Business

The Future is Freedom: Why breaking free of the past is crucial to your next leap in business

Published

3 years ago

March 23, 2022

Running a business is, by definition, demanding. Dealing with investors, employees and the general public whilst trying to build a solid reputation. Most of the time, we are able to rationalise our negative experiences, but occasionally, some comments can bring us down.

One of the most important qualities is to develop a positive mindset, focusing on what’s going well. To live like this consistently and avoid getting bogged down, there are several proven strategies we can employ.

Don’t take it to heart

Firstly, we must recognise when we are reacting emotionally, rather than logically. This can be evidenced in thoughts such as: ‘Why did this bad thing happen to me?’, ‘I never hurt anyone’, or, ‘What that person said is so unfair .’

In business, we can’t afford to take everything personally. We don’t always know what’s motivating people to react negatively.

As difficult as it is, we must accept that business is tough. Not everyone will play fairly; some will even break the rules intentionally. As much as we’d like to focus on our financial objectives, future plans and goals, often we end up managing our emotions, dealing with inter-relational issues and navigating difficulties.

This is a scenario that the Mikkelsen twins have grappled with, on several occasions. Rasmus Mikkelsen and Christian Mikkelsen, Co-Founders of Publishing Life, run an online education business that teaches regular everyday people how to replace their 9-5 job by creating passive income with self-publishing.

Commenting on the personal challenges that can emerge occasionally, Rasmus says: “Sometimes, we’ll get messages where people don’t agree with our opinion or don’t like our easy-going nature. I used to get offended by their criticism and felt like I was doing something wrong. Now I’ve learnt that you can’t make everybody happy. The bigger you get, the more often you’ll see this. But the truth is, for every 1 person that is unhappy, I’ve made 10 other people happy. So I focus on that instead.”

Christian adds: “We always look forward and focus on our goals instead; things like this just don’t get us down. We’ve developed a new identity in the last few years— a more emotionally mature version of our younger selves, especially as the business has grown and we’ve taken on additional business responsibilities. Now we are both happily married, and focused on achieving our business goals to provide for our families.”

Reframe the events

As an entrepreneur, when confrontation arises, whether it’s a disagreement with an employee or a bad review in the press, it’s vital to be able to defuse the situation and de-escalate a potential flash point. One way of doing this is to reframe your thoughts and feelings. Begin to look at events from a fresh perspective so that they no longer evoke the same negative response.

For example, instead of focusing on how angry a comment made you feel, you can try to imagine what motivated the behavior. The key is compassion. How upset must the person have been at that moment? What events must have been going on in someone’s life to make them so angry or combative?

By changing the narrative, and viewing events from a different angle, your emotions can start to change. Not only will you recover faster from drama, experiencing less cognitive drain, but you’ll also be able to turn your attention to more pressing matters like your business success.

Rasmus comments: “Not everyone is going to react positively to everything you do. That’s just life. The trick is not to fight fire with fire: you have to empathize with others and try to understand what might be going on inside them. Why are they acting this way? Are they being driven by hurt? Is this coming from a ‘positive place’.”

Use negative events as a springboard into your future

It’s a common misconception that our business lives would be better if we didn’t have problems and setbacks. The opposite is actually true. You need a little bit of resistance and a little bit of difficulty to energize you, focus your efforts and make you more resilient.

Think of the analogy of rubbing your hands with sandpaper. If you rub too hard, you cause your hands to bleed. However, if you rub it just a little bit every day, you will soon develop tough, impenetrable calluses.

The Mikkelsen’s have certainly learned from their experiences over the last few years and have been able to turn that resistance and difficulty into a growing business. For them, there is no ‘secret’ to success; it is the ability to stick with something long enough to reap the rewards.

Christian adds, “If only people would do the hard work, and not just give up when things get tough. The perfect example is our business. We focused on one important thing for years, rather than dabbling for a few months and then trying something else. You see new trends all the time and instead of jumping on the bandwagon, we knew the future was in digital publishing. It’s not a “sexy” opportunity like crypto, but it’s an emerging market that’s here to stay and is growing each and every year.

Focus on life’s essentials

He continues, “Adversity has a knack of stripping away what is unnecessary, unhelpful or untrue. When you’re faced with problems, you rethink your values. What do I believe in? What do I want to achieve?”

It seems inevitable that every seasoned businessperson will go through the fires of adversity: a process that burns off the dross of uncertainty and indecision and reveals a clarity of purpose. Some call it your ‘life’s mission’ or ‘calling’. In a business setting, this is invaluable. Knowing what you’re good at and how you can add value is the key to reaching your highest business potential.

Business

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

Published

6 days 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.