How Money Works: Credit IS Wealth – Angela Setters Bessard | Podcast Ep. 044

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Interview Transcription

Morris: Welcome to CreateGrowProfit: Coaching Stories. Today, I’m here with Angela Setters Bessard and we’re talking about how money and finances are tools to build wealth. Angela, thank you for being here.

Angela: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me, Morris. It’s a pleasure to be here and to talk to your audience.

Morris: My first question to every guest is always how did you become a coach or when did you officially started calling yourself a coach?

Angela: That’s a really good question. The way that I became a coach was actually years ago and I didn’t even know that I was a coach. so when I first started in this business, I was 18 years old and I’ll tell you a little backstory about that. So I was emancipated when I was 16 and if for those of you that don’t know what that means is that means that I became sort of an adult meaning that I could get a job, I could rent an apartment, I could buy a car and things of that nature because in the US until you’re 18 you’re not considered a pre-adult to be able to do those types of things specifically work.

So I worked in the banking world. I actually had three jobs. I worked in the banking world. I worked as a pie maker or you know, at a restaurant and I also answered phones at a car dealership but my main job was at a bank. I started off as a receptionist and I quickly moved up the ladder to an underwriter and when I became an underwriter I was at savings and loan and back in those days, believe it or not, for those of you that are in the US interest rates on mortgages were 19%.

That was the interest rate to buy a home and so when people say, “Oh interest rates are so high right now”. I’m like back in the day they were really really high so we’re still at ultra-low interest rates but the point to what I’m trying to say is that I became an underwriter and I quickly started to recognize how the bank would penalize people that had bad credit and did not really handle their finances in the best way.

So we were a savings and loan and sort of a subprime lender so our interest rates were a little bit higher than some of the other banks. So I would help all of the clients get from our D program into our B program and so I was helping clients really fix their situation so that they could save money well unfortunately or fortunately I should say my boss called me in about probably about 11 months after being in that position he sat me down and he said Angela, “Unfortunately we’re going to have to let you go”. And I was like, “Why, why are you letting me go?”

Just so you know in the company there were over 5,000 employees and about probably about 1,500 of those were all underwriters I was number three in the company, number three and they were letting me go. The reason they were letting me go is because I was costing the company so much money by helping people get from that D program into the B program so that was the problem.

Yeah but I will never forget what my boss told me and he said to me, “Angela I don’t know what it is about you but you have this resilient spirit and I know whatever you do you’ll make it”. Now of course being a 17-year-old girl on your own and losing your main source of income that I was I was happy that he said that but I was also very afraid and didn’t know what I was going to do with that situation

However, I had an idea and that was to continue helping the people or people with their credit wellness and their money wellness and so that’s when I decided to start my company. All of those years ago so it really turned into this thing where I just have a heart for people and their situation. I feel like a lot of people around the globe don’t have an understanding about how money works and you know you could even grow up in a family where someone is you know very financially successful but that parent doesn’t really sit down and teach you and explain to you.

They just give you, they give you the money. Side story it’s kind of funny. My son, I have three boys by the way and my son, he’s 27 he has a girlfriend and they live together in San Diego California and we were there this last weekend for Mother’s Day and his girlfriend said to me, “Boy oh boy I wish you would have taught him how to clean” and I’m thinking myself you know because I always you know took care of my kids and we’ve you, know always I’ve always been a clean freak but you know we’ve had a housekeeper that comes you know twice a month and so you know yeah that part my kids never learned but it’s kind of like that thing where I thought about it and I was like wow I really taught them about money and finances and Life application but there are some things that I didn’t teach them which obviously cleaning was not one of them or cooking.

They’re going to have to learn that on their own but back to what I was saying as far as you know basically what I was able to do when I was let go from that position is I really feel like a lot of people. Unfortunately will take that type of situation and feel powerless but that actually gave me power to create something that I’m still doing to this day. Now I didn’t know that I was a coach all of those years ago and I didn’t know that my life circumstances and the things that I was growing through. I don’t say going through would help me to understand and to help other people in their lives and their predicaments and their situations be able to heal from certain things that they go through in life whether it’s business, whether it’s finance, whether anything that’s going on as it pertains to money.

So all of those years ago, I never called myself a coach but it was probably about 15 years ago that I started to become a business coach and a personal finance coach to people because now I don’t know if you have you ever read the book by Malcolm Gladwell?

Morris: Which book?

Angela: Oh my gosh oh I forgot the name of it. Oh my gosh I got to look it up right now but the point of the book was is that every entrepreneur okay that spends 10,000 hours on their trade is now considered perfection in their trade. If you have spent 10,000 hours so my husband actually was the one that opened me up to that and said hey you know you have spent over 10,000 hours working on this gift that you have and helping people with their finances is I think you need to start coaching people and that is how I started my coaching side of my business.

