I Made a Million at Credit Repair with Odean Lawrence & Okief Robb!

Daniel Rosen  0:00  

Hey credit heroes. Today we're going to talk with our newest credit repair millionaires. Oh,  Odean Lawrence & Okief Robb!. They are here today to share their inspiring stories and explain how they went from struggling with their own credit to creating a thriving business that has made over a million dollars in revenue. So you better stick around. So the big question is this, how can we take our passion for helping people with their credit and turn it into a successful business without taking loans without spending a fortune by bootstrapping it from nothing? So we can help the most people and still become highly profitable? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Daniel Rosen, and welcome to Credit Repair Business Secrets. Okay, if this is your first time listening to my podcast, every week I cover industry news, financial tips, and entrepreneurial advice for bootstrapping your business from nothing. This show is an essential how to guide for business owners. And there's no other podcast like it, so be sure to click on that subscribe button now and get ready to start changing lives. Okay, let's get started. My guest today our credit repair clouds, newest millionaires, oh, Odean Lawrence & Okief Robb!, and you don't want to miss their incredible stories. Oh, Dean went from struggling for years, being homeless, sleeping in his car, to becoming a social media marketing expert, and driving a new Mercedes. And oh, Keith went from all kinds of side hustles and getting turned down for everything, including jobs because of his bad credit. And he went from there to building a million dollar business. And he did it while serving in the Navy. So please welcome to the podcast. Oh, Odean & Okief!. Hey, guys, congratulations on joining the millionaire's club.

Okief Robb  2:03  

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for having us.

Daniel Rosen  2:06  

One more thing before we get into this. Okay, if I want to mention to our audience that I know you just got to got out of the Navy only couple days ago, after eight years of service and you had two deployments, right? Admittedly, yes. Well, thank you so much for your service. Anyways, let's get into this. Thanks again for being here. And I want to know everything. So let's start with where are you guys right now?

Odean Lawrence  2:32  

We're in Coral Springs, Florida.

Daniel Rosen  2:33  

Coral Springs. We're in Florida.

Odean Lawrence  2:37  

So that's south of Florida or not? It's in a county of Broward. Not too far from Fort Lauderdale.

Daniel Rosen  2:44  

Oh, got it. Okay, I remember it. I know that area because I used to work cruise ships, we would come in and out of there. Cool. Okay, so this is going to be fun with both of you. So, oh, Dean, I want to ask you first, what was your life like before credit repair?

Odean Lawrence  3:00  

Matt, you taking me back to the days, my life before credit repair was, like you mentioned before is a struggle, you know, you know, I had children have a family, you know, and trying to sustain a family, not being able to provide or bringing income was was tough. I struggled, I struggled to the point where I was homeless three times. My first time being homeless, you know, I got in, I got fired from my job, I was working for a governmental job, I got fired from there. And then after getting fired, I wanted to get into life insurance. So I studied to get into life insurance. And while studying, I was sleeping in my car, you know, while going through the ups and downs, you know, I was in my chip, my son at the time and my wife, you know, was staying with families and our family members and friends. I was you know, in my car, you know, studying, going late nights at Dunkin Donuts, to make sure that I get all of the information to go forward. And, you know, that was a success after passing this to take the state test and just have a driving force to succeed. Well, what tend would end up happening is after three years of struggling in life insurance, dealing, gaining knowledge and new friendships and relationships and so forth, I still find myself still working dead end jobs, you know, still being broke at the end of every paycheck. And no matter being, you know, going from a regular worker to a supervisor. I mean, the pay was still the pay. It came to a point where, you know, I started to get involved with a lot of different network marketing companies. And you know, just keep it short in 2016. I worked seven jobs, because the year prior to that I was homeless. I told myself I would never go through that situation again. That was my third time being homeless, and I didn't want it to go in that situation. So after a while working seven jobs knocking doors for 18 T seven furnitures and warehouse, you know, calling out have individuals who fill out online resumes to try to get them into school. And then my last job in 2016 was working at CVS as a supervisor. I told myself that, you know, I would never be in a position like this ever again. And it came to a point where I went to a car dealer Daniel, I needed a car, because my car broke down engine went, right. So that's that. I paid someone to try and fix it. And they scammed me took my money, and I couldn't hear from them again, they started the process, but then the second day, just ghosted me. So I went to a dealership, and I went to a dealership with a couple 100 bucks, didn't know what my credit looked like, because prior to that, I told myself, I'm gonna just give it a seven years to have all these things fall off. And, you know, I went to the car dealership, the car dealer came back, you know, everything was good before. And then he went to go run my credit. And then when he ran in a, you know, took a while to come back, my cousin, I was sitting at the table, I never forget it. And while we were sitting at the table, you know, I saw him come back kind of holding his head, on my head. And like, man, he's thinking of what to say now. So he came in, he sat down, he's like, Alright, so here's what we have, I can't get you the car that you wanted. I wanted to wind up window car, you know, give me the you know, the sun, no sunroof, give me the hubcaps on the car, like, give me the basic type of car. And he told me, I can't give you anything unless you pay five to $10,000 down. Mind you, I'm looking at a $14,000 car. So I felt some type of way. At that point, Daniel felt like I'm failing as a man as a person. I felt like there's like, I've tried so much. And nothing is actually working for me to the point where I'm not, you know, at this position. And I just remember my cousin driving me home, I said to myself, this will never ever happen again. And a few weeks later, you know, I'm a praying person. So praying and asking for something to brand new to come my way. And associate at a time reached out to me like, hey, you know, let me introduce you to credit. And he introduced me to credit with the company, you know, got involved, but I'm a analytical person I started studying and really understanding what credit is all about. I was able to then work on my own credit after a few months. And then in seven short months, I was able to understand how all this works, and then took myself from an affordable for 14 419 credit score, and then jumped my score. 256 points into the seven hundreds. And that's that's how everything started. Wow, that's

