Intro: Broadcasting live from the Greater Perimeter. It’s time for Greater Perimeter Business Radio. Now here’s your host.

Ramzi Daklouche: Welcome to another episode of Greater Perimeter Business Radio, where we spotlight business leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs making waves across Atlanta and beyond. I’m your host, Ramzi Daklouche. This episode is brought to you by V.R. Business Sales of Atlanta. You can reach V.R. Business Sales at. Com or at (678) 470-8675. Today’s guest is someone who’s redefining how businesses manage their most critical financial systems payments. Joining us is Mitch Torbett, senior director of sales, business development and national team leader of Payroc. With nearly a decade in the payment processing industry, which has made its mission to help business owners improve cash flow, reduce fees and streamline operations, all while building meaningful partnerships along the way. Whether you’re a seasoned business owner or just getting started in B2B services, this episode is packed with insights and on navigating the evolving world of payment technology. Protecting your bottom line and growing your network the smart way. Let’s dive in. Mitch, welcome to the show.

Mitch Torbett: Thank you so much, Ramsey. I’m super excited to be here. Thank you for the option to be here. Thank you.

Ramzi Daklouche: Appreciate it. How are you and how is the year going for you?

Mitch Torbett: Fantastic. I got to tell you, it’s it really started out quick and it’s just been a fantastic year. We’ve got a new acquisitions coming down the pike with our company. We’ve purchased 22 companies Peyrache has in the last two years. So things are moving quick.

Ramzi Daklouche: Wow, fantastic. So Mitch, let’s start from the beginning. How did you get into this world of payment processing?

Mitch Torbett: Oh, that’s a great question. I’m glad you asked that. Um, well, it’s kind of a funny story, actually. I was, uh, I just started dating my now wife, and I, you know, was going to be moving into a family situation. So obviously I needed my income to be somewhere different. And I had met some successful people that worked for the company. They interviewed me, and I interviewed them, and and they were sharing with me their commitment to excellence and, and how they just really take care of their clients. And that was just me all the way. So, um, it was just a win win. So I started training and that lasted about two years and then I started. Now I’m training other people, of course, but that’s how I came to the company. It was just by friends that were already working with pay Rock.

Ramzi Daklouche: And what did you do before that?

Mitch Torbett: I was actually building cell towers, which is why I wanted to pivot, because there was too much, you know, too many airplanes all the time in the field.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. Wow. And before that, what’d you do? I mean, cell towers is your first career.

Mitch Torbett: Actually, I owned a tree service, uh, that I sold for a profit in 2007, which is, you know, that was a rough time to sell, but we were on the front end of it.

Ramzi Daklouche: I wish you kept it, because now these companies are selling really well.

Mitch Torbett: Yeah. Oh, you got. It’s funny, I trained a lot of it’s now competition, but it was fun. It was just time for me to sell and wanted to move out west. My brother was already out there and I wanted to go skiing.

Ramzi Daklouche: Well, okay. Fantastic.

Mitch Torbett: Utah? Yeah. Salt Lake City, Utah.

Ramzi Daklouche: And what brought you back to Atlanta?

Mitch Torbett: That girl. My wife. Yeah. My wife Victoria.

Ramzi Daklouche: They sometimes do that. So a lot of people think all processors are the same, right? They don’t care what they have. So what’s the difference? What’s the big difference? Why would I choose one versus the other?

Mitch Torbett: Oh, that’s a great question. So if you think about the companies that advertise, we see a lot of we see square, we see stripe okay. Those are not what people think is usually the case is that all processors are the same. That’s actually not true. It’s quite the contrary. Um, so we are a direct processor, meaning that we are. There is no middle man, right? People actually buy from us and sell back to the public, just like Worldpay. You know, they will buy from us like stripe. They’re not a direct port processor, so therefore they must buy their time or their railroad tracks, if you will, as we call them. And then they resell to the public businesses. Same with Stripe Square, both those companies and others. There’s actually about 3,003rd parties and there’s only about 12 actual processors like pay Rock.

Ramzi Daklouche: So what’s the big difference between working pay rock trade? Because you know, everybody knows Clover Stripe all these. And a lot of people use them. Right. What’s the difference between working straight with pay Rock and working with these companies?

Mitch Torbett: That’s a great question. And we even have, you know, some companies that, um, that are third parties that even have our name somewhere in them, but they’re not actually, um, direct, if you will. And so you really have to be careful in this industry with so many thousands of companies out there, you you have to be really on your toes when you look for these kind of things, because again, there’s just thousands and thousands of these third parties. But the difference is to answer your question is that let’s say you’re selling a business, which I know that you do a lot of. Right. And let’s say that you’re they’re using square. Okay. And let’s say that they’re using square at and their rate is public knowledge around 3%. So if their revenue is let’s say it’s a small company, $100,000 just for quick numbers. And we’re going to be able to go in there based on that average ticket and absolutely cut that in half. Right. So from an EBITDA standpoint, at the end, when you’re, you know, looking at those books or when they’re doing their taxes, what have you, they’re going to be, if we’re doing that for half, then you’re going to put, you know, 1.5% back into the business. So that’s what we do. We take away the middleman who’s making that extra layer of profit, and we give it back to the business.

