The Self-Made Millionaire: Why Struggle Was His Greatest Advantage

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0:33You have to be obsessed. I'm obsessed with winning. I'm obsessed with making deals happen. And not only winning for our company, but winning for both sides. It has to be fair. You also have to make sure that your business associate, who you're doing service for, is also winning. Because then it won't be a fair deal or fair trial. You don't win by following the playbook. You win by rewriting it. 700 episodes deep with the people who actually built something real. No theory, no fluff, no shortcuts. This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford. What's up, guys? Welcome to Right About Now, your number one marketing and business show on Apple Podcasts.

1:18We thank you for that. It's not lost on us. And if you want this belt, you got to come take it out of my cold, dead hands because Cause you made us number one and I'm keeping it in my six, five, two 50 body. Ain't giving it up lightly, but you know what? I like fighters and I'm a fighter. I like people that work in the dirt all the way from the fields to fortune. Hey, it might just be the title of a new book from the founder and CEO of global processing systems. He's the Maverick mobile with the heart of gold. He is Moses Heredia. What's up Moses. Hey, what's up Ryan. Thank you for having me brother.

1:48It's an honor to be on your show on your podcast, man. It's a good stuff. I've heard a lot of good things about you, my man. and I'm just honored to be here today, brother. Hey, likewise. I think we were cut from the same cloth in some ways. You on the West Coast, me on the East Coast. And I think when our friends connected us, they knew kindred spirits on some level, really respect what you've been doing, the way you've done it. And damn, pretty damn successful, brother. Getting after it, aren't you? Yeah. It really boils down to my mother. God rest her soul. She's not with me, but we come from humble beginnings.

2:16I remember I never had a babysitter in my life. She never pawned me on anyone. My mom was an immigrant from Mexico. I was raised in the fields, man. And I did a lot of chopped cotton. I did the peanuts, the cucumber, the bell pepper, the pecan. So I was raised out there. Some of my colleagues asked me, hey, how old were you when you started working? I was like, when I was a child being there, that was my playground. And then I just started working. So I helped my mother out and she taught me a lot of discipline, dedication, and determination. And that's where it really came from. And all of our siblings, we work hard and just do the right thing.

2:47And that's what was taught. Now, my mom didn't come from wealth. Obviously, she never cared about her skin color. She never cared about her education. And she was an immigrant. She would always teach me about faith. So that's what the book is about. It's about God, faith, and going all in. And that's what I did. And I've done that throughout my history with just a high school education. I was going to go into law enforcement. I got a little degree on that. It was in my DNA just to be an entrepreneur. At the young age, I was just out of high school. And I started searching back in those days. I mean, the internet wasn't what it is today.

3:17You would go to the unemployment office and look at the bulletin board, what's offerings for any employment. So I remember seeing fast food environments and I remember seeing something that said telemarketing for a banking system. Right. And I'm like, you know what, that's something professional that I'd like to do because coming from the fields, I remember as a child, I was like, man, I'm never going to work in the heat. I'm never going to work in the sun. I learned the hard way, which was good. It was a good upbringing that my mother had taught me. The rest was history. So I got hired at a telemarketing department, which is still in the same industry I'm in today for credit card processing.

3:47This makes me feel old, brother, but I think it's going 30 years now that I've been in the merchant services world. You look too good to be that old, man. Let me ask you a question before we get into processing and what it took to grow that company. We've got a good mix of up-and-coming want-to-be entrepreneurs, 25 to 30-year-olds trying to get after it, two executives that have already made it to a degree. They're looking for insights or tips or different things that they could take from other executives like yourself. You used the words discipline and structure and things from your mom. But, you know, I would guess that there's at least a handful of people that were in your circles or around that may have had similar influences from their family members, discipline or structure or attempts at it.

4:30Is it nature or nurture? You said DNA. What is the success like? Is it just innate or is it just a combination of variables that if we could formulate, we'd all be using it? It's a combination of a lot to make a full circle. So definitely discipline, dedication, and determination for me and of course the DNA. But I even preach this to my staff every day. It's like be positive, productive, and proactive. It doesn't matter where you're at in life at this moment. We all have a backpack and that's all our problems. Leave that outside the office because once you leave, they're still going to be there.

5:00Come in here and transform yourself and hit it hard. One of the things outside of my DNA and family and being disciplined and dedicated was the competition. I always seen my associates as a sales agent because I was top sales in 94, 95, 96, and quarter 97 is when I got promoted. But what I would do is my colleagues were the ones that would motivate me because I couldn't have them beat me in sales every month. And being on commission only, we would look at the board and see who was leading the board. And I'm like, oh, man, I got to go get a couple more deals because Mario's up ahead of me. It's really your colleagues and your people who you surround with.

