The MONEY MYTH That Keeps You Poor! (How To Build Wealth)

Not everybody should own a business, but everybody should be an investor. Everyone, everyone should be an investor. And whether it's the stock market, 401k, if you're investing in something, I don't care. I just want you to be investing in something because you have to outpace inflation. You have to outpace everything else that's happening in the world right now. Groceries, milk, went doubled in price in four years. I'm saying like everything doubled in price in four years. But if you were investing, you would have outpaced that. I teach at colleges sometimes, right? So I go to Temple University. It was a bunch of 18 year olds on the call. Let me give you a quick blueprint. It'll take me five minutes to show you how to be worth $250,000 to half a million dollars or have those type of assets by the time you're 21, 22 when you graduate. And everybody's like, what? Number one, everyone go get an LLC tomorrow. The tax benefits alone of just having that piece of paper is so important. And I promise you, once you see this, you can't unsee it.

Guys, welcome my good friend, Herman Dulce. Dude, what's going on, man?

I'm feeling good today. Thank you for having me. I'm really excited, bro.

I'm super excited. You know, it's funny, we were just talking a little bit off air and about the, the importance of traveling and, but also trying to be present with family. And my audience has heard me say this before. My oldest son came to me a number of years ago, about two years ago actually. He said, hey, if there's one thing you can do better as a dad is to be more present when you're present. So with all the success that you're, you know, achieving and the communities you're building and all this kind of stuff, how have you managed to be more present when you're present at home?

That's a really good line. First of all, I gotta write that down. My good friend of mine, and this is actually kind of crazy, my good friend Greg, who literally just text me, not three minutes ago, his second daughter Autumn is born. So congratulations to him. Just happened just now. He taught me something because I travel a lot. So he said for every day that I'm gone, set aside an hour away from my children and an hour away from my wife. So, for example, I was in Toronto for five days, right? So I came back home with his math. That means I have to spend five consecutive hours with my children, right? Because I was gone so long so literally, we had a daddy daughter day on Saturday. Took them to the Gymore ice cream swimming pool. Like it was a full day. I was exhausted. That was on Saturday. And then Sunday, it was date night with my wife. Massage, movies, Game of Thrones when we got home. So he was, he told me how to be really intentional. So when I'm, when I get booked for certain things, I look at the days afterwards to ensure I book time with my family. No phones, no nothing. I try my best to do that, but to be intentional about it.

Oh man, that is so good. It's funny how things, when you, when you jump in a podcast sometimes, like some really cool stuff falls out of the, at the very beginning. I think that's gonna be Right, right, right. A good buddy of mine, Anthony Trucks, had something similar. So a number of years ago I was going through, I was, ended up going through a divorce, which wasn't super fun, one that I didn't see coming and all this kind of stuff. And, and you know, I asked him, I said, you know, I'm, I'm actively trying to do my best to kind of like make an impact in the world. And you know, I've obviously built businesses, you know, I've been relatively successful in most people's eyes, and I've always tried to be a man, try to be a good father, trying to be a husband, the whole deal. Right. And I was asking him very similar because he travels a lot, speaks a lot. And I was like, you know what? You know, and he kind of, he kind of picked up the phone and called me like a brother. He's like, look, let me just tell you, here's, here's what I do. And it's something very similar in that, that when he's on the road, he's on the road and he's, he's present with the people he's trying to serve, he's trying to be a part of, but he also intentionally doesn't spend any more time than he needs to, to serve well. So, you know, starting well could be like, you know, hey, you're speaking for 45 minutes to 90 minutes and then you're going to be present in 30, 40, another 30, 45 minutes with an audience and kind of like after post, you know, post event, post speaking and all this kind of stuff, he goes, right, as soon as I give my well wishes and I'm, and I'm bouncing, you know, I'm, I'm sincere, I'm, I'm showing them love, I'm showing them Appreciation. But I'm Audi, and the first person I hit up with my text message or my phone is my wife. Do a quick check in, let them know I'm on the way home. Let them know I'm safe and sound. And they had already done, like you're talking about, they'd already kind of had predetermined, like, time slots, right? Like the kind of what the. What they're gonna do when they get back because they're, you know, his kids are super big into sports and all this kind of stuff because he was a professional football player at one time and all of that, you know, and got me thinking, like, there is something powerful about the word intentionality.

Yeah.

Just being intentional. You know, that comment my oldest son gave me, it made me really, really think about how I was showing up at home. And it's something Anthony told me. He said, dude, he said, most men, and I'm putting this on the men right now, most men feel like we have to be all things to all people. We've got to be the provider, protector, all that kind of stuff. And we get lost in the provision part a lot of times.

Right? Yeah.

And I said, dude, man, that's so, that's. That's so real and so right. Because, you know, we're. We're taught from an early age that how successful we are financially is a predetermination of our quote, unquote value. So we are. So we lean heavy on where the other. So I say all that to say to wind it back a little bit. He's like, I realized something pretty early on. He said, my kids didn't care about the quantity of time. They cared about the quality of the time.

Quality of time, indeed.

You know, it's that intentionality piece.

Yeah, it's so, so true. My daughter is. Bella is six and Olivia is four. Right. And ever since they were born, I'm talking about maybe four or five months old, put them in a car t put them in a red wagon. And we would do this walk around my community. It's probably like 0.7 miles a mile. I've done that. Now they. Now they get up and they. We walk together. We do these walks maybe if it's seven days in a week, four to five times. So literally over the past six years, we've done this walk hundreds and hundreds of times. And you can imagine the conversations that you're having with a four and a six year old three, four times a week. And that time with their father, especially two little girls, is super super important. Super, super important.

Well, and it's super important, especially girls, too, because they're going to marry the man like their dad.

The man like their father. Right, Exactly.

Yeah. That's kind of where they're going to set their standards and stuff. You know, I, I know you're, you're, you're, you're super successful in the financial space. You help a lot of people kind of manage money, kind of learn more about money. Where does your journey start? Because I know for me, I kind of grew up in that. More in that poverty mindset kind of thing early on and obviously developed a different skill set. In fact, I caught one of your speeches recently, and I love this. I love this. You said, your friends won't make you rich, but your strangers will.

