The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex - Unlocking Passive Income: Building Wealth with Merchant Services Ft. PaybotX

Episode Date: October 5, 2024

In this episode of The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex, Paul is joined by Rob Sinn and John Sarabia, two nine-figure entrepreneurs and co-founders of Merchant Automation. They dive deep into the power of residual income in the merchant services industry, sharing how they built their multi-million-dollar business and changed lives along the way. Learn about the mindset, strategies, and mentorship that helped them succeed, and how you too can create passive income, even with no sales background. If you're looking to break free from the 9-to-5 grind, this episode is a must-listen!Check Out PayBotX: https://www.paybotx.com/“Your Network is your NETWORTH!”Make sure to add me on all SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS:Instagram: https://jo.my/paulalex2024Facebook: https://jo.my/fbpaulalex2024Youtube: https://jo.my/ytpaulalex2024Linkedin: https://jo.my/inpaulalex2024Looking for a secondary source of income or want to become an entrepreneur?Check out one of my companies below to see if we can help you:www.ATMTogether.comwww.Merchantautomation.comFREE Copy of my book “Blue to Digital Gold - The New American Dream”www.officialPaulAlex.com

Welcome to the Level Up Podcast. I'm your host, Paul Alex. I went from being a cop to an eight-figure entrepreneur that helps average people like you and me make money every single day. I created this podcast to help you get motivated and to crush your goals. Let's win together.

Remember, I have your six. Get ready to level up right now. Hey guys, this is the Level Up with Paul Alex. I'm here with two special guests, guys. Now, these special guests, they've actually been my mentors since December of 2022, ever since we met them. And guys, they have changed my life. Why? Because your network is your net worth, guys.

So at the end of the day, it's who you know and what they can teach you. Now, I want to introduce you guys to Rob and John. Rob and John, how are you guys doing today? Doing awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I'm glad you guys are here. Glad to be here. Yeah, dude. I'm glad you guys are here, man. As you guys know, these guys are nine-figure entrepreneurs in the merchant services industry. If you don't know what merchant services is, guys, trust me, I didn't know what merchant services was in great detail until like a year and a half ago, but it has to do with credit card machines. And you're probably thinking right now, if you're an entrepreneur, you're looking for somebody that's looking for a side hustle,

or you're looking to just make a little bit of extra income because with inflation, guys, it's ridiculous, right? So they're're gonna tell you exactly their story they're gonna tell you exactly how you guys can make residual income or even passive income right because it is possible passive income very passive yeah and you guys this could change your life so tune in forward this to your family your friends anybody that you care about because it's gonna change their life all right guys so let's go ahead and get started. So Level Up Podcast, we primarily like to focus on mindset, self-help, because I think that's like the biggest needle mover when it comes to entrepreneurship because we had this talk on dinner last night, guys, and entrepreneurship is not made for

everybody, dude. Right now on social media, I feel like a lot of people are painting this picture that entrepreneurship is this easy nine to five where you could then get a Lambo and a fricking mansion or a penthouse and anybody and their mom can do it. Right. Which I learned from experience myself being in corporate America and law enforcement that it is not the case. So I love to bring special guests like you guys because you guys tell it how it is and you guys have been through the trenches and you guys are continuing to work right even though you guys have this high level of success so let's start with you uh John John let's say what you were doing right before you got into merchant services what was appealing about merchant services? And then where was the mindset shift? Yes, very good.

Very good question, Paul. So at the time, you know, I was working for an investment firm and I was making pretty good money. I was 28 years old making, you know, anywhere from $7,000 to $15,000 a month. But I was spending a lot of hours at the office, just kind of locked in there you know just on the phone all the time with clients um what then the market crashed and then you're like oh shoot what am I gonna do now okay so I gotta find something else and you know while you're down you got to figure out what you didn't like about what you previously were doing one thing I didn't like is that I didn't have all the freedom. Even though I was making great money, I didn't have the freedom.

So when somebody approached me about merchant services, they're like, you go out and talk to business owners. I'm like, I love talking to business owners. I'm an entrepreneur, so I would love to hear their story. This is amazing you mean I can literally be out in the field just talking to people just talking to business owners listening to their stories so to me it was like it was a it was a positive experience but I was starting from the bottom I mean I was starting from the bottom again after being kind of being at the top crashing then like okay let's start from the bottom but the most important thing guys and now I've been in the business for 19 years and people always ask me like how did you know um that you

were going to do merchant services for 19 years I'm like well you know once I figured out that I could make my own paycheck by signing up merchants and receiving a residual every month and that I controlled how much effort I put into it and how much I could grow that I would say this is I finally found the perfect vehicle that I had been I've had so many jobs so many opportunities so many other things that I tried. And I, you know, for one reason or another, I didn't stick with it, but I learned a lot from them. But once I found this, I was like, this is so easy. There's nothing else I have to do, but just keep signing up accounts every month. And my portfolio and my residual keeps growing.

Dude. I mean, I love that. Right. But there's going to be a lot of people watching this that are skeptical. Let's keep it real. Right. And if it was easy, everybody would do it. Right.

So for someone like you who was already a high performer coming from a different industry going into the merchant services, you probably saw it as a, like a goldmine dude. Just like how I did. I came from an ATM industry, dude, very similar to credit card machines and merchant services. And ultimately all it was, was just a different vehicle, right? Instead of pitching 200 pound machine. Now I'm pitching a two pound machine. Right. And people love it because they're not dealing with cash. So to, to take it from that perspective, man, um, what would you tell somebody that doesn't have like the skill sets that you do?

