Fix My Fees

Most owners open location number two because they're excited. Andy Southwood won't sign a lease until the market has already proven it wants him there.

Andy is the COO of Tooth Club, a UK dental group that's gone from 10 practices to 18 in the two years since he joined — with a call center in Johannesburg, an admin and finance team in Mumbai, and a founder who'd open a new site every week if Andy let him. Their target is 50.

We get into how he actually runs it: the 9am huddle, the WhatsApp group for literally everything, and why he drops a proven dentist into every new location instead of hoping the new hire is as good as the interview. He also breaks down the membership plan that turns one-time patients into predictable monthly revenue, and the hiring problem nobody warns you about — put a department head in too early and they're bored, too late and you're already on your knees doing the job yourself.

Then there's the part most operators skip. Andy schedules his Sunday emails to send Monday morning, on purpose. Because behavior breeds behavior — if the COO is always on, the whole team burns out trying to match him.

Connect with Andy: [email protected]

Want to stop overpaying on merchant processing? → FixMyFees.com
Interesting business owner who wants on the show? → [email protected]

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Most business owners spend money on ads before they've earned the right to.

Stefanie Beach has spent over a decade in ad tech — agency side, ad server, demand side at MediaMath, supply side at PubMatic — before founding The Marketeer Group, a full-service digital media agency. In this episode she breaks down what she actually tells clients when they show up with new cash flow and no plan: where to spend it, what to fix first, and why the answer usually isn't paid media.

We get into the power of the pivot, how to tell a good uncomfortable from a wrong one, why your network is the cheapest lead source you own, and the client lunch that changed how she runs her entire agency.

If you're building something and you're not sure where the next dollar should go, this one's for you.

🔗 CONNECT WITH STEFANIE BEACH
Email: [email protected]
Stefanie Beach Podcast: The Digital Marketeer

💸 ABOUT FIX MY FEES Merchant processing is boring, so we bring on interesting people instead. Every episode, real business owners and operators share what actually worked — while we quietly make sure you're not overpaying to accept payments.

Most businesses are. We'll show you for free. 👉 FixMyFees.com

Want to be a guest? [email protected]

🎧 LISTEN EVERYWHERE Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube

📲 @fixmyfees

Keep more. Grow more. Live better.

Cats can fall from heights that would kill another animal, and heal from things that would kill another animal. Becky Chambers thinks that's because they purr — and she's spent 25 years trying to give people the same thing.

She spent about 30 years sick. Doctors told her it looked like she wouldn't make it out of her 30s. She's in her 60s now, has written six books, and runs a company built around whole body vibration.

Tavious sits down with Becky to talk about what it actually is, why she says 10 minutes matters more than an hour, and the part most entrepreneurs skip — you can run a company at 60 hours a week and still be the most neglected asset in it.

We also get into the harder business question: how do you sell something in a market where nobody trusts doctors, nobody trusts the government, and nobody trusts the alternatives either?

Chapters
00:00 Why a merchant processing podcast is talking about health
02:02 "It looked like I was going to die in my 30s"
03:20 Finding whole body vibration 25 years ago
04:37 Selling in a market that trusts nothing
07:22 What whole body vibration actually is
08:00 The 10-minute case, and putting a plate in the office
09:50 Can you work while you use it?
10:34 The machine she had to label "This is not a scale"
12:36 Why people wait until they're desperate
13:50 The purring cat theory
15:41 What's happening in your muscles and your brain
17:55 Desk neck, phone neck, and lower back pain
19:42 What her customer survey found
21:00 Who should NOT use vibration
22:15 Where to start your own research
25:17 Life outside the mission

Find Becky
Website: bcvibranthealth.com
Books: Whole Body Vibration: The Future of Good Health (2nd edition)
Podcast: Good Vibes with Becky Chambers

Want on the show?
If you run an interesting business, email Tavious: [email protected]

Fix My Fees helps business owners keep more of what they earn. Merchant processing is boring, so we bring on people who aren't.
FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees

Keep more. Grow more. Live better.

This conversation is for information and entertainment only and is not medical advice. Becky discusses contraindications around the 21:00 mark — talk to your own doctor before starting anything new.

Most business owners are burning their ad budget fighting over the same 3% of people who are ready to buy today. Geoey Cook has been doing this since 1996 — and he says the money is in the traffic everyone else ignores.

