About the Show:

"Financial wellness transforms communities."

– Alfred Milan, CEO Express Wages

In this episode of I Am Northwest Arkansas®, host Randy Wilburn sits down with Alfred Milan, founder and CEO of Express Wages—a connection made at a recent StartUP NWA VC event—to explore how giving employees faster access to their paychecks can transform small businesses across the region.

Alfred shares his journey from leading a Memphis healthcare company to launching Express Wages—inspired by workers who simply couldn't wait two weeks to access money they'd already earned. You'll hear how Earned Wage Access (EWA) strengthens hiring and retention, why financial literacy is a game-changer, and how small businesses can compete with big corporations for talent—without spending a dime extra.

Whether you own a local business, care about your team's well-being, or just want practical solutions for paycheck-to-paycheck challenges, this episode delivers insights and tools you can put to work right away.

Key Takeaways:

• Earned Wage Access (EWA): Employees can access a portion of their pay as they earn it—no more waiting two weeks for a paycheck. This helps 79% of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck.
• Leveling the Playing Field: Small businesses can compete for talent by providing speedy wage access and financial wellness tools, just like big companies.
• Employee Retention and Morale: On-demand pay and useful financial education build loyalty, reduce turnover costs, and support personal emergencies for workers.
• No Cost to Employers: Express Wages gives businesses value with no invoices or hidden fees. Employees only pay a small fee if they use the service, and there’s even a free option.
• Extra Benefits: Express Wages partners with organizations offering budgeting tools, credit repair, legal support, and identity theft protection—empowering employees for the long term.
• Fast, Easy Setup: Most companies can launch Express Wages in just 5–7 minutes, connecting easily with payroll providers like ADP, Paylocity, Paychex, or QuickBooks Cloud.

All this and more on this episode of the I Am Northwest Arkansas® podcast.

Important Links and Mentions on the Show*

• Express Wages – Request Your Free Demo
• LinkedIn: Alfred Milan
• Call or text Alfred Milan: 901-489-3915
• Partners mentioned: Monarch Money, LegalShield, Allstate
• Organizations referenced: Northwest Arkansas Council, Walmart, City of Memphis

This episode is sponsored by*

Signature Bank of Arkansas "Community Banking at its Best!"

FindItNWA.com

Try ONBoardNWA.com Today!

*Note: some of the resources mentioned may be affiliate links. This means we get paid a commission (at no extra cost to you) if you use that link to make a purchase.

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Thank you for listening to this I am Northwest Arkansas podcast episode. We showcase businesses, culture, entrepreneurship, and life in the Ozarks.

Consider donating to our production team to keep this podcast running smoothly. Donate to I Am Northwest Arkansas

Hey folks, and welcome back to I Am Northwest Arkansas, the podcast where we share

stories and insights to help you connect, grow and

thrive right here in the Ozarks. Earlier this year, at the

Northwest Arkansas Council VC event at the Ledger, I

had the pleasure of meeting today's guest, Alfred Milan, the

founder and CEO of Express Wages. Alfred is leading

the way in Earned Wage Access, a financial tool

that gives employees faster access to their pay

while also equipping them with free financial literacy

resources. He's also one of the First African American CEOs

in this fintech space and his mission is deeply rooted in

helping businesses support their people and communities.

If you're a small business owner here in Northwest Arkansas, this

conversation is especially for you. We're going to explore how

Earned Wage access can help you recruit and retain

employees, reduce turnover, and strengthen the

financial well being of your team. Let's dive in.

It's time for another episode of I Am Northwest

Arkansas, the podcast covering the intersection of

business, culture, entrepreneurship and life in

general here in the Ozarks. Whether you are considering a

move to this area or trying to learn more about the place you call

home, we've. Got something special for you. Here's

our host, Randy. Wilbur,

my man, Alfred Milan. How are you doing today, Randy? I am

doing outstanding. Thank you for having me today. I really appreciate it.

