In this episode
In this episode, Rory Holland interviews Bill Stone and Bo Stone from SMI (Systems and Methods, Inc). They discuss the company’s rich history, starting from its founding in 1971, to its evolution in providing financial services, particularly in child support distribution. The conversation highlights the importance of relationships, the introduction of innovative products like the smiONE prepaid debit card and Kudzu, and their commitment to financial literacy and serving underserved markets. They also touch on the challenges faced in product development, the future of the financial industry, and offer advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Key Takeaways
- SMI’s growth is built on relationships and partnerships.
- Financial literacy is crucial for long-term success in underserved communities.
- Innovation in financial services is essential to meet changing market needs.
- AI and technology will play a significant role in the future of financial services.
- Starting small and solving specific problems is key for aspiring entrepreneurs.
Podcast Episode Transcript
Rory Holland:
Hey there, welcome to Mighty Finsights. I’m Rory Holland and man, I’m super excited. I’m here with SMI, Systems and Methods, Inc. And for those of you who haven’t heard of these guys, I’m excited to bring this story to you because they’ve been around for a long time and super rich history founded back in 1971 by Bob and Tish Stone and have grown over the years, both serving families and businesses, colleges, universities, state and governmental agencies. And so there’s a lot to unpack today. So I’m really grateful to be with Bill Stone, CEO, and Bo Stone, Chief Strategy Officer. Welcome, guys.
Bill Stone:
Thanks Rory, glad to be here.
The Origins of SMI and Its Mission
Rory Holland:
The South is well represented. So Georgia with Bill and Alabama with Bo and I got Texas. So yeah, good to see you guys. So yeah, man, it’s great. You guys have done so much over the years. What I’m gonna do is I’m just gonna give a quick backdrop and then would love to kind of have you guys tell the story a little bit. Were Bob and Tish, how are they related to you guys?
Bo Stone:
Good to see you too, Rory.
Bill Stone:
So I’ll get started with a little bit of history. Bob and Tish Stone are my parents, so there are six of us kids. I have two brothers, three sisters. We’re a large family. And we kind of got started here in Carrollton by way of Atlanta. My parents grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, around the airport. And dad went to school at Georgia Tech, was a business management professor.
After college, he taught business courses at Georgia State University and we got to Carrollton, by way of the University of West Georgia. He came over here to teach management courses here and about that time that was the late 60s and about ‘68, ‘69 and then he started the business in 1971.
Rory Holland:
Great. And so what I read was he started the business with accounting services batch processing data entry in your living room, which is wonderful. And then seven years later in 1978, he partnered with the Department of Family and Children’s Services in Georgia. Tell me a little bit about that. Like, was there something that led your folks there, like your dad there to do that?
Bill Stone:
Yes, absolutely. So dad being a business management professor, he came up with an insightful, and I felt like was good and I’m sure he felt like it was a great entrepreneurial, business plan. It failed miserably. Even back in those days, people did not want to let go of their data for other people to see and use. But he was trying to set up a service bureau type of organization, data processing company.
While he was starting the business, he was still teaching continuing ed classes through the university locally. There was a local defects director, Department of Family and Children Services, who was at the management continuing ed course and wanted to talk to dad after class thinking she had a severe management problem. They could not get through with all of their work in a timely manner and stay on time with all the resources they had, which were limited.
After dad kept talking with her looking into the problem, it didn’t take him long to figure out that she did not have a management problem. She actually had a data resource problem, data file management problem. And so he was trying to start up this computer company and he told her, “You know what, I can take all these different reports that you guys are trying to pull information from to do your job. And I think I can put it into this big mainframe, Burra’s system, through key punch coding. And I think I can produce you some reports that might be a lot more efficient and helpful.”
And as it turns out, it was very helpful. Dad did this service for the local welfare department. They were able to pull together a lot of different reports. Now, these are the days way before databases, way before Excel, much less Lotus 1-2-3. He was able to pull together some reporting that made them a whole lot easier to be able to get their job done.
And that was really the start of how we got into DFCS. He was first trying to do utility billing, accounts receivable, different things like that for local organizations and municipalities in and around our community. But when he did this for the welfare department, it saved them loads of time.
