Amanda Webster: How To Fund & Grow Your Business

Unlock the secrets to funding your real estate dreams as I team up with Amanda Webster of Fund & Grow. Together, we'll reveal how revolving business lines of credit can become your ace in the hole for scaling operations, igniting marketing endeavors, and implementing crucial systems that propel your investments forward. Amanda, a maestro in navigating the labyrinth of business credit, dissects the complexities and provides a roadmap for entrepreneurs thirsting for growth without the constraints of conventional loans.

In the throes of our discussion, we examine the success stories of real estate mavericks like Nick Perry, who've soared to new levels by strategically wielding business credit. Amanda articulates the vital distinction between personal and business finances, bestowing upon us the keys to safeguarding personal credit scores while enjoying the liberty to push the boundaries of your business potential. As we dissect the challenges of acquiring properties and mitigating expenses, our conversation becomes a beacon for those charting a course through the turbulent waters of real estate entrepreneurship.

The episode culminates with an inspiring glance at Amanda's ascent to COO at Fund & Grow amidst the chaos of 2020. Her narrative of transformation from the legal field to mastering the art of business credit underlines the boundless opportunities awaiting those who dare to pivot with purpose. Amanda's personal anecdotes and the intriguing symbolism of a championship belt for peak performers at her company weave a narrative tapestry rich with professional wisdom and the allure of personal growth. Join us for an episode teeming with expertise and eye-opening perspectives for anyone eager to elevate their real estate investment game.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey guys, welcome to the Titanium Vault. I'm your host, RJ Bates III, and today I'm sitting down with the Amanda Webster. How are you doing?

Speaker 2: 0:10

I'm doing great. How are you?

Speaker 1: 0:12

I'm excited. I'm excited it's always you know it's going to be a good podcast when you start 10 minutes late recording because you were just shooting the shit with the guests and it's almost like why haven't we hit record. So I know it's going to be a great episode. Amanda, tell the people what it is that you do and how that pertains to real estate investing.

Speaker 2: 0:33

So what I do? I always call myself an operator, because someone actually told me yesterday I was an intrapreneur because I don't own Fund Grow. However, I am the operator who makes it work right. So I always tell people that I'm an operator. I make all the things happen. That's my specialty is making sure fulfillment happens, sales happens, marketing happens.

Speaker 2: 0:55

I pretty much kind of have all those different hats, but I am currently running a company called Funding Grow. The owner has very graciously allowed me a lot of room to grow and do some stuff, and he built this empire and then decided that he was going to work as a visionary, which is what you should do. But we specialize specifically in helping entrepreneurs being able to start and grow their businesses, and we love to focus on the real estate world because it's an area that Ari has a huge passion for I've grown to have a passion for and it's such a difficult area to get reasonable funding, and so that's kind of where we focus our energy in that sector, because we just love to help people actually be successful there.

Speaker 1: 1:42

Love it. So when you talk about helping people get started, I mean you're talking about from like, the capital aspect of things, right?

Speaker 2: 1:51

Correct yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:53

So is this for the people that are brand new, they're just getting started or is this the people that maybe they're already a couple of years in and they know that they can be successful in this industry? What's like the avatar person that we're talking to today that would use FundingGrowth?

Speaker 2: 2:12

So yes and yes, so both really, Because the beauty of business credit is that it's revolving business lines, right, it's revolving business lines that you can use as you need them and you don't have all of this red tape that goes into it. So we can help a brand new business because we don't need, you know, two years of bank statements. God, try to get an SBA loan. It's like it makes me want to just hurt myself because it's so painful?

Speaker 2: 2:38

No, but we are able to. There's a unique area of funding. This isn't like a brand new idea. Funding Grow has been around since 2007. The business credit space has been around longer than that. It's just about knowing how to use it to get enough funding. That makes sense, because getting something a revolving line for 10K doesn't really help a lot of people not really a big deal but if you can get a revolving line for 100K, that's a game changer a lot of times. So our avatar is specifically people who are just starting because we can fund a brand new business we can actually fund a sole prop and people who are in it and looking for supplemental ways.

Speaker 2: 3:17

A lot of people in real estate might have already secured the money to say, buy their fix and flip homes, but they need the rehab money, they need the extra stuff that they don't want to eat up their cash flow, because then they don't want to be able to have to miss that next deal because it's all in on that one property.

Speaker 2: 3:33

So it's a way of you know, leveraging other people's money is a huge concept in the world and this is a way to do it, but it's still yours. You're not selling anything for it. It's unsecured, it's not attached to anything and you're also not paying it back in the moments when you're not using it. So it's truly revolving. Very similar to like HELOC you know a lot of investors use in that sense, except for a lot of times you know a HELOC is going to be attached to something. This misses that component. So it's really everybody. There's only two industries we can't help, which is the cannabis industry because it's not federally recognized, and crypto, because lenders just don't like crypto, so they just ban it across the board.

Speaker 1: 4:14

There you go.

