Marysol: Hello and welcome to the Un Billón Mindset Podcast. I'm your host, Marysol Uribe and
I am the founder of the Un Billón Movement. Now, Yosmel here is our special guest and he is native from Cuba. He's Cubano.
Yosmel: Yes.
Marysol: And he has a background in finance and banking and loans so he's here to tell us a bit about that and educate us because oftentimes we don't have the opportunity to sit in front of someone like Yosmel, right? So we're all in our little worlds. We work, we go home, we study, we work, we go home, we study. Sometimes we have fun, like us, we had a nice dinner last night. Thank you so much for that. Introduce yourself, Yosmel. Tell us where you are from and what got you here.
Yosmel: Definitely. Thank you so much for that introduction. How are you, my people? My name is Yosmel. I’m actually from Cuba, born and raised in Havana. I came to the United States when I was 22 years old. I went from Havana straight to Santa Ana, California.
Marysol: From Havana to Santa Ana.
Yosmel: *laughing* Exactly. In Cuba I went to study for engineering telecommunications in
CUJAE [Polytechnic Institute Jose Antonio Echevarria], which every Cuban would know, but it started here. I came in 2013 and my dream job was always to work in a telecommunication company, so I did that. I went to work for Verizon, moved to Tampa, Tampa to Utah, and then in Utah, I found this amazing company called Lendio, which is a Marketplace for small business lenders. I went to work over there in 2018 and in a year, I was able to expand the business line of the credit department that was not existent. I opened it up for them. I love business lending. I get to see business owners making a hundred to two hundred thousand [dollars] to people making over 40 million dollars. All types of business lending - line of credit, unsecured line of credit, SBA loans, cash advance, AI receivable, PO financing, whatever you name it. Credit cards for businesses and stuff like that. Then within a year I actually came back to California to open up my own franchise and that's exactly what I did from 2019 up to 2022. I was operating Lendio Anaheim here in California. I did a lot of PPP loans, over 300 PPP loans in 2020 and 2021. Actually probably more than that. Now, I’m doing my own company/ It's called YeeGoals and it's about connecting the right business with the right bank and the right banker.
Marysol: Mhm, I love that because sometimes we have different industries. One banker may not necessarily fit everybody's needs so tell us, if you can, a little bit about what problem you saw and what you see the future of banking changing to look like.
Yosmel: Definitely. I don't have a Ouija board as far as saying the right place, like what is going to happen with banking in the next 10-20 years, right? But this is what I know today. What I know today is that we can have a better banking system working for all of us. Not just for the big boy club so let's just put it that way. Because data have shown historically that the financial system hasn't been fair to everybody equally. To put into perspective, in real nbers and real data, in 2016, Bank of America got sued- actually settled for over 300 million dollars because they were denying loans to Latinos specifically and other minority groups like African Americans. In my personal opinion, because I was also, like many people, I have been denied loans, it doesn't seem fair to me that these big institutions- again I'm not trashing them, I'm just stating facts- take the money from Latinos and other groups and they get to play favorites with who they are going to lend to, especially if they have the same credit criteria. If you and I both have good credit, we have good income, why is it that you might get a loan and I don't? Right?
This problem is definitely more than that - it goes back to redlining back then. I don’t want to give specific dates because there's a lot of data. But when they used to not give home loans to specific Black neighborhoods or Hispanic neighborhoods or immigrant neighborhoods. It does affect, in my opinion, it really really affects the livelihood of millions of people in this country. They’re just trying to get ahead in life, from the Immigrant standpoint because I'm an immigrant, there's no time to take your job and run to Cuba or Mexico or whatever. They're just trying to provide a better life for themselves and their family. Simple as that, so that’s my take. That’s what I’ll say. We can have better banking and that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm not “trying,” I'm going to do it.
Marysol: Yes, I love that.