As far as like, let's say they're introverted, dude. Right? They don't have any sales background. Right now, they're probably like, dude, this sounds like a great opportunity. Residuals, passive income. I think that's everybody's dream. Every American's dream. And now Canadians because we service Canada.

But shout out to my canadians love you guys but uh with that being said dude like yeah like what would you tell that person that person that feels like they just are not good enough for this yes so um the good thing is that the program that we put together with merchant automation and paybotics is that we are a community and you know when i started it was kind of like you know back in the day they teach you how to swim they're like just throw them in the pool and you know go ahead let them let them swim to the to the shore you know yeah that's how the old school teaching was uh but now we really take each person we go we we do sales training

uh we do mindset training yeah so everybody comes in at a different level. Some people already have sales experience. Some people don't have any sales experience. But we've been successful in, you know, turning people that are introverts into learning how to become an extrovert. Wow. So you're transforming their life, generally, dude. Absolutely, because it's a journey. It's like we all have to learn the certain skills, and one of them is mindset.

Yeah. You know, we've got to get your mindset right. I mean, even me, I've been in the business for a very long time, and this morning I went for a 30-minute walk. And during that time, I'm working on my mindset. It's the one muscle that most people don't focus on. Yeah. But that's the most important muscle is your mindset.

Yeah. So whether if you could do 30 minutes a day, working on your mindset, an hour, some people need an hour a day. Some people need more, but we all need a certain level to get that part of the day before everything comes at you.

You know, all the bad news and, you know, all the stuff you have to deal with, but you're going to be more prepared to deal with it once your mindset is right. I love that. I love that. And that goes behind everything, man. I mean, mindset goes behind you getting up in the morning, you being proactive, getting on your job and then making sure that, you know, you get things done right. Right. And I'm a big believer in like everything that you can control, you can actually have influence over, you know, one thing that's going on right now with the politics, right? People are like, Oh, Trump. Oh, Harris. Oh, this, this and that. Like, I'm going to fail. If this president gets elected, I call bullshit, dude. Because, like, man, like, I've gone through the ringer my entire life, dude. I'm 36.

I know you guys are older. And you guys look great for your age, by the way. But, like, what I'm trying to make a point of is just, like, don't let outside circumstances fucking dictate where you're headed to in life. You should have so much conviction, dude, that you see it. You see it. You get fucking goosebumps talking about it, right? Like we're talking about it now, dude. We're talking about it, guys. And if you guys, you know, right now we're in Miami, right? We went to a restaurant called Komodo. Great Wagyu steak, steaks that we had last night. like i asked them guys and they came i thought they were going to come for three days they literally came for a 24-hour trip dude

just imagine that guys imagine you're at the point of your life where you're able to be like hey guys we got to go see our business partner he's in florida we're in california let's take this trip right you guys took a red eye got here hey guys we'll see you for dinner we chit-it-chatting. We go to the cigar. We talk business. We talk about the vision of building a hundred million dollar business. And I feel like that's what life is about, man. Energy, you know, connecting with like the right people, the right partners. And dude, if you get a team of people that are like, have the vision aligned, you're unstoppable. right? So let's transition now from John to Rob. And if you guys are just tuning in right now, guys, so John and Rob, they're my business partners.

We all co-founded Merchant Automation. Essentially, I do the front end, which is like more of the marketing side. You know, I was the guinea pig on the pilot program. I got great success with all the resources that they were able to provide. But these guys, these guys have been in the game in total, like 20 years, right? Pretty much. Yeah. Basically like 20 years. And you guys had thousands of accounts. Basically you guys know all of LA, um, dude, and, and this wasn't your

first venture. So, so, so, so let's get to that part of the story, Rob. So what were you doing before you discovered credit card processing merchant services, dude? Yeah, so, you know, going back 17 years ago, it's a crazy story, you know. I was working at a restaurant, you know, a multi-chain restaurant, serving tables, you know, grinding it, you know, clock in, clock out, clock out, the typical nine to five job, basically serving tables. Until one day, John kind of hit me up and he was like, hey, we need to change what you do, how you make money. There something like I discovered and, and it's passive income. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I, you know, before, you know, serving tables, um, worked at my parents, you know, uh, small, you know, business, um, since I was like 14 years old grinding, you know, day to day paycheck to

paycheck. And, um, you know, once I discovered merchant services and John, you know, showed me the ropes and we kind of figured out like, Hey, this, this, this, we can scale this. We can make a lot of money. Um, um, so it just starts, you know, by with one account, you know, you sign and then you get to the next and then you just gotta get creative. And, you know, how do we grab more of the market share, um, in merchant services? So Rob, let me ask you what type of business that your parents have at the time, man, uh, at the time they the time, they had a donut shop. My dad, you know, built a bunch of donut shops, you know, back in the 80s.

Yeah. That was in back then. That was how you made money, you know, for our family. And yeah, just, you know, dude, I was making croissants from scratch, you know. Yeah. And just, you know, backbreaking work. And, you know, I learned how to grind. And I learned a lot from my parents and just applied it to, And I learned how to grind.

And I learned a lot from my parents and just applied it to merchant services. Just got to work hard. And are you the only sibling in your family? No, I have an older brother and sister. Cool, cool. And are they also in the business or are they entrepreneurs as well? My sister's an entrepreneur.

My brother took over my parents' business. So yeah, they're doing the nine to five and, you know, they're business owners. And unfortunately, I didn't want to go down that path. No, that's cool, man. I mean, you got to find what fulfills you and what you're passionate about. So let's go into it a little bit about like basically the conversation between what you and John had. How did your guys' relationship start before John came up and was like, Hey, bro, I found the gold rush. I found the opportunity of a lifetime.

