November 15, 2024 • 30 mins
Ever wondered how to thrive in a male-dominated industry while balancing the challenges of single motherhood? Amberly Allen, a pioneering force in the automotive sector, shares her remarkable story of resilience and innovation. This episode uncovers Amberly's journey from her Dallas roots and Ole Miss days to establishing DI Marketing and Dealer Merchant Services. Get ready to be inspired by her candid reflections on overcoming the 2008 financial crisis, fueled by an unwavering entrepreneurial spirit rooted deeply in her family's legacy.
Amberly opens up about the delicate juggling act of being a single mom while scaling new heights in sales. From recovering from a life-changing surgery to finding motivation in the smallest gratitude moments, her story offers profound insights into setting boundaries and harnessing the power of mentorship. With a predominant focus on her female team at Dealer Merchant Services, Amberly reveals how books like "The Ultimate Sales Machine" have been instrumental in building a cohesive and driven team environment. Her vision includes not just success in the automotive world but potential expansions into RVs, heavy trucking, and more.
Listeners will gain valuable insights into navigating the complex landscape of female entrepreneurship. Amberly discusses the importance of not taking setbacks personally and the freedom in asking for help. She also highlights how Dealer Merchant Services is making a mark with their specialization in surcharging compliance. This episode is more than just a success story—it's a call to action for women to embrace leadership roles and pursue their entrepreneurial dreams with confidence and tenacity.
Thank you for tuning in to The Female Founder Show with host and entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick. If you like what you heard, please give us a review and let us know what you think?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Voice Over (00:07):
This is the Female Founder Show with host and
entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick, exclusively on ASBN.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (00:17):
Hello everyone and welcome to the
Female Founder Show, a showwhere we share inspiring stories
and advice to help you buildand grow your business.
It is my mission to helpempower, inspire and motivate
other female founders to be thebest entrepreneurs they can be.
I'm thrilled to introducetoday's guest, A Allen.
Amberlee is the managingpartner of Dealer Merchant
Services and the president of DIMarketing, with an impressive
(00:41):
22 years in the automotiveindustry.
Her accomplishments speakvolumes, being recognized in the
Inc 5000 list, top 40 under 40,stevie Awards and Ernst Young
honors, and this is just to namea few.
Amberlee's journey to where sheis today is nothing short of
inspiring and I'm excited forher to share it in her own words
.
Amberlee, thank you so much forjoining us.
Amberly Allen (01:06):
I'm so thrilled to be here.
Bridget, thank you so much forhaving me.
Yes, well, I'm really excitedabout today and all that we're
going to talk about, but let'sget to know you a little bit.
Where are you from?
Where did you grow up.
So I was born and raised inDallas.
I Ole Miss, so I'm an Ole MissRebel, an SEC gal.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (01:26):
So talk to us about when you were younger.
Did you always want to be anentrepreneur?
Amberly Allen (01:30):
Well, so my parents and my grandparents were
entrepreneurs, so it wassomething that they were always
having us work within thebusiness and get an
understanding of.
You know, earning our own money.
You know we were stuffingmarketing packets and things
like that, Right?
So I think I always knew Iwanted to be in business for
myself.
I thought I would eventuallywork for my dad, but I realized
(01:51):
that nepotism is great.
We're better we're betterfriends than coworkers.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (01:55):
So it was a marketing business.
Yes, right, yeah, which is howyou started as well, and when
you on your entrepreneurialjourney, that's right.
But let's talk about from there.
You went into automotive.
How did you get into theautomotive industry?
It is predominantly male.
It is there's not many femaleslike us.
I'm in the automotive industryas well, so how did that happen?
Amberly Allen (02:14):
Well, I started working in direct mail marketing
and started when I firstgraduated from Ole Miss.
I was selling beer and wine forthe Gala Winery, which is a
really fun job.
But I started learning.
I had someone kind of approachme and say you could really do
great selling marketing to cardealers and I was like, okay,
well, I'll try it.
And I did.
And then shortly thereafter Istarted my own gig.
(02:36):
I thought, well, you know, Ican do this better, I can do it
with more integrity and I wantedto be on my own right.
So I did that and I had.
I started DI Marketing and Istill have that company.
But I started that when I was24.
And sold a ton of direct mailwhen that was more relevant than
it is today.
You know, three day, two nightvacations and greeters and the
(02:57):
whole thing.
Now the company really doesmostly digital.
But right before COVID Istarted dealer merchant services
.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (03:04):
When you first started DI marketing.
I'm sure all entrepreneurs havethose challenges in the
beginning when you think I'mdone, I just can't do this, this
is too hard.
Can you recall a time when youmay have felt that way?
Amberly Allen (03:15):
Well, I started it on a shoestring.
And it's funny because when Iwent to my dad and I said I
think I want to go out on my own, I want to start my own gig,
and he said, well, hon, I justwant to remind you this is
really tough, right, this ishard work and once you kind of
go down this path, it's hard toturn back right.
And so you know, when pushcomes to shove and you're trying
(03:37):
to grow the business and thenyou also have employees, you
know you really have to pick andchoose what's most important
and there are certainly times,especially in 2008, nine and 10,
where things really um droppedfor all that.
You know everybody in theautomotive space and especially
in marketing, right, so, um,when your back's against the
wall, you just kind of have topower through, and that's really
(04:00):
what it boils down to.
They're definitely tough timesand definitely when you're
trying to do all the roles,you're trying to sell and
operate the business and createthe processes, and so there's so
many challenges, even with mynew business, right, it's
growing and at a rapid pace andhaving so many employees, and I
mean there's just there'schallenges every day.
(04:21):
It's like playing whack-a-moleyoule.
Which one do you focus on more?
Bridget Fitzpatrick (04:25):
Do you find it any easier because you've
been there in those early stages?
Do you find it easier this time?
Amberly Allen (04:37):
I think it's easier simply because when you
take on a challenge and you'retrying to solve for it or you
get a gut punch, you don't get ayes or something goes wrong.
I think you can dust yourselfoff quicker.
I think that's really what itis right.
I don't know that it gets anyeasier per se the challenges get
bigger but I think you've builta muscle in kind of dusting
yourself off and pickingyourself up quicker than maybe
you could in the beginning.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (04:57):
Yeah, that's a great way to explain it
.
You talked about your dad alittle bit.
Did you have a strong supportsystem when you were starting?
Amberly Allen (05:02):
I did in both my businesses, right?
You know it's one of thosethings for us around the dinner
table.
You have an idea and in myfamily they're not batting it
down.
They're like, okay, well, howare you going to do that?
How are you going to pull thatoff?
You don't know anything aboutcredit card processing.
You know about marketing.
Got the encouragement, at leastfrom my family, not from
(05:25):
everybody.
There certainly were plenty ofnaysayers, but from my family
they're all entrepreneurs, evenmy brothers, right?
So it's something that aroundthe dinner table they're talking
through the issues.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (05:37):
So, from marketing to credit card
processing, those are twodifferent areas.
They are Strongly different.
So talk to us about how you gotinto credit card processing.
What was the inspiration there?
Amberly Allen (05:48):
Well, so I was doing direct mail for a long
time and then that really kindof changed.
You know, direct mail reallychanged and it went mostly to
digital and I took a little timeoff.
I had a couple of babies and Ialso had a brain tumor and so I
had brain surgery.
But what I realized after thatis that I wanted to go back and
get back into the car business.
(06:09):
I was ready to kind of get backinto my own gig again.
