Articles about
Access
Funding Center, Inc. and Dr. Anthony F. Cicone.
Broker hits the jackpot with
retail installment contracts
Monterey Broker of the Year Qualifies for Million Dollar
Club
MDC Class of 2003 Represents
the Broad Scope of the Cash Flow Industry
Monterey
Broker of the Year
Qualifies for Million Dollar Club
by Judy Arndt
4/1/2003
Like many
other people who are graduates of the American Cash Flow
Institute®, Dr. Anthony Cicone, CFS, first heard about the
training available to become a cash flow professional
through a direct mail letter sent to him by the founder of
the industry, Larry Pino. Unlike other people, Cicone
received assurances that his vocational future lay in the
cash flow industry from another source, but more about that
later.
Cicone’s cash flow adventure actually began a few years
before he received Pino’s letter. “Back around 1988, I was
serving as an associate pastor in Charlotte, NC, and there
was a fellow who was on our church basketball team who was
with the asset-based lending department of a bank in that
area,” Cicone explains.
“He was interested in starting his own business to help
people whose loans had kind of ‘slipped between the cracks,’
in his words. As an asset-based lender, he saw that a lot of
good deals (were denied) because they were presented the way
the entrepreneur wanted to put the package together rather
than as a banker wanted to see the loan package presented.”
Cicone’s friend believed he could help people prepare their
loan packages to the bank’s satisfaction, and invited Cicone
to join him in that endeavor. r Although Cicone entered that
business in good faith, his friend eventually lost his job
at the bank and quit the business. Since Cicone’s friend was
the one who had all the institutional memory and the
connections, the company he and Cicone had started
eventually went out of business. However, Cicone had learned
a few things.
“In the course of my exposure to this,” he says, “there was
one asset-based lending deal that we couldn’t get done, and
I remember that he gave me the loan package and said, ‘Why
don’t you go ahead and take this over to a factor. He’s here
in Charlotte, just down the street.’ That was the first time
I had heard the word ‘factor’ since trigonometry class. So I
took it over to the factor.
“My involvement in that business was an introduction to the
cash flow industry, although at the time I didn't know how
encompassing the cash flow industry really was.”
It would not be until 1995 that Cicone would take his next
step toward cash flow.
By that time, he had earned his doctorate and was senior
pastor at a church in Memphis, Tennessee. “If I wouldn't
have had that kind of exposure to the industry, I might not
have had enough interest or understanding to really
comprehend the implications of whatever was said in that
first lead letter that I received way back when.”
Many
people can look back at distant memories and see the
sequence of events that lead to present circumstances.
Cicone, as a devout Christian and a man committed to doing
the will of God, believes those events are ordered by a
higher power. Pino’s letter falls into that category as
well.
However, we must flashback again to another event in
Cicone’s life that is directly related to his cash flow
experience.
Cicone was pastoring a small church in Kannapolis N.C.
part-time, was working on his dissertation, and was living
in Charlotte. There was a Christian retreat center nearby
where he would often go to relax. He had a boat there and
would fish on the pond that was part of the center.
“I was driving around Charlotte one day, and I felt led to
drive down the road to the Christian retreat center, he
says. “It was about lunchtime, and I hadn't planned on going
there but I felt like I ought to go.”
He wasn’t going to fish. “I drove there, and when I arrived,
there was a very small lunch group. The gentleman who owned
the retreat center and two of his friends were seated at a
table preparing for lunch. There was another place available
at the table, and when they invited me to join them, I was
glad to do so.”
Shortly after lunch, Cicone experienced something that he
believes represents the first stage of very definite signs
that God was leading him to the cash flow industry.
For the
sake of clarity, some theological explanation is needed.
Several days after Easter, Christians celebrate the day of
Pentecost, representing the event through which Jesus’
disciples were empowered to become apostles. On the day of
Pentecost (Shavuot in Hebrew), so named because it took
place on a Jewish holiday called Pentecost, the Bible
teaches that the apostles received the power of the Holy
Spirit, which enabled them to do the same kinds of miracles
that Jesus had performed during his time on earth.
Christians still celebrate the day of Pentecost and the
reception of the Holy Spirit (known as the “filling” of the
Holy Spirit) and many Christians believe that those same
powers are available today, through the Holy Spirit.. The
powers are known as the “gifts” of the Holy Spirit and are
discussed in several books in the Bible.
While Christian denominations may differ on which gifts are
being used today and even on how the gifts manifest
themselves, most theologies teach that a church operates
through the use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit demonstrated
by its members.
One of those gifts is the gift of prophecy. Prophets, in the
modern church, receive messages from God that they consider
prophetic.. In some churches, the pastor is the receiver of
this message, and his sermon is the message. In other
churches, the message can be received by one or two people
and may be for the benefit of an individual or for the
benefit of the church. The prophet does not necessarily have
to hear audibly God speak to receive these messages, but the
messages must be tested for their veracity. One of the keys
to determining whether the message is actually from God is
to find some Biblical reference that is the same as or
supportive of the prophetic statement. Prophecy, by the way,
is not just a prediction of a future event. It can be a word
of instruction or caution. In those cases where individuals
receive messages for other individuals, the statement should
be received by more than one person, often in different
circumstances.
“These three guys were
all gifted
prophetically,” Cicone
says of the men he ate
lunch with that day.
“This one fellow, after
lunch, said, ‘I have a
word from the Lord for
you.’ I wrote the whole
thing down and I still
have it in my journal.
One part of it was, ‘You
will hear a word behind
you saying, `This is the
way, walk you in it. “
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The message came from
Isaiah 30:21, a book in
the Old Testament.
