The Credit Queen with Micah Smith

In this empowering episode of RED with Michelle Barone, we sit down with Micah Smith, founder and CEO of Micah Abigail LLC, to break down the world of personal and business credit with clarity and confidence. Known for her mission to make financial empowerment accessible to everyone, Micah shares how she helps individuals and entrepreneurs navigate credit with transparency, integrity, and personalized strategy.

From the fears many people have about their credit scores to the first steps of establishing business credit, Micah unpacks common misconceptions and offers real, actionable guidance. She also shares a powerful client success story that highlights the life-changing impact of smart credit coaching. Whether you're looking to repair your credit, build a strong financial foundation, or launch a business with the right tools, this episode will leave you informed, inspired, and ready to take charge of your financial future.
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to arid Read. It's Michelle Barone and Ashley mcpheerson.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
What's up?

Speaker 3 (00:04):
Ass up?

Speaker 2 (00:05):
It's going on? You know, I'm just sipping on my
lemon ice wava. How you doing?

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Oh my god?

Speaker 4 (00:09):
Honestly, I've actually the entire drive here. I was like
literally just thinking about my first hip of WAPA today.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
I love it, and you know it's so chill, lightly caffeinated.
I have to tell you. It doesn't give me the jitters.
And I don't ever drink a.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
Fee never like she's like, I don't know, she's like
naturally caffeinated. So the wava gives her like a little something,
but nothing too much.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
You can handle it.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
And you know the person we're here with today is
also lightly and organically caffeinated.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
She's my girl, Micah Smith. What's up, Micah?

Speaker 4 (00:39):
My gorgeous.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
I'd love to see you. I love you so much.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Hey, guys, before today's episode, I want to talk to
you about something that Ashley and I care a lot
about mental health.

Speaker 4 (00:57):
That's right, taking care of your mental health is just
as important and taking care of your physical health and
mental health. America of Duchess County is the perfect place
for that help.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Absolutely, Mental Health America of Duchess County is super empowering
and helps so many people with so many problems.

Speaker 4 (01:13):
Honestly, it's pretty amazing seeing how mental health actually affects people.
I mean the guests that we've had on the show.
We've talked about mental health in almost every episode, and
it's a serious topic.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Now's the time to prioritize your mental well being. If
you're suffering from anxiety, depression, or anything mental health related,
visit Mental Health America Duchess County at MHA Duchess dot org.

Speaker 4 (01:34):
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(02:15):
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Speaker 2 (02:19):
I just can't wait to tell everyone about you.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
You know, you're the CEO of micah Abigail, specializing in
credit and credit repair. You know so much about finance,
money and how it works, and I can't wait to
have the conversation with you.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
How you been grol Oh.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
My gosh, amazing. I was so excited to come down
here and see you, and it's I was telling you
before we hopped on. I'm like, you were my first
Hudson Valley friend. And I was like so upset when
I came to the Hudson Valley because I was like,
I came to New York for a purpose, Like I
came down here to be in the city and to
be fast paced. And then you know from La no, no, no,

(02:53):
not from I'm actually born in Denver, Colorado, and then
I went west. I did go to Orange County for
seven years and then I went back to Colorado, and
then I came to New York. But I came to
New York to like being a hustle, the bustle, the
thick of things, you know, to like make it like
build an empire. It's a freaking empire state. And so
then I meet It's funny because your reputation, everyone's like
that girl moves fast, that's your reputation. Her reputation is

(03:15):
you know.

Speaker 4 (03:15):
I was gonna say, I'm like the hustle bustle of
the city. I'm like, if you get Michelle Broden huts
the valley down.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
I saw her.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
We went to DC Golf shout out to our friends
with Dan We love.

Speaker 4 (03:28):
That was my favorite job besides a few of course.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
So I walk in and I were walking in the
parking lot and I'm like, I don't know this woman,
and I know everybody in town. She's beautiful, she's perfect,
she plays golf, she has her own freaking clubs.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
I was like, let's go meet her.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
So I'm like, oh, hi, So I didn't actually meet
you that night. The next night we went to Heritage
and you were there.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
No, Yeah, the first time you saw me was at Heritage.
I saw you see the night before that boots.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
But then I saw your booths and I was like, oh,
it's the same girl from last night.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
And I was talking.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
You'm like, I was not wearing huts and valley boots.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
No, no, no, no, no. They were hot.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
So it was my birthday. I had like thirty people
there and all women. I think maybe my husband. Oh
I remember, And so I'm like, Leslie, that's the new girl,
relaxed to find out what it's about.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Friend are over here. She's cool, Yeah, this is so fun.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
Yeah, but Leslie, Leslie, ye, I love her.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
I love her best.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yes, shout out to Diamond and we love you.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
Remember sitting with her.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
We lost her car in a parking garage.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
It was a nightmare.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
She was like, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
I think listen, it makes sense right, like a direct life,
it would make sense that you would be friends with
all of these people with incredible energy.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Hello, I love it. And Leslie, she's just a hoot.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
So she came over. She's like, oh my god, we
love your boots, and I'm like, hi, yeah, I meet
all the girls.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
Literally made my night. It made my night. I was
feeling so downtrodden because I was like, I'm not in
alignment with my goals or my future. You know what
I mean, what am I doing? I'm going backwards? And
little did I know, I was not going backwards. I
was being put in, being prepared for my actual future.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
And your future has been incredible. You also, You've done
so much building a brand online and I just love
seeing your posts. I love seeing what you do and
all of the things that you talk about. So I
want to get into My first question is really, how
do you help people repair their credit?

Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah, it's really just to simplify it, it just comes
down to using laws. And so there's a lot of
laws that protect consumers as well as a lot of
laws that are telling the bureaus how they should report things,
telling the creditors how they should report things. And the
problem is is that a lot of people just don't
know that maybe they have something on their credit report
that is negative, but it shouldn't be there because it's

(05:44):
not reported accurately. And so that's really what it comes
down to. Yeah, so to you, you just see a
negative item. To us, we see like the multiple laws
that are actually being broken by how it's reported and
what most people don't realize is that some of the
negatives that are on the credit reports are actually causing
detriment harm to the point where like you're not going
to be able to get a mortgage, or you're not
gonna be able to get it, you know, maybe a
car loan, or maybe the rates that you pay are

(06:06):
going to be so astronomical, maybe you lose an additional
five hundred thousand dollars over the lifetime of the loan.
It really does, you know, compound to that much. And
so it just comes down to laws and so knowing
our craft and knowing it really really well. And that's
really what it comes down to. Just fighting on behalf
of the consumer all day, every day is what it
comes down to.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Wow, that's insane. What's like the worst situation you've ever seen?

Speaker 2 (06:28):
God, I know, you see a lot I want to
know get in credit scorees.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
It's like I'm at four eighty, I want to buy
a house tomorrow, and you're like, honey, it ain't happening.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
The worst I mean, I think probably one of the
biggest ones that stands out. We had someone with over
one thousand derogatory items posted on the credit report, over
a thousand.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
How do they move that fast? Talk about a mover
and a shaker in a bad way.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
You know, we say, and you know, I think when
you get that much negve on a credit report, it's
almost like you kind of have to be trying, you
know what I mean, like to not be doing the
right thing. And so it was. It was pretty astronomical
just the amount of derogatory. Some was their fault, some
wasn't their fault. But we got them cleaned up, if

(07:17):
you can believe that. What it took us probably about
three years. And but I mean, honestly, had they been
left to their own devices, I don't think it would
have ever moved. I don't think that they would have
ever done anything right. You know, they really needed someone
to be like, okay, this is we stop. We stop
this now, we stop the bleeding. Here, here's going to
be what you're going to be doing for the next
you know, hopefully the rest of your life. But starting today,

(07:40):
no more of X y Z. So just putting them
on a better path and a better trajectory, you know,
is is really our goal. And teaching people new habits.
You know, they do say with habits, you know, bad
habits are not taught, they're caught, and so they're picking
these habits up from somewhere somewhere along the line. And
I think, you know, our industry really surprises a lot

(08:01):
of people. You know, I deal with I mean the
most some of the most successful people in the world,
and they come across our desk, my my little desk
in Hudson Valley, New York. You know, I'm dealing with
these outrageously successful people. And you know the funny thing
is is I spoke to someone the other day and
I won't even tell you, you know, obviously too much about

(08:21):
the situation. But I had a chance to speak with
the customer one on one, which I don't really have
an opportunity to do very much. And he was mortified
because he's friends of these top brokers that are sending
him over like we get, you know, obviously, like top
loan originators, top brokers all over the country that are
sending us our clients. And he's like, can you please

(08:43):
not tell the broker He's like that I'm working with you.
And I was like, oh, I was like, yeah, of course,
no problem. I was like, but I thought that they
knew you were working with us, and they're like, no,
they really don't, and they don't know the magnitude you
know that I've screwed up. And I was like, well
you really, honestly, I haven't screwed up that bad. And
it's a professional. He's a serious doctor, a very professional doctor,

(09:04):
and very established and very successful. And he was just mortified,
you know, He's like, I can't believe that I that
I have to work with you. I said, but sire,
you have to understand, I said, you're our number one client.
And he just like paused for it seemed like forever,
but he paused like five seconds and he's like really,
and all of a sudden, like he was just like,
all of a sudden, it took away like all of
that shame, because I think that a lot of people

(09:26):
think that, especially if they're successful, Like I'm the only one.
How could I How could I have screwed up? I'm
a freaking doctor for crying out loud, you know what
I mean? Like I spent twelve years in school, But
you know, we're human. You're human, and doctors are a
number one client.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah, and you make people feel comfortable, and I think
that's what's important, right, Yeah, it's there is a lot
of shame. No one wants to talk about their credit score.
Nobody terrifying it is. And even when you're successful, Yeah,
your credit score is like seven forty, You're like, well
it should be like eight something because I'm super successful.
Why isn't my score above eight hundred. It's craziest thing

(09:58):
is when you're not successful, or you're going through a
lot and there's a series of bad events that put
you in a financial strain. Sure, sometimes things just happen
to really good people and it's okay, and you ease
them through that process.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
What's that like for you?