That's like a mic that's like.

Yes.

Indeed, your friends will make you rich. You have a stranger as well. Yeah, listen, 99.9% of my clients are total strangers, right? So shout out to my Instagram family. I call them my executors because they execute on the information that I gave them. But my story is I'm first generation Haitian, born in Brooklyn, Philly raised me, went to Temple University, got my master's from Lincoln university. So I'm $86,000 in debt, and that got me a $55,000 a year executive director position at a nonprofit, right? And then a good friend of mine shout out to Charlene. She told me something really important. She like, you will only make as much money as your clients do. Paused. And my clients did not make any money. I worked for a nonprofit, and their grants ran out. So I was unemployed, ironically, when I got married. I got married 11 years ago last. Last week. And.

And I, I, I started to understand the importance of mentorship. So I learned mentorship really late. And I was like, well, this can't be it. I got a master's degree, and this can't be it. Like, I'm $86,000 in debt. I'm making $55,000 a year after taxes. I may be keeping 37, right? So I took up mentor. I went on a babymoon with my wife when Bella was born. We went to Italy, saved up all our coins, and, and my, my shout out to my wife, Janelle. She's really, really good at budgeting and going on vacations for cheap. Now, remember I said, I make $55,000 a year. We went to Italy for 10 days, the two of us, for 10 days. Went to Venice, went to Rome, hopped around. Anyway, when we got back, I didn't have any. I didn't. I still had a job at that point, but I didn't have any vacation time. And I was telling my brother this, and he was like, listen, unless you own your own, you'll never be free, right? So you're always going to have to ask somebody for permission. And I didn't have time to take off to spend the beginning days with Bella. So he's like, that credit thing that you do for free, he's like, you should charge. And I was like, no. Like, people need this information. And he's like, bro, they're going to pay somebody, they might as well pay you.

Yeah.

And that was the birth of Bella Stone Enterprises, and that's the journey of the financial literacy company. And then several years later, you know, when you're on YouTube University, and you're trying to hold skill, you're learning different things, and the algorithm takes you someplace different. It took me into the funding space on how to structure a business property to get as much capital as possible. And then I took that information back to my community and Asian CEO was born. It kind of blew up from there because people really didn't understand how they can get capital, leverage credit to invest and to make money. How these multibillion dollar businesses start is by leveraging capital. We were taught to use credit as consumers, Black Friday, these things, put it on layaway, get the cars, but not understand. The true purpose when credit was first started was to leverage it to make money. And when I started not only providing that service by funding businesses, people like, can you teach it to me? And that's when Bella Sloan Academy was born. So now we teach financial literacy also.

So what, what are your. Your first steps in financial literacy? I mean, because it seems to me a lot of. A lot of the folks that I've come in contact with and I. And I'm. I'm the person that lived this story, right? So I'm there with you. Like I had a. A choice. I didn't call it. I would call it a divine encounter. Not a chat, not a chance encounter with a mentor that, you know, basically taught me differently. My audience has heard it a bazillion times. I'll just share it with you. Super brief. But he asked me a question one afternoon on a job site, because we're. My family was in the construction business. He said, what is the difference between a rich man and a poor man? I responded, well, one has money, one doesn't. Something along those lines. He said, absolutely not. It's the way they think. And then he said, wanted to learn to think like me or do you want to continue thinking like your father?

We stand for that. Jeez. Yeah, it's how thing and listen. And it is true. And some people don't understand the difference. Yeah. It is how you think. It's how you think about money. It's very, very true. Yeah. Yeah.

We've been working on a new resource internally called the eight figure mindset makeover. Because one of the things that we've discovered is people's beliefs about money is the direct anchor to how they shape their financial picture. Right. So I'll give you an example. Well, I know we'll share, we'll vibe on this. You know, someone who is going to basically be in debt or kind of like live in a paycheck to paycheck world is always going to base their. Their ability to succeed based on the checks that they have one and then based on the bills that they have too. So they're always going check and check. I can make this much money. I can afford this many, this much payment a month. They're not thinking about a loss of a job. They're not thinking about a Kobe. They're not thinking about a force majeure event or not just all these other things. So they never build up savings. Everybody does this kind of stuff. So.

The eight figure mindset kind of makeover piece, like, you know, we. I. One of the things I share on is like, well, people who want to generate wealth operate from a principle of compounding everything they do. They compound their time, their talent and their resource. They try to take 1 and turn it into 5, 5 turn into 10, and so on and so forth. And eventually you have such a compounding effect that you can live off little bits of the compounding that you built and then keep wealth ongoing. So maybe help me understand your process of how you see people getting, you know, from a paycheck to paycheck mentality into, you know, financial wealth help, whether it's through their own business or being part of another one.

I want to say that we're community and collaboration first. And I'm put that to the side and we'll get to that in a second. When clients first come to me or mentees first come to me, number one, it's a mindset conversation because I tell them, listen, whatever you've been thinking has gotten you here and what has it gotten you? Nothing. So it's literally costing you $1 million not to shift your mindset because it's gotten you this. Or I would give them an example of you have a 16 year old son and you're 45, who makes more money. And they'll always say, well, I make more money, my network net worth is more. I was like, all right, well how much? What is your car payment, what is your car note, what is the debt on? It was a debt on your house, your student loans. And the Average is about 200 grand, right? Negative 200. But your son is at zero.

Who.

And you could have a $50,000 job, but guess what, your son is worth more than you. And guess what you're going to do? You're going to teach your son to do the exact same thing, go into debt, right? So I'm not going to knock college or anything like that, but we were taught to go into the debt without understanding the roi. We talk about fixing your credit, right? Because I can lose everything tomorrow. As long as I can fix my credit over time, I can learn to get funding from the bank and leverage it to do something all over again. Right. Donald Trump has done it a million times. Right. So that's one example. Or Walt Disney has leveraged credit.

