Drowning in debt isn't just a financial problem—it's a mindset destroyer that can prevent you from building wealth and living your best life. In this revealing conversation, Jeremy Wolf sits down with David Smith, founder and CEO of Solid Ground Financial, who has spent 18 years helping consumers break free from the crushing burden of debt.
Smith pulls back the curtain on why financial literacy isn't taught in our schools, boldly stating "the economy thrives off debt." This systemic knowledge gap keeps many Americans trapped in cycles of minimum payments that never reduce their principal balances. Through his debt settlement programs, Smith negotiates with creditors to settle debts for as little as 50 cents on the dollar—potentially saving clients tens of thousands of dollars.
What makes Smith's approach unique is his comprehensive solution that goes beyond just debt resolution. After working as a debt collector himself and experiencing personal bankruptcy during the 2008 financial crisis, he understands both sides of the equation. This perspective fuels his three-pronged approach: resolving existing debt, providing financial education, and repairing damaged credit scores.
The results can be life-changing. Smith shares the story of an elderly client who was contemplating suicide over her $100,000 debt burden. His program reduced her monthly payments from $2,000 to $500, stopped the collection calls, and ultimately settled her debt for just $10,000. Today, she's completely debt-free and recently purchased a home for her grandson.
Ready to transform your relationship with debt? Visit solidgroundfinancial.org to learn more about David's services or grab his book "Everything They Don't Want You To Know About Financial Literacy." Your journey to financial freedom might be closer than you think.
Call: (305) 394-1310
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well, hello, hello everyone, and welcome back to
another episode of the GoodNeighbor Podcast.
You know there's so many folksout there nowadays that are
struggling up to their eyeballswith debt.
Forget about saving andbuilding wealth.
If you are struggling with debt, you're going to have a hard
time with your mindset andyou're going to have a hard time
getting things done.
So our guest today helps folkswith that very issue.
(00:34):
I'm here with David Smith, andDavid joins us from Solid Ground
Financial.
David, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me, Jeremy.
It is our pleasure Excited toget into this, because I think
this is going to be useful forour listeners.
Why don't you start off bytalking a little bit about what
you do at Solid Ground Financial, and then we shall proceed from
(00:55):
there?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Okay, sounds great.
I am a CEO and founder of SolidGround Financial.
We just are celebrating 18years in business on helping
consumers resolve their debtsthrough resolving debt
settlement, providing debtsettlement programs allowing
consumers to free themselves ofthe burden of carrying unwanted
(01:17):
debt, predatory lending, paydayloans, in addition to educating
them on how to avoid fallingback into the financial struggle
.
And then you know, we like tosend our customers off with
excellent credit, so we providethem with credit repair
solutions to that when you're,when you completed our program,
(01:40):
you've become debt free, you'vebeen educated and now you've got
the credit that you need inorder to qualify for homes or if
you need to invest in yourbusiness and things of that sort
.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Great.
So you basically sit, you workwith folks that are struggling
to give them the tools that theyneed to pull themselves out of
debt and then, ultimately, itsounds like there's some degree
of like a coaching element withwhat you do in terms of like
helping them with their mindsetmoving forward to not only fix
the issue they're having butcreate system.
Help them create systems intheir life to avoid having that
(02:13):
issue and, again, so they couldactually start saving and
building wealth, moving forward,correct?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah.
So through my research, I'venoticed that, you know,
obviously we've all went toschool here in America and you
know, while they provide us withpretty good morals and you know
tools to learn, they do notgive us the tools we need to
survive.
And one of those tools isfinancial literacy.
But we're very big on, you know, ensuring that our clients are
(02:39):
literate.
We provide a.
I'm an author of a financialliteracy book.
It's called Everything theyDon't Want you To Know About
Financial Literacy and it's kindof like the ABCs and one, two,
threes you know on how to saveyour money, how to read bank
statements.
You know what you should lookfor when you're applying for a
loan.
You know making sure you'relooking at the five in print,
understanding how to read yourcredit report and things of that
(03:00):
sort.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Why don't they want us to know right?
I've heard the argument that,oh well, that's up to the
parents in the home to teachkids, which is all fair and all
well and good, but something asunbelievably important as that
subject and I find myselftalking about this all the time,
not just with finances butother life skills like
mindfulness and things like thatthat they really don't have a
huge block in school, for Reallythey're focused on the
(03:22):
academics, even physicaleducation.