Speaker 3 (10:11):
You know, I think the most important thing and when
we hire talent into our company, we're always ensuring I
still remember one guy that I hired. He said the
word empathy in his interview probably like a hundred times.
I was like, Okay, you're hired.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
You know.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
I was like, I got you, got.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
It, you get it, you're empathetic. But that really is
something that we look for, is someone who embodies those
characteristics and someone who can be empathetic. Because that's the
one thing is I've had people in the past where
they've come into my company and they've worked for me,
and they have eight hundred credit scores. But the problem
is they've never screwed up, and they almost looked down
on the people who had. And I was like, I'm sorry,
but you can't be here. I'm like, because you know,

(10:51):
one of our rules is there's no perfect people. You know.
My church says that there's no perfect people allowed, you know.
And so I think the biggest thing is just we
drive that empathy, you know. And so me personally and like,
I like to talk about my own personal story because
they say that you're most qualified to help the people
or the person that you used to be. You know,

(11:12):
I don't really focus on speaking to the masses. My
one of my mentors, she says, speak to the one,
speak to the one, Micah, And I'm like, okay, so
I'm speaking to the person that I used to be,
and you know, that person needed some handholding. I needed
some guidance. I came from a great family. I came
from very little, but my parents never made a new
mistakes and they didn't think, you know, this crazy girl

(11:33):
was going to be going out into the world, you know,
I mean taking every risk she possibly could imagine because
I so badly just wanted to just take hold of life.
And when you do that and you take big risks,
sometimes you fall hard. I mean like the President of
the United States, he filed bankruptcy three times, you know.
So it's like people who tend to take big risks
have you know, sometimes big big downs, and so that

(11:55):
was me. But I didn't know how to get out
of my down, and so so you know, being empathetic
to people understanding that, hey, listen, you know this is
just this is a mistake. But if you are willing
to put in the work and the time to get there,
we're going to help you. And never ever shaming someone
because it's like, listen, we're one bad decision away from
being in their boat, you know. And that's literally that

(12:16):
that's really how credit works, you know what I mean,
Like it's just one bad decision can take you tumbling
as much as one hundred and eighty points literally overnight,
and it's like, you know, one of again, another one
of my mentors, was talking about how positive and negative
like they're so vastly different, you know what I mean.
If you think about negative in life, like there's no
equivalent to positive as there is to negative. So if

(12:36):
you think about, like to think about on a very
grandiose scale, if you think about like nine to eleven, right,
there's no equivalent to nine to eleven in the positive side, right,
Like the entire world just shattered within thirty seconds, but
there's no equal amount of good that can happen in
thirty seconds. And so I think just trying to also
help people understand, like listen, like this is how fast

(12:57):
it happens. It happens overnight. Takes a lifetime to build,
but two seconds to destroy. And so teaching people how
to be proactive and you know, how not to be
less reactive is really been has been my mission for
the last twelve years, you know, teaching all over the country,
but then also giving hope to people who have made
the mistake or life happened. So it's it's a wild ride,
and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
You know what, But you're the perfect person for the job.
Do you want to talk about your past at all?
That's something you're looking to get into.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
To do whatever you want, right.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
I want to make sure open book.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
You know, people.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
See the Micah Abigail, the Micah Smith online who is successful, powerful, driven, gorgeous, humble,
and relatable. Right, But you've been through so much and
I think people need to understand that you can triumph after,
like you said, a downward spiral that you had.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
I want to I just want.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
To know, you know, share what you're comfortable with, but
I would love for people to know your story.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Yeah, absolutely so. I think the biggest things that I
can talk about show So I've been sober for over
five years now.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
So congratulations, thank you, let's go baby.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Amazing.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
I appreciate it so much. But I will tell you that,
you know, during during that time, I would say I
struggled a good ten years with my sobriety and it
was just this constant battle of will, and.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
Like you said, you were trying to go out there
and conquer the world and just you know, figure it out.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
You're figuring it out, and that's that's that's okay. Yeah, right,
and now you've arrived.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
But during that not even close yet. I've scratched the surface.
Trust me, what I know what God is bringing me
to do, and like I've scratched this much of the surface. Yeah,
I'm very excited.

Speaker 2 (14:47):
I know me too, me too.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
What were some of the moments that made you realize
during those downward moments that you were had to choose
a different path.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
I think one of the most prominent moments that sticks
out in my mind was when I met my Dan.
I know, your husband is Dan or our our dance
yep our Dan, and I had I was living the
definition of insanity right, doing the same thing over and
over again and expecting a different result. And when I

(15:18):
met my husband, now I still remember when so when
he met me, I was sober, like I was like so,
I was never any every day drinker. I was a
binge drinker, and so I would go long bouts of
time without drinking because I just was like, something really
catastrophic would happen, and I mean horrific things, not small things, horrific.
And I talked about this on national radio, you know,

(15:38):
just some of the stuff that happened to me, and
it still didn't It still didn't scare me enough out
of drinking, because I truly was sick. And so for me,
I had been I probably hadn't had a drink in
a couple of months. And then I meet my husband
and things going great, and I knew deep down I
was like this is my guy, Like I knew, knew
it down.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
You guys are just so hot. They're like freaking what
is it like Bonnie and Climo.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
Who's the barbiing Ken?

