Next Level Business Podcast
Next Level Business Podcast was made to help entrepreneurs grow their wealth and business. We cover buying your first piece of commercial real estate, stocks, marketing, business strategies, and more.
If you are a business owner and want to grow your legacy and build your empire, this is the podcast for you. Hosted by QLA mentee and 8-figure business expert & Rockwall Texas Marketing Expert Josh Pather along with Shane Mara who has more than 20 years in business banking and real-estate.
Next Level Business Podcast
How Harlow Payments Builds Trust In Merchant Services
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https://www.harlowpayments-texas.com/
Rockwall Texas, Marketer Josh Pather
Your payment processor only feels “simple” until a payout gets held, a big transaction gets flagged, or support is a chatbot and an email queue. We’re in Heath, Texas with Mark Harrelson and Steve Vecchia from Harlow Payments Texas to talk about what small businesses actually need from merchant services: real answers, clear pricing, and a partner who treats payment processing like mission-critical infrastructure.
We get practical about credit card processing and the trust gap in the merchant services industry. Mark explains why so many owners feel burned by disappearing reps and surprise rate changes, and how building a partner-first culture changes the experience for both merchants and employees. Then we compare Stripe and Square with a traditional merchant account approach, including what “payment facilitator” really means and why underwriting and risk management can make the difference between smooth funding and frozen funds.
We also break down interchange fees in plain language, share fraud prevention stories that protect merchants from costly mistakes, and talk through Steve’s on-the-ground relationship strategy: door knocking, Chamber events, one-on-ones, and consistent follow-up. Finally, we dig into why our collaboration with Lead Fuel matters, and how an AI-driven CRM helps small businesses handle marketing, messaging, invoicing, and growth without drowning in tasks.
If you found this helpful, subscribe, share it with a business owner, and leave a review so more people can find it. What’s the biggest frustration you’ve had with payment processing or customer support?
Rockwall Texas, Marketer Josh Pather
Welcome And Introductions
SPEAKER_03What's up, guys? Welcome back to the podcast. It's your host here, Josh Pather, and I'm here with Shane Morrow. All right. So we got something exciting for you today. Today we're in the hot office of Harlow Payments, Texas. And we're here with our friends.
SPEAKER_00Mark Harrelson, sorry. Steve Vecchia.
SPEAKER_03Welcome, guys. Welcome to the show. So we're here sitting in the office, and we've been working with these guys now for about three or four months. And we love what they have here, their operation. It's personable. It's um just a great company culture. And we love to bring new business owners that build something really successful that you don't see every day. And so we want to bring them on the show, talk a little bit about their company, about what they do and how we work together with them. So, guys, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_03Can you guys tell us your positions here?
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, I'm the president of Artle Payments Texas.
SPEAKER_02I'm an outside rep working pretty much exclusively in Rockwall County enjoying it.
SPEAKER_03Steve gets around the county, man. Everybody knows Steve. Everybody loves Steve. That's why we got to get him on the podcast. But
Mark’s Path To Ownership
SPEAKER_03the operation here was founded by Mark. So Mark, tell us a little bit more about your backstory about how you got started in the payment processing.
SPEAKER_00I've been in processing since '97. I was actually a bartender working with a friend of mine, and a friend of his started up a company. Um, and I started off just like Steve. I was an outside rep uh and I went all over East Texas, um, learned about that, did well, uh, got a promotion to come in and grow a team. That gentleman sold his company. I went to work for another company. Um, and I did that and was fortunate enough to uh, you know, to do well in the industry. Um, and then I decided that I wanted to do it my own, my own way. Um, and a couple years ago, we started Harlow Payments, Texas, and I get to make all the decisions instead of you know having to deal with pricing scenarios that I don't agree with or service scenarios that I don't agree with. So it's been fun.
SPEAKER_03And then what is Steve putting in that picture?
SPEAKER_00Uh I've known Steve for 30 years. Uh I met Steve at the same uh restaurant bar, uh, worked at Papado's years ago uh with Steve. And um what position were you, Steve? Same server bartender.
SPEAKER_03Bartender? Yeah. Porn drinks?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Espresso martini, Steve? Is that what they call it? We can still make some.
SPEAKER_00Yep. We can do it. Um, but yeah, Steve's a good friend of mine, known him for a long time. Uh, someone that I I know and trust, and I know that he's gonna have the same company values out on the street that we have uh you know inside the building, which is great.
