Amanda Northcutt (00:01.09)
Hello, you're listening to the Level Up Creators podcast, Amanda Northcutt here, founder and CEO. Welcome to another very special episode of the Level Up Creators podcast where we're featuring participants from the MRR Accelerator Cohort 2. And today I am so pumped to welcome our special guest, Stacy Bishop, a strategic advisor, fractional executive, keynote speaker, and banking service veteran of three decades. Through her ventures selling FinTech and her media company AmBaaSador, Stacy helps FinTechs scale.

and banks embrace banking as a service, serving in a unique role as the broker between financial institutions and FinTechs in order to create sustainable collaborative partnerships. Welcome, Stacy.

Stacy Bishop (00:41.059)
Thank you so much for having me, Amanda. I need you to walk around behind me and just be my hype person. I'm pumped, let's do this. I know you.

Amanda Northcutt (00:47.118)
Oh, yes. I'm in for it. I'm there. I'm there for sure. I and you are so worthy of that introduction and you've earned every word of it. So I'm excited to have you here to share your expertise, both, you know, specifically in financial services and FIs, financial institutions, banks and credit unions, you've given us such an incredible education around your whole space, which has been really fun because we're all very learning minded folks at level up. But let's

back up a little bit. How in the world did you get started in financial services? Walk us through your career a bit.

Stacy Bishop (01:23.745)
It starts with a very small little town in Southwest Missouri. in this small little town happens to be the headquarters of this one of the three big large core banking companies. And all that really means this core company, if you think of your banking relationship or your credit union relationship, it is these core systems keep track of your deposits and loans.

to be raised, born and raised in this small little town that had this core company. And I got started in banking and FinTechs early on in my life. I mean, we're talking between my sophomore and junior year of high school is when I started working in and around banking. So I think when you couple that with the fact that I just fell in love with the concept of helping bankers help their customers. So much so that

I continued to work for this big core company through college while also taking on some community banking roles, being that teller, getting promoted to a personal banker to help you open your accounts and open your safe deposit box and do all of those things. And I just saw this very beautiful relationship that can take place when you power a community organization like an

financial institution with technology to serve these end users better. And I have not been able to get enough of it since quite honestly, it's all about for me just pushing the envelope, working with companies that are delivering great tech, yes, but great technology and service to bank customers and credit union members. So yeah, for me, I can trace it back to the fact that I was lucky enough to be born and raised in the small town where this company was.

Amanda Northcutt (03:13.11)
Nice. Okay, what's the name of the town? Give us a shout out.

Stacy Bishop (03:16.137)
Monatt, Missouri, that's two T's. Some people like to class us up a bit and say Monatt, we're not that classy. We are Monatt. Monatt, Missouri. Go Cubs.

Amanda Northcutt (03:20.077)
Yeah.

Amanda Northcutt (03:24.92)
Yeah.

Amanda Northcutt (03:30.156)
Right, I respect that for sure, that's awesome. Okay, and I love the fact that you started at the bottom, even in high school, I assume like as a teller or something similar and worked your way up. So you've seen, you've seen every side of banking in FinTechs, which makes you a very unique individual in your space. I imagine there are very few people who have your level of experience and your specific type of experience, right? I mean, this is not a typical path, it seems like.

Stacy Bishop (03:32.569)
Yeah.

Stacy Bishop (03:58.091)
It is absolutely not a typical path. And there are individuals that have absolutely grown up in banking and worked in different roles like myself and may even have some technology background and experience. Just to make it more interesting, I happened to marry a person that decided to get into banking as well and even up level my life more by getting into banking as a service, what's often called embedded banking.

So when you add that all together, Amanda, I'm not sure that there are many of us out there in the world that can talk about banking and FinTech and banking as a service from all of these different angles. So much so that if you find us, I need to find these people if there are some. We need to have some sort of a WhatsApp group or some Facebook page or something out there, LinkedIn group, and support each other because the journey is a rocky one but a...

but a great one.

Amanda Northcutt (04:56.782)
That's so funny. I love that about you and Steve. I mean, you're quite like the banking, I mean, absolute power couple between you two and your beautiful banker babies.

Stacy Bishop (05:07.703)
Yes, I'm going to admit this to you guys. My husband likes to call us the first couple of FinTech. I'm like, honey, you can't say that. Nobody calls that except for you. And it embarrasses me. It delights him to say it. our kids, actually, to your point, we are raising these kids that talk about FinTech at the table. It's the oddest lifestyle, but it works for us.

Amanda Northcutt (05:23.779)
Hahaha!

