Oz:
Hey everyone. Oz Konar here. I have another special guest here, Rick Davis. Hey Rick, how are you?
Rick Davis:
Doing well. Thanks, Oz. How are you?
Oz:
I’m doing great, thank you. Rick. Let’s just get started right away. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, even prior to the training, what you’ve been doing and what’s your experience, either in the corporate or business world? Let’s get to know you a little, if you don’t mind.
Rick Davis:
Okay. Yeah, I’ve always been involved somehow, some way in sales. Actually, my passion was in the… I was a firefighter paramedic for about 10 or 15 years. And you get to the point where you get up in age and those 24 hour shifts get to wear on you a little bit. You don’t recover as well. While I was there back in the nineties, back in the heyday, of course when everybody was flipping real estate, I got involved in that and I actually replaced my income as a paramedic doing that and went into that full time. And of course, we all know what happened with that.
Rick Davis:
For the past 10 years, I’ve been in the car business. I started in sales, worked my way up to sales management, worked into the finance end of it, doing the financing. And then in the last six months, I was approached by another company that does power sports up here, snowmobiles, boats and stuff like that. And they made me a good offer to take over their sales and finance end of it. And unfortunately, after about three months, they pulled the plug. They just said, “Well, we’re not making it anymore.” I think it was two days before… or the Friday before Thanksgiving, the general manager just came in and said, “Yeah, we’re shutting the doors.” Luckily-
Oz:
The entire company or your department only?
Rick Davis:
No, the company. Yeah.
Oz:
Wow. Okay.
Rick Davis:
We saw signs. You can see signs. But anyway, fortunately… Well about a week or two before that, I started looking around because I did see the signs that stuff’s going to happen here. And not sure how, I think it was a Craigslist ad that I stumbled across of yours. Well, that sounds interesting. I’ve always been intrigued in business finance and of course, real estate and automobile and all that. I thought, “Well, that’s neat.” I did do my due diligence and I found some of your YouTube videos and it sounded intriguing so I jumped in.
Oz:
All right, great. What [inaudible 00:02:46]. I’m sure when you did, when you were doing your due diligence, there are a lot of home based businesses or businesses that you can be starting, especially with your experience. You’ve been in the world of business from different point of views for a long, long time. What made this industry more attractive than the others that maybe you’ve looked into?
Rick Davis:
I’ve always been involved or interested in finance, either commercial finance or real estate finance. To me, it’s just a no brainer. It’s just you’re brokering a deal. You’ve got no overhead. Literally, just a computer and maybe some copy paper and you can do business all over the country. Your lenders are… We got lenders in New York. We got lenders in Utah. My customers are in Texas and Florida. Literally, just a cell phone and a computer you can broker deals with very little startup and very little overhead so that’s what intrigued me. I like the freedom. I want the freedom to work my own hours, although I’m doing it now full time just like a regular job.
Rick Davis:
But my fiance and I, she’s from Southern Florida. She’s from Naples and like I told you earlier, she’s got two kids still in high school. Our ambition is once those kids graduate high school up here, we’re going to move down to Florida. She wants to be back down there. She’s a little younger than I am, but I’m looking at, “Well yeah, I can pick up and start all over in the car business down there, but I’d really have something where I can just pick up my computer and my cell phone and work from wherever I am.”
Oz:
I think this industry is a true definition of work from home from all contingencies. Just like you said, you can literally be from in any state that… I mean, for that matter, we do have, as you might know, members even overseas who’s doing this in the United States, so it doesn’t really matter what state you’re in and what state you’re targeting. Your clients are all over the place and they will be.
Oz:
Same thing with the lenders. A lot of people think that all the lenders are in New York city. That’s far from the truth. There are all over the place as well and in the mid United States and California, Miami and New York city. That’s one of those that unique advantages that we have, location independence, time independence. You decided to do this full time and transitioned pretty fast, right? How long did it take you to jump in full time?