How did you guys actually meet and all that? Yeah, so we met through a mutual friend, and we started hanging out, grabbing drinks. And John, he's a super cool guy to hang out with. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you know, grabbing drinks and it's like, hey, what are you doing nowadays? And, you know, what are you doing? And, you know, just catching up. And, you know, I remember when he first told me about merchant services,

like, dude, these credit card machines, like, this is what I'm getting into. And I didn't understand it, you know, at the time. I didn't know what passive income was. And then, you know, we would meet and we would meet and he's like, yeah, now I'm the manager. You know, we're, we're signing up a lot of accounts and he was like, you should try this. And so at, you know, after a few drinks at one time, I'm like, dude, I really, I'm really going to try it. He's like, he was super excited. He's like, wow, you're going to finally try it? I'm like, yeah.

I'm like, show me the ropes. He was like, dude, you just got to get a credit card statement. I'm like, that's it? He's like, yep, once you get the monthly statement, then we can break it down and see how much we can save the client. So like a week goes by, you know, I'm like, okay, when can I attack? And it just came out of the blue. I'm at my dentist. The chair is reclining.

Yeah. Right? And the doctor was like, hey, so what are you doing nowadays? And in my mind, I'm like, this is the perfect opportunity. I told him, I was like, oh, I'm into the credit card processing business. He's like, what does that mean? I can save you money with the machine you have at your front desk. Right.

And then he was like, oh, okay, that's great. So, you know, he does his thing. You know, I get my cleaning and as my chair's reclining up, he was like, go talk to Laura about, you know, you know, saving us some money. I'm like, okay, that's great. I got the statement right away. I didn't even get to my car yet. I call up John and I'm like, dude, I got my first statement. He's like, great. He's like, take a picture of it, send it over. We'll meet. Long story short, save them $400 a month.

Wow. And we ended up making like $300 to $400 a month. And after my first check, I was like, John, we get this every month? Yeah. He's like, yep, until they cancel. Wow. And we had the account until the doctor sold his place for over 10 plus years. Dude, that's badass.

And the reason why I say that's badass, as you're like explaining how John's helping you on the phone, he's walking you through the process. He's like, dude, let's keep it simple, right? It's like, get the statement. You get the statement. We'll analyze the statement. And then we'll figure out the solution. You get the statement. We'll analyze the statement and then we'll figure out the solution. Dude, that's what business is about. I feel like humans, we overthink, you know, whenever I talk to like a newbie trying to get into entrepreneurship,

they're like, but what about this? What about that? What about if this happens? What if like the world ends? Like, how can I control that? I don't know if I can take that risk, man. You know? And I'm like, dude, I feel you. I've been there multiple times. But it's great that you can have like a friend that you know is already successful in a niche or an industry. And then he's like, hey, dude,

he's just talking from experience, man. And I think that comes directly into like mentorship, right? Mentorship to me is like everything, dude. Because the past five years, I've invested a little bit over a billion dollars in just self-education, books, mentors, dude. And people like, even my mom, she's like, you paid how much to like be mentored by this person? $150,000 with one mentor, $100,000 with another mentor.

But then what my mom doesn't see and what my wife doesn't see and then what my family doesn't see everybody around me doesn't see is that like literally that one investment i've been able to attend or 20x right and and that's why people are like dude how is it that like you were able to like scale these companies so fast and it's just like you know it's like the movies you i get lucky no i, I wish, right? I wish life was that easy. No, life is hard. Life is hard. And I always say, you got to choose your hard man. You could go ahead and be like broke homeless. And that's, that's a hard life. Or you could be a highly successful driven entrepreneur. That's just solution driven every single day and actually solve problems and make a ton of money.

But guess what? Here's the caveat. You have the world on your shoulders. Like, and that's what we're talking about last night, right? It's just like how busy we are, but we make it happen. And I feel like the only way you're able to have that type of mindset, guys, if you're watching this right now and you're like, dude, I don't believe in myself. I'm never going to be successful. I don't come from rich parents. I don't come from the right environment. Bullshit. Do not be a fucking sheep. You got this. We believe in you guys. Okay. So Rob, let's transition now to how you guys were able to now, we're talking about you guys being in the humble beginnings of your merchant services career, but how did Paybotics, which is, if you guys don't know,

if you're just tuning in right now, Paybotics is an ISO, independent sales organization. Independent sales organizations provide the network. They have the connections. They're essentially like a middleman between the banking system, all the credit card terminal manufacturers like Clover, like Square, like all those big companies that you guys see that are very similar to Apple, but in credit card processing. And they get the deals. Okay. They get the deals and then they're able to provide you the resources. They're able to help you with like logistics, sales development, all that jazz. That's what they're supposed to do. Right. And I think when we all met, we went ahead and like, we put our heads together. We're like, dude, let's create this

bad-ass program. That's going to change the world. Right. And in a little bit over a year, dude, where are we at with clients? Like over 700 clients. Absolutely. And some, I I'm, we're going to get into it. You guys are going to get excited. Cause I'm getting excited, but like we have some phenomenal stories, and every time that we connect like yesterday we were talking about our clients our mentees and we're talking about like the great success that they're able to get because they unfuck their mind and that's what it comes down to right it's just like they have all the resources they have the backing you could lead a horse to water but you can't force the horse to drink it. Right.

