Katalina (00:00.992)
Hello and welcome back to another episode of Career Path. I'm your host, Catalina. Today we will be discussing taking risks to reap rewards. And here to discuss that with me, I have Nancy Hughes. Nancy is a partner and owner at ConnectOne LLC and she has been in the industry a little over 30 years. Outside of work, Nancy is also very dedicated to philanthropy and she volunteers at a couple of places including the Alzheimer's Association,

the Challenged Athletes Foundation, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, just to name a few. Nancy, it is such a pleasure to have you on today. Thank you so much for joining me.

Nancy Hughes (00:40.174)
Thank you, Catalina. I really appreciate the opportunity to be with you today.

Katalina (00:46.08)
My pleasure. Would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got to where you are today?

Nancy Hughes (00:53.006)
So a little bit about myself. I live in San Diego and thoroughly enjoy the lifestyle here. I started in the industry back in the late 90s as a sales rep for a very small collection agency. Had absolutely no idea what collections was all about and walked in the door and there were about eight people in the office and quickly found out, quickly got a crash course. And I remember telling the collection manager,

introducing myself and saying teach me the business and he said no one's ever asked me that question and all the sales reps we've ever had and I said well how can I possibly sell what I don't know so he put me on the phone and I started learning how to collect bills so then I grew we grew from there and we grew the company to about close to 500 people and then the company was acquired and I stayed on with them for a bit wanted to learn the debt buying side of the industry

So was an executive at Absolute Resolution Corp for five years and learned a ton about that side of the business. And then was recruited back by Teleperformance who had acquired our company to work in the biz dev world. And I loved it because that was part of the call center space I didn't know was customer care. So doing global projects on the care side.

And then went out on my own about 10 years ago. So I have been with Connect One now. We rebranded, but about 10 years. So that's mine in a nutshell. I love the industry. I've always said that once you're in, you never get out. And it's like a vortex. And I've met some amazing people. And I love to hear their stories. Everybody has a story of how they got into the collection business, right?

And this career has awarded me the ability to do the charity work I love to do. So it's been a great career and I'm certainly not done yet.

Katalina (02:56.192)
Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you sharing that background and that's fantastic how passionate you are about the industry. So let's dive a little bit into our topic today that taking risks to reap rewards. So what kind of risks do people need to face while building their career?

Nancy Hughes (03:16.27)
So I believe that no matter what career you're in and what role you have, there is an evidently risk. So I think that you have a couple of choices. You stay stagnant or you take risk because without risk, there's no opportunity. So I feel like everybody has a little bit of a different.

risk tolerance, I will call it. But I believe in every career there is risk and you have to make that choice of standing still or moving forward.

Katalina (03:51.36)
I totally agree with that. And you mentioned that risk tolerance. Is there a way to kind of figure out or gauge your own risk tolerance?

Nancy Hughes (04:04.558)
I have a very jaded view on this subject because I'm a big risk taker. The good, the bad, and the ugly of that, I suppose. But I think that you surround yourself both personally and professionally with a good support system. And they can help you figure out what your tolerance level is. I jump in with both feet. That's just who I am. And that works for me. That doesn't work for everybody.

Katalina (04:09.6)
I'm sorry.

Nancy Hughes (04:31.918)
So I think you have to really look at the individual situation and see where your tolerance level is.

Katalina (04:41.952)
So the best way to do it then is to kind of take those risks, but make sure you've built up that community so you have something to fall back on.

Nancy Hughes (04:49.934)
I believe that that would be my advice as a serious risk taker. I also feel like, you know, if you have an opportunity in your career to, for instance, take on a new project that you have zero experience with, but you feel very comfortable that you will be successful, then take the risk. I also believe you have to, you know, weigh the risk versus the reward.

Katalina (04:54.08)
You

Nancy Hughes (05:15.278)
If the risk is, if the reward is much higher than the risk, then obviously that's a no brainer. If they're about the same or the risk is a lot higher than the reward, then that's, you really need to kind of think about it and give it some time to, you know, resonate. What's this, what is it going to be? What's it going to look like at the end? I also believe that you need to weigh the risk. How does this affect other people?

So if it's affecting other people in a negative way, then that risk, in my opinion, would not be worth the reward.

Katalina (05:50.496)
Absolutely. Now, how, I know you might be a little bit biased by this because you did say you're a big risk taker. You like to jump in with two feet, but, or two feet, my goodness, with two feet. But where within careers, because obviously, like you said, every career path is going to have risks, but where should people be taking risks? Where should you like look for a risk that you should take to try to reap rewards?

Nancy Hughes (06:04.27)
Yeah.