Rick Davis:
Well, I had the decision made for me. Like I said, the company I was working for went under. And luckily, like I said, a week or two before, I’d been researching your company and doing the whole MCA business. I was forced into doing it full time, which is good. I mean, a lot of times that’s what they say. If you try to do it part time, you just dabble in it and you get mediocre success. But like I said, if you cut the ties to whatever your security is and you jump in, you’ve got no choice now to make it work.
Oz:
No choice. Yeah, exactly. And you found success based on what you shared with me the other day on messenger. Can we talk a little bit about that? I think you, at this point, closed two deals?
Rick Davis:
Yeah, I closed one SLOC deal. That was my first actual deal, two weeks ago, I guess. And last Friday, I closed my first MCA deal. Yeah, it was exciting. It wasn’t a huge deal, but I always said, “Just show me that I can do it. Show me that it can be done and show me that I can do it,” and that opens a door for you.
Oz:
I think that’s so a lot of people. They see the success stories of others, but until they get that, little or big, it doesn’t matter, that taste of success themselves, then boom, you’re fully plugged in because now you see on your end for your family, from your bank account, what it can do and it transforms. That’s why it’s a big deal to close your first deal really fast so you can see if you can get that taste of success and jump right in. The first deal was a line of credit, a secure line of credit. How much did you get for your client?
Rick Davis:
They ended up getting about $25,000 [crosstalk 00:07:22] small line. But that was through Toro, through Matt [inaudible 00:07:26] Toro.
Oz:
And your commission was?
Rick Davis:
Two points on that.
Oz:
Two points on that.
Rick Davis:
Well, it was a little over that. It was about $667.
Oz:
All right. 660 under commission. And how big was the MCA?
Rick Davis:
The MCA, he was actually approved for 150,000.
Oz:
Wow.
Rick Davis:
It was a very clean file. He only wanted 50,000 at this time. He’s a contractor in Texas, so he’s always rolling over money, buying supplies and then doing the job and paying it off so he’ll be back. He’s got $150,000 approval now through this lender. [crosstalk 00:08:03] back at any time and get more money, which I think he will. And I made 12 points on that so about $6,000.
Oz:
That’s amazing points. As you might know, a lot of people in this industry, they sell with two points, four points and things like that, especially if they’re working for someone else. And there are some players, so-called lenders, out there who are giving these people four points because they don’t know how much they should be paid, so 12 points is pretty good. It’s actually not that of a small deal. 6,000 in commission is pretty good.
Rick Davis:
Right. I was happy.
Oz:
And knowing that you have a client for good, now is going to come back especially if he’s doing that cycling. A lot of construction companies do that so he’s going to come back for more and more for sure especially if he got approved for 150,000. That’s a big deal. Anything good on the pipeline that you’d be… I know you’ve been working hard on it. Anything that you are anticipating happening [crosstalk 00:09:01] month?
Rick Davis:
Yeah, I’ve got a few other apps out. Talk to people every day. Your instruction as far as Dux-Soup and making connections that way, I religiously every day set up my Dux-Soup to do 200 connections every day. From that, I’ll get… Or connection request, from that I’ll probably get 30 or 40 people that’ll connect with me. Then I send them up the follow up text or message.
Oz:
Message, yeah.
Rick Davis:
And then from that, I’ll get three, four, five, six people a day interest. A lot of lines of credit, but a lot with them MCA also.
Oz:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we’ll take them all. Here’s a percentage of them will turn into bigger deals just like what happened. You started with a smaller one then that led to a bigger deal. How long ago have you joined the Blueprint Program, Rick?
Rick Davis:
I officially joined, it was right in the beginning of December. Maybe the last of November, beginning of December. My memory [crosstalk 00:10:07].
Oz:
I remember seeing December, but I honestly didn’t check the actual date, but it could be the beginning. It’s been less than a month at this point either way.
Rick Davis:
Yeah, and then actually, I didn’t really… Well, I started watching the videos and all and then my fiance and I actually had a vacation planned before it happened. We went down to Florida again for… We were there for a week. December 4th through December 11th we were down there so I actually didn’t jump in full time until December 12th.
Oz:
Okay, so it’s been two, two and a half weeks then?
Rick Davis:
Yeah.
