Overcoming Homelessness & Bootstrapping a Credit Repair Business w/ Marivel Sotelo

Hey, credit heroes. Our guest today is the literal definition of bootstrapper. Imagine living inside a store for eight years of your childhood, enduring teenage pregnancy, homelessness, even jail time, but then going on to build a very, very successful credit repair business. That's the story of our very special guest today, Marivel Sotelo. Mary Vel is here to explain her incredible survivor's mentality that helped her to endure all that and build a very successful credit repair business. So you better stick around. My name is Daniel Rosen, and welcome to Credit Repair Business Secrets. 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. Our guest today is Maryville Sotelo, and she's going to share her incredible journey with us. You may recognize her from our credit repair cloud community where she shares a lot of advice and motivation, and she's a true inspiration. So please welcome to the podcast Maravel Sotello.

Hey, Maryville.

Welcome.

Hey, how are you?

I'm doing awesome. How are you?

I'm good. I'm here. Excited.

I'm excited too. I'm so excited you're here. I want to know everything. Let's start with where did you grow up?

I was born and raised in California, the Inland Empire. Lived there till I was, what, 18? Grew up. I did bad things, got into drugs, stealing cars, everything I had to do, but nothing was what I was supposed to be doing.

Tell me about living in a store.

We were small. My parents really couldn't afford anywhere else for us to live. The store closed at 9 o' clock at night. So the last time we could go out to see light or use the restroom or anything was probably about 7:30 or 8. And we had to wait till the next morning so we could come back out because they would lock everything up. We slept in the back where the storage was, back where the pantry's at. And that's where we slept. My mom, my dad, and two siblings.

Wow, that's amazing. And you lived in there for the first eight years of your life?

For the first eight years of my life, yes.

Wow. And at what point were you homeless?

I was homeless when I had my second kid. When she was maybe about 2 months old, I became homeless. I was pregnant with my third kid. Let myself go to heroin and alcohol. And that's where we called home. We would go and sleep inside the slides. California's weather is brutal during winter, so you can imagine what that did to their faces. Just bad.

Wow. Now it's amazing that you're so open about your past. I saw on your website you also have a, a video on your website that talks about teenage pregnancy and your homelessness and your time in jail. What's it like to be so open about those aspects of your life?

Now it's relieving and now, you know, just understanding that we all have a story and it's either going to define us or it's going to define who we are and what we're going to be for somebody else. So I'm determined. The last time I was released, I was determined that my story, my trauma was going to be somebody else's ladder to success.

I love it. I love it. That's awesome. So what led you to learn credit repair? What was going on?

It was when I tried to get an apartment. When I moved out here, I tried to get an apartment. Everything was just messed up from, you know, there were so many collections. Most of it were medical bills. And I decided that, you know, I was going to go get a house because I wasn't going to go through the same thing. I did struggle a lot when I came here because I came here with kids, no money, we were practically eating out of the trash. That's how I would clothe them was wherever I seen trash bags, I would go to see what was in there after yard sales to get them dressed. You know, I finally decided I had enough. I go, I talked to a realtor and he tells me, you know, you have about 40 something thousand dollars worth of collections, medical bills that need to get removed or else you're not going to be able to do anything. I got a job. Finally I got, I was working two jobs and I started focusing on what I was going to do with my credit. I decided to go to my credit union and I get co signed for $42,000 to pay these collection off. And I paid the collections off. I was so excited. Now he tells me you have to pay somebody to get those off your credit. And I said what do you mean I paid them off? Well, I tried calling the collection agencies and they would not remove them. You know, it's there they gave us a letter. I had to contact the bureau's if I wanted it done. I had no idea what I was doing then. But the problem was even bigger because now I didn't qualify for the house because of that loan.

Wow.

So it was another two years before I could actually understand. And during those two years I said, this is it. I'm teaching myself what needs to happen.

That's amazing. So how did you start to learn credit repair?

I've been in the car business since I moved out here, which was maybe about 19, 20 years old. I've always been a person where I want to find a solution to a problem. I identify the problem, and I'm quickly thinking of what I'm going to do to fix that or what can I offer to fix that problem? So I started thinking, well, you know, if we tell these people what to remove off their credit or what needs to happen, we can sell more cars.

Sure.

So I said, I'm going to study this and see what needs to happen in order for us to get more car sales. And 17 years later, I was nominated to be the first female to dominate the car industry in my area.

That's really, really incredible. So your first clients were the people turned down for the cars?

Yep.

And what did it do for the sales at the dealership?

It did great because those people would come back. So ourselves started going higher and higher and higher. We started out with one store. By the time I left my first dealership job, they had three stores open.

Wow. And are you still affiliated with the dealership or you are?

I am. Years later, I was picked up through Stellantis, which is a another car FCA dealerships. And that's all I worked in. And it was the same thing. I said, you know, the same problem, subprime and prime lenders. The way everything was being worked, I said, this is it. This is it taught me how to generate leads, how to talk to people. I've been a business developer for 12 years, so it did incredible for me.

