Matt Bowles: Hey, everybody. It’s Matt Bowles. Welcome to The Maverick Show. My guest today is Collin Randall. He is a location independent serial entrepreneur. He’s the co-founder, owner, and executive producer at Feed the Wolf, an LA-based production company that creates music videos for some of the top artists in the world, including Pitbull, Enrique Iglesias, the Backstreet Boys, and he even produced the World Cup video featuring Will Smith.
Colin is also the founder and creative director of To the Nines Men’s Wear, which offers made to measure suits that are responsibly manufactured, transparently priced, and includes a charitable component called the LA Suit Project, which provides suits to homeless and other disadvantaged men. Colin runs all his businesses and his charitable work remotely. He’s currently traveling the world for a year with a group of 40 other digital nomads as part of the Remote Year Program, and we both just today spoke on a panel together at the South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas, on the topic of remote entrepreneurship in the digital age. Collin, welcome to the show.
Colin Randall: Thanks for having me.
Matt: So good to have you here, my man. You and I let’s just set the scene here for people, we are in Austin. You and I have just opened a bottle of Italian Montepulciano red wine that we’re going to be drinking through during the episode. I understand this is one of your go-to choice varietals.
Colin: Absolutely.
Matt: And we are sort of having a conversation, decompression, celebration, I don’t know what you want to call it, but you and I just a few hours ago finished speaking at the South by Southwest Conference, which was both of our first times here speaking at the conference. Do want to share just sort of what that was like today?
Colin: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, first off, I think we killed it. I think it was a great experience.
Matt: Brought the house down for sure.
Colin: Yeah, really cool experience. I’d never had been to South by, and I spent some time in Austin, had heard a lot about what the experience of South by was like, and I thought what better way to kick it off then to come out here as a speaker and as a panelist. And we put together an awesome panel. I was really grateful to have you as a part of it. And yeah, it was just really cool experience getting to talk to a lot of people who are interested in remote work, remote entrepreneurship, and telling them at least how we did it. And that was cool.
Matt: It was really awesome, man. The panel that you put together was absolutely fantastic, and it was really cool to see all the people that came out and then just came out up to us, not just after the panel to ask a few questions, but literally hung out with us, went down to the bar, and we just chatted with a good bit of the audience for two to three hours after the panel.
Colin: Yeah, absolutely. I don’t know, maybe that has something to do with you talk a lot about the people that you meet on the road that are about this type of lifestyle. And even the people who are striving to be there, even if they’re not there yet, there’s a certain level of connection that I think we have and we share with them because it’s a different way of thinking and it takes a certain type of person to at least think this is possible even if they haven’t even made that leap yet. And I think that might be why we tend to have that level of commitment in crowd that really want to dive in.
Matt: Yeah, it was awesome. And different people kind of knew us from different places. You know that some of them had come to the panel to see me, some of them had come to see you or some of the other panelists. And they’d come, and they came up to me afterwards, “Oh, we listened to The Maverick Show. We heard –” and they know the all the guests and all that kind of stuff. And so, yeah, it was just a really cool space.
And all of us being there together and offering such different, which we’re going to talk through yours right now on this podcast. I mean, I definitely wanted to get you on the show because I think you run an incredibly interesting business, which most people when they hear and they understand what it is they’re like, “How in the world can you possibly do that remotely?” So, I’m super excited to have you on the show today and get into that.
I feel like though, we should start with how we met. What I mean by that is not the general kind of network through which we met. I mean the actual moment that you and I met.
Colin: It’s quite interesting, yeah.
Matt: It was so amazing. I was like – I don’t know if I should tell from my perspective, or if you should tell from yours. But, you know, maybe I’ll just share like my side of it first, which was that I was in Barcelona with Jen McGee who listeners will know from Episode Five of The Maverick Show. And she and I are in Barcelona, and we’re going out to dinner at a highly recommended restaurant. We get a reservation. She and I are they’re ordering our food and there’s these other people that come. It’s like a shared table, right? And they come in and we’re like, “Oh, hey, what’s up, guys? Cool. Yeah, that’s a good item to order.” This and that, you know? And then we’re going about our conversation.
She and I are talking, and Jen and I both did this program called Remote Year where you travel the world for a year with about 30 to 50 strangers, and you live in a different city each month for the entire year across in multiple continents. And so, she and I had done that together and we had been in Bogota and Medellín and Lima, Peru, and we knew what the itinerary was. So, she and I are just talking about something or other and then all of a sudden, to my right at the same table I hear, “And then we’re going to go to Lima, and then we’re going to go to Bogota. And then we’re going to go to Medellín.” And Jen and I just stopped in the middle of our conversation. And we just turn over and I’m like, “Excuse me. Sorry to overhear your conversation, but by any chance are you on Remote Year?”
Colin: Yeah.
Matt: And, of course. it was you sitting next to me, and you were like, “Yes.”
Colin: And a couple bottles of wine later we got to know each other, certainly. And you know what? It’s funny because that was what? Month three for me, and here I am just about to finish my 12th month, and so a very different perspective now then I had then. But yeah, that was some hell of a circumstance that we were sitting next to each other.
Matt: Well, it was amazing, and I feel like we didn’t even go like super deep into what we actually did at dinner. We were just like, “Oh my gosh, this is amazing.” And then we were just talking, and you guys came up and we just drink wine all night and hung out. And then what I realized is I was like, “Wait, which Remote Year group are you on?” And then you told me, I was like, “Wait a minute, I’m going to actually be in the same city as that group a few months later.” Because I was going to Kyoto, Japan, when you guys were there. And I was actually plugging in as a Remote Year alumni to your group for that month.
I was like, “Yo, I’m going to join your group for the month.” You’re like, “That’s crazy.” So, we reconnected. So, then when I came to Japan, we spent like five weeks together in Kyoto, which was totally epic.
Colin: Yep.
Matt: But I remember it was like one of the first nights, and I reconnected with you, and you’re like, “Yeah, come to this party.” And so, you and I at this party, and like there’s all kinds of like wild stuff going on like all around us. But like you and I are like totally focused on having this business conversation. And I’m like, “Wait a minute, tell me exactly what you do.” And then you were like, “Wait a minute, tell me exactly what you do.” And we’re having this conversation, and I was like, “Man, I gotta get you on the podcast.” And then you reciprocate and you’re like, “Now that I understand what you do, I’m organizing this panel at South by Southwest.”
Colin: Yeah.
Matt: And you invited me to be on your panel. And I was like, “I will absolutely do that.” So, that was an epic month in Japan, though.
Colin: Absolutely. Well, and I think during those conversations we found out we had so much in common. Our stories are very similar.
