The Hidden ROI of Women’s Leadership Events in Financial Services | Ep. 220

Adam Parks (00:00.802)

Hello everybody, Adam Parks here with another episode of Receivables Podcast. Today I'm here with industry legend Stephanie Eidelman, who I think all of you have or know at some point in your career, because if you're reading the news and the debt collection industry or the arm industry, that's a name that you've come across before. So how you doing today, Stephanie?

Stephanie Eidelman (00:22.376)

I'm doing great and I'm really thrilled to be here with you, Adam. It's been a long time coming for the two of us to have a conversation.

Adam Parks (00:29.344)

I agree. I was very excited that we were recording today and looking forward to your insights because you've been one of those people that has definitely inspired me through the years to get involved in creating content and writing news and just participating in the industry in new and interesting ways. was kind of looking at your path that taught me that I didn't just have to be a broker or a buyer, that there were other opportunities to service the industry and to establish your

professional self, let's say, within that world. But for anyone who has not been lucky to get to know you personally through the years, could you tell everyone a little bit about yourself and how you got to the seat that you're in today?

Stephanie Eidelman (01:09.28)

Sure, it is a long and winding path, but I'll try to keep it brief. it is some of the windier parts are, I guess, what makes it a little bit interesting. So in fifth grade, I got into theater and that was my passion. Not so much on the stage, although I was on the stage in those early days. But, my first fun fact, my first show ever was Annie Get Your Gun.

Adam Parks (01:14.871)

Alright, give us the story!

Stephanie Eidelman (01:39.953)

and I was in the chorus, but I was in charge of the props and that's where I learned being in charge was super fun for me. And so it went from there, I became a stage manager and that was really my thing and I went to, I was the stage manager extraordinaire in high school and I went to college for theater and I was super excited to be able to do that.

And however, I did discover at Northwestern where I went to school that you really couldn't major in theater management. These days they do have that sort of the business of theater, but back then they didn't. And so I got out of that because I did not want to have to do Madea for anybody who knows. You got to do the classics, you know, in acting class and I didn't want to do that.

I switched majors, but I did pursue entertainment after college. In fact, during school, still one of the peak experiences of my life was that I got selected to be a stage manager at Opryland USA in Nashville. It was, they were launching this new attraction called the General Jackson Showboat where they had shows, musicals.

And so I was part of the first cast to be on that. The boat wasn't even finished. When we got there, we got to go to where the boat was built and then ride in to downtown Nashville for this big, huge ceremony. There were 20,000 people in Riverfront Park and it was a huge thing. And I was a small part of that, but I had my clipboard. Of course, this was 1986.

six or something and so I was the only clipboard but I was in charge of part of it and it was such an amazing experience that that sort of guided a lot of my early career of what I wanted to do. And so after school I had a very brief stint with an accounting firm. We won't speak of it. It wasn't very good for me.

Stephanie Eidelman (03:56.553)

And I decided, I finished that one tax season, I said, I'm out of here. And I moved across the country to Los Angeles to make it an entertainment. And I was able to get a job with Disney. That was really my dream company to be a stage manager. And so that was really my first big professional job. And I loved it. It was super exciting. But I decided to go to business school because turns out live theater

kind of a small world and I really wanted to be a Broadway producer of big musicals. I had no path to being a Broadway producer of big musicals. Like three people get to do that and I wasn't really in line to do that. So I'm gonna get a backup. I went to business school at UCLA and it was there that I ended up kind of changing course deciding not to pursue entertainment and I got a job in

aerospace manufacturing, which is the next natural thing that one would do. And it was, it turns out, I learned in business school that operations was really what I loved. I was, you know, as a stage manager, was like, it was operations, but for theater, not for stuff or, you know, quote a business or something like that. But in manufacturing, I learned

 

Stephanie Eidelman (05:21.404)

how to bring in parts and how to get them to the, you know, the manufacturing line. And I learned a lot. I learned a lot. Can't say so much for the culture of that organization at the time, but I learned a ton and it was really quite an experience. And a big part of what I did was literally clean up the factory, which was a remains, a passion of mine, give me a spare evening and a

closet that needs organizing and that is my favorite thing to do. And so this was just this biggest, hugest closet that you could imagine. And so I really enjoyed that. So I did that and then it was the mid 90s and the internet was starting and I had the opportunity to go to a startup internet company. I joined a team that was called the rollout team or the new markets team.

