From Professional Baseball to Inspiring Young Minds | Cole Freeman

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Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the show. Today, we have a tremendous conversation for you with Cole Freeman. Cole is a former LSU baseball star turned professional player who made it all the way to AAA before COVID derailed his career. Unlike many who would become bitter, regretful, maybe shame, doubt associated with having their dream torn away from them because of a external force that they couldn't control, Cole refocused his energy on a not-for-profit called Heart Has No Limit. It is the Heart Has No Limit Foundation, where he is going into youth communities and helping them understand what it takes to be successful, how to overcome the challenges that we're presented with as young individuals, young adults in this world, and how we can put ourselves on a path to success regardless of where we start.

This is an awesome conversation, uh, and Cole really digs into some details about his life and how he sets and resets his mindset to be positive, be focused, be energized, be determined, and ultimately reach some incredible goals. You're gonna love this conversation. And if you are enjoying this podcast, if you wanna support what we do here, friends, subscribe to the show, tell a friend about the show. Uh, I don't advertise the show. I don't buy ads on Instagram or any of that kind of stuff.

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With that, no further ado, let's get on to Cole Freeman. In a crude laboratory in the basement of his home. Cole, it's, uh, great to have you on the show, man. Appreciate you taking the time. No, I appreciate you working with me, too.

Sorry about last week, too, having to reschedule like that. Oh, it's all good. Well, you know, uh, for the audience, they may not realize this, but for two guys that probably at face value look like they should know what they're doing with- ... recording a podcast, it took us about 10 minutes to get it, to get everything working. It's, uh, I can see why, you know, there's like a trend in podcasting where everyone's moving to these in-studio formats, right? And, uh, you know, I think there's a lot of value in them and, you know, especially for all these, uh, you know, these people that live like in Austin, Texas or New York City or LA where people are just dropping by all the time.

That's very convenient. Yeah. But I live in Albany, New York. People don't even wish their enemies- ... come to Albany, New York. So like, no one visits, no one visits.

Like, there's no pop-ins for guests here, so, um- That's when you called me, it popped up as Albany, and I was like, "Damn, Albany? All right." So, so we have to use technology, which, uh, most of the time works good, but today decided not to. And all of that really horrible podcast banter, guys, is to share with you that we have a tremendous guest. And, um, Cole, I'd love maybe just break down a little bit of...

You know, I, I guess when I was, when I was researching you and your story, one of the things that popped out to me that I, that I couldn't get my head around was, um-- And, and I wanna get into your sports career and that transition. I wanna talk a little bit about that. But I'd love to start kind of right in the, right in the heart of it, which is you have this not-for-profit. It focuses on mental health. It focuses on, um, overcoming adversity, et cetera.

Like, what was the, what was the catalyst? What was the moment? What was the event that maybe stuck in you from when you were a kid or, or even when you were older that said, you know, "This is kind of what I wanna do. These are the, these is, this is the problem I wanna help solve. These are the people that I wanna help support"?

Yeah, um, I, I really think that started happening once I got to LSU, once I was able to achieve my dream and really have that opportunity. Um, and especially after I got drafted and looking back at those two years that, you know, I was fortunate enough to have, I, I think I just kind of started reminiscing on like, I always had the question, "Why, why not me?" for me to get that position. But then I started kind of asking, "Okay, like, why me?" And I was just so grateful for me to get that chance to go out there and live my dream that, you know, I started thinking, I'm like, "What is it that I can do to start helping people?" And one of the things I looked at was what was a separator for me.

Um, and obviously it wasn't my height was the separator, and I, I kept leaning back on it was kind of my mindset, uh, growing up and then getting to LSU. Uh, it, it was just that I can do attitude, that I'm not gonna listen to the outside noise. Um, and that was one of the things I recognized after going through college and all was how many kids that I met or how many friends I had that definitely had the talent, but the circumstances weren't there, and the mental side of the game wasn't there. The taking care of the schoolwork, going to do extra work, uh, off the field, um, that really wasn't there. And I w- when I was sitting back, you know, my last couple years of pro ball, I was thinking, you know, "What is-" I, I was so thankful for what I had.

