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Austin Mac Nab, founder and CEO of Iowa-based payment processing service VizyPay, wanted to hire Ricky Onofre as soon as they met at a local Sprint store, where Onofre worked at the time. "He was a good salesman and seemed like a very genuine guy," Mac Nab recalls. "I just basically said, 'Hey, if you're ever looking for something, swing by our janky office.'" The business he'd launched in 2017 was still very much a startup at that point, Mac Nab explains.
Sprint was about to be acquired by T-Mobile. The "writing was on the wall," Onofre says, so he took Mac Nab up on his offer to join VizyPay in 2019. He began in tech support and made the jump to sales director about eight months later. Over the nearly three years that followed, Onofre built up a team of roughly 45 people.
"My mindset was honestly pretty bad. I didn't ask for help. I was really bad about that."
However, as the company continued to grow, so did Onofre's concerns about the direction of his work. He felt stagnant and no longer had as much communication with or guidance from Mac Nab. "My mindset was honestly pretty bad," Onofre admits, "and I didn't ask for help. I was really bad about that."
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Onofre left the company in October 2022. When he told Mac Nab he was ready to move on, Mac Nab says he had a "heat-of-moment" reaction — and told Onofre, "Fine, there's the door."
In the days that followed, the men exchanged a series of text messages. When Onofre inquired about the possibility of working for a competitor, Mac Nab was reminded of himself in his 20s. "I was hard-headed," Mac Nab explains. "I was hungry; I didn't ask for help very often. I wanted to do it all myself, and that's who he is in general. He's a guy that wants to find solutions and get things done."
"The business world is not as easy as people think. It's cold-blooded."
Mac Nab didn't want Onofre to make some of the mistakes he made throughout his career.
"I've been in this business since I was 18," Mac Nab says. "So I live it. I breathe it. I bleed this business. I turn 40 this year, and this is all I know. So, every dumb mistake that I've seen anyone make, I have made, and I've had lawyers at my doorstep. I've had people call me out. I was naive to the fact that the business world is not as easy as people think. It's cold-blooded."
That's why Mac Nab sent Onofre a cease-and-desist letter. It wasn't about trying to prevent Onofre from making a living, according to Mac Nab; it was about protecting Onofre's professional reputation. If Onofre were to "start stealing employees and clients," not only would Mac Nab's business pay the price, but Onofre would also have to deal with the fallout — at his next company and potentially even further down the line.
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Neither man was thrilled that the relationship appeared to be ending on such poor terms. After Onofre received the cease-and-desist order, his younger cousin, who also works at VizyPay, encouraged Onofre to talk it out with his former boss. Onofre was at his gym when he texted Mac Nab and proposed another conversation.
"You're not just hungry. You're an entrepreneur at heart."
Mac Nab drove to the gym and met Onofre in the parking lot. The men considered sitting on the curb to have their discussion, but it was a chilly October evening, and the sun was going down, so they opted for the car instead.
"We sat in a parking lot for three hours, and we talked, and I explained why I [issued the cease-and-desist order]," Mac Nab says. "And I also explained to him that you're not just hungry. You're an entrepreneur at heart, and my whole goal is for you not to make the same mistakes I made, regardless of if you work with us or not. But I think it is a mistake if you go elsewhere because the grass is not always greener on the other side."
Mac Nab says it's rare for him to fight for an employee to the extent that he fought for Onofre. By the end of their three-hour conversation, during which they went over the breakdown in communication and what had led them to that point, Mac Nab offered Onofre his job back.
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"We go side by side on this journey," Mac Nab recalls saying. "I don't walk ahead of you; I don't walk behind you. I walk right beside you on this journey in the payment space, and hopefully, you and your family benefit from it, and then the people you're helping benefit from it, and we as a group benefit from it."
"I'm a much different person. I look at things a lot differently."
Onofre hadn't expected an invitation to rejoin the company, but he was glad for the second chance. "I didn't want to lose the friendship that we had gained," Onofre says. "He's done a lot for me, him and Frank [Pagano] [VizyPay's managing partner], and when someone does so much for you, you don't want to end on a bad note."
The duo did a "quick brainstorm" about what it would be like for Onofre to rejoin VizyPay — "You let people down," Mac Nab recalls telling Onofre, "[and] as soon as you left, you caused an eruption." But Onofre's commitment to being back with his team helped pave the path for his return, and despite some anxiety similar to being the new kid in school, his new perspective was a game changer.
"I'm actually glad [my leaving and return] happened," Onofre says. "Because I'm a much different person. I look at things a lot differently. And I don't really tell people I'm [in] sales, so to speak. I'm more on the business development [side], helping others grow their business."
"Having one aggressive or hard conversation a day means you're growing."
Now, Onofre and Mac Nab communicate more than they ever did, even though they're not necessarily working side by side every day. "We might not talk for hours," Onofre explains. "[But] there's something at least said every day in our communication, or if I do have a problem, I go to him and say, 'Hey, I need you for 10 or 15 minutes.'"
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For his part, Mac Nab has learned that it's okay to have a difference in opinion, but the key is to have important conversations, even when they're uncomfortable or challenging — and perhaps especially then.
"Having one aggressive or hard conversation a day means you're growing," Mac Nab says, "or even two or three — that means you'd maybe learn two or three times that day how to grow. But if you're not having those conversations, you're not growing. You're failing, and you're going to be disappointed. And that's how I look at what we do for a living."
