Big Brother Joe Martin - Understanding the Credit System for Personal and Business

In today's episode we'll be hanging out with Joe Martin.

Joe Martin is a credit and simplicity genius who has helped many people expand their businesses. He wants to teach those interested how they can break the generational curses of financial hardships that come from having bad or no credits. Credit repair is not just about fixing your score, it's also an opportunity to learn the algorithm that creates our scores. It takes time and effort but in return you will have improved credit which opens more doors of opportunities for yourself as well as those around us!

In this episode we'll talk about:
• Personal and Business Expert Advise.
• Good credit opens the doors to many opportunities.
• Joe's focus is on educating people so they can understand the system and break generational curses.
• Credit repair is not an overnight fix - it's a process that requires education and understanding.
• Joe offers support to help people through the journey of repairing their credit score.

Grab Your Free Credit Audit with Joe Martin
https://personal-credit.ourbigbrother.com/welcome

Like/Follow Joe Martin
https://www.facebook.com/G23BB

https://www.instagram.com/750creditscore/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-martin-5a3a1659/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVuSMYZlV2KCNSp55HJTv7Q

 

Transcript

Crystal: INTRODUCTION

Crystal: Gettin' pumped. Got my coffee on. Yes. All right, here we go. We are here today with Mr. Joe Martin at Joe Martin and Associates Global 23, also simplicity genius. He also goes by Big brother. He's everybody's big brother. From what I can gather, Joe has helped so many people accomplish their goals and expand their business.

Crystal: So today we're super excited to have Joe give us some insight on business credit, personal credit, how the two of them tie together. So Joe, thank you so much for joining us today. 

Joe Martin: Yes. Thank you, Crystal. Thank you, Kathy. How are you guys doing? 

Cathy: Man, fantastic. I'm looking at the screen. I'm seeing seven 50 credit score.

Cathy: I want one of those. Yeah. . 

Crystal: Joe, one of the things that you mentioned on your website and that you have said that I personally found very powerful is good credit opens the doors that allow us to accomplish virtually anything. I am really excited to hear you expand on 

Joe Martin: that some. Yes, indeed.

Joe Martin: My life changed when I [00:01:00] learned about credit, it went, I did a total 160 degree turnaround when I learned about credit. Cuz, coming from where I'm from, credit is not a subject that we talk about in our households, So a lot of times we just grow up watching our parents go from check to check, and then when hardships and things like that hit, we just see our parents.

Joe Martin: Get through it, but they never really showed us how they got through it, , because, credit is not something that was in the households in the community that, that I'm from, you know? When I grew up and I learned about credit and I seen the power of it and how it could shift somebody's life from one place to another, I fell in love with it, And and I just feel like we must teach what it's taught.

Joe Martin: So in my last 18 years of. Everything that I've learned. My thing is making sure that I teach what is taught, and helping people break those generational curses. Cause a lot of times when you hear the word generational curse, a lot of times you hear that word tied into marriage and [00:02:00] divorce, but you rarely hear about the generational curses, the financial generational curses, the fact that this family went through a certain hardship, never really learned how to recover from it or recover from it, And they just push through it.

Joe Martin: And then you see that same generational curse go from parents to kids, and it just keep going. So the only way for us to break out of that is by educating ourselves on things that we know. Like right now, my kids gonna know everything that they need to know when it comes to credit, so I know that they got a nice little head start on life. 

Crystal: Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah, I would've loved to have been taught when I was younger. Yeah. Yeah. 

Cathy: Joe, for me, sometimes when I'm looking at stuff and I've been doing this for a long time. I started back in the mortgage world, okay.

Cathy: And we had all these credit repair people popping up. You could buy a kit and tell people how to repair their credit. And so I think a lot of people, when you say, Oh, credit [00:03:00] repair, you're talking to a professional, I think a lot of people are like, Yeah. Everybody says they're gonna repair my credit.

Cathy: There's so many people out there doing Exactly, what you're doing in a sense of, saying, Hey, we need to fix your credit. , what I loved about meeting you and looking at your content and really getting to know you online and just your business, is that I felt like if I'm gonna go to anybody when it comes to credit, It's just you, it's just you are really a leader in it.

Cathy: And I think all that misconception we have out there of oh, going and paying a credit repair service and all that stuff, I just, I feel like you just go above and beyond that to just be like, This isn't some cheesy, buy a packet, for $200 and fix your credit. You know what I'm talking about.

Cathy: They're out there . Yeah. 

Joe Martin: It's lot. It's a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot out there, and it's a lot of people that's, See, because I always tell people the world is designed to profit [00:04:00] off the things that we don't know, and then you got a lot of people out here that speak about certain things and they're not really doing anything for the people because they're not educating the people.

Joe Martin: . That's why when I hear the word credit, yeah. Everybody see credit repair, but I don't see credit repair. I see credit education and financial literacy, I love that. So that's the main thing. Like it's not about credit repair, it's about understanding the algorithm and the formula of what's actually creating the credit score, the algorithm, because it's all a science.

Joe Martin: , when you understand the science of what's moving the score and what's making the score do what it's supposed to do, it's not really credit repair, it's just a understanding of the algorithm. If you catch what I'm saying, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. 

Cathy: And I love it and I love your approach and I think that this is the way people need to see it.

Joe Martin: Yeah, definitely. And it's like one thing that people always tell me and they always say, Man, Joe, I just from talking to you, I learn more. information [00:05:00] than people are paid thousands of dollars, just from a conversation with you.

Joe Martin: And that's because people, like when somebody say credit repair and they charge a person or whatever, they, however they may do it, they so scared to tell a person everything about the process they feel like somebody gonna take something from 'em. But you not teaching that person how to fish, I could feed a person to fish, right? And they eat for the day. But what happens when that person is hungry again? Do they have to keep coming back to me for more and more? I would much rather teach you how to fish so that you could eat that day. And then when I'm not around, you'll continue to eat.

Joe Martin: So it looks like the same thing, like when you talk about teaching somebody these things. And that's my biggest thing is I stand. Educating people that come to me because I need you to shift your mindset. I need you to shift your learning. I need you to shift everything so that you'll be in a better place and you know how to stay there.

Joe Martin: it's life, right? We know life happens. , we got ups, we got downs, we got hills, we got valleys, we got situations, we got [00:06:00] circumstances, we got all of these things in life. Sometimes we go back through certain things, you know what I'm saying? So when you go back through us through something and you've been taught how to come from it, it's not a big old, it's not a big problem as it was the first time without you knowing you following me.

Cathy: Basically if I call and hire Joe Martin, he's gonna just fix my credit score. Without doing anything. No, that is like the craziest, you hear, we talk a lot about random results, but one of the things is I think consumers think, Hey, I'm gonna just pay this guy.

Cathy: He's gonna go fix my credit for me and my world's gonna be great. I'm gonna be able to buy that car that I'm gonna pay him money and I'm gonna walk away. Yeah. But yet you're right. They come back two, three years, seven years, they're filing bankruptcy again. They go and get six different credit cards and then they go pay one of those people [00:07:00] somebody percent interest to consolidate their debt and then go rack up all their credit cards again, , you're absolutely right about education and I think the consumers.

Cathy: If you have that mindset, guys, it's not a, an overnight thing. And Joe's gonna talk to you a little bit more about that. But the bottom line is you cannot go to these credit people expecting a one hour miracle. Yeah. Just doesn't work that way. . 

Joe Martin: Nope. I tell people all the time it take us years to create these challenges within our profile.

Joe Martin: It take us years to create these challenges, so now a beautiful thing is that it won't take us years to correct them, but it's not a situation where I'm just gonna pop it in the microwave and pop it right back out, and everything, and here you go. Yeah. So it is a process.