Ramzi Daklouche: You know, that takes me to the next question. So yeah, you’re right. I mean, cash flow is the lifeblood of, you know, we talk a little about small business, right? So how can. And I think it’s misunderstood because I work with a lot of businesses and ask. About the merchant services. And they have no idea what they pay. Why should they pay attention to it? And how can they pay attention to it? Because let me give you a fast story. So I was helping a lady sell her business, right? And she didn’t have a good. You know, system and all that stuff. But she showed me her merchant service. Look at all these payments I’m getting. Right. And then at the bottom, I looked. And they were charging her extra $75 a month, right? Plus a percent plus. I mean, they literally said, you got to stop. You’re paying way too much. She had no idea. $75 for a pick, whatever they call that PCI. Pci. Right. Which we should talk about that. You know, buyer beware. Pci is a rip off, I think. Absolutely need to be taken care of. But then she was paying a percent, right. They may have told her, oh, it’s a small percent, 2.75 75 and then 2020 $0.05 per transaction. So do you understand how much money you’re actually losing? Right. And they pack it because you know you know, I hate to say this, but you know, her English was not first language, poor and uneducated, but she’s you know what she should be doing. She’s good at what she does for a living. But they I think they take advantage of her. How can buyers be aware of this? Because I don’t know if there’s laws for this or there’s no laws for this. So can you walk me through this? Because I deal with a lot of businesses and typically I want to introduce them to merchant services. Right. But how do I do that? And main thing is for small for small business owners, how can they protect themselves.

Mitch Torbett: Absolutely. Well the first line of your defense is knowledge, right. So if you know about 90% of businesses, believe it or not, Ramsey are not even getting a statement. So if your company is no longer sending you a statement or you’re having trouble struggling to find that statement. Red flag. That’s when you need to reach out to us. And that’s when you go to, you know, our our site and we help you out this way. Um, but you’d be very much surprised. So if a company says that their rates are, like you said, 2.75%, but you nailed it on top of that is that $75 PCI fee and or and nowadays it’s actually gone up to $155 a month fee. Pci stands for Payment Card Industry and what it is. Basically, it’s not a government fee which most people think that it is, but it’s not. It’s actually the industry getting together and creating what I think is a, um, it’s a sham. Honestly, it really is. It is. And it started out at $19 a month, and that was two years ago. And now it’s $150 a month. 155. Uh, I believe heartland is.

Ramzi Daklouche: Charging a business that’s 200, $300,000 a year. Survive on that.

Mitch Torbett: You know, you nailed it. It is really tough. And that’s where we come in. When I’m. I’m usually sitting down face to face with my clients. That’s my preference. And that’s the first thing I look at is that that bottom line. And you really have to find it. Because it’s not just that Ramsey, it’s also the equipment that they get stuck with that they’re in a lease.

Ramzi Daklouche: Lease or rental or.

Mitch Torbett: Rental.

Ramzi Daklouche: And get out of it easy.

Mitch Torbett: And right. So, you know, and I also find that there’s previous companies about 50% of the time that I’m helping. And these merchants have previous leases or previous rentals. They’ve sent back the equipment. But guess what? They’re still getting charged for it. And so therefore I help them do that. But one one key feature that we help our merchants do is we actually do the PCI for them annually. In fact, I have a team that does nothing but that. So we make sure you are not going to be charged, not any amount. It’s zero. And even if you do receive a fee, we reimburse it to you. And we also have a merchant assurance policy. It’s even on our website that if you ever find a price, That’s that. That is more than ours. We have to beat it. So from a from a standpoint, I mean, we literally have to beat that price.

Ramzi Daklouche: That’s incredible because I don’t know how you educate us and what venues you use to educate, uh, small businesses. Right. Because, you know, you may be in a BNI group or or chamber group, but not enough because I think there has to be national education to small businesses to look for this. Because I could tell you for a fact that owning a small business, even before this business that we had, we looked at this on a regular basis and I was shocked that they they started charging me PCI because something we had to do that takes two minutes, we didn’t do or we didn’t know we had to do, or we missed an email because we’re busy, whatever that happens, and they charge. At that point it was $55. They were charging me. And then I called them and said, either come take your equipment or you take it off. Either way, just do something because I’m not going to pay for that. But you know how I know? I’m educated, I knew it, I found out about it, I did it, I went the website, all the stuff. How do most people find out about it? Like how can we protect these small businesses? Because it’s irritating. They don’t know where the money’s going. They just know it shows up if they have, you know, QuickBooks or whatever, it shows up, oh, you know, credit card charge, that’s it. And that’s it. Is there a way for them to kind of learn that? What’s the one thing they should look for today? You know, if anybody listening to this podcast say, oh, okay, let me go do this.

Mitch Torbett: Absolutely. That’s a great question. I’m so glad you brought that up, because you’re right. It is. Um, it can be misleading. Um, it can be, uh, ultimately, most of my clients are utterly confused. Uh, they, um, so we approach it like this. It bottom line is what is coming out of your bank account at the end of the day, when they go into their business bank account or they’re from a sole proprietorship, a personal bank account, what have you, whatever the whatever says merchant on it, they need to start adding these things up. And what you do is you simply say, okay, let’s take that $100,000 business, for instance, that we talked about. And if they’re getting a, you know, if they’re a, you know, 5% of that or 4% of that is coming out, all they have to do is take add up how much there is coming from their their business or their checking account and add that up, including the equipment, including the PCI charges, and then divide that by their total volume of credit card volume. And that equals their what we call all in effective rate. And if that is anywhere north of 2%, you need to call me.

Ramzi Daklouche: North of 2%. That’s right. People are paying 3% and they’re happy with it.

Mitch Torbett: Yeah. And you know, that’s that’s a I’m glad you brought that up. It works like this, if I may, if you’re, let’s say a coffee shop. Right. And a coffee shop does thousands of transactions, hundreds and thousands of transactions every single day. Right. So that per transaction fee adds up. So people say, well, I’m only selling, you know, small cups of coffee, like $7 cups of coffee. Why am I getting charged the most? I mean, my neighbor down here is getting charged, like $200 a month, and I’m getting charged like 450. And it’s based on that average transaction. So it’s actually the contrary of what most people think. The, uh, the the lower the ticket, uh, the more of those per transaction fees they add up. And like in the, for instance of square and we talked about, um, uh, you know, just your other third parties, if you will stripe, um, and there’s a lot of public information out there, especially now with AI. So one thing you can do is in your, um, you know, just by due diligence is just to go in and Google, you know, or preferably go into AI like ChatGPT and just say, what is the difference between my company, uh, square and, uh, pay Rock. And it’ll just tell you it’ll literally break it down for you that we’re like half the price, number one, because we’re not buying from anybody else. Um, and but that’s what people can do.

