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Good morning. Tri-Village Chamber Partnership.

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This is David , the President and CEO, The Chamber.

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This morning I have Jamie Bartlett with Polypay, who is a new member.

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Welcome. Thank you. And relocating back to Ohio from

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California, I said Columbus, you grew up in Akron.

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I had family.

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So unfortunately, as I said, I was born in Michigan, and I'm very sorry about that.

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You need red, even though absolutely.

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I'm the daughter of two parents from Akron, Ohio.

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I am the granddaughter of a supervisor from Good Rich Tire Company.

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So I am 100% through and through a Buckeye.

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But as they've said, I needed a passport to come through state lines because

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Unfortunately, I was like, I didn't choose is where I was born.

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But I can choose where I am now. But doesn't it give you immigration status

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here in Ohio because your parents were born here?

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I think so. I get Grandfather Dan, maybe a little, maybe.

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Like I'm a dreamer. Is it like I'm in the Ohio dreamer after

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something like wanting to have that residence full time back in La.

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So I'm very excited to be back. And I know we've had conversations about how you got to California and everything.

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So tell everybody a little bit about your transition.

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Sure. California and how you got with palsy?

1:25

Sure. Absolutely. So as I said, born in Michigan, I lived in

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Michigan for a while and then part of my high school years in St Louis.

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So another part of the Midwest that I enjoyed and came back to family.

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I had family. Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Akron.

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So kind of all over the state. So I was always back there.

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I went back to school. I went to College in Boston at Wellesley.

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Had never been to California before, always been in East Coast Midwest person got a job out there in marketing

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and didn't even know where Irvine, California was.

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I thought, well, let's go for it. So I started out in marketing there.

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And then the tech bubble and whatnot occurred.

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So I'm dating myself that I went back to school.

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I went back and got a graduate degree and went back to work.

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I got hired and consulting for Accenture, which is a massive global.

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It's like working for another another country, sort of.

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It's a very, very big company.

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So I worked up in San Francisco for many years.

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It was a great job for someone who was still sort of trying to figure out who they were.

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So I got to work in tech, in legal Union work, HR Leadership Development.

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Never thought I would start my own company.

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I'm a daughter of a banker. So my father worked for National Bank of

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Detroit for many years, and he worked in the trust operations.

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So I always kind of grew up watching him talk about financial a taking care of

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customers, taking care of people's monies in their future.

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And he worked also in merchant processing, which Poly Pay is a part of.

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And I thought, if I were to start a company, where would I put it?

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And at that time, my parents had purchased

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a second home in San Louis Obispo, California.

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And that's one. I still can't pronounce that San Louis Obispo.

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San Louis, or people like to effectually call it slow.

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They just call it slow. I'm going to slow.

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And it's a good and bad phrase for that.

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It depends on if you're a local bear, they

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don't like it too much, but it's easier than San Louis Obispo.

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So it was funny. They went from St Louis, Missouri, to San Louis Obispo.

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And so they purchased a second home.

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I lived and worked in San Francisco and La.

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And I thought, well, if I'm going to start something, what a kind of perfect middle

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of the state, perfect sized city, because it's one of those cities

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where if you do something wrong, everybody knows.

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And if you do something great, everybody knows.

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So it kept me on my toes. And I have a question then, because I'm going to talk to you about your best

3:59

health and different things. What made you go from corporate to start

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your own business? What was the driving force?

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I think I learned a lot growing with big corporations.

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I worked for Accenture, which at the time

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had 120,000 people working across the world for it.

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I had worked for Pacific Gas and Electric, as often happens in the consulting

4:21

industry, I jumped ship for a customer that I was working with.

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So I had been assigned to PG and E for a

4:28

few years, and they asked me to come and work directly for them.

4:31

And that would was another large company, 35 to 45,000 people that worked for it.

4:37

And I learned a lot. But it was I think what I learned is it's so difficult to tilt and create change.

4:45

There were so many levels to go through to

4:48

Titrate and just change tack even on the smallest things.

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It took multiple meetings.

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You had to wait for people. And then you just have the people that have been there a long time.

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They were afraid of change. They didn't understand these younger people.

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Both of those companies were more geared

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towards an average employee was in their 40s or 50s.

