Adam Parks (00:00.824)
Hello everybody, Adam Parks here with another episode of Receivables Podcast. Today I'm here with my new friend, Sarena Gaylor, who is here talking with us about NCBA and coming to us from the Couch Lambert law firm. How you doing today, Sarena?
Sarena Gaylor (00:16.159)
I'm great, thanks Adam, thanks for having me.
Adam Parks (00:18.252)
I really appreciate you coming back on. seem to be the expert on events related to NCBA and your guidance through New Orleans for the NCBA in October was greatly valued. I know by me, because I listened to a lot that you had to say.
and followed that trail. But now we're going to talk about the executive experience for NCBA that's going to be happening April 6 through the 10th in Napa Valley, California. But before we jump into all that for anyone who has not been as lucky as me to get to know you a little bit, can you tell everyone a little bit about yourself and how you got to the seat that you're in today?
Sarena Gaylor (00:54.971)
Absolutely. I'm Sarena Gaylor as Adam said. I'm a member of Couch Lambert and we're a nine state firm that primarily handles consumer collection law. We are based out of Metairie, Louisiana, so right outside of New Orleans. And I have lived, breathed the collection space since I got into the legal area. Had no intention of becoming an attorney and now here I am owning a law firm and you know a guest resident party girl for all of my friends
Adam Parks (01:30.764)
Well, it seems like you had a lot of really great insights. So let's talk a little bit about Napa and what you guys have going on there. So you're a very active participant with NCBA. What's your role with NCBA?
Sarena Gaylor (01:42.312)
So currently I sit on the board and I also co-chair the executive experience and the education committees.
Adam Parks (01:49.386)
fun. And the executive experience has really gone very well for the past couple of years as you guys have got that rolling. So what do you have planned for this year? What's the excitement happening? mean, Napa Valley, not a bad place to go, but what's the draw this year?
Sarena Gaylor (02:06.504)
Correct, so Napa, everyone loves a good time, right? Loves wine. We are hosting it at Silverado Resort and Spa, which is a beautiful...
venue to host it at and with that we'll definitely have some wine tastings. Outside of that, this year we're bringing something a little bit new to the executive experience. While this is an event primarily for owners of firms and top leaders, we are definitely aware that
Sarena Gaylor (02:39.772)
we need to make the experience count, not only from a knowledge base and speaking with one another and obviously getting insight into the industry, but also for CLE credits. And this year we are trying to get approval for six CLEs.
Adam Parks (02:54.894)
Wow. Well, I mean, that sounds like a pretty powerful opportunity for those that are tending beyond those social networking opportunities, but the opportunity to actually accomplish some of your professional requirements. So I completely understand that.
Sarena Gaylor (03:07.678)
Exactly. And yeah, and it helps with our multi-state attorneys and licenses because they should cover all. And we just for everyone's knowledge, we do put that CLE pending because it is up to the ABA. That's who seeks the approval for us. And so that we may not know the answer 100 % until right before the actual event, but we're working on it.
Adam Parks (03:34.318)
It was a process and it's never easy, right? It's definitely one of those things. It's never easy. But let me ask you this, right? So I was at the NCBA Connect conference in New Orleans a couple of months ago. And now this executive experience is a very different kind of conference, right? Help me understand, you know, what is unique about your executive experience and why, why people want to go to that? Like, why has that become so popular?
Sarena Gaylor (03:36.574)
No.
Sarena Gaylor (04:02.152)
Sure, so one of the biggest differences is that we do not have clients attending this event. So this is strictly for the firms to freely speak with one another about any issues that they're having. We do have vendors there, so you do get that one-on-one time. And what we're trying to do this year, which is also a new, is really get the vendors involved and have an expert from the...
those seats where we can say, you I utilize this system of record.
because I have this client, I'm experiencing this issue. And we have a series of round tables, which are those smaller groups, typically between 10 and 12 law firms. And some of those, we're going to invite the vendors to come in and see if one, is it a firm specific issue or is it happening across the board? And if it's across either way, know, one, you can engage with our fellow colleagues as to, how did you get around this? And then two, if there's a workaround or if there isn't one,
that we're aware of, you have the vendor expert on site who can take that back and really make the moves that we need. Because if one person needs it, it's very different than 10 firms needing it, right?