Nancy Hughes (06:21.262)
Again, putting yourself out there to take on additional responsibilities, to take on projects that you're, you know, get yourself out of your comfort zone. I think that people, when they get out of their comfort zone, they actually find a new comfort zone. And they are, you know, pretty impressed with, wow, I could do this. When maybe six months prior, they're like, I would never have tackled that. But the minute they decided to take the risk,

They were offered a huge reward. Also, talk to your support system, whether that's a professional. I've been very, very lucky in my career. I've had, and I was one of the only women in the industry back when I started, certainly one of the only executive women in the industry. And it was tough. We didn't have the mentoring that I think a lot of, such as yourself, have the younger women that are in the industry now. I believe that you...

Nancy Hughes (07:16.398)
you know, we try very hard, us, you know, veterans in the industry of women, like the Women's, you know, Women in Consumer Finance Conference. You know, we never had anything like that. But I was extremely fortunate to have really great men that mentored me. So I would always ask them, I would say, you know, what do you feel? I got offered this opportunity. How do you feel I should go about it?

I knew nothing about sales of collections and yet I went after all the large banks. I thought, what is the worst case scenario? They can just say no. And I always would say when they would say something like, well, can your company handle this project or this type of debt or what tier are you in? I had no idea what they were talking about, but I would just say, absolutely, we can do that.

Nancy Hughes (08:10.094)
And then I would go back to the office and say to the team, OK, how are we going to do this? We're going to figure this out. So I think that if you have that support system again, mentors, people, colleagues, both professionally and personally, that you trust, they're not going to mislead you. They're going to guide you. They might think you're a little crazy, like people did me often, but they will guide you and they'll be there to support you if you do fail.

Katalina (08:37.984)
I love it. So just leveraging that support system and taking those risks wherever you see opportunity to take on new responsibility. And a little bit, it seems like, of fake it till you make it where it's possible.

Nancy Hughes (08:51.31)
I hate that term, but it's very true. And it's worked for me.

Katalina (08:57.952)
And now talking about some bigger risks, potentially enormous risks, how do you go about making a decision like that? So are there different steps you would go through or a minimum of information you require when considering taking a bigger risk for a bigger reward?

Nancy Hughes (09:20.846)
So I've had some very enormous risks in my career. The largest one by far is deciding to start my own company. I remember really having to weigh the pros and the cons, which I probably didn't spend enough time on, to be honest with you. But when I started talking about it with my support system, everybody thought I was crazy.

They were like, you're leaving a big corporate job with the big salary and all the benefits. You know, my daughter had just started college. It was not really the best timing. But people telling me I was crazy made me even want it more. And so I sat down and really did a lot of soul searching. Like I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt I could do it. I just.

I think if I had to do it over again, I would spend more time really kind of putting down a list. What are the pros? What are the cons? What do I need? What are the steps I need to do to get to A, B, C, D, to get to Z, right? To get to where I want to go. Laying down a business plan. All of these things, I didn't really spend enough time doing.

Again, it worked out for me, but there were some very tough times and it was tough and it was lonely. I was an island of making decisions were always before I had, you know, an office and a team, a management team, a partner to talk to about things. And when you don't have that, you don't realize how isolated you become. So I felt like I personally,

Nancy Hughes (11:08.622)
I am being a huge risk taker. If I was to do it again, I would spend much more time really, really focusing on a business plan and weighing the pros and the cons. Hopefully I would have dove right in again and I have zero regrets for doing this, but it was definitely not for the faint of heart. And I think a lot of people have those types of enormous risks. I know people that in their career,

You know, at 50 years old, they decide they want to make a huge career change or they want to go back to school. Those are tough. Those are tough decisions. But I feel like it's so worth it because at the end of the day, I'm so much happier than I was. I loved building the companies when I was an entrepreneur, the very first collection agency. But then when I got to the corporate world, I felt like this was not me. You know, I'm very much have the entrepreneurial spirit.

And it hampered me from doing that. So I love the enormous risks. Now, am I at a point in my career currently that I'd like to just kind of mellow out and sail down the rest of my career? Absolutely. But I still will take on huge new projects. We're always doing different things at ConnectOne. I mean, we started in the business.

thinking we were going to match collection agencies with our clients and do a lot of debt sales. We absolutely do a ton of that, but now we're doing mergers and acquisitions and we're raising capital for startup companies and doing consulting work for startups and entrepreneurs. That to me is super exciting. It's like something I've never done before. So I'm learning something new 30 years into the career. And I love that without the risk, I would never have those new opportunities.

Katalina (12:58.144)
Yeah, you can always learn something new. And I'm very, absolutely, I make it a goal to absolutely learn something new every day. And I think about that. I don't know who said the quote or whatever it is, but making yourself 1 % better every day by learning something, a new skill, challenging yourself. All it needs to be is 1 % because by the end of the year, you're 365 % better than you were. So it's worth it.