They have gym class, but it'sreally like a, an offshoot.
Why do you think it is thatthere's such a lack of financial
?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
literacy in our schooling system?
Good question, jeremy.
Um, the reason I believe Ibelieve in my theory is that,
you know, the economy thrivesoff of debt, right?
So how do the banks stay inbusiness?
You know, people taking outloans, but people being in debt
and then being able to chargethe fees that the banks charge
in order for them to havepersonal gain, right, capital
(03:56):
gain.
So people being uneducated inthe sense of not understanding
that if I borrow to take outthis loan, I have to pay them
back 26% on top of the money Iowe.
And so I'm making these minimumpayments every month, thinking
that I'm climbing out of thishole and in all reality, I'm
just going deeper into the hole.
So the less educated we are asa unit, the more money the
(04:22):
government makes, the more moneythe banks make, which keeps the
little guy kind of like at thebottom of the government makes
the more money the banks make,which keeps the little guy kind
of like at the bottom of thetotem pole right.
So in order for you to climb upthat pole, you need to be
educated, you need to becomefinancially literate.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
A hundred percent and the government's not exactly
leading by example.
What we're?
32 trillion in debt right now.
I think the interest payment onthe debt each year is more than
defense spending.
It's like a trillion dollars ayear in just interest.
So not doing a good job, uncleSam, modeling for our citizens.
Hopefully it's not going tomake some changes for us, right?
At least the conversation isbeing had now about attempting
(04:57):
to balance the budget, becauseit's wild out there.
So I'm curious.
You mentioned 18 years you'vebeen doing this business Now out
there.
So I'm curious.
You mentioned 18 years you'vebeen doing this business Now.
Is this a business that you gotinto because you yourself had?
So many of us at some point inour life have struggled with
debt, have been in a toughposition.
Did you have a difficultsituation that you pulled
yourself out of?
That was really the inspirationfor you to do what you do today
(05:19):
.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Well, in light of that?
Yes, however, when I initiatedinto this career, I started on
the other side, so I was workingin collections.
You were a collector.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yes, Don't call me a collector.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
I worked so hard in collections and I was able to
generate some good income forthat bank.
But, you know, going home atnight I didn't feel good because
I would call people you knowpeople that are obviously
starving and struggling and I'mtelling them to sell their TV,
or hey, you know why don't youtake back that nice washing
machine you just got and make apayment on this debt?
(05:58):
You know, and you know, while Iwas successful, it didn't feel
good.
So I did my research onalternatives and solutions, on
how can these people receivehelp, on alternatives and
solutions on how can thesepeople receive help.
And once I learned that thereare options for consumers, you
know it was more of my cup oftea, so that kind of gravitated
toward that.
And, you know, once I saw theresults and how it could really
(06:20):
assist and help people, you knowI decided to dive in.
And that was about 20 years ago, so Very cool.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
What would you say?
You've obviously been doingthis a while now, so you've
dealt with lots of clients.
What's probably the biggestmisconception that the general
public has around, specificallywhat you do and how it works in
terms of assistance with this,because I think a lot of people
have thoughts floating aroundtheir head that are sometimes
unfounded.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
When you think consolidation.
Consolidation is combining allof your debts into one, making
one payment.
But the confusion lies whereyou can also take out a loan and
consolidate your debt, or youcan refinance your home and
consolidate your debt.
So, in essence, is taking yourdebt and putting it all in one
place right your debt?
(07:10):
So, in essence, is taking yourdebt and putting it all in one
place right?
The difference between that andwhat we do?
We provide that settlementoptions for our consumers.
So instead of us just combiningthe debt into one and lowering
your interest rates and thenmaking the payments the minimum
payments to the lenders, whichis also a solution as well Our
solution is a lot moreaggressive and it will save our
customers a lot more money.
Why?
Because we are negotiating forpennies on the dollar.
(07:32):
So say, for example, you owe$5,000 on a credit card.
We'll go in and we'll negotiatewith the lenders to see if we
can settle for 50 cents on thedollar, which means, instead of
you paying back $5,000, and ifyou were late, you're probably
paying fees and penalties andthings of that sort.
So you know, unless, as youtake the debt times three, if
(07:53):
you're behind, you're going topay back $15,000 on that $5,000
loan.
Here we come we'll have yourdebts resolved with 50 cents on
the dollar to where you may pay$2,500 on that $15,000 debt.