Adam Parks (05:17.56)
That's really interesting. I like that approach because it gives you an opportunity to provide engagement for those vendors. And so those are generally, let's be honest, that's how we fund these types of events and the capability of bringing everybody together. So having some of that interaction and engagement at that level, I really like the idea of the roundtables and bringing together these discussion groups to identify
particular situations that are being faced. And it seems like the legal area of debt collection is something that this is really valuable for because a lot of you are working for the same client, XYZ Bank, and you're working for them in different jurisdictions around the country. So your problems are probably a little bit more similar than maybe collection agencies or debt buyers may experience.
Sarena Gaylor (06:07.652)
Exactly. actually one of the
Key speakers this year, it's gonna be hosted by Dawn Marshall and Shawn Kennedy and moderated by Fred Blitt, but it's optimizing replacement to profit. I know that's always a concern and the margins are getting tighter. so, along with the discussions with the vendors on how do we remove like a manual process, it's going to be what other aspects or what tools are other firms utilizing? And we try to make the experience.
a resource for not only the bigger firms, but definitely for the smaller firms as well. Because I know, you know, because we have different clientele or different sizing, all of our firms need to be able to make their business scalable. And we can learn from each other, certainly, because I know in some instances, a smaller firm is collecting so much money on, you know, a certain client and we're sitting here saying, how are you doing that?
But then we're over here, know, I don't know, filing 24,000 suits and they're like, how are you doing that? And so, like I said, the round tables outside of the round tables, there's tons of time to interact, you know, aside from the wine tastings and the dinner receptions.
There's other events like the golf tournament or pickleball tournament, which I will be trying this year. I don't know anything about pickleball, but I like to hit things with a racket. So I think I may be okay at it. just, people may need to watch their faces and other body parts.
Adam Parks (07:46.078)
The pickleball thing has gotten really popular really quick. I think it was Greg Straub from Pollack and Rosen who has been pushing pickleball on the deck collection industry for the last two years pretty hard. But I'll tell you the golf tournaments through the years at NCBA have been one of the greatest opportunities for me as an individual at the Connect Conference to get together and spend four hours with a group of people that I didn't know previously. And I always try to golf with people I've never met before. And it's really
created a great experience for me. I mean, look, do I get along with everybody? guess, yeah, on some level after a couple of drinks, we all get along just fine. You know, Gary Barrett's gonna kick it off with a shot of fireball and then the whole, you know, the whole course just becomes so much easier and a lot of fun. Believe it or not, a group of lawyers on a golf course can be a lot of fun.
Sarena Gaylor (08:17.014)
I think so. Exactly.
Sarena Gaylor (08:28.806)
Yeah. Yeah. And no one's touching you. Exactly. I haven't played golf in so many years, but hey, I show up at an NCAA golf tournament and I pretend I'm Tiger Woods, so. No one knows any better.
Adam Parks (08:43.924)
And there's no judgment. I love it because there's no judgment. I get to go out there. It doesn't matter if I'm not. I'm a terrible golfer, by the way, like that is definitely not my sport. I feel like that's what we're gonna do at Connect this year, we're gonna play together in San Antonio. I and we'll do a little podcast, you know, shout out from there to
Sarena Gaylor (08:51.198)
Okay, it makes me a little bit better. Maybe we should play together.
Sarena Gaylor (08:59.103)
I like it. That's right. Okay. We can do a podcast from the golf course. I like this.
Adam Parks (09:06.114)
Believe it or not, my first podcast was actually from my golf cart commuting to work every morning and I would pull out my camera and I would talk on the golf cart still on the YouTube channel. It was like our coffees and cars with comedians, but you know, it was a debt collector on a golf cart. It was kind of the same thing.
Sarena Gaylor (09:15.486)
That's fantastic.
Sarena Gaylor (09:22.142)
I love it. We can bring it back.
