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--:-- Paul Alex: 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.
--:-- Paul Alex: Guys, welcome back to the Level Up Podcast. This is Paul Alex. And today I have another phenomenal guest. Guys, let's talk about payment processing. No, we're not talking about one of my portfolio companies, CashWipe. 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.
--:-- Paul Alex: But with that being said, I want to introduce you to Noor. Noor is a startup guy. He's also an executive at one of the fastest growing companies called FanBasis, 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.
--:-- Noor: Thank you for having me, Paul. I'm really excited to be here.
--:-- Paul Alex: Dude, I'm pumped to have you on here, man. So Noor, tell them a little bit about your background. What'd you do, where you come from, humble beginnings, and then what got you up to being an executive at FanBasis?
--:-- Noor: Yeah. So really, I think it started for me when I was in college and I decided to drop out of 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? And bring yourself out of that.
--:-- Noor: I remember when I was in college, my parents had cut me off at that point. So I had to provide for myself and I could barely make rent. I was starving at that time. So the first one in college, the network marketing opportunity definitely didn't crash and burn, but I understood the value of being able to write your own checks. So I dropped out my senior year and I'm so grateful that my wife now, we've been together for 13 years, supported me the entire way through.
--:-- Paul Alex: Dude, congrats on that, by the way.
--:-- Noor: 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 of months. Her mom told me, "You know, Noor, I believe in you. I'm going to see your name on the side of a building one day. Go pursue your dreams," which is rare. And so to this day, my mother-in-law is my best friend and a big supporter. So I think that's important.
--:-- Noor: But what I did is I dropped out my senior year of college, and I went into my first tech startup. 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, $10.99, making 200, 300 cold calls a day. You tell me how many people would actually go through that, right? But I did it, and very quickly, I knew that I wanted to get 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 offices, including LA.
--:-- Noor: After that, startup after startup after startup. So then I left. 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.
--:-- Noor: And then, 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 FanBasis, 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, right?
--:-- Noor: 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 or reserves on their funds. They maybe don't have access to buy now, pay later options. That is where we decided to build FanBasis.
--:-- Noor: 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 FanBasis because we're the hot new kid on the block, it seems.
--:-- Paul Alex: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And I love it, man. So much to unfold with just your background alone, man. So let's get started with that and then we'll dive into the nice, shiny object of what FanBasis is, dude.
--:-- Paul Alex: So you said something in the very beginning of your background when you were like, "Dude, I was doing how many dials?" 300. Yeah. 300 calls a day. 300 calls a day. Yeah. Hand dialing. It takes a very special, unique person to do that. Do you believe that your mindset, the way you were raised, 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"?
--:-- Noor: Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. I think that's actually a huge thing. And this is one of the things that I believe is a challenge in today's society is people don't want to be bad at anything anymore before they become good. Everybody wants to get it right the first time. And a lot of that is because maybe our society is coddled when they're younger.
--:-- Noor: For me, for example, when I was growing up, I have a couple of 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. If you put in the time, 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. By the time I was in my later years in high school, I broke the school record for most catches in the season. I was first team all-state. I was probably the best player in my high school. I was a captain on the football team and I was really, really good.
--:-- Noor: 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. I was willing 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. And also my parents, I would say they were really hard on me, but one of the things they did tell me also was that if I did put my mind to anything, I could achieve it.
--:-- Paul Alex: I love that, dude. You know, so you 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, like I mentioned my wife, I think that she's, 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. 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.
--:-- Noor: But yeah, at that moment, 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 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.
--:-- Paul Alex: Dude, it has to work. It has to work. And you got to burn the boats. 100%. You got to go all in on what you want to achieve. And there's an ongoing trait in every successful entrepreneur that comes on this show. I ask them 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 saying maybe, "You may be able to do that," you already put a handicap in your children.
--:-- Paul Alex: 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, "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, 'Oh, I will try.' I don't say that shit. We're either going to do it or we're going to 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. I'm like, "Dude, have they been listening to my podcast?" That's funny. It's because my wife is such a big advocate on positivity, dude, limiting beliefs, on going ahead and being around the right people. Right. Absolutely. So that's awesome, dude. I love to hear that.
--:-- Paul Alex: 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 semi-retired, bro. At the age of 37." I'm like, "I am, dude, but I'm never going to retire." And for me, it's because I'm always chasing the better version of who I want to be.
--:-- Noor: Yeah, you said it 100%. Yeah, dude.
--:-- Paul Alex: So for you, what's your why when you first started, dude?
