The Truth About Credit feat. Will Roundtree

Don't get it twisted on code and we danceing for no Buttoment biscuits. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's Willie d y'all scar faces in the building. Collectively we are the ghetto boys, reloaded with load of episode of information and instructions to help you get through this wild, crazy, beautiful world. In the studio. Credit expert, uh, financial advisor, I don't know about it. You know, financial strategist, and that is to make sure that you don't get caught. Okay, so financial strategists, Okay,

Wealth expert. Can I say that I gotta put some big stuff down there? Okay? Okay, we are we are around tree is in the building. Is in the building. Mr brown Tree, what is a wealth expert? I guess someone who has a couple can't. Man, this is your title. You know what's so interesting? I don't even like titles. Don't get more people say, like the credit King and

all of that. That's a moniker. People have actually given me because I was one of the first to really start hashtag and credit is King having trademarked and everything, and so it just kind of stuck with me, and so m I just let the people pay whatever, you know, longest it's respectful. I'm good with it, but I try to stay away from those monikers. Wow, Before I go any further, man, I just want to say thank you on a personal note, appreciate that for repairing my credit

credit man ship my list. Man, My credit was so bad, bro that I didn't even care to look at it, like like, listen, bro. It was like if I went into any type of place, uh to like that required credit, alarms will go off. Get this motherfucker out of Everybody has a challenge with credit at some point in time. You know. You know what, man, I think that for me, I'm trying to think. I think I saw I may have saw you on probably was it was it? Maybe it probably was through J Morrison first and then and

I was like, you know, I just reached out. It's like, you know, I know my stuff is jacked up and I know I want to do better. And I was like, and I reached out to you, and then we just connected and it's been on sense. But here's the cool thing about when I used him, And I want to say this right now, put this this claim out here right now. I ain't get no money out of this, all right. I already got my money out of it by him helping me out with credit repair. But uh,

what he did. He didn't just repair my credit because I've had my credit repair many times and I missed it right back up. He educated me on credit. He actually educated me and told me what it was that was affecting my credit and how to make sure that I don't go down down the same pats. And that's that's how I got my credit healthy. And once that happened, man, now I'm like, man, if I get a bill about anything, I'd be like, man, man, hey man, how much that's all?

That's it? That's it. Because I'm trying to keep my stuff right now. In the past, I remember, like you remember when they used to when they first started living, your bottled water to your door. They used to deliver my bottle of water to my front door, and I would tell them to put it in the back because if I'm not home, I don't want anybody to think or know that. So I'm like, uh, put it in the back, and they kept on putting it in the front. So I said, you know what, I ain't paying these

motherfucker you know. So I decided I wasn't gonna pay them. The bill was only five bucks. That five bucks cost me forty points on my credit. A dollar can hurt your credit score. Yeah, it tripped me out, But that still didn't teach me a lesson because at I still didn't care about the credit that much because I felt like I got money, right, So if I got money, I don't need their credit. You know what I'm saying, I buy what I want. I'm gonna get what I

wanted with Okay, I'll pay a little bit more. So what we don't understand how much more we pay. Well, that's the misconception when we don't have good credit in our community. You know, we've we've come up with these terms like cash rules everything around me. But people really don't know the power of credit. You know, I can give you a hundred thousand, and I can have an eight hundred credit score. My a fifty gonna outlast a hundred thousand because I can go to tim Banks and

go get a hundred thousand. And that's the part about credit that people really don't understand. It's the power of it, not the credit itself. Right, man, how did you get turned on the credit in the first place? What made you want to say, Look, this is the path I'm gonna take. I could take any path, and I can go and be an entrepreneur and and and you know, start a bus company. I can go and uh pursue being a rapper like every other person in the world.

You know, actually tried to so it didn't work, but you were trying to wrap. Yeah, first my rap name sucked. It was credit scored. Now he wasn't on the credit at that time. It was called mercenary. I was murdering the bar. It's kind of bad mercenary. That's terrible. That's why stop mercenary. That's why killing it. That's that's the that was the angle. It was a metaphor. Okay, so give him a rap name, Brad, give everybody a nickname. Give a rap knack. Uh, give me two minutes. I

had one. So so explained that how did you decide to go into credit? So it started off really a personal need. You know, I grew up in Milwaukee, and it went from Milwaukee Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And so I had a mentor who had was just always sharing information with me, and one day he said, credit eventually will become the new dollar. I didn't know what he meant by that. Now it is so and that's how I don't doubt.

I moved to Las Vegas in two thousand and five, and I couldn't rent an apartment without putting three four times the deposit down, couldn't buy a car without putting down and interest rate uh. And so I was like, you know what, it has to be something to this credit thing. And then I just started researching and learning what wealthy people knew that we didn't know because a lot of times we think wealthy people are lucky. No,

they have different information to us. And a lot of the information kept coming back to this thing called leveraging. Your credit. And so as I started researching and learning, and then I heard Robert Kiyosaki, who wrote the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, talk about how he bought his first investment property using a credit card, and it blew my mind because I'm like, man, they're not teaching us this ship in school. My parents never taught me about it. Nobody on my block, the o g s the oldhad.

So I started really learning about credit. And then, you know, coming from Milwaukee, me owning a him, I never could even imagine that. And then I remember I was able to buy a house around two thousand and twelve. I was able to buy a newer vehicle, you know, without putting any money down, because we were always taught you gotta put money down on the car in Las Vegas. And how do you how does one get from the streets,

the main streets of Milwaukee to Las Vegas. Well, first I went just with a dollar and a dream, you know. I moved out there to become an entrepreneur, to go after and kind of chase my dream. We're not kind of to chase my dreams. I found out that ship is hard. It's like anytime you're striving for any level of excellence. It's hard, and I tell people, but so is being poor hard. You know. I'd rather work hard

to go after what it is that I want. And so just from my level of determination and ambition and drive, like all of those things that I feel Milwaukee instilled in me. Uh, that's how I was able to get to that position of being homeless to being able to own a home, you know, and I brought several jobs homes. I slept in my car, yeah, like homeless, homeless in the car I had. I was hiding from the Repo man. I didn't I couldn't even afford to get the vehicle registered.

