Paul Hutchinson, Executive Producer of “Sound of Freedom”

He who has a powerful, positive impact in the most lives wins

Paul Hutchinson, a successful business owner, investor, and philanthropist, has dedicated his life to creating a world where every child can experience safety, freedom, and hope.

In 2017, Paul founded the Child Liberation Foundation, and has led or held a critical role in over 70 undercover rescue missions in 15 countries. Through his foundation, and others that he has helped to start and fund, over 5,000 children have now been liberated. Paul is the primary investor and Executive Producer of the film “Sound of Freedom”. The film highlights one of the largest child rescue missions in history – with over 120 victims being liberated – in which Paul himself held a pivotal role.

After many lucrative business exits, Paul retired from his professional career in 2017. He has been the keynote speaker to royalty and at family office conferences on 6 continents. Paul Hutchinson is known and respected worldwide for his professional accomplishments and for the profound impact he is making in the lives of millions.

Thank you, Richard, for inviting me here. I actually knew Richard back when we first started. I had about two or three million under management when we began, and he was just starting as well. Now we have billions.

We talked about a few people who have seen the movie. If you have seen it, my character is Pablo, the multi-billion-dollar fund manager who’s asked not only to help fund the rescue but also to play a part and be physically there. It wasn’t the funding that changed my life; it was seeing trafficked children for the first time. I had been involved in charity work for a long time, and I believe that this is the number one reason for my success.

Today, it says I have 12 minutes, but they told me I have 20. Should I talk really, really fast, or am I good? Am I good? Okay, I’ll talk quickly either way. I’m going to talk about building wealth for about five minutes, then about five minutes on charity work, and finally, I’ll discuss personal transformation and creating global change.

Here we are at this family office conference; our goal is to figure out how to be more successful in our businesses. And that’s okay. We’ve experienced a few different helicopters, a few different planes, even a basketball court in our basement. There’s nothing wrong with creating a life of luxury. But if you lose sight of making a difference in the lives of others, it will be unfulfilling in every way.

Just to touch on the wealth side for a second: how many of you have invested in real estate? A lot of real estate investors here, about half! So here’s my question: of all the real estate in the world, what is the most valuable piece of real estate you could develop right now? There are some prime places in Hong Kong, but the most valuable piece of real estate you will ever own is the six inches between your ears, am I right?

In passing on wealth to the next generation, the number one thing I’m teaching my kids is not about how to invest in properties, but how to develop the right relationship with money and wealth and success. What does that relationship look like? If you’re a charitable person and don’t want to hurt others, you might believe we live in a zero-sum world. This means that for you to make a million dollars, someone has to lose a million. If you believe that, you might subconsciously sabotage your own success.

What I need you to understand is that we truly live in a world of abundance—you can create value.

You can create value that is more valuable to the world. You want to make a million dollars? Create a million dollars’ worth of value in the lives of others. You want to make a billion dollars? Create a billion dollars’ worth of value in the lives of others. You’ll have all of that coming back to you. That’s part of this universal law of exchange.

The problem is that many schools of thought on economics, many books on economics, define economics as the division of scarce resources, which is a fallacy. There are enough resources in this world that every single one of us could have all the food we could ever eat, all the houses we could ever live in, and all the clothes we could ever wear, right? Yet many people believe we live in a world of scarcity.

Changing your mindset is crucial. If you go back a thousand years and ask an astrologer for the definition of astrology, they might say, “I study how the sun and the planets and the stars revolve around the earth.” Their very definition precluded them from understanding the truth that the earth is not the center of the universe. Similarly, the current definition of economics— the division of scarce resources—precludes us from understanding that we indeed live in a world of abundance.

Every single company I built was based on the philosophy of a true win-win-win all the way around. With Bridge, we had over 50,000 apartment units when I retired. One of our philosophies was to put ourselves in the shoes of our tenants, not just our investors. These were B and B-minus properties, many located in areas where a lot of immigrants were coming in, and many of our tenants were Latino.