And it didn’t take long before other surrounding counties to where we are located caught wind of what was going on and they saw that Carroll County was getting their work done so much faster than everybody else. And so several of the counties came and said, “Hey, we’d love for you to do this for us too.”
Well, at the time, dad didn’t charge anything for this. This was kind of his civic contribution, you know, a way to help out the local welfare department. They don’t have any money, do they? And so after several counties hit him up and said, “We’d like for you to do this for us,” he said, “Wow, I can’t keep doing this and just give away the farm. Can you guys cover my cost? If you’ll just cover some supplies, a little bit of labor, help me keep the lights on, I’ll spread the cost out. If you can cover it, we can break even.”
They all agreed to do that. And then it wasn’t long before there were more than three counties. There were five counties, then a dozen. There’s 159 counties in Georgia. We didn’t get all 159 to start with, but he did discover that through all the volume, and economies of scale that he would be able to give a great cost, offer a great service and actually make a profit because of the economy of scale.
And so, that’s what I think is really neat about how we got started is that even though he had a great plan and had these wonderful ideas about how he was going to make a lot of money, it failed. And then he gave himself away when he gave away this service, not expecting anything in return. It came back tenfold, a hundredfold.
And that’s really the story of kind of what put us on the map is relationships over time. Since 1971, for the last 53 going on 54 years, we have built our growth. Our growth has been built on relationships and partnerships, but that’s kind of how we got started.
Expanding Financial Products and Services
Rory Holland:
Hmm. that’s wonderful.
Yeah, we talk about serving others. That’s what comes to mind when I think about SMI is that you guys are in the business of serving others. And, you know, I see on your website, family and relationships matter. And that’s really, that’s a really wonderful story. And it does pay back dividends. Sometimes it takes time, but his commitment changed, changed the trajectory of your business and not only your business, but the counties that you guys support.
So following on that kind of fast forwarding a little bit, the new products that you’re offering, because you have a couple of them that are out, one newer one, which we’ll definitely want to get to.
When did you start to expand your offering and what did some of those early offerings look like? And then let’s get right into the SMI OneCard. Love to talk about your current offerings and the different channels you serve there, and then jump into the newest one.
Bill Stone:
Sure. So, Bo, let me begin with that transition and I’ll let you take over on the products. So again, because of relationships, we were in these county offices. We built relationships with state government officials. We transitioned eventually over to where we were issuing food stamp benefits directly to households through direct mail campaigns. This was not commonly used in the early 80s, but we started doing this in Georgia with a few counties.
That is what really gave us the opportunity and entree into providing financial services for government agencies. And then from that, we eventually picked up, I think about 90% of the counties in Georgia. And then with one fell swoop, we were able to contract with the entire state of Alabama and do their food stamp distribution of paper coupons to the whole state. And then before long, we were in about five or six states in the southeast primarily where we were mail issuing food stamps to the households.
Well, it wasn’t long before EBT came along and the progress of payments and electronics. And we were not a financial institution, so we could not stay in this business converting over to EBT electronic benefit transfer. So we kind of had to fall out of that and saw that as, you know, we were losing this opportunity again, because of relationships.
My older brother, Joe, our chairman today, Bo’s dad, and he was CEO at the time. And because of relationships, the state of Georgia explained to him and to us that we have an opportunity to reverse this model instead of pushing money, in essence, out. The federal government was about to make a change in the late 90s to centralize collection of child support instead of being collected county by county.
Every state was going to be required to centralize how they lockbox collect payments. And so, we went after that business. Our first state we had a successful win was in North Carolina, followed by Missouri, then Connecticut. Eventually we got Georgia. I think it was number four, number five. But that changed again, the trajectory of where we would head as a data and financial services company. And once we got into a lockbox operation, we collected money, identified it, and then we partnered with a bank to push that money out to the custodial parent.
Well, about 2009, 2010, we realized, wait a minute, we could be a program manager. We could come up with our own prepaid debit card and push that money out. And that, again, changed the future for us as a company. And so I’ll let Bo pick up and explain kind of what we did with our prepaid debit card solution and where that has led us to today.
