Herman Dolce On Why Business Credit Is Important & How He Made A Multimillion-Dollar Company + More
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
What's up his way up with Angela Yee.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Angela Ye and my Wealth Wednesday partner Stacey Tisdale
is here.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Happy Wealth Wednesdays everybody, and we are taking you way
up this financial Literacy Month. We're going to educate entrepreneurs
out there on how to get money from their business
and unexpected ways because we have the Haitian CEO.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
Hello, Stacey, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Angela.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
I appreciate you, guys, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Herman that's my uncle's name, by the way, so my
youngest uncle, yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Good, Yes, his real name is Hermann Dulce. He goes
by the Haitian Ceo. He's an incredible entrepreneur who has
taught entrepreneurs how to get money for their business. And
that's that's the only reason we have you here, so
we are.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Not It's something I just had to go to deal
with too, because a lot of times your booststapping your
business out of your own pocket sometimes, you know, when
it comes to loans. I mean it was a whole
process for us, but you know, even figuring out how
to make sure you get credit cards, making sure that
you can pay your bills on time. Sometimes you don't
have the cash on hand right to be able to
handle things. So I know for you, you helped a lot
(01:09):
of your friends when you first got started.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Yeah. When I first got into game, one of my
tag lines is success has receipts. So before I went
out and went on social media, I had to have
proof of concept. So I went to my friends and
family first and I was like, hey, you got good credit,
let me help you get these credit cards in your
business name. They was like in my business name. I
was like, yeah, well, let me start an LLC up
for you first, and then I helped them get a
proof because they had pretty good credit profiles. And then
(01:33):
I was able to share that on social media, the
proof of concept, show those receipts, and then I was
trusted to be an expert in the space. And that
was seven years ago and it's been an interesting ride.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
That's what Herman does. He helps people use their leverage,
their credit.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
And you have to have good money, you have to
have good personal credit.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
Yeah, talk about that.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Love.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
That's why credit is so important, right, correct.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Right, So when people come to me and it's like, hey,
I want to get money in my business name, right
because business credit cards. Those business ows are lines of credit.
Of course, you know, they don't show up on your
personal side. So you can max out the cards for
your business deals and you're in the ballgame. But in
order to do that, the banks are going to look
at your personal credit first. Because the banks they know
Herman Dulci, right, they don't know my business Bellastone Enterprises.
(02:19):
So I have to vouch for my business. So I'm like, nah,
he's good. They can be like, all right, you vouching
for this person. You're valued for this business absolutely, So
they look at my credit. There's like if you're good
with your credit, then you're definitely going to be good
with your business's credit and you get way more money
on the business side. So this is why it's my
passion when people are starting up their businesses go this
way first to get the capital rights.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Sometimes if you can't take that a loan right away,
because sometimes you need to have like a certain amount
of history correct right to have say your business operating
for two years, or you have to have made a
certain amount of money. But being able to get a
credit card is kind of like also being able to
get a loan, but it's a you know, you can
use your personal credit against that, which is a valuable
thing because there is nothing more stressful than when you're
(03:02):
a business owner and you owe money to a lot
of people. And maybe sometimes it's bringing in goods that
you can't get because you haven't paid on these yet,
but you don't have the money to pay because you're
waiting for this person to pay you. There's a lot
that goes into running a business and money coming in
and going out in a timely fashion, right right, right.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
My best example that I say with is is I
want to talk about this also is having different type
of business partners. I call my business credit cards my
business partners. The first business partner anyone should have is
their job. Okay, so before you go barring other people's
money and messing up the bag, have proof of concept first.
So my guy Storm Leroy, he was one of my mentors.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
That's my guy.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
And when he said it, I was like, Yo, he's
absolutely right. So the savings that I got after I
paid my bills for my job, that's the money I
invested into my business first and it worked. Now I'm
able to put gasoline on a proof of concept, and
that's when I go to my second business partners, which
our American Express, Chase, etc. And then when your business up,
you go to venture capitalists and you ask them for
money too. So this level to the games.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Like that, it's.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Level the game.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Some people can't get their head around this personal credit
business credit because so many, particularly in our community, entrepreneurs
bootstrap right.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
So talk about the difference.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
And I remember in a conversation we had so many
people don't realize that when you get your business to
a point where you can get business credit cards and stuff,
it doesn't affect your personal credit.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Correct, It doesn't affort you. So I'll give you a
good story with that. So when I first started my
entrepreneurial journey, I got into real estate, like everybody does.
We watched a couple we watched a couple of HTV
state right right here, I know, we watched a couple
of TV shows.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
We watched a couple of.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
TV shows and we're like, yeah, I know what I'm doing.