Adam Parks (05:54.187)

Okay.

Stephanie Eidelman (06:16.604)

And I spent three months each in different cities. Like, actually I went back to Nashville for this and I was in Austin and Baltimore and DC, a bunch of cities and we opened a market. So for me, that meant finding office space and getting computers and hiring people and training and all that. were like building the plane while flying it. It was very exciting.

And so that was the beginning of the internet. And what from there kind of eventually led me to where I ended up was that this was the early days of newspaper companies, traditional newspaper companies and magazines switching from... It was sort of the early discussion of switching from print to online or adding online.

all the publishers were literally kicking and screaming their way to the internet. They did not want to do this. And it was the days when you gave away ads on the internet if you bought a print ad in the newspaper. And now, of course, it's the opposite. But I learned so much about media and what drives the business and about content and all of that. And so when I left that,

Adam Parks (07:28.802)

Quite the opposite,

Stephanie Eidelman (07:41.823)

I moved back east and I wanted to join a small firm where I felt like I could make a big difference. I had worked at some very large companies and I wanted to join a small company. And it turns out my parents had a mergers and acquisitions firm that specialized in the debt collection industry. And that company is Kaulkin Ginsburg, which many people knew. So Kaulkin was my stepfather, Marvin Kaulkin, and my mom

also worked in the business and they had just launched CollectionIndustry.com, which was probably the first really website in the industry and also a news clipping service. Like it wasn't really a newsletter exactly, but it was just links to things that would be interesting to the industry. And so that's when I joined the company. And so I was the behind the scenes person, you know, doing

process, operations, and focusing a lot on Marvin's pet projects, which was sort of all the non-M &A stuff that was happening. But along the way, I learned a lot about M&A, but that wasn't really my jam so much. And so we had this newsletter or news clipping service, and people were subscribing. And back in the day, 7 to 900 new subscribers a month without even doing anything, just

because we were the first and that was the only source really for that type of thing for daily, you know, daily news. And so we built this big list and we had this website. What did we do? Well, let's start to take ads, you know, and before you knew it, we sort of had this B2B media company, not really knowing that that's what we were building. And so I'm almost at the end getting to where I am.

Adam Parks (09:12.362)

Yeah.

Adam Parks (09:35.798)

No, it's a great story. This is my favorite part of every podcast. I love hearing where everybody came from because no two people have entered this industry the same way.

Stephanie Eidelman (09:39.392)

Ha

Stephanie Eidelman (09:43.201)

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And so, okay, so I joined the company in 2001. And by around 2010, 11 or so, I was really excited. I had gotten involved in the professional association for newsletter publishers and not part of the collection industry, but part of that B2B publishing industry.

And I thought, well, this is really cool. It has that creative aspect that I liked from my theater days. But it's business and it's also running something. And I never, if I had known I would end up running a business or being an entrepreneur, I would have taken totally different classes in business school. I had no idea. We should all go to business school, like in our forties and not in our twenties, because you just do all the wrong thing. And

So I was like, I felt like I was ready to kind of step out a little bit from the shadows and run something. So I talked to my stepdad and Mike Ginsburg at the time, you know, was the other half of Kaulkin-Ginsburg who was my age and we sort of, he has a totally different story, you know, but started with my parents as an intern and, you know, grew to run the company as well. But,

It was at that point where I said, you know, I'd really like to run the media company. And so when my parents retired, we worked it out so that I moved forward with InsideARM. We had renamed rebranded it along the way and, and Mike moved forward with the strategic advisory business. And that's how I came in 2013 to own InsideARM. And so at that point,

I got what I wished for, which was to be the guy in charge. And care for what you wish for. And this is one of those growth opportunities where, you know, I felt, I knew I could do it, but I had really been very comfortable as the behind the scenes guy. I was always operations or gal, you know, as the case may be. And

Adam Parks (11:47.544)

Careful what you wish for.

Stephanie Eidelman (12:08.64)

And now, you know, it depended on me to grow it. And so the first thing that happened back in that timeframe, 2012, 2013, was that you'll recall a little thing called the CFPB came about and they had like just around that time announced their larger market participant rule and they were going to make rules for the debt collection industry, which was exciting.