Matt: It is amazing how much we have in common. We found out that we were both born in Chicago. We both have a background in real estate. We both moved to LA and founded our businesses there. And then we both left LA to become digital nomads and travel the world.
Colin: Absolutely.
Matt: So, let’s use that maybe as a transition, just kind of go back a little bit and start with your real estate experience. I would love for you to just kind of take us back there and tell us a little bit about how you initially got into the real estate game, and then what that experience was like for you.
Colin: Yeah, and honestly, at this point in my career a lot of people don’t know that that’s what I did for eight, nine years. I basically, for me, I went to school University of Kansas. Go Jayhawks, rock chalk. I went to school for design, and I always loved real estate, more or less from a design perspective. I was intrigued. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an architect. And then I got a little older, and I started getting more intrigued by being an entrepreneur, investment, how to make money, and so further drawn into real estate.
And as I was in college and I’m doing design, I found myself really looking forward 10 years, 15 years down the road, saying, “Hey, I’m going to get into real estate at some point, and I’m just going to educate myself.” And so, I ended up graduating college in 2008. And that, of course, was economic downturn and everything. And I thought, “Well, I’m having some trouble landing something solid in my design field. I’m just going to go get my real estate license now, and who knows what that that might turn into.” And within three months, I was working for the number one realtor in Illinois, and we were downtown market.
I was essentially – he had a staff of 14. I was part of the sales staff. We had actually showed the units. It was almost like the show Million Dollar Listing, you know? I was strictly there to show units, and we’ll get further into my interest in fashion later. But I moved up really quickly, largely because of the way that I presented myself and I was the only one allowed to show million plus dollar property within three months. And so, I didn’t know everything about real estate, but I knew how far kind of the presentation went. And I did my best to be as charismatic as possible, and I have some – I’m kind of an extroverted introvert, and when I got to turn it on, I’ll turn it on.
And that’s kind of what brought me some early success there on the residential side. So, I learned first, basically how to be a broker and how to how to sell. And that’s where I started.
Matt: And what were some of those observations you mentioned about the presentation thing and why you in particular got access to show those million-dollar properties? Can you talk more about that?
Colin: It was a combination of two things: my physical presence in terms of I always was either suited or – and again, it for those who take a look at any of the stuff that I’ve done in fashion, I’m pushing the boundaries a little bit. It’s not the everyday black suit.
Matt: You’re not a corporate guy doing air quotes in the traditional sense of corporate.
Colin: Right.
Matt: You’re a fashionable suited guy.
Colin: Right. So, it was a combination of showing up with a real confident look, but I also think what really helped me sell is my vision for the property. And so, when I knew there were holdups, I mean, I did things like I walked away from a property knowing that the potential buyer just couldn’t live with the white trim in the house. I’m sorry, the all the trim was still natural wood tone, and they were like, “I just can’t see me living here, blah, blah, blah.” And I went and got a quote, and it was like $800 to paint all the trim, and I photoshopped nine pictures in a few hours. That house sold for over asking within a couple days.
Matt: Wow.
Colin: And they updated the MLS pictures with the photoshop versions, and that person who didn’t buy that day they ended up buying the house, but they had three other bidders after the new photos were up.
Matt: Wow.
Colin: And it was that idea that I love design. I love – I’m very much a visionary, so I think the combination of just being well presented and being able to kind of listen and kind of pull some of that vision out of other people, and then being able to, in some cases, actually show it to them. I think they went a long way.
Matt: Yeah, and so then from there, what brought you out to LA? And was that a transition where you were expecting to do real estate in LA or what was the motive to move out there?
Colin: Yeah, it was a little kind of happenstance the way that it worked. So, I’m very close with my younger brother, and he had been in LA for some time. He was 16 or 17, literally finished his senior year of high school online. The kid had been through 12 schools growing up, felt like he was a failure in so many ways. He couldn’t succeed in school, but he found a camera, and when he found that camera everything changed for him. And my parents knew so much so, they were willing to move him from Chicago to LA.
My parents were still together at the time, and my mom spent an entire year divided from my dad to live with my brother. And my mom basically took his senior year of high school for him online so that he could pursue filmmaking at a young age and get a head start. And so fast forward a year or two of me working in Chicago in real estate, I’ve now been out of school for a couple years, and my brother is now thriving at say 19 in LA where he’s shooting B camera for Snoop Dogg, and he’s on set with Black Eyed Peas.
And we can dive in a little bit further later, but the actuality here is my brother was about five years younger than the otherwise youngest person on set. And so, the artists, a lot of times you might have these 20-year -old artists, and these artists really took a liking to my brother’s energy and how young he was, and he started to build relationships with artists themselves at that early age. So, what happened with me is I saw he was super talented, enjoying California, and what my mom didn’t know when she was moving back was that my brother alone at 19 in LA there was kind of some trouble on the horizon. And I being very close to my brother was like, “I would love to be in California, but I also think he needs a watchful eye.”
So, he can laugh about it now because it’s been 10 years, but at the time his decision making was certainly not the best. So basically, I was looking for how do I parlay some of my success in Chicago in real estate into a life in California? And what that looked like for me is a short visit to my brother in California, and I ended up at an interview for a commercial real estate job. And that was not actually a job. It didn’t start as a job, it started as a mentorship for a billionaire real estate investor who owned, at the time, approximately 18,000 units.
Matt: Wow.
Colin: And in addition, about 4 million square foot of commercial office space in New York. And now, this guy: his family is fourth generation real estate entrepreneur. His family from Manhattan, New York, in the 1800s built apartment complexes on farmland in Manhattan, New York.
Matt: Wow.
Colin: So, you’re talking about a real long line of real estate knowledge, and basically I said, “Well, this stuff interests me. Commercial real estate, learning how to invest, and as much as I loved parts of the residential market, as you know when people are talking about living in a house, it’s an emotional conversation versus when you’re talking about investment deal, there shouldn’t be at least any emotion in it. It’s about the numbers. And once I learned that, I switched my focus and my interest heavily to the commercial game and how I could take that emotional component out of the selling process became interesting to me.
But my role, though, I wasn’t really in sales. I actually just spent about six months mentoring underneath him to learn everything he knew about how he built his business. And at the time, he owned approximately, I think it was 283 deals and he had only lost money once. One deal in 283. And his whole model was basically, buy for cash flow. It was never ever about appreciation. And that kind of started my real deep dive into real estate knowledge and a real education. And I ended up there for, in total I was there for about five years, eventually in a paid position. And yeah, I mean, so many takeaways it in that time.