Building A Partner First Culture
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so one thing you did mention is company values. I see a lot of leadership from you that you know, your team you said followed you out here. And uh so talk more tell what other company values there.
SPEAKER_00Well, you know, primarily we just want to take care of our partners. You know, we don't consider you a merchant of ours, we consider you a partner of ours. And you know, merchant services is one of those spaces, you know, when you're a business and you know, you know you have to have it, you have to have the ability to accept payments from your customers, right? Um, and it's kind of in the background, it's it's out of sight, out of mind until you have a problem. And then who are you calling? Are you are you working with a company that doesn't even have a phone call, a phone number that you can call? Do you have to email them for support and you have to wait for them to respond back to you? Well, you have your systems down and you have a customer in front of you that wants to pay. That's not acceptable. So, you know, it's we just have a philosophy that we want to take care of our of our partners and treat them like we would want to be treated if if we were in their shoes.
SPEAKER_03And tell me that that same value is also extends to your um to your employees that you have here. Can you talk a little bit more about that?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, it's it's we consider it a family. You know, we have obviously we have a business to run, you know, so you know, you have to come in and you have to work, and you know, we all roll our sleeves up and then we work, you know, we work hard, uh, but we try to have fun too, and we try to treat people with respect. Um, and you know, the people that are that come in and they wanna they want to work hard and they want to grow with a company, you know, there's like I could go through a list of dozens of of internal promotions that we've already had in the first two years of business. Uh so you know, that's just kind of our philosophy that we we like to promote from within uh and we like to you know have a long-term family environment while we're still running the business, right?
SPEAKER_03We still gotta run a business.
SPEAKER_01We gotta you've done this a long time. So now that you you start Harlow here, would you draw on all those years of experience, what are you doing differently now than what you've done all those other years of the world.
SPEAKER_00In all my years of management, my my philosophy of how we treat, I treated the people that worked for me or with me, it's always been the same. But I didn't have the ultimate decision-making process. You know, I've always had a very loyal group of people, you know, both ways. I was loyal to them, they were loyal to me. Uh, but now, you know, there are some final decisions that were taken away from me in the past, and decisions that I didn't agree with and would have made that I didn't have a choice. Now I make those final decisions, which you know makes me feel a lot better.
SPEAKER_02And on this side of it, you know, having known Mark as long as I have um working with him here in this setting, in this iteration of his company, because we've done this before over a decade ago. Um, because I've I've been in this space off and on a little bit over the years, and in the industry's changed, but this time feels just feels different. I think the um business, the way that companies do business has changed. Um and so we've kind of changed with it, and it feels a lot more transparent, a lot more customer focused, really finding um what their needs are, what their pain points are, solving those problems, and then um finding solutions to those problems. And then that's that's where we really have a lot of fun. And when we do that, we have those kind of relationships, um, everybody's winning. And and just the support here, the team that he's built um around what I'm doing on the outside, they're very supportive of me, um, help me in any way that I need. And um, it's just a great company to be with right now. It feels great.
SPEAKER_03So they are located in Heath, Texas. And what how many staff do you have here at this location? About 40. 40 staff. Uh now, a lot of business owners get people walking in their doors all the time, right? You always see that picture where the pants is not hemmed and it's it's it goes over the heel and it's dragging. That's what I think about when you think of some guy walking into the business selling you credit card processing, you know? But Steve is dressed very sharp, so give him a chance if he if he comes in. Please.
SPEAKER_01Please, yeah. So one thing I will say, like when I first met you, it was pretty interesting. Like you said, bring it in, give me a hug. Yeah. I know you do that with everybody. And one of the like one of my favorite coaches of all time, he coached Liverpool, his name is Jurgen Kalop. Everybody wanted the big Jurgen hug. He was notorious for giving this big bear hug, and everybody wanted one. Do you do that all the time? Like, what's the philosophy behind that?
SPEAKER_00One of the funniest stories that I had these two guys from from UPS at the previous company I worked for, and I was still in a leadership position. I just wasn't at an ownership position, and they came in, and these guys were at least six, seven each. So, like I and I do, I hug everyone, like, and and I, you know, most people want to be hugged, they're just not gonna initiate it, right? Uh so I was starting to go hug these guys, and I'm like, I'm gonna be hugging him around his waist, and this is gonna be a little awkward. So I stood up on a chair and I was like, come on in, bro. It was perfect. That's awesome. Yeah, it was perfect. Uh, because I I didn't have to hug him around his waist, but yeah, it's you know, I'm from the south. I grew up in a small town, I got it from my mom, so you know, she hugged everybody, everybody, all my friends called her mom, and I've just always done it.
