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Proven Podcast
Limitless Funding Through Credit Repair
00:50:52
Herman Dolce joins this episode to share his inspiring journey from a first-generation Haitian-American with a passion for financial literacy to becoming the founder of Bella Sloan Enterprises and a leading expert in business funding. With years of...
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A
Welcome to the I Am Charles Schwartz Show. In this episode, we're diving deep into financial literacy and business funding with Herman Dolce, also known as the Haitian CEO. From helping businesses secure capital to navigating the complexities of credit repair, Herman has become a trusted expert for entrepreneurs aiming to scale their ventures. Herman shares his journey as the founder of Bella Sloan Enterprises, a financial literacy company named after his daughter. He walks us through key strategies for optimizing personal and business credit, the importance of financial literacy, and how stacking funding sources can set your business up for success. You'll learn actionable tips to clean up your credit profile, build a strong financial foundation, and access capital responsibly. This conversation is packed with advice for business owners, including how to prepare for funding, avoid common credit pitfalls, and make strategic decisions to scale your business. Herman debunks myths about credit and provides clear, actionable steps for listeners at any stage of their financial journey. If you've ever wondered how to turn your financial challenges into opportunities or how to fund your business without drowning in debt, this episode is for you. So grab a notebook because your crash course in financial literacy starts now. Welcome to the I Am Charles Schwartz.
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Show, where we don't just discuss success, we show you how to create it.
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On every episode, we uncover the strategies and tactics that turned everyday entrepreneurs into unstoppable powerhouses in their businesses and their lives. Whether your goal is to transform your life or hit that elusive seven, eight.
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Or nine figure mark, we've got the.
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A
Blueprint to get you there. The show starts now.
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B
All right, everybody, welcome back. I'm excited to talk to Herman. Herman, you've done an immense amount of things. You go by the haste and sheet. CEO, welcome to the show.
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C
Thank you so much, Charles, for having me and trusting me on your platform. I'm here to serve today.
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B
I love it. Tell people who you are because a lot of people may have lived under a rock or have been distracted with the news lady. We'll get into that. But tell people who you are, what your success is, and I'd love for you to sneak in why your entire background. For those of you watching on YouTube, why his background says what it says. I love the story behind it. It makes my heart blow up.
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C
So my name is Herman Dolce Jr. Son of Herman Dolce. I am a first generation Haitian. My family came to this country in the late 70s. Born in Brooklyn, Philly raised me and I'm the founder of this wonderful company called Bella Sloan Enterprises, Financial literacy company first. But we primarily like to help Small, medium businesses get capital and get some funding. I named this company after my firstborn daughter, Bella Sloan Dawsey. Amazing. She's seven years old right now. And you can find me on Instagram, Asian CEO. And the reason why I say that is because I have two personalities. There's Herman and then there's hey, Sio Hasten CEO dances on Instagram. And that's what my daughter is. She's a ball. And I like. And she's totally amazing.
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B
I love that you named it after her. When you told me that, I was like, yes, we have to sneak that in. We have to sneak it in. The other thing we have to sneak in is when people do this and they want to get funding, there's a lot of questions that I always get asked and they're like, how much should I have? How much should I do? We were talking about this before it went on camera. Things like a wealth ratio. And if people don't know what a wealth ratio is, could you explain someone what a wealth ratio is?
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C
Well, what a wealth ratio is from, let's say for me, when I, when I wanted to quit my job and go full time in my business and you set it offline, having six months of, I guess, bills saved up is a good place to start having a year of operating expenses for your business. But for me, when I was taking phone calls in my broom closet at work, I saved up two years of income for my household to make sure that if I didn't make any money from Bella Son, any projects for two years, I would have that money to at least pay my bills. So I had a pretty decent FU account before I told my boss I quit.
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B
Yeah. So I love that you, you snuck in what we actually call it offline. Let's be honest here. So for those of you who want to calculate your wealth ratio, it's really simple. Let's say your monthly expenses are $5 and you've got $10 in the bank. You've got a two month wealth ratio. Really, really simple. It's really, it goes through that and I agree with you. I think for your personal life and your professional life, you need to have at least two years for your personal life and then hopefully at least a year in your business life. If you don't have that, don't quit your job. Just. It is what it is. It just, you need to, you got to mind your job while you're building your business. You know, I built my, I built my first company while I was still working at a hospice. I was running the IT division that in order to build it, I did at the same time, because sleep is optional. It happens. Dang it. As you get more successful, you will get sleep because it's a new thing for me. You also will also have stories where you lost. You lose your first million. So welcome to all of those wonderful adventures. We all have those stories. Exactly.
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C
I have a good friend of mine named Storm Leroy and he talks about, he's called the unemployed millionaire. And he says, your job should be your first business partner. So after you pay all your bills and you have your savings, you take that savings and you use that to fund your business. See if it works. That T shirt company, the boutique your start, you want to start, lose your money first. Your second business partner we'll get into should be American Express, Wells Fargo and Bank of America.
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B
Well, when you go into that, people are like, okay, well, I want to be my first business partner. I, I want to get into that, but I have no idea how to do funding. I, I have no idea how to bring this in. There's so many different ways. I thought, you know, getting funding meant that I just stood on 95 in a 2, 2 and people threw money at me. Didn't completely. Funding work. Didn't work. People, people will pay me money to put clothes back on at this point. How do, how do people get in this if they're going to go through funding? Give me the broad overview and then we'll jump in the details if someone needs funding. What's the best kind of ways to do that?
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C
Broad overview at the easiest way to get to that path is. And that's why financial literacy is such a component in our company is actually having good credit. So if you have good personal credit, the banks are going to say, all right, Bella Sloan, you're like five minutes old. We don't know who Bella Sloan is, but we know who Herman is. And Herman has good credit with us. He has a 700 credit score. He has a good credit profile. We trust him. And since he's going to personally guarantee or co sign for this business, we'll give the business this capital in the business's name, not in Herman's name. And that could be your first seed money to start whatever you need to start. And the one of the blessings and benefit of it is the capital you get in your business name is much higher than you would in your business name. So I have a Best Buy credit card on the personal side, $10,000. My Best Buy business credit card is $30,000 because banks know that the business needs more capital.