Matt: Yeah, I want to get into those takeaways because there’s a lot of interesting stuff there. I mean, first of all, in terms of your choice to approach a billionaire and basically offer to be a mentee in and provide value and that kind of stuff. Like can you talk about how you approached that initial relationship and offered to provide value in exchange for the mentorship, and kind of then how that evolved into a paid position?
Colin: Yeah, I mean, I don’t think I remember one specific thing that I did in terms of kind of how I applied myself or really how I pitched myself, but I do remember there was just this aura of like, “Oh, my gosh, I’m in California. I just arrived. This guy’s for real.” He pulled up in a Ferrari. The interview was over dinner at a Beverly Hills Steakhouse. And it was very clear, I think, that just my excitement around California, around this life, around – I’d never sat in a Ferrari before, you know? And it was, I think, him just really looking at how hungry I was. And I had a lot of credibility being the top seller for the top agent in the residential side, and I basically just advertised how strongly I wanted to learn this other side, this commercial side.
Matt: And so, what was the original arrangement? Like, basically, he went out, interviewed you, and then he said, “Yes, you can now do –” what role?
Colin: What eventually I became the head of acquisitions. And so, my kind of understudy was learning how to break down deals. And typically, we would buy 100 unit plus apartment complexes. Oftentimes, they were government assisted, and we never did any real value add deals or anything like that because, again, his risk tolerance was so low. We would buy project-based Section Eight buildings, which would have 20-year contracts on them, and those different tactics that he taught me were throughout the process of breaking down spreadsheets and learning the details of how these contracts work with the government.
And sure, we bought some other property that didn’t have these contracts on them, but that was kind of where the bread and butter was. And most of the deals that we were looking at where in the South, in the Midwest, a lot in Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi. These markets that have a lot of great cash flowing assets.
Matt: For sure. Yeah, so the first takeaway is that he’s not buying only in the place where he lives in California, and in fact, since he wants cash flow and that’s his primary investment strategy, he’s intentionally buying mostly out of state in areas of the country that cash flow is better than Southern California.
Colin: Hundred percent. One of the first things he taught me was how wants to own an apartment around the corner from them that they can drive by and make sure it’s okay. And the reality is that it’s really no different than owning and investing somewhere else in the US. If the numbers make sense, you have management in place, there really is no difference.
Matt: That’s awesome. And then what else did you take, or did you learn in terms of being around a billionaire and somebody that is operating at that level and thinking along those lines? What did you observe or take away from?
Colin: Yeah, I would say, obviously, I learned how to break down a deal. But outside of the real details of the position I was in, he definitely taught me a few things about the way to operate a business and the way to manage a staff. He had over 700 employees, and the guy like me. I literally, he had an assistant, but my desk was inside of his office. His assistant’s desk was not. I literally tapped into every conversation he had, every deal he had. I ran entire point on it until he signed. I basically had full reign of a $50 million bank account to spend at my own disposal, and he didn’t get involved until we were signing paperwork.
But I got to witness so many of his interactions, and one huge takeaway was just his ability to delegate and how he created kind of a top down funnel where he only – you know, if you had management in place at every building, and then managers talk to regional managers, and then regional managers talk to district managers, and district manager talks to him. And if he needs to, he’s willing to call down and at any point, but essentially, how powerful it is to delegate real responsibility and trust to other people on your team and let them handle it. And so, that was definitely as I continue to strive to build a bigger business and I’m learning better and better how to delegate, I look back at my time there and see the infrastructure that he built. And that was a huge takeaway for me.
Matt: And then how long did that relationship go on? And what was sort of your progression like over the course of your real estate career?
Colin: Yeah, so it’s interesting because as I’m going to work every day and I’m getting taken to lunch in, whether it’s the Ferrari or the McLaren or the Bentley after I park my Toyota, I’m also on the weekend, I’m supporting my brother. We’re building his notoriety. He’s making progress as a filmmaker, and I’m witnessing him taking phone calls, or his friend who’s, at the time, was kind of his production partner, take phone calls and them just botching it. But they didn’t have – it was not their strong suit to negotiate deals, to handle contracts, to try to maximize the value of the customer, all these things. And so, I eventually said, “Anytime you have a client, just put them on the phone with me. I’ll take care of it.”
And I just started in that role, and what it led to is we started doing productions when I wasn’t in the office. And I learned how to produce kind of on the fly. A lot of advice from my brother of all the time he spent on set like, “This is what you do, this is what you don’t do.” And for those who don’t know, a producer role is, essentially, you get everything together that the director has in his vision so that the day they show up to set he’s able to execute. So, that means taking the budget, taking the concept, and doing a full breakdown, hiring and negotiating crew members, vendors, and then just logistically making it happen because there inevitably will be a fire that needs to be put out to get things there, especially on the larger scale productions.
And we’ve began to develop this working relationship that worked really well where he can focus on creative, and I could focus on maximizing the value we get. And at the time it was, in retrospect, these are small projects, you know, five-, ten-thousand-dollar budgets. And to someone who thinks that that might be a lot of money, when you’re trying to create a high-level video product, there’s a lot that goes into in location rentals, permits, lighting costs, camera costs, and so that adds up quick. And so, it doesn’t stretch that far, especially shooting in a place like Los Angeles. But I was doing these things on the weekend and building the production company slowly. And by a year and a half, two years into me working alongside my brother, we were getting some real traction to the point where we started getting some higher-level clients, some recognizable names.
And this is where I started to get to the point where maybe this is a real business and maybe I can – I was enjoying a lot of the real estate stuff, but I didn’t enjoy sitting in an office. And I was, as you may know, going through deals you got to maybe break down 99 to find one that’s worth doing. And when we’re working on really large-scale deals that involve a lot of breakdown, it can get meticulous and I get a little antsy. So, I enjoyed my weekends on set and sometimes I dreaded going back to the office. And again, not because I didn’t love real estate, but maybe not being there every day breaking down deals non-stop.
And so, as we grew, I eventually got to the point where I decided to kind of start taking that leap of faith, and I negotiated a little bit of a, kind of a more of a commission structure where I wasn’t in the office all the time and I’m still working on finding deals, but I was really going in on the production company. And that worked until it didn’t. Inevitably in all business you face some hurdles. And one production in particular really set me back. And this is at the time where we were still small, and we did a project for Big Sean with French Montana, and we had the amazing idea to hang Big Sean from a half-million-dollar chandelier in a ridiculous $20 million house and have him perform as he’s swinging back and forth on a chandelier.