So I paid for everything with credit cards. So contractors
materials forty thousand dollars in credit card debt. And what
happens when you max out your personal credit cards? Your
credit score test.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
It does.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
So when it was time for me to cash out
REFI to take money out the deal. I couldn't, so
I ended up have to rent it out for two
years before I can recoup my money back. Because I
didn't have a mentor and I was an educator. It
was an expensive lesson, but it was tuition. But now
that I'm smarter, whenever I get into real estate deals,
I use my business credit cards. I can maximount do
what I need to do and it's not going to
(05:14):
hurt my personal I'm still in the eight hundred club
cash our refine and I'm onto the next one.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
And you know what, I noticed that a lot of
credit cards are doing now too. They're letting you take
out a line of credit, yes you know as well,
and also you know, like an AMEX card.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Before you have to pay the whole thing off.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Now they're letting you pay and installment and installment, And
a lot of people are doing this, like these installment
plans as far as credit cards, so you don't have
to pay the whole thing off at once, and maybe
you pay like a small percentage of interest, but now
you're not having to pay the full thing.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
I feel like that's fairly newer.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
It is because they seem to really be embracing the
new entrepreneurial, the.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Entrepreneurs space, especially right because they're a charge card and
that's my favorite shout out to American Espress. Hopefully one
day you know what I'm saying, y'all take.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Care of me.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
But I love I love American Express. My wonderful CEO
of the marriage he puts about thirty to fifty on
that every.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Single month, So I stepping it too.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
I know.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
I probably wouldn't You're never.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
I probably wouldn't noticed, but but I saw when they
first started at It's like, hey, you could just put
pay fifteen and the rest you can pay over ninety days,
And I was like, oh, this is really new now,
cautionary tale. Remember the relationships you have with these banks
are super important me. I just continue to pay in
full in thirty days because I want to leverage my
future relationships with them get higher credit limit increases. I
(06:35):
don't always want to have a balance with them, but
I know in the case of an emergency, I know
I can play that game with them.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
I just got something from them asking me if I
want to line a credit for my business, and I
totally get how great this this whole thing is. Personally,
I get nervous because I'm like a line of credit
using my business credit cards and stuff. It is debt,
and that makes me nervous.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
But if it's an emergency, oh, it's an emergency, it's debt.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
But talk about the importance of just not going out
and say, I'm an entrepreneur. I can get this line
of credit. You have to know you're going to your
business is good enough that you can pay it back.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
Correct, So for money, right, it's not free money?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Right right?
Speaker 5 (07:17):
Right?
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Too soon? Too soon.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
I had to we love that. I had to actually
pivot some of my business to educate people. Because I'm
the business credit guy. We're getting twenty thirty one hundred
thousand dollars in funding. But I realized something. I was
giving people money who really didn't know what to do
with the money once they got it. They saw the platinum.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Card, my credit card, right, my cousin back exactly.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
And I'm like, guys, even when I first started my
entrepreneurial journey and I didn't have an exit plan with
the real estate deal, I'm telling everybody you need to
have a business plan up front, especially with this credit
card debt. That's why I say use your money first
to make sure that the proof of concept works. Have
a business plan, pick us because these banks will give
you twenty thirty fifty thousand dollars and you need to
(08:02):
have a plan with it from jump so that you're
able to pay it off every month fifty thousand dollars.
Your percent interest's only five hundred a month. If you
can't pay five hundred has a month, you should not
be in business right if you don't have a play
to make that happen. So cautionary tale. It's a gift
and a curse, but it's a wonderful gift if you
use it right now.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Can you talk about how you even got into starting
your own business with Bellaston Academy? And I know you
had a regular day job, yes, okay, and then you
saw social I.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Was a social worker. Yes, I went to Temple and
then I went to Lincoln and got my master's degree,
and I was a social worker. Then I was an
executive director at a nonprofit. And shout out to a
good friend of mine, Charlene. She told me that you
only make as much as your clients do, so as
a social worker, your clients don't make any money. And
(08:53):
I ended up going to Italy for my baby moon
with my wife Janelle. Right, baby moon is a tripy
take before your first kid comes, because I knew your
life is never going to be the same after that.
So had a blast, had a great time. We were
there for like nine ten days. Came back, I had
no more vacation time and I was telling my brother
was the best trip I've ever had. It was amazing.
But now when Bella came, I couldn't spend any time
(09:13):
with her because I had to go to work. And
he said, you know the old jay Z line. Unless
you own your own you'll never be free. And I
was like, what am I going to sell? What am
I gonna do? He's like that credit thing that you do,
like you used to start charging people for that. I'm like, no,
I'm not gonna charge people, like people really need that game.
And he was like, they're going to pay somebody, they
might as well pay you. So that was the birth
of Bellisone Enterprises, where we started helping people with their credit,
(09:35):
helping them get funding. But the Bellosone Academy came into
fruition when I realized there's a lot of adults that
do not know or have access to this education at all.
So we started a mentorship program where we started teaching people.
We have amazing coaches. Shout out to Regime, shout out
to coach Mike who teached this to adults, this wonderful
information about credit leveraging, it starting businesses, investing. And now
(10:00):
we're taking it to the next level where we're going
to be teaching youth children, college people. Because it starts
at a younger age, our kind of parts have this
information much younger. So I was like, let's get this
information to younger people.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
You know, that's valuable because I feel like it's worth it.