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, man, I'm so glad we had a chance to

connect. It's so funny, you relayed to me how we

kind of ran into each other at the VC event at the Ledger

earlier this year and you know, like attracts like, as I

always say, but for whatever reason, you just kind of came over to me and

introduced yourself and I was like, hey man, how are you? Nice to meet you.

You told me what you were working on and I gotta say, that

room, it was such a powerful testament to what Northwest Arkansas

is going through right now because there were just so many movers and

shakers in that room at that VC event. Seraphina Lalany,

who works with the Council, is doing an amazing job bringing

the VC and private equity community

to Northwest Arkansas to find out what's happening in our

backyard. And so the simple fact that you were there, you came from

Memphis, speaks volumes to the amazing work that Seraphina

and the rest of her team from the Northwest Arkansas Council is doing.

So I just want to give them a quick shout out, but without further ado,

man, I. I just want to share who you are and a

little bit about what you've been doing. So just give us a little Bit of

your background and your. As we always like to say here on I Am Northwest

Arkansas, your superhero origin story. Thank you. It's

an honor to be here and welcome to all your listeners. It's a blessing to

be here. I'm from Memphis, born and raised. And like you said, I was at

the Ledger last year. It was incredible. I didn't realize

how many entrepreneurs, not even just in northwest Arkansas are from around the

country who are looking for VC dollars, looking for opportunities. And so

this entrepreneurial spirit is really growing in our country. And it was

outstanding to meet so many great people in your area to meet you. Of course

it was. It was an honor. But I think for me, I started off as

a. I was a CEO of a healthcare company here in Memphis with about 200

employees. And our company grew very well and I sold it in January.

And I just for me, I'm an entrepreneur. I'm a serial entrepreneur at

heart. And so I enjoy seeing something develop from zero to something

that kind of gets me going, get my fire burning. And I just think for

us, once I had a couple of my employees begin to ask me questions

about this mantra of having access to their funding. I want to

do some more research around it. And that's how Express wages was birthed. Yeah, well,

and I love that. I would love for you to kind of share, you know,

for small business owners who may not be familiar, can you

explain earned wage access in simple

terms and how Express Wages makes it work?

Excellent. This is a space that is really growing. The first

EWA company started in 2010. It really started exploding

in 2018. There are some other great competitors in this space.

We need even more because of the opportunity and the access. So earn

wage access is exactly what it says. If I'm an employee, I've worked

a shift for that particular day. I have access to my funding. The Sad

thing is 79% of Americans in this country performs in

2024 are paycheck to paycheck. That's a horrible

status of true stat. Or think about it. I'm a single mom making $15

an hour. I work for a company in northwest Arkansas. But

I need to pay something today. I can't wait two weeks. And so this

ability to have access to micro lending is really growing.

And so our wage access is very simple. I work today, I get paid

today. It's almost like the Uber model. So it's really. Is what it is. That's

really changing because $12 stretching it over two weeks in

this economy makes it very difficult Whether it's my Netflix bill,

paying for daycare, paying for expenses, paying for

groceries. So now you have the ability now to really work with

employees to make it better for them. Retention for the employer,

but also morale for the employee. Yeah. And I, I

know that, you know, one of the big challenges with just this whole

conversation is how a lot of small businesses, especially

small businesses here in northwest Arkansas, struggle to

compete with larger corporations for talent. Right.

So how can like offering express wages level

the playing field and make things a little easier for smaller

businesses? Randy. Enough to not even pay you for this. That's a really good point.

Just be clear. Let's be clear. You're not paying me for this. So I just

want everybody to know that this, I reached out, I reached out to

Alfred because I really thought that this information is

uniquely viable for our growing

entrepreneurial community. And I do want to put that out there because I'm always, I

always let you guys know when you listen to this podcast, what's a

sponsored episode, what isn't? This is an episode of

good common business sense and also a way to help small

businesses in our local community take advantage of the

tools and resources that they may not be aware of, but that are at

their disposal so that you can compete with even bigger companies

to get the talent that's out there to work with them. And so with that

said, teeing you up to kind of share your feedback on that.