SPEAKER_03So I am you can tell that's um carried over to the staff that's over here. And uh I get to meet with a lot of different businesses, and uh it's all a reflection of you know of you. So congratulations on that part. Thank you. You know, it's been uh it's been refreshing to watch it to see because you uh not everybody has that. You know, it's all about PLs and you know, statements and and profit, you know, over everything else.
Why Trust Is Hard In Processing
SPEAKER_03Um and so um when you got into the merchant services, uh what surprised you the most in the industry? Like what do you what what shady I I know I maybe you can't discuss all that, but you know, you've probably been around long enough to see some, you know, some things happen on the back end that shouldn't be happening.
SPEAKER_00So I didn't grow up thinking, man, I really want to be in the merchant service space. I didn't even really know what it was. When I first started in the space, when I would tell people, they're like, So what are you doing? I'm like, uh credit card processing. I'm like, oh, you can get me a credit card. I'm like, no, that's not what it is. That's the other side of the space. You know, we work together. But um, but it was what I like about it is it's um, you know, it's somewhat recession proof. Okay, so when the economy goes south, people need to put more things on a credit card. When the economy is booming, people have more money to put on a credit card, you know, with all the rewards cards and all the benefits for consumers now. Um, you know, it's it's a good space to be in. Uh what I don't like about the space is you kind of described it a few minutes ago. You know, you you see that guy with the shaggy jeans coming in from the street and you know, trying to sell you credit card processing, and then you he seems like a nice guy, he seems you know honest, and then you sign up, and then you never hear from him again. Uh, and next thing you know, you're paying twice or three times what what he told you. So it's that's I don't like it about the space. We capitalize on that, uh, but you know, the the the number one thing we have to overcome is trust because there's so many companies out there that do it the wrong way.
SPEAKER_03So, you know, was that the business model for a long time? Well, what you just described?
SPEAKER_00The the the business model, if I'm understanding you correctly, it's still that for most of the companies that are out there. Yeah, it's it's you know, they don't care about service, all they care about is is numbers. Yeah, there's a lot of you know reps out there that are independent contractors that are here they go on tomorrow. Uh and it's just it's not our philosophy. You know, again, we try to create long-term partnerships. Um and you know, we do capitalize on the fact that there's a lot of uh, for lack of a better way to put it, shady characters in this space. Uh so you know, we're we're not that. We're the exact opposite of that, but it is uh something that I don't like about the industry.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So we face a lot of the people, we're partners and we bring a lot of business for uh to Harlow, and we're always promoting them, and they're promoting lead fuel as well.
Stripe And Square Versus Local Support
SPEAKER_03And we always get the question, hey, what's the difference between like you guys and Stripe or Square? There's a lot of merchants out there that think, hey, perfect, they'll give me a terminal or whatever, and they, you know, they may be seeing an ad or something like that. And this can be a question for both of you guys. So uh, like how do you guys overcome that? What's really the difference in the bottom line that you can simplify and break it down for business owners?
SPEAKER_02Let me jump in for just a minute. Kind of um off of what he just said, over and overcoming some of these other companies, overcoming the perception uh of the negative perception of virtual services is still a challenge. Um, and it cuts both ways because we do um work around that, use that to our advantage to try to um um get new uh partners to to trust us enough, but it is it's difficult overcoming some of that negative perception. And that's why um, you know, being in these spaces and building that trust, we do a lot of not networking um together and um being involved with the chamber, just being able to really getting people to understand that is that that's a different way of doing business that we just don't. Uh we're we're different. And it, you know, it starts with Mark and it, you know, I'm trying to replicate that out outside. And so um, you know, we're still uh being uh you know working up against that, coming up against it all the time, but um we do capitalize on it because there's opportunity for us because we are different. So um, but with like what you just mentioned with Stride, PayPal, Square, um, they're they're very prominent. And and it's those are great for a um a business that's just starting. They don't have um a track record of business. And so it's easy to to start taking payments with those processors because they don't have um an onboarding process, a risk management, underwriting process that we do. Um and so they they start that that way, but then um as they start to grow, they'll start seeing problems. And um, when those come up, that's where it becomes easier for us to get them. And we can help them, definitely. Um not just in in in cost, but um a lot of other ways. Um, faster funding, you know, if there's an issue.
