March 4, 2025 • 29 mins
Explore the world of payment processing in our engaging conversation with Dustin Magaziner, CEO of PayBright. From his beginnings as a college entrepreneur to leading a successful company, Dustin shares invaluable insights into what sets PayBright apart in the increasingly competitive payments landscape. We discuss the vital role of independent sales agents (ISOs) in the industry, unpacking their challenges and the changing dynamics driven by technology.
Dustin delves into PayBright's commitment to ethical practices and superior support for their partners. He explains how understanding technology is crucial for agents to thrive and how embracing innovations can lead to future success. The conversation also touches on the potential of AI to transform operations and improve customer service quality in the payments sector.
Whether you’re an aspiring agent, a seasoned executive, or simply curious about the payments industry, this episode offers a rich perspective on navigating its complexities. Join us in understanding how to elevate your approach and stay ahead in your career!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast,
where we talk to C-level leadersfrom across the payments
landscape.
We'll be discussing theproducts and services that
impact the payment space today,as well as trends and
predictions for the future ofpayments.
We will also hear stories fromour guests about their journeys
to the top.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello everyone and welcome to the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
I'm your host, greg Myers, andon today's show we have a very
special guest, dustin Magaziner,the CEO of Paybright.
So, dustin, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Great.
So why don't we start outhaving you tell our audience a
little bit about yourself, maybewhere you're from, where you
grew up, where you currentlylive, a few things like that?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Well, I'm happy to tell everyone a little bit about
myself.
I currently live here inRaleigh, north Carolina, which
is where our office is, whereI'm at right now.
I moved here somewhat randomly.
I hadn't spent much time herebefore I moved here.
I'm originally from outsidePhiladelphia, on the New Jersey
side of things, so go birds hadto throw that in here right now
with the Super Bowl coming up ina couple of days.
(00:59):
But I am from outside ofPhiladelphia and live now in
Raleigh, north Carolina.
I'm happy to tell you anythingmore, but that's kind of where
I'm from.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Okay, great Well, let's talk about the company.
So tell our audience whatPaybrite does.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
So we are an ISO.
We really are focused on agentISO realm of this industry.
So we aren't in the businessselling directly to merchant.
We're not doing SEO or onlineads.
We are 100% based onindependent agents out in the
field in their hometowns,working with Main Street USA
(01:32):
type merchants and providingthem the absolute best service
and support that can be offered.
There's a lot of things that wedo.
It'd be hard, obviously, tocover it all on a podcast, but
really that's what the nuts andbolts of Paybrite are.
It's agent, ISO-centric andreally focused on the agent
experience.
I'm somewhat obsessed with theexperience.
I believe if we have a goodexperience for our sales
(01:54):
partners, that will translate toan even better experience for
our end user, of course, themerchants.
So that's a short and sweetoverview of Paybrite.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Okay, and are your ISOs and agents all US-based?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah, so we are 100% US-based.
Today we have exploredexpanding into Canada, although
I don't think we're going to dothat.
You never know, it's always aconversation that comes up.
But yes, we are 100% US, fromHawaii to Alaska to Florida and
everywhere in between, but, yes,us-based.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Okay, and are your ISOs and agents?
Do they focus on certainverticals or are they pretty
much all sort of small,medium-sized business?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
focused?
Great question, and it reallyvaries by sales partner.
I've got agents who are newerto merchant services and they're
walking down the street talkingto any business in their area.
I've got others who have beenin this business much longer and
maybe are starting to goupstream to partners who maybe
are, as I like to refer to it,whale hunting and maybe only
going after enterprise-levelmerchants at where they're at in
(02:56):
their career.
We're here to support thoseindividuals and what they're
going after is a little bit morefocused on them.
I've got partners that onlyfocus on enterprise restaurant
chains If they don't have atleast 10 locations maybe too
small for what that salespartner is looking to do and
others who may be signing up amerchant that's a food truck and
(03:18):
just needs a little mobilereader.
So we're here to support all ofit and give our partners
ultimately what they need to besuccessful.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
So when these partners come to you, what
specific solutions are theytypically looking for?
Speaker 3 (03:30):
So it can vary.
Some are just looking for acompany that's going to stay out
of their way and do businessethically right.
Hey, don't take advantage of mymerchants, don't raise their
prices, pick up the phone whenthey call or when the agent
calls, and just give me a reallygood platform to be comfortable
with.
Of course, we're going todeliver that.
Others are looking for aplatform that delivers a little
bit more, that has products andis really sophisticated in some
(03:52):
of those arenas.
So over the last couple years,especially with where I think
the industry is going, we'veinvested and have spent a lot of
time building out a team hereat Payback called our POS Desk
and our POS desk.
Our POS desk is a team to helpthese individual agents and
smaller ISOs compete more withthe likes of the stripes of the
world and the squares of theworld from a product perspective
.
Our team will help demo andprovide technology that a lot of
(04:15):
these agents aren't familiarwith or don't have previous to
us.
We also assist with things likeintegration support.
Maybe an agent comes across abusiness and that business is
using XYZ system today and thatagent doesn't know a lot about
integrations or what thecapabilities may or may not be.
So they can reach out to ourPOS desk and say, hey, here's
what they're using, what optionsdo we have?
How do we plug in, what gatewayor what path do we have to
(04:38):
working with them and, unlike alot of our competitors that say,
hey, you're an independentagent, you have to figure this
out on your own, we get into theweeds and we really help
simplify what can sometimes be areally complicated process and
in most cases we'll even do itfor them.
So we really want our salespartners to do what they do best
, which is relationship building, selling, and let us handle in
those instances a lot of thetechnical side of it.
(04:59):
So there's a lot.
Our POS desk is a big focus forus because I do believe
personally that that's thefuture of the industry and going
to be a big future for Paybrite.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Okay, and you mentioned having that team.
How big is the company overall?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
So we're sitting around 15,000 merchants today.
In terms of our overalllandscape there, in terms of our
office here in Raleigh, we'vegot somewhere around 30 people
sitting in the office right now.
Of course, we do have a fairamount of remote folks as well,
given the nature of the modernworld, but we are scaling back a
bit on remote.
We were fully remote through2020, 21, and even the first
half of 22.
(05:33):
But I do personally believethat we're a bit more efficient.
Culturally.
There's, I think, advantages.
So we're bringing more of thehiring back to Raleigh, not
letting anyone go right, justreally focusing on local.
I think right now we have about10 or 12 open positions that
we're hiring for as well.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Okay, okay.
Yeah, that remote versusin-office thing is quite the
topic these days.
We could probably talk a longtime about that.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yeah, it's a hot topic, for sure.
I have so many friends that arestruggling with this in their
own world.
Outside of payments, it'severywhere right now.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, and you know what, without getting into it,
it's a challenge from theleadership down to the employee
right, making the decision andwhat the right one is, and then
having the employee often havingto make the decision.