Amanda Northcutt (05:32.204)
well.

Amanda Northcutt (05:37.422)
I mean, think that's so great. You guys live it and breathe it. And because you're incredibly passionate about it, I mean, you and I have gotten to know each other over the course of the last several months. I mean, your expertise is very, very clear. Your passion is even clearer. I mean, you see a vision for your industry and how these players all fit together on this chessboard so beautifully and perfectly. And I love your role as the one who aligns incentives and relationships between Bass Banking as a Service and financial institution and FinTechs.

Stacy Bishop (05:48.642)
thank

Amanda Northcutt (06:07.34)
It's like you're kind of the one that sees the potential for everyone to play really nicely together. And you're making it happen, right? You're bringing all these groups together. So tell us about your kind of role as the broker between these types of organizations.

Stacy Bishop (06:19.619)
You can!

I think this is just the Midwestern are coming out of me. I just like to help. just like to connect people. So for me, my, what I would call my day job, it's just truly all about taking a look at what's going on out in the space and figuring out who I know and how I can help. And I serve a lot of different people in this space. There are the FinTech founders, the area in which I grew up with, these individuals that sell to bankers.

And I mean, I gotta be honest with you. These people are so smart. They are so tech forward, tech savvy. And in many cases, these individuals didn't exactly get empowered with the skillset to sell to bankers. They know so much about everything else, but no one ever set them down and said, hey, you have great technology. Let us teach you how to sell. And they often reach out to me for just that reason, because

Amanda Northcutt (06:55.839)
Good.

Stacy Bishop (07:19.959)
not exactly the most comfortable conversation I can imagine, creating something you love and you believe in, and then trying to get people to buy into it with objectivity. It just doesn't work as much that way. So when I work with FinTech founders, I serve in a variety of different capacities, but mainly with the sole purpose of ensuring that they can sell more effectively to bankers. And when I say more effectively, that looks like shorter deal cycles,

smaller discounts, just accelerating the overall velocity and ensuring that more more comes in at the top of the funnel. And I do that with lots and lots of hard-won knowledge and frameworks and just the strategies to go about doing that. At the risk of making this the longest answer ever, I will mention that I do also work with community bankers, people like my husband, people that are in Bass Banking, Banking as a Service.

that find themselves now, maybe for the first time, having to go after and sell their services to FinTechs. So I'm in this middle world where there's a lot of selling happening around me, FinTechs to bankers, bankers to FinTechs, and then I just, I help facilitate this. So for community bankers, especially with the AmBaaSador brand, we're helping community bankers learn about embedded banking and then bring on their first FinTech clients.

Lots and lots of just shared experiences going on, lots and lots of connectivity going on, and love to help just make that all happen, if you will. Broker those relationships.

Amanda Northcutt (09:00.098)
Yeah, because your perspective is so unique. And I love that you draw all this back to like, hey, everybody is working for the end user here, the individual. And so I love that that's your like first, you know, top line priority. And that again, you see you have this unique perspective and inside baseball knowledge and you know everybody in this space, right? And the ASS and FinTech and banking. Yeah. And so what an incredibly unique opportunity you have to elevate your entire industry with the end customer in mind.

Stacy Bishop (09:19.609)
You'll like it.

Amanda Northcutt (09:30.39)
It's just so different and it's so unique and it's such a refreshing view on, know, frankly, like a legacy industry. You're kind of bringing this into the 21st century and beyond. Did you ever think that, did you ever see your career going this way?

Stacy Bishop (09:44.045)
No, never, never. When I was in high school, like in college rather, I'll go that route. On high school, I wanted to be an archeologist. And then I realized there wasn't need, I'd have to live grant to grant. When I was in college, I thought international business sounded fantastic. I don't know how in the heck I ended up in sales, but I've learned over the course of time, all of us are in sales. We're all selling ourselves or selling something different.

Hopefully we're doing so from the lens of helping somebody buy something from us. That's the best way to approach selling in general. So never expected this at all. Definitely didn't expect this plot twist with banking as a service to enter into my life and to help propel and amplify fast providers to community bankers. It's been a great journey. It's been a heck of a fun little twist I've discovered.

Amanda Northcutt (10:40.45)
Yeah. And that's not an unusual story with guests on this podcast and our clients, whether the accelerator or otherwise, is this concept of this extremely nonlinear kind of unexpected path. But in the rearview mirror, it's like, no, well, this all makes sense. Of course, everything was kind of leading up to that. Do you feel like you can say that with confidence at this point? Like, this makes total sense.

