Only Human
Learn how to stay irreplaceable in a world of AI. "Only Human" explores strategies for financial advisors to leverage their unique human edge and thrive alongside technology.
Only Human
The Future of Small Business Banking: Yohance Harrison & Deanna Zubrickas on Profit First and Relay
Welcome back to Only Human, brought to you by The Money Script! In this episode, Yohance Harrison sits down with Deanna Zubrickas from Relay, a leading online banking platform for small businesses. They discuss profit-first banking, automation, and financial strategies that help business owners take control of their cash flow. Learn how Relay’s free business banking, multiple checking accounts, and seamless integrations can transform how you manage money. Plus, get insights on avoiding traditional bank fees and optimizing your business finances. Listen now & claim a special offer! #BusinessBanking #FinancialAutomation #ProfitFirst #EntrepreneurFinance
Relay is a financial technology company and is not a bank. Banking services provided by Thread Bank, Member FDIC. The Relay Visa Debit Card is issued by Thread Bank, Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. and may be be used anywhere Visa cards are accepted. The Relay Visa Credit Card is issued by Thread Bank, Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc and may be used everywhere Visa credit cards are accepted.
Deanna Zubrickas 0:00
So I myself am a profit first professional. So that's a community that I'm a part of and absolutely love. And I get to talk to so many different business owners implementing at Relay. And what it is is firstly, it's a book Proper verse by Mike Michalowicz. Highly recommend the read if you haven't read it. But what it is is it's a cash flow method. It's a behavior for business owners. And the idea is putting yourself first as the business owner. So instead of leaving yourself at the very bottom of the list, if you're on the list at all, as a business owner, you're taking your piece of the pie first to to support yourself and, you know, put yourself back into the business.
Seth Harrison 0:41
You are tuned into the Only Human podcast, where financial advisors learn how to stay irreplaceable in a world of AI. Only Human explores strategies for advisors to leverage the unique human edge and thrive alongside technology. I'll be back later with some important announcements. Until then, here's your host, behavioral financial advisor Johannes. Enjoy the show.
Yohance Harrison 1:07
Welcome back to Only Human, brought to you by the Money Script. I have with me today a technology partner because we as humans, we still have to use technology. So I have a technology partner, actually. Shameless plug that I use and like I you have used our services for years now. Deanna Zabrickis from Relay. She's a senior account manager. Deanna, how are you?
Deanna Zubrickas 1:30
I'm doing so great. Thank you so much for having me today.
Yohance Harrison 1:33
I appreciate it. I know we've been trying to do this for quite some time. You had to wait till I got snowed in so we can make it happen.
Deanna Zubrickas 1:41
I had to wait till the day you couldn't leave the house to down, but here we are.
Yohance Harrison 1:45
There we go. Well, we made it happen. We made it happen. So you are a partner at Relay. So for the folks that are listening in, can you just tell us a little bit about who Relay is?
Deanna Zubrickas 1:56
Absolutely. So Relay is an online banking platform. So we are 100 virtual, which I feel like goes into a lot of the topics that you discuss on here. And we offer free banking for small businesses, but we also offer a lot in the way of automation. So a lot of businesses come to Relay to run cash flow methods like profit first or different, you know, ideas like that. And we offer that those simple banking needs that you need for your small business, but for free, which is pretty cool.
Yohance Harrison 2:25
Free is pretty cool. So we got to dig into it because a lot of people get skeptical when they hear the F word. How is it that you can make banking free? I mean, why is bank of America and Chase and yes, I'm calling you out. And U.S. bank and Wells Fargo, why do they charge business owners so much money for some of the simplest tasks?