And so what I did is I askedeverybody I knew in the business
, you know, what are you workingon, what's working, what's not
working?
And I kept hearing this kind ofterm you know cash discount.
You know cash discount,surcharging this and that.
And so I went to my very bestmarketing clients and said, hey,
would you have any interest inexploring this?
(06:30):
And every one of them,thankfully, within those
marketing relationships that I'dbuilt over those 20 years, you
know, they were at least willingto counsel me and give you know
I could bend their ear about it.
And so I would ask them andthey said, look, we of course
would love to save the money andand all of those things, but
not to the detriment of ourcustomers.
We want to know about legal andcompliance and accounting and
(06:53):
those sorts of things, and so wejust started taking down their
questions one by one.
And then I had my one marketingclient that said, okay, I'll
try it.
And so he gave me a shot and Ididn't know at all what we were
doing.
But uh, and then COVID hit.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (07:09):
Oh, my goodness yeah.
Amberly Allen (07:10):
So I said, okay, well, I've already burned the
boats, I've started the company.
Um, you know there's no turningback at this point.
And so I knew, within Dallaswhere I, where I lived, I had
about a three hour radius that Icould drive to see dealers in
person to take a meeting.
And thankfully, I had a dealergroup in Dallas-Fort Worth and
they were one of the largestprivately held Texas dealer
(07:32):
groups.
They took my meeting and theygave me a yes, and so they gave
me their 12 stores on my creditcard surcharge program.
And then the rest is history.
We have 825 stores now.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (07:43):
That's huge For those of you that are not
in the auto industry.
That's a lot of dealers, socongratulations.
Thank you, that's reallyexciting.
Thank you Now, if you don'tmind going back a little bit.
Sure, you took your break.
You went through a very seriousbrain issue.
I did Talk to us about that.
Did that talk to us about goingthrough that and then thinking
about starting a new business atthe same time?
I mean that had to have beenquite a mixed box of emotions.
(08:08):
Sure.
Amberly Allen (08:08):
So at the time I had a two-year-old and a three
and a half year old and two kids, yeah, yeah.
And so I, before my.
So I had a massive seizure inthe middle of the night, and
beforehand I was having thiskind of rushing feeling up one
side of my body and back downagain, and I really didn't know.
I couldn't determine what itwas.
So I asked my doctor and shesaid it could be anything.
(08:30):
It could be a pinched nerve, itcould be an acute migraine, but
I would really go to aneurologist.
And that very same night I had aseven and a half minute seizure
, and so the ambulance came.
They took me to the emergencyroom and they found a golf ball
size mass in my brain andthankfully it was benign.
But they knew that it had tocome out right away, and so I
(08:53):
spent the next week in thehospital.
They took out the tumor andfrankly, you know, the most
terrifying part is walking intosurgery knowing that your life
could be very different on theother side of it and you know
I'm so lucky.
But truly, you walk in and thinkI may never kiss my kids again.
Right, those are really serious, serious things.
(09:15):
But I woke up, the surgery waswildly successful and I spent
the next three months reallytrying to figure out what I
wanted the next 40 years to looklike, because I knew I wanted
to make some changes, and sothat gives you a lot of
perspective.
Sure, right, and I'm I'm reallylucky because I get to keep
(09:36):
that perspective, because I doget to kiss my kids every day,
and but I also knew that Iwanted to.
What I loved was being anentrepreneur.
I just didn't know what thatwas going to look like, and so I
spent the next 90 days, whichwere very tough recovery.
Please don't kid yourself thatI was like automatically ready
to go.
You know, guns blazing into abrand new business, some really,
(09:59):
you know, kind of tough timesin getting healthy.
You know, mentally andphysically I didn't have very
much stamina, right, I had abouttwo hours of stamina at a time,
right.
So before I, you know, justcouldn't.
And I've got two young kidsright, they're used to me being
a jungle gym.
So anyway, all that to say Ireally just wanted to make sure
(10:20):
that I took some quiet time.
I guess is really kind of youknow one of those things where
you say, okay, what do I wantthis to look like going forward,
and it was interesting becausethe surgery was successful, but
they had me on all kinds ofmedication, and so it was like
the hardware was good but thesoftware was still in need of
(10:40):
some work, and so we had to getkind of the medications right
because apparently I was stillhaving seizures some work and so
we had to get kind of themedications right because
apparently I was still havingseizures, things like that, so
all of those little components.
And you know, I get to thebeginning of the year, and that
was about three months after mysurgery, I couldn't drive, I
couldn't do anything, right, soI had lots of time to sit, and
really that's when I decided,okay, I don't know what this is
(11:03):
going to look like, but I'm justgoing to take steps towards
starting my own gig.
Now, that was still, you know,went back into marketing and
started looking at digital.
So it was very much a year anda half later before I started,
started dealer merchant services.
I had to get some stamina forsure, yeah, so, and I'm
healthier and happier than I'veever been.
Voice Over (11:21):
That's great.
Amberly Allen (11:22):
I'm lucky you can see some of the emotion coming
out as I tell it only because ittakes me back to, you know,
probably the most difficult andyou know, darkest days, you know
, yeah, so we talked a littlebit off camera and you just
mentioned being feeling lucky.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (11:38):
Did you feel lucky immediately after the
surgery or was it after a fewmore successes that came along?
Amberly Allen (11:44):
I think it was really about getting back on my
feet, because, you know, thatkind of surgery you don't, you
don't really know who you areafter that, right?
Because the recovery wasintense.
Even though I could walk andtalk, I couldn't.
I wasn't as fast, you know.
I mean, I'm in sales, right.
So you know my candor wasn't asquick.
(12:06):
You know the way I could reactwasn't as quick.
You know, I physically justwasn't very strong.
But you know, once you come outof that and you realize, okay,
I'm here, all of this can befixed, Then you kind of know
that amount of gratitude andkind of what it, what happens
(12:26):
with that.
And you, you also note thetimes when it's great.
You know you, you take thosewins when you can, yeah, and
give yourself a lot of grace,Definitely.
I would also tell you that Ilearned how to say no to a lot
of things.
It was the holiday season andthere were holiday parties and
things like that, and I realizednone of those things are things
I would want to do again.
(12:46):
Nice, you know.
So you learn how to say no tothe things you really don't love
to do.
Yeah, cause it doesn't matteranymore, right.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (12:53):
So and what .
What kept you going?
You have two kids.
Obviously they were a big partof that, for sure, and you
probably knew you had so muchmore to offer the industry and
the world.
So what?
You had so much more to offerthe industry and the world.
So what motivated you to keepgoing?
Amberly Allen (13:06):
For sure my kids, right I mean, they were
expecting me to get back tonormal quickly and they, of
course, were afraid right Halfmy head was shaved they didn't
know what you know.
This is a whole new person, youknow, coming home to them.
But at the same time they, ofcourse, were my motivation.
I mean there's no stopping,there's no backing down.
You have no choice at thatpoint.
(13:27):
You have to keep going and thenfrom there, you know, getting
back into the business.
I had great dealers, and Istill do.
They've always kind of spokenencouragement over me and, you
know, really allowed me to trynew things at their stores or
bend their ear or seek counselwith them, and I think I think
the dealers really were sohelpful in in encouraging me,
(13:50):
encouraging me to continueforward in my business, which is
so helpful.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (13:55):
Would you consider some of them your
mentors, or did you have mentorsand talk to us about?
About that?
Amberly Allen (14:00):
Well, I was 24 when I started my first business
, and so I always looked to abusiness coach.