So how did Paybotics start? Let's get to that point. Yeah. So, you know, after what, three months, you know, into the business, you know, I was like, John, we need to start a company, a company that doesn't, you know, that treats, you know, the you know the the sales agents correctly um because the you know in the industry you know a lot of these new reps um they don't they don't know what's going on so let's uh you know partner up with the banks the processors and pass the cost to the agent to where they're not overpaying at these other ISOs. And that was like the business model at the time 17 years ago. It's kind of like, why don't we put agents in the position that we're in,

which is basically getting the true costs from the processors. And that was like the game changer, right? So, you know, just tweaking that little uh you know that little um thought in in the processing game changed the whole landscape of it right because agents were flocking over they're like no way like i'm gonna make more money you know working with you guys yeah and that definitely you know was the needle mover i love that i love that so okay break it down to like a complete newbie right now that's watching because a lot of the people that watch my podcast right now we're at uh two million downloads a month which is amazing right because you guys saw it from the beginning when i launched

this shit uh the level of podcast you guys are like launch what bro but i'm one of the original listeners guys you guys can make it happen don't just sit there and feel bad for yourself make it happen come up with a plan and just execute guys like emilio you know um one of my guys that helps us out right now he's behind the scenes he's managing like all the video he's doing these badass edits and reels and all this shit and he's directing our our team dude like it's just me and him and we make it happen sometimes we don't know what we're doing sometimes we bump heads but guess what it gets done right yeah so so at the end of the day when it comes down to it um what is it

specifically that you do at your guys's company like rob like what do you focus on primarily and then what does john focus on primarily to make it work? Yeah, so right now, you know, I'm making sure that, you know, all of our relationships with the processor banks, you know, making sure we have, like, the best products, you know, and software. You know, we own our own delivery platform that, you know, competes with Uber Eats, DoorDash. Oh, no way. Yeah. That's badass yeah so um for those you know who are new um listening today it's called delish so it's basically you know a cookie cutter um app for restaurants you know so like you know starbucks app yeah you go on there you order your

drinks and you know you get it delivered or you can pick it up so that's what we're doing for small businesses um restaurants uh primarily um so that they don't pay the the crazy fees with like doordash and ubereats um and then you know we are also um developing um and probably launching very soon our restaurant pos um called bot x so that's going to be the game changer too, you know, cutting the cost for the merchants, cutting the cost for the agents. You know, currently, if we're using one of the bigger POS systems, you know, the merchant might be paying 80 bucks per station. Right. Yeah. We're going to chop it down probably like, you know, probably to like $20. Wow. So yeah, I just make sure, you know, those like 20 wow um so yeah i just make sure you know those things that agents can benefit from and we grow as a company um and you know compete um because the merchant

services landscape is very competitive out there yeah and if you don't have like proprietary software you're kind of like left in the dirt you know and we want to make sure like we're you know continue to fly high in the industry no that's smart man that's smart so let me ask you guys like essentially like we created this program and i get asked this all the time now i'll give you my answer after you guys answer all right so uh so people could get different perspectives but when you get somebody that is not in the industry and they know that there's like literally thousands of ISOs and thousands of other credit card processing companies,

one of the bigger ones like Clover, right? Why do people decide to do business with you guys? Let's get your opinion, Rob, and then your opinion, John, because I want to hear like, basically, what's your thought process behind this this I think a lot of people watching this right now and listening to this they're really gonna be like do that that's like my number one fear like why would they go with me over like clover which is essentially like the Apple of credit card processing right right so what would be your answer to that man I think the main thing is that you know they get a real person right they call in somebody's picking up the phone yeah somebody's answering their questions yeah some of these

companies you know you might try to partner up with them and you know you don't get your you know the it goes to like an answering machine or answering service and we'll call you back right and you know i spoke to an agent you know know recently and I said why why did you choose to work with us right you you've been in this space for a really long time and why did why did you pick us you know why did you land at our company he's like you know you guys the culture there is just different like people I talked to at your company they're educated. They answer my questions. Wow. You know, these other companies like, you know, you might send an email, you

don't hear anything back. Right. So, yeah, we get to the point. We make sure their questions are answered. We make sure they close their deals. And, you know, we make sure we take everything to the finish line. So basically, from your perspective, Rob, it's more of the value, the face value that the actual merchant's getting and why people decide to do business with you. Absolutely. Awesome. How about you, John? Yes. So very good question. Um, we, there's a lot of options out there and we're always competing, but where we can win is one of the things I discovered many, many years ago when I was out there fresh in this business. And I was thinking to myself, how am I going to compete with Wells Fargo? You see their commercials. They say they've been around since 1800s.

Everybody knows them. They're on every corner here Here, you know, I have zero marketing dollars. They have billions of dollars in marketing. How am I going to beat these guys? How am I even going to compete with them? But one thing I realized, I went to a merchant, and she didn't speak a lot of English, so I spoke Spanish. I was able to talk to her. She said, yeah, the yeah the bank you know I go there and they really can't help me they say I got a call to say hunter number merchant services

number I go to the bank with her they're like yeah sir just go use that phone over there we don't have anybody here that can help you I'm like you know what let's not do this I'm gonna get you a machine I'm gonna be your representative. Here's my cell phone number, my business card, my cell phone number. Any questions you have, you can call me directly. Wow. And then I was like, the light bulb came on. I'm like, man, that is so powerful. These banks are, they can't compete with me. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. can't compete with me yeah you know what i'm saying yeah that personal touch that each one of you guys each one of you guys out there in your communities you can add that personal touch

to your local community and you'll be appreciated for it and just as simple as you know yesterday as i was we were writing from the airport on the uber i just introduced myself to the guy i noticed he he had some spanish Spanish wording on his phone. I said, do you speak Spanish? He says, yes. We start speaking Spanish. I'm like, where are you from? Oh, Colombia.

He starts telling me. Boom. He's like, I said, yeah, I'm here on business. He's like, what type of business? I said, oh, we do merchant services. I put in the credit card terminals, POS assistance for restaurants. He's like, my friend needs your service. He has a valet service.