Oz:
That’s awesome. And you’re not from this industry. You just came totally based on due diligence and came in and start applying it. Because as you might have noticed in my YouTube channel, there are a lot of people who have been following my content and they’re trying to figure out if this is a good investment or not. What would you say from your experience, specifically what has changed and do you think it was a good investment to join?
Rick Davis:
Well, yeah, absolutely. Made 10 times my investment back with the first deal. But no, what I liked about you, and there was other obviously other people out there doing MCA education or whatever. But what I liked about your courses, it was all laid out and your videos are very…. I’m one of the most computer illiterate people there are. I don’t know anything about Dux-Soup or setting up, but your videos walk through it with the education of how to do it, how to get it set up, why you’re doing it, what to do once you do make a connection request.
Rick Davis:
My next step now, I think I told you yesterday, is that I did get my Mailchimp set up and I’ve got over 1,350 connections now, just in the last few weeks on LinkedIn. Again, now I have to educate myself on how to get those into my Mailchimp account so I can start a email campaign with them.
Oz:
And that’s just one strategy that you’re applying. Obviously, we have a ton of other strategies that you can utilize, but you chose to go through the LinkedIn one, which paid off in a short amount of time. I think many people also do enjoy our community, right? The [inaudible 00:12:32] community ended up building with all the members. What do you think about that? The-
Rick Davis:
Yeah, the Facebook… Facebook, sorry. The Facebook community is great. I have reached out to a couple members. Dan in San Diego, I had a question about something or he posted something about what he was doing, and I had a question. He was quick to respond and more than open. I know Jacqueline posts a lot of stuff and she’s very helpful. But yeah, it’s very easy. Everybody’s in it to help everybody else. Now that I’ve had some marginal success, I want to get more involved in the community. And like I said, not that I’m a professional at it yet, but anything that I can do to help or suggest or one thing I wanted to mention, that the lenders are more than happy to jump in on these phone calls and help you close these deals.
Rick Davis:
Both Matt at Toro and [Yasi 00:13:31] over at Wall Funding, I told them straight up, “These are my first deals. I don’t know. I can close a car deal, but I’ve never closed a business owner on financing.” They were more than happy to jump in on conference calls with my merchant. I just sat and listened to how they talked to him and even over at Wall Funding, we got the owner on the line. They’re very open. Don’t think you have to know everything to get started. Just get started. Follow the videos, get your LinkedIn, get your Dux-Soup. That’s probably the easiest thing because Dux-Soup automatically… While you’re sleeping, it can send out 200 connections [inaudible 00:14:19].
Oz:
They can automatically do it. And based on your experience with the lenders, that’s really not like that outside, just so you know. That’s because we’re leveraging our size with these lenders so negotiate with them because they’re direct lenders but I tell them, “Listen, we have over 300 ISOs here so far and we’re going to go over a thousand people. If we’re going to keep recommending you, I want my people to get special treatment.” That’s why we’re getting the owners on the phone and they’re jumping on the phone and helping out because they’re valuing what we’re putting on the table.
Oz:
The commissions that you’re getting paid, they’re usually higher than the average and things like that because they’re seeing that, not only they’re having access to a very trained group of individuals, unlike someone out there who do some Google search and they decide to be an ISO and they’re expecting their lender to train them. A lender’s job is not to train you. But in this case, they jump on the phone and help you out with the deal because they see that, well, first of all, you’re the real deal, right?
Oz:
You’re making things happen. You’re bringing them high quality deals and things like that and you’re very trained on the industry, although you’ve been using it only for two weeks, right? All of that will accumulate and we’re going to have more people like that, more owners and at that level, the companies, the lending companies to do a lot of handholding with our newer members. That definitely part of my goals in the next couple of months to add to that. Any last thoughts? I don’t want to keep you long. I know you’re busy, but anything that I haven’t mentioned, anything I can do for you or anything for someone who’s watching it?
Rick Davis:
No, just like I said, your program is very well laid out. I didn’t have any experience at all. I just went through and followed the program, step by step. Did what you said to do. Got everything set up. One thing you mentioned about MCA, what are the one things you like and one of the things you mentioned in the beginning was you can get paid very, very quickly. And literally, that deal I did on Friday, I first talked to that merchant on Wednesday evening. Wednesday afternoon, Wednesday evening. Sent him out the application, he got his stuff back late Wednesday.