I was driving around on paper plates for a year. Yeah. Because one of the things, again going back to information, when I moved to Las Vegas, seeing Milwaukee, you buy a vehicles, it was forty dollars to register your vehicle. When you moved to Vegas, you pay based upon the M s r P of the vehicle, and so I think my registration fee would have been like four hundred bucks. I didn't have it, you know, so then my insurance laps.

I mean, I was in a bad situation. But here's the thing, Well, like I never felt poor again, because I always knew that that situation was temporary. So what was your dream when you went to Vegas? Went drive you to Vegas in the first place. So how I got to Las Vegas. I was in a network marketing

company back in Milwaukee. For those who don't know network marketing mL M. I was doing direct sales and I had achieved some success, uh, just from a title standpoint, because a lot of times these network marketing companies, it's title driven. You don't always make money, right, I had at all. I had everything on my on my suit jacket and meanwhile, your account is in the negative. No, I didn't make any money. But the thing that I did learn Brad was personal development. And that's that was

my currency right there, because it changed my life. And so, uh, my mentor at the time was like, well, we're building the organization in Las Vegas. Uh, you know, have you thought about moving? And I wanted to get out of Milwaukee at the time, and so I was like, yeah, I go. You know, a single no kids, I really had nothing holding me in Milwaukee. I didn't have any money. So he was like, look, I'll loan you a couple of hundred bucks. So He literally borrowed me five hundred dollars.

That's all I had to my name, and that ship had to last and how did you I don't remember. It probably was gone by the time I got off the plane. Because I had to find somewhere to stay food like somebody would who was within our organization. He was able to he let me uh rent a room from him for a while. So that's how I was able to get on my feet. And that's when you got your car after you got Yeah, so I was able to get a car. I knew nothing about the

vehicle buying purchase process. All I know my interest rate was probably like the robbery, you know. And I never even made a payment. This was two thousand and five. No, I never made a payment on the vehicle. I didn't have a job because that's what I was, from a repo man, because I went out there like I was. Definitely because think about like when you make plans, you

never assume it's not gonna go that way. So when I moved to Vegas, I'm staying in this room, I go buy a vehicle, I'm assuming, Okay, something's gonna shake from me. None of that should happened would they say Murphy's law. Anything that can go bad will And so I wasn't able to find work, Like nothing aligned, and so that's why I was never able to have money to make a payment. I couldn't register the vehicle of course, didn't have insurance. So now my license is suspended. I

got a warrant, Like it was all warrant. Yeah, how did you? How did youually dub yourself out of that hole? Man? But what did you do to dig yourself out of this whole? Like that's where that personal development kicks in, Like, think about this absolutely. So you guys being legend dairy artist, take that off the table. But go ahead. I'm sure there was a period of time where the money didn't align with the output of the and they hit a few hubs. So what got you through that? Drive? Me? Drive?

That's personal development. What about the hustle? You gotta have hustle. That's part of personal development. You can't have drive without hustle. Period. So me and really got the same thing. That's personal personal development. You dug yourself out of that. I had to because I wasn't going back to Milwaukee. Well, I told myself I would I would rather live in Vegas and a shelter than go back, because I don't give up on nothing. But you saw those lights in Vegas outside,

and that was a different still live out there. In the sixteen years he got back, got back thirty houses in Vegas. I mean, I got a little something. Come on, we can't we can't get that. You can't over there right now, man, we can't. Man, this this guy is incourageable. Man, this guy is incouragiable. We're gonna have to look that up after Yeah, this this guy man, Yeah, incourageable. Yeah

a man, I love you too, dog. So you dig yourself out the hole, man, and then you go to Vegas and you buy a multitude of houses on credit. Right but wait a minute, though you can't pay your car note, you got a warring out for your arrest. You dig yourself out of that hole and you come up. You learn about credit. Correct, you fix your credit. Yeah, that was a two year process to your process. You fixed your credit. So tell me this what was ahead? What was it step though? To fix your credit? The

first thing is getting out of the denial. I have to look at it like it's so crazy that I know people who carry pistols who do all this stuff, but they're scared to look at their credit. I don't want to see it. So I had to get out of that denial, because again we've been conditioned to think that credit is negative. Remember Big Mama told his credit was bad. I didn't know that. That's what the consensus

was in our house. And there is a a negative type of thing that comes with having credit or asking for credit in the hood, because I always associated credit with begging. I was like, with begging you know fast, It's like, you know, in the neighborhood. You can go to any story in the neighborhood, and that's certain people have them credit with with the story with the corner store right whatever time dos. So I always thought, like,

you know, it's all credit. I mean, you know we have we got you got hood credit card, store credit, and then you have bank credit and all that kind of stuff. Well, I always associated with having to go ask for something because I couldn't afford I didn't have the cash you did. So I was always under deception that if you can't have you can't If you can't pay cash, you can't afford it. Right, think about it on every level of success. There's credit. Think about it.

