Equipment Leasing
Talk to People, Ask Questions, and Deals Are Everywhere
March 17, 2025
“Well, when everybody says it’s tough, that’s when I start smiling, because I’m going to sit there and collect them all,” said Adam Oster, Director of Canyongate Financial. Oster was talking about financing deals for trucks in a tough market, though he’s known to be able to handle any kind of equipment in any kind of market. Part of the joy he gets from the challenge of the job is rooted in just how many great people he gets to speak with. Connecting, helping, and building relationships are his passions. And it never stops for him.
“I like to jump in and do everything. I have to have direction so I got to be talking to somebody,” Oster said.
True to form, when he’s taking a break from talking about semis, box trucks, and medical equipment, he’s marketing 3″ filled bones, beef cheek rolls, and gourmet treats for dogs.
“My fiancée has a dog food company, so Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we’re out slinging dog food, we’re promoting her business,” said Oster. That business is called Abby’s Barkery, and he’s proudly featured on the company’s main Shopify page. Sometimes the two worlds overlap—in that he could be processing payments for treats while placing an equipment deal at the same time.
“…by 7:30 you get home and you’re like, ‘I think just every day is Monday.’ That’s how I’m going to look at it. Every day is just Monday in my life,” he said jokingly.
Oster began his career in mortgages, followed by a stint as the owner of a supplements store. He launched Canyongate right in the early days of the COVID pandemic after a colleague said he’d be really good in the field.
“When we came on we were strictly working capital, and working capital has its peaks and valleys, so I needed to fill the gap when working capital was down,” Oster said. “I’m like, ‘Hey, let’s transition here.’ So we started onboarding.”
Onboarding with equipment financing providers is precisely what he did. It helped that some of those providers were located right in his own neighborhood, which shortened the learning curve and helped lead to some great relationships. These days, Canyongate’s business is now 70% equipment financing and 30% working capital. Like others deBanked has spoken to, not everyone who makes deals in equipment financing starts off by knowing everything about equipment.
“I knew enough in transportation, semis, trailers, that we lean there. But then I found very quickly that you got medical equipment—everything is a piece of equipment, essentially. So if I get a lot of invoices and I don’t know what they are, I have to Google it. I’ve got to look because the broker doesn’t tell you what it is. So I’m looking it up. I’m like, ‘Okay, this is a CNC machine… or this is a piece of yellow iron.'”
By now he knows so many things so well that he helps other brokers learn the ropes. As part of that he does coaching and training for large groups of people looking to break in. For example, they recently conducted an orientation for 500 people, where they started off by teaching them to focus on a niche. That could be semis or trailers or something else to get in the game. The deals themselves can come from anywhere, including simply knowing someone at the local gas station who might know someone who, in turn, knows another person—turning into a referral. It’s all about building relationships and asking the right questions.
“At the end of the day, it’s just conversation, ‘what are you trying to buy?’ And they’ll tell you. If I don’t know what that equipment is, I’ll say ‘what do you use that equipment for?’ They’ll tell you.”
For brokers already offering products like MCAs, they’re already on the call to steer the conversation in that direction if they so choose, but it’s important to do it thoroughly since the process to get a deal done is a bit more stringent.
“Ask if they need a truck, ask them what they need to finance,” Oster said. “When you’re submitting an equipment finance deal, it’s not an app and banks with no write up. You’ve got to tell me about the customer. Tell me about their experience. How are they going to use this equipment? There’s a lot of detail that goes into the deal before you even submit for underwriting.”
To that end, he said it’s important to set expectations for brokers looking to do equipment finance deals because it isn’t exactly the same even though it’s similar. On one hand if a broker can already sell a daily or weekly payment working capital deal then surely they’d be able to sell a monthly payment equipment financing deal. It’s a no-brainer when it comes to being able to offer the terms.
“Don’t fear it, ask the right questions,” he insists about taking the leap. And be prepared to ask them anytime anywhere. For example, he’s funded five MCA deals just through relationships he’s made through the Barkery.
“That’s a true story,” he said. “And I have pulled probably six or seven equipment deals out of the last year and a half from working at [my fiancée’s] business. So again, it goes back to it’s just conversation. Look at people’s needs. People tell me, ‘Well, I want to update my little shop and do all these things, I just don’t have the money.’ Well, what do you need? ‘Well, I need shelving, I need this…’ ”
Then he offers to help. Suddenly it’s the perpetual Monday all over again where he’s placing the customer while simultaneously processing payment for a good pup to chew on a lamb foot or a mammoth bone.
“And that’s how deals come about. Opportunity is everywhere. I love it. I get excited, man. I get all hyped up about this.”
