The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex - How to buy a Rolex with Credit Card Points In 2025

Episode Date: May 17, 2025

Can you really buy a Rolex using credit card points? 🤯 And how do you fund over $120 million for clients in just 3 years?In this episode of The Level Up Podcast, Paul Alex interviews Sam Correia, founder of Next Level Funding, who shares how he went from construction to building a 9-figure funding empire. From hacking credit to launching high-end rental businesses, Sam breaks down the mindset and strategy behind using credit the smart way.💼 What You’ll Learn:How Sam started his funding business with zero experienceHow to qualify for high-limit credit lines (personal & business)Common credit mistakes that kill funding potentialHow to leverage Amex points to buy luxury itemsSam’s $100K exotic car + luxury watch rental model in VegasWhy your team is the secret to scaling fast in 2025🎯 Whether you're a new entrepreneur or scaling your business, this is the blueprint to using credit for freedom—not debt.👉 Like, comment, and subscribe for more financial game and real stories from high-level entrepreneurs.📲 Follow Sam: https://www.instagram.com/sammendescorreia/🎙️ Hosted by Paul Alex “Your Network is your NETWORTH!”Make sure to add me on all SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS:Instagram: https://jo.my/paulalex2024Facebook: https://jo.my/fbpaulalex2024Youtube: https://jo.my/ytpaulalex2024Linkedin: https://jo.my/inpaulalex2024Looking for a secondary source of income or want to become an entrepreneur?Check out one of my companies below to see if we can help you:www.ATMTogether.comwww.Merchantautomation.comFREE Copy of my book “Blue to Digital Gold - The New American Dream”

Welcome to the Level Up Podcast. I'm your host, Paul Alex. I went from being a cop to an eight-figure entrepreneur that helps average people like you and me make money every single day. I created this podcast to help you get motivated and to crush your goals. Let's win together.

Remember, I have your six. Get ready to level up right now. Welcome back to the Level Up Podcast. This is Paul Alex. Guys, we have another exciting interview. So today I have my friend Sam here. Sam is the founder of Next Level Funding. He's actually funded businesses, nine to fiveers, business owners, real estate investors, absolutely

anybody who needs funding for their next project or business. Okay. He's done over $120 million. That is over nine figures guys in funding in the past three years. Sam, how you doing and welcome to the show, brother. Doing good. Thanks for having me. No, absolutely brother. So how's everything over here? How you like in Miami? I like it. Always going to like Miami. It's hard not to like.

Dude, Miami is one of those places where it's the capital of like entrepreneurship. Now you got everybody down here, right? Big network. But you yourself, your, um, your business is based out of Las Vegas. Correct. How is Las Vegas right now, dude? Las Vegas right now it's good, but it gets hot. It gets super hot and uncomfortable. Yeah. All it's missing is the beach though. Cause but same thing, the hub there is insane. Yeah. A lot of old money goes there, right? Which then becomes new money. Right? Right. That's awesome, dude And tell us like how did you start your company man? Because a lot of people are like, okay, like I've heard of funding companies But how do you start one dude? So a lot of it started from relationships, right?

my first business venture was construction, right and in In construction I needed money so I was you know go to banks this is this is in the third I started going out right meeting more people and meeting they're called BRM's business relationship managers and you know and then they started saying hey do you have other construction people that need loans and then with that I'm like okay why they always ask me that like do they make a cut, you know

And I'm like, oh, okay. I thought I was just salary I'm sorry short started meeting them more and more and I got the offer to be bought out That I want to not really because I saw the potential but did I need it? Yeah at the time I wasn't my money management skills were horrible. So, okay Let's back up real quick. Yeah, because you know, this is called the level of podcasts A lot of people dude, they're watching this and they're like, how can I get out of my situation? How can I go ahead and get into entrepreneurship? Right? So you already had a construction company before you even started the funding company, correct? Okay

and I mean who taught you how to build a business dude, like when did that start like what age like Where did you come from a family of entrepreneurs? How'd that work out? The easiest way I could put it is I guess I saw my mom was as an entrepreneur She cleaned houses. Okay, what a lot of moms do when they come right? Yeah, she cleaned house her whole life, right? So but she was her own boss. She didn't work for it So for anybody but she did right which is the homeowners. Mm-hmm So I saw that and I'd go with my mom all the time. So I'm like, you know as I started growing I was like man, I'm not good with like be hounding me. Yeah, I'm like I need to go with my mom all the time, so I'm like, as I started growing, I was like, man, I'm not good with like, hounding me. I'm like, I need to figure something out

or I'm not gonna be that successful. So a good buddy of mine was like, hey, let's start a construction company. I go every summer, we're 17, 16, started doing flooring. Long story short, it started growing, growing, growing, growing relationships. And then that's when he's like, hey, I want my cousin to also jump on and he bought me out. And then that's when he was, he's like, hey, I want my cousin also jump on and he bought me out.