I was like, what can I do to give other kids the opportunity to feel the way I feel, to experience what I got to experience? Um, and ho- honestly, there was a broad spectrum, you know, there was financially supporting people, um, you know, finding mentors for them, and there's this big spectrum that we were going off of, but obviously honing down on, okay, where are we gonna start? And, uh, I think being the, the mental health game, especially, uh, nowadays is, is a just epidemic crisis in the, uh, United States and really worldwide with it. And, um, once I got partnered up with my partners, uh, a old-time friend of mine and one of his, uh, friends out of Nashville, we kinda honed in on, hey, if, if we've got one opportunity at these kids and we will never get a chance of touching them, what can we leave them with? And really this is what we've kinda landed on, uh, these tools that, you know, they can hopefully take for the rest of their lives.

So you had a very successful baseball career. You get drafted, you make it to Triple-A. Y- you talk about how grateful you are. Now, I played baseball in college, I played a little bit after as well, and I've met hundreds of dudes who make it to Double-A, Triple-A, and they don't come away grateful, they come away bitter, right? I didn't make it to the show.

I didn't get that, my cup of coffee. I never got a look, right? So they come away from that experience and they're bitter like, like they didn't, uh, hit their goal. And you're telling me that you got to that same place and I, and I, you know, I looked at your career, I know how successful you were. Like you got to that same place, you came away, you were grateful.

How-- what do you think is s- different, special, unique about your mindset and the way you view the world that you go through this experience and you come away grateful and so many of your peers come away, and at least at the beginning, they're bitter- Yeah ... right? I'm not saying- Yeah ... eventually over time they don't come to appreciate what they had and the experience, but like they often, their initial take is this bitterness of not getting to the show and, uh, I'm just interested in, in, in that difference for you. Yeah. I mean, I think it's just perspective for me. Um, and honestly, o- one of our core pieces, it, it's reframing.

It's reframing the situation in my mind. Um, I'd be lying if I s- say I wasn't bitter in some aspects, for sure. Um, but I mean, I, I feel like that's just anything when you go-- anybody going after something, they're trying to achieve it and you know, it doesn't work out in their favor, I think that's kind of just a natural instinct in, in humans. Yeah. Um, but what does it do for you?

You know, w- what is being bitter do besides bring me down and remind me of something I didn't achieve? And really my main goal in life was to play for LSU. I knew how much that meant to me. I knew how much that meant to my family, my entire family, and I wanted to not only give that experience to me, but I wanted to give it to them as well. And that, once I got to see the reaction of my parents, of them getting to live out our dream, uh, I mean, that was, that was everything for me.

So after I get drafted after my junior year going into, uh, in the 18th round, I turned it down, best decision of my life, uh, coming back for my senior year at LSU, and then I get drafted in the fourth round. And when you say like, okay, bitter, I, I didn't have a place to go play baseball after college, I mean, after high school. I didn't, I didn't have any place. So I got another four years, two at Delgado, two at LSU, and now I'm drafted in the fourth round. Okay, so I go out and I have a great first two years.

I get to the fall league. Um, then we have this thing called COVID hit after my greatest year of baseball, um, top 15, 20 in all the minor leagues. You know, I'm knocking on the door. I'm thinking I'm getting that big league, uh, big league invite, this and that. Well, there's an uncontrollable.

COVID ended up messing it up pretty bad for me. All right, it messed up my career a little bit, slowed it down, but how many lives did COVID actually mess up? So in the grand scheme of things, is it really that big of a deal to me? It is to me, but in the vast reality of the world, no, it is not. People lost their jobs.

People lost their livelihoods. People lost their families. People couldn't say bye to their grandparents for the last time because they're in the hospital. What, it messed up my career a little bit? Okay, poor pitiful me.

No, it, it's-- the perspective on everything is I think, is I think how you can navigate through life the correct way or feeling out of control. Uh, you know, I end up coming back in 2021 and I'm not starting the first two games and I'm thinking, I just possibly won Minor League Player of the Year, Base Runner of the Year in 2019. I went to the fall league, started off bad and got better, and then now I'm not starting over somebody that wasn't-- didn't even play below, uh, above h- low A. And so I fight my way back. I get in the starting lineup and we started the rest of the year and then next thing you know, I go into Triple-A, uh, the next year and I'm like rolling.

