Ep802: Collin Plume – Why You Should Make Your Own Mistakes

Andrew Stotz 00:02
Hello, fellow risk takers, and welcome to my worst investment ever. Stories of loss. To keep you winning in our community, we know that to win in investing, you must take risk, but to been big, you've got to reduce it. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm on a mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives, and I want to thank all of our listeners from the Los Angeles area. I left Cal State Long Beach and went to work for Pepsi in Los Angeles and left Los Angeles in 1992 it's been heartbreaking, of course, seeing the fires that went on there. But luckily, I know the resilience of all those in Los Angeles, fellow risk takers, this is your worst podcast host. I'm your worst. So I said podcast. Andrew Stotz from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guest, Colin. Plume. Colin, are you ready to join the mission? Absolutely excited to be here. Thank you. I'm glad to have you with us, and I'll introduce you to the audience. Colin, a precious metals expert and serial entrepreneur, helps investors maximize returns with minimal risks. And don't we all want that? Founder of noble gold investments and my digital money. He champions alternative assets like metals, real estate and crypto. A dedicated family man, he prioritizes integrity and client success in navigating complex financial markets. Colin, take a minute and tell us about the unique value that you are bringing to this wonderful world.

Collin Plume 01:45
Well, thank you for having me first, and I think what I've been able to do over my career is learn from incredible mentors in different arenas, different businesses that I worked for before I started my own business, and I've been able to bring a unique perspective, a simplicity, to the precious metals world is really where I got a lot of my runway for to be an entrepreneur. I simplified an industry that they tried to make too complex, and I did that through the education of precious metals. We did it in a very unique way, in a simple way, and we continue to do that today. That's how we were able to grow noble investments. I later started a cryptocurrency trading platform because people called us and said, you're already doing alternative investments. What about this alternative investment? And I said, you're right, I should be doing that. And so I opened a cryptocurrency trading platform. We've been in business for four years, and I went out and did the thing I wanted to do, which was create a platform that had unbelievable safety, customer service and a personal approach. And so with the two businesses, I was able to do that and build it through, you know, integrity and family and unbelievable high level customer service, which I think people are missing today in the financial world. They just, you know, unless you have a certain number of income, they don't feel like they're getting, you know, the respect from an institution. And so I wanted to bring that back. And so that's what I brought to the precious metals world and and also to the cryptocurrency world and I continue to do that now that I have young kids, and I'm teaching them about business. My next thing I'll be focused on is teaching them how to build wealth and in an alternative way, in a good way, in an ethical way. So that's my, my newest mission with having three young children. Fantastic,

Andrew Stotz 03:46
Thailand is kind of in, was at least in the forefront for regulations related to digital assets, and they came up with a law and a regulatory framework for that. You know, I don't know, six or seven years ago, you know, when things were getting hot, and I was, in fact, the CFO of a crypto currency exchange here in Thailand. And through I do an outsource CFO business, and they needed help getting the accounting right, which was a struggle. You know, getting the coding right and getting the trading platform right was good, but the count how to connect that to the accounting, financials and all that. And eventually we were, I worked with them for a while, and then, and then we sold the business to a bank here, which now owns it and renamed it. And then I work with the bank for a while to help, you know, with the finances. So I'm just curious, maybe you can tell us a little bit about, you know, if somebody wants to interact with your, you know, with your crypto platform, how does it, how does it work? What is it? Who is it for? And what would be the, what would be

Collin Plume 04:55
the steps? Yeah, well, we built it for people that didn't want to do. Everything on an app. So we actually do everything on a desktop, which seems somewhat counterintuitive, but there is a large, wealthier, maybe a little older, generation that doesn't want to do everything on their phone. So we built it in that way, in a way that it was easy. It's a very easy to use platform. The other thing that I wanted is, I wanted people to be able to do it in their retirement account, so it's Ira eligible. We've done all the reporting, and we built it in a way that you can buy Bitcoin or Ethereum or ripple, or, you know, we have about 25 cryptos on our platform, but you can buy them, you get direct exposure without doing a fund. We do the cold storage, we do all that for you, and then we do all the tax reporting for you. So we really built it for the IRA market, but we do do cash accounts also. But we wanted it to be in a way that, you know, a lot of things that people called me, they said, like, I can't remember my password. I can't do that. So I wanted to build it in a way that it was simple to use for regular investors and it's been that way. And now we've grown in 40 years. You know, we're pretty small. We haven't done it, we don't have Matt Damon for commercials or Larry David, but we're about 300 million under management right now. We were a little bit more two months ago, but, you know, it's a little bit of pullback, but ultimately, it's, you know, it's built for safety and security and for the everyday, you know, investor that that wants to get into crypto, and you don't have to be so techy to to be able to get involved

