190: Securing Your Financial Future During a Pandemic with Jason Bartlett

Hi, I'm Natalie. Jill, fat loss expert turned high performance coach. When odds are stacked against us, how do we shift and create everything from nothing? How do we level up when we aren't feeling it yet or we've had a big setback. On this podcast, I'll be talking to some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on this planet who, at their worst, learned how to achieve success greater than they ever dreamed possible. Leveling up and creating everything from nothing. From 2005 to 2008, Jason Bartlett was on top of the world. A successful marketer and a great amount of wisdom with structure, he attracted success. He had the money, the cars, the friends, everything he thought he wanted. A wedding in Cabo was one of his last successful memories of that time. He describes his life after that as the bottom falling out from under him. And when the housing market crashed in 2008, lenders were pulling out. He lost employees, and his fantasy life started crumbling down. Now he remembers a pivotal moment of looking at his Rolex watch that he had won and calling a friend to see if he could loan him money to take that watch as collateral so he could help him. The friend never called him back. Jason found himself thinking, wow, maybe it was all fake. Maybe I was just lucky the first time. Jason turned it all around by staying focused on helping others turn around their hardships. And in turn, he turned around his. Today, Jason owns Level Financing, and his mission there is to help people formulate and execute an ethical plan to get them out of debt and to keep them out of debt, one in which your credit is not ruined. Join in today and learn exactly how Jason Bartlett leveled up and created everything from nothing. Today I've got Jason Bartlett on leveling up. I was introduced to him by my good friend, and I was very intrigued by his story because what he does is he has a company that helps people get out of credit card debt and stay out of debt for good. Jason, thanks for being here. I'm really curious about your story and how you got into this. I know you've had your life has not been perfect all along, and you've got a big story behind why you do this. So thanks for joining me today.

Yeah, thank you for having me, Natalie. Appreciate it.

So, Jason, take us back. Why this? Why did you get so drawn to helping people with this particular problem?

Well, I would like to say that I sat around and thought about what I wanted to do, and this is exactly what, you know, what we decided on. But this kind of came to me in a strange Way. So I started out and I was in insurance and I was selling for a brokerage by the name of Powers and Company. And we were doing contractors liability insurance and workers comp. And I started traveling and starting to kind of get to want to know the world. And that was one of my big passions. And I realized that I wasn't going to be able to do it working for somebody else. It just wasn't going to give me the freedom that I wanted.

Yeah, yeah. So. But why? It's interesting. So most people don't sit around as a kid thinking, I want to help people with credit card debt when I grow up.

So, yeah. So the next thing was, is myself and my current business partner, Tori Osborne, had decided to go out on our own. This is about the middle of 2005, I think. We started planning in about the first part of 2005. And once we decided on what we were going to do, it was like kind of a coin toss. Are we going to do insurance, what I was doing, or we were going to go into mortgage. Okay. So just because of the amount of backend work that went into the insurance, we opted to go into mortgage. And that was a very hot thing at the time. And that's what Tory was in. I had never done mortgage before, but what I thought is I could bring, you know, bring some marketing expertise and bring kind of a structure. He was kind of from an unstructured past and hadn't really worked in a, you know, like a sales organization. He was just kind of doing referral loans and stuff. So what happened? We started up a mortgage company. This thing went from like 4 to 80 people within like a year. We thought we were on top of the world.

You know, right before the bubble. You were right. You had the right timing before that bubble.

Yep. Perfect timing. Right. So we went into this and. And we had a lot of success early on. You know, we were. We were younger, so we were, you know, spending some money and having a lot of fun and, you know, getting the material things that we thought were really important at that time. And as fast as that thing went up, we went down to a wedding for one of our employees. In 2008 of August down in Cabo San Lucas came back. And this entire thing, I remember the bottom falling out of it, the loans, the lenders just pulling the plug on each and every loan that we had. And back then it was. We were doing direct mail marketing. So it was very. It was very high price marketing. You know, you spent a lot of money. So when you Got that loan in there, and you got it approved. If it was to fall out, that was just devastating to your bottom line and to the revenue of the company. So this thing went down so hard that literally we met with the landlord. We were losing all our employees. It was just like a nightmare that wouldn't end. You know, we thought. Yeah.

You know, as you're saying this, I'm wondering, like, it's funny, because what's going on in the world right now as we're recording this? This is some people's first experience with the, you know, the world falling apart or with their life changing as they know it. To me, it feels very familiar to what went on in 2008.