Speaker 2 (16:05):
Yeah, barbering can perfect. Oh my god, gorgeous too.

Speaker 3 (16:09):
Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah, he's great. But it was
so he met me in when I was sober, and
so then all of a sudden, the disease creeped in
like it always does, and it was like, you can
have a couple of drinks. You're gonna be fine, Like
no big deal, And so I did. I had a
couple of drinks, and it was fine the first time

(16:31):
and the second time, and then the third time. But
then the disease started to creep back in to the
point where I was like, you know, within a couple
of weeks, like old habits were, you know, they simply
hadn't died. And so I started, you know, drinking heavily
and turned into a whole other person, and you know,
I was picking fights with him. I ruined our New
Year's Eve and then I picked such a big fight.
And the one thing with alcoholism, it's a very isolating disease,

(16:53):
and so it causes you to just want to push
other people away so you can just drink and just
drink and drink and drink and drink. And so that's
what I was doing. I picked this crazy fight with
him and I kept trying to push him away and
he just kept showing up. And then I was like,
that's it. I'm done, Like you know, I just I
wanted to take a pause. And it was, you know,
I was like really like out of my mind, like
just out of my mind on alcohol. And then when

(17:14):
of my best friends came over and she was helping
me come out of this little binge that I was on,
and it was like, towards the tail end of the binge,
I had a very no pun intended, very sobering moment,
an epiphany that all of a sudden, I just kind
of looked at my life and I was like, you say,
because I'm like, you know, I did all the things

(17:36):
right when I was sober, I was like, you know,
this is what I want, this is who I am,
this is the life I'm going to have. And I
had you know, I had vision boards, you know what
I mean, everything just of like what my life was
supposed to look like. And my choices weren't aligning with
where I was trying to go. And at that moment,
I just realized, you have you've been begging God for partner,

(18:00):
like begging him, and this man embodies everything you've ever
looked for, and this is your guy. And at that
moment I just knew. I was like, I cannot keep
living this way. And I finally just everything that I
was holding in I let it out. I called one
of my really good girlfriends who was very open about
her sobriety, and I was like, I need freaking help.
I can't do this anymore. I was like, I'm done.

(18:21):
I am done. And from that moment on, I never
had a drink since. And so I went to AA.
I was going to AA, going to AA, but like,
I just realized that it was really important that I
stopped trying to do this by myself. And you know,
I was like, I need to find and utilize the
resources that are out there for people, because I'm not
the only one with this problem. You know, there's millions
of people who have gone before me and who will
go after me, you know, with this exact same disease.

(18:44):
And so they figured out a way to beat this thing,
so I'm going to do it. And you know, so
for me, it was just choosing, choosing what I wanted
over you know, this this vicious disease. It was like
my only achilles heel. And the moment that I decided
to stop drinking, I mean it took a while, Like
it was so sick. I was so so sick. It
was a horrible, horrible experience of getting sober. I don't

(19:05):
recommend trying to detox by yourself if you can. My
blood alcohol content was like a point four walking talking,
like completely functioning. Like I went to the hospital and
they were like, you're not drunk, and I was like, yeah,
test my blood level and they were like, oh my god,
were like this girl is an anomaly.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
Like yeah, I know, because you were so clean in
every other aspect.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah, life, Yeah, like the athleticism, you know, like my
whole background and like I have a very colorful past,
Like I've partied really really hard, so you know, I
trained my body to be a certain way. Like I've
lived like I have I mean, like I have seen
it all, I've done it all, you know, and I'm like, Okay,
I've lived this and I've lived this. You know, it's
like I'd rather I'm a straight and narrow like life
is really good on the straight and narrow, and so

(19:47):
I just for me, it was just saying I hadn't
really had had to have it come to Jesus moment
where I was like, what do I want out of life? Like, really,
what do I want out of life? And at that moment,
I was like, oh, okay, and it just became it
became very clear to me and my mentor and even
my mentor side, you know, one of the most successful
people he was mentored by. You know, he was like, listen,

(20:08):
he made a very simple choice. If it's not working,
he stopped doing it. And I was like, you know what,
it doesn't have to be that complicated. If it's not working,
stop doing it. So I stop doing it.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
Yeah, you know, that's a really good way to look
at life.

Speaker 4 (20:22):
Right.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
There's no hard feelings, there's no emotions, there's no letdowns.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
If it doesn't work, you don't do it. That's it.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
Shout out to our incredible partner, Steve Prohashka from Big
Steve Big Moves dot com. He has a book called
From Orphan to Millionaire where he shares his incredible story
about becoming a millionaire after being an orphan. If you're
ready to elevate your mindset, master resilience and make big
moves in life in business, make sure you check out

(20:50):
Big Stevebig Moves dot Com where you can find his
book and if reading isn't enough, Steve takes it to
the stage. He's a dynamic public speaker. He delivers game
changing talks on partnerships, leadership success, and overcoming obstacles. Steve
is one of a kind and completely dynamic. So if
you're looking for a speaker that will change the game

(21:12):
for your event and beyond, make sure you check out
Big Steve, Big Moves dot Com and Big Steve Big
Moves on Instagram.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
I just love Pixie Beauties.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
On the second, I'm not ready yeah, oh geez ash,
seriously for you kidding?