Joe Martin: It's process. And we gonna talk a little bit about how to get things removed and how to actually I'm gonna break the whole algorithm down. Oh man. I love it. I'm gonna break everything down today, but it's not, I like it. It's, yeah. It's not a microwave fix. And [00:08:00] I and I want people to start having accountability for mistakes, past mistakes.

Joe Martin: When you got people that just want to come throw you money and say, Hey, Joe, here go this, here go that. Get me back. Bring me back to life, if that person don't have the mindset to wanna understand the algorithm, the system and everything, and they feel like money, just throwing money at a person, I don't like, I don't.

Joe Martin: Clients. 

Cathy: It's beating the point. 

Joe Martin: Yeah. It's because I, we, I'm a teacher, I'm a teacher and I have a, I built a system. I have a software as far as the credit repair side go as far as repairing things on the file. I have a system and a software that we use to help our clients do that.

Joe Martin: But at the end of the day, you have to know the education. If you don't know 30% of your scores created from utilization. So that means keep your utilization at a certain place. If you don't know that, then you gonna damage your file blindly. So it's so many things that a person gotta know as far as credit goes before they just, just jump out there and say it's gonna be a microwave fix.

Joe Martin: It's, it is. Education is everything 

Crystal: And I think that one [00:09:00] of the things that you really drive home that I got a lot out of, just, looking and listening to you through your YouTube videos your website, the knowledge that's just even there right in front of our faces is pretty impressive. 

Crystal: I love that you really drive home diagnosing the problem because it has taken us some of us years to create the circumstances of becoming that high risk person in our credit profile. And the fact that you're gonna take the time, diagnose the problem, help us to better understand where we went.

Crystal: What we need to do next and how we need to continue on that right path. That's what I gather from you and that just really motivates me to tell everybody in the world, Hey, you've got to talk to Joe. Yeah. And something else that you mentioned that I felt really empowering is you also say, a lot of times I'm willing to walk with you.

Crystal: That feels comforting and you feel like, you know what, yeah, I got myself here, but I really feel like with Joe's help, if I listen to this guy, I can get myself [00:10:00] out of it and stay out of it

Joe Martin: Yep. And you and the beautiful thing is that you don't have to walk this journey alone, Cause it's a long journey. And depending on the profile, some people journey are a little longer than others, but at the end of the day when you are able to walk with a mentor and you are able to walk with a coach, somebody that's holding your hand along the way, showing you every step of the process.

Joe Martin: Making it a peaceful environment, it's a, it is, it could be a beautiful journey. I tell people all the time, like, when you building something that's gonna be beautiful for your life , you wanna build it with the right energy, and sometimes the energy is bad because of the situation and the circumstances, the reality that person is facing at that moment.

Joe Martin: Our energy is attached to what's what we. Most of the time, Yeah. Or what we got going on. That's what's, that's what our energy is attached to. So when you got a situation that's in front of you that's just like a tough situation or a tough hardship, then you are gonna have a certain energy attached to that.

Joe Martin: So I try to make this whole journey a peaceful. So that you [00:11:00] don't have the bad energy attached to it. You looking more forward towards the all the beautiful things that, that life is about to offer, 

Crystal: . Absolutely. I'm super excited to hear more. 100%. I know that you talk a lot about the five factors, and I, and that was something that you were gonna to kinda give us insight on, is the five factors that really build up that credit score.

Crystal: I find that really impressive. The algorithms and the science of it all. Yeah. Please share with us. 

Crystal: Yeah. So let's jump into it and if anybody is listening to this, I recommend that you get a pen and a pad and you write this information down. You know this. Are you kidding? I 

Cathy: get a pen and a paper every time I talk to you every time we're talking.

Cathy: That's a good way. I know, right? Got mine right here. Go grab your pen and 

Joe Martin: paper. Yeah, you got to. Cause this is information. And I'm, and before we jump into this, let me just tell you like I, I'm a eighties baby, so I remember at a point in time where we was going to college tours.

Joe Martin: Just checking out colleges and [00:12:00] financial literacy is something that the school system should definitely put in the curriculum because what happens is, let me tell you how everything how it happens, right? When a student don't get taught about credit, don't get taught how to use a credit card, don't get taught these things, but yet they go to these colleges, right?

Joe Martin: And when we used to go to college tours and things like that, You'll see all of these credit card tents everywhere, and they'll invite a student over and they say, Hey, come check out this, and the student apply and they give that student a $500 credit card, right? But nobody never taught this person how to use this credit card.

Joe Martin: Nobody taught this person how to be financially responsible for things, right? So you got a kid that's coming to college that never had $500 a day in his life at one time, and you give him a credit card without teaching him, right? So the first thing that kid is gonna do, he's gonna take that 500, probably go buy a pair of Jordans, that's 200, okay?

Joe Martin: Probably go by a necklace, that's [00:13:00] 100. Okay? Then they gonna go buy 'em an outfit. That's another a hundred. Then the last hundred, they gonna go hang out with their friends and spend it on food in a movie. So now what they did was they just maxed out that $500 credit card, right? Now they got challenged credit because they got a maxed out credit card.

Joe Martin: And then what happens is they don't know that all of that spending come with a monthly payment. So then what happens is they miss a payment, Then they miss another payment, then they miss another payment. Now they got these late payments, which is the worst thing that could hit your credit file.

Joe Martin: They got these late payments and then all of a sudden the card charge off. So now they gotta charge off on they. So now they got, now they in a, they got poor credit now at this moment coming out the gate with poor credit. Then they, in college they need a vehicle. So guess what? They can't go get a car.

Joe Martin: So they go to a buy here, pay here lot, pay 24 plus percent interest on something because they got [00:14:00] challenged credit. They get this car right and they drive a car paying way more than they should. Then the car started having problems cause we know how that is, right? Yes. Then the car break down and this kid say, I'm not paying for something that I ain't driving.

Joe Martin: So now guess what happens? A repossession repo, now repo hit they file and now they come outta college in a bad place, And now they, this is how they continue to live, paying extra for everything. Being denied, being told where they could live, being told how much they gonna pay on their insurance.

Joe Martin: Missing out on jobs because of credit. Kids not being able to go to certain school districts because they gotta live in certain areas. This is how things start to roll for a lot of people and they just go through the rest of their life living like that. Man, 

Crystal: I feel like you're talking about my youth.

Crystal: They gave me a $500 credit card and I'm like, What do I need more fun with my friends? Because you're learning and you're youthful and you do.

Crystal: That's, [00:15:00] the exact journey, that begins everything without proper education. 

Cathy: Even growing up in my schools, They didn't have any education. There's no education on this at all. What the things that you're talking about. So we can relate on literally all aspects of levels seriously in this and just what you're saying.

Cathy: Some girls like to shop. Yeah. You know how many of those girls, go up, , , they buy the gotta have the latest makeup, they gotta have the 

Crystal: latest whatever. I'm slightly raising my hand. . 

Cathy: Yeah. Coming from the girl that has like the basket full of every lotion and makeup known to man.

Cathy: Yeah. And they ain't and they ain't free trials, Joe. They're not free trials. . . 

Joe Martin: Anyway. Big 

Cathy: bottles. Big bottles. Well,

Crystal: Yeah, exactly. And when you run out, you just go see mama and see what she's got underneath sink. [00:16:00] 

Cathy: Okay. Yeah. But we're completely relating with you, Joe, on so many levels. 

Joe Martin: So let's break this algorithm down. Let's talk about what's creating a score. Okay. So on that paper that we got to the left of that paper, I want you to write the number 300. All the way to the left, I want you to write the number 300, what 300 symbolizes is the lowest credit score that anyone could possibly have.