Stacy Bishop (11:03.065)
I absolutely can now. I've always loved to chat. mean, you know this about me as do many people. I can't say my name in less than two sentences, quite honestly. But I do so from a point of view of just passionate about helping people and just making that, someone's life better. I realize how trite that sounds. Yes, I'm hopefully helping them propel their business forward and I'm getting, you know,

Benefited as a result, but what actually drives me and what I'm so passionate about is just knowing two pieces can fit together and they can multiply. You use this phraseology of two plus two equals 10. That is always the frame of reference that I'm looking for. I'm channeling my inner Amanda Northcutt and trying to look for that type of synergy and multiplication that can take place. But looking back, I think to the heart of your question, I can

absolutely see where, yeah, it makes sense that I landed in sales. And candidly, kind of makes sense that I decided to move out from the big corporate logo and take a look at what I could do on my own and the way I could propel things as an individual working alongside these different groups.

Amanda Northcutt (12:23.566)
Yes, I want to take back to something you said a minute ago. My favorite thing about all of our clients at Level Up is that it's not just, I want to go out and build, you know, a MRR-based boutique consulting firm, but it's, I want to go out on my own. I have the perspective, the knowledge, the experience, the wisdom and the passion to put all those pieces and those ingredients together and build something that, yes, is going to earn me money. But more importantly,

Like the money is just gonna come because when you're approaching business and this is like very altruistic, holistic, meaningful, purposeful way, when you're looking out for the people who don't normally get looked out for, right? And you're advocating for them, right? That combination of, yes, I'm ambitious and yes, I'm here to make money. We're all running for-profit businesses here. But just that one, two punch of altruism and purpose-built businesses means the world to us.

And my team and I were having an internal conversation this week and they're like, Hey, Amanda, we need like some updated kind of update our ICP document. You know, what are the key things that you're looking for in our accelerator clients? And so that was the one of the first things that I mentioned is that if this is not purpose driven, if these people are not altruistic and their efforts, like there has to be more than money that's at play here. so I love that you, you just bring that up naturally. Like that wasn't in our preparation for this recording or anything, but that's just so.

Stacy Bishop (13:48.505)
You

Amanda Northcutt (13:49.474)
baked into your DNA and I love that so much about you and about all of our clients.

Stacy Bishop (13:53.929)
Thanks. I honestly think that a person that is not so guided not to be disparaging but it means whatsoever They're gonna have a much harder time. Whatever the the hiccups eat whether they're mental hiccups that take place and I've chatted about it It's It's lonely. It's tough out there often times even when times are great and things are moving along swimmingly well, it's still

Amanda Northcutt (14:08.458)
Yeah.

Stacy Bishop (14:20.897)
It can be challenging for thinking about how to grow and how to get bigger. But I think that if you don't have that greater mission, it's going to be tougher for you if you're just doing it for the money, because not every month is about the money, or not every client is about the money. At least it isn't for me, I've found.

Amanda Northcutt (14:38.508)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a really, really important point to drive home. Okay. Let's talk about selling FinTech first. And then we're going to talk about the amBaaSador. you talked about selling FinTech already. I will say without like spilling any of your secret sauce, like I've seen your playbook, your methodology, the way that you go in and do things, the way you approach relationships with clients and brokering relationships with other financial institutions and FinTechs and the best, how you're triangulating these three groups. And it's pretty freaking

awesome and proprietary and effective and cool. tell us a little bit more about kind of the purpose of selling FinTech and how you work with FinTechs and financial institutions.

Stacy Bishop (15:18.489)
You got it. Yeah. Selling FinTech right now brand that I have in my business that we're going to be leaning into even a bit more from a newsletter point of view going forward. But that's just an avenue that I have. I shouldn't say just an avenue. It is a fantastic avenue that I have to work with different individuals that are in this space. To date, quite a few of those interactions have been with FinTech founders at different stages, the startup stage.

those that perhaps are beyond a startup, they're seeded, they have their initial series A, they're wanting to scale their business through channel partnerships or individuals that are just kind of looking for ways to get a bigger juice from the squeeze, if you will. So for those types of individuals, I have different offerings, working fractionally for them, working as a strategic advisor, that's one of the best ways that I can serve.