Daniel Rosen  7:37  

amazing. That's really amazing. And I understand what it's like to be at rock bottom and be homeless. I I've been homeless, and, and then to like discover how the system really is designed to hurt people. It's it's terrible, it's criminal. And but there's so much money behind it. And they make so much money from it. It's just awful. I that is an amazing story that in such a short time then once you studied you got your your score up so much. That's That's incredible. Now, how about how about you? Oh, Keith, what was your life like before credit repair?

Okief Robb  8:17  

Well, my life for for credit repair? Well, I moved to the USA, I'm born Jamaican. So I moved to the US in 2008 for school, did well back in Jamaica, you know, in school and pretty much, you know, apply for school up here and got through. So that's how I got to the states. So I came here, you know, finished school, got a degree excited. I was like, wow, okay, I got a degree now, you know, I can go do any job I want to do. Lo and behold, nobody wants to hire me because I have no experience. Right? So that in there, I look at it. I'm like, wow, that's really how the school system is set up. You know, nobody wants to give me that experience. How am I going to get that experience? Right? If nobody wants to give it to me. So after I graduated, I started doing a whole lot of different jobs because it was like, Okay, I need to I need to so I got into a whole lot of call centre jobs. And let me tell you, I sold everything I sold from perfumes and colognes on the streets of Miami, to magazines, to magazines, right. And jumped from job to job because I just had that feeling of dissatisfaction. I knew there is more to this. It can't just be what I'm seeing at face value right now. Right so I was a cable guy. last job I did before I joined the military. I was actually a truck driver and drove cross country in every single state there is snow heist and sleet and summertime in the wintertime. You know, that was that was me and then I needed something more full and more, more career type, like something more sturdy, because there was some friend of mine out there driving, I don't understand how somebody hit your trailer, that arm in the back in your blind spot, and it's your fault, and you're getting fired. So when I saw that, I was like, You know what, that could happen to me too, and I just lose my job. So what I actually did, I had a trip that was from California to Miami, I did that trip with a plan to not go back out there ever again. When I got to Miami, I call the company I'm like, I'm done. Y'all need to come pick up your truck. And then after that, I went to a plaza. And there were like, all the military branches there. That was Army, Navy, Marine coast, guard all of them. And I said to myself, You know what, I'm gonna go down the line. Let's see, who takes me. So I went to Air Force, they didn't take me that I went to Navy. And they took me if they didn't take me out to go to Marine, you know, to go to army, and I end up in one of them. Because I knew I needed a little bit more of a career. So when I got in, you know, I did really good. But then I realised that I have to have something of my own. Right, I have to have something building on the outside, in the event that I need to get out, or anything shouldn't happen to me and I get out, then I have something on my own. So why joined a network marketing company? That's where I met Odin, in 2016. And from there, it's just history. We started looking into credit, started studying credit on a on another level start working on our own credit. And then we had a bright idea why not we do this? Why don't we set up a business? Right? And oh, Dean, you know, he's a man of vision, you know, you meet the right people at the right time. And, you know, we just put together and we real credit deal was more.

Daniel Rosen  12:00  

Wow, that is awesome. And how many years ago? Did you both start this business?

Odean Lawrence  12:06  

2016? I think it was like, September, October and September

Okief Robb  12:11  

that week, the idea, you know, from there, and here we are.

Daniel Rosen  12:18  

Wow. And this is? At this point. You're in the Navy. O'Keeffe. Yes. And how do you run a business? When you're in the Navy? How does that work?

Okief Robb  12:29  

Well, what I would say is, when you're in the military, you have to be smart, right? You have to be smart. Because if you're not smart, you will end up in places that you don't want to end up. So you have to take control, even though you don't have much control. But the little that it gives you, you have to exploit it. And that's what I did when I was in the military to be in the places that I want it to be. Right. So the only places that I didn't want it to be is on those two deployments. But it was wasn't experienced, I would say. But it was just being smart. That's that's that's the answer to your question.

Daniel Rosen  13:07  

Yeah. And having drive. And so you started your business in 2016. And for how long? Was it just the two of you running the business? So

Odean Lawrence  13:21  

we we both I mean, came up with the idea behind starting a credit repair company. Daniel, I'm being straight. frank with you. It was tough. It was challenging. Tough, right? I mean, we went through I mean, at this point, young, ambitious, energetic, we just want to get it out, get out there and just do it. Right. And always I always go back to the book from Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, when when him and his friend was in the driveway, and they were making, you know, nickels. And it was like counterfeit nickels? Well, they had this drive and passion to do something. So that's where you know, it started. But we were taken advantage off and sense where we didn't really understand business vernacular. So we were taking advantage, you know, we've gotten our money stolen 1000s of dollars, you know, trying to build a website trying to build a payout programme for people who might partners who might want to join the programme. I mean, we went through so you know, countless amount of individuals or businesses that either didn't work out or really just took our money and ran. And I just remember, there were times even in 2018, we're thinking like, Man, this thing is not working. It's not getting off the ground. I mean, we couldn't even get customers to really come into the programme on a consistent basis. And it came to a point where it was just art we're gonna we're gonna give this thing go again. We went back at it and 2019 connected with someone who was supposed to help us build the whole platform out that we had as far as vision and then we got robbed then again, right Um, I'd say, Rob, because they didn't provide a value or they didn't provide what they promised to provide. And, you know, it was like, Okay, we're gonna, we're gonna figure this thing out. Put it on a simple simple pause, right? We wasn't really truly active with it. But we were still in the background, trying to figure out this is not what this is what we're not going to do, this is what we're going to do. And then we continue to study and study in business on a different level how how business works. So instead of putting it in other people's hands, we start to understand it for ourselves. So we don't go through that situation again, right? It's a has the same for me. Only once, shame on you fool me twice. Shame on me. Right. So we couldn't have that again. So that's your question, Daniel.