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So we were trying to bring some new thought to it.

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And there was just a lot of pushback. And eventually you could get yourself heard.

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But it took such a long time. And I thought, all right, one thing, what industry interested in?

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What problem do I want to solve?

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And I thought, well, merchant processing is an interest is an industry that is rife with bad actors and taking advantage

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of business owners that don't have time to figure out something like that.

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Look, they have to get something that's going to get them their money every day swipe a card, and that's it.

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I thought, Well, let me do that. And then I just love the idea of having my own little island where you could just

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wake up one day and go, no, you know, we're going to do this, and you just got

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to push the button or sign the document, and that's where you're going.

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And that's what I love most of that. David and Polly Pay has been in existence for how long now?

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I was formed in 2014, so we're just about seven years old.

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It was early January of 2014.

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So, yeah, I can't believe that it's already been seven years.

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Why you chose up Er, Arlington to relocate?

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Yes. Yes. Why I picked Columbus specifically also,

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just because coming home to the Homeland, as they call it.

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And it is funny because when we email back

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and forth and she's in California, she's like, I'm coming to the Homeland.

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And I just chuckled to myself knowing, yeah.

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And I'm like, I'm just count down. Like I said before, it's like Christmas, I'm like, all right.

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Six more get ups until I get to the Homeland, because that's what I grew grew up.

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My parents were always going out, let's get back to the Homeland.

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And that's where, as my mom would say,

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people are smarter, nicer and better looking.

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We're from Ohio. So I picked Columbus because it was just a good in between space for both family.

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And then in Ohio, it was so easy to get to other cities.

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I loved Columbus because I'd read a lot

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about it, and it sounded like such a fun city.

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It was growing. There was a lot of different industries.

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There were a lot of interesting entrepreneurial people coming there.

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It's I read that it's a test market for a lot of different types of businesses that

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I knew I could support and provide services, too.

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So I think that's why I picked it. And then kind of just driving through

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Columbus, I got a little bit of a San Louis Obispo

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vibe, but not quite from here that I like the size of this area.

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And there was again, so much going on farmers markets and pop up shops and all of that.

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And I thought, there's so much runway ahead here.

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I'd love to be a part of it. And we're glad you're here. Thank you.

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I think this connection is very strong.

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And it's interesting when you meet certain

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people where you just feel all of a sudden feel that connection.

7:59

Right? Yes. So I'm going to step away from Poly pain and talk more about you.

8:05

So we had talked about one of our initiatives is be your best self.

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Who is your best self? I love that.

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I love when somebody is very social.

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And I throw a question and then they go.

8:22

My gosh, wow. Yeah.

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I think you get different versions of your best self as you go through life.

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When I look at 21 year old Jamie, where

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you think I'm doing the best I can I think it's all dependent upon

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goals for yourself, all the tools that you've picked up along the way.

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I think if I could say the best self for

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me, it's somebody who is with Poly pay, for instance.

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I know bringing that back up. No, that's fine. That's it.

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I just I became so entwined with Poly pay as I started to create it, because being

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an advocate for people, calling on for people to advocate for themselves as

9:03

business owners and making sure that they're well taken care of.

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And that's why we're a little bit different is I think I've incorporated

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that best self into the fabric of Poly pay.

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And to the people that also work with us

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is we're constantly, constantly on the lookout for we're a smaller ISO.

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I'm one of the few women owned ISOs they call out in the country in this industry.

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But I think that it's someone who is

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getting up every day and problem solving and looking out for the customer and

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looking ahead for them and making sure they're being not over served underserved

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and just preparing them for success, whatever their success looks like.

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So I think I love it every day. I think I might be a different version of

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my best self, depending on what problems I'm solving for somebody.

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And, you know, before we

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started, we sat down and you talking to Brad about what's he does and who he is.

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And you asked him the question. And I'm going to ask you the question in

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fourth grade, what did you see yourself doing?

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I saw myself as a banker. I used to draw myself in this big Brown table.

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I still probably draw about the same sad,

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like in a little pinstripe suit with a ponytail.

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And I was sitting there on the phone and I

10:18

had papers in front of it because that's what I imagined.

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That's what I was seeing with my dad. I thought there's something where just sort of like me there.