Brokers: Making the Leap from Working Capital into Equipment Financing
March 13, 2025
“We can finance anything that doesn’t shoot, fly or float,” says Josh Feinberg, CEO of Everlasting Capital. “So no planes, no boats, no guns.” But any other type of equipment and he’s ready to chat. As a seasoned veteran of the equipment finance industry, that conversational starting point of knowing what to ask and how to answer takes a lot of practice to develop.
“Roleplaying is like stretching before going for a run,” said Feinberg. “It makes it possible for you to be fast on your feet and really be able to have the answers.”
Everlasting Capital is a broker shop based in Rochester, NH that believes strongly in practicing calls with colleagues to develop their skills. It’s a role play. Many shops do it. But becoming seasoned at it for one product doesn’t mean that a broker automatically becomes an expert at any type of call.
“A lot of [working capital] brokers think that they’re the ones that are trying to figure out if the business owner qualifies, but to be honest with you, in the equipment space, it’s vice-versa,” Feinberg said. “The customer is actually trying to qualify you to see if you are apt to be able to finance their equipment.”
Equipment financing flips the stakes and the direction, and with that a fresh need for practice toward managing it successfully. And that’s where some brokers used to other products get stuck, because their confidence drops in being able to navigate something they don’t fully know. To that point, it can feel intimidating to discuss machinery they’re not familiar with or trucks they’ve never driven.
Feinberg believes that anyone can learn this, however, simply by talking to business owners about these things. One doesn’t need to actually spend 20 years in construction to finance equipment in that industry, for example, though it certainly wouldn’t hurt. Feinberg’s own start in the business is very simple to replicate.
“I just started talking to business owners, figuring out what they want. A lot of times [in the very beginning] I didn’t even know what the equipment did. I would have to Google it while I was on the phone with them.”
That, of course, has changed with experience. Now he and his firm have become so well acquainted with certain industries that they’ve integrated themselves within them. The dump truck market, for example, has become one of their core areas of expertise.
Despite this attainable path to success, some brokers throw up their hands and assume the process will be too hard or the financial incentive too low to even try equipment financing—even though that is generally not the case. In an era where working capital has become so competitive, it should be considered as an additional offering to maximize value at the bare minimum.
“[When] you have the one person calling like, ‘hey we have monthly payments that are single digit rates, and we can do monthly payments one to five years.’ It’s really easy to spark up a conversation and be able to ask the questions that you need to do, and then get answers back,” he said.
Advocating for other brokers to adopt his approach might seem like it would increase competition, but Feinberg explained that the market is wide open with opportunities. Moreover, he feels strongly about matching business owners with the right solution. To that end, he is also the co-founder of Equipment Broker School, a system designed for anyone needing a jump start or a refresher on the art of equipment financing. His company previously starred in an online reality show where new salespeople were trained in person in the office, and Feinberg himself recently appeared as a judge at deBanked CONNECT’s Broker Battle in Miami Beach this past February. The event was a roleplaying competition that evaluated brokers on their ability to diagnose needs and propose solutions. It was like just another day in the office for him.
“It made me really excited to be able to be a part of the Broker Battle, just as a lot of people know, and you know especially just for myself, being able to train people on how to be able to promote, how to be able to work, and how to be able to just partake in equipment financing,” Feinberg said. “It has been a super big passion of mine, especially just within the deBanked community as a whole.”
How Mike Brooks Battled in the Ring and Won Top Broker in Equipment Financing
March 6, 2025
“Equipment Financing is HUGE,” declares Mike Brooks, CEO of New York-based Best Connect Capital and recent winner at Broker Battle 2025 in the equipment finance category at deBanked CONNECT MIAMI. If his name sounds familiar, it’s probably because he appeared on stage as one of six finalists in the previous year’s competition. He refused to give up after his loss and returned this year for round two, leading to him securing a title and prizes along with it. To hear him tell it, it had been a long road to get there.
When Brooks got his start as a 27-year-old broker in 2015, for example, he had technically been battling in a ring for most of his life already.
“I had [boxing] on my mind in high school, without any influence,” says Brooks, “and I walked into a gym one day and the rest was history.” That history includes 60 fights in just amateur-level boxing, resulting in 45 wins and 15 losses. When he followed that at the pro level he went 11-2-1.
“I started fighting at the regular club shows, the Golden Gloves, the metro tournaments, national tournaments, and at one point, I was ranked number seven in the whole country,” Brooks recalls. “I beat some really good fighters, lost to some really good fighters and I made it to the highest levels in the country.”
