They Went From Bad Credit to Million Dollar Entrepreneurs

Hey, credit heroes. Today we're going to talk with our newest Credit Repair millionaires, Odine Lawrence and o' Keefe Raab. They are here today to share their inspiring stories and explain how they went from struggling with their own credit to creating a thriving business that has made over a million dollars in revenue. 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, if this is your first time listening to my podcast, every week I cover industry news, financial tips, and entrepreneurial advice for bootstrapping your business from nothing. This show is an essential how to guide for business owners. And there's no other podcast like it. So be sure to click on that subscribe button now and get ready to start changing lives. Okay, let's get started. My guests today are Credit Repair Cloud's newest millionaires, Odine Lawrence and o' Keefe Raab. And you don't want to miss their incredible stories. Odin went from struggling for years, being homeless, sleeping in his car, to becoming a social media marketing expert and driving a new Mercedes. And o' Keefe went from all kinds of side hustles and getting turned down for everything, including jobs, because of his bad credit. And he went from there to building a million dollar business, and he did it while serving in the Navy. So please welcome to the podcast, Odin and o'. Keefe. Hey, guys. Congratulations on joining the millionaires club.

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

One more thing before we get into this, o'. Keefe. I want to mention to our audience that I know you just got out of the Navy only a couple days ago after eight years of service, and you had two deployments, right?

Two deployments to the Middle east, yes.

Well, thank you so much for your service. Anyways, let's get into this. Thanks again for being here. And I want to know everything. So let's start with where are you guys right now?

We're in Coral Springs, Florida.

Coral Springs? Where in Florida is that?

So that's south of Florida. It's in the county of Broward, not too far from Fort Lauderdale.

Oh, got it. Okay. I remember it. I know that area because I used to work cruise ships. We would come in and out of there. Cool. Okay, so this is going to be fun with both of you. So, Odine, I want to ask you first, what was your life like before credit repair?

Man, you take me back to the days. My life before credit repair was, like you mentioned before, is a struggle, you know. You know, I had children, have a family, you know, and trying to sustain a family, not being able to provide or bring an income was, was tough. I struggled to the point where I was homeless three times. My first time being homeless, I got fired from my job. I was working for a governmental job. I got fired from there. And then after getting fired, I wanted to get into life insurance. So I studied to get into life insurance. And while studying, I was sleeping in my car while going through the ups and downs. My son at the time and my wife, you know, was staying with family, family members and friends. I was, you know, in my car, you know, studying, going late nights at Dunkin Donuts to make sure that I get all of the information to go forward. And, you know, that was a success. After passing the state test and just have a driving force to succeed, well, what 10 would end up happening is after three years of struggling in the life insurance field and gaining knowledge and new friendship and relationships and so forth, I still find myself still working dead end jobs, you know, still being broke at the end of every paycheck. And no matter being, you know, going from a regular worker to a supervisor, I mean, the pay was still the pay. It came to a point where, you know, I started to get involved with a lot of different network marketing companies and, you know, just keep it short. In 2016, I worked seven jobs because the year prior to that I was homeless. I told myself I would never go through that situation again. That was my third time being homeless and I didn't want it to go in that situation. So after, you know, while working seven jobs, knocking doors for AT&T, selling furniture and warehouse, you know, calling individuals who fill out online resumes to try to get them into school. And then my last job in 2016 was working at CVS as a supervisor. I told myself that, you know, I would never be in a position like this ever again. And it came to a point where I went to a car dealer. Daniel. I needed a car because my car broke down, engine went right, so that's dead. I paid someone to try and fix it and they scammed me, took my money, and I couldn't hear from them again. They started the process, but then the second day they just ghosted me. So I went to a dealership and I went to a dealership with a couple hundred bucks. Didn't know what my credit looked like because prior to that I told myself, I'm gonna just give it a seven years to have all these things fall off. And, you know, I went to the car dealership, the car dealer came back, you know, everything was good before. And then he went to go run my credit. And then when he ran it and, you know, took a while to come back, my cousin and I was sitting at the table. I never forget it. And while we were sitting at the table, you know, I saw him come back kind of holding his head in my head. I'm like, man, he's thinking of what to say now. So he came and he sat down and he's like, all right, so here's what we have. I can't get you the car that you wanted. I wanted a wind up window car. You know, give me the, you know, the sun, no sunroof, give me the hubcaps on the car. Like give me the basic type of car. And he told me, I can't give you anything unless you pay five to $10,000 down. Mind you, I'm looking at a $14,000 car. So I felt some type of way at that point, Daniel, I felt like I'm failing as a man, as a person. I felt like there's like I've tried so much and nothing is actually working for me to the point where I'm not, you know, at this position. And I just remember my cousin driving me home. I said to myself, this would never ever happen again. And a few weeks later, you know, I'm a praying person, so praying and asking for something brand new to come my way. An associate at a time reached out to me, like, hey, you know, let me introduce you to credit. And he introduced me to credit with the company, you know, got involved. But I'm an analytical person. So I started studying, really understanding what credit is all about. I was able to then work on my own credit after a few months. And then in seven short months, I was able to understand how all this works. And then took myself from an afford 414, 419 credit score and then jumped my score, 256 points into the 7 hundreds. And that's how everything started.

