Adam Parks (00:01.348)
Hello everybody, Adam Parks here with another episode of Receivables Podcast. Today I'm here with my good friend and frequent guest on my podcast, Mr. Andrew Roskam. How you doing today, Andrew?
Andrew Roskam (00:13.356)
I'm good, Adam, gonna see ya. Gonna be back again, love it.
Adam Parks (00:16.858)
I do appreciate you coming on to continue to share your insights as a small debt buyer and RMAI board member, and just a good dude in the industry. So I really do appreciate it. But as we were prepping for this one, we were talking a little bit, I know I've asked you for your background a few times. But you recently saw the video short that we'd have released with Brian Bowers from financial recovery services FRS, and where he was talking about be a pig farmer and you had your own background story. So
Without further to do for anyone who hasn't heard this yet, can you tell everyone a little bit about yourself and how you got to the seat that you're in today?
Andrew Roskam (00:52.29)
Yeah, I laughed because I saw that and I said, that's a good idea. Adam used to start doing this with all his guests, just see fun background stories. It's really cool. yeah, but like when I heard it the first time, was like my background in the industry, but like a fun family story. So I saw farming and I immediately was like, I have a story too. So I'm the youngest of four kids. And we grew up on a chicken farm. So when I was probably in the
Adam Parks (01:00.642)
It's literally the first question on every podcast.
Andrew Roskam (01:20.746)
70s or 80s my parents bought a chicken farm and We were growing chickens for companies like foster farms. So we had four big chicken barns We'd have 60,000 chickens in any given time And so like we get right after they hatched grow them for 45 days and then they would get taken away You can probably fill in the rest of story what happens after that and so we had this like Farm that didn't smell very good. So I'd get off the bus every day and people like P you your house stinks
And my dad taught me to say, smells like money to me. So then that was something that like, yeah, smells like money. So it's funny, I drive home every day now and I drive by a chicken farm. And on the right day with the right wind, you get the smell that nobody in the world would like except for former chicken farmers. But the funny part is, so by the time I'm the youngest, so by the time I came around, my dad had gone to work with his friends at a collection agency. And so he had hired a farm hand. So.
Adam Parks (01:53.53)
like that.
Andrew Roskam (02:17.014)
My only job at the farm, my siblings joke with me because they actually had to do a lot of work every day on the farm and I like one day a week had to go on Sundays and pick up the dead chickens. So like this is running joke in my family of like I joke that I was a farmer growing up and really like I barely did any work on the farm. So it's a fun little story. then yeah, that turned into my dad becoming owning a clutch agency and then a debt buying company and then many years later I came and took over the shop.
That's the story.
Adam Parks (02:45.956)
came in to join us. hey, I think that's a great story. And I hope that more people are encouraged to tell their real background story where you came from, because there are no two stories that enter this industry quite the same way. And it really is my favorite part of the podcast, the opportunity to hear from everybody and to really get to know the people that are part of my life, right? My my wife and I always joke that like my
Most of my friends are industry friends because we spend more time on the road in different cities with the same 50 or 60 people than we do anywhere else.
Andrew Roskam (03:21.422)
Absolutely. Absolutely. That's fun. Yeah, so there's my background. A chicken farmer and debt collector. Those are like two things you don't necessarily want to tell people at parties, but here we are.
Adam Parks (03:30.924)
I look, I think a podcast this podcast would be specifically the best place. This is our safe space. So for today, we wanted to talk a little bit about your arm AI receivables management Association International and what it takes or how members can get more value out of their membership at the association. And for me, one of the big things that I've always advocated for has been active participation in
Andrew Roskam (03:33.838)
This is a safe audience. think these folks will appreciate it. Yeah.
Adam Parks (04:00.538)
committees as an active board member, right? Like what has been your experience getting involved with the industry? Like what did your path look like into RMAI?
Andrew Roskam (04:10.188)
Yeah. Yeah, that's a good question. I've only been about six or so years in this specific industry. I was in banking prior. But one of the things that I learned when I was in banking as a banker, I was a commercial lender. So a lot of what I did is being in the community, trying to drum up deals, build relationships with people. And so I kind of applied that to when I joined the industry. I was was newer to the collection space, but I knew that like getting to know people getting involved was going to be a great way to
build friendships, build relationships, build my reputation and learn. And so I think I'm also located in Washington state, which is sometimes a difficult state for our industry. And so I found myself right when I, right when I started having to let go, fight bills. So I got to know David Reed and I got to know, different folks at RMAI, just being on the state legislative committee. So that was the first committee I served on was kind of trying to be a liaison between the local folks advocating and lobbying, and then RMAI.
and trying to build those relationships. It kind of fell into that one. So I've served on state legislative committee every year since, and I'm one of the co-chairs for the board on that committee. And then I also got involved just trying to learn. So I plugged into the standards committee, being a certified debt buyer. I knew that was something I needed to understand really well. And so what better way to learn our standards than to help rewrite them every year?