Some of those fights even aired on live TV. As he bobbed and weaved for years in the ring, he started to think about what a possible career in business might look like afterwards. When that day came, he went to work for a local financial service company on Long Island who taught him about helping small businesses access working capital. Eventually he realized it was a business that he was uniquely suited for and now he runs his own company doing it.
First, there’s the endurance aspect, he explains. There’s a lot of calls, leads that don’t pan out, and heartbreak that hits when deals get declined at the finish line.
“A very small percentage of people can be a successful broker,” Brooks says. “You have to be able to take rejections all day long.”
To that point, Brooks noticed that as the industry grew he was not the only broker offering revenue-based financing to a client. Sometimes there were even as many as four or five other brokers talking to the same client at the same time, which meant that he wasn’t going to win every one and he did not want to bend his ethics just to eke it out. That’s when he started considering another approach and expanded his offerings.
“An equipment financing deal was my first big check during [the covid] lockdowns,” Brooks says. It was a $200,000 deal for a packaging plant. The terms were very attractive and he had the help of an equipment finance veteran who mentored him through it. When it worked out, he knew he had something very big in his arsenal and he’s been offering it ever since to anyone that qualifies for it.
“I said to myself anybody that needs equipment, this is a no brainer right here,” Brooks recalls of it. Now Brooks says when there is competition, he’s almost always the only one asking questions about equipment and the only one prepared to actually move forward with a deal tied to it. Of that experience, Brooks says he’s realized that some brokers have become so accustomed to the mindset of telling customers to take a specific deal, that they don’t stop to consider what they actually want. So his approach is to go in and diagnose what it is they’re trying to do first and then advise them of their options accordingly. And that’s what he does day after day.
At Broker Battle 2025, it was very much like time spent in the office. He was expected to be his normal self, but on stage in front of a large audience, while three judges played the role of prospective client and asked him questions about what they should do. The end result of it all was that Mike Brooks, former fighter in the ring, walked away as the Broker Battle champion in the equipment finance category in 2025.
“It felt amazing to be able to showcase what I do on a daily basis,” Brooks says, making it a point to say that even the venue took note of his win and offered him a personal congratulations on social media.
In the final photo-op on stage with his prize check, Brooks was the epitome of his dual life—the suit and tie spoke of business, while the cigar and sunglasses hinted at his former life in the ring. “I was a crowd pleaser,” he jokes. “You want to be like ‘bam bam bam’ and the crowd to be like ‘AHHHH!!!’ I want them to do that. I had a great time at deBanked.”
Two Broker Battle Judges Starred in This Show
January 31, 2025
Josh Feinberg and Will Murphy, both judges for the equipment finance category at the upcoming Broker Battle at deBanked CONNECT MIAMI, previously starred in the sales reality show Equipping the Dream. The six-episode show series debuted in February 2022 where they helped train new reps at their equipment finance brokerage Everlasting Capital in New Hampshire and awarded the best of the group. The unscripted series is the most watched show in history of its kind. All the episodes are here.
Any broker or sales rep that is knowledgeable about equipment financing can enter to compete in the short Broker Battle competition on February 20th at the Fontainebleau by submitting their name here and registering for the event here. The prize is $3,000, a trophy, the title of top broker, and the opportunity to be interviewed for a feature story. The two other categories, revenue based financing and SBA lending, also offer the same prizes and can be entered into using the same links.
Fifty Percent of Equipment Finance “Originators” Earned More Than $200k Last Year, Survey Finds
January 8, 2025
Wheeler Business Consulting LLC released the results of its 9th annual equipment finance compensation and production survey to reveal how originators did last year. Fifty percent of all those surveyed earned more than $200,000 last year in compensation, with nearly half of that group earning more than $300,000. Twenty three precent of all those surveyed worked 100% on commission with no base compensation at all while 71% had a base salary and supplemented it with commissions and bonuses.
“The sample group was made up of 32% bank originators, 47% originators from independent finance and leasing companies, and 21% from syndication/broker companies,” Wheeler said. “The survey included 16% of originators with less than 5 years of experience, 15% of originators with 5 to 10 years of experience, and 69% with 10 years or more of experience.”
“The survey confirmed that the commercial equipment leasing and finance industry remains a lucrative opportunity for originators,” it added.
This survey is often broadcast in Leasing News.
Wheeler Business Consulting was founded by Scott Wheeler, CLFP.
Reality TV Loan Broker Shares What Happened After the Show
March 17, 2022
Juan Carlos Marcano’s experience on Equipping the Dream has given his loan brokering career a major jumpstart.In a chat with Juan Carlos Marcano this week, the Equipping The Dream broker who became a fan favorite for his personality and demeanor, it was learned that he’s been up to some interesting stuff since he appeared in deBanked’s first reality show. While operating JFK Business Financing in Dallas, Texas, Marcano shared that he is still in cahoots with some of the other participants in the show.
