← The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
From 300 Cold Calls to Fintech Exec: Noor Faith on Fan Basis & Scale
00:46:15
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- [00:00]
A
I'm NFL linebacker TJ Watt and this.
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B
Is my personal best. YPB by Abercrombie is the activewear I'm always wearing. That's why I reached out to co design their latest drop.
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A
I worked with designers to create high performance activewear that holds up to my toughest workouts.
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B
Shop YPB by Abercrombie in store, online and in the app because your personal best is greater than any.
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A
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. Guys. Welcome back to Level up podcast. This is Paul Alex and today I have another phenomenal guess. Guys, let's talk about payment processing. No, we're not talking about one of my portfolio companies, Cash Wipe. We're talking about another one, one of the fastest growing payment processing companies right now for coaches, consultants and anyone in the online space with e commerce on the way, guys. All right, I can't forget about my e commerce guys. But with that being said, I want to introduce you to Nour. Nour is a startup guy. He's also an executive at one of the fastest growing companies called Fanbase Basis. Guys. We actually use them at one of our portfolio companies. They are a great service and we're going to be talking about everything about payment processing, all the latest technology they have going on, the future plans, and what it took to actually build this startup, guys. So if you want to learn on how you could potentially do a startup just like this, make sure to tune in. Noor, welcome to the show.
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B
Thank you for having me, Paul. I'm really excited to be here, dude.
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A
I'm pumped to have you on here, man. So, Nora, tell me a little bit about your background, what you do, where you come from, humble beginnings. And then what got you up to being an executive at Fan Basis?
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B
Yeah. So really, I think it started for me when I was in college and I decided to drop out my senior year to go into my first tech startup. I learned about sales early on. I think I was doing network marketing in college and I just understood the value of being able to get commission and that blew my mind. You could control your own income, right?
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A
Yeah.
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B
And bring yourself out of that. And I remember when I was in college, my parents had cut me off at that point. So you. I had to Provide for myself and you know, I could barely make rent. I was starving at that time. So, you know, the first one in college, the network marketing opportunity definitely didn't crash and burn, but I understood the value of being able to, to write your own checks. So I dropped out my senior year. And I'm so grateful that my, my wife, now we've been together for 13 years, supported me the entire way through.
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A
Congrats on that by the way.
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B
Even her mother at the time told me when I dropped out of college, right, I was just dating this girl, only for a couple months. Her mom told me, you know, Nora, I believe in you. I'm going to see your name on the side of a building one day. Go, go pursue your dreams, which is rare. And so you know, to this day my, my mother in law is my best friend and a big supporter. So I think that's important. But what I did is I dropped out my senior year of college and I went into my first tech startup. They're actually, they're not too far away from this office that we're sitting in right now. And I was a salesperson, I was making $300 a week, 1099, making 200, 300 cold calls a day. You tell me how many people would actually go through that, right? But I did it and you know, very quickly I knew that I wanted to be the greatest and I wanted to be number one and I became the top person in that company. Eventually I became a partner in that company and I went around the country to go open up other, other offices including la. After that, startup after startup after startup. So I then I left, I wanted, I went to go start my own agency. That went well for a while and then I crashed and burned. I actually had 16 employees on payroll. And I remember one day waking up and I couldn't make payroll and that was one of the hardest, darkest days of my life. But I think battle scars are important. I think you learn so much from it. So after that I rebranded, started up another one got much leaner, was smarter, that was a huge success. And then I've got, I've been in a couple other tech startups now that are venture backed which all led me here to this next venture which is fan basis, which is just an absolute rocket ship. I'm so excited about it because not only are we one of the top, fastest growing companies in the entire country, but we're making a massive difference where I think we're disruptive and I think when you get to the point where you're a disruptor. That is when people start paying attention because you're making a real impact in maybe the current antiquated infrastructure of how things are, which is where payment processing falls into that category. Some of the people that do payment processing out there, they have antiquated methods or subsets of rules that allow people to scale their business. And specifically for the online market, specifically for online businesses, people that are selling a course online, coaches, business mentors, they can't use normal payment processing tools like stripe or anything like that because they have holds of reserves on their funds. They maybe don't have access to buy now, pay later options. That is where we decided to build fan bases. And so, yeah, really, in the last year, we've absolutely taken off. We work with some of the biggest names in the space. Even the people that are OGs that have been doing payment processing, selling online courses for many, many years over a decade, they now process on fan basis. Because we're the hot new kid on the block, it seems.
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A
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And I love it so much to unfold with like just your background alone, man. So let's get started with that and then we'll dive into the, the, the nice shiny object of what fan basis is. So you said something in the very beginning of your background when you were like, dude, I was doing how many dials? 300.
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B
Yeah, 300 calls.
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A
300 calls a day?
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B
Yeah. Hand dialing.
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A
It takes a very special, unique person to do that.
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B
So you're about to make a trade.
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A
Based on a friend's text.
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B
But which u do you listen to?
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A
Is it we could buy a house.
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B
In Tulum.
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A
Get optioning those options, we could lose everything.
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B
Or let's do a little research, get.
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A
Your head in the trade and make the investment decision that's right for you. Learn more@finra.org TradeSmart do you believe that your mindset, the way you were raised, you know, your parents, your background, your environment had a lot to do with that mindset, that belief that you're like, yo, I'm going to go through these 300 dials and make it happen.
