The Power Couple of Credit Repair: How to Succeed with The Browns!

Hey, credit heroes. We have two very special guests. Johanna Stephanie Brown and Darius D. Brown are here. They are the power couple behind Brown Assets Group. And today they're going to share their incredible story and reveal the secrets of how they built their successful business while raising a family. So you better stick around. My name is Daniel Rosen and welcome to Credit Repair Business Secrets. Our most successful credit heroes, the ones that make a great living and change a ton of lives. They all have a few things in common. They all share a mission that's larger than themselves, a burning passion for their work, and a relentless drive to succeed. Jocanna and Dee, the power couple behind Brown Assets Group, they embody these traits in every sense. They're not just credit repair entrepreneurs. They are a family of natural born leaders and achievers. They are passionate about their craft. They know the value of their time and expertise and they are on a mission to change lives through credit repair. I know you are going to love this interview. So let's welcome Jo Canna and Dee Brown, the Brown Assets Group. Welcome to the podcast.

Thank you for having us, Daniel. Thank you so much.

I'm so excited to have you here. Let's get to the bag. Who.

Love it.

Who is the Brown Assets Group?

Go ahead.

So Brown Assets Group is way bigger than just me and Dee. Right. We are a family company. We are here to help many families, you know, just helping everybody through our credit repair program, helping them just gain their buying power back, you know, and just making a difference.

Absolutely. Pushing the envelope forward. We're all about sharing the knowledge, sharing the education to help the marketplace gain their buying power. Right. We don't know what we don't know. We tell so many people the biggest expense in life is what we don't know. So as long as we can continue to push the envelope forward to helping people understand the power of credit and what credit can do for them, we're headed in the right direction.

That's awesome. Now I wanna know the story behind the business. What made you wanna start this business? Did you go through credit issues yourselves?

Yes, trial and error for sure. You know, we actually, when we were. I was 26 when we bought our very first home. And my goodness, that was just. I'll let D kind of get into that. But also both of us have a background in property management. I was in the industry for 14 years and I was a community manager for most of that. And just sitting in the position that I was in, declining people daily because they didn't have substantial credit to even get into an Apartment. I just felt like there was more that I wanted to do. And so this here was. Was it, you know, just being in a position to just help these individuals gain their buying power back so that they can go beyond just getting a rental home, but having their. A home to call their own.

And then you said, there's a personal story about your home.

Yeah. So we bought our first home. 2016, I believe. And we were oblivious to credit. Daniel. Like, seriously, like, we didn't know anything about credit. And unfortunately, we didn't have an honorable realtor and an honorable lender at the time. They just saw a young, naive couple that, at the time, we made decent income, but we had very poor credit. We were sitting at a 580 credit score, and they were like, you know what? You guys can go fha. So we're like, okay, whatever we need to do, we'll do it. 580. Let's do it. We ended up getting into the home, long story short, and I started doing my due diligence, and I was like, wait a minute. We're paying way too much money on this house. Beautiful home, but paying way too much money. I end up asking our neighbor across the street, I said, hey, man, how much are you guys paying for your monthly mortgage? And when he told us they were paying $900 less than what we were paying because of a 580 credit score, so light bulb clicked. I went to my wife, Joe, and I said, hey, Joe, we're going to rent this home out, and we're going to have tenants stay in it, pay down the mortgage, and build equity, and we're never going to make this mistake again. And we're going to build and improve our credit. And that's exactly what we did. We came into the credit repair industry October 2019. Last year, July 2022, we branched off from a company because we were dealing with network marketing, and. And we decided that it was time for us to become fully independent. And by the grace of God, there was the best decision we could have ever made for our family.

You had this challenge with your house, which is similar to how I got started. A bank error messed up my credit. I almost lost my house, and I didn't know a lot about credit, so that sent me down the rabbit hole of learning about credit. So it sounds like it was very similar for you as you started to help yourself. I know for me, I wanted to start helping friends and family. Did you start helping people around you?

Absolutely.

Absolutely. Definitely. You know, we definitely started with, like, family members. And then it just, that word, that word of mouth just started to happen. And we were using like our social media platform to, you know, share our business. And, you know, we just kept getting like messages. And to be honest, it's just, it's been, it's grown so quick over the last couple of months that I'm still in awe right now.