Bo Stone:
Thanks, Bill. The smiONE prepaid card, as Bill said, that’s where we really got started as a program manager in 2010. And we’ve been growing in that space. We now serve over 12 states as part of our SDU contracts. And we’ve also expanded into 14 tribal nations that we support. So we’ve got over 2 million cardholders that are currently on this platform. And it’s been an exceptional platform for delivery of funds that provides a great benefit for those individuals that may not have access to bank accounts or just looking for a way just to receive funds without having to go through the check process.
Through our relationships, through our partners, we’ve been able to have some studies and really be able to listen to our customers. And over the past four or so years, we’ve been looking at how do we better serve those smiONE customers. And we’ve noticed that a lot of them are looking for more advanced banking services, banking products, and more importantly, looking at how financial education can really be provided to them and really be able to help be a better steward of their resources and make better long-term plans for financial independence.
And so that’s where we’ve been looking at. We were able to acquire the platform PayPerks, which is a financial education literacy platform. And it has an exceptional solution of how individuals in a gamified process can really learn financial literacy and really help themselves build budgets, learn interviewing skills, learn a lot of different things about how to advance themselves in a financial way.
And we have been looking at how to continue this. We came up with this new product called Kudzu. And this is a new product that allows advanced banking solutions.
And it’s a great way for our customers to be able to advance and continue with new ways. We’re continuing with building credit, looking at ways to help individuals invest, looking at ways for a lot of other financial services that have not traditionally been available for this demographic that we serve. And we were able to listen to our customers and understand where their needs are to help us develop this product. So that’s the exciting place of where we are right now and we’re looking forward to continuing to grow there. Because, you know, nothing grows like kudzu and that’s what we want to help people grow their money like kudzu.
Rory Holland: Yeah, if you’ve ever been in the South and driven down the highway and you see what looks like giant leaves on vines crawling all over the trees, that’s kudzu. Yeah, for real though.
Understanding the Consumer Landscape in Digital Banking
So a couple of questions. The market that you serve in some ways is underserved. Can you describe the market that you’re serving through smiONE and through Kudzu?
Bo Stone:
Yeah, so the smiONE market, you know, it is traditionally female. We do see that demographic is close to 70 to 80% female, somewhere in the low 30s as far as age range goes. And they have been receiving child support funds, you know, for their family. And they’re looking at ways to, you know, make those dollars go further. They want to know how they can really start to, you know, make every cent count.
And we see, you know, unfortunately, a lot of those individuals have been victims in those payday loans, they’ve been victims of title pawns and a lot of other things where you are kind of in a place where you may not have access to traditional credit models or other things like that. And not necessarily have the resources to be able to achieve that. A lot of people in our country are facing every year.
And through Kudzu, we really see this as an opportunity to really provide in a much more cost-effective way to access different credit products, different loan opportunities, to be able to really help support them in a much more cost-effective way where they’re not victims to some of these more predatory practices.
Rory Holland:
Yeah, and are there any real world stories, I imagine, with the single moms that you guys are helping? And if we wanna talk about some of the others, I’d love to talk about some of the B2B channels that you guys are marketing into, because I know there’s some positive impact there too.
But what are some of the stories and some of the feedback you’re getting as far as how Kudzu, I know Kudzu’s fairly new, but that and or smiOne have helped folks.
Bo Stone:
Yeah, there are a lot of stories out there that we’ve had individuals where, you know, they’ve been so thankful for opportunities just to get the smiONE card as a product that they were victims of, you know, going to check cashing and experiences there. How much this has been saving them, you know, $5, $10, $20 even for just cashing those checks.
Now they didn’t have to do that with the smiONE product or things that may be lost in the mail or a number of disaster events. We’ve gone through, you know, a number of hurricanes in Florida, Texas, and many others that now we’re able to deliver funds in areas where they may be going through different disaster areas or the Texas, you know, deep freeze events that went on. And we’ve been able to support a lot of those and deliver those funds electronically to really be able to provide those financial means for those families.
