From Iraq to Credit Repair Millionaire: Joshua Rico’s Story - Part 1

Mindset is very important. Mindset is the first thing people like to say. Oh, I want to skip the mindset. Just show me how to do it. No, you need the mindset. As a credit repair client, you know what real credit repair is? Changing your spending habits. He who says he can and he who says he can't are both usually right.

Hey, credit heroes, picture this. You're a Marine. You're deployed in Iraq serving your country. And while you're overseas, Someone in your own family destroys your credit, and when you come home, you can't get an apartment, you can't get a car, and when you finally do get approved for one, you don't even want to know the interest rate. Now, what would you do with that? Well, most people would stay stuck, but our guest today built a million-dollar business, so you better stick around. My name is Daniel Rosen, and welcome to Credit Repair Business Secrets. Okay, if you're new here, welcome. I'm Daniel Rosen. I'm the founder of Credit Repair Cloud. It's the software that most credit repair businesses in America run on. And every week I show you how to change lives with credit repair. So hit subscribe and let's get into this. Our most successful credit heroes, the ones who make a great living and make a massive impact, they really care about helping people and changing lives. And our guest today is Joshua Rico, who just received his Millionaires Club Award. He's speaking at Credit Repair Expo in a few weeks, and today he's here to tell us how he got here. So please welcome to the podcast Joshua Rico. Hey Joshua.

Hey, how's it going, Daniel? Keenan, what's going on?

What's going on, Joshua? Awesome. Thanks for being here and congratulations on the Millionaires Club Award. I see it there behind you. How does it feel?

I'll tell you, back in 2020, I was a licensed barber, right? They told people to go home. So I said, actually, what do I know? And I'm going to go through my story. But what do I know that I could teach people online? And I had prior knowledge from credit repair before COVID So I got targeted by your ad and then the rest is history. I reached the Millionaire Club 2 years ago, back in 2024. But hey, it's never late to do so now, right?

Let's start with Where did you grow up and where are you now?

Yes, so I'm from Hartford, Connecticut, raised in Glastonbury, Connecticut, the East Coast. Cuban-Puerto Rican family, right? I was raised in ESL classes, special ed classes, right? Just being honest with you, I was deemed to not even make it out of high school, not graduate. But by the grace of God, I did. But I was still getting into trouble, right? And trouble— I was being in the streets. So I wanted to change my life. And then from there, I went to the Marine Corps. So I was deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Japan, you name it. Throughout the Marine Corps, throughout when I was deployed, I was a victim of identity theft while I was serving in Iraq. One of my own blood family members took $6K out of my bank account and plugging in my score.

Your own family member?

