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 an 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 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.
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Let's get on to Cole Freeman. In a crude laboratory in on the show, man.
Appreciate you taking the time. I appreciate you working with me, too.
Sorry about last week, too, having to reschedule like that. It's all good.
Well, you know, for the audience, I mean, I 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 live in Austin, Texas or New York City or LA where people are just dropping by all the time.
That's very convenient. But I live in Albany, New York.
People don't even wish their enemies come to Albany, New York. So no one visits.
There's no pop-ins for guests here. That's when you called me.
It popped up as Albany. And I was like, damn, Albany? All right.
So we have to use technology, which 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, Cole, I'd love maybe just break down a little bit of, you know, I guess when I was researching you and your story, one of the things that popped out to me that I couldn't get my head around was, and I want to get into your sports career and that transition. I want to talk a little bit about that, but I'd love to start kind of right in the heart of it, which is you have this not-for-profit.

It focuses on mental health.

It focuses on overcoming adversity, et cetera.

Like what was the catalyst?

What was the moment?

What was the event that maybe stuck in you from when you were a kid or even when you were older that said, you know, this is kind of what I want to do.

This is the problem I want to help solve.

These are the people that I want to help support.

Thank you. or even when you were older that said, you know, this is kind of what I want to do.
These are the, this is, this is the problem I want to help solve. These are the people that I want to help support.
Yeah. I really think that started happening once I got to LSU, once I was able to achieve my dream and really have that opportunity.
And especially after I got drafted and looking back at those two years that, know I was fortunate enough to have I think I just kind of started reminiscing on like I always said the question 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 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? And obviously it wasn't my height, it was the

separator. And I kept leaning back on, it was kind of my mindset growing up and then getting to LSU.

It was just that I can do attitude that I'm not going to listen to the outside noise. 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 off the field,

that really wasn't there.

And when I was sitting back, you know, my last couple years of pro ball,

I was thinking, you know, what is – 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? And honestly, there was a broad spectrum. You know, there was financially supporting people, you know, finding mentors for them.
And there's this big spectrum that we were going off of, but obviously honing down on, OK, where are we going to start? And I think being the mental health game, especially nowadays, is there's just epidemic crisis in the United States and really worldwide with it. And once I got partnered up with my partner's old-time friend of mine and one of his friends out of Nashville, we kind of honed in on, hey, 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 kind of landed on, these tools that 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 AAA. 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 from that experience and they're bitter, like, like they didn't 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 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 right. I'm not saying eventually over time, they don't come to appreciate what they had in the experience, but like they often their initial take is this bitterness of not getting to the show.
And I'm just interested in that difference for you. Yeah, I mean, I think it's just perspective for me.
And honestly, one of our core pieces, it's reframing. It's reframing the situation in my mind.
I'd be lying if I say I wasn't bitter in some aspects for sure. But I mean, 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 and humans. But what does it do for you? You know, 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, I mean, that was everything for me.
So after I get drafted after my junior year going in the 18th round, I turn it down, best decision of my life, coming back from my senior year at LSU. And then I get drafted in the fourth round.
and when you say like, okay, bitter, 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. Then we have this thing called COVID hit after my greatest year of baseball.
Top 15, 20 in all the minor leagues. I'm knocking on the door.
I'm thinking I'm getting that big league invite. This and that.
Well, there's an uncontrollable. COVID ended up messing that 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'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.
You know, I ended 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 back and got better. And then now I'm not starting over somebody that wasn't, didn't even play below, above low A.
And so I fight my way back. I get in the starting line of the start of the rest of the year.
And then next thing you know, I, I go into AAA the next year and I'm like rolling. I'm like, dude, I'm one step away right here.
We had a new GM come in, which obviously just like any company, a boss comes in, they're going to get their people. And they got to put food on the table.
And I just wasn't one of his guys that he wanted. so I ended up getting released August 8th of 2022 and that time was tough for sure