Deanna Zubrickas 2:43
Yes, it is unfortunately a truth out there. And a lot of people don't do their research before they open a business bank account and think you have to pay no matter what. But there's definitely some lower cost options. So there's only two things that we charge for on Relay. One is outgoing wires, but there's still pretty great pricing. $5 domestic, $10 international. And then we also have a Relay Pro subscription, $30 monthly. It's for businesses that have a lot of wire activity or maybe want an approval process. It's a payables function. So those are the two charges that we do have if you use Relay, but if you don't do either of those for your business, it's completely free. And one of our main goals as a platform when we were first created was we wanted to make it accessible for the small business owner. And one of the key features that we've had since day one and I'm assuming that you love as well is the ability to have those multiple checking accounts. And so that is something that was really important for us to offer at the free level. Like no minimum balance for those 20 accounts, no monthly fees. Fees, because you should be able to separate your money if you want. And we don't believe that that should come at a price.
Yohance Harrison 3:54
So now let's get to some of the regulatory aspects. So you're a virtual bank, meaning there's no physical location. So there's nowhere I can go and say here, take my money. Nor is there anywhere I can go and say, hey, give me money other than I assume you still have ATM access, correct?
Deanna Zubrickas 4:10
Yes, absolutely. You can do that in atm.
Yohance Harrison 4:12
Okay. So. But then of course there's going to be limits. So there's nowhere I can go to sit down and get a lollipop and a chain and a pin that's chained table and fill out a withdrawal slip. So that doesn't everything needs to be happen, it needs to happen electronically, which most transactions are these days. I went out, I went golfing with my father in law and I paid for golf and he was paying me back and he gave me $40 in cash.
Deanna Zubrickas 4:38
What am I gonna do with this? Exactly. I now have to go to the bank or use it somewhere that takes cash, right?
Yohance Harrison 4:43
Yeah. What am I gonna do with this? So I gave it to my daughter. She knew what to do with piggy bank. Easy to do. She has so much cash, it's crazy. How much? Because I just give it to her. I'm like, I don't know. I don't know what to do with this. This is weird. But again, back to the regulatory aspect. So in your banking relationship, does it involve things like FDIC insurance, you know, the fraud protection? Because I know that's something that's a big concern for customer, for business owners and consumers these days, as it should be. Your.
Deanna Zubrickas 5:13
Right. Your money is your livelihood, whether it's personal or business. So you should always be about that. But how Relay is structured is we are a Neo bank. And what that means is we are a tech company built on top of a partner bank. And so our partner bank is called Thread Bank. They're located in Tennessee. They've been operational, you know, for over 100 years. Thread is how we have FDIC insurance, so we can actually cover up to 3 million per business entity, which is pretty great. And Thread is also how we have our banking capability. But like the screen that you sign in and you love and you see all your multiple accounts and the different features that we roll out, that's Relay, the tech company, rolling those out. And so if anybody listening today has experienced Relay before and is wondering why is this so different from my Chase or my bank of America, it's because we weren't built by a bank. And so we really use that to our advantage with how we roll out features and what we choose to roll out.
Yohance Harrison 6:08
Okay, well, let's get the scary stuff out there too really quick, because people, they ask me about it a lot. There was a couple of virtual banks. The names I can't even remember because they don't exist anymore. But there were some virtual banks that were doing some weird stuff with gambling and lotteries and things of that nature, and they went out of business. Not only did they go out of business, there were dozens upon dozens of customers who say they never got their money back. What does Relay have in place to help protect that? Or how do you make. How do we make sure that we're protecting the end customer?
Deanna Zubrickas 6:43
Yeah. And so that's exactly why we do offer FDIC insurance through our partner bank, Thread. And you'll notice that I mentioned that our coverage is up to 3 million. And you know, that is quite high. Most banks only offer the 250k for FDIC. And why we have a difference there is because Thread, our partner bank, has a whole network of other banks that they also use to insure your funds. So there's like multiple levels of insurance that your. Your money goes through at Relay. And so that what I say is probably like the biggest difference that we offer.
Yohance Harrison 7:13
Okay, but we still. I mean, what about things like run on the bank and things of that nature? I mean, that Relay doesn't really have the money. So like you said, Relay is a tech overlay. So it really. It's the strength in financial security of Thread. And of their partner banks. Now, did. Didn't they just. Did they just add a bank recently? I thought I saw something about a new bank that they added as one of their partner banks. Did I see that in the email somewhere? All right, maybe I just made it up.