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B
Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. I think that's actually a huge thing. And you know, this is one of the things that I, I believe is a challenge in today's society is people don't want to be bad at anything anymore before they become good. Y Everybody wants to get it right the first time. And a lot of that is because, you know, maybe our society is coddled when they're younger. For me, for example, when I was growing up, actually. I have a great couple, great examples of how I knew that if you put your mind to something and if you put in the work, you can become great at it, right? If you put in the time was, you know, I was playing football when I was growing up and I was in seventh, eighth, ninth grade. I really wasn't seeing the field very much. But in the off season, I was putting in a ton of work. And by the time I was in my later years in high school, I broken the school record for most catches in a season. I was first team all state. I was one. I was probably the best player in my high school. I was a captain on the football team, and I was really, really good. I actually wanted to take it further, but I knew that it was just because of what was happening in the dark when no one was looking, or was I willing to, you know, to eat shit for a long time before I could get to the point where I could be successful. I had multiple other things along the way, situations like that, where, you know, and also my parents, you know, I would say they were really hard on me, but one of the things they did tell me also was that, you know, if I did put my mind to anything, I could achieve it. I love that, dude, you know, so you gotta got to have that belief in yourself. I also think having people around you that support you, I think that is an important thing. You know what I mean? So, you know, like I mentioned my wife. I think that she's, you know, along the way, like, I have crashed and burned and she supported me through the entire thing and she believed in me and she holds me accountable to, you know, there are times where sometimes I maybe am falling short of the man I said I was going to be. And she says, hey, this is not who you said you were going to be. And that's huge for me. But yeah, at that moment, you know, coming into making 200, 300 cold calls a day also, I burned the bridges, right? I mean, I burned the ships is what I meant to say. So, you know, I knew there was no going back. I knew that this was the way that I was going to make it happen. And, yeah, I became the number one salesperson there within a few months because I put my head down and did the work.
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A
Dude, it has to work. It has to work.
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B
And you got to burn the boats 100%.
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A
You got to go all in on what you want to achieve. And there's an ongoing trait. And Emilio, we know this because you're Here. But every successful entrepreneur that comes on this show, I ask him that one question. Hey, was it someone that believed in you? And they're like, yeah, my parents. My parents said that I could do whatever I want in life. And I think that's so powerful, dude, because there's so many parents out there that even by seeing maybe you may be able to do that, you already put in your handicapping your children. So that's why I'm such a big believer. When I got married a year ago to my beautiful wife Brittany, I told her, I was like, babe, the one thing we will not say as a married couple, and when we start having kids, we will not say, maybe we will not say, well, I will try. I will say that shit, dude. We're either gonna do it or we're gonna do it. And that's it. And she's taken that mindset, so now she's actually transformed the mindset of her family, man. It's sort of crazy. Cause I'm like, dude, have they been listening to my podcast?
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B
That's funny.
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A
But it's because my wife. Yeah, my wife is such a big advocate on positivity, dude. On limiting beliefs, on going ahead and being around the right people.
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B
Right, Absolutely.
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A
So that's awesome, dude. I love to hear that. So one question for the audience, because one thing that I always get asked, dude, and I'm pretty sure you've been asked this before, is why do you continue to work? Because people are like, paul, you already built portfolio companies. You're in Puerto Rico. You're in semi retired, bro, at the age of 37. I'm like, I am, dude. But I'm never gonna retire. And it. For me, it's because I'm always chasing the better version of who I want to be.
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B
Yeah, you said it. 100%.
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A
Yeah, dude. So for you, what's. What's. What's your why when you first started, dude.
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B
Yeah, when I first started, my why was, you know, I think I was very early on my why was. Was financially motivated. I just wanted to make money. That's all I care about.
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A
That.
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B
Yep. When I was younger. But then it became about a lot more than that, because then it became about helping others realize their potential as well. Because I started to fulfill my potential. And, you know, along the lines of what you just said, that is. That is what it is for me now. It's chasing the best version of myself. You know, Ed Mylett talks about how when you're done in life and you go to heaven and you Go ahead and you meet that, that best version of yourself. You either recognize him or you don't, right? And you're going to want, you're going to wish that you were able to live this life aiming to fill potential of what you can do, whether it's finance, faith, fitness, family fun, right? All those different buckets of life. So first it was financially motivated for me. Then I started to real the impact that I'm actually having in other people's lives, right? Because I didn't know anything about sales, I didn't know anything about business. I was, you know, a young guppy back in the day. But then when I became the top dog in the company, I started to realize that I could help others realize that same potential in themselves. And so for me, that's what it's about right now for me, you know, the making the money. Let's say I want to be a billionaire. Let's say I want to own companies. Let's say I want to be shredded. Like that's all written for me that is going to happen because I already know that that is a knowing in my, in my life. But now it's about helping others get to that point. And honestly it would be a disservice to like that is the most if I didn't do that. That is probably the most fulfilling thing for me in my life at this point. I have young cats in my company now, in our company now at fan basis that are coming in and some of them have some good experience, but some of them don't. And just being able to help them and being able to relate to them and help them get to the point where they could lead, manage and run a team. That to me is like, that makes me the happiest in the world at this point.
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A
That's good man. Fulfillment. You need to be mission driven in order to keep going, right? Completely agree and I agree, dude. I think culture is everything. How, how important is culture to you?