Nancy Hughes (13:00.078)
every day. Definitely.

Nancy Hughes (13:15.854)
I love that.

Nancy Hughes (13:25.454)
I love that. That's a great quote. That's a great quote.

Katalina (13:28.967)
Now, I'm interested to hear a little bit more about, so you talked about having that support system and kind of leaning on them and learning from them and judging your risks based on that support system. But yet when you talk to your support system and they were like, you're crazy, that almost kind of fueled you more. So where is that balance there? Where do you listen to them for guidance and where do you go, hmm, maybe I should still take that risk?

Nancy Hughes (13:56.526)
So, and I won't say that everybody said I was crazy, but you know, I had several people that were like, go for it, Anance. You know, my cheerleaders, I will call them for sure. But they, I think in the back of their mind, if I ask them now, they would say, yeah, I thought you were a little crazy. But I've always been, even as a kid, if I was told I couldn't do something, that always made me want to prove myself even more. So you can't do that, or girls can't do that, or...

Katalina (13:59.264)
okay.

Katalina (14:21.408)
Yeah, you see that ship on your folder.

Nancy Hughes (14:24.974)
you know, I just was always really watch me. That's just been my philosophy my whole life. So it wasn't any different when I had to make that decision. But you know, they rallied around real fast. You know, my support system was there for me. Now, of course, they're like, wow, that was the smartest move you ever made. But it was not the easiest for sure. So and I will have to say that when I was out on my own until

Katalina (14:51.136)
Absolutely.

Nancy Hughes (14:54.766)
We really, myself and my partner, Bob Pacone joined forces. He was out on his own as well. And when we joined forces and really started working together as a team, that's when Connect One just blossomed into where we are today and where we're going tomorrow, which is super exciting. So it really did take a joint force to have somebody to talk to, make decisions together.

Right or wrong, we had each other's backs on decision making. Even if it was, you know, turned out to be not such a great decision for us, we always had each other's backs. So I feel like that is huge when you are taking risks, you know, make sure you surround yourself with people that do have your back.

Katalina (15:44.224)
And I love your philosophy with taking risks. I feel like that's something that I at least want to carry forward and others might too. When going to take risks that watch me. Having that philosophy of just, okay, okay, watch me. I do think a lot of when you take risks or do anything like that, take a leap of faith, the attitude that you bring to it is gonna very much affect the outcome. If you have a feeling that this is gonna go great,

Nancy Hughes (15:53.774)
You

Yes.

Katalina (16:14.112)
It tends to go great if you're like, this is gonna be the worst thing ever and you come into it with all of these terrible feelings, it's probably gonna end up terrible. I love talking about quotes on this show, but there's a quote that says like, whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right, because whatever you come in with, your attitude is gonna be it. So watch me.

Nancy Hughes (16:34.382)
Absolutely, and I I am I've always been a positive person I've been called positive Pollyanna many times in my lifetime and I don't think that's necessarily a good thing Because people are like wait a minute. How can you be positive in this situation? I Think you have two choices because the situations there anyway, so it's how you handle it It's how you look at it, you know

Nancy Hughes (17:00.846)
The old cliche, right? What has taught you most in life? Your success or your failure? Zero doubt that my failures have taught me way, way, way more than my successes because I've never ran from failure. I've always faced it. I've dealt with it and I've moved on. And those, those failures have given me life's greatest lessons. And as long as you can learn from them and not do that same

exact situation that caused the failure, then you're moving forward. But I always approached it even when in my darkest days, I approached things with complete positivity because I felt like the other option was just not an option for me. I had to deal with the situation anyway, so you might as well face it with a smile on your face and just deal with it in a positive, have a positive attitude because negativity not only brings yourself down, but everybody around you.

So guess what? Your support system's not going to be there too long if you're the negative nilly that always is saying something negative and looking at everything as the glass half empty instead of the glass half full.

Katalina (18:12.256)
Yeah, and you bring up Pollyanna. That's so funny that you brought that up because I remember that movie when I was a little girl. It was actually one of my sister's favorite movies. So she played it a lot. And at first I remember being annoyed at it, but I was too young to understand it. And when I got older, I was like, my God, I love this movie because I loved Pollyanna. Somebody who can find the positivity even in the depths of the worst situations is something.

aspirational. And I remember thinking as a kid, like, I wish I could be more like Pollyanna or I want to become more like Pollyanna. So I don't think that's at all a negative thing for you to be a positive Pollyanna. That's something to aspire to. And learning that that's coming to a situation with that kind of Pollyanna personality, we could call it, would lead you to have success from failure versus falling apart when you have failure.

Nancy Hughes (18:54.382)
Thank you.

Nancy Hughes (19:02.67)
You

Katalina (19:10.528)
which is, yeah, very important.

