How Dr. Ian Hoffman saved over $100M in Tax-Free Student Loan Forgiveness | The Nikhil Sai Show 45

What's going on? What's going on, everyone who's listening to this podcast right now? Welcome back to The Nikhil Sai Show, which is hosted by me, The Nikhil Sai. And guess what's going on today? We're back with another amazing True Karma Club interview. And guess who is the guest hopping on this podcast today? This is one of the craziest guys when it comes to helping students to get tax-free loan forgiveness. He's been helping tens of thousands of students actually achieve the tax-free advantage on how they can actually get forgiveness for their student loan, which is freaking amazing. Again, you will love this podcast, so just make sure to stick around. You'll be getting so many valuable nuggets from this podcast. So let's not waste any time and welcome Ian, CEO at Golden Spiral, who is actually helping tens of thousands of people qualify for tax-free student loan and who is called as the student loan eraser. So hey, Dr. Ian, glad to see you today.

Hi, good to be here. Thanks for having me.

Thank you so much for hopping on today, brother. We really appreciate it. And yeah, like, our audience would love to hear your story out. Like, can you start with all of this journey of how you got started and how all of this craziness went over?

Sure. Um, it is kind of a crazy story. Uh, I'm a chiropractor, and I was 3 years into practice. Um, I had this mom came in, she was pregnant and she brought her 4-year-old daughter to the first appointment. This little girl had stage 4 cancer and no parent or child should have to go through that. My own son was born like 2 weeks before I met this family and my heart just went out to them. So long story short, I wound up deciding to start a nonprofit to expand access to care for people in need in my community. And then I found out that there's a government program called Public Service Loan Forgiveness If you work for the government or a nonprofit, you can get your student loans erased tax-free. So I wound up putting together a program called the Student Loan Eraser, where we've now helped hundreds of doctors across the country to start their own nonprofit organization to make the world a better place, qualify for public service loan forgiveness, and get their student loans erased. The average doctor is saving $267,432, which is crazy. We'll, we'll pass $100 million in savings for clients by the end of this year.

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. That's amazing. Saving $100 million for your clients. That means you're creating a super high-level impact. That's, that's awesome, Ian. That's, that's really impactful.

Thank you.

Wow. That was a quick intro. And yeah, that's, that's just crazy. And Ian, I think this is something a lot of people need to learn or start taking advantage of, which is freaking amazing. So would you like to talk more about like how someone can actually a tax-free student loan forgiveness and how that actually works in day-to-day life for people who are actually listening to this podcast?

Sure. Well, there are two types of student loan forgiveness. Most people are on an income-driven repayment plan for their student loans, and that'll have them make minimum payments based on their income for 20 to 25 years. And at that point, any remaining debt is forgiven. But most people have no idea that the forgiven debt is going to be taxed as income. And so I talk about this on my web class, but I call that the financial black hole of student loan debt, because a lot of times the monthly payment can be less than the accruing interest. And so what happens is debt will grow over 2 decades, and some people will be stuck with a huge student loan forgiveness tax bomb that they didn't expect. So that's one option, though, for student loan forgiveness is on those income-driven repayment plans. The other option is called public service loan forgiveness. So the people who meet just 3 requirements to qualify for public service loan forgiveness will actually get their debt erased 15 years faster and 100% tax-free. So it's a really valuable program. And, you know, that's what I help doctors and anyone with 6 figures of student loan debt to qualify for that program.

Wow.

Wow. Wow.

That's freaking amazing. So everyone who's actually have a student loan, who's actually you know, wanting to save, I think this is definitely a great opportunity. And again, this is like you're growing a reverse pyramid while you're actually in that debt for repaying your loan for 25 years, which is freaking crazy. You pay huge amount of tax, and as just mentioned, you could be saving $200,000 plus just by getting this forgiveness, which is freaking amazing.

That's right.