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B
I think culture is everything. I think culture is especially important when you're in a, in a young startup or you're in an environment where you need to be able to build because you want everybody to, to, to be all in, to be bought in. And that's not easy to do. So, you know, culture is really important. At my last company, culture was, was great. The companies before that culture was not great and we suffered for it and we didn't have it. And that was partly on me, right. I wasn't the leader I needed to be and I had to look into them in the mirror. I was like, why are these people quitting on me? And I had to look in the mirror and I knew that it was a reflection of me not building that culture. Now here at Fan basis and just in general, right, Culture is paramount. So what we do is like you implement core values, but core values is not just something you throw on the wall, right. That's a sticker or something you hand out to people on their first day at work, but you really live and breathe or core values. And when you do that, and it's from top down, when leadership is totally bought into the core values. Now everybody in the company, they know how to act when it's a moment of crisis or when they're by themselves and they need to make a decision and, or when there's a new employee and they, they, they want to know, how do I fit in here? Like how can I ramp quickly? When you have a strong culture, you feel it, right? It's a living, breathing energy within, within the, within the company, within the organization. So I think it's important. You know, one thing I say a lot of the times, especially in a startup, you live and die by the people that you have, 100%. So for us, people don't even get in the door if they're not honest, ambitious, teachable, creative, hard working and they're not completely bought into it, into the mission. They can be an A player, they can have all the experience in the world, but if they're not a good culture fit, we're a hell no. And so for us it's either hell yes or hell no.
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A
Yeah. And then let's say, for example, let's paint a scenario here. Let's say fan bases is hiring.
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B
Yeah.
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A
You're the one doing the interviews. What traits are you looking at inside a young person? I'm Talking about probably 18, all the way up to 25. What traits will you look for when you're looking to hire someone?
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B
Yeah, that's a good question. So it's something that, you know, we developed along the way in my career. Actually one of my first startups and I said this recently, it's called Hatch. Hatch is something that I am looking for where I know if they are honest, ambitious, teachable, creative and hard working that we at Fan basis, we have the systems, the training, the great product market fit to be able to meet them halfway so where they can succeed and be exceptional in their role and also contribute to the growth of the company. So Hatch is very important, right. Honest, ambitious, teachable creative and hard working. The most important one for me there is teachable, coachable. Because I would rather take someone that is coachable, that is more green, that doesn't have a lot of experience, rather than take someone with 10 years of business or sales experience. Because that person may have bad habits, that person may think they know it all. That person may not be as malleable or may not be open to being wrong or having a new idea. Whereas that person, that's a blank canvas. Everything I tell them is going to be the truth and they're going to, they're going to be more open to, you know, to coaching and feedback. So coachability is the most important. My top reps right now, our top people in our company at fan basis, they are the most coachable. As soon as we run that morning meeting or that sales standup or sales training, they're implementing it right away into their next call. So I think that's a huge thing. Now of course you do look for experience, right? I do look for people that have experience in the space. We look for people that may have worked in venture backed startups before and all that definitely plays a part. And then also we look at, you know, do they really want to work at fan base or do they just need a job? Right. And that's just in general, like I want people to be running towards us, not be running away from something else. So I think that's another big thing. But you know, it's funny, like the drive and hunger of people is also something you look for and that can compensate for a lack of talent or lack of experience 100%. So I look also like in the previous time, you know, when I was in more scrappy startups, one of the things I looked for was like, hey, if they just moved here from out of town, they have no choice but to make it work.
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A
Yeah.
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B
So I loved people like that because they were all in. Right. And then also people that maybe like were going to community college but also like working at the same time, they have the work ethic. So those were other things that also I just identified that would work for me. And yeah, we just have, we have really polished people here. So I think character is really important. You could be an A player, but if you don't have character, it's not.
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A
Gonna work 100%, man. Because it's a cancer. It's a cancer to your culture and you gotta get rid of the cancer right. Before it grows. Yeah, right. Cause it can go ahead. And their beliefs and their bad Traits can go ahead and it can contaminate the rest of the crew. Right. So I'm a big believer in that, man.
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B
I'm.
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A
Dude, trust me. I mean, we talked before this. You know how I feel about culture. Culture's everything to me, dude. In business, longevity. Don't burn bridges, man. Burn the boats to go all in on your idea.
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B
Yep.
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A
But don't burn bridges, guys. Do good business.
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B
Completely. One of my, one of my mentors once taught me that, you know, the. The idea of not burning bridges, like, assume that everybody that you meet, you're going to see 126 months a year down the road at some point. And I've seen people, young people, burn bridges because they're just. They're doing it for the wrong reasons. They're just chasing after cash. They don't care to be honorable in business or, you know, or they're selfish and, you know, they, they. At some point you will learn, because I've had to learn it myself, where you will see those people down the road. And you know what? I was graceful on the way that I've exited certain relationships or that I parted ways and that has come back around tenfold where now those opportunities have presented themselves down the road. So, absolutely. I think not burning bridges and keeping good relationships long term is everything.
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A
It's everything, man. It's your character. And you know, in, in this space, payment processing, dude. I mean, everybody knows everybody, dude. Eventually that's true. You're gonna walk. You're gonna walk into a network, you know, party event, somebody's gonna know someone and people are only like about three to five people away.
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B
Yes.
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A
Right. And then you guys are down the street.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Miami is a hub. Right. This is startups, especially in the online space.
