The Power of Credit Scores: Changing Your Life and America (for the better)

Summary

Podcast Summary: "The Power of Credit Scores: Changing Your Life and America (for the better)"

Podcast Information:

• Title: Money And Wealth With John Hope Bryant
• Host: John Hope Bryant
• Produced by: The Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio
• Release Date: April 24, 2025
• Description: John Hope Bryant, a renowned entrepreneur, executive, and philanthropist, delivers his signature 'Straight Talk' on cultivating a wealth-building mindset. Focusing on how the Black community was historically excluded from essential financial knowledge, Bryant offers practical strategies to survive and flourish within a free enterprise system. Episodes primarily feature Bryant addressing the audience directly, interspersed with interviews from inspirational individuals encountered during his global travels.

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Introduction: Setting the Stage for Financial Empowerment

[02:36] John Hope Bryant:
Bryant opens the episode by expressing gratitude towards his listeners for helping the podcast rank among the top 100 business podcasts and the top 40 entrepreneurship podcasts nationwide. He emphasizes the episode's critical focus on credit scores and their profound impact on individual lives and the broader American society.

The Crucial Role of Credit Scores

[05:00] John Hope Bryant:
Bryant introduces a compelling statistic: "If you raise your credit score from 500 to 700, you'll live on average 20 years longer life." He clarifies that this isn't an exaggeration but a reflection of how credit scores serve as indicators of broader social and economic health, encompassing hope, well-being, confidence, and optimism.

Operation Hope: Bridging the Financial Literacy Gap

[09:15] John Hope Bryant:
He details the mission of Operation Hope, a financial services organization with over 1,500 offices across 42 states. Operation Hope assists individuals in improving their credit scores, reducing debt, and increasing savings. Bryant explains how enhancing credit scores can transition individuals from being denied by financial institutions to gaining access to homeownership, education funding, and better loan terms.

Impact on Diverse Communities

Rural America and Poor White Communities

[12:45] John Hope Bryant:
Bryant highlights that rural communities, particularly poor white areas, typically have average credit scores between 560 and 620. These areas often suffer from higher medical debt rates, limited educational attainment, food deserts, and environmental hazards. Improving credit scores in these regions can lead to increased homeownership, entrepreneurship, and reduced reliance on predatory lending.

African American Communities

[18:30] John Hope Bryant:
He asserts that the average credit score among African Americans stands at 620, with many individuals scoring in the 500-550 range. Bryant emphasizes that enhancing these scores can unlock opportunities for homeownership, business loans, and overall economic advancement. He also touches on systemic issues like medical debt and limited access to traditional banking.

Native American Communities

[25:00] John Hope Bryant:
Bryant discusses the unique financial challenges faced by Native American communities, including limited access to mainstream credit options and generational wealth disparities. Improving credit scores in these areas can facilitate tribal home loans, small business growth via Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), and financial sovereignty.

Latino Communities

[30:15] John Hope Bryant:
He points out that Latino communities have average credit scores ranging from 610 to 665. Enhancing these scores can spur first-time homeownership, entrepreneurial ventures, intergenerational wealth transfers, and overall economic participation.

Women and Financial Literacy

[35:00] John Hope Bryant:
Bryant underscores the critical role of women in the economy, noting that women make up a significant portion of households and entrepreneurs. Addressing the credit gap for women, especially single mothers and female entrepreneurs, can lead to increased homeownership, business success, and financial stability for families.

Case Studies: Contrasting Communities Within Proximity

[40:25] John Hope Bryant:
To illustrate the tangible impacts of credit scores, Bryant presents several case studies where neighborhoods with credit scores of 500 are located just minutes away from areas scoring 700 or higher. Examples include:

• Detroit vs. Gross Point, Michigan: A stark contrast where Detroit averages a 566 credit score, while Gross Point boasts a 730.
• South Central LA vs. Culver City, California: South Central LA has a 580 credit score neighborhood adjacent to Culver City’s 720 score areas, showcasing vibrant economic growth and entrepreneurship.

Strategies for Improving Credit Scores

[45:10] John Hope Bryant:
Bryant outlines actionable steps for listeners to elevate their credit scores:

1. Regularly Check Credit Reports: Encourage individuals to review their credit reports frequently to identify and dispute errors. "There's an 80 to 90% chance there's an error on your credit report." – Bryant (05:00)
2. Utilize Tools like Isusu: Promote services that ensure rent and utility payments are reported to credit bureaus, thereby building credit history.
3. Debt Reduction and Savings Increase: Work with Operation Hope to reduce debt by an average of $3,800 and increase savings by approximately $1,200, fundamentally enhancing financial stability.

Personal Narratives: Transformative Journeys

[50:00] John Hope Bryant:
Sharing a deeply personal story, Bryant recounts his mother's financial resilience. Despite working hourly jobs for decades, she managed to secure a credit score of 854, demonstrating the profound impact of financial literacy and disciplined credit management. This narrative serves to inspire listeners that significant credit improvement is attainable regardless of one's starting point.

Financial Literacy as a Civil Rights Issue

[55:00] John Hope Bryant:
Bryant passionately argues that financial literacy is a contemporary civil rights issue. He posits that credit scores are as crucial as education in achieving personal and economic freedom. By empowering marginalized communities with financial knowledge and resources, Operation Hope aims to dismantle systemic barriers and promote equitable economic opportunities.

Conclusion: Empowerment Through Credit Improvement

[60:00] John Hope Bryant:
In his closing remarks, Bryant urges listeners to take control of their financial destinies by improving their credit scores. He reiterates the transformative power of credit scores in unlocking opportunities, fostering community stability, and enhancing overall quality of life. The episode concludes with a call to action for listeners to engage with Operation Hope's resources and embark on their journey towards financial empowerment.

Notable Quotes:

1. John Hope Bryant at [05:00]:
   "If you raise your credit score from 500 to 700, you'll live on average 20 years longer life."

2. John Hope Bryant at [35:00]:
   "Financial literacy is a civil rights issue of this generation."

3. John Hope Bryant at [55:00]:
   "Operation Hope is committed to being the Starbucks of financial literacy, the Walmart of financial inclusion."

Key Takeaways:

• Credit Scores as Indicators: Beyond financial standing, credit scores reflect broader social and economic health, influencing life expectancy and community well-being.
• Operation Hope’s Impact: With extensive resources and strategic partnerships, Operation Hope provides essential support in improving credit scores, which in turn fosters economic growth and stability.
• Community-Specific Strategies: Tailored approaches for diverse communities (rural, African American, Native American, Latino, women) are crucial in addressing unique financial challenges.
• Actionable Steps for Individuals: Regular credit report monitoring, dispute resolution, debt reduction, and savings enhancement are fundamental to improving credit scores.
• Personal Empowerment: Financial literacy empowers individuals to overcome systemic barriers, achieve economic freedom, and contribute positively to their communities.

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Conclusion:
In this enlightening episode, John Hope Bryant masterfully interweaves data-driven insights with personal narratives to illustrate the profound impact of credit scores on individual lives and the American socio-economic landscape. By advocating for financial literacy as a civil rights issue and presenting actionable strategies through Operation Hope, Bryant provides listeners with the tools and motivation to transform their financial futures and, collectively, the nation's prosperity.

