Sound of Freedom: New Film Exposes the Dark Truths of Human Trafficking

well welcome to the Tony Robbins podcast this is a really important special podcast I'm going to introduce you to a dear dear friend of mine who's been working on a project that really makes a difference in the world you hear people talk about it all the time but we have all kinds of crises we face but one of the most ugliest subject no one wants to talk about is human trafficking and I've got a dear friend named Tim Ballard that's going to be joining us here along with one of the co-founders of Angel Studios because they have a brand new film coming out here and it's called the sound of Freedom it is not a movie it is a film it is an action thriller but it's based on the true story of Tim's life a man who left the government as an agent decided he was going to go save these children and you know you read a lot of see a lot of films at the beginning it says you know based on a true story this film is the true story and I had the privilege of being one of the many executive producers of this film but I'm here to share it with you because it is a mission for all of us to reach more people many of you know sage and I have we took my 60th birthday for example and used it to raise funds in this area and I was really grateful to have the help of so many of you we raised 19 million dollars that day that night 14 million from you and sage and I put in five and now along with operation Underground Railroad and several other groups like free a girl and the marici foundation over in Indonesia and in India we've been able to participate in funding 28 000 of these rescues I've actually gone out on some so we'll touch on that but I thought before we started never done this before is to show you the trailer of the film so you really get a sense that something you want to go see and also take anyone you know to go see as well so let's start just for a quick second with that [Music] foreign I don't think I can do this job Tim as soon as I lay down [Music] all these feel those kids faces how long have you been doing this 12 years how do you do it [Music] it is the fastest growing International crime Network that the world has ever seen it has already passed the illegal arm straight and soon it's going to pass the drug trade with us [Music] imagine walking into a room right now singing after bed for Homeland Security you know we can't go off rescuing kids in Colombia territory piece of chest put those pieces back together we're talking about extracting and living your girl from an army of rebels not just her I'm talking about rescuing hundreds of kids she could be a block down the road or she could be in Moscow Bangkok L.A over 2 million children New York they're being sucked into the deepest recesses of hell we did nothing someday it's gonna reach the likes of you [Music] what if this was your daughter [Music] pretty powerful huh well today I'm going to share with you and introduce you now my dear friend Tim Ballard from operation Underground Railroad the man whose story this is really about and also Jordan Harmon who is the co-founder of Angel Studios many of you may know it because they also created The Chosen welcome gentlemen thank you for having us Tim you and our buddies we've gone on our trips together had a lot of experiences together would you share with everyone how this journey really began for you and what this film is really about yeah and thanks so much Tony you you've been such a great friend great supporter you are our largest donor to date you really are and and and your community as well so thank you to all of them and your audience and um so this this this film um is is depicts a real uh live event a real event that happened to me and my family when we were I spent 12 years in the government as a special agent undercover operator uh 10 years on the border and we I got involved in a case uh in Colombia that um required me to kind of push the limits a little further than I was probably supposed to um got myself committed emotionally and otherwise and and I was told come home because there's no jurisdiction here um we're not satisfied with the amount of evidence you've provided and we're running out of money and come home and I was devastated you know because I knew that um if I stayed we could finish it and I called my wife and she says you're not coming you're not coming home yeah yeah you're staying there and I said what I I mean I thought it was a good idea until she didn't agree with you know I thought it was a great idea to stay until she told me I had to stay I thought she was going to give you the the out yeah like hey come on home come on home I would have but my wife just wouldn't let me and I'm like what are you doing you're not reading the right lines here so I didn't start fighting my own position arguing with her and she ends the debate and this didn't get into the film because they were trying to establish my reputation because I would have looked really like the coward that I was in that moment but she said to me these are a direct quote she said I will not let you jeopardize my salvation by not doing this wow wow that ended the debate and then we and then we plunged into this crazy case and that's kind of the beginning of of the sound of freedom and what happens next is pretty insane well we don't want to give away the whole story obviously to get an experience of it but uh your wife is an angel I know and you're you're far from a coward you've I've been out on it you're putting your life on the line every single time Tim and I have such respect for you what I love about this film is that it takes on a subject that's so difficult to talk about but it turns it into the true story that it is I mean there's some details in there you and I both know that people think it's a manipulation to make the movie work and it's exactly as it happened but also I think it's really beautiful to see uh the role that Jim Caviezel plays in this he he really plays it well tell me a little bit why did you pick him I know you were a fan of his work from some of the previous work he did with the passion of Christ and and I think the kind of much Cristo tell us why'd you get him involved why did you pick him and how did you get him to join you on this incredible journey of this film well after the operation that went down in October 2014 it made the pr it made it made national news and we actually started getting uh inquiries from many big studios and my wife was just like no no she didn't feel good about him I trust her obviously I've already expressed so I trust her opinion greatly on these things and um and then we got hit up by by the Reich folks and she felt right about it um but that feeling was always important to me and when they asked me who do you want to play you uh right out of the gate Jim Caviezel one because the county Monte Cristo was one of my favorite movies of all time also I know that he's a