Yes, my own blood family members. And here's the thing, I talked to a lot of people, Daniel, and I'm not the only one. Chances are if you're watching this, you can relate to this, right? So when I was in Iraq, obviously I couldn't pay attention to my credit because I was getting shot at. I was, you know, so when I got back, I tried to apply for apartments, cars. I would get denied. And then what I did get approved for, a car, was the— it was a red Mustang, base model, right? Stick shift and everything. But I was at 18.74% APR. And if that's you, you need to come see us, right? So what I'm saying is It's not good. I felt dumb, I felt vulnerable, and I don't like feeling dumb or vulnerable. So I took it upon myself to learn credit, learn how to fix it, learn how to build it. And actually, since I said I was doing credit in this time, right, but during while I was learning credit, I was dabbling in other entrepreneur ventures. I did SMMA through Tai Lopez's course, wholesale real estate. I tried everything in my power to make, you know, the millionaire status. But there was one course in there that it was revolving around credits. And then I saw a commercial on Larry King Live. There was a guy named John Ulzheimer. He used to work for Equifax. So I saw him on Larry King Live, and there was a book called The Credit Secrets. This is how I started with credit repair, way before COVID back in like 2016. So while I was doing these entrepreneurial events, I was taking upon my own leisure to read and and understand credit. So I fixed my own credit. Now, it wasn't my doing, it was my family members who did it. But I understand that you are protected by laws and they are governed by laws. Who I mean by they? The credit reporting agencies: Experian, TransUnion, Equifax. And we as consumers in America are protected by laws, right? So I started reading those and I said, you can leverage these laws to put into letters to send to the credit reporting agencies and/or the furnishers and get a remedy and/or deletion. Back in the day, we used to write one letter with a yellow lined paper and a pencil, right? And we would get items to do like that. Now it's a bit harder to get items deleted, but that's how long I've been doing credit repair before I even met you guys, right? So I was just doing it for myself, for family and friends, never thought about as a business. Fast forward, I went to Paul Mitchell, right? Graduated. I was actually number one in the nation at the barber school competition. Great barber. I used to fade my own self. But in 2020, what happened? COVID. So it's like, what am I going to do to put food on the table? I mean, yeah, I get paid for the VA, right? For those who know, you know. But the thing is, is that it's not enough in today's society. So I was— and I always had that entrepreneur spirit. From, from MLM, from phone flipping, from all the ventures that I've learned, they all taught me something. And obviously in the Marine Corps, taught me leadership and to never give up. So from there, what I did was, you know what I said? What I said, what can I do that I can teach on Zoom and provide over the internet while not having to leave my house? And I said credit repair. So when I typed in credit repair on Google software, or to— I said credit repair software, and then you guys popped up, and the rest is history.

I gotta ask you something you mentioned earlier. What is phone flipping?

People would buy iPhones, whether it's broken, need a phone screen repair, or if it's new in the box. What you would do is you buy low and sell it high to overseas or on eBay, and you keep the profit. So that was a steady income until it got saturated with a bunch of people. But it was like, you have to clock in for work. Same with barber, right? Love barbering. But the thing is, is that you have to be there and be present to collect a check, right? I knew from MLM and other, you know, reading Warren Buffett, reading compound interest and how to make your money work for you and delegate and build teams is like That's not the way to really build wealth. The way to build wealth is have your money work for you and delegate your time and build a team so you can be at the beach for a year, which is now my case. You could be at the beach for a year, come back and become richer, right? Without really lifting a finger. So that's what I was searching for. I was searching for a model, something that's not MLM. No disrespect to MLM or anything like that. But the thing is, is that, you know, I've lost friends with MLMs. I lost— I was frontin', right? Like I was making money, but I wasn't wearing suits and everything. And those you know, you know, right? But the thing is, is that when I found Credit Repair Cloud, I was like, okay, I told my wife, I'm like, we're going to be rich. And the rest is history.

How long were you a barber before the pandemic?

Well, I've been a barber since '16. It was a hobby. I got licensed in 2019. And right when I got licensed, I was like, cool, let's just try this out. When it was 2020, the barber said, go home. You can't cut in the barbershop. And that's when I said I had to do something.

How did you start to turn credit repair into a business?

I missed an important part there too. I used to do music as well. All right. I used to do music. I was like, on stage with like Nick Cannon and everything like that. So I was gonna be real famous in the music industry, but there was no money in that. And the crowd that it brought, it was not— it was not it, right? Especially I had a newborn on the way, my son. But the thing is, is that I built a brand around my name when I did perform, so I had a following. And this is what I tell people: whatever you do in life, you always want to build a brand. Because just in case if I don't do credit repair now, people will follow me because they know, like, and trust me. And when people know, like, and trust you, they're going to do business with you when whatever venture you have. So how I built credit repair is I already had the knowledge before. I posted my results before. I was very, very— I wanted to be the center of attention. Always I want to be the same, as you can see, right? I always want to be the center of attention anywhere I go. I take over the room. I don't care who's the headliner, I'm going to take it over. That's how I am. That's how my mind operates. And from there is like when I started to do credit repair, people started to see results. I started to do it for family and friends and I said, I have a business here, especially with your software. So the reason, and this is my slogan, the reason why I claim, and I know I have the most video client testimonials in the credit repair industry Hands down. And that's— and it's just factual because that's what I lead my marketing and my, my business from— testimonials. You can't argue with a video testimonial from a client. So what would happen is— and I'm giving away the secrets— is what would happen is the clients would tag me on Facebook and/or Instagram showing before and afters of their credit score increasing a certain amount of time, what got increased And that would— I know that my name would be seen. Credit sells itself. It, it just sells itself. So people needed to buy a house, home mortgage, car, and/or business funding, which we do both. So I already knew I had a gold mine there.