There's a tremendous amount of folks that have gone bankrupt or bankrupt.

Yeah.

And just redone, rebuilt it.

Just redone it. Just, just start over. So I teach them how to fix their credit, get the collections charge all sauce. And the next thing I do is I teach them how.

A lot of people take their tax money, right? As a little hack, they take their tax money and then from January to March, my Instagram is full of people on vacation just spending the money. So I actually teach them a different strategy. I was like, you know, when you, when you do that, you're literally giving the government interest free loan for 12 months. And they're like, what? I'm like, what about if you adjust your W2s? Because clearly your parents taught you to do that, right? Adjust your W2 so you keep more of the check during the year. Right. But the mindset is act like you didn't get the money right to having all those withholdings. Because I don't want to owe the government in January and I don't want. And vice versa, right. Nobody owes nothing. Now I'm keeping my money. And with that strategy, majority of my clients are averaging between 500 and $1,000 more a month. And then I'm telling them, hey, use that to first, the first strategy is pay down debt because credit card debt is really, really expensive. Starting to invest is ridiculous. When you have 20, 30% interest. Interest. The math doesn't make sense. So I teach them to pay down debt first. Then I teach them to have a savings, build up a six month saving. Then I teach them, all right, let's invest. Hey, I have this stockbroker here. I have this mentor. This is where the collaboration I talked about before that people come on my platform. Hey, hey, this guy talks about group homes, this guy talks about real estate. And then you can get into the investing mindset. And then I truly take them to a financial advisor. I'm like, all right, now you're making 10, 20,000amonth. You need to speak to a true tax professional, a wealth professional, how to protect your assets and to grow it while you're bringing in passive income.

Yeah, no, it's all, that's all great. In fact, that's more or less the journey that I followed. Ironically, kind of, you know, I, I did like everybody else does early on who is not taught how to handle money. I went through a year where I made a bunch of money at 19 years old. I think that I'd mentioned to you before, my family had always been taught to borrow and not necessarily even desire to repay in some cases. That was vibe, right?

That was the vibe with my immediate, my immediate parents at the time, who turned out to be phenomenal human beings now. But they obviously had their own journey they had to follow. And from there I made a decision rather than declaring bankruptcy, which I absolutely could have done, is I decided that once I got back on my feet after being homeless and kind of getting my life kind of restarted again, I personally decided to just really grind for three or four years and pay off all the debt. And it was a good 70 grand. And I just literally, if, if it didn't feed me or shelter me, it went towards debt. And I actually did the, I guess Ramsey's debt snowball before I even knew Ramsey existed, right? I was just like, I got, I got an extra 100 bucks out here. And which is a point that you just made, which is increasing your personal liquidity. So most, most people don't even understand what the term liquidity means. You and I obviously would. So for, for the audience who doesn't, liquidity is nothing more the amount of cash that you have on to, you know, to put towards whatever you choose. In some cases you're buying a tv, in some cases you're learning to invest. And from there, I reinvested in the business that I just sold last year over and over and over again. So I was able to build a, a figure, a very high eight figure, almost nine figure business from cash over the course of 20.

Yeah, from cash. And you know, and that was by that time I'd gotten to know Dave And Sharon like 10 years ago a little bit. So I'm sure that some of that rubbed off on me because he has this principle that you never go as fast as cash kind of scenario. Had the same time I did have with my former construction company that I owned a working capital line of like one and one and a half million bucks, right? So it was there, I think I tapped it twice the entire time. I tapped it at the very beginning stages of COVID.

Repaid it as quickly as humanly possible, which took me about, I don't know, 90 days, 120 days.

When we got the PPP money, we put that towards the actual PP use in which it was intended, when the later recertification of making sure you put it where it's supposed to. So I'm saying all that to say that there is a. There is a. There is, I always say, the fortunes found in the fundamentals. And the fundamentals are you've got to be a steward of your money so it doesn't drive you, right? So. And you can't. Your wants exceed your needs. Like I'm teaching that to.

I just got engaged recently, so my fiance and her three boys, teaching them the principle of stewardship. It's like, yes, you want it, but do you need it?

Right?

Like let's, let's put the need before the want. Okay? But now we got the need done. Now we've got the extra liquidity, the extra cash. And you know, when I'm starting a little bracelet business, he's got chrome. So he's going to be doing a benefit for, you know, buy three bracelets and a certain amount of percentage goes towards chrome.

So I'm, I'm in full. I'm in a house full of entrepreneurs, which is awesome.

I love it, I love it.

You know, but now I have to say, okay, well, yesterday we go to Hobby Lobby or whatever, pick up some of the, the things you needed to kind of put it together. And I said, okay, well, get what you need.

He's like, well, do I need this? Let's walk that through. Do you really need it? Is it going to help you develop a bracelet? Is it going to help you package the bracelet? Is it going to help you ship the bracelet? Is it? And he's like, well, these ten do, but these two don't. I said, okay, great. Put the two to the side. And lo and behold, we get to the end of the experience, probably 30 minutes in, and he's like, all right, because he had a little budget, right? So we had his little budget. He's kind of doing the. Gets in the experience. He's say, okay, well, oh, my gosh, I almost forgot. X, Y, and Z, right? I'm like, the good news is, because you didn't go spend money on a want, you still have money to suffice. To suffice. Your need needs. And now the need creates the compounding effect, because once he starts selling bracelets and stuff like that, you know, now he's kind of doing that.

What you want.

Yeah. So all of that's amazing. You know, there's another.

There's.

There's so many different directions I go. Because I find that so many people are very confused about money in general. One of the things I also heard you say that I thought was really, really powerful is the importance of. Audrey. Auditing your relationships. One, and then I added two to it. So I'm gonna give you two more just to kind of like to spin off of it. I think. Absolutely think. You audit your relationships, I'll let you go a deep dive. But I also think audit your biases, your financial biases. And the other one I jotted down was your financial habits.