person of faith and you know Tony how important that is to me it's everything to me I wouldn't do anything if I didn't believe that piece and you know when you're picking Hollywood actors I I don't know who has that that that internal kind of light that that that spirituality is so important to me but I knew Jim did I knew he did and so that's the main reason and I think he I it proved to be the right the right the right person for the job I mean I think when you watch the film he says more with his eyes than he does with his mouth and and that's that spiritual side that that's the reason I chose him and it's it's probably the greatest what's like Jordan I'm sorry I said it's probably one of the greatest performances of his career it's incredible yeah yeah I think this will be a nominee for Academy Award I'm obviously close to it but everyone I've shown it to who's in that uh level of the filmmaking business says this is not a movie this is a film and this is it's deeply moving uh you can't watch this film and not be deeply impacted by it uh Jim does one thing to like you but he certainly has your heart and your soul uh why do you think he took the film I know he has some personal reasons for it why don't you share with me what they were if you don't mind yeah it was so crazy because you know they they went to him and they thought they'd get the typical like talk to my manager you'll hear from us in a few months the producer who's also a friend of yours obviously Tony and he he just said he texted him right away he said Tim wants this text him he happened to have his number and he said let's meet tonight he met that night he he before he read the script he was in tears because Jim had um and I can say this now because he started to say it finally but he adopted three children from China and he adopted them out of trafficking situations so he it was so near and dear I had no idea I had no idea when I when I asked him to do this and so he was committed from day one and he is committed I mean he's been we talk all the time about it he cares so deeply about it he wants to be an ambassador forever that's so gorgeous and I'm curious when you first read the script and I want to hear your response this obviously Jordan because you're the one helping to make this happen now uh you know Alejandro Monte Verde is a dear friend of mine as well he started reading my stuff when he was 17 and turned him around he said he decided to become a filmmaker because this thing I didn't know that that is awesome his very first film was Bella and he he won the Toronto Film Festival with it uh so when he found I was involved with this he got so emotional I got so emotional hearing the beautiful story of his but he's an incredible writer an incredible director tell me a little bit about what did you feel because this is your life when you read this script and then Jordan I'd like to hear what you've been because you have a different perspective you're looking at as a filmmaker per se tell me what your experience was Tim well I was surprised at the courage they had to to to tell certain pieces of this story that I thought were too crazy because they're true but I thought I don't want to look like we're being Sensational but the truth is you know sometimes Sensational things are true you know and and and for example the necklace you're going to hear about this necklace that was so personal to me I won't tell you the story but it's it's you see in the trailer that's a real story I mean even including my name was on the necklace that the child gave me um Alejandro he he's able to put these things in um that I didn't think should be in as I read the script and I thought this is a bad idea but then I watched it oh my gosh you pulled it off or how do you explain to people what child sexual abuse is without ever showing anything related to child sex abuse and yet he does it because he's a he's a genius you get just enough punch in the stomach to know what it is but you don't get exposed to any footage that would you know turn on a pedophile to say so his ability to integrate all these aspects in into something that's art was pretty fantastic to me you know something Alejandro actually always says is he says I want my films when people get to the end or the for the movement and the experience of the film to just start right yes that's one of his goals is that when people get to the end it's not like well that was a great film you know awesome I'm you know done with that experience he wants that to be the beginning of of their experience with that theme or whatever it is that he wants to just tell in his stories and so you know many times in the industry you'll hear people say well that was a really good independent film and the reality is is Alejandra Monteverde Rod bar is co-writer you know Eduardo's producer like they they are creating content and films that are are not great independent films they are just the best films in the world right now like there's they're they're on par with anything else out there and so it's beautiful to see um you know when we got the first opportunity to actually screen the film um it was clear that for at least for Angel for us was like man we we definitely want this to be part of our our ecosystem and to get this out into the world but the key component for us for those who don't aren't aware is Angel Eyes What's called the angel Guild and the angel Guild is comprised of a hundred thousand investors who've invested in the Chosen and in dry bar and tunnel Twins and freelance and all of our different original projects and those investors are The Gatekeepers of what gets to come in Angel's ecosystem and so you know we were praying like when we submitted to the guild like please please like we hope that we're not off base here like we're gonna we're gonna feel like we're not very good at our job if we are if our Guild doesn't like this and the guild came back into no surprise at all they uh they gave it one of the highest ratings we've ever seen it's just it they want it there's pent-up demand for it the film is incredible and uh and we're excited for the world to see it I am as well tell me a little bit uh how did you get uh Mira servina and she's Academy Award winner as well I know Eduardo obviously is start in his own right but how did you guys get hurt did she what was her reaction to the script was that a hard Pursuit yeah so that was that was me again I'm just realizing I I got all the main actors so Mira servino um has been an advocate to fighting human trafficking for for uh for years and years and years and yeah and so we were at a conference together we both spoke in Mexico City and I told her about this this project and I said hey would you be willing to play my my wife in this upcoming film and she said absolutely she jumped right on it uh because of her heart you know wow and and so we're lucky to get her and she did she did an amazing job how did you get Bill Camp no yeah