but when I started looking back at it, I'm like, and just to bring back the question, how can I be better? I got another almost nine years of playing baseball after I was told I wasn't playing after high school. I lived a dream.
Yeah, my last goal was to just get one day in the 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. And obviously, you know, there's times that you're dealing with, you're like, this is tough.
And, you know, damn, what should I go back? Could I have done this better? It's all what I could have, should have, you know, 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 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 wear a cross. Do you think faith plays a role in that? I mean – A massive, massive part.
I'll tell you one thing about faith that I struggled with up until about a year ago, maybe even about eight months ago. We never were a big church family.
But from the day I can remember, my dad's got a cross just kind of like this, and I've got it 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 preach, you know, God and God gives us this as opportunity, but we never were that family that went to church because me and my sister were playing ball left and right. We could not, didn't stop.
And that was one thing, obviously, as I was matured, I see people go to church. They're doing this, and I'm like, 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 going to pick, but he knows which way it's going every single time.
And so I started like struggling with that. I'm like, do I need to be better? And I'm like, I started talking to actually one of my partners, Brendan Hitzman, 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 talked to God in my head throughout the day of bad things happening. It could have 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 want to 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 land. Yeah.
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 So yeah, God is a massive factor and he always will be.

I appreciate you sharing that part. I took some of that from how you were describing your experience as what we achieved.
And I think that is a very unique way. I mean, I've interviewed thousands of people.
I don't, I haven't

heard too many people 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 around gratefulness versus bitterness, 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 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. It was right after we lost to Florida in the national championship.
They didn't have NIL at that point. That would have been nice.
But the brand started then. It was just me and my mom just kind of figuring it out.
And it literally just kind of fell in my lap. We won't get too far into it right now.
We can run back into it. But it was just a tattoo that ended up getting on my 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 back from kids saying, you motivated me to 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 blown 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 in life.
It didn't even have to be in sports by no means. 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. You need to do operations on the backside.
But I I didn't even know what I wanted to do obviously I wanted to help people go after their dreams but like okay how do you do that um so we ended up starting it I 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 and that's when I called one of my partners now my longtime friends, Brendan Hitzman. And I'm driving across the causeway just getting back from Scottsdale.
And I call him like, hey, you want to do a shirt with me just for like fun? Whatever we make on the end, I'll break you off. And he's like, yeah.
And then he asked me obviously the big question, what do you want to 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.
And I brought up the non-profit he's like oh he's like well my business partner joel does a bunch of stuff with the non-profit 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, you know, we started the process and we got our 501c3 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 have, 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 call 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. 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.
And what we're going to do is we're going to actually film it. Obviously, the video world is the biggest thing, especially with the younger generation.
And we're going to make a film up in Tulsa, Oklahoma with one of our other partners, Cody Jefferson, world-renowned speaker and what he has lived through. And we're going to have them 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 or 15 minutes and then they'll stop.
They'll do a worksheet, work through that process. And it'll be all those modules like trust, identity, all those things that I touched on.
And 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 want to have to tell you this. We want to show you it works on a piece of paper.
So what we're going to do is we partner with the Boys and Girls Club down in Lafayette, the Juvenile Correction Center, the jail itself, Extra Mile, and a couple other organizations down there. and we've set up a pilot program.
So we're going to run these kids through a pilot program ages 10 to 16.