So it's a savings mechanisms,but it's very aggressive in a
(08:14):
sense where you're not payinginterest, you're not paying fees
, you're not paying anyadditional penalties that the
lenders may charge you.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
So that process I'm trying to run through this in my
head.
That doesn't work.
Let's say somebody has a creditcard bill and it's not in
collections right there youcan't negotiate anything with
that.
Like it has to be alreadydefaulted and sent to
collections before you can startdoing these negotiations, or or
is that different depending onthe type of account?
Or yes?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
it needs to be.
It needs to be in default.
You need to be um.
However, if you're current asof now but you're struggling
with those payments, you canstill come into the program with
us and then we allow youraccounts to fall behind.
We provide a legal protectionfor our consumers.
So, in the sense where you arefalling behind and you may have
(09:02):
an aggressive lender, we havethe legal protection that's
going to protect you In case youneed to go to court, we
represent you Right and weexercise your legal rights.
So that way you know you're notadding problems on top of a
problem.
Right, it's a solution yeah,from your experience.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
I'm curious about this because I've had the.
The whole credit scoring is soconfusing and it's hard to.
I've heard many differentthings about how it takes very
long to repair it.
So if you have somebody, likeyou just said, that is not
defaulting and you come up witha strategy, I would imagine it
would be kind of a last resortto actually default on the debt
on purpose.
Let's say you do that for aclient and I know this is going
(09:41):
to be different depending onmany different factors but
generally speaking, if theydefault so you can make a deal,
how long after that would itthen take them to repair their,
their credit?
Are they looking at?
Is this something that is goingto take years?
Are there ways to do it whereyou could default for a short
period of time, get everythingback in order and then, in a
matter of months, by?
Like, how does that typicallywork?
Should people be scared ofdoing that?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
interesting to get your thoughts on that so it all,
really it all, boils down tohow much you owe for the
timeframe that it'll take for usto resolve your debt.
So you know if it's a smallamount of debt it could take,
you know, a few months.
If it's a large amount of debt,you're 20, 20 K plus obviously
you know you want to keep thepayments low.
So it may take a few, three,four years to resolve the debt
(10:25):
entirely.
To resolve the debt entirely,however, the credit repair
solution that we provide it willallow us to remove any
blemishes and negative remarksthat are on your credit.
How long does it take?
There's a strategy that we haveto use in a systematic process
that we have to approach how weapproach resolving the debt.
(10:45):
So it really depends on thecreditors that we're working
with to remove off your credit.
It depends on how much we'reremoving off the credit.
So, in essence, it can takeanywhere from two to six, six,
seven months, depending on howmany accounts you have that
we're removing, because you canonly remove X amount of accounts
from your credit report at atime.
You can only dispute X amountof accounts from the credit
(11:07):
report at a time.
When I say at a time within amonth's timeframe, okay.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Do you have any?
You've been doing this a whileso I'm sure you do.
Maybe you could think of onethat comes to mind, a client
success story, somebody that wasreally, really down in the
dumps struggling mightily, andyou stepped in and they went
through your program and theycame out on the other side in a
positive light.
Something come to mind there.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Absolutely so.
Number one feel free to go andtake a look at our reviews Solid
Ground Financials.
Our Google reviews speak foritself.
We do work with Trustpilot aswell, and also the Better
Business Bureau.
So there are lots of reviewsand a lot of testimonials there
for you to take a look at.
But I can give you an example.
I personally, when I firststarted in the business, started
my business.
(12:03):
I had a young lady who she waselderly and she was
contemplating suicide.
She had over 100,000 in debt.
She didn't know what to do.
The bill collectors werebanging on her door.
She was afraid to answer herphone.
She was hysterically crying intears.
She came into our program.
(12:23):
She was paying over $2,000 amonth and she was paying $2,000
into just a burning hole.
It was going nowhere.
A lot of people don't understandthat if I'm just making the
minimum payment on my debt, thebalance isn't moving.
So it can become confusing.
I'm spending $2,000 a month butthe balance is the same.
(12:45):
In some cases the balance isgoing up, it's getting higher.
So when she came into ourprogram, I I was able to cut her
payments from $2,000 to $500 amonth, so that was a big savings
.
I put $1,500 back into herpocket per month.
In addition, I was able to stopthe phone calls, which was a
(13:06):
huge plus for her because shewas almost, like I said, afraid
to answer the phone, kind oflike a PTSD type of situation.