There were tennis courts overrun with four-foot weeds because they didn’t play tennis; they played soccer. So, we took those down and put in little soccer fields. We brought in English as a second language classes and a bookmobile. We transformed a huge piece of real estate where all the managers had opulent offices; we put them in smaller offices and turned the rest into a space with computers and tutors for kids to go after school. This is creating wealth while doing good.

Now, we might sit back and think, “I don’t want to be a slumlord.” You don’t have to be a slumlord because every single dollar you earn by creating value without integrity will taint your soul. But if you think creatively, realize that we don’t have to live in a dog-eat-dog world. We don’t have to destroy others or exploit our tenants.

Now, I’m not putting gold towel rods in a B-class neighborhood, but we’re making sure the roofs are good, the pool is clean, and that they have Taco Tuesday—whatever creates value in their lives. In doing so, we became the number one investment fund in the country right after the crash of 2008, and we continued to grow because we built it with integrity. We ensured our investors preserved their money by investing in solid real estate assets, and they were making an impact as well.

As you create wealth, I won’t delve deeper into that now, but remember to maintain that mindset of abundance, that mindset of creation.
I love to tell this little story. There are ten men on an island, ten families, and every day, the ten men go out fishing, getting just enough fish to feed their families. Then, two guys come up with this brilliant idea of a net. A well-functioning economy would say, “Hey, one of you guys should get better at building huts, another at building boats, and someone else at educating the children.” This would increase the lifestyle for the entire island. This is how creativity works; this is how we need to be in business as we create wealth. We should think outside the box and ask, “How can I create a net? How can I create value that is more valuable for my tenants, my employees, and everyone else than what I’m getting back for myself?” If you do that, you deserve to be managing billions and billions of dollars because your mindset and your heart are in the right place.

Now, let me step into the next point quickly. You know what? I’m going to do a little side trivia just for fun to break the ice. Who here has heard of Henry Cavill? I’ll tell you this story. Henry Cavill is an actor; he plays Superman, right? Remember Superman versus Batman? Well, before I met my wife, Henry was at her workplace every day. They dated a little—not a huge deal, just a few dates—then she met me. I stole Superman’s girl!

Just a fun side note. So, back to business: I would love to spend one-on-one time with you. If you’re building a fund, I can help you do that. When we started, it took me a whole year to raise $2 million. By the time I retired, we were raising $10 million a day! How do you do that? I’ll spend an hour with you and teach you. Click on the link for the Child Liberation Foundation. I’ll go into depth on that. Have your firm donate at least $10,000 to that, and I will spend an hour or more helping you reach your goals with your company.

If you have family, I’d love to talk about next-generation wealth and how to create that or how we can make a difference together. The other organization to consider is Liberating Humanity. I’ll talk in depth about personal transformation. If you want to spend more time, come down to South America for two, four, or even five days in a fully immersive personal transformational experience.

I focus on working with the tip of the umbrella. You are the biggest influencers in the world. You represent wealthy families, you are wealthy families, and you’re huge influencers—athletes and role models. If I can help you transform how you think about the world, yourself, and money—working through generational trauma or whatever it is—I can create value in your world. That tip of the umbrella will then ripple out, creating massive changes elsewhere. You can click on either link to learn more about personal transformation and more.

Let me talk just really quickly about charity work. When I was 20 to 23 years old, just getting started, I had a mentor who taught me a lot of things. He told me that the six inches between my ears is crucial. He said, “Paul, your car should be a university on wheels. For the rest of your life, I don’t even want you to know if your car radio works. You should be listening to audio programs on business, finance, leadership, and relationships—all these different things.” That changed my life.

Another thing he said that transformed everything was this: “Paul, some of the wealthiest families in the world live by a principle of not just giving a little, but creating transformational change. The average person gives about 2% of their money per year. Think about your last year. What did you earn? What did you give away to make an impact?” The average person gives away about 2%. You would think that the people in this room, millionaires as a whole, would have a bigger number. Here’s what’s sad: the average millionaire gives a smaller percentage per year than someone earning under $100,000. That makes me sick, guys.

My mentor told me, “Paul, if you make a decision today,” back when I was earning $2,000 a month, “you’re going to give until it hurts—not just 2%, not 5%, not even 10%. Make a decision to give 15 to 20% of your money to make a difference in the lives of others through charity. You can call it karma, the universe, or God—I call it God.” He said, “There’s a higher power very interested in us doing good, and your success will be infinitely greater because of it.”