If it's gonna save me money and make me money, ye,
I'll pay for it, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
And they're not even expensive. I can't believe how inexpensive,
right ellis Sloan Academy DOT And yeah, thank you.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
So much Ellus Sloan Academy DOT.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
I appreciate that. It's fifty dollars a month. And we
meet every single Wednesday night for two to three hours.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
And we teach what do you teach?
Speaker 5 (10:36):
People?
Speaker 4 (10:37):
So we teach. So the two main cores is helping
them repair their credit, fixing their credit, establishing their credit
because fixing your credit is one thing, but then you
have to establish good credit also for a period of time.
They then we teach them how to set up their
LLC property, their business properly, because you just can't go
into a bank and get money. You have to have
a website, business phone number, business address, business email. You
(10:58):
gotta look pro So we help them set that up,
and then we help them get the funding for their businesses.
And then we have different coaches come on week to
week to who are in different entrepreneurs spaces. I don't
know everything, so I got to bring different speakers on
that talk about, Hey, I'm in Toro. Hey I'm doing Airbnb.
Hey I'm in a syndication deal in real estate. So
these different speakers come on and teach and educate.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
Is fifty dollars a month.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Fifty dollars a month, Yes, the.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
Lasloan Academy dot com dot com?
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
And what about the people you surround yourself with? Because
I always talk about how important that is, like the
circle of people who are around you, because I'm always
still a student too, Like in spite of all the things,
that I've learned and that I know. I always feel like,
you know, Stacy will come in here teach me something.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Wealth Wednesday. I always learned a lot when we have
different guests.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
We've learned so much from Wealth Wednesdays. Yeah, yeah, I'm like, oh,
I want to learn about that. Let's bring somebody else.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
But you know, I think that's important too, to talk
about the process, because some people might feel like I
have it all, I don't need any you know, anything additional.
But I think even for me, I'm still taking classes,
still trying to get certified certain things, and still trying
to learn and grow.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
So how important is your circle.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
If your mentor doesn't have a mentor or is it
still learning during your in trouble. So I always circle
myself myself around people who know more than me, who
are richer than me, who were educated in me, more
wiser than me. So I have another tagline called audit
your circle.
Speaker 5 (12:18):
Right.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
So, as you see, I bought an amazing team with me.
They do a lot of the heavy lifting. They point
me in the right direction. And this is one of
the things I always advised people to do the same
thing too, because I'm still taking mentorships. I'm still taking
classes again. Storm is one of my guys. I always
call Storm like, hey, I need advice on this.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Yes, shout out to Stormy, marginal Ash cast our buddy's
path to prosperity. Big shout out, Amazing, you touched on
something and we are having this conversation a couple of
weeks ago with Pinky Coal a lot of small businesses.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
And you just had Pink Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, stage
yes and her husband, doctor Derek, Doctor Derek.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
She was saying, hire slowly, fire quickly.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
A lot of entrepreneurs get into the situation where they
should be auditing their circle, but they just have a
hard time doing that.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
Talk about how important that is.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
Thank god I hired Demarus to handle that because I'm
too nice of a guy. She can tell yeah, yeah,
she can tell. She can tell quickly if something isn't
gonna work out with somebody. I think I saw Gary
Vee talk about this one time. The reason why we
take so long to fire people is because of our ego.
Because you sat through the interview process with them and
(13:37):
they fooled you, and in two to three weeks you
should figure out that it's not gonna work. Let them
go fire quickly so you get the next person in.
But no, we want to give them ninety days and
see if it works. No, get them out of here
because you have a business to run and it's costing
you money teaching them things.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
You know what else too, I want to talk about
You call your label as the Haitian CEO. So what
does your background have to do with even like your
work ethic?
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Oh wow, that kind of goes to how my parents worked.
They were from the amazing island of Haiti and they
were extremely hard workers. Both parents had two jobs. You
know that story originally from Brooklyn, New York. It was
five of us, my brother Kevin, my sister Cara. Put
us in an apartment. There was a one bedroom. They
(14:24):
saved their money moved us to Philly three bedroom home.
So they work really hard. That type of ethic you
saw every single day. It put it inside of me.
But I also like to say that my parents prepared
me for a world that no longer exists because my
parents are from Haiti, where their American dream was to
get a college education. And you'll be fine, that world
doesn't exist anymore. So when I told my mom, I
(14:45):
was quitting my job and my six figure job at
the time, because I finally moved into tech for like
six months right, and then I was able to pivot
into business and tell my mom, Hey, I'm gonna do
this instead. She was losing her mind. She's like, what
you put your job crazy? I was like, Mom, you
gotta trust me, like, I make more money doing this,
and I actually, to this day I have to convince her.
(15:06):
And sometimes she doesn't even know what I do. She's like,
you're going to New York to do what You're going
to be on who show? And I was like, I'm
going to work.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
She's like that's work.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
She's like, no, it's work.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
I gotta go. You do love what you do?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
And I think I love what I do because it
is helping people, It is educating people, it is learning
from people as well.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Income and impact. So to be able to make money
while helping people and changing people's lives. And they're showing
me the receipts of what they're what they've done is
is ballgame. People stopping you on the street, not because
it's necessarily your celebrity, but because hey, Herman, I was
able to get this off my credit. It went up
one hundred points. I got ten thousands. I was able
to quit my job and those stories are always amazing.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
That's awesome. How did you build?