Because there's a committee, RMI committee for those that don't know, that looks at the standards every year and goes through and says, what do need to update? What's changed? What do we need to refine? Getting feedback from other companies, auditors, hey, this isn't working, or this is something we can refine. Or regulators maybe want us to address something. So every year that committee goes through front to back. Or they get recommendations from the board or other folks, like, hey, we need to build a standard here or refine the standards. So they do that every year. So I was on that committee.
ended up chairing it, and then also serving on the certification council. Yeah, think, and then a few other committees I've served on since then, so quite a few.
Adam Parks (06:20.954)
Well, it sounds like you've got your start based out of I don't want to call it necessity, but action, right? Like you're in a state that was under attack, and it required people to actively engage in defense.
Andrew Roskam (06:26.094)
in.
Adam Parks (06:34.67)
That's a great opportunity to create camaraderie because I mean, what I get out of RMAI or have through the years is a shared experience. And good relationships are built on a shared experience. And sometimes that experience is fun and it's horseback riding and Tahoe. And sometimes that experience is not fun. And it's a state, you know, assembly house and wherever. Yeah, it's testifying on the hill, it's doing all of these other things that are, you know,
Andrew Roskam (06:53.774)
Testifying on the hill. yeah.
Adam Parks (07:01.358)
necessarily what we want to be doing, but it's important for the industry that somebody be doing it. And RMAI is an organization driven by volunteers. There's a lot of different committees that people can participate on and there's a lot of different ways to get involved and to leverage your skill set. Now, if we think about all of the different ways, like my path into the association was quite the opposite.
And so when I first started getting engaged with the association, it was editorial and communications. Now I think it's editorial and social media, right? And writing the social media policy and helping the organization to start to leverage some of these communication technologies that were emerging 10, 15 years ago and going through that process. And it became a...
a great opportunity for me to get to know more interesting people across the association. Now during my involvement at some point, I started getting a phone call from Trish Baxter who was gonna be the incoming president. And Trish talked to me about the rebranding and what the association needed as they were going through that process and encouraged me to run for the board. As did a lot of my other friends that were either on the board or looking to actively start getting engaged. So it was really a great opportunity
for me to enter on one of my stronger skill sets, right? I was able to go in and do something where I knew I could add some value and then I was just kind of hooked. I started to get to know the people and I started having more fun with them and then when I went to conferences and events, I knew all these people.
And so all of a sudden it was like being a Beatle in the sixties and you could walk through the right, whether it be the conference floor, even just trying to walk through the Aria and you're getting high fives from everybody. And it really starts to feel more like a community. And for me, that's what drove me deeper and deeper into the association over time was the people. so participating and lending my skills and doing all those things, I think was important. And I'm really glad that I've done that and continue to do that.
Adam Parks (09:04.698)
with Arm AI, but it's really the people, I think, that drive the organization. So if you want to get to know these people and how it all comes together, what options are there for you to get involved? And it doesn't have to be a committee, right? Going to the events, I think attendance, just showing up is half the battle. I don't want to be all G.I. Joe about it, but showing up is half the battle. It really is.
I think what other opportunities do you think there are for people to engage with the association and to benefit from their membership?
Andrew Roskam (09:38.306)
Yeah, think those are some of the main things I can think of. There's so many committees. I should have probably done research. I think 15 or more committees that you can join on various amounts of skill set. If you're an attorney, there's several places that you would be beneficial. If you're a marketing person, editorial, social media, which I currently co-chair with Missy Massey, there's all sorts of different legislative committees.
If you like dialing and raising money, can help raise money for our legislative fund, which helps hire lobbyists to protect our industry.
Adam Parks (10:12.11)
wildly important, like let's not underestimate the importance of the legislative fundraising. And I feel like that was one of the areas where I got involved very early on in my time on the board and helping to create communication tools that helped us illustrate visually the impact that the money we were raising was actually having for the industry. Cause it's one thing when you're asking for donations and people think they're going into the black hole.
But it's another thing when they can really see the measurable impact that the association has had and continues to have on a variety of fronts.