And then what strategies did you use to scale up from there?

When I first started, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. You know, it was just going from coach to coach. I think my first year, I was in debt so bad from. From paying coaches that were going to teach me nothing other than what a great lifestyle that we're living and how we were going to file these fake police reports. And I said, you know what? I got out of a mess, so I'm not going back. So just to unlearn things that I didn't need to learn was, you know, already hard. So what I did was I started learning the right way. And one day I was at work, we were having a slow day. An ad came out, and it was Daniel Rosen. And I looked it up, and I was like, man, is this a scam or is this not a scam? I said, well, what can I lose? I can't lose, I mean, I've lost more. So I paid it and that's it. Took off from there.

What did. Were you in our challenge?

I was.

Oh, wow.

I was amazing. The crazy thing is that I almost gave up like three times. I was like, man, I'm not going back. That thing's going so fast. I was going through a lot already because I have teenager kids now and, you know, soccer practice, football and everything, and working at the dealership from 8 in the morning to 12 o' clock midnight. Sometimes it was just, I'm not doing it. I said, but you know what, if I don't do it now, I'm not going to do it ever.

Amazing. So you did it. You got through the training?

I got through and I started learning. I remember the very first person I looked for mentorship that I thought was a great coach. He's actually doing really good in the industry as well. I remember going to him and everything just started making sense. I was like, oh, okay, this goes here, this goes here. But one thing I did not learn was how important to have a standard of operations. That quickly taught me. You know, I did it for a living, for everybody else's business, but I didn't have one for my own. So after maybe, you know, three months, I didn't have no clients. One day I get invited to this real estate class where there's first time homebuyers. I go, I talk to people about credit, and it takes off. By the end of that weekend, I had 31 people signed up.

Wow, that's awesome.

And I was so upset because I had no idea what I was doing. A lot of those people I had to turn over to some people that were already experienced because I was so scared. But yeah, it took off. I learned, I structured, I started over again from square one. But this time I built from experience. And it's, it, you know, it stuck together. And now we have a building with four people in here and other people that work the sales areas.

That is so awesome. And how many clients do you have today?

Right now we have a total of almost218 that are active.

Wow, that is so great. I'm so proud of you.

Yes.

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

Actually, it was a guy that went to the dealership. His wife had left him because he was going deeper and deeper into the hole and he needed a car. He showed up to the dealership walking. And I was so devastated because his Wife left him with two kids. So he was walking with these kids. He got out of the bus to help to try to get a car. His credit shot. His credit score was shot. I was still running the credit repair business even though I was in the dealership. And I remember running out to this guy and telling him they work on credit and they might be able to help you out. I. It was me doing his credit behind the scenes because I couldn't tell people at the dealership that I was helping these people. And recently, about maybe three, four weeks ago, he sent me a message to let me know that not only had he bought his first car a few months ago, he's now pre approved for a $350,000 home.

Nice. That is amazing. You definitely.

It was such an amazing feeling because I can relate so much to him based on my experience.

You changed his life.

Yes.

That is so cool.

He did.

That explains why you have such a high rating on Google with all these incredible reviews. How important is it to get such great feedback on Google?

I think it's extremely crucial because people go on Google to see your credibility, to see who you are. And especially with so much scamming going on around right now in the credit repair industry or ever. I know I was scammed. So it's really important to have credibility and to allow people to voice their opinions about your company. Take a negative feedback, you know, more to the chest than a positive because that means you need to grow. There's. There's something that needs to be fixed.

Awesome. What do you think is the most important thing a credit repair specialist should have? To expand their business?

Effective communication. Listen. Listen to understand the client. Don't do it just because people are doing it. Don't do it just because it's, it's a dollar sign. Listen to their situation. Pay attention to, to dates, the charge off dates to everything. You know, that's what I think is the most crucial. What are you trying to do? This is not an overnight fix. This is something that's going to take months to do.

I love it. Now. Do you have a team?

I do.

How big is your team?

I have four people that are in office and I have three people that are work from home.

Wow, that is so cool. What's your advice for growing and scaling a team?

The most successful business owners are not the ones that are, you know, spending millions to do. It's the people that are listening. Because if a client feels listened to, if a client feels appreciated, that client's gonna bring two more and that Next client is gonna bring another two more. And that's how it works. Just listening and making them feel valuable. Some. You know, there's a lot of people that don' have the ability to have an office, but jumping, you know, on phone calls after they're a client and talking to them and just guiding them, making sure that they're giving them a blueprint because every case is different. Not everybody has the same situation.

Sure, that's really good advice. With so many clients, what's your secret to keeping them engaged and committed throughout the credit repair process?

Email marketing. So I think my biggest thing is sponsoring their credit monitoring and making sure that they are that it's always active because I know that if somebody's credit went this bad at one point, once they start seeing results, they're going to continue making that payment because they want to get further and further. So me sponsoring their credit monitoring has been a game changer for me.

