I am Charles Schwartz Show - Limitless Funding Through Credit Repair

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

Herman Dolce joins this episode to share his inspiring journey from a first-generation Haitian-American with a passion for financial literacy to becoming the founder of Bella Sloan Enterprises and a leading expert in business funding. With years of experience helping entrepreneurs secure capital and build solid financial foundations, Herman’s insights are invaluable for anyone looking to grow their business responsibly. Through personal stories and proven strategies, Herman breaks down the common mistakes entrepreneurs make with credit and funding, as well as the steps needed to optimize both for success. He emphasizes the importance of financial literacy, sharing actionable tips on cleaning up credit profiles, building business credit, and stacking funding sources effectively. Herman doesn’t just provide advice—he delivers a clear and practical roadmap for entrepreneurs to secure the resources they need to scale. From understanding the nuances of credit to leveraging smart funding techniques, his insights offer a fresh perspective for anyone navigating the financial side of business. Whether you’re a business owner seeking funding or an aspiring entrepreneur looking to strengthen your financial foundation, this episode is packed with practical advice and real-world examples. Herman’s no-nonsense approach and deep expertise will leave you ready to take control of your financial future. Key Takeaways: * The critical steps to optimizing your credit profile for personal and business success. * How to responsibly leverage funding to grow your business. * The concept of stacking funding sources and why it’s a game-changer for entrepreneurs. * Practical insights into financial literacy that every business owner needs to know. Head over to podcast.iamcharlesschwartz.com to download your exclusive companion guide, designed to guide you step-by-step in implementing the strategies revealed in this episode. KEY POINTS: 4:12 - Understanding Wealth Ratio: Herman explains the wealth ratio formula—dividing savings by monthly expenses—and how it helps assess financial stability. He emphasizes the need for at least six months of savings before leaving a job. 6:02 - Importance of Good Credit: Herman highlights good credit as essential for funding, explaining how personal credit acts as a trust indicator for lenders, especially for new businesses. 10:00 - Credit Optimization Tips: Herman shares quick tips like reducing credit utilization under 9%, cleaning up inquiries, and maintaining a clean credit profile to make lenders see you as more reliable. 12:33 - Importance of Credit Profile: Herman explains why lenders look beyond your credit score, stressing the value of diverse credit types, older accounts, and financial consistency. 14:41 - Buy Assets Only: Herman urges entrepreneurs to buy assets that generate income instead of liabilities that drain resources, emphasizing this as the key to sustainable wealth. 20:36 - Recommended Financial Books: Herman recommends Credit Mastery and 10x Is Easier Than 2x for actionable advice on improving credit and scaling businesses strategically. 45:10 - Leveraging Credit Effectively: Herman explains how to strategically stack funding sources from different banks to maximize capital without negatively impacting your credit profile.

Welcome to the I Am Charles Shorts show. In this episode, we're diving deep into financial literacy and business funding with Herman Dolce, also known as the Haitian CEO. From helping businesses secure capital to navigating the complexities of credit repair, Herman has become a trusted expert for entrepreneurs aiming to scale their ventures. Herman shares his journey as the founder of Bellis Loan Enterprises, a financial literacy company named after his daughter. He walks us through key strategies for optimizing personal and business credit, the importance

of financial literacy, and how stacking funding sources can set your business up for success. You'll learn actionable tips to clean up your credit profile, build a strong financial foundation, and access capital responsibly. This conversation is packed with advice for business owners, including how to prepare for funding, avoid common credit pitfalls, and make strategic decisions to scale your business. Hermann Debunk's myths about credit and provides clear, actionable steps for listeners at any stage of their financial journey.

If you've ever wondered how to turn your financial challenges into opportunities or how to fund your business without drowning in debt, this episode is for you. So grab a notebook because your crash course in financial literacy starts now. Welcome to the I Am Charles Schwartz Show, where we don't just discuss success, we show you how to create it. On every episode, we uncover the strategies and tactics that turned everyday entrepreneurs into unstoppable powerhouses in their businesses and their lives. Whether your goal is to transform your life or hit that elusive seven, eight, or nine figure mark, we've got the blueprint to get you there.

The show starts now. All right, everybody. Welcome back. I'm excited to talk to Herman. Herman, you've done an immense amount of things. You go by the haste and sheet CEO. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Charles, for having me and trusting me on your platform.

I'm here to serve today. I love it. Tell people who you are because a lot of people may have lived under a rock or have been distracted with the news lately. We won't get into that. Know people who you are, what your success is. And I'd love for you to sneak in why your entire background for those of you watching on YouTube, why his background says what it says. I love the story behind it. It makes my heart blow up. So my name is Herman Dulce Jr. son of Herman Dulce. I am a first generation Haitian.

My family came to this country in the late 70s. Born in Brooklyn, Philly raised me. And I'm the founder of this wonderful company called Bellis Loan Enterprises, financial literacy company first, but we primarily like to help small medium businesses get capital and get some funding. I named this company after my first born daughter,

Bella Sloan, Dalcey, amazing. She's seven years old right now. And you can find me on Instagram as Haitian CEO. And the reason why I say that is because I have two personalities, there's Herman, and then there's Haitian CEO, Haitian CEO me on Instagram as Haitian CEO. And the reason why I say that is because I have two personalities. There's Herman and then there's Haitian CEO, Haitian CEO dances on Instagram. And that's what my daughter is. She's a ball and I like, and she's totally amazing.

I love that you named it after her. When you told me that I was like, yes, we have to see that in. The other thing we have to sneak in is when people do this and they want to get funding, there's a lot of questions that I always get asked. And they're like, how much should I have? How much should I do? We were talking about this before it went on camera, things like a wealth ratio. And if people don't know what a wealth ratio is, could you explain someone what a wealth ratio is?

Well, what a wealth ratio is, let's say for me, when I when I wanted to quit my job, and full-time in my business and you said it offline having six months of I Guess bills saved up is a good place to start having a year of operating expenses for your business But for me when I was thinking on calls in my broom closet at work. I saved up two years of Income for my household to make sure that if I didn't make any money from Bellis on any prizes for two years, I would have that money to at least

pay my bills. So I had a pretty decent F you account before I told my boss I quit. Yeah. So I love that you snuck in what we actually call it offline. So if you want to calculate your wealth's what you said, let's be honest here. So for those of you at home who wanna calculate your wealth ratio, it's really simple. Let's say your monthly expenses are $5 and you've got $10 in the bank, you've got a two month wealth ratio. Really, really simple. It goes through that.