We'll have two subgroups in that, 10 to 13, 14 to 16,

and then one will be with the facilitator and one without. Obviously, our hypothesis is that one with the facilitator is going to do much better, but for scalability wise, then you have to start training the facilitator for everything.
Not a problem. We can get it done.
We've even started to look into AI LMSs to start trying to help these kids a little bit. But we'll run them through that program.
And hopefully at the end, the data shows that they are in 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, we become a different animal there.
And as of recent, we've actually been in talks with LSU, obviously the school I went to, 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 format in a little bit and the production, obviously, because it won't be based from 10 to 16 year olds.
It'll be more 18 to 25. But yeah, I mean, we just want to make sure that it is working.
And if it's not, it's not a total failure. We just got to change up our delivery a little bit.
Okay, that didn't work. This kind of hit, take that and go.
So there is no failing in this. It's only learning.
How do you measure success in these scenarios? Like 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 want to see the kids head high. And the ultimate success for me and the the words I can't wait to hear, and I know my team 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 success. Because not only do we change that kid's life, that we're going to reciprocate this to all these other people.
So it's not even just us reaching out to them. They are going to start reaching out to other people.
So it's this chain reaction, but those words I cannot wait to hear. Yeah.
I mean, I love it. I think that, you know, I, I got a couple, I'm going to take this a slightly different direction just cause I have a couple of 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'd be like, Oh, what are you just trying to be like a YouTube celebrity or whatever? And I'm like, no, no one, no one gives a shit about a 43 year old white guy who, you know, no one cares. But I said to I do it for like you said, if there's one person who picks up on whatever.
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 as diminishing what you're doing has educational components and it's based in research and science and all that kind of stuff too. So don't take this as diminishing what you're doing.
But at its core, you're motivating these kids to believe in themselves and giving them research and data to support that. But you're motivating them.
How do you work past – my belief is you have to be very optimistic to be in the world that you're in. You have to wake up every day believing this kid's life may be a little fucked or this kid over here might be having a hard time or his dad left him and 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, especially like it with Tik TOK and Instagram reels and, and all this kind of like real time.
And there's, there's just as much negativity as there is positivity. And how do you start to win that battle, I guess? How do you win that battle personally? Well, I think everything's based off of faith for me, for sure.
That's where that's the bottom line. That's the foundation.
You know, that's one of the things that 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 are truly going through.
but then something I've been kind of tinkering with a little bit is everybody's reality is their reality. So my worst day is maybe not getting 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 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 find out.
Like the thing I always try to 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. It's like, well, that cop might've lost his friend the week before.
You've got to try and see their side of it. The trust part is the biggest thing.
And I think that's one of the first modules we're going to 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 got to trust something. You've got to trust somebody.
You've got to trust yourself more than anything. And I think that's the biggest part with the kids that we're going to be dealing with is they don't trust themselves.
They don't trust their judgment. They don't trust this and that because they're struggling.
They go, like you say, online and they're seeing this and that. And they're living in a house with five other siblings and they're fighting for one meal a day.
And how are they going to trust a decision that it's like, okay, well, maybe I should be looking and trying to make these decisions over there. Well, what are those decisions? 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 think the trust part is the biggest thing is I trust God with whatever I'm doing.
If it goes south, It goes south because it was supposed to go south. I trust that he's going to lead me on the path.
I mean, for me, that's everything. I think that's the hard part that we're going to have to find is because we don't want to base it all off of faith.
Because if they don't believe in that, then I still want to help them. I don't shun them because, oh if they don't believe in that then i still want to help them i don't shun them because oh you don't believe in god like no that's you have your belief but i want to get on the same side of the table with you i want to figure out how you we can learn or get you to learn to trust or believe in whatever you want to believe in and then we start building off of there but if you don't that foundation, it's going to be a tough road.
Yeah, I love that perspective. I live a very similar way.
I 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 Sunday experiences.

But then similar to you as well, I played sports my entire life. And Sundays are there's games on Sundays.
And, you know, and and 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. And then that sounds trite.
And I, there's smoke coming out of the years of all the purists listening to this right now. But my point is like, you know, if you believe that God puts you on the path and it's your job to, 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 going to have a game at 10 AM on Sunday morning in 1993, you know, like to me, it was kind of like, as long as I'm doing my work and my connection and I have a point.

So my point is the reason that I love your perspective on this particular topic is I do believe spirituality is vital. I think especially 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, which to me is religious fervor, right? My belief is all this crazy, you know, 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 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 want to finish is I think it is our job as believers to believe and then accept everyone else for exactly the way they come. And the thing that drives me nuts about specifically Christians is there, is there this desire to put their faith on other people, right? 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. 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 want to become a Jew, or maybe Islam is the right player, or wherever they want to general, right? Maybe they're introduced to Christianity, but then they want to become a Jew or maybe Islam is the right player, wherever they want to go, right? But I think bringing them in in a way where you accept them, you are open about who you are and what you believe, but completely accepting them in the state in which you receive them is how we bring people back to the faith 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,

Thank you. us to spread the faith.
So 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 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 African-American and Latino poor.
And then 15 miles down the road, you have the same experience, but in a trailer park or in some sort of mountain community or whatever happening as well. And it's like, how do you speak to these groups? Oftentimes, like you said, they're so caught up in like, I don't want to get beat by my dad or in a fight with the gang that's running through my street or my park or whatever, right? 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.
It's a wonderful thing what you're doing, man. I'm so happy that you're out there doing it.
I think it's grace, kindness, and confidence. I think that's the biggest thing is you can go and talk to people.
Don't throw it in anybody's face. That's not going to do anything.
They don't want it thrown in their face. Give them grace.
Be kind to them. Talk to them as if you wanted to be how you would want to be talked to and be confident in your faith and let them wonder why does he look like that? Why does he have his chest so far out, his head so far high?