I love it and I've seen you give a lot of advice in our Facebook community. How has posting in our community affected your business?

I don't think it's affected my business. I think it's helped me grow as a person. It's helped me grow as a coach. Now it's helped me be able to help these people that are coming in new that are getting scammed by scammers. I don't think it's effective affected me. I think it's actually helped me.

And. And you're now, besides people in need of credit repair, you're also coaching other businesses.

Other businesses? Yes.

What kinds of things do you offer as a coach?

So we do business mentorship with everything that has to do with business credit. How to start it, how it takes effect on your personal credit, how to build in the gaps that, you know, a lot of business owners fail to see because, you know, there's 17 years of experience behind me of that amazing.

I want to talk about marketing and growth. What are your most effective marketing strategies for attracting new clients?

The most effective thing, and this is going to sound crazy, but it's Taco Saturday. So I have real estate agents that reach out to me to have tacos and first time home buyers. So at that time when we are talking about the buying process and the first time buyers and everything, it's a huge opportunity for me to sell myself to the client for them to feel welcome to come and talk to me after I share my story. Because you know, people that have bad credit are always ashamed. They don't want to come and tell you I have bad credit, but if I can make them feel comfortable during those 10 minutes that I have to talk, it's been a complete game changer for me.

Very, very cool. And I notice you're doing a lot on social media. Is that helping your business?

It is, tremendously so.

What tips do you have for credit heroes watching?

I think just posting credit tips on there and make sure that you're active on postings every day. People won't react to them, but you will find people in your inboxes. Hey, how do you do this? Or hey, how do you do that? Or hey, can you help me with this? You know, always make sure that you post about your business and the lives that you're changing. And the smallest testimony is, you know, a big testimony in somebody else's eyes.

Very, very cool. How, how important are client referrals and affiliates for your business?

Very, very important. So far, I have not had to pay ad marketing for. For business. Everything that I that comes to me is either something that I've done event for or referred by by word of mouth.

How about advice for someone wanting to start their own credit repair business?

Credit repair cloud.

Okay, that's good advice.

Yes. That challenge is really what's going to put you out there and, you know, take you to where you need to go to the next step. It's definitely a game changer.

Awesome. And back when you took it, it was $47. Now it's free.

Yes. Wow. Amazing. Yeah.

Okay. Of all the credit repair strategies you've learned, what's one that's been a real game changer?

Looking at my reports and sending off certified letters to the credit bureaus based on discrepancies that I find in there or violations. After reading into the consumer, the rights and, you know, everything is just actually sitting down, writing these letters in, putting the violation and sending them back certified.

And you send them all certified?

Yes.

Wow, that's expensive.

It does get expensive. It really depends on what I'm looking on in the client. If it's something where I know that it doesn't need to be certified or I don't need to start a paper trailer, then no, by all means, I send those off. You know, it's the ones that I see that I know are going to be problem childs in the first place. Those are the accounts that get sent in certified.

Makes sense. And how do you deal with stall letters?

We look at them and if there's a violation, we're going straight to complaint.

And who do you complain to?

To the Consumer board.

Awesome. Awesome. What's a common misconception people have about credit repair that you wish you could correct?

That it can be fixed overnight? Yes, I really wish, you know, that it can stop because there's so many people that tell them, oh, I can fix your credit in 72 hours. No, you can't. Nobody can fix your credit in 72 hours. It took you over 10 years to fix, ruin it. You're not going to fix it in 72 hours.

That's good advice. Okay, I want to switch gears now, and I want to ask you a few rapid questions. So answer with the very first thing that pops into your head. Okay, sure. What is your business? Superpower communication. What's your business? Kryptonite. Meaning the area that you had to work the hardest to improve.

Customer service.

What does business ownership mean to you?

Giving back what they lost?

I love it. What drives and motivates you, my children? What's your definition of success, my children? And if you could go back in time and tell yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?

Start fixing credit sooner.

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

Don't give up. It sounds foreign at times, and it sounds like it's just something that's not going to be worth it or something that's not going to happen. You know, even if there was no monetary following behind it, just the fact that you can change somebody's life will change yours.

That is awesome. And what's next for you? What's the next big goal?

Right now what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to expand to a different state. I actually want to open a location in California, and I've been working really hard so I can finally go home.

That's awesome. And how can people find your products and your coaching and how can they reach out to you?

They can find me on Facebook, Marivel, Sotelo, or they can go to my website, www.maravelsotelo.com.

Awesome. Well, this has been fantastic. I want to thank you so much for your time today, Maravel. This was a lot of fun. You're so inspirational. Did you have fun?

I did. I did.

Well, it was really, really great to meet you.

Thank you. Pleasure was mine.

And for everyone out there watching and listening, 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 even more inspiration. Listen to how Nicole Cavone went from single mom to Credit Repair Success. And if you'd like to improve your credit score and learn 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.