Joe Martin: Is a 300 come all way across from that 300 to the right side of that paper. And I want you to write the number. Eight 50. Okay? Eight 50. Eight 50 is the highest credit score that anyone could possibly have. And I'm talking about the fico score model eight because you got a lot of score models that's within f and we're gonna talk a little bit about the f o score versus the vantage 3.0 score. You got a lot of people that say, ge, I check credit, comment. My score was this. But then when I went to the bank, they showed me a score like this. That's because you got two different score models. And [00:17:00] 97% of all banks and financial institutions are gonna give you approvals based on the FICO score model.

Joe Martin: And we gonna talk a little bit more about that. But the lowest credit score that anyone could possibly have is a 300. And the highest credit score that anyone could possibly have is a eight 50. Now in the middle of that 308 50, I want you to write the number five 50. So five 50 symbolizes the amount of points that a person can have between the 300 and the eight 50.

Joe Martin: Okay? So now up under the 300, I want you to write these letters up under each other and we gonna talk about the five factors. So the first letter is P, and then next to P I want you to write payment history. And then next to payment history, I want you to write 35% and then next to 35%, I want you to write 1 92 0.5.

Joe Martin: So that means payment history makes up 35% of your score, and in that [00:18:00] 35% you're getting 192.5 points. Now, when you got collection accounts, charge offs, late payments derogatory, anything is negative towards the profile is pulling away from that 35%. So the more collections and the more charge offs and the more late payments that a person have on their credit profile is pulling away from that 1 92 0.5.

Joe Martin: So if a person didn't have anything on their file that was negative or derogatory, they'll be getting that whole 192.5 points. Okay? The next factor up under the p I want you to write you and you next to you, I want you to write the word utiliz. Utilization makes up 30% of your score. So in that 30% you're getting 165 points.

Joe Martin: Now, utilization is created from a revolving account, which is like a credit card or a line of credit, a store card, things like that. That's utilization. It creates revolving accounts. So you got [00:19:00] revolving accounts and you got installments. Installments doesn't affect the score, it affects the dti, but revolving accounts affect the score because of the utilization.

Joe Martin: Utilization makes up 30% of your score. Now to get the bulk of that 30%. So to get the bulk of that 165 points that you're getting from utilization, you wanna make sure you keep your utilization between one and 6%. If I asked the question and I asked everybody and I say, Hey, where do you keep your utilization?

Joe Martin: It's two digits that everybody's gonna say, if you ask this question, if I'm sitting amongst some colleagues or if I'm sitting amongst some friends and the question come up like, Hey, where do I keep my utilization? Almost everybody gonna say 30%, so what I want people to do is debunk that 30% out your mental, and we wanna replace it with one to 6%.

Joe Martin: So to get the bulk of that 30%. So to get the bulk of that 165 points, you wanna make sure you keep your utilization between one and 6%. Okay? Now, [00:20:00] up under the u I want you to write a and a means age and age makes up 15% of your score. So in that 15%, you're getting 82.5 points. That's how much you're getting from age now, age.

Joe Martin: Everything that's on your credit profile has a date of birth, meaning the date that it was open. So from the date that account was open all the way up to the present, it has been organically growing age within the credit profile. So it's a average age is based on the average. So what I like to always teach people is, let's say for instance, if we looking at a guy named Tim F, and Tim got five accounts that was all open five years ago, we're gonna take these five accounts and we're gonna combine the years.

Joe Martin: So if he got five accounts all open five years ago, that's 25 years combined. So now we're gonna take that 25 years combined and we're gonna divide it by how many accounts he got, which is five. [00:21:00] So 25 divided by five. Tim's average age is five years old. So based on the fact that he got an average of five years, he's getting some of that 82.5 that's coming from the 15%.

Joe Martin: To get the bulk of the 82.5, your age needs to be between 10 and 12 years average. Now age could be fabricated and this is how age could be fabricated. Let's just say this saying got Tim called his grandma. He said, Hey grandma, how many credit cards you got? And grandma say Tim, I got one credit card that's 30 years old.

Joe Martin: And Tim said, grandma, can you add me on that card as an authorized user? And grandma said, Yeah, Tim, no problem. So now Tim no longer got five accounts. Now Tim got six cuz grandma just added one to his five. Tim no longer got 25 years combined because grandma just added 30 to his 25. So now he got 55 years combined.

Joe Martin: So we redo the math. Instead of us doing 25 divided by five, now we're gonna do [00:22:00] 55 divided by six. So that gives Tim an average of 9.1 years. So just by grandma adding him on her card, it increased his age from five years to 9.1. So when his age went to 9.1, Tim got more points coming from the 82.5 points coming from the 15% of age.

Joe Martin: Okay, Now age could be a double edged sword. So let's just say for instance, if Tim didn't call his grandmother, he just went and opened up a new account. That account, it has the age like a baby. So it gotta go one month, two months, three months, four months, five months, all the way to 12 months before it become one year.

Joe Martin: So let's do it. Tim no longer got five accounts. He got six cuz he just added one new account. That new account just aged a year. So Tim no longer got 25 years combined. Now he got 26 years combined. So now we're gonna do 26 divided by six instead of 25 divided by five. Now Tim's average a just went from an average of five years to an [00:23:00] average of four point.

Joe Martin: So his score dropped because his average age dropped. So this is why I tell people to be careful about adding a whole bunch of new accounts to your file, because every time you add a new account, you lowering your age because it's based on the average, wow. You got a lot of yeah.

Joe Martin: You got a lot of people out here that do these payday loans, just to get by. But the ones, the companies that actually report to the credit reporting agencies, it's gonna lower your score every time you add a new account because it's based on the average, So I tell people to be mindful of how many new accounts you add on your file every year.

Joe Martin: Be mindful of it. Only add an account if you really have to, now, 

Cathy: and real quick, Joe, these are open accounts, correct? Not closed accounts 

Joe Martin: that it don't matter. So I tell people, and this is, and I'm glad, that's a good question. It is a good question. Any account that's on your file, whether it's closed, open collection, charge off, if it's on that credit file, it has a date [00:24:00] of birth, it has a date that it was open.

Joe Martin: So that age is still calculating within the file. So I got, some people might say for instance, if I'm working with somebody and they got a bunch of closed or a bunch of charged off, or a bunch of collection accounts that's on the file that's been open for years, Y'all that age is calculating within their credit profile.

Joe Martin: So when a person work on that situation and they get that collection account or that charge off, removed from the file, And they see a score drop and they be like, Man, why my score dropped? I have to explain to 'em like, listen, it was hurting your score because it was on there killing your payment history.

Joe Martin: But it was probably helping your score because it was a old account. Even though it was a collection or a charge off account, it was still calculating age. But I would much rather sacrifice the age versus having a derogatory account on my credit profile. You following me? 

Crystal: Yes. Cuz it's only 15%.

Joe Martin: Yeah. And the biggest factor is the payment history, [00:25:00] which is the 35%, but still the age it'll offset because you got positive accounts that's organically growing age, and then the less accounts that you got, your average could get up there a lot quicker. You know what I'm saying?

Joe Martin: So you know, the less accounts you got, The age grow quicker. Say for instance, if I'm, if I, if my daughter or my son, he's 15. Now, let's say when he turned 17, he don't have no accounts on his file at all. But when he turned 17, let's just say I add him on one of my credit cards.

Joe Martin: That's 20 years old. He only got one account on this file. And it's a 20 year old account. So guess what? His average age is 20 years. So he getting that whole 82.5 points and as he grow up and he start adding more accounts, his age just started to pan out and level out to where it's fitting his profile.

Joe Martin: You following me? Yes. 