Speaker 2: 4:16

That's the only two industries we can't help, but we specifically built a program around real estate. So we not only we actually build the strategy, we apply for the funds, we negotiate the funds, but then we also teach you how to use it in the real estate sector.

Speaker 1: 4:31

Well, I would say one of the biggest things that we come across in a need for operating capital, specifically in the wholesaling world, is the marketing expenses and all the systems Like. Right now, my favorite tool to use is InvestorLift. It's completely changed our entire business because it lets us know every cash buyer that's in existence, where they're buying deals, how much they're buying. The problem with it is and it's not a problem, robert Winsley is an all-American capitalist but it's expensive as shit. I mean I pay $36,000 a year for that, and so a lot of people look at that and go, yeah, I mean I want to be just like RJ, but I've got to go close 10, 20, 30 deals before I'm okay with giving up $36,000. Is that where you guys come in and say, listen, we can add rocket fuel to your business right now, we can get you operating capital for marketing and the other systems that you need. Is that kind of where you really step in, specifically with wholesalers?

Speaker 2: 5:35

Yeah, the easiest use case for what we do is exactly what you just said. That's actually how we use our business lines is what pays for all of our paid ads. It pays for all of our software, it pays for anything in the marketing world. It pays for me to go to events, it pays for me to attend masterminds. It's actually that's how we use it. It's the easiest use case ever and, yes, it extends it Right. So we use it as a like a charge account more than a revolving. So we basically I max it out literally I don't plan to, but I do every single month, but then we pay it off every month but we get the ROI on the marketing that we're doing. But, yeah, if you have an offer that you need this platform, this software, this whatever, $36,000 is a lot of money. I don't care what place you're in your business, it's just a lot of money.

Speaker 2: 6:24

But, if you can put it into a revolving line and spread it out, it makes it a little bit easier to kind of swallow that big charge. But at the same time, something like that is going to give you the ROI very quickly. So I always tell people it is a revolving line of credit, it's housed on a business credit card on the EIN, it's not secured and you can use it for any business use case. But I always tell people you have to pay it back. So don't go do that and expect you not to have to pay it back. So make sure you have a plan in place of how you're going to pay it back, same way you would in anything else.

Speaker 2: 7:04

The same way you would if you got a traditional business loan and they put $100,000 in your business account. How are you going to pay that back? You've got to start paying that back right away. This gives you a little bit more leg room because you can charge on it. The minimum payment is only 1% of what you owe, so that makes it a little bit more to absorb on the front side of what you owe. So that makes it a little bit more to absorb on the front side. We at Fund and Grow specifically only target lending offers that have 0% on the front to also offset that, but then on the backside because interest is always going to come. There's no such thing as a free meal.

Speaker 2: 7:37

You have to eventually pay the lender. It's just how it works. We look at the ones that have the best point systems, cashback, rewards, things like that so then you can offset it and that's how you know we we are going to use it anyways. We're going to have to buy these things no matter what. So why not put it on a card that's going to give me some type of reward for using it? And Ari gets checks every quarter for like five, 10, $15,000 just for us using something. We're going to spend it anyway and I do it in my personal world.

Speaker 2: 8:09

I'm getting ready to buy my daughter a car. I have money in a savings account for it. I'm not using that money to buy it. I'm going to use my chase card so that I can get the points and then I'll just pay the chase card off. But why not? It's the same philosophy and I've learned that game now. So it's like I'm using. I'm like, all right, which card has this point? Which card's better with airlines? And it makes it where it's just going to pay you, and if you don't pay interest, then you're just getting free money at that point.

Speaker 1: 8:34

So you said you guys target the 0%. Is that for like 12 months, or how long is the 0% on the front side?

Speaker 2: 8:40

So, depending on the lender, depending on what state you live in, it gives us some limitations, right? Because we find some really awesome deals. So they can be as little as nine months, but they can be as much as 24 months.

Speaker 1: 8:51

Wow.

Speaker 2: 8:52

And with the model we do.

Speaker 2: 8:54

We don't a lot of people in our space which there's a lot of reputable people and I love them and I follow them because I always want to have my competitors kind of on my radar anyway.

Speaker 2: 9:03

But they are either teaching you how to do it and you got to go do it right, you got to go do it and do it your way, or they're doing it on a success fee, so they're charging you based on what they get for you. So we took and we're like no, we're going to build a 12-month program so that we're building these lines over that entire 12 months. So it's not just one and done. We're not teaching it, we're a white glove service. We do everything for you. You don't have to do anything other than fill out some information, be available for, like a compliance call. You're going to sign documents so that we can, on your behalf, talk to underwriting and do all of these things, Because my funding floor sometimes spends an hour, two hours on hold just getting a hold of the underwriting department to be able to do what we need to do.

Speaker 2: 9:45

So this is a way of buying back your time, but we do a flat fee model. We only charge you one price, that's it, and we do all that work for the 12 months white glove just a higher level service. That's what Ari envisioned, because that's what he was trying to do was allow entrepreneurs to not worry about this. We'll handle it. You get to go out and be your, you know, do your, do your deals, do whatever you're doing, and not worry about it.