I didn't no no I didn't get Bill but Bill was amazing bill was amazing it was like man I guess that was me too well I've I've shown it to what probably a thousand people 500 to a thousand people and maybe a thousand now someone's we've done since then and I don't have a single person that wasn't so deeply man a lot of people came in who were very skeptical but one of the most beautiful things that you describe I hope people know is you don't have to wince about Communists you're not going to see anything even the subject's terrible that's the art of it and yet you'll be as deeply moved as anything you could ever imagine what would your emotional experience you know Jordan for you you see so many great films and so many better have a spirit to them what was different about this one for you yeah this this film is um there are I think there are a handful of films in my entire life that that come to the same level of depth heart and soul a sound of Freedom you know if I was to put a list of them out there now now these are in the same theme or in this but some of them may be but like it's a wonderful life it's one of those films where it's just incredible um one that I I you know I'll probably never see again because it was so hard to watch but I knew I needed to watch it with Schindler's List like it's just one of those films where this is a pivotal film for our society one of the things that um um I think Jim said to me one time is he said Schindler's List was incredible but it was 40 or 50 years after what happened he said imagine making Schindler's List in the 1940s yeah that's what sound of freedom is and that's why it's so powerful is because this is something that's happening now it's a massive problem on a global scale and so for us when we watched it you know it lines up with some of the greatest films ever made in our mind and uh and it's and it's such a beautiful cinematic experience yesterday we were in um was it yesterday the day before it must be the day before we were in Miami and and um it was people of all demographics and left right up down you name it and the credits roll and there's a standing ovation for a solid three minutes no one would sit down no one would stop clapping because they were just like wow this is incredible and so that's the type of film it is and when people when people finish it they're going to they're going to fill this burning desire in their heart and I think the spirit's gonna tell them what can they now do yeah because everybody's different right everybody has different resources different capacities and so that's what we're excited about with angels bring that awareness and that the people in the audience can allow the spirit to tell them hey here's what you need to do I love that I mean you know this all it's interesting Tim knows this all started for me I don't know if you know Tim I was doing one of my business Mastery programs about eight years ago and I always teach people how they can grow their business you know the average is 30 to 130 over 12 18 months but then I get them to have a bigger why and part of the wise I have set a bunch of goals what they want to give and create in their life but then there's these contribution goals and and I had people share some of them and there were a lot of really beautiful emotional goals they want to do with their family you want to do for the world and one woman stood up and she was so emotional and she said you know I have a dear friend whose child was trafficked and she said that for four years they went after this child trying to find it and worked with this organization and they finally freed and found this child and she said I just I want to someday I want to do something you know in this area and I said well my experiences now is the right time you know so I said how about this I said how much does it cost to save a child and I think at that time she was talking about 2 500 3 500 and I said to save a child's life that's it they said yeah and I said we have this audience you know a couple thousand people I said I'll put up the first quarter of a million dollars of matching funds you guys match me up to 250 and we'll make it work and it was it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen I've done it so many times since then as Tim knows and people started standing by the aisles and coming down to give us the card to make their commitment I said just write down what you'll commit you know I'll match it you know and we went to 1.2 million dollars awesome 30 or 40 minutes and they're just I was crying everybody's crying it was so beautiful because you know I've got two daughters I've got a 48 year old daughter and I got a two-year-old daughter brat five kids and five grandkids and I can't even imagine if this was my job boy or girl that had gone through this experience and so that's what started me on the journey and then then I started doing more then I found out about you Tim and operation Underground Railroad and we talked and I was like I want to go see this I don't really want to see this I want to go and experience of this so that it's in my heart it's beyond just what I'm imagining because I always say that you know belief is a poor substitute for an experience and I feel like this film gives you the experience you can think certain things but we have an experience you never forget it and we went down as you know Tim to Haiti and they marked me up with makeup and big scars and everything else mentioned a little bit about that trip if you would about what we did because I've heard some stories on that trip as well Tony oh yeah Australia your voice is so distinct it was great well first after after that after after in Vegas when you raised all that money I got I got a phone call that night from my mom did you hear that Tony Robbins just raised a million dollars for you I said oh Mom you're just a rumor like believe me I would know she's like no so said they were there he called this place they called me you know because there's so many people at your events they got back to my mom in L.A you know and I said no I promise you that's not the case and then a couple days later I get a phone call I remember exactly where I was back east on a bus doing a bus tour of American history and someone said Tony Robbins wants to talk wants to call you I was like wait what like the actual time and like could my mom and then there's Tony on the phone I'm like oh my gosh I'm like it's real he's like yes we did this thing and and then we started setting up to to take him on an operation and it was it was an amazing operation um uh there's a there's actually a whole documentary just about this operation it's called the operation to Saint it's got over 2 million uh views in on Amazon Prime um but it was it's a it was a long-term investigation we're looking for this little boy uh didn't find him that found the other traffickers then they led us to another Trafficking Organization and we ended