And then I started the funding companies. And then at what age did you get bought out of your construction company? I was 23. You were 23. Right. That's amazing, dude. I can, I can only remember back when I was 23, dude,

I was going to Vegas for the wrong reasons. I was going out there to party. I was going out there to have a good time. Right. You know, at the end of the day, the way I see things is like, you know, things happen for a reason. I had to, you know, unfortunately go through those hard lessons myself. Right. But it just made me a better person, man.

Yeah. You live and you learn and you go through experiences, right? Right. So I know you're a family guy. I know that you travel quite a bit. You have multiple businesses now, which we're going to get into in a minute, man. But let's talk about when you mentioned earlier about you going into the bank and then getting curious about why the bankers were asking you about funding other businesses, okay? After that whole epiphany happened, what was your next step, man?

What did you do to actually take action to start a funding company? So what I did is, I know it's gonna sound cliche, but YouTube, I started seeing people on YouTube literally saying how to start one, you know, they're charging, hey, hit me up. I charge 10%, 15%, 20%. I'm like, wow, okay. So when I went to deal with these business relationship managers, like, hey, when you come to me, I can override.

I connect to the underwriter directly So, you know we could you have a higher chance of getting 50k for a client of yours Then if they just walk into the bank today and talk to a teller. Yeah, so I was like, whoa Okay, so then I'm seeing all these guys, you know 10% 15 20 I'm like, oh I can make you know a thousand bucks, you know, I get somebody a hundred thousand I can make ten thousand dollars. right so and I'm selling money Who says no to money? You know nothing charged upfront only a performance fees what I call it because if I don't perform

I don't get paid right so who's gonna say no right? You know full transparency is like hey you won't qualify We can't move forward. They don't lose anything. You know maybe a little bit of hope at the moment But you know there's other ways around that hope comes back But at the same time if they do qualify, you know, they have nothing to worry until I'm done. So it became a no-brainer I'm like wow I could be a person that just gets paid on back end over and over and over and everybody wins, right? Yeah, so that's what it was. So let me let me ask you What would it take to fund an actual client? like what what do you guys look for in like?

minimum qualifications So minimum qualifications the the I call it like the best scenarios There's again other ways around that we'd be here for hours speaking about it, but the best case scenarios Nowadays for banks is going to be seven seven forty credit or above At least three accounts of thirty five hundred dollars primaries there had to be yours so thirty five hundred dollars plus and Minimal inquiries that's the best ones right because and you want you they want you you want to have some of your cards being used Right that's another thing a lot of people don't know is too much available credit is a thing

Because banks will look at you and be like why does Paul want more money? He has 80k sitting in a credit card? Why does he want more he doesn't you know? So you want to kind of use 20 to 25 percent of that card so they're like oh, okay You know I mean that makes sense yeah that makes sense So what is the biggest mistakes that you see and I'm pretty sure you see a whole lot, right? Because humans you always make mistakes, but what is the biggest mistakes that you see when somebody is trying to apply for funding and let's say the deal doesn't go through. What is your top three reasons why that would happen? So top three reasons, it's the biggest reason which baffles me every day is when I tell

them the game plan and they do a part of the game plan Got it. So they'll pick and choose like oh, I'm gonna go for an Amex really quick and then they come hey I got an Amex just so you know, I'm like you ruined it because chase has a 524 rule and Now we're stuck in the jam, right? I can't get you no more funding. Oh why I'm like because Amex was fourth in line I just gave you the game plan so for full transparency So you're not seeing increase like oh, why did I get this you know you know you know what we're doing That's a big reason. It's like if you're hiring us for funding let us do the funding right so believe it or not

That happens quite a bit which is still baffling to me right yeah, but um that's one of the biggest reasons another thing is gonna be Cars everybody they're eager they want to buy a car. I'm like delayed gratification Let's get you funding first get you the car. Hey Sam Guess what I got a car though. I'm like dude which car this one That's not even the one you wanted we could have went for the one you wanted after the funding You know so little things like that. they make a huge difference because new credit banks hate, they hate new credit. So there's, there's something called setting up for funding.