What were some of the biggest obstacles that you faced when you were first starting this as a business and how'd you overcome them?

At first, when I reached 50 clients in about a month, all right, when I first started. I was doing everything myself, and I said, at the, the, the rate I'm going, I need to delegate. I need to build a team. So, but that wasn't the, the biggest issue. Actually, the biggest issue was that I started to get complacent. My efforts in the business started to dilapidate. It was going down. And I didn't have a salesperson at the time. So I remember I went from $30K all the way to $12K to $14K. I lost a lot of stuff. By the way, I had a McLaren to pay for, a note to pay for. It's time to get back into the game. I started to delegate, but what I started to do was record what I did, every position that I did, and then I would show and hire my VAs. And then once I hired and delegate the right team, I was firing and hiring, etc. Once I had the right team put in place, that's when I started to scale. And within a year, I reached the millionaire mark. 2024, a year later.

Awesome. Let's go back in time. Pandemic hits, no money coming in. You decide to do credit repair. How did you get your first client?

So how I got my first client was through Facebook. I took your masterclass, all right, the original one. And I told you what, I was the first one to come to your office, by the way. And I told you this in person, I said, listen, when I took your original masterclass, they— you guys gave us 6 weeks. I finished and operated, was running in 2, okay? I was staying up at 3 in the morning, damn near naked out the bed, like everything, like just boxers, of course. But I was like, I was dedicated. I was so dedicated because I knew— I already knew credit repair. I just needed the software. I just needed the team. So when I took your masterclass, there was a post in there, if you remember, post this, hey, I'm looking for 5 people to help for free. And I only helped one really because I already had the brand, right? But I helped one for free and I said, listen, I'm gonna help you for free, but in exchange Right? You have to get this credit monitoring set up, and then in exchange, you have to post a video testimonial saying how I helped you. Deal? Okay, good. So when I posted that, it just started to snowball. And every client that we get, we ask for the testimonial. So how it would go is, so, Daniel, did you see what happened to your credit report? They will say no. Hey, you just got this collection deleted in less than 30 days. How do you feel?

That feels amazing.

And then I'll send them a screenshot of proof. That feels amazing. Hey, Daniel, real quick, can I ask you a quick favor?

Okay.

Can you post and tag this screenshot on your social media and tag me? Be greatly appreciated. And then they'll say, yes, I could do that. I'll ask, okay, when can you do that? So I'm adamant. I'm adamant. And I just gave you guys a secret on how to grow your business like wildfire organically without paid ads. I reached this million dollars without paid ads. It was all word of mouth.

Is that how you have so many video testimonials?

Yes, that's how I started from the original. That's the exact script I just gave you guys, right? At first, if you don't have a big brand, you want to help 5 people. But out of those 5 people, you want to extract that either screenshot, text, conversation, and the best is video testimonials, whether it's in front of their house they got approved for, their credit card they got approved for, etc. Or even if it's one round, a deletion in one round, right? It doesn't have to— they don't have to graduate. You just have to have that one collection or one item that's negative that's attached to the account. It could be off one credit agency. Screenshot that and have them talk about that. Oh, I didn't even have to pay this collection. Oh, I didn't have to, etc. And if they post that and tag them on Facebook, have them— now the key is to have them write it and tag you. Not you writing tag because you're going to reach their audience. And the same for Instagram and then TikTok. I'm all over the place— YouTube, TikTok, Facebook. I went viral on all of them. But the thing is, is that you leverage the people you're helping. And I think Zig Ziglar said that the more people you help, the better return you get.