up doing a meet an undercover meet with a guy a group of people one of the guys had just uh had provided a video that he had he had raped a 10 year old girl created a videos for it and he was trying to sell us the girl and the video and I'm negotiating with this guy and Tony is you're I mean you're just a few steps away listening to this I was supposed to be part of the conversation but what happened is right before they landed on the boat they had we had like 30 guys that I'm supposedly with my friends that I'm funding for them to have this weekend and I got all these different kids being brought in it was horrific and I'm trying to stay centered and somebody on the boat you know you would never recognize him my wife when I came back she screamed she thought somebody else walked in the house literally but I I said something and this person on the boat said you're Tony Robbins my voice was recognized so he quickly moved me to The Back Tim negotiated and Tim I don't know if you remember this but Tim's negotiating and there were these three guys that had brought him out and a woman and she was even marketing her own child was just oh my God you wanted to I want to reach up and just kill them you know every part of you once you just unleash and of course that wouldn't do any good you'd be in jail and they wouldn't be and so I'm sitting there just staying under this state they're kind of I'm the guy just give my nods my Grunts and Tim Stockton and Tim your ability to morph and talk to these people just blew my mind as God coming through you because I know what you're like and who you are and your persuasiveness was amazing but there was a point in which Tim had a fake mustache and it was starting to peel off and this one she had like a sixth sense something was going on and but Fortune got it all done came back and and sure enough they were waiting for the SWAT team to come in remember Tim they weren't there and we're like oh my God this is all happening last minute all came together and we got the hell out and we had to get out so we didn't get thrown in jail too because the local police didn't know what was in charge it was wild but I never forgot the experience I I you know spending those days with you Tim because what I also you know you know I'm an emotional guy and Tim's an emotional guy we remember sitting in the car talking about stuff and just crying our eyes out for this stuff I mean your soul is involved in this and you put yourself on the line so many times with just so much love for you so I'm so grateful to be part of this but let's talk about the mission because that made me so missionary because it gave me an experience what do you hope that this seeing this film will inspire people to do and let's talk a little Jordan a little bit about what you got what you've done with this two million kids are normally traffic in a year and what your goals are I understand maybe you've already achieved them are going for something bigger but let's hear first if you would Tim tell us what you hope this film will really get across to People by watching it well the mission you speak of it's so important but you know there's there's only so much as organizations we can do I run the Nazarene fund I'm the CEO there I'm the founder of our and and we've rescued thousands and thousands and we'll do we'll rescue the one the hundreds the thousands but there's millions and there's Millions I can't rescue Millions I'm stuck and so I turn to history and I realized there was a time in this nation's history where we liberated Millions how was it done it wasn't the Underground Railroad led by my hero of all heroes Harriet Tubman whose picture sits above my Mansfield my office it wasn't Abraham Lincoln um who began his presidency saying I will not touch slavery where it exists um but two years into the war when Lincoln met Harry Beatrice Stowe For the First Time The the Storyteller the author that went viral and joined her voice with Frederick Douglass and other greats and he said to her so you're the little lady that wrote the big book that started this war um that book and the voices were what changed Lincoln's perspective and he made the war about liberating the captive and so that's what we need and that's how Millions get rescued Harry Beecher Stowe is going to be the bigger hero the storytellers Jordan Harmon Alejandro Monteverde Rod bar Eduardo they're gonna be the actual Heroes that end it while we're continuing to rescue the ones and the twos and the hundreds and so that's how I see this film as a major tool that I think God can use to liberate his children yeah that's that was awesome that's beautiful such a unique approach to really getting a film like this out because you're competing with Disney on the same weekend this is July 4th everybody so it's because the sound of Freedom right it's about feeding these freeing these kids um but tell us a little bit about what the plan you came up with and how's it going and what can people do yeah so you know the first of all like Summer's the the most difficult time to take something in the theaters it's the Blockbuster season the week before us is Indiana Jones the week after first mission impossible and so it's very difficult to not only Book screens in theaters but to maintain them in any meaningful way and so when we when we actually it was it was actually kind of a miracle that this all came together because we've known Tim for a long time and and then Tim reached out to us a little over three months ago he said guys I feel a gravity I feel a a an energy around um what you're doing at Angel um because he saw that we were doing his only son in theaters and we were starting to push that in a meaningful way and he's like I wanna I wanna explore what this looks like and so he started pulling everybody together on his team you know Eduardo and Jaime and Alejandro and all these different individuals and Jim Caviezel and he's like I'm guys come out to the office you got to come meet these guys and and I remember telling Tim I was like man we would love to let's get into the guild which we did and it scored super high and I said we would absolutely love to get this out to the world but man it's gonna be so hard to pull all these parties together in terms like Jordan half face he's like this is coming together this is coming together he just kept telling me that over and over and over again and the miraculous thing is from the time we grouped everybody together when we when we Inked a deal was five days that's incredible that's that's the Mind everybody's aligned you have a higher Mission higher purpose when you guys first told me I'm executive producer as well we're going to put this on July 4th I was like are you really like that and we're competing with the biggest movies in the world that's when all of them come out yeah your approach to this I gotta say you know besides higher guidance and all this you know you're approaching this Jordan