How to Bootstrap Your Dreams From Nothing

Hey, credit heroes. I shot a video that's going to get me in a lot of trouble because we weren't allowed to film it. But we did anyways because I really wanted you to see it. And if you're an entrepreneur, you need to see it, because it's about how to overcome obstacles in life and in business so that you can get to the other side and achieve your dreams. So you better stick around.

So the big question is this. How can we take our passion for helping people with their credit and turn it into a successful business without taking loans, without spending a fortune by bootstrapping it from nothing so we can help the most people and still become highly profitable? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Daniel Rosen, and welcome to Credit Repair Business Secrets.

Okay, so last week I did something really cool that I want to share with you. I flew to Orlando, Florida, with some members of our Credit Repair cloud team, and we went there for an event called Funnel Hacking Live. Here's a picture of me with Kenan, Troy, Polo, and Matt. It's an event held by Russell Brunson and Clickfunnels, and it's where we've learned all of our marketing to grow crc. And I was amazed at how many of our credit heroes were there. If you were there, I just want you to know how awesome it was to meet you. I wish I had taken more selfies, but here are two amazing credit heroes that I did take a selfie with on my phone. This is Dave Cousins and Michael Drake. They're two credit heroes with a huge YouTube channel that's blowing up their credit repair business. But they're not just credit heroes. They are real heroes. They met while on active duty in the US Navy, and they both came home from active duty with credit issues. And now they're fighting a war on poverty, and they're changing a whole lot of lives. And it was so cool to meet them and to meet more credit heroes who were learning, growing, and bettering themselves, just like I was. It was actually a really special day for me because I won a huge award, which was really amazing. It was the award for Bootstrapped Entrepreneur of the Year. And winning that award meant a lot because I, a bootstrapper, is someone who has built a business from nothing without taking on any investors, without having money, without borrowing money. Literally doing it all from nothing the hard way. And I was up against a whole lot of really talented people, really successful people, even one guy who literally had his own jet. But I won And I won because the audience related more to me and my story. And after I won the award, they asked me to come on stage in front of more than 5,000 people to tell my bootstrapping journey. Now, they told us that we weren't allowed to record video, but Keenan shot it from his seat in the audience with his iPhone. So, sorry, Russell, but we had to do it because I needed to share it with you. I know you're going to relate to it, and I'm hoping that my story can help to motivate you through. Through whatever is holding you back from your business or your life. Now, before we get started, I want to tell you some things that I've never told anyone, not even my family. I believe what I have is adhd, hyper focus, which is the opposite of what you think of when you imagine people with adhd. It's on the spectrum of autism. When I get focused on something, that's all I can think about or do. And when I'm in that mode, I don't eat or bathe or even remember meetings. I just obsess and obsess about the thing that I'm working on, and I do it with extreme focus. And then all the rest of the world is gone while I'm in that zone. And I've spent years at a time in that state. It's not very healthy, and I've worked really hard on it. And I. I'm proud to say I now have a morning routine that includes showering and brushing my teeth and eating. But it's still a work in progress. I take it one day at a time. And I have other baggage. Some of it isn't easy to talk about. I was molested as a child by a woman who was supposed to be taking care of me. I experienced trauma. I experienced homelessness. I have panic attacks. I have depression. I have imposter syndrome. I also have extreme stage fright. I always have. That's why I quit show business. And over time, the panic got worse and worse and worse instead of better. So that's why I quit. And for the first few years of Credit Repair Cloud, I didn't tell my story. I hid who I was because I was ashamed. I didn't even have my picture on my book. Think about that. Here's the first edition of my book. And I. I had this clip art guy on it. I have no idea who this man is, but I had him on the COVID of my book when it first came out because I felt like I was fat and I was too Afraid to show my face and all this, all these issues. And still, two nights ago, I got up on stage in front of more than 5,000 people at funnel Hacking Live, and I talked about my journey. And I'm telling you all this because we all have baggage. Most people hide their baggage, and they just show you the impressive parts, but that's not honest. That's a character we show other people that looks like us but isn't who we really are. And we all have things to overcome, but when you call them out and embrace them, you take your power back. I also tell you these things because I want you to know that I. I'm the least likely success story. I want you to see this video because I want you to know that entrepreneurship isn't pretty. It's messy. It's a journey that's full of drama and pain. There are a lot of obstacles. It's really hard. It's like when the guy in the Shawshank Redemption swam through miles of shit to reach freedom. Okay, it's a really hard journey, but if you can keep pushing and pushing and pushing long enough to make it through to the other side, you'll be free. And so I shared this story with 5,000 entrepreneurs, and now I'd like to share it with you. And I want you to know that no matter what shit life throws at you, if you keep obsessing and obsessing and pushing to get closer to your dream, you will eventually make it to the other side. So, again, we weren't allowed to shoot this video, but we did anyways, because I really want you to see it. Which is another lesson all entrepreneurship should learn. Sometimes you have to break a few rules if it's ultimately going to help a lot of people. So here is my crazy bootstrapping story told on stage two nights ago at Funnel Hacking Live, shot by Keenan in his seat.