Right, it's stressful, man.
I mean it's like it's one ofthose things where we all need
situation, right it's stressfulman.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
I mean, it's like it's one of those things where
we all need money, right, youhave to have it, you have to eat
, you have to do that but weassign so much beyond what it
actually is in terms ofhappiness in our lives, and so
many of us have our happinessdirectly pegged to how much
income we have, which is justhorrible because it creates
undue stress and it messes withyour mind, right, you're always
(13:40):
in a scarcity mindset, trying tochase instead of having the
mindset like money is easy to.
The one thing we can't get moreof is time, right, money is all
over the place.
That's right.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
That's right.
Yeah, so we were able to, youknow, lower her debts by.
We were able to lower her debtby 50%.
So, instead of her paying backthe 20K plus, remember, you're
going to pay back three timesthe amount you owe if you're
past two, so she would have paid60.
She ended up paying back 10,000, with a minimum payment of 500
per month, and she also was ableto become educated on the do's
(14:12):
and don'ts of credit, right?
So you know?
God bless her and her family.
She's completely debt-free now.
She actually just purchased hergrandson a dream home.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Very cool, that warm, feel-good story.
I love that.
What about you, david, from myexperience in life I'm 45.
Generally speaking, I oftendraw the biggest inspiration off
the most challengingexperiences that I've had
throughout my life, like thetypes of things where, when
(14:48):
you're going through them, likeyou just talked about your
client almost suicidal, had togo through that experience, but
it probably got her to the pointwhere she was able to buy her
grandkid a house.
Looking back through yourjourney, is there something that
comes to mind that you've beenthrough whether financial,
whatever it is, emotional,financial some life hardship or
(15:08):
struggle where at the time youwere going through it, it felt
like the walls were caving.
It felt like you'd never comeback from it.
But sitting here today you'relike you know what.
I'm damn grateful for havinggone through that man.
I wouldn't be where I am todaywithout having had that
experience.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Well, absolutely.
I mean, that's happened severaltimes in my life.
But to give you one example in2008, the market crashed.
Right, I was at the time.
I was, I was a mortgage broker,so that was my core business,
right?
And so, when the market crashed, my business was the first to
be affected.
Oh, and you were killing itbefore, before the market crash
(15:44):
I had a friend who was amortgage broker.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
He was just rolling it.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yeah, we were killing it for sure.
So the market crash, you know,I had to file bank for
bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy, I filed chapter 13and I lost three, three
properties that I had forinvestment purposes.
I had two vehicles.
One of them had to becomerepoed, my first BMW 760, I had
(16:10):
to send it back to the bank andat that moment I noticed that I
needed to do something, I neededa resolution, you know.
So, with much prayer and faith,I was able to start and become
the founder of this company,Solid Ground Financial.
So that situation that Ispiraled into actually allowed
me to come out, utilizing thepain and the struggles that I
(16:33):
experienced, to now providepeople with a solution to become
debt-free, to become educatedand to stand strong with
financial literacy as well.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Yeah, it helps so much to have experienced that
pain of going through thatprocess, to be able to kind of
see things through the lens ofthe folks that you're now
helping, absolutely.
So how can our listeners learnmore?
Let's say, for anybody outthere that's struggling right,
they are in a tough situationand they need help, how can they
(17:06):
learn more?
Maybe share your website, yourcontact information, let our
listeners know how they canreach out.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Absolutely so.
If you're looking forassistance with resolving your
debt, or if you're just lookingfor credit education, we're here
to help.
Solid Ground Financial.
It's written here on the screensolidgroundfinancialorg.
You can go to our website.
It's very informative, veryeducational and if you are
experiencing any problems withdebt, you can actually submit an
(17:32):
application form on the websiteand make an appointment for one
of our consultants to contactyou and provide you with the
assistance you need.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Perfect.
We will, of course, drop a linkin the description to all of
your contact information sopeople, in case they miss that,
they can link up directly withyou.
David, it was a pleasure havingyou on learning about what you
do.
I hope this was useful for ourlisteners.
If it was, please leave acomment below.
If you've been through adifficult situation and you've
(18:03):
pulled through to the other side, you know, share it, share your
story with us.
We'd love to hear from you and,um, hopefully, if you are
struggling, maybe david couldhelp you out absolutely don't
forget.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
You can find me on amazon.
Everything they don't want youto know about financial literacy
the financial literacy bookthat will change your financial
future.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Love it, man.