Stephanie Eidelman (12:38.888)

I said, well, what if we just gather those larger companies? I had sort of gotten wind that there was an appetite for just the large companies to have a separate space to pursue things that were unique to those larger organizations. And so I hosted an event in Washington and I had speakers from the FTC and the FCC and the CFPB. And at that time,

It was a little unusual to have all those regulators speaking, certainly in one place. And, and it was hard to get them. And it was anyway, and people came, it was very well attended. we had, maybe two thirds of the larger market participants represented in the room, which was, which was pretty impressive. And.

Adam Parks (13:35.202)

Big, yeah.

Stephanie Eidelman (13:36.713)

It was really my coming out. You introduced me by saying a lot of you know, nobody knew who I was. Nobody. Everybody knew Kaulkin Ginsburg, but I'm confident that almost nobody knew who Stephanie Eidelman was. And so it was scary. And I will also say that it was pretty much a room full of men and there were some women, notably.

Leslie Bender, you know, and a few others, other prominent women from our industry, but not that many. And I really had put myself out there. It was kind of scary. But out of that experience, eventually came the Consumer Relations Consortium, or the CRC, which a lot of the folks, at least the larger companies probably would have heard of. And that was probably my biggest achievement.

In the industry was building that with some other key folks, of course. But that was hard work and different. And it turns out I had never chosen to do something that was done before and that people just got. there was always a major education process of the industry or of the audience that I wanted to reach. so that was hard. And anyway, I've learned a lot of lessons along the way, but

That is kind of the backstory of how I got to almost where I am today.

Adam Parks (15:08.022)

And it's a very interesting story. And I think it's a great prelude to my next question, right? Because now you've got the women in consumer finance. And as you talk about being one of the only women in the room back in those early days, you know, now you have this passion, and you've you've developed yet another group or another, let's say, opportunity for people to facilitate a discussion. And that's a really important thing and not an easy thing to do. I can definitely attest to that part.

But so what was that transition like? What drove you to start the women in consumer finance? Was it just the absence of women or was there a particular catalyst that made you say, time, this is what I need to do next?

Stephanie Eidelman (15:49.781)

Yeah, well, a couple of things. So it was 2018 when we started Women in Consumer Finance. And as a fellow media guy, you'll appreciate this. It was a product launch for us. know, we're like, what else can we do? And now credit where credit is due, Amy Perkins, who was part of my company at the time, said, well, how about a women's event? You know, and I was like,

Yes, that's brilliant. First of it was brilliant at the time in 2018. was the world that we were in. This was the big hot topic. And so it seemed really great. And also I had been running the CRC for five years at that point. And I loved it. It was great. It was very satisfying, all the things. But quite frankly, we would have our meetings two, three times a year. And it was mostly...

mostly men in the room with some exceptions, like I said before, but you know, certainly the majority men and the majority white men, if you will. But anyway, so when she raised that idea, I said, that sounds like fabulous. Yes. So that was in April of that year. And we launched in December. We created our first event. It was very quick. Certainly if you know about launching conferences and you know, new things, that is very quick. So we said, well,

Well, okay, if we could get 75 or 100 women to come, we would consider that a big win. We did it in Baltimore. I'm in DC. So Baltimore was close and easy and not terribly expensive to get a hotel in Baltimore in December. They gave us a good deal. And so it was a low stakes product launch, but we had, think, 109 women.

Adam Parks (17:31.938)

Fair.

Stephanie Eidelman (17:42.281)

show up for that. So it was successful, it was great, and it was so intimate and fabulous. really was magical. We did, of course, we've evolved it so much since then, but the core of what we do, which was putting women on teams and really creating connections for people, we did that even in that first year. And it was just so fabulous. And it was just so something that

didn't exist at all in the industry and women just loved it, loved it. And so the next year we did it in Scottsdale. So it was a little bit more of a, you know, attractive destination in December. And we had almost 300 women come that second year. it was, yeah, it exploded. Unfortunately, the next year was the pandemic. However, we did still do it and we did it online.

Adam Parks (18:27.288)

Wow, that's an explosion.

Stephanie Eidelman (18:40.444)

that year and back in those days, certainly in 2020, online was sort of a novelty still and people were willing to do it because they couldn't do it anything else. They didn't have other options. We had almost 600 women participate and it was...