Transcript

[John Hope Bryant]

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[Unknown (iHeart Ad)]

Welcome to Money and Wealth with John Hope Bryant, a production of the Black Effect podcast network and iHeartRadio. Yo, this is John Hope Bryant and this is the Money and Wealth podcast podcast series on Black Effect Network and iHeartRadio. So weekly podcast, my ministry of finance. I want to, first of all, thank you, the listeners and subscribers, for making this a one top 100 business podcast in the country and one of the top 40 entrepreneurship podcasts in the entire country. Let's get at it. This week's podcast is extremely important and provocative. It's not supposed to be provocative. It shouldn't be provocative, but it, I, you know, I think this is a radical movement of common sense and, well, I like math because it doesn't have an opinion. That's my friend Melody Hobson, quote. And it just appears that things that I don't intend to be provocative at all are extremely provocative. Let me just get it out right up front. I don't think the issue today in this country is primarily black or white, as in race or red or blue, as in politics, partisan politics. I think the issue is green economics. Let me unpack that with specifics. And I'm talking about credit scores this week. I'm talking about the power of credit scores to change your life and to change America. Of course, it should go without saying for the better. Okay, So I, together with Bernice A. King, Dr. Bernice A. King, the daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And Ambassador Andrew Young, who was Dr. King's right arm in the civil rights movement and was on the balcony when Dr. King was assassinated in April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. Along with the mayor of Memphis, Paul Young, we got together and pulled together 20amazing global speakers, the experts, the best of the best, and 100 founding delegates from all platforms throughout the country and even throughout the world. And you can go to the Dream Forward and look at the list of speakers and the delegates and you will find it looks like America. There are Democrats and Republicans. There is black and white. There's rich and poor. There's conservative and liberal. There's urban and rural. There's a current administration who's represented with speakers in the program for three hours. The ground rule was nothing negative. You can't throw political bombs. You can't Criticize. You can't take out your therapy, the need for therapy, and your frustrations. Using Dr. King's memorial as a backstage. You have to come here with solutions for all of us. Because when Dr. King was assassinated, he had framed out a vision for the poor people's campaign that was about all of God's children. He wasn't just talking about black people. He was talking about poor whites also at that point. There are more poor whites in America now and then than poor anybody else. That is a literal fact. And I believe it is also true that the number one group dying in America today are high school educated white men dying of opioid addiction, which is basically just lost aspiration. The addiction, the drugs are really just the sideshow. The real issue here, it is lost hope, depression, a lack of opportunity. And I'm talking about an opportunity economy. That's what we'll be talking about today is an opportunity economy. But I'm talking about your economy. It's your front door, your front door. It's your kitchen table. I'm talking about how to. What you. There's so many things you can control. I'm gonna talk about something you can control. So Dr. King was. Was. Was talking about all of God's children, right? He didn't say, I'm here to say black America. He said. He said, I'm here to redeem the soul of America from the triple evils of war, racism, and poverty. And he was right. And unfortunately, he was assassinated before he could do his first march. We issued a series of business plans on that day. You can go to Dream Forward at Operation Hope website and download them, look at them for yourself, evaluate them yourself, analyze them yourself. They're all rooted in some basic realities and facts. Feel free to beat them up if you like, send them back to us if you disagree. Very hard to disagree with basic numbers, but I'm more than open. If you want to make them better, you can make them better. Fantastic. Emory University, the economics department at Emory University and Clark Atlanta University Business School and HBCU have both agreed to be the quarterback for refining these business plans as we get into the fall of this year. And we present final plans at the HOPE Global Forum. Okay, now, I've talked enough. That's five minutes about the philosophy and all that stuff. I know you have precious time and you. You want to. I just wanted to let you know what this is about and what this is not about. And what I think. I think the country is sort of wasting a lot of time arguing about things Because I really think that we can solve, I don't know, 80% of our problems if we get our economics straight, right? If everybody has a personal aspirational ladder that they feel is repaired enough for them to get on and to into increase. People say all the time when I'm giving speeches in mostly urban communities, I go everywhere. I was just at West Point speaking, as in West Point, the military academy, but I go to urban communities all the time. And people say I hate rich people. That I have to remind them, no, you don't. You hate rich people until you become rich. What you hate is a gamed system, right? A system that you believe that is rigged against your success, that no matter how hard you work, you can't seem to get over. You can't seem to advance yourself, right? And that's not good if you don't believe this country is a. Is not a country. She's an idea. You can make her anything you want. And with enough hustle, you should be able to aspire and hustle in a business plan, in hope tied to a business plan. You should have doors open for you, or you should be able to open doors to unlock the power of success in your life. So this is everybody's problem. And let's see if at the end of this podcast, I've already wasted or invested six and a half minutes in setting this up. Let's see if I can spend the next 40 minutes, 45 minutes giving you some data that is absolutely unimpeachable. And hit me on social media, hit me on comments and tell me whether you agree with this or not. But I want you to, I want you to tell your friends and subscribe to this podcast. I want them to subscribe, I want them to follow me on YouTube, on Instagram, on LinkedIn, on Threads, wherever you find your social media platforms. Uh, because that we're ha. Because on those comments, those comments, those platforms, I actually answered. You leave a comment there. I will actually answer it myself between meetings and trying to grow businesses. Okay, here's the first bombshell. If you want somebody else to listen to this and get to the meat of it while they're, you know, whatever, going through the motions of the day. They're traveling, they're, they're commuting, they're cooking, food, whatever, they're jogging. Okay, when does John get into the seven and a half minute mark? Here you go. First bombshell. If you raise your credit score from 500 to 700, you'll live on average 20 year longer life. Boom. Yes, that's exactly right. I did not exaggerate one little bit. And I'll get into each of these topics in some detail. But I want to lay some bombs out for you. The data that experian. We have a Hope Financial Wellness Index at operashope. You can go to operashope's website, you can type in your zip code, go to operationship website or just type, just search Hope Financial Wellness Index. I've given you all these. We're the economic plumbing for the country, the bottom half of the country. So I'm giving you all these tools you can use on your own. By the way, everything I'm telling you, you can go do it on yourself. You want tell you how you're living. Tell me your zip code and tell me and I'll tell you your credit score and I'll tell you how you're living. Go to the Hope Financial Wellness Index, type in your zip code and we'll tell you your credit score for you and your neighbors. Right? What did I tell, what did I tell you before? If you hang around nine broke people, you'll be the tenth. The opposite is also true. You model what you see. So what we have found is if you live in a 500 credit score neighborhood, you live to about 61 years of age. Give or take black and brown, urban, poor, white, rural, doesn't matter. You live in a 700 credit score neighborhood. Okay. You live to about 81 years of age. Black and brown, urban, poor, I mean, or black and black and white. A black 700 credit score community or a white 700 credit score community matters. Not a tan one, meaning my Asian brothers, sisters or Latinos. Doesn't matter. Okay. This data is unimpeachable. And so that means for about every 50 point increase in credit score, you live a 50 live about 5 year longer life. And it's not about the credit score per se, it's about the trending indicators of hope. Well being, belief, confidence, joy, optimism. Whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can't. You're absolutely right. Is the glass half full or glass half empty? Depends who's looking at the glass. I can't tell you and I can't guarantee you that being optimistic and positive is going to make you a success. But I absolutely guarantee you that being negative will make you fail in time. So. And a lot of disease is dis ease. My wife Shaitra is a wellness expert and she has found that about 70, 75% of all fitness is actually what you put in your mouth. Right. And the 25 is about, about 25% is working out. What do we obsess on? We work the working out part. We put crap in our diet, in our mouths possibly. Right. And I've been getting to that, why that's relevant to this example of 500 credit scores versus 700 credit score neighborhoods. Right. If you put crap in your, in your diet and put that diet in your mouth of preservatives and bad foods, you're going to inflame. And I think it's 70% of all disease lives on inflammation. I may not be right about that. I'm not a wellness expert. My wife is. She's not in this podcast, but I believe that's the number. The numbers. I'll tell you when I'm sure about something, which is 95% of this podcast and I'll tell you when I'm not sure. I'm guessing, I'm guesstimating and I just guesstimated based on my memory. But I'm not far off. But you can, you know, comment on things that you, you want clarification on. So the life expectancy is a real situation, right. We have U.S. census data, we've got Experian credit score data, we overlay it, we have all the credit bureaus, we have our own data at Operation Hope. In a 500 Credit Square neighborhood, you have higher poverty rates, you have lower educational attainment, you have food deserts, a lot of fast food restaurants. Nothing wrong with fast food or soul food every now and then you shouldn't eat it every day, three times a day as a replacement for fruits and vegetables, salads and preferably farm freight farm raised beef and clean fish and all that kind of stuff. Something green on your plate every day anyway. You have food deserts in these communities. You have limited health care access, you have environmental hazards in these communities. By contrast, areas where credit score is above 700 tend to have higher incomes, higher educational levels. I'm getting this again. I'm a dig deep into this. Better housing and healthcare, safer environments. And this data, by the way, comes from Robert Wood Johnson foundation at cdc studies, the operation Hope, Hope Financial Wellness Index and other sources now in the US Census. If you live in a 500 credit score neighborhood, right, you see, you tend to see a check casher next to a payday loan lender next to a rental owned store next to a title lender next to a liquor store. Is your head nodding yet next to a pawn shop? If anybody heard me speak, you've heard me covered this. If I got into. If I got into a rhythm next to, next to, well, a church down the street, trying to make you feel a little bit better once a week. That's your neighborhood therapist, right? I love black people saying, oh, you know, I don't go to. I'm not gonna go to a psychologist or shrin. Somebody might think I'm crazy. If you black in America, the joke goes, and you don't think you're a little crazy, you're probably crazy. We've been doing so much with so little for so long, you can almost do anything with nothing. We wake up with hustle on our brains and struggle in our veins. But we got to go from a surviving mindset and struggling mindset to a thriving mindset middle class to a winning mindset winners or builders. So I'm trying to get your mind right because all poverty other than sustenance, poverty, which is a roof over your head and food on the table and reasonable health, health care, all other forms of poverty, right. Are mindset. So that's why this credit score thing is so powerful, because it's not about the credit score per se. It's a credit score is again, is a trending indicator for these other underlying situations. And it really has to do with your mindset, how you see the world and how and you want to see when you want to know if your neighbors, by the way, align with your mindset or, you know, you either change your neighbors, change your life or your community, right?