5:32One of the things that's out there a lot, and I am a true believer in this, you are who you hang around with. And in my book, it teaches that value core. When I was a kid, I was not an angel. I was a great athlete. But I could tell you that my grades started going down and south because I was hanging around my group of friends who would, after school, we would out and get some alcohol and have someone buy it for us. And then I'd go home and do my homework. And that's when God gave me the wisdom and the choice like, hey, you're going to the long path. But it has to do a lot, your influence of who you're around with.

6:00Yeah, you have a certain pedigree and DNA. And that's great. I see a lot of great athletes, brother, that have the pedigree, have just the stamina. But guess what? They are not surrounding themselves with the good core people and they get in trouble and they get set back. There's a lot of that out there that are great athletes that have that. Unfortunately, they lose. They throw their career away. So just like in sales or an entrepreneur, you can easily go the wrong path having bad traits and habits. So it's a combination of everything. And you have to just stay on the grind and make sure that you have what I like to call the four G's, of course.

6:31But, you know, just stay disciplined, stay true to yourself and make sure you're very careful who you surround yourself with.

6:42You said it without saying it, and I'm going to point it out. It's one that took me a while. When I hire people now, I ask, are you competitive? How bad does it hurt if you lose Monopoly at home to your kids or to your siblings? They can tell me stories where I know it's not bullshit or something. I don't know. The competitive spirit plays a lot. It drives a lot in business. And sometimes we can go, oh, that can be unhealthy. Anything can be unhealthy. Everything in moderation, including moderation. You got to be competitive, right? You got to like, you want to win. You're absolutely right. You have to have that winning spirit.

7:13Even when I am still negotiating with the financial institution on a big project or a big deal, once I hang up that Zoom call or even that phone call and I have the agreement and they say yes to everything, it's so emotional that I get tears in my eyes because the competitive spirit comes in. And to me, thank God, I've never done any drugs in my life. But to me, winning is a high. You have to be obsessed. I'm obsessed with winning. I'm obsessed with making deals happen. And not only winning for our company, but winning for both sides. It has to be fair. You also have to make sure that your business associate who you're doing service for is also winning because then it won't be a fair deal or fair trial.

7:49I get emotional, especially when I'm working on a project. Some projects take months, but when there's a signed document and we make shake hands and we say, Hey, we're going to use your services. We're going to ride together. That's just a, such a great high and a competitive spirit that I've had that since I was a kid, bro. I remember I was driving a 1979 Honda Accord and I was 19 years old. I would leave the customer's location and the customer gave me the agreement and I signed on the dotted line and I would just drive in my car. Tears would come down my eyes and I would just be so happy and thanking God, first of all, and just say, man, this is awesome.

8:22And just tears would come down of mine because I was on commission only out there hustling, just surviving. It has to be a combination of stuff, but you have to be obsessed with winning. It's just an obsession with winning. And of course, like you said, everything in moderation. I'm not obsessed where I'm going crazy, right? And I have to see a shrink or anything like that. But it has to mean something to you though. A hundred percent. I don't want to go down the participation trophy route, but I guess I will. Everything's gotten convenient in life. And that's a good thing. Technology's made things convenient.

8:46Amazon. There's a lot of things that technology innovation have progressed forward so that the human life is easier. I'm not fighting that. That's a great thing. More efficient. We can get more things done, but it's also kind of conditioned us to this standard of comfort and not discomfort that when there's discomfort, we get sideways because same thing. Oh, he's not going to like being third place. So we give him the participation trophy. No, I mean, in our house, there's winners and losers. I have four boys. You want to play horse with daddy? Be ready to lose. But now they're 15, 16 now, and Moses is getting closer than I want it to.

9:18I will lose ungracefully because I want to win. I want to stay out of the complete discord of politics and everything else. But there has been a comfort level that we've been ingraining in our kids and society with what it truly takes and that there are winners and losers and there's outcomes for effort or non-effort. Absolutely. I agree with you. I can't even imagine what that household would be. All the testosterone going in there, man. So your poor wife, you know. Oh, she kicks our ass, man. She's a D1 basketball player. Oh, that's cool. There you go. She's competitive, man. Yeah, national champion.

9:54Oh, there you go. Okay. So it's right up your alley, man. So you're safe. She's kicking their ass, too. They can't beat her in pig or horse head either. So, yeah, she handles it. That's beautiful, man. What a family to have like that, man. That's amazing. So that's good, man. So, yeah, I appreciate the family. Growing up, we were all close to, and I'm the youngest of four. Yeah, how was that? You were the baby, but the baby grew up. To be quite honest, I never knew or looked at myself as the baby. My mom, believe it or not, would tell me, hey, take care of your older brothers and your sister. I'm like, what?