SPEAKER_03Um guys do daily payouts, which is great. Yeah, that's right. That's right.
SPEAKER_02Mark may be able to speak more about that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, it's it's very well said. Um they market themselves, strike, let's take Stripe and Square, they market themselves very well. Uh Square came into the space, I don't know, 15 years ago or so. Uh, and they made it really easy for a merchant to sign up. Merchants have it doesn't matter. And they really focused on um the the really small, what I call micro merchants. Um, and they have some decent technology now. They've they've started to swim upstream a little bit, but the support, again, you know, if you need something, you're not, you don't have somebody that's gonna pick up the phone and and help you.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00Um, and you know, it's the same thing with Stride. They're massive companies, you know, uh, and they are, I will give them this, they are fairly transparent with their pricing. Um, they do increase their pricing um more than, you know, if I was a merchant, I would prefer. But um, it's just it's it's a different level of service that we provide. And, you know, nine times out of ten, we can save you money from what they're they're offering on the street.
SPEAKER_03A lot of what's happening now is um explain that where with the master accounting and you know that you can get frozen.
SPEAKER_00So the payment facilitator?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like how how Stripe is and how how they can just block you at any time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so um Stripe and and um Square are known what's or are what's known as uh a payment facilitator. Uh so when you sign up for Square, you don't actually have a merchant account with them. It's really easy. You know, you can go online and get a merchant account, uh, what's called really a submerchant account um in minutes, all right? Where admittedly our underwriting process is different uh because we do everything on the front end. They don't care because most of their a big percentage of their merchants never even run a transaction. But when they do, now they start to look at you. Oh, well, I need to get this, right? You know, and how do they how do they solve that? They hold your money until they get it in many cases, right? Um, we don't do that. We do all of our diligence on the front end. Um, and everyone has their own merchant account, yeah. Uh an actual merchant account.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, they're not grouped into a big conglomerate like Square would do. Uh, so it's it's just a different process for the merchant moving forward.
SPEAKER_01Give me the high-level, like you guys make money on interchange fees, right? Give me the dummies high-level 30 seconds. What is an interchange fee and how does that work?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we don't actually make money on interchange. We make money on um, it's commonly called the discount rate or the spread between interchange and the pricing that we that we offer. Interchange is the what Visa, MasterCard, uh, Discover, MX has a similar cost structure, but it's not called interchange with them. But that's what they charge companies like us to be able to facilitate that transaction. To use their system, to use the system. It's kind of like the ATT of the world uh or the Verizon. That's you know, uh, but you can't, unless you're Walmart or someone like Walmart, you can't go direct to Visa. You have to use a company like Harlow or Stripe or Square or whoever it is. There's there's hundreds of companies in the space. Um so they charge us all the companies the same, uh, and then we decide what our markup is on that. And we uh that's that's the money that we make on top of interchange.
SPEAKER_02So the bulk of the fee is going to be the interchange rate. So whatever that merchant is or whatever that card costs is that's the interchange fee, and that's the bulk of it. It's a straight pass-through for us. We don't make money on that. Ours is just the small piece that we add to actually process the payment.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's it's 80-90% of that that that fee that the merchants are paying, it goes to Visa, whatever your MasterCard, American Trust, Discover. Uh, and some of a portion of that goes to the card issuing bank. So if you look in your um if you look in your wallet or your purse, you have a credit card and it says Citibank or whatever. Uh it says rewards, you know, it's it's a reward card. You know that it's maybe an American Airlines reward card, so you get free flights off of that. So a portion of that money goes to Citibank because they issued it, and a portion of it goes to uh Visa uh and the sponsor bank, uh, which there has to be a sponsor bank in the loop because they have to guarantee the funds. You know, if something happened to Harlow, it's not. But if something happened to Harlow, just like every merchant, they have to have a guaranteed bank that's gonna, you know, guarantee that they're gonna get their funds.
SPEAKER_02Got true. But I think that's a big misconception. People think that the the they see three or three point five or four percent, then it's all going to the processor. That's just not true. Most of that is a pass through.
SPEAKER_00That would be great.
SPEAKER_02It's just not the case. It's not the case. Yeah.