And that's, that's, yeah, that's really impactful. We really love the vibe here, brother. So we would love to learn more about— you've been helping hundreds of doctors and scaling their, uh, you know, actually having tax-free businesses, right? Which is freaking amazing. So we'd love to learn with your coaching offers especially, right, how did you actually scale? This is a very different niche than usual typical coaching or consulting, which is pretty amazing, right? So we'd love to hear your inputs on scaling to over 7 figures and beyond profitably.

Yeah, um, you know, I read the book Dotcom Secrets by Russell Brunson and it changed my life. To be honest. I—

[Speaker] There you go.

[Speaker] Yeah, I love ClickFunnels. You can see on the wall behind me the 2 Comma Club Award. It's not about the award. For me, it's about what it represents, which is that we're providing value, we're helping a lot of people, and that's what it's all about. But I'm a big fan of ClickFunnels and Russell Brunson, and that's the technology that I use. So— Really what happened was my dad is a consultant and coach for chiropractors, so he already had a list. And once I had been able to qualify for myself, I wound up just seeing if this would work for a few of my colleagues. So I put up a landing page on ClickFunnels before I knew much about the whole funnel process, sent a few emails to my dad's list about what I had done and offering to review their student loans for free and see if they could qualify. We had over 300 doctors send me their student loan information, you know, very, very quickly. And, you know, that weekend was, you know, or the week that followed was my first 6-figure week. So it was absolutely insane. And I just reinvested from there. I was able to, you know, create my own sales funnels, to hire other people to help me. Um, we were able to just scale from that point forward.

Wow, wow, that's an amazing, amazing story. And again, guys, this proves that if you have a real problem-solving offer, cash comes in no matter what. It's all about getting attention, and you did really well by having your, uh, list, existing list, and lucratively using it for the new offer, right? And 6-figure week, that's crazy. Like, from almost nowhere, starting like a scratch landing page to doing 6 figures in a week, which is freaking amazing. Yeah, that's it. That's a beautiful story. That's amazing.

And once in practice, you know, so I, I love being a chiropractor. That's my first love. Like I said, my dad's a chiropractor, so I grew up with it. And, um, you know, but I still feel like I'm serving the, the community because a lot of my clients are chiropractors, naturopathic doctors, dentists, uh, for them to be able to expand access to their care. That's something I'm really passionate about.

True, that's, that's pretty amazing, and that's, that's beautiful. And when it comes to actually especially getting someone, clients, like new offer, when you're trying to get clients, right, the number one problem most people face is getting attention of ideal clients. You did that really well by, you know, exchanging value with your dad's existing list, right? So in case if someone is actually starting with their own coaching offer or a program or a service or a high-ticket offer, how can they actually get attention for their ideal clients, like specifically in your opinion?

Yeah, uh, the Dream 100, absolutely. Uh, Russell Brunson also talks about that a lot. Um, I, I have a few affiliates, uh, they already have a list of chiropractors, naturopathic doctors, dentists. Um, you know, I, I reach out to people all the time to see if we can partner up and provide value in both directions. Um, and then also just, uh, you either learning how to do paid ads yourself or hiring a team to help you do that as well. So any way that you can get, you know, free leads, that's always great. But then, you know, paying for leads as well, if you have a profit margin that can sustain that, is a good way to go.

Wow, that's amazing. So guys, whoever is listening right now, he's given a golden nugget right here on how you can actually JV with someone who already has their existing data, go partner with them, do a business contract, and then just get into business and get more clients, which is freaking amazing. And as you mentioned, once you know your offer and numbers and how much you can actually pay to acquire a lead, I think that can turn around the entire game for them, right? Absolutely amazing. Yeah. And Ian, you've done a pretty well job when it comes to actually scaling your offer to 7 figures and beyond, right? And any offer specifically when it's being scaled to over 7 figures, that means it's a proven offer. It's something which market needs, right? A lot of business owners, like 95% of them, they don't really have a structured offer. Like, not a market is not even open for their offer. It's not ready yet, right? So they do hard selling, they really struggle to scale it, right? That's why they can't get more money while they're actually spending on ads and stuff like that, right? So you have been scaling it to the roof. We would love to hear your opinion on how to actually do offer validation. How do you actually offer validate your stuff?