Speaker 1: 10:09

So I know it's kind of taboo to ask this, but welcome to the titanium vault. What is the one-time fee?

Speaker 2: 10:17

So the one-time fee? If you look on our website, it's we don't hide it it's a 3997, so just under $4,000. That's nothing, yeah. So when you take and I do the math, when we do webinars, I always do the math of like, here's what it costs for us. Right, it's this flat fee. Here's what it costs. If you go get a hard money loan or you go get some capital world stuff, even a mortgage, it's going to be more. There's no points. There's none of that going on here. Yes, there's interest from the lender once the 0% ends, but if you are able to learn that system and play it the right way, that shouldn't matter. There's always a cost for capital, no matter what you do. It's just mitigating and making it as less as possible.

Speaker 1: 11:01

How often do people sign up for a year and then, when you guys are done, they just say I want you to keep going and sign up for another year?

Speaker 2: 11:10

So we do recommend resting. So I don't like people to sign up right away for the second time because you want to use the cards and show the lenders that you actually need it. I always laugh people like well, I got, you got me $200,000, but I didn't really need it, so I didn't use it. But I didn't really need it, so I didn't use it. But I'd like some more and I'm like all right. So how would you like me to explain to the underwriter why you need more when you're not even using what they gave you? So I like to tell people to really be aggressive with it and use it.

Speaker 2: 11:37

Because the beautiful thing about business credit is one of the number one mistakes that entrepreneurs, especially in the real estate world, make is they use their personal credit, their personal money, their personal access, and they're making their scores go down and they're limiting the ability to do things. So the beautiful thing in business credit is it's not showing up on your personal. So you get to separate everything. So now your credit score can just be on your personal. This is building your corporate side. But also you can be maxed out and nobody cares. I max out every single month and pay it off, but our Paydex score and our business credit side is beautiful because it's a healthy relationship that we've built and you don't have to worry about it.

Speaker 2: 12:15

So then, when you need to go buy a personal property and you're going to get a personal mortgage or go buy a new car, these things aren't dragging it down, so getting that separation is key. Car, these things aren't dragging it down, so getting that separation is key. But to answer your actual question, I would say that, depending on the client, repeat customers are actually becoming more and more of a thing than they used to be because of how much the difficulty of getting business loans, because a lot of people they use this first they build up things and then they get to a point where, okay, now I can get a traditional line of credit or whatever. That world is becoming harder and harder. Even the referral relationships we have with actual direct lenders that do the business, regular loan stuff. They keep raising it's like I think it's $30,000 or $40,000 a month in actual income into your bank statements before they'll even look at you and a lot of times people, regardless of how successful you are, you're not holding that kind of money in your bank.

Speaker 1: 13:13

Right.

Speaker 2: 13:13

It's just not. It's not how it works. So it is becoming bigger and bigger and we have people, someone who I don't know if anyone in this group would know, but Nick Perry I love to bring up because I love him. Know if anyone on this group would know. But Nick Perry I love to bring up because I love him and I've watched his journey, because he actually will credit that Funding Grow is the reason he 10X'd his business. He's done a couple of videos on it. Of course his model has changed a little bit and he's globetrotting and doing all the things now. We love to see it, but he's probably one of our most successful clients. He has come back multiple times and just continued to build that. He actually has like one of those old business card books that people used to use back in the and all of his credit cards are in there because I think he's maxed out now on the amount of accounts they will let him have.

Speaker 2: 13:59

But he's great and he's a great model of that because he has a tremendous amount of business credit and understands the game and used it to 10 X's business and probably done it more than once now, because I think he finished his third membership probably about a year ago with funding A couple, probably three, four weeks ago. Scotty T.

Speaker 1: 14:23

Yeah, and he was talking and, funny enough, mid-interview he brought up Nick Because to say that Nick, he was like Nick had all these points and he didn't know how to use them. So Scotty was talking about like hey, this is how you really need to be, like hacking these cards right and utilizing the points. He also brought up Robert Winsley, the CEO of InvestorLift, and I guess Robert was about to drop like 110,000 points on like a flight to Europe and Scotty was like, no, don't do that. And like with one move he got him to flight for like 5,000 points. And so it's funny to hear you bring up Nick, because obviously that's an important part of Nick's business and I have seen him talk about that before.

Speaker 1: 15:06

Um, you, you brought up using the personal credit and and I have a very unhealthy relationship with my Experian email notifications it's like bi-weekly. They're like, uh, you did great, you paid off your credit card, and then I use it. And they're like you did great, you paid off your credit card, and then I use it. And they're like you did bad, you used it, and it's like I don't understand, I thought you gave it to me to use, you know, and so you talk about like you're using this to fly to events to pay for masterminds and things like that. So what are the limits of what you could use this for? Are there any? I mean, um, and then also, can we use this to buy, like I wholesale a lot of shit box houses. Okay, Can I use this to buy like a $5,000 property in St Louis?

Speaker 2: 16:00

Sure can.

Speaker 1: 16:02

I thought that was like taboo. I thought you can't do that.