And so there are a number of stories like that. And regarding Kudzu, there’s a lot of opportunity for how these products can really help make those dollars go further. And when you’re looking at inflation where it is today, what the cost of prices, everything that we are currently facing, this is a huge impact that can really advance our customers and the whole country as a whole to make things go further.
And then you know,, generationally goes to really improve long-term financial success.
Rory Holland:
Yeah, that’s and I can only imagine I grew up with a single mom and remember before digital cards and everything else and some of the challenges and I have met friends that grew up similarly. So a much-needed service and really grateful for you guys doing what you’re doing. I want to ask a question about the Kudzu product itself. So it’s got a number of built in tools. So KudzuMoney.com and it’s a mobile app.
So tell me a little bit about some of the features and what you see is distinguishing you guys from the rest of the market and how you’re seeing that kind of play out with the rollout of the new brand.
Bo Stone:
I think the biggest impact is the financial education. I mean, that is one of the cornerstones of this is being able to provide individuals with the knowledge and the tools to really help, you know, provide better long-term financial success. So the PayPerks platform that we’re rolling out with Kudzu, it provides those easy-to-understand modules. A lot of banks and others in the past have kind of generally pointed individuals to financial education resource page that may not be very helpful, but being able to deliver this in a customizable, you know, easy-to-understand modules really gives information in that two to three minute, you know, you don’t have that long of a time frame to really capture an audience.
And so being able to deliver that in a very easy to process and easy to understand is key to that success of being able to actually achieve that education goal. And so that’s a key part of this.
We’ve got a number of things on, you know, of course, being able to access funds up to two days earlier for pay, you know, being able to have overdraft protection. So, you know, when you’re at that checkout line and you may exceed your current balance by just a few dollars, being able to have that coverage to make that transaction without those fees that a lot of banks have to date with overdraft fees. That’s a huge way that we are really looking at how we can continue to help our customers there and they need it right now.
Rory Holland:
Yeah, definitely in this economy and the current circumstances a lot of those folks are in. I see that like on the accounts, I’m looking at KudzuMoney.com, you’ve got the spend, save, grow. So it looks like it’s very user friendly, easy to use, embedded, going to be embedded, financial education.
What’s the feedback been so far? I think I saw a press release, University of West Georgia is working with you guys to offer it through their students. So there’s different distribution channels aside from direct to consumer. Can you tell me a little bit about that, like these other partnerships that you have?
Bo Stone:
Yeah, so we’ve actually had two pilot launches in the local Carrollton area with the University of West Georgia and West Georgia Technical College. And the students there have been, you know, said nothing, but great things about the product there. They have where they may not come with bank accounts and they need bank account solutions. And this is a great tool, a lot more cost effective than other traditional bank products that are out there. And, you know, we see a number of students that are coming to schools that they may not have access to this type of banking solutions. So being able to have this as a key part of their success, really, you know, to provide long-term success there.
Innovative Features of Kudzu
Bill Stone:
One of things I might add, just as an added thought about how this transitions from smiONE card over to Kudzu. So all of our states where we have this government, you know, where we’re paying out for child support starts on a government prepaid card. But the advantage of switching over and converting to this Kudzu platform allows these cardholders to have the added services you’re talking about if they want to begin to build their credit.
I mean, the reason many people don’t have bank accounts is because they don’t have good credit. And one of the features we’ll be adding on the Kudzu card is to put a deposit up basically. But when you do that, it’s called secured credit. You’re able to actually, the dollars you spend in this secured credit environment actually gets recorded with the credit bureaus. And so the spends that are occurring on these cards from the money they’re receiving actually helps to build their credit.
And so that’s a game changer for a lot of families, lot of individuals. So like Bo mentioned, UWG for the university and then technical schools, actually the technical schools, the demographics there are probably more in line with households where there wasn’t a lot of financial education and training. And again, that training tool has just been a game changer for individuals that are wanting to get it right, plan for the future, save for the future, and make a difference in their lives.
Bo Stone:
One thing, Rory, I’ll add this, the credit building is such a huge part of this solution is there’s a CFPB study that came out, I believe it was 2019, that showed that individuals, you know, on the lower end of credit spectrum, if you compare them to someone on the higher end in a similar situation, they are paying on average $200,000 more over the course of their lifetime in interest than someone in a higher credit range.