Andrew Roskam (10:47.564)
I mean, you could not even probably contemplate how much money that fund and the people who do all that work has saved our industry from just seeing the bills that get proposed in a lot of these states every year and what we have to fight and where it started versus what we negotiated it down to. From garnishment exemptions to expunging debt or some of the, not being able to resell certain types of asset classes, that would really affect the RMA.
who are debt buyers. If you can't buy debt in a certain state, that's a problem. So all these things, it's hard to even articulate how much money that committee and all the work that those folks do in those dollars, how much money that saved our members. And I think our members do a really good job of realizing that, and that's why they support the Ledge Fund. Because it's one of those, it's not fun. It's not fun to have to hire a lobbyist, they're usually not cheap, and then have to work with, you know,
consumer advocates on the other side and try and find compromise. It's not necessarily fun, but it's a very important piece. There's another committee that I think you are at least involved in standing up and we're on for a little bit is not everybody in our industry is a debt buyer or a debt collector, but they maybe support those people, those vendors and affiliates. So there's a task force for affiliates to help engage and... counsel, that's right.
Adam Parks (12:06.138)
Hey, now we're a council, we've gone beyond task force. Now we're the affiliate advisory council. That is where I've been spending my time in 2024.
Andrew Roskam (12:11.234)
Shame on me, I should know better. Yeah, you're right, I should know better. Yeah, okay, so that affiliate advisory council does a really good job of asking affiliates, how can we better engage you? Because as an association, it's no secret, like we have a lot of members that aren't debt buyers and aren't law firms and aren't agencies, but they support us. They sponsor events at conference. mean, look at how...
full the exhibit hall is every year and do different things. Like they support our industry really well. So how can we make sure those folks feel like they're getting the most out of the dollars that they spend and the time they spend? That's a really important one that any of the affiliates of vendors that listen to this, like that's a great counsel to get involved in.
Adam Parks (12:57.496)
Look, I'm actively participating in that this year, Amber Rousseau has been chairing it and doing a great job of helping to find new ways to engage those affiliate members so that they can find new value in their membership. I mean, a lot of them still support the legislative fund and the advocacy efforts of the industry. But some of them don't see the same direct correlation, right? And they're looking for advertising, marketing, sponsorship, engagement opportunities with the membership so that they can sell into the space.
and that's a great place for them to have their voice be heard. And RMAI does a really good job of listening. Sylvia Doan is just an absolute rock star.
Andrew Roskam (13:38.51)
Bless her. Bless you Sylvia if you're listening.
Adam Parks (13:39.86)
absolute rock star. She has created so many creative sponsorships through the years that I've loved to engage with. think my personal favorite still remains. When we did the executive summit up in Wisconsin, and we had the little case with the bug spray and the sun's tan lotion and all, I still have it in my car. So that tells me that that was a you know, a good branded gift.
Andrew Roskam (13:57.561)
yeah.
Adam Parks (14:04.374)
So there's always these interesting opportunities to get involved and to be creative. And I would always encourage people to not feel like the association is separate from them. Reaching out to the staff of the association, to the board members, to the committee members, and engaging in a conversation is a great way to fuel your personal growth, whether that be just for yourself as an.
individual, right, on your own professional trajectory or being able to connect your company with the right people, I think there's a great opportunity there to engage.
Andrew Roskam (14:42.158)
I agree because we've touched on why it's important to give back to our association industry to help us stay viable and continue to operate and thrive. There's the personal aspect of like there's a really really important piece of if you serve on committees you're getting to know some people in the space that have a lot of experience that have a lot of respect that will get to know you and those could be great contact business contacts to do deals with those could be future employers.
or folks that could give you references or connect you with future employers. So if I'm a professional working in this industry and I'm serving on a committee, I'm also building my career. I'm networking. I'm getting to know other people in the space that I could potentially do business with down the road. That's a very important thing as you grow your career in this industry.
Adam Parks (15:28.004)
Well, building your personal brand. I mean, there's something to be said for building a personal brand that allows you to transcend an organization and I think engagement in RMAI and in the committees and actively doing it. Yeah, you're representing an organization member as well, but it really gives you an opportunity to represent yourself and to demonstrate the quality that you expect of yourself.
Andrew Roskam (15:52.014)
And the important thing is to do it, but then if you're going to do it, you can make a good impression by serving and participating. But if you don't show up to the calls, that does the opposite. It's going to hurt your personal brand. If they're like, yeah, this guy, I he's on the committee, but Andrew never showed up and didn't say anything. Like, well, that's not going to make the best impression.