Of course, we’re insured, but of all things that happen, an entourage member of one of the artists decides to put his belongings on a side table inside the foyer that he’s not supposed to be in. And as he removes his jacket, it wraps tightly around an antique vase and shatters the vase on the floor, valued at $35,000. And the short version is basically the insurance company covered the thousand dollars to fix the vase, but the value from a $35,000 vase that’s been broken and then reconstructed is no longer $35,000. And I remember the day after that production, when you rent these types of houses, they take a security deposit. And that check was cash real quickly after that incident.
And so, simultaneously, all my crew checks bounced. Forty crew checks bounced, as basically the homeowner said, “Hey, you broke the vase. I’m going to cash your security deposit.” There are seven grand, and then all the bounced checks and I can’t pay anybody. So, I take out a loan to pay my crew to stay in good standing, and I had to go back to work. I mean, it crushed us. We owned some of our own equipment at that point. We were trying to build, and I sold the equipment off.
And that really started a real low point that brought me down a rough hole for a good year of trying to build back up from that incident because the simultaneous project we were working on at the time, we got stiffed on. Basically, the client didn’t like the what we did and didn’t pay the second half of the of the project, and he canned it. And so, we already invested more than the 50 percent. And so, these two things happening simultaneously just really made things difficult.
Matt: And then how did you – I mean, I feel like in any business person’s journey – and any entrepreneurs that are listening to this, they can totally relate to exactly the type of thing that you’re describing as applied to whatever their space is, right? It’s like, okay, we’re making progress, we’re making progress, we’re making progress, and then there’s just a massive setback and a gut punch, and you’re just like, “Oh, man.” It just sends you like spinning into a tailspin.
And I feel like one of the main, main, main things of entrepreneurship that I recognize among successful entrepreneurs, is that they go through that and then instead of just giving up, they figure out a way to gradually get back in the game, and then to get beyond where they were before. And I know that that’s obviously your story based on where you are now, but can you talk about that moment when you were feeling those things? And then really getting knocked out of the game for a little bit, how did you sort of revitalize and keep your focus and come back into the game?
Colin: Yeah, you know it took some time. In some ways it was like I don’t know if we’re ever going to really make this back. And so, I went back to work. Called up my boss, he was great. It felt great to have me back and I was grateful for that, and it took probably a good year because – I mean, it’s like when it rains, it pours. I don’t remember everything that happened, but it was not good and basically, I sold my car, I was operating on a rental car. And I remember for a while I couldn’t afford the rent a car, I borrowed a friend’s second car that had no dash. It was like you’re in the interior of the car and all you see is wires. There’s no dash, it was the battery died every other time you drove the car.
And I remember, this is a time where I was also feeling as I’m getting back to work, you know, I used to dress when I would go to work – I would have these client meetings with friends of my boss or potential clients that are worth tens of millions of dollars and they’re investing a lot of money, I needed to look the part. But I was still like lacking some level of like this isn’t me. And when I’m out on set and I’m myself and I’m dressing how I want to, kind of the corporate look was not for me.
And so, I remember a very conscious decision, as I’m struggling as much as ever struggle financially, showing up in a way that was like, yeah, I’m going to look professional, but I’m also going to like be me, whether that’s rocking a fedora, or a bandana wrapped around out of my pocket or around my neck. Just doing things a little differently. And I remember with very consciously, really trying to build my confidence back up through, in a lot of ways, my appearance and like trying to feel good about myself.
There was this consistent routine where every day I would go to lunch with my mentor. And, again, I’m rolling around in these cars that are ridiculous, and we’d be going into these restaurants in Beverly Hills for a lunch meeting, and this is where I would pitch our deals. And the floor was mine, and I felt very much in control. And the waitstaff and those who would see us there often – you know, valet at these different restaurants, they would treat me a certain way by being associated with this group. They’re like, “Gosh, who’s this young guy who’s in his early 20s with these guys who were super wealthy and successful, riding up in all these cars.”
And I would leave these lunch meetings, and I would ask for like another 30 minutes after lunch before I made it back to the office. My mentor was always like, “Hey.” I’d say, “I’m gonna go get a coffee.” And anyone who’s been to LA, they know The Grove. The Grove in like mid-Wilshire area of LA is like an outdoor mall, and a lot of wealthy shops and things like that. I would walk, now no longer with my mentor or my counterpart, no vehicle in front of me, but I was still dressed well, and I still was carrying this confidence, this air that I was getting inside this environment. And just to go get coffee and do that lap, I remember feeling really good about myself. And it had a lot to do with the way that I presented myself.
And people made compliments about what I was wearing and how I was dressed, and it was just like a feedback loop that I continue to try to feed myself. And in a lot of ways, that really started to pick me back up. And it, like I said, a lot of people didn’t know like this was the most difficult time I ever went through. I’m driving to work in a car that doesn’t have a dashboard. On the outside, it’s like who’s this guy that’s going to lunch in a Ferrari? And it was a roller coaster time for me for sure.
Matt: Yeah, I feel like the inner game is really the core of everything, right? And being able to be confident enough and to feel it because you project that. Not even just to other people, but even in your own work in your own convincing yourself that you have the ability to do things at a particular level. Like that’s imperative I feel.
Colin: Mm-hmm (affirmative), absolutely.
Matt: So, then from there what was your path to get back into the video production game and get the business to where it is now?
Colin: Well, it’s really getting back to grinding. And the interesting thing about the music video business is there’s a few different ways that that we get work. And in the traditional path is the record labels have a commissioner, which is in charge of the entire video budget for every artist under that label for the entire year, and then they delegate those funds to specific jobs, to specific directors. Well, if you haven’t been in the industry for a decade and they don’t know you want a personal relationship, you’re not getting that job. So, it’s a very tight knit group of directors and production companies, and it’s a really tough way to get in and get those jobs.
The other way is through relationships of artists and managers and them kind of vouching for you back to the label that like, “Hey, these are the guys want to go with.” What’s also really interesting with hip hop in particular, is they release a lot of content. You have a lot of mixtapes, you have a lot of projects that they’re putting out consistently, and the difference between hip hop and the rest of the music world is that the single that comes from the pop artists or the Latin artist that goes on the radio, that’s the only song that gets a visual. You hear it on the radio, and it ends up with a music video. That’s labeled backed.
However, in the hip hop world, not only do they have that label back single that went on the radio, they have a whole project that they want to put out five other videos to and they fund those themselves. They don’t go to the label for those. So, it’s a drastic difference in budget. You might get ten grand from an artist to do a video, whereas his label backed single might be eighty grand budget from the label. But what we did early on, especially when we were getting back into the game, is we would take these jobs because we had relationships. And we would shoot the job at the low budget based on having a relationship.
