How Larry Mahaffey Built a Million-Dollar Credit Repair Empire from Nothing

I filled out a mortgage application by hand, turned it in, and I'm pretty sure they denied me by the time I walked out the door. That's when I discovered I had about a 475 credit score. In about 2018, I discovered Credit Repair Cloud. We bought two houses since I started doing credit. We live in a million dollar home now. Man, I always thought these, you know, Experian, TransUnion, Equifax were some government agencies or whatever that, you know, they're, they can break the law just like we break the law. So. And they have to be held accountable, just like we have to be held accountable. They said I would never become a millionaire. They said I would never be good in credit repair. They said I would never live in the house I live in. They said I would never drive the cars I drive. That's why we don't listen today. As soon as you do it, once you jump off that club, there's no turning back after that. Believe in yourself and you can get that done.

Hey, credit heroes. If you've ever wondered how credit repair can completely change your life, you're about to hear a real success story. I'm here with Kenan Jones and today we're going to talk with our newest millionaires club member, Larry Mahaffey, the founder of Rewarding Solutions Consulting, where he's helped over 1000 people improve their financial health and he's helped over 200 people qualify to become first time home buyers. He's built his business following the credit repair cloud model and now he's changing lives and in a very big way. So please welcome to the podcast, Larry Mahaffey. Hey, Larry, welcome.

Hey, how are you doing, Daniel?

I'm doing awesome. How about yourself?

I'm great, man. Living the dream.

Well, thanks so much for being here. And speaking of living the dream, congratulations on the millionaires club award.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for putting the platform in place to make me able to use it well.

It's a huge milestone and I gotta say, it's my favorite part of our business. So I'm so excited for you and I want to know everything. But let's start with where did you grow up and where are you right now?

I'm from Montgomery, Alabama. I met my wife and we moved to Birmingham, Alabama. That's where I am currently in 2013. I met my wife and I thought I could get a house, you know, because I had about $5,000 in the bank. I had no idea what credit was. I think I filled out a mortgage application by hand. Turned it in and I'm pretty sure they denied me by the time I walked out the door. That's when I discovered I had about a 475 credit score. I started doing research. After just countless hours of research, trying to figure out how I can fix my credit or over a couple years, I ended up fixing my own credit, my wife's credit, friend's Credit. In about 2018, I discovered credit Repair Cloud. What's the name of the course when.

You, when you first start the masterclass?

The masterclass? Yes. I took the master class. And ever since then it's just been. It's been straight up, man. I've employed my mom. She. She prints all my letters and sends all my letters. It's just been a blessing to my entire family.

That is so cool. And it's proof that the master class works.

It helped me. My mom ended up taking it to just to have knowledge about it. It grew my business. And I just, I remember that checklist, you know, where you go through the tears all the way up to me and I'm like, dang, I really made it to that point. I was like, I was, you know, I was. It's crazy, man. It's really surreal.

That is so cool. What initially made you decide to turn Credit Repair into a business?

Actually, I have two mentors. They were already Credit repair millionaires. Credit repair client millionaires Amber Jones and Bobby Richardson. Really, really, really close. We talk all the time. When I started, I reached out to Bobby and my wife already knew Amber. I met both of them and that kind of just you know, again, catapulted me to, to, to pursue it. And then I, I think I started off with like two or three clients and got 10 clients. And then my first person ended up getting a house. First time homebuyer. That was like the best feeling in the world. She was an older lady. She had to be like in her 60s the first time she bought a house. And I was like, dang. I was, you know, I really had something to do with it. I really changed, you know, I changed her life. And that was like the best part about it. And I really got really passionate about it. Started growing and growing and growing. And I end up hiring some assistance. And again, you know, my mom still to this day, she still prints letters and stuff. That's extra income for her. That's great. Like, you know, it's all just a big blessing.

I love it. I love that your mom's helping. It's all in the family. And I saw that your Wife is also an entrepreneur.

She honestly is the one that pushed me to this point. You know, honestly, I never really gotten behind too much. I've always kept a job, that's about it. But you know, I never really was an entrepreneur to my wife. She pushed me and she told me, you can do it. And she kind of helped with my social media stuff. Not kind of, she did help with my social media, social media because I was really, really shy, didn't really know much about marketing. She did it, told everybody that I was doing credit repair and she pushed me. And now to the point, now she is doing a, like a design business. She decorates, she does trees, she does weddings, she does parties. She's, you know, she's. And she's really growing. And that's like the best part about it is that she's growing because she helped me grow. So I love to see her grow.

That's so cool. Now I want to know, since this was your first business, what were some of the big obstacles you faced when first launching your business and how'd you overcome them?

The biggest obstacle was really social media. Getting over the fact of, you know, listening to people, you know, worrying about what people say, who, worrying about who cares about what or what I say or looking crazy or looking stupid or whatever. Just getting over that initial hurdle. And then once I owned it and it was great again, you know, my wife pushed me, you know, and just seeing like the fruits of my labor being able, you know, we bought two houses since, since, since I started doing credit. We live in a million dollar home now, man. Like we like it's. My life has completely changed and it was just all because we took that step, jumped and I want to kind of pass this entrepreneurial thing to my, to my kids and you know, but the biggest thing starting off was just, just jumping and just trying it.

How big a team do you have now?

Now I have, I have three VAs, my mom and I have my assistant here locally.

That's incredible. Larry. Well, I'd love to jump in. Just kind of ask about like those early days in your business. What did it look like for you to get your first client?