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B
So there's all these conversations about building credit and there's jokes and memes about it all over the place that talk about that based on your culture, you will get different credit scores. Is that actually true or is that just a meme that's.
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C
That's just a meme that is attached to the knowledge that certain cultures get. But the information is universal. It's ubiquitous. If you do the right things, anybody can get good credit.
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B
So. And you know, your backstory about this is you actually have a lot of details in credit. So you talked about before you started your business, you were doing credit and you're helping people expand their credit. Can you help the audience understand a little bit more about that?
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C
That's right. So the foundation of Bella's own enterprise was we are first helping people educate them on their credit and helping their fix their credit. One of the ways we do that was through factual disputes. Per the Fair Credit Reporting act, your credit report is supposed to be 100% accurate or 100% and 100% verifiable. If it is not, the credit agency's TransUnion, Equifax and Experience, they have to remove those negative items. So like I told you, my name is Herman Dulce Jr. On my credit report, when I was uneducated, it said Herman Dulce Senior or Herman Dole Little edits little things that were incorrect. It was a phone call before Internet blew up. Credit Repair called them. I'll be like, hey, you need to fix. This is a meat. I sent him a picture of my driver's license. We are good to go. Hey, I got this late payment on this credit card. Experience says I was late on Thursday, but Equifax says I was late on Friday. I send them both credit reports. Oh, that's incorrect. Fair Credit Reporting act, you have to delete it. So I was doing little tactics like that to help people clean their credit because the law is in your favor.
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B
So if someone goes, I think first step sounds like getting your actual report. And there's all these services that you have that charge you to do that. And there's other ways to do it. If you're going into this and you're listening to this going, hey, I've never even done it for my business, let alone myself. What are the first steps that they go in through? Say, hey, I just need to get this credit report and find out what is real versus what is.
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C
But it's on here. There's two places you can go Just to get it for free. If you don't want to pay for it, you can go to experian.com they'll let you see your Experian credit report. And just to check out what's on there, then you can go to Credit Karma. I don't always recommend Credit Karma because your score is a little bit different, but the information is correct. They'll give You Equifax and TransUnion credit report, and then you can look on there to see the negative items you have that are on there that could be positive, negative, or incorrect just for free.
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B
Which is wonderful. It's. People don't understand the power of credit either. For example, I don't buy cars. I never have. That's not true. I bought my first car and it was garbage. And I just. The way I drive. I know you're not supposed to do it. I just. I lease cars. It's just. It is.
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C
I beat the.
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B
Out of them. I just have a heavy foot. So it's just. It's mean to cars. So I go in. I always negotiate with them. And being able to walk in and say, okay, what's your credit score? I'm very. I've been doing this for a long time. My credit score is over 800. So I get to walk in. I'm like, before I'm going to negotiate with you, go to your finance managers, pull up my credit, and then walk out. And like, what do you want? And they don't even negotiate. It's. It's. It goes away. That, that angst, that back and forth that we all. I think I would rather get, you know, colonoscopy than buy a car at this point because it's such a toxic thing. But having the. Yeah, the it. Now, having that credit score, it changes the ball game. So that's what comes in your personal life. In my business life, to what you were saying, there is a difference between my company and my personal credit. Like, I have a credit card that's got, you know, whatever 20, $30,000 limit on it. My business credit card is six figures. Because they know the business and they know me, what's going on, and I just don't touch it. And then they raise it every year. I'm like, stop doing that. But so someone gets your credit report and they're sitting at home and they go, okay, I'm trying to increase my financial literacy. What are the books? What are the tools? What are the things that they need to start doing to say, okay, I need to heal this before I go out and get funding because I really want to get people. And I'm going to try and do it on this podcast where we say, okay, this is how you get funding efficiently and effectively. And these are the tools that will actually not rip you off. So you don't want to get it from the guy down the street who, you know, only hangs out at the deli. That would different ways. What are some of the tools once they get their credit report so they can start educating themselves and helping them out?
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C
Well, some of the. Some of the tools we can talk about right now. I could just tell them, number one, I call it credit optimization. So before you go and get funding, you want to look as sexy as possible to the banks on your credit profile. So, number one, you want to clean up the demographic information. There's only one name on my credit report, not a bunch of them. Number two, I know when we fill out applications, we're usually at different jobs when we do that. I only have one job on my credit report. It's Bella's own enterprises. All my old jobs, I call and had those deleted addresses. Having too many addresses on your credit report, that's a red flag also. So I only have one address that's my current address. Because it looks like you're unstable. Those are little things that lenders look at. Now, when that's done, the next credit optimization is if you have credit cards, you want to pay down as much credit card debt as possible, preferably keeping it under 9%. That's the sweet spot. Banks like to see between 1% and 9%. Some people like, why don't you pay it all the way down? You can, but the banks like to see that they can make a little bit money off of you. But for your credit report, keep it between 1 and 9%, because anything over 30%, that drops your credit score and it shows that you're a little bit unresponsible with income. The next thing is you want to remove as many inquiries off of your credit report. Inquiries are when you're applying for credit, they ding your credit. You want to check it. You have too many of those, it's going to look like you're thirsty for money and they don't want to give it to you. So you got to act like you don't really want it. Banks don't like to see any. Yeah, banks don't like to see any more than three to four of those in the last six months. After it's six months old, then they. Then they really don't care about it. And lastly, collection charge offs bankruptcies. You want to make sure those are not on your credit report, obviously. And the one last thing I do want to say is your credit profile is important. What I mean by that, it's great to have a 700 credit score, 800 credit score, but you have an authorized user and a today's man credit card and you have a, and you have a 700 credit score. But me, I have a mortgage, I have student loans, I have a closed car note, and I have four credit cards that are over five years old. $10,000 limit. The bank will look at both of our 700 credit scores. Be like, Herman clearly is more responsible with money. So having those profiles on your credit report makes you look extremely sexy when it's time to go and get some business funding.