And I agree with you. I think for your personal life and your professional life, you need to have at least two years for your personal life and then hopefully at least a year in your business life. If you don't have that, don't quit your job. Just it is what it is. You're gonna you need to you got to mind your job while you're building your business. You know, I built my I built my first company while I was still

working at a hospice. I was running the IT division that in order to build it and I did at the same time because sleep is optional. It happens. Dang it. As you get more successful, you will get sleep because it's a new thing for me. You also will also have stories where you lose your first million. So welcome to all of those wonderful adventures. We all have those stories. Exactly. I have a good friend of mine named Storm Leroy and he talks about, he's called the unemployed millionaire, and he says your job should be your first business partner.

So after you pay all your bills and you have your savings, you take that savings and you use that to fund your business. See if it works. That t-shirt company, the boutique, your start, you want to start, lose your money first. Your second business partner will get into should be American Express, Wells Fargo and Bank of America. Well, when you go into that, people are like, okay, well, I want to be my first business partner. I want to get into that, but I have no idea how to do funding.

I have no idea how to bring this in. There's so many different ways. I thought, you know, getting funding meant that I just stood on 95 and a two, two, and people threw money at me. Didn't work. Completely didn't work. Didn't work. People, people will pay me money to put clothes back on at this point.

How do people get in this? If they're going to go through funding, give me the broad overview and then we'll jump in the details. If someone needs funding, what's the best kind of ways to do that? Broad overview at the easiest way to get to that path is, and that's why financial literacy is such a component in our company, is actually having good credit. So if you have good personal credit, the banks are going to say, all right, Bella Sloan, you're like five minutes old We don't know who Bella Sloan is but we know who Herman is and Herman has good credit with us

He has a 700 credit score. He has a good credit profile We trust him and says he's gonna personally guarantee or co-sign for this business We'll give the business this capital in the business's name not in Herman's name And that could be your first seed money to start whatever you need to start. And the one of the blessings and benefit of it is the capital you get in your business name is much higher than you would in your business name. So I have a Best Buy credit card on the personal side, $10,000. My Best Buy business credit card is $30,000.

Because banks know that the business needs more capital. So there's all these conversations about building credit, and there's jokes and memes about it all over the place that talk about that based on your culture, you will get different credit scores. Is that actually true? Or is that just a meme? That's that's just a meme that is attached to the knowledge that certain cultures get, but the information is universal. It's ubiquitous.

If you do the right things, anybody can get good credit. So and you know, your back story about this is you actually have a lot of details in credit. So you talked about before you started your business, you were doing credit and you were helping people expand their credit. Can you help the audience understand a little bit more about that? That's right. So the foundation of Bellisone Enterprise will be your first helping people educate them on their credit and helping them fix their credit.

One of the ways we do that was through factual disputes. Per the Fair Credit Reporting Act, your credit report is supposed to be 100% accurate or 100% and 100% verifiable. If it is not the credit agency's transunit equity experience, they have to remove those negative items. So, like I told you, my name is Herman Dulce Jr. on my credit report when I was uneducated it said Herman Dulce senior or Herman Dole little edits little things that were incorrect it was a phone call before internet blew up credit repair called

them up and I hey you need to fix this is the mean I sent him a picture of my driver's license we are good to go. Hey I got this late payment on this credit card experience says I was late on Thursday but a picture of my driver's license, we are good to go. Hey, I got this late payment on this credit card. Experian says I was late on Thursday, but Epifax says I was late on Friday. I send them both credit reports. Oh, that's incorrect. They are credit reporting act, you have to delete it. So I was doing little tactics like that to help people clean their credit because the law is in your favor. So if someone goes, I think first step sounds like getting your actual report. And there's all these services that you have that charge you to do that. And there's other ways to do it. If you're going into this and you're listening to this going, hey, I've never even done it for my business, let alone myself.

What are the first steps that they go in through? So, hey, I just need to get this credit report and find out what is real versus what is on here. There's two places you can go just to get it for free. If you't want to pay for it You can go to experience comm they'll let you see your experience credit report And just to check out what's on there then you can go to credit karma I don't always recommend for the karma because your scores a little bit different, but the information is correct they'll give you Equifax and Transunion credit report and then you can look on there to see the negative items you have that are on there that could be positive Negative or incorrect just for free. Which is wonderful.

It's people don't understand the power of credit either. For example, I don't buy cars. I never have. That's not true. I bought my first car and it was garbage and I just the way I drive, I know you're not supposed to do it. I just I lease cars. It's just it is.

I beat the shit out of them. I just have a heavy foot. So it's just it's mean to cars. So I go in and I always negotiate with them and And being able to walk in and say, Okay, what's your credit score? I'm very I've been doing this for a long time. My credit scores over 800. So I get to walk in, I'm like, before I'm going to negotiate with you, go to your finance manager, just pull up my credit. And then walk out and like, what do you want? And they don't even negotiate. It goes away. That angst that back and forth that we all I think I would rather get you know, colonoscopy than buy a

car at this point. Because it's such a toxic thing. But having that, yeah, the now having that credit score, it changes the ballgame. So that's what's in your personal life. In my business life, to what you were saying, there is a difference between my company and my personal credit. Like I have a credit card that's got you know, whatever, $30,000 limit on it. My business credit card is six figures because they know the business and they know me and what's going on and I just don't touch it.