Yeah, that's a whole otherpodcast.
But back to Paybrite.
What, would you say,differentiates you guys versus
the other ISOs out there?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
There's a lot right when we talk about other ISOs
out there.
I think we even have to askwhat are we talking about in
regards to other ISOs?
You have other ISOs that are,frankly, some of the companies
that I would really want to stayaway from.
They may not have the bestethics at times.
They may have businesspractices that I just don't
believe in.
Then you have other ISOs outthere that maybe they're not a
(06:52):
challenge or an issue from anethical perspective, but maybe
they're a problem from a pricingor a servicing perspective.
Maybe they don't pay thegreatest of commissions or they
properly staffed or being ableto service their customers well.
Then you have companies thatmaybe don't have the products or
technologies to really allowtheir customers well.
Then you have companies thatmaybe don't have the products or
technologies to really allowtheir sales partners to compete
effectively.
What I like to say is that wewant to be all of that in one.
(07:14):
I believe we have a saying here.
I like Shark Tank.
There's a quote on Shark Tank.
He says all roads lead back toMr Wonderful.
I joke around that all roadslead back to Paybrite for
independent agents.
I really believe that if you'rean agent of merchant services.
If you're not working withPaybrite, you're missing out on
sales, you're missing out onopportunities, you're making
your life harder and you'releaving money on the table.
(07:35):
And you know that's really whatPaybrite's about is.
We want to help our salespartners sell more business,
keep their accounts longer, haveless headaches, have better
support.
A lot of these are just thingsthat when I was an agent, I
wanted right, so we built thesethings into our program.
I mean things like you know.
No cancellation fee when Istarted in this business was
unheard of, truly.
(07:56):
I mean 10, 15 years ago, everyprocessor, for the most part at
least, had cancellation fees andI said, well, why do we need
cancellation fees?
If we deliver what we promiseand give good quality support
and we price customers right,why would they want to leave us?
And so, from day one, we neverhad cancellation fees and our
agents were able to feel goodabout that.
Then, of course, I saw othercompanies were increasing prices
(08:17):
on their merchants and, as asales rep, there's nothing worse
.
It's a gut-wrenching feelingwhen you sell your name and your
reputation on an account andthen the large company behind
you comes in and they say, well,we don't really care what you
promise them we're going toincrease the price.
So we say you know, we're notgoing to increase prices on our
customers and our agents canfeel good about that.
They don't have to worry aboutthat call one day.
We said you know, hey,merchants shouldn't have to pay
(08:37):
an arm and a leg to work with aprocessor.
So it's free, but really it's arental or a lease.
Our programs really are what wesell them to be and it doesn't
mean that that program is forevery merchant.
Obviously, we're not going togive a free POS system to a
merchant that doesn't do acertain amount of volume or have
(09:00):
a certain size.
We'll be the first ones to saythat Of course it has to make
business sense.
But we do offer these programsso that our partners can compete
and our merchants can be happywith us.
Really, we took everything thatI wanted as an agent and then
we took the feedback of oursales partners and we just
slowly started layering thesethings in one at a time.
I'd probably say that if you'rean agent of merchant services
(09:20):
and you've had frustration withyour current processor, we've
probably built out things thatallow you to not have that
frustration.
If you lost an account.
We probably have ways to boardthat account for you, and that's
really what it is to work withPaybrite and what we're all
about.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
You sort of mentioned this earlier, but I want to go
a little deeper.
Where do you see the industryheading in the next, say, three
to five years?
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Yeah, so I think there's going to be this
continuation of integrations.
For the last probably 10 yearswe've been hearing about this.
I don't think it's happened asquickly as people expected.
I know when I got into thebusiness I was pretty much told
that ISOs would be gone by now.
I don't know if you heard thator not, but I certainly did.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
The death of the ISOs .
Speaker 3 (10:02):
everyone's heard of the death of the ISOs, exactly
and I think we were told thiswas going to happen way quicker
than 2025.
And clearly, the death of theISO has not occurred yet, and
for my seat, I don't see it onthe horizon tomorrow either.
In fact, I think I actually seethe opposite.
I think ISOs are in a betterposition today than they were a
(10:23):
couple years ago.
I joke around and I actuallythink that there's an argument
to be made that there might bethis.
I'm going to maybe say a newterm, like the death of the
payfac may actually be somethingthat I'm seeing more because
the ISOs have caught up a littlebit Faster boarding, faster
implementations, betterapplication packets, more
publicly available APIs throughall of these gateway providers.
So I think ISOs are positionedextremely well, at least the
(10:45):
right ones.
But provider.
So I think ISOs are positionedextremely well, at least the
right ones.
But I do think us and othercompanies like us have to
continue to invest in technology, in know-how, in gateway
solutions, in APIs, and we can'tkeep our head in the sand and
say we are not a tech company,we're a sales organization,
because while we are sales andservice, we have to start
understanding that technology ispart of that, and so I think
(11:06):
these two things are gettingblended together and so that's
really been a big focus for usover the last.
At this point about two and ahalf years or so and I think is
the future for Payprite we'regoing to continue to invest in
technology partnerships andrelationships with software
companies that we can then putin the hands of our agents.
The technology companies love usbecause we go and we sell the
heck out of their solutions.
And Technology companies loveus because we go and we sell the
(11:27):
heck out of their solutions.
And our agents love it becausewe bring them good quality
solutions that they don't haveto go out and source and then
worry about losing later on whenthat quote-unquote agnostic
system decides to go and poachall their merchants.
We have professional levelagreements with these companies
so we're not nearly as worriedabout what happens at the agent
level at our level.
So I think that's what thefuture looks like over the next
several years personally, andwe're going to continue to
(11:49):
double down in that arena.
I think we just approved todouble the size of our POS desk
in the next six months.
I mean we're hiring in thatdepartment.
I think it's the future of thisbusiness.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
So maybe explain maybe just for me, but maybe
also for the audience how youdelineate between ISO and agent.
I mean, I think I know thedifference, but I'm just curious
how you're seeing thosedifferent.
So two-part question that.
And we talked about death ofthe ISO.
What about the agent world?
How have you seen that changein the last couple of years and
(12:21):
where is it heading?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Yeah.
So I think the term agent andISO are often interchangeable.
I don't know that there's ahuge difference in the term and
in a lot of ways they can getblurred right.
So obviously a single sellerwho sells merchant services for
a living is an agent, right.
But what is if it's atwo-person team?
Right?
A husband-wife or two bestfriends or child or whatever, is
(12:46):
that now an ISO?
I would say that's stillprobably an agent.
So there's no exact thresholdthat makes something or someone
an ISO versus an agent.
But a lot of it comes down to,I think, some responsibility
who's handling service, who'shandling deployment, et cetera,
et cetera.