Andrew Stotz 06:40
with the platform and the release of, let's say, the Bitcoin ETF, or other, you know, other instruments to access it. How does that impact your business? You know, do you? Is it a totally different market? These people are wanting to own a the actual, you know, currency, versus those that just say, I want exposure through, let's say an ETF.

Collin Plume 07:05
Yeah, the financial markets have always done a great thing where they can always build a derivative of the thing, like, why not just own the thing? Right? And, you know, the same thing with the gold business. Like, it's always been that way, like, I don't understand why people just don't want to buy the thing. They buy, they buy an ETF, or they buy a fund, and they're just buying something that has all these layers of fees and middlemen and you know? And if you saw with the LBMA, with the gold market recently, where people are trying to call in their contracts, their gold contracts, and they're finding out that there's not enough gold there, this is exactly why it's just better to buy the thing that you want and not buy it wrapped up in another thing. So it's just, it's just buy the thing. Buy the thing. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's, and that's the whole thing. People would always come to me all these years and say, well, I'll just buy the ETF or a bother thing. But now, you know, LBMA is really, you know, unraveling. Now people are realizing that these contracts so there's not enough gold, and there's been rumors that it's 100 to one or 200 to one, and people have always said, Nah, that's not true. But now people are trying to get their gold out of the London exchange and ship it to New York, and they're telling them there's a two or three month away. So I think it's, it's, I know it's like the simple thing, but I am very much believer. And then, if you can own the thing by yourself, own it by yourself. There's so much money made in fractional investments in so many different ways, and people just don't realize what they're spending. You know, a 1% fee every month ends up being a lot of fees right over time. Yeah, so it's much simpler. It's much more cost effective with us, and we've kind of built it in a kind of slower way. But by building it that way, we have, like my risk and the client's risk is so much lower because they're buying the thing, so I never have to worry about it. So, yeah, so it's been a great journey, and, you know, a lot of it was all this success that I had today was built on, actually, my worst investment, which I'm sure we're going to get in. Yeah, we're going to

Andrew Stotz 09:18
get there. That reminds me, I was just saw a little snippet on a real on Instagram from the movie The Big Lebowski. And he's saying, Now, you're the I'm not The Big Lebowski. You are the Big Lebowski. I'm the dude, the dude. Yeah, and, but it's, it's like, I can picture the dude saying, buy the thing,

09:40
buy the thing.

Andrew Stotz 09:41
Yeah, buy the thing. Buy

Collin Plume 09:45
the thing, yeah. Especially, like, yeah. It's always been a mystery to me people, why people don't want to own the thing that they can own, and in real estate too, it's the same thing. Like, I don't, I only will do, you know, in. Syndications of real estate that the syndicator himself invests in, and you're actually buying the thing. You're buying, like an apartment building, for instance, which I own a number of you. We're buying the real thing. We're not buying a fund of this thing. And I'm looking at the numbers, and I look at the cap rates, and I look at the returns, and I look on the cash. I'm buying the thing. Now I have a person that finds the thing for me, and I he gets a percentage too, but he's motivated. He or she is motivated because they make more money the more I make, right? So I only believe in buying the thing. So

Andrew Stotz 10:36
I just, I'm looking at my digital money.com and we'll have a link to that in the show notes, so people can go look at that and see you know what you're talking about, which is the secure way to invest in digital assets using your IRA and other other ways. But the let's talk about gold. I think gold and precious metals are interesting right now. Of course, we've had a huge run up, but maybe you can tell us a little bit about, you know, how you got into that, and what, what, how you are into that, just so we can, you know, learn from you and what your opinions are about it.