So we say facts tell, stories sell. And we told our story. Our story was so powerful because people were like, wow, we would have never known you all are homeowners, but we didn't know that you all went through that nightmare. I mean, we started the home buying process late 2014, but we didn't, we didn't buy our first home till 2016 because of those credit challenges and lenders not wanting to take a risk on us. So that really opened up our eyes to say, wait a minute, we weren't taught this growing up as, as kids and now we want to be able to change the narrative to say, wait a minute, money talks, but good credit holds conversation. So that's what we did. And yes, family, we went straight for family, those that were willing to be helped. And then before you know it, people just start, hey, go to Brown Assets Group. They're passionate about what they do.

So your first clients came from referrals from those family members. Oh, that's awesome.

Absolutely.

That's awesome. And I see that you post your wins all the time, the score is going up and all that kind of stuff. So that must help. I saw a lot of that on social media while I was poking around in your stuff.

Yeah, yeah.

Yes, yes, yes. He really does a really great job at posting, you know, those results. But again, what's that saying? You say documentation beats conversation. So we just like to share those results and show that this actually works. And you know, anybody who's out there that needs help, you know, they just got to get in position and we're ready to serve.

Awesome. And I know you both have been very active in the credit repair cloud community. What made you decide to join up and start engaging?

Oh, let's get to it. This is my, this is what I've been waiting for. So 2022 was a very challenging year for us, for us both in our family. As I said before, we were partnering with a company, the company was going through some changes, life altering changes. And at that point we just knew it was time to branch off and become independent. We wanted that control and we wanted to see for ourselves how we can truly help our clients and be fully hands on. So I was actually on, I think it was Facebook and I saw your ad come, you all's ad come across, heard about you guys from other business partners, right. And I was like, you know what, I gotta give it a try. And man, listen, I've been following you for quite some time and I just love your energy. And I was like, you know what, this guy seems like a class act. I mean, they're changing lives. What do we have to lose? $47, right. And I told my wife, let's go for it. And the good thing about Joe is she's always been supportive and she's always believe anything that I say. Okay, let's do it. She's, she's on board a thousand percent.

So yes, for sure. And you know, I'm always like trying to stay 10 steps ahead. So I want to learn more, I want to find more information. So joining the Facebook community was really like, oh man. Yes. Everybody here is just, you know, we're, we're supporting one another, we're all on the same mission. You know, we can learn from each other, we can push each other. So that for me was like a big, like a big thing. When I found out that there was, you know, a community.

That's awesome. And you mentioned $47, so that means you came in through the credit hero challenge.

Yes.

Oh, that's awesome.

Yes, absolutely.

I didn't even know that. Oh, that's really good.

July 20th of 2022 to be exact. We stayed home for the whole weekend. We didn't go anywhere. We dived in, start watching those videos and we were like, okay, we're going to do this. We're just going to hit the ground running. We're not going to wait till everything is perfect. We're just going to just go. We knew that we already had the passion, we already had the knowledge. It was just about understanding how to pivot and just move forward.

Oh, I'm so excited to know that that worked for you. That's so great. Good. Now how many you have? Two kids.

Yes.

Wow. I can't even imagine building a business from scratch with kids, with a whole family and, and then building a business together. How? See, I don't have kids. I have dogs.

Your babies?

Yeah, they are, but that's, that's a whole lot to manage. What are some keys to being successful partners in both business and marriage?

Well, I would definitely say this. So yes, we have two kids, we have our soon to be eight year old daughter, and then we have a three year old toddler who's very active. For me, one of the other intricate pieces as well was that I had recently walked away from my 14 year career in property management and came full fledged into entrepreneurship. So having that then kids managing this business, I will tell you that it was very, very challenging at first, but one of the things that I told myself that I was not gonna change every day that I woke up, I woke up like I was going to my job. Right. Because when you have a job, you, you're gonna get up early, you're gonna arrive early, you're gonna make it. So I didn't change none of that. So waking up early, tending to the kids, sending them off to school, once we send them off to school, we are very, very active. So we have to start our day in the gym first. And then after that we get to our office and it's full grind mode. We're all in with our clients and our business. And so at first it was very challenging. But being able to do it together, when you have a partner that is on the same mission as you, it truly just makes it a lot easier. You know, he's here for me, I'm here for him. And you know, wherever one of us lags, the other one is helping and picking up. And so it's been, it's been a great journey, I would say, for sure.