Geoey runs SmartMarketer.net, a data-as-a-service firm that identifies the anonymous visitors already coming to your site. In this episode he walks through the exact 3-part campaign structure he'd build for a business like ours, why most ads are supposed to fail, and how to vet a marketing agency without getting burned.

CHAPTERS
00:00 – Why merchant services is boring (and this isn't)
01:05 – A vending machine at 6, a vending business at 10
02:26 – Building websites when nobody knew what a website was
03:52 – The dot-com crash, a brand new mortgage, and no job
04:51 – The part of the work he still can't stop smiling about
06:32 – How to vet a marketing agency without getting burned
07:42 – The one-word answer that should make you run
09:39 – Which channel should you actually start with?
11:13 – $10 a day for 10 days vs. $100 tomorrow
13:10 – The 3-part campaign, built live for Fix My Fees
15:01 – "Buy my product": the mistake almost everyone makes
16:24 – Writing to the pain point instead of the pitch
18:37 – Why 3-cent clicks beat $300 leads
21:04 – Starting at follow-up instead of ending there
23:28 – How people actually research and buy now
27:42 – Dirt bikes, national forest, and the value of silence
30:02 – Honeycrisp apples with peanut butter
32:52 – What SmartMarketer actually does

CONNECT WITH GEOEY
SmartMarketer.net

ABOUT FIX MY FEES
Host Tavious Washington talks to founders, operators and experts about what actually works in business — and helps merchants stop overpaying on credit card processing along the way. Keep more. Grow more. Live better.

Want to be a guest? [email protected]
FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees

Most business owners think they're building something sellable. Then a buyer asks for the paperwork.

Travis Townsend has spent 23 years in mergers and acquisitions — seven at one of the top firms in the world, sixteen running his own. He's watched deals collapse over contracts that were never signed, patents that were never assigned, and a "genius" developer who technically still owned the product.

In this episode he breaks down what buyers actually look for during diligence, when to bring a lawyer in (hint: earlier than you think), why he turns away clients he'd make more money from than they would, and how he built a firm that doesn't grind people into dust to get deals closed.

What you'll learn:
• The formalities that make or break an acquisition
• Why 45% of your revenue with no contract behind it is a dealbreaker
• How to vet a lawyer — the questions to ask and what to watch for
• Where AI helps and where it quietly costs you
• Work-life integration over work-life balance

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:11 The playground fights that made him a lawyer
05:29 23 years in M&A, big law to his own firm
07:22 Lawyers and finance: the trust problem
11:11 The clients he sends away on purpose
13:00 What kills a sale before it starts
14:46 The employee who might own your product
16:09 Why your legal bill is 3x your friend's
18:56 When to bring a lawyer in
20:42 Protecting IP before it costs you
22:13 Is AI replacing lawyers?
25:45 How to pick the right attorney
30:32 Work-life integration
39:47 How to reach Travis

Connect with Travis Townsend
Townsend Lockett — townsendlockett.com
[email protected]

Fix My Fees Podcast
Merchant processing is boring. The people we bring on aren't.
FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees

Want to be a guest? [email protected]

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34 of 35 sales reps walked out the same day. Charlie Van Derven was one of them — and that walkout kicked off a 30-year run in marketing that took him from a Duluth startup with 11 employees to running his own fractional CMO firm in financial services.

In this episode, Charlie breaks down why financial services ranks as the 4th least-trusted industry in America (behind elected officials, car sales, and advertisers), what actually separates a $5K/month fractional CMO from a $250K/year CMO hire, and the four-step business development process he uses with every client. He also explains why he refuses to start an engagement over Zoom — and what he looks for the second he walks into a prospect's conference room.

If you've ever felt like you're throwing money at marketing without knowing what's working, this one's for you.

In this episode:
• Why a narrow niche beats a big audience every time
• The Gallup number that explains the trust problem in finance
• FCMO vs. CMO vs. agency — how to know which one you can afford
• What a bookshelf full of sales books tells a prospect about you
• The 4 steps of business development: ICP → audience → nurture → conversion
• Why your email list is the only network you actually own
• How compliance keeps competitors out (and why that's good news)

Chapters
00:00 – Intro
01:31 – Different, not louder
02:52 – The 4th least trusted industry in America
06:30 – 34 of 35 reps quit
09:20 – Starting Social Advisors from a cleared-out bedroom
11:36 – FCMO vs. CMO: the $250K difference
15:08 – Why every engagement starts with a handshake
17:14 – Two regulators, two sets of rules
20:08 – Early AI adoption and the tools worth watching
24:16 – The 4 steps of business development
28:02 – Rented network vs. owned network
28:49 – 4:30am beach walks and 12-hour days
34:07 – What's next

Connect with Charlie:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/charlievanderven
Website: social-advisors.com
Podcast: RIA Collective — riacollective.com

Want to be a guest? Email Tavious at [email protected]

Fix My Fees — merchant processing is boring, so we bring on interesting business owners instead.
FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees

Keep more. Grow more. Live better.

