Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson
Ready Set Collaborate is a podcast with a wealth of knowledge on networking, collaboration, and partnership, unlocking the secrets to successful teamwork and Innovation. Whether you are an entrepreneur, a creative professional, or just someone who can understand the power of networking and collaboration. This podcast is your go-to resource. Join us as we explore the stories, strategies, and insights from experts, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders who have experienced the magic of networking and collaboration to achieve successful results.
Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson
Money Moves With Precious Johnson: Financial Empowerment Through Informed Decisions
Financial literacy shouldn't be a mystery, yet so many entrepreneurs struggle to navigate funding options beyond traditional banking. That's exactly why my conversation with Precious Johnson of WeInform Consulting Group is a must-listen for anyone looking to grow their business or invest in real estate.
Precious brings refreshing clarity to the often-murky world of business funding, explaining how her approach differs dramatically from traditional banks and SBA lenders. As a broker with access to multiple lending sources, she offers financial solutions tailored to businesses that conventional institutions might otherwise reject. "If you don't fall in line with what they're looking for, they're pretty much pushing you off to the side," she explains about traditional banks, highlighting why alternative funding routes are critical for many entrepreneurs.
The episode dives deep into the distinctions between hard money, private capital, and institutional funding—knowledge that can transform how you approach business growth. Precious illustrates how strategic funding can build long-term wealth using the example of a truck driver expanding from one vehicle to a fleet, then eventually investing in commercial real estate. This step-by-step wealth-building approach through smart financing decisions illuminates pathways many business owners never consider.
Perhaps most eye-opening is Precious's discussion of the financial literacy gap affecting entrepreneurs and individuals alike. "We don't get taught how to manage and be adults," she points out, explaining how this educational void leads to financial struggles. Her passion for education shines when describing a specialized budgeting program that can help people pay off a 30-year mortgage in as little as five years without drastically changing their lifestyle.
Connect with Precious Johnson
email: precious@weinformconsulting.com
Instagram - @preciousajo24
https://l.facebook.com/preciousajo24
website: Home | We Inform
Phone: 434-443-2621
Ready to transform your approach to business funding and financial management? Find Precious Johnson on Instagram and LinkedIn as "MsPreciousAJO" and discover how informed financial decisions can unlock your path to sustainable success. Subscribe to the podcast for more conversations that will help you build, connect, and thrive in your entrepreneurial journey.
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Welcome to Ready Set. Collaborate with Wanda Pearson. This is where ideas spark, connections grow and collaborations fuse success. Tune in for inspiring stories, expert insights and game-changing conversations. Let's build, connect and thrive together. Remember collaboration is the key to success.
Speaker 3:Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Ready Set Collaborate podcast with Wanda Pearson. I am your host, wanda Pearson-Moy, and I'm thrilled to welcome a powerhouse guest. I'm talking about a powerhouse guest, especially with a beautiful name Precious Johnson, with we Inform Consultant. Precious is a passionate coach, speaker and financial educator who is on a mission to empower individuals and entrepreneurs with the knowledge they need to assess business and investment funding. Through her consulting firm, she helps people make informed decisions, financial decisions, and unlock their path to success. Get ready to be inspired, take notes and learn how collaboration and financial literacy go hand in hand, and that's why I named this podcast Ready Set Collaborate, Precious. Say hi to the audience. Precious, I'm going to talk to you about your bio. This is just a little introduction, just getting them ready for that. Say hello.
Speaker 1:Hello everyone, hello, hello, hello, it's a pleasure to be here with Wanda and thank you for inviting me?
Speaker 3:yes, definitely, we saw each other. God, we met each other. How many years ago when I started doing networking? I want to say it was at least three. I'm thinking it's coming on at least that, because I had you on my webinar, we did a webinar together yeah, we got to go back to that.
Speaker 1:I know exactly I plan on doing.