It's amazing that you did that right away because most people get stuck at like 10 or 20 clients and they don't know how to grow past there.

You basically said that you got your first 50 clients in your first month. Most people only get a couple of clients in their first month. What actually caused that snowball of so many clients coming in your door?

I would do a multitude of things. I would post every day. That's when I wake up. It's post, whether it's education, whether it's I'm having a sale. If anybody needs to hit me up for credit repair or if you need a house or something, But that was one post, the first thing in the morning, right? Second, I would do my work. But while I'm doing my work, I'm listening to Daniel Rosen. I would listen to Daniel Rosen. I can do right now an imitation of him right now.

I want to hear it.

Hey guys, do you need business credit? I listen to you so much to where it's like It embedded in my head on what to do in the business.

That's awesome.

You get what I'm saying? I would dial in on the masterclass, I would take notes, and then also I said, I'm going to be one of those people on the millionaire plaque one day. I'm— I listened to all the millionaire interviewers. I knew credit repair before the pandemic, so that was my leverage. So all I need— I was like, I'm already a millionaire, it's just— I just need to catch up. So I would watch— I would watch the masterclass while doing the work, licking stamps and everything like that. Sending letters myself, which we don't even do anymore. We don't even send letters. That's— I'm raw disputing too. But the thing is, is that I will listen to your masterclass and I will watch the interviews for inspiration. Tai Lopez, a great mentor of mine, he used to say you should be waking up to affirmations, right? Personal development, whether it's Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, personal development books, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Cashflow Quadrant, you know, those personal development books I would read in the morning. And then when lunchtime, you should be doing how-to stuff, how-to books or how-to courses, which was yours. And then at night you should be watching autobiographies so you can dream, so you're in constant flow state. You have to immerse yourself into this. Nobody wants to stay up until 3 in the morning looking at— I was setting up API keys, I was setting up my website just like how you taught us. I was the one that was doing that. I did everything. I set up the API keys. I did all that. I did that whole 6-week course in 2 weeks, stood up because I already knew credit repair. But I would do those multitude of things. Everything was designed around credit repair.

How many clients do you have today?

So we helped over 1,000 people. We're about almost 750 people right now recurring. So I favor the recurring model. That's what we have right now.

And I understand you've branched out into other things related. What does your actual business model look like today? Because I understand now credit repair is just one layer of a bigger, bigger picture, right?

A business and credit funding as well. But it's not only that. Like I said, I've known credit, not just credit repair before, but I knew travel hacking, how to build your credit, which is important. You guys should be helping clients build their credit the correct way while disputing. But not only that, it's what you do with the money too. Remember, I have prior knowledge in other businesses. I put my money and I invested in Section 8 rental properties under my LLCs and corporations so I could preserve the wealth and put it into Roth IRAs too. For those of you watching, put at least 10% aside. I'm not a financial advisor. Put at least 10% aside of your income into a Roth IRA, ticker symbol VOO. and in the course of 20 to 40 years, you'll be a millionaire guaranteed through index funds. Okay, as far as my model goes, we have different models. I run specials, but all I gotta say is this: the $99 a month is my favorite special. I don't care who's out there saying it's crackhead prices. I don't care who's saying this and that. There's a reason why Netflix is Netflix and the subscription-based model works, right? Now, if you want to upsell people for your time, like, for now, if people want to talk to me directly, I'll tell you, Daniel, I don't even— I haven't looked at a report in 2 years. I'm so hands-off to where my VAs, and they're all overseas, by the way, and I operate from my home office, by the way, handles the sales, handles the onboarding, handles the billing, handles the disputes, and the customer service. And the referrals, and it's a small team. And now with AI coming out, it is— you really don't need that much. So I'm, I'm literally— I can go to a beach for a year, not be present, and come back richer. All I have to do is post, right, content. Now that's me, I like to do that, it's not work for me, and that's the ultimate business model.

