Superstar Author John Nicholas, Debt-Free ASAP! The 3 Keys to Conquering Debt

Are you on Clubhouse?

And if you can forward any of those links to me, please do. Put them up and promote them.

So sounds great. So hi everyone, very excited. Today is actually the 17th of February. We're already halfway over February and we have John Nicholas with us, Debt Free ASAP. I don't know about you, but I need to be debt free ASAP. So glad that John reached out to talk about his book and how he can help all of us. Just so you know, John is in Dallas. He is freezing cold. I can't tell if the fireplace is cranking behind him, and if we lose John, we just blame it on the power company. So John, welcome. How are you?

Doing great, Adrienne. Thank you so much for having me, and I appreciate all of our visitors, guests, Viewers, listeners, everybody out there, hopefully we can help in some way today.

So, John, I guess the initial question would be, and of course we don't— this is now rehearsal and no script, but what prompted you to write a book? Can we get a little bit of history of who you are and then why you wrote the book?

You bet. Sure. I, I'm a lifelong entrepreneur, have built some award-winning, you know, Emmy Award-winning sports media company worth millions. Basically partnered to build a real estate company that became number 2 in the U.S., number 1 in Texas per Wall Street Journal rankings. Multimillion-dollar companies, and yet in between and along the way, I've been jobless, broke, and buried in debt over the years. And so I've had to learn a lot about credit and debt and how to overcome it. And also worked for almost 2 years in the debt relief industry where I learned all kinds of insider secrets, including why so many debt programs fail people. I mean, more than diet or exercise programs. I mean, it's, it's terrible. Very poor success rate, and I left the industry because of that. And during this pandemic, I was on a little retreat for Father's Day at a lake, and I thought I was going to write on some other projects, and I just had a whole U-turn detour. And the heart I've had for the people I spoke with, you know, thousands of people across the country, while in that business who really need a better way. So, I came back. I had some inspiration as to how to boil things down and give people really what they need in a simple protocol. We call it the ASAP Protocol. It is 3 steps. It is real simple and it can help anybody truly deal with their debt in a new and better way. So that got me here and writing the book and starting the company and the coaching opportunities for people.

John, what is the lifestyle like? What is the life cycle of a debt? So like, if you could explain it, so like you don't pay a credit card bill, what then happens? What are the next things that happen?

Well, you're going to have collection calls immediately. You're going to be taking a hit on your credit profile, uh, every, every time you're past due. And that builds up from a 30-day late to a 60-day late to a 90-day, 120-day, etc. Uh, and it gets progressively worse. Doesn't take much to really mess up your, your credit. I'm more concerned, Adrian, with people that have had debt popping up left and right, and for whatever reasons— and by the way, there's There's 7 main reasons why people fall into like significant debt, and only one of them is like making bad decisions and just being frivolous and spending crazy. Okay, that's just one. Really, these are the main causes that are behind people in serious debt that need to figure out something, and usually paralyzed in just kind of fear and uncertainty, you know, just like, what do I do? Okay. Okay. But the 7 reasons, the most common causes are retirement, job loss or business failure. Uh, you've got medical issues, illness, you know, that type of thing. You have divorce, very invisible, uh, credit killer because, well, there's reasons and I won't, I won't belabor that point. Something we call force majeure, meaning unforeseen unforeseen catastrophic situations, whether it's 9/11, whether it's the Great Recession, whether it's a pandemic, whatever. Student loans is another big one. And then you have bad plans, decisions, etc. So most people dealing with debt feel the scorn of like, oh, I, you know, I must be terrible. But usually it's these other elements, these causes that get people into some significant trouble. And for those folks, uh, they're just sitting ducks for scams, and they often get just talked into, uh, cookie-cutter debt relief programs that may not suit them at all, you know. And so that, that really irritates me, and that's part of why I'm on a mission to help people, uh, really understand their options, be able to create a plan and be successful, and get some support, whatever they need to be successful in recovery.

But so the reason I was asking about like kind of a life cycle is you wanna handle it right away. So what is the difference between answering the phone and explaining your situation or hoping that it goes away? And that's a great question.

It's a great question. The one thing you're gonna hear me say to many questions is it depends. And that can be, be irritating, I understand that. But really, because every person's situation is unique, and this is why cookie-cutter programs don't, don't fit and don't work very well. So it depends on several things. Number one, if you have like a medical debt, let's say, and you're behind on it, you can call them. And I encourage people, call them Talk to them directly, tell them your situation, and tell them what you can afford, even if it's a pittance, because that shows, uh, goodwill and best efforts. So that's the case. If it's a credit card bill and they're calling you, you're going to have a hard time making any progress. They don't really want to hear any excuses. However, during this pandemic Many creditors have been much more gracious and even generous with what we call hardship programs. Now usually you have to be behind 2 or 3 payments before they're going to let you catch a significant break, like, hey, we're going to stop calling you, we're going to reduce your interest, we're going to reduce your payment, or we're going to put it off for a while. So in other words, you've already incurred the damage to your credit profile before you're going to get anybody to help you in most cases. Does that make sense?