I'm like, "Dude, I'm one step away right here." Uh, we had a new, uh, GM come in, um, which obviously just like any company, a boss comes in, you know, they're gonna get their people and then, uh, you know, they gotta put food on the table and I just wasn't one of his guys that he wanted. Uh, so I ended up getting released August 8th of 2022 and that time was tough for sure. Um, but when I started looking back at it, I'm like, and just to bring back the question, how, how can I be bitter? I, I got another almost nine years of playing baseball after I was told I wasn't playing after high school.

I lived the dream. Yeah, I, I... My last goal was to j- just get one day in the, uh, MLB. My biggest thing is I wanted my dad to say my son was a big leaguer. That would hurt not being able to achieve.

But why focus on that one thing that brings me so much heartache when look at everything I did before. Look at what we accomplished as a family. Um, and obviously, you know, there's times that you're dealing with it, you're like, "This is tough," and, you know, "Damn, what? What... Should I go back?

Could I have done this better?" It's all what I coulda, shoulda. You know, it, it doesn't do anything, and I just choose to look back on everything that, you know, God has given us and the opportunities that, you know, 99.9% of baseball players will never experience, and I, I, I don't see any way to be bitter about that. Yeah. I think that's a wonderful way of viewing the world.

I see that you, uh, you wear a cross. Does your, does... Do you think faith plays a role in that? I mean- Um, a massive, massive part. Um, I'll tell you one thing about faith that I struggled with up until about a year, a year ago, maybe, shoot, maybe even about eight months ago.

We never were a big, like, church family, but from the day I can remember, my dad's got a cross, uh, just kinda like this, and I've got, uh, it in my, uh, in my bag. I just didn't-- I used to rock three of them. Uh, but he gave me a cross and said, "I'm Catholic. Please call a priest just in case anything were to happen when I was gone." And they always preached, you know, God and God gives us this, this opportunity, but we never were that family that went to church because me and my sister were playing ball left and right.

Yeah. We could not then stop. And that was one thing, obviously, as I was matured, you know, I see people go to church or doing this, and I'm like, are they-- do they have a better belief than me? Like, am I not doing the right things? But in my mind, every good-bad scenario that happens is because of God.

God already knows what I'm doing. He's given me a path. I've got a thousand different ways I can go with it, and it's just my choice which I'm gonna pick, but he knows which way it's going every single time. And so I started, like, struggling with that, and I'm like, do I need to be better? And I'm like-- I started talking to actually one of my partners, Brendan Hitzeman, actually our curriculum writer, Luke, and I tell him how I was struggling with that, and I'm like, "But I feel like my faith is as strong as anything."

Like I, I talk to God in my head throughout the day. A bad thing's happened and it could've been worse, thank God. God was watching out for me. Like... And as of the last, like, eight months to a year, I've really, I guess if you wanna call it confidence in it, you know?

I know I am good with God. I know a fact. I know he's watching over me. The only thing I ever pray upon is that my family has health. Everything else is lagniappe.

Yeah, I want, I want, I want. We all want, but I don't need anything but my family, and that's the one thing that I need to make sure is good. Um, so yeah, I, I... God is a massive ma- massive factor and, uh, he always will be. Well, I appreciate you sharing that part.

I, I took some of that from how you were describing your experience as what, what we achieved, and I think that is a very unique way. I mean, I've interviewed thousands of people. I don't, I, I haven't heard too many people f- talk through their achievements in terms of the role they played in the larger scheme of the family. And I think, you know, and going all the way back to my initial question ar-around gratefulness, uh, versus bitterness, uh, to me, if you're living a faith-based life and you're focused on your family, it's very easy to be grateful, so that's a wonderful thing. No doubt.

Now, so, so you get done with your career. Did you start the organization before your career was over or after? So the brand itself was started in 2017. Uh, it was right after, uh, we lost to Florida in the national championship. They didn't have NIL at that point.

That would've been nice. Uh, but the brand started then, and it was just me and my mom just kinda figuring it out, and it literally just kinda fell in my lap. Um, uh, we won't get too far into it right now. Uh, we can run back into it, but it was just a tattoo that- Yeah ... ended up getting on my, uh, ribs and article came out, kids were making shirts, and I'm like, "Wow, I can do something with this." Started getting a bunch of responses, uh, back from kids saying, "You've motivated me.