Ladies and gentlemen, you have voted on an absolutely amazing individual to be this year's Bootstrap Award winner. And I don't just say that because he put me in his presentation.

But.

What I will say is that I've had the pleasure and the honor of working with this man. And everything that he was telling me is true. He absolutely models Russell. And so this idea of modeling your way to success and doing so from a place of giving and a place of being humble, he embodies that a thousand percent. And I will tell you that from having worked with him. So with that, I want to give him a proper introduction, like a super sexy Funnel Hacking Live introduction. So I want you guys to show him the same amount of love that you've showed shown every other speaker that we've brought to the stage. So, ladies and gentlemen, get on your feet, put your hands together, and welcome to the stage Mr. Daniel Rose.

I got the colored balls and everything. How cool is that? I'm up there. I wanted to be up there. Cool. Okay. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you so much. I feel so honored to have won this award. It's been a really long road, and this feels amazing. And thank you, Russell, wherever you are. Russell, I learned this all from you. And once again, I'm Daniel Rosen. I'm the founder of Credit repair Cloud. And do you want to hear my crazy bootstrapping story? Okay. It's crazy. Buckle up. When I was a. That's me, by the way. Thanks, mom. Okay. When I was a kid, I was really into juggling. It's all I did at first. I wanted to learn magic, but the tricks were too expensive. But juggling was different because all you had to do was pick up what was right in front of you, throw it in the air, and you could make something amazing happen. And I didn't have a very good home life, and I wasn't doing well in school, so I just obsessed over juggling. And I got really good at it. But I had no idea that juggling would save my life. But at 13, I ran away from home, and I was homeless on the streets of Los Angeles. And that was really scary. I had no money to eat, but I found a solution. I juggled on street corners to make money to eat. See, in the past, I always found love and attention by performing, but this time, it was about survival. And when your life depends on it, you adapt really fast. And I learned that if I could make people laugh, they'd put more money in my hat. And soon I was able to rent a room and buy groceries. And I kept practicing and practicing, and I got so good at it that I became a world champion juggler. But I'm still.

I did.