Yeah, that does make sense. So how are you more susceptible to scams? What— where does that lay into the whole issue?

Well, there's, there's several reasons. A lot of times people get mailers that tell them, hey, you, you qualify for a loan. And so people are going I need to consolidate all this debt that I have because it's all high-interest debt. So if I can just consolidate it with a loan, I'll be great. And so they, they call in and there's no way they're going to qualify for a loan. And the people that sent those, those offers, they know that, okay? They're just dangling bait and they want people to call. Who are in need, and they, they act like, oh, well, you know, let's see if you qualify for a loan. Well, no, you really don't. So really, you need to join our program, and we're going to help you either settle your debts, or we're going to get you on a debt relief, uh, management program, or whatever. And it's just wrong from, from the get-go, okay? Some of those programs can be okay. Well, Well, you don't, you don't make calls based on, on letters that come in the mail. You just don't. That's not a great approach. You need to find a more trusted, confident way to approach, you know, and that's, that's what we're trying to offer. In fact, we have free and affordable type, type opportunities to help people. Like, for instance, one thing is Well, I'll be quiet. So going back to your question, yeah, how do they know—

how do the scammers— how do they know that you owe? Is that public information?

Everything related to your credit is available to financial about our credit scores and our activity, whether our debt load is growing or shrinking or this or that. Most of it's available based on the fine print of most of your financial instruments— loans, credit cards, etc. It's all fair game.

So this is a bait and switch. You're saying that they will mail you, you qualify for this credit card or you qualify for the loan, knowing you don't. You pick it up and you're like, oh, look, I can solve my problems. And then you call them and they they bait you and they say, oh no, we're sorry, you're not, but you do qualify for our program that'll cost you this much and we'll get you out of debt.

You just nailed it right there. Yes, there's quite a bit of that, and that's why they're considered scam— scammy anyway. Yes. Wow.

Okay, I learned something new. I did not realize that. That is really an interesting point. Okay, so what— so what is the— what do you think is going to happen during COVID-19 in this last year where people did take a big hit and are having trouble paying their debt?

Well, again, that's, that's the inspiration for creating free and affordable resources to help people figure it out. One is my book, Debt Free ASAP. You can get it on Amazon for $2.99. I mean, for goodness sake, but it's worth— it could be worth a million bucks to help you figure things out. And, and create a plan that's going to get you debt-free, uh, one way or another, in a way that you're managing. But, you know, you just nailed it in terms of the kind of thing that's out there. There's also, uh, foreign callers, uh, there, there's, there's call centers, whether they're in the Philippines or India or wherever, and all they do is call, call, call people on lists that have been provided for them that there are lists of people that are behind on payments, uh, have a heavy debt load, low credit scores, whatever. And they're calling people and they just want to get somebody on the line because they're paid if they can just transfer them. And so they're making call— thousands and thousands and thousands of calls across the country. And if they get somebody to just say, what's this about helping my finances? They'll say, hold the phone, I'm going to transfer you to somebody who's going to take good care of you, and they'll send you over to somebody. And again, it's, it's very scammy. It might be a program that's credible, it might not. But the point is, if you hear the sounds of a call center in the background of somebody who's on the phone with you, just say, you know what, thank you, God bless you, not interested. You know, I always encourage people be be kind, be courteous, but get off the phone. I mean, unless you have sought somebody out that's recommended or that you've heard or seen that's credible, you know, bail out. You don't have anything to say to such people.

Well, is it okay to ask, so what is the premise of these debt companies? What are they saying? So they're taking your money and they're telling you that they're going to consolidate it or they're going to get rid of it or they're going to just help you figure out what to pay first and what to pay pay last?