At the time, Cicone had
been praying about
finding a wife, and he
thought that might be
what the message was
about. He did not hear
the message again until
he was living in Memphis
and pondering whether he
should respond to Larry
Pino’s letter about the
cash flow industry.
Cicone attended a prayer
meeting shortly after
receiving the letter and
asked the people at the
meeting to pray for him
about whether he should
look into the training
program Pino’s letter
promoted. He says that
after prayer requests
were given, the people
at the meeting would sit
down in a chair while
others would gather
around and pray for
them. Each person was
prayed for individually.
“The fellow that was
leading this prayer
meeting in Memphis was a
very responsible guy,
had a doctor's degree,
and he taught at a local
Christian school,”
Cicone explains. “He was
standing behind me as I
was seated on this chair
and he prayed the words,
‘ . . . and you will
hear a voice behind you
saying this is the way,
walk you in it.’ It was
basically the same words
that I had gotten from
this prophet back in
Charlotte about three
years before.”
Cicone took the
factoring home study and
received his
certification in 1996.
However, he was still
pastoring full-time and
says he didn’t really
work the cash flow
business full-time. “It
was more like spare
time,” he says. “I
really didn't do a whole
lot until I moved to
Greenville, South
Carolina in October of
1996.”
In Greenville, Cicone
accepted a call from a
smaller church and had a
little more spare time
to work the cash flow
business. He set up a
Web site and got
business from it. He
tried several of the
marketing methods he had
learned but without much
success. . He believes
he was able to gain some
knowledge and confidence
about the business
during that period of
time.
By May of 1998, Cicone
had left the pastorate
and gotten married. His
wife was a pharmacist,
and he was working a
small sales job.
They had made the
decision that he would
go into the cash flow
business full time. The
Saturday before the
Monday when he was to
start full time, the
Cicones shared a family
devotional time. Cicone
selected a devotional
book from among the many
they had received as
wedding gifts. The book
listed a Bible verse for
each day of the year. To
the Cicones’ amazement
the Bible verse for that
day was a familiar one.
“And thine ears shall
hear a word behind thee,
saying, This is the way,
walk ye in it.” Cicone
took this as
confirmation that indeed
his decision to enter
the cash flow industry
was the right decision.
He worked the industry
full-time for about a
year. During that time,
he was contacted by a
client who wanted
financing on consumer
receivables (unsecured
consumer contracts)). He
found someone willing to
do the deal, but when he
took the offer back to
the client, he
discovered that the
clients had changed
their minds and wanted
to finance their
contracts internally.
After about a year
Cicone extricated
himself from the cash
flow industry and, with
his wife, started a
church in Simpsonville,
SC. Before re-entering
the cash flow industry,
Cicone also joined the
faculty of a theological
school and took computer
technology courses at a
local technical school.
Then, a little less than
two years ago, even
though Cicone had a new
address and telephone
number, the company that
needed the consumer
receivables financing
called him. Cicone took
the deal to Monterey.
“Monterey looked at it
again. They had some
questions but were able
to get their questions
answered get comfortable
with the deal, and
eventually they went
ahead and approved it.”
He’s still receiving
residual commissions
from that one account
and has qualified for
the Million Dollar Club.
“A big part of whatever
success I've had in this
business has been
because of my wife,” he
says, wanting to
communicate how much of
a help his wife, Elsie,
has been. “She does the
Internet technology side
of this and the Web
design. She does all the
accounting work for me.
Plus, she's very
supportive. She has a
very entrepreneurial
spirit and understands
what I'm doing and is
very interested in it.”
There is a little more
to Cicone’s story.
First, his business is
flourishing. He isn’t
just relying on that one
deal. Second, he and his
wife pledge a good
portion of what he earns
to faith-based charities
that help children.
Third, he has been a
student of the stock
market since 1987 and
plans to improve his
earnings by using a
program he purchased
from Dynetech, ACFC’s
parent company.
It is a program called
Wizetrade. Cicone wasn’t
sure that investing in
the market should be an
integral part of his
business until he went
for Wizetrade training.
Cicone usually led the
family devotions but
that night he says he
was exhausted, and asked
his wife to read from
the Bible and pray with
him before he fell
asleep. “I felt pretty
confident that God
wanted me in the cash
flow business, but I
didn't want to make the
mistake of stepping out
into another area where
God really didn't want
me to go,” he says. “She
just opened her Bible to
where some time ago she
had placed a brochure
from a Christian
conference we had
attended . . . and she
started reading. She
read a few verses, and
before I fell asleep,
she came to the passage,
‘And thine ears shall
hear a word behind thee,
saying, This is the way,
walk ye in it.’ We were
amazed again because my
wife had no intention of
reading this passage and
wasn’t cognizant of its
presence in Isaiah.
Therefore, we took this
as further verification
of what we had
previously received and
as an OK from the Lord
to move forward with
Wizetrade.”
Cicone is still
following that path.
“Those are the four
different things, and .
. . I’ve got the feeling
that the book isn’t
closed on all this. My
wife and I don’t really
know if this is a
business that I'm going
to be doing indefinitely
or if this is a
transitional period into
another type of
ministry, or some
combination of both.
Cicone and his wife are
excited about their
participation in the
cash flow industry, he
says, because it gives
them an opportunity to
do things with their
earnings that they hope
will touch people’s
lives. “So we're excited
about whatever
possibilities might lie
ahead.”
Right now, Cicone is
working a number of
deals, some that involve
millions of dollars, and
looking forward to the
future. He and his wife
are in the process of
adopting a child from
China.
But he remains open to
whatever God has for him
to do in the future and
continues to look to his
Lord for guidance.
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