He always has problems with the Zelle and the apps. And I'm like, he's like, literally says, here's his number. Yeah. Calls the guy, says, hey, I'm here. I'm writing with the guy with the merchant services. He's going to be calling you later this afternoon. He's got what you need. Boom.

Just like that. In a got what you need. Boom. Just like that in a two minute conversation. Yeah. You know, there's, so there's an abundance of merchants out there. They're getting ticketed advantage of by other companies because there's nobody there to take care of them. That's amazing, man. And, and, and I love that perspective. I think that's super important. I mean, I sort of have the same, you could say, answer to piggyback on what you guys said is like value driven, keeping it personal. A lot of people, they they're highly successful in sales because it all comes down to sales. Right. And in sales, in order to get somebody to buy from you, they have to trust you. You have to build foundation. You have to trust you. You have to build foundation.

You have to have value and you have to educate them. Right. Because confused buyers don't buy. Right. So they don't understand. Then they're not going to buy. So let me ask you this. When you get somebody that says, well, isn't the merchant services industry saturated? Because there's credit card terminals everywhere. Then what is the chance of a new person that has no skill that still has to learn this and they just want to make like a couple thousand dollars in residual income, right?

Like what's your guys' answer to that? Like what's your opinion on that? Like what do you have to tell to the viewer right now that's watching this saying like, Hey dude, like, isn't this saturated? What are your thoughts on that? That's a very good question. And you know, what I always picture is this. If I said, uh, Paul, here's a fishing pole. Let's go, let's go out to the ocean. Let's go do some fishing. You're like, Oh, I didn't catch a fish. There's no fish. There's no fishing. Paul, there's millions of fish. There's millions of fish in the ocean.

Yeah. You just got to keep going back. You got to keep trying different bait. You have to keep trying, you know, learn from the other fishermen. Learn their techniques. Look what they're doing. Okay. The problem is that most people, they do think it's saturated, but but it's not.

There's the ocean is full. You can be a billion dollar company out there and you're just scooping up thousands of fish. OK, but there's a fisherman that's out there by himself and he's fishing enough to feed his family. He's fishing enough to feed his village okay so there's plenty and the beauty of it is that that these a lot of these merchants are being taken advantage of by these big corporate companies and that's why it's a perfect opportunity for us to come in and you and your community to be like hey i can save you. You don't have to call an 800 number. Call me directly. And this market will never be saturated.

And we continue to improve on our products, our equipment. Whatever happens, like you said, politics, there's an earthquake, whatever, we shift. We're ready to shift. Yeah. We're always going to ride the wave. And, you know, every time people say the world's going to end, we find opportunity. Yeah. We're like, wow, okay, so now we're doing this?

Okay, great. Let's roll with it. Yeah. And I feel when there's, like, fear in the world and everybody's just like, oh, dude, like, I can't go ahead and start a business or I can't go and save right now like i can't go ahead and start a business or i can't go and save right now or i can't go ahead and start on that opportunity i'm just gonna wait until you know like like i said earlier like the politics is over i'm gonna see who's the president and then i'll make a decision right but i always say there's never a perfect time and if you're a perfectionist guess what it's going to delay your gratification.

Right. So, uh, Rob, what's your opinion on that? Yeah. Um, you know, going back 17 years ago when, you know, I told my dad, Hey dad, I discovered a new business. He's like, what is it, son? I was like super excited. And I told him about it and he told me, why did you pick a business when everybody already has those machines? Dude, that's, that's literally what we get every single time when people are like, Hey Paul, what's your latest venture? And I'm like credit card terminals. And they're like, but that's saturated. Why are you getting into that?

Yeah. So, so my dad told me that and I kind of scratched my head, but you know, fast forward to today, it doesn't matter if somebody already has you know a credit card terminal or services right yeah um you know one of my perfect example the other day got my car tented um hand you know my credit card to the lady behind the counter to pay and she's like keying in the transaction into her computer and first thing i said to her i'm like you don't have a credit card machine? She's like, no, I'm with Chase and they never gave me one.

Wow. She's like, oh, she was like, this is like their newest technology, so I have to key it in. I'm like, first of all, you know you're paying more because you're keying in the transaction. No way. Yeah. She's getting charged more. More because she keys in the transaction. It's card not present.

Dude, that makes sense. Manually. Exactly. Yes. She's like, oh, I don't understand any card not present. Dude, that makes sense. Manually. Exactly. Yes, yes. She's like, oh, I don't understand any of that. Blah, blah, blah. And she started keying in my transaction. She's like, I hate this thing.

I'm like, what's wrong? She says it's not taking the card. Wow. And then I was like, you know, I wasn't even trying to sell at the moment. Yeah. First thing I said was, you know what? I'm in the business. I've been in the business a long time. I normally don't go door to door, but I think I can, you know, make this

transaction easier for you. And she's like, how can you do that? I'm like, well, I'll just give you, you know, a credit card terminal that you can just chip Apple Pay, you know, the new technology where you don't even have to key it into the computer. Right. And then she was like scratching her head like, uh i run the shop i run you know the accounting my son is the decision maker but he's not here right now so i'm gonna make the decision i had the office email her an application she like filled it out yeah signed it and handed it to me and i got in a terminal the next day somebody from the office went and installed it just like that you can sign up you

know a deal at any time right yeah it doesn't need to be where like okay i'm gonna go door to door most of the accounts i get i just you know at the pho restaurant i'm eating at or where i change my tires um you know going back to what 14 years ago i landed three accounts from a car accident no way yeah How's that? Break it down, dude. So, you know, when you get in an accident, you know, most of the time you get an attorney. The attorney was like, okay, call this chiropractor, right? And after a few sessions, I'm like, hey, I noticed you have a credit card machine.