Everything they don't want youto know, don't let them hold you
down.
Expand your mind and becomefinancially literate today.
Yes, thanks so much everybodyfor tuning in.
We will catch everyone nexttime on the next episode of the
Good Neighbor Podcast, david.
Again, great to meet you,brother.
Have a wonderful day Likewise,jeremy.
Be blessed.
All right.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
You too, man, day like likewise jeremy, be blessed
.
All right, you too, man.
Bye, all right, bye-bye.
Thanks for listening to thegood neighbor podcast, cooper
city.
To nominate your favorite localbusiness to be featured on the
show, go to gnpcoopercitycom.
That's gnpcoopercitycom, orcall 954-231-3170.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well, hello, hello everyone, and welcome back to
another episode of the GoodNeighbor Podcast.
You know there's so many folksout there nowadays that are
struggling up to their eyeballswith debt.
Forget about saving andbuilding wealth.
If you are struggling with debt, you're going to have a hard
time with your mindset andyou're going to have a hard time
getting things done.
So our guest today helps folkswith that very issue.
(00:34):
I'm here with David Smith, andDavid joins us from Solid Ground
Financial.
David, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me, Jeremy.
It is our pleasure Excited toget into this, because I think
this is going to be useful forour listeners.
Why don't you start off bytalking a little bit about what
you do at Solid Ground Financial, and then we shall proceed from
(00:55):
there?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Okay, sounds great.
I am a CEO and founder of SolidGround Financial.
We just are celebrating 18years in business on helping
consumers resolve their debtsthrough resolving debt
settlement, providing debtsettlement programs allowing
consumers to free themselves ofthe burden of carrying unwanted
(01:17):
debt, predatory lending, paydayloans, in addition to educating
them on how to avoid fallingback into the financial struggle
.
And then you know, we like tosend our customers off with
excellent credit, so we providethem with credit repair
solutions to that when you're,when you completed our program,
(01:40):
you've become debt free, you'vebeen educated and now you've got
the credit that you need inorder to qualify for homes or if
you need to invest in yourbusiness and things of that sort
.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Great.
So you basically sit, you workwith folks that are struggling
to give them the tools that theyneed to pull themselves out of
debt and then, ultimately, itsounds like there's some degree
of like a coaching element withwhat you do in terms of like
helping them with their mindsetmoving forward to not only fix
the issue they're having butcreate system.
Help them create systems intheir life to avoid having that
(02:13):
issue and, again, so they couldactually start saving and
building wealth, moving forward,correct?
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Yeah.
So through my research, I'venoticed that, you know,
obviously we've all went toschool here in America and you
know, while they provide us withpretty good morals and you know
tools to learn, they do notgive us the tools we need to
survive.
And one of those tools isfinancial literacy.
But we're very big on, you know, ensuring that our clients are
(02:39):
literate.
We provide a.
I'm an author of a financialliteracy book.
It's called Everything theyDon't Want you To Know About
Financial Literacy and it's kindof like the ABCs and one, two,
threes you know on how to saveyour money, how to read bank
statements.
You know what you should lookfor when you're applying for a
loan.
You know making sure you'relooking at the five in print,
understanding how to read yourcredit report and things of that
(03:00):
sort.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Why don't they want us to know right?
I've heard the argument that,oh well, that's up to the
parents in the home to teachkids, which is all fair and all
well and good, but something asunbelievably important as that
subject and I find myselftalking about this all the time,
not just with finances butother life skills like
mindfulness and things like thatthat they really don't have a
huge block in school, for Reallythey're focused on the
(03:22):
academics, even physicaleducation.
They have gym class, but it'sreally like a, an offshoot.
Why do you think it is thatthere's such a lack of financial
?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
literacy in our schooling system?
Good question, jeremy.
Um, the reason I believe Ibelieve in my theory is that,
you know, the economy thrivesoff of debt, right?
So how do the banks stay inbusiness?
You know, people taking outloans, but people being in debt
and then being able to chargethe fees that the banks charge
in order for them to havepersonal gain, right, capital
(03:56):
gain.
So people being uneducated inthe sense of not understanding
that if I borrow to take outthis loan, I have to pay them
back 26% on top of the money Iowe.
And so I'm making these minimumpayments every month, thinking
that I'm climbing out of thishole and in all reality, I'm
just going deeper into the hole.