That's awesome. Yeah. I saw pictures on your Instagram where you're there in the gym wearing your credit hero shirt. Does that help you to get clients?

All the time. They're like, oh, you do credit. Oh, I need a. You're the man or you're the woman that I need to speak to.

It's a conversation starter.

For sure, for sure, for sure.

That's so awesome. What's been the most rewarding aspect of this new journey so far?

Just people calling us and saying, hey, because of you all's dynamic program, your education, your guidance, we're able to get into homeownership, we're able to start that new business, we're able to leverage our substantial credit. And that's just a breath of fresh air for us because we are big on explaining to our clients. We never set false expectations with any of our clients that start our program. We move with integrity and we set realistic expectations because it is a legal process. Right. So for us, when we do have those clients reach out and they give us their success stories on how the program worked in their favor and man, it's just, it's a blessing.

Yes. And I think for me, it's instilling hope in people. So my background is Hispanic. And so we have a very large Hispanic community, you know, and they come in here and they come hungry and they want better. And so when they come, they lack the resources or they lack the knowledge. And really what they need is guidance. So to be able to guide them and just hear them say, you've given me hope. That for me is rewarding because it truly is like the stamp to solidify that I'm living in my purpose and we're truly out here making a difference.

That's awesome. And is there a specific inspirational success story that you could share of someone that you helped?

Well, my sister, who obviously is near and dear to my heart, she came to the United States a couple of years ago, didn't know nothing about credit. First thing I said was, let's go, we're going to go ahead and help you. I won't disclose her score, but she started very, very low. Gave her the guidance, gave her the roadmap. And just like, what, two weeks ago, she sent me a text where her credit line. She started with a secured credit card because she had to. And so that was one of the. That was part of the roadmap. And just two weeks ago, she sent the message how her credit line had increased, like over $1,000. Not only that, but she has all this buying parts. She's ready to purchase her home. So obviously just seeing my little sister, who's near and dear to my heart, being able to help. And she's only been in the program for like a couple of months, too. So, you know, and now she's off to, you know, purchase her very first home. So I'm super excited for her.

Yeah, we have so many. We actually have a gentleman, he's no longer in the program because he had a $265,000 child support sitting on his transunion report.

Ouch.

So he's actually a surgeon out in the Chicago market. And he, he found us, he reached out, he said, hey, man, I'm going to cut to the chase. I heard about you guys. Can you guys help me remove this child support off my transunion? I said, hey, listen, it's a public record. You have to trust the process. It is a legal process, but if you can trust it, we can work some magic. Starting in April, June, we were able to remove that child support. And he reached out ecstatic. He wrote a positive review on our Google business, and he's been able to share the success story and bring his family and Friends on board with our program as well. So that was exciting that we were able to help him with that.

You've mentioned in your social media a few places I saw it that this mission is bigger than us. Could you explain what your mission is and why it means so much to you?

Absolutely. Because growing up, me being African American, I was raised in a single family household. I used to see my mom balance out her checkbook just to take us to McDonald's or just to take us to Taco Bell on a Saturday afternoon. And for me and my younger brother, that was everything for us just to be able to spend quality time with our mom. A single mother making ends meet for her boys. And I will always, like, wonder, like, what is mom doing? Like, why? Why is she balancing out her checkbook? And one day I just asked, I was just curious and I was like, mommy, what are you doing? She said, son, I'm just balancing out our finances until mommy gets paid in two weeks. And that can be like $25 to hold us over for the next week and a half. So I was like, wow, like, like a light bulb just hit. I was like, when I get older and start a family, I don't want to struggle, right? I. I feel like our abundance is our birthright, right? Like, no one deserves to struggle. No one deserves to live paycheck to paycheck. No one deserves to have poor credit. It's really understanding that we need to address our financial trauma number one. Like, we have to address it. We have to change our viewpoint on credit because we understand that unfortunately our industry has a negative connotation to it, unfortunately. And that's why we move with integrity and, and we share the knowledge before even wanting anyone to join our program. We're simply here to educate. We don't tell people what we saw online or what we heard or read online. Everything is through real life experiences, right? We know what it was like being first time home buyers and we getting denied left and right and not being able to get to the closing table because of a 580 credit score, right? We came from property management, so we used to have to deny people that just to rent an apartment, right? So it is bigger than us because we don't want others to have to go through the same trials and tribulations that we went through. We would rather give the information, right? Because information is the fertilizer to our wealth. I'm a strong believer in that. So what I tell people is it's our responsibility on giving you the information. It's Your responsibility on what you do with it. And so, so far, so good. We are passionate, as you can see, and we're going to continue to push this envelope to become. To create more credit heroes.