10:27But you know what? Something about parents, they know something. My older brothers were a little wilder than I was growing up, and she knew that I had a little sense. I would think before I would act on something. So she must have seen that trait because she would always pull me aside or call me even when I came to California. It's like, hey, make sure you're taking care of your brother. So I had a conversation with one of my older brothers about this one time, and he's like, what? Mom never told me to take care of you or anyone. I'm like, well, there you go, man. She obviously seen something that you were out there still being wild.

10:55Family is everything to me. If it wasn't for my mother, I wouldn't be where I'm at. And of course, God, number one. And then my father still resides where I was born and raised with my sister and cousins, uncles. I got everybody back home. It was a small town where I grew up. I mean, I used to drive a tractor back then and work in the field. So it's super cool, though. I love going back, Ryan, because you get so stuck on the day-to-day, the grind, the day-to-day. And when I go back home, it's just a different environment. It's just different type of people. They stop. They say hi to you. They open doors.

11:22It's just the whole world is just changes, man, because I'm not even a quarter of a mile from Texas. So it's Texas where I was raised. So every time I shopped, I went to Texas. Every time I worked, I went to Texas. So Texas was really where, but it was New Mexico of the corner where I was born and raised and went to school there, man. But listen, like you're saying, I love to hear stories like that about your family, the kids and things, because that says a lot. And it's everything. Staying close and unite and help one another, man. Talking with Moses Heredia from Fields to Fortune. Was this just where you pointed your talents and where it happened you landed?

11:52Or was it more purposeful than that in kind of growing this empire? When I started working for the second largest processor in the world, which was National Processing Company at the time, I started at$4.25 an hour, right? I mean, just bare minimum telemarketing. I got promoted to telemarketing manager after a month. So I would be in charge of the telemarketers and we would make appointments for outside salespeople that were on commission only. Then I made an appointment one time and the gentleman on the phone was here in Southern California. And he said, you know what? My language barrier, I would feel more comfortable if it's someone in Spanish.

12:20And I'm like, oh, I speak Spanish. So then I started talking to him in Spanish and then wrote up the appointment. I gave it to my manager at the time. And he said, well, throw it away. We don't have any Spanish speaking sales agents here. I'm like, OK, because the corporate office was in Louisville, Kentucky. And it was kind of like, now you do what I sound like. I'll take it. He's like, no, you're better suited for me because you handle the office. You open the office. You close the office. As you handle the 10 telemarketer, I'm like, listen, I need to go. I made the appointment and I feel comfortable going.

12:45So he said, well, you better close it. So long story short, I went there and for an hour that I was there at his location, I think I made close to$800 in 30 minutes. And I was like, there's no turning back. I came back in the office and I resigned as a telemarketing manager and I went to 100 % sales. I was a top sales person in 94, backed it up with 95, backed it up with 96. And then in quarter of 97 is when I got promoted to territory manager. I did so well, Ryan, with that. They promoted me to district manager and then regional manager. And then finally, I was going to get promoted and they all made an offer to be vice president of sales for second largest process in the world at that time, National Processing Company.

13:21And that was to Louisville, Kentucky. And I was just a California guy by that time. And then that's when I decided, you know what? God's blessed me so much. So many different offices, so many employees that I'm doing it already for someone. Why don't I just do it for myself? It was like from one day to the next, I just like resigned and walked out. I didn't have an office. I didn't have anything. I mean, I was working out of a pickup truck, a Ford F-150 at that time, and meeting my sales agents off the freeway. I would have meetings at Marie Callender's or Coco's at a restaurant in the morning.

13:49And nothing could stop me because I had been through the worst before those times. So I had already been through the worst. I'm leaving out a part of the story where I was in sales in 94. Six months into it, I got in a car accident. I got rear-ended really, really bad, brother. It was like a 7-8 car car collision on the freeway. It was so bad that I lost conscience. And I woke up and I was facing incoming traffic. I had blood on my face, my chin, and the car was totaled. I just walked out like, what's going on? Long story short, so I didn't have enough funds and I was on commission only. So I couldn't collect unemployment per se.

14:20What did I do? I buckled down, brother. I didn't have electricity. I didn't have water to take showers because I couldn't afford the gas bill. I couldn't afford the trash bill. At the end of the day, I couldn't call back home to get financial aid from my mom or my dad because I made a decision to leave so that way I can help them out. So I remember borrowing bikes. I would take a bike to my customers, the Metrolink cars. So I had a struggle. I remember even going to the fast food where I would take their napkins, their toilet paper, because I couldn't afford that. I really, really struggled. So for me to walk out and open a business was a cakewalk to me.

14:51I had been through the worst. I was blessed enough that I already had learned a lot through the drenches, man. And nothing scared me. I couldn't fail. And with the grace of God and the faith brothers, like, hey, man, I'm moving forward. Like, nothing's going to stop me. I would just host meetings, like I said, at the restaurants and meet my agents off the freeway. And finally, after I think two months of looking for an office, I got an office and then the rest is history. My company has been in business now 22 years. Some of our clients are well-known KFC, Domino's, mobile gas stations. We have Subway.