Speaker 4 (21:27):
Have you seen how my skin has been glowing lately?

Speaker 3 (21:29):
I'm stopping.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
I mean seriously.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
Pixie Beauty products are for every day and they are
the best.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
I love the glow Tonic. It's become a staple in
my skincare.

Speaker 4 (21:39):
I love that product. I use it every day before
I do my skincare, and honestly, it's like Braden's my face.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
I want to say yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
I mean a guest commented today on how beautiful you
looked and that you were dewey and glowy, and it's
all because of Pixie.

Speaker 4 (21:51):
Honestly, Pixie products just know how to make you feel
beautiful in your own skin.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
My favorite is the Pixie on the Glow blush. It
is so much fun. You can just stick it right on,
take it out. It's just one of my favorites.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
It's so much fun and it looks so good on.

Speaker 4 (22:04):
Honestly, it gives you like a nice sunkiss glow. I
absolutely love it and it's gonna be great for summer.
If you guys want to glow this summer just like us.
Visit www dot pixie Beauty dot com.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Thank you for sharing your story and because it's inspiring
to others going through it. You know you can beat it,
like you said, yeah very much, and I like what
you said. You know, there was people before you, people
after you. It's just something that a Hey has figured out,
and so many other organizations to lean on them. One
organization that we work with here with Red is Mental
Health America of Dutchess County amazing. They deal with a

(22:35):
lot of addiction amazing. You know, obviously they vet the vets,
they help them a lot, and they just use so
much for the community. So if you ever need help,
you can call them. You know, Mental Health America of
Dutchess County is always willing to take the call.

Speaker 2 (22:47):
Yeah, I love Andro Grady.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
He's amazing and I've seen so many people they've helped.
And the organizations like that are important. You know, it's important.
And you think you know of somebody who's drinking too
much or using or doing whatever. You know, there's so
many types of addictions too, so physical addictions and mental.
There's just so many people don't even realize. And I

(23:10):
mean even we always talk about ADHD, like having all
these different diagnoses, right, I have anxieties. So many people
don't realize that. It's like, oh, you're everywhere, you do everything,
but I do. I mean I suffer from it. It's tough,
like there's things and then that turns into other things.
It manifests right into other things. But I think what
you have to realize is, like you said, you find

(23:32):
that moment that defines what you're looking for in the
future or the dream life. You want dig deep and
go after it. You live once. So do you want
to just be the legacy of you hanging out in
a bar and having a few cocktails, or do you
want it to be and even or at home drinking
in your living room? Or do you want it to
be everything you're made of and your purpose and why

(23:54):
you're here?

Speaker 2 (23:54):
Absolutely?

Speaker 3 (23:55):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean to me, like I really, to me,
living a life of contribution was really really important, and
you know, living a life that was meaningful and purposeful,
like I was put onto deserts to do great things
and not just squander away, you know. But I knew,
like you know, and like I obviously like I'm a
super strong Christian, but like I knew like I was
viciously under attack because I knew that I was like
on the precipice of doing something really really great with

(24:15):
my life. And anytime you're on the burge, like you're
never gonna get attacked if you're not doing something great
with your life. You know, if you're not struggling with something,
then you're not doing anything meaningful with your life. I'm
just going to tell you straight up. So that anxiety
that being attacked, those feelings. It's like, you know, you're
doing big things, You're chasing big things, and like you
have to understand you're always going to be under attack,
whether it's your mind, whether it's your body with it's
your emotions, and like you have to arm yourself daily,

(24:39):
you know what I mean, Like I prime myself daily,
Like I'm like freaking like we call it makeup, but
I would go go so far to say, is this
freaking war paint for real?

Speaker 5 (24:47):
You know?

Speaker 3 (24:47):
Yeah, Like yeah, absolut freakingly, we're putting on our war
paint and we're getting ready for the day, you know,
like how you dress like you're putting on like your
freaking armor for the day. Let's freaking go.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
That's right. I love it.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
So one thing I love about you And when I
met you, I realized you're just so positive, full of life,
you know your goals, and you're disciplined.

Speaker 3 (25:06):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
I want to talk about the discipline side of it,
because now coming from the past, is just astonishing how
disciplined you truly are. Right, you know, with credit and
all the people you serve, plus your physical and mental health,
you are an absolute beast. If you see this woman
on Instagram. Look at her fucking apps are iconic and

(25:29):
do you have like a six pack?

Speaker 2 (25:31):
Twelve pack?