--:-- Noor: Yeah, when I first started, my why was, I think I was very early on, my why was financially motivated. I just wanted to make money. That's all I cared about. There's nothing wrong with that.
--:-- Noor: 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 along the lines of what you just said, that is what it is for me now. It's chasing the best version of yourself.
--:-- Noor: Ed Milet talks about how when you're done in life and you go to heaven and you meet that best version of yourself, you either recognize him or you don't. And you're going to wish that you were able to live this life aiming to the potential of what you can do, whether it's finance, faith, fitness, family, fun, right? All those different buckets of life.
--:-- Noor: So first it was financially motivated for me. Then I started to realize 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 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.
--:-- Noor: For me, 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. That's all written for me. That is going to happen because I already know that is a knowing in my life. But now it's about helping others get to that point. And honestly, it would be a disservice to me. That is probably the most fulfilling thing for me in my life at this point.
--:-- Noor: I have young cats in my company now, in our company now at FanBasis, 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 vulnerable with them and help them get to the point where they could lead, manage, and run a team. That to me makes me the happiest in the world at this point.
--:-- Paul Alex: That's good, man. Fulfillment. You need to be mission driven in order to keep going, right?
--:-- Noor: Completely agree.
--:-- Paul Alex: And I agree, dude. I think culture is everything. How important is culture to you?
--:-- Noor: I think culture is everything. I think culture is especially important when you're in a young startup or you're in an environment where you need to be able to build because you want everybody to be all in, to be bought in, and that's not easy to do. So culture is really important. At my last company, culture 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. I wasn't the leader I needed to be and I had to look in the mirror. I was like, "Why are these people quitting on me?" And I knew that it was a reflection of me not building that culture.
--:-- Noor: Now here at FanBasis and just in general, culture is paramount. So what we do is we implement core values, but core values is not just something you throw on the wall that's a sticker or something you hand out to people on their first day at work. You really live and breathe 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 knows how to act when it's a moment of crisis or when they're by themselves and they need to make a decision or when there's a new employee and they want to know, "How do I fit in here? How can I ramp quickly?" When you have a strong culture, you feel it. It's a living, breathing energy machine within the company, within the organization. So I think it's important.
--:-- Noor: 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, hardworking, and they're not completely bought 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.
--:-- Paul Alex: Yeah. And then let's see, for example.
--:-- Paul Alex: Let's paint a scenario here. Let's say FanBasis is hiring. 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 would you look for when you're looking to hire someone?
--:-- Noor: Yeah, that's a good question. So it's something that we developed along the way in my career, actually in 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 hardworking, that we at FanBasis have the systems, the training, the great product market fit to be able to meet them halfway to 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 hardworking.
--:-- Noor: 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 be more open to coaching and feedback. So coachability is the most important.
--:-- Noor: My top reps right now are top people in our company at FanBasis. They are the most coachable. As soon as we run that morning meeting or that sales stand-up or sales training, they're implementing it right away into their next call. So I think that's a huge thing.
--:-- Noor: 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, do they really want to work at FanBasis or do they just need a job, right? And that's just in general. I want people to be running towards us, not be running away from something else. So I think that's another big thing.
--:-- Noor: But it's funny, 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, in the previous time 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." Yeah. So I love people like that because they were all in. Right. And then also people that maybe are going to community college but also working at the same time, they have the work ethic. So those were other things that I would identify that would work for me.
--:-- Noor: And yeah, we just 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 going to work.
--:-- Paul Alex: 100% man, because it's a cancer. It's a cancer to your culture. And you got to get rid of the cancer, right? Before it grows, right? Because their beliefs and their bad traits can contaminate the rest of the crew, right? So I'm a big believer in that, man.
--:-- Noor: Dude, trust me, I mean we talked before this. You know how I feel about culture. Culture is everything to me, dude.
--:-- Paul Alex: In business, longevity, don't burn bridges, man. Burn the boats to go all in on your idea, but don't burn bridges. Guys, do good business.
--:-- Noor: Completely agreed. One of my mentors once taught me the idea of not burning bridges. 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 young people burn bridges because they're doing it for the wrong reasons. They're just chasing after cash. They don't care to be honorable in business or they're selfish. And at some point, you will learn, because I've had to learn it myself, where you will see those people down the road. And 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.
--:-- Paul Alex: It's everything, man. It's your character. And in this space, payment processing, dude, I mean, everybody knows everybody, dude. Eventually, you're going to walk into a network party event. Somebody's going to know someone. And people are only about three to five people away anyways, right? And you guys are down the street. So Miami's a hub right now, right? This is startups, especially in the online space.