And because I was making money in real estate, I really pushed us to put every dollar back into that production. So, the $10,000 production with my super star brother with, in addition to that, I had relationships go get product placement money, and I just hustled to get people on board for the vision. All of a sudden, this $10,000 project looked like thirty. And the $20,000 project looked like fifty. And this is how doing this for two years straight, getting back on the horse, all of a sudden, the record labels started to say, “Who are these guys that are putting out high level content and who’s giving them a budget?”
But the reality is the artists weren’t giving us that much money, it was that we were being creative, and we were really reinvesting it all on ourselves. And my brother, love him to death, is so much just about the vision and doesn’t care at all about the money. And you know, that’s tough sometimes as a business owner entrepreneur. It’s like we got to make something here. We got to make sure we maintain our margins. But to his credit he’s like, “I’ll give up my rate so that we can have the better lenses. I’ll give up my rate so that we can have the better lights,” you know? And that proved a lot in the relationship to the artists. They knew how hard we fought for them.
And fast forward a couple more years, and it was just that consistent effort of putting it all back in and building on those relationships that eventually the record labels noticed enough that those cold emails from the labels giving us opportunities started to happen or returning the potential emails that I was sending. And here we are today and consistently getting opportunities, both from the from the labels, but it’s really cool when you have personal relationships with the artists. And they might receive 100 treatments for a specific song at the record label, but the artist can go in there and be like, “Hey, my guy is here. Can you just pull that one out because that’s the one we want? We want to rock with that director.”
And that’s a lot of times how it works. And it’s tough if it’s taken this long to get there, but if you’re a younger director (a) it’s about I think latching onto an artist that you feel good about that has potential to blow up because several directors that we work with, they’re certainly talented, but they weren’t given the opportunity until the artists they were working with blew up on their own, and then they got many more opportunities. So, it’s really just about building and maintaining those relationships,
Matt: One of the principles that I want to draw out of what you said that I think is so applicable to any entrepreneur, and I think is a really important thing to pay attention to that a lot of business owners will not do, is your concept of reinvesting into your company and into your product. And in many cases over, in reinvesting back into your product to bring the level up because a lot of people will make the mistake, I think entrepreneurs, of taking money out of their company. They want to buy the nice watch, right? So, they got the $10,000 that comes in and then they want $2,000 of it to go buy some watch and to buy the bling, and they start doing things and taking money out too early instead of reinvesting every single thing that they have to grow their company at that level.
And so exactly what you were saying where you can just take less money out than other people, in addition to the other creative means that you’re using, to just make the best product. And then just continue to compound that, and build that, and grow that, and scale that, I think that’s a really important lesson for all business owners.
Colin: Yeah, absolutely. And even if you’re able to work with a team that comes on consistently and supports the vision at discounted rates. My brother and I, we found some of our guys, some of our support that was willing to come out, work their butt off, didn’t necessarily justify what the rate was at the time. But over time, being consistent with appreciating those people that are supporting the vision, and those are to this day a lot of our core crew that are now being compensated in a big way for basically sticking by the whole time. And, yeah.
Matt: That’s amazing. So, all right. So now, I want to transition and talk a little bit about how you then decided that you wanted to travel the world. And then how you were able to do that while still running this particular business because this is definitely not a business that’s a traditional virtual category that someone would think, “Oh, yeah. That’s the type of business you could run remotely.” So, what was your thought process there? What was sort of your inspiration to travel? And then what did you do business wise to set it up so that you could effectively do that?
Colin: I remember during the time that I was struggling and I was in real estate, and it was kind of the second go around where kind of the aura of going to lunch in the fancy cars and being surrounded by the wealth, and breaking down these deals, and being – I mean, it’s been five years, six years since I was in California at this point where I kind of had hit that rock bottom and I was back on the grind. And driving a car with no dashboard, you know? These are the times where I specifically remember reading the Four-Hour Workweek, being involved in kind of looking down that path of location independence.
And I remember sitting in my office at six, seven o’clock at night by myself crying in front of the computer as I was looking at pictures of Thailand. I mean, I’ve been to Thailand several times in the last several years, but the other location was Costa Rica that I remember specifically looking at, at that time. And this is the first time I made it to Costa Rica was about two months ago, and something came over me when I actually landed my feet on the beach in Costa Rica it. Despite traveling as much as I have the last couple years, there was something specifically about Costa Rica and Thailand that I just remember myself crying in front of the computer. That like I don’t know how I could ever get there, but this is what I want. I want to have the freedom and flexibility to be in locations like this.
And I would say for three to four years, it was something that I just didn’t know how I would ever get there. And I so much didn’t believe that the business I was working in could be that means that I actually just focused on starting side projects. I focused on ecommerce and different strategies that seemed like a more viable way to get me there. And it wasn’t until I really started seeing success with the production company financially, and just seeing our growth in the type of relationships we were building, the network, and who were working with that I was like, “How do I just re-enroll my clients? Or how do I shift the perspective of – how do I change my business in a way that allows me that freedom?” And it wasn’t easy.
I will say that I think the most difficult part was just getting over the fear of like this can’t work, or my clients are not going to be okay with it. It was like this false thing that I put up. And, for me, the biggest part was prior to leaving and traveling the world, I would both act as executive producer and producer, which means that I’m not only doing my best to land the work and land the client and work on business development and the vision for the company, but then once we get the project I’m actually there executing it and making sure that it’s budgeted and everything shows up the day we shoot, and I’m on set for 12 hours, and all these things.
When I leave the country, of course, I no longer could be physically on set, and so that made me do two things. It made me, 1) really fight for my fees for the production company because I no longer was getting the fee as a producer, which meant before it’s like “Oh, we go over budget? Well, how much? Because I want to maintain my good standing with my client. I’m not going to tell him that we went over budget. I’m just gonna eat it.” Or those types of things where I was just willing to sacrifice what we were making because I was taking two fees. Once I really had to live off what the production company was making and not my own, I very quickly set boundaries and stuck to them. And if a client wanted something that was outside of their budget, I told them. It wasn’t like I did everything possible to accommodate him.
And it’s like there was a level at which I started to understand our worth in what we create, and I get to fight for that. It’s like, we’re really good at what we do, and I wasn’t fighting hard enough for how great we are, and in the most humble way. It’s like, we spent a lot of years learning and putting in the work to be able to execute at a really high level. And so, yeah, it was having the confidence in our own business that we could execute at a high level, and then really getting over that fear of delegation. And that opened up so much for me. And this year of travel, we actually 4X’d our revenue.
Matt: Wow. Wow. So, can you talk a little bit about how you actually run Feed the Wolf, your LA- based production company, and how you actually run it while traveling the world? What are some of the systems and processes and tactical stuff that you do to actually manage your team and actually run the business?