Cathy: Yes. So what about people rebuilding credit? So you're talking about new accounts, so [00:26:00] they can't get credit anywhere, but they got those cards that you get in the mail to rebuild I don't know what they call 'em, rebuild credit cards. You pay like a yearly fee and a ridiculous interest.

Joe Martin: Yeah. So that, that definitely helps. What we do is, because you're not gonna get an unsecured credit card with challenge credit, a lot of people not gonna give you that. So what we do is we put a person on a blueprint where we'll get 'em some secure credit cards, We'll get 'em a self lender account, which is gonna register as an installment, and we gonna talk about that when we get to the last two factors.

Joe Martin: But, it's a lot of resources out here. Where a person could really start reestablishing their credit profile. That's if they, that's, if they just gotta start over, but that 

Cathy: also relates to the age, right? Because if they're getting started, they gotta get started so they can have that card for 20 years, 

Joe Martin: And sometimes with these starter cards you just want to use starter cards to get to a certain place, but when you get to that [00:27:00] place where you are able to start again, tier one, tier two, credit cards, then you know, you could fall back on those starter cards. You could really close. I don't like to close accounts, so I would, I don't like closing and cause of age, and when we talk about utilization, the more credit that you have, Meaning the pool of credit.

Joe Martin: So if I got, say for instance, if I only got a $5,000 pool of credit, that means if I spend 2,500, I'm at 50% utilize, which is gonna hurt my utilization, right? But if I got a hundred thousand dollars pool of credit and I use 2,500, it is not gonna dent my utilization. You following? I 

Cathy: follow you and I think you're right at talking about installment card versus the, cuz we don't wanna keep the cards that charge you $150 service fee every year and 33% interest rate.

Cathy: So I'll let, I'll be quiet and let you get to that point, but when it was talking about age, I know some [00:28:00] people are going out and getting those cards, so I know you're gonna, you're gonna answer that here in a second. But I love it because we need to know from the beginning, I, I love what you're saying because.

Cathy: It's awesome. I'm trying to figure out the math, but I'm gonna let you keep talking. I'm doing the math. I got my paper and my pen . 

Joe Martin: Yeah, lemme help you a little bit with the math. So the, so the 35%, the 30%, the 15%, the 10% of the 10%, which we haven't got to the last two. If you wanna know what the percentages is coming from, it's coming from the 550 that's in between the 300 and the eight 50.

Joe Martin: So 35. Yep. 35% of five 50 is 192.5. 30% of five 50 is 165. 15% of five 50 is 82.5. 10% of five 50 is 55. And 10% is 55. So that's where the numbers is coming from. So you'll have an understanding on that, now after age, So I want you to write m and next to m I want you to write the word mixture.[00:29:00] 

Joe Martin: Mixture makes up 10% of your score. So in that 10% you're getting 55 points. It's a four piece mix. You want to have a revolving account, you want to have a auto installment, you want to have a personal installment, and you want to have a mortgage. That's the four piece mix. If you got all four pieces of those mixture, then nine times outta 10, you're getting that whole 10% coming from the 55 points.

Joe Martin: Okay? So that's the mixture. Okay, And then the last one is up under m. I want you to write, I and I is inquiries, which is new credit. Inquiries make up 10% of your score as well. So in that 10% you getting 55 points. So it don't matter if a person had 150 inquiries or if they only had 50 inquiries, the most that inquiries could impact the file is by only 55 points.

Joe Martin: So you got a soft inquiry, you got a hard inquiries. Soft inquiries don't affect the score. Or the file hard inquiries do. The difference from a soft inquiry and [00:30:00] a hard inquiry is when you're trying to go get something that's a hard inquiry. Okay. Now, inquiries could stay on the file for up to 24 months, but you could wrestle some of 'em off as long as they not attached to active accounts.

Joe Martin: That's on the profile. So if I got a $50,000 credit card, I'm not gonna mess with that inquiry because I don't wanna forfeit or jeopardize my credit card. I just ride the 24 months out instead of trying to get that off my file, but if it's an inquiry that didn't stick to nothing, and I don't have no situation with that bank or that financial institution or whatever it is, then yeah, I'm gonna wrestle it off my file because I know that every inquiry that comes off my file, it'll help increase my score.

Crystal: Wow.

Cathy: And you're saying this is all based on trying to get to that 550 from 300? 

Joe Martin: Nope, this trying. So let me break it down. So what we gonna do is let's walk from a zero to 850 and we gonna use those same, that same algorithm. So let's just [00:31:00] say for instance, we got a guy that came to us and he has no score.

Joe Martin: See, the most crucial time on your credit profile is the last 24 months. That's the most crucial time on the file. So if I'm talking to an elderly person, or if I'm talking to a person that never used credit then they'll probably have a n/a. So they won't have no score because it's not enough data on their credit profile to create a score.

Joe Martin: So if I'm talking to somebody that don't have no data, let's just say we gonna walk this person from a zero to a 850. So when this person come to me, he's outta zero. Okay? So the first thing that we gonna do is we gonna put him on the blueprint where we go get. Secured credit cards. Okay.

Joe Martin: Now, at that moment, we took him off the bench and we put him in the game. So now he got a 300. Okay? So he in the game 300. So now from 300, we gonna draw arrow down and we gonna point it to payment history, which is 35%, 192.5, right? So he got his credit card, he been making his payments, he's doing [00:32:00] good.

Joe Martin: So he gotta flawless payment history. So now from 300, we gonna add the 192.5. Now he add a 492.5. Okay? So now from 492.5, we gonna write another arrow down and we going to point it to the 30%, which is 165 points. So he understanding to keep his credit card between one and 6%. So he's getting that whole 165 points.

Joe Martin: Okay. So now, 

Cathy: and real quick, Joe, on the one to 6%, are you saying of the. The one to 6% of the available credit. 

Joe Martin: Yep. Yep. So it use the 10% rule. So if a person has a $5,000 credit card, 10% of $5000 is $500. So your balance need to be well under $500. We need to be between one and 6% at the statement date when it closed, okay. So don't use what you can't put back. You could use the whole 5,000. But if you if you don't have that $5,000 to get it back [00:33:00] down to one, one and 6% by the time the statement date come, then don't use it. Because, a lot of people use all this credit and they don't have the money to put back and they find themselves doing little minimum payments, but yet still using the card, they just steady increasing their utilization, which is ultimately lowering.

Joe Martin: Okay. 

Crystal: Got it. That makes sense. So you're saying keep, like whatever the balance is available, balance is on that credit card, you wanna keep the charges in that statement balance between one and 6%? Yes. 

Joe Martin: Yep. And that's, And you want make sure you keep it down. So every card that you have, like I tell them, the easiest thing to do is just keep it between one and 6%, and that's why it's always important to have your Due or your statement dates on different dates. I'd rather keep 'em like, 10 days, 15 days, 20 days, Keep 'em spread apart.

Joe Martin: That way if I do play with my credit, I don't have to be struggling trying to pay back all of these credit cards that I didn't use because they all on [00:34:00] the same due date. Trying to pay all of these dates, one a 60, then it's stressful, so spread it out, know the dates, know your due dates, and then that's how you play with your credit.

Cathy: Okay, got 

Crystal: I do have one other question on that. Yes. Is regardless of the balance, obviously we wanna stay within that one to 6%. So let's say, okay, I'm gonna go on a cruise. I'm gonna use my credit card and I'm gonna pay, I don't know, $500 towards it. My. Payment is due, I don't know, the 30th of the following month.

Crystal: So on the 30th of the following month, I pay that card back down to zero. Is that helpful or should I have some of it rolling over? 

Joe Martin: Some of it need to always roll over. So 0% utilization could be equivalent to plus 30% utilization. I gotcha. So you'll never wanna keep a, a credit card at 0%.

