Brooks Nunez (Supplied Photo)
It has long been said that success in business comes from building a better mousetrap. But for Boca Raton resident Brooks Nunez, a professional journey of a lifetime came from building a better way to escape.
Nunez, 34, is in a business many clients turn to out of financial worry, major life changes, or pure frustration – and one of his goals is to change its reputation. His company, ACA Group, is becoming a national leader in the timeshare exit industry, which assists owners in what is often a daunting task, navigating complex contracts and ownership covenants after a decision that once seemed to make sense is no longer in the cards. For Nunez, the firm was born out of a quest to prove that a combination of solid sales acumen and personal relationships could bridge the old and new, achieving the dream of thriving while helping others.
Like many modern startups, ACA Group was a product of brainstorming during the tumultuous times of the 2020 pandemic era. Nunez was a young father who, through a family friend, had landed a job at a timeshare exit firm. Before the world began to shut down, he had already been experimenting with ways to improve, settling in at his desk at home and tinkering with the creation of a new CRM – or “customer relationship management” – system, the backbone of many businesses that helps deliver products or services to customers.
“I’d stay up for quite a few hours on my off-time, after work, and I started building our CRM platform,” he said. “I started making sure that I had the proper scripts and everything together that we needed to have to be able to speak to clients. I was just thinking of all the problems that we could face and being prepared for them.”
Just as the pandemic began to usher in a new era of history, ACA Group was born in Nunez’ garage – a far more confined space from the sprawling Ft. Lauderdale office his company now occupies just a few years later, where more than 50 employees work each day.
“We took over the garage,” he recalled. “It was scary, though, because I have three kids, a wife, dogs. It was scary to think, ‘Well, I just quit my job and now I am going to be in business for myself, not making any money initially.'”
The first days of ACA, which is an acronym for America’s Consumer Advocacy Group, consisted of Nunez making calls to potential customers and having one-on-one conversations about their lives, their challenges, and their goal of shedding a timeshare they no longer wanted to keep. It was that time in the company’s history that led Nunez down the path that would ultimately propel ACA to become one of the fastest-growing private companies in America: talking to people, sharing expertise, and being there for them during uncertain times.
Nunez said he put his faith in God, and committed himself to providing an ethical and compassionate forum to help clients work their way through the process. He didn’t avoid taking on the stereotypes head-first about the timeshare industry, nor the follow-on timeshare exit industry. Sales, in general, did not have to be associated with slick one-liners or empty promises. With hard work, honesty and little but of luck, things began to come together.
“The harder you work, the more luck you find,” he said.
As the company began growing rapidly, Nunez’ next entrepreneurial task was to take the lessons learned from helping clients achieve their goals and apply it to members of a growing team of employees. By the time hiring began, he had moved from his garage to a small 200 square foot office, and with things trending in the right direction, sought to create a culture in which people wanted to return to work so they could learn and grow together.
“Its something you don’t get when working only remotely,” he said. “You know, you could hire somebody, give them a job and say, ‘Here’s your job,’ right? We say, okay, ‘Here’s your job, and here’s how we’re going to help you get better.’ And then as you get better, you can actually grow within the company, and there are more opportunities.”
Those who work at ACA quickly learn that delivering personal service and an enhanced dedication are the aspects of the company that got it off the ground and allowed it to thrive. The revived client-first focus becomes viral within the company itself, and not only produces better outcomes for customers, but helps employees grow in their own professional journeys. That philosophy harkens back to the company’s first days in Nunez’ garage, coming up with a system that is simply better.
“Number one, for us, is that we’re always truthful to our potential clients, and we set proper expectations,” Nunez explained. “The other difference between us and the rest of the industry, really, is the communication between us and our clients. There’s never a time where our clients are wondering, ‘What’s going on, is this ever getting done?”
Nunez said he has dealt with clients who hired timeshare exit firms that disappeared, leaving them with both a bill and an unwanted timeshare. But not all timeshare exits are the result of disastrous investments or consumer misery. One early client comes to mind as an example of someone who enjoyed his investment, but suffered a loss that changed his life.
“I remember speaking with an elderly gentleman who had just lost his wife,” Nunez said. “He actually loved his timeshare. They both loved their timeshare – they saw multiple countries, traveled the world and they got a lot out of it. But he traveled with her everywhere.”
“When I spoke with him, he was just like, ‘Brooks, I just can’t do it. I don’t see myself going anywhere else since she’s not here.’
“It really touched me, he was upset, and I remember telling him, hey, you know, I’m going to help you.”
The exit was completed successfully, and the experience led to Nunez’ priority of having flexible hours, accessible ways to clients to connect with staff, and always a personal touch.
Nunez said he always had a flair for sales, even wearing a tie to the first day of kindergarten class. An early job at a grocery store helped him learn how to connect with people, even during a short conversation, and as a teenager he wanted to be able to become friends with classmates from all of the different groups that tend to form in the halls of a high school.
“I knew I wanted to be in business,” he said. “When I was 19, my now father-in-law gave me a job, and it was in sales. I’ve been blessed to have people mentors in my life, like my father in law.”
Nunez’ father-in-law is now the COO of his company, and the two still work side-by-side every day. The early lessons he gained in honesty and integrity continue to shape the business as it grows.
“I learned that you can be honest with people and tell them exactly what the truth is, and show them that there is a solution,” he said. “You don’t have to be a dishonest person, you don’t have to be that that pushy used car salesman. It was great to have learned that early on.”
Nunez also credits some of his success to the relationships he’s developed by living in Boca Raton, with its unique combination of business-minded neighbors, a family-friendly atmosphere, and the beach town vibes that keep everyone busy-but-grounded.
“In regards to the networking ability, it’s endless because you have a lot of people who are successful and actively want to share that with you,” he said, recalling randomly meeting a “regular guy” on vacation from town who, as it turned out, had traveled there on his private jet. “And that’s what’s great about Boca – number one, it’s family oriented. You just see families, you see all kinds of events that are centered around families and that’s important to me because I still have a pretty young family. People are friendly, and that means a lot.”
As for ACA Group, the company continues to thrive. Over the summer, it was announced that ACA had been named 707th on the Inc. 5000 list, which ranks the fastest-growing private companies in America. Even with the monumental growth, ACA has maintained an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, with Nunez now sharing his (and his company’s) story via podcasts, entertaining short videos, and more connections than ever with customers and employees, both of which have driven success.
“I think the timing was right, and with the proper intentions, everything just fell right into place,” Nunez said.
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