It really does to me as well. And now that I'm in a different position and in one of the businesses that's going to be thriving or is thriving at the current moment, it's a weird feeling of I've been on that side where these other people are at. I feel my heart really, really goes out to them. Yeah. You know, I remember sitting on my couch when the thing finally drugged down to the bottom, when we were in the mortgage, and I had, like, $200, and I was, you know, in my big house and had, you know, a couple nice cars and all the stuff that I thought I wanted. And I remember feeling just so low that I started. I started tearing up. And I remember I had a Rolex watch that I'd. For selling a million dollars of new business insurance. And I called up a friend and I needed. I asked him if he. I could borrow some money and he could take my watch for collateral. And he didn't even text me back. So that was a really weird moment. And I ended up actually calling up my adopted mom, who was my wrestling coach's wife. And she was more than happy to, you know, help me out for the next couple months. And that's right about the time we segued into this, into getting people out of credit card debt.

So what's so interesting, like, listening to you, it's. I have chills listening because I went through the same situation in 2008. Different market, different field, but same experience losing my house. Like, and what came up for me was this big feeling of fake. Like, at the time. Like, I remember, like, you described sitting in your big house with the cars and the Rolex and no money to your name. I remember feeling fake, like, oh, my gosh, who do I even ask for help? Because they think I'm one type of person. And what's so interesting looking back now, there were so many of us going through it, but we all thought we ran it alone.

Yeah, Natalie, you're exactly right. I remember thinking to myself, I wish I was in a one bedroom apartment with a mattress.

Yes.

And you know, some food because this feels worse to me. And I completely felt like a fake and a fraud. Also all my self doubt had creeped in because that was the first time I'd went out into business on my own. Maybe I was lucky, lucky the first time around. Maybe that was just the fluke. Maybe I wasn't good enough. There was all kinds of weird emotions that kind of, kind of came into my head at that time. It was a very difficult time.

You know, it's. Before we get to what you turned around and what you created and why that's working and helping people. Any words of advice for somebody going through that right now? Because for a lot of people right now, this is their reality. Like this is the first time some people are experiencing debt. This is the first time people are questioning. They go, all these hard working people that started their own business, it was starting to take off or it was thriving and it's like pulled away from them right now. So they're going through a lot of the emotions and feelings that you and I experienced back in 2008. What can you, what words of advice could you tell them right now? What do you want them to know?

Yeah, first and foremost, you need to be able to control your stress and you need to be able to stay healthy in your mind and realize this is working out. Staying healthy, obviously not going out and drinking to let off the steam, that's not an option. You need to be very clear minded. You need to know that this doesn't define you. The money part and the business part, that's just a scorecard and this is just like a reset. And you have to truly don't let all that self doubt and all that stuff creep in. Because if you made it one time and you had some success the first time, you will have it again as long as you don't let this break you down.

Gosh, that's so good and it's so true because I know exactly what you're talking about. It's almost that imposter syndrome. Like, oh, maybe it was a fluke, maybe by accident. I was successful and I remember I was applying for this mastermind I wanted to be in after everything was had fallen down and I built my business again and I had then struggled again and I had these ups and Downs. And I remember applying for this mastermind, and everybody in there needed to be a certain earning potential. And the person said to me, I said, well, I'm not actually earning that right now. And I felt embarrassed almost. And he said to me, if you did it once, that's always who you are, and you'll do it again. And I remember that really stuck with me. And it was that belief in me that changed me. And I do believe that. I believe if you were creative enough, smart enough, incredible enough to do it once, you will do it again and again and again.

Exactly. I always have this, like, saying that I talk when I talk with people, hey, listen, you know what? Once you do it that second time now, it's like, hey, fine, go ahead, strip me down. Throw me off in the wilderness, you know, without a shirt and, you know, some shoes on. And I guarantee you, in four years, I'll make something happen and I'll be back. And I'm never going to, I promise myself, if I ever go through that again, I'm never, ever, ever going to let myself doubt myself and let myself put myself through the stress and the anxiety that I did that first time around.

So. Good. So how. So you decided to pivot during that. But talk to us about timing on that, because how did you go from beating yourself up, depressed, like, oh, my gosh, I feel like a loser, Maybe this is imposter syndrome or whatever, to I'm going to pivot and create this opportunity here. How did that happen?

Well, first of all, while we were going through this, one other big piece of advice that I can tell everyone. Do not stick your head in the sand when this stuff's going on, because that's easy. Once you get into debt, once there's problems, you just want to get away from it. Don't do that. You got to stay positive, and you got to be persistent. Whether it's calling your car, you know, your car loan company up, whether it's calling and negotiating with your credit cards, whether it's calling and negotiating with your, you know, home mortgage, you can't just bury your head in the sand and take action. You got to be take action. You got to take action.

Okay?

So while we were taking action and not putting our heads in the sand and just going. Going at this like it was, we were, you know, in a war. We realized that we were able to negotiate a big portion, a lot of debts. We were able to negotiate with the banks and get settlements for, you know, 10, 20% on the dollar.