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B
You mentioned getting addresses off. Because I've had multiple addresses and I go in multiple properties. When you go into this situation, you're like, hey, here is. I want this address off. Even though you did technically live there, can you just go to the credit reports and say get it off. I don't want to have this on here. How does that work?
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C
Absolutely, absolutely. We go back to the Fair Credit Reporting act because they say nothing is supposed to be put on your credit report without your permission. So one of those things are my address. So I can call and be like, hey, those addresses right there, can you please remove it? This is my current address. And depending will pick up the phone. They'll do it there right on the phone at TransUnion Equifax. More experience. Or sometimes, sometimes they'll say, hey, can you send me your current driver's license or utility bill? And you'll do that and they'll delete it.
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B
And I'm guessing the same thing with jobs and so on and so forth.
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C
You get same thing with jobs. Yes, anything demographic is a phone call you can delete. When it comes to negative items like charge offs collections doors a little bit harder to fight, got to send some letters. Use a fair Credit reporting act to help you fight it.
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B
So if they're going through there and they're, they're getting the ball rolling and they're starting to fix their financial literacy. Getting Your down to 9% is hard for a lot of people. So getting that, that's where in my mind financial literacy comes in the side hustle doing all of those as you've gone through your journey. You know, you mentioned you've got student debt and you've got a couple other things you've got mortgage, which I don't know if people know this, but mortgage is French. It means to be in debt until you die. It's more. Yes, it is terrifying when you hear the actual name. It is. So as you're doing this, please buy assets, not liabilities, please. But as you're going through this, please, for the love of God, if it doesn't make you money, as soon as you sign you bought a liability assets, please. As you're going through this and you're trying to scale your financial literacy and you're trying to set this up, what are some of the ways that, okay, we've got our credit relatively fixed, we've made the phone calls. What are the proven ways that you found that, that work to getting your financial literacy up?
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C
Number one, I want to talk to you about taxes for two seconds that you said something really interesting. If you're in a lot of credit card debt and everybody always looks at me crazy when I say this, I was like, well, we were taught that on our W2s when we first get a job to like, I guess take the maximum deduction. I was like, you know what you're doing when you do that, right? You're giving the government a tax free loan or interest free loan for 12 months. And then in January, February, everybody's on my timeline ball and going to Cabo because they got a tax refund check of five, six grand. I was like, or you can make some adjustments and this goes to your question about financial literacy, or you can make some adjustments on your W2, your i9, whatever, and that money you get every single, every other week or, or every month, that 2, 3, 4, $500 a month, that's what you're going to take and start to pay down your credit card debt. And including the side hustles that you may have. I mean, when I teach people that they get out of debt a lot faster and I call it, here's how you get out of debt without getting a second job. And that always piques people interest. So that's the last component, getting out of debt on the business, on the personal side, which will transfer to some great opportunities on the business side because now you actually understand taxes just a little bit better.
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B
For those who also, if you're on the business side, because most of our listeners are business owners, when everyone started freaking out, when the politics came in, they're like, oh my God, he's never paid taxes. She doesn't pay taxes. All of us who have been in that environment were Like, I don't know what you're talking about.
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C
Right?
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B
You'll find out that, you know, you've got the most famous line of this is you've got Warren Buffett, who pays percentage wise less than his Secretary, Secretary W2 versus a 1099 or whatever your business is. Not only does Herman's tactic talk about, hey, don't pay your taxes right now, defer it to the end of the year type of thing, because you could just use that as your own funding, but also, there are legal ways. I'm not going to get into involved on a podcast with this one.
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C
Talk to you tax professional.
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B
I'm not giving legal advice. We are not right. But you hear someone who is a politician and you have that politician will change. Where they're like, hey, I, I didn't pay more than 3% in taxes or 0% in taxes or 6. And they're in single digit. Yes. Hire someone very, very smart. Hire someone who understands this. Pay the extra money. I pay my accountant very well, and he has kept me very, very safe. But one of the things that's great about it is I'll ask him like, hey, can I do this? He's like, of course you could do that. I'm like, really? He's like, you'll go to jail, but yeah, you could do it. I'm like, yeah, so make sure you have someone who knows the law and won't just get in your face about it. So financial literacy is just, is so critical and taxes is just one thing because remember, you get paid, you get taxed. You then go buy something, you get taxed, you go to sell something, you get taxed. So we are just overwhelmed with it. And people like, oh, well, Switzerland has worse taxes than we have here. I'm like, well, not really. So it just depends on where you are and how it goes. If someone's sitting down and they're learning these things, are there books, are there resources? What are the things that you have involved that you've, hey, this is what's proven. If you do this, do these steps, we, you know, we've already gone through a couple that I'm sure people have already paused the podcast and like, I would deal with that in a second. I want to learn all this and start implementing it. They're making the phone calls. What are some of the things that you've run into that you got that you're like, you know what? This changed my financial career. This changed my financial intelligence in my life that I can now teach to my Kids, my.
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C
One of the most important things that I've learned is how to fund your business through stacking. So what that means is, say, for instance, I remember when I started doing it, people were like, well, how'd you get one person $150,000 in, like, two weeks? And I have the book right here. I'm going to go grab it for you in a second. And it talks about how I will go to, like, American Express, and I will get $20,000 from them. 25,000. I have good credit easily, right? They pull from experience. Then I know that Navy Federal Credit Reunion. They pull from TransUnion, get another 25 from them. Then I go to Key Bank. They pull from Equifax. That's another 25,000. So I just raised $75,000 in funding. Zero percent interest, technically, one inquiry, because the TransUnion bank can't see that I got an inquiry from American American Express and vice versa. And I just maxed out as much funding as I can get. Because if I went to American Express and then I went to pnc, which pulls from Experian, they might, oh, you just got a ding. Like, you just got it today. You're clearly shopping. So instead of giving you a $25,000 credit card, we're going to give you a $15,000 one. So this is how I maximize how much capital that I got. And because I understood that information, I'm able to double, triple the funding that I can get from my business. Use credit responsibly.