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Now, let's talk about your entrepreneur expertise for a minute.
So you started this after your brother told you start
charging people for the credit help.
Speaker 5 (15:52):
And that was twenty seventeen, twenty seventeen, twenty.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Seventeen, and now you have a multimillion dollar business allegedly.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Right.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Yes, we talk about I pas my taxes right time.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
How did you do that?
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Number one? Like we talked about earlier, having the right
people around you and understanding the market that I'm in. Right,
So I'm successful in business because I ask the market
what they want and then I charge the market for
the answer.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
Right.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
I have a freemium model, so on my Instagram hation
on the score CEO, I give a lot of stuff
away for free, free information. Right, this is what you
got to do fix your credit. You get funding this way,
and what do people do? They go execute on the
information and it works.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Right.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
So I literally tell people I'm going to give you
the money to pay me. Right, So you do this,
you do this and then some right. So now I'm
going to give you the fifty dollars a month to
come to the academy, right, because I used to charge
way more money for my academy to be one thousand
dollars and then DeMars, you have to have somebody looking
at your numbers. She's like, listen, we're down like eighty percent.
Speaker 5 (16:58):
Stop paying those big fees.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
People start paying those big tea exactly stuff they stopped
and she's like, listen, we're down seventy percent. I'm like,
you're kidding. She's like, yeah. So we pivoted to a
subscription model, right, and it's just absolutely ridiculous. We have
thousands of subscribers now, and now we have the capital
to invest in other businesses and invest right back into
our mentees because now we can get higher level coaches
(17:20):
to come and teach them, and we're able to afford
to pay them because we have many subscribers. It's like Netflix,
they do better shows now because they have many subscribers.
We have a better platform because we have many subscribers now.
So that type of pivot and understanding business can can
make you sink or swim if you're not paying attention.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
See, it's always a process.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Yeah, it's always a process.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
How much should it help you? So the Philadelphia Tribune
get a story on you during the pandemic, right right, right, Yeah,
but at that time where you're just focusing on personal credit.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Mostly personal credit, we didn't pivot totally to business totally,
but yeah, we were kind of doing both at the
time that interview. I don't know how they found me,
but they found me because they were surprised that entrepreneurs.
They wanted to know how entrepreneurs were pivoting during the
world being closed, which is a crazy time. The world
(18:08):
was really closed. But that was one of the first
time that my business had to pivot because I was
doing a lot of in person events and that's when
I was able to quit my job because once a
month I was doing a mini conference. Two three hundred
people would show up. We'd charge them at the door,
and I only had to do that once a month,
and then bills were paid and I had a little
extra change in my pocket. But the world shut down,
what was I going to do? That's what wonderful Zoom
(18:29):
and Google sheets and all that stuff. We was able
to move our business online, and then of course you
reach more people online. It's absolutely exploded.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
So many people, especially in our community, got into that
credit crunch exactly, ran into a financial wall exactly to
take an honest look at.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
It, right, All right, well, listen, how can people find
you if they want to sign up for Bellison Academy
if they want to, you know, directly get some help
from there.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
So if they want to become a subscriber to join
our mentorship where we teach them about credit, leveraging their
credit and get business credit it and learning many other things,
they can go to www dot Bellasloan Academy dot com.
It's only fifty dollars a month. It's no commitment, you
can quit whenever you want. We would love to be
a service. And you can go to BELLOSLOANLLC dot com
(19:13):
if you want your credit fixed or if you want
some funding, We would love to be a service to you.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
And if you text Angela to six one oh and
when you're gonna say that I start over, go ahead.
