Business

Rodney Waits Holds Impact Above Income

Published

3 years ago

March 10, 2022

Value. It has a different meaning for everyone, and each person’s perspective on value is what defines their goals. While one person will spend every spare second chasing dollars and cents, the next would feel more gratified by appreciation than money. Others would even give away huge amounts of money to obtain something else that they hold to a higher level of importance, such as an old baseball card, or an exhilarating experience. Someone can determine what they value the most in their life by looking at what they are striving toward, and what they are willing to give up to get it. What is the goal? What is the “why?”

This difference in personal value is exactly what sets Rodney Waits apart from many others in the real estate market: his “why”.

Rodney currently works with eXp Realty®, is based in Destin, Florida, and services much of the surrounding area. Although he is a very successful Realtor with several specialty certifications, his accomplishments were not on the top of his list of newsworthy achievements. The achievement that means the most to him, above even his awards and impressive sales volume, is simply that his team had helped over 50 families in 2021. His value is not that he and his team had more transactions than ever before and closed a record number of deals; they had been able to help over 50 families sell or find their dream home.

This is because Rodney Waits puts people and relationships at a higher value than money, and there is absolutely no doubt that this is why he is successful.

As a young, curious entrepreneur, Rodney loved working with people and found himself looking for opportunities to make a difference in the lives of others. His step-father, who worked for a builder in the area, had always wanted to run his own brokerage, and approached Rodney with the idea of trying to get it started. Rodney saw the opportunity, and took on the position part time. Diligently, he honed his skills as a Realtor and as a businessman, and immediately began to excel. It wasn’t long before he had brought in enough business that he was able to help his step-father leave his job as a top salesman in new construction to run the family brokerage full time, as well as bring his mother into the brokerage. For five years, this family-owned and operated brokerage expanded, up to the point that all involved knew that a change had to be made. With the brokerage well established and in good hands, Rodney took another step on his journey by joining eXp Realty® in 2021.

eXp Realty® is one of the fastest growing brokerages in North America, with business in real estate all over the world. The opportunity for continued growth gave Rodney the options he needed to meet his full potential. Within one year, Rodney has already achieved ICON status, an award within the company that speaks to the dedication and commitment of a Realtor who is a prime example of the company’s core values.

Although Rodney has been able to exemplify the company’s core values, the true impact he has achieved has come from his own personal drive of what is true value. All clients that go through him find that he fully commits to meeting their needs. Whether he must show three homes or 50, he is happy to do it. Unless his client is happy, he is not. He truly enjoys guiding people through the life changing process of finding or selling a home.

It’s not just the clients that have learned first hand of Rodney’s selflessness. Rodney has been slowly building a team of other Realtors who share his vision! The agents fortunate enough to find themselves under his leadership have also received an exceptional amount of care and consideration. Rodney says, “I currently have the goal of teaching all that I know, and sharing everything I achieve with my team, because I want to see them more successful than they could ever imagine.”

His desire is to create and inspire a group of Realtors that will be long lasting, not only for himself, but so they can also make an impact on more families, assisting more people in the long term. “My goal is helping people. My passion is making a difference in peoples’ lives. Real estate is my avenue.”

Rodney doesn’t only work toward this goal through real estate, though. He has also found other ways that he can inspire positive change in others. Aside from being active in his church and community, Rodney hosts a live, weekly radio talk show through the popular Florida Man Radio program. His weekly show is then turned into a podcast called Making An Impact that listeners can tune into on their own schedule and share with others. The focus of the entire program is to inspire, encourage, and empower people to reach their full potential.

Attributing to his own sense of value once again, Rodney has a different goal than most other show hosts. Rather than shoot for a mass of listeners and turn himself into a household name, he subscribes to a different creed: “Impact is greater than influence.” Rodney would rather provide one person with a lasting and meaningful impression than check a box on an arbitrary list with unaffected listeners. This is a testament to how he lives his life and conducts his business daily, and why people turn to Rodney when making some of the biggest decisions of their lives.

“How am I going to impact somebody’s life?” he says. “I’m not going to do something for financial gain… I’m really just working to make a difference. If I can just help one person see that they can change their whole life with one decision, that would be me doing a job well done.”

In short, the thing that Rodney values the most… the opportunity to help other people obtain what they value the most. This is what makes him such a prolific businessman, and why his clients and team alike are not only satisfied with his leadership and care, but look forward to coming back for more.

Business

High Volume, High Value: The Business Logic Behind Black Banx’s Growth

Published

2 weeks ago

June 16, 2025

Matthew Wiles

In fintech, success no longer hinges on legacy prestige or brick-and-mortar branches—it’s about speed, scale, and precision. Black Banx, under the leadership of founder and CEO Michael Gastauer, has exemplified this model, turning its high-volume approach into high-value results.