Collin Plume 11:07
Yeah, I've been in the business for 16 years. I was in commercial real estate before that. Had some health issues where I had to have some surgeries on my feet. I had my both my hips, replaced, kind of a long story. But anyways, I needed a job where I wasn't driving to real estate all the time, so I thought I would take a year or two and get healthy and go back into real estate. What ended up happening is I fell into the precious metals business and working for somebody, and I just fell in love with the business. My grandfather had given me some silver coins, Morgan dollars and junk silver as a kid, so I had a tiny bit of an exposure, but it really, it was kind of new for me again. And what I loved about it was this, I was learning so much about how our money works in a totally different way that I never was educated in school about. And, you know, really learning about inflation and really looking at what was happening out there, and then over that, you know, six over the 21 years I was in real estate, five years in real estate, and then the 16 years of precious metals. So many things happened, so many booms and busts happened. I was in real time, able to see how gold played a part in that story. So I was, I think I came into the business, the gold business, in probably the most interesting time, because before 2001 from 1984 to 2001 gold basically stayed around 280 $290 an ounce. You know, this more than anyone, didn't do much. And then from 2001 to today, it's been super volatile, up some and at some point down and now back up again. So I've really been able to see the effects of what our government has done with our currency since, since 2001 to today, and I've seen that whole trajectory of after 911 we dropped rates too low. We created this, you know, real estate bubble. Crashed the market. 2008 2009 gold. We did quantitative easing. Gold went crazy for three years. Got to 1900 then we changed our tune. We tightened up. Gold dropped, and then we were kind of on a good ride here for real estate equities kind of went back up, and then we had COVID government again. Drop rates dumped a ton of money in the market. And then we've gone on this crazy ride from, you know, 2000 gold hit, you know, 1380 an ounce. And now we broke its all time high of $3,000 now, kind of in a quick nutshell, that's what's happened over my 20 years looking at the precious metals market. So it's been fascinating day to day to watch it, and now to see gold break 3000 which the last two to three years, it was obvious we were going to do that. When inflation hit 9% in 2022 I said, Why isn't gold moving more should be moving. Should be catching up, and it hadn't. So I wasn't shocked by this. And then with the new administration now, you know, doing a lot of tariffs and certain things that will continue inflation. You know gold is doing great and on a wild ride. As you've been watching, too. I know, as you mentioned,

Andrew Stotz 14:29
in fact, what's interesting about gold is, if you go back, I started in the financial markets in 1992 I became an analyst, analyst in the Thai stock market. And basically at that time, if you look back at Gold, basically what you would see is it didn't perform. It was an non performing asset. You know, if you looked at the returns, you're probably talking about two. Percent and no dividend. And so it was easy, you know, early on in my career, let's say the first, first one or two decades, to just write off gold as an asset class that's not really worth it. The only thing you could say is that its correlation to equity was kind of zero. So from adding it into your portfolio, you would get some benefit from diversification, but you would be seriously damaging your long term return. Of course, that all changed. You know, as you just mentioned, the period that you just talked about. And I'm curious for those people that have recently ridden a wave, like myself, and recently I've reduced exposure to gold, not to zero, but significantly reduced it, but and I moved that money into bonds. And I'm just curious, like, what's the future? I think one of the things that's hard for people to assess is to what extent will the actions of the Trump administration cause people to say, Ooh, the US dollar is all of a sudden going to become more, stronger or better, in the sense that they're not going to print as much money. They're going to, you know, bring, you know, bring stability back. They're going to cut government spending, and that's going to be a sign that the government doesn't need to borrow, and therefore gold is not as necessary as it was when we were spiraling into chaos. But I'm just curious, like, What is your perspective on gold these days?

Collin Plume 16:31
Yeah, I mean, it all sounds good, and that is the theory of what he's attempting to do. However it's, it's like he, you know, we're talking about 36 $37 trillion in debt, right? I mean, it's, it's already ballooned out of control. And, you know, we still have so many unfunded I think it's 36 trillion debt. Then you talk about unfunded liabilities, it's like 80 or 90. I mean, the numbers are spiraling, so I don't know how quickly anyone can catch up. Number one. Number two, a lot of the measures that he's put into place are likely for inflation. I mean the Fed met today and basically, you know, everyone's screaming for rate cuts, right that everybody wants. And he's and Paul's like, No, we can't, because he knows if he drops, keeps dropping, rates and inflation could go worse. It could go faster. So his hands are tied. So, I mean, yeah, I mean, I think a lot of these measures absolutely could help. I think the one thing that we'll only know at the end of this year that we'll be telling so for the three years before the world has bought 1000 tons of gold, the like the biggest countries in the world, 1000 tons for three years of road, and it's unprecedented. So my belief is that if it happens a fourth year, then we still have room to go, because they're the biggest net buyers of gold, right? And they're not typically net sellers. So I still think there's still room. I still think within free inflation sitting at 3% there's still going to be a lot of buyers of metal and and then. And that's also why I wrote my book about silver, frankly, is because I saw gold moving. I always felt like silver was like the red headed stepchild. Nobody wanted to talk about it. As I did my research for my book, silver is the new oil, I realized that there's just 1000s and 1000s of uses that can't go anywhere in silver, and people just aren't taught. Because every book you look at out there is about gold. Yeah, I get it, but I felt like silver was underrepresented.