Wow, that's amazing. That's really amazing. And I understand what it's like to be at rock bottom and be homeless. I've been homeless. And then to discover how the system really is designed to hurt people. It's terrible, it's criminal, but there's so much money behind it and they make so much money from it. It's just awful. That is an amazing story that in such a short time, then once you studied, you got your score up so much. That's. That's incredible. Now, how about. How about you, o'? Keefe? What. What was your life like before credit Repair?

Well, my life before credit repair? Well, I moved to the U.S. i'm born in Jamaican, so I moved to the U.S. in 2008 for school. Did well back in Jamaica, you know, in school and pretty much, you know, applied for a school up here and got through. So that's how I got to the States. So I came here, you know, finished school, got a degree, excited. I was like, wow, okay, I got a degree. Now, you know, I can go do any job I want to do. Lo and behold, nobody wants to hire me because I have no experience, right? So then and there, I look at it, I'm like, wow, that's really how the school system is set up. You know, nobody wants to give me that experience. How am I going to get that experience, right, if nobody wants to give it to me? So after I graduated, I started doing a whole lot of different jobs because I was like, okay, I need to. I need. So I got into a whole lot of call center jobs, and let me tell you, I sold everything. I sold from perfumes and colognes on the streets of Miami to magazines to magazines, right? And jump from job to job because I just had that feeling of dissatisfaction. I knew there is more to this. It can't just be what I'm seeing at face value right now, right? So I was a cable guy. Last job I did before I joined the military, I was actually a truck driver. I drove cross country in every single state there is on snow, ice and sleet in summertime and in wintertime, you know, that was. That was me. And then I needed something more full and more. More career type, like something more sturdy because there was some friend of mine out there driving. And I don't understand how somebody hit your trailer dead on in the back in your blind spot and it's your fault and you're getting fired. So when I saw that, I was like, you know what? That could happen to me too, when I just lose my job. So what I actually did, I had a trip that was from California to Miami. I did that trip with a plan to not go back out there ever again. When I got to Miami, I called the company. I'd be like, I'm done, y'. All need to come pick up your truck. And then after that, I went to a plaza, and there were like, all the military branches there. There was Army, Navy, Marine, Coast Guard, all of them. And I said to myself, you know what? I'm going to go down the line and I'm going to see who takes me. So I went to Air Force, they didn't take me. Then I went to Navy, and they took me. If Navy didn't take me, I would go to Marine, I would go to army, and I end up in one of them because I knew I needed a little bit more of a career. So when I got in now, you know, I did really good. But then I realized that I have to have something of my own, right? I have to have something building on the outside in the event that I need to get out or anything should happen to me, and I get out, then I have something of my own. So I joined a network marketing company. That's where I met Odin in 2016. And from there is just history. We. We started looking into credit, started studying credit on another level, start working on our own credit. And then we had a bright idea. Why not we do this? Why don't we set up a business, right? And Odine, you know, he's a man of vision. You know, he meets the right people at the right time. And, you know, we just put together and we. Real credit deal was more.

Wow, that is awesome. And how many years ago did you both start this business?

2016, I think it was like, was it September?

October, September.

The idea, you know, from there. And here we are.

Wow. And this is. At this point, you're in the Navy, o'. Keefe.

Yes.

And how do you run a business when you're in the Navy? How does that work?

Well, what I would say is when you're in the military, you have to be smart, right? You have to be smart. Because if you're not smart, you will end up in places that you don't want to end up in. So you have to take control. Even though you don't have much control, but the little that they give you, you have to exploit it. And that's what I did when I was in the military, to be in the places that I wanted to be. Right. So the only places that I didn't want it to be is on those two deployments. But it was. Was an experience, I would say, but it was just being smart.

That's.

That's. That's the answer to your question.

Yeah. And having drive. And so you started your business in 2016. And for how long was it just the two of you running the business?

So we. We both, I mean, came up with the idea behind starting a credit repair company. Daniel, I'm be straight frank with you. It was tough, challenging, tough, right? I mean, we went through. I mean, at this point, young, ambitious, energetic. We just want to get it out, get out there and just do it, right? And always, I always go back to the book from Robert Kiyosaki, rich dad, poor dad, when. When him and his friend was in the driveway and they were making, you know, nickels and it was like counterfeit nickels. Well, they had this drive and passion to just do something. So that's where, you know, it started. But we. We were taken advantage of in a sense where we didn't really understand business vernacular. So we were taking advantage. You know, we've gotten our money stolen thousands of dollars, you know, trying to build website, trying to build a payout program for people who might. Partners who might want to join the program. I mean, we went through so, you know, countless amount of individuals or business that either didn't work out or. Or really just took our money and ran. And I just remember there were times, even in 2018, we're thinking like, man, this thing is not working. It's not getting off the ground. I mean, we couldn't even get customers to. To really come into the program on a consistent basis. And it came to a point where it was just, all right, we're gonna. We're gonna give this thing a go again. We went back at it in 2019, connected with someone who was supposed to help us build the whole platform out that we had as far as vision, and then we got robbed. Then again, right? And I say rob because they didn't provide the value or they didn't provide what they promised to provide. And, you know, it was like, okay, we're gonna. We're gonna figure this thing out. Put it on a simple, simple pause, right? We wasn't truly active with it, but we were still in the background trying to figure out, this is not. This is what we're not going to do. This is what we're going to do. And then we continue to study and study in business on a. On a different level how. How business works. So instead of putting it in other people's hands, we start to understand it for ourselves so we don't go through that situation again. Right? It's a. Has a saying for me. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me, right? So we Couldn't have that again. So to answer your question, Daniel.