But in most of theseconversations we're really
referring to agents and the ISOis the company supporting them.
(13:07):
So Paybrite has a little over800 active sales partners.
Whether we want to call themagents or ISOs, we have a little
over 800 active sales partners.
Majority of them are one tothree person teams.
It's one person, maybe two orthree, but we have partners as
large as 90 agents in one office.
That's about our biggest.
To us we call that an ISOoffice, but someone else could
(13:28):
still call that an agent office.
Terminology is ofteninterchangeable and kind of
overlaps.
As for maybe the death of theagent or where that's going.
I don't believe in thatpersonally, but I do think
there's a new wave of agentsAgents that come from my time of
selling or even before need tounderstand that things are
changing.
(13:49):
I think I got into merchantservices at a really interesting
time.
When I got in, the industry waspredominantly terminal-based,
right, it was VX520s, vx510s,hypercoms etc.
And in a lot of ways that waseasy to sell.
And then I was fortunatebecause a couple years after I
got into the business we had theEMV shift and every business in
(14:09):
America basically had to shiftand change terminals.
That's a great thing if yousell terminals, right.
But it was still easy from anunderstanding perspective.
I could go in and I didn't haveto really understand too much
about technology.
But now the business ischanging.
If I sell merchant services, Ihave to understand that, yes,
the money may be in the payments, but the sale is in the product
, it's in the POS, it's in thebooking software, it's in the
(14:35):
text message marketing, it's inthe solution that that merchant
needs to run their business,integrated with payments.
And so I didn't have to worryabout any of that when I was
selling.
So that's good and bad.
On the flip side, the marginsare much higher because of that
(15:02):
no-transcript.
They talked about how muchtoast was going to cost, how
much the hardware would cost andthe software fees, how long it
would take to install, what thatprocess would look like, and
they liked what they were beingtold.
And so they sign up and theymay not even know how much the
merchant service account's goingto be, and that's potentially
where most of the money is.
So it's exciting to me.
I think margins for merchantservice agents are going to
(15:25):
continue to go up.
We service agents are going tocontinue to go up.
We've seen it.
Our margins today in 2024-25are nearly three times what they
were when I was out selling300% give or take.
And that's not becausemerchants are being price gouged
, it's because we're providingmore value today than we used to
provide, and so I think wecontinue to double down on value
(15:46):
on products, on solutions.
I used to sell it when I was inon value on products on
solutions.
You know I used to sell it whenI was in the field only on
savings, mr Merchant, I'll giveyou, you know, a rate of nothing
.
You know pretty much.
I don't think you have to dothat anymore, and so you know.
I think some agents have tounderstand that the day of
selling terminals is starting tobecome behind us.
It's not gone yet.
We still sell a lot ofterminals, but you need to start
(16:08):
learning technology and themore modern features.
That's what I really think.
If I'm an agent, I'd be focusedon today.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Right.
Yeah, we used to have the offermeet or beat, right, If we
can't meet or beat your price,we'll pay you $500.
And that kind of race to thebottom.
I think you're right.
Those days are over and I lovethe way you position it the
value-add products and whatthat's done to the margins.
I think that makes a lot ofsense.
One more thing about the future, because we rarely have these
(16:34):
kind of discussions withouttalking about AI and where that
fits into things.
How are you looking at AI?
Are you doing anything uniquein your business?
Where do you see that playinginto the industry?
Speaker 3 (16:44):
I think AI is cool.
I think at our level, ai has aplace in the future.
We've started dabbling with itas of now.
It's not really working in theway that we'd want, meaning it's
just not there yet.
We've dabbled, it hasn't beenhigh enough quality to do what
we want, but there is some coolthings in theory, especially on
the support and service side.
So I think long term on thesupport and service side, we
(17:06):
have the ability for AI to dothings like all of our
note-taking, and that's prettycool.
I mean, right now, a merchantcalls in and our customer
service team of course takes thecall, but there's a ticket that
comes along with it and ideallythey're properly notating the
account and notating the calland hopefully, depending on the
nature of it, properly sendingout communication on that call
(17:26):
to the agent or the sales officeassociated with it.
I think AI can automate all ofthat in time right when the
person who took the call canmove right on to the next call
without having to do some ofthat.
I think there's capabilitieswith AI in data validation and
quality assurance, qualitychecks.
So we board merchants.
Every processor has humanelements to that and room for
(17:48):
human error.
Probably all of our competitorshave, similar to us, a quality
check or a quality assuranceprocess.
I think a lot of that can beautomated where you have AI
going through your emails andgoing through your account
setups and making sure thatthey're set up the way that they
think they're supposed to beand if they're not, maybe it
flags it to a human or,potentially, down the road, even
fixes it.
So I think, from a servicingperspective, companies on our
(18:13):
boat are going to be able to getlean without sacrificing
quality.
In fact, it might increasequality.
That's cool.
It's not there yet, at leastnot what we've seen.
I think it'll get there, thoughI think, from a sales
perspective, you're going to seein time.
As a consumer, as somebody witha cell phone, I hate this, but
I think in time we're going tobe getting solicitations through
AI.
I think you're going to get acall.
It's going to be a computerthat's talking to you you're not
(18:35):
going to know, and it's goingto be selling to you almost as
effectively maybe arguablybetter than a human.
That's scary to me, right?
Because I think we already knowthe solicitation on our phones
is bad.
We all get dozens or hundredsof calls that we wish we could
stop, and I think AI couldaccelerate that.
Unfortunately, there arealready some AI cold-calling
(18:58):
bots out there, so that scaresme as a consumer, as a person
with a cell phone, but I dothink from a sales perspective,
you're going to see that startto happen in the future as well.
But yeah, I think AI is here tostay, but from Haybright's
experience with AI, it hasn'tbeen quite there yet.
If we've started to dabble withit, it hasn't been where I'd
(19:18):
want it to really startimplementing it quite yet.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yeah, that's a pretty common answer.
I think a lot of people knowit's here to stay, know there's
a future for it.
Some of their experiments haveworked, some not quite there yet
.
So it's very common to hearthat response.
Well, let's change directions alittle bit and talk about you.
So maybe walk us through yourprofessional journey, sort of
what you were doing before, howyou got to Paybright and discuss
(19:42):
your professional journey.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Yeah, I've told this story a number of times.
I don't have much of aprofessional journey outside of
Paybrite.
I started Paybrite when I was19 in college.
It's all I've ever done.
There's good and there's bad tothat.
I have no corporate Americabackground.
I have no what I'd call trueprofessional experience.
Right, if I looked at my resumewhen I started Paybrite as
(20:06):
somebody interviewing me, Iprobably would have tossed it in
the trash.
It was hey.
I went to high school.
Pretty much, of course, fromthere I did end up going to
college and so on, but reallyoutside of Paybrite, the only
thing I've ever done is workedin my parents' businesses.