Rick Davis:
It was too late to get anything in to the lenders so I sent it in Wednesday night and Thursday morning I actually heard back from a couple of them. He actually got three different offers. We took the best one and we literally closed that deal on Friday afternoon. In less than 48 hours from my first contact with the merchant-
Oz:
That you didn’t know prior?
Rick Davis:
I didn’t know. I didn’t know. It was a LinkedIn. It was a Dux-Soup LinkedIn connection who started asking questions and we emailed back and forth a little bit and then we finally got on a phone call and he was eager. He got me his paperwork ASAP. As soon as I asked for something, he got it. And we got everything in, like I said, and Friday afternoon, he got it funded. Less than four… Now this particular lender pays every Friday so I won’t get paid until a week later, but literally in less than 48 hours, the deal was done as opposed to real estate, finance or anything else where you can wait-
Oz:
Oh, forget it.
Rick Davis:
… you can go three months before you get a payday.
Oz:
Yeah.
Rick Davis:
These paydays happen very quickly. All you got to do is find the right merchant and within 48 hours, you can get paid.
Oz:
Yeah, literally 48 hours. There’s the hype in that guys. He went from not knowing anyone, no clue, just through LinkedIn, not even meeting them in person, to putting money in their bank account in 48 hours so we do truly mean that. It can happen and I mean, the pay turn around, you’re going to get paid, what, tomorrow then?
Rick Davis:
Yes. Knock on wood. No. And that’s another thing I like about this business. Like you said, I never met the guy in person. He’s in Texas. Had, like I said, some emails and phone calls with him. This particular lender’s in New York. I’m in a small town of 2000 people in Northern Wisconsin and I put the deal together without even leaving my “home office.” That’s what I like about this business.
Oz:
And Rick, one other question that I get and I got this recently on my YouTube channel. Someone brought up, how do we build credibility with someone, especially starting out? I think you’re the best person to answer that because you’ve been actively doing this for two weeks and you’ve got someone approved for $150,000 and they trusted you and took that money and you did a line of credit. Is that a legitimate question to be concerned about, like your credibility or experience and things like that? What do you think about that?
Rick Davis:
To an extent. Like I said, I didn’t know anything about the business two weeks ago or three weeks ago. I learned through your course. But a big thing to help with the credibility is to get that lender on the phone. In the beginning, like I said, I don’t know enough to answer that person with that merchant’s questions. He had some questions that I didn’t know. I said, “Hey, I’ll tell you what. Let me call them. Let me call my underwriter. Let me call my lender and let’s get them on the phone too and they can get all your questions answered.” That these lenders were more than happy to jump on a phone call, a conference call, he got all this… It takes the onus off me trying to prove who I am and my “credibility.”
Oz:
Absolutely. You don’t want to take it on yourself. That’s why I mean, we have the entire group and the lenders and things like that. You’re not going to learn everything in two weeks, right? What we’re teaching is the business, how to set it up, how to run it, how to get leads and how to close them. You’ve done that part, but of course naturally, the merchant had additional questions. They’re going to put money in their bank accounts and they’ll want to know certain things.
Oz:
Then you can bring down the writer or the owner on the phone because that’s what they do every day. They do fund deals every day. They go through the files every day and they help you out and you get paid your 12 points and they get paid whatever they get paid. The client is happy because they’re working with professionals who can actually make things happen. You’re not promising things that you can’t deliver. I think it’s overall, a win, win, win situation for everyone.
Rick Davis:
Absolutely.
Oz:
All right Rick, with that, thank you so much for spending time with me today. I appreciate your presence and I appreciate having you as a member of the indie community. Thanks so much.
Rick Davis:
It’s my pleasure and thanks for all you do, Oz.
Oz:
My pleasure. Take care now.
Rick Davis:
Okay.
Oz:
Bye-bye.
Rick Davis:
Happy holidays.
Oz:
You too. Thank you.