Speaker 1 (25:31):
What do you got, Diverse, it's a little baby picks,
a little baby jack.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
Let's be real.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
But you are amazing and talk to me about your
discipline and work and in life.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
Yeah. So I heard something really profound and I live
this and I breathe it, and it says, there are
two types of pain in life. You have the pain
of discipline or you have the pain of her at
choose which one wisely. And for our household, my husband

(26:05):
and I both we look at finances, we look at
our health, we look at life the same way. And
we believe in delayed gratification and that delayed gratification is
something that unfortunately we live in a microwave society, and
you know, we And it's funny because I'm dying to

(26:27):
get Morgan houses. Like I just started a podcast as well,
so like we're like we're doing like kind of a
lot of He's like my dream person to have on
my podcast right now because he's so brilliant when it
comes to finance. And I just finished his book it's
called The Psychology of Money. Morgan Housel on your show, we.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
Got to get you on MICA's path.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
Yea launch the name yet, I haven't even lunched I
can say it, should I say it today? So it's
going to be Rebuild and Rise.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
It's oh I love that. I love that.

Speaker 3 (26:56):
I'm so excited. Yeah, like I have doing I have
been doing so much preparation and we've been filming like
crazy and so but like you know how like there's
so much that putting it together. So that's so exciting.
Your boy Bryce here, I haven't used Brice yet. I
found a little bit closer to home.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
We got Bryce is always in the building.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
You nine, you know, Sean is the man to Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
Well probably we'll probably end up doing quite a bit
of recording to though, because like like listen, like there's yeah,
Bryce is amazing. I've used Brice on a couple of
occasions and Rice Rice is amazing for sure, and.

Speaker 1 (27:34):
So on your show, so we were talking about your
discipline and at home. I have to say this because
it's just funny. I went through your cabinets with you
because I'm like girl who looks.

Speaker 3 (27:44):
Damp funny, So this was funny. You guys, Oh my gosh,
I want you to see my house.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
I'm like, all right. I was like, I want to
see what's in your fridge?

Speaker 3 (27:51):
Was like so hurt, so hurd ask something like that.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
Okay, so guess what's in Can someone just do you
want to know what's in her fridge? I mean now
now I need to know. Have you ever heard of
like xanthem gum?

Speaker 1 (28:02):
No?

Speaker 3 (28:03):
It is not, okay, okay.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
Look in her freaking cabin. I'm like, what the hell?
So I'm on Amazon. I ordered anthem gum. I'm like,
she looks good. I want to look so so I
get it and she's like, don't put much in like
your thing because it gets like you gotta put xanthem
gum in your shake so it gets like thicker. So
I put like a tablespoon way too much.

Speaker 5 (28:26):
This thing turned into like it was like, it's fine,
and I order this in my house again.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
I still have it. I stin't know what to do
with it. She's gonna try again then then yeah, that's
her thing. She likes a small gum.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
I thought it was gonna be gum. It was not
turned into some form of gum. If you used to
that is that funny? She has like celery, carrots, chicken, tuna,
and water, and I it's like, where's your food?

Speaker 3 (29:03):
I don't understand.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
She's like, so rotein, there's so much pros who you
actually eat food? And she's like this this food. I'm like,
but it's not though. It's like, there's a granola. There's
xanthem gun.

Speaker 3 (29:17):
Mind you, granola is my husband's I don't touch.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
I'm sorry, I forgot you. And then there's protein bars
of some kind. Oh, and there was goji berries and
what else did you have in there?

Speaker 1 (29:28):
You had some kind of flax seed mixed with some
other stuff.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
I was like, I don't remember it well because I
was really trying to like be health conscious. And I'm like,
how like rice cakes? You had that too, that's all
you eat. But that's not like actual food.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
I mean, so, I mean so I think you know so.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
I mean I'm Italian. Weed chicken cutlets.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
She went and took notes like chicken cutlets are food.
That is food.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
It's not really good for you. I mean, we should
share your arms. I'm gonna get Italian.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
Chicken, baby girl. It's chickens fried.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
But you know what, because I'm Italian, I feel like
it's really not fried.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
You know.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
It's like I can't believe but xanthem gum.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Yeah that was. It was xanthom gum. So it's funny
because it's I use it for my protein shakes and
it gives them like this. So like if I do chocolate,
I do, so I do like my protein shake, my
io powder, and then I'll do a little bit of
Stevia ice. And if I want to be really lean,
I'm just doing water. But right now I don't want
to be super lean. I'm just doing coconut milk that's unsweetened.
And the xanthom gum it turns it into like this frosty.

(30:32):
It's like literally a frosty. I'll make you one and
you'll one when I when we get together next week,
I will make you one and you'll be like, this
is so amazing. It literally frosty. Then you can actually
use the product you have.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
Yeah yeah, yeah, I like a year and a half,
we need to get some new xanthem.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I want to try it. Oh yeah, no,
it's it's really it's cool. It's just it's a thickener.
So it's just to make it, you know what I mean.
So you kind of feel like you're eating ice cream,
but you're eating protein shake because I don't really eat
too sugar, and it tricks me into thinking. I'm like, also,
you know, indulging it.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
You hear what I want to do. I want you
to come over and teach my mom how to do this.

Speaker 3 (31:08):
Let's do it.

Speaker 4 (31:08):
Oh my god, No, No, would be like, what is this
she really got?

Speaker 2 (31:11):
Don't teach an old dog new tricks. We'll find out
find out you totally can't.

Speaker 3 (31:17):
I think she.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Starts putting it in the chicken cut.