founders in that space and as a result of those types of efforts also Trying to broker those connections where they make sense You mentioned earlier this space that I play in and live in it's not that huge there's there's a lot of known players and a lot of networked individuals and There are times in which that's just gonna make sense to bring two parties together and I'm always looking for that type of element whenever

offering my fractional services with selling FinTech. So happy to illustrate more about that, but as far as what I do for those individuals, please think in terms of helping map out their go-to-market strategies or revamp them if they're not working. Definitely doing a lot of channel partnership, standing up, negotiating, channel partner management. It's one of the biggest, probably one of the biggest hiccups I see that takes place in

and financial services and FinTech partners, just the world as a whole, not even partnerships is thinking, thinking partnerships are going to go well and they don't. And I can take you off on a 30 minute diatribe about that. Maybe I will, but those are primarily, if I can just say it, say it succinctly, let's see if I can. With selling FinTech, I help those FinTech founders with whatever needs they truly have. And I can help in a very,

Amanda Northcutt (17:26.702)
you

Stacy Bishop (17:41.763)
targeted capacity over like a six to 12 month period or longer strategic advisory capacity. And I do both.

Amanda Northcutt (17:49.614)
You're helping FinTechs make more money much more quickly and efficiently and with the right partners as you're setting your setting a relationship up the right way from the beginning. So you're removing this opportunity for trial and error and missteps because to your point, this is a small ish space and everybody does know everybody. And so there's a limited number of it bats I could imagine in this space. Like you're going to run through your prospects, your prospect pool pretty quickly. So having you come in.

and a very strategic high level working directly with founders and revenue leaders in order to be like, here's how to put your best foot forward so you don't blow your shot kind of situation. Is that accurate?

Stacy Bishop (18:30.425)
Absolutely. fact, I'm going to steal that everything you just said when I'm recording. people ask me what I do, I'm just listen to what Amanda said. You got what she said. It's precisely right.

Amanda Northcutt (18:33.487)
Hahaha!

Amanda Northcutt (18:41.472)
Rip it right off the transcript, Stacy, it's all yours. Let's talk about your media company. Let's talk about AmBaaSador because somehow selling FinTech is not all you do.

Stacy Bishop (18:44.333)
Thank you, ma'am.

Stacy Bishop (18:54.329)f
Truly not, truly not. Yeah, AmBaaSador is kind of a labor of love and unexpected when I mentioned earlier that this was a twist I wasn't expecting in my life back in February. My husband who is a bass banker was approached about an opportunity. What's interesting is that when you're in a relationship, I'm sure we've all discovered this, what your partner is interested in.

it becomes a tangential interest for you or something you pay attention to. And when my husband got into banking as a service and exploring it, I thought I knew what it was, working for a large FinTech company, a large core company I mentioned at the top of this presentation. I had no idea. I have learned so much over the past four years of just repeated, concentrated learning and in and around the space.

conversations with operators and players, it blew my world wide open. So when my husband was given an opportunity to work with one of these fast providers in a new and exciting way, we saw that there was a greater way to serve the space beyond just that one provider and more importantly to serve bankers. And this seems like it should be easy, just teach bankers something. What I have discovered

over the entire course of my career, Amanda, is that bankers themselves, they're so varied, just like any business. You have very small banks, you have very large banks and credit unions, and they all take in information in many different ways. Not so dissimilar from any other space, but not every banker is going to be showing up in tech events. Not every banker is going to be reading publications.

Sometimes bankers need you to meet them where they're at, which might be regional shows, state shows, actually going to their FI, speaking to them directly. And we do this with AmbaaSador simply because it's important to us that each banker in America makes an educated choice on whether banking as a service is right for them. We are fully bought in at AmbaaSador that it's the service.

Stacy Bishop (21:12.985)
It's the future rather of community banking entirely. And I'm always okay with a no, as long as it's an educated no. I'm never okay with somebody making a snap judgment when they don't know all the facts. That's what fires me up to teach even more. So we work then serving those community bankers, bringing more educated people into the environment and our partners then have a more

very debates in which they can sell to. Wow, you didn't even ask me all of that, but I offered it anyway. You're welcome.

Amanda Northcutt (21:46.35)
Yeah. Yeah, that's great. That's really great. Thank you. And if you would, spell AmBaaSador for our listeners.

Stacy Bishop (21:56.825)
I shall. It is a lowercase a and capital B, two more lowercase a's, a capital S, just to keep it interesting, a lowercase s, A-D-O-R. And the reason Amanda's calling this out, which is hilarious to me even, the word BAS, which stands for Banking as a Service, is represented in this space with a capital B, lowercase a, a, and a capital S.

Hence the funny spelling of this name.

Amanda Northcutt (22:29.71)
I think it's so clever and cute. mean, coming from SaaS, software as a service, that's so cute. That's adorable. so, I mean, that's like marketing,

Stacy Bishop (22:31.065)
Thank you.

Thank you all.

Stacy Bishop (22:40.953)
Full credit to my husband there.