Like, what are your fees? What are you paying? So he was like, he didn't want to bother with it in the beginning. But after a few more sessions, he was like, okay, talk to my assistant. I got the statement, you know, saved him money, signed him up. In the building, there's like a cafe, right? Nuts and berries. I would go get, you know, a smoothie there every time I went to get, you to get my session done at the chiropractor.

Ended up signing him up. My car that got rear-ended at the body shop signed them up. So from a car accident, I landed three accounts. Guys, you can sign up an account out there. It's not saturated. There's millions of accounts out there. If you're driving down the street at a busy intersection, those businesses in those corners, somebody's making that money, and it can be you. It could be you.

Wow, I love that, man. Thanks for that, bro. If I was a newbie and I didn't know nothing about this, that right there just gave me ultra confidence that this is possible for anybody. So let's get down to the bread and butter, man. processing companies out there like Clover, Chase, Wells Fargo, and whoever else. They provide the network for the credit card terminal. They get a percentage of that every time that somebody uses a credit card. And that's the standard merchant services, correct? Yep.

Okay. So now that we know the regular standard merchant services guys, this is exactly the pivotal moment where they went ahead and they hyper-focused on one exact strategy. And what is that strategy? Yeah, so the new strategy now is, you know, when you go to a restaurant, you see the fee on your receipt. You know, it could be three percent four percent depending on where you're at um in some some restaurants in la i mean it could be like eight percent like they're doing crazy numbers out there um so going back to the car tempting place um you know the lady i did end up asking her um you know how much do you guys pay, you know, a month in fees?

And she was like, last month we paid about $7,000. You know, then the month before was like $8,500. They're a very busy location. They also do like car wraps and stuff like that. So let me stop you right there, man. $7,8500 in just fees? A month, yeah. That's crazy, bro.

That's almost, no, that is like over a hundred thousand dollars in just fees exactly a year and that's what i told her i said i'm gonna save you about 90 to a hundred thousand dollars a year and basically that's like your money you can go on vacation with you know uh remodel your your your you know your, your, your store and, you know, you can do whatever you want with the money. And she was like, I can't wrap my head around that. I'm like, what we do is basically you're paying about 3% of, you know, your processing volume. What we're going to do is each transaction, we're going to pass that to the customer. Yeah. Right. We're going to pass it to the customer. And she's like, oh no,

I'm going to lose my customer base i'm like don't worry have you ordered uber eats before right and she's like yeah all the time for my crew i'm saying to get that food to your door it's gonna cost you about 15 to 17 percent that you're paying but you still did it right she's like yeah we do it you know every other day right i said people you know customers are accustomed to paying a percentage to use their card these days. She was like, you know what? I'm sold. She's like, I would love to save the $80,000 to $90,000 a year. I'm making a decision. I'll tell my son later, but I'm making a decision. I'm going to switch over. And that's kind of like how I wrapped it up. And I did all that within like, I don't know, a 10 minute conversation. So you saved them about $100,000.

Now, you being the person that provides the terminal and obviously have the network, and we can estimate this on that account alone. How much could someone who is providing the terminal saving somebody about $100,000 in credit card fees, how much could they make just for providing the terminal and providing the network and the face-to-face value, dude? Yeah. So using that account as an example, it's going to be about $1,000 to $1,500. That's amazing. In residuals, monthly residuals. So that's after you install the terminal, after you get the contract signed, and then what do they do after the fact? Like, do they have to do any type of maintenance?

Do they have to go ahead and do anything monthly? Like, what's your take on that? You're talking about the agents? The agents, correct. So to paint the picture, just for clarity, guys, if you guys are watching this or listening to this, the scenario right now is we're using a real life situation that Rob was able to do with a 10 team shop that was paying over $100,000, which I can't wrap my mind, dude. Because if they just save two to three years of that, they could buy a house. They could go ahead and they, dude, I would ask them, I was like, what's your favorite car, Ferrari or Lamborghini?

Like you can legit pay in cash a freaking sports car. If you like just saving the amount of money you're saving in fees, which blows my mind. And a lot of people, they're probably thinking like, there's no way. There's no way. But what's your take on that dude like like the mindset of the customer saying like is this a scam or like how is this possible why why haven't like my my bank or my current company told me about this what's your take on that why aren't the banks or other credit card

companies telling business owners about this, man? So the big banks don't offer this program because they just don't know about it. So it's not the processor. It's what we do within the terminal. It's how we program the software. Got it. For it to tack on the 3% on top of the sale amount. Got it.

Yeah. And then going back to your original question with the agents, so how much are they involved and what they do after? Yeah. So we ship the terminal to the location or to the agent's shipping address. The agent then shows up at the business. They unplug the old terminal, plug in the new one, train the merchant on how to use it. Do we have any follow-up calls? The only time would be the

merchant might call and say, hey, I'm out of paper. Then we would ship them paper or they're changing their checking account or something like that for the uh for the amounts to settle into a new checking account but the maintenance is really low on on a merchant account wow you know i i have like a chain of restaurants that i've had for 15 years um she always tells me like hey bank of america always wants our merchant services but i tell them you know i have a guy who gives me amazing customer service always always picks up my phone call. I'm happy. You might be able to save me a few hundred dollars, but I'm happy. And then now they really can't take her because we've switched them to the cash discount program and dual pricing.