Now, how does someone become a partner, let alone a founder, of a multi, multi, multi-billion dollar investment fund without being a University of Utah dropout, right? The statistical probability of me being where I am is zero. The only way I can understand it is that I made that decision in my early 20s to be generous to that degree.

And it wasn’t just about money. He said, “Paul, you need to donate 20% of your time.” I remember complaining, “Wait a minute, I’m earning $2,000 a month. You’re telling me I have to donate 20% of that? I’ll have to live on 16! I’ll have to work more hours!” He replied, “In addition to that, you need to give your time.” I thought, “Crap! What about work-life balance?”

But I promise you, test it. The windows of heaven will open up, and you won’t have room enough to receive it in your life if you make the decision to make a difference. Find something you care about. I’ll talk about our charity, but I’m not here to promote that. I want you to dig deep inside, sit down with your family, and say, “What is important to us?”

You know, Uncle John died of cancer—let’s get behind that. Aunt Mary had this issue—whatever it is, get behind something you can be passionate about. Don’t just write a check; decide to get involved in a way that creates a global movement. This group can do that. I recently spoke to a high school group, and those kids can do it too, but you all are already there. You have resources at your disposal—even if it’s not your own checkbook, it’s your network to create a global movement.

So find something you’re passionate about, and decide you’re not just going to write a check. Decide together as a family that you’re going to make a powerful impact in the world.

It’s funny; I remember this conversation with my mentor where I said, “Wait a minute, I want to be successful,” and you can write this down, “so I can be charitable.”

I had no idea that I should be charitable so that I could be successful. Okay? Wherever you are on this journey, especially if you’re just getting your business started, if you choose to be charitable, it will create success. It will. I have seen it over and over and over.

In fact, I remember once there was a big TV and radio influencer named Glenn Beck. He wanted to launch his anti-child trafficking campaign from Bangkok, Thailand. He had about 50 million followers on his social media, radio, and TV. I knew that if his audience could see what I had seen, it would make a powerful impact. But it was going to cost $100,000 to get Glenn and his whole team to Thailand for this event. At the time, the charity I was working with wasn’t Child Liberation; it was a former one that had a bunch of grandmas donating a dollar a month. That money was sacred, and we didn’t want to touch it.

So, I decided, you know what? I’m going to fund that. My business partner Don and I funded the $100,000 to make it happen. We flew to Thailand, filmed a bunch of kids in the orphanages, and actually did an operation there—that’s a whole other story; you can go to Liberating Humanity to learn all about those ops. But on the way home, as we flew back to the U.S., the wheels touched down on our plane, and as I started to get signal on my phone, two voicemail messages popped up. One was from a family member of the owner of the biggest hotel chain in the world. He said, “Hey Paul, I’ve been looking at your numbers. I want to give you another $10 million into your senior housing investment fund.”

The other was from the owner of one of the largest gas station chains in the country, with an even bigger number. My income from those two voicemail messages, which came while I was flying, exceeded what I had just invested. This happens every single time, guys. Choose to get passionate about something and make a difference, and the rewards will come on the other side.

Now, I want to touch briefly on the movie itself and making a global impact. We have just a few minutes left, and I know a handful of people have seen the “Sound of Freedom” movie. I suggest you take the time to watch it; it’s now online, available on Amazon. I promise it will change your life and your perspective on what’s going on in the world, helping you get passionate about something.

Yes, it’s a dark subject, but we did a beautiful job of ensuring that we didn’t delve too deeply into those dark passages. You will feel it, and I’ll give you a quick background on the story. About ten years ago, I’m not just Paul Hutchinson; I’m Paul F. Hutchinson, running a multi-billion dollar investment fund. I have this huge house with ten bathrooms, and we host all these cool parties. That was the energy I was in, but I was also donating a lot to charity.