So I've always been, when after I fixed my credit, we got our house. I've always been big on points, credit cards and points. I love to travel so that I had the knowledge of that. I, I use credit cards, I pay them off. But I have a ton of points and I've always used those to travel. I made a post, I showed, I said, you know, do you want to travel? Do you want to do this? Do you want to get these cars and have these points and travel for free? Well, to do that, you need to fix your credit. That was the first post, and it went really, really good. I got like three or four people to sign up, and I was like, hey, man, I made an extra. I was at 10 clients. I have. That's extra thousand dollars a month. I'm like, oh man, I'm great. And then I realized, as long as I sign up more people than I lose every month, I'm going to keep making money. I'm going to keep making money. Keep making money. I knew credit from, you know, from the master class, but I hadn't been doing credit for years, you know, so I had enough knowledge to talk to somebody about it. But I was really passionate about points and traveling. So I started with that, that related back to credit, and now it's grown into business owners. So, like, everything. Credit was really the foundation of everything. Whether it be traveling with points, whether it be business owners, whether it be whatever it is, credit is the foundation of it.

And how many clients do you have today?

I have about 400 currently.

I love it. During those early days, was there a specific breakthrough or big win that made you realize, wow, this is really working.

When I made, I think $20,000 a month, when I hit that, I was like, oh, man, I'm done now. Because they started off with like $1,000 a month. And when I hit 20,000amonth, I was like, man, I really build something here.

Very, very cool.

I have another question to ask kind of about those early days, because I know you. You mentioned you were mentored by some big players in our space. Was there anything that they taught you that shifted your view in business where you believed one thing, but they broke through and got you to think a different way? Taught you a lesson in those early days, definitely Bobby.

Bobby knew the laws like the back of his hand, and I really appreciated that. I actually paid for his mentorship and. And Bobby knew the laws, like, and I learned the laws, and I was able to pass it on to my VAs. Knowing the laws makes you a whole lot different than everybody else's who's just doing sweeps and stuff like that. I don't do any sweeps. I never done any of that type of stuff unless they actually had some identity theft, theft issues. Amber was super personable. Like, she taught me how to, like, pretty much talk to my clients, reach out to my clients, nurture my clients. She also taught me Hit me with some automations, which really was a game changer. So it was just two different, different spectrums and they combined to pretty much help me to make me to this point. And, you know, when I got my plaque, they were the first people I talked to. I called just to thank them because they, they changed my life, honestly.

Very, very cool. We're big believers in mentors. We've had mentors over here as well. It really is a shortcut to success.

It really is. It really is.

What's the best piece of advice a mentor has ever given you?

The best piece of advice anybody's ever given me is to learn your business. A lot of people I talked about delegating, that's great. But delegate, once you know what is going on, somebody could rob you blind. Somebody could not run your business how you wanted to run. Learn your business. I now, I have, I have a couple businesses at this point. I learned every last one of them. So to the point where, you know, I know it. So if, let's say they all fall apart, everybody quits. I could step in right now and I can still do my business or, you know, nobody's gonna, you know, trick me out of, out of anything because I know my business, I know how it's supposed to operate. I know every aspect of it. So people get lazy sometimes just starting businesses and just letting somebody and put it on autopilot. But at the end of the day, you don't really know. So they could just kind of just tell you anything, anything could happen.

That's really advice.

Are there any specific client communication tricks and tips that you learned that, that really stand out that you had an aha in those early days when you're growing your business?

As far as client communication, what I did learn is so when you get a whole lot of clients, of course trying to talk to every single person, every single month is going to be almost impossible. And it's going to, it's going to drain you. But what I did with my VAS or myself is we would share wins. Let's say they had a great month. I would tell my bas or I did myself screenshot the increase in their scores, send it to them, put a couple of emojis by, and it keeps them in the loop, lets them know that they're doing good. Or if I see that they're not really moving, hey, I'll schedule a call, I'll text you, hey, when are you free to talk? Let's talk about this. You know, let's see why you're not moving like you should do. Let's, let's go over your credit report. Let's see what's going on. But just really just nurturing the clients, man, that's the best, the best thing about it because I did have, I had the time where, you know, hey, I was doing great. I kind of, you know, didn't really pour into my clients like I did. And my business took a, took a hit behind it because I kind of forgot about why I got started. It was helping people. So once I started getting back to helping people and coaching people, because sometimes you take that for granted. You think people know this and people know that they don't know it. You know, people aren't, you know, as knowledgeable as I am about credit. So I love to share my knowledge about it. That was the biggest thing on, on the client, the client piece early, you.

Were saying the early days you learned the laws of the industry and like, were there any big aha's that you had?

So when I started Credit Repair before I, before I took the masterclass, I always thought these, you know, Experience TransUnion, Equifax were some government agencies or whatever that, you know, they're not. At the end of the day, they're, you know, they're, they're privately owned businesses and they can break the law just like we break the law. So. And they have to be held accountable, just like we have to be held accountable for it. When I realized that and that, you know, that I, it was a game changer, honestly. Like, you know, they're not supposed to be doing these things to, to, you know, to U.S. consumers.

I love it. That's awesome. People do think they're government entities and they're really out to get you and they break the law all day, every day.

Yeah. I mean just in fact, the CFPB went after them recently and they got a settlement. And it's a continuous thing.

Right now that you have a team, what does your day to day look like?