Very cool. There is something weird that I was thinking about There's some connection between doing hair, cutting hair, and credit repair because you were cutting hair. And when I go through our customer list at CRC, there are hair salons, there's places that do weaves. What is it? I'm imagining maybe it's because people are there for a long period of time and they're talking about their lives.

First of all, we're the only men that could touch another man on the face like that, right? Close, right? So the thing is, is that you're very close. You're like their therapist in a way. But not only is that, you can serve a client who has very little money or to a client who's very ultra wealthy and all between a walk of life. And it's more of a people-serving business, and that's the connection right there. When a before and after— we like to see a client, oh, you messed up right now, but after I touch you with these clippers and razor, you look fly right now, you know what I'm saying? So it's like, it's the before and after. You can literally save someone's life. And there's stories of this, people who went into— there's a story that people wanted to end their life before, right? And then they went to the barber. The barber spent an hour with him cutting his hair and having a life conversation. And he decided, you know what, after your conversation, I was going to end my life today and now I'm not. Why am I saying that? It's because we all need somebody— it's communication too. I was in communications in the Marine Corps, so I micromanaged my team in communications as well. That's another tip that you guys should have in your business is communication. We pride ourselves with our mission statement is we have the most video client testimonials. We get results. Communication is a must. I am communicative between me, the client, our team, etc. Micromanaging type. And then 3, customer service. You have those 3, you have nothing to worry about. And that's why I have no chargebacks. I don't have chargebacks, right? Because I implement my policy straight and I'm very straight up forward. But anyways, back to what we're saying is that that correlates because barbers, we're in a service-based industry. We like to see the before and afters and we're very detail-oriented. And we like for people to brag about us. Who'd you get your haircut from?

Who?

It's the same principle. Only this is digital and helping people in the financial sector. Hope that makes sense.

Yeah, that's wild. I've always thought about that because I thought it was so odd, but that makes perfect sense. And I love that you went on this entrepreneurial journey, the MLMs and all that kind of stuff. And those generally, you're in those MLMs, you're generally making other people money, right?

It don't work. Let's just say that. Yeah, it does not work. I don't care what they say. Some people are still locked into it. I'm like, look, the product is good, right? But you either have to be a COO or at the top or anything like that. But I did— I will tell you this, they introduced me to The Secret. And for those who are watching, if you haven't read or watched the documentary of The Secret, it changed my life. I bawled my eyes out. I'm gonna be real with you, right? And I'm gonna cry, right? But the thing is, when I understood it— because we do it all the time, we just don't know it, we're not aware of it— but mindset is very important. Credit repair— you're watching this as a client and/or a credit repair operator owner— mindset is the first thing. People like to say, oh, I want to skip the mindset, just show me how to do it. No, you need the mindset, you know? You do need the mindset as a credit repair client. You know what, what real credit repair is? Changing your spending habits. It's about habits and your mindset.

Let's take a moment on that movie, The Secret, because I thought that was really amazing too. When I saw it, it suddenly clicked in my head. This is the first time I've ever seen something that described the world and how things work and how you achieve goals and all of that, that it was the way that I felt, but I'd never heard anybody describe it before. So it's really cool. If you're watching this, if you're listening to this, check out The Secret. It's really, really good. It's really motivating.

Yeah. Bob Proctor is basically the law of attraction. And, and it's in the Bible too. I don't want to get spiritual or anything like that, but ask, believe, receive, you know, whatever you put in your mind, whatever you believe you can achieve. If you really put— now you have to put action and emotion in it. You can't just pray it all you want. Oh, the gods and everything like that. And no action. That doesn't work. You have to put action to it.

And if you focus on the negative, that's more negative will happen.

It sounds like you've gone really deep on mindset and training. You talked a lot about your first month in business. You focused a lot on mindset for watching all of our content, watching others. I'm curious if all the stuff that you've watched— you mentioned The Secret, Think and Grow Rich, Poor Rich Dad, Poor Dad, others. Is there anything you commonly recommend to others, to new business owners in the space, or anything that you felt like you got the most from?