Absolutely. And that's a very good point, because if I'm a small business owner

in northwest Arkansas and I have 10 employees and all of them quit,

often, I'm in trouble because there's a cost to them quitting. You know,

FedEx did a study not too long ago and said that if you lose an

employee, it's about $5,000 to retrain them. And

so if I have 10 employees and they often quit, then that's really hurting me

from a retention standpoint. So how this really helps the smaller

employer is gives them the ability to really level the playing

field by having a tool. You mentioned that earlier, a tool to help

them with earn wage access. And this tool allows them with

retention. I had an onboarding this morning with a company in Florida

and he said to me, man, I'm just losing employees left and right, working for

Amazon, working for other companies. And this is really going to help me

now because we're going to advertise, we pay same day, we pay

every day, which is a really, really good opportunity and really makes sense.

So if I'm paying every two weeks, it levels the playing field to make you

more competitive, separates you from competitors. But also as an

employee standpoint, it gives me great morale for my employees. If I

have a Netflix bill, I need to pay. If my daughters or recitals he needs

to go to. And I just don't have the money, 80% or paycheck to paycheck.

I now have full autonomy. And that's why we have a tagline. Your wages,

your terms. You have the ability to have access to your own money,

just like Uber does, which is really a great benefit to employees and

to employers. Yeah. And I mean, you know, let's be clear,

everybody's getting into this space. And when I say everybody, I mean I'm talking

about the big kid on the block here in northwest Arkansas, which is Walmart.

I mean, they got into this space and they have one pay,

and one pay opens that opportunity up for a number of

different ways that you can be compensated for your time

and your talent. And so I, I want to be clear that this isn't like

a, a fly by night thing. And this is not something that's going away.

It has been co opted and utilized by

the 1% of top businesses out there. So

this is important information. So I think that, Alfred, if you

could just maybe share a little bit about why this

tool that you guys have put together is so valuable for a

company. Because you kind of marry two things, and you said it briefly, but

you married just that express wages piece, right. Of getting

your money your same day in some instances. But then you

also spoke to a statistic that is a statistic

that's been around for a long time and the number has varied

from time to time. And I've also heard where the average American

doesn't have $400 to pull from in the event of an

emergency. A lot of that is because of financial literacy. We

don't spend enough time with it. Right? That's correct. And it's like, I

wish everybody would watch Dave Ramsey and focus on the beans and rice, rice

and beans and get debt free first before you do anything. But

alas, we are not there. So for one of the things

that I think is really what I really like about express wages is,

is that not only do you make access to their hard earned money

easier, but then you also have provided a

function of financial literacy that kind of marries

the two, which helps an organization, a business that's hiring

people and can offer them not just the simple fact that

hey, we can get you paid quicker, but we can also get you some Additional

data and information that will help you down the road to

better plan for financial surprises and

emergencies that will inevitably appear. Right.

So talk a little bit about how Express Wages does that and why that is

such an important part of your mission. Thank you so much.

This is so very important to me. Not only because of me being an ex

CEO of a care company, when I meet with business owners often

and unfortunately, many companies are not offering really

tangible financial literacy and wellness products that are helping their

employees. So they're doing great work, they're being very productive,

but unfortunately, many of them are dying on the diet because they don't have any

information to help them with their own personal finances. And so when I

started our company, it was critical for me. One of the essence of our

company was to make sure not only do we have the tools, but have some

phenomenal tools that would take them to the next level. As a matter of fact,

you mentioned Walmart. There are several companies right now that are doing this.

McDonald's, Kroger, Walmart, Amazon. I can go on and on and on

that understand the value of giving their employees access.