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[John Hope Bryant]

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[Unknown (iHeart Ad)]

Okay, so we set this, we set this up and now I want to, I want to get into this because I'm going to deal with, with, yes, of course, the black community. I'm going to deal with the Latino community. I'm going to deal with white America. There are more poor whites in America than poor anybody else. Prove this is not a racial issue. I mean, black. I mean, I'm just sort of peppering stuff in here too, with, with. With Native American, if I mention that. And women. As I've written these business plans for each of these groups, by the way, again, available at the Dream Forward website, you can Download it and discuss it and adapt it for your own life. But folks will focus on the fact that, okay, black people, you're so emotional and you ride in the streets. Poor black people. Okay. Dr. King once said that violence was the language of the unseen and the unheard. Well, there's not just physical violence or yeah, physical violence, there's also political violence. I mean a lot of my poor white brothers and sisters have found it important to ride to the ballot box. They're, they're frustrated and they're trying to find a way to be heard also. And they, and they deserve to be heard. Right. So none, but none of this leads anywhere riding in the streets or riding the ballot box, none of this leads anywhere productive. We've got to have solutions to our problems. And that's what I am about. So you have. I'm going to break down states and cities and regions by credit score. I'm going to talk about high credit score communities and lower credit score communities. I'm going to talk about maybe where you should consider living or whether you should consider as an opportunity to revitalize. Right. So let me get into some of the real nitty gritty stuff here because this stuff is really quite, quite powerful. Just jump into it. By the way, Operation Hope, which is a resource for you. We have 1500 offices in 42 states. I think it's 300 physical locations and growing. We're the only nonprofit ever allowed to operate inside of a bank branch in United States history. The ffiec, the joint regulatory agencies all co signed more than a decade ago for us to operate inside of a bank. Getting the bank out of the no business. Sorry you declined for credit and back into the yes business. So we're in the biggest banks in America. We're the only non profit that met that, that met the criteria. And we are Moving credit scores 54 points in six months. 120 points in 24 months. Nothing changes your life more than God or love. Then moving your credit score 120 points. When you go to the club tonight and you meet that beautiful lady, you see that handsome dude. After you go to work, you go to the club, you want to relax. Hey, what's your name? How you doing? Yeah, have you asked the name? Ask what the credit score is? Because that's not just a cute date. If you get serious about this person, this is your business partner for life. So this affects every part of your life. Financial literacy is a civil rights issue of this generation. And credit scores might be like counting the votes. Right? And credit Scores are as important as a four year education should not replace it. But it is as important for you to achieve your freedom as a four year education. You should have both. You should have some kind of higher education and you should have a competitive credit score as a baseline for getting your freedom. As my friend, the CEO of KeyBank once told me, he said, john, Chris Gorman told me as we're opening our Hope Inside location, he said, john, it is entirely possible that financial freedom is the only true freedom because every other freedom can be taken from you. Political freedom, religious freedom, social freedoms, all these freedoms can be taken from you. But once you have economic freedom, you have financial literacy, you understand how the system works. Unless you give it away in some way, it cannot be co opted or taken away from you. It's very powerful because you, you own it. And I'm going to show you how to change and move your credit scores. Again. We're doing that at Operation Hope for not free. It cost money, but we have arranged through funding to get this scholarship for you. So everybody listening to this. If you go to Hope Inside, so our Hope in Hand app on your Android or Apple phone, you download, download the Hope and Hand app and you go in there and you tell John, say that John Bryan sent you. Or you could call our, call our 1-800- or you go to operationhope.org or you walk into a physical location one, go to our map at Operation Hope and find a location across this country. And you go and you tell them I sent you. You'll get a thousand dollars scholarship good for 12 months for free financial coaching and counseling. Whether you're in West Virginia or you're in West Hollywood, whether you're in, you know, Tupelo, Mississippi or whether you're in Topeka, Kansas, whether you're in Detroit, Michigan or whether you're in Des Moines, Iowa, right? It doesn't matter. We are there for you and we're there to help you. Move your credit score up 54 points to 120 points, reduce your debt $3,800 on average. This is what we're doing at Operation Hope, increasing savings about $1200 for somebody making about $48,000 a year. That transforms your life. That makes you bankable, right? That means the bank goes from telling you no, sorry, can't approve you, to now saying yes, what can we approve you for? What is it that you want? You want to become a homeowner? You want to send your kid to college? You want to get a new auto loan, you want to get a Lower interest rate credit card. You want to refinance from a 18 to 25% credit card down to a 12% credit card or an 18 to 30% auto loan down to sub 10% auto loan. This is what happens when you can. When you master these three things I just told you about. Get your credit score up 54 points. Get your debt down $3,800. Get your savings up $1,200, which is what Operation Hope is doing over the course of about six months to a year, that allows you to get into the game, right? And then we just keep increasing that. We've funded about four and a half billion dollars in capital for homeownership, restructuring your life, small business entrepreneurship, using these tools to then get the prime credit providers to then say yes, which then grows economic opportunity for you, grows GDP for that city that you live in or a state. It removes your burden on the public system and makes you more independent. It increases your health, increases your prosperity, increases your optimism. You starting to get it? Starting to. Is the light starting to go on? Okay, let me get into this data here. So rural America, poor whites. Let's get to this first. And again, I wrote a business plan for this. You can go, go read it for yourself. The average credit score in rural American communities is 560 to 620. I really need you all to pay very close attention to this data because you were more like all of us than you think. The average credit score, by the way, for African Americans across the country, not poor black people, all African Americans, is 620, which means there's a bunch of folks above 620 like me, who are at 750 or 800, but there are tons more that are in 500, 550 range which drag that number down. So the average is 620. Right. The average credit score in rural areas, particularly with poor white communities, are between 560 and 620. So about the same range. What happens in these communities? They have higher rates of medical debt. Okay. It was recently arranged. It was actually a recommendation that Operation Hope helped with. Again, we're nonpartisan. We work with Republican and Democratic administrations. Anybody who wants to work with us to help to advance the state of people's lives. I've known 12 secretaries of the Treasury. I've known nine U.S. presidents. We have been recognized by five U.S. presidents from both parties. And I've served as an advisor to three US Presidents from both parties. And the last administration, medical debt was an issue that. So that basically this does not affect your credit score anymore. Okay? Now we'll see what we can get done now. So these communities have higher rates of medical debt, thin credit files, right? And tend to deal with payday lending. Okay? And by the way, you go around outside of a military base and you're going to see the same thing, right? You're going to see, and these are blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians, everybody, women, everybody, right? You're going to see all these financial predators stacked up outside the military base because they know that these military personnel can't afford to have negative stuff on their credit report or negative financial situations because you lose your security clearance. Okay, are you guys following me on this? Like this is. I'm giving you a lot. As Jay Z said, I'm going to give you a million dollars worth of gain for 9.99. I'm giving you. I'm giving you $5 million worth of game for none. 99. You're not paying for a dime of this podcast. This is free to you, right? Thank you. Black Effect Network. Okay, so if credit scores rise by 50 to 100 points, right? To 670 to 720. Homeownership approvals increase in these communities using USDA and FHA loans. Local entrepreneurship expands, especially in trades, farming and logistics. You reduce reliance on predatory credit. Household Savings rates about 15%. Apprenticeships and job stability improve with access to car loans. Prime car loans for job commuting. Rural America doesn't need a bailout, it needs access. Credit score increases unlocks that access. Let me now jump into Native American community. By the way, if you want to know the black business plan, I covered that as a solo in the last, I think two episodes ago. One or two episodes ago. So go back and read, listen to that episode. I cover that in total and really impact that. I'm just focusing now on credit scores for everybody. So credit score the credit situation for Native American communities. Many tribal areas lack mainstream credit options. By the way, I pretty sure that the largest alcoholism rate in the country are Native American Indian communities. And I don't have it documented, but I think that one of the largest depression rates, or at least not clinically dictated, not clinically prescribed depression, but I mean just like emotionally down is in the African American community. So I think these three groups because they never got the memo. That's my fourth book of how the system works. They've been locked out of the five pillars of success. As much education, shove down your throat. Understanding how the system works. Financial literacy, Family structure and resiliency, Self esteem and confidence. Role Models and environment. Those five things. If you miss three to four of those or five of those things then you tend to be depressed, distressed and you tend to take it out on yourself and others. That's the white community. Poor white community. I covered that. The number one cause of death for the number one group dying in America were white men. I covered that. I talked about now the Native American Indians. Emphas talked about African Americans and African Americans as differentiated from our Caribbean brothers and sisters and our African brothers and sisters who have problems but different problems than the one I just described to you. Okay, I'm just trying to break this stuff down so it's non emotional. Just the data. So back to the Native American communities. Average credit score 580 to 630. See how similar this is? Limited access to traditional banking and generational wealth assets. If credit scores rise 50 to 100 points, tribal home loans increase this. The HUD 184 program that they would use greater small business approvals via CDFIs, Community Development Financial Institutions and BIA loan guarantees. These are loan guarantees for Native American Indian populations. Financial literacy becomes a sovereign tool, a sovereignty tool. Reducing reliance on extractive outside services gambling. Except things like that. Reinvestment into tribal economic growth. Native led banks, businesses and schools. Women are a third of the US economy. Just so you know. I've covered women in a separate situation podcast. You want me to go deeper with women? Put in one of the comments. I'll do a podcast just on the power. The untapped power. Untapped power of women and their role in the American economies. Let me know. Including black women by the way, which was the biggest group of book buyers in the country? Most educated I believe group. I know the biggest group of group of book buyers by the way. Black women. Okay, so women credit gap exists. A credit gap exists due to historic under banking. Especially for single mothers and entrepreneurs. Do you know that a woman could not open a Bank account in 1972? Hello. Couldn't get a loan unless her husband co signed it at night. 1872, not 1872. They actually benefited from women that benefited from affirmative action designed for African Americans. A whole nother podcast and discussion at another time tied to our history. But anyway, and I say God bless them, I'm glad somebody benefited. And of course 70% of all households in black America are run by women, give or take. So think about the stress that it creates if credit scores rise by 50 to 100 points. Women deserve a Nobel Peace Prize just for raising our families, by the way. Without women, there'd be many less men. Joke. Reality. Think about it. Drop the mic. More women qualify for solo home ownership when their credit score rises. Female entrepreneurs acts as working capital where denial rates are right are 15 to 20% higher than men. That's ridiculous by the way. It shouldn't be that way. Clearly that's discrimination, but going to just work around it. Less financial stress equals increased productivity, health and retirement planning. Child stability improves greater maternal financial strength. Right. And being able to get child care. When women raise their credit scores, they don't just change their lives, they change the lives of everyone who depends on them. They're domestic engineers. They deserve to be supported.

[Unknown (Coca-Cola Ad)]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying Big Wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront.