Awesome. Yeah, I see you're so great at telling your story and that realness that's attractive. It's people who pretend like everything's always been perfect. You know, that doesn't attract an audience. It's being vulnerable like you are telling the real story. I can see why that and the success stories are causing this all to snowball. You guys have a lot of clients. You're doing really, really well.

Thank you.

Really, really cool to see. I want to know what was the big game changer that got you to this point? Was it affiliate relationships, maybe from the property management company or other nearby businesses? Or was it incorporating software or automations or hiring the right people or unique marketing? What is, what has been the biggest lever for you?

We actually started, you know, CRC July of last year. We took from July to December of last year six months to create our implementation, our software, our systems. And in the interim of us doing that, we were still getting clients in. The pivot point was February of 2023. We closed, we partnered with the brokerage firm here in the Duluth, Georgia area. The rest was history. Joe just closed another broker, two brokerage firms. What was it yesterday? So we have two. So we, we have a total of five lint brokerage firms that we're partnered with and they're just sending all of their unqualified buyers.

That's awesome. And then when you get their credit back into shape, when they're ready to buy, you send them back.

Absolutely, yes.

Yeah. Oh, they must love you. You're life changing for them.

We have like a whole system in place.

Thanks to you. Thanks to you, you guys. Because our business affiliates, they love CRC so much because of it being so robust, being so seamless, being able to say, wow, just a click of a button, I can put my lead ncrc. And then after that, it's one of those things where every month we're sending our business affiliates reports, giving them updates on our clients and how they're doing in the process and they just love it.

That's awesome. And you have Spanish speaking clients as well?

Oh yeah. Majority of our clients are Spanish speaking.

Oh yeah.

That's awesome. Because I don't know if, you know, we changed all the, the client portal and onboarding to be Spanish.

I was so excited when I saw it. I told them, I said, look at this and we had enrolled the client and so of course when you, you know, send them the client portal, you get the email. When I saw it come in, I was like, look at that.

That's so cool. Keenan. It's working.

Yes, please keep it.

Yes, keep it going.

That is so awesome. So how are you currently marketing your business? Is it just through affiliates or. And, and, and the social media, of course, that I see.

So definitely through social media. I will say these a lot better with social media than I am. But honestly it's really been through our affiliates, like it's been that word of mouth, you know, the affiliates are happy. So now they're talking to like their other business partners. They're reaching out. Clients are satisfied now they're telling their family and friends, you know, and one of the things we pride ourselves on is communication. We communicate with our clients all the time and that just makes a really huge difference. I think clear communication goes a long way. But yes, the bulk of our clients that we're getting are really just referrals.

And no, no paid ads. We haven't done one single paid ad. No, like dming cold. Like they're just coming to us. We just. Because we're growing. We just started a team so we just brought on our team and they're doing a great job so far. And you know, the goal is to be to receive that million dollar plaque from you all because it's coming before you all.

Getting started. We're just getting started.

Absolutely. I'm telling, just know we're telling you all now. August 9, 2023. It's coming sooner than people think.

You gotta call your shot. I think that's awesome.

Yes.

Now I saw you have a huge Instagram following. You've got almost 12,000 followers. Do you have any tips for our credit heroes who are watching?

Absolutely. You have to be consistent marketing. You know, you can't be the best kept secret. Right. Like you can be great at what you do, but if no one knows what you do because you're afraid to post or you're afraid to show your face, it's just not going to work right for us. We're big on it. Whether it's me, whether it's a result and I'm saying, hey babe, like let's tag each other on this post so your followers can see it. So they have now where Instagram has the collaborator mode, where if I post on my page I can add Joe as a collaborator and it will automatically go to her page. So my followers are seeing it her followers are seeing it. And then eventually a couple of hashtags at the bottom of the caption, it goes on someone's Explore page. And, and that's how we've also been able to get clients as well, because they're like, hey. Because we always ask, how did you hear about Brown Assets Group? Oh, I was scrolling through my Explore page and I found a post that you guys did, and I was intrigued. Now I'm ready to get started.

