Digital Social Hour - Unlocking the Secrets of the Car Rental Business with Michael Onuoha | Digital Social Hour #76

Episode Date: August 16, 2023

Get ready to buckle up because this week's episode of our podcast is a wild ride through the world of car rentals! We dive deep into the industry, covering everything from parts theft to false police reports. Trust me, you won't want to miss a second of this thrilling episode. We kick things off by exploring the major concern of parts theft that plagues the car rental business. But things take an unexpected twist when a car rental business owner shares a shocking story of a customer who falsely reported a stolen car. It's a tale that will have you on the edge of your seat. To give us an insider's perspective, we welcome special guest Michael, a successful car rental businessman. This guy knows his stuff, and he spills the secrets of his thriving business. From his fleet management strategies to using LLCs to separate personal and business credit, Michael reveals it all. But that's just the beginning. We delve into loopholes that allow cars purchased in January to fly under the credit radar until February. And you won't believe how Michael started his car rental business during the pandemic, leveraging his banking experience and background in insurance. Speaking of insurance, we uncover the importance of proper risk management and commercial insurance for car rentals. Our guest shares his personal experiences with Tesla's insurance and the need for renters' insurance for luxury vehicles. But it's not all about risk. We also discuss the exciting opportunities for profit and success in the car rental industry. We explore the power of targeted marketing, identifying potential target audiences like families, young drivers, and college graduates. And here's a tip: building business credit is key. Discover effective strategies for climbing up the ladder to more expensive car purchases by establishing relationships with dealerships and utilizing an LLC with a business phone number, email, and EIN number. Financial literacy is often overlooked in traditional education, but not here. We explore the importance of understanding credit, debt, and investment opportunities. And trust me, it's not just about making money. We uncover the potential for attaining millions of dollars in funding through well-structured LLCs and venture into the world of commercial real estate for even greater opportunities. Are you tired of apps taking a chunk of your earnings? We discuss the advantages of private car rentals over popular platforms like Turo. Plus, we reveal favorite credit cards for business expenses, strategies for attracting premium clients, and the power of owning customer data. But hold on tight because we're not done yet. We take a detour into the world of turf equipment and even touch on personal stories of struggle and triumph. From almost dying in corporate America to achieving unimaginable success, our guest's journey will inspire you to reach for the sky. So what are you waiting for? Join us on this action-packed episode and learn how to dominate the car rental industry. Don't miss out on the opportunity to expand your knowledge, grow your business, and secure your future. Tune in now and get ready to rev your engines! And don't forget to join our upcoming five-day challenge, where we'll teach you how to get started in the car rental business. Visit rentalprofitschallenge.com to grab your platinum ticket. See you there! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/digitalsocialhour/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

To be honest with you two, in the car rental business, I get scared buying certain cars. People want to steal them. I've heard too many horror stories. I got friends in the car rental business. People rent out their Hellcats, and they take everything, and they gut them. They'll swap out your tires. They'll swap out everything in the car. Gee, have you ever had a car get stolen?

Oh, yeah, I've had that happen before. What happened? We knew she was lying. She came, she ran in the car. She filed a police report claiming it was stolen from her but we knew she stole it yeah welcome back guys to the digital social hour I'm your host, Sean Kelly. Got an amazing guest for you guys today, Mike the Businessman. Yes, sir.

How's it going, man? I'm doing great, man. I'm happy to be here, Sean. Thanks for having me. Happy to have you. The car rental king. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Let's talk about it. How many cars you got now? Man, for me, it's quality over quantity, bro. I got like 12 luxury and exotics, but then I have a small fleet of economy cars also. Nice. What was the first one you got? First one I got was, I think, well, it was two. The same day I got a Maserati and I got a Mercedes-Benz.

Damn, same day? Yeah. First month I got the whole 12. Wow. Yeah. And one of the things I thought you did interesting when you buy your cars is you don't let them run credit checks. No, no, no.