Speaker 3:I plan on doing a seminar as well. I'm about educating and you are too Educating and empowering people to know what's out there and how they can be informed, Like I love that we inform about what's happening in the financial, in the literacy, because a lot of us don't know. I was just talking to a young lady about insurance With our business legal insurance we call it legal insurance. They don't know what they don't know. We are out here, just like you and I, to educate people about that and how they can get better informed. Let me talk about your bio here.
Speaker 3:Pressure Johnson is a powerhouse behind WeInform Consulting Group, a financial empowerment and business education firm dedicated to equipping individuals and entrepreneurs with the clarity and confidence to navigate business funding and real estate investment funding options. With a passion to close in the knowledge gap, Precious has positioned WeInform as a go-to resource for those looking to access capital, build business credit and secure funding for sustainable business growth. Her growth into the world of finance and entrepreneurship began in the real estate space, where she initially connected with investors to wholesale properties. That hands-on experience led her to. What is it? Renata's education platform, where she immersed herself in learning directly from industry practitioners. Through that journey, she was introduced to the world of hard money lending, an encounter that ultimately sparked the founding of we Inform Consulting Group.
Speaker 3:I love that. You definitely said that. This says it all in a nutshell. I appreciate you coming on the show and, like I said, we're about educating collaboration, and that's really the key to success. Right, I said collaboration is the key to success. We always want to know how we can collaborate and I'm going to tell you, Precious, when we had COVID, that's when we started doing webinars, and after I did the webinars, I said, okay, God told me, okay, Wanda, you're going to do, and also Edelene Dryden, you're going to do, podcasts.
Speaker 3:I'm like, what Podcasts I've been doing podcasts. It'll be two years in November and I like to talk. As you can see, it's a no brainer, but I wanted to make sure I got guests on that actually they can share their business with the audience and how they can actually help you Get ready and I'm going to ask you some questions about understanding Bring them on. Bring them on, All right. My first, what we're going to talk about is understanding the business of funding, right, how does your approach differ from a traditional bank or SBA lender? And that's a good question.
Speaker 1:We inform we are a broker In saying that we have access to several lenders in which we can get funding options. From when you're thinking about going to a traditional bank, they lock you into a criteria because you're a risk and they want their risk to be a certain way. If you don't fall in line with what they're looking for, they're pretty much pushing you off to the side. What makes us different is because we have access to the different lenders. Of course, you get options. You get access to different options, but it's not only going to be based on how long you've been in business, and then some of the options can go off of credit or not credit, based on how much income you have going on as well in your business. Those are three different criteria that I can look at in order to get financing options for your company.
Speaker 3:That's great. That's great to know because I know a lot of people because these traditional banks and SBA lenders they don't really give those loans out freely and then you're going to pay for it and then you got that high interest rate to be able to pay for it and you got to pay it back.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Thank you for sharing that, and let's move on to your real estate investment funding the smart way. What's the difference between hard money, private capital and institutional funding?
Speaker 1:OK, let's start with institutional, because I just pretty much mentioned it in the last question. Institutional is the banks, like I said, or your credit unions or your government-backed loans. They fall under a traditional guideline in which they can only provide you with funding, although, depending on the type of business you have, how long you've been in business and how comfortable they are with funding for you. I will be honest and say that may traditional bank may be a route for you, maybe the better route, because, although they are in a strict guideline, they sometimes offer better and lower costs for their money. Long term or different scenarios like that may be more advantageous. However, if you don't quite follow in their guidelines, that's becoming the play.
Speaker 1:Now when you talk about hard money usually for those like it's in the real estate space Again, they are more asset based. What type of property you're looking at? Asset based for the lending, the fees will be higher because it's all in your business and it's a hard money lender. If you're not able to go to that traditional bank, you'll be looking at a hard money loan. They also have faster funding options. Like you can be funded within a week, depending on how fast you get your information back and forth to the lender and the terms can be shorter and it can be all based on what you're looking to do. They can navigate what your investment strategy will look like.