Adrienne, this is the, the million-dollar question because there's various options that we have in terms of debt recovery. There can be, uh, and by the way, I have a free cheat sheet. It's called The 7 Debt Solutions You Need to Know. You can get it at 7, the number 7, debt solutions dot com. Okay, just go there, uh, request it, and you'll get it. It covers the 7, the 7 debt solutions that include— we don't have enough time to go in much detail, but let me just run them by you so you, you hear them. One is a high-low payoff plan. That's you managing it to pay off the lowest balances or the highest, uh, interest rates depending. And, and we talk about why you would consider either one. There's debt consolidation, and there's several kinds of debt consolidation. There's hardship programs also. There's different kinds of hardship programs. There's a family assistance plan where you're asking for some help from family members who might be able to help. But I explain how to do that in a way that's not just like needy or desperate, that actually comes with a clear sense of, uh, thought and, and is compelling in terms of an outline. Uh, and so that's, that's something else. Settlements, debt settlements, whether you do them yourself or whether you have a company do them for you. Bankruptcy, Chapter 7 or 13, both are, uh, reasonable options for the right situations. You know, they're definitely not right for most people, and most people get sucked into other options because they just want to avoid bankruptcy. And what they really need to do is have somebody review all their options. And the last one would be status quo, meaning you do nothing. And there are reasons why some people, they may have a bunch of debt, but it may be important for them to do nothing, either temporarily or forever. Could be somebody retired with no assets no real income other than some Social Security or something. And for them, there's just nothing to be gained, there's nothing to be lost. You just— they just have to do nothing and just, you know, recognize that, you know, they, they can't have legal action against them or lose anything, so they just need to let it lie. There's other circumstances where doing nothing is the smart or the appropriate best thing for them to do. But I won't drag you into the details on that.

Wait, wait, wait. So are you saying that the debt would then die with them?

In certain cases, yes. In certain cases, it's written off by the financial companies, the creditors. And it goes away after a 7-year lifespan of collections and other efforts. A lot of times they just, they just stop bothering people if they know they're retired or disabled or just don't have the means to compensate in some real way.

Does that, does that go to the other family, the living family members when someone passes away?

No, no. Uh, when somebody passes away with a bunch of debt, the family members need to get a document, basically a death certificate, and get it to the creditors so that they can properly retire the debt that way. Now that may not be the case if it's a cosigned debt or a piece of property or something. So again, this is why I hate to sound like an attorney, But it really depends on circumstances. And that's why I created my program, which is to not sell anything to anybody, but to help them, number one, assess their situation, looking at their debt load, looking at their monthly P&L or income and expense, and looking at their net worth, because there might be some valuable things that they could liquidate to get rid of debt and things like that. So number 1, assess their situation properly. This is something that companies just don't do with their debt programs. They just, they just hear somebody who can fog a mirror and they want to slam them into their program because they're going to earn fees, sometimes gigantic fees, sometimes smaller fees, but they're going to— they just want to sign people up. Doesn't matter what their circumstances are, doesn't matter what the best what the best approach would be for them. So that's where we come in. Know your situation, number one. Number two, review your options so that, you know, so that you know the difference between a debt management program and a debt settlement program and what one would work best for you. And finally, you know, get the support you need to succeed because like running a marathon, you can't just jump up one morning and say, I am going to run a marathon and I don't know a thing about it. You have got to get someone, whether it is a trusted family member who is good with finances or an accountant or a financial planner or in my case, a financial coach. The bottom line is you need somebody who can really help you succeed step by step and just hang in there because a lot of it is up here. The mindset to deal and overcome debt, it, it's not for the faint of heart, but anybody can do it. Anybody and everybody can really find a solution that will work for their situation and, uh, they can be successful with it.

I love this. Wait, do you have a copy of your book there so I could see it? Oh, and is this like a workbook when you— so, oh, oh, oh, oh, I already love it. All right, so, so when you say the assessment of yourself, is that like a workbook in there? Do you have a way to— do you have like charts and, I don't know, logins, like certain things that you could use?

I didn't ask you to ask me that question, but I'm glad you did. There's a very clear— and by the way, this thing is 130 pages total, so it's a fast read, but it manages to create, uh, to, to combine colorful, very interesting, uh, case examples of real people. Okay, so every, every chapter starts with a conversation with somebody who's, who's looking for help, and their situation is different, right? Each, each situation is different. Uh, so we have conversation with real life situations. Then we have, uh, you know, good information that's, that you just can't find at the drop of a hand. You If you Google, you'll be spending ages trying to figure out. So yes, we help you break down your debt load, your P&L, your net worth, and we offer free forms. I call them X-Factor forms, X-Factor, X-Factor forms, because they make the big difference. It really helps anybody. If you don't have a clear, view and understanding and management of all your finances. By the way, many who are struggling with debt lose track, lose hope, lose touch. They just stop looking because it's painful or whatever. And some people just think, oh, I've got $40,000 of debt. In fact, one of the chapters, a husband and wife are on the phone together on speaker And she thinks she's got like $40,000. He thinks he's got like $30,000. It turns out she's got $90,000+ plus. He has over, I think it was $70,000. And we had to break them out and item, you know, the whole thing. Most people don't really have a clear picture of where they're at. So at that same, the same free offer for the, uh, 7 Debt Solutions You Need to Know. If you request that, you will also get our X-Factor forms free. It just comes along as a, like a, an extra bonus. So if you go to 7debtssolutions.com and request the 7 Solutions, uh, cheat sheet, you'll also get these X-Factor forms that you can either download and write on, or we also give you the Excel version. So if you like, if you're Excel savvy, then you can just fill those out for yourself. And that, that is a huge, uh, platform from which to recover, uh, financially and start assessing these options and discussing how best to, to make it work for you, you know. So Glad you asked that question. What's that?