I always felt like there wassomebody, even though I could
seek counsel with my parents orother business people that I
knew.
I always had a coach kind ofholding me accountable, and I
still do to this day.
So within dealer merchantservices, I have a coach that
helps with you know, all of ourleadership team and and making
(14:22):
sure that we're making you know,making good on the promises
that we've kept, not only to ourown goals but to our team as
well.
So I've always had a businesscoach, and it's interesting how
it kind of evolves over time.
In the beginning, when you're astartup and it's my it was my
first time as an entrepreneurthat business coach would teach
me different things than oneslater on, so I've always had a
(14:44):
coach of some sort in thatregard.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (14:46):
Nice, nice.
Now, we both are big readers.
My favorite book isUnreasonable Hospitality by Will
Godera.
Talk to us about a book thatyou've read recently.
That really helped you andmight help our viewers.
Amberly Allen (14:58):
Well, my very favorite business book of all
times is the Ultimate SalesMachine by Chet Holmes.
Now Chet Holmes has sincepassed away, but actually his
some of the people that he wasinvolved with when he was still
alive are part of my businesscoaching today, so but Chet
Holmes has a great way in whichhe kind of breaks down time
(15:19):
management and how to market andyou know how to really hone in
on your customer base, findingthat avatar, things like that.
So from a business perspective,ultimate Sales Machine is one
of my absolute favorites.
I make everybody, when theystart with the company, read the
first chapter, which is allabout time management.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (15:36):
Oh, that's great.
Amberly Allen (15:38):
Yeah, everybody needs that.
And then for us within thecompany, we have a weekly book
club.
I'm sure some of my team rollstheir eyes every week when you
know we assign them a chapter,but we have a lot of fun because
most of our team is remote andso it allows us an opportunity
to get to know one another andyou know what makes them tick.
So we've read Atomic Habits.
We've read Growth Mindset iswhat we're reading right now.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (16:00):
So so great for culture.
Yeah, that's great.
Talk to us about the team thatyou have.
You have a predominantly femaleteam, correct?
Amberly Allen (16:29):
I do, yeah.
So I started the company andthen shortly after, I hired a
gal named Laura Sherman.
She's 32 years in automotive.
She really brought some of thatperspective to the company.
We've created all of ourintellectual property and
accounting based on herknowledge in the accounting
office and as a formercontroller.
So it started basicallywomen-owned and now our entire
leadership team is women.
We do have some wonderful guyson our team, certainly.
We welcome it.
It's just the way that it hasevolved over time.
So I've got 28 people on theteam, a total of 355 automotive
(16:51):
years between them.
Some of them are 40 or formercontrollers, and all of this but
mostly women Nice.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (16:59):
Now at Dealer Merchant Services.
Is this an industry or aproduct that you could take to
other industries?
Amberly Allen (17:05):
It is.
We have really focused onautomotive because of how
complex the automotive businessis, and so we focus.
We can handle, like RVs,motorsports.
We have those types ofbusinesses.
We've had offshoots of ourdealers, businesses like one of
them has a furniture store so wejust helped him with his
furniture store, things likethat or a radio station.
(17:27):
But for the most part it'sautomotive and there's still a
lot that we can help.
You know so many dealers, butmerchant services, credit card
processing could help anybody,but we also try not to be all
things to all people.
We've learned that the hard way.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (17:41):
Right Gets spread too thin.
Yeah to all people.
We've learned that the hard way, so we try to focus on dealers.
Well, let's change gears for asecond and talk about.
Most high performingindividuals have some kind of
morning routine.
I have one.
I need my quiet time in themorning with coffee, then I work
out and then I try to meditateand then get ready for the day.
Talk to us about your morningroutine.
Amberly Allen (18:01):
So I absolutely have to get up before my
children.
If I wake up and we all kind ofstumble into the day, it's
chaos.
So for me, I get up every bitof an hour before they do, and
I'm the same.
I have to start with meditationand that has really been a
practice since my surgery andreally since making sure that
(18:22):
I'm working on getting centered.
I do it before meetings, I didit before my time with you today
, and making sure I get centeredand really focus on what my
intentionality is.
So I definitely meditate anddepends on what I need.
You know that day what kind ofmeditation I'm looking for.
Sometimes I'll do a movingmeditation which involves yoga
and then but meditation is anon-negotiable for me.
(18:46):
From there, I typically drinktea and take a little time and
then some sort of physical youknow whether it's stretching or
yoga or you know something alongthose lines.
Those two things are arenon-negotiables, but and making
sure I'm up before my kids.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (19:01):
Yeah, that's good.
You have that time to yourselffor sure.
Yeah, Now two kids single momtold me before we started
filming.
Um, so many people hate theword work-life balance, but
there there has to be some kindof balance there.
How do you?
How do you do it?
Amberly Allen (19:17):
Well, I don't really think there's much
work-life balance.
As the owner, I don't you neversee an out of office from my
email, right?
That's not something thatyou'll see from me.
But at the same time, I do myvery best.
When I'm with my kids, I try tobe as present as I can be with
my kids, and when I'm working, Itry to be as present as I can
be during those times.
(19:37):
And do they intermingle?
Of course they do, right, isthere lots of crossover?
Are my kids great about beingquiet while I'm on a call?
They know I'm on a work call,things like that, but I don't
know that there really is muchbalance.
I think it's morecompartmentalization than
anything.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (19:53):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a great way to put
it.
That is so talk to us.
Maybe share some advice forthose thinking about starting a
business or for those justgetting started in
entrepreneurship.
Amberly Allen (20:04):
Well, I think the biggest thing is you just have
to take the step.
I tell my team, microsoftlaunched with 40,000 bugs, and
so if they waited until all ofthose were fixed, we wouldn't
have the computers that we havetoday.
Right, and that's no differentthan anybody else.
Right, you have to just lookfor the next logical step.
You can't know everything, itcan't be perfect, and so, for me
(20:26):
, if you have an idea, you justhave to start.
And now you have to make sureyou have a little financial
runway to do so.
Right, I think making sure thatyou're not naive to the fact
that it takes time and effortand putting yourself out there
and continuing to ask for thesale and knowing that you're
going to get lots of no's, butmaking sure you're taking that
(20:48):
first step, is the biggest thing.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (20:49):
Definitely.
Amberly Allen (20:50):
Both of these companies were started on
shoestring budgets.
You know, there's no, there wasno investment, there was no
capital infusion, anything likethat.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (20:57):
So bootstrapped the whole way, both
of them.
Yeah, very nice, absolutelyVery nice.
I'm sure you've had some peopletrying to come in and maybe
become an investor or probablyeven acquire you.
What's your thoughts about that?
Amberly Allen (21:10):
Well, I think that right now we're not quite
ready.
There's still so much of arunway and the potential is
there.
I anticipate another thousanddealers on the program in the
next 12 to 18 months on thedealer merchant services program
.
So I think that we're justgoing to stay the course.
We've had a few conversations,but we're going to stay the
course.
I think that's the right thingto do for right now.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (21:32):
For sure.
Yeah, now we've talked manytimes about the automotive
industry being so heavily maledominated.
Can you recall a time when youmight've been treated unfairly
because you are a female?
Amberly Allen (21:43):
Sure, I think some of that's inevitable.
I think you have to be aware ofthe package that you come in
and you have to take yourselfand your business very seriously
.
And I would also say that youhave to be aware that not
everybody is rooting for you.
You know you're going to havesome naysayers.
You're going to have somepeople that strong in your
(22:06):
ability to be confident, in yourability to power through, and
so there's certainly been sometimes.