Joe Martin: You always wanna make sure you stay between one and 6%. 

Joe Martin: Okay. So we went from zero to 300, then we dropped from 300 to 192.5 [00:35:00] because you got a flawless payment history. So now he's at a 4 92 point. Okay. Now from 492.5, we dropped to the 165 on the utilization.

Joe Martin: He's keeping it between one and 6%. So he's getting the bulk of that or he getting all of that 165 points. So now we go from a 492.5 at the 165. Now he's at a 657.5. His life changing, y'all, now went from a zero. Now he is sitting at a 657.5. He's doing good. Okay, so now from 657.5, let's point the arrow down to 82.5, which is age.

Joe Martin: So what this guy did was he called his grandmother. He said, Grandma, how many credit cards you got? Grandma say got one credit card that's 30 years old. She add him on as an authorized user. So from six, so he hitting all of his points in age. So from 657.5, we drop it down to the 82.5 cuz he's hitting that 15% on age.

Joe Martin: Now he's at a 740. Okay. [00:36:00] Life totally changed, right? He in a 700 club now, , once he hit that 700 club, he went ahead and he got his mortgage, right? Because I tell people, get the house before you get the car because if you get the car before you get the house, it's gonna affect your DTI. Because now you can't get approved for as much of a house now because you got this big old debt on the auto loan, you can, yeah, you can always get a car.

Joe Martin: Anybody will sell you a car. So let's get the house first so that we don't add all of that extra that, that debt into our DTI, so now he got the house. After he got the house, he went ahead and he got the car. Okay? After he got the car, he went ahead and got a personal loan because he wanted to furnish his house, right?

Joe Martin: And then these, and then he got the revolving accounts already because he already had credit cards. So guess what he did? He just hit all four pieces of the mixture. So from that 740, we are gonna drop it down to the 55 points, which is the mixture. Okay, So now from that 55 [00:37:00] points, let's go up 740 plus 55.

Joe Martin: He's at a 795. Okay. And last but not least, we have inquiries. Now, he either waited the 24 months or he wrestled some things off, but he don't have any inquiries. So he getting that whole 55. So now from 795 we drop it down to 55 from which is the inquiries, and then from the 55. We go up eight 50 and that's how we walk a person from a zero to 850.

Joe Martin: Wow. That 

Crystal: is crazy science, math stuff going on there of

Crystal: course's. Why We need you to walk us through it. Yeah. . . 

Joe Martin: Yeah. And I'm moving a little faster this is what I, No, I wrote 

Cathy: it all down. I got it. Yeah. Okay. 

Crystal: Yeah, it completely makes sense too. And I'm not a math whiz by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm still, I struggle in that department.

Crystal: All the reading, math especially, [00:38:00] but I actually wrote it all down and walking me through it all really makes a lot of sense. And now I feel like, okay, I can do 

Cathy: this . So does this formula work? If you've gotten, and I think this is gonna be a lot of us who, already have that. That, what do we call it?

Cathy: The, we've already got a credit report. Let's say we're sitting at a 620 or we're sitting at a 585 or a 550 or whatever. Is this the formula that you say, Okay, now, start over with this. What happens to the old stuff, Whether it's good credit or bad credit. So I get on the formula how to put stuff, but what about people with gosh, the last few years we've had a lot of people, we got recessions coming up.

Cathy: We, during Covid, we had business owners, going outta business, people taking out personal loans, defaulting credit, things like that. How do we go and calculate this with those factors? 

Joe Martin: So you take that formula. See, this is why [00:39:00] everybody's file is different.

Joe Martin: Like it's case by case. There's no two situations that's identical. So when you get people that's calling and they say, Hey, my friend said they got that, you got them done in such and such amount of time, or that working with you, they was done like this and like that. I have to always explain to 'em.

Joe Martin: They file is totally different from yours, . So everybody's file is different. So don't nobody have the now as far as cleaning it up and doing those things, yeah, it's the same process on certain things. But as far as the content of the credit file, which is, that's one thing I always want people to know.

Joe Martin: It's like we focus on content versus score. Cuz you got a lot of people that's so score driven that you got a lot of people that's so score driven that they not thinking. The content, right? And we focus on content because you could do a lot. I showed you could do a lot of things to fabricate the score, but when an underwriter is looking at these things, like I had a guy, prime example, I had a guy call me, say Joe, I got a [00:40:00] 760 score man. And I keep running into the walls. The bank's not giving me nothing. They should gimme everything because of my 740. He proud, he got, I'm a nice little 740 badge on his shirt.

Joe Martin: He thinking that he just gonna go on the bank and get whatever he want, right? . So he he like, Man, they should be giving me everything cause I got a 740 score. I say, Man, set up a profile. Let me look at your file. Let's see why you keep running into this wall. So when I look at his credit profile, he got all authorized user accounts on his file.

Joe Martin: He have no primary accounts of his. So at the end of the day, when you dealing with the banks, it's a risk situation. You either gonna be high risk or you're gonna be low risk. The higher the score, it gives you the opportunity to sit at the table for them to take a deeper look at your credit profile.

Joe Martin: The lower the credit score, they just, they not even gonna let you sit at the table. They gonna just deny you off the rip. So yes. When he thinking that he got this seven 40 credit score, yeah, that got you a seat at the table, but when that underwriter looked at the credit profile and they see all authorized user accounts and nothing [00:41:00] showing your story, then that's why you running into these brick walls.

Joe Martin: So you gotta have content, it gotta be the right content and not just something fabricated you. 

Crystal: You can't just ride somebody else's coat tails and expect that, just cuz your numbers look good, that you're qualifying for everything in life. . Yeah. Yeah. I earned it all, all on your own is essentially what the underwriters are looking 

Cathy: at.

Joe Martin: Yeah, exactly. One, 

Cathy: one of the other things that I hear a lot and I see a lot as far as, people with credit is and maybe you can answer to this without giving away the farm, because I know you'll help people, but of course knowing you, you'll probably give away the farm. Nevermind that

Cathy: Let's just say I've got a collection that's been on my credit report for four or five years. So everybody knows they can write a letter and try to get it off. Yeah. But when you've got that collection, that's been, like I said, with the covid, things happening with the last 24, 36 months.

Cathy: I hear two conflicting things on this. [00:42:00] One. Ignore the creditors. It'll fall off your credit in seven years or two. Pay it back. They'll show pay as agreed. We used to do this in the mortgage business, right? We would fight these things to try to up their score, right? Like we'd send a letter and if nobody found it, whatever.

Cathy: Or we'd say, for example, with a primary first time home buyer loan, like an FHA loan, the mortgage, they're required to not have, clear, I think it's so much, I don't know. The loan things have changed, but at that time it was like they couldn't have more than 500 in collections, right?

Cathy: For a government home loan. So it was like different things like that going on. So the consumer, are they like sitting here going, Ah, let it go to collection. People run the, try to run the system all time. Let it go to collections in seven months, it's gonna be on, off my credit.

Cathy: I'll just deal with it. Or seven months. Seven years? Yeah. Or are you saying, should they pay that? Should they, work it out with the creditors? Cause you know, they're getting [00:43:00] calls like every day, you hear this story, so you got this. Two things. One, just ignore it, it'll go away. Or two make a settlement, make a payment.

Cathy: How do you recommend that when it comes to the scoring that you just mentioned? 

Cathy: Okay. And keep in mind, I know everybody's different. I'm just being hypothetical on the collections question. 

Joe Martin: Okay. Okay. So first thing, seven years is too long to deal with challenges. Okay.