Amanda Northcutt (22:43.886)
Nice, nice prop, Steve. Good thinking. Well, tell me, tell me about the unique possibility, the future that you see for these players, the community bankers, FinTech's and bass. Like where should the industry be in five to 10 years?

Stacy Bishop (23:00.089)
Yeah, I'm going to first start with looking at this from a banking as a service point of view. And for those that might not be familiar, the absolute 30,000 foot view is a bank has the ability to move money, ACH wires, debit cards, and they have the ability to open accounts. Those are two things that are completely unique to banks and credit unions because of licensing and chartering that they have. Now there are many, many, many

FinTechs or companies outside of banking that use the ability to transmit payments or open accounts. Starbucks is a great example. Anybody that has a Starbucks gift card, Target with their red card or any retailer that offers their own card seems like they're transmitting money and opening an account for Stacy Bishop. In fact, they're not. They are using a bank sponsor.

one of those banks or credit unions with the charter and the licensing that I mentioned previously. So for me and the way I know myself as an end user, the way I work, the way I spend, it's not going to my bank's website, signing on to digital banking or my mobile app and ordering an Uber or placing an order for DoorDash. Instead,

We all go out to a specific app. We order whatever, the car, the food, and we pay out there on those apps. That's the experience that we want. That's the experience we're used to. And it's a huge change for bankers that are willing, know, they're really used to people coming to them. So banking as a service takes what banks do so well, and it embeds it in these applications like Uber and

DoorDash and the other players we mentioned. For me, knowing that I will never go back to just traditional mobile banking or digital banking, that's the future. It's looking for ways to embed banking services seamlessly into apps I'm already comfortable with, I'm already using, and providers that are out there and available and killing it from the technology side. So that's what I think the future is.

Amanda Northcutt (25:20.79)
Nice and what role will you play in bringing that to bear?

Stacy Bishop (25:26.265)
Couple of different roles from the AmBaaSador point of view, ensuring that these community banks know that this is the future. Because if I can just pause for a minute, Amanda, and tell you right now, traditional community banks that haven't heard about banking as a service or haven't explored it, they view banking in the future as the same way they viewed banking for the past 20, 120 years or longer.

And that is they try to offer the best rate to get somebody to open a CD or checking it out, or they try to offer the best rate on the loan side. That challenge is so notable, I guess, because with today's day and age, people can shop for rates online. We've been doing that for years, decades now at this point. There are tools to help us, nerd wallet, bank rate, et cetera.

find the best rate. So these banks that are used to competing on rates are going to find that they need to differentiate. They need a new niche. And if it's not banking as a service, I'm really hoping they get into stable coins or some other mechanism that allows them to take advantage of offering new and unique services that meet their customers where they're at. Because for us, just having

The best rate in your little town is no longer enough for these banks. And the great thing about banking as a service, there's a $50 million bank that's in banking as a service that I know of. are multi-trillion dollar banks in banking as a service. There's absolutely no limitation, and every bank gets to choose what their guardrails are, what their comfort with risk is, the number of FinTechs they want to work with.

So primarily that's how we'll serve the future, letting banks know about banking as a service and ensuring that they know the players in that space. I'd be remiss if I also didn't say there's a lot of FinTechs that are going to be working with these banking as a service sponsor banks. There's still a lot of FinTechs, however, that are not going to sell directly to Stacy Bishop or Amanda Northcutt as end users ordering our food.

Stacy Bishop (27:51.501)
There's still a lot of the majority of FinTechs that are selling directly to banks. So my goal ultimately and my big picture goal is to just help all of these players see that there's a future that might look a little different than the present and it might feel uncomfortable. just being uncomfortable is not a bad thing. It's something you have to kind of sit with, evaluate the opportunity.

and look at how you can move forward in a way that feels good.

Amanda Northcutt (28:26.83)
that makes perfect sense. And it's cool that you got AmbaaSador where you're doing all the education around this and thereby kind of reducing risk for people who are consuming that content. And then it's like, when you're ready to take the next step, you can come over to selling FinTech and I'll actually help you connect with Bass and FinTech companies to actually make that happen. And in any sort of legacy industry that needs to move forward into the modern day and age, you can always look back and see a couple of key players.

Stacy Bishop (28:38.809)
Come on out.

Amanda Northcutt (28:55.746)
who are the people who saw the unique possibility, define that, and then also worked very hard through their organizations or individual efforts to bring that vision to bear. And so I see, we're gonna look back at five to 10 years and be like, yeah, was Stacy Bishop. That's why this is the way that it is now. So yeah, that's right. That's right. That's right. So I love that you see that and you've got all the right ingredients and puzzle pieces to make it all work and come together again with that very unique.