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B
By the way, I was about to say that, you know, people are like, oh, my God, I can get $75,000 at 0%. This is amazing. You already need to be in a situation where you have financial literacy, where there's already cash flow. I don't want you going out. That's not what Herman and I are talking about. We're not like, hey, go get six figures of debt and then file bankruptcy and forget what we're saying. What we're saying is funding when you're trying to feed your business is the lifeblood very beginning. It's going to be your sweat, your blood, and someone else's money. Sometimes it's called opm. So going through this idea of. Of. Of doing this effectively and stacking is something I've never heard of. So you mentioned you're going to go grab a book. Go grab that real quick and.
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C
Oh, yeah, yeah.
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B
It's one of those things that, you know, again, finding these resources, none of the stuff we invented in all these situation, we Are not source for any of this knowledge. We are synthesis. In other words, we are digested. This. We have found it, we are working with it. And this is why it's so important to go with people who are proven to actually do these type of things. So for those of you. What is it? What is the book? Share with us.
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C
So I got a couple books. The first one is called the Credit Mastery. There you go. Credit Mastery. It's by Ian Richards. It's a great book on how to fix your credit. The second book is by Ian also. It's Developing age Corporations send you a picture of it, and that shows you how to build your business credit. And the last one, I have no affiliation, no affiliates with these guys, but they really help my business. And the other 1 is 10x is easier than 2x by Dan Sullivan. That book, it showed me how to think bigger with my business in regards to. I set a goal for my business. Hey, I want to have 5,000 subscribers. That was the goal, right? And he was like, well, why don't you make it 50? And I didn't have a reason why I couldn't make it 50. So he's like, make it 50. And I was like, okay. So what happened automatically is my brain started planning and game planning for 50,000 instead of. Instead of 5,000. And what happened? I tripped into 15,000 because my operations, my business, my CEO, I was like, all right, let's shoot for 50,000. So that's why it's easier just to change the number verbally. And that'll grow your business.
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B
Well, your brain thinks differently, right? It gives you different answers based on what's going on. You know, if you sit there and say, I'm hungry versus I'm starving, your body will automatically go into, oh, okay, well, I was going to just get a snack versus, oh, my God, I'm gonna go eat a chunk of cow, whatever. For my vegan friends, you would eat lots of beans. I don't know. I don't know. Sorry. My sister Sarah. I apologize. I don't know what the equivalent is. You guys can send me messages and tell me what the equivalent is. We'll absolutely about it in detail. So when they go through there and when does a person know, like, okay, you know, I'm starting to learn my financial literacy. I've read the books. I've worked with Herman. What are we going through where we're like, all right, now I need funding. How do I know as a business owner, when's the right time to go get funding to Go through different rounds because there's different funding, where you're doing it on your own and then doing rounds of funding because there's an entire practice, there's an entire pitch deck. There's something called a Sequoia pitch deck when it goes into pitching for funding. When you're going in your first round of funding, how does someone know, as a business owner, okay, now I need funding.
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C
I can liken it to. I'll give you an example. When I first started my credit repair company and I was typing the letters and I was doing all that work, right? And then I realized I was capping at like $25,000 a month in revenue because my time was attached to the work I can do, right? So at that point I was like, oh, I need to hire more people. So if I hire more people and I invest that 25 back into the business and I hire three people, I'm able to make $100,000 a month instead. So I try to keep that little 25 because I still had a 9 to 5 mentality. The same thing is when it comes to funding, when you feel that you can grow if you invest X amount into your business because you've capped, that's when it's time to raise a little capital. But you have to know your numbers. So I knew my numbers before I went and got a $25,000 business credit card, and I liquidated that credit card and I used it to hire my first staff member. Like, hey, I'll give you a thousand dollars a month if you help me with these letters and I'll train you. And then within 90, 60 days. It wasn't even 90 days. 60 days. We doubled our income. And in 120 days, we 5xed it. And then when I saw that, I was like, oh, I'll just do it again.
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B
Right, right.
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C
Because I figured it out, got the systems in place, we got to stabilize. Because I didn't want to fly a plane and build it at the same time. I wanted to ensure I grew slowly. And then I put gasoline on that fire.
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B
I love that you just subtly snuck in my favorite word, which is systems. Your systems need to be bulletproof. Systems mission critic for scaling. If you do not have systems in place and you just throw money at the wall, it's not going to stick. It's not how. And there's a lot of ways to generate capital without ever selling product. I love that you focused on, you know, I'm using this money to pay for personnel versus for product. And you Know, people run into this all the time. They're like, okay, I need more money to buy product. You don't ever need more money to buy product because you can sit there and you can go online and say, listen, you want to pre order this? We have this. We're going to offer it. We're going. Would you like to pre order this? We're opening this special session. You're get your network and you pre order and that will fund you fast. So if you're in a situation where you're trying to purchase. Herman, grab none of. I'm not sour for any of this. We're just synthesis. We'll go in and I'm like, hey, I've got, I have a. I'm not going to plug it, but I own a company. We sell lots of merch, a ton of merch. I never touch it, I never see it. It's all automated. God bless the Internet. But we're, we'll go through and we'll use a supreme model which is, you know, it's only going to be available for a short time. You have to pre order it if you're going to get it opening opens up for a very short amount of time. So you have scarcity there. Like, it's only going to be available for only about two hours if you want to go. And I'll open it up. And because it's connected this thing, we'll get 2,000 orders like that. And then I'll go to my supplier and I'm like, Well, I need 2,000 of these now. He's like, okay. And then he'll pay because it's already been paid for. I just immediately pay and I'm gone. So it's cost me nothing. And that's why it's so important to fortify your social media. Why it's so important to fortify and have these system in place. Get money that's going to pay for personnel, not for product. It's a different bargain. You have to have a buyer before you purchase the product. People don't understand this. Very, very frustrating to me. All right, you grabbed another book. What was it?
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C
I grabbed another book by Daniel Priestley. It's called the Scorecard. Scorecard Marketing. And it talks about wait lists. And I didn't understand the whole wait list model. And then he gave the best example. The best example that everyone has seen recently is Tesla. So what? Three years ago, Elon Musk, we had to put down $100 for a cyber truck. And then he raised over a hundred Million dollars. He went to the banks, be like, hey, I got $100 million. Can you give me more? And then he went and built a bunch of cyber trucks that didn't have to be delivered for years or so.