How do you go about doing that? Right. So, I mean mean they still have to so to speak right but what we're doing is we're doing it the right way we're using an llc right so i form an llc and i get the vehicles under my llc and when you do it that way they do do a credit check but then you're personally guaranteeing the loan so it doesn't show up on my personal credit it's not a business credit instead and that's a good hack because i feel like people get cars under their personal names most of the time 100 and then yeah and that's the biggest mistake a lot of youtube

gurus were preaching to go get 30 cars in 30 days i don't know if you've heard about that before pretty much they were taking advantage of a loophole if you on january the 1st if you bought a car on january the 1st it won't show up on your credit till february oh so you can go run it up go get as many cars as you want in january they start showing up in February. The only problem is I did the same thing. That's how I got 12 cars. And then I woke up in February and my credit score tanked because all of a sudden my debt to income ratio was through the roof. And that's where you owe way more than what you bring in. And then banks want to prove you for nothing after that. Yeah. And I know some people that did that. And now the car market kind of cooled off a little bit, right?

Because they did this. It peaked like two years ago, I think, during C19. Yeah. And then, so where were you at during the bike? Yeah. So I was actually, I had started this slightly right around the panic, right when it started. That's when I kind of was leaving corporate America. So I transitioned out of corporate.

I used to do corporate America. I was working at some banks like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America. I was in risk America. So I transitioned out of corporate. I used to do corporate America. I was working at some banks like JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America. I was in risk management and I had buddies already doing the car rental business. So that's when I started researching and started making my segue into car rentals. So right around when the pandemic started, that's when I started too. So you got experience in the banking industry. I feel like that probably helped you learn about the car industry too. Yep. not only just that, actually rewind way back. I started off in insurance. I used to sell auto insurance.

Oh. Yeah, so in Dallas, I had an auto insurance agency. I had three locations selling auto insurance. That's how I met my wife actually. I sold their insurance. Yeah, funny enough. That's funny. Yeah, so, and that's why, so when I saw my friends

that were doing the business and they were struggling, I identified with their struggles. Most of their struggles were around insurance and also risk management. They just had no risk management in place. I'm like, this is easy. I can do this in my sleep. And then that's when I just jumped into it.

Nice. And what's the best way to get car insurance? Because some people get ripped off. Oh, yeah. So if you're doing car rentals, there's commercial insurance out there. So we use commercial insurance. Otherwise, yeah, if you just want insurance, bro, you just progressive, all set, you're regular. You're regular.

Yeah, just use that. I went through Tesla for mine. Tesla has their own insurance. It was way cheaper than like Geico and stuff. Other people? I haven't tried theirs yet, actually. It's only like 50 a month. No way.

So it's based off your safety score. Got you. So do you have a Tesla? I used to have one, nonetheless. What was your safety score? I did not know I had a safety score. I did not know they were tracking my driving habits, bro. That's scary. Wow. So mine's a 95 so it's really good Can I ask you something? Did you opt into that? Ah

You don't even remember I don't Wow, that's a tracking you man. That's scary. That's scary. Yeah, I didn't know that now No, but yeah as far as insurance, right? So there's two ways to do that in the car rental business. Either you go get a commercial insurance policy. But the thing with those is they only cover up to a certain amount. So they'll only cover cars up to $70,000. You want your high luxury exotic cars? No.

So in that case, we have to rely on the renter's insurance. So if you were coming to Dallas and rent one of my Lambos, I would ask for your Tesla insurance. And then I would call Tesla to find out if your insurance policy would transfer over to my car oh yeah that's the way we would have to do it that's a good trick because i've heard with these luxury cars some of the renters crash them right oh yeah all the time has that happened to you oh 100 yeah and see that's the thing right so because i have the right processes in place i'm not worried about that oh yeah yeah because there's ways to either transfer the risk over to the insurance company or if you vet the customer right from the start you can avoid that to begin with or reduce the risk to an acceptable level so yeah you gotta vet because my friend has a company out here yeah and the car got shot up but he was

doing like cash like cash rentals which is dumb like you gotta don't they don't sleep on the cash well like some of them i'm good is it worth the risk, though? Because they're not providing KYC on Turo app and stuff. Gotcha. And that's a good point that you brought up KYC, too, right? You can still have both. So we are still able to cater to those cash people. And a lot of them, the reason why is they just don't want their names on anything. They don't want to go buy cars.

There's people out there that would rent your Lambo for months, paying you like $20,000, $30,000 a month cash. Yes, it's happened to me several times. You serious? Bro, my biggest, when I bought my Huracan, it was meant to be my personal car. A guy immediately offered me $30,000 for it for a month. He ended up keeping that for two and a half months. Holy. That's great for the whole car. Pretty much. No, my i8 was the best one. The guy was paying me $4,700 a week, had it for 11 months. Paid me $178,000 for an i8 that cost me 90 bands. Yeah. Could have just bought the car at that point. Pretty much.