Speaker 1:If you're going to do a short-term hold or like a fix and flip, hard money may be your go-to.
Speaker 1:If you're looking for a long-term refinance, those options are available as well. Now, when you look at the private money, it's like a friend, family, just people you've connected with over time that has capital that's willing to invest in you and what you got going on the power. The powerful thing about private money is the terms can be negotiated and it's not always going to be in a specific realm unless they have their specific guidelines on what they want to invest their money, and they've been doing it for a while. But if you approach with an opportunity that makes sense and you're able to make them money, I'm sure they'll be willing to listen, and that's also a goal that we have. As well as building not only relationships with institutions and hard money lenders, but also with our private lenders, we can also have a full dynamic ability to fund real estate investments or even get capital for an investment that a client may have Just being that one-stop shop and go to tell them get funded.
Speaker 3:Okay, what about like commercial real estate? How does that work? You do commercial and regular real estate, right?
Speaker 1:They kind of all fall in the same line. When it comes to commercial real estate, it is really all dependent on what kind of assets you're. The same line when it comes to commercial real estate. It is really all dependent on what kind of assets you're looking for. And it's again if you need private money, it's something that we're collaborating with more investors to be able to provide private money. If you're looking for hard money loans, that also falls in line with that as well. When you ask the question what about commercial? Can you be just a little bit more specific?
Speaker 3:Like a building, like if you want to invest in a new building, that's the people or someone wants to invest in the building. Building the business or you want to.
Speaker 1:You mean like purchasing a building, as far as being that your brick and mortar, yeah, okay, yes, that is an option and you can also look into it as far as maybe like an SBA route, and we do have SBA lenders that are able to fund that process. But if that doesn't work out, you can actually still do the hard money route and maybe the building is something that you might want to look into the long-term financing on the hard money side. Or if it needs some renovations, you can look into a short term loan that can help you renovate it. Then you'll be able to get into your long-term investment after and then build your business like that, as long as it has an asset on the land that it can be funded.
Speaker 3:Okay. Okay, that's good. You go through a process with that client to see what best fits them. Yeah. Yeah, that's good to know especially a lot of small businesses.
Speaker 1:It's all about just getting an idea of what the client has going on. I can best navigate which route that I would think would be a good route, or at least, and also provide just other options that they can maybe think about that they didn't think about before.
Speaker 3:That's good. It's about education, right? You're educating them on what's the best route to go there, and that makes sense. Yeah, Thank you for telling me. What about if they want to? What do you call it Like when you you have a loan already and you want to see if you can get a lower rate?
Speaker 1:What about that Do you guys help with that.
Speaker 3:What's that?
Speaker 1:You said like that sounds like a refinance.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's what I'm talking about Refinance.
Speaker 1:Yes, that is a possibility for the asset that they have going on.
Speaker 2:Yes, the only thing.
Speaker 1:The only thing that I will say we don't do, I would say, is like a debt consolidation on a space. If they're looking for to consolidate debt that is not a space that I am in but if their capital and business information looks good to the lender, maybe they can get a loan that is enough to consolidate all that into that one loan.
Speaker 3:That makes sense. That makes sense and that's good to know, and that's why we inform you on the best way to go about this. Let's talk about building wealth through strategic funding. How can business or real estate funding be part of a long-term wealth strategy?
Speaker 1:Great question Business funding. Okay, let's start with that one. If you I want to give an example If you are, let's say, a truck driver and you want to build your own business in that aspect, if you're starting out and it's just you, you could, as you continue to go along and start building those relationships and actually getting more income coming in, you can then reach out to me and then say, okay, I want to buy another piece of asset, I can put a driver in it, and that's called like the equipment financing. You get an equipment loan, you finance another truck, you get a driver in it. Now you have two trucks, you and your other driver, and that's a start.