In high school, Dan Salganik spray-painted "free hugs" t-shirts and sold them to a hundred classmates. He charged way too little. He'd tell you that himself.

Today his agency, VisualFizz, has Fortune 500 brands and companies doing billions a year on the roster — while charging a fraction of what the big shops do. In between there was a layoff, a one-way ticket to Southeast Asia, and a first client landed in nine days from 3 a.m. calls on a rooftop in Vietnam.

But the part most agency owners need to hear is what happened after. Most service businesses run on a teeter-totter: land a whale, hire fast, lose the whale, lay people off. Repeat. Dan built VisualFizz so that board barely moves. Nearly ten years in, he's never made a layoff over economics or his own bad forecast.

In this episode, Tavious and Dan get into:

• The teeter-totter theory of hiring — and how recurring revenue plus a contract bench keeps it steady
• Why Dan refuses to fight price wars with AI-built agencies, and why those clients call him back in three months
• How a small, nimble team eats the lunch of $40M agencies
• Niche down or stay broad — and how to pick a vertical you won't hate in five years
• Using AI as an operator, not a shortcut: proposals, reporting, and knowing where it lies to you
• How Dan documented a nine-month injury well enough that a new doctor finally solved it
• Real boundaries: handing your wife the phone, and why the grind isn't your personality

Connect with Dan:
visualfizz.com | [email protected] | LinkedIn: Dan Salganik

Fix My Fees is the podcast where merchant processing is so boring, we bring on interesting people instead — entrepreneurs sharing the tactics, strategies, and hard lessons that actually move a business.

Own a business and think you're doing something different? Come on the show. Email Tavious at [email protected]

Paying too much to process payments? Find out at FixMyFees.com

Subscribe for new episodes every week.

Keep more. Grow more. Live better.
FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees

Bodhi Gallo bought a dumpster rental company with no website and no SEO. He took it from $180K to $750K, realized he was better at the marketing than the dumpsters, and sold it.

Today he's co-founder and CRO of Striker Digital — $225K in year one, $3M in year two, $8.7M last year, and a $13–14M run rate now, with roughly 600 active clients.

In this episode he breaks down exactly how: the content formula he's been running since he was 19, the AI dashboard that tells his team which clients are about to churn before they cancel, why he stopped chasing sub-$1M business owners, and what "AEO" means for anyone whose customers now search on ChatGPT instead of Google.

He also does a live teardown of how he'd market a merchant services company — one of the most boring industries on earth — off the top of his head.

Bring a notepad. This one is dense.

🔑 Three things worth stealing

1. Value, value, right hook. Two posts that teach, one that sells. Then run paid behind whatever the organic algorithm already liked.
2. Break even on the front end. The money is in referrals, retention, and LTV — not the first transaction.
3. Your biggest constraint probably isn't sales. Bodhi thought his was churn. It was acquiring the wrong customer.
   

🔗 Connect with Bodhi
X/Twitter: @irentdumpsters
LinkedIn & Instagram: Bodhi Gallo
Striker Digital — website design, Google Ads, and local SEO

About Fix My Fees
We help business owners save 20–45% on merchant services. It's a boring industry, so we bring on interesting people and talk about what they actually do. Keep more. Grow more. Live better.

📍 FixMyFees.com
📲 @fixmyfees on every platform
👉 Free rate audit — no switching required to see what you're overpaying.

Heath Hill had $3,000 in the bank and a $10,000-a-week burn rate. Twenty years later, Lime Media does $55–60 million a year building the trucks, buses, and pop-up experiences brands like McDonald's, Netflix, and AT&T use to get in front of people.

This is the episode about what happened in between.

Heath walks Tavious through the week he decided to shut the business down — and the cold call that arrived three days after he'd already given up. He explains why he built a model everyone in his industry told him was backwards: one-to-three-day projects at $100K–$200K instead of the year-long, multimillion-dollar deals his competitors chase. It took him ten years to prove the concept. It also gave him margins the rest of the industry can't touch.

