#188 - Kyle Hunt - From Being Abandoned at Age Two to Self-Made Millionaire

Welcome everybody to the 188th edition of The Doss & D Show, it's great to have your company as always. Our guest today was abandoned at the age of just two years old and went through over 30 foster care homes. He developed cancer at age five, was a victim of emotional, physical and sexual abuse, but overcame it all to become a self-made millionaire all by the age of just 20 years old. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Kyle Hunt. Kyle is about to share with you his experience of growing up and living in multiple foster care homes between the abusive life he lived with his biological mum and stepdad. He shares being left at a bus stop at just two years old, battling cancer alone at just five and some of the crazy experiences he had to face in his formative years. But then to fast forward to the life he lives today, Kyle shares how he was able to make his first million dollars by age 20 and how today he employs over 80 staff members and is pursued to actually make a difference in the lives of people who need it most. And in one of the more extraordinary things we've ever witnessed on this show, Kyle opens for the very first time reports sent him by the Queensland Government containing his foster care information which is incredibly emotional and moving. Now this episode is very different to the usual energy of this show, but we hope this will bring some inspiration to you and spread some awareness for those dealing with domestic abuse. So without further ado, here he is, the inspirational Kyle Hunt. Dusty, this will be a very interesting podcast. I'm very excited to hear your story, Kyle. Kyle Hunt, welcome to the Dusty D show. It's exciting having you on because I think you're someone that more or less has a story to share about themselves personally rather than having a necessarily business or something that you're trying to promote or push or sell. Like a lot of people we have on that come on to promote, but you yourself, you've got more of a personal story that we really want to share with our audience. So from the get go, one of the key elements which probably would have been brought up in the introduction from days, you've gone through over 30 different foster homes growing up as a kid. Is that correct? Yeah, that's right. So tell us maybe the beginning of the story and how that came about actually not having a home of your own. Yeah, so it all started quite young, so I don't actually really remember the younger years. And to be honest, a lot of my memories are very patchy, so I remember a lot of bad things. But you know, it was pretty rough not having a home when I was younger. I do remember times, for example, when I'd be taken away from my mum and my stepdad. And like I just remember like looking at the window at them and crying as I was being taken away into foster care. So it was pretty rough and I've been reading some of the reports from foster care as well. And yeah, I spent years in counselling when I was younger. And it was very clear that I was distressed that I had no family and I was switching between a lot of families. So yeah. When you say young, how old exactly were you at this point in your life? So I went into foster care when I was two. And yeah, I spent years in foster care. Sometimes years at a time. So I know when I was in Queensland, I spent three to four years in it for one long stance. And then I'd be put back in care. And then I'd come back out for maybe six to 12 months or if not longer. So you, so you hearing that the first answer, see I wasn't actually sure. So you did know your mother and your stepdad and you lived with them. Yeah, yeah. I lived with them for years. Okay. But it was very on and off. Yeah. So I had it like this again, you answer yes or no. But why is the decision for them? And you might not know. But for you to go into foster care, you've got a mum, you've got a dad while I'm sure you asked yourself questions on why was I, you know, give it out essentially. Yeah, it's sad. We're going to be early, shit. But I think there's a lot of drugs involved. I know my family was in an out of child as well. It went for fraud and whatnot. So I know I feel like my mum ended up in the wrong relationship. There was again, a lot of drugs and alcohol involved and just a zero disregard for for our kids. Just in care. I may probably didn't even want kids. I feel like probably more of a kind of accident. Yeah, it's a bling, too. Yeah, yeah. So I've got two brothers and a sister. Yeah. Older or younger and where where they now you in contact with them or? Yeah, so I've got a brother that's two years older, I believe, and a sister that's one year older. Okay. And a brother that's around about 12 or 13 years younger. And same mum. Same mum. And nowadays, I know we're skipping forward and we'll kind of go back and forth a little bit. But your mum now, do you know where she is, what she's doing, do you have any contact or nothing? Yeah, look, she messages me every now and again. Let's say like Christmas or on my birthday. But I found her really hard to respond sometimes. Sure. And I know that she's probably feeling a bit sorry for herself and what we will put through. But yeah, honestly, I can't respond most of the time. When it comes to probably the main, I think one of the main parts and one element I loved, not loved, but a really struck head to ask was, and almost if you could repeat the question within your answer would be great, because I think this is something hearing it from you rather than me asking. But that sentence that I read with you being left at a stop sign it to you is, I'll actually really, it was just, that's just mind-boggling to me. Can you maybe explain that and how you share that with other people as part of your story? Yeah, so again, I didn't find out until I was around about 18. And I was looking at the reports and it was actually really interesting because when I went to the child services, New South Wales, they actually provide the reports and they take you through it. And the first thing that she said was, oh, do you know when you entered foster care? I was like, I think I entered when I was maybe five or six. That's kind of when I remember, because I don't remember being two years old, I don't know if you guys remember. No, I remember five. Yeah, honestly. And she was like, actually you were left at a stop sign when you were two. And I was like, what? I just remember my heart sinking, because I wasn't told that at all, obviously by my mum or my stepdad. And yeah, I was kind of left there. And I feel like as we went deeper into the documents as well, it was just crazy seeing some of the information that I have no memory of. Yeah, it's crazy. How old were you when this information was related to you? I was actually 18. Well, and so I'm interested to know like these years between two and 18 and you're obviously over 30 foster care homes that you lived in. What does that do for a young kid? Like now looking back, you're 25 now. Yeah. So so now being a little bit older and we'll get into what you've actually done since an incredible life you've now lived. But going back, on reflection, what does it do for a teenager or a young kid constantly being moved around, constantly probably without