Daniel Rosen  15:46  

Wow. So then you relaunch the business, learned about business? And then went all in? But first along the way, were there mentors or these kind of mentor people you're talking about? No mentors, no mentors, okay, just people who would do services that would rip you off? I've been through that. Correct. It's really hard. When when you want to start a business, you have this great idea, but you don't know where, who to go to. And you'll see a shiny ad or some, hey, this guy can do something. And yet it all falls apart. It's never delivered. And, and they take all your money, he had been there a million million times. So then you went all in, learn the stuff. And, and then so was it like 2019 2020, that you really went all in 2020 2020? It's when we had the pandemic,

Odean Lawrence  16:37  

that's when we had the pandemic. Oh, my God, it was it was ironic, because when that happened, you know, everyone's not forced to be inside. And O'Keefe and I, our communications, and just every day we talking about business, you know, every day we hammer in it, how can we become better? And I never forget, it was July, I think it's the end of June, yeah, around the end of June, or close to the end of June 2020. Unfortunately, I got COVID. Right. For six months, I didn't go outside. And then the one time a friend reached out to me said, hey, you know, you know, come by went by, you know, cut COVID from there. And I was in mentally and physically the worst shape of my life. Now, I was still doing credit repair, but I was doing it as an individual, you know, doing the whole cash, upsell, payments, invoice and so forth. So there was no structure, there was no, you know, all of that was not there. And I remember that anywhere. It came to mind. Like, what if you like you're the breadwinner, right? You're bringing the income for your family? But what if, God forbid, you weren't here anymore? What would happen to your family, your kids? What would you leave them? I mean, you doing this credit, and you've been doing it for so long, and you still haven't had it up off the ground? You did all the studying, what are you going to do with it? So, you know, I remember getting, you know, Keith communicating and that I mentioned to him exactly what I'm sharing with you in that. Not verbatim, but mentioned it to him. And he's like, you know, let's go all in. So we took all of the knowledge that we've already gained over the years, what to do, what not to do all of the business education that we've studied, without any mentor, and all the credit education that we've already understood and studied. And we said, You know what, we're just gonna go all in. And we went all in. And 2020 of July is when we registered our business officially. And from there, you know, we did six figures in our first five months of launching, officially launching.

Daniel Rosen  18:44  

Wow, during a pandemic, six figures, unbelievable. And self taught. How did you learn all the parts about putting together a business and other parts people don't know, at the start of how to create your processes and your systems and SOPs? You've got all that now, right? Absolutely. Yeah. How did you learn how to do that?

Okief Robb  19:08  

Well, we actually, well, let me just put it this way. As dean said earlier, we're a praying team. We're always praying. So we always have God in the midst of real credit, do we actually discard it in it? There's a lot of data, a lot of information on the internet, and how to say, for instance, register your business, how to get your DUNS number, how to get your EIN, how to, you know, set up your tax structure, whatever it is, right? Because we're in 2022. You know, information is at the tip of your fingertips. So that's how we get our information and we and through trial and error, because again, it wasn't smooth all the way. It's never smooth all the way. All right. You don't see how you know it's there's It's not possible to smooth your way to success, you know, you have to fall down and get up, brush off, you might get a little, you know, you know, the cuts here and there, right? So that's pretty much how we did it through trial and error and just studying and researching. That's amazing.

Daniel Rosen  20:17  

We're here at CRC, we have a mentor, who we learned systems and processes from his name is Alec scharffen. But he has a saying, your business is broken. And if all goes well, it always will be. It always feels like that. I mean, last night, I was I like had a panic attack and, and my girlfriend goes, Are you okay? And I go, No, our business is on fire. You know, the feeling don't show. And no matter where you're at, that's what it's always going to be. But it just makes you stronger and stronger. And you can handle more and more Am I right? Definitely. Very, very cool. Now, I understand early on. Oh, Dean. Did you will okay, if you haven't had credit issues, have you?

Okief Robb  21:05  

I've had credit issues, very bad credit issues.

Daniel Rosen  21:09  

Well, along the way, Did either of you run into credit repair? Scammers? Yes. Tell me about that. And what scams were they running? What happened?

Okief Robb  21:19  

Well, in my case, you know, I was just promised to get my my credit report wiped clean, you know, they have a phrase for it was like a clean sweep.

Daniel Rosen  21:35  

Sweep away the bathroom.

Okief Robb  21:37  

Just pay me $1,200 or whatever it may I don't clean your credit for you. And I'll give you a trade line. On top of that on the back end. None of that happened. Yeah. So it's out there. And it's scary. It's out there. And it's really, really scary.