And then they raise it every year. I'm like, stop doing that. But so someone gets your credit report and they're sitting at home and they go, okay, I'm trying to increase my financial literacy. What are the books? What are the tools? What are the things that they need to start doing to say, okay, I need to heal this before I go out and get funding because I really want to get people and I'm going to try and

do it on this podcast where it's okay. This is how you get funding efficiently and effectively. And these are the tools that will actually not rip you off. So you don't want to get it from the guy down the street who only hangs out at the deli. That would be a different way. What are some of the tools once they get their credit report so they can start educating himself and helping themselves well some of the some of the tools we can talk about right now could just tell them number one I call the credit optimization so before you go

and get funding you want to look as sexy as possible to the banks or your credit profile so number one you want to clean up the demographic information there's only one name on my credit report not a a bunch of them. Number two, I know when we fill out applications, we're usually at different jobs. When we do that, I only have one job on my credit report. It's Bellisone Enterprises. All my old jobs, I called and had those deleted. Addresses, having too many addresses on your credit report. That's a red flag also. So I only have one address That's my current address because it looks like you're unstable

Those are little things that lenders look at now when that's done The next credit optimization is if you have credit cards, you want to pay down as much credit card debt as possible Preferably keeping it under nine percent. That's the sweet spot Banks like to see between one percent and nine percent Some people I want you paid all the way down you can but the banks like to see that they can make a little bit Money off of you before your credit report keep it between 1 and 9% Because anything over 30% that drops your credit score and shows that you're a little bit unresponsible with income The next thing is you want to remove as many inquiries on for your credit report. Inquiries are when you're applying for credit,

they ding your credit, you want to check it. You have too many of those, it's gonna look like you're thirsty for money and they don't want to give it to you. So you gotta act like you don't really want it. Banks would like to see any, yeah, banks would like to see any more than three to four of those in the last six months.

After it's six months old, then they really don't care about it. And lastly, collections, charge-outs, bankruptcies. You wanna make sure those are not on your credit report, obviously. And the one last thing I do wanna say is, your credit profile is important. What I mean by that.

It's great to have a 700 credit score, 800 credit score, but you have an authorized user and a Today's Man credit card, and you have a 700 credit score. But me, I have a mortgage, I have student loans, I have a close card note, and I have four credit cards that are over five years old, 10,000 hour limit.

The bank will look at both of our 700 credit scores be like, Herman clearly is more responsible with money. So having those profiles on your credit port makes you look extremely sexy when it's time to go and get some business funding. You mentioned getting addresses off because I've had multiple addresses and I go to multiple properties. When you go into the situation, you're like, hey, here is, I want this address off. Even though you did technically live there, can you just go to the credit report and say, get it off? I don't want to have this on here. How does that work?

Absolutely. Absolutely. We can go back to the fair credit reporting act because they say nothing is supposed to be put on your credit report without your permission. So one of those things are my address. So I can call and be like, Hey, those addresses right there. Can you please remove it? This is my current address. And depending on who will pick up the phone, they'll do it there right on the phone at TransUnit Equifax Smart Experience. Or sometimes they'll say, Hey, can you send me your current driver's license or utility bill? And you'll do that and they'll delete it. And I'm guessing the same thing with jobs and so on and so forth. You get the same thing with jobs. Yes. Anything demographic is a phone call you can delete when it comes to negative items like charge us collections or the little bit harder to fight.

Got to send some letters, use a fair credit reporting app to help you fight it. So if they're going through there and they're getting the ball rolling and they're starting to fix their financial literacy, getting your down to 9% is hard for a lot of people. So getting that, that's where in my mind, financial literacy comes in, decide how to do it. All of those as you've gone through your journey, you know, you mentioned you've got student debt and you've got a couple other things. Mortgage, which I don't know if people know this, but mortgage is French. It means to be in debt until you die. It's more than that. Yes. It is terrifying when you hear the actual name. It is. So as you're doing this, please buy assets, not liabilities, please. But as you're going through this, please for the love of God,

if it doesn't make you money, as soon as you sign, you bought a liability. Just buy assets, please. As you're going through this this and you're trying to scale your financial literacy and you're trying to set this up, what are some of the ways that, okay, we've got our credit relatively fixed, we've made the phone calls. What are the proven ways that you found that work to getting your financial literacy up? Number one, I want to talk to you about taxes for two seconds because you said something really interesting if you're in a lot of credit card debt. And everybody always looks at me crazy when I say this.

I was like, well, we were taught that on our W-2s when we first get a job to like, I guess, take the maximum deduction. I was like, you know what you're doing when you do that, right? You're giving the government a tax-free loan or interest-free loan for 12 months. And then in January, February, everybody's on my timeline, going to Cabo, because they got a tax refund check a five, six grand, I was like, or you can make some adjustments. And this goes to your question about financial literacy, or you can make some adjustments on your W two, your I nine, whatever. And that money you get every single every other week or

every or every month, that two, three, four, $500 a month, that's what you're going to take and start to pay down your credit card debt. And including the side hustles that you may have. I mean, when I teach people that, they get out of debt a lot faster. And I call it, here's how you get out of debt without getting a second job. And that always keeps people interested.

So that's the last component in getting out of debt on the business, on the personal side, which will transfer to some great opportunities on the business side. Cause now you actually understand taxes just a little bit better. For those who also, uh, if you're on the business side, cause most of our listeners are business owners when everyone started freaking out, when the politics came in, like, Oh my God, he's never paid taxes. She doesn't pay taxes.

All of us who have been in that environment were like, Yeah, he's talking to me. I don't know what you're talking about. You'll find out that you're not paying taxes. All of us who have been in that environment were like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yeah. He's talking too much. I don't know what you're talking about. Right. You'll find out that you've got the most famous line of this is you've got Warren Buffett, who pays percentage-wise less

than his secretary. Secretary. If you're in W-2 versus a 1099 or whatever your business is, not only does Herman's tactic talk about, hey, don't pay your taxes right now. Defer it to the end of the year type of thing. Cause you could just use that as your own funding, but also there are legal ways. I'm not going to get involved on a podcast with this one.

I'll see you tax professional. Not giving legal advice. We are not. Right. But you hear someone who is a politician and you have that political change where they're like, Hey, I, I didn't pay more than 3% in taxes or 0% in taxes or sick and they're in single digit. Yes. Hire someone

very, very smart. Hire someone who understands this, pay the extra money. I pay my accountant very well. And he has kept me very, very safe. But one of the things that's great about it is I'll ask him like, Hey, can I do this? He's like, of course you could do that. I'm like, really? He's like, you'll go to jail of the things that's great about it is I'll ask him, like, hey, can I do this? He'd be like, of course you could do that. I'm like, really? He's like, you'll go to jail, but yeah, you could do it.

I'm like, yeah. I'm like, yeah, I might. So make sure you have someone who knows the law and won't just get in your face about it. So financial literacy is so critical and taxes is just one thing, because remember, you get paid, you get taxed. You then go buy something, you get taxed.