First of all, shout out to do you for doing great research before this interview today. So that's super dope. So, yes. So auditing your circle actually trademarked. It turned into a brand and llc. Got a merch coming out for it. So auditing your circle was actually.

Something that I came up with probably when I first started getting a mentor. Kind of how your mentor came to you. Rich dad, poor dad type of situation. I kind of had the same experience. So my parents were not financially literate at all. Their first generation. I'm first generation, so they came from Haiti. So it's all about, let's get to America. The American dream. Go to college, and you'll be fine. So I told people that, listen, my parents prepared me for a world that no longer exists. Right. So I can go $100,000 in debt, and that really means nothing right now. Unless you're. I don't know how you get the ROI right now, but those were the first people I had to audit. Right.

Yeah.

And usually people think that it's your. Your outside friends. No. Sometimes it's your inner circle. Because my parents weren't millionaires, so they couldn't teach me how to become millionaires. So I had to audit my circle and insert my sphere of influence. I had to insert people who are making six figures, seven figures, eight figures so that their crumbs will fall upon me and I'll get little, little nuggets. So I'm going to conferences once a month, once every other month now, the entire weekend. I'm not taking a lot of information away. But don't you notice usually one or two things you hear, oh, that's it right there.

One idea changes the game.

One idea changes everything. To a conference like a year ago and maybe 18 months ago, and I have all this content, all this information. And he's like, yeah, just make it subscription. I was like, no. Like, I charge people $5,000 for all those videos. He's like, bro. He's like, the world is changing. You have to shift your business. We went subscription model, like Netflix, 50 bucks a week. Bellisone Academy. We meet every single Wednesday and they get the old content and we're thousands and thousands of subscribers. So we literally built a community and it turned into a whole nother revenue stream. So, again, audit your circle was super important for me, and it changed so much about my business and my personal life, my spiritual life with my family. My time is extremely valuable now, especially as I'm on the road all the time. So you can make more money, you.

Can'T make more time.

I can't make more time. So I'm very, very purposeful and intentional with my friends, just like I'm intentional with my family. I'm intentional with my friends too, and making sure I spend quality time with them, but making sure I spend quality time with my mentors also.

Yeah, well, and I, I would dare say so I, I created this thing I call the head. Obviously it's a biblical term, but I, I like it. I call it the hedge of protection. Like, the center is people who are absolutely for you and are willing to pour life into you on a regular basis. They will challenge you, but only when it's necessary. Meaning they don't challenge you just for the sake of challenging you, basically.

Right.

The outside ring is obviously your. Your friendship ring. So, you know, it's this, you know, if you were to do a scale of 1 to 10, these people are going to 7, right? So these people, like, with. They're probably peer to peer. You vibe with, maybe you have some disagreements with, from time to time, different views on different things. But when you, when you get around, if you feel energized, you feel happy, go lucky Right. And then the next ring outside of that, your acquaintances or people you meet and greet and kind of whatever, and then you get out to the next ring, and it's okay. These people are a bit challenging. I would dare say toxic, you know, or somehow net, we'll say negative, because the. The next one would be toxic.

Right.

Then you got dangerous, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I was telling people, I was like, look, because this is why this auditing thing is so important, which I love, which is why I love your term on it.

People can code in and out of that ring in that circle based on time. No one is actually fixed in a set time frame, you know, in. In the circle.

Right.

So, you know, growing up as a kid, your mom and dad are in the. Are your dead set in the center. And then you learn some things that maybe you got to. You got to learn different. And mom and dad have to go one ring out, and you have to bring the mentors in.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? And then, because I did that with my dad, it was five years. I remember my dad told me my dad missed a huge chunk of my early part of my life just because of alcoholism and some other things he was battling at the time. And again did an amazing turnaround. God has done a work in his life. He's an amazing grandfather to the grandkids. There's a bunch of them now, which is interesting, because I remember him telling me one time, we were talking about business, he was desperately trying to talk me out of starting my first company. Desperately. And I mean, he was intense, passionate. Then I realized that one of the reasons he was doing that is because he started a business. The business failed mainly because of economic conditions, things outside of his control. Now, what was in his control was how he prepared for that storm that was going to come, because storms do come. So a lot of entrepreneurs don't prepare for the storm. They just enjoy the winning, and then it hits them upside the head. What he didn't realize or what he didn't realize until later was he was casting his limiting belief on me about what he thought about business and money and all this kind of stuff. Five years later, you know, I'm. I might be making, I think, top line at the time, maybe 10 million bucks. I mean, it was. It was a good company. It was growing, all this kind of stuff. So he comes in five years later, he goes, I'm so sorry.

I'm sorry. Wow.

You know. And then from that moment on, he began to change his own life. So Sometimes this. The people that when you audit them, and then we have to move them out a ring or two.

Right.

Sometimes they get to come back in once they're at a better place, you know.

Indeed, indeed, indeed. I have a similar story. Not as happy as the ending. So I'm my father's namesake, Herman Dulce, and same thing. My father actually worked for Donald Trump's father, Fred Trump. Right. So he's a property manager, one of the buildings in New York City. And I remember when I told him, hey, I want to start a real estate company, do something. Real estate. It was so, so long ago. He's like, what do you think? You're Fred Trump's son? Like, I don't have anything to pass down to you. Right. So he always said it wasn't a good idea. Now, many, many years later, Bella Song Enterprises started. The company is thriving, and I retired both my mother and my father. Unfortunately, my dad had a severe stroke about 10 years ago. He's total care now, so changing the diaper situation. Side note, the day I changed my daughter's diaper and my dad's diaper was the most humbling day of my life. Full circle. My story is very humbling. But now I'm able to afford the help or the staff because he's here. Got the hospital bed in the back bedroom and the nurses and the staff is with him 24 7. So he didn't get to see that. Thank God I made this decision because if I didn't make this decision and I was still a social worker or an executive director, I just don't know the plot of my family. So now since I retired, my mom, she wakes up, she takes the kids to school, she feeds them. Like, she makes me and my wife's life a lot better by having that live in help. And I'm able to care for my father. Yeah. So sometimes we have to make those tough audit your circle decisions.