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B
They work at all. Or be functional. Or be good products in any way. Shape or.
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C
Exactly. Or be a good product. Exactly.
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B
Attractive in any way at all.
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C
At all. So I wait list everything. Hey, I got a new product coming out, and I see what's going on with the waitlist. I say, oh, the people want this product. Let's create it. Yes, let's give it to them.
- [26:31]
B
And that little insight's important. There's so many people who go to the ocean, say, no, you're not allowed to come in now, or tell the river, go upstream, or, no, the market's going to tell you what to do, then to do. Do it. You are not smarter than the market. Unless. No, they're not smarter than market, period. I was trying to think of an example, like, is anybody smarter than the market? I was thinking Steve Jobs. I was like, no, he didn't like the iPad mini, and it was the number one seller the year after he died. And I. I was like, well, I can't think of anybody who's ever been smarter than the market.
- [26:57]
C
Market will tell you what, what, what, what it wants. Pay attention. So if my wait list was 100 people, I'm not creating the product. If the wait list was 1500, 2000, I was like, all right, guys, we got work to do. Let's get the smart people in the room. Because I came up with the idea already. I'll figure it out.
- [27:11]
B
This, and this is the joys of being a business owner. So I tell people all the time, I'm like, stop being a CEO. Become a strategist. Like, I'm just going to advise you guys. Go do it. And that's where systems come into place, which is a completely different conversation. So let's say someone to the point, like, I get it. I've heard what you guys have said. I understand wait list. Now. I've read all the books that Herman have shown me, which those are some that I haven't read. So they're definitely going to be on my list. God bless Everand. I'm not sponsored by Everand. God bless them. And you get free audiobooks or you pay, like, whatever it is, 20 bucks a month, and you get it. That's. Guess what I'm gonna be doing on my walks every day. Listen to that. Right when I'm working Out. If someone's to the point. Okay, I get it. I need to get funding. This is mission critical now. I have to do this. I need to get personnel. I can't afford them. I haven't done the waitlist thing yet. I'm in this pocket of. You know What? I need 25k, I need 100k, whatever it is. And they need to get effective funding. Walk me through that process. When they work with you, what are some of the things that people mess up when they first come in? And then what are the things that are proven to actually help people out?
- [28:08]
C
So we got the creditors together, their profile is together. Their business has to be structured properly. S Corp, C Corp, whatever you got. These are the little dings that banks look like. Look, look at, because I want you to think like a bank does. So when I come in, I have a real business address. It's not my home address, right? So I have a office. And even if you can't afford an office space, you can actually rent addresses where your mail gets sent to virtual address or registered agent. Because now you look like a real business. Does bank of America want to do business or give somebody 25 grand who offices in their home? Right? And another thing, people who have their home addresses as your business address, that's actually not safe because your business is public information. I can go to the Secretary of State website, look up Bellisone Enterprises, and it's my home address. Everybody knows where I live. So little things like that, having a real business email info at Bella's Own Enterprises, not Bella's Own Enterprises at Gmail. You want to look legitimate and you want to look absolutely credible. Those are the two little things I just wanted to tell people. And also have a real business website, because the banks, they actually look you up while you're sitting there like, oh, okay, let me check out your website, see if you're legitimate. So if that looks good and it's perfect, the. The application process is pretty simple. They know that you are a startup. They know that you've done only 30,000 next year. Sometimes they'll ask you, hey, if we give you this 25 grand, what does revenue look like? I project I'm gonna make 100 under 25,000 next year with this $25,000 influx into my business. Okay, great. And sometimes they give you 10% of what the business has made or what the business will make up to a certain point. So if you say you're going to make up to 125 grand, that business credit card will probably be $12,500 or they'll see what credit cards you already have on your personal side. They're like, all right, well, he has a $25,000 personal credit card. He's done well with it. We'll bump that $12,000 card to a $30,000 card. That's how they think. Another thing with the application is what you put on it as what you do is important too. So, yes, I have a job, but what is your title that you're putting on your business? I always tell people, put that you're the president, you're the CEO, the CIO don't put owner. And they're like, well, why, why, why not? I am the owner. I was like, because owners don't make any money. So me as a, as a president or a founder, I have a salary that I get because they're thinking, well, how are you going to pay this credit card if you're the owner? Because the owner is always what the last to get paid. And so you get the change that's left over. So those little things when filling out the application actually you can leverage to actually get four year business.
- [30:38]
B
And I don't think people understand that banks actually want to lend you money because they make a lot of money like when you buy a house. So when, when you buy a house and you're like, oh, well, I'm just paying off my mortgage. No, you want to think of a box and then it's cut in half from one corner, the bottom left to the top right. And you're just mostly paying interest the entire time they're making it. Your, your actual balances is going down. That's not any different than business loans. They're going to make a ton of money because they have these things where they go, sign up now, get 500 when you sign up, bonus when you have a credit card. They're hoping that you're like the majority of the people out there, that they're going to make that 100x over the lifetime between fees and late fees and problems and so on and so forth. If you've got effective financial literacy, you're not going to be that guy that you're not going to be in that situation and you're going to, and you're going to get away from that. So if they're coming in and you know, you got to put down that they're the founder or the owner or the president, you got to have a real business address. What happens if someone's like, I don't Have a website. I don't have this. Do you walk people through that or what is the ball?
- [31:38]
C
Absolutely, we can walk you through that. We don't do it. Here's why we don't do it. Because it's so simple to do. You can go to fiverr.com, pay somebody a hundred bucks, I promise you they'll have your business email, your business website set up within three days. Or you can go and do it yourself and get it done in like two hours. Go to GoDaddy.com or Wits.com it's very simple. There's nothing that we're discussing on this podcast today that cannot be done in the next 24 hours. In regards to your business setup, we.