Ramzi Daklouche: So that takes me to my next subject. How is AI changing the industry besides searches? Everybody does that, right? They you know, the, you know, command control. I call it command control. If you have good command control of ChatGPT, you can really do well with it. But is AI changing this industry? How do you see it in 3 in 5 years? And the whole credit card industry.

Mitch Torbett: Oh, wow. Man, I got to tell you. Yes it is. It most definitely is. Um, I use it on a daily basis. Um, the the biggest change that I see coming down the pike is that there’s no longer going to be these third parties, these thousands of third parties that are going to be able to walk into these businesses and utterly, um, not say, what’s the truth? Right? That’s what happens. They they say we’re a direct processor. We’re processing direct. Well, not if you’re buying from me. You’re not. Um, not if you’re buying from Worldpay. So how it’s changing things is it’s making it much more simpler for your average merchant to simply go on to AI right now and just say, what’s the difference between pay Rock and the company that I’m with? Whatever that company is, and it’s going to say, I need pros and I need cons, and you’re going to see it right then and there. It’ll say if in fact they are a third party or if they’re not.

Ramzi Daklouche: They can also just put, hey, I have square. Is that the best deal I can get from my barber shop or for whatever it is.

Mitch Torbett: And yes.

Ramzi Daklouche: Probably come up with different solutions. Anything in the in the machines itself or the point of sale itself that’s changing with AI. And do you think do you see anything coming up? Ai at the point of sale?

Mitch Torbett: Yes, we’re working on it every single day. In fact, we develop our own terminals. One I brought with us. But, um, we have, um, made those implementations. We have much of our AI is in beta right now. Um, but it’s to be released shortly. Um, our beta programs last anywhere from a year to a year and a half. And what we do is we give those to our producers in the field, like myself and other heavy producers that are able to manage a lot of transactions or what have you. And we monitor those merchants super closely and, and, uh, but yes, uh, it is changing the industry. The, the biggest thing I see again is that it’s, it’s going to be very difficult for merchants to be, uh, lied to or taken down a path that they didn’t think that they were going to be on. In other words, they were told one thing, but now another thing is happening. So they started out. Yeah, the first couple of statements are 2%, just like they were promised. But then what happens every quarter? Third parties, how do they make money. They actually do what’s called tiering okay. And so if they start out with a 2% say flat rate, right.

Mitch Torbett: And that 2%, uh, or it ends up being a 2% with all those fees, including the PCI or what have you, that’s not there yet. But when it does come in, that 2% obviously will jump Significantly, and especially on that $100,000 business annually. Right. So when something gets so what these businesses, these third parties will do is they will, um, meet and they will discuss what they’re going to rename the card. So let’s say you got a Chase Sapphire Reserve card and you’ve got American Express Platinum card and you’ve got a, um, just a Citi card, right. Uh, Best Buy Citi card. And then you’ve got a debit card. So debit. One misconception is that debit is actually half the price of or less than half the price of credit. People don’t realize that. So if all I can do in meeting with my clients is get them and show them to how to just take more debit, for instance, I’m there’s a 13 location, uh, bicycle shop that I have been helping for years, and we have put a debit pin pads in those businesses. And you’d be surprised the the differences that that can make just by doing that one thing.

Ramzi Daklouche: Because is there a reason for that? By the way, I know, I know that American Express works. La da da da da da da. I mean, we’re processing the same thing, but what’s what? Why would debit be cheaper than a credit card?

Mitch Torbett: Great question. So if you think about it um, let’s do that Delta business reserve card. Right. You know you’re going to get one point for every or sorry, 10 or 1 point for every $10 spent. Right. Um, well, where do you think that comes from? Who do you think is paying that? The merchant. Right. So the merchant is literally paying for me to get my Delta points, which is quite frankly, just in the last two years, the industry or the merchants have said, stop, we’re not doing that anymore. And that’s when pay Rock came out. Actually, we were already out with these three different programs. So you have, if I may suggest so, you have traditional credit card processing, which is what we’ve known for the last 40 years. You know, it used to be the Diner’s Club, and that turned into American Express. And then it became like the tail wagging the dog. And that went on since, you know, it was the Wild West there until the last 2 or 3 years. And pay Rock was really the first innovator to come out there and say, here’s how we’re going to do this. So we have three different programs. One is traditional and that is just doing it like you have been doing it. But guess what? You’re not going to pay like 3.5%. You’re only going to pay under 2% usually. And then there’s if let’s say you want to share the fee with your, uh, your customer. So the merchant says, hey, I tell you what, we’re going to take care of all the debit and I will get to that.

Mitch Torbett: I’m going to land this plane about the debit, but we’re going to take care of all your debit if you’ll just be so kind to use a debit card. Of course, we accept all major credit cards, but if you’re going to use, you know, a fancy credit card, we just ask that you pay the fee. So we just pass that right on to the to to the customer. Yeah. And then the other program is just passing all plastic. Uh, and that is directly passed on to the customer. So there’s three different programs there. The first one traditional. The second one which is sharing the debit and credit. Whereas the merchant will pay the debit and the customer pays the credit portion. And that’s the happy medium. We find that most 74% of our clients prefer this route because it is. Think about it. It’s the fair, happy medium. Yes Mr. Customer, we do miss customer accept all major credit cards. But respectfully, if you want your airline miles. Yes, we’ll give those to you. But you pay the fee and. Yeah. And from a debit perspective, to answer your question, their debit being half the cost or less than half the cost of credit is because they don’t have those miles. They don’t have those, um, you know, bank, uh, perks. Yeah, exactly. No perks. So therefore, without the perks, you have, you know, cheaper processing. Exactly.

