Good morning everybody, and welcome to the Balancing Act.
We are so glad you joined us this morning.
I'm Julie Moran.
And I'm Olga Villaverde.
Okay, are you feeling smart today?
Always.
There you go.
I'll be learning how we can become part of the smart
majority using online technology to further our education.
So important.
And when it comes to credit scores, credit reports, and
especially credit related problems, most Americans are at
a loss to fully understand what in the heck is going on.
Well, we'll talk to some experts who can help us repair and
restore our credit.
I like that.
Plus, we're continuing our comprehensive series on
addiction.
It takes many faces, and affects those from all walks of life.
There are 12-steps on the road to recovery.
Twelve.
We're talking to those who have made this journey, and Julie, I
gotta tell you Julie, it's so inspirational.
Great.
The Balancing Act starts right now.
(music).
Is your dream to earn more money?
Yeah.
Perhaps greater job satisfaction?
Of course.
Maybe a new, more exciting career with better pay?
Now we're talking.
Today, women are demanding more from their careers and life.
Joining us to talk about ways to achieve all we desire is Camelia
Simes, CEO, and founder of Smart Majority, an online education
resource providing educational opportunities for women from
coast to coast.
Good morning.
Good morning, thank you for having me.
Thanks for being here.
YOu know, the more I see it, and the more I hear about it, it
seems like lots more women are being driven to the internet to
take online courses.
What gives here?
Why?
I think it's the flexibility that online courses provide us
around our busy schedules.
We all want to fit it in around our lives, so we have family
time, we want children, and we want careers.
So, online courses provide you that Flexibility to do it in
your own time.
Save the money, and have the flexibility to choose what you
want to learn, and when you want to learn it.
It offers you the opportunity to retrain, and also it offers you
the opportunity to do career boosting courses that give you
the help you need to find your prospects and be more successful
in your career.
So, who's your typical student?
About 80% of our learners are women, and a large majority of
that are moms.
Moms who want to be empowered, they want to be career women,
and they also want to be role-models for their children.
So important.
Absolutely.
The main challenge is time.
Online education gives them that flexibility, especially with us,
at Smart Majority.
We give them the time to learn at their own pace, save the
money so that they can have family time as well as career,
and apply themselves to their new skills.
And I know the feedback you're getting is amazing from women
that have gone through some of the courses, and you have a
couple here.
I'd like you to share with our viewers, because they're really
very happy once they go through it.
That would be fantastic if I could share some with you.
Absolutely, do so.
I have one here from Susan.
She started a make-up course.
She said, I love this course.
It's so much more comprehensive than many other online courses
out there.
Also, we have Valerie, studying interior design, which is a very
popular course with us.
Thank you very much for being such a great guide during this
new and exciting journey of mine.
Your remarks are positive and your input was extremely
helpful, and instrumental in my successful completion of this
course.
I'm excited to embark on this new journey and cannot wait to
see what the future holds.
Now, from a letter testimonial to a Skype testimonial, let's
hear from somebody who Skyped about how much they love it too.
Hi Smart Majority.
I just wanted to give you some feedback with my makeup course.
I had a great great time doing the course and I've learned a
lot, and I really love the assignments.
I appreciate all the encouragement of my tutors and
the support you gave me.
I would definitely recommend you to my family and friends.
Thanks a lot one more time.
Now, that's fabulous.
It is.
That's just one of the many messages we get from our
learners.
She has been studying with us now for about six months, and
she's just starting a new course, and it's exciting
because she has been empowered to start a new career.
That's what we want for our learners.
Let's talk about some of the courses that you offer at smart
majority.
We do a wide variety of courses.
We introduce new courses every three to six months.
It depends on what you want.
If you're looking to boost your career, there's leadership and
management.
There's entrepreneurial marketing.
There's sales mastery.
If you're looking to retrain, you can choose from event
planning, wedding planning, makeup artist.