Then I received a phone call from our attorney general. He said, “Paul, I know you’ve done a lot with child-related charities. I need to talk to you about something pretty dark. It’s the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the world, and good people don’t even know it’s happening.” He said, “I’m trying to figure out whether it’s drugs or whatever.” He continued, “It’s human trafficking, and it’s now the second most profitable, surpassing the illegal arms trade and soon going to surpass the drug trade.” He said, “Specifically, I want to talk to you about child trafficking.” I was hesitant to hear about children being sold, but he went on, saying there’s a Homeland Security agent in Cartagena, Colombia, who has identified over 20 children being sold for sex to wealthy Americans.

I’m like, that is just sick. That is sick, sick, sick. He said, well, the guy needs about $50,000 to pull these kids out of hell because the government wouldn’t give him the money—he couldn’t prove that any Americans were involved. At the time, I was on the Make-A-Wish board of directors for seven years, and it was a beautiful organization helping children with life-threatening illnesses. I thought, okay, $10,000 with Make-A-Wish sent a little girl to Disney for a week with her family, which is important because she’s struggling with cancer. But here, with $50,000, I could pull 20 children out of hell and get them back to their families. There just wasn’t a comparison.

So, I helped make that happen. He introduced me to some people, and then two weeks later, this agent called me. He said, “Paul, I’m in Cartagena. There are not just 20 children here; there are more than 50. And there are over 100 children in the surrounding areas.” This is kind of the storyline of the movie—the backstory of what really happened. He continued, “We believe we can rescue all of them on the same day at the same time, but I need your help in a big way.”

My ego self was like, “How much do you need? I’ll write you a check.” He said, “I need you. Can you be in Colombia in two days?” He explained, “The head trafficker down here has a piece of property that he wants to develop into a child brothel sex resort. He needs a few million dollars to build it out and believes he can make tens of millions of dollars a year selling children to wealthy clients.” I was like, “Okay, how do I help?”

He said, “I have to have somebody who can pretend they’re willing to fund that.” Now, he knew more about my background than most people. I have a set of skills that makes me somewhat safe in a dangerous place, but he added, “I can’t teach my Navy SEALs how to negotiate this deal.” He continued, “If you come down and just tell them, ‘Listen, I will fund your project under one condition: you call all of the other traffickers you’re connected with and get them to bring all of their inventory together at the same time because I’m going to have a party in another week, and I’m going to bring a bunch of my buddies down.'”

He said, “If you come down and tell him that, we believe he’ll make those calls and bring those children, and we can rescue them all.” So, in two days, I was at a conference like this, a second and third-generation billionaire event in Atlanta, Georgia, when I got the call. I thought, oh, I don’t have time to go home real quick. What do I wear? He said, “Come down as a wealthy playboy.” I looked down; I had $2,000 cufflinks on at the time, a $50,000 watch, and a suit that cost more than my first car. I thought, I think I’ve got the outfit.

Two days later, I was face -to -face with the most evil people on the planet.
Negotiating this deal halfway through one of them leans forward and he goes, “Pablo, I have a gift for you.” I said, “Really? What’s your gift?” He hands me his phone and there’s a picture of an 11-year-old girl on his phone. He said, “This is Princess. She’s still a virgin.”
He started talking about horrific things I could do to this little girl. I realized if we could get these kids out Before they were ever abused in the first place.
That would be a miracle and something he said made me realize He had more than her. I said Fuego. I said you you have more Virginal. Yeah, yeah, I got three or four more. I said you’re bringing those to the party, too, right? He goes, oh, no, they’re too expensive too expensive. I’m already paying this guy twenty-five thousand dollars I’m paying him five hundred dollars per child for minimum of 50 children just for two hours in the afternoon. I said, “He goes, ‘Hiffay, you already paid $25,000. You want to eff those other virgins, it’s going to cost you maybe $2,000,
maybe $5,000 for that little one. It’s going to cost you maybe $10,000 more.'” At this point, I was legitimately pissed. My ego self -stepped right up front and center. I put my hands on my chest and I’m like, “You don’t think I can afford an extra $10 He’s like, “Oh no, if they know,” I said, “I want every one of those virgins at my party.” They damn well better be virgins when they get there. They’re not for you. They’re for me, my guys. You understand? Oh yeah, if I understand, a stupid smile. In the movie, if you saw that, my character wasn’t convinced to go by the Homeland Security Agent, and it was only after my driver was given this picture of this child and gave it to me and then I looked at that and that convinced me to go. In real life, I was already there. And that moment was the first major transition for me. Fast forward, a week plus later, we had met with our team and met with the Colombian federal agents and US Embassy down there.