Ramzi Daklouche: Interesting. So may I ask you about this? So let’s say I have a coffee shop like you brought up the coffee shop, right? And now, everywhere you go, there’s a tip, tip tip tip tip tip. So this tip adds to the charges credit card charges right. So the employees taking the tip full full full on. So they now the owner is paying for the for the service fee on that tip right. Dollar two three. Right. So they’re paying that two 3% on it.

Mitch Torbett: Well we can split that up actually. Yeah. You can actually split that up. In fact I mean we can adjust it to however you deem necessary as a business owner. So let’s say you even want to share, um, it entirely. So you want to share. You want the let’s say you want to pass half the fee, whatever it is to the customer. So you’re going to give them a flat rate of, say, 1%. And we’re going to cover everything else.

Ramzi Daklouche: So you could do that.

Mitch Torbett: Absolutely. And that’s one way of adjusting that.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. I wonder from your experience, do retailers or coffee shop owners or restaurant owners know that the tip has a charge on it? And are they charging the, uh, you know, person behind the the customer service person they have for that?

Mitch Torbett: Yes. Well, it depends on how it’s written up. Right? So if you’re sharing the the fee then no. Yeah. That comes into play of what the, what you’re sharing with the customer. So so you can split it up accordingly. But uh, in your uh, in that for instance, if it’s all plastic then yes, the customer is absorbing that, that fee on top of that tip because it’s, it’s and the tax sorry, not the tax. Uh, but yes the tip.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. So, uh, the next set of questions is going to be about fraud and chargebacks and all this stuff. And again, that’s detrimental to small business. Right? We’re talking about small business and big business by the way. It’s still detrimental. But before we do that is AI playing a role in chargebacks? Is it we’re going to see something chargebacks and and especially fraud because first fraud then chargebacks. Right. Yes. Is there a is AI playing a role in that.

Mitch Torbett: Yes. You know, we have um, our risk team, which I’m on the phone with. Not a lot. I mean, this happens maybe and I have hundreds and hundreds of businesses that I help on an annual basis and monthly basis, but we don’t have per se chargebacks. It’s really industry specific. So there’s industries that you just know to, you know, they’re just high risk by nature. But the fraud perspective I’ll give you, for instance, there was a um, um, it was a colleague of mine in a different working for a different company. And he had, uh, suggested that, uh, he has two businesses, and it was a family owned both the businesses. The wife worked in Atlanta. Uh, sorry. The husband worked in Atlanta at the Apparel Mart, where they have a jewelry sold. And, um. And the wife works in Alpharetta, Georgia, at another jewelry location. Right. And so what had happened was, uh, a fraudster, you know, bad actor comes in to first the Apparel Mart. Don’t even know how he got in, uh, and purchases $9,000 in jewelry. Uh, and first he says, verbatim, this is what, uh, the merchant told my colleague is that, well, you know, that car didn’t work. So do you have another card? The merchant says, oh, yeah, you know, I’ve got an Apple Card. I don’t have the card, of course, but I have it, you know, I have the number. So I’ll just read it off to you. So and that’s when it becomes watch this. He doesn’t have an Apple Watch to tap. He doesn’t have an Apple phone to tap.

Ramzi Daklouche: But he has an Apple card.

Mitch Torbett: But he has the Apple Card to say it right. So that turns into what card not present. That’s the most dangerous way to take a card.

Ramzi Daklouche: That’s that’s when you get charged back.

Mitch Torbett: Absolutely. It doesn’t matter about the signature. Um, we have measures to, to to completely get rid of that. Uh, when I enter, um, any particular business for the first time, I’m also I’ve contacted the company, uh, and I’ve asked, like, just the one 800 number or the direct line to the business corporate headquarters. And I’ve asked the controller or and or, uh, the matters that be, um, directors if they have, uh, inquired about a new merchant account and you’d be surprised if it said that. No, obviously we know it’s fraud and we just, you know, it’s just it’s just handled handled accordingly. We just pass that on to the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission. And um, but in that particular, uh, scenario, uh, the, the the purchaser, the fraudster went over to the other store and got another $9,900 worth of jewelry on the same card, and they had not spoken about it until, I guess, later that evening they found out they had both been defrauded.

Ramzi Daklouche: Oh my goodness.

Mitch Torbett: Now, if they would have been written with us. Right. So we have insurance for those type of things.

Ramzi Daklouche: Even if they do manually.

Mitch Torbett: Uh, yes. Yes, even if they do manually. Um.

Ramzi Daklouche: So what are some of the basic things that a business can protect themselves from chargebacks?

Mitch Torbett: Well, number one, never take a card not present. I mean, come on, that’s just bad business. If somebody says, I’m going to give you over the phone, you say, no, let’s say you’re in the automotive industry. Look, 55% of my books are automotive. And let’s say it’s Friday afternoon and you just want to you just want to get home, right? And I just want to drop the keys off. The guy’s going to give me a credit card number. I’m going to run it. It’s there’s better ways. So watch this. We are we are purposely, um, showing business owners on a on a real time in front of them or sharing screen, uh, environments where we’re showing them how to send a link via text and or email or both, where people can just pick up their phones and just, you know, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, any pay. They can even split it up. Let’s say they want to put $500 paying for that car on one car in 750 on the other. They can split it up. They can put half on this debit card and half on that credit card. And but it’s encrypted this way, right? But the one thing they can do to answer your question is to just do not enter a card, make sure it’s tapped. Or the EMV that stands for Euro Master Visa, that little chip on the card. You want to make sure that goes into the machine or it is tapped and or the watch is the Apple Watch is tapped, or the Android is tapped or the phones are tapped.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. Yeah. Great. Yeah. I think anytime you enter the numbers manually, you’re risking yourself to fraud and chargebacks. Yeah. Uh, so from tap to pay, you talk about that to mobile first experiences. Where do you, where do you see the industry heading in the next 3 to 5 years?