- [32:02]
B
Used to run summits and we would do this and we would force people to do it live. We're like, okay, here we go. Go do this, go do this, go do this. And within two hours it's operational. Because it's not complicated. It's so easy to do because if you show up with Gmail or Live or Hotmail, whatever is your address. It's not that there's anything wrong with those email addresses, except you don't own any of those emails. Remember, if you're not paying for something, you're the product. So it is what it is. Please remember that. But it tells the person who's investing, it tells the lender, it tells. As an angel investor, when you come to me, if that's your email address, it tells me volumes about your business.
- [32:34]
C
Volumes.
- [32:35]
B
I know more about you than you could possibly know. If you show up and you've got an AOL address, it's like a puff of smoke where I was sitting because I will run as fast as I can. It just, it tells me so much about you. It's just like when you go to apply for something, if you show up wearing a pair of raggedy shoes and flip flops versus a three piece suit, I'm going to. Also, the way you articulate, what vernacular are you using? I use very different vernacular when I'm on a podcast or if I'm, you know, in the. Versus when I'm with my friends. Because when friends, basically I sound like an idiot. There's just no way around it. We're goofy and we're, we're just, we're making words up and we are cursing more than my mother would ever approve, but we are being idiots. There is a time and a place that's also your digital footprint and people regrettably don't understand that. What are some of the mistakes that people make? And they're just common stuff. When they come to you and they want to come, they want to help you out. What are some of the things that you help people out? And go, okay, first off, don't do this anymore. Dear God, please don't do this.
- [33:32]
C
Right, right, right. Being in a high risk industry and lying on the business application. All right, so number one, yeah, that happens. So, no, there's people out there, believe it or not, a high risk industry. Banks don't like to give money to, like, high risk industries such as real estate. So I know HGTV made it look all sexy and good, but banks hate giving that money to that NAICS code. So every industry has a code that is attached to it. Business, consulting, technology, medical, they all have a code. So when you're going to the bank, and they're nice and they're wonderful. Oh, Herman, it's a pleasure to meet you. What do you do? What's the business? And you tell them, hey, Bella's own academy, Bellstone Enterprises, we do real estate. They're like, oh, that's wonderful. And they attach a code to your business at that bank. Now, when it's time for you to go get funding, instead of you getting a $25,000 card, you're probably gonna get a $7,000 card. Because in their eyes, real estate is high risk. Trucking is high risk. Carmen, what are the other high risk industry? Adult vices are high risk daycare. Anything with transportation. You can Google this information. High risk industries. So those type of industries, they don't like to give funding to. That's why I have a journal name Bella Stone Enterprises, Not Bella Sloan Credit Repair or Bella's Loan Trucking. And the other thing is lying on business applications, like you said, banks want to give you money. Start slow. You're trying to get $150,000 credit card or a loan from a bank. And if you have to lie to get it, then you're probably not ready to get the money. So be honest with the bank. Listen, I made 30,000 last year. I'm projected to make a buck 50 this year. What can you give me? Based on my credit and my business being structured, probably. Herman, honestly, we can give you 30,000. Great. I'm going to turn this 30,000. And here's what the great thing. Once you spend that 30,000 and you pay it down, or you pay it down half within 90 days or six months, guess what the bank is going to do? They're going to reach out to you. But, hey, you. You're doing really good with this credit card. Yeah. Would you like a credit card increase? Would you like another business credit card? Absolutely. I would love to do that, because you got to prove yourself to the bank, and they'll take care of you.
- [35:35]
B
I love that you said they'll reach out to you in a nice way. No, they will hound you 15 times a day. Right. Do you like your money, sir?
- [35:44]
C
It.
- [35:45]
B
It becomes the different problem when you actually have financial literacy and you're running into this. They'll bang on your door, they will get annoyed. That's why it's important to have. Don't use your regular phone. Try and have another phone specifically for this. We all have hidden phones. We all have hidden WhatsApp. We all have hidden Google Voice. We all have extra SIM cards in our lives. Let's be honest. Because.
- [36:03]
C
Let's be honest.
- [36:04]
B
No. No. Because I will just get hounded whenever I go and I do apply for something or whatever it is, I will go in and I'll have a separate email address and a separate phone number that just gets hounded. And I'm like, whatever. It's connected to a phone that sits in a closet in the office. I'm like, have fun. It's on airport mode, or it's on do not disturb. And I just like, whatever. I don't check it. I never interact with it. Sorry for those of you who have Googled me and tried to get a hold of me. That's why you can't get a hold of me.
- [36:29]
C
That's why. It's for my protection.
- [36:31]
B
Yeah. It's just y'all are. And it goes back to what you said earlier, which is don't put your home address on the. On the thing. No one knows my home address. There's no way to Google where my home address is because I technically don't own my home. My own. My home is owned by a trust, which I am not connected to in any way, shape, or form, publicly, privately, it's my trust, but no one knows where I live. And that's done on purpose because I love you guys. You guys are very sweet, but y'all are creepy, and you freak me out. Don't show up in my house. It makes me pee on myself a little bit. Don't be doing that. It's weird.
- [37:01]
C
Y'all are nervous. I have to protect myself.
- [37:04]
B
You know, I like carrying guns. And I will return fire is what it is. So when someone comes in, there's a lot of people. When we talk about getting a loan, fixing their credit. They're terrified because they weren't taught this. I mean, financial literacy isn't something I was taught by my family in any way, shape, or form. I was taught, save, save, save, save, save, save. Don't buy stuff you don't need. That's the extent of it. It wasn't until I read. I know it's very classic, and everybody's read it a thousand times. I read Rich Dad, Poor dad, that Poor Dad. I read Rich Dad, Poor dad, and then my favorite book by him is not Rich Dad, Poor Dad. It's Cash Flow Quadrant class. Cash Flow Quadrant changed my life. And then I was 20 years old, 21 maybe, I bought a book called Cash Flow and a book, a game called Cash Flow that he has done. If you haven't bought this game, which it was $350 or $299 when I bought it, which at the time was more money than I could possibly imagine. Because I grew up, I couldn't afford the last three letters of poor. I was broke, and I spent this money. And it's like Monopoly on crack. And I laid it out and I played with my buddy Keith, and he kicked my butt the first time. And then I sat there on the table and there's four people can play at the same time. I think you play more, but normally four. And I would run around and I'd sit there and play every night all by myself, just constantly playing this game over and over and over. And I have played this game with every one of my clients that I've coached. Every one of my clients that I feel is, like 75 now, because bastards made me spend money before I played it with people who are billionaires and who go bankrupt instantaneously in the game. It is one of those games that fundamentally change it and allowed me to get past the fear of, hey, maybe I'll try this, maybe I'll try that. Because if I lose, it's just paper money and it's a little plastic rats on a board. So when people come to you and they're terrified, because there's a lot of people who are terrified of approaching this. They're like, you know what? I can't be a business owner. I can't do a side hustle because I'm a afraid. I just. I just want to be an employee and get a W2, which is horrible. Good God. The amount of damage. Oh, my God. It's horrible when someone's at that point and they're. They have Paralysis because of fear. How do you handle that? How do you hold people's hands through that?