Because Bank of America doesn't even offer it. So it's kind of like because of technology and how we program the software, we lock in the merchant. So Rob, to go back to why the banks can't do this, because a lot of people are going to ask, why is it that the banks can't do this? And then is it just independent ISOs that can do this, other companies that could do this like i i feel like the hiccup here with a lot of people that are probably watching this right now or listening right now is they're like well if you guys can do it then what's stopping a major corporation like bank of america or wells fargo to do it like what what is stopping them to do this i would say their their primary focus is staying traditional processing wow okay i think that's what it is so they're sticking to just traditional old school business methods yes and they're not

looking to mess it up because it works it works for them exactly yeah they're comfortable because also they're the first one of the first to be able to pitch the merchant on a merchant services account so to them they're keeping it traditional like you're the first you're opening up your checking account with me right now yeah i'm gonna say would you like merchant services wow right yeah and it makes and it makes a lot of sense man because when you know i started building all these businesses my bank teller would be like hey by the way do you need like merchant processing? And I'm like, okay, yeah, that makes sense. And it's just easy.

It's just convenience because, you know, everybody has to open a bank account after they get their LLC when they start a business. So it's just a given that they're going to offer that, right? And if it works, why change it? And that's true. Guys, here's one thing I would tell you from all the experience I have as an entrepreneur, okay, is that when something works, please do not mess with it, okay? Do not mess with it.

You're going to mess with your cash flow. You're going to mess with your strategy. And then when business starts going down or cash flow starts going down, you're going to think back, what did I change? Oh, yeah. I started dividing my attention and focus on multiple things instead of the primary source that was making me money. And that's just business 101. A lot of people won't tell you that a lot of millionaires. Okay. We'll tell you, Hey, you needed six, seven sources of income,

but here's the thing. What they don't tell you when you're starting out as an entrepreneur, you want to focus on one primary source that can feed your other investments. And that's exactly what I did, guys. I focused on being a police officer. I focused on working that nine to five, 80 to 100 hour work weeks, which I was able to save thousands of dollars every single month, which then I was able to invest into my first side hustle, which then made me financially free. Did it make me a multimillionaire? No, it didn't. But it made me financially free. And that's that's the first level up that I always tell people to do. Make sure you guys get financially free first before you focus on

trying to become a millionaire or multimillionaire. Once you're financially free, you're able to take care of your bills. Now you have time freedom. And if you have time freedom, you're able to hyper focus on something like this, right? You're able to focus and now grow massive companies, do multiple startups, and then live the life of your dreams, guys. Okay. Is it going to be easy? Nope. No, not at all. It's not going to be easy, but if everything was easy, everybody would be doing it. Right. So to get to that, cool. Let's switch over to John. So John, right? So to get to that, cool. Let's switch over to John. So John, all right, let's get deep, man.

Let's get deep. So John, the cash discount program is the subject. This is what we're focusing on now. You deal with a lot of our clientele. If you guys didn't know, John, he's one of the primary sales development. He is one of the leaders for our sales development team. You do the weekly clinics for our clients, dude. Some of the best success stories that we have is because you're the driving force behind it, you and Rob. But ultimately, dude, now that you've seen and you dealt with like

newbies that have no experience on this, what would you tell the average person like myself that, okay, when you're focusing on merchant services, here are the three needle movers you need to harp on. Here are the three needle movers that will make you a success. What would you tell the viewer right now? Yes, that's a great question. And I cover this in all my weekly trainings. And you know, the main thing is get out there and just start moving. Just start talking to business owners. And you don't have to know everything, right? You learn it as you go. You learn it as you go. And, you know, if everybody just said, I am going to go out yeah so if you just realize that they're not rejecting you just at the time they're not ready they don't have the information they need to make the decision right or you didn't build enough rapport yet that makes sense so i always say

talk to that person like we can talk to somebody because we've been doing it for so long we can build rapport like in five seconds why you know what i'm saying yeah like i could say wow i love you i love that i love your hat melon you know where did you get that yeah and we have a whole conversation going on okay so if people learn to build rapport with the client but you have to practice at first you can you can you can build yourself up to where you've learned how to build rapport. That makes sense. But let's just say you go in and you're beginning, okay? And you go in and talk to,

you know, I come in and talk to you. I may not build rapport on that first visit. So if I just keep coming back enough times, eventually we're going to build rapport. And the next thing you know, you're like, hey, John, how you doing, man? How's everything going? Yeah. That's when the deal is ready to be closed. Okay. So on the follow-up. The follow-up is key.

The follow-up is key. And then the most important thing is determination, not giving up. Okay. I've talked to some sales agents, and I'm like, in my mind, I'm like, whoa, they're going to have a rough go at this. You know, they got a lot to learn. But the people that are successful, and I'm like, it still surprised me to this day. And I'm like, that person has tenacity. That person, you know, they get rejected, and they just keep going back.

They just keep going back. They just keep going back. They figure it out. They have the ability to ignore the rejection. I love that. I love that mindset, dude. Mindset. You got to make it work no matter what. Absolutely.

All right, guys. And as we wrap this podcast, guys, let's finish this off with a story. Okay. So out of all the clients you've helped, you don't have to name drop. You can use first name. And just tell us about the story with one of your mentees and the merchant automation program and where they were at and the transition that you saw and the obstacles that we were able to help them out with, man. Yep, absolutely. So, you know, there's a few that stand out.

You know, one, she is a stay-at-home mom, but she was a nurse, okay? And her husband works, and I believe she has three or four kids, okay? So, you know, when they first joined, they're like, you know, we got to make this work because, you know, we want, she wants her husband to not be working as much, not having to work overtime, spend more time with the kids. And, you know, this is a lady that spent her whole life working as a nurse. So like, okay, we have to train her.

We have to train her to get out there. She has to go through the program. But she, in probably less than a year, she signed over 25 accounts. Amazing. And is making over $3,000 a month in residuals. I love that. And she has replaced her income. Yeah.

