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All right. Thank you guys so much for watching.

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Today is an exciting day because I am here in San Diego at the National Funding

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Headquarters with a person that is a legend in this industry.

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I'm gonna go ahead and let you introduce yourself to the people that don't know

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who you are, and go ahead and tell them who you are,

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who the company that you're with. Obviously we're here,

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your title and what you do here. Perfect.

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Thank you so much for the introduction. Justin Thompson,

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national Funding here in San Diego, California. I'm the Chief Revenue Officer,

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and not only do I manage national funding,

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but also manage quick Bridge up in Irvine, which is our sister company,

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manage all sales divisions, whether it be wholesale, retail,

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strategic partnerships, and business development. Awesome.

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And we're actually gonna play a game of pool while we, uh, talk,

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talk about the, the industry, your career, just a little bit of everything,

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so it's gonna be a fun time. Absolutely. Do you want a break? Yeah,

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that was good. Nice, nice.

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Last time we were here was 2019, which is crazy to believe.

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And since 2019, what has changed in the industry out west? Wow.

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There's a lot that's changed really. The, the digital evolution, the,

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the movement with people coming out here and the way that we

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communicate and acquire SMBs, uh,

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not only from the traditional direct mail marketing,

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but also now digitally is so important to the space. Yeah. Well,

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you know what's interesting is that since Covid has happened and since you've

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been in this industry for 20 plus years, give or take,

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you've seen everything. Yeah. So my question to you is,

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how has sales changed in this business? Yeah, it's gotten way faster,

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more products available, different types of products are available.

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Back when I started, you had a split type program, merchant cash advance,

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very short term went off credit cards and how they batched. Now today,

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you have longer terms of anywhere from 24 to 36 months daily, weekly,

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and even biweekly. Monthly products have entered into our space and really,

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you know, depending on,

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on what kind of lender you are and where you like to buy,

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there's lenders now for a, all the way down to the D type paper. Nice.

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So you've talked to merchants, you talk to business owners,

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you talk to everyone. Uh, for those merchants that are shy,

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what do you say to them? Yeah, ask a lot of questions.

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Understand what you're getting into as you're getting into it,

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and make sure that you are working with somebody that you like

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and trust. Make sure you work with somebody you have a relationship with,

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not only for the first deal, but also for future deals.

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As you're building a relationship with that lender,

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how do you think that business owners like to communicate? What's their,

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what's their preference? Yeah. I show my age a little bit here.

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When I got started, it was really all about faxing and phone.

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Then it evolved to phone and email.

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Now it's all texting and some phone because small business owners work off their

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cell phone all day long as they're working. Texting is great.

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I would highly suggest typically number one form of communications, texting.

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Then second in is phone, then third is email. Third is email.

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So you just said you dated yourself a little bit.

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So let's talk about since you first started in this industry,

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what has fundamentally stayed the same in regards to sales?

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In regards to this industry? Fundamentally stayed the same.

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Is all SMBs need working capital for their business. They need it to survive,

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and it's an opportunity for them to build a relationship with a lender.

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And then from the sales side,

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the important part is whether no matter how you communicate with the smb,

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the important part is building that relationship. Do like ultimately,

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can anyone be good in sales or does it have to have,

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do you have to have a specific type of trait for this business?

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Cause I know a big part of that is building relationships and just being someone

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that people like.

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So let's talk a little bit about what trait do you have to have to be good?

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Does it come naturally? Yeah.

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So there's will and skill and half of it is wanting to do it.

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This is a business where it's technically financing,

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but you gotta come in and you gotta work hard.

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You almost have to have a blue collar type work ethic where you're calling

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early. We're on the west coast,

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so I have sales reps that get in here at 6:00 AM they're calling 9:00 AM on the,

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on the East coast.

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And you gotta have that will to come in and want to continue to reach out to

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those business owners, build those relationships. Business owners are busy.

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They're, they're all day long working in their business. So,

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and then there's skill and the skill piece to it is, is not only having, um,

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an amazing ability to listen, but an amazing ability to relate.

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And that's the key. If you have the will and the skill, you wanna work hard,

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be consistent at what you do, listen to your SMBs,

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build a relationship and relate to them,

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you're gonna be extremely successful in this business by helping SMBs long term.

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So let's talk about the human element. You know,

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nowadays there's so many different things going on. You have just so many like,

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uh,

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things that are out of this world that are kind of imp getting implemented into

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sales. How important is the human element, the human component to this business?