Sure. Well, there's a lot of ways to do that. I had a client who took his articles of incorporation and all the documents that my team prepared for him to his CPA, and they told him that, man, if I did this for you with a local attorney, we would have charged you $20,000. And my program is $5,000. So, you know, testimonials like that go a really long way. To providing validation. Um, you know, I— he created a video testimonial for me, and I share that on my web class. I share that, um, you know, in emails sometimes. I share it in communications with clients, um, or, um, and, you know, even just the offer stack that Russell Brunson and others teach on, you know, first you get this, then you get this, then you get this, and the total value is this, and you— and you just keep going and going and going. I, I show people that they're They're getting well over $17,000 of value. There's even an article in nonprofitquarterly.org that said 6 months of compliance training for nonprofit executives costs between $4,000 for a smaller program up to $30,000. And that's included in my program. So, you know, it's— you just want to show people all the value that they're getting. And, you know, the the affordable, uh, price offering it at. And, you know, it becomes a no-brainer at that point.

Wow, wow, that's, that's pretty amazing. That's a real action plan for every business owner who's actually trying to validate his offer. Pretty amazing stuff. And thank you so much for amazing, amazing value here. And you've been helping hundreds of actual doctors, chiropractors save a lot of money, like over multiple six figures, like $200,000 plus. Using your strategies, right? So would you like to give like 3 suggestions for people who are actually wanting to save, you know, have that tax-free option for themselves when it comes to student loans?

Sure. Well, there's actually— it's funny you mentioned the number 3. There's, there's 3 requirements to qualify for this federal program called Public Service. So the first requirement is that you need qualifying loans. Uh, there are 4 different types of federal student loans, uh, but Only Direct Loans qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. The good news is Direct Loans accounts for about 80% of the roughly $1.7 trillion of federal student loan debt out there. And we process called Direct Consolidation, where if you have any of the other types of loans, we can turn them into Direct Loans for free and make them eligible. So that's the first. The second step is to make sure that you're on an income-driven repayment plan. There are 4 different repayment income-driven repayment plans. Not all of the student loan types qualify for all the repayment plans. That's why the student loan system is so confusing. I really feel it's designed to be confusing so that people have no idea what they're doing and they overpay, right?

Yeah.

Plus, the student loan servicing companies have been sued for allegedly misleading borrowers to maximize profits, which is not a great situation for a lot of student loan borrowers. So the first requirement is direct loans. The second requirement is that you need to be on an income-driven repayment plan. If you're not in an income-driven plan, you can switch for free. That's an online app. It takes like 10 minutes. So anyone can meet those first two requirements. And then the third requirement is qualifying employment. You need to work for the government or a nonprofit in order to qualify. So, you know, you can always go get a job at an existing nonprofit Or if you have a passion and a service that you want to provide for your community, you know, we can help you start a nonprofit to make the world a better place and get your student loans erased.

Wow, wow, wow. That's, that's freaking amazing. Now someone who actually has a student loan can literally in a tap of a second learn this and actually start using it while he's actually giving back. He can get back, which is freaking amazing. This is like a win-win-win for everyone, right?

Huge win-win. You got it. My clients are, by my estimate, taking care of over 10,000 nonprofit patients every single month right now, which is huge. So I love that.

That's a real big positive impact. They would never have been doing that in case they wouldn't get into your program. And that really turns out the perspective.

Totally. I mean, when I, when I first graduated from chiropractic school, I had six figures of student loan debt and I always wanted to be generous. But when you're trying to put food on the table for your family and run a business, and you have that much debt, it's hard to really try to give back to your community. So this creates a just a huge win-win opportunity.