Well, and I'm so glad you mentioned that. First of all, that actually is a beautiful story in its own right. So the fact that. The fact that the choices that you made that actually may have went against the grain at the time turned out to be the very foundation that is now providing for the family over time.

The fam. Yeah. Yep. Over time.

You know, so it's. You know, so it's. That's. And I think at the end of the day, especially with. With kids, you know, I think as kids, we like, mommy, Daddy, I want, I want, I want, I want. And then we become adults and we're like, mommy, I want to give. I want to give. I want to give.

Right, right, right.

I want to buy you the biggest house or the biggest thing, or take you on a vacation or. I just think that's. Man, that's so good. That's so good.

And no, it is a blessing. Yeah.

I want to pivot the conversation a little bit. Um, I'm a big believer in if you're able and you've got a, you've got a, a strong enough idea, strong enough concept, you're willing to put the energy and the work behind it, that you should open your own company sooner than later. And I say that because I get a lot of tax benefits, a lot of cash flow benefits from businesses.

That I would not have if I was a W2 team member somewhere. Now, I also have been around long enough to know, to watch that not everybody honestly, truthfully has the drive and determination to go out and build an organization. People are very safe working for someone else.

You know, which kind of brings me to the, I guess the, the kind of a two part question. @ what point is it the right point to potentially consider opening your first company llc, at least getting the entity established.

And at what point or what port, maybe internally, do you know, you got the goods to do it, so to speak, if that makes any.

Sense. So good two part question. I want to make sure I don't forget how to answer it correctly. Number one, as soon as you turn 18, get the LLC. My children, they both have an LLC already. That's number one. What was the second part? Because I'm going to circle back.

To it just kind of the, you know, if you think anyone should get an llc, that's great. I'm just curious. But because some people will, won't take advantage of it, they'll do that thing, but they won't do the next.

Thing. The next thing, definitely. So the tax benefits alone of just having that piece of paper is so important. Right? Not everyone, I'll say this out loud, not everyone needs to open a business because like you said, people just are just comfortable and it's a grind, it's a challenge and it's a different mindset. I totally get it. Right. Not everybody should own a business, but everybody should be an investor. Everyone, everyone should be an investor, period. Compounding whether, whether. Yeah, compounding one on one, whether it's the stock market for 1K, if you're investing in something, I don't care. I just want you to be investing in something because you have to outpace Inflation, you have to outplace, outpace everything else that's happening in the world right now. Groceries, milk went doubled in price in four years. I'm saying like everything doubled in price in four years. But if you were investing, you would have outpaced that. So everyone needs to be investing now in terms of having that piece of paper, the llc, the tax benefits of having it, we can go down that rabbit hole even though you're not up and running. But having that piece of paper is super, super important. I tell my clients, I was like, listen, just because you have that piece of paper, when it ages, right, you can get business credits sooner than later. But when it ages to 2 years old, right now you're able to get capital to 25, 30, 40 grand, right? And just have a line of credit sitting available for an emergency, right? I, I teach at colleges sometimes, right? So I go to Temple University, especially during COVID I remember when they hired me, which is very humbling. Yeah, it was a bunch of 18 year olds on the call and I was like, hey, listen, let me give you a quick blueprint. It'll take me five minutes to show you how to be worth $250,000 to half a million dollars or have those type of assets by the time you're 21, 22 when you graduate. And everybody's like, what? Number one, everyone go get an LLC. Tomorrow, right? Tomorrow everyone go go to two credit unions, open up a bank account today, right? Business and personal. In six months after you're depositing your work study money in it, I want you guys to apply for a credit card. This would be your first two credit cards on your credit report after it ages. In your sophomore year, when your business is two years old and you have two years of credit on your credit report, you're going to apply for a credit card, a business credit card. Now you're going to apply for the NACA program, right? NACA program helps you get up to a four unit building with zero money out of pocket. Now you're now your junior year, you're going to move in to your one of those units and the other three are going to pay for itself. And if you're able to do that twice, you're able to do all that in the next four years. And by the time you graduate, you have at two assets or at least one that's worth at least 150. But if you have two, it could be up to worth half a million depending on where you are. And then you have the cash flow and I Promise you once you see this, you can't unsee it. And all you're going to want to do is multiply and do it over and over again. Just write that piece of.

Paper. Yeah, just that compound anything again. Hey guys, I hope you're enjoying the show. Steven Scoggins here. I've got something that I think is I'm going to blow your mind. Imagine taking your life and your business to the whole another level. I'm talking about eight figure level and beyond. You see, you've been working your butt off to build your business to where it is now. But what if you could work smarter, free up more time, make more money and impact along the way? How much would that be worth to you? You see, I can prove that basic steps, basic mindset shifts and subtle changes can make the biggest difference. I want to introduce you to the eight figure mindset makeover. It's absolutely free and it's here for you. It's a powerful summary of my top strategies that help propel me from the streets, if you will, to upwards of nine figures in quote unquote success as we like to chase it. This is more than just tips though. It's a complete mindset overhaul with simple hacks that you can apply today to begin working on your unprecedented heights in your own business. I would like the honor to share these types of things with you that turn my dreams into reality so you can experience the same type of joy and freedom that I now get to live out in my own day. In other words, it's time for you to build your own unstoppable enterprise. And if you're really ready to take it to the next level and elevate your life and your business, this is an absolute game changer for you. So if you want to take advantage of this free resource, simply go to the show notes and click the link. Or you can go to stevenscoggins.com backslash8 figure that steven scoggins.com backslash 8 figure. Until then, much love. God bless. Let's get back to the show. Take care. I do want to one run one risk scenario pasture because this actually happened to me in 2008. So.

I was also at the time, I've been. I had two, I had two streams of thought or two streams of mentorship coming up. Right as I began to kind of build some level of momentum, right. I wasn't, I wasn't a mil. I wasn't. My net worth wasn't nowhere near a million dollars at the time. It was just like this is my, my, my way to start beginning to get there. Right. One was stay out of debt, pay everything with cash. One was use other people's money. Right. And other people's money being, you know, access to lines of credit, stuff like that. Not hard, not necessarily hard money lending or hard money lending or what I call refer to as strategic hard money lending, which is very expensive and very dangerous. Yeah.