Hence a perfect example. I run a funding company, but I haven't done funding for myself in over eight months, but in June, why not May? Why not right now in April in June? I'm, I'm doing funding for me a little bit on my personal side and and more on my business. Because I'm setting myself up for funding in June for best qualifications and scenarios. Oh, wow. Yeah. So that's a thing. Okay. So let me ask you, I mean, how exactly does that work? So when you say, I'm

setting myself up for the best scenarios, can you go deeper in that? Absolutely. So No increase. Mm-hmm after six months. They're there, but they don't hurt you as much So which but they we rather have them a year old so like anything from you know, April of 2024, right? That's fine. So I'm waiting for that to happen, right? So less increase utilizing my card strategically One thing that I like to do is max out my cards every month pay them off max out pay them off That shows the bank that it's not enough Right like Bank of America

People watching this will probably know I don't know what's wrong with them But think of America you could have 80 grand on one card at Chase and eight and a hundred fifty thousand And a max they'll give you five thousand you could have a business with them generating 200 300 thousand a year and they see that they'll give you five grand so they're notorious So I'll max out that five grand every single month setting up. So what's gonna happen in June? I'm gonna go to Bank of America It's been nine months of maxing out 5k and paying it off guys It's it's this you know maxing out 5K and paying it off. Guys, it's this, you know, maxing out sometimes twice a month, right?

10, you know, this is a pain. I'm wasting time having to pay off my card, waiting for credit, available credit to reuse. Yeah. You know what I mean? So now I'm setting myself up for June, most likely about a 90% chance they're gonna up the five to about 15 or 20 hmm interest-free yeah you see what I mean yeah so little things like that right a

year goes by your interest-free is about to expire there's a way to do a retention offer there's a way to extend it for another year six months a way to move your credit lines so little things like that so drop some game on us man because even me I want to learn how to get like some zero interest credit. Emilio you you want to get some zero interest credit? Hell yeah. I mean dude we can always use more money right OPM other people's money. So drop some game right now on the pod dude and like mind you right you want to drop some heat you know look at that one but let them know dude let them know like what somebody can do let's say if they're about to end

on their 12 month interest free credit card what can they know what somebody can do. Let's say if they're about to end on their 12 month interest-free credit card, what can they do? What action can they take to extend that? Or just like you said, what other benefits can they get off of doing an action? So one of the biggest things is retention offer, right? So it doesn't always work, but the second scenario always works.

But the first one you always want to try is retention offer, right? you're gonna let them know hey I've loved this card as you can see so you've used a lot of it you want to use as much as you can and you know I always pay it off I love the card but it's not gonna work for me it's not interest-free anymore what they'll do to retain you because you're gonna threaten them that you're gonna close it without saying you're gonna close it with it but they're gonna get the gist of it, right? So what they're gonna do is they're gonna most likely extend you six months, sometimes you get lucky a little bit

longer, right? It's happened before. Another way you do it, which is a little bit more tedious but it works is you could keep revolving this three, four, five years is let's use Chase as an example. Interest-free for 12 months, you get another LLC, and you apply for that one before your 12-month mark. Now you have a new 12-month, right? That credit limit you have here, you can move it over. So now you have a bigger limit on a card,

interest-free for another 12 months. Wow. That's the more tedious part. So it's like, you know, for entrepreneurs, you know, when you're an entrepreneur, you know, one LLC is not enough for many, many reasons. You know, trust account, S-Corps, you know, for entrepreneurs, you know, when you're an entrepreneur, you know, one bit one LLC is not enough for many, many reasons. You know, trust account, S corps, LLCs, you want to you want to have that even if you're not using them, they benefit you in many different ways.

Right. Number one, funding, right? I could do funding for next level funding. I could do funding for prestige pulse agency, you know, all my other companies, you know, next level ventures, which is our real estate that we have. So we're unable to move everything in a strategic way. You know what my other companies, you know next level ventures, which is our real estate that we have So we're unable to move everything in a strategic way You know what I mean? So what would you say? Do you guys often do a lot of credit repair when it comes to your clients?

We do so out of every 500 Leads we get believe it or not about 450 our credit repair. Wow They say they're not but it's like they are. And what is the most common thing that you see with people that need credit repair? Late payments. Wow.

Even if it's a one 30 day late. It happens, you mess up. Or you mess up the time, it happens, right? It's like, because if you wanna be very technical, right? You have the 30 days to pay pay then you have a whole 30 day Before they report it late not saying do this not saying you have 60 days But if you want to be very technical you do but once you eat, but your goal is to always pay on time When you get there right?