That's amazing, that's amazing. Yeah, and that's so impactful. I love this. That's freaking amazing. And I think everyone can now actually take advantage of this tax-free system and actually get forgiveness, and it's going to be freaking amazing. That's awesome. And thank you so much for amazing value. And let's get into the next question. Ian, you've been doing so much stuff together. You have your clients, you have your own organization, you've been helping people, to manage over 10,000 people with the nonprofit. You've been scaling your business digitally, you've been partnering with JVs. So technically you have a lot of stuff on the table, right? Podcasts like this and a lot of stuff together, right? So we'd love to hear what kind of tools and systems you actually use in your business for your productivity.

Sure, uh, not much actually. It's a, it's a very light, very easy system, and ClickFunnels is at the center of it, to be honest with you. So my, my My process is very simple. I like to have to jump on the phone with people and people want to know that they get to reach me. They get to talk to me in person. They don't get to talk to my team. You know, they get me. So the first step, I have a web class. So people, you know, wind up on the landing page. They register for the free web class. It's 30 minutes. At the end of the web class, a link pops up that offers to schedule a free call with me. They also email invitation to schedule a call and I can help answer questions, get to know them, see if the nonprofit will fit into what they're already doing and kind of explain more details on how it'll work for them. After that, they join the program and they get unlimited consulting with me along the way so I can walk them through it. But they also get access to the membership site with training videos and downloads and really just walks them step by step through the process. So most people say it only takes 1 or 2 hours a week to get everything set up, and most of it is automated because of ClickFunnels and the membership site.

Wow, wow, wow. This is a real action plan. This is like an exact uncover of the 7-figure funnel you're using in your business. And that's a golden bomb, right?

Webinar script, you know what I mean? Like, I'm—

yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much, Ian, for so transparently explaining the exact funnel step by step, the customer journey, and explaining how you have already made 7 figures. I think this is a golden nugget for every business owner who is trying to sell his high-level coaching program or service. This is the exact system, no crazy jazz. You don't need a Facebook chatbot or stuff like that. All you need is the exact thing which Ian mentioned. That's amazing. And the best part is all the automation. It made your life so easy, and you're actually delivering this transformation here in an autopilot, like saving $200,000 investing 1 or 2 hours of time, I think that's well worth it, right? It's a well-spent time, right?

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, that's amazing. And so let's get to the next question. And so you've been doing your chiropractic thing now, helping hundreds of doctors actually get tax-free loans, which is amazing, right? So do you have any specific routine you follow for yourself, like any daily routine for your success?

Um, I have a 7-and-a-half-year-old son, so routines are sometimes you know, touch and go. I would say on a daily basis, I always make time for myself to exercise. I live in Southern California, so I try to go to the beach as much as I can. You know, I have a really blessed life as far as being able to work online and schedule my time where I don't have, you know, specific office hours. So when I'm with my son, I'm with my son, and we spend quality time there. All of that lights And, you know, I get energized by talking to clients and hearing the good work that they're doing and the miracles that are happening for their patients and their community. And so, you know, I would say that I don't have a specific routine, but I have definitely set up my life intentionally to have as much freedom as possible, both time and financial, and spend, spend that time with the people I love.

Wow, that's, that's beautifully articulated, Ian. Thank you so much. And I think the end goal is that, right? No matter if you have like millions of dollars in bank, that doesn't matter. In the end, you should be happy for yourself. You should be having freedom of what, like, to do what you want to do. And you're doing that. Like, it's like really like a dream come true for everyone to be there, right? That's amazing. And I think this really inspires a lot of people. You don't need a crazy routine to actually scale your business or have an impactful life. Everyone can do that, just like what Ian said. Amazing. So Ian, you've been in business for a long time now, done a lot of amazing stuff together, so many years, right? Now, if you had an opportunity to talk to your 20-year-old yourself or someone who's just getting started, what will be your number one suggestion for them?

Don't reinvent the wheel. I was always trying to do that. I was always looking at something and going, oh, that That's awesome, but I think I can do it a little better. I'm going to do it this way. I'm going to try it my way, whatever. And, you know, again, it's both Russell Brunson, Tony Robbins. They all talk about the secret to success is to find someone who's successful and model them and not to copy, not to plagiarize, not to, you know, those kind of things, but to model success. Success leaves clues. And so, you know, I partnered with— you can probably see on the wall behind me, Drew Birx. Multiple 7-figure webinars for people. We actually just released a coaching program that helps people begin their own coaching program and launch it online within 30 days. Our goal is to help other people reach 2 Comma Club Award status. And so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Find someone who's doing well, who's doing what you love, and get in contact with them. Pick their brain and see what you can do to model that success.