We set everything up, and these guys ended up bringing 54 children. We had three separate cities going at the same time, and they placed the children in a separate part of a little house area, isolating them so we could negotiate everything.

I was sitting at a table when one of the traffickers got up and said, “Pablo, I have to show you the gifts that I brought you.” He went into the house where the children were, and immediately we could hear a few of them crying, terrified. Ten minutes later, he came out with four virgins—three little girls and one little boy. This boy was eleven and had been given cocaine because he was so scared it was going to hurt. What kind of twisted monster thinks that’s attractive?

Every cell in my body wanted to hug these kids and say, “You’re going to be fine. You’re going to see your parents.” But I couldn’t say that. Then they brought in the little girl—the same one he had shown me in the picture. I was sitting down, and she was standing, just barely above my eye level. All I could see was fear.

At that moment, I made a commitment to myself, to God, and to that child: I was going to dedicate my life to eradicating that evil from the face of the earth.

So we operated in three separate cities in one day, rescuing 127 victims and bringing them back to their families. The most beautiful moment of my life was when the agents came, arrested everyone, and the child protective services people arrived with the children.

And they started singing and laughing with these kids. That sound of freedom was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard, especially compared to the crying I had heard just half an hour before. I turned to the agent and said, “I’ve spent my whole life making money, making rich people richer. I had a Lamborghini on my vision board that I had been waiting for a couple of years to buy. I just needed to hit a few more goals, and I was there. It was a wide-bodied door, gorgeous, convertible. But I told him, ‘I’m not going to buy that car. I want to write you the check. I want to make a difference. What can I do?'”

He responded, “Paul, I can’t teach my Navy SEALs how to wear a $4,000 suit and a $50,000 watch and negotiate a multi-million-dollar deal. I’ve never found an ultra-successful business owner who’s had the training that you’ve had. If you’re willing to be the bait, I’ll change your whole life.” That was 10 years ago.

Since then, I have led or played a key part in over 70 undercover rescue missions in 15 countries. Through our foundation, the Child Liberation Foundation, and other foundations that I have helped to fund and start, over 6,000 victims are now back with their families.

I share all of this because my hope is that you go home and ask, “How can I have a powerful impact in the lives of others?” When I was a kid, I had a poster with a bunch of Ferraris and Lamborghinis, accompanied by a quote that said, “He who has the most toys wins.” Now, I have one that says, “He who has a powerful, positive impact on the most lives wins.” That’s what it’s all about, guys.

Figure out how to create a global movement. I realized at that moment, when I made that promise to that little girl in my heart, that we couldn’t take millions of people and have them see what I had seen, but we could help millions of people feel what I had felt.

And that’s why we decided to make the movie. It became the number one independent film in the world. I was the primary investor in *Sound of Freedom*, bringing in some other families to help as well. We only spent $14 million on the movie, but we achieved $270 million in box office sales alone. Now, the money isn’t what’s important; every single one of those dollars represents a human being whom we were able to help feel what I had felt.

Guys, go home today or after this conference, and spend time with your family. Sit down and decide what it is you’re passionate about, how you’re going to give back, your “why.” What is the purpose of the wealth that you’ve either inherited or created? Is it just so you can have Ferraris for your second and third-generation great-grandkids? Or is it to leave a meaningful impact—something that your great-great-grandkids can say, “My great-grandpa made a massive impact in the world,” not just made a bunch of money, but made a massive impact?

That’s my hope today. Reach inside and ask yourself, “How can I make a difference?” If you want to participate with us, go to LiberateChildren.org, and you can learn more there. If you have the capacity to donate, we would love that. We’re building safe houses right now for the kids and retreats for healing for adults as well. If you want to come and spend some time on a personal transformational experience, visit Liberating Humanity to learn more about that.

Thank you. Thank you for coming and spending time with me today.