So my day to day. So like I said, I have three, three my VAs. I have my dispute VA since the, the first. She was the first one I ever hired. She has her job, she knows the dispute. She has any issues, reach out to me. I have a HR VA Customer service. Oh, I'm sorry. Customer service va. He pretty much anybody who has unpaid invoice. Anybody who has any questions, he can respond to them. He processes the, the payments. He lets me know of any, anything unpaid. Anybody who has not completed the onboarding process, anybody who Needs to talk to me and like that. And then I have a manager of all of them. She talks to me. First thing in the morning, she gives me a call. Hey. She hires, she handles not only my credit, repair, my business stuff, anything I need done, she kind of manages my life. So, you know, anything I need to do, she reminds me of it. She keeps them on task. And I think that those are the three people that I really need of those VAs. And then now, as I've grown and grown, somebody here who can kind of just, you know, kind of be a. A, a version of me. Who, you know, when it does come time for me to talk is I can still talk to my clients, but I do have a lot of clients and I have other businesses and stuff, but that's somebody who can talk the same language as I can. And then. And I'm actually going to do him, let him do the, the masterclass so he can kind of learn it. And, you know, if he ever came to a point, I could pass it on to him, the business to him, you know, So I want that whole thing to be running. If he steps in my place and I have my VAs doing what they need to be doing, it'll be smooth.

That's amazing. I'm really impressed. Can you share with us one of your most impactful success stories of a client whose life was changed because of your service?

So a friend of mine, he started off with around, I'm pretty sure it was close to a 400 credit score. He didn't have a house. He was living in an apartment and he was working along on third shift or something like that. He's been with me now for about two years. He now has an 800 credit score. He has a better job. He just had twins. His whole life has turned completely around. And, you know, he literally has an 800 credit score from a 400. A high 400 credit score. I've told him how to build credit. I've helped him with, you know, getting credit cards, get a car and all that. I pretty much coached him along the way, and he was a great success story. Also this other lady, she, like I said, that was the first person, one of my. The first person to buy a house. She actually was 60 years old, had never thought about buying a house. She saw my post on Facebook about something about credit repair. She reached out to me. She started off with like a maybe a 500 credit score. She ended up getting to like a 700. She got her first house, called me crying. And that Was like the one of the best feelings. I'm like, dang, you waited till you were 60 years old and I helped you change your life and your whole trajectory. And she sent other clients to me, her kids and everyone. So that was a great thing. Probably because it was the first one.

That is so cool.

Yeah.

When I was first thinking of credit repair cloud, long before I had built it, I was sort of trying to do it on paper and I needed a test client to see if these steps that I'd come up with would work. And my manager, because I was in show business for many years, that's what I did before I was a comedian and I juggled. But anyways, I had a manager, Rick, and he was also my best friend and he was 65 and he had never bought anything and his credit was all messed up. And helping him into that house to where he actually owned something, it was so life changing to him. It felt, felt really, really good. That's how I knew I wanted to do this. Same feeling for you.

Same exact feeling.

Yeah.

Yeah. And through credit, I've like again like with now business owners, I'm broker live, so I met fixing credit. I met business owners in which, I mean I also met bankers. So a lot of business owners don't realize that hey, you make a lot of money, but their credit is messed up. So I would end up fixing their credit, introducing them to my banker. Whoever I fixed their credit to, I went up and I earned a commission on it. So, you know, it's just, you meet so many people. I've met real estate agents, you know, that they're, they feed me so many clients because again like 99% of people who want credit repair, they want to buy a house as well. I'm also about to be get my MLO because I, it's, it's just so much money that with credit at the foundation you can, you know, get mortgages, you can be a real estate agent, you can broker loans, you can do anything. But credit is the foundation fixing credit. You will meet so many people that need so many other things. Like it can blossom into other businesses. And that's just what happened to mine. Like you meet so many people that need everything.

A big question to a lot of credit heroes. They're getting started, which is how do I market my business? It can be life or death or someone that's getting started in this business. How do you get leads? How do you get customers? So what is working for you today in your business? Like what, what is the key method that you use today to get clients and leads in the door.

So I'll actually, I'll start with if I was starting today, from what I know, if I was starting today, the first post that I will make if I, I do, I know a lot of people in my city, but if I did know a lot of people, even if I did, the first post that I will make out is I would say any real estate agents looking for some clients or you know, or something like that, or who wants to buy a house. Honestly, real estate agents built my, built my clientele. Like, seriously, if you reach out to real estate agents and you get good with them and say, hey, I fix credit. Do you have anybody you can become a team, they can feed you, they can feed you. Like, I hated, like, you know, being on camera at first. So that was, that was my saving grace. I had real estate agents who were constantly sending me leads and when you do good by them, they tell other people. So really. Or I still to this day, I've never run an ad in my life. I want to start doing it because I've grown to the point I can. But you know, I never run an ad. It's all organic in this. Through leads, I will find any real estate agent that I can, any bankers, tax professionals, anybody like that, anybody who touches a whole lot of people or the goal. Like I said, 99% of people who want credit repair want houses. Anybody who has anything to do with buying a house, you need to talk to them, you need to get their, get their information, say, hey, I'm going to take care of your clients, take care of their clients, track their clients. When their clients are, it's time for them to buy a house. When their score is improved enough, send them back to the real estate agent. They'll keep sending it to you every time. That is the best thing. If I was starting out, that's what I would start with is getting those affiliates to work with you. I'm blessed enough to say I can kind of play around and figure out what I want to do. You know, what, what I want to, if I want to do ads to see how that works. Let's, you know, I do lifestyle stuff for social media now. You know, because I live the lifestyle at this point. You know, I do lifestyle stuff. I'm an inspiration. I know that I'm blessed to be the inspiration. But I didn't start with all this. So being the inspiration, showing people what credit can get you credit built this. I'm not going nothing else. You can see I can start a Fortune 500 company tomorrow. Credit started this. I promise you. We did Credit repair cloud in the platform. It all started where I am. This is where I am. Credit repair cloud pretty much built that.