Andrew Stotz 19:01
Let's talk about silver in next, which I think is interesting in. But before we do that, I think to highlight one of the things about what you said in Thailand, I always advised investors around the world that I talked to and I talked to institutional investors in the days of my youth, and I always said, Never buy a stock or an asset in Thailand based upon what the government says, right? They never deliver sure and and now I think you know, what I would say is the same thing in the US, there's no, there's zero indication that the Republicans want to become small government Republican. There's zero evidence of it, and I don't even think that Trump. I mean, I think that Trump ultimately needs his piggy bank to be able to do the things that he wants to do. So to what extent is he cutting? Versus. Is reallocating for his objectives. And I think that there is a very high risk for investors out there that they, if they're hopeful that, you know, things are going to change. You know, seriously, man, that may, they may not deliver on that at all. And if I was them, I would be reporting every single month level of government expenditure and highlighting how they've been bringing it down. But that's not what's happening. They just voted in, you know, in, you know, a new massive budget. There's just nothing. There's nothing that tells me that, that there's going to be a change there. So on that side, I think you could argue, yeah, gold, it has its place, and its place is to, you know, to offset the, you know, when you're when you're long politicians, you need to be long gold.

Collin Plume 20:50
And, you know, you look at the numbers like they're talking about lowering taxes, which, I mean, listen, everybody wants lower taxes, but I mean, how's that going to help the deficit. And then they, they said, they reported that the tariffs they think will contribute about 150 billion, give or take in turn. I mean, that's not, that's not enough, right? So, and then Doge, they've, you know, they say they've cut like 88 or maybe 100 billion, but it's not like actual cut, they think over years. So they think there might be, like, so, yeah, I mean, it all seems great, but like, even if he found a trillion dollars in savings, we're still $36 trillion in debt. We still are paying $1.4 trillion in interest. So and, and none of these things will work right away. The only thing that helps in the future is if these measures, that these people believe, this ministry and ever, is that our GDP would go up significantly. That's the only thing that the only win out of all these measures is that it would have to go up considerably. And the Atlanta Fed thinks the GDP is going to be 1.7% this year, they came out with a very bold prediction, that they think it's going to be 100 basis points lower than any of the other feds. So listen, I don't have a crystal ball, but it's like every time you know, people have bet against gold, you know? And they, and they've told me that it doesn't pay a dividend and it doesn't wall this. It's like, yeah, who cares? I don't care if your gold is up in the last year and a half. What 47% like, who cares about a dividend? Yeah, those kind of returns, a dividend is irrelevant in my So, let's

Andrew Stotz 22:40
talk about silver. Yeah, you know that that's kind of a neglected step child, correct? And, and, unfortunately, it's likely that neglected step childs never really come out of the shadows. What? What are your thoughts on silver?

Collin Plume 22:59
Yeah. I mean, it's just little things that I hear and little things that I repeat, solar panels, you know, 17% of the use. I don't think solar panels are going anywhere anytime soon. I think they're going to continue there. There's estimates that it's continue. They think that usage for silver, you know, we're talking about, you know, 20 to 30 grams in every solar panel that's going to continue to go I mean, if people, there's some states that are requiring solar panels. So that's one specific sector the government. Last year, US government did a four to one ratio. So they bought about $450 million in silver, about $100 million in gold for industrial use. When I was researching the book, I was desperately trying to figure out how much silver they use in the military with drones. And you can't get a number. It's impossible. They're hiding it, but they bought $450 million in silver last year. So they're using it. They need it. You know, there's just all these little it's like a million little things with silver that I think that makes it an interesting investment. And everybody said it's hasn't performed as well in this and I think part of it is that gold is like, you look at the price of gold going from 2000 to 3000 it feels like a lot, but if you actually go in that same time period from 2022 to today, actually, Silver has actually outperformed gold over those two years. It's just went from $13 to $33 so it doesn't feel like as much. And so because it, you know, gold goes from two to 3000 it feels like it's more, but at the end of the day, you know this, it doesn't matter. It's all the return. So Silver has done very well over the last two to three years.