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And there was like a window and son and all of that.

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And I thought, yeah, I want to be a banker.

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I want to interact with people. And so it was always kind of that.

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But I didn't know what that entailed at the time.

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I just thought, all right, my dad goes out every day and he's solving problems for

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people and he's making sure their money safe. And I thought, that sounds like a really good person to be.

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So yeah, I did at that time think of that.

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And then going into consulting, it was

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fantastic for somebody got right out of College who didn't know necessary

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necessarily at that point, how they were going to get from banking.

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I ended up being a Liberal arts major, English and economics major.

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And I thought, well, how do I turn that into banking?

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Let me go find myself.

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And that's where with Accenture, it was interesting because I got to be in different pockets in different industries.

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So it was like having nine different jobs over five years.

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It was great. Well, and it's interesting because with the beer best self, we did a leadership

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panel in February. And one of the questions that we ask our

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panel is during the past year and a half or even throughout your career,

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what did you have to give up? Personal, professional? What do you feel you gave up

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to get to where you are today in every day long? What do you have to give up?

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Sometimes I think it's planning things for yourself.

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It's always having to be available. I think I always joke that my dad used to

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always joke, and it's like the same for me. He said, look, we're a corporate family.

12:00

So depending on what the business needed

12:03

or his team needed, were you going to make it to that vacation nine times out of ten?

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We didn't would we have to be rescheduled or something like that?

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I think you have to build your personal life around

12:15

your customers, but I don't see that as a giving up.

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It's a because when I see how happy they are and they feel like they're taking care

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of, I don't feel like that's that's a loss.

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It's like the company sort of become me, too.

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Again, like we talked about it. We've become together.

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So I think giving up probably kind of maybe planning a few things for yourself.

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But that's it. And, you know, we were talking to we have

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our book club to radical empowerment movement.

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And one of the things and I saw a few pages to go don't tell Cary, but one of the things in the book.

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And then we said, it's not rocket science, but it's like a slap in the face to Hello.

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Yes, this is what we need to be doing.

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And with that, Kerry had talked about her

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being on all the time when she was in corporate America and vacations.

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And you make that separation between your personal and professional life.

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So when you vacation, do you turn your work life on and being a business owner, can you do that?

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I think you have to to a certain extent, because you have to step back.

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And then again, using the best self phrase while doing that, you're ensuring that

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you're bringing your best self forward when your customer needs it.

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But no, I can say wherever I've been, you be in bed at night.

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I joke. It's like you're laying in bed looking up. And it's it's like Queen's Gambit, where

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you're like you're moving the pieces across the ceiling or something.

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And I think that's when you love

13:48

something, you do again, it incorporates into yourself as well.

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But, yeah, I try to do a little bit of separation.

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But in our industry, not all businesses are nine to five, certainly.

14:00

And some have very odd hours. And I've had employees that get calls when

14:04

they're in the shower on a Saturday morning. That's happened when they mowed the lawn,

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when they're out at a concert and they take that call.

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I'm grateful that they kind of follow the

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same excitement and involvement that I have for the company.

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And the other thing we talked about is carries Palpal shoes.

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Yes. What's your pal pal? You're super here. What is that driving force?

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What is that driving force? I know.

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I love that. Number two, number two.

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And here's one thing I notice when it comes to talking about you, you

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take a deep breath and then formulate your answer.

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But your business so that separation come sometimes.

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But what is your Palpal? Not your business right outside of your business.

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I'll put that challenge on.

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And I guess when you say Papa, because it's interesting.

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As I went through the book, I don't know if it takes on a different

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if it takes on a different visualization for other people.

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Again, I don't know. I'm going to sound like a bit like a

15:22

broken record, David, but it's just that getting up there and every day

15:27

is a new day and everything is limitless at that point.

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I'm just excited about that. I don't know what the day is going to be, and I just look forward.

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It's an energy thing. I think it's looking forward to what's happening and

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what I can do and what's going to get thrown my way.

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I don't know what it is. It's the problem solving, the aspects.

15:47

I like that I get a lot of energy.

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And the people that work at Polyp get a lot of energy from interacting with customers and being with them, being on

15:55

site with them and educating them and training them.