parents or the traditional parents of us and hopefully most of the listeners are used to? Like lessons you learn along the way? Yeah, I feel like it's definitely boosted me up to be the person I am. You know, I go hard with business and I work extremely hard. But I feel like it's got a lot of negative impact as well. I have really bad anxiety some days and for no reason as well. So whenever I go see a therapist about it and explain my story quite often they say it's because of the upbringing that I had. You know, I feel like when it's Christmas, who can I spend that with? It doesn't feel like I have my friends, but it doesn't feel the same. It just feels like I'm kind of competing on their family time. So they're the hardest parts. But then again, it really motivates me. I feel maybe I can just use it to inspire people. If I can go from where I was and still be facing a lot of those challenges today and still can go start businesses and whatnot, then yeah, I just want to use it to inspire people. It's such a great reminder for anyone listening as well when you mention Christmas, I think of you know how awesome my Christmas has been for 29 years and having family and having a place where you feel like you belong. So to me, that's a really good perspective shift to and change it because it just makes it go fuck like they're actually someone who's 25 years old. I walked out, I walked past you in the street, you're a good looking bloke, 25 successful, well-dressed, probably driving a nice car and a good amount of money. But you've got so much trauma and so much baggage, I'm sorry to use that word if that's probably the wrong connotation, but from the outset, no one actually understands or gets, and that's fine they're not going to, but it's such a powerful reminder that anyone could be lonely, really just by themselves, especially those bigger times. I'm sure there's a lot of moving with schools as well, I don't know if you're going through that amount of different foster homes, you're only 25, so I'm trying to picture the maths, I don't know how many, how often it was, but How many schools did you go through? I'm sure you went through a lot of different friends and the whole process, bus events, I do. - Yeah, I've been through a lot of schools. I don't know exactly how many, but I know it's been a lot. And you know, think about yourself when you're growing up, you've got a lot of childhood friends. They become your lifelong friends. I don't have any of those childhood friends. I've got probably a couple that I've stayed in touch with when I've stayed at a school for a couple of years, but even then it's not like a lifelong friend. So I found it a lot harder when I moved to Melbourne to actually make some really strong friend groups. So that's probably one of the biggest challenges I face moving here is actually just trying to make new friends that I can actually speak to about things who I can go do things that don't involve drinking and whatnot because you know, when you meet new friends all they want to do is just drink with you and that's pretty much it. - I've read a really interesting post you put up and skipping ahead a little bit, but it'll defer back. But you'll talk about trust. So, and we'll talk about your business success later on. But when you did come into money or you did start seeing success in that world, suddenly you talked about a lot of people stealing from you and I'm not sure what connotation that means if it's literal stealing or we can talk about that later too. But your trust in people, friends, relationships, people that's in business even, people that shake your hand, how do you go with trust? And how have you gone with trust? Especially as a kid, like even going to new schools or going to new foster care homes or even nowadays. I don't know if you go on a date with somebody where's your trust level at? How are you in that aspect? - Terrible. - I can't trust anyone. It's insane, I have a very small amount of people that I trust and there's a reason for it. So, your parents are usually the people that you trust the most. And I feel like, because I went through what I did, I can't trust anyone because I didn't have them to trust, you know what I mean? When they came to a lot of domestic violence and everything that happened at home, I feel like because I couldn't build that trust with my own parents at a young age, I haven't been able to build trust with anyone. So, even a lot of my closer friends, I still try to fight in my head of whether I can trust them or not. And it's not their fault. - This episode of The Dostin D Show is brought to you by Fleet Planned Higher Solutions. - Now, everything when it comes to earth movie equipment, Fleet Planned Higher, they're the best. - The biggest projects in the country, when we're talking bridges, roads, roadways, they do it all. If you want to know more, head to fbh.com.au for more details. - Now let's get back into the episode with Carl. - I'm sure that's something you're passionate about. So much now, because I don't know if you'd be open to sharing, but like, there are so many people that probably don't quite understand the term domestic violence and what that really means. Like, in your eyes, you've experienced what does it mean? - Physical abuse, verbal abuse. So, in a lot of the documents that I read through my foster care reports, it went over that I experienced a lot of domestic violence. So, yeah, my parents used to hurt me. I don't entirely remember the verbal abuse, but I remember a lot of the physical abuse. So, there's things of being beaten, things of being locked in rooms for days, not being fed, and a lot of reports, there's things of me being starving. - Again, how does it even work? So, for foster care to even come into the equation for nowadays, even, how does it work? Like, what makes a child become, or go and don't foster care? - So, to go on the foster care, you need to experience an unsafe environment, essentially. So, if you're living with your parents, and it's not safe, so whether you could be verbally, physically abused, or you're not being well looked up in terms of being feds, being clean, that could be another factor as well. So, they're the kind of things that they look at. So, obviously, I ticked a lot of those boxes, and that's why I ended up in foster care. - But do you, as a child, have to report that? Or like, 'cause I'm thinking, when I was growing up, nobody comes and checks in on the state of living conditions or whatever, how does it even happen? - Yeah, so usually schools are supposed to pick it up, but from the stuff that I read, it seems like I'm just getting picked up off the streets, and people just call the police, or people have found me. So, yeah, it's very interesting that, when I was under 10 years old, I'd just been walking the streets, and people just randomly picked me up. That's insane to me. - So, is that a key part of it too? Like, when you say walking the streets, was part of it you being homeless at a stage? - Yeah, yeah, so there's definitely reports of me being homeless at a young age, but there's been reports where it says parents unidentified for quite some time as well, which is really interesting. - And how many times did you go back to your biological mom and step that, like within this whole period, are you