$1 Billion in Debt?! The Red Lobster Comeback, Chad Van Horn Tells It ALL!

And welcome back, Chad Van Horn. Tasha K, how you doing?

I'm great. How are you, Tasha K?

I'm good. You pissing a lot of people off out here.

Well, a lot of my friends. What am I doing now?

A lot of creditors are pissed.

We have been busy and we have been discharging a lot, a lot of debt. Business is basically double, and that's— I would attribute about 70% of that to the Tasha K Show, getting my name out there. But also, the market is up for bankruptcy right now.

I'mma— but listen, they can put my picture beside the word bankruptcy in the dictionary. They could do it. I don't care. I do not care at all. I know, like, the other lawyers lawyers that were dealing with my case was like, I can't believe she would say she want to stay in bankruptcy forever. Forever. Didn't you say there was a couple one time, uh, a person, they had like 10 people in a household and they each filed bankruptcy on the same house?

Yep, just to keep, keep not paying the mortgage. They kept filing bankruptcy and then they lost that house for years and years and years without making payments.

See, we got to know the loopholes as a community. I think that's probably why they're mad at you, is that we're being educated. Because bankruptcy cases, you said that up 100%.

Yeah, the number of consults this month alone, we've met with over 1,200 people, which is, which is insane. It's an insane number. Last year this time we met with 600. So we're double right now. And we've been hiring to keep up with it. And we've been leveraging AI and other solutions as well. But it's only going up from here.

Well, this is what you asked for. You asked to help people. You asked to help get people out of— like, I can help you get out of debt. Now everybody wants Chad. They don't want nobody else. They just want you.

Well, you getting my name out there definitely helped. And, uh, now, now that we're going into different markets and different states, that's helping as well. Uh, so it's definitely the perfect storm, and I— and it's going to be here for probably the next 5 to 7 years, I would say.

Why do you say that?

There's just way too much debt in the system. I mean, we still have record-high student loan debt, we have record-high vehicle debt, record-high mortgage debt, record-high credit card debt, buy now pay later debt, medical debt, you name it. We're at record-high levels across the board. Obviously inflation is still here. Everything's more expensive, more expensive. Wages are not keeping up with the expenses. So, uh, there's a lot of families out there that are really struggling. Um, and depending on income, yeah, I mean, there are— I'm meeting with people that have six-figure income that are filing bankruptcy just because it's so expensive to live right now, especially in South Florida where I am.

What is the average cost of living now in South Florida?

Do you know, man? So they released CMI numbers. Supposedly it's $57,000 for the state. We're looking closer to $82,000 if you're looking at a real budget in South Florida.

That's not including like food and healthcare, that's just basic house, car.

That's, that's the basic, basic needs based on the price. But based on pricing nowadays, it's, it's insane. I remember back in the day, I know you're too young for this, but You're making $82,000, or if you're making $100,000 a year, you were killing it.

That was back when gas was like $0.85 a gallon. My aunt would pull up, let me get $2 worth of gas.

I remember I thought I was a baller. I'd show up, give them a $10, fill it up.

Oh my God. Are most people keeping their homes in bankruptcy though? Like, even though they're filing bankruptcy, they're able to stay in their homes. And keep their homes?

So most people that refinanced, uh, during 2020, 2021 and have the lower interest rates are able to keep their homes. The ones that can't are the ones that have adjustable rate mortgages that are bouncing up now. They, they started low at the 3 or 4%, now I'm seeing them come in at 7, 8, 9%, and they can't refinance at a lower rate, so they're ending up having to sell their home. At least there's a little bit of equity that they can get out of it. But the housing market is stuck right now as well because there's not many buyers that can afford to buy. And the sell— and there's many of the sellers are stuck in their home because if they sell, they have nowhere to go because they can't get that. They can't keep that low interest rate that they have.

Oh my gosh. Well, that's what we got you for.

That's right. And that's why I've been working extra hours. We've now changed our hours. We're 8 AM to 8 PM now. When I first started—

when did that happen? You were 5 o'clock.