We do a wide variety of courses, so the right course is there for
you to choose.
What about if someone struggles, because I mean, I kind of did
enjoy having the professor in front of me, raising the hand
and saying "professor" so do you have that kind of thing when
someone is stuck on something or not understanding, or just
having issues?
Absolutely.
One of the things that we're really passionate about, and one
of the messages that we like to leave our learners with is just
that if you're studying online it doesn't mean that you're
alone.
We have a wide variety of tutor support, customer care team out
there to help you and assist you, so that the help is there
when you need it, and as often as you need it.
And how can you compare the online to the traditional
courses when it comes to cost?
Learning online with Smart Majority is certainly a lot more
affordable than traditional learning.
That's because we work really really hard to keep the costs
down, and offer as much value as possible.
One of our mission statements is that we want to share knowledge
with as many people as we can, and that means that the cost has
to be affordable so people can do that course, because we love
to hear the success stories like you've just heard.
You've shared one with me, and I'd like to share it with our
viewers, about a woman who did the course.
I believe she wanted to write, and now she is writing books and
received awards??
Yes, she's actually given her notice to her job, and she's won
two national awards in England, and she's writing for a
publishing house now.
It's fantastic.
For us, those sort of stories are why we work, why I get up in
the morning.
Where can our viewers go to get this success in their life?
They can go to SmartMajority.com/
thebalancingact and they can take advantage of
a very special offer where they save 75% off, and they can start
learning a course today for less than $20 a month.
Thank you so much.
Come back again.
To learn more about learning online, go to our website, you
heard it, 75% off thebalancingact.com or
Facebook/TheBalancingActFans.Ready to get social?
Join the conversation at Facebook.com/thebalancingactfans
We'd like to hear what's on your mind.
(music).
Imagine this.
You've found the house of your dreams.
You've got the income, maybe even some cash in the bank for a
down payment, but the mortgage lender says no.
Your credit score is too low, and you don't even know why.
Then, poof.
You're dream of a new home went up in smoke.
Well, here to help us revitalize our credit is James Charlet and
Simon Webster, co-owners of CRE credit services.
Welcome guys.
Thanks for having us.
You know, good credit affects everything from the cost of
insurance, interest rates, why is that, James?
They have a mathematical algorithm that came out a long
time ago that they think they can predict whether or not
someone's going to repay their bills.
That's all based on your credit report.
Yeah, most people don't realize how much credit really does
impact your finances.
It can actually cost you thousands of dollars a year on
your insurance premiums.
In fact, most people don't realize how much it impacts you
on financing, since something such as a house, as well.
Actually, a 200,000 house, a difference in just 1% in
interest rate can actually cost you 50,000 in interest.
Oh my gosh.
So, if folks have credit problems, how can they improve?
Ho can they fix those?
Well, call us.
No, honestly, there are a lot of laws out there that are designed
to protect consumers.
They have the right to challenge incorrect, incomplete
information contained in their reports.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act is the primary federal law for
that.
Unfortunately, my background, I used to be in the legal
compliance department at Experian, and every single day
we had 100s of complaints going through attorney generals, going
through their congressman, and every one of those people, they
had real wrong information on their report that they had tried
to fix.
Unfortunately, when they tried to go through the proper
consumer channels, they couldn't get any satisfaction, and long
enough seeing that at Experian is what caused me to leave.
But, theoretically, those tools are out there for consumers to
help, but sometimes they need a little boost from a
professional.
Got it.
And what is, James, the difference between bad credit
and good credit.
Well, when you're talking about how much it costs, I think Simon
had talked about that, but it's really hard to quantify, and
unfortunately, you want a black and white answer, and there
isn't one.
I've seen a gentleman that had never missed a payment in his
life, in his 60s, with an 820 credit score, and he got three
$20 medical collections.
Not the biggest deal in the world, you would think, but it
dropped him to a 604 credit score.
Simon, your own mother had a real challenge with her credit.