You go to sell something, you get taxed. So we are just overwhelmed with it. And people are like, oh, Switzerland has worse taxes than we have here. I'm like, whew, whew, not really. So it just depends on where you are and how it goes. If someone's sitting down and they're learning these things, are there books? Are there resources? What are the things that you have involved that you've found? Hey, this is what's proven. If you do this, do these steps, we you know, we've already gone through a couple that I'm sure people have already positive podcasts and

like, I would deal with that in a second, I want to learn all this and start implementing it. They're making the phone calls. What are some of the things that you've run into that you got that you've like, you know what, this changed my financial career, this changed my financial intelligence in my life that I can now teach to my kids. My one of the most important things that I've learned is how to fund your business through stacking.

So what that means is, say for instance, I remember when I started doing it, people were like, well, how'd you get one person $150,000 in like two weeks? And I have the book right here, I'm gonna go grab it for you in a second. And it talks about how I will go to like American Express and I will get $20,000 from them 25,000. I have good credit easily right they pull from experience

Then I know that maybe federal credit union they pull from trans union get another 25 from them Then I go to key bank they pull from Equifax. That's another 25,000 So I just raised $75,000 in funding, 0% interest, technically one inquiry because the TransUnion Bank can't see that I got an inquiry from American Express and vice versa, and I just maxed out as much funding as I can get. Because if I went to American Express

and then I went to PNC, which pulls from Experian, they're like, oh, you just got a ding, like you just got it today. You're clearly shopping. So instead of giving you a $25,000 credit card, we're going to give you a $15,000 one. So this is how I maximize how much capital that I got. And because I understood that information, I'm able to double triple the funding that I can get from my business use credit responsibly, by the way. I was about to say that there, you know, people like,

Oh my God, I can get $75,000 at 0%. This is amazing. You already need to be in a situation where you have financial literacy, where there's already cash flow. I don't want you going out. That's not what Herman and I are talking about. We're not like, hey, go get six figures of debt and then file bankruptcy. And from what we're saying, what we're saying is funding when you're trying to feed your business is the lifeblood in the very beginning. It's going to be your sweat, your blood and someone else's money sometimes, it's called OPM. So going through this idea of doing this effectively and stacking is something I've never heard of.

So you mentioned you're gonna go grab a book, go grab that real quick and we'll come back. It's one of those things that, you know, again, finding these resources, none of the stuff we invented in all these situations, we are not sourced for any of this knowledge. We are synthesis. In other words, we are digested this, we have these situations, we are not sourced for any of this knowledge. We are synthesis. In other words, we are digested this, we have found it,

we are working with it, and this is why it's so important to go with people who are proven to actually do these types of things. So for those of you, what is the book? Share it with us. So I got a couple of books. The first one is called The Credit Mastery. There you go, Credit Mastery.

It's by Ian Richards. It's a great book on how to fix your credit. The second book is by Ian Richards. It's a great book on how to fix your credit. The second book is by Ian also, it's Developing Age Corporations, send you a picture of it. And that shows you how to build your business credit. And the last one, I have no affiliations, no affiliates with these guys,

but they really helped my business. And the other one is 10X is easier than 2X by Dan Sullivan. That book, it showed me how to think bigger with my business in regards to, I set a goal for my business. Hey, I want to have 5,000 subscribers. That was the goal. And he was like, well, why don't you make it 50? And I didn't have a reason why I couldn't make it 50.

So he's like, make it 50. And I was like, OK, so what happened automatically is my brain started planning and game planning for 50,000 instead of 5,000. And what happened happened I tripped into 15,000 because my operations my business my CEO's I got let's shoot for 50,000 so that's why it's easier just to change the number verbally and that'll grow your business well your brain thinks differently right it gives you different answers based on what's going on you know if you sit there and say I'm hungry versus I'm

starving your body will automatically go into, Oh, okay. Well, I was going to just get a snack versus, Oh my God, I'm gonna go eat a chunk of cow, whatever, just kind of go through that. For my vegan friends, you would eat lots of beans. I don't know. I don't know. Sorry, my sister, Sarah, I apologize. I don't know what the equivalent is. You guys can send me messages and tell me what the equivalent is. Well, in detail. So when they go through there and tell me what the equivalent is. We'll talk about it in detail. So when they go through there and when does a person know like, okay, you know,

I'm starting to learn my financial literacy. I've read the books. I've worked with Herman. What are we going through where we're like, all right, now I need funding. How do I know as a business owner, when's the right time to go get funding, to go through different rounds, because there's different funding where you're doing it on your own and then doing rounds rounds of funding because there's an entire practice is an entire pitch deck. So they call it

Sequoia pitch deck when it goes into pitching for funding when you go into your first round of funding. How does someone know as a business owner, okay, now I need funding. I can liken it to I'll give an example when I first started my credit repair company, and I was typing the letters and I was doing all that work, right? And then I realized I was capping at like $25,000 a month in revenue because my time was attached to the work I can do, right?

So at that point I was like, oh, I need to hire more people. So if I hire more people and I invest that 25 back into the business and I hired three people, I'm able to make $100,000 a month instead. So I try to keep that little 25 because I still had a nine to five mentality. The same thing is when it comes to, um, to funding. When you feel that you can grow, if you invest X amount into your business, um, because you've, you're, you've capped, that's when it's time to, to, to raise a little capital, but you have to know your numbers. so I knew my numbers before I went and got a $25,000 business credit card and I liquidated that credit card and I used it to hire my first staff member like hey I'll give you a thousand dollars a

month if you help me with these letters and I'll train you and then within 90 60 days wasn't even 90 days 60 days we doubled our income and in 120 days we 5x'd it and then when I saw that I said, oh, I'll just do it again Right, right. I figured it out got the systems in place We got to stabilize because I didn't want to fly a plane and build it at the same time I wanted to ensure I grew slowly and then I put gasoline on that fire I love that you just subtly snuck in my favorite word, which is systems your systems need to be bulletproof subtly snuck in my favorite word, which is systems. Your systems need to be bulletproof.

Systems are the mission critical for scaling. If you do not have systems in place and you just throw money at the wall, it's not gonna stick. It's not gonna work. And there's a lot of ways to generate capital without ever selling product. I love that you focused on,

I'm using this money to pay for personnel versus for product. And people run into this all the time, they're like, okay, I need more money to buy product. You don't ever need more money to buy product because you can sit there and you can go online and say, listen, you want to preorder this. We have this.

We're going to offer it. Would you like to preorder this? We're opening this special session. You get your network and you preorder. And that will fund you fast. So if you're in a situation where you're trying to purchase a Supreme, Herman Graves will get it.