So that's awesome. Also on social media, I've seen you say, if you're looking for a discount, we're not the company for you. So I love that, how important it is for business owners to, to know their value.

We're very transparent too. So we're very transparent with all of our clients. We're very transparent with anybody who's following us, only because, as De mentioned earlier, we don't like to set false expectations. Right? So it's very important for people to understand. We've also said, you know, credit repair isn't free. You know, it's. It's not free. It's a, it's a, it's a legal process. Right? It's a service that is provided. But yes, we stick to our, to our price, our worth. We stick to it.

You can't lowball your business. You can't lowball your business. I encourage any entrepreneur watching this. You watch it today, tomorrow, next week. Do not lowball your business or your worth or your value because you have people that are ready to do business with you because you have a solution to their problem. And it takes time. And the most valuable tool that we have is, is our time.

Yeah, I agree. You've mentioned on social media that the gym has become your favorite place. How has prioritizing health and wellness impacted your, your business success?

Well, I've had, you know, family, friends, unfortunately, you know, transition. And for me, I'm a big advocate of, you know, taking, taking care of, of the internal dwelling. Me, my, my wife. You know, we're big advocates of that because we feel like we can create this, this wealth. But if our health is not in order, everything else we do is obsolete. Right. So we want to be able to enjoy our kids. Like Joe mentioned, our son is super active. Mason is the most active three year old. Oh, my gosh. My. Our daughter, Nevaeh, she's super, super active. So we want to be around to be able to keep up and still be able to give our clients, give our business, give our team members a thousand percent. So, yes, we have to take care of our health for sure.

Health is wealth.

Yes, it is. Hey, speaking of your team, how big a team do you have?

So right now we have two. So they're based out in the Philippines. We'd like to give a shout out to them is Laura Bell and Jessica. They're killing it. They're actually two weeks in and they're doing a great job. And we've already seen a major adjustment because they're, of course, we sent them through training. We. We're having them watch your videos on consumer laws and they're so intrigued and they love the system. So thank you so much. CRC has truly changed our life and our team's life as well.

Yes. And we've actually seen some of the testimonials from, you know, some of the credit heroes, you know, and with watching that, just taking from them as well, like, you know, what to implement as well, you know, within our business to help our business grow, you know, not wait so long to get a team when we know right now we are at a. At a stage where we really need a team, we need that help. So, you know, I appreciate all those videos and their testimonials because we've been able to take bits and pieces and implement it into our business as well.

I want to thank you for trusting us. This is amazing to see. It's all working. Yes, it's really, really cool to see. And you both have so much passion and ambition and drive. How do you keep going? And what advice would you give to anyone who wants to start their own credit repair business?

This, right here, this is our daily regime. This is what we read. My wife and I, we read it every day. And it's a. It's the book of life, is what I call it. We're faith believers. We're faith pushers. Everything we do is because of the man upstairs. So for us, as hard as we go through faith, through a strong foundation, commitment, because we know that it starts at home, and because we know that it starts at home, we have such a strong knitted foundation, it reciprocates and it trickles down into the marketplace. People can see our. Our devotion. We are young, we're a young couple, but we've been married for nine years, right? We've been together for almost 11 years. So because of our foundation and our personal life is so strong, it, you know, it bleeds out into the marketplace. It bleeds into our. You can see it. It's a reflection in our business. So faith staying true to ourselves. Staying true to our mission, staying true to the vision of what we have been called on this earth to do, and that's to serve.

And we always say it's. We have this thing where we say impact over income. So we don't focus on the income, we focus on the impact. As long as you're making the impact, the income is going to come, you know, and for me, coming out of the corporate world, you know, it was challenging going into entrepreneurship. And to be honest with you, I didn't even believe in myself. My husband believed in me before I believed in myself, you know, and I battled with going back and forth, back and forth, but I bet it on myself. I said, you know what? I'm going to take the leap of faith. I'm going to make it happen. I'm going to go all the way in, and I'm going to just trust the process. And I'm so happy that I did. I'm so happy that I didn't go backwards. And, you know, the results of it, it's showing to see our baby flourish, which is our business, and to see how many lives we're changing in such a short period of time. And it's just very rewarding. And so, again, we're just getting started.