[Bom Han]

Payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] Yo, K Pop fans. It's your boy Bomhan, and I'm bringing you something epic. Epic. Introducing the K Factor, the podcast that takes you straight into the heart of K pop. We're talking music reviews, exclusive interviews, and deep dives into the industry like never before. From producers and choreographers to idols and trainees, we're bringing you the real stories behind the music that you love. And yeah, we're keeping it 100, discussing everything from comebacks and concepts to the mental health side of the business. Because K Pop isn't just a genre, it's a whole world. And we're exploring every corner of it. And here's the best part. Fans get to call in, drop opinions, and even join us live at events. You never know where we might pop up next. So listen to the K factor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This isn't just a podcast, it's a movement. Are you ready? Let's go. Go.

[Unknown (iHeart Ad)]

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Latino communities current situation the average credit score is 610 to 665. They often limited credit histories, fewer assets and first generation financial systems. If the credit score increases 50 to 100 points, explosive growth in first time homeownership would happen. Immigrant entrepreneurs gain access to business lines of credit. Intergenerational transfers of wealth begins through home equity and savings. What do I tell you? The number one way you build wealth in America? Home ownership. This applies to everybody. Children benefit from lower student loan rates and co sign access to education. The American dream becomes real for Latino families when access meets credit. Hello. It's a wrap baby. The bottom 20% of GDP zip codes of all group have a credit score between 550 and 580. They're disproportionately impacted by crime, unemployment and housing instability. Let me get into specifically what this means. On average on the Hope Financial Wellness Index we found that the 500 credit score neighborhood has about a 61% 60% 61% 62% graduation rate from high school. A 700 credit score community has about a 92 96% graduation from high school which means they've gone to college. Okay, 700 credit score neighborhoods 2 parent households 500 credit score neighborhoods 1 parent household 500 credit score neighborhood violent crimes per thousand off the chain 700 credit score neighborhoods violent crimes per thousand no chain @ all. Almost non existent homeownership rates in a 500 credit score neighborhood, 14%, 20% maximum 40% on average homeownership rates in a 700 credit square neighborhood, 75%. See how consistent this is? You live to 60 to 61 years of age maximum in a 500 credit score neighborhood where you're surviving mindset. Heck, you don't even get Social Security, right? Isn't that a joke? Work your whole life and you don't even get what you worked for. You live to 700 credit square community typically 15 minutes apart in an urban city, 81 years of age, again a 20 year delta difference. By just doing something that you can control, which is raising your credit score. It's so many examples of this. If credit score rises 50 to 100 points, right? Community stability is gained through mortgage approvals because you're becoming a homeowner and nobody washes rental cars. You don't care how nice you are, you take that rental car back to the owner, you let him wash it or her wash it, right? That car, you can write your name on the window. After two weeks. That rental car, it's not yours, but you own something, you start paying, taking care of it, right? Local businesses thrive as credit card delinquencies drop. Crime rates 15 to 20% drops 15 to 20%. As the economic opportunity rises, schools improve with rising homeownership and tax bases, raising credit scores in the bottom 20% of America lifts the entire nation. Whoo. Can I get an amen? That's what I'm talking about. Okay, now I'm getting to the part that I'm really, really excited about because I love people like, okay, John, this is a nice theory, but what about where I live? Talk to me. You've been talking about this st. Tell me some specifics so I can question. Okay, here we go. The 10 lowest credit score states in America. Please write these down. Number one, Mississippi. Also the most unbanked state in America. Poorest state in America. Lowest credit score state in America. Often these states that I'm going to mention to you are often saying that they hate the government, that they want to be self reliant. This is again, financial literacy. And typically, and I'm generalizing here, typically for every two or three dollars of federal government support, they're adding a dollar or so in GDP or economic activity. So in other words, they're a net importer of subsidies from the federal government. But these tend to be places that think that they're self reliant and often will say with bravado, I don't want the government in my life. When you look at health care and Medicare and all these other different programs, farm subsidies, all this stuff, you'll find these are heavily subsidized areas. Again, this is just math. I'm not picking. You see, in a minute I'm be picking on everybody, right? This is not personal. This is just. It is what it is, number one. And I want to help Mississippi. I have offices in Mississippi. So I'm, you know, these are opportunities where there are problems. Mississippi is 680. Right. Credit score. Right. That's the average, very small group of people with 700 credit score community in Mississippi, unfortunately. But it's an opportunity for those who would live there or want to live there. It's an opportunity for you. If you're in a 700 credit score community in Mississippi, every, every bank, every institution, every furniture store, whatever, every department store wants to give you credit, right? You, you can, you, you just write your own ticket. Number two. Louisiana. 690. Alabama. Number three. 6, 9, 6, 92. Credit score, Texas. 695. Georgia. 695. I'm in Georgia right now. But Atlanta as a city is basically Georgia economically. The city of Atlanta as a GDP as an economy is bigger than most states around Georgia combined. Two or three states combined are smaller economically than the city of Atlanta. Atlanta, though, has problems. It has areas that has very high credit scores and very high levels of economic activity. Areas still that have low credit scores like the Tele2 Cities. And so Atlanta still has to get its act together. But the mayor and mayors have done a great job here overall and they made diversity of business strength, which I keep talking about. The city of Atlanta has the same size economy as this country I was at three weeks ago, which is Singapore. Drop the mic. Hello. Number six state. Arkansas, 696 credit scores seven state. Oklahoma, 696. Nevada, 701. New Mexico, 702. South Carolina. Carolina, 702. The 10 cities with the lowest average credit score. Detroit, number one. 566. See there you're like, okay. People are like, yeah. See, I knew there was a reason Detroit in the 50s was the wealthiest city per capita in the world. We're wealthier than Paris, wealthier than London, wealthier. Just the wealthiest cities, but they got their business plan wrong at some point. They