Adam Parks (09:26.196)
I like that a lot. So as we think about NCBA and as everybody's getting ready to travel out there, I know I like to go in and out of the San Francisco airport because that's the easiest one for me because it's kind of far from South Florida. But anything else that's exciting and happening in the Napa Valley, any particular vineyards that you're suggesting people go take a look at as our resident NCBA tour guide?
Sarena Gaylor (09:47.775)
Well, there are so many, and if anyone needs any recommendations, feel free to reach out. I'm not.
the expert online, Michael Stillman, president of NCBA. He definitely knows Napa backwards and forwards. Ryan Flynn from Gurstel’s office. He actually set me up with a couple of vineyards, but there's something for everyone. You know, it's very close to Sonoma Valley, so you can really get a wide range of tastings. And it doesn't matter if you like sparkling, which is my personal preference, or if you like a pino,
Adam Parks (09:59.352)
Yes.
Sarena Gaylor (10:26.09)
I know you like it's everything is available. And of course, you know, like you said, it's so close to San Francisco. So I'm actually flying in and spending the afternoon in San Francisco before making it over to Napa. And then I also do like I am when we leave Napa, we're going to fly over to Japan because it's so close. So you can really make it, you know, an extended holiday. But I would recommend everybody come either the weekend before or the weekend.
of stay throughout the weekend. Our room rates and block is from Friday through Friday or Saturday, filming Saturday.
Adam Parks (11:03.895)
wow, that's a great opportunity.
Sarena Gaylor (11:06.62)
Yeah, yeah, and it's a great rate. You're never going to see that, you know, when you're going to Napa on your own. So I would definitely take advantage of that as much as possible. You can also easily get a driver for your car, which is what my group is doing. So someone will literally take your rental car and drive you wherever you would like. And they also assist with planning out your day. Of course, there's party buses. And so if you get enough people together, we can probably put that together as well.
Adam Parks (11:35.906)
The wine train is also a pretty reasonable option. The RMAI's executive summit was up in Monterey. It was two years ago. So my wife and I went out to California after I took her on the wine train. It was a good experience. Personally, I love Domaine Carneros because their Pinot Noir is top notch. Famous gate bottles are fantastic. But I'm always a big fan of going up there. I'm really sorry that I won't be able to make it there this year. I'm off the road.
Sarena Gaylor (11:36.544)
It is.
Sarena Gaylor (11:43.922)
cool.
Sarena Gaylor (12:02.152)
We'll miss you for sure.
Adam Parks (12:04.854)
I'm off the road until May. I'll be back on the road for CRS this year, but with a baby coming, I'm gonna miss RMAI and the NCBA executive experience this year.
Sarena Gaylor (12:13.34)
That's okay. We'll give you a pass for a baby, I think.
Adam Parks (12:16.908)
I'm hoping I'll get some text messages, maybe someone will send me a bottle of wine, you never know, I might get lucky.
Sarena Gaylor (12:22.302)
I'll try to stash one in my suitcase for you. All the way in Japan back, yay.
Adam Parks (12:26.038)
All the way to Japan and back? think I I think I'll reach out to Stillman. I think it's time to call in a favor. Fair enough. He's actually he's not too far from me down here.
Sarena Gaylor (12:32.094)
You can just take one from his house, it's fine. He has great options. Exactly, yeah, he's got his Florida
Adam Parks (12:40.594)
so funny. Well, I really do appreciate you coming on and again sharing your experience being our NCBA event tour guide. And I look forward to talking to you hopefully again as we start preparing for the NCBA Connect in San Antonio happening in October.
Sarena Gaylor (12:57.531)
Absolutely. Thank you again for having me.
Adam Parks (12:59.882)
Absolutely. For those of you that have additional questions, you can leave those in the comments here on LinkedIn and YouTube and Sarena and I'll be responding to those. Or if you have additional topics or you want to hear Serena come back on and maybe talk to me about the deck collection industry once, you can leave those comments in the below as well. And hopefully I can get Sarena to continue to come back and help me continue to create great content for a great industry. But until next time, Sarena, thank you so much for your insights. I really appreciate your time.
Sarena Gaylor (13:26.995)
Thank you.
Adam Parks (13:27.808)
And thank you everybody for watching. We appreciate your time and attention. We'll see you all again soon. Bye everybody.