Andrew Stotz 24:44
What about, what about over the longer term? Let's say, if we go back to 1971 if we go back to 2000 we go back to, let's say 1980 in almost all of these cases, Silver's performance has been about half gold, except for the period from 2000 1000 to now, where it's a little bit less than gold. So maybe we're in a new era.

Collin Plume 25:07
Yeah. I mean, I look at, you know, if you look at 2011 when, when silver had $50 an ounce the last time, and it was at a 30 to one gold to silver ratio. Right now we're about almost a 90 to one gold to silver ratio. So and if you go back the last 100 years, it typically trades between 40 and 50 to gold. It's even been 16 to one. I don't think it's going to go back to 16 to one silver to gold, but let's say it just goes back to 50. You can make a good argument, and I do make this argument in my book that 58, $60 silver is pretty realistic. I don't think it's a realistic number two to three years from now, you're right. It hasn't performed as well. However, the uses continue to go up. And I always look at, you know, it's a bunch of little things, and the one little thing, little thing I was is that there's just an interesting thing about, like, refrigerators, for instance, there's, like, almost two ounces of silver in most refrigerators. They're never gonna, they're never gonna recycle that silver, right? But yet, how many refrigerators are bought every day. They use it for 510, 15, and then they're gone. They're in the dump. If there was two ounces of gold in there, they pry that thing open and pull that gold out, but it's just valued enough. And so the recycling on silver is like a third of it is of gold and platinum and these other more expensive metal. So it just like, it's one of these things that just kind of rings true is like the uses continue to go up. The recycling hasn't gone up that much, maybe a little bit, 1% here there, from year to year. So there's just a lot getting used that's just not going to get reused. And then it's, you know, mining gets more expensive. I don't know if you've ever bought mining stocks, but it's, you know, mining, it's not getting any cheaper. It's more difficult. Silver is usually a byproduct of other things that they're mining. So I just like the potential of it. It's not as sexy as some of the other investments that are out there, but I just think the downside is low. I think that it's used in, I mean, all the technology today, we're using it. And in my book, I go in a lot of uses that, you know, it'll blow your mind how many uses there are. But I just think it's kind of a sleepy investment that people forget about, and the market is tiny relative to other things. So, yeah, I like it. I talk about a lot of my book, and, you know, it's, it's one of those things that the silver bugs eventually will be, right?

Andrew Stotz 27:43
So for the listeners or the viewers out there, the book is, silver is the new oil strategies for profiting from the next industrial revolution. And you just published it at the end of last year, so it's fresh. It's got a lot of stuff in there. So that's a good one. And I'm going to look at the book. I haven't gone through the book because I kind of focus on your story, but now that I hear what you said, I'm going to be looking into it. So I appreciate that. And now it's time to share your worst investment ever. And since no one goes into their worst investment thinking it will be, tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to it, and then tell us your story.

Collin Plume 28:22
Like a lot of people, when they inherit money, it almost burns a hole in your pocket and you're just trying to get rid of it. I was no different. I inherited some money from my grandmother at 18, and did some traveling and did some things, and was going to school, and my friends came to me with this idea that they were going to do what they wanted to do was the real world, like the TV show, but on the internet. And in theory, it made a lot of sense. And that idea actually did work eventually, later, but my two young friends, college friends, came up this idea, raised money, and I cut them a check that was way too much for what I should have at the time, and didn't get too much into, you know, all the potential pitfalls that that were there. And, you know, unfortunately, the, you know, the business, as everyone knows, the business didn't, didn't work. But it's, in a way, it's, it's one of my great learning lessons in that. I remember speaking to my mother after and she said, The thing I'm the most disappointed is not that you invested in business, because I think you're going to be an entrepreneur. The thing I'm disappointed the most is that you just didn't do something yourself that you didn't do because no matter what, if you did it yourself, you'd have a better chance. Number one. For success, but number two, you would have learned something. And the problem is, you cut a check and you let these other two guys learn something, and you miss the an amazing learning opportunity. And it's stuck with me. I was, you know, I was 19 when I had that conversation, and that conversation has stuck with me my whole life, that if I'm going to make a mistake in something, I'm going to make it myself. I'm going to do it with I'm going to put my blood, sweat and tears into whatever it is. And so, you know, I tried a few things in my 20s, some other businesses. I got a commercial real estate. I did a few things, and then sort of fell into the precious metals business because I needed for my health to try something different. But ever since then, everything I've done any business that I've involved in, I've always had a portion and I've invested in three other businesses since I started my own. I am in control of my destiny, so if I lose the money, I can only blame myself. And so my worst investment ever is probably my best learning lesson ever. Also,