Adam Parks (19:03.214)

That's a lot to manage, right? First time online managing that many people still trying to add value for each and every one of those individuals. That's a, it's a Herculean task.

Stephanie Eidelman (19:13.096)

Yeah, but what was amazing is that it did. It was also magical, perhaps not as magical as it was in person, there were many people. Women still reach out and say, the first time I attended was that virtual event. And they were like, I couldn't believe it. And if it was that great virtually, you know, it was just, everyone just showed up. It's like, you know, when you plan a wedding,

and you wish for it to be one of those events that's just people connect and the families love each other and you know, and it just works and the vibe is so amazing and you leave having been through this journey of a weekend, you know, together and it's so, but you don't know, people have to show up the right way. You get the caterer and the band and you do everything you can to make it terrific, but it could really be terrible if the people don't show up with the right attitude and

Adam Parks (20:02.731)

Yes.

Stephanie Eidelman (20:12.818)

just to be present and all of that. And so that's what we've been lucky enough to have. And even that year online, people showed up that way, ready to be present and supportive of each other. And the chat was going, well, you go girl and telling your story. And everybody was, it was just that kind of vibe and it worked. It worked. So anyway, we went back to in-person, which is what it sort of meant to me, but it's been,

It's been really great to see everyone engage and show up with an open heart and a positive attitude, you know, sort of no naysaying and, and

and just have their lives changed. know, so many women reach out to me and this is maybe your next question, but I'll get in the way of it. You know, what keeps me doing it is here is these stories that people share with me, some of whom I know well, some of whom came and I didn't have the chance to really meet. And they say, you don't know this, but that event changed my life and I'm now doing this or I was doing that.

It's amazing because I didn't have that early in my career. And that's really why I do it.

Adam Parks (21:39.276)

So people build relationships through a shared experience. That's been kind of my go-to for years, always trying to create some sort of a shared experience. But your ability to create that shared experience at scale, I think is truly unique because again, I've watched from the outside on LinkedIn, seeing the teams and how proud people are of their individual teams and the challenges and things that they're facing.

or the discussions that they're having within those team groups, and then I'm assuming everybody's coming back together again, just from general event management, but it seems like you've found a way to create the shared experience amongst the group of attendees that enables them to walk out of there, not only benefiting from what they experienced there or the content that was presented.

But they're able to walk out of there with these new and interesting relationships. And I was at an event, like a private event recently, where there was a group of women that were sitting there talking about that, talking about the women in consumer finance events and how that's where they met. And we were all just kind of talking about like our histories and where we all came from the call. Yeah, no, we all met at the WCF. Like we've seen each other at conferences. But our relationship started there. And I said, well,

Stephanie Eidelman (22:53.248)

I will.

Stephanie Eidelman (22:57.93)

Yeah.

Adam Parks (22:59.02)

What kind of shared experience did you have? we were on the same team and we, and they gave me the whole story, but they knew it. And it's, that's when it kind of clicked for me that Stephanie's creating a shared experience for these people that is having a direct impact on what they're on their lives. And the feedback that I've heard has been so positive, which is why I'm very excited to have Katalina and Leah participating this year from our team, because I feel like they also

As a leader of my organization, I'm also the oldest person in my organization by a good 10 plus years. So there's a lot that they can learn from me and my experience, but there's a lot that they can't learn from me that they need to learn and experience. And it feels like this is a great opportunity to empower them to participate in something that's not just related to the business. They can sit in compliance sessions at the other conferences and things, but

It was that shared experience explanation that really made me say, wow, and now you've got such a great team around you as well. So you've kind of built a whole new organization here around this pretty major event. And it looks like the content is growing. What's that? I mean, the driving factor is the stories behind how it's actually impacting. But how do you constantly innovate new ways to create impact?

because as an event planner, it's very different. You can't just run the same playbook every year for your type of an event, right? Like other types of conferences can kind of run a similar playbook. How do you maintain freshness to your playbook each and every year?

Stephanie Eidelman (24:40.404)

Well, it's not easy, but we, well, we take feedback really seriously and we also observe. I know at the end of a day, I just, I feel it when it was really good and I feel it when it just didn't quite hit, even though people might say, it was great. I know I would feel it if it was this other kind of way.