So what we did to really separate us not only just from other companies, but

really bring significant value, we partnered with some phenomenal

companies that can really help the employee throughout their

entire financial literacy journey. Number one, if you need to do something in

terms of credit repair right now in Memphis, the average

apartment cost to get an apartment in Memphis is

$1,775. That's the average, almost

$2,000. That being the case, we've partnered with

a company that can help them called Covo, help them with credit repair. That, that's

important if you want to buy a home. We have a live person they can

talk to. They can really for free, migrate them through this journey of

buying a home and say, hey, you're not quite there yet. Your credit score needs

to be here. Fannie Mae won't accept you because of this or whatever. I mean,

free information for that employee, which I thought was critical. We also

partnered with a company that's very important called Monarch Money.

Monarch Money is a company that Walmart has exclusively partnered

with. And we looked at this company that we looked at many, but if you

go onto their website, they have a phenomenal budgeting tool

that is incredible to help you budget for the future so you'll know what you

need to save in the future. So we thought that was critical. We just

closed the city of Memphis as a client and the city of Memphis was so

impressed by Monarch Money that They're buying MARNOCK Money in 2026

for every employee. I mean, it's absolutely incredible. They really want to bridge

the gap of financial literacy of all those employees, and so they're doing

that. So we've added some other tools of identity theft and some other things

that we've added that are just critical. Insurance and health care and

Medicare, all that's a part and integrated into our site. So as a

business owner, you now basically have some value added services

and HR benefits that you don't have to pay for through our application.

And here's the most crucial thing, Randy. This is absolutely no cost to the

employer. Let me repeat that again on your podcast. There's no cost. You'll

never get a bill from our company. The fees are paid by the

employee. So these are some really substantial services,

helping you with retention, helping you with morale, helping you with HR

benefits. And you'll never get an invoice from our company. I mean, just incredible.

And we're glad we did it this way. Okay, so then just to piggyback

on that whole idea, because that was actually my next question. A lot of

small business owners would worry about the cost or complexity of doing

something like this. When you talk about just general implementation,

like if my company said, hey, tomorrow, Alfred, I want you to get us

signed up, let's get going, what does that look like? And then is

there any costs whatsoever borne by the company?

And then I have another follow up question with regard to the employee because

certainly we care about how they're viewing or would view this

as well. Yeah, the journey of the onboarding is really simplistic. I

challenged my team to make this so that if I'm a person who doesn't even

know how to use an app, what I do with it, and that was a

challenge and they've succeeded. What I push them to do. The answer is

it depends on their payroll system. We've been very fortunate. We're

connected to 256 payroll providers throughout the country.

So the good news is if you are part of ADP, if you're a part

of Paylocity, pick Tom, pick 4. My company is on paycheck, so

it depends on your what you're even QuickBooks. QuickBooks has a phenomenal product

called QuickBooks Cloud. We connect to their API, so we have

connections already. So it is so easy to do this because

of the API connections that you. To answer your question, if Your company

has 20 employees or more and wanted to partner with us, it would take us

about five to seven minutes to onboard you, to get your team

up and going to, using the application. So it's a really simple process.

And the good news is we get on a, a zoom with you, walk you

through the process, send you the information. We have a, a full support

team there to help you, to guide you, there's any errors, any issues,

you're not left in the dark. We're here to help you to onboard you, to

make it seamless, to make it smooth, but also to make it impactful for your

team. Well, and I think that's important and I, I know every business owner would

appreciate that and, and can appreciate, you know, the way that you guys have

structured this and put it together. Now, on the flip side, you

have a lot of employers, I would say most employers really care about their

employees. How do you respond to whatever

is the onus on the employee in terms of cost?

How are those costs borne out and how do you guys make

it as simple as possible for the employees so they're not

overburdened with a lot of junk fees and extra

fees that ain't nobody got time for. Right. I mean, when you think about

it, so. Right, Absolutely. Yeah. What we did was we made it

really simplistic. Is three buckets in terms of payments for employees.