I've worked at a cash registerat my dad's store.
I helped with some of his realestate projects when I was in
(20:29):
high school, but I have veryminimal experience outside of
PayPriority.
I started selling merchantservices like every other agent.
I was out knocking on doors andI just happened to be maybe a
little bit better at it than theaverage person.
So I was successfully able tosell and build a portfolio for
myself.
I got started with theexpectation or the hope of
(20:50):
making $100 a month.
That was my goal and at 19,with no bills, I thought I'd be
rich if I was making $100.
Got my first residual check andI was like, oh damn, this is
kind of cool.
And then from there I wanted toget a car, because I didn't have
a car at the time.
I needed a new car.
I unfortunately crashed theprior one, so I wanted a car.
(21:11):
And I remember thinking tomyself well, the car is going to
be $300 a month.
Okay, well, at that time I wasmaking like $30 an account.
I was pricing an account.
I literally had my first fewsales where I told business
owners, mr Business Owner, Idon't know what I'm doing.
Owners, mr Business Owner, Idon't know what I'm doing.
I was very honest.
I don't know how to read astatement.
I don't know what you're payingtoday, but I do know that if I
price your account the followingway, I'm only going to make $10
(21:33):
a month.
I bet that is less than thecompany is making today.
And you saved the difference.
That was my pitch early on.
I don't necessarily recommendit because you won't make any
money, but that was actually howI pitched certain businesses
and they were like okay, we'llgo with you.
I don't know why they trustedme with that, but it's a true
story.
So I signed business up.
At the time I was making anaverage of like 30 bucks an
(21:54):
account and I was like, allright, I only need to sign 10
and I'll be able to get a newcar right.
$300 a month for a car paymentMay have been even less, but I
think signing accounts and thenrealized, okay, I started to
learn what I was doing and thatI could sign more and I didn't
have to make $10 or $20 anaccount.
I could make $40 or $50, whichstill is not a lot.
(22:16):
But slowly but surely, I wasable to provide more value.
Know what I was talking aboutincrease my margins, increase my
portfolio, increase the averagesize of an account.
I wasn't going after now thetiny little business.
I was starting to get intobigger businesses and I just
started building a portfolio andthen, from there, I started to
bring in a few other people.
(22:36):
I started to build an agentbase and then that got bigger
and bigger, and then I needed tobuild our own support team, and
then tech support, and thendeployment.
And before you know it, here weare, and I sometimes look back
and I have no idea how we gothere.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Well, sounds like you're doing a good job.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Yeah, it's been a fun journey.
I've been very fortunate,that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Good, well, what are some things you're passionate
about?
Maybe one work-related passionand one personal passion.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Yeah, you know, on the personal side of things, I'm
very into staying active.
I am somebody who gets veryantsy when I sit around, so I
have a lot of personal things Ilike to do.
I've been training in jiu-jitsufor seven or eight years now.
I really really enjoy that.
It's a lot of fun.
Unfortunately, I think if youhave done jiu-jitsu you know
(23:24):
what I mean when I say this.
You probably spend half thetime hurt because of it, but
it's worth it.
So I really enjoy jujitsu.
I've done that for a number ofyears.
I like to spend time in the gymand work out.
I enjoy scuba diving.
I'm certified as a rescue scubadiver.
For anyone who's into diving, Iwould happily go diving with
you almost pretty much anywhere.
So definitely love to stayoutdoors and stay active and go
(23:47):
that route.
From a business perspective, forme the most passionate part is
to continue to improve thebusiness.
I am not the type of person whoruns Paybrite saying how do we
make more money next quarter ordrive margins next year?
To me there's a saying in realestate different philosophies.
Some people believe that whenyou are in real estate maybe you
(24:10):
have a building and it's empty.
You got to go find the nexttenant and then you, you know,
you renovate that building tomatch what that tenant wants.
And then there's others who Iagree with that you build it and
they'll come right.
Let's make this the nicestbuilding in town and a tenant's
going to want it.
And I kind of think paper rights, the second category.
I want to make paper right thebest home we can for our
(24:30):
merchants, our agents, our salespartners, and they'll find
their way to us, instead ofsaying we'll add support when we
have the partner, because bythat point it's usually too late
, right?
I mean, they're in the door,they try out and it's not what
they're looking for, or it's notas pretty as you know it may be
to go and move there today.
It's not as pretty as it may beto go and move there today.
So for me, I'm obsessed withthe experience.
I'm obsessed with making surethat, from a support service
(24:54):
perspective, we're giving ourmerchants and our agents
everything that they're lookingfor.
So that's what this year isfocused on.
For sure it's.
You know how do I get our phonetimes from 50 second holds to
45 and then 40?
Like that sounds silly fiveseconds but that's actually what
it keeps me up at night.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Okay, okay, great.
So final question someone comesto you.
Maybe they're right out ofcollege and they say, hey, we're
interested in going intopayments, building our career in
payments or FinTech.
Maybe there's someone you'reinterviewing for a job.
What would you tell them theyneed to do to be successful in
payments?
Speaker 3 (25:29):
One.
You have to have grit.
There's a saying I didn't cointhis there's some folks in this
industry that say that,especially if you're selling I
think this is more gearedtowards people selling or
building a business but thathave said that this is the
toughest five-figure job but theeasiest six-figure job that you
can find.
I think there's truth to thatand you need to accept that.
I can't tell you how manypeople that I've seen anyone in
(25:51):
this industry has that just giveup.
It's too hard early on and theycan't get to what I'll call the
promised land that is there.
This is an amazing business,but you've got to have grit,
you've got to have commitmentand that also means you have to
be in a position in a lot ofcases to get there, and that
could be financially difficult.
You know, if you're going tobecome an agent in this industry
(26:12):
and build a portfolio, you needto be able to go six months to
a year with minimal to no income.
Not everyone can do that.
You know I was really fortunatethat I was in college and I
pretty much had no expenses,right.
I mean, I had you know loansfrom you know school and the
rest was on scholarship and Ididn't have to really worry
about bills, so everything wasjust at that point, supplemental
income.
But if you've got hefty billsmortgage, car payment etc it can
(26:35):
be a really tough industry toget into.
So grit an honest perspective.
There are companies who sellthis as a get-rich-quick scheme.
It is not.
This industry is not quick inmost cases and it's hard work.
But if you've got what it takesfrom that perspective and the
right mindset, I would say goall in because it will almost
(26:58):
certainly pay off.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
So, dustin, we've covered a lot of ground about
you and the company and theindustry as a whole.
Is there anything else you'dlike to add before we wrap up
the show?
Speaker 3 (27:13):
No, I hope I provided some value to these listeners
that are on here and I'm alwayshappy to help anyone who's
looking to get into the industryor has questions.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Okay, well, dustin, thank you so much for being on
the show.