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B
Yes.
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A
Huge.
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B
Yes.
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A
Right.
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B
Yes.
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A
So let me ask you, man, let's talk about the startup of fan bases.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Okay. Were you part of the founding executives that found Fanbase?
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B
I was not. I was not one of the Day one employees. I've been here now at the company for six months. But what I can tell you is that founding team at Fan Basis, the work that went in, it's really hard to go from 0 to 1. 0 to 1, in my opinion, is the most painful because you're iterating, you're reiterating, you're finding what doesn't work, you're finding what works. But that's Founding team at Fan Basis, they are incredible because this company's been around for about four and a half years, but really, I think something clicked in the last year where we found the right positioning in the market, the right, you know, the right product offering, you know, our tech is second to none in space now. So like shout out to shout out to everybody that's, you know, founding member of the team here at fan basis, Yash, Andrew Lyle, Alicia, and there's definitely some more in there. But I mean, this company would be nowhere without them. And I'm just fortunate that they. I was able to come in kind of on the back end of what they were able to do and that they trusted me to come and bring in my experience to help take it to the next level. So, yeah, my job is easy compared to what they had to do to get to this point.
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A
Well, I always tell people, you know, if I was to do it all over again and I wanted a shortcut to get to success faster, yeah, I would want to be a number two or number three.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Under the number one.
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B
100%.
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A
And most people don't realize it. You know, I get it. In the past five years, since COVID man, everybody wants to be a CEO and a founder. Oh, dude, I got a company and all that jazz. Guys, when you get to a certain level in business where you have employees, you have payroll, you have liability, right? And that's keyword here. Liability. Everything falls on the number one.
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B
That's true.
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A
Number two, actually sometimes gets paid more than the number one guys. I got a couple executives in my camp, they get paid way more than I do, but at the end of the day, they are grinding. They are going ahead and they're making the moves to make it happen. And I'm proud of that, dude, I want them to grow. Right? So with that being said, dude, that's awesome. So six months in the business and you guys are growing massively. I mean, I'm seeing you guys everywhere, dude. So, yeah. What is making you guys different? Okay, right now, what is the pain point that you guys are solving for thousands of online companies right now that the other payment processing platforms couldn't do?
- [20:17]
B
Absolutely. Great question. Thank you for it. So, you know, at fan basis, one of the biggest things we have a heavy focus on is payment processing, Right. The big thing there is we will never put a hold of reserve on their funds. And it's because we scrutinize so much the integrity of our, our platform. We don't just bring everybody onto the platform like other payment processing companies out there that do that. And we really don't advertise ourselves as this mass market solution. We advertise Ourselves as like the premium solution in the space. And so because of that, you know, you have some of the biggest names in the space, the most respectable, reputable business owners that now that everybody here knows, right, that now process on fan bases. Because you know, for us when we talk about reputation, right, the most important reputation you have is the one that you have with yourself. And yeah, I get through a rock from here in the office and we would be able to hit clients that are currently work with our, with our processor. And so it's important that we have a reputation with ourselves first and then a reputation with others second. But because we hold ourselves to a high standard, we want to make sure that we only bring on businesses of the platform that are just doing good business, that you know, have a good risk profile, that are scaling, that have good tenure, they've been around for some time. And that's who's on fan basis right now, right? And that's one of the big things. So we won't put a hold of reserve on their own, on their funds, on their account, which is huge. And that's not something that any other processor can really say out there. And then the second thing for us is we've been able to build out the infrastructure where people have the full suite of Buy now pay later options. So that's massive. You know, I think for right now, right now in the online space, you have a lot of people that are selling courses or they're selling mentorships or you know, people even that are running an online business that are, that are not in that, you know, that coaching course space, they haven't had access to something like this. I remember back in my day when I was a salesperson trying to close deals, you know, I was trying, it was Visa or Amex, like how are you going to pay? Right? And that's it. If they didn't have the money, I would have to really try to handle and use some snazzy sales tactics to be able to handle those price objections. Well now with Buy Now Pay later, that price objection for the most part just went out the window because you're. And now our, our businesses on our platform, they're able to transact with so many customers that before they wouldn't, weren't able to. And furthermore, we have actually went and taken it a step further. We've actually went and inked partnerships with some of these buy now pay later companies. So we're able to offer more favor terms to our clients on our platform. So because of that, very interesting when Sellers jump onto fan bases and they have not used buy now, pay later before offered it to their customers. They will do about 38% more top line revenue in the first 90 days.
- [22:47]
A
Wow.
- [22:47]
B
Because they're able to transact with customers that otherwise wouldn't, weren't able to. And sometimes kid you not, we have people that have double, triple their revenue within the first months of using it because it just widens the customer base. So we're really proud of that, we're really excited about it. And sure, we're rolling out new features and products all day long. Again, we just hold ourselves to a very high standard. So we are shipping new features to be able to not only just implement, convert, you know, increase conversions at the top of the funnel, but you know, give our sellers on our platform a chance to collect more cash towards the bottom of the funnel once they're actually transacting and processing payments as well.
- [23:18]
A
Dude, that's awesome. There's so many things to unbox here. I mean, first off, number one, kudos for you guys and putting good business first. There's so many companies out there, dude, that just are looking for cash flow, they're looking for the dollar, they're trying to expand. Right, but what you guys are doing, you' you guys are doing it right. You know, not every customer is going to be the right fit. Not all money is good money. I always say all the time.