going back and forth, or is it a two years old? That's it. - Yeah, I'd been back and forth, so. - So, do they have to prove that they've times, maybe? - Five. - Yeah. - But do they have to prove that they've improved their living conditions or their, whatever it could if you mentioned drugs involved, like things like that? Do they have to prove that, hey, we're now a safe household to be able to take care of our kids, or? - Yeah, I don't really know how they have to prove it, 'cause nothing changed when I went back there. - Yeah. - I don't know what the hell that would've proven, but I know that one of the things I read is that I spent years in counseling, and once I've finished my counseling, I get to go back, and the counseling was on domestic violence as well, so the government wrote that, if I've finished my counseling, it's kind of like graduation from foster care, and you get to go back into your parents care, which is so messed up. - So they're almost like shifting into your issue, not theirs, like a dream that you have to work through everything, not them. - 100%. And I applied for my Queensland reports as well, and they denied me access to 17 documents, and only gave me access to one, which is super strange as well. And even though-- - It's so bizarre to me. - Yeah. - It's all a third of me the other way around. - Yeah. - The way I thought the victim would have the rights to all these sort of-- - Yeah, they also sent me an email that says that they had the right to destroy them as well, so I didn't really understand what that was all about, but I know that's going in and out and each time the domestic violence, there was even sexual abuse, it got significantly worse, significantly worse as I kept on going back. I don't know if it's me just recognizing that 'cause I was older and I understood what was happening, but they just kept on putting me back. - Separating the two from living, going back and forth, going home, to then eventually being in foster care for such a long period of time. Do you actually look at your time in foster care and go thank God, or do you look at it with sadness? 'Cause I'm sure you probably met some good people in foster care, I'm sure. - Yeah, no, I say thank God to be honest, I'm killing it. I'm starting to get good people around me. I'm tired to nothing. I don't have to go back and look after family and see family. I feel like people go through the hardship when their family pass away when they're older, which is sad. I don't have to deal with that. I dealt with my dealings when I was younger. I'm moving on and I feel like I'm motivated more than a lot of people, but most importantly, I feel like I can inspire a lot of people and tell people if you come from nothing, this is how you get somewhere, and this is how you're able to do it, which actually really excites me. - Yeah, I'm really excited to chat about that. Before we do though. - Are you an angry kid? Or were you an angry kid? - Typically you hear this trend. So obviously we all learn from our parents, but your role models are your parents, and they're obviously acting a certain way. Are you then committing crimes, like not major crimes, but I mean, you're living on the streets so at times, are you doing things that we'd all consider as wrong? - I've definitely stolen things. I would never heard a fly to be honest. I was always mindful. I had very, very good values when I was in my teens and growing up. But, yeah, I would steal food, but it's a really crime if you're starving, you know what I mean? I think when I got older, so when I started hitting my 20s, and I started drinking a bit more, even though I was on the right track with business, and that trajectory of doing well, I feel like I would also lean towards a lot of alcohol to suppress some of my feelings. I was definitely angry as I got into my 20s, and now I've been able to understand why, and move past that, but for sure, I was very destructive to myself. I was very destructive. And then anyone who goes through anything, usually ends up destructive, but I was just lucky to be able to figure it out before I got too destructive and ruined my life, and whatnot. - How did you work out what you wanna do with your life? - I know that's a really broad open-ended question, but I think of my upbringing, and I had influences from my dad and family members, like watching them do business or watching them. work and provide and seeing their careers and being able to, you know, get a gauge on I like that. I don't like that. How did you kind of work out what you wanted to do like net being now in 25 in business? You didn't have necessarily, you know, you're probably chopped and changed. You didn't have necessarily a role model that you were looking up to. I don't know, maybe you did. Is there a specific part of or part of the story where it made you go, I want to do this? I just wanted to make money. Yeah. And I just wanted to do whatever it took to get there and business seemed like the only way. I actually first started with nursing and I realized very quickly that nursing does not make money. But healthcare did. So if I go into healthcare business, I was like, great, this could be a way to go. And I do know that a lot of people find it hard to figure out what kind of business you wanted to or whether you want to even do a business. But because I didn't have an influence, I kind of just went with my gut feeling and that's what a lot of people don't do. I just took the risk. I love it. So I just went with my gut and I just seemed right and I worked right. And I feel like a lot of people should do that. I mean, we'll talk about business. But also, too, one part of the story we haven't even touched on yet is, I mean, you survived cancer at a very young age. Like, talk to us about that experience. And again, I mean, we don't want to keep going back to the foster care and your parents and everything. But again, surviving something so difficult and traumatic is that without stable support. How do you do it? Yeah. So I was around about five years old when I had that. It was like attached to my bladder. And basically, I ended up having surgery to get it out. So that was pretty well all good. But when I was in the hospital, I was just left there. And I remember being in the hospital as well. So not long after my parents actually went to jail. So basically, I'm pretty sure I went straight in the foster care after that. But my surgeon ended up getting in touch with him 2003, 2004 or something like that. He sent me through all the reports. So my doctor and I went through it. And I was just like, I had cancer. And then I left the hospital with my stitches. And then I came back and got more stitches because someone had pulled the stitches out, which was insane. And then all of a sudden, the surgeon was trying to follow up, trying to find me and never had a follow-up. So never ever had a follow-up from that. Fuck it out really. He was so concerned. I've seen some of the reports and he said I'm very concerned for this child's welfare. You know, this is something very serious. And as we followed up, never had a follow-up. Yeah, that's insane. Did you understand at the time how big it was, like how big of a deal that is, like at five years old, having cancer? That's like, to me, I think of now as an adult, we