Incredible. Well, Larry, I'd love to dive deeper into the affiliates that you're getting. And you, you're mentioning that if you were to start over again, you would be getting realtors to help you build your business. Walk me through. If you were to coach someone that's just getting started in this business, what would you tell them to prep for even prior to talking to that realtor? And then what would that conversation look like once they actually are in front of them on a call a person, what would that look like?

The first thing I would do is not try to get them to send me clients. So what I would do is try to get friends, family, like let's in the masterclass, get friends, family, anybody who I can possibly do credit for for free. Start with them first. Do though, get, get about 10 people like that. Then like I said, at least five or six of those people want to buy a house. And then, hey, reach out to make the post on Facebook, hey, I have some clients who are looking for houses, any real estate, who tag a great real estate agent. They're going to tag all the real estate agents and when you, when they tag them, inbox every last one of them and say, hey, I have, I'm working on some people's credit. They should be ready, you know, in a couple months or however long it's going to be. Can I send them to you? They're going to say, yes, of course. And then, hey, that's also, hey, I fix credit. If you have any clients who, you know, who got denied or you know, anybody who wants to buy a house but credit is stopping them, send them to me and do that to everybody who they tag in the post and do it over and over and over again. And you're going to get your 10 clients in the turning 20 and the 30 and the 40 and the 50. It's going to just keep doubling as long as you take care of those clients. Now, I'm not saying get those clients and then don't send them back to the real estate agent. You have to track those clients because somebody sent them to you with intent to get back to them. So make sure that you do right by the client to get them back. Get them to that 620, 640, 680, whatever they want them to get to and get them in the house.

This has got to be life changing for the real estate agents because they're selling houses that they wouldn't have sold 100%.

That's what it is. Real estate agents are your number one affiliate, in my opinion.

And when you sent over some information prior to the podcast too, it also sounded like you had some other affiliate categories you walk us through. Like what are the, what are all the types of people that you're working with?

So as I said before, mortgage brokers, same as real estate agents. You know anybody who has anything to do with a house, you have home inspectors. And also like I said, my business people, business owners who you can make a post, hey, who has a business owner who wants capital but the credit is stopping them? They need their credit fixed, fix their credit. I've run across so many bankers whose credit I fixed managers. Hey, I have some clients who have great businesses, they make good money, they just have bad credit. I'm going to fix their credit. Can I send them to you? Hey, yeah, sure. And they'll give you a commission on that. You can negotiate a commission. You're just brokering the loan at that point or whatever they get. That's another way that you can get commissions. Tax professionals, it's tax season right now. This is, this is peak season for credit repair. Trust me, this is, this is the peak season for credit repair. Christmas time is pretty much the down season because everybody, nobody really has any money. But tax season is the peak season, at least where I'm from. For credit repair, partner with tax professionals. Hey, I have clients. I can send all of my clients your tax information to fix their taxes. Will you send all your clients? I'll give them a deal if you send me your clients to fix their credit. Or you can. I have one person I'm working with now, she pretty much has a system she is built out where out of their refund it'll deduct and it'll pay for credit repair for a couple of months. And just working with tax professionals, man, that's another affiliate that you can work with. It's really anybody, man. Everybody needs credit. Like everybody needs credit. And if you can go to anywhere that somebody could potentially get denied for credit or any type of service based industry, they can become an affiliate.

I love that you're opening that conversation with offering something you can do for them.

Give them what they want, give them, you know, what they, what you have. And then, hey, as they send them back, you can, you know, I, at one point I had a whole lot of Real estate agents. And the more you send me, the more clients I'm going to send you. And I would just pretty much just divide them out to, to my, to my real estate agents based on how many they sent me.

So. Awesome. Now I can see why you're so successful, why you got to the millionaires club, making it to that award. What does that mean to you?

Honestly, that was the first award I've gotten since maybe T ball or something like that, man. So like, like, seriously, I've always been a hard worker, but I never just went above and beyond, you know, I, I was blessed to always have what I needed. Just enough what I needed, sometimes more than I needed. But it wasn't because of just, just something I just poured into. I just pretty much just followed the roles, followed the rules, you know, I feel like I'm smart, you know, and I just, you know, I pretty much. Everything that was put in front of me, I completed it. But with this, I went above and beyond. And I actually, I did it. Like, I literally remember, like circling that and I keep talking about that, you know, the, the mastermind on the master class. Like, I'm going to get to a million dollars one day. I'm going to get that award. That was the goal. And when I saw it, I was like, man, I really made that, man. That was like. That was like one of the best moments of my life. Like, honestly, that was the highest award I've probably ever gotten, man. Because seriously, it showed that. When I look at that reward, that award, I see all the blood, sweat and tears, all the printing letters, all the, all the, the taking the pictures on my first in front of the post office because I'm sending them out and stuff like that. When I was doing it myself, before I even hired my mom, to the initial investment when I thought like the hundred dollars, a couple hundred dollars for credit repair clock was too much and you know, to the point now that like, dang, man, like, I've really changed my life, my kids life, my wife's life, and I can pour this back into them and they see me doing good and they see me and not having to. I didn't get all this from working for somebody, you know, I got all this for working for myself and pouring into myself and believing in myself. So that's the best part. That's the best part about.

I love it. What's one piece of advice that you'd give to someone watching who wants to follow in your footsteps?

