whatever else.

[00:44:07] And he said, Paul, no, I said, no. He said, no. Even your energy and talking about it is wrong. He said, he said, we don't glory in those glory days. Those weren't glory days. He said, we learned a lot from that. He said, but the men that we are today, men of integrity in business and in bed is this is the light that we need to share to the rest of the world.

[00:44:36] And it was super powerful because even after we had passed that point in our life, we would hold each other accountable to, to stay in that space of light and peace and love. And yes, I had to, I had to shed a lot of friends, powerful friends. That were connected in, you know, in, in big social circles that are like, who's this new Paul, you know, with this hand on his heart, saving the humanity, you know, what about those parties, you know?

[00:45:01] So, yeah, I had to, I had to move forward and lose some, lose what I thought were good friends, but gain so many more. 

[00:45:08] Ryan Berman: we've been talking with Paul Hutchinson today, producer of the sound of freedom. Check out the film. Again, the intent of the question is not to vilify anybody.

[00:45:18] Right. But, but it was an honest question because I think we have these shackles that are invisible that we, we put on ourselves and, and, uh, and we feel we can't break free where there's fear. There's fear of leaving a group. There's a fear of leaving the wrong behavior, but I come back, Paul, what you said, and maybe this is how we'll end.

[00:45:38] It's almost impossible to be courageous when you're cloudy, when you're cloudy, can't see a North star on a cloudy day. You know, I mean, hopefully you can feel that North star. And I think when we're, when we're clear and then we can actually move with our purpose and figure out what we're supposed to do with our time here on this planet.

[00:45:57] Curious to take us home and just quick two minute or what is next for you? Uh, and how can people help? Yeah. 

[00:46:06] Paul Hutchinson: Thank you, Ryan. Um, I just opened up a new website, liberating humanity, um, liberating humanity is, is giving people tools that they need, um, to help heal themselves and, uh, get direction in their life.

[00:46:26] We also have liberatechildren. org, liberate children or liberating humanity. Um, and the liberate children, you can get involved. You can get involved if you have talents, if you, if you want to donate 5, 10 a month, go to, go to liberate children. And, uh, get involved in that way. Uh, for me, um, four months ago, I, I had no social media.

[00:46:52] I wasn't, I wasn't on any podcasts. I was undercover and it was dangerous. You can't, you know, you can't have your face all over CNN, ABC, if you're truly doing the work and being undercover and finding the kids. And so me and my team, we had, we had nothing there. And just within the last four months, um, it's been beautiful to see how.

[00:47:14] My heart and my voice can carry in ways that, that, uh, that are, that are helping people. And that's really what I want to do. And I'm going to dedicate my life to expanding this vision and this mission. You know, I have people that are. Donating property that are saying, Hey, can we use this to, to, in some good with liberating humanity?

[00:47:35] Can we build a healing retreat or what can we do with this? We have, we have people that are just donating their time and helping out in that way. But, uh, this is a, this is a mission that I believe, you know, call this small, but I believe billions of lives will be touched. And, um, And the world is ready.

[00:47:55] The world is ready for a transformation. So you can follow me on social media at any, just type in liberating. I come up first liberating humanity. And, uh, I'll continue to share from my heart and give you tools to, uh, to help you heal and help not only to save the kids, but to save the rest of us as well.

[00:48:15] Ryan Berman: Here's to unwavering conviction. Thanks for joining us, Paul. 

[00:48:19] Paul Hutchinson: Thanks, Ryan. 

[00:48:22] Ryan Berman: Thanks for tuning in to this episode of The Courageous Podcast. If you enjoy the show, don't forget to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts so more people can find us. See you again next week.