So being able to change that dynamic is a huge opportunity for our country. And really for these customers, it’s going to save so much to be able to have that long-term financial success.
Rory Holland:
Yeah, that’s a great point, though. I saw that study and it’s sad to see, honestly, and you know, our credit system, the way it’s designed, we’re working within that. And I think, you know, it sounds like you guys are as well. Hopefully, there will be some innovation in our credit systems, a much needed innovation, but that’s really interesting to hear. So they can preload the card, preload it. And so then that way they can start to build their credit. And is that feature available now or is that coming?
Bo Stone:
It’s coming soon. We’re still in the final stages of getting all that together.
Rory Holland:
Yeah, okay.
Yeah I mean, from what I’ve heard, it looks amazing. The distribution channels of the marketing that you guys are doing is direct-to-consumer, but you’ve got these colleges and universities. Is this also going through other channels as well?
Bo Stone:
Yeah, well, I mean, we’re working with a number of other institutions and, you know, traditional state agencies and other government entities that we will be partnering with and really pushing this out.
Rory Holland:
Yeah, and it’s, I wanted to kind of just change gears a little bit and, you know, we see the product at work here. Like we could see it live, but a lot of probably painstaking hours, some blood, sweat and tears probably went into making this possible. And you share some of the challenges and that you guys faced in developing this new product and how it may be some success stories too, and getting here so far.
Bo Stone:
Yeah, there’s been a lot of challenges we’ve gone through during the process. I mean, anytime you’re building a new banking solution with all of the multiple partners, you’ve got, you’re issuing bank partners, you’ve got your processing, you’ve got all of these things that you’re putting together. There are a number of blocks that you’ve got to go through to get everything to the cross the finish line. And we have outstanding partners that we work with.
It’s just walking through the process of getting all of that to the finish line. It takes a whole team. We’ve got a great team at SMI that we have been very fortunate and blessed to have where we are today. And we’re not done. You know, Kudzu is going to be a product that we will continue to innovate and iterate as we go forward. So we’ve learned a lot over the past several years that we’ve been working on this. And it’s given us a lot of the hard way of going through things to figure out ways to improve going forward. So it’s a lot of excitement ahead.
Bill Stone:
Another thing just to add to that on the compliance side, all of these tools that we’re putting together, again, with our banking partners, processing partners, card partners, there’s so many hoops we need to jump through, but our partners have been amazing to help walk us through that. And again, some of the tools we will use that are some of their products, but a lot of what we use will be developed in-house. We’re strong believers in the personalized family approach, the warm way that we take care of customers. And so, where some companies may decide they want to farm out their customer service, we do that all in-house. We hire and train our own customer service reps. They are not offshore. They are here in the US. They speak regular English. Not that there’s anything wrong with those other programs, but it just means a lot for us to have the personalized approach and touch with empathy, with compassion, we’re trying to find the best way to serve our customers.
Title: Challenges in Product Development
Rory Holland:
Yeah, and I love what I read on the site talking about quality and service that’s measurable. And 5 million families served every year is what I see on the site. That probably has grown. That takes quite an effort and probably a lot of discipline and focus and rigor to provide that level of service. Like you’re talking about, like how to maybe share a little bit more about that Bill, because that’s not easy to do in this today’s environment of technology and bringing humanity to service.
Bill Stone:
Yeah. So for us, what we believe as an organization really makes a difference. And for us, I believe it has been a differentiator for going after contracts and going against other competitors is our culture. Our family core values and culture, I believe make a difference. It makes a difference in how we treat each other as a team. Makes a difference in how we work with our partners. And then of course it makes a huge difference in how we serve the families all across the country that we’ve got the responsibility and privilege to help.
So for us, our mission is going the extra mile with a passion to serve. And more importantly, our values are around teamwork, our faith, and the freedoms we have as an entrepreneurial business, a for-profit business. We work for a lot of nonprofits in the realm of governments or nonprofits. But we make no apologies. We are an entrepreneur spirit, family-owned and operated business.