I think is extraordinary so please share with people about how you want to how you're helping to explode this so we can have enough power on that opening weekend to make this happen you know we're not talking about economics first I'm donating all my money back to it and it comes to it it goes right back to take care of and save more kids 100 tell people about your strategy because I think it's brilliant and it appears to be working yeah so with his only son well we had we had done a couple theatrical releases um partnering with fathom with the chosen uh you know we did Christmas with the Chosen and then we did episodes one and two and we kind of thought it was kind of a weird bananas idea to just do episodes in theaters but what we did want to do is we wanted to understand that world and so I remember my brother Jeff telling the whole team he's like guys we're gonna do this but we are going to collect as much data as physically possible so we can understand this black box that exists right now to us because as a studio we had made all of our business and streaming merchandising that entire world and so um so we did those we started to understand how to crack that nut and then we decided to go but we realized that there was a cap on the way we were doing with fathom events and so we decided Well we need to go direct with theaters and we launched in the spring of this year his only son and the three things that I think are unique to our model is that um The Guild obviously finds the sleeper hits like his only son had been turned down by Major Studios no one was interested in it was a small production budget but it was a beautiful film and a guild without knowing what the production budget said this is amazing we want to see this and then two we started building an audience through crowdfunding instead of going into a big bank or a big studio and saying hey cut us a check for one two three million dollars for p a so p a is the prince in advertising that's an old industry term for basically marketing and and that's kind of the most coveted money in Hollywood because it's the last money in and first money out it's the most likely of getting a a return and we said instead of going to one person to cut a check let's go to the crowd because that's how we've done you know we crowdfunded The Chosen we crowd from the dry bar we crowd in front of all of our TV shows let's go to the crowd and crowdfund is only some p a budget and so we proud funded a million and a 1.2 million dollars in less than 100 hours and we were like whoa that was way faster than we expected and uh and then the Third element that was really powerful is those investors ended up bringing what we believe based off of our data one you know 10 to 20 other people to the movie theater so now you've got your Grassroots movement going and then the last element was is Angel's background and Tony you know this more than most people with you know the Harden Brothers agency and all the stuff that you know we we've been involved in one capacity or another our background is direct response marketing we know that world backwards and forwards and so we know to spend money really efficiently and then start building the brand to where we can start getting into efficient brand marketing versus really inefficient brand marketing and so we bro we broke into the top three of the box office in Spring and Easter which was you know the third most busy time of the year and so everybody's like whoa his only son top three in the box office and um and I remember big studios reached out to me like how much are you gonna spend on P A and we're like well we you know our initial launch was a little over 1.2 Millions like 1.5 and they were like we've never broken in the top three in the box office for less than 11 to 12 million dollars that's impossible and uh and so what we've done is we've created this mechanism between the guild finding the sleeper hits the building the Grassroots movement and us spending that money extremely efficiently um we're seeing with sound of Freedom now that that's scaling massively and so our goal with sound of freedom is very unique there are two million kids that are trafficked every year and that's a conservative estimate and those two million children we are trying to for opening week to get 2 million people into seats to represent those two million people and start this movement that will hopefully end this atrocity throughout the world and so you can go to angel.com um I actually think we have a URL for Tony and I can't remember what it is now my brain um that's angel.com forward slash war room angel.com anyway so the the um but that being said that that you go there angel.com or I think you can also go to sports Freedom if it's easy to remember but that being said that URL tracks you'll see real time we're at and we have a conservative number on there I think we're at just under a half a million tickets sold again that's conservative and it's really gonna it's really starting to scale into those last nine ten days and so it's really important that people do two things that they if they have the resources go buy tickets right now because that sends the signal to people and the theaters and gives them the courage to say we're going to get more screens to the sound of freedom and that means they're pulling screens away from potentially Indiana Jones or Mission Impossible or whatever it is so we have to give them that courage to be able to do that by buying tickets in the pre-sales but the second thing is being able to pay it forward for someone else so if someone doesn't have the resources they can go so we've already gifted from people who have paid it Forward over I think 150 000 tickets around the United States and we're just getting started okay these are people who have paid it forward you know ten dollars you know fifteen dollars sixty dollars a hundred dollars whatever it is and they're saying I have the resources I'm going to not only buy my tickets but I'm gonna pay it for for someone else and then the last thing is if you don't have the resources go to angel.com freedom and you can claim a free ticket like we we want this we do not want money to be the reason that anybody in the United States and long term in the world doesn't see this film it's so exciting I'm amazing Dad I think you guys are ahead about 25 right now at least in pre-sales yeah and the last week is the biggest week the last week is the biggest week for sure we're already seeing you know week over week from last week we're up 400 so it's it's growing very drastically I hope that those that are watching that's the main reason I do this I want you to see the film but I want you to get as many people as you can and if you can buy 10 tickets or five or whatever and donate to friends or donate to Angel Studios forward slash um Freedom you'll feel.com forward slash get out to the people that can make this happen and so they can attend and experience