Tell me a little about that.
Yeah, that's actually what really inspired me to get into
this.
I was raised by a single mom, and she worked so hard just to
take care of us, and I really think that unfortunately, a lot
of times, people fall into this financial cycle where they get
into credit issues or debt issues and it's very difficult
to get out of it, because then you start to pay more because
you have higher interest rates, because once you start paying
more, it's harder to pay other bills or do certain things like
that.
If it's more expensive you're more likely to default.
Absolutely.
It was very difficult seeing her go through that.
As I got older, she got her first home when she was 53, so
it was me kind of telling her "let's see what's out there."
Instead of renting and paying for someone else's mortgage, and
things like that, let's see what we can do.
So, at 53 years old she got her first house, and it was very
exciting for me.
Yes!
I love that story!
So that's what inspired me to help other people that have gone
through the things she did.
Sure.
And James, there are hundreds of repair companies out there.
What makes yours different.
I don't even like the term repair.
We correct, educate, and coach.
That's really what we're here for.
Unfortunately, there are a whole lot of people that do illegal
things to correct a credit report.
Create false social security numbers, or forge a police
report, they just lie.
It's illegal to lie to a credit reporting agency.
You can't say an account's not yours when it is, or it was
never late when it was.
That's what a lot of them do.
That's not what we do.
We educate, at no cost to begin with.
We see whether there are errors and incomplete information, and
if there is, we go in and correct the actual errors.
We don't want to misrepresent someone.
Unfortunately, because of a lot of the wrong information that's
there most consumers that have less than perfect credit, that's
being amplified.
It's being made to look even worse than they really are.
We want to correct that.
We want to show them the true risk they would be in to lend.
Not a false risk.
And you've got a free book you've written, and that will be
available for our viewers, right?
Absolutely.
It's called Women's Guide to Credit and Finances.
It will be on Amazon.
Some men may hate us, but it's very specifically oriented
towards women, and trying to help them understand finances
and credit, and how to empower their families.
So important.
So, if folks want to find you, out there, where do they go?
www.CRECreditServices.com and one of our credit analysts will
actually do a free consultation and education.
There's no requirements or anything like that.
There's no obligation.
Absolutely.
We're into the consumer advocacy side of it.
If they just want to call in and get some good advice on credit
that's not going to cost anything.
If there's something we can do to help them, we'd be happy to
provide that service as well.
I love that.
I love that you've got a free book out there.
Free!
Ding, ding, ding.
That's so much guys for coming by.
Absolutely.
Thanks so much for having us.
And if you'd like some more additional information on how to
manage your credit visit us on thebalancingact.com or log onto
Facebook/thebalancingactfans.
(music).
We all know addiction can destroy lives, but there's
always hope for recovery.
In our 12-part series, we're not only looking at the many faces
of addiction, but also the unique programs offered by
transformations drug and alcohol treatment center to help them
reclaim their lives.
In part 2 of our series, we look at the adults over 30 program,
and how it can help people find the strength within themselves
to overcome addiction.
As I found out, these are people that need hope in their lives,
because every decision they make affects others.
(music).
they talk about the loneliness of the alcoholic.
To live alone and know your family is in a different state
because they can't deal with living with you, it takes you to
a whole new low.
Everybody has their own bottom, but that for me, was the
ultimate bottom.
Over 23 million Americans suffer from addiction.
For many, reaching bottom was when they realize it's time to
reach out, get help and find hope.
Jamie Salzberg certainly knows the importance of hope for the
recovering addict.
She's a licensed psychotherapist at Transformations Treatment
Center in Delray Beach Florida, helping the older above 30 adult
population who enter the program.
It's a segment of society that faces far different issues in
life than young adults.
One of the distinctions between the over 30 population and then
under 30, they tend to have a lot more consequences.
Many times they have families relying on them, husbands or
wives, children.