Saving Merchants Money With Better Process
SPEAKER_03Steve, you work a lot with the businesses. Tell me, tell us about um like your last couple of clients that you signed up. Like what's what's your process when you go out? What do you look for? You know, how exactly do you break it down?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I'm I'm actually um I'm trying to um build relationships and and really um find out what a business is doing and where they're at, what where they want to go, what they want to, what they want to do, um, and and being a resource and an asset for them and and um find them resources and things. Maybe they need a website. Well, we can help with that. Um, you know, maybe they need to get found. We can help with that. But the triggering the whole the the whole process is gonna be, well, let's let's look at your fees, your your fee structure, how much money can we save you from your current processing and what you're doing there? Um, and that very often unlocks a lot of other things. So if we can save a business um, you know, three, four, you know, I I met with someone just um on Monday that we can save them about $800 a month, you know, and that that's impactful. That's that's a lot of money over the course of 12 months. Over that year, you're you're pulling back thousands. And um, what can you do with that money? You know, are you can you reinvest in some new equipment, maybe an employee, maybe uh get more leads, do those things. And so um, you know, being a partner that way, it it I get a lot of gratification out of it because um I I can help a business actually grow, be successful and grow. And and that's that's where um we're aligned because they're they're winning and we're winning as well. The more that they're able to sell and and process, well, that's a win for us, but you know, helping them grow is is really rewarding.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, perfect. Um, so a little bit of plug on there. So when Steve goes into a business, if they don't have a website, he gets in touch with us and we help them at Lead Fuel. All of Lead Fuel's customers are processing with Harlow payments. Uh, and so what's that onboarding process look like?
SPEAKER_02Well, um, it's a lot of basic business information that you would have as a business. You know, it's gonna be your your EIN, your company name, are you an LLC, a SOLPROC, all of those things? And then um uh there'll be some other things that our underwriters, the risk department, they'll want to see. They'll take a look at a physical location, they'll want to see your website, they'll want to see marketing materials, that it's a legitimate business and um not something that it can be risky, that you know, um that there are a lot of people that use merchant services to sell illegal items or things that are um, you know, not regulated, things like that. And so our onboarding process is a little bit more stringent, but that really helps on the back end so we can um facilitate funding faster. That money won't get held up. I just had a a merchant um this week who had um a larger ticket than was normal, and um it was flagged by our risk department. I and um I got the notification before he even did. And so I reached out to him. He sent over um the actual invoice with some other supporting documentation, ran that up to um, sent that over to to our underwriting department, and they released the funds next day. So um having a partner like that makes it makes it.
SPEAKER_01Nobody does that. Yeah, what's that? I never get a phone call from anybody if something's fraudulent, you know, you found out. Yeah, you do on the you do on your on the issuing side.
SPEAKER_00You know, like you you may from your credit card, they may call you, but merchant services they don't. Yeah, because they they just look at us and say, Well, we haven't we have the money, we'll just they'll call us. That we try to be proactive in those manies, right? And and there's a reason for risk, uh, risk departments, and Steve alluded to. A little bit, you know, they're you know, stolen credit cards. We there's fraudulent companies that try to set up merchant accounts. We we probably have four or five a month that try to start up a merchant account with us. Uh, but you know, what people don't realize is somebody runs twenty thousand dollars worth of stolen credit cards through, they're not keeping that money in their bank account, they're moving it as soon as they get it. So who's responsible for that? Harlow's responsible or Stripe or Square or whoever the processor. Um, so you know, there's there's a reason for it. Uh, but you know, we that's why we do our diligence on the front end and we're very proactive when something's out of the norm. I I'll share a story with you. Uh we had a merchant that um ran a t-shirt shop, ran a $30,000 transaction. Wow. Whereas their average ticket was, you know, a couple hundred bucks. Um and so we held it and we called them and they said, uh, yeah, I'm so excited that this company just ordered, you know, hundreds of t-shirts from me. Um and we're like, okay, well, this transaction is coming from I think it was Nigeria. But how did they find you? Have you done business with them before? No, no, they just found me and they hurt me. Don't ship, don't ship those those t-shirts. This is fraud. So, you know, it does also protect the merchant uh in scenarios like that. What you know wasn't what the merchant wanted to hear because this is the biggest sell of their life. Uh, but it protected them from shipping those those t-shirts and losing that money.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, I've actually won that one, man. Yeah, yeah, I've actually lost quite a bit of equipment, five to ten thousand dollars worth because of because of fraud, it would be nice to get a call back from someone. Yeah, but not all companies care, like you guys.