Wow. So then you relaunched the business, learned about business, and then went all in. But first, along the way, were there mentors? Are these kind of mentor people you're talking about?

No mentors.

No mentors. Okay. Just people who would do services that would rip you off. I've been through that.

Correct.

It's. It's really hard when. When you want to start a business, you have this great idea, but you don't know where, who to go to, and you see a shiny ad or somebody, hey, this guy can do something. And yet it all falls apart and it's never delivered, and. And they take all your money. Yeah, I've been there a million, million times. So then you went all in. Learn the stuff. And. And then. So was it like 2020, 19, 2020 that you really went all in?

2020.

2020 is when we had the pandemic.

That's when we had the pandemic.

Oh, my God.

It was. It was ironic because when that happened, you know, everyone's now forced to be inside and o' Keefe and I, our communications, and just every day we talking about business, you know, every day we hammer in it. How can we. We become better? And I never forget, it was July. I think it's the end of June. Yeah, around the end of June or close to the end of June of 2020. Unfortunately, I caught covet. Right. For six months, I didn't go outside. And then the one time a friend reached out to me and said, hey, you know, you know, come by, went by, you know, caught Covid from there. And I was in mentally and physically the worst shape of my life. Now, I was still doing credit repair, but I was doing it as an individual, you know, doing the whole cash app sell payments, invoice and so forth. So there was no structure. There was no, you know, all of that was not there. And I remember, Danny, where it came to mind, like, what if you, like, you're the breadwinner, right? You're bringing the income for your family, but what if, God forbid, you weren't here anymore? What would happen to your family, your kids? What would you leave them? I mean, you're doing this credit and you've been doing it for so long and you still haven't had it up off the ground. You did all this studying. What are you going to do with it? So, you know, I remember getting, you know, Keith communicating and that, you know, I mentioned to him exactly what I'm sharing with you in that not verbatim, but mention it to him and he's like, you know, let's go all in. So we took all of the knowledge that we've already gained over the years, what to do, what not to do, all of the business education that we've studied without any mentor, and all the credit education that we've already understood and studied, and we said, you know what, we're just going to go all in. And we went all in in 2020 of July is when we registered our business officially. And from there, you know, we did six figures in our first five months of launching. Official launching. Wow.

During a pandemic. Six figures three. Unbelievable. And self taught. How did you learn all the parts about putting together a business and all the parts people don't know at the start of how to create your processes and your systems and SOPs? You've got all that now, right?

Absolutely, yeah.

How did you learn how to do that?

Well, we actually. Well, let me just put it this way. As Odine said earlier, we're a praying team. We're always praying. So we always have God in the midst of real credit deal, right? We actually, we start Internet. There's a lot of data, a lot of information on the Internet on how to say, for instance, register your business, how to get your DUNS number, how to get your ein, how to, you know, set up your tax structure, whatever it is, right? Because we're in 2022, you know, information is at the tip of your fingertips. So that's how we get our information and we. And through trial and error. Because again, it wasn't smooth all the way. It's, it's never smooth all the way. All right? I don't see how, you know, it's, there's, it's not possible to smooth your way to success. You know, you have to fall down and get up, brush off. You might get a little, you know, you know, the cuts here and there, right? So that's pretty much how we did it to trial and error and just studying and researching.

That's amazing. Here at CRC we have a mentor who we learned systems and processes from. His name is Alex Charfen. But he has a saying. Your business is broken and if all goes well, it always will be. It always feels like that. I mean, last night I was, I like had a panic attack and, and my girlfriend goes, are you okay? And I go, no, our business is on fire. You know the feeling, don't you? And no matter where you're at, that's what it's always going to be, but it just makes you stronger and stronger and you can handle more and more. Am I right?

Definitely.

So very, very cool. Now I understand early on, Odine, did you. Well, o', Keefe, you haven't had credit issues, have you?

I've had credit issues. Very bad credit issues.

Well, along the way, did either of you run into credit repair scammers?

Yes.

Tell me about that. And what scams were they running? What happened?

Well, in my case, you know, I would just promise to get my credit report wiped clean. You know, they have us a phrase for it or like a clean sweep.

Sweep away the bad stuff.