But we believe we’re offering a huge value at very reasonable prices. And again, like I started off with, economies of scale help us to do that in a way that is beneficial to the customer in the state and us as well. But really working on the teamwork and our values, a lot of companies, some companies talk about their, you know, their virtues and what they are as a culture or the kind of business they are.
But every chance, every opportunity I get, every time we have a new hire come in our organization, I get to spend time with them. Nowadays, it used to be in person, but nowadays it’s across the video just like us today. But I get to spend about 45 minutes explaining why our values are important. And we walk through and unpack each one of these values. What does it mean to be a team player? To have humility, but be really good at what you do. That’s the kind of thing for us that I think makes a difference. Culture and family driven. I’ve got your back. There’s a word for love that a lot of people may not realize. There’s a word called agape. Agape is a Greek word that actually, it’s not all the lovey-dovey, ooey-gooey kind of expression. It’s the, I’ve got your back and I’m looking for the best interest of you no matter what.
I’m going to expect the best, I’m going to look for the best, and I’ve got your back. That agape kind of kindness and character is how we want to encourage all of our team members to be and to serve each other and serve the customers we get to serve.
Rory Holland:
Man, I love that word too. Yes, I definitely agree with everything you said and that’s why I think it’s so, so wonderful to hear you guys tell the story because at the heart of SMI and then these products that you’ve created is what you just described. And so it can’t help but emanate through the work that you do through your team, through the products you develop, then those products influence and touch people that are using them. And hopefully that, that love and that grace and that service will then translate into their homes, into their communities, into that, et cetera. Like I couldn’t agree with you more. We believe in that here at CSTMR too. It all kind of echoes out if you will if you get the core right.
Bill Stone:
That’s right.
Future of SMI and the Financial Industry
Rory Holland:
So yeah, and agape is a word that I have written down in certain places. So thanks for bringing that up, Bill. That’s great.
So looking back in the rear view, you have the benefit of 50 years of experience. Looking back and then thinking forward. I know it’s hard to predict the future, but I’m just kind of curious. And maybe it’s a little bit of the roadmap that you’ve shared, Bo, with Kudzu Money, but even more than that, I’m kind of curious thinking about technology and AI and the market is evolving at rapid pace.
What does the future look like from either your perspectives for SMI and then maybe some insights into the financial industry?
Bo Stone:
So, how we remit payments and the payment industry has been changing and it will always change from when you’re trading goods and services on the lawn of the village green to where we are going forward in the future with digital currency. And what will that look like? There will always be innovations. There will always be new ways about how people send money and value.
What we at SMI will always stay focused on is being in touch with what will the new technology will be and working towards how we better serve our customers through whatever this technology advancements look like. You know, it’s I don’t know, Rory, which way it’s going to go with a lot of this stuff, but I know that we have the experience and the know-how with the great team that we have that we will continue to innovate and come up with ways to serve clients with whatever the new payment rails, payment services, payment networks that look like in the future.
I do think AI is gonna be a big part of it. I mean, there’s no doubt about that. That is a huge opportunity that we’ll be going forward. There’s a lot of great ways that it can help and that we can reduce our overall costs. But we’re still being mindful about how we serve those families each and every day.
Rory Holland:
Yeah. Bill, how about you?
Bill Stone:
I guess for me when I think of that there’s a lot of positives as well as negatives when people you know talk around the construct of artificial intelligence. I like to look at the positive and the opportunity. I think the new technologies that are coming out will help us do better at identifying our clients, validating our customers, reducing fraud, cutting those costs and helping us to deliver a product that is more efficient and hopefully more cost effective. That’s obviously there’s a lot of bad actors out there that are using the AI world to do bad, but I think there’s just as much good opportunities as well to improve. And our future as I think through the years, again, looking in the rear view mirror, relationships and doing the right thing have helped us grow over and over and over again.