understand that we get it. It's critical to the point. But at five, I don't know if you comprehend it. Yeah, I wouldn't have comprehended it at five. I didn't even know what the hell's going on. No, I still remember being in the hospital, but I didn't remember why. Yeah. I was so confused, but yeah, now that I look back at it, it's actually amazing. Was it just a tumor on your bladder? Is that what you were kind of saying? Yeah, I don't know how big it was, but they compared it to like a mini-toy, so it would have been like, around about that big part. I didn't spread anywhere. No, so I didn't spread anywhere. Clearly not. So they wrote it was an aggressive malignant tumor, and it's, yeah, they just cut out there in the surrounding areas. So I've got a scar hit to hit from it as well. Like I still have problems to these days, like I get a lot of cramps in that particular area. I'm interested in your mindset too. So like looking back now, you've gone through a lot, and it fucking is very hard to comprehend. And listening to it, it's like nobody should really deal with the stuff you've dealt with. But you've also come out the other side, everything you're doing and creating and going to create is incredible. So do you consider yourself blessed? Or do you consider yourself unlucky? I'm so blessed. I feel like anyone who's gone through serious pain honestly is blessed. Have the biggest upper hand. I've already experienced it. I know what the bottom feels like, and I feel like if anyone knows what the bottom feels like, the only ways up. And that's a good sight to have. Whereas anyone who's up only sees down. So my perception is so different, and I love it. I wish everyone thought like that. Well, it's true, because I mean, so many people, we all try and avoid that bottoming out and whatever that means. Like that's different for everybody. And there's times in life, sometimes it like shit happens to everybody, not maybe to the same degree that you've dealt with. But it could happen at the young age, at middle age, at old age, whatever. And it's very hard when you're in it. But so many people, when they come out, talk about how grateful they were for that experience. And I think it's really encouraging for people that may be listening and feeling like at the moment, whatever reason whether it's financial pressures or relationship pressures or health pressures or whatever it may be grief. There's an opportunity to use that as fuel to get to where you want to get to. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like if you have pain, use it. Use it and abuse it. Honestly, propel yourself forward with that pain. It's the most powerful, useful force that you have. If you're going to tremendous pain, use it. Make the most out of it because that's what will get you to where you want to be. Clearly you didn't, because look at you now. It's a credit to what you've been through and where you are now. But did you ever get yourself involved in the wrong crowd at any particular time? And I don't mean any age. I can, you go from whatever, 10 to 24 last year. Was there ever a period you mentioned using alcohol as a bit of a protector? Was there a period where potentially you were so close to going down the wrong route? Whether that be crime, drugs, alcohol, even further. Was there a point in time where you kind of had to take a good hard look at yourself? Yeah. When I was 17 to 19, I started using drugs every day. I drank a lot as well. And I was literally just so destructive towards myself. I just wanted to cover some pain. And I didn't understand the pain. I didn't know why it was there. I thought everything that I went through was like relatively normal, obviously not entirely normal, but relatively normal in a way. So I just wanted to forget about a lot of it and just kind of move on. So I definitely was going down the wrong path. And the people are hanging out with me. They wanted to rob people. They weren't. And they were. They literally were. I never wanted to take part in any of that. They wanted to go into homes and steal people's stuff or hurt whoever was inside. So yeah, I took a hard long look at myself and I'd left that situation in the moment. I was like, what the hell are you doing, Carl? And I think the reason we keep asking some of these questions is only a few weeks ago we interviewed up in Queensland, an ex-Banker oba, who spent 20 years in prison. But in some ways had a similar upbringing. It was out on the streets from a young age. But he did go down that path. He did mix with the wrong crowds. He did make those poor choices and then paid for 20 years of his life in prison behind bars, which is probably why we're asking some of these questions because it's such a fine line between which direction do I go. When most people ask who are your influences, most people roll off the chair of the tongue to my parents or it's my grandparents or it's my brother's sister. Who do you see as your major influences? Is it people you've actually met or is it people you listen to online or watch? Like who would you consider your major influences? I didn't have a single influence that I can think of to be honest. I always looked at myself and tried to be the best influence for myself. So yeah, I wanted to be the one that made other people proud and I wanted to, maybe that's got something to do with my upbringing, but I wanted to just make people proud. I always wanted to inspire people even from a young age. I had this dream since being young. So I know I wanted to be my own hero and just kind of test myself, see if I could do it. Love it. So maybe let's like fast forward a bit to, but you mentioned nursing. So how old were you when you when you're probably dabble in that and then you worked out because it's funny. I had a similar realization when I was like I want to work in the AFL. I've got the AFLs. It's not a lot of money here. They've recut that up. We have a lot of AFL people on the show. But when did you work out how old were you? I'm sure you went and studied. You got into nursing and then you worked out. No, I want to make cash. Yeah. So I always wanted to help people and I think that that was from a young age as well. I've definitely read some things in my foster care reports. By the way, I've got my Queensland reports that I haven't opened before. That is a very nice teaser for what's coming very shortly, but I always wanted to help people when I read that in some of my reports and some of the interviews and I was like, "young ass." This is really interesting. So I wanted to do the fine line of changing people's lives as well as making money and just making sure I had a secure life for the future. And I was like, okay, maybe nursing. I was thinking actually being a doctor, but I didn't get accepted for that. So nursing was going to be my lead pad into being a doctor and then from there, that's where I thought, okay, that's where I see an opportunity to actually make money as well as help a lot of people. And then I just realized, shit, that's actually going to take a long time. That's going to take like 10, 11 years. So I was like stuff it. Maybe I'll leave nursing after that. that we'll explain. to us your business ideas or even failed the right word but if you did have any failed attempts at business prior most people do I don't