There's some big, powerfulorganizations that don't
necessarily love to see thefemales coming onto the scene as
quickly as we are Right, but atthe same time, that can't deter
you Right At all Right, youhave to have enough
(22:29):
determination andself-confidence to not let those
get in your head.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (22:33):
Yeah, and sometimes it's hard.
It's happened to me many times,sure, and in the beginning,
when I started in this industry,I would take it so personal, of
course, and then I would becomevery passive-aggressive and I
wouldn't do anything about it.
Right Now, as I've evolved as ahuman and as an entrepreneur, I
definitely don't take itpersonal anymore and I try to
(22:54):
have empathy with whoever is,either, whether they're
insulting or, you know, leavingme out of a conversation or
turning their back, or all ofthe things, all of the things.
I now just try to understandwhere they're coming from.
Sure, they probably were raised.
They're typically older, that'sjust the way it is.
Amberly Allen (23:12):
And those gender roles that they grew up in.
They're not used to seeinghardworking, intelligent women
kind of powering through.
But it's also a double-edgedsword.
It's also served me in so manyways, right.
It's opened some doors in greatways too that I'm I certainly
(23:33):
am not complaining about.
So I just have to know how totake it, and I also have learned
that you can't be overlyemotional.
You know working in thisbusiness, you know there's,
there's I tell my team there'sno crying in baseball.
And it's true because you know,I know, that of course emotions
come up and and people, you know, just like you said, get their
(23:54):
feelings hurt.
But you're gonna have to knowhow to hold on to that and, and
you know, make sure that you,you power through right.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (24:02):
so much in business is not taking things
personal right, even if somebodydoesn't do business with you.
Sure, I used to take thatpersonal.
Why not?
Why not me?
You know, probably competitiveas well.
Amberly Allen (24:11):
Right.
I always want to win, sothere's always a part of me that
takes it a little personal,exactly.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (24:18):
Exactly yeah.
So talk to us about what's nextfor you next five to 10 years.
You and dealer merchantservices.
Amberly Allen (24:25):
Well, luckily for me, my kids, I have great kids,
so being a mom is such a hugepiece of that.
It's shocking how fast ithappens, and you know we are one
of the fastest growingbusinesses in the automotive
sector.
We are the fastest growingmerchant provider that focuses
on automotive, and my focusthere is to be best in class,
(24:46):
and I think that we're doingthat.
We were just recently picked upby Automotive News as the
subject matter experts, thingslike that.
So I want them to take thebusiness very seriously, because
we certainly do, and the nextfive to 10 years will be about
growing that and focusing there.
So I think, long term, though, Ireally would like to work with
female entrepreneurs.
I think there's just somethingI really would like to work with
(25:07):
female entrepreneurs.
I think there's just somethingthat calls me to that.
You know, I meet so many womenthat don't have the financial
capacity to either take care oftheir kids or, you know, really
move forward in life, and Ithink some of that is because
they either don't have thecapital or the knowledge or the
know-how within theentrepreneurial world, and I
would love to be able to helpmore women be able to do that.
(25:30):
That really calls to me, and sothere's somewhere.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (25:34):
I don't know how it will unfold, but
somewhere along the lines Well,maybe we can do something
together later.
Amberly Allen (25:37):
I would love that , so something will unfold,
because I think that there'sincredibly smart women out there
that have great ideas that justdon't know how to start Right.
That's for sure.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (25:48):
Now, amberlee, talk to us about um.
Think about when you wereyounger.
What advice would?
Amberly Allen (25:55):
you give to your younger self, knowing what you
know now, well, I would sayeverything works out right.
That's the biggest thing.
Is that you're so afraid thatit's not going to work out, but
somehow some way.
If you look back on it you yousee that it did work itself out
and it maybe wasn't how youintended it, but it typically
even turns out better.
And that I would also tellmyself not to be a perfectionist
(26:15):
and you know, people reallyaren't caring about what you're
doing as much as you think thatthey are, and so not having to
be perfect, those two things, Iwould think are the biggest.
That's great, you know and giveyourself some grace, yeah.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (26:30):
Right For sure.
Yeah, definitely theperfectionism thing, I think, is
a such a hot topic with so manyentrepreneurs, because they do
feel like everything has to be acertain way, but, like you said
, nobody's paying as muchattention as you are.
Amberly Allen (26:42):
Well, especially as women, right, and we're
mothers, we're entrepreneursthey expect us to be able to do
all the things and do?
I believe that we can do allthe things, of course, but I
think you have to sacrificecertain things, like I
personally have a lot of greatpeople that will help, and you
know, help with my kids or helpwith my house, and I also am not
a great cook, so I have my, youknow different people that can
(27:05):
help me with that too.
So you know, I think asking forhelp is is a big deal.
It's hard for us sometimes toask for the help, but I think
that's a big component of it.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (27:14):
The answer is always no, unless you ask
right Right, so let's go back todealer merchant services for a
minute.
Talk to us about um, maybe doyou have plans to maybe branch
out into another industry.
Amberly Allen (27:27):
Well, I think right now there's so many car
dealers that we could still workwith, but naturally it segues
into RV.
We also work with a lot ofheavy trucking dealers, so but
it branches out to RV, naturallyboating jets, you know,
motorsports, things like that.
So I think there's lots of evenwe've gotten a few Harley
Davidson stores.
(27:47):
So I think there's still such ahuge, wide open industry within
automotive, as well as some ofthe ancillary and secondary
markets.
So lots of work still to do asfar as that goes.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (28:00):
And I know when you're out talking to
dealers, one of their biggestquestions is probably like well,
what makes you different thaneverybody else?
So talk to us about whatdifferentiates you from the
others.
Amberly Allen (28:08):
Of course, so every dealer has a merchant
provider, a credit cardprocessor, within their business
.
Obviously, right now, only 10%of consumers are carrying actual
cash to pay for things, so weknow it's all credit and debit.
What's interesting there,though, is when surcharging came
onto the scene, it was notlegal for 40 or 50 years for you
(28:29):
to change your prices ifsomebody used a credit card in
your store, and so, in 2010,that started to change with the
Durbin Amendment.
It was a part of the Dodd-FrankAct.
Basically, it startedregulating debit card processing
costs.
Fast forward to 2017, there wasa US Supreme Court case.
Well, here we are today, 2024,only three states remain with a
ban on surcharging.
(28:50):
I tell you all of that to saythat this is an ever-evolving,
fast-paced kind of changingworld as it pertains to credit
card surcharging, but dealersare passing along these fees to
their customers because it's oneof their largest expenses, and
so they can recoup somewherearound 70% to 75% of those fees.
Average dealers can savebetween $5,000 and $15,000 per
(29:13):
month per rooftop which is anenormous amount of money.
We've had dealers increaseminimum wage at their stores for
employee retention or betterinsurance.
They've even paid mortgages ona body shop, things like that.
So these resources can be putin other places.
And so, to answer your question, what makes us different is
that we focus on helping dealerspass along these fees with
(29:34):
these surcharges, but we helpthem do it within compliance.
There's compliance regulations,there's legal regulations, but,
most importantly, we help themdo it without disrupting their
CSI, and so our focus is reallyall on automotive.
There's not another merchantprovider in the industry that
has launched as many dealers aswe have on a compliance
surcharge program.
So I believe that we're theexperts and so and our business
(30:01):
has grown from referrals and weknow that dealers care about
telling other dealers right.
So that's our biggestdifference here is that we focus
on surcharging and automotiveand there's nobody else that has
that same full specialtybetween the two.