When you're in the street, like you say, street credit or hood credit. When you're going to do something on consignment, that's what that's credit. When you get a deal from a label, that's what that's really credit. You gotta pay that back what they call it an advance. Yeah, that's they But so we've been using credit all the time. We just again that's why I say it's really been uh they've they've conditioned us to look at that level

of credit as it being negative. Because once you understand how that credit can be leveraged, as I often talk to people about it, it opens up so many doors. They don't want us to know that side of it. So let me give you a scenario. Here. We have consumer WI A who wants to buy a car, and consumer A has a let's say seven credit score. Consumer B wants to buy a car. Consumer B has a five, which is which is which is horrible? Right? So you got bad and then you got work good? Yeah, okay, okay,

So they both go in to buy a car. What's the difference in uh in interest rate and the amount of money that one might be like it to put down? Right? So consumer A you go to the dealership, good credit, You're probably not putting any money down. You may get an interest rate anywhere from zero percent to maybe three, which means you have more purchasing power. So now consumer A can go to the dealership and get a vehicle let's say thirty grand and their payment and don't quote

me on this, so don't be in my d MS people. Uh, their payment maybe let's just say five hundred bucks. Okay, Consumer B goes bad credit, he's off top, have to put down ten tot period. On top of that, your interest rate is gonna be and the term of the loan is going to be shorter. So for that same thirty tho allar vehicle, your payment maybe eight hundred bucks. And you came out and you came out of pockets.

See that's what I didn't get earlier on. You know, like when you start adding that money up over the years, and then you you really start, if you're honest with yourself, you really start feeling dumb, right, real talk. And so for me, when I finally got mine together, man, I mean it was like it's like being born again. It's night and day different. When you got walk different, man, Yeah,

you and you walk into the places. See back in the day, I would just walk in and because I had the money, you know, I was still walk in with a certain type of attitude because I know I could buy whatever I wanted. So you, no matter what, a lot of businesses, man, I'm talking about major businesses that that that money didn't come out of their pocket actually take our loans. They actually had decent credit to take our loans to build this hotel or a body

a body's call out or whatever. Like, you have to have credit. Percent of the top five Fortune five companies use credit. And that's because that's because people don't understand. It's term called structured debt is something as we talk about, meaning people see, we just get conditioned to think, Okay, it's gonna cost me X amount of dollars to buy that, but I have to use debt to buy that. I don't want them to do with that, not knowing that understand that debt is now an asset that's making me

ten percent on the money that I have to borrow. See, we don't understand how money work in the community. We just understand the word debt, not knowing that there's good debt and bad debt, it's called structured debt and unstructured debt, and a black community were only familiar with unstructured debt, meaning we go buy a house we can't afford. We go buy a car that we can't afford to impress

people who don't like us. Never mind me, I'm looking up something, right, Yeah, So that's that's why people don't understand that. So yes, So one, when when an investment team goes and purchase a hotel, they're not using cash, they're using credit. Question when you go to clean credit, like, well, what's the process? Like you've seen your ship and then the people send your left back saying what do you do? Well, first of all, you first of all understand it is

a process. And I have to tell people that because how long is that process? It can vary. Like I said, it took me two years. We've helped some people was taking them three or four months. Everybody's scenario is different because it depends on the type of that you have, the amount of debt. I mean, if you've been living with bad debt and bad credit for thirty years, it's

not gonna happen overnight. It could take a while. I mean We've seen people who have seventy tho dollar repossession vehicles from BMW that may take eight months to to fight them, and how you fight them. So you just keep me on the letter she didn't mind, actual didn't manage, and then just say so when a debt is sold to a third party company, by law, they can't collect

from you. By law, they're not they can't collect. And so on top of that, there are things put in place per the Fair Credit Reporting Act that means that that debt also has to be reported accurately. So let's just say a company A says, all right, Brad, you owe us five hundred bucks, but on the credit report

it says five and twenty three dollars. They have to prove the debt down to the penny, and if they can't prove the debt down to the penny, they have to remove it when you challenge the validity of the accuracy of how it's being reported. That's one to the last dat of activity has to be accurate. That means the last time that money has been transacted on me making a payment on that debt. If the information isn't congruent on all three credit be roles, on Experience, Equifax

and Transjunior. That's a discrepancy. So now you have to prove to me, as the creditor or the credit bureau, that that information is being reported accurately across the board. And if not, when I challenge it, you have to remove it. If you can't prove to me that you're reporting it accurately, well it's not because it shows me three different last dat of activities on this particular account on my credit report. And so the power is in the credit report. It holds all the all of the answers.

But we have to first of all, we gotta understand it may cost you some money to get your credit report. So when people so when people say, what's the first thing? Some people don't want to pay for the credit report? What's the what? What? What's what? What? What's the typical number for um getting your credit uh fixed? How much? How much? Does it depends on how much damage it

can it can it can arrange. But but this is this is how I'll put it though, because some people are like, Okay, let's just say a company charges five hundred. You have company B charges a thousand, you have companies C charges hundred. I noticed lady. And this was about oh seven, eight years nine years ago, and I was trying to get my clip my credit um uh fixed and she charged me thirty five hundred bucks. Right, and she didn't do anything. It's a lot of a lot

of them out there. Her name is Tammy and she ran off of my money. It's a lot of that unfortunately. Yeah, before you were so rudely interrupted, man, go back to that A B C. Before you know, I didn't brad spad after show right many something. Really you're thinking that sad to box you. What the word did you use for me, Willie just just a few minutes ago. He's incorridgible. We got to look that up. So you have to say big words in front of my grandmother. She used

to say incordgible. Spell it. That's when you pull out Siri. Spell that. So you have So you have company A B and C. Once our five hundred, one charge of thousand, once our hundred. Now a person can get to companies see that charge fifteen hundred and they're like, hundred, that's a lot and our all. Because I also teach people in the credit space legitimate companies, not people just gonna run off how to build up their business. Undred subject