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B
We've learned that.
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A
Yeah, dude, seriously. And you guys are looking for companies that are actually scaling, they're actually growing, they're actually have a good customer base. And that's why you guys are one of the fastest growing companies out there right now in payment processing for online companies. But with that being said, the second thing I like about you guys is the pay now or buy later. Correct?
- [23:58]
B
Yep. Buy now, pay later.
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A
Yeah, dude, that is fire.
- [24:01]
B
Game changer.
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A
That is fire. Because I usually only see that with like E commerce typically, not digital products, not courses, not programs on the online space. And so I think that's a big needle mover that you guys are actually probably gonna open the floodgates when people drop this episode. Dude. But like when they find out about that, it's gonna be fire, dude.
- [24:20]
B
Yep.
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A
You know, so many people can leverage that now. Now is, is there a certain amount of time that a business has to be in business in order to work with you guys?
- [24:28]
B
No, there is not. It just, it just is how this naturally has evolved. Where more reputable businesses want to work with fan bases, we, we just haven't advertised Ourselves and haven't positioned ourselves where we're, you know, we're only here for, for you to go and make your first dollar. Now we won't, we won't reject anybody. Anybody can sign up to fan bases and start processing with us, but we want to make sure people are doing good business. Right? Because at the end of the day, we're not just here to help be a payment processor.
- [24:51]
A
Correct.
- [24:51]
B
We're here to help you scale the business. So that's the big thing I think, you know, lot of people to know is that, you know, when you get into fan bases, you're getting a partner in your business that doesn't take any equity. You know, our team actually at fan basis, like our account executives, our account managers, everybody, even our CEO Yash, they all come from this, Even myself, we all come from this, you know, this digital info product space, this, this Internet economy. Right. We've all ran or been part of businesses and sat on offers before at some point. So we know exactly what the pain points of our customers are. So the beautiful thing is when we bring on a seller to the platform, we're not just processing their payments, we're actually looking at their funnel, we're looking at their email marketing, we're looking at their media buying. We're advising them and consulting them and helping them set up their funnel to optimize conversions. The best thing about it is the nature of what we do. We have tens of thousands of sellers on our platform, so we have the best media buyers in the world, the best sales agencies in the world, and we're able to, you know, push our, put our, our sellers in the best position to be able to convert at a high level. So we've absolutely like changed the game. We've revamped so of our top sellers funnels and I think that that's a big value add as well. And something we tell sellers that and I think, you know, that goes back to like relationships, right. When something we were talking about before we jumped onto this podcast is we just have such strong relationships with our sellers because we actually care. Right. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.
- [26:11]
A
Yes.
- [26:11]
B
And our sellers, our clients, they'll never leave us, right? They'll, it doesn't matter if, if, if they're getting a lower processing fee somewhere else because we actually take care of them and we're here to help them scale their business. I think that's a huge thing and that's almost an intangible possible.
- [26:22]
A
I always Tell people this, man, because, you know, ever since I got in the online space, Since April of 2020 myself, I wasn't online for eight years. So I have no prior knowledge on selling, marketing, copywriting, like all this crazy shit that we do on the online space, right? And I self taught my myself that spent now in the past five years since then over a million dollars of self education. I think it's. Self education is key here. Educating yourself, it is the shortcut to success. Because what you don't know is what you don't know.
- [26:52]
B
Yeah.
- [26:53]
A
But with that being said, dude, you're helping business owners actually scale their business, which is very important when I hear that because I feel like partnerships. That's the value, dude. That is the value. Like what else?
- [27:05]
B
Yes.
- [27:06]
A
You're not just doing payment processing. I mean stripe and not to hate on stripe, because I used them for a very long time, you know, when they would hold my funds. And one of my portfolio companies a few years back do, they were holding up to like $700,000. And that's a hit, guys. Imagine $700,000 bank account frozen because, you know, you're a high risk business. And you know, essentially online programs, they are, they're considered a high risk business. Unless you have a tangible item that you send or whatnot, you can prove that that's true. So. So when it comes down to it, you know, for everybody right now, that is dealing with payment processing issues and you have an online program, you sell coaching, consulting, all that Jazz. I would highly recommend that you talk to Noor and his team at fan bases, guys. They will hook you up, up to scale your offer. Now let's talk about some inspiring stories, dude. One client success story that resonates with you, dude, that you're like, yo, we just dramatically changed this person's business because they used our services, they use our customer service. They've met me, I've been able to connect with them and all that. Jazz, what story do you have?