I don't ask questions. I don't care. You just collect the check. Hey, the cash clears the bank. I'm good. Yeah. You know? So that's the way we run the game.

So do you want to scale and add more vehicles, or are you happy with 12? I'm happy. So I'm at a point where happy with 12? I'm happy. So I'm at a point where I'm happy where I'm at. Plus, I get people that constantly bring me vehicles. So if it's a car that's in demand, I'll take it. And then, yeah, that way we do a profit split. Yeah, yeah.

And so that's what I encourage people to do also. Is this in Dallas? Yeah, this is in Dallas, yeah. Okay. 100%. What are some hot markets right now, you think? Well, I think, funny enough, I think you can make this shake anywhere in the country. Just all you need to do, I always tell people, first things first, is identify a niche that you want to focus in. So maybe you want to do economy cars, or you want to do luxury or exotics, or there's sprinter slingshots.

People do cargo van rentals. People do weddings solely, classic car rentals. There's so many niches out there. Find one. Focus on that. And then within that niche, define who's your targetals. There's so many niches out there. Find one, focus on that. And then within that niche, define who's your target audience. Who's your avatar, right? So are you targeting, you know, maybe just college graduates or young drivers less than 25?

Do you want families? Find your niche and then go market to them. You would never be out of business. So I think anywhere you're at, you could make money. But obviously, the biggest markets will always be Vegas and Miami just because of the tourism. Nice. Yeah. And do you recommend your clients lease, finance, or buy outright? Gotcha. So I do not like leasing. Scratch that off. Unless for some reason they give you a lease deal that's giving you unlimited miles or a lot of miles, then fine. Possibly you could get away

with the leasing with the higher exotic cars if they give you enough um but i don't like it i do not recommend that you purchase these vehicles cash either like i'd like to get in these cars with no skin in the game like i want to use my llc put zero down if possible you know that's the ideal way to do that how can you put zero down don't they ask for a huge down payment no no well some of them do but then um if you build up your llc the right way and um there's something we call the ladder of ascension um and with the car buying process right so they always approve you for double your last car note your car loan right so say your first car was a twenty thousand dollar car yeah next time you go they'll approve you for

40. okay right that's how you climb up the ladder and get to the exotics so as long as you make that progression and they see that on your credit profile the banks will then relax their requirements and you won't start getting hit with the 20 30 as much oh wow right so yeah that's pretty people people don't know that yeah i didn't know you have to create that relationship they want to see that you've been doing those or getting card notes for a while yeah and then how do you build business credit? Right. So for that, pretty much you get your LLC formed, right? And you got to dress up the LLC. Some states consider LLCs to be actual human beings, like the state of Montana does. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. So the same way a human being needs to have a phone number, a social security number, a home address. Your LLC needs to have the same things, a business phone number. You need to have a business email, not a Yahoo, not a Hotmail. You need to go get your EIN number. So that's like the Social Security number. Then once you have that, go get credit. So go open up a Dun & Bradstreet account. It's free.

Go to dnb.com. Get a Dun & Bradstreet number. That's how you start building your business credit. Once you've gotten your Dun & Bradstreet number, you want to add what they call vendor accounts to it. OK, there are companies out there that give you these vendor accounts like Amazon Business, Home Depot, Floor & Decor. So many companies like Uline Grainger. You buy some crap every month, pay it off on time, and they'll report to your business credit bureaus every month. Wow. I think if you have five or six of those, you establish a paydex score and that's how you build your credit up. They don't teach this anywhere, man. They don't. Financial financial literacy they unfortunately they don't teach that in schools they should yeah that's crazy they really should what cars do you think are overrated and you've

seen a lot of issues with them uh mclarens if you're doing the exotics do not touch the mclarens are not good for business really oh yeah every time they go out bro is the check engine light something yeah i don't yeah i don't i stay away from the mclarens. Bentleys are 50-50 with me. I have a love-hate relationship with the Bentleys, too. Yeah, they're very finicky cars if you're doing the higher end. Yeah? Yeah, 100%. Which vehicles are you able to write off?

So, yeah, that's a good question. So we're taking advantage of Section 179, right? So Trump kind of helped us out with that. If a car weighs over 6,000 pounds, you could write off the entirety of it. So a lot of people leverage that. So I call them, they take advantage of the tax savings. So you see influencers online, right? They're flossing, they're showing off their G-wagons and all of that.