Andrew Stotz 31:11
yeah, I mean, I usually ask people, what's the lesson that they learned? But I think you've articulated it pretty well and and it's, it's heartbreaking too, and you when I listen to your story, and I just think about how hard it was, I think one of the things that young people don't realize is how hard it is to accumulate wealth, yeah, and you know, people are, you know, more than happy to spend other people's money. And, you know, people are more than happy to get down on, you know, blaming other people for making money. But, boy, to accumulate wealth is hard, and that makes the loss of that accumulated wealth, you know, really painful. And the other thing about it, too, I would just mention, is the family aspect of it, you know, part of the objective of a family is to protect the next generation, absolutely. And you know, that's the challenge that a family that generates wealth, how do you make sure that the kids you know? And that's why some families I know, in my grandfather's case, he did some, uh, irrevocable trusts, or some trusts that disperse money over time, not to me, but to his siblings, uh, versus lump sum type of thing. And I'm just curious, what are your thoughts on that when you decide that you want to, you know, share over generations, how are you going to think about it based upon what you learned from this?

Collin Plume 32:41
Yeah, I mean, listen, it's an important part of it is like, what's the plan for the next generation? And, you know, I believe that no matter how you set it up, if you don't teach them how to make a living in this environment, none of it really matters, because I've done very well, and even if I set it up so they're going to get the money at 25 or they're, you know, I have three young kids. I have twins that are six, and then my oldest is eight. I could set up a bunch of interesting financial but if they're waiting for the money at some point, what have I really accomplished? So my what I've done is I talk to my children about business all the time, actually, and I have a funny conversation with my son. So we moved out of a house, and we rented the old house, where we were trying to rent the old house, and it wasn't going well. And I'm like talking to my wife about it, we're talking about it and then one day, my oldest says, Hey, what's what's going on with the house? I said, Well, we've had some showings, but we haven't rented it yet. And he said, he looks me dead in the eye. He goes, What about the mortgage? And he's eight. He's eight years old. And I go, I told his name's Max. And I go, that is the I'm the so proud that you're like, busting me up right now, like that, you're like, layering into me about this mortgage, because you're 100% right, because he's like, you told me that you have a low mortgage and that you're going to get the rent above but if you don't get any rent, how do you cover the mortgage At eight? Genius. And I was like, this is right, yeah.

Andrew Stotz 34:23
I mean, actually, when you think about the idea of gifting kids, you know, I think, what is the maximum these days, from a tax perspective, like $30,000 a year or something like that. Or, I can't remember where that's at,

Collin Plume 34:34
yeah, I listen. I have them all set up with precious metals portfolios, and I build every year we own real estate. We own these businesses. I'm going to teach them how to run these I'm going to teach them how to be involved in a business. Max is pretty good at math. He actually told me the other day, I have a P and L. He wants to look at it. We're going to start looking at their P and L. We're I think the greatest thing I can do is teach them how to make $1 really. Yeah, that's the most at an early age. And then when the money is at the end, you know? And listen, people call me and you got to get set up. And listen, we'll have some stuff set up. We'll have more stuff set up. But the end of the day, if they're just waiting for me to die, what have I done as a parent? Good point. It's good. So I don't, I don't really look at it that closely, because for them to have happiness, they're going to need to create their own wealth. Part of the reason that I enjoy my life is I built something on my own, and they're going to need to have that joy too. So, yeah, so to answer your question, it's a part of what we're working on, but it's not my main priority. Yep,

Andrew Stotz 35:40
sounds like Max could be my youngest student in the valuation master class.