I think I heard Steve Harvey say it, man. Like it's all about jumping. Like taking that first step. You know that as soon as you do it, when you jump, once you jump off that clip, there's no turning back after that. Just keep going. It's gonna work out. That's the first thing. And then the other thing is kind of what I. I built my brain on. And pretty much my motto is we don't listen today. That's. I keep telling people I have T shirts that said we don't listen today. And what that means is they said I would never become a millionaire. They said I would never be good in credit repair. They said I would never live in the house I live in. They said I would never drive the cars I drive. That's why we don't listen. Today they're going to tell you everything. They're going to tell you why you're going to fail. They're going to tell you why you can't do something. Believe in yourself and you can get it done.

So we've had a lot of regulations in the industry recently, like with tsr. I'm curious how. How have you run your business to be compliant and how has that been?

Thank God I have VAs. I told them, hey, take my phone number off everything. We're only doing messaging or emails at this point, you know, to, you know, we. And we have a whole bunch of pretty much prompts when somebody asks a question, answer like that. I do enough, you know, marketing now, social media and stuff. People are pretty much ready to sign up, answer all the questions like that. As soon as they sign up, they're my client, then I can talk to them. But it's also kind of created some boundaries too as well because, you know, like, everybody is just getting on the phone and, you know, you're wasting time like that. But I can still get the information I needed them. Need to them by, through text or through, through email. You know, the same. The same exact way.

Got it. So walk me through a little bit of like a client reaches out, they're emailing you, they're texting you. How are you able to effectively get them on board to your services?

So I have my VAs. They will, they have, like I said, most people, hey, how much use your service? Hey. And then I pretty much have my VA send what I would say to them on the phone. They email it back to them or through messenger, through Facebook messenger or something like that. They send it back through them and say, hey, you know, as soon as you not tell them, hey, due to the new rules I can't really talk to you until you become a client. You know, I would love to sign you up. You know, here's the link to sign up. And you know, if you don't like it after, you know, after a month or something, we can stop the service. As soon as they sign up, I get on the phone with them, tell them everything about them, you know, you rest assured you're in good hands. I have years of experience in this, you know, give them the whole spiel. I would if I was trying to sell them my, my, my service. It's just, you know, that's, that's kind of what it is. Just having a good back house, the back office, people who can just reach out and just talk to anybody who has any kind of questions and just let them understand like these, these are the new rules. That's, that's why we do it like this now. And, and thank God I have a lot of affiliates still who send me clients who are ready to sign up. So, you know, it's, it's really honestly goes back to the affiliates. You can tell your affiliate everything that you, because they already have experience you, they already know they can sell your product for you.

Yeah, we looked at your website earlier and it's completely TSR compliant. It's awesome. Nothing is driving anyone to a phone call before the sale of credit repair. It's perfect. They can just sign up. Has making these changes slowed down your sales at all?

It did at first, but I adjusted again. It's really more about marketing now. You really need to market yourself and have other people who can, you know, be ready to send those emails and, you know, influence the client. So by the time they get to me, they're already sold on my brand. So really it's about coaching people who are sending people to me so they can do all the sales. You know, for me, I don't even have to talk to them until they're already a client.

I see part of your marketing strategy. You have a huge Instagram following as well. You've grown to over 10,000 followers. How do you decide what type, what type of content to post? Because I imagine that if a client sees that, it's going to help pre sell them. I'm curious how you decide what to post.

It does. So Instagram is more, you know, it's a lifestyle. You know, I do a lot more of my lifestyle stuff on Instagram and it's strategic, you know, but I also create value and that's what I'm trying to start doing. Now also, I'm going to start talking a whole lot more, going live, you know, just selling my product. You know, I can sell it to anybody. Just telling them exactly what, you know, what I do about the new rules about credit repair, about the CFPB with Experian, just creating value about things, what creditors do, what the bureaus do this against the law. Just telling them, letting them know that I'm knowledgeable about it. They. Then they'll want to sign up with me. I don't have to talk to them. They can just go on my social media and see everything I know about it and then just go, hey, sign up. Right there. You can sign up. It's a link. I have a website. Go sign up. And then I can tell you all about my services.

Personally, your videos are really great. Really, really great. Do you have any tips for making great content?

Man, that's my, that's all my wife, man. She is the best at that. She always, she has like. And I've been encouraging her, like to get to the point. Now she has her, like, her Instagram page for her, the L Group, that's the name of her company. And she has actually a couple pretty big clients she always had. She's so creative and she studies that and she's great with that. And, you know, you would think sometimes I had a professional doing it and she is a professional in my eyes, but it's just my wife, she's just with an iPhone and cam and capcut. So that's pretty much, that's how she does it.

She's very, very talented and it's really cool. It really works on your Instagram and your Facebook and stuff. Incredible. You know, we should probably talk about credit repair a little. Bit. Of all the credit repair strategies you've learned, what's one that's been a real game changer?

The game changer that people still kind of overlook but it still works is the goodwill letter. Sometimes I send that and it works. I also tell my clients, sometimes late payments, sometimes it's easy as you just giving them a call that like, sometimes you fight late payments so long and sometimes just by you reaching out to, to the person, I mean to the, to the bank or whoever it is, they'll just take their late payment off. Or the goodwill letter, like sometimes we overthink things and that's like, like pretty much like, you know, they could do that themselves. That, that's pretty much. That's. That's a game changer. This overlooked, you know, of course, factual disputing is the, you know, the foundation, you know, but, but, you know, that's one thing. Like don't just overlook that everybody wants to go, you know, super deep in the, into the five, four, five fours and six, six, six, whatever, whatever. But sometimes it's just pretty much just being, being genuine and not seeming like, you know, you're a credit repair company and just sending something that actually makes sense to the client, to the, to the, to the credit repair, to the bureau. And sometimes the client has proof that, that they broke the law. You know, sometimes they have like letters that they sent that saying this is incorrect. Or they have these contracts that they sign and said this. Sending that proof in. That works a lot too. Just talking to your clients and understanding exactly what they have and personalizing a lot of letters has really helped me. You know, if they say, hey, I talked to this person at the bank and they did this and they told me this, but it was a lie, sometimes I put that person's name on the letter and who was a manager at this or whatever, and that gets to, I guess, a real person and they really, you know, look at the letter. And sometimes I get leases off that.