Mitch Torbett: Well, I think we’re going to do away with fraud from a, from a, from a standpoint of there’s not going to be so much of it. Like, let’s talk about that for a second, if I may. Yeah. So what typically happens or what other than people purchasing credit cards off the dark web. What typically happens however, is someone will call from it. Usually it’s a different country and you’re hearing, um, maybe it’s um, the last one I heard about was, uh. In South Korea, actually. Or it was something on a different continent, right? And it was, um, they were pretending to be a dentist office in the States, right? It’s always pretending to be a company in the States. That’s how it goes. But it’s an accent and, you know. But no matter what accent or not, we’re our underwriting is checking to make sure that that business is legit. And what does that do that’s also enabling us to stay at that or under that 2% mark on traditional processing. And um, but what they do is they, uh, somehow, um, get other companies to allow them to process credit cards. They already have, you know, 15 to 1500, uh, black card or black market credit cards that they’ve already purchased, and they’re going to run those cards, uh, accordingly. And it’s going to be in the name of that dentist, per se. Right. But the dentist never had any idea that any of this is going on. In fact, they just know somehow because, you know, they got contacted that they’ve, uh, they’ve been compromised.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. So, uh, is there any new technology in this business coming up in the next three, five years?

Mitch Torbett: Most definitely. You mentioned AI, right? That is one key factor. And that’s why it’s going to be able to troubleshoot these equations much, much faster. So our underwriting team we’re at the cutting edge of this. And we are we’ve always been that progressive company. Um but now more so than ever because of AI.

Ramzi Daklouche: So let’s talk a little bit about partnerships changing subject a little bit. So you’re big on win win partnerships. Can you share an example of strategic partnership or referral relationship you had that created meaningful results in this, you know, for you and for both sides?

Mitch Torbett: Absolutely. You know, a wise man, my father once said to me, uh, you you can’t have you can’t lose what you never had, you know, so whether it’s 1% or a 50% or 75%, um, you know, whenever I’m always on the lookout for people that are, let’s say, retiring or people that are just have time on their hands or they just do a lot of in-office work, but yet they have a multitude of contacts. Their Rolodex is just, you know, a mile long. And I’m the first to say, you know what? You could really make money with that, with that Rolodex and how well you’re going to partner with me. And I’m going to give you 25% of everything that I make is going to come to you on a residual basis, just like it comes to me on a residual basis, because that’s how we’re paid as agents in the field.

Ramzi Daklouche: Sure. Yeah. That’s amazing.

Mitch Torbett: I have clients that are making 2000, 4000, some making 6 or $7000 a month just because they gave us a name and a phone number. Um.

Ramzi Daklouche: That’s incredible.

Mitch Torbett: Yeah, it really is. And it’s really changing lives, especially for retiring individuals.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. Great way to to kind of keep them busy and, uh, you know, allow them to make some money and, you know, more golf.

Mitch Torbett: Yes.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. In the industry that sometimes seems so transactional, right. I’m in the same industry, very transactional. How do you ensure relationships are long term and value driven?

Mitch Torbett: How do we show? Uh. I’m sorry. Ask that one more time.

Ramzi Daklouche: How do you ensure that your relationship stay long term and not just, you know, value driven, not just transactional?

Mitch Torbett: Perfect. That’s a that’s a fantastic question. Uh, so glad you brought that up. So we don’t do I don’t do contracts. I just don’t do them. I mean, unless you need a, you know, a purchase, a huge POS system, and you’ve just got to finance that. Of course, we have all those different ways of renting, leasing, tax deductions. Um, you know, but I truly implore my customers to stay away from those things and to just purchase outright. Um, but if I don’t do contracts, and the only thing that’s keeping me in, uh, the business as their, uh, merchant, uh, as their merchant services provider is that I let my yes be yes and my no be no. And that has to always remain the same. You know, you’re only as good as your last presentation, right? And you never get a second chance to make a first presentation. So, you know, letting your yes be yes and your no be no is how I maintain that. And that’s predominantly how our company maintains that as a whole.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah, I tell you from your passion, and that’s not the first time I talk to you. You guys are very passionate. What you do, and it’s incredible. You see, you can you can see it come through so and I can see how people want to build relationship with you. And kind of.

Mitch Torbett: I’m thrilled by it. I love this industry. I truly, you know, if I may pivot for a second. Sure. I’m I remember, I guess one of my, um, you had mentioned, you know, how to you maintain longer business. I want to give you an example. I’ll never forget Christmas Day. It was 2017. It was Christmas Eve, sorry. And there was a gentleman that owns a sports, um, sporting goods store in, uh, Gainesville, Georgia, and he had contacted me. He had remembered that I gave him a pitch, you know, some months ago. And and I come in there to purchase because, you know, I’m an avid angler and, and love to fish and what have you. And, um, so, uh, he remembered me. He calls me on this day, and he says, and I answer my phone right away. I knew exactly who he was, and I knew exactly what he might be calling for, and he said, hey, listen, uh, Mike, the gentleman that was helping me, um, they have gone dark on me in this situation, and I need a terminal. I need it tomorrow. And so I got on the phone with corporate. I said, I’ll call you right back. And it was like, five minutes till six. I called corporate, they got it out the door that day. It was delivered on Christmas Day.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. Keep going.

Mitch Torbett: It was delivered on Christmas Day.

Ramzi Daklouche: Okay. Uh, so deliver on Christmas Day. What happened?