15:19We have the national brands, but that's not where I really focus on. That's a feather in our cap that we have the national brands, right? But we really focus and tier on the small mom and pop businesses. Let's say there's a one man shop that works at his house and he's a plumber per se, or does garage door fixes or opens or whatever, right? So we cater to the smaller guys and the smaller clientele, whether it's one location to 10, 20 location. We really tend to help with less educated business owners because that's the last thing they need to worry is how's the financial institutions going to take advantage of the situation?

15:49Because the only thing that separates us from the financial institution is that they're more interested in your checking account. They're more interested in your CD. They're more interested in your refinance or getting the car loan. We don't do any of that. We're just laser focused on credit card processing. That's it. So we have the state of the art technology. And we're out there every day looking for better ways to make their lives a lot simpler and easier. So that's what separates us from the other big financial institutions. We have agents throughout the country, brother, just representing the organization.

16:16And our corporate office, there's over 50 employees day in, day out. Is it in LA? Yeah, it's in Laverne, California. So we don't do anything third party. Everything is here based. So we have our own customer service. We have our own fulfillment house. We have our own technical support, our sales support, our agent support, everything is in-house where we could just go tap on that office on their shoulder or walk to that building wherever they're at in the location. So I don't farm anything out, third party or different countries. Everything is here. When you call our office, you get a live person on the phone.

16:46And that's huge because when I was back in the nineties working, that's how it used to be. It was old school. Someone answered the phone. How can I help you and transfer you to what department you call financial institution or you call any other of our competitors? And that's what separates us as well as that you'll get a live person. The last thing I hate when I have an issue with anything, credit card bill, whatever it is, that you call and you get push this button, push that button. And then sometimes it's after hours, oh, we'll get ahold of you tomorrow. So anyway, at the end of the day, what I built is old-fashioned customer service, one brick layer at a time, and it's making relationship and shaking hands and making it happen.

17:17And we've got really honored with the largest processors and awarded for having a lot of clientele and also being in business as long as we have, even through the COVID, even through the times of the stock market went down back in the mortgage era, which was 2008, nine, 10, we stayed low. One of the things that really happened, Ryan, in that era, 2008, nine, 10, and around that time, I took the hit first, brother. I went ahead and cut my salary. As a CEO and as a leader of the company, I took mine out and I was not able to move forward with Christmas parties, functions, raises. So I sharp in the pencil as a leader.

17:51I've always been the first want to take the hit. What did that do? I did not let one person go during that time. Not one person left my company because I did not change or fire anyone because of the compensation. I re-strategized and pivoted and figured out how can I make more money for the organization? How can I keep my staff? And that's what I did. We've just been blessed as a company because a lot of them, businesses and competitors like myself, went out of business in that era. And also in 2020, a lot of them went out. I mean, I had to close my office and we were not able to come into the physical office for 14 months.

18:21That drove me nuts, bro, because I'm just like a people kind of guy. So I go into every department. I walk the floor. I'm everywhere. We were blessed there again, not to go out of business and to maintain and re-pivot again. We had to readjust. And then one of the happiest days of my life was coming back to the office after 14 months being closed. That's some of the highlights where we had some up and downs. Every entrepreneur has struggles, man. It's how you deal with them. You're going to hit a bump that's a natural disaster or something that's out of your hands. COVID was out of my hands. The stock market was out of my hands.

18:47There's nothing I could do. But what we do as business owners out there is you grind down, you stay down, you buckle back, you look and you observe. What can you do different? How can you still maintain and grow? So it's just really going back to basics, man. It's what it is.

19:07Talking with Moses Heredia, he is the CEO of Global Processing Systems. say, Moses, how did you transition from getting high level work done that all benefited yourself as a salesperson to then building a team and a company? You seem like a natural people person. So some of that seems obvious to me, but I do think it is. And it's one of the things I had to learn. I grew up a high performer, making a lot of money for a lot of people, including myself, but it wasn't natural for me to maybe pull people along with me, like, cause I was competitive and everything else. And that could kind of, how did you sort of transition and what was it like sort of building this company and this team out?

19:46Let me just give you a couple of stories that'll probably shine some light on what happened. So when I was a child and a kid, my mom seen me work alongside of her as I grew up with her in the field. At the age of 12, 13, 14, back in the country, parents don't care if you have a license or not. So what she seen in me, brother, is I would have the immigrants, the crew, I would have a bunch of crew with me and I would take them to the job sites. Okay. And in those job sites, we would have lunch together, someone's birthday, we would have a cake together. It was team building. And these people were a lot older than I was and a lot less fortunate.