From all of those is first The Secret, Think and Grow Rich. Hands down, that is the holy grail. Obviously, if you're a Bible person, they all derive from the Bible. If we're talking business, Think and Grow Rich and The Secret will start your journey, right? But from there, these mindsets of like, for— I like to listen to Mike Tyson, his mindset, if I want to be ferocious. Like, I met him once, one of my idols, right? But like, stuff that motivates you and gets that emotion going. Business-wise, we all know Rich Dad Poor Dad. It's not— you're not really going to learn how to invest and everything like that, but you're going to learn the mindset to it. Cashflow Quadrant is a different Robert Kiyosaki book too, because he's a Marine too. So I can relate to that. You're going to relate to people, you know. But the thing is that the Cashflow Quadrant, you'll see the B and I, etc., and you'll know how a business works. And you want to be on the B and I, the business and investor side, in my opinion, not the employee and then self-employed side. That's another great book. But Millionaire Next Door, Millionaire in a Fast Lane. But really what I'm going to be honest with you, and to this day he gets the most of my praise. I would say Tai Lopez, that Tai Lopez era before all the other, you know, the stuff that happened. But that era when he was coming up, I really immersed in his knowledge, his 67 Steps. If you guys know what I'm talking about, I'm from that group, guys. So reach out to me, right? But 67 Steps and that whole era when Tai Lopez was at the peak, he's like the ultimate YouTube entrepreneur. Everybody knows Tai Lopez, right? The Grant Cardones, etc. So he made me think and invest into these books, and not just the business but knowledge around there. And the rest is history. I'm actually— when I got my McLaren, I put it in my garage. I said, I always wanted to do this here in my garage, right? I hope I don't get copyrighted, but I just always wanted to do that because I wanted to have a Lamborghini or a sports car in my garage like that, like he had. But I knew it was immerse yourself into knowledge and applying. But I would say whatever you want to immerse yourself in, whatever business or vehicle that it is, it doesn't even have to be credit repair, right? But it could be real estate, etc. But the thing is, you have to have that mindset, and it all starts with The Secret, I would say, and Think and Grow Rich, hands down. And mind you, I'm a veteran with PTSD, 100%. I'm just— so it's like, I don't care, no excuses. I was, I was in ESL classes and special ed classes. Really, it's not a learning disability, they call it a learning disability, but I beg to differ on today's public school society. But that's another topic. Really, it's about how you learn. Are you a visual? Are you a practical application? How do you learn? Do you listen with music? Do you have to touch things? You have to see things? You really don't have a learning disability from what I learned. You really just have to know how you learn. Do you have to write things down when you learn, etc.?

Is there any topic or idea that you've consumed that you feel like changed you the most from who you were as a person in a previous life to who you are now? A way you thought about life before and how you think about it now? What's one big one, the biggest ones?

He who says he can and he who says he can't are both usually right. Confucius says that. So what am I saying? I'm saying whatever you possess in your mind— oh, Earl Nightingale. Oh, I don't know if you guys know who Earl— I'd like to tell you about the strangest secret in the world, right? What I'm saying is this: I listened to that for 30 days straight, the one with the music behind— The Strangest Secret, Earl Nightingale. Type into YouTube The Strangest Secret, Earl Nightingale, with the music in the background. Walk with it in the morning for 30 days. Your life will change, hands down. And come back to this video and say, I did what you said, it changed my life. And now you start immersing yourself into the course. It'll change your life. So what am I saying? The mindset, whether it's good or bad, that's what I learned. You can control your mind. So if you put positive in your mind, and of course combine it with action, you're going to receive what the universe folds or attracts to you. If you think positive, you know, my father watches the news all the time and everything, and most of it is negative. I don't watch the news. It's made to make you think in a negative way, I think, and bring that emotion. Whatever you put out into the universe, you're going to receive, just like karma. And I put out a lot of testimonials so that I received it. You dig? Nobody's perfect. I'm far from perfect. I get a little temper sometimes too, but it's just like you got to know how to bounce back and how you react from that as well.