So we iterate a lot and sometimes we add something major that's new, but we...

The thing that creates that shared experience is intentionality. There's so much going on underneath. You're up here and you see the mountain or whatever, the birds swimming, and there's a lot of legs going on underneath the water. it's designing everything. Those connections don't happen

just because you put people in a room together and say, network, Here, go forth and network. And that works for some people, but not for everyone. And so I designed a lot of this for me, I'm really an introvert. And if you send me to a conference and you say, here, we're gonna open up with a cocktail party in the exhibit hall.

Adam Parks (25:52.814)

Go forth.

Stephanie Eidelman (26:19.198)

Right? Which is mostly what I...

It's so painful for me. So painful because you know, it's like high school. Who am I going to talk to? What am I going to talk about? Where am I going to sit? Are they going to let me join their table? Are they going to talk to me? And like adults also feel like this. Unless you are really an extrovert and that's your personality and you can talk to anyone. Lisa Roselle, I'm looking at you.

Adam Parks (26:31.278)

Where am I gonna sit? Yeah.

Stephanie Eidelman (26:51.25)

She is so fabulous. Lisa joined my team last year. I met her through the conference, Women in Consumer Finance. And she is one of these people who just exudes warmth and people want to talk to her and she will sit down and people will just join and she could make friends in a ditch. But I can't. And so I love the structure. Put me on a bowling team. Put me, you know, give me a shared experience.

Adam Parks (26:53.294)

Rockstar.

Adam Parks (27:17.902)

Shared experience, I go back to the shared experience, right? It could be bowling, could be whatever, but that shared experience opens opportunities for discussion that you wouldn't find otherwise because maybe I have the skill of creating conversation out of nowhere, but it's definitely not for everybody and I still feel uncomfortable every single time that I do it, almost as uncomfortable as I am when I have to watch my own podcast.

Stephanie Eidelman (27:26.152)

Uh-huh.

Stephanie Eidelman (27:41.76)

I try not to do that.

Adam Parks (27:45.294)

It's hard, right? And so that's what I mean by such an interesting shared experience. And you're able to create this environment where people are coming together on a team and, I don't want to say a common enemy, but when you've got a common objective, it really can bring a team together because now there's something greater than the conversation that everybody is working towards. Even in that situation, though, you still have those people that are ultra quiet. How do you try and find ways to engage that?

Stephanie Eidelman (27:57.729)

Yeah.

 

Adam Parks (28:14.698)

subset of the population.

Stephanie Eidelman (28:14.878)

Yeah. Well, we design not only that there is a team, for instance, but what the team will do and what the questions are to ask and what, you know, so we created teams at first and then we see, okay, different teams had different experiences because some teams had a natural leader who stood up and kind of took control.

 

Stephanie Eidelman (28:44.23)

Others didn't and that probably, you know, in retrospect, it's a big fat duh, but it wasn't at the time. And so the next year we added team leaders. Good, better. But then we saw some really prepared more than others. You know, everybody's busy. This is, they have full-time jobs that, know, this isn't so, so teams, was better, but teams still had inconsistent experiences.

So we started creating materials for the team leaders to, here's the PowerPoint that you're going to use when you have your team meeting in advance and, you know, things like this. So that everyone got the same, uh, information and the same exercises, you know, the same whatever. Um, and so there was a show like one year we did a thing where there was a core values exercise, uncovering your core values. And we use a little app and it was a simple little thing, but everyone at the event.

Stephanie Eidelman (29:38.881)

had that as a core experience before coming. And so there was a shared language. And then we realized, okay, even with team leaders, there was an inconsistency across because some people were just, oh my God, over the top with swag and all the things. And others.

maybe team leaders were introverted and you know didn't do so we added um what we call experience captains captains of the experience that everyone's going to have so that we could because for me to get with 30 40 50 team leaders in advance and really connect with them look at your eyes like do you understand this is what you need to do check check check that do you i'm looking at right

Adam Parks (30:32.438)

looking great at you.

Stephanie Eidelman (30:33.692)

I write at you, I couldn't spread myself that far. So we have these experienced captains. So we have the leaders of the team leaders. So each year we focus on more and more of the details that we sort of close all the little loops where we lost people, or that sort of a thing. Or maybe sometimes just somebody ends up on a team, it wasn't the right fit. And that's unfortunate, it's hard to know that.