Speaker 4 (31:19):
It's like in the bread crumbg.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
Sometimes, is that what it is?

Speaker 1 (31:23):
Like?

Speaker 2 (31:24):
The name is so misleading.

Speaker 3 (31:25):
When I first heard it, I thought it was like
an energy.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
Gum or something.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
Sure, it's a thicken in your How much do you
put in your forteen chickum?

Speaker 3 (31:32):
I mean like maybe maybe maybe a tenth of a teastbone,
and you did.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
A full one? That was definitely the problem.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
Did you read the package?

Speaker 6 (31:39):
Did about a hundred times over? It's powder, I think anyway.
So yeah, the discipline is important. No, but food wise,
you guys are super disciplined.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Your meal prep every single thing, and you don't eat
outside of that which is important.

Speaker 3 (31:55):
It's not that we don't. So the key thing is
is it's you know, for for our household, it's ninety
ten you know what I mean. So it's ninety percent clean,
ten percent you know, a little bit dirty. You got
to be a little dirty. You know, you'll even stop
seeing a little bit of progress. Like I say, your bodybuilder,
if you don't do a little bit dirty, you actually
will stop seeing a little bit of progress.

Speaker 1 (32:11):
How come.

Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yeah, your body just gets too used to it.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
You know.

Speaker 3 (32:13):
It's like any anything, you'll plateau, you know, so you
always have to keep the body guessing, keep the metabolism guessing.
So I've worked, you know, like every time I go
into like a bodybuilding show, I'm working with like four coaches,
you know what I mean. Like I don't. I don't
pretend to know everything about nutrition. I just know what
generally works for my body. And it's real food, you
know what I mean. Anything that comes out of a package,
your body is just not going to do as well with,

(32:34):
you know. So, like I eat a ton a ton
of protein. My entire existence, you know what I mean
is protein based, and it's really really important we as women,
like we need more protein in our diets and you
need you need muscle. Muscle is really really important. Like
I actually ran into a really meet person who you
should also have on your podcast, but doctor Lisa Miller,
and we were sitting here and we were talking on

(32:54):
the plane, and she's just like, what's your secret? You know,
it's like forty years old, you know what I mean.
Like either you're like, oh, like you're doing pretty good
for yourself, Like ooh, Yike's time has been harsh to you.
It's like, what's your secret? I'm like, not really a secret,
you know what I mean. It's just I move a lot.
I have a lot of muscle, and you know, like
what I eat and don't eat, you know, are really important,
you know, but that just I just want to feel good,
you know what I mean. And like I don't know

(33:15):
if you've ever experienced it, but I've experienced times where
I just didn't feel good. I didn't have energy, I
didn't have clarity, and for me, you know, like I
want my food to fuel you know, how I feel
and how I do like you know, fuel. Yeah yeah, yeah, So.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
All right, anthem gum, I'm giving it a whirl.

Speaker 4 (33:32):
It's time to get the discipline of all the things
you kind of focused on.

Speaker 3 (33:38):
Before. That's not the broccoli, not the chicken. She wants
to use xanthem.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
Of course, of course. Oh man, well I will say.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
You know, discipline doesn't just start, you know, at work,
like you said, it starts at home.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
You and your husband have the same visions.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
How has it been you guys are still technically newly sure?

Speaker 2 (33:58):
How's life? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (33:59):
Like is good?

Speaker 2 (34:00):
He is good.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
Yeah. We we're always a work in progress. Ye yeah,
but I think you know, it's beautiful that you know,
my husband and I we I just I'm so grateful
that we met when we did, because we're building together.
You know, we didn't come to each other with this
obscene amount of money, you know what I mean. Like
we're making something big together and that's what I love is,

(34:24):
you know, is doing that with a partner and kind
of like you and Danny, you know what I mean,
Like you guys do everything together. You know, you built,
you built your lives together, you know, and it's very
course our you know, our course centric is it's all
around God, you know, so that really gives our marriage
a really strong foundation. And you know, they say couples
who pray together stay together.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
Every night eight o nine.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
I like odd numbers. So but yeah, no, that's I
think that's important.

Speaker 2 (34:53):
It is. I mean, I love that couples who pray
together stay together. We got to use that's good.

Speaker 4 (34:59):
Yeah, all right, listen up, party people, Friday's at Mahoney's
Irish Pub, or where the vibes are high, the drinks
are flowing, and the weekend officially begins. If you're looking
for the ultimate night out, Mahoney's has got you covered
with killer drink specials, live DJs, and crowds that know
how to bring the energy. Whether you're sipping on an
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taking a shot to kick start the night, this is

(35:20):
the spot to be every Friday, starting at ten pm,
So grab your crew, hit the dance floor and make
some memories the Mahoney's Way. Doors open late, the drinks
are cold, music's hot, what more do you need. I'll
see you guys this Friday and every Friday at Mahoney's Pub,
where the weekend starts the right way.

Speaker 1 (35:36):
And so from a business perspective, you have a practice
in Hope, Well right, fish kill areas fish kill And
how's it been.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
I know you've recently opened what a year ago? Now?