I'm not sourced for any of this. We're just synthesis. Right, any of this. We'll go in and I'm like, hey, I've got, I have a, I'm not going to plug it, but I own a company. We sell lots of merch, a ton of merch. I never touch it. I never see it. It's all automated. God bless the internet, but we'll go through and we'll use the Supreme model, which is, you know, it's only going to be available for a short time. You have to preorder it. If you're going to get it opening, it opens up for a very available for a short time. You have to preorder it if you're going to get it. Opening opens up for a very short amount of time. So you have scarcity there.

Like we're talking to me available for only about two hours if you want to go and I'll open it up. And because it's connected to this thing, we'll get 2000 orders like that. And that'll go to my supplier and I'm like, well, I need 2000 of these now. And he's like, okay. And then he'll pay because it's already been paid for. I just immediately pay it. I'm gone. So it's costing me nothing.

And that's why it's so important to fortify your social media. Why it's so important to fortify and have these system in place, get money that's going to pay for personnel, not for product. It's a different bargain. You have to have a buyer before you purchase the product. People don't understand this. Very, very frustrating to me. What was it? I grabbed another book by Daniel precease called the scorecard

scorecard marketing. And it talks about waitlist and I didn't understand the whole waitlist model. And then he gave the best example. The best example that everyone has seen recently is Tesla. So what three or four years ago, Elon Musk, what we had to put down $100 for a cyber truck. And then he raised over $100 million. He went to the bank to be like, Hey, put down $100 for a cyber truck. And then he raised over a hundred million dollars. He went to the bank to be like, Hey, I got a hundred million dollars.

Can you give me more? And then he went and put a bunch of cyber trucks that didn't have to be delivered for years. Or work at all or be functional or be good product. In any way you ever want. Exactly, or be a good product. Exactly. Or be attractive in any way at all.

At all. So I wait lists everything. Hey, I got a new product coming out and I see what's going on with the waitlist. I say, oh, the people want this product. Let's create it. Let's give it to them. That little insights important. There's so many people who go to the ocean say, no, you're not allowed to come in now or tell the river, go upstream or don't think. No, the market's going to tell you what to do. Then to do it. You are not smarter than the market unless, no, they're not smart on the market period. I was trying to think of an example of like, is anybody smart on the market? I

was thinking Steve Jobs, I was like, no, he didn't like the iPad mini. And it was the number one seller that year after he died. And I was like, well, I can't think of anybody who's ever been smarter than the market. Market will tell you what it wants the attention to go. So if my waitlist was 100 people, I'm not creating the product. If the waitlist was 1500 2000, I was like, all right, guys, we got work to do. Let's get the smart people in the brain. Because I came up with the idea already. I'll figure it out. This is the joys of being a

business owner. So I tell people all the time, I might stop being a CEO, become a strategist. Like, I'm just gonna advise you guys go do it. And that's where systems come into place, which is a completely different conversation. So let's say someone to the point, like, I get it, I've heard what you guys have said, I understand waitlist. Now,'s say someone to the point, like, I get it. I've heard what you guys have said. I understand wait lists now. I've read all the books that Herman have shown me, which those are some that I haven't read. So they're definitely gonna be on my list.

God bless Everend. I'm not sponsored by Everend. God bless them. And you get free audio books or you pay like whatever it is, 20 bucks a month and you get it. That's what I'm gonna be doing on my walks every day. Listen to that. That's what I'm working out.

If someone's to the point that, okay, I get it. I need to get funding. It's mission critical now. I have to do this. I need to get personnel. I can't afford them. I haven't done the wait list thing yet. I'm in this pocket of, you know what?

I need 25K, I need it in 100K, whatever it is. And they need to get effective funding. Walk me through that process. When they work with you, what are some of the things that people mess up when they first come in? And then what are the things that are proven to actually help people out um so we got the creditors together their profile is together their business has to be structured properly as

corp secret whatever you got these are the little dings that banks look at look look at because i want you to think like a bank does so when i come in um i have a real business address it's not my home address right so i have a office and even. It's not my home address, right? So I have an office and even if you can't afford an office space, you can actually rent Addresses where your mail gets sent to virtual address or a registered agent because now you look like a real business This Bank of America wanting to business or give somebody 25 grand who offices in their home, right? And another thing people who have their home addresses as your business address, that's actually not safe because your business is public information.

I can go to the Secretary of State website, look up Bellisone Enterprises, I miss my home address, everybody knows where I live. So little things like that. Having a real business email, info at Bellisone Enterprises, not bellisoneenterprises.gmail. You wanna look legit and you wanna look absolutely credible. Those are the two little things I just wanted to tell people

and also have a real business website because the banks, they actually look you up while you're sitting there. Like, oh, okay, let me check out your website, see if you're legitimate. So if that looks good and it's perfect, the application process is pretty simple. They know that you're a startup.

They know that you've done only 30,000 next year. Sometimes they'll ask you, hey hey if we give you this 25 grand What does revenue look like I project? I'm gonna make a hundred hundred twenty five thousand next year with this twenty five thousand dollar It fluxes into my business. Okay, great. And sometimes they give you 10% of what the business has made or what the business will make up to a certain point so if you say you're gonna make up to 125 grand that business credit card will probably be $12,500 or they'll see what credit cards you already have on your personal side. They're like alright well

he has a $25,000 personal credit card he's done well with it. We'll bump that $12,000 card to a $30,000 card. That's how they think. Another thing with the application is what you put on it as what you do is important, too So yes, I have a job. But what is your title that you're putting on your business? I always tell people put that you're the president. You're the CEO of the CIO Don't put owner and then I will why why why not? I am the owner I was like his owners don't make any money So me as a as a president or a founder

I have a salary that I get because they're thinking, well, how are you going to pay this credit card if you're the owner? Because the owner is always what the last to get paid. And so you get the change that's left over. So those little things when filling out the application, actually you can leverage, actually get more capital for your business. And I still don't think people understand that banks actually want to lend you money because they may do well enough money. Like when you buy a house, so when you buy a house and you're like, Oh, I'm just paying off my mortgage. No, you want to think of a box and then it's cut in half from one corner, the bottom left to the top right. And you're just mostly paying interest the entire time they're making your, your actual

balances is going down. That's not any different than business loans. They're going to make a ton of money because they have these things where they go sign up now get $500 when you sign up on a CUNY credit card. They're hoping that you're like the majority of the people out there that they're going to make that 100x over the lifetime between fees and late fees and problems and so on and so forth. If you've got effective financial literacy, you're not going to be that guy that you're not going to be in that situation and you're going to

and you're going to get away from that. So if they're be in that situation and you're gonna and you're gonna get away from that so if they're coming in and you know you got to put down that they're the founder or the owner or the president you got a real business address what happens if something I don't have a website I don't have this do you walk people through that or what is the absolutely we can walk you through that we don't do it here's why we don't do it because it's so simple to do you can go to fiber calm hey somebody a hundred bucks I I promise you, they'll have your business email,

your business website set up within three days. Or you can go and do it yourself and get it done in like two hours. Go to Godaddy.com or Woods.com. It's very simple. There's nothing that we're discussing on this podcast today that cannot be done in the next 24 hours in regards to your business setup.