They're not doing that just to floss. They're taking advantage of that 179. They made a lot of money and they need to ride off a lot of it. So we go buy those vehicles before the end of the year, and you could write off the entirety of it. Now it's only 80%. Last year, it was 100% of the car. Now it's 80%. Biden changed it?

Yeah, they changed it. They changed the law. What people don't know, too, is it doesn't have to be a G-Wagon or something that expensive. Your Escalade weighs 6,000 pounds. Your Suburban, there's so many cars that are cheaper, less than hundred thousand that weigh over six thousand pounds you can buy yeah now for cars under six thousand is it true if you change the plates to your instagram handle and you add stickers on it is it a marketing expense they say that they say that yeah i've heard that a lot that's a good one they tell you if you brand the vehicle it's the same thing with clothing right yeah as long as

it's visible and it has your company logo on it the IRS will consider that a business expense but then it also needs to be something that's necessary for your business right so I don't know maybe if you're I might be able to get away with it cuz I have to drive to the podcast studio and you have to do it in style right yeah god forbid you're in a hundred thousand dollar car it's got to be an inventor doors yeah 100 yeah you can justify that to the irs what do you do outside of cars man outside of cars so um i also car rentals has actually opened up a lot of doors for me um after i left corporate america i started a car rental company and that also i used some of the funds from that to open up a turf equipment company all right so i have a turf equipment company where i

sell what they call greens mowers. That's what they use to mow golf courses. Okay. So I sell them all across the country to people. Really? Yeah. There's lawn fanatics out there,

green thumbs that like their lawns looking like golf courses. They want putting greens in their backyard. Yeah. They love the stripes and stuff like that. And these mowers cost a lot.

They're like $15,000 brand new. What? Oh, yeah. To mow a golf lawn? Oh, yeah. To mow their homes. They're using these at home. Oh, do you push it, yeah. To mow a golf lawn? Oh, yeah. To mow their homes. They're using these at home. Oh, do you push it, or is it when you sit in it?

It's a push mower. And it's 15 Gs? Brand new. We sell them used anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000. Wow. People buy these all day, every day. You serious? I kid you not, bro.

How do you find buyers? Bro, I don't even do marketing. I don't, bro. Facebook groups. Facebook, bro, that's it. Organic, strictly organic organic strictly organic that's an interesting uh yes sir so i i do that and then i've got the academy also where i teach people also how to get started in the private car rental business yeah so what if someone has no money or

little money do you think it's possible to get into car rentals 100 so i tell people if you have no cash no cars no credit you can still get in so if you don't have physical currency leverage your social currency like who do you know all right so you have to cash, no cars, no credit, you can still get in. So if you don't have physical currency, leverage a social currency. Like, who do you know? All right. So you have to bring something to the table. All right. If you don't have money, none of that stuff. Leverage your family members.

All right. They probably have cars. They have credit. Right. So you come with the knowledge. Leverage their cars. Leverage their credit. Get busy.

You could also get an LLC because I don't want you guys stuck there. Get an LLC. That way you can start to build your business credit credit repair works y'all this is 2023 credit repair works yeah go fix your credit and then so that way you can get your own cars yeah fixing my credit was a game changer because i was able to get so many cards and loans after i fixed it bro the power of an llc too bro yeah it is amazing that was the biggest game changer for me when i unlock the benefits of an llc it's amazing yeah i know people that have i have friends that have over 70 llcs and all they do is just go get funding on all of them so literally they could finance any project and

that's the way we need to think warren buffett says it best if you don't figure out a way to make money in your sleep you will work until you die yeah that's what he says so how do you i take that to heart so i I leverage my LLC. I get enough funding and I just keep it. Whenever I see a good business opportunity, I jump in.

So how much funding can you get for each LLC if you build it up? The sky's the limit, bro. Really? I mean, look, Chase, now if you got a good, well-structured LLC,

Chase has given out limits up to $100,000 on one credit card. Imagine if you have 70 LLCs. Wow. You can get 70 chase inc preferred cards each for a 70 to 100 000 limits so you can literally get tens of millions of dollars

where are people doing this every single day and that's my next venture commercial real estate that's the next commercial real estate yeah destination what made you want to get into that type of real estate i just just i did residential a long time ago it just wasn't for me i did residential small duplexes i just didn't like dealing with tenants. It's hands on, right? Yeah. I didn't like dealing with tenants. So now I want to take it to the next level, go commercial. Yeah. I know a lot of guys killing commercial. I've met some guys killing it with land too. I've been hearing a lot about that too. Yep. Yep. Foreclosed properties, tax liens, things like that. Yep. Yep. Lots of opportunity in real estate.