You were 5 o'clock, 9 to 5 when I first started. And I used to do longer consultations. Now we just don't have time for, for extra long consultations. We need to figure out solutions right away. We're still doing free consultations, but now they're lasting from 8 AM to 8 PM. It's an insane time that we're living in. You basically got to have your own call center, which you do, but like Yeah, the good thing is we have a great in-house team and we are leveraging some AI to help out with pre-qualifying the calls, setting appointments. So we're testing that out as well. We're bringing on more people, but we're also becoming more efficient.

Okay. Okay. Do you have a lot of nos that you have to tell, like, to people, or they just don't have— like, what are some of the things that you would say no to when it comes to people wanting to file bankruptcy but can't?

Yeah, so unfortunately we have a lot of people calling in with student loans and, uh, and they want to discharge their student loans, which can happen, but it's not, not easy. Uh, also people calling in for the new, uh, big beautiful bill that's coming through that changes things with student loans. They want to know how that impacts their student loans. So we can guide them through that process, but as far as just making them go away or getting them into one of the old programs. There's only a few things you can do with federal student loans. So we can give advice on that, we can guide people through it, but unless you truly have a hardship that we can take into bankruptcy, we can't discharge the student loans. Also, we do have people calling in with mortgage issues, but unfortunately the mortgage issue is they just can't pay their mortgage. And if you can't make the base payment of mortgage, even if we go into a loan modification, the interest rate isn't going to come down like we used to be able to do. So if you can't make your mortgage payment, you got to end up selling your home, get the equity out of it. So we have to have some really serious conversations with people that, you know, if you can't afford the house, you got to sell it.

And I don't see anything wrong with that. And I get it because a lot of people put so much money into their houses that they take it as a loss. But I'm like, it's money. You can make it again.

100%. People get emotionally attached, you know, like, I, I have my first— I raised my kids here, you know.

I—

some people, I built this with my bare hands type thing, which I get. Um, but at the end of the day, you got to make the best decision for you, your family. And, uh, if you don't sell it, it's going to go into foreclosure and you're going to get much less of that equity, and you're going to see much less cash that comes out.

So it's better, it's better that they come talk to somebody like you so they can at least collect some of the equity in the bankruptcy.

Yeah, for sure. Sometimes it's like a therapy session that we gotta, we gotta get through because again, people are so emotionally attached to things.

Yeah, I, I, I just don't understand that. Me, when it's time to let some shit go, I'm like, all right, moving on. Like, I, I don't know why I'm like that. Um, but I do know there's a lot of people that are not like that. And my thing is, it's like, I'm not gonna hold on to anything that's causing me stress. And obviously there's something better, and, and life is to be lived as best as you can. Like, we got enough turmoil when sickness hit, or, you know, when grievance hit, maybe we lose a family member or something like that. But like, money— if I, if I only make $20,000 a year, I'm living off of $20,000 a year. It's just, it is what it is. I'm gonna find— I'm gonna live off of $20,000 a year the best way that I can, but I'm not gonna pay nobody like creditors and medical bills and stuff that I can't pay. They are the first to go.

For sure. And, and, uh, Gary Vee, Gary Vaynerchuk, I, I listen to him and I believe, I believe it's something that he says all the time as well. You know, if you live within your budget and your means, you could be extremely happy and extremely successful. But it's when, you know, you have that $60,000 a year income but you want to live like you're making $100,000 a year, that's when you really, really struggle. So if you, if you live below your means, so you're making $40,000, $50,000, $60,000, whatever the number is and you're, and you're living like you make $40,000, that's where that true happiness comes into play. But if you're always chasing something and spending money on ridiculous things, that's when it's only going to lead to frustration, man.

I know people personally, just like you said, um, very good friend of mine making over 6 figures, no kids, no nothing, broke.

It's a real thing. It's a real— I see it every day. I see people come in. I'll never forget, I had a client that came in, Wall Street guy making legitimately millions a year. And he couldn't go to McDonald's. He couldn't afford to go to McDonald's. He had so much tax debt, child support, you name it. Like his paycheck at the end of the day was nothing.