Wow, that's, that's definitely beautiful. And Drew is an amazing person. We already have him on this podcast, and that's great that you actually— and again, this is, this applies for almost like every business owner, right? And that's just how fundamentally people think. They see something and they'll be like, ah, I can do much better, I can create something new, I can innovate, and I become the next Steve Jobs. But that's not really true, right? Considering the probability of reality, you should be modeling what's working. Even Russell Brunson does that. You did it. I think every single success— successful person actually go and shortcuts his time to reach the success first. Then once you have the success, now you have the freedom to test, right? Now you can test anything you want because you have cash flow coming in, you have business going around, you have a winning product which is working around for you, which is freaking amazing.

Exactly, got it.

Awesome, man. I think that's a real beautiful lesson for everyone. Don't reinvent the wheel, just model what's working. See which niche you are in, who is the expert who's already killing it, go model him. Don't copy him, model what's working. Only model it, right? That's, that's morally what you should be doing, which is freaking amazing. That's a beautiful suggestion. I really appreciate it, Ian. So let's get into the next question, brother. So you have done so many things together, especially for example, impacting tens of thousands of people's lives through your nonprofits, through your clients' nonprofits and stuff like that. So we would love to know more about like, what are your life's biggest achievements so far and any next bigger goals?

It's a good question. Um, I mean, definitely that Two Comma Club was a, was a big achievement. Uh, there's just such a rush getting on stage and shaking Russell Brunson's hand and being, you know, thousands of people. That was awesome. Um, yeah, I'm a, I'm a father first and foremost. I love being a dad. So that, that's probably my greatest achievement so far. My kid is my world. Um, looking forward You know, the $100 million in savings for my clients, that's a huge achievement that I will always be proud of. I remember anxiety and sleepless nights related to my own student loan situation. And I went to the bank a few years into practice to try to get my first mortgage. And I was told that my income was good, but the debt-to-income ratio was all messed up because of the student loans. And I was devastated. You know, I felt like I was doing well in life when I went into the bank and, you know, I was crushed. I felt like I couldn't provide the way I had hoped. So just helping people out of that situation to, you know, end that student loan anxiety, to know that they're on a plan, that they have the lowest monthly payment, they can focus on other things and take more people in the process. That's one of the things I'm most proud about.

Wow, that's so beautiful. And now you can have a peaceful night, right? Like, that really makes you so happy that you can sleep well, which is freaking amazing. And that, that really creates a higher level impact. Huge respect for you, brother. Like, I think I, I relate to see the situation of what's going on, and we see the reality of what's happening with everyone, right? I've seen people who make multiple six figures still are on their student loan, and you're actually helping them save hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax, which is Freaking amazing. That's, that's a real impact, bro. Huge respect for you. Thank you so much for doing it. We look forward for you to create a higher level of impact. Let's save a billion dollars for all of these people together.

Absolutely, absolutely. Let's do it.

Way to go, brother. That's amazing. And bro, you've been seeing ups and downs in your business, especially transitioning from chiropractic to actually coaching and consulting and helping people, right? And you've seen so many ups and downs throughout the way for sure, right? Everywhere you go, that's just life, right? So we'd love to hear what was your biggest mistake so far in your life?

In my life, biggest mistake in my life. That's a good one. Let's say biggest mistake in my business. I think the biggest mistake in my business has been relying on, or was relying on one traffic source. So in 2019, I was doing Facebook ads, and they were doing very well. But at the end of 20— I think it was the end of 2019, Facebook changed its marketing policies related to student loan advertising and it almost shut off my traffic overnight. So that's where I had to then get creative and, you know, do email marketing strategies and joint venture strategies and the Dream 100 and all sorts of new, you know, strategies for getting traffic again. So I would just tell people my biggest mistake was relying on one source of traffic. And, you know, the more sources that you have, the more sustainable your business is going to be.