So you can really take all this money on credit cards and apply it to your business? 100%. 100%. Why not? I mean, there's people. Man, bro, there's people out there. They live off of debt. They pay themselves off of debt because you can't pay taxes on debt.

Dave Ramsey is so pissed at us right now. I know. He's rolling over right now. I know. Once he sees this. And it's counterintuitive, right? So society told us cash is king. Credit, you know, run away from credit, right? Only use it for emergencies. no he's rolling over right now i know once he sees this and it's counterintuitive right so society told us cash is king credit you know run away from credit right only use it for emergencies

no it can't be further for the truth yeah well i think people get ahead of themselves with credit and that's the thing right so you have to separate consumer debt from business debt yeah a lot of people use their debt for stupid stuff right you know i couldn't i couldn't tell you the last time i swiped a credit card for clothing and none of that no no if I do I'm just doing it for the points and I'm paying it off immediately second I get home yeah um but business debt 100% put that all on a credit card yeah what are your favorite credit cards man for me um I like the Amex plum card yeah I use that a lot because I get 60 days no interest hmm so I can make whatever moves I want with

that pay it off in 60 days another big one for me is the amex gold card because i do a lot of advertising especially for my car rental company yeah so i do google ppc ads i get 5x points on that wow you know facebook ads too 5x points so i love it i didn't know the ads worked for car rental companies oh 100 that's how i get so um the way i do rentals right so i teach private car rentals right this is when you're renting directly to customers. There is no middleman. There is no app in between, right? So a lot of people are familiar with some of these apps like Turo.

Yeah. Kind of like the Airbnb. My only problem with those apps is, number one, they take 40% of your money. Up to 40%. That's a lot. Right. So if you want the insurance coverage, like the best insurance coverage, yeah, it's 40% they're taking. Jeez.

I like keeping my coins. I don't like giving nobody 40%. so that's why I go private um another good thing about it is private you get it's almost like high ticket you're getting more premium clientele you know versus what you get on these apps these apps the renters are looking for the best deal they want the cheapest one right versus when you're coming premium these guys don't mind paying premium prices. All right? A car that you might get on Turo for $100, privately, I'd rent that car out for $300, $400 a day,

and all day, every day. So that's the second reason. And the most important reason is the data. Who owns the customer data? On these platforms, you don't get the customer's name, email, or phone number. Really? Turo keeps that.

How do you contact them then? You can't through the app. Oh, through the app? number. Turo keeps that. How do you contact them then? You can't through the app. Oh, through the app. Right. But when you go private, I have that data. So now I have a book of business. I can sell my book of business. I can sell my company and exit, or I can pass it on.

So that, for me, is the biggest reasons why I do private. Interesting. Have there been companies that buy car rental companies? Yeah, 100%. You put this on BizBuySell, 100%. Really? Yeah. The numbers look right. People buy it rental companies yeah 100 you put this on biz buy sell 100 really yeah the numbers look right people buy it wow what's the multiple on it i haven't i haven't gone into it nor have i seen anyone doing it i'm at that level the people i know doing it big they they don't want to sell yeah right yeah who are like the biggest players in this space i know out here in vegas there's royalty right yeah royalty right yeah he's really

good mvp miami those are some i'vep miami those are like some of the pioneers been doing it for a long time you know their numbers or i have no i know that i mean they're doing they got to be crushed got to be questioning because in these markets you guys have something we don't have in other spaces it's the hourly rentals yeah you know you have people here that don't mind renting a lambo for just one hour i see billboards for that there you go we were just in la hollywood and people had them right there yeah like an hour you can rent a ferrari like 250 an hour right there you go something crazy you can't do that in most of the other cities out there yeah so if you sell like 10 hours a day of that that's 2.5 a day pretty much that's crazy yeah we don't have that luxury

other states you ever see those uh those raceways oh yeah we've got we've got those now they started doing that we have those in texas too. I'm not into that space as much. Too risky, right? It's too risky to me. Yeah. That's something. To be honest with you, too, in the car rental business, I get scared of buying certain cars. Like your Hellcats, the Scatpacks, things like those.