Yeah, let me just, just pay me $1200 or whatever it may, and I'll clean your credit for you and I'll give you a trade line on top of that on the back end now that that happened, you know, so it's out there and it's scary. It's out there and it's really, really scary.

Oh, yeah. For people listening who don't know what a credit sweep is. I should explain what a credit sweep really is because it's really scary and very illegal. They actually file false police reports for identity theft. And sure, the items get removed instantly, but they come back. But along the way it opens up an investigation and then the police and the FBI and it's something you don't want to do if you're watching this or listening to this. Do not do credit sweeps. People go to jail for credit sweeps. You got to do it the right way. I'm sorry that happened to you, but you didn't get any. They didn't actually do the credit sweep. You didn't get in any trouble?

I didn't get in any trouble per se, but I just didn't get what they promised, you know, I didn't get a trade line. I don't know what happened there, you know, so it's, it's a very scary thing and it's sad that there are folks out there doing that to vulnerable people. That, that, that, that is really sad.

Yeah. Especially when you could do credit repair the right way. I mean, literally removing errors. And because there's so many errors and even accurate items, there's something inaccurate about how they're being reported.

Right.

And to add to that as well, it puts, it puts people in a state of mind that all companies are pretty much going to do this and the space of credit repair is hot within itself. So for individuals who do that and then, you know, people talk. One of the fastest way to travel information is through Word of mouth. So if I get that type of experience and I share it with 10 people and they go and they multiply that and they put it on social media nowadays, you know, it makes it harder for the companies who are actually doing the right thing to actually be successful.

Yes, sure, sure. It's a little like the Wild west, but good guys, like all of us are here and we're going to keep everything going the right way. Hey, I want to know, instead of going down, let's go up. How has this new business changed your life, both of you?

You want to go first?

Yeah. In so many ways, Daniel, first and foremost, I gotta always give it back to the most high God, you know, because if without him, we wouldn't be here. It's changed me mentally, you know, changed the way that I look at business in a whole. Taught me so much about business that I never knew about. And what I did know about, you know, getting into the space, it just started to educate me more, you know, wanted to know more. Financially, it has been able to put my children in private school, something I've always been dreaming of doing when I was younger. And it's been able to do that for me. Being involved in credit space has also been able to change my zip code. Changes zip code, you also change the children's school. So it's been able to take me out of a rough neighborhood, you know, and then put me in a better, better position, better place that I'm satisfied with so far at the moment, until I'm ready to move again financially, has changed our bank accounts as well. So it's definitely changed in different brackets of life and I'm grateful for it, definitely.

That is so awesome. Good for you. How about you, o'? Keefe?

Well, as for me, this, this space, I've always loved business, Always, always love business. And just the opportunity to have my own or our own business at this point and all the things that I've learned along with it, it just changed my mind frame. It just puts me on a different level of thinking, on a hold. As far as financially, of course, it changed my bank account. It does put some zeros behind, behind some, you know, some numbers. As far as my zip code, did change my zip code, of course, I don't have any kids yet, so, I mean, but when they do come along in this world, I'm sure they will be better off because, you know, my. Our hard work and determination and persistence created something that will, you know, they will, you know, live after, you know, create a legacy very Cool.

And if I may add, Danny, it also allowed me to purchase my dream car at the time. Right. No more driving Altimas. You know, nothing wrong with, you know, stay being where you are and then transitioning, but, you know, no more worrying about is the engine going blow or is there going to be smoke coming out of the front part of the car. So I was able to do all of that through using my credit. Right. Didn't put any money down. So it was one of those scenarios. Built my credit, got into a Mercedes and not put any money down to sign and drive.

Amazing. Just amazing. Hey, for either of you or both of you, what was your greatest struggle when getting this business started?

That's a good one.

That's a really good one because we're kind of like, which one is above which one. I would say for me, one of the greatest struggle building this business is, you know, the people that you met along the way. Like OD mentioned earlier, part of setting up this business, there were like a Porsche, like a section, a block of time, you know, maybe two or three years or so where we just run into, into folks that just see us hungry, determined and wants to start this business. You know, we tell them this is what we want and they say, okay, this is what I'm going to give you, this is what it's going to cost. And we'll be like, okay, we find it, you know, and we give it to them and then we get nothing. So I would say that was the most difficult part that, you know, for me, you know, we had to go through to get to success with this business.

For me, softwares aren't my strengths. Right, okay. For tech guy, he loves, you know, the whole tech stuff and I can't stand him. But there were times when decisions had to be made, right? Executive decisions amongst us in order to grow our business and not stay the same or to change certain technology or softwares that we're using at the time to make sure that, okay, yeah, things are going to fade out. We just have to apply this strategy or apply the software and grow. And in doing so, it did cost us quite amount of money because again, we had no mentor. So, you know, getting softwares and so forth and going through the whole ring of that was also challenging for me personally. But you know, after going through that first full year and seeing, okay, this is what our expenses look like on softwares, you know, now it puts us in a better position to say, okay, now we can definitely do better. Because I look at it like this, we Went through this process without any true teacher or mentor. So we had to pay the tuition in order to learn. So we paid our tuition. And then now a lot of those things became a lot easier.