Deanna Zubrickas 7:28
Yes.
Deanna Zubrickas 7:40
I'm not. Yeah, I don't know. Nothing to confirm on my end for that. But there is a lot of bank partners that are doing exactly what Relay does with different partners. Because this is. This is the future. So I wouldn't be surprised if you saw some of their collabs come out.
Yohance Harrison 7:54
Got it. Okay, so let's get back to just the only human. Now that we know who you are, we know who Threadbank is. You mentioned this, this concept of Profit first, which many of our listeners may or may not be familiar with. Can you spend just a few minutes speaking on the Profit first philosophy?
Deanna Zubrickas 8:10
Absolutely. So I myself am a Profit first professional, so that's a community that I'm a part of and absolutely love. And I get to talk to so many different business owners implementing at Relay. And what it is, is, firstly, it's a book, Profit first by Mike Michalowicz. Highly recommend the read if you haven't read it. But what it is is it's a cash flow method. It's a behavior for business owners. And the idea is putting yourself first as the business owner. So instead of leaving yourself at the very bottom of the list, if you're on the list at all, as a, you're taking your piece of the pie first to be able to support yourself and put yourself back into the business. So that's what the behavior change is, putting yourself first instead of last. And how Profit first actually works that through your business is by separating funds into different areas of the business. Why people come to Relay for this is Profit first wants you to start with five different bank accounts. So you have one where all of your money is received into. And then a few times throughout the month, you're going to disperse it into different areas of the business. So your own paycheck Tax savings, operating expenses, ideas like this, and you're working on, you know, how much you can, you can spend in these areas to really keep your yourself on track. And this is something that can be implemented as an advisor, as a business owner yourself. There's tons of people that look to this method and want to start to try it. And Relay is a platform that allows them to do that without having to explain why the heck they might want multiple accounts, which a lot of small business banks do. But we also are not going to charge them for this setup, which is a huge, huge roadblock that a lot of people face.
Yohance Harrison 9:49
I read Profit first nine years ago and absolutely I was a brand new business owner, absolutely love the concept, considered going down the path of becoming a profit first professional. It was a little different nine years ago and it just, it wasn't something that I was attracted to, but I liked the concept and I said, I'm just going to apply this myself. Do you know how difficult it was to apply this at Wells Fargo?
Deanna Zubrickas 10:11
You know, I actually do. I hear about this all day, every day.
Yohance Harrison 10:16
Oh, you've made too many transfers. Like what? It's my money. I'm just moving it from this account to the other. What are you talking about? Or. Oh, you can't, you can only make three transfers out of the account. It was, it was, it was a mess. And then I found Relay and so I'm happy to share with the audience my percentages. So I said, I read the book, I apply it to my, my own finances. I have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 accounts. So I have my profit, 5%. I have a reserve account which you could kind of call profit as well, but it's a reserve account at 2%.
Yohance Harrison 10:53
I have my payroll account at 35%. I have a few different operation expense accounts. One of them is 26% which goes and pays the credit card. One of them is 12% which pays other deductions that are coming out of the checking account itself. And then I have my tax account which gets 10%, which, oh, that's my favorite account by far. That is my favorite account. And I'll talk about why. And then finally I have another. You could call it profit first too, but it's a, it's just owner's comp. So 5% to owners comp. So it all adds up to 100%. I put everything, every, all the money goes into the revenue account. I sit down at any of the month and I divide everything up into the other accounts. And then like magic, everything Happens and I don't look at the accounts again to the end of the month. It's great. That's what I love about it is I don't have to think about day to day. And it took me a little while to build it up. I had to over contribute to a couple of the accounts to get a good enough reserve up. Because sometimes the Amex bill is, you know, 20,000, other times it's only 15. So making sure I had enough flexibility in there for that, that took a little while, but now that it's there. Oh, I love the automation. My, my, my, my team is never that does payroll. She's never saying, hey, what, you know, payroll?