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Yeah, and it's, it's growing because more lenders are in the space.

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Products have evolved and the one thing that separates most companies

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are the ability to relate to the business owners.

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So with the growth of AI and growth of different products,

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still comes back to two things.

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Do you like the person and do you trust the person?

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And if you like and trust the person,

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you're gonna do business with them every time.

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So despite how our evolution of ai, despite the other products in the space,

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you gotta be able to like and trust the person to do business with them.

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And that's, that's where we strive. So I'm gonna let you hit this.

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I wanna see how you do here. Oh boy. Oh, let's go there. Go. Let's go, go again.

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Let's,

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so let's talk a little bit more about the importance and the differences of

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using a broker or going directly to a merchant when doing business.

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Yeah, so they're,

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they're both needed and important and there's just diff subtle differences

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between the two. When is working with an ISO or a broker,

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depending on how they found you,

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then they can come in and build that relationship and then have access to

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multiple lenders. Um, as a lender who has a direct side,

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really understanding that you're working with more of a captive audience,

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you're working with them,

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the the fund on your lender's paper and trying to get 'em in your ecosystem that

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that's the fundamental difference. Got you. Um, here in California,

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I know the state was the first to implement like a disclosure law. Yep.

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Put it into effect. Yep. How has that impacted business here, if at all?

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Yeah,

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funny enough you say that because it really hasn't impacted business at all.

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We here at national funding,

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we've really gone to the letter of the law and understanding how California

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wanted it to be done, how communicate with the SMBs.

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And we've seen zero impact and,

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and our process is mainly digital when it comes to the contract and

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understanding the different funding options. So with that being said,

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it's been a very smooth transition. Very little impact of business. All right.

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So since this is an east coast versus west coast type of competition,

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do you think that there's a certain style in doing business in the East Coast

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versus the west Coast? And if so, how does that affect doing business? Yeah,

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so what I've noticed traveling the country is both east and west coast have a

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desire to be number one in our space.

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East Coast typically tends to be a little bit more intense,

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a little bit more focused on pushing the transaction. Um, a lot of referrals,

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relationships and the West Coast tends to be a little bit more relaxed,

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a little relationship based and really more marketing focused.

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A lot of digital marketing,

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a lot of direct mail marketing out here on the west coast.

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So I know you rep Cali right now. Yep. Deep down inside,

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you're an East Coast boy, grew up in the, the southeast.

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We have the Florida thing in common. We do. I lived in Florida.

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You lived in Florida, that's right.

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But what do you like about doing business here in California that you can't get

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out in Florida or on the East coast?

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It is probably the biggest melting pot on the planet for talent,

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culture, um, understanding that people are from all over the world,

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are trying to move to California to get jobs, do business.

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So it's been a great cool opportunity to find talent out here and I think that's

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the, the biggest difference between the West and the east. Nice. Let's see.

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If you do this one Nice. I love you wanna go again? Yeah,

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whatever. Let's do Sure. Sure.

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So since you're a veteran in this industry and you're a veteran at Plain Pool,

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what advice would you have to the rookies that are in this industry?

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That's a great question cuz I get that asked a lot. And the biggest thing I can,

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uh,

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the biggest suggestion or advice or direction I can give is never be in it for

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the one deal. It's never worth it. No matter how big the commission is,

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you're gonna set your business up, whether you're a lender, an iso,

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a hybrid lender, iso, whatever it is, set it up for the long term. Build your,

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your renewal pipeline, understand your SMBs,

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communicate clearly and accurately to them and really understand that the one

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deal is never worth it.

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You should be in this for the long term to help SMBs fund their business.

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Awesome. I love that. All right, so before we leave,

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I'm gonna see if we do this one. No, no, no. Nope. Long shot. Long shot.

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A lot of blue out there. A lot of blue. But Justin,

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thank you so much for joining us.

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Thank you so much for playing pool with me cuz I know what we shared in this

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pool table. The advice is gonna help out the people watching this,

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especially the new guys or the people that wanna do business here in California.

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Excellent. Thank, appreciate that. Thank you so much. Great meeting.

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Thank you so much. Likewise.

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Thank you for Deb Bank for coming out and visiting us and, uh,

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let's finish the pool. Yeah, let's do it. All right, I'll go, I'll go next.

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Let's do this.