Networking That Turns Into Real Business
SPEAKER_01Um one thing I will say watching Steve in action, uh, you know, we've been in the internet age for a long time. And you don't hear stories about how you can just pound the streets and make and make money, but it's an old school way of doing business. But man, I've watched you and I'm watching you with Leaf Fuel. It works. Yeah. Getting to know the community, getting entrenched in the community and having a good product to sell.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. And you know, with with Mark and his um experience in building teams and finding formulas, sales formulas that work, um, having team leaders that are very knowledgeable, can walk you through anything on the phone. If I have a question, I could call in. Somebody's gonna help me. Um, and it may be Mark, it could be uh Dakota, Jared, somebody's gonna jump on and help me uh with with any particular situation. But um what I've found, I think the way that people do business a little bit has changed, but I still incorporate some of those old schools.
SPEAKER_01It's like we're circling back.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, I mean it's shoe leather, you know, knocking on doors, leaving cards, introducing myself. And that I did a lot of that. Um it still works. Yeah, for sure. I did still I hit that really hard and it it's paid off because I started getting into more networking groups and um getting seen more that way. And and when I was introducing myself to someone later on, I'd meet them in a networking, just a group, uh, an event. Um yeah, you uh I've seen your card. You came into my my office before. It's good to finally put a face to the name. Um, something like that. If I couldn't meet with them previously, but it's uh, you know, just coming back around all of those things. So it's incorporating all of it, but I think the relationship part is uh is more important now. People want to do business with a company they trust and um that they they feel good about doing business with. And so that's where I think um I'm really having some success, is just really just demolishing the old paradigms of what a merchant service company is. It's refreshing to see.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I'll tell you something else that's refreshing is watching you guys collaborate together. You know, people talk about that, sure, but I'm seeing like there's a massive synergy between lead fuel and Harlow and what you guys are doing. Talk about that, bro. And then I want you guys to talk about that as well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so from our end, we've been approached by quite a few uh credit card companies in the past. You know, we've talked about it, and it's all characters. I mean, it can it's like a movie you're watching, it's uh it's all characters. Yeah, yeah, Tarantino, yeah. That's what it is. None of them had an office, nobody invited us, nobody hugged us. It's all about the it's all about the hugs. I was like, these are the guys. This is it, we're gonna do it. You know, we had our first lunch. So how me and Steve actually met. Um, so we're part of a networking group. You know, when we say networking group, I mean people think it's gone away, but they just don't understand what's happening. Negative connotation is too.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I feel that you got do you feel like that's well I think there's there's so many out in this area that and and they are uh successful in their different their own their own ways. Right. Um, the one that we found each other at was uh is really unique and uh it uh just out in this area, even out of all the networking groups that we see, it's it is particularly unique. It it is a lot a lot of um smaller businesses, but it feels more like family. People really know each other and they're intentional about referring each other because it is that relation, it's relational. And so you you build those relationships. It's all still all about that. 100%, yeah. Yeah, and so um that's been really unique there. And I I was looking through my notebook uh yesterday and I saw where you wrote your name down and your phone number.
SPEAKER_03It was I'm glad you can read it, bro, because my handwriting is terrible. Yeah, I was like, I'm never gonna hear from this guy again.
SPEAKER_02It was amazing. And if I could just finish that story a little bit, um, we and I don't know what it was. I said something ridiculous. He picked up on it, and he's been giving me crap about it ever since. And so, but um, there was something there. There was something that you saw that I said that made you curious that you wanted to find out more about us. And so um, so I sent over the the website over to Mark, and um our guys took a look at it. And um I had I was on my way to another appointment. When I got out of that appointment and got back in touch with Mark, he said, see if you can set up a lunch. It was uh it it had it had enough to it. He he saw enough in that moment to say, let's see if we can set up a lunch. And I think I got back in touch with you later that evening, and um we had a lunch set up two days later. The rest is history.
SPEAKER_03You know what what you actually said was uh I set up a like you set up a guy that was at this networking thing, and you said you messed up the account numbers and the money went to your account.
SPEAKER_02Oh, it was the wrong we had the routing number and the account number backwards or something.