They may be financially responsible for the people
around them, and they tend to have been using for a much
longer time and so to challenge those belief systems, or to
change some of the behaviors when they have been going on for
40 years rather than 10 years is much more difficult.
Surrender is one of the most important things someone can do,
because it allows them to move forward into their commitment to
actually doing some of the work that it takes to get sober and
stay sober.
Taking that journey is so important, but also having hope
along the way.
Hope is extremely important as well.
You know, we tell people here, a lot, that you're not getting
sober to sit in a meeting or to sit and do step work.
You're getting sober for something greater than that.
In order for somebody to find the reason for getting sober,
the reason for doing all of this work, they need to have hope
that this is actually going to work.
They need to believe that going through this process will
actually make their life something different than it was
before.
Jamie has created programs at Transformations that are
specifically designed for the over-30 population.
These are programs that can help patients develop the mindset and
skills needed to return to family, get a job, and tackle
real problems that are part of everyday life.
In order to fuel change, we need to have somebody really identify
and feel what's been going on with the consequences of their
addiction.
When the consequences become great enough, we see change.
I facilitate breath work here.
I do this in groups and with individuals.
We have a special breathwork room, and this is a conscious
connected breath.
It's a meditative process.
It's very experiential.
In traditional talk therapy we're used to needing an answer
for everything, having questions and answers, but this is a
meditative process where people can actually work through
physical pain, trauma and other things going on through their
lives, without necessarily needing or having an answer.
We use creative writing a lot.
There's a number of things that are supportive about using
creative writing.
One is that often people might feel embarrassed or scared about
sharing some of their innermost thoughts, and when they begin to
write, something happens.
They begin to feel comfortable and it's almost as if they're
having a conversation with themselves.
It allows them to access parts of themselves that they may not
have even known were there.
This has them really think critically how they have been
affected around them.
Those can be the most compassionate letters you've
ever seen.
Jamie, of course every individual is different.
Would you say, or do you think, that there is a foundation of
recovery that everyone shares?
Yes.
I believe that there are three things that are fundamental to
recovery.
Those are purpose, spirituality and community.
Purpose is that I'm not getting sober to sit in a meeting, and
I'm getting sober for something bigger.
I want joy in my life.
I want peace in my life.
I want serenity.
Spirituality, I think a lot of people come into the program
with fears about what they've learned, in terms of religion
and spirituality, or not knowing.
Many people come in atheist or agnostic, and a fundamental
piece of recovery is finding something bigger than myself.
Then, community, of course, which we call fellowship in
12-step recovery, is having a support system to rely on.
It's certainly not an easy journey, is it?
No, it's not.
But it can be done.
It absolutely can be done.
(music).
Addiction is not a moral failing.
It's a medical disease that can be treated successfully and
transformations offers the spirituality and mindset to help
adults choose the right path to recovery.
There's always going to be hope, and I hope one day that I can
give them what they deserve, as stronger, healthier, sober man.
Like so many addicts, Ben hopes to reclaim his life.
It's a long hard journey but one he has chosen to take through
transformations, but someday, he'll be reunited with his
family.
We hope you'll continue to join us in our series as we show you
how these unique programs, which set Transformations apart, can
help others as well.
Remember, for more information, you can go to
TransformationsTreatment.center or our website
TheBalancingAct.com.
So, what can you say in 140 characters?
A lot.
So, let's get social.
Join the conversation.
Follow us on Twitter @TheBalancingAct.TV.
(music).
Such great information on today's show, from online
education to restoring our credit.
And or course our series on reclaiming your life.
We're going to continue to look deeper into the roots of
addiction and bring you stories of home and recovery, and Julie,
every time I leave the Transformations Treatment
Center, you feel it.
You see it.
That hope.
People beating their addictions.
So inspiring.
Remember, we have lots more on our website,
TheBalancingAct.com.
We're also on Facebook and Twitter.
Until the next time.
Remember, find your balance.
(music).