Absolutely. What are some of the biggest mistakes you made when first starting out.

Choosing merchant companies to open. Everybody's digging in your account, man. You got to find, make sure that you choose one of the ones that are actually going to work with you. So for me, that's one.

Well, I would say, as for me, that's one of the big one, too, because they hold on to your money.

Oh, yeah. And they're tricky when you want to leave some of them.

Yeah, very tricky. Very tricky. So that's. That's one of the biggest lessons I've learned.

Merchants and software companies being very, very careful. I mean, now we have our attorneys looking through our agreements before we sign through anything, because some of those software companies, like you mentioned, they're tricky. And then you push through and thinking, you know, all this well, because of the webinar. And then when come time, you know, to accept payment or to pay, it's a whole different ballgame, you know, so just be careful mindful of whom you go through when it comes to merchants.

And softwares, and read that agreement, get that agreement reviewed by an attorney, because there might be some tiny clause there somewhere that really gets you stuck for maybe 36 months or 12 months or whatever it is. And then they have a really tricky way for you to cancel. You have to send an email in saying XYZ verbatim, or, you know, you really have to be careful of who you do business with and make sure you review those agreements.

Absolutely. Yeah. With the merchant accounts. Yeah. It's. A lot of them have a gnarly contract, but a few have no contract. And a lot of them have a gnarly exit where you get penalized. You have to pay a lot of money to leave.

Exactly.

But there are some that don't have that at all. I like the friendly ones that don't have that stuff because those other ones prey on people for sure. When you got the business going, did you start with test clients to get testimonials or anything? No. Right into getting clients. How did you find your first real clients?

Because I've, you know, since 2016 in, leading, leading up into the year, I was doing credit repair. You know, as I mentioned, I did credit repair. So income was. I mean, learning how to market was something that I learned. So I started to leverage Facebook personally before the company. That's How I created my first six figures was just marketing through social media, Facebook particularly. And then I think in 2018, a friend said, hey, you know, why you not using Instagram? You're leaving a lot of money on the table. So it was just all right, taking the content and then applying it to the other platform. And some of the contents of what I would post would be thought provoking. Contents, right? Things that, you know, you don't want to always hit people with. Maybe you put a couple posts who want to fix their credit and someone will respond and say, me, me. But you know, we're talking about getting into the list. So we would then, you know, I would then capitalize on all right, what are people looking for? What are their pain points? What are, you know, what makes them go, you know, I really want to change. And we started to target things that people want. Putting your children in a better position. You know, who wants to change the children's zip code? You know, things like target posts like that will then start bringing people. And then we also started to post contents that are educational about credit. So now we're not just giving them one style of marketing, we're giving them several styles of marketing. So I was able to build up a following from there and then, you know, from there it's like, all right, we got the business registered, everything is looking good, all right. And we just, you know, worked with influencers as well. Something that I used to teach is how to bring in more business. So that way you can be hands free, so to speak. So we would, you know, reach out to influencers, negotiate a cost with them, or if they already have a price that was reasonable for us, then we'll pay them the price that they offer. And then, you know, we'll test out a few. Everything was like trial and errors when it comes to influencers because not every influencers work. But you know, we would test out what type of business they're coming through from those and are they serious or not? And then from there, like I said, o' Keefe is a systems guy, you know, came up with the systems of funneling everything through and it was just like, all right, taking what I already have as a knowledge, plugging it through the system o' Keeffe created and then everything just started to flow.

Wow, that's very cool. I want to get into the automations part in a minute, but first I want to ask, because you mentioned something really cool. You mentioned influencers. What's your process for recruiting and partnering with influencers? How does that Work.

I like to keep things simple, right, So I don't over complicate it. I just look on Instagram, for example, or Facebook. So let's just say Facebook. I would go on Facebook and I'll type in in the search bar, Uber. Uber people are independent workers. They're looking to make some money. So type in Uber and it'll populate everyone who associates themselves with Uber on Facebook. Now once I do that, as the list comes up, I go through and I friend request as many as I can and I'll friend request a couple. And by the way, if you're not tackling 100 people a day, you're missing out. So my goal was I'm contacting 100 people a day. I'm not just going to do one or two. So I reach out to 100 people that, that drives Uber and I'll friend request them and then I'll go on to the next. I'll maybe type in Realtors and a bunch of realtors will pop up and I'll do the same thing, you know, add everyone that I can. So once I reach my 100 for the day, I'm good. I just wait for, you know, for them to respond. So then the next day I'm touching another hundred again. So for those who didn't respond the first day, it's just like a snowball effect is just trickle in little by little over the days. Now once I get in front of that person, then via the computer, then I'm just going to ask, hey, you know, how much if you were to work with, well, Realtors, I would ask them if, if how much money are you losing by not having a reputable credit repair company on your side. Now for an actual influencer, I normally go to Instagram for that. Right. So Facebook will be for anyone, you know, that is an independent owner, insurance agents, Uber drivers, Lyft drivers, Realtors and so forth. Now on Instagram, I work it a little different. I actually target influencers. Now on Instagram. What I would do is I'll type in comedy right in the search bar and a bunch of comedy lists will come up and it will show you that this influencer has a hundred thousand followers. And we'll go and I'll check their engagements on their posts because I don't care about the 100,000, you can buy those, but I want to see the engagements and I'll go through and I'll look at what type of engagements are these posts having. So I'll click a couple random posts and if there's a variation of engagements, then I'll reach out to that influence and I'll say something like, hey, Danny, you know, congratulations on all your success. Just curious, how much do you charge for your promotions? That's it. And I'll just, I'll link up a hundred people on Instagram and I'll wait for anyone to respond back to me.