We used to run summits and we would do this and we would force people to do it live. We're like, okay, here we go. Go do this, go do this, go do this. And within two hours, it's operational because it's not that complicated. It's so easy to do because if you show up with Gmail or live or Hotmail, whatever is your address,

it's not that there's anything wrong with those email addresses except you don't own any of those emails. Remember, if you're not paying for something, you're the product. So it is what it is, please remember that. But it tells the person who's investing, it tells the lender, it tells, as an angel investor, when you come to me, if that's your email address, it tells me volumes

about your business. I know more about you than you could possibly know. If you show up and you've got an AOL address, it's like a puff of smoke where I was sitting because I will run as fast as I can. It just, it tells me so much about you. It's just like when you go to apply for something, if you show up wearing a pair of raggedy shoes and flip-flops versus a three-piece suit, I'm going to know also the way you articulate, what vernacular you're using.

I use very different vernacular when I'm on a podcast or if I'm, you know, in the, versus when I'm with my friends. Cause when I'm with my friends, I sound like an idiot. There's just no way around it. We're just, we're making words up and we are cursing more than my mother would ever approve. But we are being idiots. There is a time and a place that's also your digital footprint. And people regrettably don't understand that. What are some mistakes that people make? And they just comment stuff when they come to you and they want to come and they want to help you out. What are some mistakes that people make and they just common stuff when they come to you and they want to come and they want to help you out?

What are some of the things that you help people? Okay, first off don't do this anymore. Dear God, please don't do this Being in a high-risk industry and lying on the business application. All right, so no Yeah, that happens. So No, there's people out there believe it or not Industry banks don't like to give money to like high-risk industries such as Real estate so I know HDTV made it look all sexy and good but banks hate giving that that money to that NAICS Code so every industry has a code that is attached to it business consulting technology business consulting, technology, medical, they all have a code. So when you're

going to the bank and they're nice and they're wonderful, oh Herman it's a pleasure to meet you, what do you do, what's the business? And you tell them hey, Bellisone Academy, Bellisone Enterprises, we do real estate. They're like oh that's wonderful and they attach a code to your business at that bank. Now when it's time for you to go get funding, instead of you giving a $25,000 card, you're probably gonna get a $7,000 card because in their eyes real estate is high risk. Trucking is high risk. Carmen, what are the other high risk industry? Adult vices are high risk. Daycare, anything with transportation, you can Google this information, high risk

industries. So those type of industries they don't like to give funding to, that's why I have a journal name Bellis own enterprises Not Bellis own credit repair or Bellis loan trucking And the other thing is lying on business applications. Like you said banks wants to give you money start slow You're trying to get a hundred fifty thousand dollar credit card or a loan from a bank And if you have to lie to get it, then you're probably not ready to get the money. So be honest with the bank Listen, I made thirty thousand last year. I'm projected to make a buck fifty this year What can you give me based on my credit and my business be instructor probably Herman?

Honestly, we can give you thirty thousand great I'm going to turn this thirty thousand and here's what the great thing Once you spend that thirty thousand and you pay it down or you pay it down half within 90 days or six months Yes, what the bank is gonna do? They're gonna reach out to you, but hey, you're doing really good with this credit card. Yeah, would you like a credit card increase? Would you like another business credit card? Absolutely, I'd love to do that.

Because you gotta prove yourself to the bank and they'll take care of you. I love that you said they'll reach out to you in a nice, nice way. No, they will hound you. They'll hound you 15 times a day. Right, do you like doing money, sir? It becomes the different problem.

When you actually have financial literacy and you're running into this, they'll bang on your door, they will get annoyed. If that's why it's important to have, don't use your regular phone, try and have another phone specifically for this. We all have phones. We all have hidden WhatsApp. We all have hidden Google voice. We all have extra SIM cards in our lives.

Let's be honest because let's be honest. No, no, because I will just get hounded. Whenever I go and I do apply for something or whatever it is, I will go in. I'll have a separate email address and a separate phone number that just gets hounded and I'm like, whatever it's connected to a phone that sits in a closet in the office. I'm like, have fun on airport mode or it's on do not disturb. And I just like, whatever.

I don't check it. I never interact with it. Sorry. For those of you who have Googled me and tried to get a hold of me. That's why you can't get a hold of me. That's why it's for my protection. It goes back to what you said earlier, which is don't put your home address on the on the thing. No one knows my home address. There's no way to Google where my home address is because I technically don't own my home. My home is owned by a trust, which I am not connected to in any way, shape or form publicly,

privately. It's my trust, but no one knows where I live. And that's done on purpose because I love you guys. You guys are very sweet, but y'all are creepy and you freak me out. Don't show up in my house. It makes me pee on myself a little bit. Don't be doing that. It's weird. Y'all are. It's been nervous. I have to protect myself. Absolutely. And you know, I like carrying guns and I will return fire.

It is what it is. So when someone comes in, there's a lot of people, when we talk about getting a loan, fixing their credit, they're terrified because they weren't taught this. I mean, financial literacy isn't something I was taught by my family in any way, shape or form. I was taught save, save, save, save, save, save. Don't buy stuff you don't need. That's the extent of it. It wasn't until I read, I know it's very classic and everybody's read it a thousand times. I read Rich Dad Poor Dad.

