1 00:00:00.420 --> 00:00:03.180 Welcome to the 2026 Broker Fair in New York City. 2 00:00:03.340 --> 00:00:06.920 I'm now joined with CJ Flaherty of Loyola Media Group. 3 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:08.061 Great to see you again. 4 00:00:08.141 --> 00:00:08.940 Great to see you again. 5 00:00:09.520 --> 00:00:13.280 So Miami went so well. I'm glad you're here in New York. How are things going? 6 00:00:13.540 --> 00:00:16.780 Miami was fantastic. It's great to be back in New York. Things are going great. 7 00:00:17.140 --> 00:00:21.060 2026 is off to a great year. I was at the party last night, 8 00:00:21.520 --> 00:00:25.200 and I just saw so many new brokers coming into the industry, so many new funders, 9 00:00:25.900 --> 00:00:29.180 so many people in software, underwriting. The industry's growing huge. 10 00:00:29.320 --> 00:00:30.120 It's a very exciting time. 11 00:00:30.400 --> 00:00:32.910 And you didn't have too much of a good time last night that you made it today. 12 00:00:32.930 --> 00:00:36.910 I was in bed by 9:30. Yeah. I had a really good time, made some great 13 00:00:36.980 --> 00:00:40.690 connections, but yeah. I've been looking forward to coming here for some time. 14 00:00:41.050 --> 00:00:44.180 I lived in New York some time ago and just looking forward to getting back here, 15 00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:47.560 meeting a lot of clients, a lot of friends in the industry, so it's great. 16 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:50.080 And that's all happening so far? I mean, the day just started. 17 00:00:50.540 --> 00:00:51.180 Yeah. So far, 18 00:00:52.180 --> 00:00:55.520 starting with last night and going into today, I've met a lot of new people that 19 00:00:55.540 --> 00:00:59.180 want to come in and talk about our business, talk about our leads, talk about how 20 00:00:59.240 --> 00:01:01.640 we might be able to help them go out and find more merchants to fund. 21 00:01:02.200 --> 00:01:05.300 Well, let's talk about your business. Who's coming to you? What are you providing? 22 00:01:05.580 --> 00:01:09.260 Yeah. So MCA Leads since 2016. I've been in the MCA lead 23 00:01:09.320 --> 00:01:12.660 industry for over 10 years. I'm one of the oldest companies in the MCA lead 24 00:01:12.720 --> 00:01:16.580 industry, and we do everything. We do everything from real-time leads to age data, 25 00:01:16.800 --> 00:01:19.060 AI-generated leads, texting leads. 26 00:01:19.340 --> 00:01:21.190 Everything a broker could ask for, we can provide for them. 27 00:01:21.740 --> 00:01:23.860 Might be one of the oldest, but still looking like the youngest. 28 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:25.640 Thank you very much. I appreciate that. 29 00:01:25.780 --> 00:01:29.660 Do you find that you're still having to convince clients to jump on the AI 30 00:01:29.700 --> 00:01:33.600 bandwagon and trust these new systems, or are they all 31 00:01:33.620 --> 00:01:33.920 gung ho? 32 00:01:34.280 --> 00:01:37.560 I think a lot of brokers right now are looking for real-time leads. 33 00:01:37.620 --> 00:01:40.140 They're looking for people that have applied in the past. 34 00:01:40.170 --> 00:01:43.860 So a lot of guys are maybe shying away a little bit from the AI. 35 00:01:44.220 --> 00:01:47.380 They're looking for someone that has actually taken a merchant cash advance, 36 00:01:47.780 --> 00:01:49.280 someone that has a payment history. 37 00:01:49.300 --> 00:01:52.840 But for the brokers that have good sales teams, that have good 38 00:01:52.880 --> 00:01:56.750 processes, that can have good marketing in place, they can text, they 39 00:01:56.780 --> 00:02:00.390 can call, they can email, and they've got good salesmen that can sell a 40 00:02:00.420 --> 00:02:04.060 first-position deal, someone that's never taken a merchant cash advance, the AI 41 00:02:04.080 --> 00:02:04.700 leads are very good. 42 00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:06.600 It's a very interesting take. 43 00:02:06.760 --> 00:02:07.100 Yeah. 44 00:02:07.160 --> 00:02:07.820 I like it. 45 00:02:07.980 --> 00:02:08.060 Yeah. 46 00:02:08.100 --> 00:02:10.890 So we're officially halfway through the year. It's June 1st. 47 00:02:10.890 --> 00:02:10.890 Yeah. 48 00:02:10.890 --> 00:02:12.170 How do you see the rest of the year going? 49 00:02:12.340 --> 00:02:15.350 The year's been great so far. When I was down in Miami the first time I met you, I 50 00:02:15.380 --> 00:02:18.390 told you that 2025 was the best year that I've ever had in cash advance. 51 00:02:18.900 --> 00:02:21.660 So far, 2026 is shaping up to the best year that I've ever had. 52 00:02:22.100 --> 00:02:26.010 So by doing this for over 10 years, by coming to these types of conferences, 53 00:02:26.840 --> 00:02:30.620 by doing a lot of work on my Instagram channel where I talk a lot about 54 00:02:30.630 --> 00:02:33.840 merchant cash advance. You could find me there at officialcjflaherty. 55 00:02:34.340 --> 00:02:35.310 Plug, plug, right? 56 00:02:35.720 --> 00:02:37.040 I was going to ask. You beat me to it. 57 00:02:37.200 --> 00:02:40.580 Yep. So I talk a lot about merchant cash advance, about what's happening in the 58 00:02:40.600 --> 00:02:43.380 industry. So by doing that, we're bringing a lot of new customers in. 59 00:02:43.460 --> 00:02:44.900 We do our best to make money for our clients. 60 00:02:45.340 --> 00:02:47.760 Like I said, I've been doing this for 10 years. I'm 59 years old. 61 00:02:48.020 --> 00:02:51.489 The focus really is trying to make money for the clients so they're coming back and 62 00:02:51.540 --> 00:02:54.380 buying our leads over and over again like I did when I was a Wall Street 63 00:02:54.440 --> 00:02:58.300 stockbroker for 20 years. The focus always has to be making money for the client so 64 00:02:58.340 --> 00:02:59.880 they become repeat buyers. 65 00:03:00.480 --> 00:03:01.640 That's a good focus to have. 66 00:03:02.040 --> 00:03:02.540 Yeah. Thank you. 67 00:03:03.320 --> 00:03:05.140 Always great to see you. Thank you for attending. 68 00:03:05.200 --> 00:03:06.180 Thanks for having me. 69 00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:07.960 And there's still more to come from Broker Fair.