--:-- Noor: Yes. Huge right now, right?
--:-- Paul Alex: Yes. So let me ask you, man. Let's talk about the startup of FanBasis, okay? Were you part of the founding executives that found FanBasis?
--:-- Noor: 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 FanBasis, the work that went in, it's really hard to go from zero to one. Zero to one, 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 founding team at FanBasis, 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 product offering. Our tech is second to none in the space now.
--:-- Noor: So shout out to everybody that's a founding member of the team here at FanBasis: Yosh, 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 trusted me to come in kind of on the back end of what they were able to do 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.
--:-- Paul Alex: Well, I always tell people, if I was to do it all over again and I wanted a shortcut to get to success faster, I would want to be a number two or number three under the number one. And most people don't realize it. 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 key word here: liability. Everything falls on the number one.
--:-- Paul Alex: 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 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?
--:-- Noor: Absolutely. Great question. Thank you for it. So at FanBasis, 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 or reserve on their funds. And it's because we scrutinize so much the integrity of 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 the premium solution in the space.
--:-- Noor: And so because of that, you have some of the biggest names in the space, the most respectable, reputable business owners that everybody here knows, that now process on FanBasis. Because for us, when we talk about reputation, the most important reputation you have is the one that you have with yourself. And I could throw a rock from here in the office and we would be able to hit clients that currently work with our processor. So it's important that we have a reputation with ourself first and then a reputation with others second.
--:-- Noor: But because we hold ourselves to a high standard, we want to make sure that we only bring on businesses to the platform that are just doing good business, that 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 FanBasis right now. And that's one of the big things. So we won't put a hold or reserve on their funds, on their account, which is huge. And that's not something that any other processor can really say out there.
--:-- Noor: 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. I think for right now in the online space, you have a lot of people that are selling courses or they're selling mentorships or people even that are running an online business that are not in that coaching course space. They haven't had access to something like this.
--:-- Noor: I remember back in my day when I was a salesperson trying to close deals, it was Visa or Amex. Like, "How are you going to pay?" 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. Absolutely.
--:-- Noor: And now our businesses on our platform, they're able to transact with so many customers that before they weren't able to. Furthermore, we have actually taken it a step further. We've actually gone and inked partnerships with some of these buy now, pay later companies. So we're able to offer more favorable terms to our clients on our platform.
--:-- Noor: So because of that, very interesting, when sellers jump onto FanBasis 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. Wow. Because they're able to transact with customers that otherwise weren't able to. And sometimes, kid you not, we have people that have doubled, tripled their revenue within the first months of using it because it just widens the customer base.
--:-- Noor: So we're really proud of that. We're really excited about it. And 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 implement and increase conversions at the top of the funnel, but 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.
--:-- Paul Alex: Dude, that's awesome. There's so many things to unbox here. I mean, first off, number one, kudos for you guys for putting good business first. There are so many companies out there, dude, that are just looking for cash flow. They're looking for the dollar. They're trying to expand. But what you guys are doing, you guys are doing it right. Not every customer is going to be the right fit. Not all money is good money. I always say this all the time.
--:-- Noor: We've learned that.
--:-- Paul Alex: Dude, seriously. And you guys are looking for companies that are actually scaling. They're actually growing. They 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.
--:-- Paul Alex: But with that being said, the second thing I like about you guys is the pay now or buy later, correct?
--:-- Noor: Yep, buy now, pay later, yeah.
--:-- Paul Alex: Dude, that is fire. It's a game changer. That is fire because I usually only see that with e-commerce typically, not digital products, not courses, not programs in the online space. And so I think that's a big needle mover that you guys are actually probably going to open the floodgates when people drop this episode, dude. But like when they find out about that, it's going to be fire, dude. So many people can leverage that.
--:-- Paul Alex: Now, is there a certain amount of time that a business has to be in business in order to work with you guys?
--:-- Noor: No, there is not. It just is how this naturally has evolved where more reputable businesses want to work with FanBasis. We just haven't advertised ourselves and haven't positioned ourselves where we're only here for you to go and make your first dollar. Now, we won't reject anybody. Anybody can sign up to FanBasis and start processing with us. But we want to make sure people are doing good business, right?
--:-- Noor: Because at the end of the day, we're not just here to be a payment processor. We're here to help you scale the business. That's the big thing I want people to know: when you get into FanBasis, you're getting a partner in your business that doesn't take any equity.