SPEAKER_03It was all you could do is laugh at that, bro. Because it's like my my realtor used to always tell me, like, oh, we'll we'll uh send the money to Mike's Hawaii fund. So yeah, networking groups that have been great. And uh, you know, for those of you that are not doing, I mean, some of the groups that we attend, um Rockwell Chamber Group, our Canroy City area networking. What are some other ones that businesses can look?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I just came from one um a little bit earlier today. It was B I. It's a great group, um, close a closed group. There's another one that I've been to that um that meets on Wednesdays in the morning that um they're a closed group as well. Um, and they do, they're very intentional about referring each other uh and and um connecting people to their group and um just making those types of connections and referrals. There's other master networking groups, but um there's one that meets on Thursday mornings at um uh Beer Me and Faith that uh it is it's a good group as well. So there's several. Um and then with the chamber, there's so many events that you can um really dig into. They there's um 60 MPH is a good one. It's um 60 meetings per per uh per hour that is it's like speed dating for business, man. You sit in front of somebody, you give you give a pitch, and then you rotate chairs, and so you you meet somebody else. Um it's that's been phenomenal. And and really what we do is we set up one-on-one meetings and really try to um get to know that person and their business, and that's where the relationships start to happen. And then um, I had one, it just it just came up. We set a one-on-one for Monday, and uh man, you know, we can save him about ten thousand dollars a year, and he doesn't have to change anything that he's doing currently, other than set up a merchant account with us and change processors. It it's it's remarkable. Doesn't have to change anything of his day-to-day, everything stays the same, all the billing, the recurring, invoicing, it's all the same. We're just we we can just process for less. And so um that's exciting. And people don't know that they don't they think it's a cost of doing business, but uh wasting that much money is not a cost of doing business, it's just a waste. So uh yeah, it's it we're we're educating too. Yeah, yeah.
Lead Fuel CRM Synergy And Closing
SPEAKER_01Tell me how the lead fuel uh works so well with what you guys do, how you're able to add that on as kind of like an add-on to what you do to make what you do even more uh sticky for customers.
SPEAKER_02Well, there's so much that uh this uh the CRM can do. It's AI driven. Um, it has so many tools that can help a business, uh, especially a small business, to uh to scale, to um really operate efficiently because it can handle so many things like your your phone, your email marketing, your um text messaging, invoicing, um, you can do estimates, all those types of things really help a business to grow and scale and everything within one seamless CRM. And um, you know, it's it's the more that I mean you learn something new about it every day, it it's so robust, it does so many things, you know. And um, Mark could tell you about some of the other experiences that some of our other um um team members have what they've experienced in selling it and just um making people aware of it because it really can do so much.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's awesome. I when I first um saw the demo, I I did a little research online before I I had lunch with uh Josh just to make sure. Did I make it to underwriting when I met him?
SPEAKER_01Um made it to round two, bro.
SPEAKER_00And uh I was very impressed. And then when uh when they came in and did a demo for us, I was like, man, this is this is awesome. Because, you know, we deal with a lot of you know, we have very large retailers and very small retailers and everything in between. But we may be talking to, you know, a guy in Omaha, Nebraska, or Rockwall or Rowlette or wherever. Uh, and you know, maybe it's a transmission shop, you know, and this guy is the best at changing a transmission in the area. But he would he never went to business school. He doesn't know how to run a business, but he's trying to. He's trying to, you know, change as many transmissions as he can a day, as well as running his marketing, his email campaigns, his Facebook, all of the things. And he just doesn't have time to do it the right way. And Josh and his team, they they take over as little or all of that, you know, and it's just an amazing product. And another thing I like about lead fuel is is their adaptability. Um, you know, we've talked a little bit. Steve Steve spent quite a bit of time talking about like we we like to find solutions for people that solve their problems. And you know, lead fuel had didn't solve all the problems at first, but now it does. Because we went to Josh, we said, we need this. He's like, okay. And he built it. Uh so it's it's it's a really cool uh collaborative um partnership, like you talked about. And I love it. It's it's been it's really enhanced our sales efforts and it's a great partnership.