Cathy: Amen. It's too long, 

Joe Martin: right? Here we go. Every state has a statute of limitations, Okay? And the statute of limitations is based on the last date of activity within that file. All right, so we gonna tie it all together, right? So anything that's on the credit profile, in order for it to report on the file, it has to have three things, right?

Joe Martin: It has to be accurate, it has to be complete, and it has to be verifiable. Gotta have those three things, so the [00:44:00] first thing that I typically do when I'm looking at a credit profile is I'm looking at the fields. So on every account that's reporting on the file, you got the account number, you got the date that was open, you got the company name, you got the last payment, you got the balance, you got this, you got all of these fields, right?

Joe Martin: So one of the first things that I'm doing is I'm looking through all of these fields and I'm looking at the accuracy, right? So if I see something that's inaccurate on TransUnion versus. Equifax, then that's a violation, So that's the first thing we looking at. Then you wanna look at the statute of limitations, right?

Joe Martin: And I tell people like collection account, once that account go into a collection agency, then you have no contract with that business, right? So that means that whatever business you did with the original company, I have nothing to do with that relationship with y'all. So if the original company charged off this account and [00:45:00] sold it to you all that was an agreement between you and them.

Joe Martin: And I have no agreement between me and you. So that's when you getting to the point where you're talking about verify, so if you could verify that I've done business with you, which you can't, because I don't even know who you. Then that's one of the three things that we could lean on.

Joe Martin: Remember, complete, accurate, and verifiable. So it's always, the first thing is always, Hey, verify this account. And if they not able to verify it, I'm telling you, Hey, if you're not able to verify this account, then remove it from my file. I tell people, don't pay those collection agencies because if you pay a collection agency and they don't remove your credit, or they don't remove it off the credit profile, guess what they gonna do?

Joe Martin: They gonna reset the last activity date. So now you could have been, had a collection that was about to fall off because the statute of limitations, but you thinking let me just pay them. And you pay them and yet they don't remove it off the file. Now they just reset the credit report. They is gonna reset the statute of limit limitations for that, 

Crystal: and get [00:46:00] the whole age issue going on all over again with that particular debt, 

Joe Martin: correct?

Joe Martin: No. It's still gonna be the same based on when they report it, but you just reset the statue of limitations. So if that account was gonna organically fall off because you was coming up on your seven years, okay. Now you just reset. Yeah, you just reset your statue of limitations because you just changed the last date of activity on that account.

Joe Martin: So that's why I tell people just, don't pay 'em, wrestle it off, Get it off before you pay 'em, and then once you got a better credit profile, don't poke asleep in bear. But if they do come , if that bear do wake, you know what I'm saying? If the bear do wake up, now you are in a better position financially to settle with 'em and get it out the way.

Crystal: I think my advice is just like everybody needs a Joe in their life, period. . That's just, I'll go get Joe . We all need Joe to help us. It's just you clearly have a passion for this and a true understanding of how it all works. Yeah. I just, It's overwhelmingly awesome. 

Cathy: Thank you. It really 

Joe Martin: [00:47:00] is and it all ties into like what I, And we gonna tie it into business now, so we gonna transition 

Cathy: it over.

Cathy: That's exactly where I was going. I was Right. You know how many Americans right now are going out. It really, everybody, they're saying they wanna have that American dream. They wanna build the business. I know me and you we're entrepreneurs at heart. , been doing this for a long time.

Cathy: Yeah. I can't remember the last time I got a real paycheck from. Besides myself, and I think more and more people are just gonna be doing this, but they need to know one really crucial thing. And that's what you're about to talk about now. 

Joe Martin: Yes. Let's talk about it. So I'm a big advocate on taking the liability off the person and putting the liability on the business, now in order for us to put the liability on a business, we have to make sure that we can establish some business relationships. So what I always tell people, let's just say for instance, your company is called Greencap, right? Greencap. So most of the times when a person has a company called greencap, when they got they business, they go open up one [00:48:00] bank account.

Joe Martin: I tell people all the time, Go open up five bank accounts on that one business and you're gonna move your money through all five of these bank accounts. Meaning make a deposit here, make a deposit there, make a deposit there. Now, when you done been there ninety two, a hundred and twenty days, you a solid member.

Joe Martin: With them. So now it opens the door for you to be able to ask about the business banking products. Okay, so now it's important to optimize the personal credit profile. That's why we talked about personal credit first, because we wanna make sure that we are in position to be able to do all the things that we need to do on the business side.

Joe Martin: Now you could either do it simultaneously or you could do it, separate, but do it. So what happens is when you apply for certain things on your business and they say, Hey, do you mind being a personal guarantor? You know that you already optimize your personal credit profile to look a certain way.

Joe Martin: So you can always say, Yeah, no problem. Go look at me. Because sometimes [00:49:00] they wanna see all banks, wanna see who runs this business. Let me see what you look like. Let me see how you've been handling your business, because the, based on the way that you handle your business will let us know how you're gonna handle your business with this business account.

Joe Martin: So that's why I tell people, so you don't run into no walls. Go ahead and optimize your personal credit profile first, and then after you optimize that, go ahead and establish those business accounts. You got your personal credit profile optimized. You got your fundable foundation on the business, and we gonna talk about that cuz I want to tell you how to build a business profile and how to build it correctly.

Joe Martin: A lot of people start businesses and they build them, but they don't build 'em on a fundable foundation. At the end of the day when you build your business, the reason you building it is to go get access to working capital and not use your own money, right? I much rather take a risk using the bank's money with the liability on the business versus using my own money that I got saved and [00:50:00] the liability on myself.

Joe Martin: Because if things go left, guess what? We tried

Cathy: So we tried. 

Joe Martin: Love that. We tried, you we, but what's the of business? We about to start , , , 

Cathy: I'm we green cap that one don't work. We'll start Red. 

Joe Martin: Yeah, we go now when you build that business on a fundable foundation, it opens up unlimited funding so that you can continue to grow.

Joe Martin: So the reason you wanna optimize your personal credit profile is so that you'll be a strong personal guarantee when you start building the business credit. Okay? So now when you build business credit, the main thing is building it on a fundable foundation. First thing we wanna do, I tell people all the time, is make sure you go do a name search.

Joe Martin: Because what you don't wanna do is you don't wanna start a business called Greencap Salon and you got a person right around the corner from you called [00:51:00] Greencap Beauty Store, and you put all your marketing dollars on this green cap and that's your brand. And then you got somebody right around the corner from you sharing your customers because of all of your marketing, So do a business name search and make sure that it's nothing similar out there to what you plan on naming your business.

Joe Martin: Okay? And then you wanna check the restricted industries. You got a lot of companies that start, and they don't even check whether they industry is restricted or not. What I tell people. So you got restricted industries. That's gonna be automatic decline when you go to funding, like ammunition and weapons manufacturing, bail bonds, check cash and agencies energy oil trading.

Joe Martin: Finance meaning like federal reserve banks, foreign banks, loan brokers, gaming and gambling activities, pawn shops, public administration, political campaigns. These things are gonna get you automatically declined when you go get funding or going to get funding on those type of industries.

Joe Martin: Then you got high risk industries. So these industries, they not. [00:52:00] An automatic decline, but they're gonna be subject to a stricter underwriting guideline. Meaning that they're gonna look at your profile a little bit deeper before they say, Okay, let's do business. And those industries are things like agriculture and forest products, auto recreational like vehicles and boats courier services dry cleaners, entertainment, adult entertainment general contractors, gas stations, healthcare, hotels and motels.

Joe Martin: It's a lot of things that's up under that high risk industry, but you definitely wanna do your due diligence on what industry you are about to invest in, because you don't wanna run into a place where you're not able to get funding on that business, 

Crystal: so that's really interesting cuz I don't think a lot of people would think to of those case scenarios.