Mitch Torbett: So. So we were, um, able to not only provide that equipment for him that day, uh, that next day, but also we reduced his rates, as I quoted him before. And that was 2016. So he’s still with me. Uh, and actually we split that up. So he does about, uh, this particular store does about $700,000 a month in revenue. Um, that’s, you know, millions on an annual basis. He went from spending, you know, thousands like almost ten, $12,000 a month to now paying about half of that. How do we do that? He has one account that is cash discount for those particular what he deems necessary items. Yeah. To go that direction and then a traditional account. Um, so that he’s able to, you know, take all debit over here on that traditional and able to take all the credit, um, cash discount, expensive cards over here. And that brought his total, um, rate, his average effective rate down to 1.12%.

Ramzi Daklouche: Oh my goodness.

Mitch Torbett: Instead of 3%.

Ramzi Daklouche: I don’t think I’ve ever heard of these rates. I probably didn’t know much about payroll.

Mitch Torbett: Yeah, it’s a lot of fun.

Ramzi Daklouche: So that, you know what? Some of the passion you have and and the way you talk about your clients and your relationships has to come from company culture, right? Some of it, you know, personal, right. Because we all bring that extra thing that we bring into any business that we run or, or part of, but a lot of it is probably company culture. What’s in, you know, company culture that makes it us meet people like you?

Mitch Torbett: Absolutely. I’m so glad you brought that up. So I was mentored by a gentleman. His name is Richard Norton, um, Richard Norton, but he goes by Rich and, um, you know, I met him three months or four months after I had entered the industry, and he became my personal mentor. He is, till this day, almost a decade later. Oh, wow. Um, rich is, um. Well, let’s put it this way. I mean, he is just a man among men in my book. He he, uh, runs a charity that is for homeless and people that need shelter, um, that are trying to change their lives. Uh, he personally sponsors all of these things. Um, he is, um, just when it comes to, uh, he owns the Super Crew, which is of pay rock. So the Super Crew is about consists of about 300 individuals, agents just like myself. Uh, well, and then there’s the team leaders like myself that that help that manage those, um, and train those individuals that are rising up to become team leaders. So we train from within. That’s important. Oh yeah. And we’re also always, most always in front of the merchant whenever possible. And that’s a big difference because, you know, there’s so much that’s missed.

Ramzi Daklouche: When you guys must go through a whole lot of training on customer service more than anything.

Mitch Torbett: Else. Absolutely.

Ramzi Daklouche: We do as much technical.

Mitch Torbett: We do for blitzes a year. So that’s, you know, all the all of our, um, new, uh, agents are in the field for new times a year. They’re able to go to these blitzes and we’re able to go to, let’s say, Birmingham, Alabama, or it’s, um, you know, a city in New Mexico, and we’re training them hands on. So they’re literally driving with a trainer like myself for an entire week. And then we’re discussing those environments in the morning at 7 a.m. the next day. So it really is, uh, the best training in the industry. And it said all over, I mean, people just know this, but Parok truly is the safest space to be for new agents in the in the.

Ramzi Daklouche: Industry industry and they can be part time, full time, any, any time they want.

Mitch Torbett: Well, I’m glad you brought that up. That’s a great question because actually we prefer to only work with individuals that are prepared to to do this full time, to treat it like a daytime job. Now, don’t get me wrong. We, uh, we put you in business for yourself, but not by yourself. So if you are.

Ramzi Daklouche: I love that I’m going to steal that.

Mitch Torbett: Well, yeah, that’s kind of what you do, um, with.

Ramzi Daklouche: Trying to recruit people, man. I’m going to put you in business for yourself, but not by yourself. I love that.

Mitch Torbett: Right. And so, you know, you’ve got your, uh, early birds that want to get out there like myself. I mean, I want to my favorite time to get out there. And I pull doors every day. I love it. I mean, I really love it. People be like, I can’t believe you love doing that. I do, I’m just I love meeting new people, you know? And I love helping them. And, uh, but when those garage doors start opening and I’m there and I’m like, hey, just great to meet you. I just wanted to give you my card by way of introduction. Just let you know I’m in the neighborhood and I can help. Um.

Ramzi Daklouche: That’s phenomenal.

Mitch Torbett: Yeah, it really does make a difference.

Ramzi Daklouche: So you built a very strong career. You know, a decade now, raising a family. How is being a dad influenced what your approach to business leadership and service.

Mitch Torbett: Oh, that’s a great question. So our daughter, um, uh, she, she is actually NYU Tisch School of Arts now. And, um, you know, I worked with her extensively, uh, just and she helped me out. I remember when she was like 13, 14 years old, and she was helping with my myself with. And with the and the business with with my business, my part of the business with new clients and helping to onboard them and what have you. And and that taught her a lot. You know, I don’t know if that had anything to do with her getting into NYU. She pretty much did that on her own.

Ramzi Daklouche: What is she studying?

Mitch Torbett: Uh, film.

Ramzi Daklouche: Oh.

Mitch Torbett: That’s incredible. Yeah, film. And she’s just doing. She loves it. Oh, my gosh, she’s just loving it. She’s having a fantastic time. Yeah, just dinners every other night. You know, pizzerias. The best pizza on Earth, I think.

Ramzi Daklouche: Oh, of course.

Mitch Torbett: Joe’s.

Ramzi Daklouche: Pizza. I don’t know about that. Yeah. Joe’s every corner is Joe’s Pizza, by the way. That’s right. In Manhattan.

Mitch Torbett: And then our other daughter, to answer your question, um, Chloe, uh, she’s a 15 now, and she goes to Lassiter High School. Um, she, uh, helps me on an almost weekly basis. I allow her to do some things to help me with the business, and it just sharpens her skills. It’s getting her, um, like we did with Ella. Getting her used to dealing with customers. Get her, get them. You know, starting kids out early. I believe we believe as a company is imperative, you know, and I’m not the only one. It’s the most of the people that Rich Norton has apprenticed does the same thing.