--:-- Noor: Our team at FanBasis, our account executives, our account managers, everybody, even our CEO Yash, they all come from this space. Even myself. We all come from this digital info product space, this internet economy. We've all run or been part of businesses and sat on offers before. So we know exactly what the pain points of our customers are.
--:-- Noor: The beautiful thing is, when we bring on a seller to the platform, we're not just processing their payments. We're looking at their funnel, their email marketing, their media buying. We're advising them and consulting them, helping them set up their funnel to optimize conversions.
--:-- Noor: 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. We're able to put our sellers in the best position to convert at a high level. We've absolutely changed the game. We've revamped so many of our top sellers' funnels. That's a big value add.
--:-- Noor: It goes back to relationships. We have such strong relationships with our sellers because we actually care. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Our clients will never leave us. It doesn't matter 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. That's almost an intangible.
--:-- Paul Alex: I always tell people this. Ever since I got in the online space in April of 2020, I had no prior knowledge on selling, marketing, copywriting, all this crazy stuff. I self-taught myself. In the past five years, I've spent over a million dollars on self-education. Self-education is key. Educating yourself is the shortcut to success because what you don't know is what you don't know.
--:-- Paul Alex: But with that being said, you're helping business owners actually scale their business, which is very important. Partnerships, that's the value. You're not just doing payment processing. I'm not hating on Stripe because I used them for a very long time, but they would hold my funds. One of my portfolio companies a few years back, they were holding up to $700,000. That's a hit. Imagine $700,000 in your bank account frozen because you're a high-risk business. Online programs are considered high-risk unless you have a tangible item you can prove.
--:-- Paul Alex: So for everybody dealing with payment processing issues who has an online program, sells coaching, consulting, all that jazz, I highly recommend you talk to Noor and his team at FanBasis. They will hook you up to scale your offer.
--:-- [Ad break for EBCLIS and Lowe's]
--:-- Paul Alex: Let's talk about some inspiring stories. One client success story that resonates with you, where you dramatically changed someone's business because they used your services, your customer service, they met you, you connected with them. What story do you have?
--:-- Noor: I love that. One that comes to mind is someone on our platform who has a Section 8 housing offer. He teaches people how to buy Section 8 properties, find them, get the funding. One of the things we did was help him build a conversion strategy where he could get people through the funnel and transact at the bottom.
--:-- Noor: A lot of people buying a course are trying to get out of their situation quickly. They may not be in the best financial position. We identified that many people coming through his webinar didn't have the financial purchasing power for the $5K or $10K products. So we pushed the buy now, pay later financing options on the webinar. Now there are millions of dollars coming through on the webinar. You see buy now, pay later transactions one after another.
--:-- Noor: It goes both ways. The seller can collect cash now and scale their business, but also the people who want to learn this service can get in and make payments over time. The ROI of the information they're learning is going to be higher than their monthly payments.
--:-- Noor: One of the things I want to mention: how do you know if those leads are even qualified? If that lead has the financial purchasing power to purchase your product? Most of the time you don't. A lot of our sellers just had a name, email, and phone number as a lead. They were flying blind, wasting time and resources. They're paying salaries, their salespeople are getting on calls with people who are unqualified or don't even show up. They're spending millions on ads but don't know who to target.
--:-- Noor: We rolled out this new product called Lead Qualifier. We're really excited about it. The Qualifier product enriches all of their leads and customers, both going forward and retroactively. You can see exactly what every lead's income is, what their credit score is, whether they own a home or rent, what their mortgage payment is, their religion, their political affiliation. We have all this data showing the financial purchasing power of that lead.
--:-- Noor: This way, you can make sure your best salesperson is partnered with the best kind of lead. You can focus your time on people who can afford your product. If you're running a webinar, you can separate people into low ticket versus high ticket instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. With media buying, you can find out who your best customer base is, feed that back into your pixel, create custom audiences. There are so many use cases. It's an absolute game changer.
--:-- Noor: Right now it's been about the consumer education phase. A lot of people didn't know this existed or how to implement it. Now it's selling like wildfire because we can really make a difference, give people more insight so they can operate with precision instead of throwing leads at the wall and seeing what sticks.
--:-- Paul Alex: I always say it's like throwing spaghetti on the wall, trying to see what sticks. With what you guys have in this qualifier, you're helping somebody ramp up their marketing. If you're getting to know the person and their political views, that's a redirection of your marketing through wording and copywriting.