Crystal: I just think I find that interesting about the types of businesses, whether you're restricted, whether you're gonna have a harder underwriting. That's pretty interesting information. 

Joe Martin: Yep. Yep. And then, and so you wanna definitely do your due diligence on that industry that you are about to get into.

Joe Martin: Now after that, you wanna make sure that your business [00:53:00] address matches everywhere. See, you got a lot of people they'll go to the IRS and get the EIN before they go get the Secretary of State. that is moving backwards. So I tell people, Listen, if you don't have a brick and mortar, if you don't have a physical location, don't use your residential unless you just don't have no choice but to, and definitely never use a PO box because a PO box is gonna get you automatically declined with a bank.

Joe Martin: tell people to go get you a virtual address. Something that's gonna register in the system as a professional building somewhere that you got. It's a virtual address. You wanna make sure that your address is matching everywhere. So when you go get your Secretary of State, you are gonna use that virtual address.

Joe Martin: When you go get your EIN number, you are gonna use that virtual address. When you go open up your bank accounts, you're gonna use that virtual address. It's very important that you keep your addresses matching everywhere, because that's gonna make your foundation a whole lot fundable. Now after you got your address, then [00:54:00] we go set up the Secretary of State.

Joe Martin: After we set the Secretary of State, then you go get the EIN number, and then after you get your EIN number, then you want to go get your business phone number, and you want to be able to put it listed in 411 so that it's in the registry. Then you want go ahead and build your website, get your emails, professional emails.

Joe Martin: So greencap, we don't need greencap gmail.com or we don't need greencap@yahoo.com because it's not professional, So we want business@greencap.com or cathy@ greencap.com. crystal@greencap.com. We don't, we wanna make sure we take the Gmail and the Hotmail and the yahoo off because believe it or not, underwriters and banks, they are looking.

Cathy: It's so interesting cuz we talk about that a lot in the, we do media marketing world, we're always telling people to keep their nap, their name, address, phone number, but it's more on a marketing perspective. So it's interesting to hear from a business credit perspective how really that just it's so important when [00:55:00] you're working with businesses to cover that.

Cathy: This is awesome. 

Joe Martin: And I tell people all the time, keep the industry out of your name. So if you doing credit right, don't have your business name, credit, something. , because banks don't like that industry. They don't like, you gotta, like I tell people, when you doing business with a person or a business or a corporation, first thing you always wanna do is identify how they benefit or profit from you.

Joe Martin: And that way it'll show you how to move through 'em, move around them, or work with 'em when you know how you benefiting from it, so when we talk about the banks, we know that they benefiting off of us from interest rates on the banking products. We call 'em mortgages, We call 'em credit cards, we call 'em auto loans, We call 'em things like this.

Joe Martin: But at the end of the day, they are banking products. And what is a product? A product is something that you sell or offer , , you know what I'm saying? We wanna make sure, just, I tell people like, when you starting your business or you building it, you wanna make sure it's bigger than King Kong, from a corporate [00:56:00] place.

Joe Martin: And you don't want, you don't wanna show your, you don't wanna let your cat out the bag you want, just keep it. Keep it a little close. Yeah. Keep it a little, Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And then it's certain codes that the banks love, like consulting, it's so consulting and management.

Joe Martin: It's so many things that fall up under that category. Like just put it under a consulting management company. If you gonna, when you register 

Cathy: yeah. Check , 

Joe Martin: but this is this. Doing all of this and building out the business credit. And the personal credit, it all ties together.

Joe Martin: The main thing you want to do is optimize the personal file, put it in the garage with a car, cover over it, . Cause we wanna keep that protected. And then we wanna move on the business side and carry all the liability. Now let's go back to those five banks that I said open. Now you done been a member with this bank.

Joe Martin: You moving money around, you putting your deposits here and you putting your deposits there, and you got your Optim, you got your file optimized. Now you go to each bank and you apply for a [00:57:00] business credit card. And let's just say if each bank gave you 25,000, which is a short That's not a lot of money.

Joe Martin: A bank could give you that on the line of credit or a credit card. You done went to five banks and got 25,000. Now you just went and got access to 125,000 all on the business. And you take that money and you build and you grow, you put money, you put that money towards your marketing, you put that money towards the things that you need to grow the business and you don't have to worry about utilizing your personal credit cards, which is gonna jack up your utilization and hurt that 165 points that you getting from the 30% and you using the business credit cards.

Joe Martin: So you don't have to worry about it. But it's three cards that I tell people to be mindful of Navy Federal Business, Capital One Spark, and discover those three business credit cards report on your personal credit file. Oh, wow. So it don't, it defeats the purpose to me, because I need this business credit card to grow.

Joe Martin: I don't need. Hurt my score, yeah. If I [00:58:00] got a $20,000 business credit card that's reporting to my personal file and I needed to use 10 out of the 20, then that card at 50% utilized, 

Crystal: absolutely. That makes complete sense. Cuz I have a Discover card and I love it, but it's per, it works really fantastic on, for me personally, on my personal profile, but I think I'm also at that one to 6%.

Cathy: You're saying as far as like the business goes, you're saying that they need to basically have a business account that's not associated with a person. But how do you do that when you're that solepreneur. and let's just say, you first start with a Chase or a Wells or a Bank of America, 

Cathy: Here in Texas, they go and they file their name, right? They pay their 10 bucks or 20 bucks I think is now they file their name, it's 20 bucks, it's good for 20 years. They go, they take the business account, right?

Cathy: They go and open up that business account and it's connected to their personal account. [00:59:00] Because they gotta show their driver's license, their id. You're saying that's as a solopreneur or a solepreneur? You're saying that if they go into more of an LLC or some other kind of filing, that's when it relates to only a business credit?

Joe Martin: Nah. So everybody, So the order to open that bank account is gonna need a person. So we never gonna detach the business from the person. It's always gonna be connected to somebody. So when you apply for that business banking product, sometimes they gonna want you to be a personal guarantor.

Joe Martin: Meaning let me just go look at your credit profile. But still, it's a business account. It's still not attached to the person, it's attached to the business, I 

Cathy: If they signed up a business account and that business account went null and void, they're still gonna come after the person that's related to the account. 

Joe Martin: They, So that's why, So this is why, So 

Crystal: we tried[01:00:00] 

Joe Martin: yeah. We tried a business bankrupt. It's bankrupt now. You know what I'm saying? It was on that business, that's not on me. It's not on the person, it was on the business. Like you say, we tried , 

Cathy: and I think these guys starting out, a lot of 'em are solopreneurs, they go in, they just get the name, they, it's associated with their name, their social security number.

Cathy: And it's like I always try to encourage people Yeah. Go that LLC, because you're right. You don't want to have your personal, you don't wanna lose your home because your business went out of business. 

Joe Martin: Yeah, exactly. And that's when you carry all the debt on the person.

Joe Martin: So now you are using your personal credit cards using, you're not doing anything established on the business alone. Even if the business need to use you as a personal guarantor is still connected to the business, so when you go open up that business bank account, you're gonna have to take your EIN, you're gonna have to take your tax documents, you're gonna have to take your Secretary of State document, and that's what you need to open up the business bank account.

Joe Martin: [01:01:00] And that's attached to the business. 

Crystal: Yes. In a sense that way it's not hurting you personally, it's why you're just gonna take yourself, put yourself in the car, put a cover over and protect it. Yeah, exactly. Taking that one with 

Joe Martin: me, . Yeah. That's what you wanna do. You definitely wanna do that. And then if you wanna go a little bit deeper and it's people out here that helps others with trust, so everything a person own you sell it to a trust.

Joe Martin: And this is where you get to the point where you control everything but you own nothing. So even if you control that trust and everything you own, even that business is sold to the trust. The trust is gonna put more, another layer of protection on the. 