Daniel Rosen  21:55  

Oh, yeah. For people listening who don't know what a credit sweep is. I should explain what a credit sweep really is. Because it's really scary. And very illegal. They actually file false police reports for identity theft. And sure the items get removed instantly. But they come back. But along the way, it opens up in an investigation and then the police and the FBI and it's something you don't want to do. If you're if you're watching this or listening to this do not do credit sweeps people go to jail for credit credit sweeps, you got to do it the right way. I'm sorry, that happened to you. But you didn't get into they didn't actually do the credit sweep. You didn't get any trouble.

Okief Robb  22:44  

I didn't get in any trouble, per se. But I just didn't get what they promised. You know, I didn't get a trade line. You know, so it's, it's a very scary thing. And it's that there are folks out there doing that to vulnerable people. That that is really sad.

Daniel Rosen  23:03  

Yeah, especially when you could do credit repair the right way. I mean, literally removing errors. And because there's so many errors, and even accurate items, there's something inaccurate about how they're being reported.

Odean Lawrence  23:17  

Right. And to add to that, as well, it puts the puts people in the state of mind that all companies are pretty much gonna do this. And the space of credit repair is hot within itself. So for individuals who do that, and then you know, people talk, one of the fastest way to travel information is through word of mouth. So if, if I get that type of experience, and I share it with 10 people, and they go on, they multiply that and they put it on social media and nowadays, you know, it makes it harder for the companies who are actually doing the right thing to actually be successful. Yes,

Daniel Rosen  23:53  

sure. Sure. It's, it's a little like the Wild West. But good guys, like all of us are here in we're going to keep everything going the right way. Hey, I want to know what instead of going down, let's go up. How has this new business changed your life, both of you.

Okief Robb  24:15  

You want to go first?

Odean Lawrence  24:18  

In so many ways, Daniel? First and foremost, I gotta always give it back to them for the Most High guy, you know, because if without him, we wouldn't be here. It's changed me mentally changed the way that I look at business and a whole taught me so much about business that I never knew about. And what I didn't know about, you know, getting into the space. It just started to, to educate me more, you know, wanting to know more. Financially, it has been able to put my children in private schools, something I've always been dreaming of doing when I was younger, and it's been able to do that. For me. Being involved in credit space has also been able to change my zip code and It changes zip code, it also changes children's school. So it's been able to put take me out of a rough neighbourhood, you know, and then put me in a better, better position better place that I'm satisfied with so far at the moment until I'm ready to move again. Financially has changed our bank accounts as well. So it's definitely changed in different brackets of life. And I'm grateful for it. Definitely.

Daniel Rosen  25:27  

That is so awesome. Good for you. How about you? Okay,

Okief Robb  25:30  

well, as for me, this this space, I've always loved business, always, always the business. And just the opportunity to have a my own or our own business at this point. And all the things that I've learned along with it, it just changed my mind frame, it just puts me on a different level of thinking. On the whole, as far as financially, of course, it changed my bank account, it does put some zeros behind. behind some, you know, some numbers. As far as my zip code that changed my zip code, of course, I don't have any kids yet. So, I mean, but when they do come along in this world, I'm sure they will be better off because, you know, my, our hard work, and determination and persistence created something that will, you know, they will, you know, live off their, you know, create a legacy.

Daniel Rosen  26:30  

Very cool.

Odean Lawrence  26:31  

And if I may add, Danny, it also allowed me to purchase my dream car at the time, right? No more driving out, it was, you know, nothing wrong with, you know, state being where you are in, in transitioning, but you're no more worrying about, is the engine going blow? Or is there gonna be smoke coming out of this to the front part of the car. So I was able to do all of that through using my credit, right, didn't put any money down. So it was one of those scenarios, built my credit, got into, into a Mercedes, and not put any money down to sign and drive.

Daniel Rosen  27:07  

amazing, just amazing. Hate for either of you, or both of you? What was your greatest struggle when getting this business started?

Okief Robb  27:21  

Okay, it's kind of like, Oh, which one is above which I would say for me, one of the greatest struggle building this business is, you know, the people that you met along the way, like already mentioned earlier, part of setting up this business, there were like a Porsche back a section, a block of time, you know, maybe two or three years or so, where we just run into, into folks that just see us hungry, determined, and wants to start this business, you know, we tell them, This is what we want. And they say, Okay, this is what I'm gonna give you. This, it wasn't on cost. And we were like, Okay, we find it. And we give it to them, and then we get nothing. So I would say, that was the most difficult part that, you know, for me, you know, we had to go through to get to success with this business.

Odean Lawrence  28:15  

For me, software's aren't my strengths, right? Okay, for tech guy, he loves, you know, the whole tech stuff, and I can't stand them. But it there were times when decisions had to be made right executive decisions amongst us in order to grow our business, and not stay the same, or to change certain technology or software's that we're using, at the time to make sure that, okay, things are going to fade out, we just have to apply this stretch strategy or apply the software and grow. And in doing so, it did cost us quite amount of money. Because again, we had no mentor. So you know, getting softwares, and so forth. And going through the whole ring of that was also challenging for me, personally, but you know, after going through that first full year, and seeing okay, this is what our expenses look like on software's, you know, now it puts us in a better position to say, Okay, now we can definitely do better because I look at it like this, we went through this process without any true teacher or mentor. So we had to pay the tuition in order to learn. So we paid our tuition, and then now a lot of those things became a lot easier.