Go do this," and I'm like, "What is going on?" Like this is just, this was just a tattoo for me, and now it's blowing up into something. So we started that. I just wanted to make it as like a motivational movement to go out there and achieve, you know, whatever your goal was, uh, in life. It didn't even have to be in sports by no means.

Um, but after we, I ended up retiring, I knew I wanted to do a nonprofit, but when I tell you I knew zero about what a nonprofit was, I thought if you brought in a million dollars, a million dollars went out. Obviously, that's not how it goes. Yeah. You do your whole operations on the backside. Um, but I didn't even know what I wanted to do.

Obviously, I wanted to help people go after their dreams, but like, okay, w- how do you do that? Um, so we ended up starting it. It took about two months off after baseball, really just kind of reflecting on my career, really trying to figure out what's next for me, what should I do. Uh, and then that's when I called one of my partners now, one of my longtime friends, Brendan Hitzeman, and I'm driving across the, uh, causeway just getting back from Scottsdale, and I call him like, "Hey, you wanna do a shirt with me just for like fun? You know, we'll, you know, a- whatever we make on the end, I'll break you off."

And he's like, "Yeah." And then he asks me obviously the, the big question, "What do you wanna do with the rest of your life?" And I'm like, "I don't know, dude. That's what I'm trying to figure out here." Uh, and I brought up the nonprofit, and he's like, "Oh," he's like, "Well, my business partner Joel does a bunch of stuff with the non- uh, nonprofit world."

He's like, "Why don't we get on a call, see if it's something, uh, you know, that intrigues you, and then we'll take it from there?" We jumped on a call the following Monday, and right after that, I was like, "I'm all in. I'm all in on this." Um, so you know, we started the process, and we got our 501(c)(3) status on September 27th of 2023, so... Nice.

So talk a little bit about exactly what you're doing. So what we're doing is we hired a doctor and a curriculum writer, and our curriculum writer and doctor, they've studied historical figures over the years, all the way down from Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and- We read about these guys all the time and girls all the time, but why? Why are we reading about these specific people? So what we did was we studied them, and we ended up pulling out these common traits that they all had, all these similarities, and it was all based off the mindset. Deleting the fear of failure, learning how to be resilient, being a major one, reframing, like I spoke on earlier, finding that calling and passion, finding that identity, learning how to trust, all of these things that accumulated to them getting the opportunity to be that historical figure that we talk about.

Uh, so what we did was we pulled all those key points out, and we wrote our own curriculum on, you know, how... what the definition is, what the word actually means, how you actually apply it, where you can apply it. Uh, and what we're gonna do is we're gonna actually film it. Obviously, the video world is the biggest thing, especially with the younger generation. And we're gonna make a film, uh, up in Tulsa, Oklahoma with one of our, uh, other partners, Cody Jefferson, world-renowned, uh, speaker, and what he has, uh, lived through. And we're gonna have him in about eight, seven to nine modules, and we'll run them through.

They'll be about an hour, and they'll go through about 10, 10 or 15 minutes, and then it'll stop, and they'll do a worksheet, work through that process. Uh, and it'll be all those modules like trust, identity, all those things that I touched on. So once we do that, we believe this stuff works because we've lived it, we've studied it. But our biggest thing is we don't wanna have to tell you this. We wanna show you it works on a piece of paper.

So what we're gonna do is we partnered with the Boys & Girls Club down in Lafayette, um, the Juvenile Corrections Center, the jail itself, uh, Extra Mile, and a couple other organizations down there, and we've stu- we've set up a pilot program. So we're gonna run these kids through a pilot program, ages 10 to 16. We'll have two subgroups in that, 10 to thir- uh, 10 to 13, 14 to 16, and then one will be with a facilitator and one without. Uh, obviously, our hypothesis is the one with the facilitator is gonna do much better. Um, but for scalability-wise, then you have to start training a facilitator for everything.

Not a problem. We can get it done. We've even started to look into AI, uh, uh, LMSs to start trying to help these kids a little bit. Um, but we'll run them through that program, and hopefully, at the end, the data shows that they are in a much mental, a much better mental state than they were before the program. And at that point, if we've got actually hard data showing that these kids are getting better, you know, um, we, we become a different animal there.