You can't say it's expensive, it's subjective. Here's why could you put a value on someone who is able to help you clean up your credit. And you may have ninety thousand dollars worth of debt. I would rather pay fit If I had to pay fIF ten times, it's still less than me spending ninety thousand to pay all the debt back. And even if you pay all of that back, it's still on your credit. So the price point is subjective. Now, it also can depend on what

else comes with it. See, when we work with people, we're also going to educate them. Six people who get their credit fixed usually end up back in the same position because they don't understand how credit works, what makes up your credit score, how to maintain it, etcetera, etcetera. So and so, even as a consumer, when I, you know, go and consume other people's products and services, I'm never barking at their fee as long as I know the value is there. So I look for value, and that's

how I determine point. No, you're looking for me, I know I got a hold of totally totally different things that I want to help. Okay, this, this is this is what I want to know. Um, this is what I was looking at on my phone. Okay, I googled what does the Bible say about debt? And uh in Proverbs seven says the rich rules over the poor and the borrower get to that and the borrower is the slave of the lender. A lot of people, I do believe, hear this and they say, well, I don't want to

bar because the Bible said it's bad. And what do you say to that? So first of all, well they say, face what faith without works is dead. Faith without work is dead. So that may be your faith, But if you're trying to go buy a house, you still gotta borrow money. M hmm, period, No down about that. And so you know what, the Bible also says, forgive us forgive our debts as we forgive out that. You know. That's the thing about the Bible is that it could

be interpreted. One thing could be interpreted in multiple ways. They're talking about having slaves in the Bible. Yeah, So I mean I think a lot of times people use the Bible they based on the situation that they and whatever convenient for the situation. That there is no agree because here's the other thing. Even to that will, there are pundits out there who teach people that credit is bad. But here's the thing. They don't look like us, the pundits,

they like Melani. And so the thing is, I tell people, you have people who who are not in our position in life or in our journey, who is telling us not to be able to use something that can help us to create wealth for our community. So here's an example, the wealth gap between blacks to whites. The average white family wealth is about a hundred and eighty nine thousand. The average black families wealth is twenty four thousand. Do you hear that? I didn't think that maybe a little higher.

It may be less than four thousand. We like it's the lifespan of the wealth, and it may be a little less. But here's the thing. How do we close that? It starts with homeownership? Because here's the thing, and again you have these pundits who teach our people in our community that owning a home is bad at But the wealth can start with owning the home because when you own a home, wealth do you accumulate? You accumulate equity, right, and then when it's timing, dump you get the money

at a period that's tax free. Right. So that's why I say it's a genocide against our community that they're teaching us that credit is bad. All of these things are bad, but it's the easiest entry point to creating wealth. You go buy a house at so nineteen years old and start building. Period, because they don't want to catch you up. Period. I got it, because they're teaching their children this at a young age. On average, black men earned eighty seven cents for every dollar a white man earned.

Hispanic workers had the next largest gap, earning ninety one cents for every dollar earned by a white man. I'm trying to get to the wealth. They don't print those numbers. The medians salary of a white man, and our sample is seventy two thousand, nine hundred dollars. They controlled median pay for black or African American men. It's that's seventy one thousand, five hundred dollars. Okay um. I think it's

some of those other numbers here. What were you saying, Hispanics are paying Hispanics black people, Well, they're they're well, they're earning less. I means it doesn't say that they're being paid. It's just like what they're earning. That could that could be a combination of people that's imployed and who are self employed, Uh typically paying about that that that that that that that that Well, we know that a's a gap. Put it like that and we know

there's a gap that needs to be closed. We do know that the gap is war and you can start with homeownership. But they preached to our they come to our communities and tell us home ownership is a is a liability and how and listen, as important as home ownership is, um how feasible is it for the average worker? You all know what's so crazy? Will it's easier to qualify for a home than a credit card? Wow, it is easier to qualify for a home than a credit

card a couple of reasons. One home is collateralized, so the bank is more privy to give someone the house versus a line of credit that's uncollateralized. It's unsecured, meaning if I default on this credit card, I have nothing to attach it to. Not necessarily, No, that's not true. They just can send you a letter and potentially sue you for the debt, but for the house. If you

default on the house. I can come and take it for you and then resell the house to Will, maybe at a discount, as long as I break even as the bank. Secondly, your credit score. You can purchase a house some lenders as low as a five eighty credit score. Now your interest rate maybe a little higher, but it's not to the tune of like something outrageous. But you also have programs like NAKA that's out that it helps that helps people with their down payment, where you don't

even have to pay a down payment nothing. You you go basically go through a program you know, and and you have to have a job, you have to have some rental history, and you can get into your own home for no money down and so it's extremely feasible. We just don't know this stuff exists because we've been told home ownership is bad, that we come up with things like, oh, I don't want to own a home. It's gonna cost me more money. No, it's actually less

to own a home. Like I have properties where I've invested back in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for forty dollars and I'm charged than for rent and they've been living there twenty years. They could have bought that the property and their mortgage would have been three hundred dollars, right, you see what I'm saying. But we've been so conditioned because we don't

understand just the basic dynamic of credit finances, et cetera. Right. Well, I think it's important for us to not generalize, but to say that some of us don't understand, you know, but because because I want us to understand it, right, you know what I'm saying. And these cocktails and credit, Yeah, meetings and events that you have around the country very popular. I know that I've seen many of them on online, and I know you do a lot of that stuff

with uh, with Jay Morrison. These I actually do by myself. Okay, okay, you you do the cocktail and credit. You do the cocktails and credit exclusively. But what do you do with Jake Uh? We actually are no longer. We don't do any partnerships together. Okay. But y'all used to do what they were called the corner class. The corner class to go out on the streets, uh, in the hood and do a free workshop teaching understand hundred people just out

there on the block and listen. I don't know how they did it because I don't know, how do you get the attention to that many people on the block and people just listening on the block. I mean, it's the hell of a thing. But but okay, so let's go back to the Cocktails and Credit. What is that like when somebody comes to a cocktails and credit event?