Bucket number one, if you want your money instantly, which is called instant

or rtp, rapid transfer in the banking world, rtp, which

means I work today, I want my money right now, that's

$4.95. Very simple. There is no

monthly fee structure. It's a simple set fee of

$4.85. If I don't need my money right away, I need it maybe a day

or two days from now. We have an ACH fee structure of

$3.85. And then we have a free structure.

You can put your entire wages on a Visa card,

which is one of our corporate partners. You can put all your wages as an

employee on a Visa card and there's no cost, there's no fee coming out of

that whatsoever. So think about that as an employee. I now have three

structured opportunities. Now for us in terms of Express

wages is either 495, 395 or no cost. Very

simple. We don't do background checks on the employees. We, we don't do

any of that whatsoever on them. There's no fee structure other than that they

need to pay. And this is an optional HR benefit. That's

what I love about this. You don't have to opt into it. And let me

say one other thing too Legalshield is a company that I partner

with that I felt was really phenomenal opportunity as well.

And Legalshield, what they do, and most people don't know that company. If you have

a lot of legal issues, that's the company you want to partner with. You

have access to an attorney 24 hours a day for

$21 a month. I mean, when I had my company, unfortunately I had

a lot of employees, a lot of legal issues. That helps me with

absenteeism. If I got to be in court all the time or on the

phone with my attorney, I can't go to work. That helps. That kills my production

age of work. And so that's why we partnered with them as well. Yeah, because,

I mean, I, you know, there's a lot of legal programs out there like Prepaid

Legal and Rocket Lawyer. I actually use Rocket Lawyer because it's actually

helped me quite a bit with the number issues that I've had

without. And I have some friends that are lawyers too, so there's always that.

So talk about this in Northwest Arkansas. I know you have

hospitality, retail, healthcare. There are a lot of major

employers in those different areas. Can you maybe

share examples of how EWA helps in industries with

high turnover or tight margins in terms of

your services? Yeah, that is really a good point. Even in our

healthcare space, the margins were very slim because the space that we were

in. So me losing employees really hurt me. If I had to

go myself and help out, it just, it just really hurt the company. So

margins were extremely tight. But here's something that's extremely important too. We're

floating the payroll of small companies at 70%.

So how it works, they get 70% of what they make seven days

a week and no cost to the employer. That's very important. So I'm

floating their payroll. So that's how we're helping. Number one, I think that's extremely

important. So think as any employer that has slight

margins, they're thinking, I want to make sure I heard them. They're helping me float

in my payroll. If I got 500 employees. And sometimes you have, like me,

I had insurance, which was. I had a lot of insurance business, but they didn't

pay me to net 90, net 45. So to pay

somebody daily, you're paying your employees early. If you're advancing

that money, but you're not getting your money back for three months, it makes the

margins very difficult for this to work. That's why a third party like

us makes it easy to work, because we're floating the Money and we're not

charging the company for that. And that's really a good opportunity for the employer

to grow their margins. Because why I'm helping floating their payroll at

no cost. That's extremely important. Yeah. Wow, that's pretty

cool. Obviously you have to have a nice little nest egg to be able to

do that. So I mean that, that always helps. So

have you had feedback from some of your employees

as it pertains specific employers that you've worked with as it

pertains specifically to employee retention. Right. Which is the challenge we were just

talking about. How has express wages affected

employee satisfaction and loyalty with some of your clients?

I want to go back to the industry. I forgot that question. I want to

make sure I hit that. What we have found is call centers,

restaurants, manufacturing warehouses,

all those types of companies that have what we call it gig

workers. But even what we've learned, because 79% of the people in this

country are paycheck to paycheck, even professional people have financial

emergencies and they use an app like this. So excuse me. So

it's not just people who are gig workers. You can be a person who's a

salary person and still affects them. And that's important. But I think for

us and kind of what we're doing right now and what we've seen, I had

my company, I went from 65% retention to

38.5%. And the field I was in is very expensive using something

like this. So the good news is we have analytics on the application.