The company’s Q1 2025 performance tells the story: $1.6 billion in pre-tax profit, $4.3 billion in revenue, and 9 million new customers added, bringing its total customer base to 78 million across 180+ countries.

But behind the numbers lies a carefully calibrated business model built for exponential growth. Here’s how Black Banx’s strategy of scale is redefining what profitable banking looks like in the digital age.

Scaling at Speed: Why Volume Matters

Unlike traditional banks, which often focus on deepening relationships with a limited set of customers, Black Banx thrives on breadth and transactional frequency. Its digital infrastructure supports onboarding millions of users instantly, with zero physical presence required. Customers can open accounts within minutes and transact across 28 fiat currencies and 2 cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin and Ethereum) from anywhere in the world.

Each customer interaction—whether it’s a cross-border transfer, crypto exchange, or FX transaction—feeds directly into Black Banx’s revenue engine. At scale, these micro-interactions yield macro results.

Real-Time, Global Payments at the Core

One of Black Banx’s most powerful value propositions is real-time cross-border payments. By enabling instant fund transfers across currencies and countries, the platform removes the frictions associated with SWIFT-based systems and legacy banking networks.

This service, used by individuals and businesses alike, generates:

Volume-based revenue from transaction fees
Exchange spreads on currency conversion
Premium service income from business clients managing international payroll or vendor payments

With operations in underserved regions like Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, Black Banx is not only increasing volume—it’s tapping into fast-growing financial ecosystems overlooked by legacy banks.

The Flywheel Effect of Crypto Integration

Crypto capabilities have added another dimension to the company’s high-volume model. As of Q1 2025, 20% of all Black Banx transactions involved cryptocurrency, including:

Crypto-to-fiat and fiat-to-crypto exchanges
Crypto deposits and withdrawals
Payments using Bitcoin or Ethereum

The crypto integration attracts both retail users and blockchain-native businesses, enabling them to:

Access traditional banking rails
Convert assets seamlessly
Operate with lower transaction fees than those found in standard financial systems

By being one of the few regulated platforms offering full banking and crypto support, Black Banx is monetizing the convergence of two financial worlds.

Optimized for Operational Efficiency

High volume is only profitable when costs are contained—and Black Banx has engineered its operations to be lean from day one. With a cost-to-income ratio of just 63% in Q1 2025, it operates significantly more efficiently than most global banks.

Key enablers of this cost efficiency include:

AI-driven compliance and customer support
Cloud-native architecture
Automated onboarding and KYC processes
Digital-only servicing without expensive physical infrastructure

The outcome is a platform that not only scales, but does so without sacrificing margin—each new customer contributes to profit rather than diluting it.

Business Clients: The Value Multiplier

While Black Banx’s massive customer base is largely consumer-driven, its business clients are high-value accelerators. From SMEs and startups to crypto firms and global freelancers, businesses use Black Banx for:

International transactions
Multi-currency payroll
Crypto-fiat settlements
Supplier payments and invoicing

These clients tend to:

Transact more frequently
Use a broader range of services
Generate significantly higher revenue per user

Moreover, Black Banx’s API integrations and tailored enterprise solutions lock in these clients for the long term, reinforcing predictable and scalable growth.

Monetizing the Ecosystem, Not Just the Account

The genius of Black Banx’s model is that it monetizes not just accounts, but entire customer journeys. A user might:

Onboard in minutes
Deposit funds from a crypto wallet
Exchange currencies
Pay an overseas vendor
Withdraw to a local bank account

Each of these actions touches a different monetization lever—FX spread, transaction fee, crypto conversion, or premium service charge. With 78 million customers doing variations of this at global scale, the cumulative financial impact becomes immense.

Strategic Expansion, Not Blind Growth

Unlike many fintechs that chase customer acquisition without a clear monetization path, Black Banx aligns its growth with strategic market opportunities. Its expansion into underbanked and high-demand markets ensures that:

Customer acquisition costs stay low
Services meet genuine needs (e.g., cross-border income, crypto access)
Revenue per user grows over time

It’s not just about acquiring more customers—it’s about acquiring the right customers, in the right markets, with the right needs.

The Future Belongs to Scalable Banking

Black Banx’s ability to transform high-volume engagement into high-value profitability is more than just a fintech success—it’s a signal of what the future of banking looks like. In a world where agility, efficiency, and inclusion define competitive advantage, Black Banx has created a blueprint for digital banking dominance.

With $1.6 billion in quarterly profit, nearly 80 million users, and services that span the globe and the blockchain, the company is no longer just scaling—it’s compounding. Each new user, each transaction, and each feature builds upon the last.

This is not the story of a bank growing.

This is the story of a bank accelerating.