But in, in both of those categories. So I, with anything, I try to be diversified. So I, I was personally out of debt, but then I used a company to then open up a credit line to then buy lots, residential building lots, because I knew how to build lots. Right. So I know how to build.

Houses. Nice.

Right. So. And on the surface, it was great. I, I bought six lots and I don't know, it was like 150 grand for all six lots because they were, you know, they weren't, they weren't. It became, it became starter home areas, what it, what it became. But when I, when I did, I did the first two houses, so I, I, I, you know, bought the lots. I built the two houses. I made about 50 grand on each house. I made 100 grand on my money. So I already technically had repay or had the money to repay a huge trunk of the note that I already owned.

The.

Right. Go build the other four. And not only, because not only would I have paid off the lots, because the lots, because you can imagine the 50 grand a piece I was, was profit. It wasn't, it wasn't, you know, so I paid all the costs. I'd pay the, I paid for the property, paid for the underground, utilities, all this kind of stuff, got those two done. And then 2008 happened. The bottom falls out. Right. I had not been late on a single payment. I was actually two payments ahead on the lots. The bank comes to me and the, and we had four major banks in North Carolina that did this. And they all came and they claimed on their, in their document called force Majeure that the economic conditions had changed so drastically that they were calling the note, which means all the money that I had technically borrowed.

Right?

Yeah. And I'll tell you exactly how I got out of it, because it, it.

There'S truth in both things that we're saying, right?

So. Right, right.

Right. So force majeure happens. They call the note. I go to my, my attorney at the time, I said, what the hell? They can't do this. Like, I'm not even late, right? And he's like, actually. And it's on the contract you sign the contract, there's a force, your clause, and almost every bank agreement I've ever seen, along with specific covenants on how you're supposed to pay back the money and all this kind of stuff, which no, hardly anybody reads, which I suggest everybody takes the time to read, because some of the stuff is negotiable, some of it's not. Anyway, that being said, we get all that done, I'm freaking out. Luckily, at the time, I had this construction company that I created and was growing and stuff like that, so. But there wasn't sufficient enough cash flow to me going and just take 100 grand out to go pay off the.

Note.

Right. What I didn't have on the other side, ironically, with the Same bank, was $150,000 credit line for the construction note. So I drew down the credit line, pay back the lots, and then paid that 100 grand back over.

Time. All.

Right? So I say all that to say that I kind of want to be. I want to be respectful of the truth, that there's a wise way to handle money, but I also want to make sure people understand they've got to be responsible with it. Because if you go and get 25,000 here and 30,000 here and all this kind of stuff, that's great, as long as it's a process that not only make sure you're always cash flow positive, but you don't blow the money. Right. You don't go out and buy stupid stuff. Right. So what advice would you give people if they're going to use a strategy like this to begin to build wealth, to keep them out of trouble? Because I haven't seen a lot of good financial stewardship behaviors out of people at that level. And all of a sudden now you got access to more capital than you ever had access to.

Before. Right?

Right. So what would you advise them to do? To kind of have some risk.

Mitigation. Two things. Number one, business plan. Number two, a mentor. Those things have saved me in 2008. Right?

2020. Right. It's happened several times. I'll give you a couple of examples. I was looking at a property on Temple University's campus, three story, and it was total gutted, but it was framed up, had the sprinkler systems in, called a mentor. I was like, yo, this looks like a really good deal. It's 100 grand. ARV is 400,000, and maybe needs another 200 worth of work. Right. The tenants, the students are going to, are going to knock this place out. I never have to worry about it. He comes in, I promise he's there for five minutes. He looks around and he's like, no, it's a bad deal. And I was like. I was like, no. I was like, no. These are the numbers. Here's what the rent will.

Be. My Excel spreadsheet says it's.

Okay. Right, so you're in contracting, so you understand this. So the, the, the two. The. The four by fours or two by fours are not put on the wall properly. Like, I think they're supposed to be like this, but they're like this. He's like, you have to rip all of it out. I was like, what? He's like, yeah, you have to rip all of it out. And you might have to rip out the, the, the sprinkler system too, because of how everything. And I'm like, no. He's like, yeah, you're gonna be. And it literally saved me hundreds of thousands of scanners in doing that. The second part of it is having a business plan in my business plan that I have for any business that I have. And this is how I work my business. This is not exactly how you would scale Amazon, because I don't think Jeff Bezos is this. But I run my business for worst case scenarios, right? So my cash. So I have cash reserves and I have lines of credit for different banks. So just in case something happens, my savings account far, far outweigh what normal businesses would do. So, yes, I do invest cash back in my business, but not as much as a lot of people would do because. Because I leverage debt to make money. That's part of my business plan. So because I leveraged debt to make money, I have to be more conservative in what I do with the cash flow and the profits that the business make. And my mentor taught me how to do.

That. Yeah. And see, that's. That's exactly what I was hoping to get from you. Because.

There is a way, there is an absolute way to build wealth using debt. It's not. It's not something I've leaned a lot into, except for buying real estate, specifically because I like.

Collateral. Yep. Taxes.

Yep. And. Yeah. Accelerated depreciation, all that kind of stuff. The.

The thing I wanted to caution people with is because there are people that share a similar message, but never share the risk, they also don't care as much about. As much as you do about your.

Students.