I know your time is veryvaluable, so thank you so much
for being here.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Of course.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
And to all you listeners out there.
I thank you for your time aswell, and until the next story.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Thank you for joining us this week on the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
Make sure you visit our websiteat leadersinpaymentscom, where
you can subscribe to the showand where you'll find our show
notes.
If you enjoyed listening,please share on your social
channels as well.
Welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast,
where we talk to C-level leadersfrom across the payments
landscape.
We'll be discussing theproducts and services that
impact the payment space today,as well as trends and
predictions for the future ofpayments.
We will also hear stories fromour guests about their journeys
to the top.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello everyone and welcome to the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
I'm your host, greg Myers, andon today's show we have a very
special guest, dustin Magaziner,the CEO of Paybright.
So, dustin, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Great.
So why don't we start outhaving you tell our audience a
little bit about yourself, maybewhere you're from, where you
grew up, where you currentlylive, a few things like that?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Well, I'm happy to tell everyone a little bit about
myself.
I currently live here inRaleigh, north Carolina, which
is where our office is, whereI'm at right now.
I moved here somewhat randomly.
I hadn't spent much time herebefore I moved here.
I'm originally from outsidePhiladelphia, on the New Jersey
side of things, so go birds hadto throw that in here right now
with the Super Bowl coming up ina couple of days.
(00:59):
But I am from outside ofPhiladelphia and live now in
Raleigh, north Carolina.
I'm happy to tell you anythingmore, but that's kind of where
I'm from.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Okay, great Well, let's talk about the company.
So tell our audience whatPaybrite does.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
So we are an ISO.
We really are focused on agentISO realm of this industry.
So we aren't in the businessselling directly to merchant.
We're not doing SEO or onlineads.
We are 100% based onindependent agents out in the
field in their hometowns,working with Main Street USA
(01:32):
type merchants and providingthem the absolute best service
and support that can be offered.
There's a lot of things that wedo.
It'd be hard, obviously, tocover it all on a podcast, but
really that's what the nuts andbolts of Paybrite are.
It's agent, ISO-centric andreally focused on the agent
experience.
I'm somewhat obsessed with theexperience.
I believe if we have a goodexperience for our sales
(01:54):
partners, that will translate toan even better experience for
our end user, of course, themerchants.
So that's a short and sweetoverview of Paybrite.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Okay, and are your ISOs and agents all US-based?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah, so we are 100% US-based.
Today we have exploredexpanding into Canada, although
I don't think we're going to dothat.
You never know, it's always aconversation that comes up.
But yes, we are 100% US, fromHawaii to Alaska to Florida and
everywhere in between, but, yes,us-based.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Okay, and are your ISOs and agents?
Do they focus on certainverticals or are they pretty
much all sort of small,medium-sized business?
Speaker 3 (02:34):
focused?
Great question, and it reallyvaries by sales partner.
I've got agents who are newerto merchant services and they're
walking down the street talkingto any business in their area.
I've got others who have beenin this business much longer and
maybe are starting to goupstream to partners who maybe
are, as I like to refer to it,whale hunting and maybe only
going after enterprise-levelmerchants at where they're at in
(02:56):
their career.
We're here to support thoseindividuals and what they're
going after is a little bit morefocused on them.
I've got partners that onlyfocus on enterprise restaurant
chains If they don't have atleast 10 locations maybe too
small for what that salespartner is looking to do and
others who may be signing up amerchant that's a food truck and
(03:18):
just needs a little mobilereader.
So we're here to support all ofit and give our partners
ultimately what they need to besuccessful.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
So when these partners come to you, what
specific solutions are theytypically looking for?
Speaker 3 (03:30):
So it can vary.
Some are just looking for acompany that's going to stay out
of their way and do businessethically right.
Hey, don't take advantage of mymerchants, don't raise their
prices, pick up the phone whenthey call or when the agent
calls, and just give me a reallygood platform to be comfortable
with.
Of course, we're going todeliver that.
Others are looking for aplatform that delivers a little
bit more, that has products andis really sophisticated in some
(03:52):
of those arenas.
So over the last couple years,especially with where I think
the industry is going, we'veinvested and have spent a lot of
time building out a team hereat Payback called our POS Desk
and our POS desk.
Our POS desk is a team to helpthese individual agents and
smaller ISOs compete more withthe likes of the stripes of the
world and the squares of theworld from a product perspective
.
Our team will help demo andprovide technology that a lot of
(04:15):
these agents aren't familiarwith or don't have previous to
us.
We also assist with things likeintegration support.
Maybe an agent comes across abusiness and that business is
using XYZ system today and thatagent doesn't know a lot about
integrations or what thecapabilities may or may not be.
So they can reach out to ourPOS desk and say, hey, here's
what they're using, what optionsdo we have?
How do we plug in, what gatewayor what path do we have to
(04:38):
working with them and, unlike alot of our competitors that say,
hey, you're an independentagent, you have to figure this
out on your own, we get into theweeds and we really help
simplify what can sometimes be areally complicated process and
in most cases we'll even do itfor them.
So we really want our salespartners to do what they do best
, which is relationship building, selling, and let us handle in
those instances a lot of thetechnical side of it.
(04:59):
So there's a lot.
Our POS desk is a big focus forus because I do believe
personally that that's thefuture of the industry and going
to be a big future for Paybrite.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Okay, and you mentioned having that team.
How big is the company overall?
Speaker 3 (05:13):
So we're sitting around 15,000 merchants today.
In terms of our overalllandscape there, in terms of our
office here in Raleigh, we'vegot somewhere around 30 people
sitting in the office right now.
Of course, we do have a fairamount of remote folks as well,
given the nature of the modernworld, but we are scaling back a
bit on remote.
We were fully remote through2020, 21, and even the first
half of 22.
(05:33):
But I do personally believethat we're a bit more efficient.
Culturally.
There's, I think, advantages.
So we're bringing more of thehiring back to Raleigh, not
letting anyone go right, justreally focusing on local.
I think right now we have about10 or 12 open positions that
we're hiring for as well.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Okay, okay.
Yeah, that remote versusin-office thing is quite the
topic these days.
We could probably talk a longtime about that.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Yeah, it's a hot topic, for sure.
I have so many friends that arestruggling with this in their
own world.
Outside of payments, it'severywhere right now.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Yeah, and you know what, without getting into it,
it's a challenge from theleadership down to the employee
right, making the decision andwhat the right one is, and then
having the employee often havingto make the decision.
Yeah, that's a whole otherpodcast.
But back to Paybrite.
What, would you say,differentiates you guys versus
the other ISOs out there?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
There's a lot right when we talk about other ISOs
out there.
I think we even have to askwhat are we talking about in
regards to other ISOs?
You have other ISOs that are,frankly, some of the companies
that I would really want to stayaway from.