So I had the full business where you know we have employees and we have tons of clients that we work for CPA firms, wealth management firms, I’ve been able to create relationships with several companies, hundreds of companies and now in the last 15 years I also have become a personal development coach as it pertains to people and their businesses and their finances.

Morris: Oh wow okay so would it be correct to say that the business you’ve built previously is kind of a done-for-you service?

Angela: Yes.

Morris: And the is a Doing It With You creducation?

Angela: Absolutely! Absolutely! I love that and that is definitely what it is. The business,my company which is called Conquer Credit Management is a Done For You full services company where we actually have products and services where we protect people against identity theft. We have a credit restoration side, a debt management side and we also help people that are insolvent in their business which means thatthey have a business or they’ve had a business and their cash flow is suffering so we help them restructure their business their vendor relationships, their banking relationships so that they can get back to the Grassroots in their business and continue so they don’t have to close their doors or file bankruptcy.

Morris: I have a bunch of follow-up questions, Angela but before I ask those questions let’s close the loop on. The book I opened on Amazon real quick is it Outliers?

Angela: Yes! Yes, Outliers! Absolutely that’s it it’s a great book. It was so many years ago that I read it and not my husband told me about it but I loved what Malcolm said Malcolm Gladwell who 1is the author of that book and several others business books is he really talks about how your passion for something and really really, it’s really rooted so deep inside of you and when you connect that with something that you do professionally and it just comes to you naturally innately that makes a way for you in life when you really follow that. He was he talks about how a lot of people ignore that passion that’s rooted and grounded inside of them and they go on a different path only to circle back several years later to find out no this is what I was supposed to be doing.

Morris: Oh yeah that speaks right to my heart. Need to read that book. It’s something that my coach is mentoring me on right now like as you’re as we speak here today is he keeps reminding me of how important it is to have this passion for the work that I do or we do because that’s how we can build rapport and without rapport, you don’t do much selling without rapport ese is at least not as a coach, right who works with people, very closely.

When you mentioned that you got fired from the bank at age 17 and then after that you went you built your own business?

Angela: Yes, so I mean I said that very quickly yes I did have another job I got another job but while I was working that job funny enough I was a recruiter so I started a job as a recruiter. Recruiting for technology companies and people continued to call me and ask me questions about what I was doing and how I was helping them and so several months after being into that job I just said, “You know what I’m going to step out in faith and what do I have to lose, you know, I’m only 17 and a half years old.”

I don’t have a family I don’t have anything that I can lose I’m just gonna start this business and so I had a cardboard table and I had a foldout chair and I didn’t even have a computer yet, okay? And I just started my business from there and it was very humble beginnings but through that process it taught me so much and I’m so grateful for everything and every person that I was able to touch their life during that time.

It also taught me a lot because I actually had to file bankruptcy at a very young age because of everything that I went through so going through that process helped me form this process and pattern to help others so that they don’t have to endure that pain or go through that process.

Now, unfortunately, I was very young so I didn’t know a lot that I learned going through that process of bankruptcy and understanding finances. Working for the bank seeing all the things that other people did, “Oh-uh did you see that? It stopped my camera there for a minute. But yeah I know yeah so going through that process was material and a baseline for what I was going to do in the future.

Now I didn’t know what I was going to be doing in the future. You know one of my one of the greatest books that I have ever read in my life talks about having trust and having blind faith and not you know being so caught up on having a plan. Now I’m not saying not to a plan because I’m a big believer if we don’t have a plan then we somehow plan to fail because you know you need to be able to track where it is that you want to go but at the same time it’s so important to have faith in moving forward and not be so caught up in how you’re going to get there.

Morris: Yeah detachment from the outcome.

Angela: Yeah yeah. People are so afraid to take that first step because they’re afraid to make a mistake they’re living in regret whatever the case may be but so I was so young that I just didn’t have anything to lose so I quit my job and I started my business and it was out of my little apartment. And then I met my husband and that’s a whole another story but.

Morris: You have so many stories.

Angela: Yeah I do I do I do. But that’s really how I started my business was being let go from a big bank, big bank, working in another company and having the realization that what I was doing was actually my life’s calling. My life’s calling was to help people and to help people understand that their credit, their money is an investment tool to build wealth.

Morris: What do you think made it possible for you to you know successfully launch your business at such a young age?