- [39:06]
C
I give them a different fear. So everybody doesn't have to be an entrepreneur, but everybody does need to be an investor. You need to be investing in something that you're in control of. A friend of mine gave me this wonderful example. He like, they are financial prey and they're financial predators, right? And it's in the interest of the financial prey to keep you financially illiterate. And when you're financially literate, they make more money, right? So for banks, say for instance, they make billions, like tens of billions. I want to say $50 billion just on late fees and introduction. Not even late fees. It's like bounce checks or whatever. Non sufficient funds, billions. Why wouldn't they just send you a text message, hey, your bank account is low. Or, or in school, why didn't they teach you how to balance a checkbook? I literally went, but it was a private school. We actually had a class where they showed us how to write checks and balance a checkbook. And my dad sat me down, he's like, hey son, I want you to pay the bills every Friday. And he was, he's like, this is what I made, this is what we're spending. I think he did that. So I want to ask him for the Nintendo because he would see how much money was left. But it was financial literacy for me. So when I grew up, I had those, those habits. Not having those habits would cost me money. I wouldn't learn how to save, I wouldn't learn how to invest. So the different fear that I give people, okay, you want to do the W2? I'm old enough to see a couple of crashes happen where people's 401k have been wiped away, right? So I'm like, do you want that option or do you want to have just a little bit more control? Because you gave somebody two, three, $400 a week for 30 years, they made millions off of that. And they gave you, when you retire, you're probably have half a million dollars, a million dollars, and you think you did a thing. But the opportunity cost of your financial literacy, it's probably $10 million that you lost because you didn't have that information. So when I pivot when I give them new information, they're like, oh. I was like, listen, I'm not going to promise you getting you $10 million. But hey, let me help you get two or three rental income, right? Properties. So when you retire, in addition to the 401k Social Security, you're getting 3,4000 dollars in rent check and the asset is worth X amount. Put in a trust that you can pass out to your children lever by like leveraged by life insurance. We'll go down the rabbit hole. I just make them think differently about that thousand dollars are giving away to somebody else.
- [41:25]
B
So let's go down that rabbit hole. So someone comes to you and they're like, and I love that you said I wanted a Nintendo because that makes you in my age group. Right? Right. It was different though. Did you actually get the Nintendo or.
- [41:34]
C
No, I got the Nintendo. I got.
- [41:36]
B
Your getting Nintendo was different than me getting Nintendo because remember my last name is Schwartz. We have eight days. So day one, I got the Nintendo. Day two, I got the controller. Day three, I got the other controller. You know what I got last day? The power adapter to turn the damn thing on. I was so mad. I was. My dad thought it was hilarious. But very similar to I had my mom sit down and show me this is what a checkbook is. Because we're both that old. But you got to sit down and go through this and learn these things out. But let's start going down these rabbit holes. Let's talk about more of these advanced things that you do and that you share about life insurance and how to do this and all that. Walk me through the stuff that when you share with people, their minds just go. And they're just.
- [42:14]
C
I'll give you a great example of this. I did a zoom call with Temple University students during the pandemic. Temple called me. That's my alma mater. So I was very honored. They said, hey, can you talk to our freshmen about some financial literacy topics? I was like, great. So I got on the call, maybe 20 people on there. And I was like, hey, who wants to be worth $250,000 by the time they graduate college? So you're telling a bunch of 18 year olds that. And they're like, what are you talking about? That's, that's not even possible. I'm just trying to get this, this teaching degree so I can make $50,000 in the school district of Philadelphia. Right, Right. Painful. So, so I was like, all right. So we talked about the credit thing. What? Walk them through the whole credit thing. Open up a bank account, getting your first personal credit card. Walk them through all that in two years. When that credit card is two years old, it'll probably have a five to ten thousand dollar limit on there. And I want everybody to start their llc. So I'M talking to freshman's right now. So now it's sophomore year, junior year, excuse me. Your credit card is two years old. The limit is $10,000. You have a business that's two years old whether you were using it or not. I'm just glad you got that paper. Now you're able to go get business credit or business line of credit and you're able to put a down payment on an investment property, right, because you're over 18 year, but you're able to sign for it, talk to a good realtor. And now we're going to house hack. You can get up to a four unit property, right through a program called naca. So I talk about this NACA program where they're able to get in it with low, low money down or zero money down for first time home buyers. So now you're in this property, the three other units are paying the rent for you, right? And you're living for free. In another two years you're able to take out the equity because there will be a little equity, a little 5, $10,000 and purchase another, do another down payment on another property. So by the time you're a senior or you're a graduate student, you'll have eight doors paying you X amount of money. And at minimum in the Philadelphia market at the time, those assets should be worth over $250,000 and you're cash flowing at least 25 to $3,000. So after I gave him it was a longer PowerPoint. I was like, after I do that, what do you think will happen to you by the time you graduate? Everyone was like, I probably won't work, right? And I was glad in that moment I brainwashed them. I was like, really? Why wouldn't you work well? They was like, well, if I can leverage credit to make 3,000 or 5,000, then I'll just do that over and over. I was like, all right, class dismissed. Sorry. Temple University, that everyone's going to drop off, drop out in about two semesters. But I just, I just showed them the difference and I was like, hey, you could still have a job, but having this side hustle cash flow coming in and building asset equity. And then I tell them to put in a trust to protect the assets because everybody wants to sue you. And hey, you got an extra 5, $10,000. Start putting that into a life insurance policy that, that'll grow some safe dividends. Every so now their mind is just thinking differently about money. And I was like, hey, the job that you guys are going to have, you can leverage that to 10 nexus even more and you'll probably retire in five years.