They may not have the bestethics at times.
They may have businesspractices that I just don't
believe in.
Then you have other ISOs outthere that maybe they're not a
(06:52):
challenge or an issue from anethical perspective, but maybe
they're a problem from a pricingor a servicing perspective.
Maybe they don't pay thegreatest of commissions or they
properly staffed or being ableto service their customers well.
Then you have companies thatmaybe don't have the products or
technologies to really allowtheir customers well.
Then you have companies thatmaybe don't have the products or
technologies to really allowtheir sales partners to compete
effectively.
What I like to say is that wewant to be all of that in one.
(07:14):
I believe we have a saying here.
I like Shark Tank.
There's a quote on Shark Tank.
He says all roads lead back toMr Wonderful.
I joke around that all roadslead back to Paybrite for
independent agents.
I really believe that if you'rean agent of merchant services.
If you're not working withPaybrite, you're missing out on
sales, you're missing out onopportunities, you're making
your life harder and you'releaving money on the table.
(07:35):
And you know that's really whatPaybrite's about is.
We want to help our salespartners sell more business,
keep their accounts longer, haveless headaches, have better
support.
A lot of these are just thingsthat when I was an agent, I
wanted right, so we built thesethings into our program.
I mean things like you know.
No cancellation fee when Istarted in this business was
unheard of, truly.
(07:56):
I mean 10, 15 years ago, everyprocessor, for the most part at
least, had cancellation fees andI said, well, why do we need
cancellation fees?
If we deliver what we promiseand give good quality support
and we price customers right,why would they want to leave us?
And so, from day one, we neverhad cancellation fees and our
agents were able to feel goodabout that.
Then, of course, I saw othercompanies were increasing prices
(08:17):
on their merchants and, as asales rep, there's nothing worse
.
It's a gut-wrenching feelingwhen you sell your name and your
reputation on an account andthen the large company behind
you comes in and they say, well,we don't really care what you
promise them we're going toincrease the price.
So we say you know, we're notgoing to increase prices on our
customers and our agents canfeel good about that.
They don't have to worry aboutthat call one day.
We said you know, hey,merchants shouldn't have to pay
(08:37):
an arm and a leg to work with aprocessor.
So it's free, but really it's arental or a lease.
Our programs really are what wesell them to be and it doesn't
mean that that program is forevery merchant.
Obviously, we're not going togive a free POS system to a
merchant that doesn't do acertain amount of volume or have
(09:00):
a certain size.
We'll be the first ones to saythat Of course it has to make
business sense.
But we do offer these programsso that our partners can compete
and our merchants can be happywith us.
Really, we took everything thatI wanted as an agent and then
we took the feedback of oursales partners and we just
slowly started layering thesethings in one at a time.
I'd probably say that if you'rean agent of merchant services
(09:20):
and you've had frustration withyour current processor, we've
probably built out things thatallow you to not have that
frustration.
If you lost an account.
We probably have ways to boardthat account for you, and that's
really what it is to work withPaybrite and what we're all
about.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
You sort of mentioned this earlier, but I want to go
a little deeper.
Where do you see the industryheading in the next, say, three
to five years?
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Yeah, so I think there's going to be this
continuation of integrations.
For the last probably 10 yearswe've been hearing about this.
I don't think it's happened asquickly as people expected.
I know when I got into thebusiness I was pretty much told
that ISOs would be gone by now.
I don't know if you heard thator not, but I certainly did.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
The death of the ISOs .
Speaker 3 (10:02):
everyone's heard of the death of the ISOs, exactly
and I think we were told thiswas going to happen way quicker
than 2025.
And clearly, the death of theISO has not occurred yet, and
for my seat, I don't see it onthe horizon tomorrow either.
In fact, I think I actually seethe opposite.
I think ISOs are in a betterposition today than they were a
(10:23):
couple years ago.
I joke around and I actuallythink that there's an argument
to be made that there might bethis.
I'm going to maybe say a newterm, like the death of the
payfac may actually be somethingthat I'm seeing more because
the ISOs have caught up a littlebit Faster boarding, faster
implementations, betterapplication packets, more
publicly available APIs throughall of these gateway providers.
So I think ISOs are positionedextremely well, at least the
(10:45):
right ones.
But provider.
So I think ISOs are positionedextremely well, at least the
right ones.
But I do think us and othercompanies like us have to
continue to invest in technology, in know-how, in gateway
solutions, in APIs, and we can'tkeep our head in the sand and
say we are not a tech company,we're a sales organization,
because while we are sales andservice, we have to start
understanding that technology ispart of that, and so I think
(11:06):
these two things are gettingblended together and so that's
really been a big focus for usover the last.
At this point about two and ahalf years or so and I think is
the future for Payprite we'regoing to continue to invest in
technology partnerships andrelationships with software
companies that we can then putin the hands of our agents.
The technology companies love usbecause we go and we sell the
heck out of their solutions.
And Technology companies loveus because we go and we sell the
(11:27):
heck out of their solutions.
And our agents love it becausewe bring them good quality
solutions that they don't haveto go out and source and then
worry about losing later on whenthat quote-unquote agnostic
system decides to go and poachall their merchants.
We have professional levelagreements with these companies
so we're not nearly as worriedabout what happens at the agent
level at our level.
So I think that's what thefuture looks like over the next
several years personally, andwe're going to continue to
(11:49):
double down in that arena.
I think we just approved todouble the size of our POS desk
in the next six months.
I mean we're hiring in thatdepartment.
I think it's the future of thisbusiness.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
So maybe explain maybe just for me, but maybe
also for the audience how youdelineate between ISO and agent.
I mean, I think I know thedifference, but I'm just curious
how you're seeing thosedifferent.
So two-part question that.
And we talked about death ofthe ISO.
What about the agent world?
How have you seen that changein the last couple of years and
(12:21):
where is it heading?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Yeah.
So I think the term agent andISO are often interchangeable.
I don't know that there's ahuge difference in the term and
in a lot of ways they can getblurred right.
So obviously a single sellerwho sells merchant services for
a living is an agent, right.
But what is if it's atwo-person team?
Right?
A husband-wife or two bestfriends or child or whatever, is
(12:46):
that now an ISO?
I would say that's stillprobably an agent.
So there's no exact thresholdthat makes something or someone
an ISO versus an agent.
But a lot of it comes down to,I think, some responsibility
who's handling service, who'shandling deployment, et cetera,
et cetera.
But in most of theseconversations we're really
referring to agents and the ISOis the company supporting them.
(13:07):
So Paybrite has a little over800 active sales partners.
Whether we want to call themagents or ISOs, we have a little
over 800 active sales partners.
Majority of them are one tothree person teams.
It's one person, maybe two orthree, but we have partners as
large as 90 agents in one office.
That's about our biggest.