it and make it happen listen this is such an exciting opportunity to take the darkest tours I mean but people don't realize this is one of the largest criminals the fastest growing criminal Enterprise in the world maybe you can comment on Tim what do you think you know what do governments need to do what what has to be done on that side of the and we as Citizens we can push those that we know in Congress or Senator those we can reach out to you what do you think has to change in order to really break the back of this this trafficking epidemic the one word is May is prioritize it's not a priority um it like it should be you know I I keep thinking back to Abraham Lincoln who says you started this war you little lady with the big book he she changed history um because she influenced him so right now there's about five drug agents federal federal U.S drug agents for every one anti-child trafficking agent which is insane because you can sell a bag of cocaine once you can sell a child 10 20 times over 25 a 24-hour cycle we have to change the priority and the only way to do it in a republic that we're blessed to live in is Get Loud get so loud that it shakes the foundations of Washington DC and state governments and they say that's it people are people are yelling people are mad at us we've got to switch this yeah I couldn't agree more on the the experience of being down there and and having a child be chained to a bed and doing tricks five or six or seven times a day in the eight or nine or ten or 12 year old child is completely insane it was the ugliest experience in my life Tim and it was also the most beautiful because seeing these kids on the other side was a whole nother experience and then we had another group you know Tim we sent the plane down the first place they got to be in America after being rescued by you was here at our house so they came here to the house there going swimming and bowling and playing basketball and they're like realizing oh my God I have a life again but let's talk a little bit about the Aftercare because Tim you know you have a really special experience in that we went down there together and I got to see the kind of work and wanted to contribute to it you ended up with one of your children from that group but tell us a little bit about the Aftercare and tell us a little bit about what happens to these kids that you save afterwards as they go through you know being brought back into society after such a horrific experience so there's no rescues you know without the Aftercare without the healing that has to happen or nothing happens and so we do a lot ahead of time before any rescue operation we have the beds we have the players we have the homes already in place so the kids can go immediately there and start getting all the healing and that they need and we're trying to innovate all the time like you know everyone's healing experience is so individual that which we try to provide all the tools and let them choose with their with their coach with their counselor with their therapist um and you got to experience I'm glad you brought that up Tony because that was one of the most emotional moments of my life was going around before we did the hit before we did the operation um with Tony we you know once we did it we had to run so we took a few days before to visit some of the Aftercare homes where these girls were gonna go and everywhere I went and I hope I don't embarrass you at all Tony but but um everywhere we went I would watch Tony give but but not just a little bit like way too much like you know I I hang out with a lot people of means but this is beyond like wow like there's certain things you might not be able to do now it was that much but it was every place we went to and the final place we went to um Tony didn't even know but the two kids that ran to him and I I talked about how they climbed up Mount Tony they were just all over Tony because I had told them who he was he's like this is Papa blanc's friend they call me Papa Blanc uh Daddy White Daddy I don't know why they call me that but but you know when they got back home I said just call me daddy you gotta stop I don't know where you get this it might be against the law here I don't know but in Haiti it was okay apparently so but but um I watched Tony and he didn't even know that those were my kids I hadn't really introduced them yet because there were so many kids right but I watched my kids so so excited because they'd seen pictures because you know I see them and I tell them who's coming and and we're we were waiting it took us four years to adopt these kids there were two kids We rescued on October on February 19 2014 and our first operation in Haiti um that's also in a documentary operation to Saint and I watched Tony take the the woman in charge around the corner and I'm like oh my gosh she's again I'm my whole body I'm getting chosen now I was like my kids are gonna be okay because you don't know really you know are they just putting the nice clothes on the kids when when Daddy shows up are they really being taken care of do they really have what they need and and um and I watched 20 people around the corner so I go around this corner and but I'm so excited because I'm like this is going to be good and I'm just listening and he just um he asks her how much it's gonna cost ah for a year and I'm like you're gonna give a whole year and and she says this and it's a big number it's a lot of kids he says okay I'm going to write you a check right now for a few years and when you're done with that call me we'll do the next two years and I'm just like oh my gosh my kids are going to be home like within a year like they're gonna have everything they need you know that's so awesome and then I asked you later about it Tony thank you for that but I wasn't asking for you to tell the story when I did no I know you weren't I know what how these kids change and then but as long but I wanted you to bring up I want people to sense of who you are as a man you've adopted two of those children yourself it wasn't about me but thank you for sharing all that yeah but Tony about Tony at the same time how many kids you have and tell them about what happened and with your wife your incredible wife both of you how you brought these two children back I mean you're out here on the road you have a pretty large family so please thank you for sharing that but what I was really looking to hear is tell people about the Aftercare and what happens to these kids because you know it's one thing to get them rescued it's not they get them integrated and there's a phenomenal work that's being done there's so many different approaches but I'd love to share that but finish the story from the standpoint of you not me tell them what you did then please tell them about your family size your family and what your wife said when you first started talking about this but to your point Tony you said you wanted to hear Tim's heart I