You got to see it to deal with it.

Yes. Yeah, you need that visibility, and, um, you need to— you need the truth. You know, the truth is usually painful, but it's better to know what you're dealing with than be in a state of, like, the unknown, and it's it's like a mystery and it's dangerous. And, and I mean, I've talked to over 1,000 people throughout the country, every background, every situation, every age, every part of the country. And I'm telling you, it doesn't matter whether you make six figures or whether you've been disabled for 15 years, everybody needs some help. When it comes to debt. And most people today, even a recent Supreme Court justice, uh, uh, he, he, I think he, he basically disclosed that he had over $100,000 of credit card debt that he was carrying. No big deal. He has an income. I'm sure that he can handle that. But that's a lot of debt, you know. That's a lot of debt. Most people, because of this pandemic, have taken some debt and have fallen into a lot more debt. And the question is how to deal with it. And there is a simple 1-2-3 process. Assess your situation. Go ahead. Sorry.

No, no, no, but I'm thinking to myself, okay, who really needs this book? Who really needs it is our children. And so, you know what, not only gonna buy it for myself, but Buy it for your kids. I have a 14-and-a-half-year-old. What a great— if I could go back in life, I would have liked to have learned this when I was younger to really understand it and to kind of see how it looks when you're older. So I really have to say that to me, having a high school student, I think this is the kind of book you get for your child, you know, when they're in high school, maybe younger, but you know, this is awesome. You know what your book is? Your book is a great gift when someone's looking for like a wedding gift. Because it's, you know, I know I have the right— it is because you know what, they like— these are steps that you need to take and not everyone really understands it. So I really, I'm like thinking this is something that I literally would say. And thank you. So why is the price— you really have it priced affordably. I love that, like $2.99. That's an amazing price. You could buy— I could buy one for all my children.

Yeah, now that's the ebook. The ebook is $2.99. If you want to get the, the actual, you know, paperback, these are expensive to produce and everything, so they're $14.99, I think. Oh, that's what I'm gonna get. But here's, here's the thing. If, if something can save a person thousands of dollars and help them get rid of their debt, which is priceless, because let me say this The one of the early things we talk about in the book is the 5 deadly effects of debt. And listen to them real quick. Number 1, financially, of course, high interest. It's sucking your money down the drain. So financial, emotional, the emotional anguish of paying of debt is, is, is not good. It's depressing. Third is the mental impact. It turns you negative in your thoughts because month after month after month, you are getting negative information and you are probably not dealing with it in the smartest way. It has a very negative effect on your thoughts. Relationally, we know divorces are mostly driven by financial stress and debt is usually at the heart of it. There is nothing that divides more than debt. Finally, Spiritually, even spiritually, because debt is the opposite of abundance. And abundance is the state of generosity and having, you know, the ability to bless others and the ability to walk in freedom, you know, to be able to say, "It is well with my soul." And so, those are killers. And I agree with you that for young people, I, I have 55-year-old people say, I wish somebody had told me about debt load, um, net worth, P&L. These are things that millionaires take for granted. Anybody who runs a profitable company or is a millionaire, they know P&Ls, they know debt loads, they know net worth, all that. What I have tried to do is make it so simple that all of us can use these basic tools to understand. And once your mindset shifts to thinking in these terms, and by the way, my hand is on my desk going like this, you know, once you understand and start thinking in terms of these reports and how you organize your information, You start going, okay, now I understand. Now let's deal with this debt and let's start developing wealth because it's the opposite of debt, right? You're going to flip the switch. You're going to flip the script and start being somebody who's looking to build wealth, not suffer debt.

I love it. You know, the new terminology I learned the other day. So I'm on the app called Clubhouse. Which is really interesting. If you're not on Clubhouse, it's really cool. You have to have an iPhone. And so what I learned is a new terminology. I'm a millionaire. I'm a mindset millionaire.

There you go.