Deanna Zubrickas 12:10
I love it.
Deanna Zubrickas 12:18
Yeah.
Yohance Harrison 12:19
Is it in the payroll account? Yeah. Well move on. Sometimes she says, hey, it's not there. I'm like, it's not the day, I'm.
Deanna Zubrickas 12:22
Yeah.
Deanna Zubrickas 12:25
Not, I haven't done it. The automation hasn't run yet.
Yohance Harrison 12:28
Yeah, it hasn't run yet. So it'll be there, It'll be there before it's time to get paid. Trust and believe that.
Seth Harrison 12:29
So.
Deanna Zubrickas 12:33
And what I love about that too is, and I love that you shared what your different accounts were and that you have more than the, than the 5 that Profit first typically suggests is it's meant to be customizable for your business. Right. However you want to run it. It's just, it's, they're giving you the backbone of it and you can change your percentages what you're saving for different accounts. Even start out with two accounts versus five. It's whatever you think that you can handle at that time, but it's giving you structure to your business and I love that it's really open ended for you. But then also on relay you can make it as customizable as you want. So it's pretty cool.
Yohance Harrison 13:08
As Jack Sparrow of Pirates of the Caribbean said, they're more like guidelines.
Deanna Zubrickas 13:13
There you go.
Yohance Harrison 13:14
There we go. I couldn't do Keira Knightley's voice so I decided to do Jack Sparrow. So this Profit first philosophy and just the idea of having multiple business accounts,
Yohance Harrison 13:30
I don't see how this is something that AI could really do for you. There seems that there needs to be a human component here. Can you talk to that a little bit?
Deanna Zubrickas 13:41
Yeah. I think that
Deanna Zubrickas 13:44
the human component behind running a cash flow method in your business is the goal of where you want to get to. That is what is motivating you towards this. It's motivating you to keep having money come into the business or keep Making those sales and keep adjusting percentages throughout the time or adding different savings accounts. Like the goal is going to. Exactly. The goal is tied to you as. As a human, as a business owner. So whether you're using the automation or not, like, that doesn't really matter. It's what's motivating you to kind of get to that finish line or that goal or set a new goal. Right?
Yohance Harrison 14:17
Absolutely. So I. Speaking of the goals, so my tax percentage. The first year I. I was doing my tax percentages, I based it on how much income I thought I would make, and I used the percentage of my actual tax bill the previous year. So at first, my tax percentage was like 7%. And it came tax time, and it was. It wound up being 7.5. And I was like, oh, that didn't feel good because I had to move some money around to take care of it. But, I mean, I had the money, but I had to pull it from somewhere else. So then I got the bright idea. I was like, you know what? I'm just going to do 10. I'm just gonna do 10. And hopefully there's some money left over. Now what's happened is that my wife has found out about the tax account. So after April 15, she's always looking like, so what the. What are you talking about? I don't have no idea what she talking about. She's like, I signed the taxes. I saw what it was. She was like, I know the gross revenue, and I know what 10 is. I'm like, see, what happened was, is there were some adjustments.
Deanna Zubrickas 14:51
Right.
Deanna Zubrickas 15:13
I'm like, yeah.
Deanna Zubrickas 15:22
She's like, nah, buddy, give me what I'm on. What are we buying together?
Yohance Harrison 15:27
What are we doing? She's like, we need a new washer. We need a new dryer.
Deanna Zubrickas 15:30
We're going on a trip. Yeah, I love that.