What do they expect so to to To answer that question, let me even break down the premise of why I put it together, because when I first started trying to, um uh, you know, pitch that concept, people didn't get it. They're like a bar learning about credit. Now I just want to turn up, you know what I'm saying. But here's the thing, and this goes back to that hustle and drive in that determination. I don't quit if it's

something that I believe in. And one of the things, one of the many things that I've learned just on my journey, people love entertainment. People also love to be educated, especially us. We like information. We just have to make sure the information is palatable for us to like. And so I put together the Cocktail and Credit almost kind of like a networking event. So we're going into a bar or a lounge. We try to find a black

owned establishment because we want to support the community. And then we do these events where we're teaching people about credit, finances, real estate, entrepreneurship, cryptocurrency, stock We talk about various different topics, and when people come there, they're really coming to learn something about any one of those various topics. They're coming for the networking aspect, and people just want to come into an environment where it's just not all turn up,

you know. I'm mean. I've had people come to these events. They've met their their future bay. I've had people come to these events and meet their their potential new business partner, or come there spark an idea and go out and start their own events center, start a new business, or just learn new information about my company, of our products and brands and services, and now a year or two later put themselves in a different position. So people come

for various reasons. I think a lot of it is the branding we've put together, the following that I've built over the past five six years, the reputation, and then of course, you know, we make it fun. It's not just some boring networking event where you're just passing our cars. No, we're gonna have fun there too. Yeah, you do that thing on Instagram to on Fridays. Oh yeah, the the FCO Fridays. My schedule been so crazy, I haven't been able to do that. Uh yeah, just lately been traveling

the country and educating. And I do all of this for free, you know, I fly my team out, I pay for the venues, and I'm not even charging people to come to the cocktails on credit. Right, So, but but but the idea is that when they do come, they can see the value in the seri that you provide and perhaps you eventually yeah, right, and so it's

a long term play. Yeah. So when it comes to uh, young people, how young should a person be when they m when they start like working on their credit, like like really concerned about the Well, I won't necessarily say the reason why I'm not saying concerned about their credit is because I know part of that answer is young people may not even be know what, no anything about They don't even know they might they may not even they may not even they may not even be talking

to something right right, they may be in second grade. But but I know that a lot of times that that that parents can take the lead. So I held parents who have children at the age of thirteen and start building their child's credit because young gest thirteen, because and and and and and building their child's credit at

thirteen don't mean putting there. You know that's the child, right, So we're talking about literally getting them positioned for adulthood, because the greatest gift you can give a child when they turn eighteen is a gift of them having financial literacy, that they're educated, because if they decide to go to college, they're not gonna go get that credit card and burn through it. They're not gonna go and buy a vehicle to put themselves upside down in negative equity in a

vehicle they can afford. Or they can go and rent their first department. They can go buy a vehicle without the parents co signer. And so when you start instilling those type of values into your teenage I call them airs, don't say children, because when you think of them being your heirs, you want to leave them something. Um. They just become much more productive and which we're actually seeing a lot of the millennials are coming out to my

events and they're hungry. They're like, Yo, this whole thirty years working for somebody for a pitch no that I need I need to learn something different, And so a lot of them get it. They're they're they're activated at a at a much younger age because they see that what our parents, parents have been teaching us doesn't work. That that path to go to school, get good grades,

to get a good like that path doesn't work. That's why I dropped out of college because I saw the destruction I was heading towards, just the debt trap of college and some of these other things without really being educated on looking at it as a business decision. That's what that leads me to my next question, how does a student aid and financial aid effect one's critic it's

it's I call it a debt trap. And so my my parents who have children who are getting ready to send their airs to college, I tell them sit down and talk to them and make it a business decision. Meaning, if you're going to school to be UH computer programmer. Okay, so if we take the average UH tuition for a four year institution to go to be a computer programmer, you may come out spending about eighty You can go to an eighteen month certification program and spend five thousand.

Why do you need a four year degree to go and get a certify and information that's gonna be outdated by the time you graduate, so now you gotta go back and get an even more debt, you know. And so we start telling teaching the parents to understand and look at the college decision as a business decision. Now, if you're going to be an attorney, that's different. You're gonna be a doctor something specialized, but that's d different.

But I don't need I'm not sending my kids to school to get a you know, water basket weaving degree. It doesn't do it doesn't even translate into the real world in real society. So the debt trap of college can be catastrophic because then once you graduate, you're a hundred plus thousand and student loan debt. Now your debt to income ratio is upside down. So now you can't buy a house, uh you you you you probably can't

find gainful employment to even uh calculate with inflation. So now you're living in subpar standards of what you thought you were gonna be living at. So it just becomes a debt trap. I mean, it's it's it's it's really hurt our community. The most because we've kind of made

college the prize. How do you get people to understand that, Okay, now that you're here and I got you and I got you straighten out, you finally finally straight Is there a certain method that you use to like really like drive home that look, you have to keep this going. Is that something that that you do You have any tools in place or do you just strictly count on them being mature enough to say, I gotta make sure I don't mess my credit up again. Great question. So

one of the things I believe in. There's a famous Mark Twain quote that says, I never left school and getting away of my education. So we have programs. My company has programs where we offer continual education. One of them is my full time CEO program, which is almost like college for entrepreneurs, and we teach various things on credit.

I mean, we just did a class last week on health, health and wealth and so yeah, So to answer your question, we do have different things to help you to maintain because here's the thing about like this whole wealth kind of engine that you know, we've we've assimilated within my company.

It's like it's almost like with church or when you're going to motivational workshops out of site, out of mind, you have to stay engaged to stay activated a lot of times unless you're self motivated, which statistically very few people are just driven to that level of degree. And so we keep things in place, like my full time CEO to keep you engaged so that you can stay activated. Because here's the thing. You can go to your religious place of worship, you can go to that uh motivational workshop.

Within seventy two hours, you're back living the way you went in. So you have to stay engaged. And so when you're not being educated on why credit is important, it's very easy to go back home to your negative you know, circle, and they say, man, that credit shit again. So there now yourself consciously you're like, yeah, man, this

probably this ship don't probably work anyway. So you have to stay engaged, which is why I do the cocktails and credit, why I do my you know, uh full time CEO program, why I'm always going live and it really just my focus is really just continually inspiring people because here's the thing of our world is based around negativity because it sales, and so it's very easy to get trapped up in the mindset of not wanting to do right because the biggest minority on this planet is winners,

and to be a winner, you gotta be around winners constantly period. You know, why do you think the music industry is a small fraternity because you gotta be a winner? Thing with these bosses, you know, holds not letting somebody who are not winning sitting at the table, So why should we want so? So so we have to stay engaging. That's why I do what we do because I want people to leave always feeling like they can be a winner.