So it's very measurable how you can do this. When you start with us,

you kind of. And what we've done, we've interviewed three owners and asked them

what has been the major benefit of using something like this. We have

an owner who has three Smoothie Kings here in Memphis. What he said was

this has been such a great recruiting tool for our company. It has

been just relentless that anytime we recruit now, we tell

anybody we pay daily, we pay same day. And so now it is

helping us retain good employees. Because what was happening is if we

didn't offer that they were going to another company that did because they were only

wanting part time work, some of them were full time. So to answer your

question, it really intangibly affects

immediately recourse in terms of retention and numbers. And

another thing he mentioned to me was he said, alfred, we weren't offering insurance,

but because you offer insurance on your application and in Memphis you have to

have 50 full time employees and they don't have 50 for each location,

they're now offering insurance, which is Allstate, which one of our partners

through the application. So we've seen some major benefits

to companies by, by using our application, not just retention,

but also the other value added services as well. Yeah, I mean, that, that

sounds like that's a tremendous benefit for them. You know,

one of the things that you said earlier, and we've talked about it, is just

that you've emphasized that financial insecurity is a

community issue. Right. It's kind of like we all have to bear the brunt of

this and we all have to help. How do you see small businesses

playing a role in improving local economic wellness?

Great question. That's a really good question. I've been on a lot of podcasts. No

one's ever asked me that. I think in my opinion the owner has to

take the accountability like I did. And what I did, I polled a

lot of my employees and asked them, where are we missing the boat? And I

realized when I started doing our orientation and asking questions about

are you looking at buying a home in the near future? And they didn't have

the education or information about it, I knew I, as an

owner, as a leader, had to do something different. And we did that

by having every quarter, every month, when we had any kind

of reaction or interaction with our employees, we talked about

financial literacy. It was mandatory to stay with our company that you

get part of the information that we had. So one thing we're doing

right now, I don't want to spill the beans, but we just thought this was

important. We're going to eventually, in the very near future, we're putting together

as we speak, a program that's annual. Once a month, an

employee can go in and, and get free information. They can get this now, but

it's going to be almost like a classroom setting at no cost to them. And

at the end of this program, it'll be on budgeting, it'll be on finances, it'll

be on buying a home. So. But at the end of this 12 month cycle,

you'll get a certificate of basically being educated for a full

year on financial wellness. So if I was an employer, I would say, no,

you're going to take that, it's free. Offer this at no cost. Every

employer that now, they can go in and basically take a 45 minute

class at no cost. We have a financial wellness guru

putting this together now owned by Express Wages, that we just feel that's just

bringing a lot of value added services to any company that now you don't have

to build it or do anything. You simply connect with our app and it'll be

offered at no cost. So a service like what you just described would be

available in northwest Arkansas. If somebody's listening to this here

in NWA and decides, you know what, we want to sign up for express wages

because what Alfred's offering is exactly what we need. Will they

eventually have access to something like that as well? Oh, absolutely. We're a

nationwide company. Thank you for mentioning that. And I will say this too. Sarah

Huckabee, the governor, your governor, she actually signed into

law about six months, nine months ago, the

ability for companies like ours to operate in Arkansas. So which

I'm very fortunate and grateful for that. There are 12 states who've done that and

Arkansas is one of them. So that is extremely important. So any

company, whether it's. We don't have just businesses in Memphis, we're in Florida. I'm signing

up someone today in, in Maine. I got a person today in Boston

that we sign up in Florida. So we're not just in Memphis and in

Arkansas. So if you're a company in northwest Arkansas, you should

call me immediately. We'll be honored to assist you and help you once again. You

won't get an invoice from us. There you go. And we'll certainly put all of

that information in the show notes so that you guys can get in touch with

Alfred and learn more about express wages. I only have a couple more

questions. You've been really generous with your time. For northwest

Arkansas entrepreneurs and business leaders, what

lessons from your Memphis journey could they apply

in adopting innovative benefits like express Wages?