know if you did but what was your first kind of aha moment here's my opportunity and then talk to us about that getting to where you are today. My aha moment was starting a clothing brand which is probably everyone's aha moment. So yeah I got into starting my own clothing brands and it was called Untamed Meek so it was for female clothing. I was originally called Sula Clothing which has been like good clothing or something like that but yeah I changed it to Untamed Meek sounded a bit sexier. Yeah it does sound sexy. Yeah you could see yourself in some of that women's clothing. Oh I thought you transitioned first time but I missed it yeah. I thought shit. So yeah I got into clothing which is pretty much everyone's first idea of business and I actually gave it a good crack so I went on Alibaba and I shipped in clothes that seemed like good quality at the start they were like a dollar a piece so you could imagine what they were like. Yeah. The old Alie Express. Yeah we have our past experiences with that website don't we don't say. It's not great quality is it. It was looking rough. Yeah looking rough. No go would want to be seen in that but then then I started getting a knack for actually finding really good quality clothing through Alibaba and Alie Express. So I started ordering really good quality clothing through and I was like wow there could be something here. I ordered these stickers and basically I just put the sticker over the tags that were already on them. So it kind of just turned into my own tags. Nice nice. Yeah so I started doing that and then packaging it in my own packaging and sending it off at first I pretty much just had a whole room full of clothes like boxes that were just not selling. It took up the entire room and my bed was in there so it's just like me getting up and moving past all the boxes and then eventually it actually started working out. I reckon probably like seven or eight months in all of a sudden overnight he was just started behind the clothes. I was like well really. I was sitting there looking at it and I just remember sale sale sale. You were just saying like a shop fire store kind of thing. Yeah was it yeah. Yeah. How we was it Facebook ads or social media? How were they finding it? Nah so I was pretty broke at the time so I spent all my money on the clothes. So they were kind of just sitting there and I was just messaging people all the time and I would like give them free clothes because that's all I had and I try this out and let me know how you feel maybe post some stories about it. Don't you? And then all of a sudden it must have been recommending it to other people. People must have seen them wearing it and then they started going online and purchasing it. Which is awesome. Yeah it's awesome. Yeah I was making like two grand a week from it. Yeah it's pretty good. Yeah. It's unreal and then all of a sudden I was getting busy with nursing and planning some things for the future. I got into a little bit of trading as well which is everyone's second thought. Yeah. Yeah. So I asked us about that. Yeah we told you about it before you came actually. Yeah yeah the old marijuana stocks. Yeah the medicinal. Yeah. You'll hold on to them for another 15 or 20 years. Yeah that business flopped. It's really flopped on its head and I was like all right well next thing. Yeah. What was next? What was next? It was this charity business. So if anyone's ever seen the seeing eye dogs. Yeah. Yeah it's like your guide dogs and it's pretty expensive to get a guide dog. It's actually like 50 grand. Yeah. So the next step is you can get one for free as long as the charity trains the dog. So I linked up with a charity and I said hey look I'll start selling. I'll start door knocking your charity and I'll get commission of everything. So that way the charity's not really losing any money like they're making money and I'm also making money as well. So I started door knocking and yeah this door knocking trying to sell these little puppy packs that were put together. I was like hey you could sponsor this puppy and help it go through its training 30 dollars a month and yeah I'll make a commission on that. So we were in Melbourne at the time. In Melbourne then? Yeah yeah I was in Melbourne then. Yeah and yeah I was door knocking and then it seemed to be going actually all right we built the team up to like I don't know what it was like like seven people or eight people or something like that. And yeah just realized that it's just so not profitable. You can't make money on charity. Yeah it's really. Yeah. So like completely just ended up in like 10-20 grand worth of debt to be honest. Youself personally? Or yeah myself personally? Yeah. Wow. And I was just like oh crap well this is not good. So maybe expand on that a little bit more because I know we do have a lot of listeners but like that that are interested in entrepreneurship and business. How did you get yourself in that kind of debt while you were working for someone else or you know all were you doing that as a freelance model? Yeah I did it as my own business. I had my own APN and I was just like great so I would pay them an amount and then I'll keep a small amount for ourselves. Yeah it's like the commission. So we'll keep like three hundred dollars from each sale and then they would get the ongoing 30 dollars a month for. Gotcha. Yeah yeah ongoing. Yeah it was my own business and when I ended up in the debt didn't pay it because obviously I didn't have the money. So was that like credit card debt? It was a mixture of debts or nah so there was this agency that works with the charity and they also take a clip. There's always there's always another one. There's always a middleman. Yeah so they were actually taking that much of a clip that I really wasn't making that much money at the end of it and what I was doing to try to stay afloat and pay my staff is I was keeping a bit more to pay them and they were like okay you owe us like I forget I was 10 to 20 green and yeah I was like crap well I can't pay that so I'm gonna start repurposing my staff to do something else in the meantime and that's exactly what I did which let me down to maybe healthcare. So talk to us then about the healthcare and what you're doing now so explain because again that's a like you said most people do think okay clothing brand or they do think job shipping or they think stocks like that's quickly quick money yeah yeah but to go into place like healthcare obviously you might have prior knowledge through uni but to go into such a like to me when you talk healthcare you're like that's people that have been in the industry a long time and they understand and they know the internet how does a young 20 something get into that. Yeah well yeah you actually write a lot of people when they start businesses they want to go to quick money which I get it because I tried to do that I tried to do that a couple times really everybody's tried that everyone's tried that and it doesn't work or sometimes it works very rarely but it's not sustainable you need to do something that's hard and that no one else is just going to be able to do so that's exactly what I did and I figured that out at that point and that's what pushed me to make my first million so when I went into this concept of getting into healthcare