How is it is it for somebody to just like come to you or anybody who repairs credit with a thousand dollars and say, okay, fix my credit and they take that after you do you fix the credit and then they go out and get maybe a dollar alone without a job. Is that possible without able It's very possible without a job. You can get your credit fixed with no job and go out and get a thirty dollar long So let's let's let's use the correct term though.

So there's a difference between loans and then revolving unsecured credit. So to go get a loan that could be a stretch without a job because they're gonna ask for certain paperwork. But I can help someone get in position and they can go and get a line of credit for because and what a line of credit is so alone is you go to the bank and you're asking for a loan, meaning you want twenty dollars. I'm gonna write you a check and put twenty dollars in your hand in your

bank account, et cetera. A line of credit. You go to the bank asked for a line of credit, and they're gonna give you a credit line that's unsecured and uncollateralized where you can draw off of that money, so you don't get the whole twenty in your hand. Now here's the benefits of why I like the line of credit more. Okay, First of all, I only pay you against what I borrow. See, if I give you a twenty long you gotta start paying back against the whole twenty.

You may not even have a particle to be able to service the debt on twenty right away. But on a line of credit, I give you twenty thousand as a line of credit, you may only need a thousand dollars right now. So now you're only paying back against a thousand and because you can use stated income household income. So yeah, you may not necessarily work or have a job, but your spouse may work, so you can use household income to apply for that revolving credit. Explain the difference

between stated income and household income. Yes, so stated income would be like projected income. So let's say you um are planning on starting a business, okay, and you apply for a business credit card that allows you to use stated income, and banks have what I call stated products. If you pick up the phone, call to bank and say, hey,

I want to apply for a credit card. Whatever, do you use stated income, resupply of the time will say yes, stated income, which means I can state my projected income. Household income mean I can use the combined income of everyone working within my household. So I may not work, but I have a spouse and a teenager who works. I can use that household income on the application. And typically on the application there's a slot that says household income. So let's just say I want to state that I

may yet, uh, people have done that. People have done that, and I get a loan. There's other factors. What are what are some of the factors that they would consider denying me the revolving definitely. Well, you may owe other banks. You know, they have systems out there called check systems. Meaning let's say there's five banks in your neighborhood, you owe three of them. Okay, you can still have a

seven fifty credit score. Well, guess what. Banks have gotten sophisticated because they know people burn banks all the time, so they may go pull the bank system which does not show on your credit report. There's a system called check systems on everybody to go and look up check systems. You may be in check systems from ten years ago and may not even know. So the bank pull check systems and say, oh, Dawn, you owe bank one, two and three x amount of dollars. We're denying your application

and you may not even know why. This is why I tell people, if you get denied, ask why, so you could fix it. So that could be a reason to your income is too low. Yeah, you may have put stated income, but based upon your debt that they see that you already have, the income may not be able to suffice the to cover for the amount of credit that they would typically lend you. So on average, for every thousand dollars of discretionary income, they can approve

you for up to five thousand and available credit. So let's say your your income is five thousand a month, but you're your expenses every single month is that's only a hundred dollars in discretionary income. So they may deny you because they're gonna say, well, how will will pay us back every month? Henley has a hund very stretched or in the finance world they call it overleveraged, and you may have uh seven nine credit score, so there are several factors. It's bigger. That's why I say it's

bigger than credit. And this is this type of stuff that I'm teaching people because people assume, hey, I got a good credit score, why is the bank denying me? And so this is where that information gap comes in, that which often say that the thing that separates wealthy from unwealthy one of them is information. We don't know enough about enough. Man, what's there? Four time CEO? So this is actually my brand, So we can go to

the website. It definitely, but that's a dope name. I can see every single entrepreneur and and and aspiring entrepreneur. Uh do that? You know, I want to want to wear something like that or even you know, like all our CEOs are not owners, but just I mean see they do call shots, so they are bosses. And I often say it's more of a mindset. Yeah, because you can be uh you could own your own company and your mindset fuck up. You still not be a four times,

Right're not a full time That's a good point. So it's it's really it's just like the fake it just like it's like throwing up money in the club. You know what I'm saying, that's really how you got You know what I'm saying, You're gonna throw it up in the club. Yeah, right, go get a couple of hundred dollars and just don't make you know a week and another level they did and and speaking of faking it until you make it, Uh, what are some of the

no knows? When you do get your credit repair? Once you got your credit, you're healthy, you're ready to go. What are some no knows that you would tell people right off the back, because I know a lot of times people get the credit repaired and they want to go to make large purchases right off top yeah, so what are some no knows? Well, that's definitely one of them. And that's where that unstructured debt comes in. That you know,

the first thing I want to do. It's almost like when you work in a job and you get a raise, what's the first thing they want to do? Upgrade their lifestyle? Same thing with credit. You start getting in a better credit situation, Well, guess what, you still have to service the debt. And that's the part again why I educate people, because you know, people put themselves back in the situation, but then they blame it on credit. No, it's not credit.

You just have fucked up money managing skills and so my past, my past, and listening to this, I'm sorry, sorry passing, we just have bad money skills and so. But this is how I have to talk to peo past because that's sometimes the only dialect we understand. And so the biggest no no is yeah, they're overleveraging themselves or um going out there purchasing the vehicle they can't afford.