think that probably reflects Tim's heart more than even talking about what he did is that he first went to talk about what you did but yes finish the story so thank you and and um so uh so these kids that for the first rescue operation and we were only six months into this endeavor and I was broke I mean I had enough money to last till June and this was February and um you know we didn't find the little boy we went to find and then the father guests know who you've met you've you've been gracious enough to bring him on your stage even and he goes in and takes home eight of the kids that were rescued in the name of his son even though he his son wasn't there and I'm just like who is this man and I go call my wife that night on February 19 2014. I know that because that's the birthday they gave my kids because when we rescued them they had no papers February 9th February 19th oh 19th is the birthday they gave them and so I called Catherine I said you won't believe this guy he took all these kids home and Catherine goes well what about those two kids that you fell in love with because they were the main kids that we used in The Sting operation their brother and sister and like oh their parents are dead and you know they're in an orphanage she's like I'm their mother I'm like yeah yeah you're the mother of everybody yeah like no I'm they're I'm gonna be their mother bring them home and I said Catherine we don't have any we don't have any money before you adopted them that we had we had sex so and then six and now seven eight and then yeah and then another one came accidentally nine so we got nine now but but uh but I didn't want to get that salvation jeopardize my salvation speech again so I just accepted it I'm like don't say it I know I know I mean yes yes Catherine we will do it you know what it's the greatest blessing because these are the happiest kids oh they're so great and every day they remind me they remind me why we're doing this because if this if these kids I know the trajectory they would I I think about this often they would my daughter Colleen would probably be dead right now I don't think a child in Hades an orphan makes it past 13 years old there should be have been trafficked same with my son and and said they're happy and they're running around and playing sports and all this and that's the Hope like this can be any of those kids any of those kids have that bright of a future but we gotta get them out and get them healed and and so that's what that Aftercare piece is so important and I want to say you know operation um triple take which is the operation depicted in the sound of Freedom those um kids are now young adults and they still they have their own Foundation now they all they're all together and we support them we give them micro loans um one of them has actually done their own rescue one of the kids We rescued adopted a child who was um born out of human trafficking and he saved the the mother now he he's raising this baby um another one her name is Angie she's one of our spokespeople um and she just got a contract from the from the Colombian uh Navy the same Navy that provided the boats for the CTA agents to jump out and do the rescue and they kept tracking they just gave her the contract just so she's a seamstress to so all the new recruit uniforms so it's working like the Aftercare it's working and we got to see it first and foremost with the kids from from Sound of freedom I love that I also just it speaks so much doesn't Jordan about who this man is and he keeps his life credits she deserves it she's extraordinary but you too as a couple because every time you go you go out she's got to wonder if you're going to make it back I'm not being overly dramatic it's just a fact uh and you risk your life that every time and we've had some late nights when you were going through some rough times brother and seeing you just find your way through that because there was something higher you were to serve more than yourself so I'm I'm deeply touched and I love you dearly for all that you stand for and all that you are and I'm so grateful Jordan that you've joined forces with him in such a powerful way to get this message out would you share one more piece before we go uh tell people about what happened in the Ukraine because people see the war they don't see the other side of it and also uh just maybe for two seconds because the story touched me so much uh the young person in uh Iraq I believe it was who had been they were draining the blood out of them because people don't understand that these kids don't just get trafficked and push through sexual slavery but some of these children ladies and gentlemen it's pretty horrific this is not in the film for you to watch no Panic you'll see the film but you got it yeah yeah literally they sell their body parts drain their blood it's it's insane it is a baby's heart a young child's heart's worth a quarter of a million dollars and they can't steal this child or buy this child for someone for a few thousand dollars so would you just share a real quickly a little bit about what happened to Crane what you're doing there just people have a sense of the size and scope of what you guys have grown to but also what happened in Iraq for example that you know who I'm speaking of I think that child is so shouldn't have survived and where's that child today because it's it's an Aftercare example of a family adopting it's just so touching amazing story so yeah um one of the biggest most amazing operations I've ever been a part of was last year we went to Ukraine uh to just get orphans out because they were getting they were in the war zone and people weren't taking care of them and people were running away and we ended up working with aerial recovery and you know you know Brittany and Jeremy uh lock Tony and we were able to move with their leadership a 6 000 women and children out but while we were there we found a pedophile uh trafficking ring they were they were you know they were taking advantage of vulnerable children whose parents were dead and and these guys were political party scary group uh they're fugitives from the lot out of Holland and they had set up a shop in in Ecuador in Mexico and there's a docu-series in Tony and Sage are actually producing it Mel Gibson's also involved in this he was one of the people who gave me the Intel to find the kids craziest story um we blew through six countries three continents four months took down an international pedophile ring and rescued hundreds in preventative rescue thousands um it ended taking down a um a a a a sex Hotel a child sex Hotel they were saying little boys in Ecuador 10 years old and younger pedophiles could show up and have their way with them and Tony knows so much about the case because whenever I'm traveling to Europe I used up over in Miami and and I'm giving you video if I'm giving Donny and Sage briefings like as I'm going oh transverse in the country and and