And if you text Angela to six one oh eight
nine seven six two seven, you get five free ebooks
on how to build business credit and structure your business
as well.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Free, free, free.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
We love free.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
We love saying that number.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
There's no reason you can't afford that. Okay, it's six
one o eight one nine seven six two seven. Just
text Angela awesome.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
Thank you so much, Heytion CEO, can I talk about
one thing before you, Chris, So, I have two books
coming out. I want to make sure we talk about Yes,
So two books come out, and make sure you guys
get a copy because we want to get these books
in younger kids hands. Bella Bill's Business Credit, and we
have another one called for my second daughter, Olivia.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
The E of Credit Olivia.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
And then that book is really good because as for Apple,
B is for balance, C is for credit. Because we
want to get this information into younger hands as soon
as possible. We'd love to leave a couple of copies
for you guys.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Thank you so much for having me Angela. I appreciate it. Stacy,
it's been a pleasure being here.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
We appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Happy Wealth Wednesday's everybody
What's up his way up with Angela Yee.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Angela Ye and my Wealth Wednesday partner Stacey Tisdale
is here.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Happy Wealth Wednesdays everybody, and we are taking you way
up this financial Literacy Month. We're going to educate entrepreneurs
out there on how to get money from their business
and unexpected ways because we have the Haitian CEO.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
Hello, Stacey, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Angela.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
I appreciate you, guys, I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Herman that's my uncle's name, by the way, so my
youngest uncle, yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Good, Yes, his real name is Hermann Dulce. He goes
by the Haitian Ceo. He's an incredible entrepreneur who has
taught entrepreneurs how to get money for their business. And
that's that's the only reason we have you here, so
we are.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Not It's something I just had to go to deal
with too, because a lot of times your booststapping your
business out of your own pocket sometimes, you know, when
it comes to loans. I mean it was a whole
process for us, but you know, even figuring out how
to make sure you get credit cards, making sure that
you can pay your bills on time. Sometimes you don't
have the cash on hand right to be able to
handle things. So I know for you, you helped a lot
(01:09):
of your friends when you first got started.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Yeah. When I first got into game, one of my
tag lines is success has receipts. So before I went
out and went on social media, I had to have
proof of concept. So I went to my friends and
family first and I was like, hey, you got good credit,
let me help you get these credit cards in your
business name. They was like in my business name. I
was like, yeah, well, let me start an LLC up
for you first, and then I helped them get a
proof because they had pretty good credit profiles. And then
(01:33):
I was able to share that on social media, the
proof of concept, show those receipts, and then I was
trusted to be an expert in the space. And that
was seven years ago and it's been an interesting ride.
Speaker 5 (01:44):
That's what Herman does. He helps people use their leverage,
their credit.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
And you have to have good money, you have to
have good personal credit.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
Yeah, talk about that.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Love.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
That's why credit is so important, right, correct.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Right, So when people come to me and it's like, hey,
I want to get money in my business name, right
because business credit cards. Those business ows are lines of credit.
Of course, you know, they don't show up on your
personal side. So you can max out the cards for
your business deals and you're in the ballgame. But in
order to do that, the banks are going to look
at your personal credit first. Because the banks they know
Herman Dulci, right, they don't know my business Bellastone Enterprises.
(02:19):
So I have to vouch for my business. So I'm like, nah,
he's good. They can be like, all right, you vouching
for this person. You're valued for this business absolutely, So
they look at my credit. There's like if you're good
with your credit, then you're definitely going to be good
with your business's credit and you get way more money
on the business side. So this is why it's my
passion when people are starting up their businesses go this
way first to get the capital rights.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Sometimes if you can't take that a loan right away,
because sometimes you need to have like a certain amount
of history correct right to have say your business operating
for two years, or you have to have made a
certain amount of money. But being able to get a
credit card is kind of like also being able to
get a loan, but it's a you know, you can
use your personal credit against that, which is a valuable
thing because there is nothing more stressful than when you're
(03:02):
a business owner and you owe money to a lot
of people. And maybe sometimes it's bringing in goods that
you can't get because you haven't paid on these yet,
but you don't have the money to pay because you're
waiting for this person to pay you. There's a lot
that goes into running a business and money coming in
and going out in a timely fashion, right right, right.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
My best example that I say with is is I
want to talk about this also is having different type
of business partners. I call my business credit cards my
business partners. The first business partner anyone should have is
their job. Okay, so before you go barring other people's
money and messing up the bag, have proof of concept first.
So my guy Storm Leroy, he was one of my mentors.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
That's my guy.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
And when he said it, I was like, Yo, he's
absolutely right. So the savings that I got after I
paid my bills for my job, that's the money I
invested into my business first and it worked. Now I'm
able to put gasoline on a proof of concept, and
that's when I go to my second business partners, which
our American Express, Chase, etc. And then when your business up,
you go to venture capitalists and you ask them for
money too. So this level to the games.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Like that, it's.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Level the game.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Some people can't get their head around this personal credit
business credit because so many, particularly in our community, entrepreneurs
bootstrap right.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
So talk about the difference.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
And I remember in a conversation we had so many
people don't realize that when you get your business to
a point where you can get business credit cards and stuff,
it doesn't affect your personal credit.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Correct, It doesn't affort you. So I'll give you a
good story with that. So when I first started my
entrepreneurial journey, I got into real estate, like everybody does.
We watched a couple we watched a couple of HTV
state right right here, I know, we watched a couple
of TV shows.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
We watched a couple of.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
TV shows and we're like, yeah, I know what I'm doing.