Speaker 3 (35:47):
So our firm has been open to the public for
four and a half years, four.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
And a half years with the location.

Speaker 3 (35:52):
This particular ocation one year on the light to the day.
Yeah yeah, So I went like started in the basement
like every entrepreneur, and then I moved into a crappy office,
then another crappy office, and then I moved into a
nice office. Thanks, you appreciate it more and.

Speaker 2 (36:05):
I love the.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
Wall.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
You look so beautiful.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
You have to check it out. Make sure you check
out micaeh on Instagram. Where can people find you?

Speaker 4 (36:14):
So?

Speaker 3 (36:14):
My Instagram is fit Credit Doctor and our website is www.
It's so funny. I know I don't have to say
that anymore, but I think I don't know what it is.
It's a great yeah, yeah, yeah. Our website is mike
abbyail dot com. And so if they ever want to
just find more information about our company, get a consultation,
speak to one of our you know, specialists. That's the
best place to go. And of course we respond to

(36:35):
everything on Instagram too.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
Absolutely, so make sure you check them out if you're
looking for credit to up your score or to get
some advice. Meet my girl Micah, and you know, Micah,
if you could give one piece of advice out there
about credit to anyone listening, what would it be.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
So right now, I'm on this kick where you can't
track what you can't measure, and this is something so
I think the most important thing is you need to
know where you're at a bare minimum, I would tell
everyone go to the free credit monitoring sides, Credit Karma Experience,
get the free apps, download them to your phone, and
at minimum, just know where you're at. They're not accurate
scores for your mortgage or for your cars or whatever else,

(37:10):
but at least you kind of have a vague idea
of where you're at. And God forbid, let's say you're
a victim of identity theft. When in three people will
experience this in their lifetime, then you actually have you
know something, you know in the palm of your hand
saying hey, boom something, get your credit report. Your scores
dropped one hundred and fifty points, you know. So it's
you can't track which can't measure. So I would highly
suggest that everyone, at least bare minimums start you know,

(37:34):
tracking your credit on the free apps, and then once
you actually want to get serious about fixing it, call.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
Me I love it all right, Well there you go.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
And just from one last question, Yeah, you know, I
know folks get intimidated by this either how much is
this going to cost me? Sure are they going to?
Am I going to be into this for ten thousand dollars?
Because mine's really bad? Really bad means something different to
so many different people. What's your advice to get over
the anks of giving you that first call?

Speaker 3 (37:59):
This is that's a great question. So either way in life,
there's gonna be a cost. Right, there's a cost of
if you do do it, and there's a cost if
you don't do it. And so let's say that you
do go through the credit repair and our services are
crazy affordable, crazy affordable. So if you do do it,
here's what you have on the other side of this, right,
You've got you know, your house, your cars, your savings,

(38:20):
you know, the wealth. So credit is truly the cornerstone
to building wealth. And this is actually why we kind
of got, you know, stuck with the Morgan housele thing.
But you know, wealth is the money that you don't see.
And so it's kind of hard to emulate someone that's
building wealth. And so what we're trying to help people
understand is to build real wealth, you need to fix
the credit and so the small amount of money that
you're going to spend with us, you're going to make

(38:41):
it back one hundred times over for the rest of
your life. So you actually need to be more goal
oriented versus stuck in this place of ooh, like stop
stop sitting here negotiating with yourself, Like what are you
willing to pay? Like, let me ask you a question.
What is the last time you ever purchased anything of actual,
real value? Right, your shoes, your clothes, Like you know
what I mean? Like, what is that real value? No,
but if you invest in your credit score, this is

(39:03):
an investment in you. That's a real value purchase. Like
it really shouldn't even matter how it costs. You should
say I don't care how much it costs. I need
to get this done. Because what people don't see, and
these are the numbers that I break down in my courses,
is that like, say you want to buy a home.
You know, we've got cases right now where it's like
you are you person a starts out at a six
to twenty credit score. Well, by the time they're done
with their program in there at the seven eighty plus, right,

(39:25):
we had one woman at saving seventeen hundred dollars a
month alone on just her mortgage. Wow, just her mortgage.
We're not even talking like so there's what we call
buying down rates in the mortgage industry. So for her
to even get a rate that was even like kind
of close to what we were able to get her
by fixing her credit, she would have had to pay
fifty thousand dollars up front to get even kind of

(39:46):
close to the rate that we had been able to
get her to with a better credit score. So it's
really you should ask yourself more so the cost of well,
what if I don't do it, Because if you don't
do it, it's going to be about one thousand times
more expensive over you know over however, however many years
it takes you, and the like that of you doing
it on your own is pretty slim. So I would
say evaluate the cost more as to if you don't

(40:08):
do it.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
Please make sure you call Micah.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
Don't wait to pick up the phone, don't wait to
reach out Micah Abigail dot com one more time.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
Where can they find you online?

Speaker 3 (40:17):
Absolutely so, micah abigail dot com And that's m I C. A.
H abigail dot com and I am fit credit doctor all.

Speaker 1 (40:25):
Right check her out fit. Credit doctor, my friend and
credit specialist. We'll see you next time on Red.

Speaker 4 (40:31):
Bye bye