- [28:13]
B
I love that. Well, one of them that comes to mind is someone on our platform that does. He has a Section 8 housing offer. So he teaches people how to go and buy Section 8 properties, find them, buy them, get the funding for it. And one of the things that we did was we helped him build a good conversion strategy where he could get people not only through the funnel, but be able to transact with them at the bottom of the funnel. Because, you know, a lot of the people when you're selling an offer, some people, the people that are buying a course for example, they're trying to get out of maybe the situation that they're in very quickly. They're trying to make money fast. So some of those people may not be necessarily in the best financial position that are buying a course or they're buying an online info product. So what we identified was, and we helped him identify was that a lot of the people that were in his webinar that were coming through the top of the funnel didn't necessarily have the financial purchasing power to be able to purchase the 5K, the 10K products, whatever it was. And so what we were able to do is push the Buy now, pay later financing options on the webinar. And now there's millions of dollars coming through on the webinar and you just see Buy now, pay later transactions that are processed that are coming through on the webinar one after another. Because now he's able to transact with people. And it's look, it goes both ways. Like, yes, the vendor, the seller that I'm talking about, they're able to collect cash now and they're able to scale their business, but also the people that want to get into to buy, you know, to learn how to learn this service, learn this product, to be able to buy Section 8 properties now, they're able to get in and they're able to make payments over time, whereas the ROI of the information that they're learning is going to be higher and much more than what their payments are on a monthly basis. So I think that's a huge thing and a huge success story, and there's many more just like that. And one of the things also to just to mention is like, you know, how do you know, right. When you have a webinar, for example, how do you know if those leads are even qualified? Right. Or if that lead has the financial purchasing power to purchase your product, most of the time you don't. Right? A lot of the times, a lot of our sellers on our platform, they just had a name, an email, and a phone number as a lead, and that's it. They were flying blind. So they're wasting time and resources because they're paying salaries and their salespeople are getting on calls with people that either are unqualified or the sales or the customer, the prospect doesn't even show up. They're spending millions of dollars a year on ads and media buying, but they're not necessarily knowing who to target, if they're even targeting the right candidate. They don't even know the profile of their best customers. And then if people get on like a webinar, for example, you don't even know if people have the financial purchasing power. They could be all over the spectrum of people that have good credit versus not. So we actually, if I may, we rolled out this new IT called lead qualifier. We're really excited about it. So the qualifier product, what it does is it enriches all of their leads and all of their customers, both going forward and also retroactively. So you can see exactly what every single leads, what their income is, what their credit score is, do they own a home or are they renting? What is that mortgage payment? Is it an fha? What is their religion? What is their political affiliation? We have all of this data now that shows you the financial purchasing power of that lead. So that way you can make sure that your best salesperson is partnered up with the best kind of lead that is conducive to that salesperson. You can make sure that you're only focusing your time and attention on people that are that can afford your product. Let's say you are running a webinar. Now you can separate the people that are in your webinar from low ticket versus high ticket. Instead of trying to come at everybody with a one size fits all fee with media buying, you can actually find out who your best customer base is, is feed that back into your pixel, create custom audiences. I mean there's so many use cases for this, but it's absolutely game changer. And I think, you know, right now it's been about the consumer education phase. So like a lot of people didn't know that this was something they can that exists or they didn't really know how they could implement this in their business. And for us now it's selling like wildfire because we are able to really make a difference, to give people more insight so that they can operate with precision instead of just like throwing, you know, throwing leads at the wall and seeing what's different.
- [32:06]
A
I always say it's like throwing spaghetti on the wall. You're trying to see what sticks, man. But with what you guys got in this qualifier, okay, a couple things you guys are doing, man, you're helping somebody ramp up their marketing. Because if you're even getting to the point where, you know, you're getting to know the person and their political views, oh man. That's a redirection of your marketing, right, by the wording, the copyright and all that jazz. And then the second thing is you're able to optimize the sales process and when you optimize the sales process, you're saving money on the back end. You're actually helping out with the culture.
- [32:40]
B
Yeah.
- [32:40]
A
Because why? You're feeding your team qualified leads.
- [32:44]
B
100.
- [32:45]
A
So what ends up happening? I had this happen to a few dozen of my buddies, right, that have, you know, companies in the online space, and they were like, yeah, dude, I got another one quitting on me today. I was like, why?
- [32:56]
B
Yep. Why?
- [32:57]
A
They're like, dude, because my leads are shit it. And I'm like, have you tried this? Have you tried that? Have you tried this? Yes, Yes. I just don't know how to do it. So something like this is a game changer, man.
- [33:08]
B
Absolutely. I've been a sales leader myself, in fact, and I would always. I would. I would hear my sales people complain about the leads.
- [33:14]
A
Yeah.
- [33:14]
B
Most of the time, I would just. I would. I would. I would yell at them. I'd screw you, ignore.
- [33:18]
A
You'd be like. Like this.
- [33:20]
B
You know that scene in Glengarry, Glenn Ross, right, where he's like, the leads, you know? So I would absolutely say, like, it's not the leads, it's you. But there comes a point in time where buyers now are smarter and so are. And so they are. You know, you want to make sure that you're not just targeting anybody. You want to make sure that you're targeting qualified leads. It is. It is important. And so I've learned that the hard way, where I also had people quitting on me because I had them just spraying and praying. But absolutely, it's important. And you will have much better retention with your team. Your salespeople will love you, your salespeople convert. And you're not going to be spending time, money, energy, resources on these salespeople wondering why they're not closing, when the reality is it's your responsibility. Your responsibility as a business owner to get them in the best position to close deals. And now with the qualifier product that we have, you have just that.
- [34:03]
A
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And then as far as that goes, man, I mean, what is the future plans for fan bases? What do you guys. What are you guys cooking, man? Anything you could tell us?