Colin: Yeah, so it’s certainly supportive that I have a partner in my brother who is based in Los Angeles. With that said, in terms of getting business, that falls all on me and has nothing to do with Los Angeles. That’s based on my relationships with record labels, with artists, reaching out and connecting, finding out what they’re working on, and just keeping in touch with as many of those people as possible. And from my perspective, it’s really just about, to some degree, accommodating the time zone that I may be in. But it’s, on the day to day, it’s fairly simple. It’s over email, it’s over calls.
When it comes down to actually executing our productions, that’s just about finding strong team members who are capable of executing the production, and really staying on top of communication. And a lot of the usual shared Google Spreadsheets to share our budgets and use Skype to kind of go over expectations and things before a client gets there. And I certainly make sure that I’m available during the hours that we shoot a production in case there is a fire that needs to be put out at the highest level. But I’ve also given a lot of authority to my team. They have a credit card, they have a checkbook. If something comes up within a certain cost range, they have the ability to solve these problems without calling me.
And it’s taken time to kind of give that trust and let go a little bit, but it’s freed up so much of my, not just time, but my like mental space.
Matt: One hundred percent. And then were there also sort of unexpected benefits as you started traveling for your business that you didn’t even anticipate when you were initially going to leave? Like how did the Will Smith World Cup project come about?
Colin: Honestly, that’s, I would say, about 50 percent of the reason why we just really killed it this year and saw the growth that we did was (a) delegation and fighting for our fees, but then (b) the fact that I was location independent, it allowed certain relationships to take place that turned into opportunities, whether being in London and meeting an independent artist who was well funded and was willing to fly to – you know, I met him in person in London, was willing to fly to LA for the rest of my team to execute his project.
Or specifically the FIFA World Cup video, being in Portugal and getting a phone call that like, could you possibly be in Budapest in like nine hours to execute this project? And the fact that my proximity was so close at the time, we were awarded the project. And so certainly being flexible in location has created opportunities that I certainly did not foresee.
Matt: That’s amazing. That’s amazing. And then I also want to talk about the other business that you started and that you run. Can you talk a little bit about how To the Nines Men’s Wear came about? I think this is really great to circle back to sort of what you were talking about before in terms of the role that fashion, and wearing of suits, and style basically has had on your confidence and how that impacted your business, and I’d love to hear just how that sort of eventually evolved into you deciding to start the business – the suits business.
Colin: Yeah, so this past year – little over a year ago, I finally kind of took the leap to start this side project, which is really the result of some of this time that I was referencing back in real estate where despite where I was at financially and emotionally, the idea that I was putting on a suit and really taking care and paying attention to the way that I was dressed, it brought a certain level of self-confidence to me and helping me get out of my own rut. And again, that that positive feedback loop, as somebody acknowledges your style or an item that you’re wearing, it makes you feel good. And if you’re dressed in a way that causes some level of attention, or some notice from somebody, to me that really went a long way in starting to build my own self confidence back up.
And as I started looking for what else was out there, looking for custom suiting and three pieces and double-breasted suits, stuff that I was really drawn to, 1920s and 1930s aesthetics and things like that, I couldn’t really find a lot out there, especially at a price point that was reasonably affordable. And so, I started actually with the process of kind of scratching my own itch. How do I get a suit for under $1,000 that is ultra-high quality, that is kind of pushing some of the boundary of style, and using plaids and experimenting with new silhouettes and things like that?
And so, fast forward and we launched To the Nines Men’s Wear in early 2018. And I also am really passionate about some of our philanthropic efforts, and really conscious of kind of the social and environmental footprint that fashion, in particular, tends to have on the world. And it is an industry that’s caused a lot of issue, and I certainly if I was going to venture down this road, I wanted to make sure that from the start that I was at least conscious and aware of our operations and how we did that. And so, that’s why we are responsibly manufactured, ethically sourced, and transparently priced.
And then kind of the philanthropic component is that we launched the Los Angeles Suit Project, which provides tailored suiting to homeless men, primarily as they get out of transitional housing. So, we have relationships with Los Angeles based nonprofits, and as they’re kind of graduating from their programs, being able to put them in a suit that empowers them, it makes them feel better about themselves – exactly what I was talking about earlier, to kind of go back and out into the workforce and feel like they have a new start. And that, to me, is a really powerful component of what we do.
And at the same time, on the ecommerce side in what we’re offering, I feel like we’re developing a unique style that there’s not a whole lot out there, especially at the price point that appeals to, at least appeals to me. And so, I wanted to, again, scratch my own itch and put out some stuff that I think is new to market.
Matt: That’s awesome, man. I relate to so much that. I mean, for me, I can just remember, a number of specific times when I bought a new suit, and I bought like a nice suit, you know? I mean, I paid a little bit extra, and I really got a nice suit that looked amazing, felt amazing, and then just when you walk out with that the way that you feel about yourself when you’re wearing certain things is – that’s apparent. And then, I can just remember people just saying stuff like, I’m going into the club and the bouncer is just like, “Nice suit, bro.” It’s like the day I bought it, you know? And you just feel amazing.
And so, I totally relate to what you were saying about that with the confidence loop for yourself. But I think it’s also amazing in terms of your focus on what that can do for homeless men or disadvantaged men who are trying to get their confidence up and get back in their game and go to their job interviews and get their stuff on track. So, I think that’s amazing.
Colin: Thank you. Yeah, and I honestly, one of the things I struggled with when leaving to be location independent was I just got this business really off the ground, I’m enjoying the process of working with these nonprofits and the satisfaction I’m getting by providing, some of the suiting to these men, how do I travel the world and maintain this part? Especially like if I’m not doing it, if I’m not physically there in LA, what part of this process like gives me that fulfillment? And we’re small, so there’s not like a huge infrastructure there in LA on the nonprofit side, and so one of the things I decided to do is I have all these suits, all these suit samples as I’m developing my own line, that I threw a handful of them in my suitcase and been traveling with them.
And while I haven’t been able to do this in as many countries as I would like, I have had a couple very cool experiences where I connected with a local disadvantaged man who was just really – specifically I’m referring to a relationship I met in South Africa where a young man who was working for a cycling school teaching young kids in the townships how to ride bikes. And I went on a bike tour with this guy, and he really just had so much energy and charisma, and all he cared about is these kids. And he didn’t have much, and I could tell how much he loved fashion. He talked about his shoes and how fashion made him feel a certain way about himself, and that just really connected and landed for me.