Ramzi Daklouche: That’s incredible, because I have the same. I have five daughters. Right. So, you know, one of them is, uh, never going to be with me. She’s a hand surgeon. Uh, but the other one, who was in law school now is full time with me. And she left law school to to do this. It’s, uh. She loves every minute of it. I have another one, uh, that will be joining me this summer as well. Both will be working for me full time.

Mitch Torbett: Wow. That’s fantastic.

Ramzi Daklouche: I love it, I can’t wait.

Mitch Torbett: Isn’t that great? I mean, and we get to spend so much time with our family members. Yeah, yeah. I got my older brother into this industry, uh, in 2018.

Ramzi Daklouche: Um, that speaks very highly of the industry. When you have your wife, your older brother, your kids involved in it that really respected the industry, respect to the work and the company I work for speaks Miles. I mean, that’s incredible. What a story. Um, so if you have 30s with a business owner who’s on the fence about switching processor, what would you want them to know?

Mitch Torbett: All right. We’re going to draw a line down the center of the page. And we’re going to put pros on the left and cons on the right. And we’re going to literally just go down that page. And we’re going to do that with with pay Rock. And then we’re going to do that with their company. And I guarantee you ten times out of ten pay rock wins.

Ramzi Daklouche: That’s incredible. Bow Wow. How many Asians do you have in Atlanta?

Mitch Torbett: 3000 total in Atlanta. Well, you’ve got myself and maybe 15 or 20 more. I haven’t done a count recently.

Ramzi Daklouche: Is that Georgia or Georgia?

Mitch Torbett: Not Atlanta, but Georgia. All of Georgia. Yes.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. You built a career in relationship and referrals. Very important to me to talk about you. And I come from a background with, you know, BNI and you know, we understand networking really well. So you built a career on relationship referrals. What is your approach to networking in a way that’s authentic and actually drives business growth? Any tips for turning connections into real partnerships?

Mitch Torbett: Absolutely. You know you mentioned BNI right. So I’m part of the um, as you know, the Success Alliance in Alpharetta, Georgia, BNI Group chapter. And it’s the givers Gain which is the BNI. Um, you know, principle. The core principle is the givers gain. And, you know, so let’s say your goal is to get, um, ten referrals this month or this, this quarter or what have you. And the idea is that you want to really give 20 referrals to get ten. And that’s how the number works. The numbers work out.

Ramzi Daklouche: Mhm. Yeah. That’s fantastic. And how how do these I mean besides that I mean you meet people all the time right. I mean you’re probably in locations, stores businesses on a regular basis. How does that work for you with even referrals to these businesses that are not part of your BNI, not part of your chamber or whatever it is? How does it work for you?

Mitch Torbett: So you mean when I’m walking into a cold environment? Um, well, let me kind of role play with you, right? So I’m walking. Is that the question? Whereas, um.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. I mean, how how do you remember them? How do you make them memorable enough to kind of make sure referral people. Yes. Because not everybody is. You guys are a huge chapter, 65 people or 75 today. I don’t know, every day it’s another ten people that’s on the chapter. But how do you outside of that, you know, that’s your kind of core. But other than that, you’re meeting a lot of businesses. How do you refer people to these businesses? Like if they’re working with you, car mechanic, for example, let’s say car mechanic, right. You see their work and all that stuff. Do you actually end up referring businesses to them?

Mitch Torbett: Oh, absolutely. You know, as you know, as we discussed, I have hundreds and hundreds of businesses. And these are small businesses, mostly mom and pop. But, you know, we I do have enterprise companies that are my businesses, um, that I actually cultivated from BNI. You know, these are opportunities. I feel that would not be as, um, recommended, if you will, if it was not for BNI. So I do believe that in, in business it’s important. A wise man once told me, you know, you need to take 10% of your time working on your business, not at your business.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah, yeah. Not in your business. Absolutely.

Mitch Torbett: And so working at it. And that means, um, offering the. When I’m walking into a cold environment, I’m getting to know them. I want to know about the fish on the wall. And where did you get that? Catch that bass. And how many pounds and what lure did you use? And or the. You know, where do you guys hunt and what part of town do you is your property? And, uh, what else do you enjoy? I want to know about their families, and this builds a rapport. I authentically want to know these things. Just come on. I’m that guy. I’m just a networker by trade. But by doing so, you become a trusted, a trusted, um, part of their business. And it’s not just the first time you show up and you just go walk out with the business. It’s not, um, it’s a it’s cultivation. And you come back. Exactly. And it it does pay off.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. I love what you said. So I think we have. This is in common. I really, you know, the word I use is curious when I talk to people and I use this platform, for example, I’m just curious about people in general. I love to see what people do, how they do it. Don’t envy anybody. I wish them all the best of luck. But like you said, for example, you talked about, you know, you’re an angler. I want to learn how to surf fish because we have placed, you know, on the beach. So I want to learn to surf. I have no idea.

Mitch Torbett: Well, you need to come with me. I’ll teach you.

Ramzi Daklouche: See, this is why I use this platform and other platforms right now. Working. Because I learned so much more. Not just business. Because life is not just about the business. No it’s not. I don’t go to networking events just to, you know, to get referrals for me. It’s what can I do to help them and even their pitch or their, you know, five minute presentation. I’m very honest about, hey, this sucks or it’s good or whatever because I want them to get better. I really, genuinely want people to get better, but the word I use always, I’m very curious about people, and that’s what makes me network really well because I like to go networking. You know, I’m actually very reserved in some ways, but I like to go networking. And because of that, I learn a lot about people.