Sounded like he had a substance abuse problem too. Like, It was—

I promise, I saw the bank statements that there was no money for the substance abuse. And if it was, it was really cheap stuff, whatever he was getting.

That to me is, is mismatched. Like, let me ask you something, because I know that I had to take a business, like, management, kind of like financial course. Um, it was very long. Oh my God, that course was long. I was so mad at y'all that I had to do that, but I thanked you later because it did remind me of some basic things. And of course, you know, my situation was a lot different, um, than you guys, but at any level, uh, finance issues can happen to anybody. Um, do you feel that when people do file bankruptcy, they're— it like 90% of the time they are getting it and not returning?

For sure. Uh, I, I don't get many repeat customers, which is great. And, and it's my goal to get financial literacy out there. It's not my goal to just file a bankruptcy. I want to set you up for success moving forward. We do have some repeat customers, especially people that are investors in the real estate business, because that industry is cyclical. So if you don't prepare for the, the downward cycle and you're living— and you, let's say you're making $150,000 a year as a mortgage broker, a realtor, and you're crushing it and you're living that way— if you don't get ready for that down cycle, and when you see it come and your income starts going down, if you don't prepare for it and you're still living at that $150,000 income and your income is now cut in half, obviously that's a bad cycle. Then those are the people that also have access to a lot of credit because on paper they're very creditworthy. But when their income gets cut, they just start using their credit thinking the income is going to come back right away. And usually it's years before that cycle kicks back up.

But luckily, like in bankruptcy, it's like when you come out, it is as if you don't have any credit. And so they reestablish establish your credit. It's like, for some reason, for creditors to, to hate bankruptcy attorneys and people who file bankruptcy, they're quick to give you credit upon coming out. I'm getting emails every day and I'm like, I'm not touching y'all. No.

Yeah, the, uh, the credit card companies and the, the debt consolidation companies, the credit consolidation companies, the consolidation loan companies, they hate when this information gets out there because this hurts their business. Business. So they all basically get together to make sure the information that they're pushing out— and they advertise, I mean, billions of dollars worth of advertisements going, going out. Uh, so, but we're fighting back. The winos know. You're letting the winos know, which is important. And I know, I know they're letting their family know too. So the network's definitely out there.

I love it. Uh, the, the, uh, Red Lobster just came up out of bankruptcy. I thought they were done.

Man, I thought Red Lobster was done as well. I mean, they made some really, really bad decisions. They sold off all their real estate, they leased it for ridiculous rates. And then we all know about the shrimp.

Yeah, I used to work for Red Lobster. When I tell you people would come in with their own to-go boxes and just order a bunch of shrimp and we would just put it in and put it in and put it in and they would take it home.

You know, I, so I worked for Bahama Breeze when they were a Darden company with Red Lobster. So I got, I got my discount. I got 50% off when I got about all the restaurants. Yeah, so I knew, I knew all those tricks as well. Um, but yeah, that was expensive. But the new CEO was brilliant, a young guy as well. And, uh, they had over a billion dollars worth of debt, over a billion with a B. Uh, so for a company to restructure and come out, and it looks like they're stronger than ever coming out of it. They closed down a lot of the underperforming stores. They got rid of the ridiculous promos and people are still going there for the biscuits, obviously, for the lobster. Yeah. And they're going there and they're actually paying for the meals instead of, you know, that all-you-can-eat, where you just take as much home as you possibly can.

Yeah, I love that. And I think what was great for us is that, you know, in our community, like, we don't have a lot of celebratory moments, especially when it comes to business. And to see a young Black man I'll bring a company built like out of, out of bankruptcy. And I mean, I literally, I'm telling you, I was going to Red Lobster. I was like this, I could look around and tell they were done.

Definitely stacked.

It was not, I was just like, this is not going to work and nobody's eating lobster.