Speaker 2: 16:05

So if you know what you're doing, you can, so we actually that's. That is one of the things that we coach in.

Speaker 1: 16:12

Damn it, amanda. It's already clear. I don't know what I'm doing. That's why I brought you on. Okay, take my $4,000 already.

Speaker 2: 16:20

Listen, it's one of those things that you have to do it the right way, right. So there are definitely a lot of things to watch out for. Amex is the biggest one. You have to be really careful. They'll only let you use one service to do it the way that we teach. But we tell you that we actually give material out to everybody on exactly how to pull the cash and ACH wire, transfer it over to the closing agent. Now it's going to show as a regular charge on your card. It's not going to show as a cash advance. You're going to pay a fee Some of them are as low as 2.5% and the highest is 2.9% of whatever you send over.

Speaker 2: 16:56

However, that's nominal when you're doing deals like that, and also the cost of doing it. In a way, you're going to cost you more the closing agent. It looks like cash. They have no idea that that came in from a credit card on the business side. But, like Amex, there's a couple, there's like three services that we recommend to do this on, but only one will let you do Amex. But we'll tell you that right, and they're very easy.

Speaker 2: 17:19

They're just merchant processing accounts you can get set up, but there's specific companies that are reputable. Melio is great. You can't do it for that. That doesn't work on our for business side. It doesn't transfer correct. But, like billcom is a huge company, we use it for multiple things, but it's one of the ones.

Speaker 2: 17:37

You can actually set up this type of account and you know, let's say there's fix and flip people on here too. You can. Let's say you have a contractor who just doesn't have a merchant account. They can't accept a credit card, not just closing on the house. You can ACH it to anybody for any business use case. You just have to have a document, whether it be an invoice, closing statement, whatever it is, so that they can have proof that it's for the business and it's not for you. You can't wire transfer money to your own account. That's, that's not a business use case. So, yes, you can do that and you know we get up to 250,000 people for their business. You know revolving lines. So you, technically, if you're buying $10,000 homes, you could. You could do it all over the place.

Speaker 1: 18:18

I mean, okay, so I I'm just gonna rough scenario. Okay, I come to you, I give you $4,000.

Speaker 2: 18:26

Yep.

Speaker 1: 18:27

Next 12 months you go get me $200,000. I go just like we do every single day. We go find a house for $50,000. That's really what could be worth $100,000. If I put $20,000 of work into it. So I take a 50,000, I buy the house, I take another 20,000 and rehab the house. I'm 70,000 in and I've got that interest free for nine to 12 months. And then in those nine to 12 months I refinance out, I get all that money, I pay it off and I rinse and repeat and I'm essentially for $4,000, I now can go interest-free is. The only thing it's costing me is two and a half to 2.9% points upfront, which is basically what a hard money loan is. But it's interest-free. It doesn't come with the 12% interest every six months. Why is not everybody doing this, amanda?

Speaker 2: 19:26

Because they don't know right, you don't know what you don't know. And I think, to be honest, this is what I come across whenever I'm at events and talking, and that's what I ask people why have you never done business credit? Why People have a weird misconception because it's housed on a credit card. They just don't understand it. And they listen to people like Dave Ramsey, who he, has a lot of valid points. Guys, I'm not saying he's not an expert in a lot of things Does he?

Speaker 1: 19:52

Okay? Every time someone brings him up, they always say he has valid points and it's like all right. So not to derail you, but give me one good valid point.

Speaker 2: 20:02

He has, amanda, listen. To live personally debt-free is amazing goal to have, okay, so that is a valid point of not getting into debt.

Speaker 1: 20:10

right, I'll give you that one, I'll give him that, however.

Speaker 2: 20:16

So I always coined this, and my producer is going to love that I'm going to say it again for like the fifth time this week. So cash is King, right, cash is King no matter what you're doing, but credit is queen. You cannot live life without credit. I don't like that. That's the case, but that is the actual reality we live in, both in your personal. But why not understand that? That's how it works in the business world too? Listen, this building I'm sitting in. It's worth over a million dollars. I don't know exactly the number. You can look it up online. Everything's public, right. So the building I'm sitting in that Funding Grow is at.

Speaker 2: 20:48

It was purchased on commercial lending level, non-recourse. So Ari buys it. If it had not worked, they can't touch him. It's completely non-recourse. Well, the only way to get there is to build business credit, to build the corporate trade lines, to build these business credit cards. It's the only way to get there. Now, a lot of people listening may not. That might not be their goal, right, but why not use credit lines to be able to not touch the cashflow? It just doesn't make sense.

Speaker 1: 21:23

But you say it's not people's goal. But I think a lot of times the reason why people don't have goals like that is because they don't think that are obtainable.

Speaker 2: 21:30

They're a hundred percent obtainable obtainable 100%. I'm not saying you're going to get a million dollar loan tomorrow, that's not my point. And he bought the first building that Fund Grow was in first, for far less on the same type of platform, but it took him several years of aggressively using his business credit setting up his corporate credit, which we also do within the membership as well as an add-on. Don't charge anything for it, because you need to be set up with Dun Bradstreet. Get those vendor trade lines going, because if you're a real estate person and you need to rehab anything right, imagine what a $100,000 trade line with Home Depot could do for you.