SPEAKER_01And so for you guys listening out there, it's old school. Figure out different industries that you might be able to collaborate with, but actually do it. Like I hear Josh selling Harlow all the time, right? And same thing. We walk in your office and I hear people selling lead field, right? That's a true collaboration where both parties win. And you can share referrals on top of each other. So that's that's just my recommendation for you guys out there. Stay local, it's still a good thing, and then collaborate with somebody that has a synergistic business with what you've got. It's a beautiful thing when you watch that work. Everybody wins.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's it's awesome. It's been a great partnership. Um, and you know, we appreciate lead fuel uh immensely. We're looking to grow this thing uh and blow it up. So it's awesome.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I want to be the go-to processor here here in the county. But you know what? It I I'll say this. Um I wake up every day really excited about going to work and and and because I'm helping people and I love who I get to do it with, who I get to do it with. And um I'm learning constantly. I'm learning something new all the time. And I love that, but I'm also part of a community. And um, I've lived in Rockwall County for in Rockwall specifically for 11 years now. This is the most connected I've ever felt to this community where where I know people um and feel like I have relationships and friendships. And um that kind of that that feeling is is I I haven't felt that here before. So it's that's unique, but it feels really good. But there's a sense of community and service. People really um really like to serve in this community, serve other people. And um I love that. So it I I get fed, I find joy in those things, and so um it's been it's been amazing. And and then working here with these guys, it's it's awesome. I love it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and I think we share a lot of the same values because if if we were in it for any other reason than that, you know, that's our true passion. Like, hey, we want to help people, we want to help business owners. We've been there, done that, we've seen it all, and we don't want to be like what we saw before, right? Or be those shady characters or bad business practices like that. Uh, and the people that we get to help. I mean, you know, we're changing their lives, their family, their children, their husbands, uh, and it's making a real impact, you know. And now, you know, with the local impact, right? And and they're referring us to people, and the compound effect has just been immense. Steve and I in the streets pounding the networking group, so we're getting a lot of uh great feedback. So I think it's a it's a forgotten business practice of going out doing networking. It still works. I've been an online guy my whole life, you know. Shane can tell you that. And you know, we've done a lot of online marketing.
SPEAKER_01Done a ton.
SPEAKER_03The best of the best.
SPEAKER_01We've learned what you've done. Yeah. So this is kind of a new concept for us. I was a banker for a long time, so it was very relational like that. But working with him so long, I've watched him, you know, it's the one to many, one to thousands, right? Sure. And this, you're back to one to one. Yeah. One to two, one to three, whatever. So uh, and and I will add this like you're talking about helping people, like we come alive when we help people. At the end of the day, we're built with these souls in here that come alive when we get a chance to help people. So this whole thing we're talking about, it you get to do all these things at once. It's a beautiful thing. What are you gonna say something, Mark?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, I was gonna have you you you mentioned that it's one-to-one and it's local, but sometimes it's not one-to-one. Sometimes someone that you meet at one of these networking groups, they open up opportunities nationwide in another area or another state. Uh, so yeah, it starts one-to-one and it really does work. And when you're going to these networking groups, it's not you don't go there once. You can't, yeah. You don't go there twice. You go there and you're genuine and then you do follow-ups. And you know, I I think Steve can tell a story or two about how when he first went to some of these networking groups again, because of people in his space. Uh they like Sideye a little bit. Ah, another, another credit card.
SPEAKER_02Uh oh. Yeah. Red flag. Did you get a red flag? 100%. It it was uh it took a it took a while. Yeah, you know, it really did. But um one thing that happened early on uh that I'm really grateful for had to be a God thing. I I just believe that. Um, I had an appointment set for me from an outside call center, uh, brought me to a merchant um that's uh in Terrell, a little bit further out. And so um went there, but again, he he was he had some serious pain points that we could help him with, um, and we could solve some of those problems. And he was willing to try anything, gave me a shot, and we helped him right away. And um, he's like, You're going to you're going to Arcan with me. So I went to uh went to and and I haven't missed a meeting since. And that was almost six months ago almost. So no, maybe maybe five months, but um in that time I haven't missed once. And um great people there, and it's been it's overcoming that side eye, that's level of skepticism is taking a little bit of time, but um, it's getting there. And there's some crossover between other groups and the Rockwall Chamber and Rockwall people, but it's um um it it's it I'm getting there. I'm not quite there yet. I still go into a room sometimes, and you know, you're not approached very much by people because you are a merchant services company after all. But um it's it's getting better. It's getting better.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, sure. Well, we appreciate you guys joining the podcast. We appreciate the partnership that we have with you. Uh any final words before we depart.
SPEAKER_00Appreciate you guys as a partnership. Um love working in this community, working with the people that I work with, the partners that I work with. And um, you know, we're here if you need a good, if you need a good processing partner, she's harlow.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. 100% what he said. Um, great company. Um, we do have a local impact. If if um we'd just like to talk to you. We you may not know or think you know that that we can actually work with your with your company and save you money, but uh just give us a chance. Um we'd love to talk to you and see if we can provide some value and um solve some problems for you. But um we love working with you guys. You guys are awesome. Uh it's been a lot of fun. Looking forward to more of it, man. Absolutely. All right. Okay, guys, take care. Thank you.