tripped themselves up. And I can break down why in more details through another podcast. I don't want to burn up time here, but there are reasons why it's not having to do with the efficacy or the viability of the people. There are people that are fine. They just had a bad business plan. They thought that the automobile industry was enough. No, you got to constantly upgrade your software. And you cannot have the unions and the capitalists, the management, at war with each other for 20, 30 years and with the wrong set of priorities of why you're. I mean, the Bible says a house divided cannot stand. But anyway, Detroit, which I think is an enormous opportunity, I can't wait to get busy going deeper in Detroit, working with the mayor and others there. And I'm willing to come to your city, by the way, with my business plan for America for your city. Get my book, Financial Literacy for All. Tell your mayor to get books for his or her library. You know, tell them to listen to my podcast. You know, embrace Operation Hope as a partner. I want to come there and do a speaking event with your mayor. Have them send a letter to my assistant Kevin Boucher in my office, run strategy and communications, and I will see if I can get it on the schedule for our tour number. So number two. Killeen. Killeen, Texas. Sorry about that if I mispronounced it. 642 credit score. Washington, D.C. in this crazy 6, 644 credit score. Isn't that crazy even in our nation's capital? Corpus Christi, Texas. 648. Mobile, Alabama. 650. Knoxville, Tennessee. 6 hundred and fifty. See, I'm not picking on anybody. Picking on everybody. Fayetteville, North Carolina. 651. Savannah, Georgia. 652. Birmingham, Alabama. 653. I know the mayor there is really trying to turn things around. We actually helped him become a homeowner. The mayor in Birmingham is doing a great job with a good friend. We have offices there and we're working to get that number up. Columbia, South Carolina. 649. Okay, now let's get into the areas where the 500 credit score is within 15 minutes of a 700 credit score. Community. Detroit, Michigan. 566. And Gross Point, Michigan. 730. Fifteen minutes apart, give or take. South Central LA, where I'm from. Five hundred and eighty credit score. Culver City, California. 720 credit score. I was just in Culver City. Blew my mind. The economic activity, the entrepreneurship, the revitalizations happened in Culver City. And black folks and brown folks, we could have. We lived in this era. We could have become the people who own the property and did all the things. But we didn't have the right business plan. We weren't focusing on the right things. We're trying to rock the mic, not own the mic, right? So now somebody else does, right? You can't be mad at somebody else taking an opportunity when you could have yourself. But there's still time, there's still ways to improve. Wherever you are, you can still do better. And I've got the tools to help you get there. So don't get mad, get even by succeeding. Number three, south side of Chicago, Illinois. I toured this area myself personally. And if you go to the whole financial wellness index, there's actually a PowerPoint you can download of my tour there. And there's a social media video that I did on this. Well, actually literally showed you what I saw on the south side of Chicago. So South Side, Chicago, 590 credit score. In Hyde Park, Illinois. 710 credit score. Okay, 15 minutes apart. And I actually took you on a tour. You can watch one of my videos. I literally took you on a tour on. I drove from the south side of Chicago to Hyde Park, I think it was Lincoln Park. 4, West Baltimore, Maryland. 570 credit score. Cantonsville, Maryland. 705 credit score. 15 minutes apart. Number 5, South Dallas, Texas. 580 credit score, Highland Park, Texas. 740 credit score. 15 minutes apart. Where my mother grew up, East St. Louis. Again, I didn't make this up. This is, this is just an example. 560 credit score. Pick it on my mother and my auntie's hometown. 560 credit score. Okay. Clayton, Missouri. 15 minutes apart. 725 credit score. And I guarantee you go to all these areas and you will find that the data I've given you is absolutely dead on, right? That you live shorter lives, you have more obesity, you've got more crime, you got more depression, you got more anxiety, you got less nuclear families, you got less restaurants that sit down, you got less park and green areas, you got police that prey on you versus protect you. That's at least the perception of that. You've got less economic activity, less small businesses, less services in these 500 credit square neighborhoods. You have check cashes, payday loan lenders, rental stores, title lenders, liquor stores, pawn shops, shops, etc. Etc. Etc. And you go 15 minutes apart. Nirvana. Completely different. Let's talk about rural America now. Okay? Rural Communities are not 15 minutes apart because, well, they're rural communities. So they might be different counties. Right? Well, let me just sort of make sure. I'm just wanna make sure everybody understands these are exactly the same. And again, call me on this. I've never been to any communities. I'm telling you, other than west, than a couple of. I mentioned to you, East St. Louis. And there's a place where, when I've been there, I've said, well, I've been, of course, been to Baltimore, but most these areas. But I can tell you exactly what they look like just by virtue of their credit score. I've told you what a 500 credit score community looks like. I've told you what a 7 credit score community looks like. If you see something different in these communities, you send me a note and you tell me and I'll apologize publicly. I just don't think it's going to happen. Rural communities, 500 versus 700. Clark. Clay County, Kentucky, 500 credit scores score. Madison County, Kentucky, 700 credit score. Clay county is located in the Appalachian region. By the way, Clay county faces economic challenges with limited access to financial services and higher rates of poverty. You've heard of the Appalachians? Madison county, home to Eastern Kentucky University. Madison county benefits from educational institutions and more diversified economic activities contributing to higher average credit scores and higher economic vitality. Okay, number two, I'm gonna do these. I'm gonna run through these so I can. Because I got some more stuff I want to cover for you. McDowell County, West Virginia, 500 credit score. Monongalia County. Sorry for butchering that. Monongalia County, West Virginia, 700 credit score. I don't have time to get into the sub details on this. You can look it up for yourself. You'll find that this is. That this is the. There's a reason for these contrasts. Number three. Wilcox County, Alabama, 500 credit score. Shelby County, Alabama, 700 credit score, shaky county. Mississippi, 500. Madison County, Mississippi, 700. Apache County, Arizona, 500. Pretty sure that's. Pretty sure that's a native. Native American community. Coconino. Coconino County. Stop laughing, cock. You say it. Okay. Coconio County, Arizona, 700. Delta County, Colorado, 500. Larimer County, Colorado, 700. See you starting to get the gist here like this. I mean, I just, again, I like data. I like math, because it doesn't have an opinion.