And so, it was certainly wasn’t just myself, I enrolled a few friends that were traveling with me, and we just treated him for the day. Got him cleaned up with a fresh shave, took him to the barber shop, took him out and got a measured at the tailor, and I took some of my suits and I found the one that fit best and had that suit tailored to him. And just kind of that unveil as he found out that the suit was now his, it was just a moment that probably my favorite of the entire year. It just really showed me why I’m doing this.
Matt: That’s amazing. I think it’s so important too. I mean the other thing that was really important in the founding of our company because, as you know, my entire background before starting Maverick Investor Group was in the nonprofit advocacy space. Like that was where all my academic work was focused, and that I was really passionate about doing progressive advocacy work that’s going to affect positive change in the world. Like that was fulfilling. I mean, I needed purpose. I mean, that’s important stuff.
And so, when I went and decided to become an entrepreneur and start a real estate investment company and all that, I, and my business partner, Valerie, as well, who has the same exact nonprofit background, right? We were like we want to do this in a way that is also going to be affecting positive change in the world, and so we institutionalized in Maverick Investor Group a component where we committed to donate 10 percent of our net revenue. Before we as managers take anything out of the company for ourselves, we’re going to put 10 percent off the top and donate that to causes that are important to us that are affecting positive change in the world, right?
And so, that gives us an incentive, right? A double incentive to make the business do better financially because as the business does better financially, so too then as percentage do all of the causes that we’re giving money to. And that really creates meaning and it creates just important fulfillment and keeps you grounded in the right ways, I think.
Colin: Yeah, absolutely. That’s amazing.
Matt: Yeah. So, I think that’s awesome, and I think that’s awesome that you’re doing the same thing. So, let me ask you this, just in terms of as a business owner, and you’ve talked about some of the really stressful things that have befallen you along the way and along with the path, and most entrepreneurs are familiar with this concept called the entrepreneurial roller coaster, right? Where things go up and things go down and all that, and there’s a lot of stress that comes along the way. So, I just want to ask you sort of over the years, what techniques and practices have you developed to manage stress in your business life or your personal life? How do you handle stressful situations?
Colin: Yeah, so I have a couple remedies. I’m a meditator, so I do my best to meditate daily. I can’t always say that I stick to that, especially, I will say that, when you’re on the road, you’re traveling, it becomes harder and harder to stick to routine. So, that was definitely something I had implemented for years, and it’s been tested a bit while traveling. But when finding myself in a high stress environment, I definitely work on some breathing exercises. Might not do a full on – tm is my method of choice.
And then the other, for me, is I’m a big runner and that is very much a meditative practice for me. I do it also for health and whatnot, but I would say it’s more just to clear my mind. I get great ideas when I run. I feel so much better about myself, I sleep better. So, that’s a consistent practice for me.
Matt: That’s awesome. And then how do you manage your time and optimize your productivity? I sort of want to know the answer to the question in general, like any tips or tactics or routines that you have. You have morning routines and day structure routines, and that kind of stuff. But then I also want to know as you’re traveling, and you’re an itinerant world traveler, and you’re going to all of these new places, and changing countries almost every month and then there’s amazing, incredible things to do and new things to see, and it’s an exciting environment. How do you sort of optimize your work productivity?
Colin: I’m a big fan of – I forget who it was that kind of developed this strategy, but the maker versus manager is something that I’m very aware of, which is essentially I divide my tasks between maker, which is creative and kind of visionary focused bigger picture, versus manager. And I do the maker stuff always first thing in the morning. I tend to try to put my phone on silent or really do it, especially if I’m in a time zone that I know that my West Coast people are not awake yet. So, I try to knock that out first thing, and that is my very focused time. And it’s always done first because it’s when I’m the most focused and the least amount of decision fatigue.
And then I tend to leave the early afternoon and whatnot for kind of the manager schedule, which is emails, phone calls, kind of the stuff that is less draining mentally. And that’s generally how I work. And if I really have the energy for it, I do sometimes switch back at the late night, if it’s something I’m passionate about creatively. That might find me working until late in the morning. But it tends to work in that way.
Matt: So, just in terms of the travel in general and the last year in particular that you’ve been traveling around the world and having all of these incredible life experiences, I wanted to ask you about the personal growth and the life experiences that you’ve had and – if you could just talk a little bit about why you travel, what you get out of travel, and what kind of personal growth has come from that.
Colin: I mean, there are certainly things that I’ve gotten that I kind of expected, which was like primarily just this joy of all these experiences, whether it be skiing down the sand dunes of Huacachina in Peru, or be learning how to scuba dive in Koh, Tao, or getting really comfortable on a scooter in Bali for a month. All these things, it’s exactly as I kind of pictured it. It’s so rewarding. And sometimes I have to stop and be like, I can’t believe I’m here. I can’t believe this is my life. At the same time, as entrepreneurs, we are strivers and always looking to grow our businesses and kind of that next milestone, and I think what travel is done for me is allow me to take a step back, especially being in certain countries or certain parts of the world.
To me, Latin America certainly comes to mind when you talk about meeting people that have a different perspective about what success is. And to me that’s kind of getting away from the idea of living to work versus working to live. And just meeting so many people in – Latin America comes to mind, but there’s plenty of other places around the world, Africa and Asia also, that they just are happy, and they enjoy life. They go to work to make money. They’re looking forward to coming home and spending time with their family, going out with their friends, and it’s really not that much bigger than that. It’s that they can find so much happiness.
For me, it’s just kind of getting back to being present. Like being grateful for everything that I’m experiencing and I’m doing, and then finding joy in all these small things. And what if the goal was just to be happy than to be financially well off or whatever other material item there might be for a lot of people.
Matt: That’s awesome, man. I couldn’t agree more. All right, Colin, at this point are you ready for the lightning round?
Colin: I’m ready.
Matt: Let’s do it.
Announcer: The lightning round.
Matt: What is one book that you recommend that has influenced you significantly over the years?
Colin: There are a lot of good ones. I’m going to try to give one that maybe not everyone has heard of. I would say the Art of Possibility. It’s, I can’t remember exactly, it’s by a couple. I think their last name is Zander. And it’s really a powerful book about, there are four or five detailed lessons in there about kind of really opening yourself up to possibilities and what could be and how to take responsibility for your life. And it was just really, really well articulated, and I found it really, really impactful.
Matt: Awesome. What is one app or productivity tool or gadget that you’re currently using that you’d recommend to people to check out?
Colin: I believe it’s called Get Focused, which is basically a time restrictive app. It goes on the computer as well as on my phone, and I use this during that manager time. It restricts me from, depending on whatever settings I make it, but typically I block email and social apps for four to five hours. And sometimes, simultaneously, I’ll use like a Pomodoro app just to really kind of make sure I’m not getting up and getting distracted and keeping myself to those 25-minute timeframes.