Adam Parks (30:42.382)

Interesting.

 

Stephanie Eidelman (31:02.302)

We do very intentionally create the teams, but we don't know every human being and how it'll work. So, yeah.

Adam Parks (31:08.544)

It's like when you do a golf event, can't, you know, can do your best to group the people together, but you can only do your best to group the people together. But I like the experience captains, right? That hierarchy of not only a focus on what content are we delivering, but how are we delivering it and how is it being received by those people? And if I, again, judging from the LinkedIn traffic, it sounds like you've got a fairly significant steering committee and you've enabled

Stephanie Eidelman (31:16.842)

Yeah.

Adam Parks (31:37.378)

the attendees that want to be more engaged, to be more engaged and to help take a little bit of the steering wheel in terms of deciding where this cruise ship is headed. Because it's not easy to move a group of people. As private organizations, if we want to move right, we want to move left. It's like a speedboat. We can do as we need to, right? Or as we feel like we need to do. But when you're moving a larger organization like that, it's like moving a cruise ship, right? Preparing to turn left. Okay, is everybody ready to turn?

Stephanie Eidelman (31:42.451)

Uh-huh.

Stephanie Eidelman (32:06.91)

Yes, yes. Well, yes, and it is a private organization. and that's also that was my experience with the CRC too. I would call it a benevolent dictatorship. It was it worked, especially at the time we had so much we wanted to do. And it's the same with women in consumer finance. We there's a committee is a big committee. And in this case, we have like 50

Adam Parks (32:07.0)

That's it.

Stephanie Eidelman (32:36.754)

women on our committee, which is fabulous because we really get a cross section of input and different women at different stages of their career and from different types of companies and all that. And then we separate into committees, which is great. And at the CRC, you know, we had a lot of people, but I did all, I appreciate what the associations do, you know, for the industry. And I don't think I could work at an association. It's just, you know,

Adam Parks (33:06.285)

I understand.

Stephanie Eidelman (33:06.29)

any organization that's board led and that you have to, you know, there are things you have to do and you as the chief executive might want to do something, but you can't unless the board and you will. And so it was always great when I could get input, but I say, no, no, no, then now this is what we're going to do. I'm going to just say, and we're going to do it. And I will say that earlier in my career and in this journey of,

Adam Parks (33:26.808)

I'm going

Stephanie Eidelman (33:35.552)

InsideARM. I was a little bit surprised. There was that imposter syndrome because I was like nobody knows who I am or they didn't ten minutes ago and I'm like you're you're following what I said and that did

Adam Parks (33:51.574)

Imposter syndrome is very real. Katalina just did an episode with Sarah Woggerman talking about imposter syndrome and I think we all get it. That's not a male or female. is an all of us have that problem.

Stephanie Eidelman (34:03.838)

Yeah, it was amazing, but it did teach me that if you

There's certainly a confidence there that you have to demonstrate and people will follow that. But people will follow a leader. If you step in, if you do the work, and you're informed, you have credibility as the leader, but then people will follow you. And that's pretty amazing. And you can become that credible leader just by putting in the work.

Adam Parks (34:25.006)

That's the key.

Adam Parks (34:41.11)

I agree wholeheartedly. It is about putting in the work, And when you demonstrate that competence and it's competence and confidence, because otherwise you're just another, you know, talking head. So it, it's about having that competence and working hard enough to understand what you're trying to accomplish and to be able to speak intelligently with the group. And sometimes it's not about being the smartest person in the room. It's just about being able to orchestrate the production on stage.

Stephanie Eidelman (34:42.762)

Yeah.

Stephanie Eidelman (34:49.407)

Yeah.

Adam Parks (35:10.37)

Right, it's about empowering those other people around you to be able to do it. I look at my role as a CEO, my number one objective is to empower the people around me and make sure they have the tools to do their job. That's my primary number one job. And so it sounds like you look at it very much the same way.

Stephanie Eidelman (35:11.119)

good.

Stephanie Eidelman (35:22.591)

Yeah.