Yeah, so I just— I don't have a million dollars in my bank account, but I have a million dollars in my mindset. I think it's kind of funny because it's totally the opposite of like what I would consider or how I was raised, but But I have to tell those that are a millionaire mindset, what if they're, uh, if they have a million dollars of debt too?

No, somebody has— most people have at least $5,000 to $10,000 of debt. Truly, most do. And I'm not even talking cars or homes or anything. I'm talking credit card debt. Most people in America have at least $5,000 to $10,000, and there's, there's ways to deal with it. It helps to know your options, and that goes to those 7 solutions and things like that. But as for you and any teenagers or anything, I would say teenagers most of the time don't quite have the spectrum yet of the kind of debt challenges and stuff. But I agree with you 100% that people who can help young people understand finances and credit and debt and things like that, they're gonna have a huge leg up, huge leg up in the grand scheme of things.

The other thing too is, so I know with Credit Karma, it makes sense to actually know what your credit score is. And a while back I was able to, I think I had, I disputed something that was on my credit that I knew was wrong, and actually it was very easy. It was a couple clicks, a little information, and I was approved with my dispute. So that is out there if people could do that. And then there is another app that I love called Truebill. Have you heard of that app?

I've heard of it. I do recommend, uh, uh, the Credit Karma, uh, just to get some, some visibility on some things. Be advised, the credit score you see on, uh, something like that is not the same credit score you're going to get if you are trying to buy a house. Or buy a car, they're going to see a different credit score. Yeah, it's, it's— I go into this when we, uh, discuss your credit score, which I refer to as the FICO score, you know, uh, Fair— anyway, it's called the FICO score. And there are different types of scoring systems. One's kind of like out there for the Credit Karmas of the world, where it's just people like you and me trying to get an idea where we stand. It can be way different than what the mortgage lenders are seeing. They get a completely different report. It's based on different criteria. And I go into some of that, you know, in that part of assessing your situation, knowing how things work. But so beware, it's very common. And I'm a former real estate broker with you know, a brokerage and everything. Uh, so I understand many times people think they have a certain score, then they apply for a loan to buy a house or something, and they're not even close because the scoring is— can be very, very different. So wow, it's a maze out there. I'm sorry to say that, but, uh, Truebill sounds, sounds like a good one, and Credit Karma is helpful. As a step in getting a clear view of kind of where you're at, for sure. So I'm with you on that.

Yeah, Truebill is actually good for me because I have a lot of subscriptions. It helps cancel it, but also they reduce— they worked on a couple of bills that got it lower, which is always great. Like Sirius, you know, like the Sirius one where, you know, I just— I don't want to go back and forth. So very easy. But thank you so much for your time. I am totally getting your book, but I really want to get— I want the hard copy book because I feel like I'm gonna want to take notes and write it in and use it more of a workbook, so it won't make sense for me to get the ebook. But I love it, so I appreciate it. When I get the book, I will show everyone that I got the book, and I'm very, very excited to meet you. So I will put on the information on the 7 Debt Solutions because I want that too, the ebook. And is there anything else you want to add before we say goodbye?

Keep me posted because I want to hear what you think and how it's going, and if you have other questions. I mean, that's, that's it. That's my life mission right now is to help people, uh, whether they have a lot or a little, you know, debt, just deal with it in the best way possible for them. Remember, it depends on each person's situation what's best, so we got to take a look at that.

Are you on Clubhouse?

Uh, I'm, I'm, uh, I'm being urged to check out Clubhouse several times in the last week or so, so I'm going to be checking it out for sure.

I have an invite for you. I'll save it for you if you'd like it. And you have an iPhone?

I do, yep.

You know what, I'm telling you, it's a wonderful place. You could actually open up a room with your book title on it and talk about it, and you could drive up sales. It's a great way to share your information. I would be happy to help you and give you, you know, some lowdown off the side of it, but just let me know and I'll send you my— I have one more invite left so I can, I could give it to you. And That is it. So I'm so glad. Thank you so, so, so much for your time. I hope you're not hit again with another snowstorm. And I don't even know what it's like because I haven't seen snow in so many years. I don't think I can deal with it.

But hey, we made it through. Hey, we made it through.

Oh, we made it through. And we get cold here, I'm telling you. We've been down to the 30s. It gets really cold. So you can feel bad for us because we don't know how make it. We're like, you know, we're wearing a—

California boy. I, I grew up surfing in the winter. That's when the swells are the best and the waves are the biggest. Uh, so I, you know, this is— anyway, everybody's cold at some point.

So thank you so much. Thank you, thank you. I really appreciate it, and I will send you a copy of