Don't like you on the 30th day. They report it to the agency even that morning. You could call that day It's like it's been reported. I've seen that happen Wow so late pays are very hard why because the account is open So it's your account and it's open and now it's late and late late payments by the way guys is 35% of your credit profile Wow the next big one is utilization is 30% of your credit profile and Then it's collection that's 10% so a collection which is horrible is 10% of your credit profile. And then it's collection, that's 10%. So a collection, which is horrible, is 10%, while late payments, 35.

Of your whole credit profile. So I've seen scores of 770, 780, go down to the 605 from one late. Wow, wow. Ridiculous thing. I never knew that, man. I never knew that. Late payments is very important. I think I that man. Yeah. I never knew that.

Late payments is very important. I think I even had a couple back in the day when I was in my 20s. Right. But dude, I didn't know it affected my credit that much. I thought it was always the utilization of the card. Right. Primarily affected everything. Right.

Man, that makes a lot of sense. So those two things in check, you're good. But you're right. If you have a collection, you know, they're easier to remove because the collection's been is that that's been sold off got it Technically in this country debt should not be sold because that has no value So how do you sell something with no value so you can kind of hit them with a little bit of consumer law? You know what I mean, but that's still yours

So don't let these guys tell you oh it's collection that that's not yours that that will always be yours because it's in their system Until it's purged out which is years of purging not the seven years like credit like credit bureaus in chase, they'll know for 1520 years are going to know and we just went through this experience with a client right now as we speak. Wow. Yeah, so very important. And then, you know, how did you learn about credit repair? So, again, courses, great courses, not so great courses you know investing into some mentors you know guiding me and 2020 I got into the 75 hard so I was like you

know instead of 10 pages of nonsense I'm gonna read which you shouldn't read nonsense because he says try to motivational and growth I started reading consumer law a lot so I got deep into it you know I was like I'm about to be a lawyer now as deep as possible into consumer law a lot. So I got deep into it. I was like, I'm about to be a lawyer now. I got as deep as possible into consumer law and just started learning. I'm like, OK, so they could do this, but I can do this to loophole this.

So you would always have a counter. Yes, because that's how you counter them. You know what I mean? You're asking a bureau to prove to you that debt is yours. How does Experian know that that's yours? You never walked into Experian headquarters, sat down, applied for right how does experience know that that's yours You never walked into experience headquarters sat down and applied for an amex in front of them You never did that what a wet signature ever Yeah, so they need to use the law to help them counter you which 99% of the counters are verification So off the bat when you do credit repair with us

We already hate you with all that like we make sure your socials there your IDs there front back There's no coming back with like are you sure you're Paul Alex? You got all the info right here. You got my ID my utility bill and my social front and back You know so we we kind of one step ahead every time Wow Wow yeah, and then what would you say if? a person that's freshly starting out getting credit cards? Because, dude, I'm gonna be honest, I'm gonna be transparent with you guys. I didn't really start using credit cards because I wasn't educated in it, man. I wasn't using credit cards.

I remember, you know, I come from a Hispanic household. My mom was a proven immigrant. My dad was a Mexican immigrant. And both of them always told me they're like all credit cards are bad they didn't know the difference between good debt and bad debt right and And they were like always use your debit always use cash cash is king Yeah, and I was like yeah, you I mean you make sense. I was in the ATM industry along a while back, but When I started using credit cards, it was around 25 26 years old old. Right. And then what I started doing is I started taking out two credit cards a year.

Okay. To build up my credit score. Right. To see that, hey, like, you know, I'm building up my gap of, yeah, mix of cards. And I still know a lot of people, man, that are now in their 30s. Right.

And they don't even have a credit card yet. Yeah, absolutely. So what would you tell somebody that's man right now in their 30s right and they don't even have a credit card yet yeah absolutely so what would you tell somebody that's watching right now whether they're are 18 or maybe they're going in their mid 30s man and they wanted to actually do this the smart way what would be some word of advice right the smartest way is gonna be whoever you bank with get a credit card with them right don't fear credit only feared if you're responsible so I nowadays we have to say that if you know you're the only one that's gonna know your character in the way you are if you know you have an issue try to refrain from it you know figured that caught that first like going to a deeper level

with yourself first because I've seen it where they know they have the issue they get 50 60 70 thousand two weeks later it's gone it goes into a charge-off they just went backwards for two three years they just wasted two three years of life wow for no reason yeah right so but it's your relationship that's what it is relationships are important so you always go for the bank that you bank with right so if you bake with chase go for their chase freedom simple it's not the best card there's no annual fee interest free for six months it's your your first baby

card they might give you three five grand but you do that right if you're able to max out and pay it off I would do recommend that right but if you're not just use it as your debit card if your bills are 6k a month you're you always use credit cards don't travel with debit put put your debit in your safe For three of my bank accounts no I have no debits. They said you want a debit card Nope, I don't want it Yeah, if I'll move it if I need to and I'll put everything on a credit card as much as I can right so That's how you that's how you want to start