--:-- Paul Alex: The second thing is you're optimizing the sales process. When you optimize the sales process, you're saving money on the back end and helping out with the culture. Why? Because you're feeding your team 100% qualified leads. I had this happen to a few dozen of my buddies with companies in the online space. They'd say, "Yeah dude, I got another one quitting on me today." I'd ask why. They'd say, "Because my leads are shit." I'd ask if they tried this or that, and they'd say yes but they don't know how to fix it. Something like this is a game changer.
--:-- Paul Alex: I've been a sales leader myself. I would always hear my salespeople complain about the leads. Most of the time I would yell at them, ignore it, say my marketing is good. You know that scene in Glengarry Glen Ross where he's like, "The leads"? I would say it's not the leads, it's you. But there comes a point where buyers are smarter now. You want to make sure you're targeting qualified leads. I learned that the hard way when I had people quitting on me because I had them just spraying and praying.
--:-- Paul Alex: You will have much better retention with your team. Your salespeople will love you, they will convert, and you won't be spending time, money, and energy wondering why they're not closing when the reality is it's your responsibility as a business owner to get them in the best position to close deals. Now with the qualifier product, you have just that.
--:-- Paul Alex: What are the future plans for FanBasis? What are you guys cooking? Anything you can tell us?
--:-- Noor: I'll share some sauce. We're really excited. Our tech is second to none in this space. We're playing a different game than anybody else. We don't look left or right. We're focused on what we're doing. We hold ourselves to a high standard. We have a great team. There are people in the office working essentially 22 hours a day because they really buy into what we're building.
--:-- Noor: Sure, we'll have the unicorn valuation, the multi-billion dollar exit down the road. We commit first and figure the rest out as we go. But we have a great plan. One of the next frontiers is the B2B market. When COVID happened, the digital info product economy took off. Everybody started an online business. We wanted to service that, which is why we pivoted and focused completely on payment processing and buy now, pay later for that market.
--:-- Noor: But just like individual creators and online coaches deal with holds and reserves on payment processing, so do regular businesses. My last company, for example, we would have holds and reserves and we were using Stripe. That's the next frontier for us, getting to that market. It's about positioning, partnerships, marketing, and building out our outbound sales motion.
--:-- Noor: The funny thing is, we haven't had to do any outbound. I'm the head of sales at FanBasis, and I want to turn this into a boiler room as much as possible. But we're so spoiled because our product is so good. We have a lucrative affiliate referral program, which I'm happy to talk about. People are coming in droves to FanBasis. I can't hire fast enough. It's a good problem to have.
--:-- Noor: The leads are coming in droves. I need to hire just to handle them. We want to service that market, but also focus on the next frontier, which is B2B. We have some features rolling out soon: different payment orchestration features, new buy now, pay later options, and some stuff I can't reveal right now. But it's exciting. If you're on the FanBasis ride right now, you're going to the moon if you're running a business with us.
--:-- Paul Alex: It's a no-brainer, especially comparing what Stripe used to do for online creators and business owners to what you guys are doing. You guys actually look like you care. In business, it's H2H, human to human interaction. You have your account executives talking to the people, talking to the business owners. They feel warm and fuzzy, they're going to stay doing business with you for a very long time.
--:-- Paul Alex: Let's talk about the affiliate program. How does it work for FanBasis?
--:-- Noor: This affiliate referral program, I haven't seen anything like this in my entire life. People talk about passive income, and most of the time when people talk about passive income, in my opinion, it's BS because it does require work. People say owning real estate is passive income, but it requires work. Stuff happens in your properties. You have to have a property manager. This is truly the definition of passive income.
--:-- Noor: The way it works: let's say you wanted to send over somebody you know who runs an online business or a coaching business. They had an issue with payment processing. You send them to FanBasis so we can handle their processing. They sign up with us. Now you receive a percentage of our net margin on that referral's processing volume in perpetuity for life.
--:-- Noor: There are people who don't even process on our platform. All they do is refer people to sign up on FanBasis, and they're doing six figures a month. I believe it. It's insane. If I wasn't working inside FanBasis, this would probably be my full-time job, just being an affiliate for FanBasis.
--:-- Noor: We want to take care of people. The good thing is we have such good brand equity right now. We're the hot new kid on the block. It's not like we're pushing this affiliate program. People naturally want to go out and refer us because they've had a good experience with FanBasis. Word of mouth travels so fast in this space.