Wow. And what might that cost to hire somebody like that?

It depends on if they're too high. If their price point is out of my budget and I'm not willing to spend, then I'm not going to work with them. But on average, $50 for a story, 100 bucks for a story post, I would journal. We test it out with stories because it gives you more engagement. And then maybe they'll charge 150 to $300 for the actual post. Some of them will leave it on forever. Some of them will take it down after 24 hours. So I'll just gauge, okay, am I going to pay $150 for 24 hours? Let me really dissect this, this person and see what they're really bringing to the table. If it makes sense, then I'll go ahead and I'll test them out. I mean, you won't know until you try. So I would pay the 150 and then for that 24 hours, I'm completely engaged with the post that they're putting up.

Wow, that is fascinating. Okay, so then once the leads come in and you've got their contact information. O', Keefe, what kind of automations do you guys use? What are your favorites?

Well, we have various softwares we use along the lines of activecampaign, Zoho Go. High level softwares like that really central, you know, softwares along that line. But what was really the game changer was the ability to set up a whole team and because, you know, teamwork made the dream work, right? To have a customer service team, to have our team that does the letters and all that good stuff. Right. That was a real game changer that fit in right with the marketing. A team that's dedicated as well, you know what I mean, to the cause and you know, believes in the dream.

Okay, let's say someone reaches out, but they're not ready to become a client. Do you have then do you have the active campaign doing a drip sequence to them?

Yes. So we have the active campaign that, you know, sends out that, you know, information to them. You know, things along the lines as saw that you were interested, don't Know what happened? Stuff along the lines of pig dangerous to get them right back in. Right. So we do have that. I would say it probably needs a little bit more work, you know, to get it refined. But we do have that, you know, that system.

And then once somebody becomes a customer, do you have additional nurture sequences for existing customers?

Yes, we do as well. Educational pieces, reminders, you know, educational pieces, reminders and so on go out to them. So we do have that.

And we also have our team follow up with them as well. So even if you're a prospect and you didn't sign up today, it's mandatory that everyone does get a follow up. So we go back through the list. I mean, the money's always in the list and the follow up. So we'll go back and you'll send them an email if necessary. And the same, you know, once a client gets on board. We also do, you know, like o' Keefe mentioned, the drip campaigns with emails, text messages, but we also follow up every month. You know, it's in the space, like I mentioned before, it's kind of tainted. Right. With so much, you know, wrongful activity that's going on. I want to make sure that we give our clients a concierge feel, all right, A true feeling that you're a part of the family. So, you know, we do a monthly follow up as well to make sure that each person is catered to.

So like Odin mentioned, we are a family. That's how we look at real credit deal from our team that takes care of our customers to the customers as well. We look at it as a family and family takes care of a family. So pretty much everyone that's with us, we always try to make sure they get what they pay for. We don't want anyone to be on our program that have something to say like, I didn't get what I paid for. Because we've been down that road a lot of times where we pay for something and didn't get what we pay for.

Right.

So when it comes on to our clients, we're very, very, very serious in making sure they get what they pay for. You pay for a service with us, you will get it. And that's what we a part of our program is. You know, and I'll say this might be a little secret sauce, but if somebody is on our program, if they believe they haven't got what they pay for, we said, hey, come back here. All right, we're gonna go ahead and try this again for another three months. Give us the opportunity to do it for you for another three months. Right. So that's. That's one thing we do just to show that we really, really, really care about our clients.

At no cost, too.

At no cost. No cost. So in an industry, in a space that, like Udine mentioned, is so tainted, we want to make the difference. We want to be that company that delivers to our client.

That's awesome. That's awesome. We feel the same way here. Are you a remote company? Is everyone working from home?

Yeah. Well, it is remote technically, in a sense, but there's no office space, if that makes sense. Where we have a staff coming in, everything is definitely online.

Yeah. Awesome. Same for us. We have an office here that I'm sitting in, but our team is all over the world.

Right. So we're structured in kind of like the same manner.

Yeah. Although I like having the office to come to. Do you ever plan to have a brick and mortar location or.

Oh, absolutely. Oh, that's. That's definitely in the making within the next year. I mean, we have our office space that we go to. Yes. But again, not for a team of staff. So that is definitely something that we are working on within the next year. You.

Awesome. Awesome. O', Keefe, I wanted to ask you, what did you learn from the military that's helped you with your business?