Collin Plume 35:46
He would love it. He would absolutely love it. So

Andrew Stotz 35:49
so let's go back in time and think about this question, and let's try to work it out for somebody that's in the same situation right now. So based on what you learn from this story, and what you continue to learn, well, it's one action that you'd recommend our listeners take who are facing the exact same situation where some friends come along and all that, you know what? What one action should they take at that moment to avoid the fate? Yeah.

Collin Plume 36:17
I mean, I think first of all, you know, 99% of startups are going to fail, and so if you're writing that check, you should, you should have, this should be money you're prepared to lose. And I was not prepared to lose it. I needed that money, but I was, you know, a little bit of a gambler. And I learned quickly, because I was within a year, very broke, and it was a tough situation for me. You're going to have friends and family come to you about investments all the time, and I think that it's a good idea to look at them and to look at the numbers and and, but also realize that a lot of times, from what I've seen, small first round investors in investments, even if the business ends up working out, you get diluted so much that you never make a return. And so you're sort of, in a way, supporting a friend. If you're investing in that thing, listen, you'll get to a point in your life, maybe you're one of these investors that finds a Facebook and you actually get a payout, but those stories are so few and far between. That being said, I think it's interesting. And I look at the numbers and every business that someone brings me. I take the meeting and I learn about it, and I because I want to learn about what's happening and what's trending. And listen, you might see an idea that doesn't seem good, but it's a good exercise for your brain to go through and see and ask these questions and say, Well, how are you going to get through the first three years? What? What are you going to sell it for? Who's your competition? These are all things that are really good, because I think it gets you thinking, and it helps me think about my businesses and reaffirms what I'm doing. Go, wait a minute. Maybe I need to go back to the drawing board, look at my business. So I would say, take the meetings. Don't feel obligated, you know. And at the end of the day, even giving, I've given people feedback about their pitch that has helped them raise money. So I would say, get that opportunity, take it, learn from it, but know that if you invest, there's a very, very high probability that you'll never see $1 come back to you.

Andrew Stotz 38:33
It reminds me of, basically, I've collated all of the content that people have shared with me, and I brought it down to six common mistakes, and I have a whole presentation I've done many times called six ways to lose your money and six strategies to win and and I thought this would be a good time to read these off for just a second. Number one failed. Most common failed to do their research which encompasses many mistakes. Second, failed to properly assess and manage risk. Number three, driven by emotion or flawed thinking. Number four, misplaced trust. Number five, failed to monitor their investment. And number six, invested in a startup company. So, yeah, those are, and this is one of those where, you know, the startup world. And what I always tell people is that, basically, the way to go into startup investing is just understand right from the beginning, you're going to lose all your money, yeah, and if you start with that premise, then you may want to consider giving a donation. Yeah,

Collin Plume 39:45
exactly, well. And it's like, as you were reading all those things, the thing that was popping in my mind as you're reading through it was AI. AI was like, I don't even know how many times people will come to me with AI ideas, and I just think to myself, well, but how? How does it, how does it really work? I understand. But like, how does it act? And they can never tell me how it actually will work, like, in the end, and how they'll get there. And so, you know, and that's the research part, right? Like asking that, but okay, it sounds good, but how does it get to that end result? Like, what does it cost. What does it do? And does it really solve a problem? Does it solve a problem? A lot of times they're not problems. So, yeah, so I agree with you. It's typically a donation when you're when you're doing a startup, and

Andrew Stotz 40:34
that's what people ask, if they can borrow money. I always say, Oh, I don't lend money, but, but I do, you know, give some, you know, I can give kind of a grant, and the maximum grant amount is $100 so what are you working on? You know,

Collin Plume 40:51
that's a good number. I wish I had that, that kind of, that kind of belief, too. But I think it, you know, when it comes to it, business and investing is and, you know, there's a big wave now of people buying into, you know, businesses that are already established. It's like, why would you buy a business? Like, why would you just buy an established business already? There's so many. I mean, I'm getting them every day, and I just don't have the bandwidth to take on anymore. Because besides the two you mentioned, I already have a payroll and an HR outsourcing business that I am a part of now, and I'm going to, we're going to ramp that up and scale that. But there's so many plumbing and roofing and, I mean, there's a million of these business electrical. I don't know if you saw, but it was PAL or Besant was one of these guys was saying that, like, there's not enough electrical people that can do electrical in this country, in the US and so, like, there's such a massive need for a lot of these blue collar so, you know, listen, you could try to jump on the bandwagon of a totally new and exciting idea, but there's some stuff out there that's, like, already waiting for you to take on, yeah. And I, I'd probably focus on