She doesn't have to clock in. She doesn't have to go and, you know, deal with the clients or rush home because her child is sick or, you know, pick up the kids at school, things like that. You know, she has the ability to do that. I mean, she's gone to some appointments and she's taking pictures with the merchant there when she installed the machine and her little girl is there, you know? So it's a whole family thing. And I'm like, and some people are like, I don't have time. I have my kids. I can't do it. And here she is taking her kids with her, closing deals with her kids. That's amazing, dude. That's life-changing to become a registered nurse,

go into entrepreneurship as a side hustle, and then it replaces your income. That's, that's, that's the American dream, dude. When you really think about it, that's the new American dream, right? Because there are a lot of people that are like, they go the traditional route. I went through the traditional route of being a police officer. I was in corporate America. I was trying to figure it out. Right. But what I saw was I was capped. I was capped, man. Just like you said, we're talking about energy. We're talking about everybody's getting older, dude. And you can only go ahead and work so much, man. So I was killing myself, right. Working as a police officer, just grinding every single week, man. So for that client in particular to be a nurse, transition to entrepreneurship, and then working as a police officer just grinding every single week man so for

that client in particular to be a nurse transition to entrepreneurship and then ultimately dude become financially free is amazing I know we have quite a few clients that have dude they're killing the game right now right Bryce we will have one one client Bryce let's talk about Bryce yeah so Bryce Bryce is a beast you know and he um you know and I remember when he first called me you know just fresh you just you know his the ink didn't even dry in his paperwork he's like John I'm over here at this family restaurant my parents have been coming here for a whole long a lot of time boom boom I haven't got finished the program yet I'm still in training but you know boom boom boom so I'm like okay okay slow down you know because I always tell people

like yeah we're in a rush you want to get your first deal everybody's in a rush to get their first deal right but also we want you to go through the program give yourself even you know give yourself a little time to go through the program I I say, people go to four-year colleges to just go and get a job and then be retrained again. True. You know, here you come in and you can learn this in two weeks up to 90 days, and you're going to be pretty solid. So Bryce came in and he was on fire.

And then next thing you know, he's like, hey, John, sorry, I couldn't answer. You know, my wife's having a kid, you know, but I'm going to go out and see the client tomorrow. Like, OK, keep going. And he's just been on fire the whole time. And he's signed over 40 accounts. Amazing. Since November when he joined of last year. Wow. And he's, you know, close to making over $10,000 a month in residuals. That's amazing, man. And I know he's growing.

He's closing deals left to right every single day. I mean, I see the client success post. I see the numbers coming in, man. Changing lives, dude. So to wrap this up, guys, what is one motivational saying from each one of you guys that you guys want to tell to the audience that's listening to this?

They're on the fence about possibly investing into merchant services, investing with our program, our company, working with us. And what would you tell them? What would you tell them? What do they have looking forward to, man? What do they need to change on their mind to make it happen for themselves and for their family, right? Because that's what it comes down to is fulfillment and their why so what do you have to say to them yes that's a very good question and i constantly have i've used this in my life several times um you can you can make massive changes in a very short period of time. Okay. I was listening, you know, just probably 10 years ago, I was listening to the UFC and

Conor McGregor and they're like, and he's like, he's like, I'm unstoppable. I am, you know, I got to lose 45 pounds and the next, you know, 60 days and I'm going to go in and I'm going to fight. I'm going to win millions of dollars. Okay. So we all have that potential. If you, if you said, John, I want to lose 45 pounds in the next 45 days, you could do it. You just have to take action. And you got to do, you got to put it in your mind.

That prize at the end is yours. Once you do this. Okay. So when you when you say look i want to build a i want to make ten thousand dollars in in in the next six months with this merchant service ten thousand dollars a month in the next six months in the merchant services industry program say you can do it we have reps that are doing it facts you just have to do you have to we we have accounts where you can do it. We have reps that are doing it. Facts. You just have to do, you have to, we have accounts where you can make $3,000 a month on one account. You sign three or four of those, you hit your goal. Yeah. Or you can sign a lot of little ones and get there as well. So take that leap and take massive action. Right. Okay. Because yes,

you can take your time. If some people don't have a lot of time, but we can still coach you through and figure out what, what type of action you need to be taking to get you to your goals. Man. I love that, man. I love that.

How about you, Rob? Yeah. For those who are listening, who are on the fence about merger services, should I do this? Should I take this leap? Take it. The reason why is it changed my life. And for the past 17 years, you're getting the experience. We're going to pass it on to you. And just take the chance. It's definitely a game changer.

Passive income is the way to go. If you don't want to be, you know, working at, you know, a nine to five when you're 65 years old, we can help, you know, change your life. And if you're on the fence, you know, just hop on over. We'll help you out. Absolutely. And guys, there you have it.

I brought the co-founders of the program, MerchantAutomation.com. Guys, we are killing the game right now. We started this over a year and a half ago. Guys, this is the Level Up Podcast. I'm Paul Alex. I want to thank you for tuning in, guys. Make sure to check us out on YouTube. Make sure to subscribe, like, share. Same thing with the actual Lovewell podcast guys on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, absolutely every world. This podcast is going

to change the world and we hope we were able to serve you and everybody listening to this pod. Catch you next time. Bye-bye. Remember, I always have your six. Make sure to share this episode with your family, friends, and anyone you care about. The world's already hard enough and we need to take care of each other. Make sure to share this episode on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and share it with the world. Do me a big favor and tag me, Paul Alex. Also, keep the five-star reviews on iTunes coming. This episode is going to help change the way the world thinks and will help everyone level up in their life. And lastly, if you want to continue to level up learn more about business and life then make sure to get a copy of my book from blue to digital gold the new american dream