That's a great question. That's an excellent question. I think if I didn't join the military and get that experience, I wouldn't have really what it takes to run this business when you join the military and still a sense of leadership in you as you go from the lowest rank to the. To higher rank, and now you're in charge of people, you actually get the ability. The ability to. To lead, to be a leader. Right. And honestly, I watch everything. I look at it this way. I look at it this way. Like, I tell my team the same thing. The US Navy is one of the. Is the world's greatest name. As we stand right now, plenty of minds went into building the U.S. navy. Plenty. A lot of minds, smart minds. Right. Went into building the Navy. And if it still stands today as the world's greatest Navy since inception, then they must be doing something good. So what I do is I watch everything they do. I learn everything they do. I see how they do the awards. I see how they, you know, give recognition. I see how they train. I see how I learned all of that. And then I instilled it in my business, pretty much. Honestly, most of my team right now, I get on the Phone with them. They're going to be like, copy, sir. Copy, copy. Roger that. So that's, you know, because I'm a man of structure. I learned that structure from the military, and I took that and I instilled it into real credit.

Deal.

I love that. Okay, we're going to switch gears for a minute. I'm going to ask you guys a couple rapid questions, and then either one of you answer with the first thing that pops into your head, okay?

Sure.

What drives and motivates you?

Money, My children.

Ah. Is there a specific business person that inspires you? And why?

Warren Buffett.

Ah, I like Warren Buffett. And who?

Damon John.

Oh, Damon John. Yeah. He's awesome.

Warren Buffett. For me, because he's smart and he knows how to position himself in times like these. You know, if you go back to the dot com boom, he positioned himself properly and came out to being one of the richest men in the world. Right. So that's why I admire him as a. As a businessman.

And for me, Damon is because of his hustle. And, man, just listen. Reading his books, going back to his stories of when he first started, you know, selling in the streets, and it just reminds me of my entrepreneur spirit, you know, even when I didn't. Haven't have much or anything, you know, I'm out there selling, you know, just. Just trading off whatever time that I had to make sure I go out there and provide a better future for my. For my children, my family. So that's why I chose him.

Awesome. Awesome. Okay, for both of you. What's your business superpower?

Helping good people with bad credit.

I'll say. My business superpower is like seeing behind beyond the horizon. I have a sense to, like, see something coming and just put it into, like, perspective based on what's happening right now.

And like o' Keefe mentioned and being a visionary, there's crazy times. I would get ideas and it sounds crazy, but then we'll apply it, and then, boom, it takes our business to another level.

That's awesome. What does business ownership mean to you?

Means everything. It gives us the free. It gives me the freedom to be able to think freely, think clearly without any cap. No, I guess cap is used different in these societies nowadays. Right. But without having any ceiling. Right. So that, for me, just gives me a sense of, okay, I can go anywhere in the world. I'm not limited to just a nation. I literally can go anywhere in the world and conduct business. It's taught us a lot.

As for me, freedom and just the feeling That I put food on other people's table, you know, it's just filling for me. On top of that, just the fact to know that's the fact that I'm helping others, you know, within a system that nobody taught them financial literacy. You know, they went to college all the way up university, and they don't know financial literacy. So just the fact that I can help them with that knowledge, teach them how to. How to use a credit card, how credit works. Right. Helping them to better themselves and at the same time, providing employment for folks out there, you know, they're feeding their families, you know, along with the freedom that it gives us.

Right.

It's just fulfilling. So that's what business ownership.

Awesome. I know why you guys are doing so well. This is all coming from your heart, that's why. What's your definition of success?

Never giving up. Persistence. Just never give up. For me, if you give up, then you don't have a story to tell. The only thing you have to tell is that you gave up. You can't inspire anyone with that. You know, we could have gave up. We felt it sometimes coming along the lines, man, I can't be bothered with this anymore. But we just never gave up. We keep pushing, pushing, pushing. So that's my definition of success. You just got to keep going.

And for me, it's more so. I mean, in addition to what o' Keefe said, it's to add a legacy for my children so that when, years after, when I'm not, you know, around to beat ad, Right. They have something strong behind them that's already been built, and then that's also leaving an education that they can follow. Because, I mean, we all are under the understanding that we were never taught about credit nor financial literacy. It's hot in South Florida, so. But, yeah, we were never taught the literacy. So for me to leave that legacy behind.

Yeah, we all earn it by trial and error.

Credit and finance, tuition, we take in life, you know. Yes.

Yeah. Do you have any other advice for someone just starting a business?