So, and as of recent, we've actually been in talks with, uh, LSU, the obviously, the school I went to. Uh, we have a meeting with them on Thursday to actually try and see if we can get their student athletes through this. So we'd have to change up the verbiage, change up the formatting a little bit and the production, obviously, because it won't be based from 10 to 16 year olds. Uh, it'll be more 18 to 25. Um, but yeah, I mean, we just wanna make sure that it is working.

And if it's not, it's not a total failure. We've just gotta change up our delivery a little bit, okay? That didn't work. This kinda hit. Take that and go.

So there is no failing in this. It's only learning. How do you measure, um, how do you measure success in these scenarios? Like, what are, what looks like progress? Progress is a kid saying, "I feel better than when I was," or, "than before I was in this program."

Success is to get that data back showing percentage points that they are doing much better. I wanna see the kids head high, and the ultimate success for me and the words I can't wait to hear and I know my team can't, can't wait to hear is for us to work with one kid and them to achieve their dream or get that job or be that father and them to say, "I don't think I'd be where I am without Heart Has No Limit." That is the ultimate su-success because not only do we change that kid's life, that kid is gonna, we're gonna reciprocate this to all these other people. So it's not even just us reaching out to them. They are gonna start reaching out to other people, so it's this chain reaction.

But those words I, I cannot wait to hear. Yeah. I, I mean, I love it. I, I think that, you know, I, I, I got a coup- I'm gonna take this a slightly different direction just because I have a couple interesting questions, questions that are interesting to me. So I've been doing motivational content for a long time, and it's funny, there are people that get it, and then I have a lot of other people that'll be like, "Oh, are you just trying to be like a YouTube celebrity or whatever?"

And I'm like, "No." You know, one, no one, no one gives a shit about a 43-year-old white guy who, you know, no one cares. It's like, but, um, I said, two, I, I do it for, like you said, if there's one person who picks up on whatever. Um, but I feel like... And I know what you're doing is, has educational components and it's based in research and science and all that kind of stuff too, so I'm not, don't take this, uh, a-as diminishing what you're doing.

But at its core, you're, you're motivating these kids to believe in themselves and giving them research and data to, to, to support that, but you're motivating them. How do you, how do you work past, um... My belief is you have to be very optimistic to be in the world that you're in. You have to, you have to wake up- Yes ... every day believing, you know, this kid's life may be, may be a little fucked, or this kid over here might be having a hard time, or his dad left him and, you know, whatever, and all these terrible things that we know happen in childhood. And you have to be optimistic that if you sit with them, if you show them something, if you get them with a group of kids over here, you can, you can...

But there's so much cynicism around this, this type of stuff. How do you e- especially like with TikTok and Instagram Reels and, and all this kinda like real time and it-- There's, there's just as much negativity as there is positivity, and how do you start to win that battle, I guess? How, how do you win that battle personally? Well, I think everything's based off of faith for me, for sure. Uh, that's where, that's the bottom line.

That's the foundation. Um- You know, that's one... That's one of the, the things that I, I've thought about more and more is it's easy to be optimistic in my mind, I think, because of where I came from. I never struggled for a meal. I never thought I might not have a roof over my head.

So it's hard for me to put in perspective what they're truly going through. Um, but then something I've been kind of tinkering with a little bit is everybody's reality is their reality. Mm-hmm. So my worst day is maybe not getting, not getting a, a, a meal at the end of the day. Okay, that might be my ultimate worst day.

Well, this kid over here's worst day is not having any friends, not having a, a roof to sleep under, and hadn't had a meal all day. Okay, well, that sounds a lot worse, but in my mind, this is as bad as it gets that I know of. This is as bad as it gets over here that they know of. Whose is worse? From whose perspective?

Like, that's, that's this hard thing I'm trying to figure out. Like, the thing I always try and do is put myself in their shoes. I need to know how they're feeling. If they're trying to... Like for a cop situation, put yourself in their shoes.

They're walking up to a car, they have no idea, they don't know what's in the car. They have nothing, and they possibly could lose their life. But then somebody gets... The cop walks up and then they throw an attitude. And it's like, well, that cop might have lost his friend the week before.