consulting I figured out just the hardest problem and at the time the most difficult area to get into was a thing called NDIS and that was easy that was like just after I was starting to kick off there wasn't many people involved in it very complex to get into so I was like what if I help businesses see the potential in getting involved in in government funding and because NDIS is government funding and I'll just get them involved in that but again I had no money so what I did was I was again just calling people out of a phone book and I'll go to their business after that would let me have an appointment I'd tell them this is a great exciting idea of look your business could be funded XYZ and you can support a lot of people that are disadvantaged and yeah people started buying it but I didn't even have a service product to be able to pull it off I was just selling it so then I could afford actually doing the service itself it's pretty interesting well they do there is a saying you're out there like sell it before you make it essentially like sell it before you actually build it like some people do do that they'll try and sell whatever they're trying to sell and then when it comes to the sold it well then they'll go and actually work out you know how are we when you made your first movie I was oh I would have been probably 20 well I reckon but yeah I do agree with that concept my favorite saying in business is you don't want to build the aeroplane and then fly off the cliff you want to jump off the cliff and build it on the way down yeah yeah and that's exactly what I did yeah yeah I just jump straight in started selling it because I knew that that's what I could do and yeah I ended up making like 30 grants and I was like oh crap now I got to I got to start delivering the service that I sold so I used that money to invest in myself and invest in learning and invest in team members to be able to deliver the service which is pretty interesting but yeah 20 was when I made my first million we've been around then well and how many so how many staff members do you have now so maternal businesses around about 80 since that's nuts well I hear this all the time but they're feeling people get so if you're absolutely broke like if you're the first time you see a hundred dollars in your bank account, it's a feeling of achievement. Then when you see another digit and you've got a thousand and ten thousand and a hundred thousand, but to then have seven, what's that feeling like when you've made like a million dollars? Whether it's profit or not, but you've made a million dollars, you've generated a million dollars. It's unreal. It's just a real feeling and honestly I feel like anyone could have that feeling, anyone's capable of doing it. And I even, I had this video and it's when I was living in my old apartment, the first hundred dollars I made, I stuck it on a whiteboard. And I still have that video. It's just me walking around a lounge room, talking absolute nonsense in my little home office, just so excited. And there's like this hundred dollar bill stuck on the on the whiteboard. Even that was extremely exciting. Well, we see a bit like the thing is like we've got our business too. And again, we're not at that level, we're nowhere near it. But the first time we made a sale, I remember, like we'll jump around at the time we're living together, Doss and I, we're jumping around in our lounge and we're like, how fun. And like the other day, we've probably made our biggest in terms of commitment for somebody to actually pay us. Like the other day, only a couple weeks ago, was that like first big deal for us, like really big solid deal to go through the door. And for us that feeling is just, it's almost unexplainable, isn't it? When you've actually done it off your own bat. So, but now like, like you just looking at it, you said you've got 80, around 80 staff across businesses. Like that is to be at the head of that tree, like I can't imagine that feeling for you now, based on where you've come from. I don't know if you just have an out of body experience. Sometimes we just look at where you are in that present moment and go, how did I get here? Talk to us about that feeling. Yeah, sometimes I look back and I'm like, whoa, like insane. And that's a, that's a wild ride that you've been on here. And you've come this far. But I'm always looking forward as well. So I'm like, well, man, you've got a long way forward. Yeah, yeah, I want to get to a billion dollars. So I barely scratched the surface. She is, mate, you'll be in Shark Tank before we know it. Yeah. That wouldn't be a bad idea. But as a shark. Yeah. Yeah. That would be funny. Yeah, it looks like I'm begging for your attention. Yeah. But look, I'm sitting at 80 staff now and I just want to double that and double that and double that. So I'm taking a lot of risks along the way. So it's, it's very nerve wracking. And people think it's all roses when they, like they see me talking about making money and whatnot. And they do think it's all roses. But it's actually not. No, it is hard. And it only gets harder. I feel like it loses all its purpose as well if you're only in it for money. So there was a period of time after I made my first 10 mil, I was thinking, what's the point of all this? You don't have a work life balance. That starts to actually disappear. You need to force yourself to have a work life balance. And not only that, but yeah, you just don't feel any sense of enjoyment out of it. So there's a point. And I'm sure a lot of people start feeling like that as they grow in their businesses. But it's a point where you actually need to switch from cool. I'm just in it for the money to, oh, there needs to be actually some bigger reason of doing it. And yeah, my bigger reason then became I just want to inspire 500 million people. That's actually the goal that I wrote. But I just want to inspire 500 million people. And I want to use my business grow as hard as I can. And just teach everyone how I did it. Do you have a staff member or somebody that works for you that's any age bracket of say 50 that's double your age? Do you have anybody? Yeah, yeah. How do you feel being such a young CEO and having people that at double your age and more work for you? What's that relationship like? Because normally people kind of think, well, most people listening or think of their boss or bosses they've worked for and they're probably double their age or older. So what's it like? Yeah, I actually love it. Yeah, I feel like I can learn a lot from them. So it's usually me just asking them lots of questions rather than them asking me lots of questions. I'm a learner. I love it. And I ask a million and one questions. So they're the best kind of people to learn from. And in saying that the relationship you would probably think that someone who's 50 working for a 25 year old would be down and out about it or like, you know, what have I done with my life to end up working for a 25 year old? But really it's actually not like that. They are inspiring. They love it. They want to be there to be part of the young environment to be inspired. And I'm aggressive with business. So they want to be a part of that. They want to make some serious disruptive change. And to be with someone like me, I feel like they absolutely love