Daniel Rosen  29:31  

Absolutely. And what are some of the biggest mistakes you made when first starting out?

Odean Lawrence  29:38  

Choose and choose in Merchant companies. Everybody's digging in your account, and you got to find make sure that you choose one of the ones that are actually going to work with you. So for me, that's one

Okief Robb  29:52  

well, I will say as for me, that's one of the big one too, because they hold on to your money.

Daniel Rosen  29:57  

Oh, yeah. And they're tricky one You want to leave some of them?

Okief Robb  30:02  

Very tricky, very tricky. So that's one of the biggest lessons. I've learned.

Odean Lawrence  30:08  

Merchants and software companies been very, very careful. I mean, now we have our attorneys looking through our agreements before we sign to anything, because it's some of those software companies, like you mentioned that are tricky. And then you push through and think and you know, all this as well, because of the webinar, then then when come time, you know, to accept payment or to pay. It's a whole different ballgame, you know, so just be careful, mindful of whom you go to when it comes to merchants and software's

Okief Robb  30:39  

and read that agreement, get that agreement reviewed by an attorney, because there might be some tiny clause there somewhere that really gets you stuck for maybe 36 months, or 12 months, or whatever it is. And then they have a really tricky way for you to cancel, you have to send an email in saying XYZ verbatim, or, you know, you really have to be careful of who you do business with and make sure you review those agreements.

Daniel Rosen  31:11  

Absolutely. Yeah. With the merchant accounts. Yeah, it's a lot of them have a gnarly contract. But a few have no contract. And a lot of them have a gnarly exit where you're you get penalised. You have to pay a lot of money to leave. Exactly. But there's some that that don't have that at all. I like the friendly ones that don't have that stuff. Because those other ones prey on people for sure. When you got the business going, did you start with test clients to get testimonials or anything? No. Right into getting clients? How did you find your first real clients?

Odean Lawrence  31:49  

Because I've, you know, since 2016, indeed, and leading up into the years, I was doing credit repair, you know, as I mentioned, I did credit repair. So income was I mean, learning how to market was something I learned. So I started to leverage Facebook, personally before the company, that's how I created my first six figures with just marketing, through social media, Facebook, particularly. And I think in 2018, a friend said, hey, you know why you're not using Instagram, you're leaving a lot of money on the table. So it was just ALRIGHT, taking the content, and then applying it to the other platform, and some of the contents of what I would post with the thought provoking contents, right? Things that, you know, you don't want to always hit people with, maybe put a couple posts who want to fix their credit, and someone will respond and say me, me, but you know, we're talking about getting into the, to the list. So we would then, you know, then capitalise on, all right, what are people looking for? What are their pain points, what are you know, what makes them go, you know, I really want to change, and we started to target things that people want put your children in a better position, you know, who wants to change the children's zip code, you know, things like Target posts like that will then start bringing people. And then we also started to post contents that are, are educational about credit. So now we're not just giving them one style of market, and we're giving them several styles of marking. So I was able to build up a following from there. And then from there, it's like, alright, we got the business registered, everything is looking good. All right, and we just, you know, worked with influencers as well. Something that I used to teach is how to bring in more business so that when you can be hands free, so to speak. So we would, you know, reach out to influencers and negotiate a cost with them. Or if they already have a price that was reasonable for us, then we'll pay them the price that they offer. And then, you know, we'll test out a few everything was like trial and errors when it comes to influencers, because not every influencers work. But, you know, we would test out what type of businesses are coming through from those and are they serious or not. And then from there, like I said, okay, because a systems guy, you know, came up with the systems of funnelling everything through and it was just like, alright, taking what I already have as a knowledge, plugging it through the system, okay, created and then everything just started to flow.

Daniel Rosen  34:18  

Wow, that's very cool. I want to get into the to the automations part in a minute. But first, I want to ask, because you mentioned something really cool. You mentioned influencers, what's your process for recruiting and partnering with influencers? How does that work?

Odean Lawrence  34:35  

I like to keep things simple, right. So I've overcomplicated I just look on Instagram, for example, or Facebook. So let's just say Facebook. I would go on Facebook and I'll type in in the search bar. Uber. Uber, people are independent workers, they're looking to make some money. So typing Uber and it will populate everyone who associates himself with Uber on Facebook. Now once I do that is the list comes up, I go through, and I friend requests as many as I can. And our friend requests a couple. And by the way, if you're not tight tackling 100 people a day, you're missing out. So my goal was I'm contacting 100 people a day, I'm not just going to do one or two. So I reach out to 100 people that that drives Uber, in our friend request them, and then I'll go on to the next hour, maybe typing and realtors, and a bunch of realtors will pop up and I'll do the same thing, you know, add, add everyone as that I can. So once I reach my 100 for the day, I'm good. I just wait for you know, for them to respond. So then the next day, I'm touching another 100 again. So for those who didn't respond the first day, it's just like a snowball effect who just trickle in little by little over the days. Now once I get in front of that person, then via computer, then I'm just going to ask, Hey, you know, how much if you were to work with realtors, I would ask them if, if how much money are you losing by not having a reputable credit repair company on your side? Now for an actual influencer, I normally go to Instagram for that, right? So Facebook will be for anyone you know, that is an independent owner, insurance agents, Uber drivers, Lyft, drivers, realtors, and so forth. Now on Instagram, I work it a little different actually target influencers. Now on Instagram, what I would do is I'll type in comedy, right in the search bar, I know a bunch of comedy lists will come up and it will show you that this influencer has 100,000 followers, and we're going I'll check their engagement on their posts, because I don't care about the 100,000. You can buy those. But I want to see the engagement. And I'll go through and I'll look at what type of engagements are these posts having. So I'll click a couple random posts. And if there's a variation of engagements, then I'll reach out to that influence. And I'll say something like, Hey, Danny, you know, congratulations on all your success. Just curious. How much do you charge for your promotions? That's it. And I'll just link up 100 people on Instagram. And I'll wait for anyone to respond back to me.