You've gotta try and see their side of it. Um, the trust part is the biggest thing, and I think that's one of the first modules we're gonna start with, is because in order for you to try and get better at life or take that next step or be optimistic, you've gotta trust something. You've gotta trust somebody. You've gotta trust yourself more than anything. And I think that's the biggest part with the kids, uh, that we're gonna be dealing with, is they don't trust themselves.

They don't trust their judgment. They don't trust this and that 'cause they're struggling. And they s- they go, like you say, online and they're seeing this and that and, you know, they're living in a house with five other siblings and they're fighting for one meal a day, and how, how are they gonna trust a decision that it's like, okay, well, maybe I should be looking and trying to make these decisions over there. Well, what is... What are those decisions?

Uh, well, maybe I should just try and go get this job. Oh, I don't trust myself enough to even know what to do for it. And I, I think the trust part is the biggest thing, is I trust God with whatever I, with whatever I'm doing. If it goes south, it goes south because it was supposed to go south. It's, I trust that He's gonna lead me on the path.

And I, I mean, for me, that's everything. Um, I think that's the hard part that we're gonna have to find, is because we don't wanna base it all off of faith. Because if they don't believe in that, then I still wanna help them. Mm-hmm. I don't shun them because, "Oh, you don't believe in God?"

Like, no, that's... You have your belief, but I wanna get on the same side of the table with you. I wanna figure out how you, we can learn or get you to learn to trust or believe in whatever you wanna believe in, and then we start building off of there. But if you don't have that foundation, uh, it's gonna be a tough road. Yeah.

I, I love that perspective. Um, I live a very similar way. Uh, I, uh, am a believer. Have been my entire life. Was raised Catholic and kind of Methodist, I guess, so very confusing.

You couldn't get two more opposite, uh, Sunday experiences. Um, but then similar to you as well, I played sports my entire life and, um, Sundays are... There's games on Sundays, and you- Yeah. ... you know? And, and I, I've heard people say, "Well, you know, you should go to church instead of play the game." And I always said to my...

I, you know, in my mind, if, if God wanted me to go to church, He wouldn't have made me a baseball player. Exactly. And I don't... And then that sounds trite, and I, I- No, no. Yeah ... there's smoke coming out of the ears of all the purists listening to this right now.

Yeah. But my point is, like, I, you know, if you believe that God puts you on the path and it's your job to f- to walk that path, and this is where I'm at, and there's a baseball game on the Sunday, you're telling me He's omnipotent, but He didn't realize that East Greenbush Little League was gonna have a game at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday morning in, you know, 1993? Yeah. You know, I, I just kind of- Right. You know, like, uh...

So to me, it's always kind of like as long as I'm doing my work and my connection, and, and I have a point to this. Yeah. So my point is, a- and the reason that I love your perspective on this particular topic is I do believe spirituality is vital, I think especially, uh, in today's day and age where you see women cutting their hair off and refusing to have sex because Donald Trump won the presidency. Yeah. Which to me is religious fervor, right?

My belief is all this crazy, you know, c- take the super right wing and super left wing, these are people with a God-sized hole in their heart that are dying for a relationship with a higher power, and they grab onto these causes because they have- Yeah. Exactly ... nothing else to grab onto, right? If you're an atheist or a nihilist, you have nothing to grab onto, so you grab onto these causes. Okay, so my, my point saying, I've said this three times now, but I'm trying to wrap my head around how I wanna finish- Yeah ... um, is I think it is our job as believers to believe and then accept everyone else for exactly the way they come. Exactly.

And the thing that drives me nuts about spec- specifically Christians is their, is their ... this desire to put their faith on other people, right? Yeah. Like, like your faith is yours, mine is mine. I don't even care if you're not a believer, right? It doesn't matter to me because I believe, and that should be, that's supposed to be enough.

Yeah. And I think that when we can, when we can bring people into, to faith in general, right? Maybe they're introduced to Christianity, but then they, they wanna become a Jew, or maybe Islam is the right player, where- wherever they wanna go, right? But I think bringing them in in a way where you accept them, you, you are open about who you are and what you believe, but completely accepting them in the state in which you receive them is- Mm ... is how we bring people back to the faith- Yeah ... versus this finger-pointing, if you don't do it the way I do it, then you're wrong, or you don't understand, and like no one wants that shit. That just turns everybody off and is in my way, in my belief structure, not how God intended us to spread the faith.