it. They rally behind me and they push more than most of the people I feel. You mentioned wild ride before. Should we make it wilder by opening up that laptop, fire it up because you've brought something along. What is it? You've gone with that. And this is cutting deep. Like, you know, let's be real for a second. This is probably tough to acknowledge and read and look at. And you were just sharing your fear that you got an email a few days ago. Yeah. So sorry, my heart's pounding, but I did receive an email yesterday. And the email was from Queensland Government. And it was my foster care reports from the Queensland foster care system, which, yeah, I haven't had a look at. I've seen like a couple little glimpses in there, but I just wanted to save it for today. I feel a bit like unworthy. I'm aware. That's how I feel. Yeah. I kind of feel like, why do you want to share this with us? Like, I say that respectfully, big, sorry, for touching you. Say this respectfully because I'm like, this is such a big thing in someone's life. And yeah, if you want to share it with us, more than like, we would be honored to have you share that. But if you also don't, that's totally fine too. So I'm not just sharing it with you guys. I'll share it with everyone. Good point. I feel like, yeah, if I can inspire people, it's time to be a bit raw, a bit real. And you want to hear from the horse's mouth, essentially, what really happened in their words is that, you know, this is written by people who are a bit older, people who are my case workers and whatnot. So you'd be able to hear it from their point of view of what it actually looked like. So just before you read it, just, yeah, just read or eight one more time, exactly what this means for you. But also what we're all, because someone as naive as myself, and probably a lot of listeners, we might not understand maybe the enormity of it. So this is the first time you're reading what exactly? Yeah. So it's reports from my upbringing in the Queensland foster care system. Okay. So yeah, it's case notes of why I ended up in particular foster homes. So this kind of fills a lot of gaps that I was wondering as to why I was being let back into my parents care, but also how I ended up back in foster care, because there's only a few things I was able to read across the other states. But yeah, this is something that I've never been able to have a look at. So it's, it's going to be interesting. Yeah, thank you Tom as well. Don't feel like you need a rush or, yes, I won't go through the whole thing. I was just freed. Yeah. Some of those because there's quite a lot of pages here. All right. So six years old, Kyle Hunt's, you can see what it looks like. So a lot of it's actually plucked out, but says here, male, six years old, homeless, unknown, severe sunburns and blisters on feet due to exposure and walking long distances, hungry, and had one slice of toast that day. That's crazy. Being placed in voluntary placements for adequate shelter and no food. Kyle Hunt again has been taking in the care from the 2604 Juta homelessness. Kyle appears to be still quite upset by the domestic violence he witnessed. And he stated that when he grew up, he would want to be a police man that stopped the bad man, which I'm assuming was to do with my stepdad. It's up for him from sunburn. However, Kyle had extremely sunburned on his back. I believe this might be because he has area of skin is normally protected by clothes. And on that day, his skin was naturally pale and not protected and burnt quite bad. Kyle also had severe blistering on his feet due to inappropriate shoes. Clothes were dirty. Kyle took his secure and the knowledge that the physical and emotional needs will not be met on a continual basis. Without the fear, we will begin to be placed in foster care, stable accommodation and steady financial and household management are imperative to be meeting these needs. Kyle needs counseling to help him with the effects of witnessing domestic violence and he needs to feel safe and nurturing and stable in capital status environment. Kyle needs to be safe and there's a history of severe conflict and it's blurred out so I'm assuming it's something to do with sexual or physical conflict. I just believe that however, that this issue will improve and that's how I ended up back in my parents care. To get Kyle counseling, to enable him to cope with the trauma, and overcome the effects of unmet primary and emotional needs. come in the effects of domestic violence at six years old? So straight off the calf of that, I know it's really, really, probably going to be really hard to even put into words, but reading words of a page of your trauma, like it's actually written down, like what you went through, how you kind of feeling of just straight after reading that. And we appreciate the rawness, and we understand that this is really, really tough. So we also know that to actually say something, it's probably harder, you know, so if you can't, it's fine, but it sucks. Yeah. There's sucks not being cared for, I guess. A bit about, we can just sit here with you too, like we don't have to expand, because we want to support you as well. And I think I saw this on a video recently on a podcast. When someone was opening up about actually some sexual abuse, it was actually on Theo Violence Podcast, the comedian, and I remember the guest, he was UFC fighter, and he was opening up about some abuse. A Theo just said, I'm just, mate, we could just sit here and you just talk, or say whatever, I don't have to ask any questions. I think that's a key element too, is having people around you that are just happy to just be around you. You don't have to have someone who's, because I've been through certain things in my life, grief and things, and people feel like they want to save you, like they always want to be trying to ask you questions, try to make you feel better, ask you questions, try to make you feel better, but sometimes you just, you're sitting in it, and I'm sure you sit in feelings like that all the time. So, what I don't probably understand is these documents are probably written up. They must have been written at the time, right? So, and they're withheld from you until now, so you have to literally request to be able to get this information to you, is that correct? Correct. So, that's one of the documents that they released to me, but I received an email saying that they denied access to 17 other documents, so they're very similar to that. So, I don't know what's going on there, but I'm going to follow that up, but you can't access it until you are over 18. Does reading that provoke, does it take you to a place? Does it take you to, I don't know, for that specific day when you're being interviewed and asked all these questions when you're 60s old, but does it take you somewhere that evokes this kind of emotion? When I read that part about me, one of the policemen, to stop all the bad men, like I see what I, I wanted to do nursing, I guess, and like I see what I want to do, things that help people, obviously there's something from back then. We looked, I said it all very, very well before, like we're just, we're happy just to sit and we're grateful for you sharing that and opening that. Well, we've never had anything like this on our show too, so I think