Right. So they go out and hurt people. They put people in severe financial strain because they didn't teach them the principles of risk mitigation. Right. As entrepreneurs People who are entrepreneurial nature, they tend to weigh them. I know I was this way and almost every entrepreneur I've ever met has been this way. They, they have, they go full opportunity heavy. So they're super, super like, no, it's going to work, it's going to work, it's going to work. It's amazing. It's right. And then over time after they've had their face cracked in a few times, it begins to have a little bit more of a teeter totter. So then you start having what I call the risk mitigation ratio. Right. So okay, for every dollar that I'm, that I'm essentially investing, whether I'm providing the capital or an outside source providing the capital, there's a, there's a contingent risk to that dollar. My job to determine and dissect as best as I know how the potential risk. So I started, I went from doing deals where I went all opportunity in and now I go in like, okay, what is the absolute worst case scenario? It's interesting to me because when you have a business plan like you're talking about and you walk in the door of a bank and you can walk them through, hey, here, you know the, the scenario. This is worst case and I've already haircut it twice on your behalf, Mr. Bank. And I still cash.

Flow.

Yep.

Right.

Yep. Banks love that. When the fact.

Loves. I'm about to say that they love that. The fact that that business strategy I had got me through Covid. The banks paid attention to that. It was like, yeah, the revenue dropped, but it didn't drop significantly as people that are in your industry and space and they took hey, do you want more money? Do you want this? I became, I then turned into a private client. I got myself my own banker. Like yes, everything just changes because bank realize that you're a good steward over the money that they give you access to. So yeah, that's very, very.

True. Well then you got the long game. Right? So what we just described as playing the long game, you know. So for me, yes, you're building a business in the moment, but what are you building a business for 10 years from now, 15 years, 20 years from now? The banks trusted you more because you took the time to think through as many different scenarios as you possibly could. You tried to address the solutions for those scenarios if they could. A global pandemic is something that's darn near impossible to predict. Right. So yeah kind of forecast. So there's all that means is you know, if kind of like You. I was in a position, I could cash flow my business for several months. Even during that transition, it wasn't fun. Like, I, you know, I, I didn't like it because I wasn't as profitable as I normally would be. But my team was taken care of, I was taken care of, my family was taken care of, the business had cash, the business that was able to operate. And just like you, when we got done with COVID the banks came to me. Hey, you did a whole lot better than other people in the segment. Do you want us to help you with this? X, Y and Z. So I think that's incredible. All right, so we talked about LLCs. Let's talk to the. Let's, let's want to pivot. Let's pivot a little bit. And with folks who maybe have generated a net worth of, call it 6 to $700,000. Is it already time to start looking into asset protection and asset.

Trust? Yes, 100,000%. Um, even before they get there. So I like to prepare my mentees even before they get there. So even when they come into the academy, part of the foundational courses is I have them talk to a tax professional and I have them talk to a wealth manager. And usually these wealth managers do talk to them about trust and what type of trust fits them. Because online, I know it's 90 second clips online, and we can't teach everything that quick. But there's different type of trust, many different type of trust. So you want to be able to put your assets, as you're building something, you want to start putting stuff in there and funding your trust. So when I first started Bella Someone Enterprises and wasn't making any money, I didn't have a trust. But as I got more educated, as I started making more money, which put me in different spaces, people started telling me like, hey, do you have this? I'm like, no, I don't. It's like, do you have key man insurance? Because you have a CEO that runs the company, and I promise you, I don't even know the password to certain accounts. So, hey, Damaris, what's the password to such and such? Right. So if something happens, the insurance policy funds the trust. And how I start, this is how you have trust fund babies. And all these conversations happen. So even before the half a million dollar cash or net worth happens, we're talking about asset protection. How much real estate do you own? What happens if something happens to you? 1,000%. So I like to have those conversations just a little bit.

Early. Yeah. And just to give a little context to the audience and, and I stumble my interest obviously. So as soon as you have an exit, like the first thing you have to do is you have to redo all your trust, then you have to. You started looking at.

Everything. Yeah.

Yeah. And you know, I started looking at it and they were, and that was obviously I won't share exact numbers because that would be impolite, but I was going through the thing and they were like, hey Stephen, you do realize that your net worth, your estate taxes, if you do nothing, are going to be X. I'm like, that's half of my net worth. They're like, yeah, that's why we want to do the asset trust now. Now these things, put these things in place now I guess the law is going to even change next year as it relates to trust specifics or. Yeah. So anyway, the one thing I'm having a hard time with, and maybe you can help me on this is when you have a trust, you're historically you or myself of owners of our own or leaders of our own trust are the trustees.

One of the things I've struggled with is now, at least in the state of Utah where I'm now located. I used to live in North Carolina, but I'm here now.

They require a two party trust, a co trustee of sorts. So I can be the trustee. But legally in order for me to have a, a healthy process of pass through. So if I, you know, because I, if I need to liquidate or sell an item that's in the trust, I've got to go into the trust, pull the item out of the trust, sell it. Yeah, item in the trust and all this kind of stuff, at least in the state of Utah. I'm not sure if it's at this way in other states, but they require a co trustee. So I said, well, okay, well my attorney can be, in theory be my trustee because no one in my family knows enough financial stewardship behaviors to steward that level of income or that level of, you know, pie.

Then I got to think it was like, what prevents the attorney from taking my stuff from.

Me? Yeah.

Right. So I was like, okay, so now I'm like a little.

Spinny. So have you ever heard of the concept of my lawyer has a lawyer? I have a lawyer watching my lawyer. I saw that before and it absolutely cracked me up. So bro, I wish I could give you a solution on that one. It's actually a tough one. We don't have to have a crow trust free, but I definitely have a Beneficiary My wife is my beneficiary. And the way that I mitigate what you're talking about right now is educating my wife as much as possible. And she never will be because this is my life, I'm in this space. So it is what it is. But she has every number for each attorney, every lawyer. We do monthly check ins. This is what I have. These are all the bank accounts that I have. Your beneficiaries on every, on all of my bank accounts. So if something happens to me, you don't need a death certificate, you don't need an insurance policy. It's really simple. Just walk in, tell them I died, and you get access to everything I tell her. This lawyer does this, this lawyer does that. Here's the trust documents. So the insurance policy. So it's a monthly conversation I have with her because the business is in a, in a really interesting space where we're growing significantly, where we're in a place where to buy other assets. So even though she doesn't really know what Bellisone does, she needs to understand what assets we have that they're listed. And here's what happens if something happens to me, and here's how you pass it down to my children also, because you're the next one up that's in charge of the.