- [34:13]
B
Yeah, I'll share some sauce. That's fine. Look, we're really excited, I think, you know, with. Alone with the product market fit that we have. You know, number one, our tech is second to none in this space. We're just playing a different game than anybody else in this space. And, you know, we don't look left or right. We're really focused on what we're doing here, like I said, we hold ourselves to a really high standard and we just have a great team. Like, you know, there are people in the office that are working essentially like 22 hours a day. Right. Because they really buy into what we're building. You know, sure, we'll have the unicorn valuation, sure, we'll have the multi billion dollar exit down the road. We commit first and we figure the rest out as we go. But we do have a really great plan. So what that is, what that looks like, like is, you know, for us one of the next frontiers is definitely that B2B market. You know, we there during when Covid happened, this digital and info product economy took off. Right. Everybody started an online business so we wanted to service that which is why we pivoted and focused completely on payment processing and buy now, pay later for that market. But you know, just like individuals and individual creators and online and these, these online coaches, they also deal with these issues with holes and reserves on payment processing. So do regular online, regular businesses as well. You know, my last company for example, we would have hold in reserves and we were using stripe. So that is the next frontier for us just getting to that market. So it's about positioning, it's about partnerships, it's about marketing. It's also just about maybe building out our outbound sales motion. The thing is, it was just funny is we haven't had to do any outbound, which, you know, I mean, I'm the head of sales also at Fan Basis. And so for me I'm like, you know, I want to turn this into a boiler room as much as possible. But you know, we're so spoiled in the sense that our product is so good. We have such a good affiliate, lucrative affiliate referral program which I'm happy to talk about as well. And so people are just coming in droves over to fan bases. I can't hire fast enough over at Fan Basis, which I'm really excited about. It's a good problem to have. Absolutely. And so, you know, the leads are just coming in in droves. And we are, you know, we're getting to the point where I need to hire just be able to handle the leads that are coming in. So we want to service that market. Absolutely. But we want also focus our time and attention on that next frontier which is the B2B. And of course there are some features that we are going to be rolling out here pretty soon and some different payment orchestration features, some new buy now pay later options that we're going to be able to offer and some stuff I can't really reveal right now, but it is exciting. Just know, you know, if you're, if you're on the fan basis ride right now, you know, you're, you're going to the moon essentially. If you're running a business and you're with fan basis.
- [36:36]
A
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I mean it's a no brainer, man. It really seems like a no brainer, especially comparison between what Stripe used to do for online creators and you know, business owners and what you guys are doing.
- [36:48]
B
Yeah.
- [36:49]
A
You guys actually look like you care. Right. And in business, H2H man, human to human interaction. Right?
- [36:56]
B
Absolutely.
- [36:56]
A
So you guys got your account executives, you're talking to the people, you're talking to business owners and they feel all warm and fuzzy, dude. They're going to stay doing business with you for a very long time.
- [37:03]
B
Yeah.
- [37:04]
A
Okay, dude. So, so with that being said, let's talk about, you mentioned the affiliate. Yeah, okay, let's talk about your affiliate. How does your affiliate program work for fan bases?
- [37:14]
B
This affiliate referral program? I mean I haven't seen anything like this in my entire life. You know, people talk about passive income and most of the time when people talk about passive income, in my opinion it's B.S.
- [37:25]
A
Yeah.
- [37:25]
B
Because it does require work, right?
- [37:27]
A
Absolutely.
- [37:27]
B
People say that owning real estate is passive income. It requires work. Work, right.
- [37:31]
A
It truly does.
- [37:32]
B
Stuff happens in your, in your, your properties. You ever have to have a property manager, you have to manage that. This is truly the definition of passive income and something I'm really excited about again, how fan basis has been able to grow so successfully. But the way that it works is Paul, let's say, you know, you wanted to send over somebody that you know who runs an online business or runs a coaching business. You wanted to send them, they had an issue with payment processing and you wanted to send them over to fan bases so that we could handle their processing for, for them. So you refer somebody over to fan basis, they sign up with us. Now you, Paul, you are receiving a percentage of our net margin on that referrals processing volume in perpetuity for life.
- [38:11]
A
Oh yeah.
- [38:12]
B
There are people that don't even, they don't even process on our platform. But all that they do is they just refer people to sign up on fan bases and they're doing six figures a month.
- [38:20]
A
I believe it.
- [38:20]
B
I mean it's insane. So if I was, wasn't working inside of fan bases, this is probably going to be my full time job. Oh yeah. It's just being an affiliate for, for fan bases and you know, we want to take care of people. And the good thing is like we have such good brand equity right now, right? Like, you know, we are the hot new kid on the block in that sense. So, you know, it's not like, it's not like we are pushing, you know, this affiliate program is we're fronting in any way. People naturally want to go out and refer us because they've also had a good experience with fan bases, which is the best thing, right? Word of mouth travels so fast, especially in this space, as we mentioned prior to talking on this podcast. But that is how the affiliate referral program works. So, you know, if I would advise anybody that's watching here on the podcast, anybody that you know that's running an online business, anybody that's running an online coaching business, that's a business mentor selling a course, send them over and you believe that they need help with payment processing or you think they can take advantage of the buy now, pay later suite that we have or even if, you know, the lead qualifier product, for example, because we actually offer affiliate referral, referral for that as well. Send them over to fan bases, we'll take care of them. We'll, we'll sign them up on the platform and we'll get you the referral on the back end and you guys are going to earn passive income for the rest of your life as long as they're processing on our platform.