And then you know you go to a second card a third card And it's a building you you build it little by little you know I mean the easiest way to excel a little bit quicker Is you know you get your first bank card? Usually when you get that approval you could get a second one right away So now you're you know you're a little bit ahead of the game 90 days later. What you want to do is get a third Then that's where you call us and we get you open up a LLC Then we're ahead a little bit of the game because you got three cards will wait a few more months so they're not too too new yeah and you know we look at what bureaus they pulled etc right hopefully

hopefully you've done you know a trio which a bank that pulls experience I think that pulls you know when the Equifax and then we get you business funding but you got to understand because you're so fresh you're not you're not gonna get the results that we usually get but we've done that We've held like hey, I want to start my journey though. Okay, we get them 30 grand max on the business But hey now they have 30 there 20 here. They have 50 Cash flow business something, you know, and you just keep going from there and that's better than nothing, but it's a marathon 100% Yeah, it's done. Right. It's a marathon

It takes in my opinion two to three years to be like, wow, I got a hundred grand Now now I could do another funding round and almost guarantee myself 80 to 150 But you know what a hundred grand and a few years isn't bad, dude, especially, you know Being a first-timer or going ahead and I know when anything about that, right? So Do you know any good books man that people can actually read or any YouTube channels that you recommend people go to to get more educated on utilizing credit and going ahead and all that? Yeah. Mike the credit guy is really, really good. Another really good one is there's a company called improve you and they have money 360. It's

free. Right. So it's money 360 And they teach you, you know, literally almost everything right? That's that's improve you would probably be one of the best because you know, they also have like, not really like a course, but like, you know, weekly calls, you know, they could jump on and learn a lot because there's a lot to it. There's so much to it. Yeah, right. Because I mean mean the encore, you know, it was bought on a credit card No way, you know Las Vegas casino. Yeah, like, you know, imagine the power you have not saying, you know, everybody will get there But you know, he had unlimited literally right but just think about what he built his way there

Yeah, so he used credit to build Business a BCD all the way to like I just bought the encore that dude must have had like the black card and then he probably got like 10 millions in points yeah probably and then use those points about casino machines oh that or a plane or some yeah you know that's awesome dude I love that I love that the leverage of using credit and then how good are you with points man? You got knowledge on the points? Yes, so points are phenomenal. So like there's, I'll give you a perfect scenario. So used Amex all year, right?

Made a video for this. So we're going to put it out there. I saw another guy do it. So again, I'm not going to say I invented this because I saw another dude do it I'm like man. That's awesome. I want to try that so 90% of Rolex a DS will not accept the name X because people a mix is notorious for having your back So somebody could be like I never bought this Rolex which is wrong never do that Please because people are going to jail now they said not people are actually getting knocks on the door FBI putting you in prison

for this I forgot what the name is for it. There's a term for it when you You know get your car wrapped or or you know mechanic work, and you do a charge back right with a max so But they'll take a max points So I use my card and I had 1.4 million points equivalent to $14,000. Yeah went to Thomas Marco in the woodlands in Texas had a good relationship with them and Got a Rolex on points did pay the tax 850 bucks 1,000 850 bucks. I'm sorry, but got a Rolex on points. I wanted to see if it like worked and it worked. It's pretty cool

Melio that is the title for this podcast, my friend. How to buy a Rolex with credit card points. Yeah. I love that dude. Yeah. That's gonna be awesome. Yeah. Points. That's gonna be yeah. Points are they work, you know, and there you know, there's little tricks. That's the first time I've heard that dude. Yeah. Yeah. Fire. Yeah. You did a real on this already. I did. Yeah. Like, yeah, not a real I guess it will be a real dude. It's gonna be Yeah, there's about to be one right now No, but the actual happening. Yes, it's been done. It's getting edited whole nine yards. That's fire. Yeah, so it's it's pretty cool But there's a lot you can do yeah, you know and then like you know transferring points things like that

You know utilizing them to travel you know what is it? to Dubai from JFK Don't quote me again guys seven haven't checked recently but like what? 13,000? First class? For one person? Round trip? Right? 130,000 points? If you move them correctly from Amex

to another source, things like that There's like Rome, it's called ROAME They Points are worth more with them, so you have a thousand thousand points They kind of like back you up with like another eighty thousand. It's just the way they work They have deals with the airlines you start mastering that you're going to Dubai like a king four or five times a year With only using 300 grand a year on on your card that you need to use anyways Yeah, if you need to use it use it right that's where you come from debit right debit cards. They don't do that