[Unknown (Coca-Cola Ad)]

Have you ever looked around at your crew and thought, man, these are my people? The ones who turn the smallest moments into memories you'll be talking about for years. The folks who show up when you need them and make your life so much better? Well, now you can make those moments even sweeter because Sherri Coke is back. And this time it's all about celebrating friendships. Whether you're hanging out, watching the game or just chopping it up there's a Coke for everyone from bestie and bro to classic names like David and Sarah. These special cans and bottles are made for your whole squad. So grab one, crack it open and toast to the people who make life worth celebrating. But don't wait. They won't be around forever. So grab one for everybody, pop the top and keep the good vibes flowing. Next time you're making memories, please don't miss your chance to share a Coke with all your favorite people.

[Bom Han]

Yo, K Pop fans. It's your boy, Bom Han, and I'm bringing you something epic. Introducing the K Factor, the podcast that takes you straight into the heart of K Pop. We're talking music reviews, exclusive interviews, and deep dives into the industry like never before. From producers and choreographers to idols and trainees, we're bringing you the real stories behind the music that you love. And yeah, we're keeping it 100, discussing everything pop, from comebacks and concepts to the mental health side of the business. Because K Pop isn't just a genre. It's a whole world. And we're exploring every corner of it. And here's the best part. Fans get to call in, drop opinions, and even join us live at events. You never know where we might pop up next. So listen to the K factor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This isn't just a podcast podcast, it's a movement. Are you ready? Let's go.

[Unknown (iHeart Ad)]

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[Freddie Prinze Jr.]

It's Freddie Prinze Jr. And on wrestling with Freddy, we're breaking down every Damn moment from WrestleMania 41. Two nights, non stop chaos, legends, surprises, emotions, and some of the best wrestling we've seen coming from wwe. We've got takes, we've got questions, and we have a whole lot of love for what these men and women pulled off at Mania. Tiffany Stratton, she earned her Stripes at WrestleMania. And I don't mean because she won. She bled for her art and it Always felt like to me after the Attitude era, once a wrestler gets cut and you see real blood coming out of their mouth or real blood coming out of their head, the crowd kind of goes, hey, respect. And they kind of give you that nod, right?

[Bom Han]

You go, wow, every one of these guys is bleeding, bro.

[Freddie Prinze Jr.]

That's literally like blood, sweat and tears.

[Bom Han]

It's all they got is blood.

[Freddie Prinze Jr.]