--:-- Noor: I would advise anybody watching: if you know someone running an online business, a coaching business, a business mentor selling a course, send them over. If they need help with payment processing or can take advantage of the buy now, pay later suite, or even the lead qualifier product, send them to FanBasis. We'll take care of them, sign them up, and you'll earn passive income for the rest of your life as long as they're processing on our platform.
--:-- Paul Alex: I love that. You guys know I love passive income. Who doesn't?
--:-- Paul Alex: Guys, it's a no-brainer. If you have a small business in the online space, coach, consultant, you have an online offer, or you're working on e-commerce in the future, go over to FanBasis, talk to Noor, name drop me. I'll take that affiliate all day.
--:-- Noor: We're excited about that. Reputation goes a long way. Anybody that comes over from you, Paul, will absolutely be taken care of.
--:-- Paul Alex: I'm pretty sure we'll get a link down in the bio. We'll shoot it out on our socials and email campaigns. We have a humongous network. There are going to be some exciting entrepreneurs that want to jump on the FanBasis wagon.
--:-- Paul Alex: Phenomenal interview for all you online coaches and consultants. With that being said, some words of motivation from you, Noor. You have been a successful entrepreneur. You have the mindset, a winning mindset. That's what I can appreciate when I talk to anyone: are they solution driven? Are they hungry? Do they have that power? You have it all. You have that winning formula most people are looking for.
--:-- Paul Alex: This is the reason I started The Level Up, because people need to hear from the one percenters, from the outliers, from the people making it happen, not just talking about it. We do about 3 million downloads monthly. If you could give a piece of advice to our audience, whether they're a beginner entrepreneur, in their 30s, 50s, 60s, running a business, feeling like they're their own roadblock, what would you tell them?
--:-- Noor: I appreciate the kind words. Thank you. What I'll say directly to everyone watching: one of the biggest things I've seen in the most successful people, and something I've learned to develop over time which is not easy, is risk tolerance. You have to be willing to risk it all. You have to be willing to lose it all.
--:-- Noor: The further along you get in life, when you get a mortgage, have kids, start to build your family, the harder it gets because you're not just making decisions for yourself. You're making decisions for everybody. The earlier you can in life take risks and put everything on the line and be willing to fail, that's one of the biggest things.
--:-- Noor: One of my favorite movies is The Replacements with Keanu Reeves. There's a moment at the end where Keanu Reeves is in the huddle and he says, "Chicks dig scars. Glory lasts forever." That sticks with me. I have battle scars along the way, but I've had a risk tolerance that helped me get to the next point in my life. Battle scars are attractive. People are drawn to people who have a story, who have been through the mud, through the fire.
--:-- Noor: The faster you can fail in life, the better. I tell my people at our companies: I want you to fail as fast as possible. If you try to be perfect early on and don't have that expansion mindset where you're willing to be wrong or go through the fire, eventually you'll get punched in the face and won't know how to handle it. Understand that it's a part of life to get scars, and that will make you more attractive in the future, not only to a partner in life but also to business partners and people you want to work with. Risk tolerance is the biggest thing I can give people as advice.
--:-- Paul Alex: I love that. That is The Level Up. Noor, an executive from FanBasis. Noor, where can they find you first off? I want people to connect with you. You have a wealth of knowledge. And where can they find FanBasis?
--:-- Noor: Absolutely. For myself, it's at AllDayFate. That's AllDay, F-A-T-E-H. And FanBasis, of course, connect with us at FanBasis on Instagram and Twitter. It's F-A-N-B-A-S-I-S. You can also go to FanBasis.com. Go ahead and sign up and create an account. Let us know you came from the podcast and we'll hook you up with something special.
--:-- Noor: We're excited for you guys. This is the culmination of what the internet was supposed to do. Get with us, follow us, follow along the journey. We're excited to have you part of it.
--:-- Paul Alex: Guys, if you're ready to level up your payment processing, make sure to talk to Noor. He just dropped his contact information. Click the link in the bio. It will direct you to FanBasis's contact information. They'll help you scale your payment processing and business together.
--:-- Paul Alex: Guys, we are currently ranked number one in business on Apple Podcasts. We're top 15 in all categories on Apple Podcasts. We're growing because of you. Not because of me. Maybe because of Emilio, because he does everything.
--:-- Paul Alex: That's it, guys. Catch us on the next episode. We're going to bring phenomenal guests. We're getting bigger and bigger, growing every single month. We're launching our new podcast room in the next couple months, so you'll see a new display coming soon. Make sure to level up and we'll talk to you guys soon.
--:-- [Outro: Thanks for listening 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 ready 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.]
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