Daniel Rosen  37:13  

Wow. And what might that cost to hire somebody like that?

Odean Lawrence  37:18  

It depends on on if they're too high if their price point is out of my budget, and I'm not willing to spend and I'm not going to work with them. But on average $50 For story 100 bucks for story posts, our journey, we tested out with stories because it gives you more engagement. And then maybe they'll charge 150 to $300 for the actual posts. Some of them will leave it off forever. Some of them will take it down after 24 hours. So I'll just gauge Okay, am I going to pay $150 for 24 hours, let me really dissect this cut this person and see what they're really bringing to the table. If it makes sense, then I'll go ahead and I'll test them out. I mean, you won't know until you try. So I would pay the 150. And then for that 24 hours, I'm completely engaged with the post that they're putting up.

Daniel Rosen  38:15  

Wow, that is fascinating. Okay, so then once the leads come in, and and you've got their contact information, O'Keefe, what kind of automations do you guys use? What are your favourites?

Okief Robb  38:30  

Well, we have various software's where use along the lines of Active Campaign, Zoho goal high level software's like that really central, you know, software's along that line, but what was really the game changer was the ability to set up a whole team. And kids, you know, teamwork makes the dream work, right. To have a customer service team, you know, to have our team that does, you know, the letters and all that good stuff. Right? That's that that was a real game changer that fit in, right, what the marketing a team that's dedicated as well. You know, what I mean? To the cause, you know, believes in the dream.

Daniel Rosen  39:23  

Okay, let's say someone reaches out but they're not ready to be come a client, do you have them? Do you have the Active Campaign doing a drip sequence to them?

Okief Robb  39:32  

Yes. So we have the Active Campaign that you know, sends out that you know, information to them. You know, things along the lines is saw that you were interested to know what happened. stuff along the lines of be dangerous to get in right back in right. So we do have that I would say it probably needs a little bit more work, you know, to get it refined. Um, but we do have that system.

Daniel Rosen  40:02  

And then when somebody becomes a customer, do you have additional nurture sequences for for existing customers?

Okief Robb  40:09  

Yes, we do as well, educational pieces, reminders, you know, educational pieces, reminders, and so on, go out to them. So, we do have that.

Odean Lawrence  40:22  

And we also have our team follow up with them as well. So even if you're a prospect, and you didn't sign up today, it's mandatory that everyone does get a follow up. So we go back through the list, I mean, the money is always in the list and the follow up. So we'll go back and you'll send them an email if necessary. And the same, you know, once the client gets on board, we also do, like O'Keefe mentioned, the drip campaigns with emails, text messages. But we also follow up every month, you know, it's in the space. Like I mentioned before, it's it's kind of tainted, right? With so much wrongful activity that's going on, I want to make sure that we give our clients a concierge feel a true feeling that you're a part of a family. So you know, we do a monthly follow up as well to make sure that each person is catered to.

Okief Robb  41:10  

So let go Dean mentioned, we are a family. That's how we look at real credit deal from our team that takes care of our customers, to the customers as well. We look at it and the family and family takes care of the family. So pretty much everyone has with us, we always try to make sure they get what they pay for, we don't want anyone to be on our programme has to have something to say like, I didn't get what I paid for. Because we've been down that road, a lot of times where we pay for something and didn't get what we pay for. So when it comes on to our clients, we're very, very, very serious. And making sure they get what they pay for. You pay for service with us, you will get it. And that's what we are part of our programme is, you know, and I'll say this might be a little secret sauce. But if somebody is on our programme, and they believe they haven't got what they pay for, we said, hey, come back here. All right, we're gonna go ahead and try this again for another three months, give us the opportunity to do it for you for another three months. Right. So that's, that's one thing we do just to show that we really, really, really care about our clients,

Odean Lawrence  42:28  

no costs,

Okief Robb  42:29  

and no costs, and no costs. So industry in a space that I like or dimension is so tainted, we want to make the difference. We want to be that company that delivers to our client.

Daniel Rosen  42:45  

That's awesome. That's awesome. We feel the same way here. Are you a remote company? Is everyone working from home?

Odean Lawrence  42:53  

Yeah, well, it is. Remote. In a sense. But but but it's not there's no office space. If that makes sense. Where you know, we have a staff coming in everything is definitely online.

Daniel Rosen  43:10  

Yeah. Awesome. Same for us. We have we have an office here that I'm sitting in, but our team is all over the world.

Okief Robb  43:18  

Right. So we're structured in kind of like the same manner.

Daniel Rosen  43:21  

Yeah. Although I like having the office to come to do you ever plan to have a brick and mortar location? Or?

Odean Lawrence  43:28  

Oh, absolutely. Oh, that's that's making a within the next year. I mean, we have our office space that we go to yes. But again, not for a team of staff. So that is definitely something that we're working on within the next year.

Daniel Rosen  43:45  

Awesome. Awesome. Okay, if I wanted to ask you, what did you learn from the military that's helped you with your business?