There's certainly merchantproviders that can do
surcharging and there'scertainly some that focus on and
have dealerships, but we arethat's really our specialty is
those two combined.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (30:20):
Well, this has been so great.
I know you're going to behelping a lot of females
watching today, so thank you somuch for joining us, amber.
Amberly Allen (30:26):
I'm so thrilled to be here.
Thanks for having me, I hope.
If any women out there arelooking to start a business, I
would just tell them just to gofor it.
Yeah, great advice, yeah.
Voice Over (30:36):
This is the Female Founders Show with host and
entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick, exclusively on ASBN.
If you're a female founder andwould like to help other female
founders with your inspiringstory, we would love to hear
from you.
This is the Female Founder Show with host and
entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick, exclusively on ASBN.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (00:17):
Hello everyone and welcome to the
Female Founder Show, a showwhere we share inspiring stories
and advice to help you buildand grow your business.
It is my mission to helpempower, inspire and motivate
other female founders to be thebest entrepreneurs they can be.
I'm thrilled to introducetoday's guest, A Allen.
Amberlee is the managingpartner of Dealer Merchant
Services and the president of DIMarketing, with an impressive
(00:41):
22 years in the automotiveindustry.
Her accomplishments speakvolumes, being recognized in the
Inc 5000 list, top 40 under 40,stevie Awards and Ernst Young
honors, and this is just to namea few.
Amberlee's journey to where sheis today is nothing short of
inspiring and I'm excited forher to share it in her own words
.
Amberlee, thank you so much forjoining us.
Amberly Allen (01:06):
I'm so thrilled to be here.
Bridget, thank you so much forhaving me.
Yes, well, I'm really excitedabout today and all that we're
going to talk about, but let'sget to know you a little bit.
Where are you from?
Where did you grow up.
So I was born and raised inDallas.
I Ole Miss, so I'm an Ole MissRebel, an SEC gal.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (01:26):
So talk to us about when you were younger.
Did you always want to be anentrepreneur?
Amberly Allen (01:30):
Well, so my parents and my grandparents were
entrepreneurs, so it wassomething that they were always
having us work within thebusiness and get an
understanding of.
You know, earning our own money.
You know we were stuffingmarketing packets and things
like that, Right?
So I think I always knew Iwanted to be in business for
myself.
I thought I would eventuallywork for my dad, but I realized
(01:51):
that nepotism is great.
We're better we're betterfriends than coworkers.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (01:55):
So it was a marketing business.
Yes, right, yeah, which is howyou started as well, and when
you on your entrepreneurialjourney, that's right.
But let's talk about from there.
You went into automotive.
How did you get into theautomotive industry?
It is predominantly male.
It is there's not many femaleslike us.
I'm in the automotive industryas well, so how did that happen?
Amberly Allen (02:14):
Well, I started working in direct mail marketing
and started when I firstgraduated from Ole Miss.
I was selling beer and wine forthe Gala Winery, which is a
really fun job.
But I started learning.
I had someone kind of approachme and say you could really do
great selling marketing to cardealers and I was like, okay,
well, I'll try it.
And I did.
And then shortly thereafter Istarted my own gig.
(02:36):
I thought, well, you know, Ican do this better, I can do it
with more integrity and I wantedto be on my own right.
So I did that and I had.
I started DI Marketing and Istill have that company.
But I started that when I was24.
And sold a ton of direct mailwhen that was more relevant than
it is today.
You know, three day, two nightvacations and greeters and the
(02:57):
whole thing.
Now the company really doesmostly digital.
But right before COVID Istarted dealer merchant services
.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (03:04):
When you first started DI marketing.
I'm sure all entrepreneurs havethose challenges in the
beginning when you think I'mdone, I just can't do this, this
is too hard.
Can you recall a time when youmay have felt that way?
Amberly Allen (03:15):
Well, I started it on a shoestring.
And it's funny because when Iwent to my dad and I said I
think I want to go out on my own, I want to start my own gig,
and he said, well, hon, I justwant to remind you this is
really tough, right, this ishard work and once you kind of
go down this path, it's hard toturn back right.
And so you know, when pushcomes to shove and you're trying
(03:37):
to grow the business and thenyou also have employees, you
know you really have to pick andchoose what's most important
and there are certainly times,especially in 2008, nine and 10,
where things really um droppedfor all that.
You know everybody in theautomotive space and especially
in marketing, right, so, um,when your back's against the
wall, you just kind of have topower through, and that's really
(04:00):
what it boils down to.
They're definitely tough timesand definitely when you're
trying to do all the roles,you're trying to sell and
operate the business and createthe processes, and so there's so
many challenges, even with mynew business, right, it's
growing and at a rapid pace andhaving so many employees, and I
mean there's just there'schallenges every day.
(04:21):
It's like playing whack-a-moleyoule.
Which one do you focus on more?
Bridget Fitzpatrick (04:25):
Do you find it any easier because you've
been there in those early stages?
Do you find it easier this time?
Amberly Allen (04:37):
I think it's easier simply because when you
take on a challenge and you'retrying to solve for it or you
get a gut punch, you don't get ayes or something goes wrong.
I think you can dust yourselfoff quicker.
I think that's really what itis right.
I don't know that it gets anyeasier per se the challenges get
bigger but I think you've builta muscle in kind of dusting
yourself off and pickingyourself up quicker than maybe
you could in the beginning.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (04:57):
Yeah, that's a great way to explain it
.
You talked about your dad alittle bit.
Did you have a strong supportsystem when you were starting?
Amberly Allen (05:02):
I did in both my businesses, right?
You know it's one of thosethings for us around the dinner
table.
You have an idea and in myfamily they're not batting it
down.
They're like, okay, well, howare you going to do that?
How are you going to pull thatoff?
You don't know anything aboutcredit card processing.
You know about marketing.
Got the encouragement, at leastfrom my family, not from
(05:25):
everybody.
There certainly were plenty ofnaysayers, but from my family
they're all entrepreneurs, evenmy brothers, right?
So it's something that aroundthe dinner table they're talking
through the issues.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (05:37):
So, from marketing to credit card
processing, those are twodifferent areas.
They are Strongly different.
So talk to us about how you gotinto credit card processing.
What was the inspiration there?
Amberly Allen (05:48):
Well, so I was doing direct mail for a long
time and then that really kindof changed.
You know, direct mail reallychanged and it went mostly to
digital and I took a little timeoff.
I had a couple of babies and Ialso had a brain tumor and so I
had brain surgery.
But what I realized after thatis that I wanted to go back and
get back into the car business.
(06:09):
I was ready to kind of get backinto my own gig again.
And so what I did is I askedeverybody I knew in the business
, you know, what are you workingon, what's working, what's not
working?
And I kept hearing this kind ofterm you know cash discount.
You know cash discount,surcharging this and that.
And so I went to my very bestmarketing clients and said, hey,
would you have any interest inexploring this?
(06:30):
And every one of them,thankfully, within those
marketing relationships that I'dbuilt over those 20 years, you
know, they were at least willingto counsel me and give you know
I could bend their ear about it.
And so I would ask them andthey said, look, we of course
would love to save the money andand all of those things, but
not to the detriment of ourcustomers.
We want to know about legal andcompliance and accounting and
(06:53):
those sorts of things, and so wejust started taking down their
questions one by one.
And then I had my one marketingclient that said, okay, I'll
try it.
And so he gave me a shot and Ididn't know at all what we were
doing.