Speaker 1: 22:07

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 22:07

And there's no interest on those and they're not personally guaranteed, they're not secured, they're just net accounts net 30, net 60, net 90. Well, the only way to get those is to set up your corporate credit account, get everything moving and we help with that as well, just to make sure, because you have to have both sides to get to that level. So the goals are absolutely attainable, you just have to have the knowledge.

Speaker 1: 22:29

One of the worst parts about flipping houses is cashflow. I mean just it'll kill you. I mean between the mortgage payments and all the utilities and property taxes, and then, oh, I estimated 30,000 in rehab and it's actually 50.

Speaker 2: 22:45

Yeah you always go over Come on.

Speaker 1: 22:47

Where's the extra 20 coming from? I mean, it comes from your bank account and it just kills you. But going back to the goal aspect you talked about, most people might not have that goal. I always look back as when I was a kid I wanted to be a professional athlete more than anything. There's times where I wanted to be a professional hockey player, a professional NFL player. I wanted to do something and I was talented at what I was doing.

Speaker 1: 23:16

But the reason why I removed that goal in my life is because everyone told me you can't do that. Like if someone had come along and said, we don't know if you have the talent to do it, but we can at least show you the path to see if you can accomplish this, I would have been completely okay. I still look back. I'm 39 years old. I look back and I'm like I don't know if the reason why I made it was because I didn't have the talent or because I just got told no, for 15 years of my life that I couldn't do it. I think it's the same thing here where I mean repeatedly I talk to people that want to get into real estate investing and the biggest issue that they have is they don't have money.

Speaker 2: 24:02

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:04

It's not the desire, it's definitely not information. I mean, information exists everywhere nowadays so you can figure it out. But then it's like someone goes and watches me call 30 leads two weeks ago, live in an hour and a half, and I got three signed contracts. One of those is already assigned for $60,000. So I made $60,000 in 90 minutes. But they look at it and they go, but I don't have the $3,000 to get those 30 leads $3,000. You know what I'm saying and what you're saying here is is like that's very achievable. To make that happen when, when people come to you and they don't have anything set up business credit wise, how long does that process take before they have access to some sort of capital? Because I'm assuming the trade lines that are set up before are like very specific and easy to get right.

Speaker 2: 24:57

Yeah. So when they come in the door, if their personal credit's good like I mean I'm not saying perfect, it's good we can work with it right. If the only issue is they haven't set up the business, that's easy. That's only dependent on how quickly does it show up on the Secretary of State site, depending on what state you're in we have in our portal. We show every single state exactly what you have to do, step by step, of just getting it registered. We don't care about anything else. We don't need your operating agreement. We don't need any of that stuff on the front side. There are some lenders who will ask for it occasionally, but you can get all that stuff online. That's an easy fix. No matter what, we can send a brand new LLC to funding the next day, as soon as it shows up on the Secretary of State site. It does not need to be seasoned, it does not need to have any of that, and all we're going to do is ask some questions. That's going to build some projections of what we feel, based on what the client tells us that they have the potential to make in that business. But they need this credit in order to do so, which is how we negotiate these out. So I would say that my floor over here are master negotiators. That is their bread and butter.

Speaker 2: 26:03

When we go and apply for these lines, we're doing it the same way you would. We're going to the site, we're applying online. We're letting a computer algorithm tell you whether or not I am worthy of that credit right, doing the same thing anyone else does. However, we don't just stop on. What the computer tells us Doesn't matter if it approves you for $5,000, denies you, approves you for $20,000. Our process is exactly the same. Every single one of those is going to get called over to the underwriting department of that lender and we are going to get it increased. We overturn denials every single day by talking to a human. These are all about relationships and talking to people, because the system is built on algorithms.

Speaker 2: 26:46

The system is built on what the credit bureaus say is worthy and not worthy, right? So that's why we're not afraid to take a credit score. That's not perfect. We're not looking for an 810 credit score. That's not what we're about. You do need to have a 680, but that's not that hard. Even if you're at 650 or 620, we have ways to help you and give you guidance on how to fix that right Pretty quickly.

Speaker 2: 27:10

So I've been in the 500s before people like I was not perfect. I have had crap credit. I don't anymore. Luckily I've. You know, I've fixed all that up. It took some time but I had. I had a car repossessed like I had things on there and I had to wait the time and do some things, but I came in. I actually came in and did my own round of funding for myself for some side stuff that I like to do and I created my LLC. I'm in Florida, created my LLC online, knew how to do it myself, luckily, but within I think a week I had the funding floor apply for me. I had $70,000. Like that. Yeah, just a brand new LLC.

Speaker 1: 27:49

Okay, but but help me understand that. So you do need to have a six 80 minimum personal credit score, but that $70,000 was not on your personal credit. That is business credit Correct. So why do they care about your personal credit score?