Angela: Well you know I don’t know if it’s proper to say this or not on your podcast but it’s just my truth I really believe that it was God you know. He was really taking care of me and He gave me all of the thoughts and the passion and the will to be able to take those steps forward and move in faith. I really do believe that. I didn’t really connect my faith until very later in life but back at that time I really do believe that because of how I grew up and what happened to me and the reason it led me to leave home and and be on my own.

I really feel like I had a really big ear to listen to what my heart and my spirit was saying and I would just follow that.

Morris: So first of all, it absolutely is appropriate to say that and thank you for sharing it too Angela.

Angela: Yes.

Morris: Would you say that you had any special like marketing skills or sales skills that helped you get started with your first few clients? Or how did you act on your like intuition? Let’s say like that.

Angela: You know when I was young, my mother had me in acting classes. I actually was in speech classes I would win speech competitions all the time. When I went to school and I did theater and I sang so I was always out in front and I was a very precocious child like I always wanted to know what was going on like if I saw something over there I’d be like what is that.

I was very inquisitive. I always wanted to know what was going on. I actually would read encyclopedias and I just was very curious, you know very very curious person and I still am to this day and so I believe because of that being an extrovert the way that I was I just really believe that nothing was impossible for me like there was nothing that could stop me from wanting to go after my dreams.

That I didn’t really know were my dreams at that time but I just was never ever afraid of anything I really wasn’t. I just would walk. I would step out in faith and that’s why I really believe it was the God inside of me that really would take those steps so you know when someone would say oh can you do that I would never say well I’m not really sure. I would say yeah of course I can do that, you know so I was never afraid to really do anything so when that came to mind and when I took that other job and people kept calling me I just said to myself you know what, I need to do this for a living and so I just did.

You know I had no plan you know so even though I just said that if you don’t have a plan you, plan to fail right well in some instances there is no plan and you just move forward and then in moving forward you start to create the plan or the plan becomes alive and that’s what happened in my life.

So I use that term that I grew into the person that I am because I was rooted and grounded in listening and learning and becoming who I am today.

Morris: And what is it that you do today in your coaching? Which types of people do you work with and how do you coach them?

Angela: So I have two different types of people that I coach. I coach individuals who have what I call financial trauma okay? So there are a lot of people that I call our serial spenders.

I’ll give you an example, I have a client that is very wealthy um he makes probably about $12 million a year. But he spends about $12,300 a year and I’m just giving you that for the wow factor. Unfortunately, because of what happened to him and his upbringing he has had no regard for his spending habits and so even though he makes $12 million a year he has no retirement, he has no savings, none of that.

Can you believe that someone who makes $12 million a year but because he has nothing in his life that he’s looking forward to and because he’s young now, he’s taking a step back and saying okay I’ve been out of control and I need someone to help me to be in control and to set up these different metrics so that I can plan my retirement I can grow my business and I can stop spending money frivolously and a lot of the times it’s something that is inside of them that they’re operating in fear and they’re just loosey goosey and they really just need someone to guide them and help them with their thought process and creating that plan of action so that they can be successful in their financial life.

So that’s the extreme, right? So that is an individual and I gave you that example of someone who’s very wealthy but wealthy in the sense that they make a lot of money but they’re not wealthy because they’re not maintaining it the right way. They’re not taking care of it the right way. It’s kind of like the farmer right?

So you can have a farm and you can have crops but if you don’t take care of them with the seeds that you’ve planted then you’re not going to have the vegetation or the fruit that you need so that you can go out and sell it and give it to people. Which is a part of your business of being a farmer right?

So same thing, so those are individuals. The other people that I coach are business owners. So what happens to either a lot of entrepreneurs or business owners, people that buy other people’s business is that unfortunately in the instance where someone’s buying someone else’s business even though they may have done their due diligence they didn’t do it properly and so they buy a business that unfortunately is failing in certain areas.

And so what I’m able to do is take a whole outlook on what’s going on with their business and start from the Grassroots and rebuild things, rebuild vendor relationships, rebuild banking relationships and help them to be more profitable in their business.

Then I also from the business owner side coach people that let’s just say that they’re dictators and they have a hard time keeping employees, and I help them with their leadership because it’s very important that when you are leading people that you know how to follow as well you cannot lead people if you are not first a follower.

And I am a true believer that even in leadership, you have to have a mentor no matter how high you rise in life okay? President of the United States has a mentor, has someone that they’re talking to. Has someone that’s coaching them right?

Morris: Probably several.

Angela: Yes! Of course! And it doesn’t matter how high you get in life, you need to have someone that helps you with that leadership development. Someone that you can talk to and keep you grounded so that you can inspire the people that you work with.

And that in turn helps to grow your business because when you have healthy and happy employees that is what grows your business. If you have employees that are unhappy, you’re going to have a swinging door and that creates chaos in a business and it’s very costly when you have to keep retraining new employees that is a very very costly business it can be very frustrating as a business owner or an entrepreneur.