Everyone shares the wins, but I want to know what was the hardest stretch in getting your business going? Like the point where most people would have quit, but you kept going.

Guys, stop getting shiny object syndrome. Stop spending your credit card funding on mentors who are not worth a damn. I've spent— and I'm not gonna name it, but I spent a lot of $20,000s, $25,000s, got scammed, got— I invested in Amazon automation, that went down, $35,000 drain. Wholesale automation, because I was making money from the credit biz, like, oh, I want to diversify in other businesses because I heard billionaires have an average 7 streams of income. That is Bull. What's not bull is having 7 streams of income inside the, the, the business you're in. Another book, One Thing by Gary Keller. That's a great book too.

I agree, great one.

This is making me the most cash flow for over 5 years. Why am I spending over, over $300,000 in the credit card debt at the time to and mentors, investments that are— some of them maybe work, right, but they're, they're not correlating to the business that you're in, right? So I said, you know what, I'm going to double down on what is actually making me cash flow, what is no risk, what I know, and this is what I'm gonna do. So I've even stopped— I even put a pause on buying Section 8 rental properties because it's like That's another business, to be honest with you, right? So the thing is, is that I was like, you know what, the money that I spend on that Section 8 rental, I could be putting into ads and/or my brand to grow the current business. So if you guys are watching this, I don't care if you're at $5K, $10K, $50K, or $100K, keep on with the business that is serving you properly. Double down and fix the little tweaks. And then when you're like maybe $10 million and above, maybe you can sell and exit the business and/or be a board advisor and/or go on to a different venture, right? But The One Thing by Gary Keller, you read that book, you know, there's a saying, he who chases two rabbits end up losing both.

Can you share with us one of your most impactful success stories of a client whose life was changed through your services?

There's some clients who go through domestic violence, or they were escaped from their husbands, they lost their child, etc. They were drug addicts before, right? But the thing is, is that they were put into group homes and they wanted to better themselves and understand credit. I said, you know what, let's put you at the discounted rate. Boom. I know you're, you know, You're going through something right now, but you have to understand this takes a mindset change, etc. And then over the course of 6 months, you know, she's— she has a mortgage, right? She has 3 kids. She had a bank— we removed a bankruptcy off her report, and now she owns a home and a mortgage to where she can start and build, you know, from her own— her own little family. People from other countries too, the— they don't take this, the credit lightly. They're actually more committed to getting their credit fixed more than us Americans. Right? Because they understand the freedom that they have here. If they can, you know, understand and leverage their credit, they know they could build their wealth as well.

If you could go back and skip straight to what actually moved the needle for growing your business, what would you have stopped doing sooner? What would you have done way earlier?

I would stop investing into mentors that I think— that I just got— I just got the shiny object syndrome, and I end up— most of the mentors that I invested in, I end up knowing more than them, and I already knew it. So I'm like, oh, I wasted this $5K or this $1,500. Trusting yourself more on what's actually working and doubling down, I would say.

How many mentors do you think you work with?

Oh my God, I could tell you this: everybody who's watching this probably knows them for sure. Not that they're bad people, it's just that You just got to button it up. I mean, by buttoning it up is don't be good at sales to get me, to get me on board, but not finish what you were selling, the product that you were selling and the, the customer service that you were selling. Now, I will say this, people who are, do take mentorships and courses, sometimes it does be the client or the, the person who's investing themselves. Are you actually watching the course and applying like I was in Daniel Rosen's class? Because that was a phenomenal course. If you have someone that's actually did— laid out the roadmap, don't try and reinvent the wheel until you did everything on that roadmap. And then maybe if you add a little tweak on the A/B testing, then— and if it works with enough trials, then you can add that tweak. But until then, don't reinvent the wheel and go from there. But I will say on this, you have to stand on a multitude of counselors, which means There's not just going to be one mentor and one course that's going to change your life. No, I had a course through marketing, I had a course through sales. I've met the real Wolf of Wall Street in sales. Even though he did what he did, he's a phenomenal salesman. So I take— you got to take what you like from somebody and apply it, and then what you don't like from somebody with your morals and what you learn and apply it to your business and take out what you don't like, right? So it's not just going to be one course or mentorship that you're going to invest in. You have to have— you need to have mentors in certain areas of your life, but find the right one is key.