Okief Robb  43:54  

That's a great question. That's an excellent question. I think if I didn't join the military and get that experience, I wouldn't have really what it takes to run this business. When you join the military, instil a sense of leadership, as you go from the lowest rank to the to higher ranking, now you're in charge of people, you actually get the ability, the ability to lead to be a leader. Right? And honestly, I watch everything. I look at it this way. I look at it this way. Like I tell my team the same thing. The US Navy is one of the is the world's greatest name. As we stand right now. Plenty of minds went into building the US Navy. Plenty of a lot of minds, smart minds, right, went into building the Navy. And if it still stands today, how have the world's greatest Navy since inception, then it must be doing something good. So what I do is I watch everything they do. I learn everything they do. I see how they do the awards, I see how they, you know, give recognition. I see how they train SEO, I learned all of that. And then I instilled it in my business. Pretty much, honestly, most of my team right now I get on the phone with them. They're gonna be like, copy, sir, copy, copy, rather than. So that's, you know, because I'm a man of structure, I learned that structure from the military. And I took that, and I instil it into real credit.

Daniel Rosen  45:47  

I love that. Okay, we're gonna switch gears for a minute, I'm going to ask you guys a couple rapid questions. And then either one of you answer with the first thing that pops into your head. Okay. Sure. What drives and motivates you,

Odean Lawrence  46:05  

children?

Daniel Rosen  46:07  

Is there a specific business person that inspires you? And why?

Odean Lawrence  46:12  

Warren Buffett? Ah, I like Warren Buffett. And who Daymond John

Daniel Rosen  46:19  

Howard Daymond. John. Yeah, he's also

Okief Robb  46:21  

perfect for me because he's smart. And he knows how to position himself. And times, like these. You know, what, if you go back to the.com, boom, he positioned himself properly, and came out to being one of the richest man in the world. Right. So that's why I admire him as a businessman. And for

Odean Lawrence  46:45  

me, Daymond Is it because of his hustle, and I just listened to reading his books, going back to stories of when he first started, you know, selling the streets. And it just reminds me of my entrepreneurs, spirit. You know, even when I didn't have I didn't have much or anything, you know, I'm out there selling, you know, just just trading off whatever time but I had to make sure I go out there and provide a better future for my child, my children, my family. So that's why I chose him.

Daniel Rosen  47:12  

Awesome. Awesome. Okay, for both of you, what's your business superpower?

Odean Lawrence  47:19  

helping good people with bad credit.

Okief Robb  47:22  

I'll say my business superpower is like, seen beyond the beyond the horizon, I have a sense to like, see something coming. And just put it into like perspective, based on what's happening right

Odean Lawrence  47:36  

now. And, like O'Keefe mentioned, and being a visionary, there's crazy times I'll get ideas, and sounds crazy, but then we'll apply it and then boom, it takes our business to another level.

Daniel Rosen  47:51  

That's awesome. What does business ownership mean to you,

Odean Lawrence  47:55  

means everything. It gives us the freedom, it gives me the freedom to be able to think, freely think clearly without any cap, no, I guess cap is us different in these societies nowadays, right? But without having any ceilings, right? So we, you know, that for me, it just gives me a sense of, okay, I can go anywhere in the world, I'm not limited to just a nation, I literally can go anywhere in the world, and conduct business, it's taught us a

Okief Robb  48:25  

lot. That's for me, freedom, and just the feeling that I put food on other people's table. You know, it's just fill in for me. On top of that, just the fact that no, that's the fact that I'm helping others, you know, within a system that nobody taught them financial literacy. You know, they went to college all the way up University, and they don't know financial literacy. So just the fact that I can help them with that knowledge and teach them how to how to use a credit card, how credit works, right? Helping them to better themselves, and at the same time providing employment for folks out there, you know, they're feeding their families, you know, along with the freedom that it gives us, right? It's just fulfilled and so that's what business ownership.

Daniel Rosen  49:27  

Awesome. I know why you guys are doing so well. This was all coming from your heart. That's why what's your definition of success?

Okief Robb  49:36  

never given up persistence. Just never give up? For me. If you give up and you don't have a story to tell, the only thing you have to tell is that you gave up. You can't inspire anyone with that. You know, we could have gave up we felt it sometimes come along along. And I can't be bothered with this anymore, but we just never gave up You're pushing, pushing, pushing. So that's my definition of success. You just got to keep going.

Odean Lawrence  50:05  

And for me, it's more so. I mean, in addition to what O'Keefe said, it's to add a legacy for my children. So that when years after when I'm not, you know, around to beat dad, right? They, they have something strong behind them. That's, that's that's already been built. And then that's also leaving an education that they can follow. Because, I mean, we all are under, under, under the understanding that we were never taught about credit, nor financial literacy in South Florida, so. But yeah, we've never taught that literacy. So for me, it's to leave that legacy behind.

Daniel Rosen  50:47  

Yeah, we all learn it by trial and error, credit and finance,

Odean Lawrence  50:51  

wishing we in life, you know, yes, yeah.

Daniel Rosen  50:53  

Do you have any other advice for someone just starting a business?