Speaker 2: 28:07

So it's the, it's the loophole to get around the regular lending side. I don't have to provide bank statements. I don't have to provide bank statements. I don't have to provide tax returns, I don't have to provide proof of anything.

Speaker 2: 28:17

They're taking my personal credit worthiness and that's how they're approving it through the projections and stuff. So it's a creative way to get around that and it's usually the only way to get around it. For a brand new business and real estate is the NAICS codes for real estate are all flagged in the lending world right. So we even look at that. When you come in, we do a consultation on the front side of how is your business set up and is it going to be a risk factor, Because we may recommend you set up a brand new one just for funding outside of that. And then it's normal to lend from company to company. That's easy. So we look at all of those pieces because there are stupid little things that will get you denied just really dumb things, and if you don't fix it on the front side, it's just much harder to sweet talk the negotiations of the underwriting department in that case.

Speaker 2: 29:09

But the team here, just that's what they do. They spend hours and hours every day. I had we broke a record in April and I don't think Zach even knows this. My producer is sitting here looking at me, funny. He's been here for 12 years, so he he knows this whole journey, One of my negotiators was able to get $4 million secured in April for her clients, and that's one of the team. The whole team gets an average of anywhere from 23 to $25 million a month in funding.

Speaker 1: 29:40

That's crazy. I saw on the site before the podcast you guys have gotten over a billion dollars, right?

Speaker 2: 29:47

I think we're at 1.7 billion.

Speaker 1: 29:50

That's insane.

Speaker 2: 29:51

Yeah, I'm excited to hit 2 billion, that's like I'm really excited to see that ticker and that ticker is live. People think it's literally live. Every time they hit a button in there it's registering up and that's like when they hit 1 billion here, it was like it's freaking party right. It was just crazy and I don't even know.

Speaker 1: 30:14

I got to plan something of what we're going to do when we hit that two bill mark. I hate to tell you this, but you're screwed. I mean it's happening today because you came on the titanium vault. I mean you didn't know this. This is the greatest podcast of all time. I mean two billies happening this afternoon.

Speaker 2: 30:28

I'm ready, I'm bring it.

Speaker 1: 30:29

Question yes, For those people out there that you know decided hey, I'm going to do business. They didn't listen to my interview with Tom Kroll. They took on a partner, and so one partner has the 480 credit score because they've never paid back a thing in their entire life, and then the other one's got a 750 because they're the responsible one. What happens there?

Speaker 2: 30:53

You only apply with the one that qualifies. You do have to tell the lender about the partner, depending on the percentages that the business is set up with. So sometimes we'll tell people do an amendment, get your percentages right, because that person's never going to be lendable. You've got to get them right and figure that out. But if there's a reason that you can't do that, then we would say we would exclude them as far as the credit goes, but they will be on the app just as a notice that they're. It's kind of like when you're married and you have to disclose that it's the same type of thing, but their credit's not going to matter because they're not pulling their credit, they're not adding them to the account. There's no like co-signing. That's not how it works in the business. There's only one personal guarantor for each line, so you have to kind of notice it, but it doesn't actually matter.

Speaker 1: 31:43

Gotcha All right Enough about funding. Girl, I want to know more about you. You're fun, and I want to know who is crazy enough to decide that they're going to go. Well, let me retract. I want to know how you even landed on working in this industry, because this is definitely not like something where you're like sitting there 18, 19 years old and you're like I definitely want to go work for a business credit company. 19 years old and you're like I definitely want to go work for a business credit company. Right, that sounds fun. And then who's crazy enough to do it in 2020? Like who starts a new?

Speaker 2: 32:21

job during COVID. Well, it's a really interesting story Now. Um so before 2020, I had no idea who Funding Girl was outside of. I knew some people locally who worked because I've grown up in the same town, so I knew kind of it's in the same town I grew up in, so I've seen that. No idea what they did. Absolutely no idea what business credit is. No idea, right. I knew there were business credit cards because in other businesses we've had them, but I just didn't understand anything that was going on there.

Speaker 2: 32:49

So actually, I wanted to be a teacher when I was little and I think that I still fulfill that through different ways because I also wanted to I don't know be able to provide for my family in Florida's number 50 in the teacher salary range right now Literally placed number 50. We're the last state in teacher salary that came out yesterday. So, no, I love teaching and sharing and I love to be able to share my mistakes too, so I actually do that. I don't. I'm not a shy, vulnerable person, so it doesn't bother me. No, but I actually answered an ad when I was 18 years old to be a legal secretary, and by answering that I mean in a newspaper, because that's what we used to do, guys, and I took it as a job. I was still going to college. I was a big overachiever in high school, so I had already gotten a good amount of college done before I graduated high school. So I needed a full-time job. I didn't come from money. My parents needed some help, so I started paying them rent. So I went out and got a full-time job doing that, ended up falling in love with law, but just didn't want to be an attorney because reasons, and so I ended up growing the ranks and in the Tampa Bay area and was able to end up managing law firms. I was a paralegal, but then also managed the firms, became an office administrator, which is basically the same, just in a law firm title. And but in 2020, I got really burnt out.