We're talking Cody, we're talking Ria, Roman, Seth, Tiffany. The future of the business is bright. And if you watched Mania and you're still buzzing or if you missed it and want to know what went down, we got gotcha. Listen to this episode of Wrestling with Freddy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Unknown (iHeart Ad)]

Okay, there's an outlier here in my data. It's West Virginia. The. The same state that my wife's from, Sha Bryant and my brother from another mother, Bishop T.D. jakes. The black Pope, by the way. Pope Francis, God rest his soul. I just wrote a piece in Time where you should read it on his passing. He reminds me in many ways of Dr. King, but the guy I often will joke is the black Pope is Bishop T.D. jakes. They're both. My wife and Bishop are from Charleston, West Virginia. Okay, so why is West Virginia an outlier? It actually has a pretty high credit score. The average credit score is 700. The problem is that there's no economic activity around it. At least not enough. West Virginia has long relied on coal. Hello. And extractive industries. Old businesses that are tired, worn out and need to be transitioned over time versus holding on for dear life until the last gasp of the industry peeps out. As we did with many industries. Industrial revolution that were sent offshore because it was cheaper and more efficient to do it and because we wanted to have cleaner industrial, cleaner energy and well, we just moved to an information and technology economy. Anyway, West Virginia is still stuck. Stuck, sorry. West Virginia still dependent upon a coal and attractive industries which have declined dramatically over time. There's been limited reinvestment in modern industries like tech, green energy or advanced manufacturing, which they have the capacity to do. One of my board members, a good friend of mine, Brad Smith, runs a major university there. He's a million dollar donor to Operation Opie. So I think the wealthiest man in one of them in. In West Virginia is completely committed. He was chairman of Intuit, brilliant businessman, really cares. He's completely committed to raising all roads in West Virginia. And I want to partner with him in that regard. Really role model of an individual, unlike States with booming metros like Georgia, with Atlanta, West Virginia lacks large economic engines. Okay, two is a brain drain and a population loss. Many young, educated people leave the state for better opportunities elsewhere. The population is aging and net migration is negative. People coming into the state, shrinking the talent pool and the tax base. This is why you want diversity. This is why you want immigrants, legal immigrants, yes. This is why you want people excited about where you live. And you want the place to be a beacon of hope and opportunity. And you want it to be inviting. Otherwise, the economy is going to die. Infrastructure and connective gaps. Rural communities have limited broadband transportation and access to capital. These limitations restrict entrepreneurship and remote work. Even if individuals are financially responsible with a 7 or credit score in this example, under leveraged credit, a 7 credit score in West Virginia often comes with very conservative credit use, low debt, which generally is good, but also limited reinvestment in small businesses, home upgrades, or higher education. So they have no debt, but they've got no. No bling. You want to call it that? No business bling, or, you know, I'm not saying to get up as go. Get up and go has got up and went. But again, relying on old industries. People aren't financially overextended. They're just not building wealth aggressively either. We got to change that. Poor health outcomes, all disconnected. West Virginia ranks low in public health metrics. Obesity, substance abuse, substance use, life expectancy, all of which limit workforce productivity and increase the public costs for the state. Education gaps. The state underperforms in K12 and higher education attainment. Without a highly educated workforce, it's hard to attract employers or innovate them from within. So the bottom line with West Virginia is that while they manage their credit wisely, they're living in an economy that hasn't been retooled for the 21st century. Improving credit scores is foundational. But economic revival also requires investment in education, infrastructure, industry, entrepreneurship, and an optimistic perspective for the future. And now I'm talking about you, not a state. Think about what I just said, but apply it to you. I want you to have a good credit score so no one will deny you. You take your credit score, you work with operation. You get your credit score up and you go to the computer. You don't trust me, you say, oh, John's messing around. Still. Racism. It's just everywhere. And I don't care what John's saying. I know it's racism. Okay, then work with Operation Hope. Get your credit score up, your debt down, your savings up. Just get your credit score up and you have a job, right? Yeah. That be a. Pay for your bills and go to the computer at midnight. Go to one of the big banks, right? That you swear. You swear these folks are racist, right? You've been reading all the newspapers. Go to the big bank at midnight. Nobody's even around. No computer don't know what color you are. They don't know what, what race you are, what gender you are. And the application's not asking you for that. You type in your information and you type in your credit scores above 700. You have a job and you're trying to get 50,000, 20,000, a hundred thousand dollars worth of credit line or homeownership. Let's do homeownership. Really simple or a small, a credit card or something, you know, a hundred thousand dollars or less. Watch that. Why don't you get an approval, right? You send me a note. You send me a note. You have a good job, you know, decent employment, you know, you know, you're not, you're not, you know, $10,000, you know, annual income, trying to get $100,000 loans. Don't do something stupid. You got, you know, you got a middle class situation with a decent credit score. You go to that computer and you ask for a loan for prime loan, for auto loan or for, to get your first home ownership loan or whatever, right? And watch it. And watch what the computer says. Computer will come back with either approval or a conditional approval. The color is green. I'll start, I'll end where I started. The issue at the end of the day now, is racism real? Yes. Racism is like rain. It's either falling someplace or it's gathering. So you might as well get out, get out of an umbrella in the color you like and start strolling through it because it's not going to change. So you must. So racism real. But you can offset this situation by improving your situation. The average credit score. Drop the mic here, please. Listen to me. For a black America is about 620. So we talk about police brutality and racism and politics and what's going on in Washington. We're obsessed with all these things and rightly so, right? Civil rights, social justice, all that stuff. But that means 620 credit score means that half of black Americans, America is waking up every morning locked out of the free enterprise system. You can't get a decent auto loan at 6. At 6:20, you can't get a home loan, a prime home loan at 620, you can't get a small business loan. That's risky credit below 700. So if your credit is toe up from a flow up, if you think credit, like my dad used to call it, credit, my credit is bad, right? You're not getting approval and you could think it's racism all you want. Your credit score is 500. I'm not giving you a loan, right? No one's gonna give you credit. You don't pay your bills. That's what that says, you're not paying your bills. This is something you can control, right? And I'm giving, I'm giving you some game here. Like, like I know this works because it's worked for me is. And by the way, I was homeless. I. My credit was toe up. It was 400 and 500, right? And I cover that in my book Financial Literacy for All. Which by the way, the potential. The paperback is now out. It's now a bestseller on Amazon and at Walmart. Hopefully you can get it at a black bookstore too. But it's, it's a bestseller now. I think the paperback is a best seller at Amazon. The hard cover is a bestseller at Walmart. Been a bestseller for over a year. Read that, read that book. Talking to my brother TI today. The rapper, the businessman rapper. Brilliant dude, actually. And he's going to read the book, finish Religion Raw with his children and his family, deal with a different chapter every week. Right. He's trying to understand this capitalism situation. So I mean, this is transformational. It's something you can control in your life. It's something that you can measure. I check my credit score every couple days because, oh, here's an easy one for you. I can't believe I didn't say this. This is a 53 minute mark. Just once I go to like an easy one. This is what Operation Hope does. I'm going to give you some of my, some of our free. The first thing we do is pull your credit report. If you've not pulled your credit report in months, certainly years, without question, years. But if you pull your credit score in months, you've got an error on your credit report. And the law states the three credit bureaus, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, the law states these are credit repositories. By the way, don't get mad at the credit bureaus. They're just repositories for data. They're just passive repositories for credit