from my point of view, it's hard to even know what to say too, and that's why I said sitting in it because, you know, we're a fun, jokey, deep, you know, and we talk about some, like some deep shit, but like your courage to come and not only speak but to share something you haven't shared documents wise, we've never had anything like this, so we feel very privileged and honored and like we mentioned the word unworthy before. And it sucks that we kind of have to move on, but now we have to try and make this funny with this like golf boxing. Just before we do, just before we do. I think I just want to ask one more question, because also there's people now that we're listening that have either dealt with similar things, hopefully not many, but there would be some that or they might be dealing with now, whether it's domestic abuse, even if they're fully grown adults. Do you have any advice for them? And I'm not talking about going through what you went through, but even like doing what you just did to follow that up, I don't know the process of it till years and years and years. Is that something you're doing what you just did, do you recommend people chase that and follow it if they've been through similar situations? 100%, 100%, and it's not the first time I've ever had a foster care report, but yeah, I honestly think that get your closure, get it done, that way you can move on and get shit done, you know what I mean? If you want big plans, you've got to figure out and sort out your past and just get it sorted, so that way you can focus on what's ahead of you rather than looking back. And do you have any advice for anybody that is dealing with it currently, to get out of situations like anything, I know you went through extreme difficulty, but anything for any of us, even people that aren't, we're on that we haven't dealt with it or experienced it, but if the time comes when somebody opens up a close friend or family member and says, hey, I'm dealing with sexual abuse, domestic violence, whatever, what's the best way people like us can support somebody like you or somebody that's currently going through it? Just being there, offer a safe space for them, or even a safe place for them to go to, I feel, just try to support them however you can, but like ultimately it does come down to the person, the person's the one that's ultimately making the decisions to get themselves out of that situation, so it's important to like really remind them of that and push them to get out of that situation and that you're the safe place and the safe space for them to go to once they're ready for that. Well, very well said, should we jump into golf? Yeah, I've just mentioned just before, this is where it's tough because we are typically an entertainment show, so we don't, we have serious conversations, but not probably as serious as we've had today for such a long period of time and of course, being the style of show that we are. We do have moments like this that are a bit unpredictable and a bit fun, so does formalities are formalities, you just have to tick the formalities off sometimes, we're very lucky to have golf boxers as part of the show as a formality. Yeah, I hope they don't hear that part, but what is in the golf box is brought to you by our good friends at golf box Australia's greatest golf superstar. If you need it, they've got it and it gets you fast and free shop online at golfbox.com.au The law doesn't deal, listeners will know, what's in the golf box, the rules and regulations and the part and what the game entails, but Kyle doesn't, so Kyle, essentially, we've got, let's say, a handful of little green notes in here, they've all got their own question or challenge on them, so none of them are the same, they're all different. You're going to put your hand in there and you're going to have a little mix around and you're going to pick one out and whatever that challenge is, all the question, we'd love you to play along and do it because if you do, there might be a nice little prize on behalf of our friends at golf box, so if you would like to, I just want to reiterate to the listeners and viewers right now, as Kyle goes and finds his winning ticket, fast and free dots. Fast and free at golf box. You don't get that everywhere, dude, no, no, no, it's very rare these days on any online store, but if it's golf, I don't go there. Absolutely. What have you got, Kyle? All right, so what's the worst excuse you've used to get out of something? So I'm thinking like potential high-powered meetings or maybe dates or parties you don't want to go to, do you have a classic I need to get out of this? If you woke up this morning, you weren't feeling the Dotton D show, what was the excuse you're using? All right, so it was just cool to think that I was hanging out with. We ended up going back tomorrow and I've done. Nice. Well done, but I didn't have any intentions of doing anything. So when we were back in mind, it was purely just to hang out, which is a bit random, but we were, we were like that, we were chill like that. Yeah, and then she started coming onto me and I randomly came out with, I have chlamydia and I'm taking, I'm taking one of the pills tomorrow so I don't want to give it to, I didn't even have, I don't know why I said that. I'm shocked. Well, I mean, I get it, if you don't, if you're not vibing in the moment, that'll get the job done. It's incredibly effective. Wow. So I'm assuming it's effective and awkward. Did you share again after that? Yeah, we've kind of like remained mates here and there and did it get to, did it get to that next step or no, no, no, you said we're chlamydia and she ran it, yeah. Would you take the risk? No way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. Probably not. Yeah. That would probably put me off. God, that's a good one. Well done, well done. Well done, so called. I'll let DOS present this to you. We'll get that in a moment. Golf box are giving you $250 each mate, so enjoy that and then you're saying you don't love golf, but they've got lots of, lots of great accessories and clothing. You've got a polo on, so maybe a nice little polo, maybe there might be something on there you might be able to wear to the gym, actually. Well, we'll take you out for a hit in the next few weeks if you want and you might need a club or something. So, yeah. He's got everything. Yeah, exactly. They do. So just give that a show that to Bryson on the camera over there. There we go. So we can't thank golf box enough, but also Kyle, we can't thank you enough. Terry, thank you as well. We really appreciate it. Yeah. I can't really say much more than probably what you said DOS, which is really good. Like, thank you for being so raw, thank you for being so honest. It's difficult to talk about it anyway, but we were strangers an hour ago as well. So, for you to share with that, we really appreciate it. Let us know, too, in the audience, how do we find you? How do we follow you? Well, blowing up on TikTok at the moment. Yeah, yeah, so you can find me on TikTok or on Instagram and just cloud hunt Yeah, it's one of my stuff that inspires people, it's when the real world is talking about how it is Because I feel like I just don't get the evidence, trying to sell you something Love it. Love it. Nice call, appreciate you so [BLANK_AUDIO]