getting blessings from Tony and Sage um and and making sure my mental stability was allowing me to to to not break um and so we're gonna have that coming out soon in a docu series called The Hidden war and then um and then this other example because when people think about war they don't realize that what war creates is an opportunity for these people to traffic children like crazy because there's so much disruption so many children become you know they have no parents but tell them the story you did what shared with me about this young child in Iraq yeah so this little this little boy it's crazy so so Isis when they rolled in and they took advantage and took all the you know the minority religious children Christian yazidis um the same thing's happening in Africa and they're setting up these like baby factories where they're they'll impregnate women and make the babies just just to sell their body parts one little boy in particular um who that was happening to him he was kidnapped actually at four or five years old uh until he was 12 and they would just slowly suck like the spinal fluid um and they would sell it this is a witch doctor you kind of Satanic ritual stuff where they sell the blood and people like drink it and think they're being empowered and it's a it's a real thing and this kid had lost all use of by the time he was 11 years old he looked like he was seven and he couldn't use his Limbs and we were able to get him to a doctor in Salt Lake at the Children's Shriners Hospital and they did an experimental surgery and fixed him they broke every bone in his body I I was there just Weeping at his side with Catherine as he was healing from this um and he just moaned and just it's just a pain but he had he had um you know he was casted up his whole body but then they took the cat and it worked and he walks now and he rides horses and he rides bikes and while he was here a family in Utah got to know him and they've adopted him so now he's home and it's it's like wow you know again it can work they they said it was impossible he would never move and now he's he's happy living in a family yeah how's his family so there's hope and that's the point is There's Hope and I hope people leave Center Freedom knowing there's hope there's a solution there's a light in this Darkness yes it's really a story of good versus evil where you see good does prevail over evil but it requires awareness and action and and this hopefully that's what the film's doing Jordan any flash message you want to give the audience here about this film yeah I um uh Steve Jobs once said that the most powerful person on earth is a storyteller and we have the opportunity right now as as a nation and as a world to get these stories through sound of Freedom out into the world and the power of stories is that the stories that are predominantly told today is what our culture will look like in 20 or 30 years yes and we have a responsibility now to make sure that our culture in 20 30 years does not have trafficking in it um and so this movie is so important to get out into the world to educate the people on the on the gravity of this issue but also to bring awareness so that the the organizations there's the saying that All Ships rise with the rising tide and there are so many organizations throughout the world like the ones Tim has run and you've been a part of Tony and many many others that are trying to solve these problems but with awareness with this film the resources We Believe at Angel and the reason we're taking this on is we believe is we drive this awareness through our distribution that the researchers will pour into these organizations that are Adept at solving these problems and so a lot of people like Tim said there is hope there is plenty of resources and there's plenty of good in the world we just need Focus concentrated Focus to solve these problems and supporting many organizations in this fight which I applaud in fact some people at or they might be mad at me for saying this but they were demanding insisting that we put the our logo at the end of the film and Angel and me and Eduardo said no no no no the last thing we want is to make this about any one group um because I'll be honest though you are is not the best at every situation the Nazarene fund is not the best at every situation but you know ijam might be our 821 or you know free a girl or Ariel we have to be able to be honest and and do the right thing by the children not by any one institution so so I'm grateful for that that vision and I know you run your philanthropy that way too Tony and it's the right way to do it we have to empower all organizations to be a brighter light so amen you both are such bright lights I can't wait for people to see this film I can if you're watching right now please go see it go see it in the theater don't wait for it to be at home and please spread the word you can share the the what he called the trailer but most importantly go to angel.com forward slash freedom and get yourself some tickets or you can order them they can also order them at the theater correct absolutely any major ticketing app you can order tickets um but angel.com freedom and and uh we are so grateful Tony for you and for what you've done you you know people don't realize that this interview is obviously impactful to your audience but Tony behind the scenes has been maneuvering and helping Angel and and uh sound of freedom in such magnificent ways so Tony thank you thank you for your heart you're very kind this issue takes all of us and I'm grateful the credible work you're doing and I damn I can't thank you again for just being such a good soul and for the courage you've displayed and how you've continued to pursue no matter what obstacles in front of you and I think with all of you watch the film uh if you didn't watch anything else it's an action thriller and it is true story and it is good you know surpassing and just dissolving and destroying the evil and it is about it's like based on a true story it is a true story that'll move you so please go check it out please spread the word God bless the both of you and we're looking forward to seeing July 4th be this incredible opening that brings millions of people to paying attention to this incredible incredible opportunity to make change thank you gentlemen thank you thanks Tony [Music] freedom is one of those films that can legitimately change this world so we want to ignite a fire and audiences and open their eyes to the dark reality of children that need our help let's make this film a historic event and the start the end of child trafficking theaters across this country are already selling out pre-order your tickets today and you can send the message that God's children are no longer for sale [Music]

Channel: Tony Robbins

Views: 941,325

Keywords: Tony Robbins, Anthony Robbins

Id: m_KrodgVkfs

Length: 52min 1sec (3121 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 30 2023