What is that aura that is coming?

And I'm a big believer in energy.

Have them wonder.

The only way they're going to convert or want to start down that path is if they wonder.

You can't force somebody to be helped if they don't want to be helped.

And that's, again, getting back to the trust thing. It's not like with these kids we're going to be like, hey, let's go delete the fear of failure.

Thank you. force somebody to be helped if they don't want to be helped.
And that's, again, getting back to the trusting. It's not like with these kids, we're going to be like, hey, let's go delete the fear of failure.
I'm going to teach you how to be resilient. Well, if they don't trust themselves, how can they trust that they are being resilient? They can.
So be kind to the people. Make them wonder, okay, what is it 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 haven't I not seen that? Can I get that? 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. Because 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 or 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 they've never even remotely thought of.
And we're going to get there. I promise you that.
I do. I believe it.
And I,

and I love that you're starting to, 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 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.
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, 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.
And like, 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 in his life that, you know, some of which he brought on himself. But, like, when you're coming from that place of, like, I just need something to eat or I don't want to get the crap beat out of me or I don't want to watch my mom get the crap beat out of me or whatever, 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 of 900 in the middle of nowhere,

where 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, no, that's a joke, but, but it was a pretty little town.
So like, like, your home days to go rob people and then they come back. No, that's a joke.
But, but it was a pretty little town. 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,, you know, you can see it even in sports.
Obviously, this is a more shallow example. But, you know, if you're coaching a team, you know, 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. And that's what every coach is trying to get to is how do I get, turn this kid from trusting the process to trusting him or herself.
And that's where the real change happens. So where do you see like, okay, so you're, you're, you're building it out.
It sounds like West coast, Southwest, Louisiana, some deep South. Like I heard you mentioned Scottsdale.
Like if someone's listening to's listening to this and they're like, I'm interested in this program, either as a supporter or maybe a partnership or something, where do you see this growing and in what areas of the country are you able to do these type of programs today? So we're really, as of today, really nowhere because 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 fully um but once the curriculum, filmed and finished, we're going to start it in Lafayette, Louisiana. We'll do that whole thing.
And we've already got confirmation. Sorry again.
Uh, we've already got confirmation from the boys and girls club that if everything goes as planned as well, uh, they'll take this to the boys and girls club of USA, which is a nationwide thing. So obviously, hopefully we're hoping that.
And then, like I said, we're in conversations with LSU right now on getting the student athletes down, or the student athletes going through it as well. Paul Maneri, who is my coach at LSU, who's signed with South Carolina now coaching over there.
He's on our board, and they're a big believer in mental health up there at South Carolina as well. So as soon as we can finish up the red tape with the IRB and ARB side of LSU, we'll see if we can get them in joint study as well.
But, yeah, really, I mean, once we get the filming and everything done and this actual curriculum done, the way people are going to be able to access the full curriculum is actually going to be ran through our for profit side as well on our clothing brand. We're actually going to do something really new.
I'm super stoked about it. I think it's going to be a massive game changer, but it's called some NFC tech, the same stuff that's in your credit cards.
we're going to actually intertwine it into our clothing. 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.
We'll obviously give them other community things that drive more community-based events and stuff through that. So if you've got a shirt, you've got the curriculum, you can, you know, get access to it.
Um, but if you want to get involved in stuff, you can just go to heart has the limit, uh, foundation.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 our summary of what we're actually doing, who's all involved.
involved, and then other ways you can get involved as well.

Guys, I'll have the link to hearthasnolimitfoundation.com

in show notes and descriptions.

So whatever you're listening or watching in,

you can just scroll down and find that.

Cole, I appreciate you, man.

I appreciate your approach.

I love that you're helping kids.

I think that the way you view the world is incredible.

And 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.

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. Came in the game for me.
I never switched to no change in me. The only thing.
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