Stephanie Eidelman (35:30.068)

Yeah, and you have to have, and I think you've learned all this a lot younger than I did, so kudos to you. There's also an intuition that is helpful to have that you kind of get what the group wants or needs, and maybe you're willing to say something that other people weren't willing to.

there's that too. like if you can, it was actually, I think helpful for the industry. I was not an industry insider in the way I had never worked at a collection agency. I didn't have a dog in the fight in that way. And so it was possible for me to ask questions or make statements that nobody else could. And I think that was a helpful role for me to play for the group at that time.

 

Stephanie Eidelman (36:25.664)

But anyway, with women in consumer finance, yes, it is fabulous to be able to have a way to engage everyone who wants to be engaged in some way in a leadership position. And that's also by design. The point is to make up opportunities for visibility in the industry and giving people the confidence that they can do it. yes, coming and being on a team

 

Stephanie Eidelman (36:55.506)

is great. And then coming back the next year maybe and being a team leader is an opportunity. And maybe speaking, sharing your story or running a workshop or a round table, the, you know, and that or being on the committee or all of the above, you know, there's a lot of opportunities. We're like a little, you know, industry group in its own, in its own right with

with all kinds of, with a, sorry, with a, like a growth path, you know, of involvement. And some people have come in and just done all the things and you definitely get out what you put in, like in any opportunity.

 

Adam Parks (37:40.76)

But you're providing the opportunity. And I think that's the the mission critical function there is that it is an opportunity for them to do that. And you're creating a welcoming space that lets people feel comfortable and actively engage with it. And you're providing these opportunities for them to move up. And that's not always available or the you know, there may not be enough seats at the table when you're dealing with trade associations and other types of things. And this is

Stephanie Eidelman (37:49.236)

Mm-mm.

Adam Parks (38:09.826)

You've kind of built a new table for the purpose of empowering other people, which I find to be inspiring. And I hope that we can all learn a little bit from what you've accomplished here and what you're continuing to accomplish. Any final words that you can give us about women in consumer finance and what should be expected this year and why people should participate in this event?

Stephanie Eidelman (38:35.06)

Will, I didn't give you that question, but it's a great one for me. So thank you.

Adam Parks (38:40.622)

I kind of want to know it too, because I want to know what our team is in for. And I think it's important that the industry understand what it is that you're accomplishing here and what your underlying goal is.

Stephanie Eidelman (38:50.656)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Well, I will say this one thing especially, because I did this for the first time. I've been focused for several years in thinking about how do we measure and convey the ROI of this? Because I know a lot of people might think about something like this as a nice to have, a soft skill leadership development thing, which is nice and

people sometimes look at it as a girls trip and it's not at all. Yes, it's a girls trip, literally. And yes, the girls have great time, the women. We can call ourselves girls. You can't call us girls, but we can. And there's all of that. And that's no different than the guys on the golf course or at the bar in Vegas or whatever.

Adam Parks (39:36.674)

Fair enough.

Stephanie Eidelman (39:48.129)

So let's not hear about that. But what is real is so we I did an impact survey in the last few months to really find out what has changed for women since they came and so what we found was of the of the women who came in 2023 so I waited because You have to have a little little time to be able to measure the impact. So the women who came in 2023 58 percent

have since taken on responsibilities outside of their comfort zone that they hadn't before. That's not just that we also had one in four received a promotion at their company. That's great. But it's not that everyone has to go to women and consumer finance and come back and be promoted. If you are great, but even if you're not, and some companies are smaller, may not have that opportunity. But 58 %

Adam Parks (40:29.006)

Wow.

Stephanie Eidelman (40:46.174)

have stepped up in ways that they didn't used to. And 37 % said specifically that they were recognized by leadership for having shown up in a way that they didn't used to show up. Speaking up at the table, taking on projects that they wouldn't have volunteered for before, things like that. These return real value to the bottom line. Not only are you not losing these people because they don't feel supported or motivated,

but they're taking on more and being more strategic for the company, this is really, valuable. Also, 52 % said they began mentoring others internally in their company. That's leveraging leadership in a way that, I mean, that's unbelievable. And 37 % said that they formally shared.

Adam Parks (41:34.062)

I know.

Stephanie Eidelman (41:41.448)

the tools and the learnings and whatnot that they got. Like they went back and did sort of a formal presentation of what they learned. So it spreads farther than even just those people, you who get to attend. Obviously, can't send everybody, although you could. You could send everybody.