And you're doing awesome. I'm just so impressed. What advice would you give to anyone who wants to start up their own credit repair business?

Don't wait. Don't procrastinate. Don't wait till it's perfect. There's not going to ever be a perfect time. Don't wait for the systems. You have to follow your intuition. You have to follow your gut feeling and just go. Just make it happen. Failure is the mother to success. You just have to fail for it. Get up, keep going. Learn every single day. Be intentional with building out your business. Because guess what? All you have to do is share your services. Share your services. And I promise you, as long as you remain consistent, remain disciplined and obedient, you're going to get clients. You're going to see your business grow, thrive every single day. We are intentional when it comes to poking holes in our business and identifying what we can improve on. I'm going to be honest with you. Last year, July, we sacrificed $47 just for that credit challenge. It was that bad. We, when we transitioned and branched off, it was the worst year of our lives. Financially, spiritually, emotionally, mentally. So CRC has significantly changed our life. Number one, we could have threw in the towel. We could have said, you know what? We're going to just go back to property management. We're going to go back to corporate America. But because we knew that we had a sincere passion for credit and helping families and individuals across the country, we knew. So as long as you believe in yourself, your brand and your business, guess what's going to happen? Others will believe in it as well.

Exactly. I love that. Okay, we're going to start wrapping up. I want to ask you a few rapid fire questions. So answer with the first thing that pops into your head and it could be either one of you answering or actually for both of you. What's your business?

Superpower Communication.

How about you, D?

Commitment. Ah.

What's your business? Kryptonite. The area that gives you the most trouble.

I just thought about reporting.

Reporting.

Okay, me, because I do all the reporting. So a challenge in itself makes sense.

What does business ownership mean to you?

Being my own boss, living life on my own terms. You know, fun fact, right now, I'm headed to Miami tomorrow and guess what? I'm going to be working right from over there. So just being able to work on my own terms. Right. Not on anybody else's terms. So I will be on the beach and credit analysis and all that good stuff.

Yes. While daddy's at home. Daddy daycare. So I'll be here. Teddy daycare. But for me, yes. The time, freedom, the leverage, the options. To know that we're building something dynamic and we're helping and inspiring other people to see while if they can do it, we can do it as well.

Awesome. What's your definition of success?

Happiness, peace, Fulfillment. Yep. And make it a major impact.

Yes.

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

You don't know it all. You know, do your research, take your time, have grace with yourself and bet on yourself and keep going. And like you said, fail forward, always.

Three words for me. Trust the process.

Amazing. And what's coming up next for Brown Assets Group? Like, what plans do you have in the future? How do you see your mission changing? Oh, keeping it real with the Browns. That's your podcast, right?

Yes. So this episode will also be on our channel, of course. So we'll. We're excited about that, having you guys on board. Of course. I have my ebook, Unlock the code to Financial Freedom on Amazon, where people listen. For 20 bucks, it could change our entire life. You can get business funding. You can work on your personal credit. Understanding how to leverage, Understanding manufacturer spending. The whole nine. Yep. We're working right now on real estate, university school. So going out helping these brokerage firms with their, their agents on getting credits. And it's just a win win situation because we can educate them on what we do on the credit repair side so they can become more knowledgeable. And guess what, they can get more families into home ownership.

That's awesome. And how can people find your company online?

Www.accelerateyourcredit.com that's accelerateyourcredit.com or, or you can follow my beautiful wife, Joanna. Mrs. Get to the bag myself Mr. Get the number two, the bag underscore and bag by the way, guys, stands for Brown Assets Group. So when we say get to the bag, that's what we're referring to.

Get to us.

Get to us as asap.

I love that. Well, I want to thank you so much for your time. This has been a lot of fun and I wish you continued success. Well, thank you so much for being here and for everyone out there. If you want to learn more secrets to growing a successful credit repair business, check out my episode on Software Automations. And if you'd like to get certified in disputing and gain confidence and grow your very own credit repair business, check out our credit Hero challenge. Doors are closing soon, so sign up right now@creditherochallenge.com and start changing lives.