Do you want to build a credit repair empire?
Well, on this week's Podcast, John Nuñez, founder of Blackcard Bandits, is here to share the amazing story of how he retired from a life on Wall St. and went on to help thousands of clients achieve their credit dreams!
Our most successful credit heroes, the ones who make a great living and change a ton of lives, all have a few things in common. They all understand the power of credit and its ability to help you achieve your dreams.
John Nuñez was first introduced to the power of credit by his mother, the "Credit Queen." Then, after enjoying a successful career on Wall Street, he retired from that life and chose a new path as a credit repair professional. And now he has a very large credit repair business that he built from nothing.
With a passion for educating and empowering others, he's building a lasting legacy. He's an inspiring guest, and I know you'll love this interview!
So grab a pen and paper because you'll want to take notes!
Here are a few of the highlights…
What was life like before credit repair?
I was very immature till an old age, till I was much older, but my mother became a professional mother when she had us. She came to the United States at 18 from Columbia basically with a dollar and a dream, and she understood leverage. My mom, like I said, became a professional mom, but she could have been the CEO of any Fortune 500 company. She had the ability to stretch a dollar. And when my parents got divorced, I was 14 years old, and the first lesson she gave us was credit. She understood the concept of credit, and empowering us as authorized users at a young age would open up a lot of doors that we would have to grind away at an older age, let's say fresh out of college, starting out for the first time. So she was giving us this boot camp education. At 14, 15, and 16, we were already authorized users on her American Express Gold.
Now, I remember this one lesson, and I'll never forget when she gave it to us, she said, look, betray me before you betray them. And she said, if you ever stole any money out of my purse to pay them, I wouldn't be upset. And she drilled that into our heads every day of our adolescent lives. Even today, even five minutes before this podcast.
You have a quote on your website that I love, but I want to know what it means to you. "Cash May be King, but Credit Wears the Crown."
Funny story. My life on Wall Street, I have, I guess, the uncanny distinction for my first place of employment, Stratton Oakmont, home of the infamous Wolf of Wall Street.
Jordan Belfort was my first boss, and my mentor Brian Anjulie was his number two, and he taught me that. I liken my experience on Wall Street. I was just a naive kid. How I ended up there was just a stroke of good luck in a way. And I had started my career in banking. I was in banking, I was a teller, and I kind of climbed that ladder, and Jordan was a customer of our bank. So I used to see the guy's flashy car, the look, everything, the Wolf of Wall Street, and I was just like, I need to do that. I want to be a part of that and whatever it takes.
During my first interview with Brian Anjulie, he was like, "Kid, cash is trash," and "it's all about credit." And "cash may be king, but you can't walk into a dealership and spend a hundred grand without raising some eyebrows. So you're going to need some credit to get this done."
How did you actually start your business?
I was still working on Wall Street, and I had a private office, but after 9/11, things got a little uncomfortable. There was a whole restructuring of the quotation system we used to live in. Inside a spread between the bid and the ask, what the stock is going for and what it's selling for. And we used to live there, and it could be a matter of 1/8ths, 1/2 a point, 3/4ths of a point, and then the capability to make a market that way was taken away from us. So the average guy and I wasn't the average guy, but the average stock broker on Wall Street would make a hundred thousand dollars. And after 9/11, that whole event signaled the end for us. And I was like, you know what? I don't know how long we could sustain this, especially for myself. Consumer confidence is lost. We just lost $20 million. I mean, we were trying to catch a falling sword.
Again, I was just a kid barely out of my twenties. There were guys 50 years in the game that couldn't explain what this tidal wave of selling that came when the internet bubble burst. I was like, look, man, this credit thing, I knew what it meant to me. It was a resurrection from my life. I had just gotten married. I had to get an apartment. You start depending on credit. I'm relying on credit now. So, to be able to fix my credit and get back to business, knowing what I had just gone through made me move forward and never again, not ever, take that for granted.
Starting from scratch and scaling up to thousands of clients isn't easy. What's your secret to attracting so many clients?
I'm old school when it comes to that. I network a lot. I could only imagine when I adopt and we're going there, we're going there this year. The scale is even higher through paid ad advertisement. I've done that. I've had some experience on that, but I'm still, all habits die hard, and I'm grinding. So I live in Miami, where everyone's dependent on credit here, hobnobbing and networking around town. I've developed a reputation over the last 20 years. If you ask ten people, who's the credit guy around here? Nine people will say me, and I'm not being cocky or anything like that. Just ask around. I haven't paid for lunch in this town in 10 years, and it's because of that. I've always been in front. They know me. I'm there. Like I said, I'm shoulder-to-shoulder with the community. I do right by one of them. Then I got 10 or 20 relatives.