Yeah, what discover debit card does it 1% like but they're just trying to trick you to like be stuck Yeah on the debit. You know I mean so yeah, no 100% that makes a lot of sense man I mean at the end of the day like the the way I used to do it and I'm no expert guys, but like I know for a fact that like let's say Delta or British Airways right if you transfer your amex points and you transfer it to them On that account then they'll give you like you said the 6x right or the 8x Points and then then you buy the ticket with that right right so it makes a lot of sense man

But you got to be in the know man you gotta be looking and yeah outing it and all that stuff because it's it's like promo It's motions exactly you gotta get at the right time. Yeah, man. That's that that's awesome, dude Yeah, so as far as the knowledge with What you got going on right now What is your avatar dude like and I always ask people this and I know you service everybody but for right now who are you primarily dealing with? Like just the most recently are you dealing with business owners, digital marketers, are you dealing with more real estate investors? Who is your ideal client? So my ideal client now is people with offers right because for multiple reasons one big

reason is is a lot of times we get people funding they're like what do I do like oh okay so we got a game plan because you know after they pay us you know our percentage you know that they're like man I'm it's reality at the end of the day they're gonna owe that on the card, right? But so working with coaches consultants, you know business owners that have offers It's better for both one. I don't need to run marketing ads because the owner is bringing me the leads number two The client is already already knows what the owner's offering. So they're already sold We get them the funding for that offer

We know they're making money so that Percentage they gave us will be paid back as long as they put in the work for that type of business Yeah, right. That's the most important thing They got to put in the work and fulfill and keep going, you know with it and growing it, right? Yeah, but that to me is gonna be the best for all those reasons No, that makes a lot of sense man, because it's, man, because it's a no-brainer, right? It's a no-brainer. Why wouldn't anybody do that? Right.

So with that being said, man, I mean, talk to me about the stress behind being a business owner. We were talking about this before the show, guys. Yeah. And you know, it's very stressful. Entrepreneurship is one of the hardest things that you would do in life. You know, this is coming from a Entrepreneurship is one of the hardest things that you would do in life. You know, this is coming from a former detective in the city of Oakland, one of the most dangerous cities

in California. And I will tell you this, entrepreneurship is 10 times more stressful. But it is 10 times more fulfilling. Yes, I agree. Because you get to change lives. You get to help people, right? And with you, man, you get to touch so many different lives

by going ahead and helping people with funding start their business or their idea or their project, right? So it feels good. Yeah, for sure. Now, that's good, man. So with that being said, let's talk about right now, what's your vision for the future? What's the vision for next level funding, man?

Where are you guys trying to go to? What are you trying to make happen? Are you working on any new projects? Yeah, for sure. So our vision is to start buying small businesses, right, but still giving them a chance, right? advisory shares, have a job, still stay in the business, you know, become equity partner, right, but let us grow your business. We have the funding, we the know-how we have the systems integrations Automations, let's go from dinosaur to modern age

We win right you win by not losing your business and being able to stay in it and having cash flow We win because we just bought a new business and we have equity in it right yeah And if you win we win right because we have equity in it. So that's what that's something we've been doing, right? So, you know, we we have, you know, in Vegas, jewelry store, right? So high end watches, custom made jewelry, whole nine yards, right? So you know, we're having UFC fighters is coming over, you know, NFL stars, Raiders like coming over like it's, you know, it's pretty cool. You know know we're able to buy something and grow it and still work with the business owner Another thing is we bought a mechanic performance shop. Yeah, you know it was dying. You know

Hey, can we see your books? It was a composition book from school like just written like curled up already and like oh, I'm like whoa This your books like like how do you know how much you make Oh Zell I'm like Oh that credit card machine. I'm like bro. You can't even see the screen right like what's you know how much you make oh zell I'm like By zell oh that credit card machine I'm like bro you can't even see the screen right like what's you know what I mean like going on a lot of money being Lost right yeah, so you know give them the opportunity Buy the property by the business Allow them to still stay in the business to just keep moving like that you know so that's so I guess the easiest thing

I could say is like the new projects are just Moving like that you know so that's so I guess the easiest thing I could say is like the new projects are just buying and because any business because my my opinion is this 99% of businesses are ran the same way Period you know the end they'll succeed the same way right it's you know systems automations a great team Marketing yeah period yeah, no I think you could grow anything from that. I mean, you hit it right on the dot. I always say there's three needle movers, right?