Stacy Bishop (29:12.862)
Yeah.

Amanda Northcutt (29:23.798)
and lovely purview about helping the end user and all the organizations that you work with benefit from working with you because you're helping everyone kind of play nice together, if you will, and see the mutual benefit rather than like, me try and get this quick sale done just to get your signature on the dotted line. But you're really, really working toward long-term relationships, which is quite unique.

Stacy Bishop (29:43.193)
Thank you. Yeah, long-term relationships based on trust, based upon serving the end user. That's the perfect scenario.

Amanda Northcutt (29:53.966)
Amazing. You're also a keynote speaker. And so I think we can talk about that. You've got like a great message and a core message even beyond, you know, AmBaaSador and selling FinTech. So share a little bit more if you, if you don't mind more broadly kind of what you want to bring to the industry for women in particular.

Stacy Bishop (30:01.113)
No.

Stacy Bishop (30:11.999)
Yeah, in particular women, I think there are so many wise individuals out in the banking of the FinTech space, period, full stop. And of these wise individuals, when I look around on the stages, there's not a ton of females always represented. And it's not from lack of knowledge, not from lack of skill, anything like that. I think it's perhaps just a lack of

just raising our hands to say, this is what we do. We have important things to share. So it's something that I have been leaning into quite a bit over the past year is just ensuring that, beyond talking about sales items, beyond talking about moving the industry forward in a one-on-one capacity, guess what? I have also quite a few discussions centered around, as you mentioned, both AmBaaSador and selling FinTech, and then quite a bit about my journey as well.

growing up in this little town, working for this large company, going through the iterations of how I move from an instructor up to a sales leader, a revenue leader, the youngest one in my division, the only female in my division. It's not without quite a few bruises and scars that I had to learn along the way, and some of which ultimately led to my decision to explore a bigger, broader world outside of the big company, big logo.

So these are things that I have now given myself permission to speak about, not to, for any other reason, but if there's other people in the audience that are exploring bass, exploring the need to sell FinTech and bumping their head up against a wall, we're simply a female leader that is also trying to navigate having children later in life and changes to the career path as a result of that.

These are all things that I am uniquely qualified to speak about. And I now have the benefit of perspective and the benefit of knowing the person that each of these experiences have made me into so that I can deliver them in such a way that's entertaining, yes, but hopefully impactful and compelling to people that are in the audience.

Amanda Northcutt (32:30.478)
That's another thing that I love about you is that you have blazed the trail and you've got the roadmap and that you're not just using that to your own benefit, but you're looking back and reaching back. sending the elevator back down, if you will, to women who are not quite as far along as their career and you're giving them that roadmap that you've worked so hard to create. So think that's very special and unique and you, yeah, just play such an incredibly vital role. And I'm sitting here trying to think, I was almost going to say,

Stacy Bishop (32:53.731)
Thank you.

Amanda Northcutt (33:00.13)
You know, yeah, most legacy industries are male dominated. And so you're thinking, I can't think of a single legacy industry that is not male dominated. And I also will just point out really explicitly the fact that your ability as a very highly intelligent, emotionally intelligent, high EQ person that you can see the relationship potential between Bass FinTech and FIs in a way that

Stacy Bishop (33:06.274)
Thank

Amanda Northcutt (33:29.716)
men perhaps have not been able to in the past. So that fresh perspective that you bring and that like female perspective that you bring and how you're again trailblazing and showing the way for other women who are earlier in their careers, just freaking cool. It's just awesome. The work you're doing. I just admire it so much and it is so important. And so we talk about, you know, a lot about legacy impact, lifestyle, architecture and generational wealth. So talking about like opportunity for

legacy and impact specifically as it pertains to you sending the elevator back down for other women. It's just, it's just the, it's so cool. It's just so fun to watch, to watch you do your thing and see all this come to fruition.

Stacy Bishop (34:09.203)
thank you for that. We have to look out for each other. Come on, this isn't high school. This isn't a mean girl type of environment. And I truly, truly do think we are uniquely positioned as ladies to not only lift up other ladies, but I don't know about you, Amira. I also try to mentor every single gentleman that asks or that needs assistance that's truly interested in moving themselves along the career path.

Amanda Northcutt (34:15.181)
Yes.