- [45:13]
B
So I love that you just kind of again, for people who have done it a million times, it's like, it's no big deal. So to make it easy to remember, it's Monopoly for greenhouses. One red hotel. Really, really simple. But you know, you came on and you said, you didn't say, go buy your dream house. You're like, no, go buy a fourplex. That three of them are going to pay for the one. And you go through that, rinse and repeat, and rinse and repeat, and rinse and repeat, and rinse and repeat. It doesn't have to be sexy, it doesn't have to be fun. Now you're still going to have the headaches of being a property owner. There's always going to be that. That's just the nature of the beast. It is what it is. You're going to have people who ruin stuff. You're going to have those things. There are those hurdles and there's ways to prevent that. There's ways to really fortify it. One of the ways that, you know, when I was purchasing real estate in the very beginning, I refused to rent to renters. It was always rent to own. I'm like, listen, if you want to come in, it's a rent to own model. Therefore, all of my problems with as far as any, anybody coming in and messing with my properties and breaking anything, they're going to take better care of it. Now. Most of them have been there for 13 years, 14 years.
- [46:10]
C
Wow.
- [46:10]
B
They still don't want to buy the property. They're still, I'm going to buy it one day. But they're wage slaves. They're employees, so they're never going to get there. I'm like, we're going to get to a point sooner or later. And I'm like, guys, we're way outside our realm of when you could have bought it. But they still have this idea that this is their home. And before the collapse happened, I was lucky enough to be connected to in Covid before the collapse. I was lucky to be connected. People like, listen, take all of your commercial property, chuck it. I was like, I'm sorry, what? That's most of my portfolio. They're like, you have to chuck it. You have to chuck it now. And I was very lucky. I chucked all my commercial property. I got out, took all that road, put it into industrial stuff, survived the hit, and now I got to go back in and buy Certain industrial stuff, because I own a bunch of office complexes, and they're like, you're going to get wasn't me again. This is something that people don't understand, Herman and I. But I'm sure I'm curious if you. It is not ever what you know. It's who you know who you know. Your network is your net worth. I knew this individual for a very long time. I'm not going to plug his name. He's a gift. You already have read about him. He helped somebody who we may have talked about earlier, who created a really cool board game and multiple books, get his real estate wealth. He called me up. He's like, listen, I've never told you to do anything. You and I have been friends. We've been connected. You've got to purge all of this now. And I was like, I'm sorry, what? And he kept blowing up my phone. I was like, dude, what's wrong? And he said, you got to get out. He goes, you're gonna get eaten alive. And I was like, dude, you're asking me to wipe out 60 of my wealth. He's like, I'm just. You have to. Please, for the love of God. And I was like, oh, I'm gonna beat your ass if this doesn't work. This is taking years to get all of these. I listed everything and wiped it out. We got very lucky. One of the things that Herman went through was he didn't again, he didn't say, go buy your primary residence. That you should never. You should never do. Like, hey, I want this primary residence. That's $3 million. It's a million. It's $300,000. Awesome. What is the mortgage pay? Cool. It's 2,000, $3,000 a month. Awesome. How can I buy something that's going to pay for that? That's what we talk about with buying an asset, and you can't do that with. Without having a certain level of financial intelligence. So there's a lot of advanced things we're talking about. We didn't even get into the life insurance stuff. There's so much here where people can just pick your brain because you've done it and you share so openly and so lovingly. If someone wants to find out more and they want to connect you more and they want to do this, how do people. How do they get a hold of you? How do they. Okay, we get it. There's actual help out there. How do they find you?
- [48:32]
C
So they can find me on Instagram. Haitian underscore CEO. Where I have these conversations every single morning, 686-06-06am Eastern Standard Time. I'm dropping a video on some type of knowledge base so that they can do this. A lot of people hit me up. Hey, I want to learn more. I want to sit down with you. I have an academy, it's called Bella Sloan Academy. 50 bucks a month sign up. We meet every single Wednesday night at 7pm where we would like to be of service. And you can find me on my YouTube channel, Bella Sloan Enterprises. We have long form content where we teach for an hour for free. I tell you by hey, I only charge for my time. The information, I'm going to give it away to you for free. Just tap into any one of my platforms. I love to be a service.
- [49:12]
B
So if someone comes in because you've got Haitian CEO and you've got Bella Sloan, if someone is not either fall into that. If someone isn't patient, if someone is from a different culture, are they completely welcome as well?
- [49:22]
C
Yes, they're absolutely welcome. That's just my moniker, that's my title. That's just for me. But black, white, purple or green, rich or poor, we like to serve everybody. We have something for everyone.
- [49:31]
B
I love it. Thank you so much for coming and sharing these little tidbits and being part of this. I really appreciate your time Charles.
- [49:37]
C
It's an absolute honor. Great conversation today. Thank you.
- [49:40]
A
Thank you for joining us for this empowering conversation with Herman Dolce. We hope you're feeling motivated to take control of your financial future and apply the practical strategies Herman shared to optimize your credit and fund your business growth. A huge thank you to Herman for bringing his expertise and passion for financial literacy to the show. His insights into credit optimization, funding strategies and the importance of financial responsibility are a game changer for entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey. To all the entrepreneurs go getters and visionaries listening, your dedication to building something extraordinary fuels our mission to share these transformative conversations. Ready to put Herman's strategies into action? We've created a comprehensive guide highlighting his credit optimization tips, funding techniques and step by step process to stack resources effectively. Download it now@podcast.im Charles Schwartz.com and remember, as Herman said, your financial literacy is the foundation of your business success. Take the time to build it wisely and the opportunities will follow. Now go take charge of your financial future and turn your dreams into reality. Your journey to unstoppable success starts today.