Adam Parks (16:11.77)
If you're going to do it, do it all the way, right? If you're going to do it, get in there and participate and be part of the discussions. There's so many different topics that are discussed as we go through committee calls. Some being longer than others, but lots of opportunity there and lots of working groups, right? As we think about the opportunities of, let's call it current event management.
Andrew Roskam (16:12.462)
Yeah, exactly.
Adam Parks (16:37.966)
Fintech and artificial intelligence, medical debt reporting, right, or medical debt working group. There's a lot of working groups that RMAI puts together to really focus expertise and be able to empower and educate the rest of the industry or taking specific actions. The Fintech working group put out a great white paper that helped describe what was happening there. I know we've done that with Buy Now, Pay Later and other types of...
Andrew Roskam (16:42.84)
Yeah.
Adam Parks (17:02.266)
The auto working group, all that type of work ultimately requires people with expertise to drive it. The association can do a great job and the staff can do a fantastic job, but they need to be empowered with the knowledge of the industry in order for them to be able to execute on those types of products. And that's the engagement that the members should be looking for from their committees.
Andrew Roskam (17:25.646)
Yeah, absolutely. And you mentioned the medical debt working group. It kind of was born out of a need where we, a couple of years ago, we realized a lot of these bills that we're trying to fight are like some sort of medical debt bill in a certain state that was mostly about medical debt, but the definition of medical debt turned out to loop in like your credit card and your home equity line of credit or some of these crazy things. we created a subcommittee, which I'm the board liaison for now, where we just
Adam Parks (17:42.915)
Okay.
Andrew Roskam (17:53.646)
monitor all these medical bills because most of our MAI members don't buy medical debt. There are a few who do and we make sure to advocate for them too. But we also need to protect all asset classes from these things. So we see all these bills. We're doing it right now. I mean, this time of year is a really, really busy time for the state ledge and those committees that come out of that. But so that's another one that you'd like. We'll see a need or we'll see something going on in the industry. And maybe we need to create a working group to address this.
Adam Parks (18:23.854)
Like the privacy working group. There's no federal rule for us to follow from a privacy perspective. There's a mismatch of state rules and someone's got to keep it all organized so that we don't trip over ourselves. And especially over the coming four years as the states really try to amplify their, their attacks on the industry, it's going to come in these small state level items, but one state kind of changes your
Andrew Roskam (18:23.937)
yep. Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew Roskam (18:38.401)
Exactly.
Adam Parks (18:53.306)
processes and they understand that and they're looking to disrupt the organizations through that methodology. So being able to monitor what's happening from a privacy perspective, having the right people engaged in that conversation, not only from an operations perspective, but a legal perspective so that we can understand the risks and rewards of the options on the table.
Andrew Roskam (19:14.21)
Yeah, I completely agree. even like, so a lot of people that listen to your podcast that maybe aren't specifically debt buyers are in the RMAI industry, but they're in this space in some capacity. And maybe you're a member of a different trade association. I would encourage you to try and get involved in that trade association. Obviously, I'm an RMAI board member, I'm wearing my board member hat, getting involved with RMAI, but regardless, support your association and give back. Because there's like the piece of, I think it's really important.
in our lives in general, even if it's not professionally, to do something that's not for yourself. To give back. You know, when you don't have a direct benefit. I'm not getting paid for this. Yes, we mentioned before, I'm, you know, marketing myself. I'm building my personal brand, which is going to help me, but like directly, I'm not getting paid. I'm taking time out of my business to spend this hour on this call. And I think that's a really important thing to get outside of ourselves a little bit and learn that like I'm doing something for somebody else or for something else.
It's important, regardless of what it is, maybe it's in your own community. I think that's really important to do.
Adam Parks (20:16.418)
Everyone should have some sort of community engagement that they're really passionate about or someone in their organization is passionate about. So of all the time that you've spent with RMAI and all the different things that you've had an opportunity to experience over the last couple of years as a committee member, as a board member, what's your favorite part about RMAI?
Andrew Roskam (20:36.406)
It's the people. think we talked probably too long before we recorded this podcast for 20 or 30 minutes, like catching up. It's been a couple of weeks since I talked to you. You got a lot of fun things going on. And so like we ended up probably talking longer than you had scheduled because like we were friends. Like we spent some time together on the board. You helped encourage me to run for the board, supported me through that process initially. And so now like this is a relationship that I would not have had had I not been involved. And I have dozens of those.