Which is going ahead and client acquisition, sales, and fulfillment. Yeah. And it's just simple as that. People make business to be all this technical and ready to go ahead and learn and have a business degree and everything else. I'll tell you flat out right now, guys, I have mentees.

I have Harvard degrees. They come to Harvard, but they still come and they're part of our network because they want to learn what we know. And it just comes with what you're specialized in. Like with funding, guys, I don't know the first thing on how to fund somebody, but I do know the person who does. And that's just the way it goes.

Your network is really your net worth 100% so I know you got into some some new businesses now what what what other ventures are you getting into as well Sam so Our hobby became a business it just it was bound to happen right so Love cars mm-hmm love them a lot, but don't like to pay for them. Yeah. So I'm like, how can I have the cars and not pay for them and still make somebody's life pretty good for a moment? So we got into the car rental business like a lot of people do. But, you know, we made it.

We're making it a little bit different. Right. We're doing package deals now, which people are loving right a hundred thousand a year Just just as an example a thousand a year We just got our two million dollar insurance for our high-end watches so now what we're doing because it's Vegas is If you pay a hundred thousand a year right you you come to Vegas you get any you get to choose the what car you want You get it for a Monday to a Friday to a Monday So you get it for the weekend and you get any watch you want depending on the tier So we're to wear it to wear out during during while you're in Vegas. No way, dude Are you serious? Yeah, 100% you get that from like

Because I could have sworn I saw this idea It was like on a real not not to say that they were doing that idea, but it was really it Oh was it and yes, yes, you know where like you would see different exotic cars and it usually is two friends yes and they take off the watch they get the keys like the Range Rover and they're like all right your turn your turn your turn yeah yeah you know the first time I ever heard about something like that man it was a it was another podcast I can't recall the name but it was a young guy talking about the culture in Los Angeles and And Los Angeles, you know, they were saying like, dude, there's Uris's, Lamborghini,

Uris's everywhere. Well, what the guy was saying is like, now what a lot of kids are doing, dude, is like, there'll be a group of four to five kids going ahead and splitting the actual monthly payment on those cars. And then they go ahead and they share it within amongst each other. Yeah. And I'm like, huh. That is cool.

Yeah, that's different. Yeah, it is different, right? Because it makes it affordable. But at the same time, you know, it just shows you man, like, you know, you got to think outside the box. But with the watch thing, man, that's very unique. Yes, that's very scary, but different. Yeah, because I can see, I can see a lot of people doing that.

Just to go ahead and visualize themselves of how it feels like to be like a 1% horrendous. Right, right. So our mentality behind it is, obviously we do the car rentals normal, like daily rates and stuff, that's all part of it. But our mentality of it is like this. Because I had somebody tell me, man, 100 grand is a lot. I'm like, yeah, you're right. But then I started thinking, I'm like yeah, you're right, but that's her thinking I'm like okay, but if I have a 57 a

$37,000 AP that you can take every single Four days out of the month or three is out of the month for for 12 months and an exotic They're like oh, why can't he'll just buy the watch, but I'm like but it but then what if you could switch out every month? Yeah, now you got a Rolex Daytona. Now you got this one for the month So when you grab all the watches it's like 800 grand in watches you've worn for the for the year You don't need insurance because we got it. You don't need to buy it because we got it, you know and in cars, you know January you get you the our

matte black Lamborghini Huracan they could get our orange Urus they could get our Audi r8 right the sq8 the rsq8 whatever you want right every month So when you grab the math of the cars you're looking at 1.2 1.5 million dollars in cars easily so a hundred thousand but guess what? My grandpa always said the car is great To close, but your opener's gonna be your wrist. Because 90% of the meetings you have,

the guy's not waiting for you outside. So he doesn't know what you pulled up in. But if the meeting goes well, when you open with your, because you're gonna look, when they look at your watch, and you open the meeting, you have a great meeting, 99% of the time they're gonna walk out with you, right? So if they walk out with you, then they're gonna see Valet pull up

with your Lamborghini, Ferrari, that's it, see? And that becomes your closer. So now imagine you're in Vegas, you wanna go close a deal, you're part of the group, there's gonna be more add-ons to the group right there's gonna be a lot going on There's gonna be events. We're gonna do networking mixers You know opening doors. You know we have politics that come out to this stuff politicians that come out to this stuff

I'm sorry and like you know big business owners brick and motors owners of casinos GM's so the cool thing is like now you can go to Vegas You're part of a community 100,000 a year, and you're able to you know rock a Richard mill Yeah, a hundred and thirty thousand dollar Richard mill nothing too crazy, but you're able to rock one of those and pull up in a 280 thousand dollar car like a Hurricane yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah little things like that That's what we're trying to change the game and be very different But it is nerve-racking because even though we got insurance like doesn't stop somebody from catching the plane with the Richard Miller