“I closed five deals last week,” said Marcano, when asked about what happened after he left the training office of Everlasting Capital. “After filming the show, I started with Will and Josh,” he said in reference to the two partners of Everlasting Capital. “They sent me leads, and I started closing.”
When asked what the Spanish speaking merchant needs most out of the small business financing industry, and more so Spanish speaking brokers like him, Marcano spoke about how these merchants just need service above all else. He spoke about how because of the language barrier, many of these merchants don’t have access to the same type of capital as an english-speaking business because there are not many people out there to go ask for it in their language.
Marcano awaited the final results of the one-week training competition at Everlasting Capital while wearing the flag of Venezuela as a cape, his native country.When asked if he is working exclusively with the brokerage from the show or if has future plans to expand his business, Juan spoke like a true broker. “I’m open to hearing from other funders and brokers about doing more deals,” he said.
“I will use the leads I get from [Everlasting] to help build my business in that industry,” said Marcano. “I’m starting to get better and better. When I get my cash flow going on and up, I’m setting a plan with a strategy to build my own details. I just need to get better with my website, social media, everything here is marketing.”
He said one major advantage of being a small shop is the potential he has as a broker in where he can live and do business. Currently a Dallas resident, Marcano sees a future in multiple cities. “I want to open up businesses in Miami,” he said, “but as I think about it, I’d like to open up a business in New York too.”
When asked about how he will compete with big tech’s emergence into small business lending, Marcano highlighted customer service and personality are the key to success for companies like his.
“For me, it’s all about providing great service. It’s all about five star service.”
You can meet Marcano at deBanked Connect Miami on March 24, where he alongside the cast of Equipping the Dream will be in attendance.
Broker Show Ends in a Cold Call Showdown For The Ages
March 3, 2022
The nearly 1-hour long season finale of Equipping The Dream aired on Thursday, concluding the first reality show to ever capture the business finance industry. The six-episode series which followed four aspiring equipment finance brokers, proved, if nothing else, that cold calling and phone sales are not dead.
The show’s contestants capped off their week of sales training with a calling competition that came down to the wire and an outcome that left viewers shocked. Josh Feinberg, one of the sales trainers in Equipping The Dream, explained it best. “It almost seemed like it was scripted, but it couldn’t have been more real.”
Two episodes were released each week starting on February 15th. The March 3rd airing of the finale means that eager viewers can now binge the entire show on deBanked TV without having to wait for future episodes. (Start With Episode 1 here)
The show captured a real life broker training at the office of Everlasting Capital in Rochester, New Hampshire. deBanked’s Sean Murray served as Executive Producer.
“I really had no idea what we were going to capture by having our camera crew there all week,” Murray said. “But what we got is something everyone doing sales in the industry should watch at least once. It came out that good.”
Reality Show About SMB Finance Sales Rockets to The Top Spot
February 20, 2022
Four aspiring equipment finance brokers traveled to Rochester, New Hampshire last November to get a hands-on sales training from the management team at Everlasting Capital. With a variety of backgrounds and dreams of turning commercial finance sales into a lucrative career, each trainee wasn’t sure what they were in for when a team of mentors and a film crew awaited them inside.
That’s the basis for Equipping The Dream, a deBanked TV produced web-based reality show that debuted on February 15th. The six-episode show is dropping twice a week until the finale scheduled for March 3rd.
Over the weekend, Episode 1 of the show became the most visited page on deBanked in 2022 so far.
“There’s never been anything like this about the industry,” said Executive Producer Sean Murray. “We did a screening of it for some people who had nothing to do with sales or finance and they were captivated by it.”
Partners Josh Feinberg and Will Murphy were already well-known throughout the industry. The two were featured in a 2018 deBanked story that explains how their journey began years earlier in a pawnshop basement. Since then, the pair now also run Equipment Broker School, a training course for aspiring brokers.
The sales tips and experience in the show, therefore, are as real as it gets. Viewers have shared what they thought of the first two episodes out so far:
“It was inspiring to see other people doing what I’m doing.”
“Awesome production!”
“This is getting good! COLD CALLERS watch this!!!!”
“This did not disappoint.”
“Your camera quality is better than most shows on Netflix.”
“I’m rooting for these brokers to succeed.”
“Now that’s reality!”
Episode 3 will be released on Tuesday, February 22nd. The four trainees range in ages 35-50. The show is exclusively on deBanked TV.