So I paid for everything with credit cards. So contractors
materials forty thousand dollars in credit card debt. And what
happens when you max out your personal credit cards? Your
credit score test.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
It does.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
So when it was time for me to cash out
REFI to take money out the deal. I couldn't, so
I ended up have to rent it out for two
years before I can recoup my money back. Because I
didn't have a mentor and I was an educator. It
was an expensive lesson, but it was tuition. But now
that I'm smarter, whenever I get into real estate deals,
I use my business credit cards. I can maximount do
what I need to do and it's not going to
(05:14):
hurt my personal I'm still in the eight hundred club
cash our refine and I'm onto the next one.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
And you know what, I noticed that a lot of
credit cards are doing now too. They're letting you take
out a line of credit, yes you know as well,
and also you know, like an AMEX card.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Before you have to pay the whole thing off.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Now they're letting you pay and installment and installment, And
a lot of people are doing this, like these installment
plans as far as credit cards, so you don't have
to pay the whole thing off at once, and maybe
you pay like a small percentage of interest, but now
you're not having to pay the full thing.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
I feel like that's fairly newer.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
It is because they seem to really be embracing the
new entrepreneurial, the.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Entrepreneurs space, especially right because they're a charge card and
that's my favorite shout out to American Espress. Hopefully one
day you know what I'm saying, y'all take.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Care of me.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
But I love I love American Express. My wonderful CEO
of the marriage he puts about thirty to fifty on
that every.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Single month, So I stepping it too.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
I know.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
I probably wouldn't You're never.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
I probably wouldn't noticed, but but I saw when they
first started at It's like, hey, you could just put
pay fifteen and the rest you can pay over ninety days,
And I was like, oh, this is really new now,
cautionary tale. Remember the relationships you have with these banks
are super important me. I just continue to pay in
full in thirty days because I want to leverage my
future relationships with them get higher credit limit increases. I
(06:35):
don't always want to have a balance with them, but
I know in the case of an emergency, I know
I can play that game with them.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
I just got something from them asking me if I
want to line a credit for my business, and I
totally get how great this this whole thing is. Personally,
I get nervous because I'm like a line of credit
using my business credit cards and stuff. It is debt,
and that makes me nervous.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
But if it's an emergency, oh, it's an emergency, it's debt.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
But talk about the importance of just not going out
and say, I'm an entrepreneur. I can get this line
of credit. You have to know you're going to your
business is good enough that you can pay it back.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
Correct, So for money, right, it's not free money?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Right right?
Speaker 5 (07:17):
Right?
Speaker 4 (07:17):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Too soon? Too soon.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
I had to we love that. I had to actually
pivot some of my business to educate people. Because I'm
the business credit guy. We're getting twenty thirty one hundred
thousand dollars in funding. But I realized something. I was
giving people money who really didn't know what to do
with the money once they got it. They saw the platinum.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Card, my credit card, right, my cousin back exactly.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
And I'm like, guys, even when I first started my
entrepreneurial journey and I didn't have an exit plan with
the real estate deal, I'm telling everybody you need to
have a business plan up front, especially with this credit
card debt. That's why I say use your money first
to make sure that the proof of concept works. Have
a business plan, pick us because these banks will give
you twenty thirty fifty thousand dollars and you need to
(08:02):
have a plan with it from jump so that you're
able to pay it off every month fifty thousand dollars.
Your percent interest's only five hundred a month. If you
can't pay five hundred has a month, you should not
be in business right if you don't have a play
to make that happen. So cautionary tale. It's a gift
and a curse, but it's a wonderful gift if you
use it right now.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Can you talk about how you even got into starting
your own business with Bellaston Academy? And I know you
had a regular day job, yes, okay, and then you
saw social I.
Speaker 4 (08:32):
Was a social worker. Yes, I went to Temple and
then I went to Lincoln and got my master's degree,
and I was a social worker. Then I was an
executive director at a nonprofit. And shout out to a
good friend of mine, Charlene. She told me that you
only make as much as your clients do, so as
a social worker, your clients don't make any money. And
(08:53):
I ended up going to Italy for my baby moon
with my wife Janelle. Right, baby moon is a tripy
take before your first kid comes, because I knew your
life is never going to be the same after that.
So had a blast, had a great time. We were
there for like nine ten days. Came back, I had
no more vacation time and I was telling my brother
was the best trip I've ever had. It was amazing.
But now when Bella came, I couldn't spend any time
(09:13):
with her because I had to go to work. And
he said, you know the old jay Z line. Unless
you own your own you'll never be free. And I
was like, what am I going to sell? What am
I gonna do? He's like that credit thing that you do,
like you used to start charging people for that. I'm like, no,
I'm not gonna charge people, like people really need that game.
And he was like, they're going to pay somebody, they
might as well pay you. So that was the birth
of Bellisone Enterprises, where we started helping people with their credit,
(09:35):
helping them get funding. But the Bellosone Academy came into
fruition when I realized there's a lot of adults that
do not know or have access to this education at all.
So we started a mentorship program where we started teaching people.
We have amazing coaches. Shout out to Regime, shout out
to coach Mike who teached this to adults, this wonderful
information about credit leveraging, it starting businesses, investing. And now
(10:00):
we're taking it to the next level where we're going
to be teaching youth children, college people. Because it starts
at a younger age, our kind of parts have this
information much younger. So I was like, let's get this
information to younger people.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
You know, that's valuable because I feel like it's worth it.