Oh, of course, man You know It's the headache of the logistics and taking risk and you know You guys really got to validate your guys's clients and write background checks and all that right, right? But like anything else man, like, you know when you're working a job like that where you're renting out, you know equipment watches You're the cars, you always have to be worried. That's it, right? But to go back on the topic about the watches, dude, a funny story. Yesterday or what was it on Wednesday, actually, because today's Friday, but Wednesday, I usually

do my weekly live presentations inside of this one Facebook group that we have. It's called Credit Card Process for Beginners. It has about 45,000 members, nothing too crazy. But during the live, during that day, I wore a Patek Philippe watch with Army Green wristband, right? And it's my favorite color, bro. That's my die-hard favorite. It's my favorite color and I barely wear that watch well I have a I have a new employee that he's a little bit younger He's like 22 years old and he was just like hey, man Why don't you ever wear that you're your protect?

Felipe like what's wrong with you you always wear you like your Cartier Santos like an all-black one that I have that I that's usually take To the gym. Yeah, and and I wear it because it's very Silent luxury like no one no one spots it. You know, and I like that. And he goes, you should wear it. So I ended up wearing it yesterday, or I'm sorry, on Wednesday during the live presentation. So I'm like this, usually how I am on camera. And I have another buddy who stopped by yesterday and he goes, hey man, do you have like a green watch?

And I was just like, yeah, why? And he goes, check this out. He sends me a screenshot. It's one of his buddies watching my live and then he also copied I guess the listing of the watch from Google to see how much it was 24 so like that yeah so so then he goes and he writes underneath he's like dude I gotta work with this guy that guy's wearing a $90,000 watch. And then that was it, he was set. He set up an appointment with my company

to talk about his business and starting up. But it really does, it attracts a different type of audience. It really does, right? Because some people, a lot of people are thinking like, oh, you're just selling it to people that have an ego and they wanna be flashy. No, some people just want nice things. They maybe wanna rent an AP or a Patek

that they don't have before they buy it. Right. Right? And that's part of your service, man, where you'll get it based on the car. And then $100,000 for the service, dude. I see that all day because the one thing that we have here in Miami are yacht clubs right in the yacht clubs you pay a membership fee and then it gets you exclusive

rights to have rides or set up times where you can actually rent out people's yachts right and these yachts are massive dude like you know starting off at 50,000 100,000 then you have the 250,000 you know but you know your value dude, you know what you're doing, which is why you're charging what you're charging, right? So now that's that's amazing, dude. Good for you, bro. Yeah, it's good. Good job on that, man.

Yeah. So with that being said, that wraps up our segment today, guys. Sam, where can they go ahead and find you, brother? Easiest way is going to be Instagram, right? So it's Sam Mendez-C s a m m e n d s Co rr e I a and yeah, just hit a follow DM me I have a One of my assistants usually answers to DMS You'll notice but you know let me know where you found me

And then you know I'll reach out for sure and then Sam any words of motivation to have people level up in 2025 brother just reach out for sure. And then Sam, any words of motivation to have people level up in 2025, brother, just like, yeah, for sure. Honestly, the biggest, because it's just what I've lived, right? The biggest thing is going to be. And I've repeated this all the time is, is, is the, I, in my opinion, the biggest way you're going to level up is with the right team, find the right team. And the right team is not a friend always it's find the right team because I mean you've heard this everywhere

Right movies whole nine yards, but you can get far along We could get there faster with the team facts, but you could also slow down completely with the wrong team So that's that I'm I'm gonna die by that I say it in every event I go to I always get asked this question It's gonna be the same thing because I've been through it is Team team team period. Yeah. Yeah, the right team will make you grow for sure and you have the experience man Absolutely, you've been through it. You've got through it and now you're here and now you're building another business and you're gonna keep on going brother Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate it. Thank you. No, I appreciate you being on the show brother Yeah, a hundred percent and guys this is the level of podcast. I am Paul Alex

We are currently ranked top 10 business podcast in the United States right now. Make sure to follow us on Apple podcasts, Spotify and YouTube. Make sure to share this with a friend. Share Sam's story. Man, it's amazing. In three years, his business next level funding was able to fund over $120 million to people just like you, people just like me. And we were able to go ahead and use it to go ahead and make your visions a reality. I'm Paul Alex I'll catch you on the next one. Thanks for listening up to the Level Up Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode make sure to share with a family friend and everyone you know who's ready to level up. Leave a five-star review on Spotify, Apple

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