But uh, and then COVID hit.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (07:09):
Oh, my goodness yeah.
Amberly Allen (07:10):
So I said, okay, well, I've already burned the
boats, I've started the company.
Um, you know there's no turningback at this point.
And so I knew, within Dallaswhere I, where I lived, I had
about a three hour radius that Icould drive to see dealers in
person to take a meeting.
And thankfully, I had a dealergroup in Dallas-Fort Worth and
they were one of the largestprivately held Texas dealer
(07:32):
groups.
They took my meeting and theygave me a yes, and so they gave
me their 12 stores on my creditcard surcharge program.
And then the rest is history.
We have 825 stores now.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (07:43):
That's huge For those of you that are not
in the auto industry.
That's a lot of dealers, socongratulations.
Thank you, that's reallyexciting.
Thank you Now, if you don'tmind going back a little bit.
Sure, you took your break.
You went through a very seriousbrain issue.
I did Talk to us about that.
Did that talk to us about goingthrough that and then thinking
about starting a new business atthe same time?
I mean that had to have beenquite a mixed box of emotions.
(08:08):
Sure.
Amberly Allen (08:08):
So at the time I had a two-year-old and a three
and a half year old and two kids, yeah, yeah.
And so I, before my.
So I had a massive seizure inthe middle of the night, and
beforehand I was having thiskind of rushing feeling up one
side of my body and back downagain, and I really didn't know.
I couldn't determine what itwas.
So I asked my doctor and shesaid it could be anything.
(08:30):
It could be a pinched nerve, itcould be an acute migraine, but
I would really go to aneurologist.
And that very same night I had aseven and a half minute seizure
, and so the ambulance came.
They took me to the emergencyroom and they found a golf ball
size mass in my brain andthankfully it was benign.
But they knew that it had tocome out right away, and so I
(08:53):
spent the next week in thehospital.
They took out the tumor andfrankly, you know, the most
terrifying part is walking intosurgery knowing that your life
could be very different on theother side of it and you know
I'm so lucky.
But truly, you walk in and thinkI may never kiss my kids again.
Right, those are really serious, serious things.
(09:15):
But I woke up, the surgery waswildly successful and I spent
the next three months reallytrying to figure out what I
wanted the next 40 years to looklike, because I knew I wanted
to make some changes, and sothat gives you a lot of
perspective.
Sure, right, and I'm I'm reallylucky because I get to keep
(09:36):
that perspective, because I doget to kiss my kids every day,
and but I also knew that Iwanted to.
What I loved was being anentrepreneur.
I just didn't know what thatwas going to look like, and so I
spent the next 90 days, whichwere very tough recovery.
Please don't kid yourself thatI was like automatically ready
to go.
You know, guns blazing into abrand new business, some really,
(09:59):
you know, kind of tough timesin getting healthy.
You know, mentally andphysically I didn't have very
much stamina, right, I had abouttwo hours of stamina at a time,
right.
So before I, you know, justcouldn't.
And I've got two young kidsright, they're used to me being
a jungle gym.
So anyway, all that to say Ireally just wanted to make sure
(10:20):
that I took some quiet time.
I guess is really kind of youknow one of those things where
you say, okay, what do I wantthis to look like going forward,
and it was interesting becausethe surgery was successful, but
they had me on all kinds ofmedication, and so it was like
the hardware was good but thesoftware was still in need of
(10:40):
some work, and so we had to getkind of the medications right
because apparently I was stillhaving seizures some work and so
we had to get kind of themedications right because
apparently I was still havingseizures, things like that, so
all of those little components.
And you know, I get to thebeginning of the year, and that
was about three months after mysurgery, I couldn't drive, I
couldn't do anything, right, soI had lots of time to sit, and
really that's when I decided,okay, I don't know what this is
(11:03):
going to look like, but I'm justgoing to take steps towards
starting my own gig.
Now, that was still, you know,went back into marketing and
started looking at digital.
So it was very much a year anda half later before I started,
started dealer merchant services.
I had to get some stamina forsure, yeah, so, and I'm
healthier and happier than I'veever been.
Voice Over (11:21):
That's great.
Amberly Allen (11:22):
I'm lucky you can see some of the emotion coming
out as I tell it only because ittakes me back to, you know,
probably the most difficult andyou know, darkest days, you know
, yeah, so we talked a littlebit off camera and you just
mentioned being feeling lucky.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (11:38):
Did you feel lucky immediately after the
surgery or was it after a fewmore successes that came along?
Amberly Allen (11:44):
I think it was really about getting back on my
feet, because, you know, thatkind of surgery you don't, you
don't really know who you areafter that, right?
Because the recovery wasintense.
Even though I could walk andtalk, I couldn't.
I wasn't as fast, you know.
I mean, I'm in sales, right.
So you know my candor wasn't asquick.
(12:06):
You know the way I could reactwasn't as quick.
You know, I physically justwasn't very strong.
But you know, once you come outof that and you realize, okay,
I'm here, all of this can befixed, Then you kind of know
that amount of gratitude andkind of what it, what happens
(12:26):
with that.
And you, you also note thetimes when it's great.
You know you, you take thosewins when you can, yeah, and
give yourself a lot of grace,Definitely.
I would also tell you that Ilearned how to say no to a lot
of things.
It was the holiday season andthere were holiday parties and
things like that, and I realizednone of those things are things
I would want to do again.
(12:46):
Nice, you know.
So you learn how to say no tothe things you really don't love
to do.
Yeah, cause it doesn't matteranymore, right.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (12:53):
So and what .
What kept you going?
You have two kids.
Obviously they were a big partof that, for sure, and you
probably knew you had so muchmore to offer the industry and
the world.
So what?
You had so much more to offerthe industry and the world.
So what motivated you to keepgoing?
Amberly Allen (13:06):
For sure my kids, right I mean, they were
expecting me to get back tonormal quickly and they, of
course, were afraid right Halfmy head was shaved they didn't
know what you know.
This is a whole new person, youknow, coming home to them.
But at the same time they, ofcourse, were my motivation.
I mean there's no stopping,there's no backing down.
You have no choice at thatpoint.
(13:27):
You have to keep going and thenfrom there, you know, getting
back into the business.
I had great dealers, and Istill do.
They've always kind of spokenencouragement over me and, you
know, really allowed me to trynew things at their stores or
bend their ear or seek counselwith them, and I think I think
the dealers really were sohelpful in in encouraging me,
(13:50):
encouraging me to continueforward in my business, which is
so helpful.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (13:55):
Would you consider some of them your
mentors, or did you have mentorsand talk to us about?
About that?
Amberly Allen (14:00):
Well, I was 24 when I started my first business
, and so I always looked to abusiness coach.
I always felt like there wassomebody, even though I could
seek counsel with my parents orother business people that I
knew.
I always had a coach kind ofholding me accountable, and I
still do to this day.
So within dealer merchantservices, I have a coach that
helps with you know, all of ourleadership team and and making
(14:22):
sure that we're making you know,making good on the promises
that we've kept, not only to ourown goals but to our team as
well.
So I've always had a businesscoach, and it's interesting how
it kind of evolves over time.
In the beginning, when you're astartup and it's my it was my
first time as an entrepreneurthat business coach would teach
me different things than oneslater on, so I've always had a
(14:44):
coach of some sort in thatregard.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (14:46):
Nice, nice.
Now, we both are big readers.
My favorite book isUnreasonable Hospitality by Will
Godera.
Talk to us about a book thatyou've read recently.
That really helped you andmight help our viewers.