Stacy Bishop (34:36.697)
So I am an equal opportunity mentor and I have mentored scores of people. But the ladies, you have a special place in my heart because I guarantee a lot of the things that you are going through, a lot of the things that you're facing, I have been there, maybe not everything, but I have seen a lot and I am there for it. I am there to walk along that path with you and showcase what worked for me.

what didn't and what I would recommend as alternatives to fuel your professional growth and help you along when you encounter a setback.

Amanda Northcutt (35:12.588)
Incredible. Let's talk a little bit about how we got to know each other and this accelerator you're participating in. So we are three months in. Are we three months in about? Yeah. Yeah.

Stacy Bishop (35:13.699)
me.

Stacy Bishop (35:17.101)
Cut.

Stacy Bishop (35:25.42)
It feels like nine because we've done so much.

That's like three months in cat years.

Amanda Northcutt (35:34.062)
That's well put. That's well put. Tell us about your experience so far. know, kind of what ultimately decided, what the ultimate deciding factor was for you to join this cohort and how are you finding it?

Stacy Bishop (35:47.657)
my gosh, let's go back to the beginning. I happen to see an email. I'm a big Amanda Gets fan. So shout out to Amanda, the other Amanda. And I love the way she shows up. I love the authenticity which she speaks. It's the same type of way I hope to show up for those that I serve, just as a real person, a real person talking and dropping wisdom, but also talking about vulnerabilities. So I love that approach. And I happen to...

Amanda Northcutt (35:56.099)
Yeah.

Stacy Bishop (36:17.258)
see an email that she had sent mentioning level of creators and you. And I could not contain my excitement because to that point Amanda, I felt like as an intelligent woman that had been killing it in every other area, every other role I'd ever been in that decided to go out and try this on my own.

I felt like a fumbling idiot in many ways because I truly, know what I know. I know I'm not an idiot when it comes to business either. But I know my strengths are in selling to bankers, formulating partnerships, serving the space in the way that I do. What I don't know are all of the elements that go into how I should be thinking about laddering products or my

offerings or all of the other thousands of things that you and your team have brought into my world. So when I saw that email from Amanda Gatz, I was blown away and immediately on fire to find out more. And I remember scheduling a call with you and thinking to myself, all right, Amanda Gatz has worked with Amanda Northcutt before, not a freaking chance in the world. I will get a chance to work with Amanda and

But I'm here for this conversation. I cannot wait to learn more about it. So you and I flash forward then, had our first conversation and I remember thinking, this lady has got her crap together. And I was convinced she woke up every day with your hair perfectly in place and makeup on because you were so together and showed up just the way you showed up on that call and the ease with which I felt.

Amanda Northcutt (37:58.222)
Thanks.

Stacy Bishop (38:13.177)
felt like we were long-term friends by that point at the end of this discussion. So, so impressed with you. And moving forward, if we can be honest for a minute, it's an investment. It's an investment that initially I thought, is an investment that, can I make it? I don't know, can I make it? I kept noodling it over. You asked for a second call and I knew at that point,

Amanda Northcutt (38:25.67)
yeah.

Stacy Bishop (38:42.169)
listen, I'm going to figure this out. I will make this investment. If I have to, my children don't need shoes for the school year. It's fine. They can go there. No, luckily it wasn't anything that dire, but it is an investment, but it was an investment I was willing to make in me because I knew, I knew to my very core that speaking with you, that I was going to be propelled

five years ahead of where I presently was. Bumping my head up against the wall, having great conversations, yes I had clients, but I knew I could do more. I simply needed to be shown the path. I needed to be shown the way. So when we decided to start working together, still can't believe you took that shot on me, I'm grateful every day to you and your team. It became much more obvious to me Amanda that

you guys weren't just showing me the way you were walking along with me. Just like I try to do for people that we mentioned that I mentor, there's not a point in time throughout this whole experience where I felt that I was on my own. I've never felt that there was any question that was too rudimentary or elementary to ask you or anyone on the team. like, let me just say as well, shout out to you for

formulating the team you have. You guys need capes and masks. Freaking superhero team. And I have been so blown away by the value, by just the sheer number of things we have done, sheer number of things I went over on my one-on-one call earlier today. Just, it's so exciting and refreshing and honestly scary to think where I would be had I'm not.

Amanda Northcutt (40:12.144)
Yeah

Stacy Bishop (40:37.677)
taken the chance to schedule that call with you and just make the decision to figure it out, spending the money. It's been life altering. And I don't say that as just a throwaway type of comment. That is absolutely true. So thank you.

Amanda Northcutt (40:55.406)
Wow, you can just drop the mic right there. My God. Thank you.

Stacy Bishop (40:58.265)
Or you can. You can be like, you know what I'm sorry?