If it's gonna save me money and make me money, ye,
I'll pay for it, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
And they're not even expensive. I can't believe how inexpensive,
right ellis Sloan Academy DOT And yeah, thank you.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
So much Ellus Sloan Academy DOT.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
I appreciate that. It's fifty dollars a month. And we
meet every single Wednesday night for two to three hours.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
And we teach what do you teach?
Speaker 5 (10:36):
People?
Speaker 4 (10:37):
So we teach. So the two main cores is helping
them repair their credit, fixing their credit, establishing their credit
because fixing your credit is one thing, but then you
have to establish good credit also for a period of time.
They then we teach them how to set up their
LLC property, their business properly, because you just can't go
into a bank and get money. You have to have
a website, business phone number, business address, business email. You
(10:58):
gotta look pro So we help them set that up,
and then we help them get the funding for their businesses.
And then we have different coaches come on week to
week to who are in different entrepreneurs spaces. I don't
know everything, so I got to bring different speakers on
that talk about, Hey, I'm in Toro. Hey I'm doing Airbnb.
Hey I'm in a syndication deal in real estate. So
these different speakers come on and teach and educate.
Speaker 5 (11:18):
Is fifty dollars a month.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Fifty dollars a month, Yes, the.
Speaker 5 (11:22):
Lasloan Academy dot com dot com?
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (11:25):
And what about the people you surround yourself with? Because
I always talk about how important that is, like the
circle of people who are around you, because I'm always
still a student too, Like in spite of all the things,
that I've learned and that I know. I always feel like,
you know, Stacy will come in here teach me something.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Wealth Wednesday. I always learned a lot when we have
different guests.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
We've learned so much from Wealth Wednesdays. Yeah, yeah, I'm like, oh,
I want to learn about that. Let's bring somebody else.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
But you know, I think that's important too, to talk
about the process, because some people might feel like I
have it all, I don't need any you know, anything additional.
But I think even for me, I'm still taking classes,
still trying to get certified certain things, and still trying
to learn and grow.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
So how important is your circle.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
If your mentor doesn't have a mentor or is it
still learning during your in trouble. So I always circle
myself myself around people who know more than me, who
are richer than me, who were educated in me, more
wiser than me. So I have another tagline called audit
your circle.
Speaker 5 (12:18):
Right.
Speaker 4 (12:19):
So, as you see, I bought an amazing team with me.
They do a lot of the heavy lifting. They point
me in the right direction. And this is one of
the things I always advised people to do the same
thing too, because I'm still taking mentorships. I'm still taking
classes again. Storm is one of my guys. I always
call Storm like, hey, I need advice on this.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Yes, shout out to Stormy, marginal Ash cast our buddy's
path to prosperity. Big shout out, Amazing, you touched on
something and we are having this conversation a couple of
weeks ago with Pinky Coal a lot of small businesses.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
And you just had Pink Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, stage
yes and her husband, doctor Derek, Doctor Derek.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
She was saying, hire slowly, fire quickly.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
A lot of entrepreneurs get into the situation where they
should be auditing their circle, but they just have a
hard time doing that.
Speaker 5 (13:13):
Talk about how important that is.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
Thank god I hired Demarus to handle that because I'm
too nice of a guy. She can tell yeah, yeah,
she can tell. She can tell quickly if something isn't
gonna work out with somebody. I think I saw Gary
Vee talk about this one time. The reason why we
take so long to fire people is because of our ego.
Because you sat through the interview process with them and
(13:37):
they fooled you, and in two to three weeks you
should figure out that it's not gonna work. Let them
go fire quickly so you get the next person in.
But no, we want to give them ninety days and
see if it works. No, get them out of here
because you have a business to run and it's costing
you money teaching them things.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
You know what else too, I want to talk about
You call your label as the Haitian CEO. So what
does your background have to do with even like your
work ethic?
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Oh wow, that kind of goes to how my parents worked.
They were from the amazing island of Haiti and they
were extremely hard workers. Both parents had two jobs. You
know that story originally from Brooklyn, New York. It was
five of us, my brother Kevin, my sister Cara. Put
us in an apartment. There was a one bedroom. They
(14:24):
saved their money moved us to Philly three bedroom home.
So they work really hard. That type of ethic you
saw every single day. It put it inside of me.
But I also like to say that my parents prepared
me for a world that no longer exists because my
parents are from Haiti, where their American dream was to
get a college education. And you'll be fine, that world
doesn't exist anymore. So when I told my mom, I
(14:45):
was quitting my job and my six figure job at
the time, because I finally moved into tech for like
six months right, and then I was able to pivot
into business and tell my mom, Hey, I'm gonna do
this instead. She was losing her mind. She's like, what
you put your job crazy? I was like, Mom, you
gotta trust me, like, I make more money doing this,
and I actually, to this day I have to convince her.
(15:06):
And sometimes she doesn't even know what I do. She's like,
you're going to New York to do what You're going
to be on who show? And I was like, I'm
going to work.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
She's like that's work.
Speaker 4 (15:12):
She's like, no, it's work.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
I gotta go. You do love what you do?