Oh, yeah. But it won't be one. Danny. One. Mentally, it's a mental game. You gotta mentally be there. Right. Because this, I mean, being a business owner is not easy. And it will try your patience. It will try. I would say your soul. Right, I understand. The soul is being your mind, your will and your emotion. And if something is able to interrupt that, then everything else goes out the window. So you have to be willing to go through the test of times. Second to that is not to listen to Those who's in your ear, Countless amount of people. Oh, that's not working. How long have you been trying this? How long you've been doing, you know, at that? So not to listen to those individuals who may think they have the best intentions for you while they may have the best intentions, but what they're telling you is not working out or it's not falling in alignment with the vision that you have in play. Also pray. I mean, I don't put my faith on anyone, but that's what helped us throughout the process, even when we were going through those trialing times, you know, to pray. And then when it comes to building the business, seek advice, seek help. All right? Seek those who have done it before you and then can help you to do it. Or understand that this is going to take me time because I've never done this before and go all in studying every bit of it. If you don't have the time to then study again, go back to a mentor who have done it before you and then that can also provide you with the way to go.

Awesome. And what's next for you guys? Do you have plans to start more businesses or write a book or what's the next big goal?

A bit of both. We already have another business in the works that we're creating, you know, building that up from the ground that's going to be catered or tailored to business, business owners or individuals who want to start a business. And then, you know, we're looking to put them in a position to pretty much have not a cuddy cookie cut method, but a simple step way where they can get in, you know, be educated mentally on, on how to prepare their mind and then plug them in to understand the steps of what to do. So this is step one, formulation, formation of your business. This is step two, right? Making sure that all of this is, you know, step two is completed and then we'll, we'll be going from there. So yeah, business, business building.

That's awesome. Okay, last question of the day. How does it feel to be a credit repair millionaire?

Oh, man. I mean, it brings joy. It brings joy to me. I know it brings joy to o' Keefe as well my family. I believe that I'm the first documented millionaire in my family. So a humble kid coming from Jamaica, you know, coming from the country, you know, coming to America, barely knowing how to speak English properly, you know, getting beat up because I, I didn't understand how to speak English, you know, and then going through high school finish, not even finishing college, I dropped out of college and everyone's telling me to go back to school, get it, get a career, get a degree. And my passion, my ability is saying, you know, there's got to be something else out here than that. Not knocking school at all, but I just knew something else was in me that wanted more that school couldn't provide. And then to be able to come across your platform and then exercise in it with my best friend to then create a million dollar business, I mean, that's, that's priceless, man. I smile every time I think about it. It's just a proud moment.

That's so cool. I'm so proud of you. How about you? You, o'? Keefe?

Well, I say the same thing. I say the same thing, man. I remember when both, you know, Dean was actually looking at the, you know, the, the numbers coming in and we're close and we're like, oh my God, we're about to be millionaires. I don't think there's enough words to explain, you know, the gratitude that we, we could share or give, you know, for you giving us this platform, this opportunity, you know, to use your platform and provide a service to, to our clients and actually doing really good for our clients. Want to share a secret with me? With you? Last year we removed 12 million in debt from our clients credit report. Over 12 million in debt from clients credit reports. So it's just a fact. It's not just, oh, yeah, oh, we're a millionaire. But for me, from the heart is the fact that we are helping so much people out there to be in a better position, giving them a second chance. It feels great to be a millionaire, but for me it feels even better to know that we are helping folks and we'll continue to help people out there.

Yeah, that's the best feeling of all. Well, I want to thank you so much for your time today, Odine and o'. Keefe. This was a lot of fun. Did you have fun?

Oh, this was really fun.

If I may, Danny, I'd love to give it back to our team as well. You know, our entire real credit deal family from all of our departments within our business. I mean, without our team, we wouldn't be speaking with you right now until the level that we're speaking with you. So, you know, we greatly appreciate it. And for everyone who's looking to start a business, having a team is definitely, definitely the way to go.

Get yourself out of it.

Yes, get yourself out of it so that you can grow the business. Anyways, congratulations again on the Millionaires Club. I wish you both continued success. And for everyone out there, if you are enjoying this podcast, be sure to click to subscribe so you don't miss any of the inspiring stories, industry news, financial tips and entrepreneurial advice that we share each week here on the Credit Repair Business Secrets podcast. And if you're feeling kind, do me a favor. Write me a review, give me a thumbs up, give me five stars, help me to move up the charts. So also leave a comment or ask a question because I read each and every one of them and I will see you on the next episode. And until then, don't settle for a terrible career. If you know you are meant for more, keep searching, keep learning, keep building and keep changing lives.

Hey everybody, it's Daniel again and really quick. I'd like to invite you to join what I believe is the best thing we have ever created in of spite the Credit Repair cloud community. And it is a challenge that we call the Credit Hero Challenge. If you're just planning out your business or you're just getting it started and you dream of having a successful business of your own so you can quit your 9 to 5 and fire your boss and have financial freedom or so you can add another revenue stream to your existing business, if that's your dream, you need to get into this challenge. We created this challenge to help you to create and launch your very own Credit repair business to build a proper foundation for a really successful business. This challenge is going to help you to understand the strategy, the tactics and all the things you need to be successful at Credit Repair. It really is the greatest thing we have ever built and it will change your life. So I recommend you do it right now. Stop everything, pause this audio, go online and go to creditherochallenge.com that's creditherochallenge.com and join the next challenge. And there's a challenge that's starting in just a few days. So go get started right now@creditherochallenge.com.