Absolutely. And with those goodwill deletion letters, the goodwill requests, two things I know because people say they don't work, they've worked for me in the past. One thing is to really explain a hardship. Like here in la, we've had all these fires. If someone was affected by that fire, maybe they didn't lose their house, maybe it affected their job, but certainly a hardship. And then the other thing I found that worked for me was writing to the president or the CEO of that bank.

Yep, it sure does. I tell my clients all the time. So sometimes. So outside of credit repair cloud, I'll tell them Google, Google, the CEO, the CEO, secretary, the cfo, everybody you can possibly think of. Get their email addresses. I've done it to my client, for my client before, compiled it, send it to their email and they send it to the people, to the, to the people. Copy everybody in your. In who you can think of, explain the hardship, explain, you know, why this won't happen again. And that has. It works a whole lot. Trust me, it works a whole lot like it really does. But yeah, look up the CEO in his mother if you can find it and copy everybody on the email, send it out or on a letter. It works.

Now what about stall letters? Do you get those from the bureaus? And how do you handle them?

I do just about every other client at the Round One they're gonna get, they're gonna send the picture of the stall letter. From experience, somebody looks like you're working with a credit, credit repair agency or something like that. I tell them, please ignore that. That's just a stall letter. It sometimes it discourages a lot of clients. I knew this wasn't gonna work. It's going to work. Just, just stay the course. Then I reply to, you know, the bureau's like, hey, this, you know, I got your previous correspondence. I have a letter made out about it. This is a, you know, this is a serious matter. Please do not ignore, you know, my, my, my concerns along with, you know, all the. Again I send the, the identification and stuff again. And you know, after that, if that's normally just round one, when they send, send that, those star letters, do you.

Tell the clients ahead of time that they're going to get something like this?

Yes, I do. Yeah, I do all the time. Hey, you're going to get a whole lot of stuff after round one in the mail. You're going to get a packet sometimes with contracts and just bank statements and all kind of stuff. And sometimes you're going to get letters that say, looks like you're working with the credit repair agency. That's just a stall letter. Ignore that. I'll handle it. But let me know when you get it so I can, so I can reply back to it.

It's super relevant right now because, I mean, even the CFPB was going after the bureaus recently to call them out on this, that they were, that they weren't treating the cases properly and one of the bureaus settled for it.

So in about a year, it was really bad. About a year and a half, I think a year and a half ago, man, it was, it was rough. Like every time every, all three bureaus were just sending just those stall letters, man, stall emails. But they really backed down that I have noticed. I haven't been getting as many of those in text messages recently.

So do we hear you correctly that it's pretty much perseverance? You send another round, another round and eventually they're going to actually take your client seriously or.

Yeah.

Are there other elements to it?

Honestly, it's just I have something set up, you know, as a reply to that star letter. But it. Now it's just after round one, if they do send it, you know, a year and a half ago it was, you know, I was sending letter after letter trying to get through that wall. But now it's kind of, it's chewed out a Whole lot. Probably because of cfpb.

Sure. And the other two bureaus got scared, right?

Exactly. Exactly.

How do you teach your clients financial literacy?

So I also teach them how to build credit. And like I said, I started before I started with credit repair. I knew a whole lot about credit cards. Once I fixed my credit, I got my first credit card, a secured card, capital one security card, 500 limit. And to this day, literally now I have, I have, I have cars with over a hundred thousand dollars credit limits. I still have a 500 capital one card. They have not increased. I don't know why, but that is really the start. You have to build credit too. So it's about repairing credit. I can get everything taken off your credit report, but it's still going to be bad because bad, no credit is just bad as bad credit. So you have to kind of just show them how to build credit, how to pay their bills, how statements, how looking at credit card statements work, when to pay due date, statement dates. The difference between, you know, I have a lot of clients who say, hey, I paid off my credit card, but my score hadn't gone up. You know, I'm like, well, hey, look, what's the statement? You know, it still hasn't reported. Or they'll say, hey, I paid my credit card right at the due date and I still got charged with some interest. I said, well, you have to look at the statement date. You know, that statement. You're still going to get charged with that interest unless you beat that statement date. You know, just, just letting them understand, leaving that open line of communication. And I honestly enjoy talking to them about that more than anything. You know, I can talk to them about, you know, the credit by the credit score is not moving like they want to, because nobody's credit score is going to move like they wanted to. But I really enjoy when they come to me asking about, hey, I want to get my first credit card. Hey, I want to get this. So okay, you need to do this. You need to, you know, there are different avenues you can do to get your first secured card. Telling them that, hey, they'll upgrade that card to an unsecured card after a little while. You can build this. Don't forget to, you know, to get that, that welcome offer. You know, after you hit that spin, you're gonna get this many points. You can use these points to here. And I think that's where I want to build my brand to it, you know, towards, you know, in the next year or so. I also want to talk about, you Know rewards, the rewards of credit, you know, rewarding solutions. That was the whole purpose of this is show them how to use those rewards that credit built. You fix your credit, now you need to, you can travel for free now, you can get the cars, now you can do everything but showing them that hey, you still need to pay everything on time because you don't want to get back into that hole. Even on my spiel when I talk to my clients, you know, after they sign up, hey, yes, you're, you're a member of Rewarding Solutions with Credit Repair. But I also have a lot of people who I work with. I work with tax professionals, financial advisors, insurance agents, car salesmen, mortgage lenders, real estate agents. So if you need any of those types of services, let me know. I, I don't want to do that myself, but I know somebody who does it at a high level and I can refer you to them. So it's pretty much a one stop shop at that point. Whatever they need, if I don't do it myself, I know somebody who does.