Big, number one man is not giving up. I started a company, you can

imagine it was very difficult. Unfortunately, African Americans get less

than 1% of fintech dollars and that still didn't deter

me. I think when you are wanting to do something and make a

difference to me, seeing companies thrive and we are a part of that,

man, that really just gets me going. It really does. Our model

when our company is don't make excuses, make adjustments. And that's just how we wire

the company. We don't make excuses, we make adjustments. And this is how, I mean,

that comes from me, the leader of this company, down to my employees who work

with me. And so we just don't make excuses. So for any entrepreneur in those

words, Arkansas, I would encourage you, number one, not to give up. Number two,

re research. That's important. What makes your company better and

different, that's important whether you're in Arkansas. Or Alabama, it doesn't matter

what's making you uniquely different, that you're really making a difference in your area.

So I just think for us, we just want to not only make a difference,

but really have a phenomenal, viable company that's

changing the dynamics of income around people

who we know need to make a difference. Yeah, no, I mean, that's

perfectly stated. And you actually answered my second question, which was

just, I mean, how would a small business owner embrace

innovation when resources are limited and you are

doing just that and doing it at a high level. So I

appreciate that. This is my final question before we wrap up. Looking

forward. Okay, so let's think about forward looking where you want to be.

How do you envision Express Wages expanding its

reach in communities like northwest Arkansas? Because we're not the only

fast growing community, but we are in the heartbeat of

America. We are in the heartland. And we used to be

a flyover company, place, location. Now people are

making a beine to come to northwest Arkansas. That's why

you were up at the Ledger a couple of months ago. So, so

talk as you look forward. How do you envision Express

Wages expanding its reach to communities that look

like ours? Number one, we plan to put a representative

in northwest Arkansas. I talked to my team and I just feel the

opportunity there is so great. That city is just growing. That area,

that area is just growing. So that's number one. Number two,

I really think, and we have an opportunity right now, I won't say the state

where a state has approached us because all of their

teachers are being paid monthly. And so in northwest

Arkansas, I guarantee you that the teachers are. Even if they're paid

biweekly, most are not. They're paid monthly. This will be such a

great tool for people who are teachers who

really need a break. When you imagine making $40,000 a year,

that doesn't go far. Over a month, it's like

$3200. It's not a lot of money. Fifteen hundred dollars a week. Depends on your,

your perspective. But so we're looking at really, really at this point,

helping teachers. And I think that's important. Help them down the road. If I

needed some milk if I needed to. What if I had a friend? What if

my transmission goes out? You mean, tell me I got to go get a loan

and I'll say this and this is very important. Randy, we were talking to a

client and the client said to us, this is such a

phenomenal tool that now all the employees don't have to dip into

their 401k, man, that changed. I just put my pen down. I

never thought about that. That many of them are calling us, asking us for

$500 loans against their 401k. They now don't have to do

that. They can simply, if they need the money, they can get it on the

app for a small fee and it's not putting them in debt. It was really,

really a good eye opener for me to think about that people are going into

their savings to do this because they don't have access to money. Yeah,

it's amazing. You know, and it's. And I, I'll leave you with this one piece

of anecdotal information that I just received the other day

because I saw somebody post something on Facebook that this is the end of

September and our teachers here in this area, specifically in

Fayetteville, where I am, we're just getting paid for the first time and

school started in early August and it's in. I know,

it's crazy, right? So, you know, I mean that, that's kind of the way

that it is. And so, yeah, there's certainly a

lot of opportunities for mainline

organizations to employ services

like yours to really just meet the needs of all of their

staff and not just the few that can manage

a long term budget because they can afford to be paid

once monthly and it doesn't impact them the way it impacts probably

70, 80 or 90% of the employees out there. That's

correct. And I think that's a good point. I think that's the reason why. Shout

out to Mary Young here in Memphis. He just had vision. I

met him eight months ago, shared my vision with him and he thought this would

be a major benefit to the city of Memphis. And he was

right. And so now they're so excited to launch this in December.