So the less educated we are asa unit, the more money the
(04:22):
government makes, the more moneythe banks make, which keeps the
little guy kind of like at thebottom of the government makes
the more money the banks make,which keeps the little guy kind
of like at the bottom of thetotem pole right.
So in order for you to climb upthat pole, you need to be
educated, you need to becomefinancially literate.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
A hundred percent and the government's not exactly
leading by example.
What we're?
32 trillion in debt right now.
I think the interest payment onthe debt each year is more than
defense spending.
It's like a trillion dollars ayear in just interest.
So not doing a good job, uncleSam, modeling for our citizens.
Hopefully it's not going tomake some changes for us, right?
At least the conversation isbeing had now about attempting
(04:57):
to balance the budget, becauseit's wild out there.
So I'm curious.
You mentioned 18 years you'vebeen doing this business Now out
there.
So I'm curious.
You mentioned 18 years you'vebeen doing this business Now.
Is this a business that you gotinto because you yourself had?
So many of us at some point inour life have struggled with
debt, have been in a toughposition.
Did you have a difficultsituation that you pulled
yourself out of?
That was really the inspirationfor you to do what you do today
(05:19):
.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
Well, in light of that?
Yes, however, when I initiatedinto this career, I started on
the other side, so I was workingin collections.
You were a collector.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Yes, Don't call me a collector.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
I worked so hard in collections and I was able to
generate some good income forthat bank.
But, you know, going home atnight I didn't feel good because
I would call people you knowpeople that are obviously
starving and struggling and I'mtelling them to sell their TV,
or hey, you know why don't youtake back that nice washing
machine you just got and make apayment on this debt?
(05:58):
You know, and you know, while Iwas successful, it didn't feel
good.
So I did my research onalternatives and solutions, on
how can these people receivehelp, on alternatives and
solutions on how can thesepeople receive help.
And once I learned that thereare options for consumers, you
know it was more of my cup oftea, so that kind of gravitated
toward that.
And, you know, once I saw theresults and how it could really
(06:20):
assist and help people, you knowI decided to dive in.
And that was about 20 years ago, so Very cool.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
What would you say?
You've obviously been doingthis a while now, so you've
dealt with lots of clients.
What's probably the biggestmisconception that the general
public has around, specificallywhat you do and how it works in
terms of assistance with this,because I think a lot of people
have thoughts floating aroundtheir head that are sometimes
unfounded.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
When you think consolidation.
Consolidation is combining allof your debts into one, making
one payment.
But the confusion lies whereyou can also take out a loan and
consolidate your debt, or youcan refinance your home and
consolidate your debt.
So, in essence, is taking yourdebt and putting it all in one
place right your debt?
(07:10):
So, in essence, is taking yourdebt and putting it all in one
place right?
The difference between that andwhat we do?
We provide that settlementoptions for our consumers.
So instead of us just combiningthe debt into one and lowering
your interest rates and thenmaking the payments the minimum
payments to the lenders, whichis also a solution as well Our
solution is a lot moreaggressive and it will save our
customers a lot more money.
Why?
Because we are negotiating forpennies on the dollar.
(07:32):
So say, for example, you owe$5,000 on a credit card.
We'll go in and we'll negotiatewith the lenders to see if we
can settle for 50 cents on thedollar, which means, instead of
you paying back $5,000, and ifyou were late, you're probably
paying fees and penalties andthings of that sort.
So you know, unless, as youtake the debt times three, if
(07:53):
you're behind, you're going topay back $15,000 on that $5,000
loan.
Here we come we'll have yourdebts resolved with 50 cents on
the dollar to where you may pay$2,500 on that $15,000 debt.
So it's a savings mechanisms,but it's very aggressive in a
(08:14):
sense where you're not payinginterest, you're not paying fees
, you're not paying anyadditional penalties that the
lenders may charge you.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
So that process I'm trying to run through this in my
head.
That doesn't work.
Let's say somebody has a creditcard bill and it's not in
collections right there youcan't negotiate anything with
that.
Like it has to be alreadydefaulted and sent to
collections before you can startdoing these negotiations, or or
is that different depending onthe type of account?
Or yes?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
it needs to be.
It needs to be in default.
You need to be um.
However, if you're current asof now but you're struggling
with those payments, you canstill come into the program with
us and then we allow youraccounts to fall behind.
We provide a legal protectionfor our consumers.