So those are the two types of people that I coach. It’ll be the individual that really needs to get their po*p together is what I say and then and then there is the entrepreneur or the business owner and really having an understanding of what it is that they’re struggling with in their business and coaching them to perfection.

Now the reason that I’m qualified to do that is because I have been running a successful business for all of these years and I have I don’t call them employees. So I have people that I align with and I work with and I’ve had people that have worked with me for over 20 years.

So you know it says a lot about how I allow them the opportunity to grow in their position and I continue to lead them and guide them together and we grow this operation and this business together and we serve people together.

Morris:Yeah 20 years of partnerships with employees that really speaks to your leadership skills and also the business you’ve built people don’t stay that long in businesses that they don’t enjoy working for.

Angela: Yeah well I think also it’s a because we get to help people, Morris we’re in a place where a lot of clients that come to us are in a very vulnerable position and I really believe that when I vet people to come and work for Conquer Credit Management, I really give them the who what why and where of what they’re getting into.

And I really believe in hiring people that have a heart because we’re going to be dealing with frustrated people. We’re going to be dealing with people that you know have some really tough things going on in life. I was just talking to a client yesterday who has brain cancer and he has a it’s called a blastoma I believe and he’s had several surgeries to the tune of I think he owes like $5 million in medical debts.

And so that’s just an example of some of the people that we deal with. Can you imagine having a conversation with someone who doesn’t know if they’re going to live or not and they’re worried about their financial life you know.

So I have to have the type of people that are working with me have a heart have an understanding and learn how to handle those types of clients. To not only take care of their situation but be mindful of what it is that they’re going through during that time and be service oriented.

Morris: Yeah you this can’t feel like a transactional experience at all and is you know you mentioned clients coming to you feeling vulnerable, I also find it interesting you know at the beginning you shared the example of cooking skills cleaning skills and financial skills, I don’t know how it is for you but in my life experience if you lack cleaning skills or cooking skills, it’s nothing really to be ashamed of but if you like financial skills, if you’re bad with money there’s always a lot of shame attached to it.

I feel like admitting that you have financial problems or you need help with finances makes you feel a lot more vulnerable than saying oh I can’t cook, I’m going to take a cooking class. As a matter of fact that is often times applauded right? Like oh he’s taking a cooking class or she’s taking a cooking class but if you go out and say I’m bad with money, I need help with my money it doesn’t receive the same level of applause.

Angela: I feel like it really doesn’t and I don’t know what that stigma is about. I really don’t understand that because again what I always say when I’m speaking on stages or I’m giving talks is that the greatest gift that we can give our children is the gift of financial literacy and the reason that it is so important is because when you grow up and you start to make your own money, there is that what you’re talking about that stigma attached to it.

That if you don’t take care of it that you’re somehow a loser or you know and it’s really not that it’s like with anything, if you don’t know any better how are you going to do any better. You have to be taught.

Morris: Yeah yeah, the fact that it’s kind of a difficult um struggle to admit it only makes it worse only makes more people who are struggling, struggle even more.

Angela: Yes 100%. Yeah and that’s what again what I love about what I do is I get to help people take themselves or let themselves off the hook. Look if you would have known how to do better you would have done it. So it’s okay, let’s not live in regret, let’s learn some new tools and move forward.

And I’m going to be with you every step of the way and I’m just going to be your little cheerleader as you continue to do better in life yeah.

Morris: That’s beautiful coach that’s why I’m so passionate about coaching because it is the only tool I know that enables this level of transformation in a supporting way, you know. Somebody listening to this who you know now starts to feel comfortable reaching out to you, where can they or how can they get in touch with you?

Angela: Well I have a website. It’s pretty simple. It’s my name angelabessard.com. That’s B as a Boy, E as an Edward, S as in Sam, S as in Sam, ARD as in David and that’s where you can find out all about me my story is there. Some of my clients that I’ve been, I’ve had the opportunity to work with. And you can contact me through there as well.

Morris: Perfect! I’ll put the link below this episode so angelabessard.com. That’s how they can reach out to you.

Angela: Yes sir!

Morris: Any final words Angela before we wrap it up?

Angela: I think we pretty much covered everything but it’s such a pleasure to be here with you today and you know what’s so amazing is that we can be in different countries and still connect. I just love it so much. I love how technology has allowed us to grow and develop as coaches and help each other grow. So thank you so much for the opportunity to be here with you Morris. I wish you so much success in your coaching business and of course all of your clients.

And don’t forget to subscribe on my YouTube channel, @creategrowprofit.