Want to know the secret to changing 1000s of lives? Well, today I'm joined by Michael Franks, the CEO of Cupid's Lounge, and he's going to share how you build his very, very successful credit repair business, so you better stick around.
Our most successful Credit Heroes, the ones who make a great living and make a massive impact. They all have one thing in common, they all care about changing lives.
Michael Franks is a credit repair expert with a passion for financial education and motivating everyone around him. He has changed the lives of over 10,000 clients in just two years. He is an awesome guest and I know you're gonna love this interview. So let's welcome to the show Michael Franks!
Here are some of the top highlights from our conversion:
What was your life like before credit repair?
I worked for Verizon. I was councilmen, a district account manager. I traveled from store to store making sure that everyone was ready for the new products and the new plans and you know keeping them on their toes.
What made you go from that to credit repair? did? Did you have credit issues?
At one point in time, I did. My best friend has always owned a credit repair business, so I kind of always dibble and dabble in it with him. And I brought guys over to him and then I just began teaching people. As you know, I began to claim my credit, I began teaching, I made Facebook posts and then I had like 150,000 shares on the post one day and he said alright you might as well go ahead and make it a business. So for the last three years has been my full-time business now.
How did you first start to turn it into a business?
I don't think it's still a business. Technically it is I since I did go get everything that I'm supposed to have. So I guess technically the business, but I don't carry myself as a business, I carry myself as an individual who actually helps people fix their lives and better themselves.
How did you start to scale it up? Because you have a lot of clients today. In fact, how many clients do you have today?
3100 current clients. I just make two or three posts on Facebook a week. And that gets me enough business to to pay me and my four other employees every week to keep us busy.
How long were you a one man band?
Not even a month because like I said that post that blew up where I began to charge people. My son started helping me immediately and then I that's what I learned of Credit Repair Cloud. Because I had probably 500 people and I was doing everything manually. It was rough. I had two employees from the Philippines. And they was doing everything for me. And we got Credit Repair Cloud made life a billion times better.
You do a few things differently that I think are really, really interesting, that really sets you apart from others in the industry. Like you offer a free package for clients, right?
Because I couldn't afford credit repair. They pay for credit monitoring. And then I don't charge them, but they got to send their own letters. I email them and they get to send their letters. Now 75% of the time, they do end up going to tier two. Because they find out that, hey, this is not easy. I gotta go to work. I gotta move these off. But I still gained a lot of people, I think I went free for the first time, Black Friday last year, and I signed up 2100 People in 24 hours. It was amazing. But it was rough. That was not signing up that many people to Credit Hero score. And the amount of time a lot of people signed up, they didn't finish it, we couldn't get in contact with them. They didn't fill out the form correctly. They didn't leave an email or phone number. But I think out of those over 2000 people, I think it was probably about 60% we got completed and into the system.
What's your secret for not having stall letters?
I let the Bureaus know upfront that if you send me a stall, I'm going to sue you. That's the very first line in the letter every letter I send now. If you send me a computer-generated letter, just like the letter that you had the reply to credit repair accusation. I put that in the first letter. So they take it seriously.
How do you get 1000s of clients? What's your secret?
I'm honest. And I don't market. I've never posted a flyer. I've never posted a commercial. I make my posts and I've treated people so well. I've sold so many houses, I've gotten people so many vehicles. I've gotten people so many credit cards, changed their lives, this family lives, that they go and tell other people about me. And then they go to my Facebook page they follow me. I've heard people say hey, I followed you for a year. I think I can trust you. I've had this so and so take my money. I want to go with you and then six months later when their scores in the seven hundreds they say thank you and then they tell somebody else. If scammers only knew the amount of money that you can make when you treat somebody right will follow far outweigh what you've done by scamming one person.
Can you tell us more about the specifics of disputing late payments?
Well, when I do the US Code 166B the first letter that I sent us to the credit bureaus, if I don't get the response that I want, I send it directly to the lender. And from there, if I don't get a response on that I'm gonna find your LinkedIn. And we're going to send it to you on LinkedIn. Either way, we're gonna get it to you, if we don't get the desired result that we have. If you cannot prove to me that you sent something to my client within 21 days and notifying them that she's going to put this on their credit report. We'll see you in court.
What methods do you use to keep your clients engaged and committed throughout the credit repair process?
I call them and text them every month, me or one of somebody from my team. But if you're on tier two, you get that phone call. If you're on tier one, you get a summary that you guys have when we update, they do get that and they do it the email, you're allowed to email me and things like that. You are allowed to set an appointment for $25 on your own. If you're on tier two, then we automatically text you and say, Hey, this is what we need this month. What have you received in the mail? And you know, I do Facebook Lives to answer questions and things like that. And, you know, keep them engaged. Keep it fun, especially with the teenagers. They love it.
Can you share one of your most impactful stories of a client whose life was changed by your service?
I do cold drives every December and a lady she messaged me last week and said she got her house after I fixed her credit. And she said you know you gave my kids coats two years ago. And I told you, I would pay it forward. And then when she got to the House last week, she said she's going to have a cold try to pay it forward. So that's part of the newest one.
I see you use the phrase help somebody today a lot in your social media. What does that mean to you? And how has this helped you in your business?
I've been doing that on social media since MySpace. And I'll always put on there Hey, help someone today, I get that from my mom. You know, just growing up watching how she used to help people. She used to pass out commodities every day, I don't know. The peanut butter in the white jars to commodity cheese in the White package. And you know the the cornflakes in the white boxes. I've always watched my mom do that. And I get that from her. And I just I've always said, you know, help someone today. And you know, just spread joy to everyone. And then it comes back to you every time.
What's one piece of advice that you'd give to someone who wants to start their own credit repair business?
Wow, make mistakes and learn from them. Sell your mistakes, don't sell the program, I've learned that when I want somebody service, I ask them What mistakes have you made? or what have you learned from them? You know, because I don't want to make the same mistakes. I feel that especially in credit repair, you'll watch a YouTube video and then five minutes later you're a credit repair expert. These laws are no joke, the government the way that they're clamping down on a lot of this fraud. You have to be prepared, you have to know these laws and you have to know how to reply to certain things that the credit credit bureaus respond with.
Want even more of Michael’s amazing advice? Check out the full interview on YouTube.
I'LL END BY SAYING
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And Keep Changing Lives!