Hey, Natalie. Jill. Interrupting for one quick moment because if you're like many people right now, especially with what's going on in the world, struggling with debt and your finances have changed, I'm going to highly recommend that you reach out to Jason's company, Level Financing because they can help you and they are offering a free consult to help you do debt consolidation, to save your credit or all the things. And it's free for you to talk with them. So just let them know I sent you, Natalie. Jill, you go to levelfinancing.com and they will help you out better than. This is during, this is during the downturn. So this is, I'm assuming this was back in 2009, around then, correct.

2009, 2010. I mean, we really didn't come out of this thing until around 2010, 2011.

So let me start. Sorry, before. I don't mean to interrupt, but I want to, I want to understand clear. So what made you and your partner able to do this better than like somebody doing it on their own? Because somebody might think, well, why would, why would I have needed somebody to help me? Can I just call on my own?

Yeah. For starters, these negotiations and these settlements happen at specific times. Typically what happens is the credit card company like American Express or you know, Capital One, they sell it off to secondary markets and they'll sell it off to say American Express sells it off to Zwickr law firm. And you have to know exactly when the right moment is to go ahead and settle out the debt. You know, you can do this at home. You can't do this by yourself. You could rebuild your car engine by yourself. You can do a lot of things by yourself. But do you want to do this? So I always tell people we've got so many different options on these programs. Plus, we don't just do debt settlement. We don't just settle out debt. We do personal loans. So a lot of times we'll go and we'll start settling out debt for six months and then we'll do a personal loan back to that person and use that money to settle out all the debt. Now their payment will be 60% of whatever their minimum payment was and they'll have one loan payment and now their credit score shoots up and then I can show them how to get back in a position where they're going to win again, where they're getting the A financing, where they're getting the good rates, where they don't have the beat up credit. You know, we also have a debt. Yeah.

Do people have to have defaulted to do this. So like, like there's a lot of people that are just carrying a huge balance right now and it's stressful because they're paying a lot in interest or. But I'm wondering like if you, if you've got a big balance with Amex or Visa or whoever and you're, you're still paying the minimum or you're still paying on time. So they, I'm assuming they haven't sold it off yet. So how does that work?

Yeah, yeah, that's when we go. And I have another program that's a debt management program and you don't go late to your creditors, you make the payments on time. And typically what they'll do is they'll lower the rate between 2 and 9%. So rather than having that compounding annual interest where you stick in debt for 20 years and make that minimum payment, you make that same minimum payment and I'll have the clear light at the end of the tunnel and you'll be out of debt in four years.

That's incredible. Yeah, yeah, that's really helpful. Okay, now does it always ruin your credit or not? All of us.

So that's the biggest fear and that's the biggest hold up that people have. Take that loan, the hybrid settlement loan program. I talked about earlier, what we found, I have examples and I can give them. I can't specifically talk about anybody's credit because everybody's situation is different and I can't promise anything because that's just not the way to do it. It's not responsible. But what I found is even on the settlement programs, once the debt is paid as settled, okay, even if it's for a lesser amount, the credit score shoots back up. The FICO 9 made a rule. Yeah. After 2008, after a lot of people went down, the FICO 9 made a rule is once it's paid as settled, even at a lesser amount, it shows on your credit as paid as settled. But your score usually shoots back up to maybe a little bit lower or we've even had them come in a little higher at the end of the program. So this is like one of the biggest fears that holds everybody back from doing this. And what I like to do is I used to provide three examples of customers that we have, or I'll provide 100 examples. You know, it doesn't matter. So that, that's not something. Getting out of debt is the most important part. Bleeding out 70% of your payment towards the interest and fees, that's the part that should Be you should be concerned about credit scores and credit who can always be repaired in a very short amount of time. I could get your credit back up and running as long as it doesn't have a bankruptcy on it within probably 8 to 12 months.

Wow, that's impressive. Now do you think, Jason, times like this right now? Because I keep thinking about this, like right now in these hard times, I see American Express and I've heard a number of stories about people being really open to negotiating right now. So, like a lot of credit card companies waiving interest for the month or mortgages, some of the mortgages are not helpful, but some are. Do you find that this is an ideal time to negotiate if you're right now when it's hard times for everybody? Or is that not the ideal time?

No, there's going to be some great settlements and some great negotiating going on. But don't get forbearance confused with forgiveness.

Okay?

Forbearance is where they just go and tack the payment onto the back of the loan and all the interest and all that stuff goes. So as it's nice to get a little break for a couple months, maybe, you know, you're temporary on unemployment and you do that, but it's definitely not a solution. What we call that is a band aid, okay? And remember, the credit card companies, when you just go directly to them, they're always going to try to do the band aid thing and just keep you back in the hamster wheel, as I call it. And where you're going to be running and paying the interest and fees and paying 70%. They don't want to have you come and team up with us and then have you go head on to where we're like, no, we're going to get you out of debt in four years. Here's what's up. We're going to get your interest rates reduced or we're going to negotiate down the principal.