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a beautiful lesson. And a lot of business owners need to pay attention to, right? Anything can slap. Google can slap. Facebook can slap. Facebook slapped you in the end of 2019. But a lot of people go so deep that they couldn't come back, right? They go into it like a different place and they be like, oh, this is not going to work, and they shut down. 'But you come back and you actually create a multiple source traffic source. Now you have a fundamentally strong business which no one can disrupt, never ever, right? That's never going to happen again.' That's beautiful. I think this is someone people need to really pay attention to. Thank you for so much for amazing story, Ian. Appreciate it. So now let's get into the next quick question, brother. So do you have any key people involved in your success and any people who actually inspire you to achieve the level of success you did?

Absolutely. Drew Birx is one of those people. My parents are, you know, those people. Russell Brunson is people. Tony Robbins. I have lots of mentors, whether they know that they were a mentor for me or not. So I don't believe in a self-made success story. I've worked my tail off to get here. You know, lots of sleepless nights in going through chiropractic school and studying to become a doctor of chiropractic. And then a whole new self-education program after that to be an online entrepreneur and develop this program. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours studying student loan details and all, you know, how the whole system works. So I would just say, you know, never stop learning, whether that's from a mentor or books or online programs. Invest in yourself. And, you know, that's really what it takes to succeed.

Wow, that's, that's beautiful, brother. I think this is a very key thing people need to pay attention to, that they constantly keep their learning curve up so that they have more perspective on what they're going to work on, and that creates more opportunities and they can go all in. Amazing, amazing. And thank you so much for sharing that. And dude, like, you're so amazing. You're helping people save hundreds of thousands of dollars just by having that amazing leverage by your system, which is freaking amazing. So So I would love to know more about like where can our audience find you mentoring?

Yeah, real simple. Just go to erasemystudentloans.com. You know, that's, that's the URL. Check out the web class. Got all the information that you'll need on there and reach out to Drew Burks as well if you're interested in the coaching program. You know, we want to help as many people get that Two Comma Club Award as we possibly can.

Wow, that sounds beautiful. And guys, I'm going to drop the link in the description. It is mystudentloans.com so that you can actually check his web class. At the same time, if you want to build your own coaching business and get to a 2K level, make sure to check out Ian as well as Drew Bux. He's an amazing dude, by the way. But I, I think that's beautiful. Just go and reach out. You'll never regret it for sure. That's amazing. So yeah, and that was a beautifully done podcast interview. So many golden nuggets, amazing stories of how you're actually impacting tens of thousands of people's life. In a positive way and helping them save money at a crazy level, which is freaking amazing. So any last word before we conclude the entire podcast session for today?

I don't think so. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here. I love the work that you're doing. I heard you just, uh, you're gonna be interviewing Russell Brunson soon, is that right?

Yeah, I'm actually going to have, uh, Dave Wonderboy.

Oh, okay. Oh, that's fantastic, man. Congratulations on that. I love the work you're doing as well, and, and keep it up.

Absolutely. I'm pretty excited for Dave's podcast for sure. And thank you so much again, brother Ian. I know that you actually don't do this often, but thank you so much for getting out of the comfort zone, being on this podcast today, and providing insane amount of value. And I, I'm 100% sure that all the people who are actually listening to the podcast enjoyed it for sure. So guys, make sure to re-listen this again, note down the points which Ian just mentioned, and that's going to help you to save hundreds of thousands of dollars. Make sure to check his program as well, you would love it. And again, yeah, and thank you so much for amazing opportunity. And hopefully, guys, everyone who stayed this far enjoyed today's podcast session. And stay tuned for the next interview, guys. This is me, the Nikhil Sai, as well as Ian signing off today. Peace. Thank you, Ian. Bye, have a great day.

Thank you, you too. Pleasure.