Like right now, the autose sales is ridiculous. People are buying I didn't even know they made this many lambos, but people have been buying Lamborghin these races, and so they're putting themselves in a in a scenario over leveraging themselves. Is that A lot of that is a lot of that has been I'm just waiting for the for them. They're definitely going to you know, I'm gonna be buying all their cars to jail. Wow. That's terrible, man, Man,

I got something I want to address. Man. That's been like a burning, burning, like statement for the last sixty seconds. Why I can't have a past You don't have a pastor, Willie? My pastors Rono, Bernard Hopes, Bishop Hopes and a piece they correct stand corrected, Willie has a pastor. Clapp up. I'm talking about man. You know you know like you gotta you gotta have spiritual advising. Okay, I've been on you thirty five years, bro Stop what stop? Physical? Spiritual? Spiritual?

Everybody everybody should have a spiritual Believe you had a financial you did what I'm saying that when advising? Really seriously, when did I get one? Yeah? I'm asking you. I mean, first, first of all, will First of all, don't take that long with her person. I can say you gotta know everything, but just know that I have a spiritual advisor. Go ahead, I wait for the next question. Bro, Willie, come on listen, man,

you know listen, you knew what you was walking into. Man, you know this guy right here, he's a he's he's incourageable to me. I'm gonna lick that up. So so well, look who has the highest credit score in your family? They can't see me in that. Then they can't see in that category. But so well, you said, I'm delinquent and um not manageable and unruly not Sometimes you're unruly

delinquent capable of being corrected. That's that's more you. Yeah, that's more incapable of being You're not reformable, man, you're not reformable. Yeah I want some too, Bro, Yeah, you're not reformable. And it's okay, it's okay. It's not your fault. You know that. That's the that's the that's what they say. This generation says everything is not your fault. This is the what is it the participation trophy generation? Like, it's

not your fault, it's not your fault. I mean, you know you ate cake uh four times for the last five will you hate your body tripped out on you? But it's not your fault. Really has always hated me, No, man, I got a lot of love for you. Man, never hated on me, just never liked me. Now I got a lot of love for you, man. I mean, you know, uh, you know, it's very very hard, you know, to not like you. Man. You's just just a great guy. And and and yeah we all so. So I got a question.

I just showed you something about Um, who's that somebody say that this was illegal to put like even like child support on your credit? Is that a loan? You know? That's a damn good question. So here's the thing, And this is how the credit bureau system works. It's their their private their private ties, entities, and how they make their money is by selling our information. So to use the word is it illegal, you really can't say that.

I'm gonna say is it ethical? And the debt reporting process or when someone in a company, a third party company puts a collection report on your credit report, it's not that it's illegal. It could be viewed as unethical. Now, because most people don't check their credit report, they know that they can get away with it. We as the consumer has to have to force them to provide the validity on why they are reporting that information, and if it's not being reported accurately, they have to remove it.

So the laws that have been put in place per the Fair Credit Reporting Act actually benefit us, which is why, Hey, you're reporting this. Proved to me this information is right, prude to me that it's accurate, Prude to me that you even have the authority to report this. And you'd be surprised. See a lot of people don't know these credit bureaus are most of them are owned by banks.

You can sue them, and you'd be surprised how often they settle because they already know most of the time you're in the wrong, but we don't notice stuff, you know, talk about how people can settle with these credit card agencies banks when they have these enormous balances and stuff and maybe they can pay and maybe they can't, but the fact that they can go in and negotiate, right, they can actually negotiate. If you don't have to pay

the whole balance, you can negotiate the time. Now. The first thing almost sometimes if you get if you get a really bad one, like one of those people that we're going at, sometimes they have it in like no, you must be. They're trying to get their commission. So that's all that is. But I actually have a video on YouTube that says why you shouldn't pay your collection accounts. Yeah, it was actually my first video that went viral thing.

It's probably almost two million views on there now. And the reason I tell people that is, first of all, what you don't know can't hurt you, and it will. Meaning paying a collection account can drop your credit score really tremendously so on credit reports, when the debt has been sitting on your credit for a certain period of time, we call it zombie it. Okay, so let's say you have an account that's six years old that's been delinquent. You owe this company, and the debt has been delinquent

for six years. You get a moral compass one day because you wake up and say, you know what, I'm gonna pay this. You know, I don't. I'm tired of being incurable. Is that the word incurrigible. I'm tired of being incorrigible, So I'm gonna pay this debt off. You pay the debt, your score drops hundred points. Really why is that? Because it goes based upon what's called the last day of activity. It's ol so a collection account.

The dollar amount doesn't hurt you, it's the information. The information are based on algorithms, So what it happened is you'll pay the collection account. They updated it as a paid collection. It just see them the remember it triggers as information, So even though it's a collection and paid, it's still a collection. So because it's now been updated and looks like a brand new account, it just dropped your score. So that's why you shouldn't pay it without

knowing what to do first. So if you're gonna pay it, you want to request what's called a deletion letter, meaning hey, if I pay this in full, I need you to delete it from my credit report, not updated, but deleted. Now, when it comes to settling the debt, you have to be careful because when you settle it can have the same impact as paying it, because what it happened is that it's a settle for the less than half or for less than the full balance, so it is still

update and can drop your score. You can you can dispute it once you've actually created the damn again. So it could be various reasons. One um, the last dat of activity still may be inaccurate, you know what I'm saying. So it's still several parameters, the date of activity on on the last time that the information has technicality been reported. Yeah, it's all technical information. It's almost like when you get

a ticket from the police officer. A lot of people don't know if you get stopped on Washington Avenue and the police officers just if they know, they could just right Washington if there's a if there's a Washington and a Washington Avenue in the city that you get stopped in, that's a technicality you can get off. Or the the caliber of the gun that they're using to clock you, right, what was the what was the caliber set at for when they clock you on speed? So yeah, it's all technicality.