So, in the sense where you arefalling behind and you may have
(09:02):
an aggressive lender, we havethe legal protection that's
going to protect you In case youneed to go to court, we
represent you Right and weexercise your legal rights.
So that way you know you're notadding problems on top of a
problem.
Right, it's a solution yeah,from your experience.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
I'm curious about this because I've had the.
The whole credit scoring is soconfusing and it's hard to.
I've heard many differentthings about how it takes very
long to repair it.
So if you have somebody, likeyou just said, that is not
defaulting and you come up witha strategy, I would imagine it
would be kind of a last resortto actually default on the debt
on purpose.
Let's say you do that for aclient and I know this is going
(09:41):
to be different depending onmany different factors but
generally speaking, if theydefault so you can make a deal,
how long after that would itthen take them to repair their,
their credit?
Are they looking at?
Is this something that is goingto take years?
Are there ways to do it whereyou could default for a short
period of time, get everythingback in order and then, in a
matter of months, by?
Like, how does that typicallywork?
Should people be scared ofdoing that?
Speaker 3 (10:03):
interesting to get your thoughts on that so it all,
really it all, boils down tohow much you owe for the
timeframe that it'll take for usto resolve your debt.
So you know if it's a smallamount of debt it could take,
you know, a few months.
If it's a large amount of debt,you're 20, 20 K plus obviously
you know you want to keep thepayments low.
So it may take a few, three,four years to resolve the debt
(10:25):
entirely.
To resolve the debt entirely,however, the credit repair
solution that we provide it willallow us to remove any
blemishes and negative remarksthat are on your credit.
How long does it take?
There's a strategy that we haveto use in a systematic process
that we have to approach how weapproach resolving the debt.
(10:45):
So it really depends on thecreditors that we're working
with to remove off your credit.
It depends on how much we'reremoving off the credit.
So, in essence, it can takeanywhere from two to six, six,
seven months, depending on howmany accounts you have that
we're removing, because you canonly remove X amount of accounts
from your credit report at atime.
You can only dispute X amountof accounts from the credit
(11:07):
report at a time.
When I say at a time within amonth's timeframe, okay.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Do you have any?
You've been doing this a whileso I'm sure you do.
Maybe you could think of onethat comes to mind, a client
success story, somebody that wasreally, really down in the
dumps struggling mightily, andyou stepped in and they went
through your program and theycame out on the other side in a
positive light.
Something come to mind there.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Absolutely so.
Number one feel free to go andtake a look at our reviews Solid
Ground Financials.
Our Google reviews speak foritself.
We do work with Trustpilot aswell, and also the Better
Business Bureau.
So there are lots of reviewsand a lot of testimonials there
for you to take a look at.
But I can give you an example.
I personally, when I firststarted in the business, started
my business.
(12:03):
I had a young lady who she waselderly and she was
contemplating suicide.
She had over 100,000 in debt.
She didn't know what to do.
The bill collectors werebanging on her door.
She was afraid to answer herphone.
She was hysterically crying intears.
She came into our program.
(12:23):
She was paying over $2,000 amonth and she was paying $2,000
into just a burning hole.
It was going nowhere.
A lot of people don't understandthat if I'm just making the
minimum payment on my debt, thebalance isn't moving.
So it can become confusing.
I'm spending $2,000 a month butthe balance is the same.
(12:45):
In some cases the balance isgoing up, it's getting higher.
So when she came into ourprogram, I I was able to cut her
payments from $2,000 to $500 amonth, so that was a big savings
.
I put $1,500 back into herpocket per month.
In addition, I was able to stopthe phone calls, which was a
(13:06):
huge plus for her because shewas almost, like I said, afraid
to answer the phone, kind oflike a PTSD type of situation.
Right, it's stressful, man.
I mean it's like it's one ofthose things where we all need
situation, right it's stressfulman.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
I mean, it's like it's one of those things where
we all need money, right, youhave to have it, you have to eat
, you have to do that but weassign so much beyond what it
actually is in terms ofhappiness in our lives, and so
many of us have our happinessdirectly pegged to how much
income we have, which is justhorrible because it creates
undue stress and it messes withyour mind, right, you're always
(13:40):
in a scarcity mindset, trying tochase instead of having the
mindset like money is easy to.
The one thing we can't get moreof is time, right, money is all
over the place.
That's right.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
That's right.
Yeah, so we were able to, youknow, lower her debts by.
We were able to lower her debtby 50%.