The current board members are all awesome and I get along with all of them really well and I love, I enjoy when they call me and we chat for a little bit. Like those things are probably, that's the coolest. I can't remember what your question was, but I think it was something along those lines.
Adam Parks (21:18.134)
Your favorite part, it's the people. I feel exactly the same way. The people are the most important part of the association. I think that's what's kept me on the road at all of these conferences all of the time for such a long period of time. I don't always have to be there, but it's the people. Those are the people that I do business with. Those are the people that I get to enjoy. Those are the people that I get to explore a new city with on the regular. And the camaraderie of the board.
was always inspiring for me. I've served on other boards outside of the industry and I've never worked with such a cohesive group of people that saw each other's perspectives, respected them and found common ground to move forward on any topic. Literally any topic. Anything that came to the table, it was always moving forward as a group and I was always very proud to be part of that.
process and part of the discussion, but that discussion is really open to the entire industry. There's no limitations on becoming a board member, it's because you're not from this company or that company or whatever else I've heard through the years. None of that's true. I was nobody. We knew who I was.
Andrew Roskam (22:26.98)
yeah. You know, you and I are both people that can speak to that a lot too, because I'm a very small debt buyer and I have never once felt ostracized because of that. And there's some, some members on the board and other committees that are from very large debt buyers. Like we, we swim in different stratospheres, my puddle in their ocean or whatever. but, but I've never once felt that like a big timing, you know, mentality or anything like that. It's always been support and like,
leaders want to hear, because our membership is spread out. There's about a third small debt buyers, a third medium, a third large. like smart leaders want to know what the perspective of all of these people are. yeah, I've really, really felt that as I've served. And the other thing I'll say is like, the people who serve on committees and boards in this industry or the what I found are the people that I want to spend time with, the people that I look up to and respect. like those are the people that I want to like
be around and learn from and have relationships with because those are like the top quality people that I think are good to build relationships with. Those are people you want to hang out with.
Adam Parks (23:32.802)
What's the phrase like you're the sum of the people the five people that you spend the most time with?
Andrew Roskam (23:37.184)
Exactly. Exactly. I had a youth pastor growing up who said, look in your backseat. Who's in your backseat? The same thing. It's like, who's spending time with you and what are they doing with their lives? And it's like, if you spend a lot of time, even in this industry, with folks that you want to be like, it's a good chance you're going to start moving in that direction.
Adam Parks (23:52.532)
I would say it's inevitable. If you start hanging out with the people that are like that, then that's where I think the engagement in the committees really comes full circle. You associate with people that you want to be like, and that's a great place to meet some of those people and get straight to the point of who is an active volunteer, who is an active advocate for the industry, not just in talk, but in action.
Who's taking on responsibility on a committee call? Who's volunteering their time to take care of X, Y, or Z? Those are the people that you ultimately want to associate with. And I think that there's a great opportunity to identify those people through the committee calls.
Andrew Roskam (24:36.066)
Yeah, completely agree with that.
Adam Parks (24:39.14)
Well, Andrew, I really do appreciate you coming on and chatting with me today sharing your insights yet again. I'm sure our audience is happy to see you back here talking with us about our may I and all the great things that the association is doing and the people behind the organization are doing to keep it forward. thank you for all of the work that you've been putting in.
Andrew Roskam (25:02.414)
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me. Love to do it again sometime.
Adam Parks (25:06.282)
Absolutely. We're going to find some more topics for us to talk about. We'll probably throw some chicken talk in there as well.
Andrew Roskam (25:12.489)
Yeah, anytime. The funny thing is, as I mentioned before, I didn't do a lot of work on the farm, so there's a lot of chicken questions I don't know the answer to. But I can tell you how to, you know, pick them up and stuff like that.
Adam Parks (25:21.594)
Fair enough. Well, for those of you that are watching today, if you have additional questions you'd like to ask Andrew or myself, you can leave those in the comments here on LinkedIn and YouTube and we'll be responding to those. Or if you have additional topics you'd to see us discuss, you can leave those in the comments below as well. And hopefully I'll get Andrew back here at least one more time to help me continue to create great content for a great industry. But until next time, Andrew, I really do appreciate your time and attention. I look forward to seeing you again soon.
Andrew Roskam (25:48.842)
Absolutely. Thanks, Adam. Appreciate it.
Adam Parks (25:50.57)
Absolutely. And thank you everybody for your time and attention today. We appreciate it and we'll see you all again soon. Bye everybody.