Crystal: That makes sense. That really 

Cathy: does. 

Joe Martin: Yep. And A lot of places they like to do trust in Nevada Wyoming, things like that because they got native laws and it takes a lot more to see who owns that trust.

Joe Martin: So say for instance, if somebody trying to buy or sue a business that you [01:02:00] own and you got that business in one of those trust, that person gonna have to pay at least 50,000 just to see who owned the business before they can even try to push for some type of court situation. And people, like most people don't have 50,000 to put towards some type of legal fee to get something rolling, so you just really protecting yourself with a trust. 

Cathy: Everybody wants to start a business, right? And we can, you can do it, you can be that contractor or that consultant and use your name, but wow, what a great wealth of knowledge to get people excited about really running a business.

Crystal: It's brilliant and doing it the right way, knowing the things to do and how to go about doing that, to protect yourself. And hopefully you're not in the, we tried situation and you're like, we thrived . And Cause that's really the goal, obviously when talking about credit from a business and a personal standpoint.

Crystal: Yeah. I just feel. I mean I, I don't know about you Kathy, but I have learned a lot today [01:03:00] and it's really exciting how you are able to break it all down in a very understandable way. I think that is really what you drive so well. You can definitely tell, like I've said it again, I'll say it again and again, but you definitely have a heart for this and I can tell that you do have a heart for the people as you mentioned before, and I love that you do diagnose the problem.

Crystal: Here's the problem. Let me walk with you, let me , break it down on how to get you from here to there and let's do it together. It's not a miracle. I'm not putting it in the microwave and going with it. I'm gonna go through this process with you. It's gonna be a journey. It's gonna be a challenge, but it's doable and it is life changing.

Crystal: I think that's something else you mentioned that is always really 

Joe Martin: motivating. Yeah, it is. It definitely is. Like you talking about being in a position to go get anywhere from 50,000 to 150,000 in 7 to 14 days, once you got everything optimized the way it should be, if you could control [01:04:00] what the bank see it to determine what you get, So that's one of the main things is controlling what the banks see, and that's basically optimizing the credit profiles to look a certain way.

Joe Martin: That way. You can control and then you turning on a forever drip, so every three to six months you can go get more funding on the business, , 

Crystal: optimize your credit to optimize your life. Exactly.

Crystal: I'm catching on. Mr. Martin's got me on a roll here

Joe Martin: yeah. Yeah, that's it. That's it. And I love it though. Cuz I just love the gratitude, I think I probably talked to Cathy about my story. I took some real major loss in my life when I first started my business in 2004, at the age of 24.

Joe Martin: I lost my daughters a kidney failure, and then, a young man, 24 years old, I'm like, I'm fitting to go change the world. I'm gonna go do this and I'm gonna do that. And all of a sudden this tragedy happened, and and then we, and then two years later, in 2006, my little man [01:05:00] got murdered at the age of four by a 30 year old man, so I lost two kids back to back, and my father just lost both of his grandkids and he was already dealing with underlying health issues. So he ended up leaving me in 2007. So we talking about from a young man, 24 years old to 2007, I took a lot of loss and I went through a tunnel.

Joe Martin: I went through a real dark place in my life, and. I recovered, but I learned that the power of our story lies in the transparency of our story. So when I got to the point where I was able to share my story with other people, and then you add this. This that you sharing with it, it basically helping other people really put me in a position to be able to help myself, so every day my main objective is to see how many people I could help, and, and on another episode when you guys invite me back, we'll talk a little bit more about that, 

Cathy: That's my main reason when I told Crystal I wanted to have you in, [01:06:00] we share a common vision and, we know that if we help enough people get what they want, we'll get what we want.

Cathy: It may not happen in the time that we want, when you have a business, You and I have where we actually have a cause behind the business. . And there's a reason behind the business. It doesn't become really a numbers and a financial gain that happens through time, right?

Cathy: , because we built trust and people like us and that's okay. That's what we want. When you do have a business, if you are helping somebody solve a problem and fixing a problem, then you know what, it doesn't really become a business anymore. It becomes this awesome cause.

Cathy: Yeah. And that's what we, that's how we started. And every day I wake up, I'm like, ah, who can I help today? Cause we got, you and I, we both have this wealth of knowledge. Now there's a lot of things we don't know and we don't claim to know it, but we know what we know, and so we wanna just give away the world.

Cathy: And I know you and I, we are a [01:07:00] lot alike in that we will talk to people for hours and hours and just give away free information because we're not in it for the information. We're in it to win it for the customer or the, whoever it is we're talking to , we want them to win it.

Cathy: Yeah, exactly. They win it, then we win it. It's every time I see a business grow and I just gave one piece of advice, I love it because they turn around and it's Oh, Cathy, we doubled our numbers and this was great, and you're just like, Awesome. Cool. And what I love about me and you is the goal is to help, like I said, back to the cause to help as many people as we can. Yeah. And you know what, as long as we pay bills and have a little leftover and take care of our family and, have a future that's really where it's at.

Cathy: So I, I love talking to you all the time. I love the wealth of knowledge and You bet. We will definitely have you back 

Crystal: for sure. Oh hundred percent. And it's evident and clear that you do have a true calling for this, for the [01:08:00] helping others and things like that. And just hearing your story I thought it was pretty impressive that you shared that.

Crystal: Cause I did read what you had shared and listened to that as well. And I was extremely moved by that. And so thank you again for sharing that with our audience as well, because I do think. Sometimes life does throw some really hard things and and I know it definitely could not have been a really easy time for you, but to take that loss and turn it into something that really genuinely is life changing for a lot of people.

Crystal: I know when people hear credit, they can be a lot of negative association to that and things of that nature. But if you walk with Joe, you know you're gonna get all the goods out of it. Life changing opportunities from a financial perspective. But also I think that just having you be that person in people's lives, I think people just are gonna gain so much more from you.

Crystal: Then just the financial health side of that. , I think they're gonna get a lot more in just the life journey with 

Joe Martin: you. [01:09:00] Yes indeed. Yes indeed. Credit is just a pedestal, that's just a pedestal at the stage, But when people come you, you usually find that. It wasn't about what you, what they it wasn't about what they initially came for.

Crystal: That were the best. Le those were the best lessons in life, though. When you go in for one thing, you come out with a whole bunch of other cool things. Yeah. A 

Joe Martin: whole different perspective, . Yeah. Different perspective. We, on our next call, we gonna talk. It is so much even when we dive into the agreements, it's a so but that's why it's mastermind mentoring, I don't like, I don't say credit repair, I always say mastermind mentoring because , it's just about being able to, Just take life and take experience and help others through transparency, and 

Cathy: one of the things we're gonna do is definitely this goes everywhere, but one of the things that we're gonna do is in the description we're gonna, we'll have links so you can reach out to Joe, we'll have links to where you can find him and schedule a time with him and talk with him.

Cathy: And like I said, everybody's [01:10:00] different. So I strongly always will recommend a professional, whether it's business or personable. You really wanna have a professional person in your corner. And Joe Martin is the guy I'm going to recommend to get into your corner with. So we will make sure there are links and ways to reach out to you, Joe.

Cathy: Yes. In the description of the podcast. Again, we'll have all that out there. 

Joe Martin: And thank you. I wanna, I just wanna personally say thank you, Crystal. Thank you Cathy, for inviting me. It's a beautiful thing to be able to share information to help a person get from one place to another, because that's what it's about.

Joe Martin: Pulling together to help each other get from one place to another. 

Crystal: Thank you. I feel so blessed I've got my cup of happy. Ready to go! 

Joe Martin: Yeah, that's what's up. 

Crystal: WRAP UP