Amberly Allen (14:58):
Well, my very favorite business book of all
times is the Ultimate SalesMachine by Chet Holmes.
Now Chet Holmes has sincepassed away, but actually his
some of the people that he wasinvolved with when he was still
alive are part of my businesscoaching today, so but Chet
Holmes has a great way in whichhe kind of breaks down time
(15:19):
management and how to market andyou know how to really hone in
on your customer base, findingthat avatar, things like that.
So from a business perspective,ultimate Sales Machine is one
of my absolute favorites.
I make everybody, when theystart with the company, read the
first chapter, which is allabout time management.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (15:36):
Oh, that's great.
Amberly Allen (15:38):
Yeah, everybody needs that.
And then for us within thecompany, we have a weekly book
club.
I'm sure some of my team rollstheir eyes every week when you
know we assign them a chapter,but we have a lot of fun because
most of our team is remote andso it allows us an opportunity
to get to know one another andyou know what makes them tick.
So we've read Atomic Habits.
We've read Growth Mindset iswhat we're reading right now.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (16:00):
So so great for culture.
Yeah, that's great.
Talk to us about the team thatyou have.
You have a predominantly femaleteam, correct?
Amberly Allen (16:29):
I do, yeah.
So I started the company andthen shortly after, I hired a
gal named Laura Sherman.
She's 32 years in automotive.
She really brought some of thatperspective to the company.
We've created all of ourintellectual property and
accounting based on herknowledge in the accounting
office and as a formercontroller.
So it started basicallywomen-owned and now our entire
leadership team is women.
We do have some wonderful guyson our team, certainly.
We welcome it.
It's just the way that it hasevolved over time.
So I've got 28 people on theteam, a total of 355 automotive
(16:51):
years between them.
Some of them are 40 or formercontrollers, and all of this but
mostly women Nice.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (16:59):
Now at Dealer Merchant Services.
Is this an industry or aproduct that you could take to
other industries?
Amberly Allen (17:05):
It is.
We have really focused onautomotive because of how
complex the automotive businessis, and so we focus.
We can handle, like RVs,motorsports.
We have those types ofbusinesses.
We've had offshoots of ourdealers, businesses like one of
them has a furniture store so wejust helped him with his
furniture store, things likethat or a radio station.
(17:27):
But for the most part it'sautomotive and there's still a
lot that we can help.
You know so many dealers, butmerchant services, credit card
processing could help anybody,but we also try not to be all
things to all people.
We've learned that the hard way.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (17:41):
Right Gets spread too thin.
Yeah to all people.
We've learned that the hard way, so we try to focus on dealers.
Well, let's change gears for asecond and talk about.
Most high performingindividuals have some kind of
morning routine.
I have one.
I need my quiet time in themorning with coffee, then I work
out and then I try to meditateand then get ready for the day.
Talk to us about your morningroutine.
Amberly Allen (18:01):
So I absolutely have to get up before my
children.
If I wake up and we all kind ofstumble into the day, it's
chaos.
So for me, I get up every bitof an hour before they do, and
I'm the same.
I have to start with meditationand that has really been a
practice since my surgery andreally since making sure that
(18:22):
I'm working on getting centered.
I do it before meetings, I didit before my time with you today
, and making sure I get centeredand really focus on what my
intentionality is.
So I definitely meditate anddepends on what I need.
You know that day what kind ofmeditation I'm looking for.
Sometimes I'll do a movingmeditation which involves yoga
and then but meditation is anon-negotiable for me.
(18:46):
From there, I typically drinktea and take a little time and
then some sort of physical youknow whether it's stretching or
yoga or you know something alongthose lines.
Those two things are arenon-negotiables, but and making
sure I'm up before my kids.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (19:01):
Yeah, that's good.
You have that time to yourselffor sure.
Yeah, Now two kids single momtold me before we started
filming.
Um, so many people hate theword work-life balance, but
there there has to be some kindof balance there.
How do you?
How do you do it?
Amberly Allen (19:17):
Well, I don't really think there's much
work-life balance.
As the owner, I don't you neversee an out of office from my
email, right?
That's not something thatyou'll see from me.
But at the same time, I do myvery best.
When I'm with my kids, I try tobe as present as I can be with
my kids, and when I'm working, Itry to be as present as I can
be during those times.
(19:37):
And do they intermingle?
Of course they do, right, isthere lots of crossover?
Are my kids great about beingquiet while I'm on a call?
They know I'm on a work call,things like that, but I don't
know that there really is muchbalance.
I think it's morecompartmentalization than
anything.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (19:53):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a great way to put
it.
That is so talk to us.
Maybe share some advice forthose thinking about starting a
business or for those justgetting started in
entrepreneurship.
Amberly Allen (20:04):
Well, I think the biggest thing is you just have
to take the step.
I tell my team, microsoftlaunched with 40,000 bugs, and
so if they waited until all ofthose were fixed, we wouldn't
have the computers that we havetoday.
Right, and that's no differentthan anybody else.
Right, you have to just lookfor the next logical step.
You can't know everything, itcan't be perfect, and so, for me
(20:26):
, if you have an idea, you justhave to start.
And now you have to make sureyou have a little financial
runway to do so.
Right, I think making sure thatyou're not naive to the fact
that it takes time and effortand putting yourself out there
and continuing to ask for thesale and knowing that you're
going to get lots of no's, butmaking sure you're taking that
(20:48):
first step, is the biggest thing.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (20:49):
Definitely.
Amberly Allen (20:50):
Both of these companies were started on
shoestring budgets.
You know, there's no, there wasno investment, there was no
capital infusion, anything likethat.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (20:57):
So bootstrapped the whole way, both
of them.
Yeah, very nice, absolutelyVery nice.
I'm sure you've had some peopletrying to come in and maybe
become an investor or probablyeven acquire you.
What's your thoughts about that?
Amberly Allen (21:10):
Well, I think that right now we're not quite
ready.
There's still so much of arunway and the potential is
there.
I anticipate another thousanddealers on the program in the
next 12 to 18 months on thedealer merchant services program
.
So I think that we're justgoing to stay the course.
We've had a few conversations,but we're going to stay the
course.
I think that's the right thingto do for right now.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (21:32):
For sure.
Yeah, now we've talked manytimes about the automotive
industry being so heavily maledominated.
Can you recall a time when youmight've been treated unfairly
because you are a female?
Amberly Allen (21:43):
Sure, I think some of that's inevitable.
I think you have to be aware ofthe package that you come in
and you have to take yourselfand your business very seriously
.
And I would also say that youhave to be aware that not
everybody is rooting for you.
You know you're going to havesome naysayers.
You're going to have somepeople that strong in your
(22:06):
ability to be confident, in yourability to power through, and
so there's certainly been sometimes.
There's some big, powerfulorganizations that don't
necessarily love to see thefemales coming onto the scene as
quickly as we are Right, but atthe same time, that can't deter
you Right At all Right, youhave to have enough
(22:29):
determination andself-confidence to not let those
get in your head.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (22:33):
Yeah, and sometimes it's hard.
It's happened to me many times,sure, and in the beginning,
when I started in this industry,I would take it so personal, of
course, and then I would becomevery passive-aggressive and I
wouldn't do anything about it.
Right Now, as I've evolved as ahuman and as an entrepreneur, I
definitely don't take itpersonal anymore and I try to
(22:54):
have empathy with whoever is,either, whether they're
insulting or, you know, leavingme out of a conversation or
turning their back, or all ofthe things, all of the things.