And so for us, kind of one of our themes as we think about these solutions we’re providing, we are trying to help whether it be government agencies, DFAS office, the state, the federal government, institutions like colleges, technical colleges and universities, what can we do to make them look good? I mean, if we keep that in focus, if we make life easier for them and make them look like they know what they’re doing, which they do, they just don’t always have the right tools and the right type of organization to help them deliver. But if we can keep making them look good and deliver to the constituents and the ones they’re serving, whether they’re students or families, we keep making life easier for them. We’re destined for success in helping those who otherwise would go without.
Rory Holland:
Yeah, and you answered my next question, is something that’s been on my mind for a long time is just the lack of trust in our institutions and the systems that govern that, whether that’s, you know, in this case, the financial system.
People like you guys and Bill and Bo and your leadership at SMI help restore that because of your core values and living them out every day. So I think that’s wonderful. I hope others that listen to this will give strong consideration to what their core values are and how they’re being lived out and expressed every day through the work that they do and the customers they serve and the products they build. So thank you for sharing that.
I just had one follow on question. If you were thinking about, think back to your younger self, a lot of people, we talked to a lot of people here too, at CSTMR, that are interested in entering the space, whether that’s launching a new fintech or financial product or service, or working for a financial company or fintech company.
What advice, and I’ll start with you, Bo, what advice might you give someone who’s interested in entering the space or starting a business?
Bo Stone:
I think, you know, the relationship focus is key. I mean, that is a big thing for our success as a company, but it really is a way of starting out in this industry. The payment industry is, it’s not a big industry. It’s very small. A lot of people are willing to work with you, figure out ways where you can intern as, you know, when you’re thinking about starting out, just really reaching out to people in the areas that you’re interested in having conversations.
I’ve had a number of friends in our network that we may be competitors in the space, but we are very close-knit. We’re always throwing ideas off of each other of ways that we can improve going forward. And I do think that’s what advances us as a country together, as an industry. And I really think that just being able to share ideas and talk with people is a great way to get started in the payment industry.
Bill Stone:
So on my side is I think about a young version of myself if I was just getting started. I know it helped us tremendously to follow this roadmap of we think we know what the solution is, let’s try it. We think we have the use case, let’s try it. Let’s start small. And you don’t have to be the biggest and largest solution and vendor out there. But if you have a great solution and you take care of your proof of concept and test it with a smaller quantity and numbers. And then you obviously have to scale it up and there’s gotta be availability of scale, but that’s what I would go back and just remind myself. Sometimes we get caught up thinking we’ve got to be the greatest and the biggest and the largest and it’s a huge mountain to climb to get to that point. But if you can solve a problem, again, make people look better. Try it with the small cases and if it proves out there, you can fix a few things that you miss and then be ready to go to scale quickly afterwards.
Rory Holland:
Yeah, great advice. A lot of younger folks I know are thinking about solving all the world’s problems in one fell swoop. And those of us who’ve earned some gray hair over the years, I know I’m speaking for myself because you guys look great, it does take time. Solve a problem, make people look good. And I think that’s all great advice.
Hey, look, guys, I just want to say thanks for making the time. I know you’re busy and you guys are doing some wonderful things at SMI. I’m super excited about Kudzu Money and what you guys have brought out and to watch the innovation and the integration of PayPerks and your educational solutions. And we’ll be watching closely. So how do people find you guys?
Bo Stone:
Yeah, the website, KudzuMoney.com. That’s a great place where you can actually get the card. It’s live today, so you can enroll there. And our website, SMIinc.com. We’re obviously on LinkedIn and happy to respond to any questions or reach out for advice or anything we can be a part of where we may be able to help solve some problems and work together in the future. We really do appreciate it, Rory.
I think this podcast is a fantastic thing. You’ve really got some great people that have come on here and we’re very honored to be a part of the conversation. So thank you for having us.
Rory Holland:
My pleasure. Grateful to have you guys.
Bill Stone:
Yeah, let me say my thanks. Appreciate you having us, plugging us into this time. And I appreciate you guys, what you have done with CSTMR and what you’re lending your help to us has been amazing. I’m looking to a long-standing partnership and you guys do amazing work. So thank you very much, Rory.
Rory Holland:
Very kind of you to say, Bill. The feeling’s mutual. So God bless you guys and man, keep up the good work.
Bill Stone:
Sounds good.