Adam Parks (41:56.718)

One in four getting promoted is a wild number to me. Like that's far beyond what I ever would have expected. The engagement I think is wildly important as well because that opportunity to engage them. Look in the survey that we did for TransUnion this year, was 88 % of companies are having trouble hiring, 81 % are having trouble retaining the talent that they have.

 

Adam Parks (42:18.414)

And so investing in your talent is really the best thing that you can do for your organization right now as any type of debt collection company that wants to continue to grow and scale at any point in the future, right? We've got a higher volume of accounts that we're dealing with. We've got less in terms of liquidation and it's causing us to move towards some new areas and being able to do more with less and being able to empower those people that we have. I don't love admitting that I'm

realizing this, like the level of importance that this truly has on an organization. And that's why I'm proud that my team is going to be there this year participating because that investment in those women is mission critical for my organization. Not just from a what product are they gonna produce or whatever, but I need them to be engaged with the industry, to be engaged with the organization and to grow their confidence outside of the realm of me.

Stephanie Eidelman (43:02.293)

Yeah.

 

Adam Parks (43:16.598)

I missed RMAI for the first time in 20 years this year. And for good reason, but you know, I wasn't physically there. And so my team was there without me and they absolutely killed it. It really helped to reinforce the idea that if I can't, if we can't attend a conference in my absence, how good are we really, right? If these things can't happen without me and the only way that I can really empower people is to put them in a position where they can have a shared experience with others, they can grow their

Stephanie Eidelman (43:34.659)

huh.

Adam Parks (43:45.844)

own relationships, they can have their own web of people that they can rely on and reach out to and participate with. And so I'm very excited to see what happens. The impact sounds like it's very real and quite impactful for lack of better language. So I'm excited to see how this wraps up. But Stephanie, I can't thank you enough for coming on and sharing your story with us today.

Stephanie Eidelman (44:02.933)

Yeah.

Adam Parks (44:11.214)

It was really interesting to hear about how you got to the position that you're in and actually all makes a whole lot more sense for me now in terms of right, like how we're a unique breed of people when we create media. And I think this is a really interesting way for us to kind of have that discussion. So thank you for coming on. I really do appreciate it.

Stephanie Eidelman (44:17.856)

Thank

Stephanie Eidelman (44:30.912)

Yeah, thank you. It's my pleasure. And I want to leave you with one final stat that I should have mentioned that I didn't. One in five women from 2023 have since gotten at least one new client or vendor as a result of a relationship they built at Women and Consumer Finance. one in five is 20%. Only 13 % of the attendees actually had a sales or business development title. So,

Adam Parks (45:00.482)

That's awesome. But even at 20%, being able to say that 20 % of the people that attended this conference walked away with a new deal when the objective of the conference was not networking for new deals, it was building relationships and people do business with the people they like. And so you may not see that impact. And I like that you have a delayed measurement of the impact because it does take time for those things to come through.

Stephanie Eidelman (45:00.778)

You're welcome. There you go.

Stephanie Eidelman (45:16.148)

And that's the point.

Yeah.

Adam Parks (45:23.084)

And sometimes you're working on a deal for three, four, five years, or because you have that relationship when they finally have the need, they pick up the phone and you're having that discussion. So.

Stephanie Eidelman (45:29.792)

That's exactly it. That's exactly it. So anyway, I wanted to share that as well because it's that's what people need to hear. Like this is a return on investment. So.

Adam Parks (45:43.66)

I think all of that is impactful. I look forward to learning more about that as you kind of gather and gain some more information. I feel like there's some additional content for you and I to continue to create in the future. For those of you that are watching, if you have additional questions you'd like to ask Stephanie 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 like to see us discuss, you can leave those in the comments below as well. And hopefully I can get Stephanie to come back at least one more time to help me continue to create great content for a great industry.

But Stephanie, thank you so much for being an inspiration to all of the women with consumer finance and to me personally for your media journey. I really do appreciate you coming on today.

Stephanie Eidelman (46:23.06)

Thank you, Adam. This was awesome. And you totally made my month when you told me that you had been watching me for a long time, because I was like, me? Really? Him? So I love it. So I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Adam Parks (46:38.932)

Absolutely. And thank you everybody for watching. We'll see you all again soon. Bye everybody.

Stephanie Eidelman (46:43.114)

Bye bye.