Matt: Awesome. All right, we’re getting into the very important stuff now. You, like me, have a love for hip hop music, and so I have to ask you, who are your top five hip hop MCs of all time?
Colin: Wow, all time? All time. Okay. You know, I’m going to go a little against the grain here. I’m not going to put Biggie in my top five. That’s really not me. Tupac definitely goes in there. So, he’s one. I’m going to say, Kanye, but I’m going to say old Kanye. You know, I’m a Chicago dude.
I also, I love Common. I think he’s underrated. I don’t know if he’s necessarily in the top five. But I gotta show, again, some Chicago love. And then Kendrick has been killing it the last couple years. And my favorite currently is absolutely J. Cole. I think his new stuff, so much wordplay. I think he’s a very humble guy, and he uses some deep, deep stuff in his lyrics, which is refreshing with the way that music is currently going. So, that’s my five.
Matt: I love it, man. All right, so you have actually met a lot of celebrities and gotten a chance to interact with them in different capacities, but I want to ask you who is one celebrity that you’ve never met? It doesn’t have to be a celebrity, it can be an author, a public figure, it doesn’t have to be a musician, per se. It can be anyone, but some person who’s currently alive today that you’ve never met that you would most love to have dinner with, have a bottle of wine and extended conversation for the evening. Who would that person be for you?
Colin: This might be a bit of a kind of a common answer, but for me it’s really Elon Musk. And I think I’ve just been fascinated by the way that he’s, going back to PayPal days, how he’s somebody who has been a forward thinker. And I think there are a lot of people with big ideas, but his real ability to go out and tackle these huge, huge almost like world problems, societal problems, and to really – like who knows if he’ll succeed at some of them, but to put all his money on the line to do these things, I just find it very inspiring.
And yeah, I just I think he’s such an interesting person, whether he succeeds or fails in in these ventures, I just have a certain amount of admiration for what he’s done.
Matt: Awesome. All right, of all of the places that you’ve been in the entire world, what would you say are your top three favorite travel destinations on the planet?
Colin: Well, I’m going to say all of Thailand, which is quite a mix of different things. I love Chiang Mai. I love Koh Phangan. There’s a lot to offer, both beach and inland. So, I love Thailand as a whole. I will say Positano, Italy, which I went to for my first time this past summer with my mom, was an amazing vacation for her and I just love the whole Amalfi Coast. And third, man, I just love Latin America. I love the culture. I love the energy. And so, I’ve had a great time in Medellín, and so I think that’s my top three I’ve been to.
Matt: Those are really good picks, man. Really, really good picks. All right, so what would you say are the top three travel destinations on your bucket list? Places you’ve never been, but you most want to go right now.
Colin: So, I’ve never been to Río. I would love to visit Brazil in general, but I feel like the first stop’s got to be Río. You gotta knock that off the list. So, I’m itching to get there. Hopefully, next year. I would say number two would be some part of Africa. I’ve been to South Africa, but maybe going out to Kenya or doing something that’s maybe a little bit more immersive than kind of the offerings in Cape Town. And don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love South Africa and Cape Town, but it’s not the same experiences as going on a safari in Nairobi or something like that. So, that would be my second, and I would say final would be something East Europe. Something out that way. So, I’m going to say Istanbul would be my third city.
Matt: That’s a good pick, man. Those are all three really good picks, and those are actually three of my favorite places that you just named, so I will give you some travel recs when you go to any of those spots, man. But I will tell you, for me, like the one danger of going to some of those places like I didn’t want to leave, man. Like my first time going to Brazil, I went to Río for two months. And in two months in Río, I literally didn’t go see any other place in Brazil.
Colin: Wow.
Matt: I didn’t leave Río because I was like, “Who would leave Río? I don’t want to miss a day of this.”
Colin: Now you’re making me want to go buy flights right now.
Matt: I’m not even kidding you, man. And then, so I was in Río for all 60 days, and then I went out of Brazil and it wasn’t until I’m traveling around the world and I meet another world traveler around, I’m asking her like, “What’s your favorite city in the world?” And she’s like, “São Paulo.” I was like, “São Paulo’s your favorite city in the world?” She’s like, “Yeah.” I was like, “You been to Rio?” She’s like, “Yeah.” “And you’ve been to Tokyo and Istanbul?” And she’s like, “Yeah.” I’m like, “Why? Tell me why.” And then she’s telling me and I’m like that sounds unbelievable. I gotta go.
So, then I literally went back to Brazil just to go to São Paulo, and it was totally epic. I mean, it’s one of the top street art cities in all of South America. It’s one of the top food cities. I mean, it’s just bonkers as well, right? And then I just went back a third time in December, and I went out to some of the beach towns in the north where they got the kite surfing and all just epic stuff. So, there’s so much amazing diversity in Brazil, and I’ve only still seen a tiny portion of it. It’s such a huge country, so – I do have the ten-year Visa though, and I plan to utilize that as much as possible.
Colin: Amazing.
Matt: So yeah, I think those are all awesome picks, man. Cool. All right, Colin, let’s tell people how they can get ahold of you, find out more about all of your businesses and what you’re up to, as well as follow you on social media and connect with you. How should they find you?
Colin: Yeah, so my personal Instagram is @ColinWRandall. You can kind of get linked to my businesses from there. As far as websites, you can find the production company at www.feedthewolf.la, and the men’s wear company at www.totheninesmenswear.com.
Matt: Awesome, we’re going to link up to all of that stuff in the show notes. So, everything we talked about today, all the books and travel recommendations from Colin, as well as all of his websites and his personal social media handles, you can find it all in one place in the show notes at www.TheMaverickShow.com. So, you can just go there, and we’ll have links to everything in one place. Colin, thank you so much for being on the show, man. This is awesome.
Colin: Thank you so much for having me. It’s been great.
Matt: All right, goodnight everybody.
Announcer: Be sure to visit the show notes page at www.TheMaverickShow.com. Get direct links to all the books, people, and resources mentioned in this episode. You’ll find all that and much more at www.TheMaverickShow.com.
Would you like to get Maverick Investor Group’s white paper on real estate investing for digital nomads, how to buy US rental properties from anywhere in the world, and finance an epic international lifestyle? Just go to www.TheMaverickShow.com/Nomad. The report is totally free and available for you now at www.TheMaverickShow.com/Nomad.
If you like podcasts, you will love audio books, and you can get your first one for free at www.TheMaverickShow.com/AudioBook. Whether you want the latest bestselling novels or books on investing, business, or travel, try your first audio book for free at www.TheMaverickShow.com/AudioBook.
[End of Audio]
Duration: 71 minutes