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And it's that I think we all get sort of

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that contact tie off of the human interaction because the companies

16:04

themselves are interesting, but learning about why they built them or how they came

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to be or how many generations have gone through that's.

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Where I get a contact tie off is just that

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I learned so much from them, and hopefully they learn from us, too.

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And it's interesting because I never thought about my Palpal.

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Our personalities are very similar.

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So my Palpal is bringing people together,

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whether it's personal or professional, and watching them in Iraq.

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I thrive off of that. And when I can sit back and say, okay, this is working.

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I know I'm doing what I'm meant to be

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doing in the book, and I'm going to use this because we were talking about it.

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What's fun to you? What do you think is fun things to do?

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Because it talks about how growing old we give up.

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That fun that, you know, it's working in

16:58

different things of that sort. So what is your fund?

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I love, too. And maybe that's just a nod to the Liberal art side.

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I love reading and I love writing.

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So that's my outlet. I do a lot, not necessarily journaling,

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but I do a lot of just writing, a lot of it's more kind of taking down my thoughts

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and whatnot and what I've learned, and it has to go somewhere.

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I think otherwise, I don't know what I would do.

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So it's always learning. I love the fact that you should never stop learning.

17:28

I think maybe some people give that up with business.

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You can see some businesses where they've just sort of reached a certain Plateau,

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and that's where and it's reflective of the owner or whatever, whether they don't

17:39

have the time or whatever it is, it just stays on that level.

17:43

And I don't ever want to have that kind of company or be that kind of person where

17:47

you're not learning because you never know who you're going to meet.

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That's what I didn't know I would meet you. I would learn so much.

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You've taught me so much about Columbus and the areas and where to go.

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And I probably pestered you with too many emails.

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I can't wait. Can I ask you one more thing?

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As I said, I'm coming back in your inbox again.

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So I think that's it. It's just learning. I'd have to keep learning.

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And I know that should never stop. And that's what keeps me going, too.

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And I think you hit it when you become stagnant.

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You've stopped. I've been on profit world almost 30 years,

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so it's not necessarily totally reinventing, but adjusting with the times.

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How have you adjusted with the times over the past year and a half?

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She was almost two years now.

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For the company, for Polyp. It was a big thing because what happened when the world kind of stopped turning for

18:38

a while was businesses had to figure out how to sink or swim.

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And we were on the forefront of that with

18:45

people that look, how do I keep my business open?

18:47

How do I keep my employees in my customers safe?

18:49

How do I keep the dollars coming through the front door in a safe manner that is easy to use.

18:56

So several customers, we had to go and

18:59

figure out and reinvent, use different tools, do ecommerce things, use mobile

19:04

payments, whatever it would work, contactless pickups, contactless payments,

19:09

whatever it took to kind of keep doors open that way.

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Every a majority of our customers came back to

19:15

us and said, all right, rules have changed.

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So what do we need to do? And that's why I'm grateful, though, as we always told them, come back to us.

19:23

Don't do the research by yourself.

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Let us know that this is our pocket we're good at.

19:28

Let us come in and help you figure out how to get through it.

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And Thankfully, I'm grateful about 98% of our customers made it through the pandemic

19:37

and whatnot we had a couple that just couldn't do it.

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And I certainly understand that it's what you can do.

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But they came out of it, I think, with a renewed faith.

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I hope for us and that they

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can side step when something like this comes through their doors.

19:55

And that's the thing. And as a business owner, a women business owner, what advice

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to give up to up and coming young women in future business owners?

20:06

Sure. I think you have to always look for again networking.

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That's what I'm excited about being a part of the Chamber.

20:13

I think never knowing who you're going to run into, being open to any kind of

20:17

opportunity, don't immediately kind of read something that doesn't.

20:21

Yeah, of course. What is the opportunity cost of your time?

20:25

But what could it be? What not knowing.

20:28

So I think putting yourself out there doing resources, asking any kind of

20:33

question, as you know, David, stupid or not. I mean, do you think it is or not?

20:37

I mean, I think that's the thing I've

20:39

learned is every day there's a different opportunity to learn something, meet

20:43

someone who knows where that's going to go down the road.