Like I said, always be honest with the expectations. Make them understand, Hey man, you played a part in this as well. I'm going to get you off the hook. You can't come at me with that same ferocity that your collectors did.
So again, to answer your question, Daniel, just getting with my community and networking, you got to be able to cater to their needs, understand, sympathize with them, and be empathetic to their situation.
Like I said, we're the last resort. It's us in bankruptcy court, which I always advise against. I've had some high net-worth individuals where that could have been an option, but I've still advised against it because I said, look, there's a way out of this without you having to blow yourself up like that for the next ten years. And then we go back in and try to vacate that public record after the fact.
So, if I could give advice to anybody that's trying to do this right now, we have to adapt, or we're going to die. Use the power of social media. But remember, there's a million other people doing that as well, but there's not a million people out there in the street hustling credit repair. And in my community, they're not very internet savvy. They need to see the whites of my eyes.
That's been the secret to my success: being able to interact with them. I come down to their level, and I bring them up to my level to make them understand. They look at the picture this way, and I expand it some more, and I'm like, look at it this way. I tell them I'm like an economist and a therapist at the same time. I'm like, "calm down." Everybody that comes to me has the worst credit in the world. I understand. I've sympathized with that, and I tell them, "Look, just calm down."
Are you building relationships with businesses that send you clients?
A big chunk of my business comes from the real estate community. I like to say we're like the Amazon of credit here, and we cater to all facets of business, car dealerships, anything credit-driven. I've serviced from coast to coast. The main bulk of business are individuals that are right now…I call them the Covid client.
Back then, back before Covid, there were maybe three kinds of prototypical clients. There's the young guy. The young guy or young girl that made the mistake at a young age. Then there was the individual who made the mistake at an older age, a divorce, and then the third kind of client, which was just a totally irresponsible person. I'll just say it, for lack of a better term, the deadbeat, the delinquent. And I used to categorize them like that, and I could box them in, and I could look at a credit report today and tell you exactly who you are. I don't know if everybody could do that. That's my cheap parlor trick. I could tell you I don't need your name, I don't need to speak to you, and I know who you are.
Throughout the pandemic, I kind of created this new "Johnny with the Good Job" client. That's the guy who fell victim to the pandemic. And when the new norms came in, let's say, "Johnny with the Good Job" worked at Carnival Cruise Line for 15 years, and he had a great job. He had an Ivy League mortgage, a monster car payment, and then Carnival decided to downsize and actually do away with the department. His job is now gone. So then now this guy has to make a decision: do I pay the credit card bill, or do my kids eat, or do I keep the lights on, or do I pay off this equity line?
So now that's that new demographic, so to speak, that "Johnny with the Good Job" that will do anything to get their credit back to where it needs to be because it's life or death for them.
For anyone new to the world of credit repair, what fundamental principles should they be aware of?
I think they should be honest and transparent. Again, always manage the expectations. Make them understand that, hey, Rome wasn't built in a day. Your credit wasn't ruined overnight. So we will try to get through this as fast as possible. Give us the latitude because we're the only ones in your corner. We stay till the job is done. It's as long as it takes. It's American Express you're dealing with that you guys owe a lot of money to. Understand that they're going to come at you with guns blazing. There's a way around it, but it's going to get uglier before it gets better.
For all those rookies that are out there, understand that part. Go with the flow. Don't over-promise anything.
Could you share some of the most impactful success stories you've experienced?
My client when she contacted me, she told me she needed my help because her credit was destroyed because she had cancer and she wanted to have a child. Well, the chemotherapy destroyed her reproductive system, so her only option was in vitro fertilization. So when that happened, the only way she could afford it was through financing it. But her credit being destroyed from the cancer she was going to, unless she got some help from a credit repair professional, there was no way that she had a shot at this IVF. So I took on the case. I had a hot hand at that time, so I knew I could help her and quick. And I said, look, it'll be about two weeks, at that time, and I was realistic. Like I said, I had a hot hand. We fixed her credit, and her son's name is John.
And that was just a tiny part of the interview!
John shared so many golden nuggets! You have to check out the entire episode and take notes!
To learn more about John, check out his WEBSITE and follow Blackcard Bandits on INSTAGRAM!
I'LL END BY SAYING
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