Amanda Northcutt (41:05.538)
Thank you. And also mutual respect here. I I saw from that first call with you, was like, oh, she's a badass. Stacy's got it. That's why I want to do that second call, right? I certainly don't ask everybody for a second call. So yeah, mean, my gosh, we are so glad to have you. You're such a massive addition to the cohort and just the energy and kindness and care and empathy and like smarts that you bring to the group. That's the two plus two equals 10 factor.

Stacy Bishop (41:12.59)
Aww, thank you.

Stacy Bishop (41:23.683)
No.

Amanda Northcutt (41:34.507)
You know it's you.

Stacy Bishop (41:36.297)
Thank you, and I'm telling you the cohort cohort number two just like the people I've met from cohort number one Fire people we are we are just burning it down It is so exciting people that truly care about you and what you're building cohort members and even I'm so excited to meet the meet people from this next cohort cohort number three that you have going on right now to Love love little family network you built for us

Amanda Northcutt (42:01.304)
Yeah.

Amanda Northcutt (42:04.76)
Thank you. And thank you for the kind words about my team as well. I mean, they are just like my favorite humans and I literally both sides on my team, employee side and client side. I can't believe I get to work with those two groups every day. It is such incredible joy and pleasure and so different from what my day to day used to look like. And so this is just so freaking fun and exciting and meaningful and purposeful. And I think we have a really good thing going on. So thank you for all of.

Stacy Bishop (42:33.208)
All things ridiculous.

Amanda Northcutt (42:33.526)
All of the kind words. I appreciate it. What would you, okay.

Stacy Bishop (42:39.514)
So, just saying again, thank you for taking the chance on me.

Amanda Northcutt (42:44.054)
It didn't feel like a chance.

Stacy Bishop (42:45.387)
Okay, good.

Stacy Bishop (42:49.497)
I interrupted you, my mother taught me better than that. What was your question?

Amanda Northcutt (42:52.462)
What would you say to someone who is considering booking that call with me but sees the price tag and is like, I don't know.

Stacy Bishop (43:05.953)
I would tell you that you will lose absolutely nothing by speaking with Amanda. First of all, and I'm not saying if you don't have the ability and you don't want to figure it out, don't waste either of your time. If you find yourself looking at the price tag and saying, that's too much, that's your determination for your business and where you want to be, might not be the best fit. If you are an individual,

that is looking for a way to progress forward. And you feel as if you need that trusted team on your side. You are not afraid to admit that you need help or could benefit from help. If you're like me, I am going to be the first person to tell you, I know I should do something about this, but I don't know how to go about

and I can research it, do you have any help or expertise from your side? Your team has never let me down in that regard. So backing back up to the question though, I would say that if you are wanting to progress your business forward, if you were willing to just admit, not even admit, that's not the right word Amanda, if you're willing to accept help from the most educated grouping of

people I have ever had a chance to meet and that is saying something with the circles in which I play. Take the call and if you're committed to your own growth and that of your business, trust yourself to figure this out. I guarantee you from that first call, you will be looking for ways to make this happen. Whether that is like, I don't know.

selling Girl Scout cookies on the side, whatever you need to do. Because when you're an entrepreneur and you want to move things forward, you find a way. And I think what you find also, good things just start happening much, much quicker than you expect when you make this commitment in yourself and you work with the level of creator's team. That's what I've discovered.

Amanda Northcutt (45:21.4)
Man, Stacy, if you weren't so ambitious doing your own thing, I would hire you to sell for us.

Stacy Bishop (45:26.425)
I will any day you send those calls over reference calls.

Amanda Northcutt (45:33.102)
Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate it. I'm just deeply grateful for our time together today. This is just so fun and enjoyable and hopefully a lot of value added for our listeners. Importantly, how can our listeners find you online?

Stacy Bishop (45:47.957)
Thank you for asking. So I do have a website www.stacybishop.com or of course LinkedIn where I'm Stacy Bishop out there on LinkedIn AmBaaSadors out there as well. I appreciate you even bringing that up and I hope that this has been just something that to make some help some folks think through their next steps of their company.

Amanda Northcutt (46:17.57)
Thank you so much. really appreciate the time again, Stacy, and thank you to our listeners. We know your time is precious and we appreciate you sharing a bit of yours with us today. And if you're a subject matter expert looking to build a fully customized business in a box with a five figure MRR guarantee, over to https://mrraccelerator.com/ to learn more. And you can also follow me, Amanda Northcutt on LinkedIn. We'll have all these links in the show notes and show descriptions, and we'll see you next time on the Level Up Creators Podcast.