Very cool. What's one small habit that someone can start today that will dramatically improve their credit over time?

If they have a 580 credit score, getting a secured credit card. Get a secured card from like Capital One or Discover or something like that if they will give it to you. And most of them have pretty pre approvals so it's not going to affect your credit. With the inquiry, you know, you can keep trying that until you actually get that. Hey, my score went up 10 points. See if you can get the security card. You can't get it. Let's wait till next month. Your score went up some more. Let's see if you can get the security card now. They pre approve you get this the card boom. That is going to open the door. You've already started building credit, so get that. And then you know, and also if you're, you know, your mom, your dad have, have a credit card, they can put you as an authorized user on that credit card. I'm not talking about like selling trade lines or anything like that, but like you know, if your husband has a, has a credit card, he puts you as an authorized user on the credit card that can also build your credit and help you. Once your credit jumps off of that get you get a security card like so you can start building your own credit. But building credit is important. A lot of people are scared of credit cards. Don't be afraid of credit cards. The only way you're going to get to an 800 credit score. I'm blessed to say I have 800 credit score at this point is to build credit as well. Like you can get everything taken off your credit, but if you don't have actual credit reporting and a mixture of credit, you're never going to get to that point. And that was one of my goals to get to 800. I made it there. I've stayed there for years now. And that's because I have a lot of credit. And then also, you know, I'm able to do anything with that credit at this point. Business credit, personal credit, whatever I need to do.

When you, when you refer your clients into a secured card, is that a big part of your business? Are you, if You Sign Up 100 clients are most of those getting into secured cards these days.

I suggest when I talk to my clients, as soon as they sign up, hey, you know, I give them the whole spiel about, you know, how my program works. And then also, hey, I'm going to take a, keep looking at your credit report. And as soon as you get to almost a 600, around a 5, 8, 600, we're going to try to get you a secured card. I also have a link that I, because I have that card, I send them my link. I get points from when they get points. So, you know, that also benefits me. That's another stream of points or income or however you want to look at it. And you know, I've also, there, there are a whole bunch of affiliate links that you can use. That's, that's extra income, you know, with FICO scores with, with, with credit strong. You know, you have now for my business owners using get, everybody has an affiliate link. If you're, if I'm gonna, if I'm gonna suggest my clients use something, I might as well benefit off of it too. You know, sending the link, they sign up, they get approved. I get something, they get something from it too. So that's definitely a part, I think needs to be part of anybody's business. Business model is affiliate links.

What are the biggest affiliate programs that you're a part of now? Like, because I. Credit repair is definitely one part of the process of getting a. You get a client, you help them with the disputing, help fix their credit. But there's also education and helping build the credit. Like what are the biggest programs that are working today for your business?

So like I said, credit cards is one probably the biggest one. Well, yeah, so credit cards are big because not just secured, I have tons of credit cards. So as My clients graduate and get higher and higher. Hey, I want some more credit cards. Hey, this is a great card. I have it. Let me send you my Link. I got 50,000 miles because you applied for this credit card. You got it. Like, you know, all. If you have a credit card, they have a referral link for it. Trust me. So I tell all my clients, hey, let me know when you want a credit card. I can send you my link. They apply for it. I get benefits from it too. That also, you know, my business owners we're working with just got off the phone with them earlier with ADP for payroll. That's another huge thing. You get big, big business clients who have a lot of payroll going through ADP pays like 50% of their fees to as a commission. That's another big, big, big thing. Everybody's not into the business space. I'm trying to really get into the business space because it's really lucrative. But again, it all started back from credit repair.

Are you also helping people to build business credit?

I am, I am. So I actually work with somebody who, because I, when I actually started doing the business credit in the business space, I did is really time consuming and it takes a long time to build business credit. So I kind of stepped away from the building business credit part of it. I can do the formation part. I can start to get your llc, your ein. I also have bankers who I pretty much, I can introduce you to. I made a relationship with the banker. So all my clients, I can send them an email. Hey, my, my clients come in, they want to open up a business bank account. Could you take care of them? I don't really like the MCAs that much, but the MCAs, whether it be fixing flips, payroll, merchant services, I, I can do all that, like whatever you need, business lines of credit, whatever, you know, I have my bankers who have all kinds of products. And a lot of business owners don't realize that you have these opportunities to get these things because a lot of them operate with their own money out of, you know, their own savings accounts or personal credit. They have no idea about business credit cards and stuff like that. I send you my link. Hey, here's a business credit card. You should apply for that one. You got a hundred thousand points. After you hit $5,000 spend, I got 50,000 points. But again, it all goes back to credit. I met all these people through credit, like credit repair. Credit repair, Credit repair. Credit repair was the foundation of all this.

But you're connecting people and you're helping to grow Their business as well, which is amazing. So it's all going around in a circle and it becomes a flywheel.

Exactly, exactly. Putting people in houses now to help business owners scale their business. These people are, you know, using this money to get, make multi million dollar businesses. You know, so it's, it's, it's a great thing. Again, like the reward of all of this is we're helping people at the end of the day. Like we're literally helping people helping, you know, the average Joe moving in a house or your big business owner realize that they have the means to get, you know, credit to scale their business.