We also get into the unglamorous mechanics most founders skip: why a credit line and a credit card are not the same tool, why he had to cut negative people out of his life "violently," and what actually changed when he brought in EOS and a peer group. Then there's AI — Heath calls himself the least technical person at his own company, and his president just built a client deck for Wendy's in minutes that would have taken his team days.

And underneath all of it: 100 employees, a retreat center with a 32-room lodge going up, and a phrase they run the company on — people over profits.

In this episode:
• The dream, the vision, and the $100,000 check that showed up three days later
• Why niching down pays more and hurts longer
• Credit line vs. credit card — the distinction that saves companies
• How Lime Media uses AI across creative, billing, finance, and sales
• Going from 81 LED trucks to 200, and where experiential marketing goes next
• "My ceiling is their floor" — building a business your kids inherit as character, not cash

Chapters
00:00 — Intro
00:53 — Who Heath is and what Lime Media actually builds
02:18 — Why in-person beat digital
02:51 — Down to $3,000 with a $10K weekly burn
04:56 — The cold call that changed everything
06:21 — How he pushed through the lowest point
07:24 — What his job looks like now
09:08 — Cash flow, banking relationships, credit lines
09:41 — Books, Vistage, EOS, and Kingdom at Work
10:37 — Why niching down is harder and worth more
12:26 — A 20-year "overnight success"
13:20 — Where experiential marketing is headed
16:27 — How Lime Media actually uses AI
21:08 — "Only a fool would run from AI"
23:27 — Why your AI is only as good as your data
25:49 — Who Heath is outside of work
29:11 — Legacy, and what he wants to leave his kids
30:03 — People over profits
31:51 — This year's goals: the lodge and 200 trucks
35:05 — The one challenge he knows is coming
36:29 — How to reach Heath

Connect with Heath Hill
Lime Media: https://lime-media.com
Email: [email protected]

About Fix My Fees
We might save you 20–45% on your merchant fees. That part's boring. So we bring on operators like Heath instead and talk about the parts of business worth talking about.

Want to be a guest? [email protected]

More at FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees

Keep more. Grow more. Live better.

Robb Fahrion got fired enough times that he stopped taking clients and started buying equity in them instead.

He built Flying V Group from a $10,000 investment into a $5M agency that's managed north of $100M in ad spend — with 30 employees, three owners who are family and friends, and no sales team. Then he did something almost no agency does: he started putting his own money into the businesses he markets for.

The origin story isn't strategy. It's frustration. Robb and his team built a healthcare company from the brand up, scaled it to a private equity exit — and got cut within months of the acquisition. Same thing on the automotive side after a big oil player bought their client. Marketing is the first line item to go. So he found a way to be on the other side of the table.

In this episode:

→ Why private equity cuts marketing first, every time
→ What changes about the conversation when you lead with "I want to invest in your business" instead of "I have a marketing agency"
→ The tracking problem most agencies quietly avoid — and why Robb wants to see your P&L, not your impressions
→ Why generating leads can actually break a business that isn't ready for them
→ How he got ChatGPT ads access after a nine-month wait, and who it's actually for
→ Where AI genuinely helps in an agency, and where the human still has to sit in the loop
→ Why trust and video are becoming the whole game as AI floods every other channel

CHAPTERS (approximate — adjust after your edit)
00:00 Why this guest is different
01:44 What makes Flying V Group unique
04:30 Going into business with your brother and best friend
07:24 How to choose between SEO, paid, social, and fractional CMO
10:22 The biggest misconception about marketing
12:00 Attribution, measurement, and vanity metrics
13:20 Getting fired by private equity — twice
15:57 From marketing agency to investor
18:52 Filtering out the marketing noise
20:56 The lead generation trap nobody warns you about
23:35 ChatGPT ads and the AI stack
27:30 AEO, SEO, and what's actually new
33:22 Where trust gets built now
39:29 Who should work with Flying V Group
42:39 Bliss Car Wash and Vasco Assets

CONNECT WITH ROBB
Website: https://flyingvgroup.com (free AI marketing tools lead magnet)
Socials: @FlyingVGroup
LinkedIn / Instagram / X: Robb Fahrion

GOT A BUSINESS WORTH TALKING ABOUT?
If you're doing something interesting, reach out: [email protected]

Merchant services is boring. The people building real businesses aren't. New episodes every week — subscribe so you don't miss one.

FixMyFees.com · @fixmyfees