So I, I love that. I love your take, especially getting in front of kids that probably, you know, a lot of kids that come from either inner cities or there's a lot of rural, a lot of white rural, uh, downtrodden- Mm-hmm ... communities where I'm from. So it's, it's a really weird area. We have these very old, dense, um, urban areas, small city urban areas that are a lot of, um, African American and Latino, uh, uh, uh, poor, and then 15 miles down the road you have the same experience, but in a trailer park or in an, you know, some sort of mountain community or whatever happening as well. And it's like, how do you speak to these groups?

Oftentimes they're, like you said, they're so, they're so caught up in like, I don't wanna get beat by my dad or, or, or in a fight with the gang that's running through my street or my- Right ... you know, my trailer park or whatever, right? Like, like the idea of some sort of peace and even giving the idea of God a second thought is like, you know, I'm trying to survive. They don't even have time for it. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. They don't have time. It's a wonderful thing what you're doing, man. I'm, I'm so happy that you're out there doing it. I, I think it, it's grace, kindness, and confidence.

Yeah. I think that's the biggest thing, is you can go and talk to people. Don't throw it in anybody's face. They d- that's not gonna do anything. They don't want it thrown in their face.

Give them grace. Be kind to them. Talk to them as if you want 'em to be how you would wanna be talked to, and be confident in your faith, and let them wonder why does, why does he look like that? Why does he have his chest so far out, his head so far high? Yeah.

W- what, what is that aura that is coming? And I'm a big believer in energy. Well, have them wonder. The only way they're gonna convert or s- wanna start down that path is if they wonder. You can't force somebody to be helped if they don't wanna be helped, and that's again, getting back to the trust thing.

It's not like with these kids we're gonna be like, "Hey, let's go delete the fear of failure. I'm gonna teach you how to be resilient." Well, if they don't trust themselves, how can they trust that they are being resilient? Yeah. They, they can't.

So be kind to the people. Make them wonder, okay, what is it that, that, that dude has or that girl has? What is it? Let them start questioning. That's a great spot.

That is the foundation of everything. They're brainstorming, "What is this? What is this feeling? Why would, why haven't I not seen that? Can I get that?

What, what do I have to do to get that?" All these are questions that are perfect. Those are the questions that I want to start popping up in their heads, 'cause like you said, they probably weren't even thinking of that stuff before. They're trying to just fight for their next meal or not get shot here, do this and that. I want them to start brainstorming.

I want them to start dreaming. Some of these kids haven't even dreamt. I dreamt my whole life because I had a roof over my head. I got the greatest parents in the world. I never had to worry about a thing besides dreaming.

Very easy for me, not for them. I want them to feel that. I want them to think of stuff- Yeah ... they never even remotely thought of, and we're gonna get there, I promise you that. I, dude, I, I believe it and I, and I love that you're starting the, the idea of starting with trust, not just in you as a facilitator, but, but in themselves, I think is where you have to be. Uh, I grew up with...

I had a, a buddy growing up, and his dad used to beat the living shit out of him and, you know, you look at the way his life played out, uh, he, he's, he's got himself straightened out now, but man, he was just trying to survive. And, you know, survival oftentimes was not being in his house and hanging out with kids that are five years older than him because they got a flop house and are selling drugs and he's, you know- Yeah ... he just, and all he knows is if I go there and deal with their bullshit, I don't get beat by my dad at home, right? Right. And like- Yes ... you know, that kind of, that kind of scenario, um, you know, and, and he had a lot of, he had to deal with a lot of nonsense, um, in his life that, you know, some of which he brought on himself. But like, when you're, when you're coming from that place of like, I just, I just need something to eat, or I don't wanna get the crap beat out of me, or I don't wanna watch my mom get the crap beat out of me or whatever, um, you can't, like you said, you can't, you don't have time for dreams.