You really are helping people. This is a good karma business. Very, very cool. What's one piece of advice that, that you'd give to someone who's setting out to start their own credit repair business?

Your friends aren't going to support you as you like. You thought you, you thought they were. You're going to have to get them or first though for free. Just, just because at the end of the day they're not going to spend money with you anyway. Say I'm going to do yours first. Get that. Get used to what's going on. Again, they have no expectations because they're not really paying you. So it's never really, not really any pressure. Take the master class, go through all that. Get in the group. The group was a big, a big thing. I saw credit repair millionaires when I first got in the group. On the Facebook group, saw them, they inspired me. I would show my wife, look at this person they made. This person's in Alabama. I saw a Bobby, he's right like he's from Montgomery too. Like, you know, that was, that was inspiring to me seeing other people doing the same. What I wanted to get to. If they can do it, I can do it. If I did, you can do it. Like, like I'm no different than anybody else. Bobby's no different anybody else. Amber's no different anybody else. Like we all, we're all from Alabama. Like, you know, one of the, one of the poorest states there are and we made a million dollars off of credit. So trust me, no matter where you are, it can be done.

Really, really awesome. Let's switch gears real quick. I want to ask you a few rapid questions, questions and answer with the first thing that pops into your head. Okay. What's your business superpower?

People. People is my business superpower.

What's your business? Kryptonite. The area that you've had to work the hardest to improve.

Myself.

Laziness what does business ownership mean to you?

It means this is mine. Nobody else. Nobody else is. I don't. I'm my boss. I'm my own boss. I fired my boss. This is. This is my belt. This is my business.

What drives and motivates you?

My family?

What's your definition of success?

Having an impact on other people's lives, A lasting impact on other people's lives. Like, if I. If I die tomorrow, somebody can say I helped change their life. That is like leaving a legacy. That's what it is.

If you could go back in time and tell yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?

Jump. Do what you did. Like, don't be scared. Get out there. Nothing's too big.

And do you have any other advice for someone just starting out with a credit repair business?

Credit repair cloud, man, like, seriously, take the classes. Listen to the podcast. We didn't have a podcast when I started. Listen to the podcast. Go watch the YouTube videos. Look at the success stories. Click on the. On the millionaires pages. Follow them. Reach out. It was a lot of people who aren't, like, who aren't millionaires. I don't know if they made millions or not, but they. Who helped me along the way. You know, they were in that group. Like, I was so heavy in that group at one point, you know, just talking to people. It's people who, you know, and I'm gonna. I. I plan on getting back in it to give more advice. Like, you know, like, like they did to me. I want to. Definitely want to give back to people. And that's one of my goals too, this year, is to give back to people in the credit repair space because. Just to let them know that they can do it. In any kind of questions, just reach out to people. You would be surprised how many people are open to help you just for free or. But also get a mentor like, man, like, mentors have. I'm in the real estate now as well. I actually just refied on my first flip today. Got a great paycheck off of that one. Like, like. And I met them through credit repair. They, like. It's literally, man, start on this. This. You never know where this can take you. Like, literally. Credit is the foundation. If you start credit repair, cloud is. Is, bar none, the best thing, because you give the foundation, you have the platform. All the tools you need to succeed are right here. And I mean, just do it. You'll be fine.

What's next for you? What's the next big goal?

The next big goal. Real Estate. Like I said, I closed on my first, I did my first flip. I refi'd on that today. My big goal is to really step out on my own content. It really increase my content and start giving more value education on, you know, with business owners and just credit in general. Because I never want to get away from credit at all. I also want to just, you know, just always educate people about credit, but also just really pour into my business owners and let them know that, you know, it's better ways than just going in your own pockets to fund your business. You know, there are ways, there are avenues to get there. Whether you have great credit, bad credit, wherever it is, I can fix your credit or, or I can, you know, or I can try to get you some money. Either way, interest rates might be a little bit higher, but I can still get you something, you know, it's out there. So my next step is really to step up my content, do more education, create value and just build my brand, build me, you know, it was about rewarding solutions for the first couple of years. This, these next couple years are going to be about Larry Mahaffey, about me and more than just just credit repair, but just, just I know everything. There is no by credit, business credit, personal credit, whatever you need to do.

And how can people find your products and services and reach out to you.

So rewardingsolutions is my Instagram. Larry H. Mahaffey on Facebook. I sent my link, I do have my calendar link if anybody wants to talk to me about mentorship or also affiliates. So a lot of people who have credit repair clients who are business owners who have LLCs and stuff, I, I trust me, the payouts are really good for my affiliates. You see me, a client who has, has a good credit score, who has a business, who has some cash flow, I can, I can get them some money. You can make a great payday for it too. So, you know, being affiliate man, just reach out to me. Like I said, Larry H. Mayhappy on Facebook, rewarding solutions on Instagram. Just shoot me a DM and then we can talk.

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time today, Larry. You're amazing. This was a lot of fun.

Thank you. I really enjoyed. I've been waiting on this day for about three years now.

Wow.

And for everyone out there watching and listening, if you're finding value in the things that we share on this podcast, give us a thumbs up and click below to subscribe and follow. Also, give me a five star review or share the show and help me to change more lives. And if you have a question or a comment, drop it down below because I read each and every one of them. I would love to hear from you, and I'll respond as soon as I can. And if you want to hear from one of Larry's mentors, check out my interview with millionaire Bobby Richard. If you'd like to improve your credit score and discover how to earn extra income repairing Credit for others, check out my brand new Start Repairing Credit Challenge. So sign up right now@startrepairingcredit.com and keep changing lives.