Yosmel: I'm not going to say banks are horrible people. I'm not here to trash the banks because they do play a fundamental role in our economy. It's very important. The bank is not just to hold your money; they provide safety for your money but they also transfer the money, they also analyze risk and they put that little cash into potential businesses. Just like in any industry there's really good people and not so great people. I know many bankers that are
are amazing people. They go the extra mile to ensure that you have your financial
needs met.
Marysol: Yeah. We need referral, word of mouth, to point us to the direction of a trustworthy
person right now. It's just asking around, calling them up, and so definitely I think more transparency is needed and more trust and credibility to be built. Kind of like when you are trying to hire someone and you look into their resume and some applicants are supposed to write maybe three references and their phone numbers where you can call them up. And so that's a really good perspective to have when it comes to someone who's trying to innovate, right? Not necessarily conforming with what's available to us right now. So Yosmel, quick question, what would you tell this small business owner who is still struggling with the whole good debt versus bad debt and just struggling with that mindset of getting money to
leverage your business?
Yosmel: Definitely, let me give you this specific example. Our mental health right or physical health. We have a primary care physician, right?
Marysol: Yes.
Yosmel: In the financial side, you need a primary care banker. I would actually say even more primary care bankers because the more bankers you know, the better the health of your
wallet. That's a funny way to put it.
Marysol: That’s a good one.
Yosmel: But if you think about it makes sense because that's a professional that really understands debt and if you're connecting with the right banker in your industry, he has the experience seeing other business owners in the same industry probably in the same spot,
then he can actually give you some sort of advice and it's free. You don't have to pay the banker - you can literally just walk into the bank and request to speak without either a financial advisor or a business banker or call a relationship manager, what it's called. And talk to them, run your situation by them. I would say that's the easiest step to do before you talk to somebody else. That's literally the easiest one.
Marysol: No strings attached. Some people may think, “Oh I need a business first or proven concept.” No, you could just present someone with maybe your business plan or the numbers and they could run it by you, right?
Yosmel: Yeah! And it's absolutely free. There’s a very fine line between a small
business and a startup, like a tech startup. For example, when Facebook started the platform, it's not the same because these people get to raise capital for private investors whereas small businesses usually depend heavily on banks to start a business. We don't play by the same rules, I’d like to say. That's what I've seen so far but when it comes to good debt, bad debt, really talk to a professional because it takes money to make money but you need to know
exactly what type of money you are taking and what is your cash flow. Don't take a
hundred thousand dollars at 25% interest rate if only you're going to make ten percent of that money. That's a bad business right away. That's why I always recommend to go to
the bank, talk to a banker, have them take a look at it. It's free, you don't have to pay, and if it makes sense, it will make sense and they will tell you what to do. “Why don't you save a little bit more, get a down payment, let's get an SBA loan. It might be at 10 percent, whatever that might be, but your cash flow would work for this and we might be able to do the loan for you.”
Marysol: That's a really good perspective because some people may feel the need to jump in
one of these financing…when it could be a chokehold to their business where they may not be ready for it.
Yosmel: Oh, absolutely.
Marysol: So that's the last thing you want to do is as a small business owner toss and turn in bed thinking, “Wow how am I going to make the payment this month?” So cash flow is very important. I know last night we talked a bit about Robert Kiyosaki and just those fundamentals and how it's important to constantly educate yourself, whether it's through books. Here's my book right here, “Un Billón Mindset: Health.” Whether it's learning through new people like yourself, Yosmel, a wealth of knowledge. When you sit with someone, you can get all these years of experience condensed in a couple minutes tailored to your situation. So what have you heard from your clients that you didn't hear of in previous jobs? Like maybe when you were not working for yourself, do you feel like your work is more appreciated today than it was before?
Yosmel: I honestly, I think so. Especially during and after the pandemic. During the pandemic, that was intense. The pandemic was intense from the capital perspectives. Everybody had, they used to call it “PPP fatigue.” And it's because it was very uncertain times. In March 2020, it was chaos everywhere.
Marysol: Yeah, we thought Covid was extremely deadly. I remember working in the front lines over here in Skid Row, Los Angeles.