I read Rich Dad Poor Dad. And then my favorite book by him is not Rich Dad Poor Dad, it's Cash Flow Quadrant. Class, Cash Flow Quadrant changed my life. And then I was 20 years old, 21 maybe. I bought a book called Cash Flow and a book, a game called Cash Flow that he has done. If you haven't bought this game, which it was $350 or 299 when I bought it, which at the time was more money than I could possibly imagine. Cause I grew up, I couldn't afford the last few letters of poor. I was broke and I spent this money and it's like

monopoly on crack. And I laid it out and I played with my buddy, Keith, and he kicked my butt the first time and then I sat there On the table and there's four people can play at the same time I think you play more but normally four and I would run around and I'd sit there and play every night all by myself Just constantly playing this game over and over and over and I have played this game with every one of my clients that I've coached Everyone of my clients if you guys like $75 now because bastards made me spend money before I played it with people who are billionaires and who go bankrupt in some things in the game.

It is one of those games that fundamentally change it and allowed me to get past the fear of, Hey, maybe I'll try this. Maybe I'll try that. Cause if I lose, it's just paper money and it's a little plastic rats on a board. So when people come to you and they're terrified, cause there's a lot of people who

are terrified of approaching this. They're like, you know what? I, I can't be a business owner. I can't do a side hustle because I'm afraid I just, I just want to be an employee and get a W-2, which is horrible. Good God, the amount of damage. Oh my God. It's horrible. When someone's at that point and they're, they're have paralysis because of fear. How do you handle that? How do you hold people's hands through them? Um, I give them a different fear. So, uh, everybody doesn't have to be an entrepreneur, but everybody does need to be an

investor. You need to be investing in something that you're in control of. Um, a friend of mine gave me this wonderful example. He was like, they are financial prey and they're financial predators. Right.

And it's in the interest of the financial prey to keep you financially illiterate. And when you're financially illiterate, they make more money, right? So for banks, say for instance, they make billions, like tens of billions. I wanna say $50 billion just on late fees and not even late fees, it's like a bounce checks

or whatever, non-sufficient funds, billions. Why wouldn't they just send you a text message? Hey, your bank account is low or in school, why did they teach you how to balance a checkbook? I literally went, but it was a private school. We actually had a class where they showed us how to write checks and balance a checkbook. And my dad sat me down. He's like, hey son, I want you to pay the bills every Friday. And he was like, this is what I made.

This is what we're spending. I think he did that. So I I wanna ask him for the Nintendo, because he would see how much money was left. But it was financial literacy for me. So when I grew up, I had those habits. Not having those habits would cost me money. I wouldn't learn how to save, I wouldn't learn how to invest.

So the different fear that I give people, okay, you wanna do the W-2, I'm old enough to see a couple of crashes happen where people's 401k have been wiped away. Right? So I'm like, do you want that option? Or do you want to have just a little bit more control? Because you gave somebody two, three $400 a week for 30 years, they made millions off of that. And they gave you

when you were tired, you're probably have half a million dollars, a million dollars, a million dollars and you think you did a thing. But the opportunity cost of your financial literacy, it's probably $10 million that you lost because you didn't have that information. So when I pivot, when I give them new information, they're like, oh, I was like, listen,

I'm not gonna promise you getting you $10 million, but hey, let me help you get two or three rental income, right properties. So when you retire, in addition to the 401k Social Security, you're getting $3, $4,000 in rent check, and the asset is worth X amount put in a trust that you can pass out to your children levered by life leveraged by life insurance will go down the rabbit hole. I just make them think differently about that $1,000 are giving away to somebody else. So let's go down that rabbit hole. So someone comes to you and they're like, I love that you said, I wanted a Nintendo because that makes you in my age group. It was different though. Did you

actually get the Nintendo or no? I got the Nintendo. I got it. So you're getting the Nintendo was different than me getting the Nintendo. My last name is Schwartz. We have eight days. So day one, I got the Nintendo day two, I got the controller day three. I got the other controller. You know, I got the last day, the power to turn the damn thing on. I was so mad. I was so happy. My dad thought it was hilarious. Um, but very similar to you.

I had my mom sit down and show me this is what a checkbook is. Cause we're both that old, but you gotta sit down and go through this and learn these things out. But let's start going down these rabbit holes. Let's talk about more of these advanced things that you do and that you share about life insurance and how to do this and all that. Walk me through the stuff that when you share with people, their mind just goes. I'll give you a great example of this. I did a Zoom call with Temple University students during the pandemic. Temple called me. That's my alma mater. So I was very

honored. He said, Hey, can you talk to our freshmen about some financial literacy topics? I was like great. So I got on the call maybe 20 people on there and I was like hey who wants to be worth? $250,000 by the time they graduate college. So you're telling tell them about your 18 year olds that I'm not like what are you talking about? That's that's not even possible. I'm just trying to get this this Teaching degrees I could make $50,000 in the school district of Philadelphia Right, rightful. So, so I was like, all right, so we talked about the credit thing, walk them through the whole credit thing, open up a bank account, getting your first personal credit card, walk them through all that. In two years, when that credit card is two years old, it'll

probably have a five to $10,000 limit on there. And I want everybody to start their LLC. So I'm talking to freshmen right now. So now it's sophomore year junior year, excuse me. Your credit card is two years old The limit is $10,000. You have a business that's two years old whether you were using it or not I'm just glad you got that paper now You're able to go get business credit or business line of credit and You're able to put a down payment on an investment property, right? Because you're over 18 year but you're able to sign for it talk to an investment property, right? Because you're over 18 year, but you're able to sign for it, talk to a good realtor.

And now we're gonna house hack. You can get up to a four unit property, right? Through a program called NACA. So I told them about this NACA program, where they able to get in it with low, low money down or zero money down for first time home buyers. So now you're in this property, the three other units are paying the rent for you, right?

And you're living for free. In another two years, you're able to take out the equity because there will be a little equity, a little five, $10,000 and purchase another, do another down payment on another property. So by the time you're a senior or you're a graduate student, you'll have eight doors paying you X amount of money. And at minimum in the Philadelphia market at the time,

those assets should be worth over $250,000 and your cash flowing at least 25 to $3,000. So after I gave him, it was a longer PowerPoint. I was like, after I do that, what do you think will happen to you by the time you graduate? Everyone was like, I probably won't work, right? And I was glad in that moment, I brainwashed them.

I was like, really, why wouldn't you work? Well, they was like, well, if I can leverage credit to make 3000 or 5000, then I'll just do that over and over. I was like, all right, class dismissed. I did my job. Sorry, Temple University, that everyone's gonna drop out. Absolutely. In about two semesters.