Thank you, both of you. But I was still working on the street. I wanted to be in real show business, but I didn't know how. I was offered a job in the circus, but that was gross. So instead, I decided I was going to be in the Ice Capades. Yeah. So I went to a local skating rink and I said, I'd like to have ice skating lessons, please, because I'm going to be in the Ice Capades. They said, have you ever ice skated before? And I said, no. And they thought I was crazy. But I got ice skating lessons, and I learned how to juggle while skating, and I did. After three years of obsessing and obsessing and training, something amazing happened. I made it into the Ice Capades. I did. I did. I did it for a year. It was a great experience, but it was very lonely and I missed the comedy that I'd done on the street. So I decided that I was going to work in comedy clubs. So I would call and call and call and call and call until they would finally hire me to get me to stop calling. And I worked everywhere I could, all over the country. And after many, many years of that, something amazing happened. I made it onto the Tonight show with Johnny Carson. Yeah, you're probably too young to know, but that was a really big deal back then, and it changed everything. I worked on Broadway, in Las Vegas. I had a late night TV show. I worked all over the world. And my longest gig, I was the announcer of the Price is Right. I was. I was the guy who says, come on down or a new car. It's a Chrysler Crossfire. You'll have the sun on your shoulders and the wind in your hair in this striking new convertible. It's a charming chima. Anyways, that was me. Cool, right? Okay, now you think a guy in show business and on TV would be really, really rich. But no, in reality, life was more like this because there were always long gaps between gigs. So I was always broke and living on credit cards. But eventually I managed to save up enough money to buy this messed up little house. But I loved that house because it was all mine and I'd earned it from nothing. And I was so proud of that house because I finally felt like a success. Until one day a bank error destroyed my credit. See, some guy at the bank clicked the wrong button and entered the wrong thing and it destroyed my life. And I almost lost my house. I almost went bankrupt. I almost lost everything. And I was too broke to hire someone to help me. So I had to learn everything I could about credit to save myself. So I obsessed and obsessed and eventually I fixed my credit and I was able to keep my little house. And I started helping friends and family with their credit. And that's when I realized most people have these same credit issues because most credit reports have errors.

They do.