Now, what if you have savings in other places or you have money invested in the stock market and now you're carrying a credit card debt, does that affect your ability to be able to negotiate? Because do they see those other assets and say, you can't negotiate if you already have them someplace else?

Typically they don't. You know, typically this is just in order to negotiate a settlement. Obviously you're gonna have to go late. They're not gonna do it while you're paying on time. But I can get you into debt management program. If somebody wasn't comfortable going late and they were in a position where they can afford their minimum. We can do a debt management program and a hardship without somebody, you know, without somebody, you know, not having, you know, they can have stock money in the stock market, they can have, you know, a home. It can make it a little more challenging because there has to be some type of hardship. But a hardship is loosely defined and there's different types of hardships. I would never recommend cleaning out your savings and doing all this stuff to go ahead and pay off high interest credit card debt.

Well, and I think that especially now, even there's some people that are really doing well financially with what's going on in the world. And I'm certainly not in your role or a financial advisor, so I shouldn't be giving advice. But as a friend, I've given the advice of like, keep cash on hand right now. Because there's just so much changing right now. I think rather than just throwing all your money at a credit card, you know, paying that off, like it's important to keep cash at hand. I would think so. It sounds like it'd be more important to work with someone like you to figure, you know, to work a different solution 100%.

First and foremost, you got to get a good spending plan together. If you're still spending plans off, that's never a good thing. You know, you need food, shelter, transportation, you know, those are the three basic things you should be focused on. And you know, if it becomes between your food and your shelter or your car payment, don't go paying off your credit card debt.

Got it.

And I just. When somebody tries to pay off their credit card debt on their own, it's almost like makes me go crazy because I just know that there's so much, you know, there's so much forgiveness on the interest rates and different things you can do to really get that down. And, you know, I would never feel guilty. The banks have made plenty of money off of everybody. 70% goes towards interest and fees. So it's, you know, it's. It's only time that, that they give up a little at the end so you can get out of this, you know, basically this little trap that they get you in.

Wow, that's pretty, that's. That's really good to know. Well, this is super helpful. How do people, like, if so if this is resonating, I know that a lot of people listening this is resonating, whether they're new to being in debt right now with what's going on in the world, or they've been carrying it for a While. And it's just an added. To a lot of people, it feels like an added stress. Like maybe they had debt and now what's going on in the world? They don't have the same income. How. What do you suggest they do? Who do they reach out to? How do they talk to you or your team or what do they do?

Yeah. So we're on Instagram level financing. We're@levelfinancing.com is our website. Call in and speak with one of our representatives. And there's obviously, it's no obligation, there's no cost to talk to anybody.

We're happy somebody will actually strategize with you without charging you.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. You can strategize the whole thing, and then at the end, it's it. The only thing that never makes sense for anybody to do is just keep doing what they're doing. Okay. Even somebody that's in a really bad position, I might tell them, hey, listen, I'm going to set you up with my good friend Vince Rinda and have you go and do a bankruptcy, you know, because you don't have any income and you have a ton of debt. Let's. Let's figure out the best solution. But I can tell you, unless you have a, you know, a rich relative or. Or a bunch of money on hand, the best solution is never to keep paying the interest and fees and just keep paying that minimum payment.

Wow.

It's never the solution. So it's just pure math, you know?

Yeah. This was actually really helpful today. I really appreciate this. If you guys. I think it's totally worth checking this out. I did not know Jason before this call, but my best friend is the one who referred me to him, and I trust her, so. So I'm putting my name behind him. So definitely reach out to. If you are somebody struggling with this or you're in the situation and you're curious, I encourage you to check them out. Thank you. So I think this was incredibly helpful today. Thank you so much, Jason.

Yeah. Hey, thank you for having me.

I learned so much interviewing Jason, and one thing that he said to me number of times on the interview and before the interview was, the only thing not to do when you're in debt is to keep doing what you're doing, because there's so many solutions out there. So listen, he's willing to really help my listeners of leveling up here. He's willing to really help you. So he's offering a free strategy session to see how they can help. All you'll want to do is mention that I sent you so much and Natalie Jill sent you when booking and you can go to level financing.com to book that strategy call. Thanks for leveling up with us today. Please share this episode if you found it helpful so others can join in. And don't forget to hit that subscribe so you don't miss out on future shows. And if you would leave me a five star review. I appreciate those so much. I read all of them and it's how I know that I'm giving you information that you find find valuable and come interact with me over on Instagram at nataliejillfit. I read all the direct messages and comments over there. Make it a great day. Creating everything from nothing.