Trust. Yeah, no, that's the reason I keep bringing these concepts though, is because these are concepts that I wish I had thought about five, six years ago, 10 years ago. Right. It started a process a little earlier, which is why I like to bring them up now because I try to let people learn from essentially my mistakes or, you know, things I wish differently. Right. And one of the key things about that, that that estate tax thing is there's, I've been advised to go ahead and get a X number dollar life insurance policy. Actually, not only does it pay the end up offsetting the state tax con requirements.

Not only does it protect the, the trust and the assets in the trust and the asset trust itself, it also has a, a little bit of a liquidity buffer to it. Of course there's a little boost. Right. So now the way I decided to set mine up because of the, the mentality and I'm working through the training, the financial training and literacy of the, of the family, the local family. Right. If all my stuff goes into a trust and I based it on the Rothschild model where essentially everything goes into the trust and the trust compounds over time, you have stewards that are managing the trust that are compensated to grow.

It.

Right. And they don't get, they don't. It's almost like a commission based thing. You grow the, you go to the real estate portfolio. Great. You get to just get the percentage. You grow the stocks portfolio. Okay, great. You get this percentage. So they're compensated to grow it. Meanwhile.

Without touching any of the principle, the offsetting cash flow that comes out of it and supplies the need to those that I've got as listed as beneficiaries, future bride, all the kids that you know between the children that she had before we met, children I had before I, before we met with a prior from a prior, like all this kind of stuff. Right.

So. Right.

Right. It's, it's funny how complex and how simplistic it is all at the same.

Time. All at the same time. Right. And it's, and the interesting about it is you see how complex it is even now when I, when I'm, when I talk to my mentees and I'm just trying to help them get a collection off of their credit report from T Mobile. Right. Their mind is, oh, this is terrible. This is hard. I was like, you think this is hard? I was like, wait till I show you how to make money and then how to protect the money. Like this is nothing. So I definitely want to hurry up and expedite you to that process. Wait till I introduce you to my wealth management and my lawyer. The other side of money is fun, but it can get complex because you have to protect it from, from your generation, from your kids because they could blow the money if I don't put.

Ads. I'm trying to think four generations ahead. I'm thinking my generation and three more. Because I know by the, the statistics show by the third generation, the.

More generation, the money's.

Gone. Yeah, right. And I've worked my butt off to get to where I'm at currently, you know, so yeah.

Policies. Setting up the trust properly, getting those, those proper places is a love letter from the grave for your children. Children. You know the word like I do. A wise man lives in inheritance for his children's children. So, so that's my goal and making sure I protect it. So having conversations with my 6 year old. What is an LLC? When do you shift over to S Corp? She's able to regurgitate, regurgitate it back to me. But that's.

Awesome. You're.

Right. She will truly understand the concept of what I've been low key brainwashing her.

With. Well, I wouldn't call you, we'll call her brainwashing you already take your financial literacy. Right again. I, I can only imagine how much further I would have been ahead if I'd have had somebody pouring into me that first 13 years before I had my first interaction with Steve, like the mentor or whatever, which is why I'm trying to be Steve, Mark as many people as possible. Like, no, you got to have this information and this information and I call it because you just got to figure out what domino we need to knock down first. First, like, here's, here's, here's the picture. But I want you to focus on this one domino. And the dominoes obviously pick up momentum. One thing, one final thing with trust in general, an asset protection plans specifically, is I also didn't realize that the wealthier you get, the more targeted you get. Of course, you know, the more people are looking for, quote, unquote, easy.

Money.

Yeah. A term that I didn't fully understand three years ago that I have a much better appreciation for now is.

Own nothing, control everything, all everything.

Once.

Yeah. Own nothing, control everything.

Correct. Yeah. So in the last 60 or 90 seconds we got. And dude, I have loved this conversation with you.

Man. Absolutely. Me.

Too. Maybe make it pull that, that concept down out of the clouds for us and help us understand kind of what, what we're really saying with that, especially as people are growing in their wealth portfolio and their.

Journey. So we're, we live in a very litigious society.

For many reasons. Why the United States, where everybody likes a quick buck and taking from people, stealing from people, whether rich or poor, is part of their business plan. So it is my job. Your job is to try to take it. My job is to try to protect it. So that's why with my profits, I don't go waste a lot of money on other things. I wait till I use a lot that money to protect these assets with trust and with lawyers. Because it's going to be the government's job or it's going to be other people's job who do not have nots. And that's why it's another part of my mission to teach as much many people as possible so they never have the mindset, well, maybe let me just take yours. So protecting those things for my family is super, super important. And that is part of my business plan and it should be part of everyone else's business plan too, because.

I want to save it for three, four, five, six generations. And setting these foundations in place right now are super key to my business plan in my personal life and in my financial.

Life. Herman, dude, I love you.

Man. I appreciate it. But you know what's crazy? I was in Utah three weeks ago. I climbed up the the mountain with the Y on it with my CEO. So we were.

Like. You were literally 10 minutes from the house. I'm in a.

Place. Kidding. Yeah, See, we would have done an in person.

Podcast. Well, yeah, give us. Message me next time. Let me know you're.

Coming. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, man. Thank you for having me and trusting me on your platform. To your listeners, this has been an amazing.

Conversation. I appreciate it, dude. Where can anybody find out more about.

You? So they come again. Name is Herman Dulcie. I'm the founder of Bella Sloan Enterprises. They can find me on Instagram, TikTok, at Haitian Underscore, CEO. And I love to have free conversations where I teach for free on YouTube at Bella Sloane Enterprises. And I love to be of service. Thank you so much.

Dude. Thank you so much. See you again.

Soon.

Absolutely. I hope you liked that video. And if you did, make sure you check out this next video right.

Here. But at the end of the.

Day today, in my strong opinion, people are looking for that financial freedom, the ability to make whatever they need to make and to spend more time with family or to do with what they want.