Speaker 2: 34:16

Covid happened, which was just it was crazy, not because of the illness for me, I mean, it was that was crazy too. There was just so much going on. I live in Florida, so it's you know we didn't like shut down necessarily, but the schools did, so I had to work from home, which at that time, I had four children. I have five now, but I had four and one of them was a toddler and then I had to become a teacher, which as much as I wanted to be a teacher, it wasn't of my own children and so the law firm actually ended up closing down because of COVID. So everyone got laid off. The attorneys kind of disbanded.

Speaker 2: 34:52

The one that I was friends with that got me in that role I still talk to. She opened up her own firm, which was great, but she couldn't afford staff at the time so I had to start looking. I went as long as I could without working, but as soon as the kids were getting back to school I'm like all right, we've kind of taken the savings, we've done all the things. My husband's been in the military now for 22 years, so he was actually running testing COVID sites like all over the state of Florida and was all over the place.

Speaker 2: 35:20

And Fund Grow had an ad and I answered it and it was a huge challenge, but in the best way, in the best way. Learning an industry having a huge office, to kind of understand. Meeting Ari was just, it was different. He is such a positive force to be reckoned with. He's very like law of attraction. He's absolutely into everything about energy and how positive feeds positive and it was a great interesting relationship and dynamic that happened, which is where I didn't start as the COO of Funding Grow. My previous title was administrative director and I was basically I was Ari's right hand but you know, just didn't reach the COO level until about I don't know two years ago. I'm looking at Zach like he knows what I'm talking about. You were vice president then COO. Yeah, we originally we called it vice president, but then most people didn't know what that meant, so we changed it to COO.

Speaker 2: 36:22

So it was a very interesting, so I mean anyone who's listening. If you didn't know what business credit was, don't worry, I didn't either until 2020.

Speaker 1: 36:36

Hey, that's awesome, though. I mean that you came on, you took that chance and then to get to the level that you are now inside the company, and I think that's it's a credit to you, but also to Ari, right, I mean to see something in you to give you the opportunity to kind of run with the company, and that's awesome. It's a great story. Where'd you go to college? Is it South Florida?

Speaker 2: 36:57

I went. I went. I was in Florida. I went to St Leo university. It's a private Catholic university, even though I'm not Catholic, but it was. It's a great university and I learned a lot about Catholicism, but in a very different way because educational side of it is just different. But no, I went to St Leo. It was a great experience. They have a great program. It's a huge college. It's a huge, beautiful campus. A lot of people don't know about it, but it was a great experience. I got my bachelor's degree in business management and human resources, started a master's program, never finished it because I realized it wasn't going to get me anywhere. No, I just I started it and never finished because I just got so busy.

Speaker 1: 37:41

It just you know. I'm just mad that you picked the school that I don't know the mascot. That's like. My thing is. I always know the mascot Lion. It's a lion. Do y'all play sports?

Speaker 2: 37:52

They do have sports. I didn't play sports in college. I played lots of sports in high school and actually all my life. But yeah, they have baseball, softball, volleyball. They don't have like a football team.

Speaker 1: 38:04

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 38:05

I'm trying to think. I think they might have lacrosse.

Speaker 1: 38:08

They've got like Is it right in downtown Tampa.

Speaker 2: 38:11

No, so that's the one in downtown. There's University of Tampa and then there's USF in Tampa. This is actually right outskirt of Dade City, so it's north of Tampa. It's a very rural, weird area, but it's just beautiful.

Speaker 1: 38:26

I remember driving by some school. I drove downtown to go see the Tampa Bay Lightning's Arena and I remember driving by it.

Speaker 2: 38:31

That was University of Tampa, which is also a beautiful campus as well, yeah.

Speaker 1: 38:35

Well, amanda, this has been awesome. How do people find out about Fund Grow which is not Fungin' Grow, by the way, which is how I originally wrote the description down below in the video. Glad Amanda caught that. How do you find out about Fund Grow?

Speaker 2: 38:52

I created a special page and I also created a special offer. So anybody who does come through, um from your everywhere not just your podcast, but your whole world I'm going to give a $500 discount to for signing up. So it'll be 3,500 instead. And we have a BOGO offer. So if they do have a partner, a spouse, you know, a brother or sister, we will give them the exact same membership for free, still for the $3,500. And you both get your own credit lines. You both get everything just in separate, not co-signing, completely separate, separate businesses, all that stuff. So we did Go ahead.

Speaker 1: 39:27

That's unbelievable. What BOGO.

Speaker 2: 39:35

Nobody comes in with the Bogo offers. Listen, we're here to help. That's our whole point. And so, if it doesn't, we got to give, you got to give in this world to get things right. So we want to give as much as possible.

Speaker 1: 39:56

So I created a special page. It's fundandgrow, all spelled out fund and growcom, forward, slash, rj. There you go. Um, I'll put that in the show notes down below um for you guys, that way you can just click on it. Um also for anyone that's watched this far, 40 minutes in. We know you guys have short attention spans, but if you made it this far, we appreciate you. I need to know who wants to see Amanda on a Between Two Belts episode, because I just think that that would be so much fun. So, amanda, are you going to be at Family in September?