Yosmel: Oh my goodness.
Marysol: I was sleeping in my garage at some point and extremely unpredictable. It tested lots of businesses and their ability to survive through this financial winter.
Yosmel: To follow up on what you say, I agree. I have the privilege to see people changing their business completely, people actually dying, financially speaking. A bunch of layoffs, but I got to see both sides. To give you an actual example, I had a client that had swimming classes. The business was the swimming classes. The pandemic hit, no more classes, no more revenue or scores, but she was very profitable in 2018 and 2019. So she called and said, “Hey, I would like to get a business loan only for two hundred thousand dollars. I'm planning to create an app, a mobile application.” And through that mobile application they created it and it was to do swimming classes through the app, so their revenue actually went up because they called the clients and said, “Hey, now you can download this app if you have a pool in your house and we can do everything remotely.” In 2021 and since it started opening up, the revenue doubled. So that's what I call resilience right there. Amazing story out of the pandemic.
Marysol: Really awesome and more of us are turning to the digital world every day. It's just convenient.
Yosmel: It is, absolutely. Convenience is the right word, you said it right there. Although I would argue, in my humble opinion, that regardless of how much technology we have, I don't think we would ever replace that human touch, which I don't know, AI might say something different, but I I like to believe that human touch cannot be replaced. We still need this handshake, that feeling that we're talking to an actual human being, but that's just my humble opinion.
Marysol: I agree. It's like replacing a nurse with a robot, like no. Part of what I studied is the holistic person - holistic meaning mind, body, spirit. We don't leave those two out and just focus on the physical body when there's more to the human person than that. If I talk to my hospice nurse friends who are really seeing and treating patients at the brink of death and dying, they have these deep conversations, whether it's “Do you regret anything? What's something that you want to take off your chest? What's on your mind?” So all that is very therapeutic and of course we need human connection. We need the touch because we need to remember what it feels like to have these sensations of love and intimacy.
Yosmel: Yes.
Marysol: Something so simple as a pat on the shoulder, just a hug, a look, saying “Hey, I care about you. I'm here for you. I'm just a call away, whatever you need. Let's grab lunch again next month.” Things like that. I think we all have five minutes to call someone whether it's your loved one, parents from across the state, from across the country, because we're here one moment and we're gone the next. It's just unpredictable. Only God knows, is how I see it, when our final moment is.
Yosmel: I couldn’t have said it better, Marysol. You're absolutely right. That was really nice for you to say, but that is absolutely right.
Marysol: My pleasure. Out of the 7,000 patients I've seen I have a lot of testimonials and just life paradigms or perspectives, theories, or philosophy. I'm really big on existentialism and getting someone to be comfortable with sharing why it is that they feel that they are here or what has become their purpose in life. A lot of us are lacking this clarity and direction but it just takes some internal reflection and conviction and commitment to actually pull through on your business, in your marriage, and your family, on whatever it is that you want to improve on is how I see things. What are your thoughts about that?
Yosmel: Actually, before I do that, may I just take a moment and say thank you so much for your service during the pandemic. It was nurses like yourself or people who work in the healthcare industry. I could never imagine the mental toll it took on you seeing so many people dying at the same time. Not to belittle any other person in any other industry, but I just want to make sure that I thank you for doing that.
Marysol: Thank you. Every industry is needed. I remember we were being called “heroes” or “essential workers,” but everyone is needed. Everyone keeps the economy going and every day you're visiting someone's job. Every day there's this exchange of time and money and we get to choose where we spend it and who we spend it with. So that was beautiful. I appreciate the acknowledgement.
Yosmel: Absolutely the least that I can do. I don't have a lot of words to say after that because you can kind of take everything right there. I'm a person with little words, but I agree. You do need to have that feeling, that person, like you said. “We’ll take a look at you. How are you doing today?” It’s a simple question but it might have such a strong meaning for somebody. You never know what people are going through in their life. You never know. I feel like that's why you need to approach from curiosity, from the standpoint of being authentic when you're asking. “How are you doing? How can we help you today?” The only fact that you're actually listening, for some people that just made the difference right there.