To us we call that an ISOoffice, but someone else could
(13:28):
still call that an agent office.
Terminology is ofteninterchangeable and kind of
overlaps.
As for maybe the death of theagent or where that's going.
I don't believe in thatpersonally, but I do think
there's a new wave of agentsAgents that come from my time of
selling or even before need tounderstand that things are
changing.
(13:49):
I think I got into merchantservices at a really interesting
time.
When I got in, the industry waspredominantly terminal-based,
right, it was VX520s, vx510s,hypercoms etc.
And in a lot of ways that waseasy to sell.
And then I was fortunatebecause a couple years after I
got into the business we had theEMV shift and every business in
(14:09):
America basically had to shiftand change terminals.
That's a great thing if yousell terminals, right.
But it was still easy from anunderstanding perspective.
I could go in and I didn't haveto really understand too much
about technology.
But now the business ischanging.
If I sell merchant services, Ihave to understand that, yes,
the money may be in the payments, but the sale is in the product
, it's in the POS, it's in thebooking software, it's in the
(14:35):
text message marketing, it's inthe solution that that merchant
needs to run their business,integrated with payments.
And so I didn't have to worryabout any of that when I was
selling.
So that's good and bad.
On the flip side, the marginsare much higher because of that
(15:02):
no-transcript.
They talked about how muchtoast was going to cost, how
much the hardware would cost andthe software fees, how long it
would take to install, what thatprocess would look like, and
they liked what they were beingtold.
And so they sign up and theymay not even know how much the
merchant service account's goingto be, and that's potentially
where most of the money is.
So it's exciting to me.
I think margins for merchantservice agents are going to
(15:25):
continue to go up.
We service agents are going tocontinue to go up.
We've seen it.
Our margins today in 2024-25are nearly three times what they
were when I was out selling300% give or take.
And that's not becausemerchants are being price gouged
, it's because we're providingmore value today than we used to
provide, and so I think wecontinue to double down on value
(15:46):
on products, on solutions.
I used to sell it when I was inon value on products on
solutions.
You know I used to sell it whenI was in the field only on
savings, mr Merchant, I'll giveyou, you know, a rate of nothing
.
You know pretty much.
I don't think you have to dothat anymore, and so you know.
I think some agents have tounderstand that the day of
selling terminals is starting tobecome behind us.
It's not gone yet.
We still sell a lot ofterminals, but you need to start
(16:08):
learning technology and themore modern features.
That's what I really think.
If I'm an agent, I'd be focusedon today.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Right.
Yeah, we used to have the offermeet or beat, right, If we
can't meet or beat your price,we'll pay you $500.
And that kind of race to thebottom.
I think you're right.
Those days are over and I lovethe way you position it the
value-add products and whatthat's done to the margins.
I think that makes a lot ofsense.
One more thing about the future, because we rarely have these
(16:34):
kind of discussions withouttalking about AI and where that
fits into things.
How are you looking at AI?
Are you doing anything uniquein your business?
Where do you see that playinginto the industry?
Speaker 3 (16:44):
I think AI is cool.
I think at our level, ai has aplace in the future.
We've started dabbling with itas of now.
It's not really working in theway that we'd want, meaning it's
just not there yet.
We've dabbled, it hasn't beenhigh enough quality to do what
we want, but there is some coolthings in theory, especially on
the support and service side.
So I think long term on thesupport and service side, we
(17:06):
have the ability for AI to dothings like all of our
note-taking, and that's prettycool.
I mean, right now, a merchantcalls in and our customer
service team of course takes thecall, but there's a ticket that
comes along with it and ideallythey're properly notating the
account and notating the calland hopefully, depending on the
nature of it, properly sendingout communication on that call
(17:26):
to the agent or the sales officeassociated with it.
I think AI can automate all ofthat in time right when the
person who took the call canmove right on to the next call
without having to do some ofthat.
I think there's capabilitieswith AI in data validation and
quality assurance, qualitychecks.
So we board merchants.
Every processor has humanelements to that and room for
(17:48):
human error.
Probably all of our competitorshave, similar to us, a quality
check or a quality assuranceprocess.
I think a lot of that can beautomated where you have AI
going through your emails andgoing through your account
setups and making sure thatthey're set up the way that they
think they're supposed to beand if they're not, maybe it
flags it to a human or,potentially, down the road, even
fixes it.
So I think, from a servicingperspective, companies on our
(18:13):
boat are going to be able to getlean without sacrificing
quality.
In fact, it might increasequality.
That's cool.
It's not there yet, at leastnot what we've seen.
I think it'll get there, thoughI think, from a sales
perspective, you're going to seein time.
As a consumer, as somebody witha cell phone, I hate this, but
I think in time we're going tobe getting solicitations through
AI.
I think you're going to get acall.
It's going to be a computerthat's talking to you you're not
(18:35):
going to know, and it's goingto be selling to you almost as
effectively maybe arguablybetter than a human.
That's scary to me, right?
Because I think we already knowthe solicitation on our phones
is bad.
We all get dozens or hundredsof calls that we wish we could
stop, and I think AI couldaccelerate that.
Unfortunately, there arealready some AI cold-calling
(18:58):
bots out there, so that scaresme as a consumer, as a person
with a cell phone, but I dothink from a sales perspective,
you're going to see that startto happen in the future as well.
But yeah, I think AI is here tostay, but from Haybright's
experience with AI, it hasn'tbeen quite there yet.
If we've started to dabble withit, it hasn't been where I'd
(19:18):
want it to really startimplementing it quite yet.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Yeah, that's a pretty common answer.
I think a lot of people knowit's here to stay, know there's
a future for it.
Some of their experiments haveworked, some not quite there yet
.
So it's very common to hearthat response.
Well, let's change directions alittle bit and talk about you.
So maybe walk us through yourprofessional journey, sort of
what you were doing before, howyou got to Paybright and discuss
(19:42):
your professional journey.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Yeah, I've told this story a number of times.
I don't have much of aprofessional journey outside of
Paybrite.
I started Paybrite when I was19 in college.
It's all I've ever done.
There's good and there's bad tothat.
I have no corporate Americabackground.
I have no what I'd call trueprofessional experience.
Right, if I looked at my resumewhen I started Paybrite as
(20:06):
somebody interviewing me, Iprobably would have tossed it in
the trash.
It was hey.
I went to high school.
Pretty much, of course, fromthere I did end up going to
college and so on, but reallyoutside of Paybrite, the only
thing I've ever done is workedin my parents' businesses.
I've worked at a cash registerat my dad's store.
I helped with some of his realestate projects when I was in
(20:29):
high school, but I have veryminimal experience outside of
PayPriority.
I started selling merchantservices like every other agent.
I was out knocking on doors andI just happened to be maybe a
little bit better at it than theaverage person.
So I was successfully able tosell and build a portfolio for
myself.
