Austin MacNab, Founder and CEO of Iowa-based payment processing company WizyPaydesired to hire Ricky Onofre as soon as they met at a local Sprint store, where Onofre was working at the time. “He was a good salesman and seemed like a really genuine guy,” Mac Nab recalls. “I just said, ‘Hey, if you’re ever looking for anything, come by our crappy office.’” The company he founded in 2017 was still very much a startup at the time, Mac Nab explains.
Sprint was about to be acquired by T-Mobile. “The writing was on the wall,” Onofre says, so he accepted Mac Nab’s offer and joined VizyPay in 2019. He began in technical support and was promoted to sales director about eight months later. Over the next three years, Onofre built a team of about 45 people.
“Honestly, my attitude was pretty bad. I didn’t ask for help. I was really bad about it.”
But as the company grew, Onofre became increasingly concerned about the direction of his work. He felt stuck and didn’t get as much communication or guidance from Mac Nab. “My state of mind was honestly pretty bad,” Onofre admits, “and I didn’t ask for help. I was really angry about it.”
Onofre left the company in October 2022. When he told Mac Nab he was ready to go away, Mac Nab says he reacted “with a rush of emotion” — and told Onofre, “Okay, here’s the door.”
In the days that followed, the men exchanged a series of text messages. When Onofre asked about working for a competitor, Mac Nab remembered himself at 20. “I was stubborn,” Mac Nab explains. “I was hungry; I didn’t ask for help very often. I wanted to do everything myself, and that’s just how he is. He’s a guy who 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 the mistakes he had made throughout his profession.
“I’ve been in this business since I was 18,” Mac Nab says. “So I live it. I breathe it. I bleed it. I’m turning 40 this year, and that’s all I know. So every stupid mistake I’ve seen, I’ve made, and I’ve had lawyers at my door. People calling me names. I was naive about the fact that the business world isn’t as easy as people think. It’s cold-blooded.”
So Mac Nab sent Onofre a cease and desist letter. According to Mac Nab, it wasn’t about stopping Onofre from making a living; it was about protecting Onofre’s skilled popularity. If Onofre “started stealing employees and customers,” not only would Mac Nab pay the price, but Onofre would also have to deal with the consequences—at his next company and potentially beyond.
Neither man was thrilled that the relationship was apparently ending on such bad terms. After Onofre was served with a cease and desist order, his younger cousin, who also works at VizyPay, encouraged Onofre to speak it over with his former boss. Onofre was at the gym when he texted Mac Nab and suggested they talk again.
“You’re not just hungry. You’re an entrepreneur at heart.”
Mac Nab drove to the gym and met Onofre in the car parking zone. The men considered sitting on the curb and talking, but it was a cool October evening and the sun was setting, so they opted for the automotive.
“We sat in the car parking zone for three hours, talking, and I explained why… [issued the cease-and-desist order]”, says Mac Nab. “And I also explained to him that you simply’re not only hungry. You’re an entrepreneur at heart, and my goal is to make sure you do not make the same mistakes I did, whether you’re employed with us or not. But I think it’s a mistake to go someplace else, because the grass is not all the time greener on the other side.”
Mac Nab says he rarely fights for an worker as hard as he did for Onofre. At the end of their three-hour conversation, during which they discussed the breakdown in communication and what had brought them so far, Mac Nab offered Onofre his job back.
“We’re walking this journey side by side,” Mac Nab recalls. “I’m not walking in front of you; I’m not walking behind you. I’m walking right next to you on this journey in the payments space, and I hope that you and your family benefit from that, and then the people you help benefit from that, and we as a group benefit from that.”
“I’m a completely different person. I look at things completely differently.”
Onofre wasn’t expecting to be asked to rejoin the company, but he was comfortable to have a second likelihood. “I didn’t want to lose the friendship we had built,” Onofre says. “He did a lot for me, for himself, and for Frank [Pagano] [VizyPay’s managing partner]and when someone has done so much for you, you don’t want to end on a bad note.”
The duo had a “quick brainstorming session” on what it could seem like for Onofry to rejoin VizyPay—“You let people down,” Mac Nab recalls telling Onofry,[and] As soon as you left, you caused an eruption.” But Onofre’s commitment to returning to his team helped pave the way for his return, and despite some anxiety similar to that felt by a new student at school, his new perspective was a game-changer.
“I’m really comfortable [my leaving and return] happened,” Onofre says. “Because I’m a completely different person. I look at things completely in a different way. And I do not really tell people I’m [in] sales, so to talk. I’m more interested in business development [side]helping others grow their business.”
“Having one aggressive or difficult conversation a day means you are growing.”
Now Onofre and Mac Nab communicate more than ever, even though they don’t necessarily work side by side every day. “We can go hours without talking,” Onofre explains.[But] “There’s at least one comment in our communication every day, and if I have a problem, I go to him and say, ‘Hey, I would like you for 10 or quarter-hour.'”
Mac Nab, on the other hand, understood that it’s okay to have different opinions, but the key is to have vital conversations, even when they’re uncomfortable or difficult — and perhaps especially so.
“One aggressive or difficult conversation a day means you’re growing,” says Mac Nab, “or even two or three—that means maybe two or three times a day you learn how to grow. But if you’re not having those conversations, you’re not growing. You’re going to fail and you’re going to be disappointed. And that’s how I look at what we do for a living.”