We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful D. Saul. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with D. Saul below.
D. Saul, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
For starters, I stopped the 9-5 work life to pursue my dreams of entrepreneurship. It never felt like a 9-5 was serving me in any way. I even felt like it actually diminished my talents. Since a kid, I’ve always been a natural leader, a people’s person, & always had a strong outgoing personality. The monotonous nature of a 9-5 job made me feel closed in & eventually depressed so I stopped pursuing it altogether to bet on myself and took the risk in March of 2019.
Quick backstory: Back in 2015, I lost out on a job I really wanted bc of my credit score. This lead me to learning the ins and outs of credit & eventually I fixed my own credit. Of course, I bragged to all of my family and friends on how quick I did it, so they wanted me to help them with theirs. To make a long story short, I took the skills I learned and made a business out of it. So me taking a leap of faith came at the right time bc I had learned a skill I could use to make it my new “job”.
The leap of faith looked like me officially starting that credit repair business. I made everything official and immediately started promoting my business to the world. I went months without a serious clientele so I had to drive Lyft, deliver groceries with Shipt, and even rent my car out to make ends meet. I still managed to find a few clients here and there though. I promoted myself all the time. Anywhere I went, I was sure to ask people for their business & even picked up a few clients in the Lyft ride and Shipt drop-offs. Most of the clients I had wanted to fix their credit to buy a home, so I pursued my real estate license and became fully licensed in 2019. I didn’t know it at the time but this leap of faith led me to creating 2 businesses.
I had created the businesses but still didn’t have a strong enough clientele to pay for my bills and lifestyle starting off. This lasted for about a year before I started really seeing the dividends. By mid 2020, I was able to fully quit all of my side jobs and focus solely on being a real estate agent and running a credit business. I won rookie of the year in my real estate firm my first year and I havent looked back since. I’m glad I took the risk bc now both of my businesses are flourishing, I’ve received sponsored partnerships with other credit companies and I helped thousands of people build their credit score to buy and invest in new homes. That risk led me to tripling my income after only a year while getting back my true outgoing personality.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I refer to myself as a Money Coach. I specialize in helping people build their credit to buy homes, manage their money & debt effectively, and more. I host a podcast show “Money Talk Mondays” in which I educate my audience on money tips and bring on other co-hosts in the financial industry to come and share their wealth of knowledge.
Today I’m a Realtor with the Central Ave Group Powered by eXp Realty. I teach people how to build and repair their own credit so I can help them buy and sell real estate. I do my credit education through my sponsorship with Credit Repair Hacks where together we’ve developed a free credit repair software to give people who don’t make a lot of money an inexpensive way to effectively repair their own credit.
My biggest asset is my mindset. My ability to see in my mind what I want and not quit until I get it is what sets me apart. During my journey, I had to fight through extensive periods of depression & anxiety. Even after I found all of the success, I fell back down depression in 2021-2022 and I lost everything I had. I went broke. I lost relationships. I felt like my world was ending. This led me to focusing deeply on my mental health pretty much all of 2022. . I strongly feel like if I wouldn’t have taken a break from working to focus on my mental health, my life would have ended from stress. Even with me losing most of all of my assets, I still managed to keep my 2 businesses and now they are both stronger than ever. My mindset is what helped me persevere through all of that.
Since then, I turned my podcast to be about money and mindset. I teach people how to reprogram their mindset so they can take full advantage of the money tips I offer & create better money habits. Better habits with money equals a better life.
I’m most proud of how I persevere through any storm that comes my way and not afraid to share my battles and triumphs with the world to help the people who are going through the same things I experienced.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
What helped me build my reputation is always staying true to myself. I never tried to imitate anyone else in my field, I just always do it my own special way. All of my clients and colleagues respect this aspect about me bc they feel comfortable with me. I learned early on in my life that people do business with people they like and trust. I never really had any issues with people liking me, but by me opening up the real me to anybody I met led to people feeling like they can trust me. I’m never afraid to share what I go through, so people instantly feel connected.
I show up to my real estate closings sometimes in jeans and streetwear and sometimes suited and booted. That’s my personality, I dress according to how I’m feeling at the moment and people love that about me. They see me as a regular person just like them so they open up a lot more. Me winning people over like that helps me run a 100% referral and relationship based business. I don’t have to go out searching for new clients anymore. The people that I work with like and trust me so much that they tell all of their peers to work with me.
Another reason is bc I put my clients and people first. I lead with integrity and always do the right thing. The very notion of me stopping my expensive credit repair services to give people a far more inexpensive service through Credit Repair Hacks shows my commitment to the people and underserved community.
Everybody loves me bc I love everybody back and it shows.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
The best source for new clients for me is through my podcast platform. I open up a safe space and talk about everyday issues that we as people face so naturally people are engaged. Once they learn my personality and how down to earth I am, they become interested in working with me organically. I don’t have to do any hard sells or heavy convincing bc they learn my character through my podcasts. I give them free game and daily tips throughout my podcasts and live sessions with other hosts so they trust that I’m knowledgeable in my field.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.liinks.co/dsaul
- Instagram: @teamdsaul
- Facebook: @teamdsaul
- Linkedin: Dequontis D. Saul
- Twitter: @teamdsaul
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@teamdsaul