I got started with theexpectation or the hope of
(20:50):
making $100 a month.
That was my goal and at 19,with no bills, I thought I'd be
rich if I was making $100.
Got my first residual check andI was like, oh damn, this is
kind of cool.
And then from there I wanted toget a car, because I didn't have
a car at the time.
I needed a new car.
I unfortunately crashed theprior one, so I wanted a car.
(21:11):
And I remember thinking tomyself well, the car is going to
be $300 a month.
Okay, well, at that time I wasmaking like $30 an account.
I was pricing an account.
I literally had my first fewsales where I told business
owners, mr Business Owner, Idon't know what I'm doing.
Owners, mr Business Owner, Idon't know what I'm doing.
I was very honest.
I don't know how to read astatement.
I don't know what you're payingtoday, but I do know that if I
price your account the followingway, I'm only going to make $10
(21:33):
a month.
I bet that is less than thecompany is making today.
And you saved the difference.
That was my pitch early on.
I don't necessarily recommendit because you won't make any
money, but that was actually howI pitched certain businesses
and they were like okay, we'llgo with you.
I don't know why they trustedme with that, but it's a true
story.
So I signed business up.
At the time I was making anaverage of like 30 bucks an
(21:54):
account and I was like, allright, I only need to sign 10
and I'll be able to get a newcar right.
$300 a month for a car paymentMay have been even less, but I
think signing accounts and thenrealized, okay, I started to
learn what I was doing and thatI could sign more and I didn't
have to make $10 or $20 anaccount.
I could make $40 or $50, whichstill is not a lot.
(22:16):
But slowly but surely, I wasable to provide more value.
Know what I was talking aboutincrease my margins, increase my
portfolio, increase the averagesize of an account.
I wasn't going after now thetiny little business.
I was starting to get intobigger businesses and I just
started building a portfolio andthen, from there, I started to
bring in a few other people.
(22:36):
I started to build an agentbase and then that got bigger
and bigger, and then I needed tobuild our own support team, and
then tech support, and thendeployment.
And before you know it, here weare, and I sometimes look back
and I have no idea how we gothere.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Well, sounds like you're doing a good job.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Yeah, it's been a fun journey.
I've been very fortunate,that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Good, well, what are some things you're passionate
about?
Maybe one work-related passionand one personal passion.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Yeah, you know, on the personal side of things, I'm
very into staying active.
I am somebody who gets veryantsy when I sit around, so I
have a lot of personal things Ilike to do.
I've been training in jiu-jitsufor seven or eight years now.
I really really enjoy that.
It's a lot of fun.
Unfortunately, I think if youhave done jiu-jitsu you know
(23:24):
what I mean when I say this.
You probably spend half thetime hurt because of it, but
it's worth it.
So I really enjoy jujitsu.
I've done that for a number ofyears.
I like to spend time in the gymand work out.
I enjoy scuba diving.
I'm certified as a rescue scubadiver.
For anyone who's into diving, Iwould happily go diving with
you almost pretty much anywhere.
So definitely love to stayoutdoors and stay active and go
(23:47):
that route.
From a business perspective, forme the most passionate part is
to continue to improve thebusiness.
I am not the type of person whoruns Paybrite saying how do we
make more money next quarter ordrive margins next year?
To me there's a saying in realestate different philosophies.
Some people believe that whenyou are in real estate maybe you
(24:10):
have a building and it's empty.
You got to go find the nexttenant and then you, you know,
you renovate that building tomatch what that tenant wants.
And then there's others who Iagree with that you build it and
they'll come right.
Let's make this the nicestbuilding in town and a tenant's
going to want it.
And I kind of think paper rights, the second category.
I want to make paper right thebest home we can for our
(24:30):
merchants, our agents, our salespartners, and they'll find
their way to us, instead ofsaying we'll add support when we
have the partner, because bythat point it's usually too late
, right?
I mean, they're in the door,they try out and it's not what
they're looking for, or it's notas pretty as you know it may be
to go and move there today.
It's not as pretty as it may beto go and move there today.
So for me, I'm obsessed withthe experience.
I'm obsessed with making surethat, from a support service
(24:54):
perspective, we're giving ourmerchants and our agents
everything that they're lookingfor.
So that's what this year isfocused on.
For sure it's.
You know how do I get our phonetimes from 50 second holds to
45 and then 40?
Like that sounds silly fiveseconds but that's actually what
it keeps me up at night.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Okay, okay, great.
So final question someone comesto you.
Maybe they're right out ofcollege and they say, hey, we're
interested in going intopayments, building our career in
payments or FinTech.
Maybe there's someone you'reinterviewing for a job.
What would you tell them theyneed to do to be successful in
payments?
Speaker 3 (25:29):
One.
You have to have grit.
There's a saying I didn't cointhis there's some folks in this
industry that say that,especially if you're selling I
think this is more gearedtowards people selling or
building a business but thathave said that this is the
toughest five-figure job but theeasiest six-figure job that you
can find.
I think there's truth to thatand you need to accept that.
I can't tell you how manypeople that I've seen anyone in
(25:51):
this industry has that just giveup.
It's too hard early on and theycan't get to what I'll call the
promised land that is there.
This is an amazing business,but you've got to have grit,
you've got to have commitmentand that also means you have to
be in a position in a lot ofcases to get there, and that
could be financially difficult.
You know, if you're going tobecome an agent in this industry
(26:12):
and build a portfolio, you needto be able to go six months to
a year with minimal to no income.
Not everyone can do that.
You know I was really fortunatethat I was in college and I
pretty much had no expenses,right.
I mean, I had you know loansfrom you know school and the
rest was on scholarship and Ididn't have to really worry
about bills, so everything wasjust at that point, supplemental
income.
But if you've got hefty billsmortgage, car payment etc it can
(26:35):
be a really tough industry toget into.
So grit an honest perspective.
There are companies who sellthis as a get-rich-quick scheme.
It is not.
This industry is not quick inmost cases and it's hard work.
But if you've got what it takesfrom that perspective and the
right mindset, I would say goall in because it will almost
(26:58):
certainly pay off.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
So, dustin, we've covered a lot of ground about
you and the company and theindustry as a whole.
Is there anything else you'dlike to add before we wrap up
the show?
Speaker 3 (27:13):
No, I hope I provided some value to these listeners
that are on here and I'm alwayshappy to help anyone who's
looking to get into the industryor has questions.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Okay, well, dustin, thank you so much for being on
the show.
I know your time is veryvaluable, so thank you so much
for being here.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Of course.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
And to all you listeners out there.
I thank you for your time aswell, and until the next story.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Thank you for joining us this week on the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
Make sure you visit our websiteat leadersinpaymentscom, where
you can subscribe to the showand where you'll find our show
notes.
If you enjoyed listening,please share on your social
channels as well.
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