Speaker 1:Once you start building that up and you get to a space to where now you can probably put someone in your truck and you have another driver in your other truck, but you want to continue to expand, you can come back and say I want another equipment financing or equipment loan or working capital. You can pay for the expenses that come along with gas and different things and maintenance and other things, just so you can have that cushion. While you're working with those, your new employees pretty much continue to build there. Once that happens you can actually look into maybe going into the real estate no-transcript. That'll be your brick and mortar location. Not only are you having more trucks coming in, but you also have an asset in real estate that can continue to build wealth for you. And you can also start then investing your company into actual other assets in the real estate space where you want to do long-term holds and start building your wealth that way that's awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, commercial drivers definitely listen to this and get in touch with them. We're precious because that is a great start. A lot of people now get into the commercial truck driving and having that, having this, being informed of how you can actually do that real estate which means that space that you want you're building your truck drivers that's a great way to start. Yeah, thank you, thank you for sharing that. That's great Because I have a couple of truck drivers. I actually did a podcast with a couple of truck drivers Actually three truck drivers, not for me, exactly. I got to introduce you all and that's what I talk about collaboration girl, how we can collaborate with each other. Let's talk about the budgeting program. Okay, that's a financial game changer.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is. It is In the Renatus program. I learned about this concept called velocity banking and that was like I don't know, maybe five or six years ago, and as I was learning about it, I was like, man, this is something right here, this is something, but at the time it's almost like something you had to build out on an Excel spreadsheet, keep going over it, and even though I'm very well versed in Excel, I just didn't want to create the time to create that spreadsheet. Fast forward to now, I ended up meeting a man connected with United Financial Freedom, which, who built out a program connected with United Financial Freedom, which, who built out a program, this budgeting program that actually does what I learned.
Speaker 1:It's about accelerating your debt and what that means is, obviously, if it's going to take you 30 years let's talk about your mortgage If it's going to take you 30 years to pay off that mortgage, if you put all your information into the system how much you make and all that you can potentially pay off your debt in as little as five years, based on the step-by-step guides that the program does and tells you what you need to do to get there. Not only is it easy, because the system's doing it for you. It connects with all debts. It's not just your mortgage, it's any debt that you have. It's going to show you how to accelerate it, pay the least amount of money in interest and get debt free as soon as possible. You can live your life. It's not about it's not about changing your life. It's about managing what you got going on. Your lifestyle can stay how you want it to be that's awesome.
Speaker 3:That's good to know, because a lot of us are. They're not thinking about that. Like you said, it's for individual and businesses, right?
Speaker 1:yes, it is, it is and yeah, like you said, it's for businesses as well. If you're having a hard time managing on managing your income and expenses in your business because maybe you don't have an excel spreadsheet that you consistently can go to, maybe you don't have an Excel spreadsheet that you consistently can go to, or you don't have a CPA, an accountant, all those different things, and you're managing that on your own, you can put all your business information into the system as well and it'll do the same exact thing for your business. Think of it if you're a primary business business going back to the real estate is buying homes, buying homes. And imagine if you have about 10 homes in the program. Imagine how fast you're paying that off. If you do it step-by-step on what it's showing you to do, you're debt-free on all those properties and all you got is cash flow with no expenses except for the taxes and different things. But imagine that.
Speaker 3:That's awesome and that's called the. What is it Renatus? What is it called?
Speaker 1:No, this is a budgeting program that is connected through United Financial Freedom. It's different from Renatus.
Speaker 3:Okay, okay, that's great. By you learning that, it's good for you to share it and educate people on that. Let's talk about that and actually about financial literacy and empowerment. Why do you believe financial literacy is such a gap for entrepreneurs and investors?
Speaker 1:I think of financial literacy as a gap for not only I think it's a gap for everybody. Yes, honestly, we didn't. Schooling nowadays I know it's a. It's a fine line to where I can go with that, cause I can go off the deep end. But there's a fine line to where I can go with that because I can go off the deep end. But there's a fine line that education system, and I feel that we don't get taught how to manage and be adults.