Speaker 2: 40:24

Oh yeah, I'll be there and I'm game. Let's go.

Speaker 1: 40:26

Okay, so there we go. In September, I'm going to have Matt set up a room for me. I'm going to bring some of you guys, fun guys, in. Yeah, I'm going to send you the playlist so you can see what you just got yourself into. Just so you know.

Speaker 2: 40:40

Doesn't even matter, I'm good, I'm just going to watch it. I don't prep guys, I don't prep. I feel like, if I prep, I just I don't know. I just don't feel organic, I don't. I want to be real and everything. So I'm going to look at it, cause I don't want to walk in and be like, oh shit.

Speaker 1: 40:58

Yeah, yeah, that's how some of them were. I remember do you know Bob McIntosh? Yes, so Bob and I were walking upstairs and I said, have you ever watched between two ferns? And he said, no, what's that? And I said, oh, you're about to find out. And then when we sat down, uh, you know, he's got the bright red beard and the hair. And uh, I was like, so what part of Ireland are you from? And he's like I'm Scottish. That's how our episode started with him. I asked them to say, ye me, lucky charms at one point in time. I mean, it's a lot of fun Just saying Prepare yourself, amanda.

Speaker 2: 41:34

Next time he needs to wear his kilt, he needs to make sure he's all dressed for it. Let me tell you one last thing, because I just thought of it and I don't know why. So you were on stage at Family and you got the belts and you got all the things going right.

Speaker 2: 41:47

So on my funding floor and I'm going to send you a picture do you know that we established there is a belt for the person who gets the most credit gains for their client, and it's just like you're. It's a it's a funding growth belt, and one of the one who got 4 million this month it was actually my producer, Zach, who's in the room, is his idea because he's a big wrestling guy. But we literally created a belt just for the funding department so they could all brag about who had the most credit for their clients, and it just rotates. We had one person who kept that belt for every month for a solid year. Wow, that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 42:22

Listen, I love awards like that. People give me a hard time about like. I now wear them at different events and you saw it right at family. Someone asked me the other day I won't use some of the language they use, but derogatory terms towards me wearing it and it is like I think you're missing the point. Like the point here is is that it was earned. Yeah, I earned those. Your team earns that. It's. It's a sign of like being proud of the work that you put into it. Um, and letting people know why. Hey, that's awesome, dude, to hold it for a year. I mean, it sounds like you've got a big floor too.

Speaker 2: 43:03

She got a crown. I bought her a crown the day we knew that. She got the whole year. She got a crown and I'm like that's yours. No one can take that from you, because the belt rotates right now.

Speaker 2: 43:13

So she she lost that belt. But I'm like on the 13th month, funny enough, she lost the belt and I said that's okay, cause you got the crown. You are the queen of the funding floor, it doesn't matter. Yeah, we have nine or 10 right now funding people that are in there doing that full time. So it's a good team and, like I said, they they rock it every month. But the belt is a huge thing around here, it's. It's so funny. We've had people who actually want pictures taken with it and we go out front and do like fun pictures with the belt and everything and we brag. We love that. We love that around here.

Speaker 1: 43:48

Last thing. I just thought about it. It only took me like 20 minutes to come up with this. But you're saying of cash is king, credit is queen Dude, you need to have a shirt made with that on it, with a chess board, because, honestly, if you've ever played chess, have you ever won a game with the king? I mean, if you do, it's probably because something else was helping it out. I mean, the queen is the most powerful piece piece out there. I love that saying because you're, you're absolutely right. Um, I can't wait to start working with you guys. This is exciting. Uh, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go get some uh bogos and uh, yeah, I got all kinds of people that I can do bogos with, okay, so let's go, we can I'm, I'm doing it.

Speaker 2: 44:32

All right, fund them all.

Speaker 1: 44:34

Fund them all. There you go, guys. This is our episode with Amanda Webster. Uh, check out the link below. Get your off $500 off. Plus, if you have a partner, you can get a bogo. That's awesome. Um, if you liked today's episode, make sure you give us a thumbs up on the video and, uh, of course, like always like always.

Speaker 2: 44:56

Uh, whose podcast were you on recently? You said david richter. David richter was on my channel.

Speaker 1: 44:58

I was on tom kroll's. Tom kroll's, you're going to go on justin colby's yep, I'm going on.

Speaker 2: 45:02

Justin's, I'm going to fly down to miami, uh, later this month. I did ricardo live yesterday. I didn't know it was live till we did it, but it's cool so you've been on all kinds of podcasts.

Speaker 1: 45:12

So here's the big difference, guys All of those podcasts openly accept three star reviews. Okay, but I only accept five star reviews. So if you liked today's episode, leave us a five star review. If you didn't like it, go to one of those other podcasts that she was on and leave them a three star review. Okay, those people, they're my friends, but they suck at podcasting in.