Yohance Harrison 15:34
So in you mentioned it, Deanna, that is the human component that goes with this technology. It's first of all, understanding your goals of your business. And the first goal that everyone should have in their business is, what is the end goal? How will this unwind? Okay, because you don't want the ultimatum to be death or disability. Those are the ones you don't want to happen. But provided that you can keep the business and stay alive and stay healthy, how will the business end? Okay, so begin with the end in mind. We've all heard that. That's. Now, can AI give you some prompts on what other people have done? Yes, but you're going to have to dig deep inside to determine what it is that you want to do. And I don't know if AI is going to do the best job of pulling that out of you. Out of you. Probably not yet. That's where a good advisor can come in to talk to you about your business goals and checking those boxes. Also, of what happens if there's a death or disability. Well, it's the D's death. No, it's dddb death, disability, divorce or bankruptcy. Those are all things that can affect a business owner. And it's the top things that destroy a business sometimes before it they're able to see its full potential. And then the next part around the, the goals part is, okay, well, what do you want the business to provide for you? What kind of lifestyle you're trying to provide? You're as business owners, it's your personal goals that will help drive you to run your business. Okay. If rent's got to be paid and you're in the I'm used lawn care business, if you don't get up and go cut some lawns or hire someone else to cut them, then you're not going to have the money to pay rent. So it can be a motivator. But we don't just want your needs to be a motivator. Eventually you want a business that can also generate the things that you want. And what is something that I believe we all want, whether we're in Canada, where our friend is, or you in the United States or you're in Australia. If you are a working human being, at some point you want financial independence. You want a point in time where you have enough capital, enough resources, enough passive sources of income that working becomes optional. We like to call in the business world being able to work on your business instead of in your business to be able to be a board member, to be a laissez faire CEO. Then you got the CEO running the company and you're running to Egypt to hang out and see the pyramids or something. Okay, again, those are the human components. That's where we as advisors get to provide these technology resources to help people achieve the things that they want financially. So, Deanna, I really appreciate you spending some time with us on the Only Human podcast. The new. This is new. Only Human is new. Everyone knows us as the Money Script podcast. We're now only human because I want to make sure that I'm helping advisors out there understand how they can stay human, stay relatable, and and use technology to help better their lives and the lives of their clients. If folks want to learn more about Relay, where can they go?
Deanna Zubrickas 18:46
You can head directly to the relay website. That's relayfi.com and I believe we also have a special offer for anybody listening today. So I'll send you the link so everybody can have it. But yeah, the. The offer that we have is if you sign up on the link today and you fund your account, then you can get an additional $100 over from the relay end. So pretty exciting stuff. Yeah.
Yohance Harrison 19:12
Nice. So here in advisors, here's. Here's what I encourage you to do before you offer this to a single client. Do it for yourself. Set up your own. I took my LLC information, I uploaded, I filled everything out, and oh my gosh, I can go open an account before I can finish this sentence. That's how fast I can open a new account. Once I was already set up, if I need. I actually, it happened. I needed a new account. I said, I wonder how long this is going to been A while since I did it. And I went and like, oh, your account number is this. I was like, oh, would you like a virtual debit card? I was like, that was okay.
Deanna Zubrickas 19:47
That was so fast that you didn't know that you did it, right?
Yohance Harrison 19:50
Exactly, exactly. Like, I kind of hit submit and I thought I was going to walk away and I came back and like, oh, it's done. I was waiting for an email or a text or something like, no, your account number is right here. How would you like to put money in? I was like, I. Well, let me go get a check real quick. Let me go make some money so I can put it in there. So thank you so much, Deanna, for spending some time with us on the Only Human podcast brought to you by the Money Script. And again, we will put the link in the show notes so that you can get your free offer. And just know, even though this podcast lasts forever, the offer won't. So if you're listening to this five years in the future, sorry that the offer is gone. But hey, send me an email. Maybe I'll get a new one for you. Until next time, everyone. Take care.
Deanna Zubrickas 20:28
There you go.
Deanna Zubrickas 20:32
Bye.
Seth Harrison 20:41
Hi, I'm back. Did you enjoy being a fly on the wall for that conversation? I know I did. Now remember, don't try everything you learned today. Pick one or two things you can implement and implement them well. And don't just try something for a week and give up when it's not working. Successful implementation takes time, energy, and repetition. And remember to consult your compliance professionals. We don't want you to get into trouble. Do you have a group of advisors who want to improve their human connection in the AI world? Contact our team to have Johan speak at your conference or event before you go. Please like comment and and subscribe. If you're on YouTube, click the bell for notifications.