- [39:27]
A
I love that. And you guys know I love passive income. I'm just saying so Nor who doesn't, right? Exactly, guys, it is a no brainer. So if you have a small business in the online space, coach consultant, you have an online offer right now. They're working on E commerce in the future, guys, for you E commerce guys and gals, go over to fanbase, talk to Nor. Name drop me. All right, guys, I'll take that affiliate all day.
- [39:53]
B
Absolutely. We're excited about that. You know, and I think reputation goes a long way. So, you know, anybody that comes over from you, Paul, will absolutely be taken care of.
- [40:01]
A
No, and I'm pretty sure we're gonna get a link down in the bio, guys. We'll also shoot it out on our socials and our email campaigns. We have a humongous network, guys. So pretty sure there's gonna be some exciting entrepreneurs that want to jump on the fence basis, wagon, brother. So with that being said, guys, phenomenal interview, right? For all you, all you online coaches and consultants and everybody in the Online space right now. With that being said, some words of motivation from you, Noor. You have been a successful entrepreneur. You have the mindset. You have a winning mindset, brother. And that's what I can appreciate when I talk to anyone is where they're at. Are they solution driven? Are they hungry? Do they have that power, dude? And you have it all, dude. You have it all. You have that winning formula that most people are looking for, bro. So this is the reason why I started the level up, because people need to hear from the 1 percenters, from the outliers, right? From the people that are making it happen, not just talking about it. So we do about 3 million downloads on a monthly basis right now. If you can tell a piece of advice just coming from you, dude. I mean, you're a representative, you're an executive at fan bases to our audience, whether they're a beginner entrepreneur, whether they're in their 30s, their 50s, or 60s, or running a business, they're like, dude, I'm my own roadblock. What would you tell them?
- [41:26]
B
Yeah. By the way, I appreciate the kind words. Thank you. You know what I'll say directly to everyone watching right now, that one of the biggest things that I've seen in the most successful people and something I've learned to develop, which over time, which is not easy, is risk tolerance. So you have to be willing to risk it all. You have to be willing to lose it all. Now, the further along you get in life, right? The. When you get a mortgage, when you have kids, when you start to build your family, the harder it gets to do this. Because now you're not just making decisions for yourself. You're making decisions for everybody. The earlier you can in life take risks and be able to put everything on the line and be willing to fail. That's, I think, one of the biggest things you have to be willing to fail. You know, one of my favorite movies, Paul, is it's the Replacement, but with Keanu Reeves in it, that football movie. There's a moment at the end of the movie where Keanu Reeves is in the huddle and he says, chicks dig scars. He said, chicks dig scars. Glory lasts forever. And that to me, sticks with me. And yeah, I have battle scars along the way, but I've had a risk tolerance which has helped me get to that next point in my life. So that is another thing. Like, battle scars are attractive. People are drawn to people that have a story, that have been through the mud, that have been through the fire. So, you know, the faster you can fail in life the better. In fact, that's something that I tell my people right now at our companies. I want you guys to fail as fast as possible because trying to get it right early on, you're going to learn the hard way that if you try to be perfect early on and you don't have that expansion mindset when you're willing to be wrong or you're willing to go through the fire, eventually you'll get punched in the face and you won't know how to handle that. Instead, understand that it's a part of life, life to get scars and that that is what will make you more attractive in the future, not only to a partner in life, but also to business partners and people that you want to work with. So risk tolerance is the biggest thing I can, I can give people as far as advice.
- [43:11]
A
I love that, dude. And that is the level up. Nor an executive from Fan bases, guys. Nor. Where can they find you first off, right? Because I want people to connect with you, dude. You know, you got a wealth of knowledge, my friend.
- [43:23]
B
I appreciate that.
- [43:24]
A
And then where can they find fan bases?
- [43:27]
B
Absolutely. So for myself, it's lldayfate, that's allday F A T E H and then Fan Basis, of course, you got to connect with us. It's at Fan Basis on Instagram and Twitter. It's F A N B A S I s. You can also go to fan basis.com go ahead and sign up and create an account. Yeah, let us know you, you came from the podcast and we'll hook you up with someone special. We're excited for you guys because. Because right now this is the culmination of what the Internet was supposed to do. And so, you know, get, get with us, follow us, follow along the journey. We're excited to have you guys part of it.
- [44:02]
A
So guys, if you're ready to level up your payment processing, make sure to talk to Nor. He just dropped his contact information. Make sure to click the link in the bio. It will direct you right to Fan Bases contact information as well. And they'll help you scale your payment processing and business together. Guys. Okay, guys. We are currently ranked number one in business on Apple's what is it Apple podcast. I was about to say Spotify, Emilio. I don't know why, but anyways, you know, as you guys know. Yeah, soon, soon, soon. Well, we're working on it, guys. We're closing some deals on the back end on that. But with that being said, we are top 15 in all categories on Apple podcast, guys. And we're growing because of you, not because of me, maybe because of Emilio, because he does everything. And that's it, guys. Catch us on the next episode. We're gonna bring phenomenal guests. We're just getting bigger and bigger and we're growing and we're growing every single month, guys. And we're launching our new podcast room here in the next couple months. So you guys are gonna see a new display coming, coming soon. And that's it, guys. Make sure to level up and we'll talk to you guys soon. Thanks for listening up to the Level up podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to share with a family friend and everyone you know who's raised to level up. Leave a five star review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever you tune in. It really helps spreading the word. And don't forget to check out officialpaulalex.com for more episodes and resources to kickstart your journey. Let's level up together.