And I could see how hurtful the system was, especially the poor who always pay the most. And no one was helping them. So I knew I found a really big problem. And millions of people who needed Help. So I got an idea of a way to fight the system. I was going to create the world's first credit repair software. The only problem was I didn't know anything about coding or business. I don't have a fancy degree. I didn't even graduate high school. And I had no money to do this. I just had to do it. So I sat in a little room because I had to learn a new skill. So I obsessed and obsessed. And after three years of that, I bootstrapped my business from nothing. It was a little download, though, that I sold for $20, and it was a total failure. Nobody wanted it. I worked so hard for so many years and no one cared. But then I thought about how people used to put more money in my hat if I made them laugh. And I wondered, how would I need to adapt this time? And then something amazing happened. Mortgage brokers started asking for bigger versions to help their clients. And that's when I knew I needed to make a business version, host it online so it could be a subscription with recurring revenue. But that was going to take a whole lot of money and I was still broke. So I pitched it to investors and they all said no. So I did what I always do. I locked myself in that same little room because again, I had to learn a new skill. I had no choice. I had no plan B. So I just obsessed and obsessed. And I didn't shave or shower. I barely slept. I lived on Top Ramen. I couldn't pay my bills. Every morning I was woken up by bill collectors. My girlfriend Grace thought I had gone crazy. Her friends were telling her I was a loser and to leave me, but she stuck around. And after five years of that, something amazing happened. I launched Credit Repair Cloud. And people really liked it and they started building businesses on it. And I started to get more customers. And I thought, cool, it's going to be easy now. But no, having customers only made it harder. Now I had to take care of people and there was no time. And there was too much to do because I was the entire company. I was Phil on sales. I was Tammy on support. Everyone hated Tammy. I would get emails that said, I hate Tammy. And I needed help because I was drowning. And then something amazing happened. I logged into a tech support site and this high school kid popped up charging $4.99 for 15 minutes. And he fixed my computer problem in less than in a minute. I said, hey, I paid you for 15 minutes. We have 14 left. So I want to tell you about my company because I want you to work for me. And he said yes. So Keenan, Keenan was my first hire. And he showed up when I needed him most and having his help was awesome. But then he started giving me advice. And I kept thinking, why is this kid getting me advice? And he kept telling me, hire more people. And I thought, I just hired you. But eventually I started following his advice and we started growing faster than I ever imagined. And that was nine years ago. And today, today credit repair cloud powers the entire credit repair industry. Thousands of of businesses use my software. They process multiple nine figures in revenue. And more than 50 people have gotten our equivalent of the 2 comma Club Award. And these people were just like me, People who knew nothing about credit before they were hurt by it. So in addition to our software, we also teach financial literacy and we empower people through guided entrepreneurship. And by the way, that's Keenan on the right. That's Keenan on the right. Yes. And I want to acknowledge that no one does this alone. I tried to do it alone for years and it nearly killed me. I put on over £100 from all the stress. I lost most of it, but it was really, really rough and scary and I nearly died. No kidding. And meeting Keenan changed everything. Keenan helped me to put all this in place over the last nine years. He is the implementer. He's so smart, like Yoda. And he's here today. Yeah. And I could have been. I couldn't be on this stage without you. So thank you, Keenan. Big hand for Keenan. Okay. Now, the last few years, the last few years have been difficult for everyone with the pandemic, the great resignation, and now a recession. But we don't have the problems that other companies are are facing today. We don't have employee retention issues, we don't have difficulty hiring. And we made an innate 5,000 list four years in a row. And we won every award ClickFunnels has. But you might be wondering, how is this possible? Well, I've learned from my mistakes. And my motto now is, when in doubt, hire. So through our hiring and retirement pension programs, we built a culture built on equity, inclusivity and transparency. And we're attracting the best talent from all over the world. And we now have a team of over 100 people. And we're just getting started. So what is our secret? Well, I wanted people to be invested in our success. So we pay really well and we have benefits that include profit sharing. Say I wanted to find the best talent that we could. So we post on inclusivity job boards, international job boards, and we Measure employee happiness and engagement. And every morning, our whole team meets for our daily huddle. We do a breathing exercise together to get centered. Hey, we're based in Venice Beach, California. What'd you expect? But during our huddle, we bring up critical issues, announcements, shout outs, we share wins, and then we go on with our game. But I think our real secret sauce is just how transparent we are. Alex Charfen. Alex Charfen, who's been our coach for many years, he told me to share all the numbers with my team, including the revenue. And I said, alex, that's a terrible idea. If they know how much money we make, it's going to cause problems. But he said to me, daniel, they already know how much money you make. They can do the math, be transparent. So every morning we go over the most important numbers of our business, especially our revenue. And everyone can see the health of the company, where we've been and where we're going. And I believe we have a better work environment as a remote company than most businesses have with a traditional office. Yes, yes. My company, it might have started as a silly download inside a messed up little house, but now we're the category king for credit repair businesses, credit education, and credit monitoring. Yes. And my vision for the future is to help people to buy a house or to retire or to achieve any financial dream. It's going to be a billion dollar business, and we're already building it, aren't we? Keenan? In my life, I built myself back up from nothing, twice. But that doesn't mean that everyone can. I've worked incredibly hard, and that's made me very lucky. You might even say I've lived multiple American dreams. And looking back, I realized I didn't choose credit repair. It chose me. I didn't even set out to start a business. I just had a problem. And then I worked to find a way to solve it. And just like juggling, I picked up what was right in front of me and I made something amazing happen. And I don't even think Credit Repair Cloud is a software company. I think we're in the business of changing lives because we built a movement of thousands of credit heroes who've changed millions of lives. So my mission now is to make sure that others don't experience the same financial struggles that I had. So there's still a lot of work to be done. But when we get to where the credit industry is no longer profiting at the expense of people suffering, I'll probably step away and find a new problem to solve, because that's just who I am. That's who most entrepreneurs are, right? Yes. We love solving problems and bootstrapping from nothing. Yes. So I'm going to leave you. I'm a little leave you with two pieces of advice. They're not here. They are not here. Can you bring my badge, somebody, please? Are they here? Oh, thank you. Thank you, sir. Big hand. Okay, so I'm going to leave you with two pieces of advice for entrepreneurs. Number one, learn how to juggle. And number two, remember to eat. So do you want to see me eat these apples while I juggle? I can't hear you. Then I need you to yell, eat it. Eat it. What? Eat it. What? Eat it. You want to see it? Faster. It.

So that was my story. I hope you liked it. I hope this motivates you through whatever obstacles that you're facing. Just keep pushing and pushing and pushing forward and eventually you will get to the other side. And if someone you know needs to hear this, please share it with them. And if I can be of any help, let me know down below in the comments. If you have any questions, drop them down below because I read each and every one of them. And be sure to subscribe and follow if you'd like to see more of my videos. And thanks for watching. Keep Changing Lives.