Yeah. Because nine times out of ten, they're doing way over 100 miles an hour. Yeah. Those are just high risk. People want to steal them. I've heard too many horror stories. I got friends in the car rental business. People rent out their Hellcats, and they take everything.

They gut them. They'll swap out your tires. They'll swap out everything in the car. Jeez. Yeah, so I don't touch them. Have you ever had a car get stolen? Oh, yeah. I've had that happen before.

Once again, we have insurance. I've actually only had it happen once. Okay. But we have insurance. We got trackers we put in the cars to make sure if it gets stolen we know where it's at we go get them oh so you knew it got stolen oh yeah we did yeah what happened we knew she was lying she came she rented a car she filed a police report claiming it was stolen um it was stolen from her but we knew she stole it yeah we got track crazy so they do that all the time i heard heard they take the trackers out too. They can.

Sadly, there's people out there that advertise services like that. They claim they're helping you avoid the repo man, take out the trackers from the car. But we have ways that we put the trackers in to where, so what we call active passive configuration. So I'll put two trackers. One is on, one is off. So the one that's on is the one that they can scan and they find it. And then they take that one off. But we've got one that's on is the one that they can scan and they find it and then they take that one off but we've got one that's in sleep smart there you go so then we switch that once this one stops pinging we switch the other one on yeah we can kill switch the car that's dope yeah yeah and then you could if you can't afford to have to put an apple air

tag in there also yeah just hide the air tag so nobody can find it wow that's another good way nope what else you working on, man? Really, I'm just focused on the car business and the academy, man. We've got this five-day challenge in August, August of 28, where we're going to be teaching people how to get started in the car rental business. Pretty much, if you're out there, you're a nine-to-fiver

or a motivated entrepreneur, and you're looking for an extra side income, we'll come to the challenge. We'll teach you how to start your own successful six-figure private car rental business in less than 60 days so in five days we're covering everything you need to know about the car rental business teaching you everything yeah um so it's going to be immersive i'm going to have a lot of special guests come in there to bless the crowd i'm even going to have nehemiah davis he's agreed to show up yep he's agreed to show up to bless the crowd so looking forward to it how did you build your network man because you

know some heavy hitters and you you've been on some huge podcasts. I saw you on Million Dollars Worth the Game. Yes, sir. A few other big ones. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. It goes back to just mentorship. Mentorship, finding mentorships.

That's been the biggest game changer for me, especially leaving corporate America. I immediately attached myself to mentors, being in the right rooms, being in proximity. That, for me, was a game changer because not only am I able to collapse information and get to my destination quicker. Like you said, it's a networking. I go to these conferences and events not to even go learn. That's just it's the networking. But a lot of my friends today are not friends I had years ago, just four or five years ago. No, most of the friends I have today are people i met at conferences business partners that's it right yeah and were you happy when you were in corporate america no bro i was miserable i almost died it was not bad bro i almost died bro um when i started and i only i have to let me rewind when i graduated workers because

you're from you went to work yeah yeah i graduated, you graduated? I did. I graduated computer information systems. I didn't make it, man. Yeah. What happened, bro? Too much party? Man, no. So I graduated from Rutgers, Newark, and then I couldn't get a job out there.

Wow. I tell people Jersey raised me, but Texas paid me, so I had to leave. I had to leave Jersey, move to Texas, got a job in auto insurance. Okay. So I did that for several years and then opened up my own. So I started off almost out the bat being an entrepreneur.

Yeah. You know, I got some experience and then went solo. So I had my own insurance agencies. So I was doing that for a while. And then the recession hit. Things got bad. I lost all of that. And then, you know, my wife kind of wanted the whole picket fence, the American dream, you know, the house picket fence and, you know, me coming back with a lunchbox and, you know,

dress in a suit and all. So I did that. I went back to corporate America. I said, let me try that. Never did that. And I did that for several years and I was in tech and few things happened. Sitting down all the time, you know, it gave me a blood clot. A blood clot in my leg, a DVT blood clot. Bro, I couldn't walk for months. Holy. Doctor said I would have died if we didn't catch that. It was that bad. So after I got that, I knew, okay, I can't do this for long.

And then the second thing that happened to me was I was promised a raise and a promotion. I got the promotion. They gave me the title I wanted, Vice President, Tech and Cyber Operational Risk Manager. But then the raise, they only gave me a $2,000 raise. And this is after working for several years for a big name bank. I don't want to mention their names. They know who they are. And that's when I knew, okay, I need to

retire my mom. My dream was always to retire my parents. I lost my dad last year. I couldn't do that for him. My dream is to retire my mom. I knew corporate wasn't the way. That's when I knew, okay, I had to go solo, go do my own thing. And I'm closer than ever to doing that. Hopefully by the end of the year, my mom will be fully retired.