Speaker 1:When we become adults and have to manage our money, it's like it's trial and error till we figure it out and then some really never really figure it out. And then there's money, consumer mindsets and there's many ads. Just keep pushing and posting and showing you hey, buy this. And some people are not able to withstand and manage that, even though I know there's credit repair options out there and people that do that. The program and what I believe in is the program is designed to help you become a better manager of your finances. Help you become a better manager of your finances, not just fixing the issue from credit repair even though, yes, it needs to be fixed because you've already messed up. But let's get to a place to where we can stay in a good financial situation and not go back to making those same mistakes that we've made because we didn't know, and we don't have to have credit repair again after we've done it. That's the purpose of wanting to also bring the budgeting tool to the forefront and provide it as an option to help us.
Speaker 3:That's great, and you help people to do that right.
Speaker 1:Yes, the program. It's about learning the program and how it actually works and how you can navigate it. We have people on standby and even I can help you navigate and put your information in, and I also provide a free analysis that can show you what your personalized situation would look like if you were to be in the program, how long it'll show you everything at the top, how long it's going to take you to get out of debt, how much interest you're saving.
Speaker 3:All of that that's awesome and that's why you're called the informant. I love that she's an informant because she informs you of what you can do and she can educate you on what you can do. Precious, tell us how people can get in touch with you. Also, your social media handle and I'm going to have that in the show notes as well.
Speaker 1:Okay sure, I obviously see this QR code right up in here somewhere. Show notes as well. Okay sure.
Speaker 1:I obviously see this QR code right up in here somewhere. I can't even get my finger. But seeing that QR code has all my information on it, even the ability to schedule a county invite and connect with me. But also on social media. You can find me on Instagram at Miss Precious Miss Precious A-J-O, which is middle initial, last initial and part of my next letter in my last name, ms Precious AJL, as well as on LinkedIn as well, ms Precious AJL.
Speaker 3:Okay, great, this is going to. They can see your QR code when it's on YouTube and by being on audio.
Speaker 2:we need to make sure?
Speaker 3:yeah, then we can make sure that they can connect with you on that as well. But I appreciate you coming on and this has been long awaiting. I said we go back. We did the webinar during the covid area and now we're out of the cold. I don't know if we still out of covid area but it's just good to see where the mask.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's just good to see how you have advanced and I'm proud of you to be able to do even more in educating people on what you do. As far as the funding and I know how you started with the funding and the literacy empowerment that is really important because now people need to hear that, they need to know how to do that. But I truly appreciate you coming on the Ready Set Collaborate podcast Listen audience. What an insightful and empowering conversation with Precious Johnson. Her passion for educating others through we Inform Consulting is truly making a difference. If you're ready to take charge of your business finances and funding opportunities, be sure to connect with her episode. Don't forget to share, subscribe and join us next time on it sorry, my throat is gonna. Ready set collaborate podcast where you will we uplift voices, build connections and celebrate collaboration and action. Keep shining and remember knowledge is the power when we share it. Thank you much, precious, for joining us and we're going to see what you're up to. We're going to have you back on the show yes, I hope so.
Speaker 1:thank so. Thank you, ms Wong.
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely. It's just been a pleasure, Always a pleasure. You're informing us and educating us there. And remember this is Precious Johnson, the informed lady, so next time make sure you subscribe, listen and share. This is how our podcast is full of educational insight with our guests. If you follow, you'll see every episode that comes on right after this one. Thanks again, Precious, we appreciate you.
Speaker 1:See you later. It was a pleasure. Bye everyone.
Speaker 2:Bye. That wraps up another episode of Ready Set. Collaborate with Wanda Pearson. I hope you found inspiration and valuable insights to help you build meaningful connections and successful collaborations. If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to subscribe, share and stay tuned for more great discussions. Until next time, keep collaborating and making an impact.