Marysol: You know what else? I think that's what separates you as an independent banker, if I may, is having this connection, this prerogative to want to have a connection, a long-going relationship with your client. Not just maybe answer their questions once and cut the relationship, no. Like I'm sure you have your phone lines open if they ever need to come back and do another loan with you.
Yosmel: Yes, so let me clarify. I'm not a banker. I’ve never worked for any bank in the United States. My platform is just connecting with the right bank and banker but what you just said is absolutely true. I have worked with so many bankers and funding managers and people in the financial industry. That's exactly the approach that everybody should be taking or at least I take. Let's listen to your needs because it's not just about giving you money. Yes, you you get the money but you’re getting the money to inject it in the community that you're representing. You’re bettering your life but if you're hiring people, now you're bettering the lives of the people around you by providing jobs and economic opportunity to other people. I feel like a good banker would always understand that part, again at least the people that I used to work over here at Lendio. When I used to work at Lendio, a lot of them would understand that. It was not just money; it was about how when you get it, you better understand yourself, your company continuing to grow. If your company is growing, now you're hiring people, now you're making an impact in the economy of your community first and then overall in the country. It’s understanding that part. That is not important just for the United States, once again let me say, that it's important for any country in the world, either in Cuba, Mexico, China and in any other country, in Germany. My family on my mom’s side lives in Switzerland and I have the honor to speak with Swiss bankers. One thing they tell me that they do over there is that they get the time to get to know the businesses in the community. My aunt, who had lived in Switzerland for years, had told me that when she goes to the bank everybody knows her name. My cousin's name and her husband. Like what an amazing experience and if you think about it, Switzerland only has 8 to 10 million people and they have over 243 Banks. To give you a perspective on that, Mexico has over 100 million citizens and only 48 banks. Huge difference right there. So it goes back to again, the economic opportunity that you can get with the banking system, and this is again just my humble opinion, but some of the stuff that you have to take a look in and what is so important sometimes is to have those types of good relationships.
Marysol: Yeah, definitely. So I imagine you’ve seen lots of business plans.
Yosmel: Yes.
Marysol: What would you tell someone who isn't sure they're ready to present their plan to someone? What are some key points to consider to make sure we have on our plan?
Yosmel: Projections, a good value proposition ,and you really get to know the problem that you're trying to solve, but most importantly, go ahead and present it . Because you're never gonna have a perfect, never. I can speak on that. I know because I recently went through a pitch in front of investors and the guy literally ripped up on my pitch. He was like, “You got this wrong, you got this right.” I'm always studying my market, but I just didn't put it in the right way for them to understand the problem that I was trying to solve. But just do it, go ahead and do it, because that person that you are presenting to might get the time to say this is what you need feedback onand you can go back and fix it. It's not the end of the world. So if you have it, go ahead and do it and present it to somebody. Make sure that hopefully that person takes the time to say, “This is what I didn't like. This is what I believe that you need to fix.” And you go ahead. You can go back now with good feedback and make those arrangements.Hopefully you can go back to that person or go find another investor, but you come back stronger.
Marysol: That's right! We come back stronger. Thank you so much for your time so far this morning. Quick wrap up to the show would be what does having an un billón mindset mean to you?
Yosmel: Wow, that is a great question right there. What is the un billón mindset? I feel like it is to have the commitment to get started and the consistency to finish whatever you're doing. That’s it. Again, I'm not a guy with a lot of words, but it will be those two: the commitment to get it started in whatever you do and the consistency to finish or get to whatever point or goals you have to finish that project.
Marysol: So there you go, guys. Have the commitment to get that started and the consistency to keep it going and see your plan come to fruition. Thank you so much, Yosmel. I will put his info in the description of the show and as always, share with a friend, like, subscribe, follow, and we'll see you on the next one. Un Billón!
Yosmel: Thank you so much, Marysol. Un Billón!