That's amazing, man. Yeah, that's the goal. Yes, sir. Yeah, it seems like so many people don't like their corporate jobs these days. I'm not knocking corporate America. I'm not knocking a degree. Hey, it works for some people. It just wasn't for me.

Yeah. Like you said, said too a lot of the intangibles that we need to survive today they don't teach you that stuff in college like financial literacy llc how to leverage that they're not teaching that stuff i didn't learn college see there you go like all i learned was networking there you go that's it yeah but that's a good skill to have though it is but i didn't learn it from college i learned it just by being there gotcha were you in a frat or something like that no but i built relationships with them got because you know how it is you got to get into parties as a dude it's tough oh yeah i remember that i remember walking the streets like

yeah i was struggling at first that's funny unless you had a girl with you did not let you in more than that you had five girls see there you go what i did was i was broke i went on ebay yeah i bought a ruckers basketball shirt and i'm pretty tall right i'm six six so people would just assume i'm like a walk-on or something oh that's that's a dope one yeah like that got me in that got me in man man see and i used to hate you guys man you guys are so cocky man like when we go to these parties man like the brunswick guys got all the girls and everything and we're on the outside looking in like man, like the Brunswick guys got all the girls and everything. And we're on the outside looking in like, oh, man. Bro, even the Brunswick guys couldn't get in.

No way. I mean, dude. Some frats wouldn't even let in guys like that weren't from the frat. No way. So it would just be that frat and like 200 girls. Man, man. Like the top ones. That's crazy.

You know, true story. Ever since I left Jersey, haven't been back. Really? I haven't been back. You don't want to go back ever? I just feel like there's nothing for me out there is your mom out there still nah my family's all right they all moved with me okay they all came out later on yeah everyone's out here now yeah i only went

back for my mom but yeah there's it's not really a state for entrepreneurs and yeah 100 it's like a family state you know people made fun of me for being like shout out to everyone from jersey though irvington especially too yeah yeah no it's just for me it's not like it like in vegas or dallas like people don't have that mentality yeah there's that hustle that grind yeah i've seen that in texas man my boys when i moved out here these guys are like 20 21 years old already making almost a hundred thousand dollars selling auto insurance right yeah and um just the ease of setting up shop in texas doing business it was just so easy to get my licensing all of that stuff to even rent a location yeah it took me a week that's wild yeah you can't even fathom doing that in jersey nah and texas is affordable

man oh yeah half a million dallas used to get you a house right oh bro man yeah 100 you can still get a house in texas for 300 that's crazy yeah so yeah not out here, man. Yeah, so it was just perfect, perfect move, perfect storm. That's why I moved out there. Anything you want to close off with, man? Yeah, so just let you guys know that you could do it, man. Wherever you guys are at, don't have limiting beliefs. Don't think that age can stop you or you need to have a certain amount of money or so many cars. You could do this.

I have people in my academy 18 years old and running the play, renting out their cars. I mean, that way they don't have to go work two jobs while they're going through college. All right. Rent out the car that they have, that liability on wheels sitting on their driveway. They could put it to work, make some extra side income. I've got nine to fivers that have corporate jobs or regular jobs. They use car rentals as a way to make passive income on the side. All right. So don't let any of that stop you, even if you don't have good credit. Leverage social currency, like I said earlier. I'm an introvert. I'm nothing special. Came from Jersey. I've had so many setbacks in life. I mean, I'm from a badly broken home. I ran away from home as a teenager when my brother slept on a house on my buddy's house,

my buddy's floor for almost a year. I almost died from a blood clot. I lost my business during the recession. So I've had so many down points, but to be here and I'm sitting across from Sean Kelly right now, guys, come on. If I could do this, any of you guys could do it. Just, I would say, find a mentor, invest in your education, invest in your education, and the sky's the limit, guys. Don't give up. Love it. Mike, thanks so much for coming on, man. Appreciate it. And I was just going to let you guys to sign up for the challenge guys go to rental profits challenge.com it's a five-day challenge it starts august the 28th guys get your platinum tickets and i'll see you guys there all right i'll put it in the description thanks for watching guys

and see you next time