Mitch Torbett: Likewise, I got to say likewise, first of all, yeah, we definitely got to go fishing. I mean, but, um, yeah, me too. I exactly that. I’m fascinated by small business. I’m fascinated that look at how many small businesses there were, say, ten years ago. And then do the math. Now it’s it’s exponentially grown. Not only do we have more, you know, people that are entering the planet, but businesses are I mean, that is now way north of half of what constitutes the GDP in America.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. And you know, the baby boomers are getting older. That’s right. So a lot of I deal with a lot of, you know, buying and selling. Right. So I sell a lot of baby boomer businesses, a lot of them. I mean, typically when a business is ready to sell, either it’s failing and they they’re young, they just haven’t done well with it. Or baby boomers have done very, very well right now. Average age of a business owner in the business I’m selling is over 30 years. And they’re ready to retire. And somebody young coming. Right. So yeah, you’re right. I mean you have a lot of opportunity to kind of help these young minds on how to run a business that somebody cultivated and started and may not have had Even a high school degree. But now they were, you know, mowing lawns. Now they have a huge landscape, you know, hardscape business, right? I mean, just amazing how this happens. So let’s talk about these young people because you and I, you know, been tried and true and we became now we’re an age probably that we are more wise. Sure. Because we made tons of mistakes. I mean, I made tons of mistakes. That’s how I become.

Mitch Torbett: Likewise my friend.

Ramzi Daklouche: Yeah. So now I’m kind of a little bit smarter. But still every now and then I like to make my own mistakes. So. But you have some young people coming into the business, B2B business services business. And I think the most rewarding business is where like what you started, right? Listen, this is a commission based business goal. Yes. I love these businesses. For me, I strive in these businesses. So what advice do you have for them to get started, not get frustrated and to go get their first, let’s say, five deals fast? I asked that question. Let me tell you why. When I started in this business, my biggest question was, well, how do I go get my first five listings? That was it. Tell me how so I can go get it. And a lot of people stumbled to give me good answer until I kind of find somebody that can mentor me and help me say, here’s exactly what you do. And I still do that till today to get more listings. So tell me, in your business, let’s talk about merchant services. Somebody starting the business, how do they go get it and what should they go after? And, uh, just go ahead.

Mitch Torbett: Yeah, sure. So, uh, great question. That’s a fantastic question. You know, that’s what sold me on this industry. And Richard Norton, my, uh, trainer, my, uh, mentor of all these. Oh, you do, I’m telling.

Ramzi Daklouche: You on the phone, on, uh, on on a podcast.

Mitch Torbett: Well, he he’s he’s done thousands of podcasts, uh, and, uh, also other I mean, he’s just known on social media, YouTube, Rich Norton, um, uh, sales pro um, but, um, you know, he, uh, has developed a system, uh, a training system that is second to none. It is so far surpassed any competitor tenfold. And I’ll tell you why. Here’s why. Not only do we do the four blitzes a year where we’re spending four weeks out of the entire year, and you’re in these in these meetings every morning with Rich Norton, you’re having dinners. We pay for all the dinners. Rich does pays for all the rooms. All you have to do is get there, right? In some cases, we help people out. If they need a plane ticket, we’re going to. We’re going to get them there no matter what. If we’re not going to let anything standing in the way of somebody with desire, determination and the will to want to succeed, that’s what we look for. Um, but going through the training process is actually a lot of it is now done online via YouTube videos that Rich Norton has created. Um, the, uh, and you can find those everywhere. If you just type in Rich Norton and Supercrew, you’ll find those. So what I do when I’m personally training someone for the first time, especially if they’re young, new to the new in business, even new in sales. The first question I’m going to ask them is, you know, can you treat this like a full time job? Because that’s important. It doesn’t matter when you start working. I don’t we don’t care if you start working at 11 a.m.

Mitch Torbett: and go till whatever time, but if you can just treat it like a full time job, you will be successful. It’s not a matter if it’s. Yeah. I mean, it’s not a matter of if. It’s a matter of when. And therefore also I’m in the field personally with these new recruits and I’m pulling doors, I’m showing them how to walk in there and say, hey, you know, I gave you my card last week. Does that sound familiar? I don’t think I got one of yours. Do you mind if I pick it up? I’m going to send you an email, and I’d like to come back by and just see if you had a time, you know, some time to look at, or they’re watching me actually go through the presentation. A lot of times I’m able to just right then and there, go and hey, I’ll be right back. Let me grab my book. And those are, those are the the best. That’s so much fun because I’m excited I get to share with them. I get to learn about them. I’m curious as can be, like you said, but it can just see the look on the the person I’m training’s face is when they’re like, oh my gosh, you just walked in and out of here and you got the business in 40 minutes or an hour less than an hour in, like, how did you do that? And it’s not rocket science. It’s just it it matters. People can smell if you’re desperate. People can smell if you are confident. Yeah, exactly. So you must be confident, and you just simply have to stay in that space.

Ramzi Daklouche: Well, this has been great. So tell me, if people want to get in touch with you or in touch with the company, what’s the best way to do it?

Mitch Torbett: Well, two things. Either call my cell phone number, which is (770) 318-3527. So that’s (770) 318-3527 or text, and I’ll respond back accordingly. Um, and or uh, my website is pay Rock and that’s with a C, so it’s p PAYROR3 65. So P 365.

Ramzi Daklouche: Easy enough. All right, well, that’s a wrap for this episode of Greater Perimeter Business Radio. A big thank you to Mr. Orbit, uh, for sharing not just his expertise in payment processing, but also his passion for empowering business owners to grow with confidence. If today’s conversation sparked an idea or question, we’d love to hear from you. You can learn more about Mitch and his work from D365. And as always, connect with us at Business Sales Atlanta or find the full episode on your favorite podcast platform. Until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and keep building the kind of business that makes the difference. I’m Ramzi Daklouche. Thanks for listening.