data. And a lot of data is wrong. Right. Somebody's giving them that data inputting. By the way, use Isusu. Make sure if you're a landlord, make sure they're using Isusu, which is a good brother. There's a African founded company called Isusu. I know the founder. They're a billion dollar company. They, I, they say I helped inspire them, get them going. But they actually track rent payment, rent payments to your landlord to make sure they get added to your credit bureau so you get credit for it. So they make sure they report credit payments to the credit bureau so you get credit for that. As you try to build your credit report back to the story, if you have not checked your credit in months and certainly years, there's a 80 to 90% chance there's an error on your credit report. There's something known there that's not yours and you're getting dinged for it. And when you say to my credit, my coaches at Operation Hope, I don't know what that is, that's not me. Great. We then write a letter with you to the credit bureaus. The law states that they can't confirm that's yours within 30 days. They must remove it. And when they come back and they can't confirm as yours and they remove it, that's a 30 point pop in your credit score. Hello. What does it do to your, to your self esteem? You go from 610 credit score to 640 or 570 to 610 or 600. Right. Or from 680 to 17. I mean 17. Just imagine it raises your self esteem, raises your confidence, your belief in the system. You're like, okay, okay, what else can we do? Okay, that you look, we look at your credit report and what's that? Oh no. I got divorced several years ago and it was messy. And, and, and my mom, my husband and I had this, this you know, phone bill and he didn't pay the phone bill for months. It's a thousand dollars. I couldn't pay it so I went to the credit bureaus. So AT&T, in this example, so SBC Communications, this would be Oakland, California, that I remember this actually happened. They sold it. The, the debt that they were sold to PAC Bail. PAC Bail was sold to AT&T. They kept rolling your deb companies AT&T Chase. You couldn't find you. They, the phone rang, was 1001800 number. You said like I don't know Nobody with no 1800 number. It didn't answer. Don't act like you know what I'm talking about. You know exactly what I'm talking about. And you didn't answer. They sent that to the credit bureau. They sold it. They, well, they, sorry, they sold that to a credit agency who buys bad debt. They bought that debt. They won't tell you. I know they bought that debt for pennies on the dollar. So it's a thousand dollar bill. You don't want to deal with it because it shows up as a thousand dollar charge off on your credit report is jamming up your credit score. Score. Everything else may be okay, but that's jamming your credit score. That's, that's, that's hitting you like 200 points or something. That charge off that's 10 years old or 8 years old or whatever keeps renewing because the credit bureau, the credit company that bought the debt is trying to collect from you. You're like, well I, but I don't have a thousand dollars. My credit people are like coaches, like, don't worry about that. Let's call them. Because what we know is they bought it for probably 5 cents on the dollar. So they pay 50 bucks for the, that for that line of credit. Right? The line is a credit line, we call it. Right? It's a line on your credit bureau. They paid 50 bucks for that five in the dollar. What do they want? They want to double their money. So they, so the other companies already charged it off. They, they've charged. They, in this example, they want 50. They bought it for 50 bucks. They're calling you. We, or we call them with you on the phone. Hey, I've got Mrs. Jones here. You know, we're looking for Mrs. Jones. She's looking for you. Well, we want our money. How much you want? We want a hundred dollars house. We're going to pay you $200. Huh? Why are you going to pay me double what I'm asking for? Because if we pay you double and I'm going to speak to your supervisor and tell them that you did a good job for staying with us and being consistent. But I want you to remove the commit to remove this from her credit bureau. And I want you to write a letter, get this off our credit report and when it comes back and shows up, back up again because it's been there so long it's going to reappear. I want you to commit in writing to write another letter better. And we follow up with these folks month after month to get that off your credit report and keep it off. Well, your credit score will just jump. Right? So in this example, we probably popped you up 80, at least 80 points or more on your credit, your credit report. And then we Just start working on other stuff. So this is not like genius work, right? It's just hard work and no one's doing it. Let me give you one last story of a lady who worked an 18. I'm sorry worked a hourly job job for 32 years. She made 15 to 18 an hour. This is for the person who says John, I'm not a billionaire, a millionaire a thousand there I'm just me and I'm working. How can I can this work for me? This lady, my mother, Juanita Smith. One the mother of John O'Brien, Mara Hoskins and Dave Darnell Harris. This wonderful lady who met, who divorced my daddy Johnny Will Smith and went out with nothing in cap in la. She could have, could have taken my dad for a cleaning. She could have gotten hat. California's a community property state. We a gas station, a unit apartment building a nursery, building her own homes. You know she could have cleaned them out and she just said no, I'm going on my own. I don't want is my. All I want is you leave me alone. Let me go live my life with my kids. And my dad who had a businessman, it was a business owner and had all these assets because he was financially illiterate and he, and he didn't realize he needed my mother. He lost all of those assets. I end up taking care of him. His credit score was in the toilet. It my mother went to go work an hourly job and it was called McDonald Douglas aircraft, Boeing aircraft it became later. For 32 years she did some part time stuff. She had a little candy thing on the side. She said little, little handicraft business she had on the, on the side. I had a candy business with you thinking where I got it from. And she'd sell stuff to her co workers at McDonald's aircraft became Boeing Aircraft later on. And even make a long story short, she died with a million dollar network, right? Bought and sold seven houses, had a credit score of 854. Some smart pub was like credit scores don't go to 854 John. Yeah they did back then. Smart rear end. It's 850 maximum now. But my mother was balling back then by the way, her credit score actually went down to the 7 hundreds later on because she wasn't using credit when she retired and I was taking care of her here in Atlanta. So her credit score was still above 700 but it wasn't 850 anymore because she wasn't obtaining credit. But your credit score was 854. At some point, my mother. My mother wasn't black. She was green. Mom, you gonna get married again? Maybe, baby. What does that mean? Well, if I get married, he's gonna be a BMW mom. Don't be vain. What does that mean? A black man working? My mother wasn't playing. And you shouldn't play either. This is possible. You can change your life. And I expect you to. Let's go get it. This is the Silver rights movement. From civil rights in the streets to civil rights in the business suites. We've got red rooms that we've created to fight discrimination and racism. And we have red rooms all across this country. Civil rights, social justice organizations. We need green rooms. We need Operation Hope. We need not 1500 locations, we need 15,000 locations. It should become the Starbucks of financial literacy, sorry, financial inclusion. And the Walmart of financial literacy. We should be everywhere helping you to plug into this system, this economic piping, this economic infrastructure. That's what I'm committed to doing. Economic plumbing for underserved America. Whether you're poor, white, rural, or you're black and brown urban, you deserve to have a shot at this economic thing called the American dream. John O'Brien this is money and wealth, Peace and light. Money and wealth with John O'Brien is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast network, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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[Shannon Schuyler]

In a world of economic uncertainty and workplace transformation, learn to lead by example. From visionary C Suite executives like Shannon Schuyler of PwC and Will Pearson of iHeartMedia, the Good Teacher teacher explains the great teacher inspires.

[Bom Han]

Don't always leave your team to do the work that's been the most important part of how to lead by example.

[Shannon Schuyler]

Listen to leading by example executives making an impact on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Freddie Prinze Jr.]

What's Up Federation? It's Freddie Prinze Jr. And wrestling with Freddie is back and we're going all in on WrestleMania 41. From the unpredictable to jaw dropping finishes, this year's mania might have just changed everything. By the way, almost all the matches that we saw looked like real fights. I thought, like, they were like, yo, we're going hard today. Tomorrow we're gonna hurt, but we're going hard today because it was like beast mode times 10 out there. Listen to this episode of Wrestling with Freddy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.