It's it's the it's law. It's a game of court, so it's all technicalities. Speaking of the game, what is more important? Business credit? Uh? Personal credit? If you have to pick one, I like how you framed that. And I'm gonna tell you why if you're walking down the street and it's a hundred and fifty on the floor, which won't you picking up brat h why? Both? And that was which one? But I know you said you had to, but you said which one? It don't matter? Yeah, man,

good what I'm talking about? Man? You got right there. Man, you said which one? Man which you said? Which one's nobody? I didn't say you have to pick one. See Willie said, he said which one. If you would have said which do you pick up? Now, now you wouldn't be the one. They would have been both. That's the trickery. Most people still don't get that one. But I'm picking up both. So to answer your question, but if I had to pick one, I would in business credit because it gives

me more reach and more leverage. Here's why. So I can go set up a company, get some credit, and then I'm ready to go buy a house. The debt on my company does not show on my personal credit. So it's kind of that own everything, I mean, own nothing and control everything type of situation. So I can have all this credit and assets under this company, but

it doesn't look like I personally own it. That's one scenario. Two, I can have five companies and go to five different banks and get five different lines of credit on all five of those companies. M Yeah, and that's called leverage. So if I had to pick one. I'm gonna always do business credit first because it gives me more reach to be able to control more credit, to be able to control more assets without me personally showing that I

own any of that company's name. So the first thing is, and I want to tell people this, you gotta have good personal credit. We have so many people who are trying to figure out shortcuts on how do I get all this money under market business without having a good personal credit. Every single bank is going to ask you for your personal credit to be has to be. And then on top of some of the other things, making sure your company is bank compliant, you gotta file your taxes.

Let me say that again, because here's the thing. The banks want to see that you can service the debt. So they want to know, Okay, we give you a line of credit for a hundred can your company service to debt on that hundred and so they're gonna look at your net revenue. So it's it's several things. And again, these are all of the things that we teach, and we tell people the blueprint on what every single step on what you need to do. Getting the money is

the easiest part. Talk about your two oh yeah out a couple. So the first one is Credit Is King, which came out in two thousand and sixteen. Uh, it's really just the credit manual I like to call it. It is probably about a hundred and twenty six I believe something like that a lot. It's I don't know the fine size, but a lot of people have told me they've taken a four hour to five hour flight and completed the book. And I wrote it from the perspective that an eighth grader can pick it up and

read it. And I did that on purpose. One. When it comes to talking about credit and finances, a lot of times people get intimidated because of the vocabulary and the dialogue, dialect and all of that. So I wanted to make it extremely palatable for everybody to be able

to pick up and read. To Most people comprehend on the eighth grade level, no matter what your level of degree, is an education, and so I wanted to make it easy for someone in high school to read it as well as someone who's many years we moved from school. So Credit Is King is my first book. My second book is Full Time CEO The Ship. They don't tell you, h you wrote the word that ship yes, yeah, it's

interesting story. I came up with that title. I was watching UM another show on the internet, and the author on there was talking about he was writing a book and he he was talking about a book by another author that was unfuncked yourself or something like that, sorry pastor. And sometimes when people see words like that, it jumped out at them. And so I was like, you know what, I want to do something different because originally I was just gonna call a book full time CEO and I

was like, that's kind of boring. What is it that we don't understand about business? I was like, the ship they don't tell you? And then first I was worried about what my mom's was gonna say, so when she proof read the book, she put questions and marked next to it. But the title does jump out at people because it really is a lot of ship that they don't tell you about the journey of being an entrepreneur. Yeah, yeah, how can people get intut with to man? It's been

a very spirited conversation. Man, we appreciate your staffing, but we know you got an event in town, but how do you how do you? How do people get get intu? Yeah? So all social media platforms at Mr will Rowntree, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn. I mean yeah, I mean I'm very accessible. I respond to my messages, my comments and uh and of course you know I'm probably pulling up in a city near you.

So we got a couple more. We got a couple more stops pull up, O man got his whole little brandf mat, I got these pull up on the hats and putting into the hats out and stuff. I'm gonna get you, um uh uh to do some credit stuff for for some people I know and myself included. But the cool thing about it, like I was saying earlier, was that, bro, I'm like educated about credit now like and so it's like if I see my score, man, if if when I get an alert, you're probably calling me, Well,

I'll call. I'll call you if like, if it's if I lose about a good six or seven points or something, then I'm calling. But you know, but I'm telling you when I lose one point, if it dip, if it said your credit score has decreased, I'll be like, Man, I get mad, bro, Like I don't, I don't care. If it's one point, I get mad, I'm like, I want to call somebody, but I don't really know the call,

so that's why I called. Well, So, yeah, I want I wanna change some stuff about my credit because I know for a fact, um uh my, my interest rates are not as low as they should be. You know that can that will motivate you. I want to get some three percent interest rates and I'm probably had a six or something like that. That's it's beautiful when you've been like me. Like I said, even though I've had the money, I've never had good credits. So I go

in and I'm paying premium. I'm payings, you know, twenty two points for a car. You know what I'm saying. When we got that blazer, Man, when we first started off, man, we had a blue Blazer point and you could not tell Willie nothing? He man, what was your what did you buy? What was that a BMW? What was that you about? I wrote with you, Willie? That I wrote with you, Willie, okay, after you got the ride with me? What was that you you you bought? I had a

great BMW okay, and you couldn't tell him nothing. Trick on that Brad. I paid cash for it. That's another man, well, well, and I paid cash for the blazer. Come on, we gotta always use the bank money. Was it was? I don't know dually not that dually know that. Hey man, when you know better, you do Betty and I know better about credit. Thanks to you, Man. Absolutely appreciate you. I really appreciate you coming up. Man. I know you could have been anywhere in the world. Man, but you

chose to be right here with the ghetto boys reloaded. Man, this is a pleasure. Appreciate that in the room with two legends. Come on another episode in the bag. Ladies and gentlemen wheel around tree. No more talk, No mo Talk. This episode was produced by A King and brought to you by The Black Effect Podcast Network and Heart Radio.