So, instead of her paying backthe 20K plus, remember, you're
going to pay back three timesthe amount you owe if you're
past two, so she would have paid60.
She ended up paying back 10,000, with a minimum payment of 500
per month, and she also was ableto become educated on the do's
(14:12):
and don'ts of credit, right?
So you know?
God bless her and her family.
She's completely debt-free now.
She actually just purchased hergrandson a dream home.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Very cool, that warm, feel-good story.
I love that.
What about you, david, from myexperience in life I'm 45.
Generally speaking, I oftendraw the biggest inspiration off
the most challengingexperiences that I've had
throughout my life, like thetypes of things where, when
(14:48):
you're going through them, likeyou just talked about your
client almost suicidal, had togo through that experience, but
it probably got her to the pointwhere she was able to buy her
grandkid a house.
Looking back through yourjourney, is there something that
comes to mind that you've beenthrough whether financial,
whatever it is, emotional,financial some life hardship or
(15:08):
struggle where at the time youwere going through it, it felt
like the walls were caving.
It felt like you'd never comeback from it.
But sitting here today you'relike you know what.
I'm damn grateful for havinggone through that man.
I wouldn't be where I am todaywithout having had that
experience.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Well, absolutely.
I mean, that's happened severaltimes in my life.
But to give you one example in2008, the market crashed.
Right, I was at the time.
I was, I was a mortgage broker,so that was my core business,
right?
And so, when the market crashed, my business was the first to
be affected.
Oh, and you were killing itbefore, before the market crash
(15:44):
I had a friend who was amortgage broker.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
He was just rolling it.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yeah, we were killing it for sure.
So the market crash, you know,I had to file bank for
bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy, I filed chapter 13and I lost three, three
properties that I had forinvestment purposes.
I had two vehicles.
One of them had to becomerepoed, my first BMW 760, I had
(16:10):
to send it back to the bank andat that moment I noticed that I
needed to do something, I neededa resolution, you know.
So, with much prayer and faith,I was able to start and become
the founder of this company,Solid Ground Financial.
So that situation that Ispiraled into actually allowed
me to come out, utilizing thepain and the struggles that I
(16:33):
experienced, to now providepeople with a solution to become
debt-free, to become educatedand to stand strong with
financial literacy as well.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Yeah, it helps so much to have experienced that
pain of going through thatprocess, to be able to kind of
see things through the lens ofthe folks that you're now
helping, absolutely.
So how can our listeners learnmore?
Let's say, for anybody outthere that's struggling right,
they are in a tough situationand they need help, how can they
(17:06):
learn more?
Maybe share your website, yourcontact information, let our
listeners know how they canreach out.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
Absolutely so.
If you're looking forassistance with resolving your
debt, or if you're just lookingfor credit education, we're here
to help.
Solid Ground Financial.
It's written here on the screensolidgroundfinancialorg.
You can go to our website.
It's very informative, veryeducational and if you are
experiencing any problems withdebt, you can actually submit an
(17:32):
application form on the websiteand make an appointment for one
of our consultants to contactyou and provide you with the
assistance you need.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Perfect.
We will, of course, drop a linkin the description to all of
your contact information sopeople, in case they miss that,
they can link up directly withyou.
David, it was a pleasure havingyou on learning about what you
do.
I hope this was useful for ourlisteners.
If it was, please leave acomment below.
If you've been through adifficult situation and you've
(18:03):
pulled through to the other side, you know, share it, share your
story with us.
We'd love to hear from you and,um, hopefully, if you are
struggling, maybe david couldhelp you out absolutely don't
forget.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
You can find me on amazon.
Everything they don't want youto know about financial literacy
the financial literacy bookthat will change your financial
future.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Love it, man.
Everything they don't want youto know, don't let them hold you
down.
Expand your mind and becomefinancially literate today.
Yes, thanks so much everybodyfor tuning in.
We will catch everyone nexttime on the next episode of the
Good Neighbor Podcast, david.
Again, great to meet you,brother.
Have a wonderful day Likewise,jeremy.
Be blessed.
All right.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
You too, man, day like likewise jeremy, be blessed
.
All right, you too, man.
Bye, all right, bye-bye.
Thanks for listening to thegood neighbor podcast, cooper
city.
To nominate your favorite localbusiness to be featured on the
show, go to gnpcoopercitycom.
That's gnpcoopercitycom, orcall 954-231-3170.
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