Definitely. We've had mentors. Keenan and I have been in many masterminds with mentors. It really helps. It really is a shortcut.

I'm just glad that you got a lot of value from ours too. I mean, we— just to say to others, we, we try to make it affordable to get started. I think The thing, the thing that we see that people get into the business and they spend $20,000 out the gate trying to get the thing launched and then get scammed. Just like Joshua was saying, you got value from our masterclass. It's only $1,000. For some people, it's— that could seem like a lot. But there's, as Joshua was saying, there's a lot— there's people who charge a lot more.

People in the Millionaires Club currently and before, and everybody are asking for me to do a mentorship, and I turned them down. But I don't know, maybe if in this podcast you guys type in the word mentorship in the comments, I might do something. I don't know. But people have been wanting to pay me $25K before or $5K before, and I turned them down because I'm just— I don't need it in a way. I'm a lazy millionaire, right? I like to have it recurring, just sit back and just be with family and travel. It's just family, family, family. And, you know, but something is calling to me too. It's like, maybe it's time to show them what I know. I don't know, we might see something. But I don't have any digital products. Well, I do have one, but I don't push it. I give free game on, on YouTube. You go to subscribe Joshua Rico on YouTube. I always wear this. My wife calls me a cartoon character because I wear the same shirt. You'll probably see me on stage. I have different shirts, guys. I do take showers, okay? I have different colors and different— this is my closet, how it looks. But I wear my own brand. I'm serious about this. I'm probably one of the only person in the Millionaires Club or in the credit that really wears their brand like that and their name.

I wear mine every day.

Well, you wear yours every day because you, you, you care about it and you know it works. I'll teach you how to run a credit repair business. Okay, who is your merchant accounts with? What are your API keys? How do you set up the websites? What do you use for calendar, etc.? How do you run the business? How do you do this? They never really ran a successful credit repair business, and a lot of people who went to other industries talk bad about Credit Repair, but when they do bad in the industries, they try to run back. Credit Repair will always be here, in my opinion. All right, and people are always going to need it.

Because Joshua said it, type the word mentorship down in the comments. Not only will that get him to, to start a mentorship, but it'll help us with engagement and get more people to see this video. Hey, Joshua, behind every million-dollar business, there's a system. What does yours look like, and what role does Credit Repair Cloud play in keeping it all running?

So it first starts off with marketing. Marketing is the most important thing in your business, whether it's branding yourself, speaking and posting every day on every platform. I will post on Facebook, my feed, Facebook fan page, Facebook groups, Facebook stories, all right? And then DMs if I have to. That's one, okay? Two is Instagram reels, posts, stories, tagging, etc., okay? And I'm, I'm actually going to be sharing something live on stage that really nobody talks about, a marketing hack. I'm gonna be sharing how to, how to basically put $5 a day to get, you know, new followers, to have them stick in your web so you can gain leads. So I'm gonna be sharing that live on stage in Dallas, Texas, April 24th through the 26th, 2026, Dallas, Texas, Credit Repair Expo.

Credit Repair Expo. In fact, let's do a real plug here. If what Joshua's sharing today is resonating with you, you need to hear him live and in person. Joshua is going to be speaking at Credit Repair Expo 2026 in Dallas. It's April 24th to 26th. It's going to be the biggest event in credit repair history. You don't want to miss it, so grab your ticket right now at creditrepairexpo.com. Part 2 with Joshua is coming up, and trust me, you want to be here for it. We're going to be getting into the stuff that's going to change how you run your business— credit strategy, business funding content, disputing, and a whole lot more. So make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss it and keep changing lives.