We're excited to help them. They're doing their HR benefits lunch in

October. We're there on a booth talking about them offering this new

HR benefit. So it's been a marriage made in heaven with the city. We're

grateful to work with them to offer this benefit to all the Miffians

who work for this city. Now we'll have opportunity to. They have access to their

money every single day, which is just grateful. Yeah. Well, and I'll be sure to

share this out with some of the local leaders in our community and

Fayetteville and Springdale and Rogers and Bentonville, because again,

as, as I always like to say, knowledge is power. Right. And sometimes

we think, oh, well, maybe it's just too much to implement something like that.

But really, you know, you, as I always say, you, you have not. Because you

ask not. So you gotta ask and you gotta ask and

figure out what's going on and try it. So. So, yeah, so I, I certainly

want to encourage any small business owner that is listening, that

subscribes to and listens to the I Am Northwest Arkansas podcast, and you

are having some challenges specifically around

this whole wage issue and payroll. I

think you just need to give Alfred a call. It can't hurt to reach out

to the folks at Express Wages and gain some additional insight. They might be

able to help you. You just never know. And with that said, Alfred,

what's the best way for people to get connected with you both, you know,

through LinkedIn and otherwise? Three ways. Number one, of course, I'm on

LinkedIn. And secondly, you can go to our website and request a

demo. Go to www.expresswayages.com. you'll

see the demo pop up often on the site. So if you want to demo,

we'll give you a live demo, explain everything to you and thoroughly. I'll give you

my personal cell number. We want to help you.

901-489-3915

once again is

901-489-3915.

And I will answer and I'll be more than happy to assist. And I'm just

so grateful for the people in this area. What a great opportunity. And I'm

just grateful to you, Rand, and the great job you're doing as well. Thank you

so much, man. Thank you. I really appreciate that. And

Alfred, I certainly wish you nothing but continued success in everything

that you put your hand to. And this sounds like a tremendous

opportunity. And I love to see folks, especially in the fintech

space, really kind of stretch their wings and get out there and make some things

happen because, you know, finances and, and financial

literacy are one of the backbones of the things that

we need more of in our communities. And so I

really thank you for the work that you're doing for your team there in Memphis

and beyond. And we hope to definitely see you guys

plant a flag here in Northwest Arkansas, beyond just this podcast

episode, so that you guys can have some success and

also share some success with local businesses that could really

utilize your service. So, Alfred, thank you so much for joining us today.

My pleasure, Randy. Thank you. And nice to talk to you listeners. Thank you.

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, folks, that's another episode of the I Am

Northwest Arkansas podcast. Listen. I first met Alfred

at the NWA Council VC event at the ledger, which I shared with you

and I knew right away his story and his mission would resonate

with our community here in Northwest Arkansas. I'm so glad we had

a chance to share this conversation with you today. A big thanks

to Alfred Milan for joining us and for the work he's doing through Express

Wages. And if you'd like to learn more, visit Expressway

and see how your business can start offering earned wage

access and financial wellness to your employees. And remember,

just let them know you heard about it first right here on the I Am

Northwest Arkansas podcast. And I want to just thank you as always for

tuning in to I Am Northwest Arkansas. Don't forget to subscribe,

Leave us a review and share this episode with another small business

owner who might benefit. Until next time, we'll see you next

week with another new episode of the I Am

Northwest Arkansas podcast. Keep building and growing

right here in the Ozarks. Peace.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of I Am Northwest

Arkansas. Check us out each and every week, available

anywhere that great podcasts can be found. For show

notes or more information on on becoming a guest, visit

imnorthwestarkansas. Com. We'll

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