I now just try to understandwhere they're coming from.
Sure, they probably were raised.
They're typically older, that'sjust the way it is.
Amberly Allen (23:12):
And those gender roles that they grew up in.
They're not used to seeinghardworking, intelligent women
kind of powering through.
But it's also a double-edgedsword.
It's also served me in so manyways, right.
It's opened some doors in greatways too that I'm I certainly
(23:33):
am not complaining about.
So I just have to know how totake it, and I also have learned
that you can't be overlyemotional.
You know working in thisbusiness, you know there's,
there's I tell my team there'sno crying in baseball.
And it's true because you know,I know, that of course emotions
come up and and people, you know, just like you said, get their
(23:54):
feelings hurt.
But you're gonna have to knowhow to hold on to that and, and
you know, make sure that you,you power through right.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (24:02):
so much in business is not taking things
personal right, even if somebodydoesn't do business with you.
Sure, I used to take thatpersonal.
Why not?
Why not me?
You know, probably competitiveas well.
Amberly Allen (24:11):
Right.
I always want to win, sothere's always a part of me that
takes it a little personal,exactly.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (24:18):
Exactly yeah.
So talk to us about what's nextfor you next five to 10 years.
You and dealer merchantservices.
Amberly Allen (24:25):
Well, luckily for me, my kids, I have great kids,
so being a mom is such a hugepiece of that.
It's shocking how fast ithappens, and you know we are one
of the fastest growingbusinesses in the automotive
sector.
We are the fastest growingmerchant provider that focuses
on automotive, and my focusthere is to be best in class,
(24:46):
and I think that we're doingthat.
We were just recently picked upby Automotive News as the
subject matter experts, thingslike that.
So I want them to take thebusiness very seriously, because
we certainly do, and the nextfive to 10 years will be about
growing that and focusing there.
So I think, long term, though, Ireally would like to work with
female entrepreneurs.
I think there's just somethingI really would like to work with
(25:07):
female entrepreneurs.
I think there's just somethingthat calls me to that.
You know, I meet so many womenthat don't have the financial
capacity to either take care oftheir kids or, you know, really
move forward in life, and Ithink some of that is because
they either don't have thecapital or the knowledge or the
know-how within theentrepreneurial world, and I
would love to be able to helpmore women be able to do that.
(25:30):
That really calls to me, and sothere's somewhere.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (25:34):
I don't know how it will unfold, but
somewhere along the lines Well,maybe we can do something
together later.
Amberly Allen (25:37):
I would love that , so something will unfold,
because I think that there'sincredibly smart women out there
that have great ideas that justdon't know how to start Right.
That's for sure.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (25:48):
Now, amberlee, talk to us about um.
Think about when you wereyounger.
What advice would?
Amberly Allen (25:55):
you give to your younger self, knowing what you
know now, well, I would sayeverything works out right.
That's the biggest thing.
Is that you're so afraid thatit's not going to work out, but
somehow some way.
If you look back on it you yousee that it did work itself out
and it maybe wasn't how youintended it, but it typically
even turns out better.
And that I would also tellmyself not to be a perfectionist
(26:15):
and you know, people reallyaren't caring about what you're
doing as much as you think thatthey are, and so not having to
be perfect, those two things, Iwould think are the biggest.
That's great, you know and giveyourself some grace, yeah.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (26:30):
Right For sure.
Yeah, definitely theperfectionism thing, I think, is
a such a hot topic with so manyentrepreneurs, because they do
feel like everything has to be acertain way, but, like you said
, nobody's paying as muchattention as you are.
Amberly Allen (26:42):
Well, especially as women, right, and we're
mothers, we're entrepreneursthey expect us to be able to do
all the things and do?
I believe that we can do allthe things, of course, but I
think you have to sacrificecertain things, like I
personally have a lot of greatpeople that will help, and you
know, help with my kids or helpwith my house, and I also am not
a great cook, so I have my, youknow different people that can
(27:05):
help me with that too.
So you know, I think asking forhelp is is a big deal.
It's hard for us sometimes toask for the help, but I think
that's a big component of it.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (27:14):
The answer is always no, unless you ask
right Right, so let's go back todealer merchant services for a
minute.
Talk to us about um, maybe doyou have plans to maybe branch
out into another industry.
Amberly Allen (27:27):
Well, I think right now there's so many car
dealers that we could still workwith, but naturally it segues
into RV.
We also work with a lot ofheavy trucking dealers, so but
it branches out to RV, naturallyboating jets, you know,
motorsports, things like that.
So I think there's lots of evenwe've gotten a few Harley
Davidson stores.
(27:47):
So I think there's still such ahuge, wide open industry within
automotive, as well as some ofthe ancillary and secondary
markets.
So lots of work still to do asfar as that goes.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (28:00):
And I know when you're out talking to
dealers, one of their biggestquestions is probably like well,
what makes you different thaneverybody else?
So talk to us about whatdifferentiates you from the
others.
Amberly Allen (28:08):
Of course, so every dealer has a merchant
provider, a credit cardprocessor, within their business
.
Obviously, right now, only 10%of consumers are carrying actual
cash to pay for things, so weknow it's all credit and debit.
What's interesting there,though, is when surcharging came
onto the scene, it was notlegal for 40 or 50 years for you
(28:29):
to change your prices ifsomebody used a credit card in
your store, and so, in 2010,that started to change with the
Durbin Amendment.
It was a part of the Dodd-FrankAct.
Basically, it startedregulating debit card processing
costs.
Fast forward to 2017, there wasa US Supreme Court case.
Well, here we are today, 2024,only three states remain with a
ban on surcharging.
(28:50):
I tell you all of that to saythat this is an ever-evolving,
fast-paced kind of changingworld as it pertains to credit
card surcharging, but dealersare passing along these fees to
their customers because it's oneof their largest expenses, and
so they can recoup somewherearound 70% to 75% of those fees.
Average dealers can savebetween $5,000 and $15,000 per
(29:13):
month per rooftop which is anenormous amount of money.
We've had dealers increaseminimum wage at their stores for
employee retention or betterinsurance.
They've even paid mortgages ona body shop, things like that.
So these resources can be putin other places.
And so, to answer your question, what makes us different is
that we focus on helping dealerspass along these fees with
(29:34):
these surcharges, but we helpthem do it within compliance.
There's compliance regulations,there's legal regulations, but,
most importantly, we help themdo it without disrupting their
CSI, and so our focus is reallyall on automotive.
There's not another merchantprovider in the industry that
has launched as many dealers aswe have on a compliance
surcharge program.
So I believe that we're theexperts and so and our business
(30:01):
has grown from referrals and weknow that dealers care about
telling other dealers right.
So that's our biggestdifference here is that we focus
on surcharging and automotiveand there's nobody else that has
that same full specialtybetween the two.
There's certainly merchantproviders that can do
surcharging and there'scertainly some that focus on and
have dealerships, but we arethat's really our specialty is
those two combined.
Bridget Fitzpatrick (30:20):
Well, this has been so great.
I know you're going to behelping a lot of females
watching today, so thank you somuch for joining us, amber.
Amberly Allen (30:26):
I'm so thrilled to be here.
Thanks for having me, I hope.
If any women out there arelooking to start a business, I
would just tell them just to gofor it.
Yeah, great advice, yeah.
Voice Over (30:36):
This is the Female Founders Show with host and
entrepreneur Bridget Fitzpatrick, exclusively on ASBN.
If you're a female founder andwould like to help other female
founders with your inspiringstory, we would love to hear
from you.
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