Speaker 2 (15:15):
And I think I love what I do because it
is helping people, It is educating people, it is learning
from people as well.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Income and impact. So to be able to make money
while helping people and changing people's lives. And they're showing
me the receipts of what they're what they've done is
is ballgame. People stopping you on the street, not because
it's necessarily your celebrity, but because hey, Herman, I was
able to get this off my credit. It went up
one hundred points. I got ten thousands. I was able
to quit my job and those stories are always amazing.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
That's awesome. How did you build?
Speaker 3 (15:43):
Now, let's talk about your entrepreneur expertise for a minute.
So you started this after your brother told you start
charging people for the credit help.
Speaker 5 (15:52):
And that was twenty seventeen, twenty seventeen, twenty.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Seventeen, and now you have a multimillion dollar business allegedly.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Right.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
Yes, we talk about I pas my taxes right time.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
How did you do that?
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Number one? Like we talked about earlier, having the right
people around you and understanding the market that I'm in. Right,
So I'm successful in business because I ask the market
what they want and then I charge the market for
the answer.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
Right.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
I have a freemium model, so on my Instagram hation
on the score CEO, I give a lot of stuff
away for free, free information. Right, this is what you
got to do fix your credit. You get funding this way,
and what do people do? They go execute on the
information and it works.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Right.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
So I literally tell people I'm going to give you
the money to pay me. Right, So you do this,
you do this and then some right. So now I'm
going to give you the fifty dollars a month to
come to the academy, right, because I used to charge
way more money for my academy to be one thousand
dollars and then DeMars, you have to have somebody looking
at your numbers. She's like, listen, we're down like eighty percent.
Speaker 5 (16:58):
Stop paying those big fees.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
People start paying those big tea exactly stuff they stopped
and she's like, listen, we're down seventy percent. I'm like,
you're kidding. She's like, yeah. So we pivoted to a
subscription model, right, and it's just absolutely ridiculous. We have
thousands of subscribers now, and now we have the capital
to invest in other businesses and invest right back into
our mentees because now we can get higher level coaches
(17:20):
to come and teach them, and we're able to afford
to pay them because we have many subscribers. It's like Netflix,
they do better shows now because they have many subscribers.
We have a better platform because we have many subscribers now.
So that type of pivot and understanding business can can
make you sink or swim if you're not paying attention.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
See, it's always a process.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Yeah, it's always a process.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
How much should it help you? So the Philadelphia Tribune
get a story on you during the pandemic, right right, right, Yeah,
but at that time where you're just focusing on personal credit.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Mostly personal credit, we didn't pivot totally to business totally,
but yeah, we were kind of doing both at the
time that interview. I don't know how they found me,
but they found me because they were surprised that entrepreneurs.
They wanted to know how entrepreneurs were pivoting during the
world being closed, which is a crazy time. The world
(18:08):
was really closed. But that was one of the first
time that my business had to pivot because I was
doing a lot of in person events and that's when
I was able to quit my job because once a
month I was doing a mini conference. Two three hundred
people would show up. We'd charge them at the door,
and I only had to do that once a month,
and then bills were paid and I had a little
extra change in my pocket. But the world shut down,
what was I going to do? That's what wonderful Zoom
(18:29):
and Google sheets and all that stuff. We was able
to move our business online, and then of course you
reach more people online. It's absolutely exploded.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
So many people, especially in our community, got into that
credit crunch exactly, ran into a financial wall exactly to
take an honest look at.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
It, right, All right, well, listen, how can people find
you if they want to sign up for Bellison Academy
if they want to, you know, directly get some help
from there.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
So if they want to become a subscriber to join
our mentorship where we teach them about credit, leveraging their
credit and get business credit it and learning many other things,
they can go to www dot Bellasloan Academy dot com.
It's only fifty dollars a month. It's no commitment, you
can quit whenever you want. We would love to be
a service. And you can go to BELLOSLOANLLC dot com
(19:13):
if you want your credit fixed or if you want
some funding, We would love to be a service to you.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
And if you text Angela to six one oh and
when you're gonna say that I start over, go ahead.
And if you text Angela to six one oh eight
nine seven six two seven, you get five free ebooks
on how to build business credit and structure your business
as well.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Free, free, free.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
We love free.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
We love saying that number.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
There's no reason you can't afford that. Okay, it's six
one o eight one nine seven six two seven. Just
text Angela awesome.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
Thank you so much, Heytion CEO, can I talk about
one thing before you, Chris, So, I have two books
coming out. I want to make sure we talk about Yes,
So two books come out, and make sure you guys
get a copy because we want to get these books
in younger kids hands. Bella Bill's Business Credit, and we
have another one called for my second daughter, Olivia.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
The E of Credit Olivia.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
And then that book is really good because as for Apple,
B is for balance, C is for credit. Because we
want to get this information into younger hands as soon
as possible. We'd love to leave a couple of copies
for you guys.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Thank you so much for having me Angela. I appreciate it. Stacy,
it's been a pleasure being here.
Speaker 5 (20:18):
We appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Happy Wealth Wednesday's everybody
Way Up With Angela Yee News
Host
Angela Yee
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