Odean Lawrence  50:59  

Oh, yeah. But it won't be one, day one, mentally it's a mental game, you got to mentally be there, right. Because this, I mean, being a business owner is not easy. And it will try your patience, it will try I would say your soul, right? I understand the soul is being your mind, your will and your emotion. And if something is able to interrupt that, then everything else goes out the window. So you have to be willing to to go through the test of times. Second to that is not to listen to those who's in your air. countless amount of people, oh, that's not working. How long have you been trying this, how long you've been doing, you know that that. So not to listen to those individuals who may think they have the best intentions for you. While they may have the best intentions. But what they're telling you is not working out or it's not falling in alignment with the vision that you have in play. Also pray, I mean, I don't put my faith on anyone. But that's what helped us throughout the process, even when we were going through those trials and times, you know, to pray. And then when it comes to building the business, seek advice, seek help. Seek those who have done it before you and then can help you to do it. Or understand that this is going to take me time because I've never done this before. And go all in studying every bit of it. If you don't have the time to then study again, go back to a mentor who have done it before you and then that can also provide you with the way to go.

Daniel Rosen  52:31  

Awesome. And what's next for you guys, do you have plans to start more businesses or write a book or what's the next big goal?

Odean Lawrence  52:40  

A bit of both, we already have another business and the works, that we're creating, you know, building that up from the ground, that's going to be catered or tailored to business business owners or individuals who want to start a business. And then you know, we're looking to put them in a position to pretty much have a quick cookie cutter method, but a simple step way where they can get in, you know, be educated mentally on on how to prepare their mind, and then plug them into understand the steps of what to do. So this is step one, formulation, formation of your business. This is step two, right, making sure that all of this is you know, step two is completed, and then we'll be going from there. So yeah, business business building.

Daniel Rosen  53:34  

That's awesome. Okay, last question of the day. How does it feel to be a credit repair millionaire?

Odean Lawrence  53:43  

Oh, man, I mean, it brings joy, it brings joy to me. I know, it brings joy to Keith as well. My family. I believe that I'm the first documented millionaire in my family. So I a humble kid coming from Jamaica, you know, coming from the country, you know, coming to America barely knowing how to speak English properly, you know, getting beat up because I didn't understand how to speak English, you know, and then going through high school finish not even finishing college, I dropped out of college. And everyone's telling me to go back to school, get get a career, get a degree and my passion, my abilities saying you know, there's got to be something else out here than that. Not not in school at all. But I just knew something else was in me that wanted more that school couldn't provide, and then to be able to come across your platform, and then exercising it with my best friend to then create a million dollar business. I mean, that's that's priceless. Man. I smile every time I think about it. It's just a proud moment.

Daniel Rosen  54:47  

That's so cool. I'm so proud of you. How about you yo O'Keefe

Okief Robb  54:52  

same thing. I say the same thing, man. I remember. Both you know, then he was actually looking at the you know, The numbers coming in and we're close. And we're like, oh my god, we're about to be millionaires. I don't think there's enough words to explain, you know, the gratitude that we could share, give, you know, you've given us this platform, this opportunity, you know, to use your platform and provide service to our clients and actually doing really good for our clients. So I'm gonna share secrets with you. Last year, we removed 12 million in debt from our clients credit report, over 12 million in debt. It's credit reports. So it's this just the fact it's not just Oh, yeah. Oh, we're millionaire. But for me, from the heart, is the fact that we are helping so much people out there to be in a better position and given them a second chance. Feels great to be a millionaire. But for me, it feels even better to know that we are helping folks. And we'll continue to help people out there. Yeah, that's

Daniel Rosen  56:01  

the best feeling of all. Well, I want to thank you so much for your time today. Oh, Dean, and oh, Keith, this was a lot of fun. Did you have fun?

Okief Robb  56:09  

Oh, this was

Odean Lawrence  56:10  

this was really fun. If I made Danny, I'd love to give it back to our team as well. You know, our entire real credit deal family are from all of our departments within our business. I mean, without our team, we wouldn't be sticking with you right now until level that we're speaking with you. So, you know, we greatly appreciate it. And for everyone who's looking to start a business, having a team is definitely definitely the way to go yourself.

Daniel Rosen  56:36  

Yes, get yourself out of it, so that you can grow the business. Anyways, congratulations again on the millionaire's club. I wish you both continued success. And for everyone out there. If you are enjoying this podcast, be sure to click to subscribe, so you don't miss any of the inspiring stories, industry news, financial tips and entrepreneurial advice that we share each week here on the credit repair business secrets podcast. And if you're feeling kind, do me a favour or write me a review. Give me a thumbs up give me five stars helped me to move up the charts. So also leave a comment or ask a question, because I read each and every one of them. And I will see you on the next episode. And until then, don't settle for a terrible career. If you know you're meant for more, keep searching, keep learning, keep building and keep changing lives. Hey, everybody, it's Daniel again. And really quick, I'd like to invite you to join what I believe is the best thing we have ever created inside the credit repair cloud community. And it is a challenge that we call the Credit Hero Challenge. If you're just planning out your business, or you're just getting it started, and you dream of having a successful business of your own. So you can quit your nine to five and fire your boss and have financial freedom or so you can add another revenue stream to your existing business. If that's your dream, you need to get into this challenge. We created this challenge to help you to create and launch your very own credit repair business to build a proper foundation for a really successful business. This challenge is going to help you to understand the strategy, the tactics and all the things you need to be successful at credit repair. It really is the greatest thing we have ever built, and it will change your life. So I recommend you do it right now. Stop everything pause this audio go online and go to creditherochallenge.com That's credit hero challenge.com and join the next challenge. And there's a challenge that starting in just a few days. So go get started right now at creditherochallenge.com