I, I remember the, the first time I reorganized, it was a, a local, uh, restaurant. It was a local Jamaican restaurant. When I first filed the case, the judge said I've never seen a restaurant reorganize successfully, Mr. Van Horn. I was like, never? And the judge was on the bench for years. I said, well, Judge, this is gonna be the first one. And we successfully did it. But I can only imagine trying to reorganize a billion dollars worth of debt with hundreds of locations. I mean, kudos to the CEO, kudos to the attorneys and the professionals that worked on that because that was not a small undertaking at all. I'm glad Red Lobster is still here.

CEO is— he's raised his stock. He's gonna be brought in to save a lot of restaurants. So his career is looking pretty good.

Yeah, he's gonna be able to demand whatever he wants. I hope he sticks with Red Lobster and make sure that they keep rolling. But he's definitely going to get poached. And I'm sure they— he's already gotten a bunch of different offers. That's for sure.

Oh my God. Oh my God. Chad, listen, where can people like call you and find you an email so that they can get get rid of debt that's causing all types of stress and start over.

Yeah, we're here 6 days a week. You can give us a call at 954-637-0000. Vanhornlawgroup.com is the website. Should I get my personal email again? I've been getting lit up by you guys. I don't know, I'll give it—

oh, you thought they were playing, didn't you? You thought they were playing. Chad, like, this is it.

They have been so respectful and I'm getting emails from across the country. I'm telling you the stories that I have. I met with actually an attorney that was embarrassed to talk about her situation. Oh my God. And I don't know, people, they get pride and they didn't want to disappoint their family. And everybody has this idea that us attorneys, we get some magic spells when we go to law school that we're definitely going to be successful just because we went to law school. And we struggle like everybody else. So I think she was successful for most of her life and, you know, she just got into a really bad situation and she reached out and actually I spent an hour with her going through everything, got her a referral in the state that she's in and she couldn't be happier. So I'm going to give my email because it really has helped out a lot of people. The email's Chad—

Hold on for a second. So the attorney saw our show and called you?

Yep.

Damn. And she said Tasha K effect.

Yeah. And she like, she couldn't even talk to her family about it. She trusted you. And then she ended up trusting me to help her through. And I'm telling you, she was in a bad spot. But she emails me now weekly about the progress that she's making. And it really was life-changing.

I love it. Shout out. But what is your personal email? Go ahead.

Yeah, Chad, chad@cvhlawgroup.com. Uh, definitely email me if you're struggling. Uh, maybe we can get her on. I'll, I'll talk to her next time when she's done with everything. Maybe we get her on. I'm telling you, she's one of the sweetest people, and, uh, she's gonna be—

anybody that is willing to tell their story, please send them our way, because they don't believe it till they hear. They don't believe it like until they see it, and it's like, oh, I gotta still go through this? Yeah, so I wouldn't care. I just want to tell the world I'm in bankruptcy. Who cares? I don't care. I don't care. And because of you, I'm not broke.

And that, and that's the best. That is the best thing. You can live, live your life. You and your family can move forward and not have all that stress, carry all that stress with you.

Exactly. Exactly.

The word's getting out there. I'm glad the word is getting out there.

So you're going to be up by Christmas time and probably by the next year with 3,000, 4,000 calls a day.

Man, Tasha, I mean The growth has been incredible. I remember back in the day I used to do like 3 or 4 consultations a day. Now we're doing 60.

Man. Oh Lord, that's a lot of talking. Y'all gotta have therapists in there. They should have a degree carved out for financial therapy.

No doubt. And, and if they ever do that, I'm gonna go get a PhD in that because I feel like I already got a lot of good experience.

Thank you so much, Chad. I appreciate you. We'll definitely see you next week, even though we play you on every single show. Everybody sees you every day, so we ain't gonna stop until everybody, uh, is happy and debt-free.

I appreciate you, Tasha. You're the best.

Thank you. See you later. Bye. Yes, sir! Yes, sir! Yes, sir! Yes, sir! Yes, sir! Yes, sir! Yes, sir! Yes, sir! Yes, sir! Yes, sir! Yes, sir! Yes, sir! Yes, sir! Yes, sir! Yes, sir!