What I do for a living

In a nutshell, I am a payment consultant for First American Payment Systems that mainly sets up merchant accounts. A merchant account gives a business the ability to accept credit/debit cards as a form of payment from their customers. I work with all kinds of businesses from restaurants to retail stores to doctors of all kinds. We provide gift cards, online shopping carts for websites, ATM's and several other products that businesses look for every day. Basically, if you take credit cards, you are a prospect for me. That means that almost every one is a prospect!! I love the industry I am in because it is constantly growing, it never gets boring, and I really get to make a difference in people's lives.

I have been in this industry for about 4 years and the first two years of my career took place out of my home. About two years ago, my best friend Clay Farrell and I, who had been doing the same thing out of his home, decided to start a company to take our business to the next level. We officially formed an LLC, hired a few people to help with administrative duties, and hit the ground running trying to gain as many new customers as possible. Along the road we have had the help of many people. My dad is the Chairman and CEO of First American, thus the main reason I represent them and not someone else. It is nice having access to someone with so much industry knowledge. His career started in a similar way selling merchant accounts out of his living room in the late 80's. I hope I have half the success in my career that my pop has had and I will do okay. Another key employee that we hired is actually Clay's mom Barbara Farrell. Without Barbara, who knows where we would be today. With the former title of "first female sales rep ever hired by Johnson and Johnson", Barbara brings 25 plus years of sales/managerial experience to the table and has kept our ship steered in the right direction thus far.

Being a business owner has its perks and its downfalls. I love the fact that I am my own boss, making key decisions that directly affect my career and not having to answer to someone else. However, there is a huge burden to bear when your ability to run a company has a direct affect on someone else's life. Clay and I employ about 15 people, give or take a few. We have had to hire and fire many people and that is about the hardest thing a business owner has to do. My dad always tells me that the first time that it becomes easy to fire an employee, that is a sad day because it reveals that you have lost touch with reality. I hope that I am always sensitive to other people's lives and never become calloused.

Our mission with our company is simple. We want to always be growing with new customers so that we can always provide jobs to good people that want to work hard. We want to always maintain the highest form of honesty and integrity. We want to impact people and demonstrate to them what it is like to be sold out for Jesus Christ. We want to work diligently to earn an honest living so that we can provide for our familes and spend time with our kids. Last of all, we want to have fun with our careers. We want to always love waking up in the morning and heading off to the office. So far, so good. It has been an interesting journey thus far and God only knows what is in store for us. I guess only time will tell!!