But I just showed them the difference. And I was like, hey, you could still have a job but having this side hustle cashflow coming in and building asset equity. And then I tell them to put in a trust to protect assets because everybody wants to sue you. And hey, you got extra $5, $10,000. Start putting that into a life insurance policy

that that'll grow some safe dividends every. So now their mind is just thinking differently about money. And I was like, hey, the jobs that you guys are going to have, you can leverage that to, to, to, to, to 10 nexus even more. And you'll probably retire in, in five years. So I love that you just kind of, again, for people who have done it a million times, it's like, Oh, it's no big deal. So to make it easy to remember it's monopoly for green houses, one red hotel,

really, really simple. But you know, you came on and you said, you didn't say, go buy your dream house. You're like, no, go buy a fourplex. That's three of them are going to pay for the one. And you go through that rinse and repeat and rinse and repeat and rinse and repeat and rinse and repeat. It doesn't have to be sexy. It doesn't have to be fun. Now you're still going to have the headaches of being a property owner. There's always going to be that.

That's just the nature of the beast. It is what it is. You're going to have people who ruin stuff. You're going to have those things. There are those hurdles and there's ways to prevent that. There's ways to really fortify it. One of the ways that we're going to do it. You're going to have people who ruin stuff. You're going to have those things. There are those hurdles and there's ways to prevent that. There's ways to really fortify it. One of the ways that, you know, when I was purchasing real estate in the very beginning,

I refused to rent to renters. It was always rent to own. I'm like, listen, if you want to come in, it's a rent to own model. Therefore, all of my problems with as far as anybody coming in and messing with my properties and breaking anything, they're going gonna take better care of it. Now, most of them have been there for 13 years, 14 years. They're still don't want to buy the property. They're still going to say, I'm going to buy it one day, but

they're wage slaves, they're employees. So they're never going to get there. I'm like, we're going to get to a point sooner or later. And I'm like, guys, we're way outside our realm of when you could have bought it, but they still have this idea that this is their home. And before the collapse happened, I was lucky enough to be connected to in COVID before the collapse.

I was lucky to be connected. People are like, listen, take all of your commercial property, chuck it. I don't think I'm sorry. What? That's most of my portfolio. You have to chuck it. You have to chuck it now. And I was very lucky. I chucked all my commercial property. I got out, took all that road, put it into industrial stuff, survived the hit, and now I got to go back in and buy certain industrial stuff. Because I own a bunch of office complexes. And they're like, Oh, you're going to get it. Oh, it wasn't me.

Again, this is something that people don't understand. Herman and I, but I'm sure I'm curious if you it is not ever what you know. It's who you're know. Your network is your net worth. I knew this individual for a very long time. I'm not going to plug his name. He's a gift. ever what you know, it's who you're know. Who you know. Your network is your net worth. I knew this individual for a very long time. I'm not gonna plug his name. He's a gift. You already have read about him. He helped somebody who we may have talked about earlier

who created a really cool board game and multiple books get his real estate wealth. He called me up. He was like, listen, I never told you to do anything. You and I have been friends. We've been connected. You've got to purge all of this now. And I was like, I'm sorry, what?

And he kept blowing up my phone. I was like, dude, what's wrong? And he said, you got to get out. He goes, you're going to get eaten alive. And I was like, dude, you're asking me to wipe out 60% of my wealth. He's like, I'm just, you have to please for the love of God. And I was like, Oh, I'm going to beat your ass. It just doesn't work. This has taken years to get all of these. I listed everything and wiped it out. We got very lucky. One of the things that Herman went through was, again, he didn't say go buy your primary residence.

You should never do that. Like, hey, I want this primary residence that's $3 million. It's $300,000. Awesome, what is the mortgage payment? Cool, it's $2,000 a month. Awesome, how can I buy something that's gonna pay for that? It's 2000, $3,000 a month. Awesome. How can I buy something that's going to pay for that? That's what we talk about with buying an asset. And you

can't do that without having a certain level of financial intelligence. So there's a lot of advanced things we're talking about. We didn't even get into the life insurance stuff. There's so much here where people can just pick your brain because you've done it and you share so openly and so lovingly. If someone wants to find out more and they want to connect you more and they want to Do this how do people right? How do they get a hold you? How do they okay? We get it. There's actual help out there How do they find you? So they can find me on Instagram Haitian underscore CEO Where I have these conversations every single morning 6 6 6 a.m. Eastern Standard Time I'm dropping a video on some type of knowledge base so that they can do this

A lot of people hit me up. Hey, I want to learn more. I'm gonna sit down with you I have an Academy's called Bella Sloan Academy 50 bucks a month sign up We meet every single Wednesday night at 7 p.m. Where we would like to be of service and you can find me on my youtube channel Bella Sloan Enterprises, we have long form Carmen content where we teach for an hour for free I tell you about hey, I only charge for my time. The information, I'm going to give it away to you for free. Just tap into any one of my platforms. I'd love to be a service.

So if someone comes in, because you've got Haitian CEO and you've got Bella Sloan, if someone is not, either fall into that, if someone isn't Haitian, if someone is from a different culture, are they completely welcome as well? Yes, they're absolutely welcome. That's just my moniker. That's my title. That's just for me.. That's my title.

That's just for me. But black, white, purple, or green, rich or poor, we like to serve everybody. We have something for everyone. I love it. Thank you so much for coming and sharing these little tidbits and being part of this. I really appreciate your time.

Charles, it's an absolute honor. Great conversation today. Thank you. Thank you for joining us for this empowering conversation with Herman Dolce. We hope you're feeling motivated to take control of your financial future and apply the practical strategies Herman shared to optimize your credit and fund your business growth. A huge thank you to Herman for bringing his expertise and passion for financial literacy

to the show. His insights into credit optimization, funding strategies, and the importance of financial responsibility are a game changer for entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey. To all the entrepreneurs, go-getters, and visionaries listening, your dedication to building something extraordinary fuels our mission to share these transformative conversations. Ready to put Herman's strategies into action? We've created a comprehensive guide highlighting his credit optimization tips, funding techniques, and step-by-step process to stack resources effectively.

Download it now at podcast.iamcharlesschwarz.com. And remember, as Herman said, your financial literacy is the foundation of your business success. Take the time to build it wisely and the opportunities will follow. Now go take charge of your financial future and turn your dreams into reality. Your journey to unstoppable success starts today.