Andrew Stotz 41:58
those, yeah. And I think the good book for that is Main Street millionaire by Cody Sanchez, where she's highlighting the demographics also, which are basically saying that many, you know, as people get older, there's not as population gets older, there's no buyers for their businesses. And so many people that have good, cash flowing businesses could just end up shutting them down because they don't have siblings or kids or others to take it over. And so that's, you know, a fascinating point. Let me ask you, what's a resource you'd like to recommend? I mean, we've got your book, you've got, you know, your crypto and other things, or any other resource that you employ in your life, a book, a habit, anything

Collin Plume 42:41
I mentors. For me are the key, and I try to find a new one every year, and it's not even and it's funny, because when I say mentor, I recently met this person that's a digital marketing wizard. This guy, and I know a little bit about digital marketing. Well, I know a good amount, but this guy knows a lot more than me, and this is a friend, our friend, our kids are in school together, and so I've just basically for the last six to eight months, I just go out to coffee with him, and I just get as much information and ask him questions. So I think getting a mentor every year for me is because you can always tap that resource, the one, I think one of the great I've said this a lot, but one of the great things about my life, the things that I think has helped me, is that my parent, both my parents, are still alive, and my parents have been mentors to me. Obviously, I mentioned the story about my mother. I mean, that's one of the best pieces of advice I've ever had. My father gives me advice. You know, he's involved in the precious metals business. So I think having mentors and getting new mentors in different areas help you. I had two years before that. I had a friend as an attorney, and I had some stuff happen, but then he became a mentor and would give me ideas. And so I think that's for someone that I do love to read, but I need that input. I need to be able to call somebody and ask questions. And so I think if you can find those people and they're willing to work with you, I think that's and if you're willing to take the criticism too, right? That's the biggest part. Is I'm willing to take it, and, and sometimes I don't want to hear it.

Andrew Stotz 44:22
It's painful, something that's painful, and,

Collin Plume 44:25
and, but they're right. They're 95% 90. They're right when they tell you something, if they care about you, and they know they're giving you the real stuff, and you just gotta be willing to take it after,

Andrew Stotz 44:40
after about 800 interviews, I'd say you're the first person to say that, and so I like that. And for the listeners and the viewer viewers out there, who's your mentor for the next 12 months? Well, that brings us to our last question, speaking of the next 12 months, what's your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Collin Plume 45:01
Uh, my number one goal for the next 12 months is to train some people in in two of my businesses, to take over more of the day to day, because I think I've done as much as I can, and I need new energy and new ideas, so I'm training, um, so for that, for these new businesses, I've been at the start another startup been around for a while, but I'm trying to build exposure and brand and really build a system that's that business, that HR business needs systems, and building systems, really focus on the systems, hoping in a year that'll be done. And then, you know, on a personal front, I was finally able to get it through a lot of my health stuff. So I'm trying to get back into, I want, you know, I have friends that go to Yosemite and do these big hikes on a personal I want to do one of these big hiking trips that I've never been able to do. I've had all my, you know, the hips and the feet and all my surgery. I've done it. I'm all bionic now I'm The $6 million Man, and I want to do one of these big, you know, hiking trips with the guys. So that's that's on my horizon for this year. Yeah,

Andrew Stotz 46:10
and for the listeners and viewers out there, never heard of it, it was a great show when I was young, called The $6 million Man, where they said, we can rebuild him. And so you've been rebuilt. As opposed to being reborn, you've been rebuilt Exactly. Listeners, there you have it, another story of loss to keep you winning. Remember, I'm on a mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. As we conclude, Colin, I want to thank you again for joining our mission. And on behalf of ACE dots Academy, I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience?

Collin Plume 46:49
I love this show. I love the Pro. I love everything about it. You're a real great guy to talk to. Real mentions. I appreciate you having me on and it's been a pleasure to be with you,

Andrew Stotz 47:01
and that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect our Well, fellow risk takers, let's celebrate that. Today, we added one more person to our mission to help 1 million people reduce risk in their lives. This is your worst podcast host, Andrew Stotz, saying, I'll see you on the upside. You.