You don't have time to slow down. And, and, and I've watched buddies go through it growing up where I grew up. I grew up in a, I grew up in a town in 900 in the middle of nowhere where, uh, we used to say you could leave your doors open because the criminals lived in our town. They didn't rob in our town. So like, like your home base- That's funny ... to like walk to had to go rob people and then they'd come back.

Um, no, that's a joke, but, uh, but it was a- ... shitty little town. Um, but my point in saying all that is I think, I think where you're coming from, this idea of starting with trust, not just in you or your organization or the facilitator that you've paired them up with, but in helping them start to trust themselves and their own ability to make decisions because, um, and you know, you can see it even in sports. It, obviously this is, uh, a more, um- More shallow example, but, you know, if, if you're coaching a team, you know, if they can trust you and that's great and they'll work hard for you, but they don't become elite until they believe that they can do it themselves. Yeah. And that's what every coach is trying to get to, is how do I g- turn this kid from trusting the process to trusting him or herself?

Yeah. And, um, that's where the real change happens. So, um, where do you see, like... Okay, so you're, you're, you're building it out. Sounds like, uh, uh, West Coast, uh, Southwest, Louisiana, some Deep South, like, um, I heard you mention Scottsdale.

Like, if someone's listening to this and they're, they're like, "I, I'm interested in this program," either as a supporter or maybe a partnership or something, like, where do you see this growing and in what areas of the country are you able to, uh, do these type of programs today? So we're really, as of today, really nowhere, 'cause we haven't filmed the actual filming part. The curriculum is fully finished. Uh, we should be shooting the curriculum around mid-January it's looking like. It's obviously tough getting eight different speakers, excuse me, eight different speakers, uh, all lined up for two days, you know, to just go in- Yeah ... fully.

Um, but once the curriculum is f- uh, filmed and finished, we're gonna start it in Lafayette, Louisiana. We'll do that whole thing, and we've already got, uh, confirmation, sorry again. Uh, we've already got confirmation from the Boys & Girls Club that if everything goes as planned as well, uh, they'll take this to the Boys & Girls Club of USA, which is a nationwide, uh, thing. Yeah. So obviously, uh, hopefully we, we're hoping that.

Um, and then we'll, like I said, we're in conversations with LSU right now on getting, uh, the student athletes down, uh, the student athletes going through it as well. Uh, Paul Mainieri, who was my coach at LSU, who's, uh, signed with, uh, South Carolina now, coaching over there, he's on our board, and they're a big believer in mental health over there at South Carolina as well. So as soon as we can finish up, uh, finish up the red tape with the IRB and ARB side of LSU, uh, we'll see if we can get them in, uh, joint study as well. Um, but yeah, really, I mean, once we get the filming and everything done and this actual curriculum done, um, the way people are gonna be able to access the full curriculum is actually gonna be ran through our for-profit side as well, um, on our clothing brand. We're actually gonna do something really new.

Uh, I'm super stoked about it. I think it's gonna be a massive game changer, but it's called some NFC tech. The same stuff that's in your credit cards. We're gonna actually intertwine it into our clothing, uh, so where that kids will be able to tap in and get full access to the curriculum so that they can start working through helping their mental side. Uh, we'll obviously give them other community things that, uh, drive more community-based, uh, events and stuff through that.

Um, so if you've got a shirt, you've got the curriculum, you can, you know, get access to it. Um, but if you wanna get involved and stuff, you can just go to hearthasnolimitfoundation.com. Um, and then we've got, you know, our full website there, and then we've got our donor link that's got a very good, uh, description of or a summary of what we're actually doing, who's all involved, um, and then other ways you can get involved as well, so. Guys, I'll have the link, uh, to, uh, hearthasnolimitfoundation.com in show notes and descriptions, so whatever you're listening or watching in, you can just scroll down and find that. Uh, Cole, I appreciate you, man.

I appreciate your approach. I love that you're helping kids. I l- I, I think that the way you view the world is incredible, and, uh, thank you for your time. No, thank you, Ryan. I appreciate it.

It was some fun. Let's go. Yeah. Make it look, make it look, make it look easy. Ice.

Stand up Thank you for listening to The Ryan Hanley Show. Be sure to subscribe and leave us a comment or review wherever you listen to podcasts. Game ain't a thing for me. I never switched up, no changing me. The only thing changing is Close twice as many deals by this time next week.

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