20:46

And I think I'm an example of that from I have relationships from more than half a

20:52

lifetime go that I still have for a reason that I just went on a Lark.

20:56

I thought, yeah, I'll go to this event or I'll go to this again, like this the book club.

21:01

I'll go to this open event. I'll go, oh, and there's just some free network.

21:05

Let me go down there and talk and

21:07

hand business cards out and raise your hand a lot.

21:11

Or like, I am getting to David's email box a lot and say, what about this?

21:16

What about that? I love this phrase from my father says, you don't ask.

21:21

You don't get. I think that's what you do.

21:24

You have to put yourself out there. And I don't think it's the case anymore for women.

21:28

But maybe it was years ago. I think there's a lot of fierce women out

21:33

there that I had no clue existed until I started going out there.

21:36

And I go, Whoa. Okay. Wow. Yeah. I want to be you.

21:39

It was like the one woman poster or something.

21:42

And again, I like, we talked about that

21:44

energy there's that contact high off of people like that.

21:47

And suddenly your mind starts working and you start thinking about things you never thought before.

21:52

Well, we have a new member that joined

21:54

last week, and she is a first time business owner.

21:59

Purchased the business in December, and we connected.

22:05

And I forget how. No, actually, it was through Facebook, the UA discussion group.

22:10

And you ain't nutrition. I met with her, Marissa.

22:14

We sat and talked, and it's about conversations and thinking outside the box and Zigging and Zagging.

22:23

So you're right. There are so many powerful, strong women in this Chamber in the Try Village area.

22:33

Yes. And I can see to you one of those.

22:35

Bless you. Thank you. And that's another great example.

22:38

I had to David, the other day. I was at a networking event in San Louis.

22:44

Obispo slow and young Gal came up to me, and we were talking, and I loved it.

22:50

One of the events, they had just sort of a handful of questions on the table.

22:53

They're like, just ask these ice breakers. And one of the questions was, Well, what are you afraid of?

23:01

And she said, Well, I'm afraid I'm going to fail.

23:05

And I said, Well, why? She had been in the eye care industry for about seven years, and it was a good job.

23:12

But when the pandemic kit, she couldn't deal with it anymore.

23:16

And so she was a fantastic photographer.

23:18

She showed me her pictures and whatnot she

23:20

said, so in the middle of the pandemic, I opened a photography studio.

23:24

I said, I would consider that a huge success.

23:27

I think you conquered your fears there by doing that.

23:31

I mean, who else would start a business in the middle of a pandemic?

23:35

Not it's going to happen. And she stood up a couple more inches

23:39

taller, and she's like, oh, I hadn't thought about that.

23:41

I said, sure, because you're down in the trenches doing it.

23:45

You don't even realize until you pop your head up.

23:47

Oh, I'm still here. Everything's going well.

23:50

I'm actually doing something. And that's the fun part.

23:53

You don't even realize it. And then at the end,

23:55

you've built the track and you turn around and you go, wow, that's a lot of miles.

24:00

I was so happy for her. I was excited for her.

24:03

And I hope left feeling better because she thought that she hadn't gotten anywhere.

24:08

And she had dozens of customers and a studio.

24:11

And I thought, My goodness, Gal, you're doing great.

24:15

And I think that's where the seasoned professionals as yourself come in and help

24:23

with the next generation of business owners.

24:25

So if somebody wants to get a hold of you about Polyp, they contact sure.

24:29

Yeah, we'd love it. It's a conversation that if somebody just doesn't understand their processing

24:34

solution, if they're doing the right thing, or if they're getting the right

24:38

rate for something, if they just want somebody who's going to break it down for

24:42

them, and we'll take as much time as they need to educate them.

24:46

So our website is Poly Pay Com. It's P-O-L-Y-P-A-Y com.

24:51

You can send us an email at Info at Poly Pay com.

24:54

Or we love phone calls, too. 80559 two 2700.

24:59

All right, Jamie, thank you. We could go on for hours.

25:03

I know we could. And if you miss all that, you can always

25:08

contact me at Info Chamber Partnership org.

25:11

Jamie, thank you. Thank you for the time. I look forward to the future with you,

25:14

part of the Tri-Village Chamber Partnership. And have a great day, everybody. Yes.

25:18

Thank you.