Nancy Hughes (19:12.025)
Because failure is a part of everybody's life at some point, right? I mean, if anybody tells you otherwise, I would beg to differ. And it's just failures can be life's greatest lessons. Like I said, I think it's okay to fail as long as you dust yourself off, pick yourself up and get back in the game, which is typically what I've done.

Katalina (19:34.368)
Absolutely. I'm gonna throw out another quote because apparently I just love quotes and I do it all the time on this show. I'm doing it a ton today. But there's an amazing Thomas Edison quote that says like, Thomas Edison tried and failed a thousand times to make the incandescent light bulb. And when asked about it, he said, I didn't fail. I found out 1 ,000 ways how not to make a light bulb so that I could find the one way to make it work.

Nancy Hughes (19:38.702)
I love them.

Nancy Hughes (20:02.798)
Brilliant.

Katalina (20:03.04)
I love that. Yeah, it's just taking so much failure and being like, that's not failure. So we've talked a little bit about risks in your career, in your life. I want to talk a little bit about risks specifically in this industry. What are the top risks we face? Now, obviously there's litigation, but what other things are you seeing in the industry?

Nancy Hughes (20:06.446)
but I love it.

Nancy Hughes (20:28.558)
I think, you know, having been in this industry now for 30 years or more, I have seen a lot of ups and downs. and I hear from a lot of people currently that they really feel this is an extremely risky time between legislation, new laws, new, rules and regs, and capital constraints, the cost of capital.

you know, et cetera, in the debt buying space in particular, you know, there's certain groups that just aren't, or they're being much more conservative in funding buyers. So without funds, buyers can't buy portfolios and then sellers can't sell and prices are down. So it's, it's a cycle, right? And I do that, that is absolutely happening. And of course, litigation that's been in the industry for as long as I can remember.

I remember the FDCPA came in in the 70s and people were panic -stricken. And then the CFPB came in and people were panic -stricken. I like to believe that the survival, it's survival of the fittest. You figure out how to pivot, how to punt, how to figure out how to work best within the confines of what the situation is. I personally think when people...

are in a situation that think it's so risky that they're running from the industry, I think it's time to run into the industry because it gives you a whole different opportunity than it would if things were just going great for everybody. So I love the fact that when people are running away, I'm typically running in because there's something there. There's something exciting around the corner. We may have to get through some...

Topsy turbsy turns to get to the bright meadow at the end, but I do believe wholeheartedly that it is around the corner for the industry and I'm all in and I tell people, you know, I'm in the middle of a couple different acquisitions and people are looking to sell because they are done with the industry. Now, obviously you have to make that decision on your own and if you are, you know, at a comfortable.

Nancy Hughes (22:42.414)
point in your life and you do want to retire and have some fun or do travel, whatever you want to do, I believe that you should be going ahead and selling. But I think it's perfect time to get into the industry. And if I was, I'm always talking to college students and some of my daughter and son's friends and I talk about the industry, I said, there's so much more to this industry than people really think.

we're creating thousands and thousands of jobs, right? And there's all different types of jobs. I mean, look at you, right? Look at this job that you're in. It's a whole different part of the industry that people don't see. There's a, you know, if you're an analyst, if you're super good with numbers, you know, there's a big part of the industry that has jobs. So I constantly telling people, especially young people that are looking, what do I do with my career? Get into this industry.

Katalina (23:17.632)
Absolutely.

Nancy Hughes (23:38.606)
because there are lots of great opportunities, great people. I've met some of my closest friends in the industry. I don't think very many people can say that. And you go to other conferences and other industries, I guarantee you that your competitors are not talking about best practices with you, like happens in our industry. I find that very unique and I find it rewarding.

Nancy Hughes (24:04.878)
You know that everybody regardless if there's comp if it's a competitor or not, they're friendly. They're open. They're willing to share ideas. You know, there's enough business in this industry for all of us. And I feel like if we just constantly support each other, then the industry is going nowhere but out.

Katalina (24:23.456)
Absolutely, that's fantastic. And you have such a great take on, I think, the risks we're currently facing just with the times that you need to pivot and change and roll with the punches, essentially. The best way to fight those risks currently. Well, unfortunately, Nancy, we are out of time today, but thank you so much for joining me. I really enjoyed this conversation. I think you had a ton of fantastic insights. So thank you so much.

Nancy Hughes (24:36.91)
Yes.

Absolutely.

Nancy Hughes (24:50.35)
And thank you, it was a privilege and thank you very much.

Katalina (24:54.656)
My pleasure. To our listeners, if you have any questions, comments, or any topics that you would like to see us talk about in the future, please leave them in the comments below and we will do our best to get to all of them. But in the meantime, thank you so much for joining us and I look forward to seeing you in our next episode.

Katalina (25:14.688)
Now my mouse isn't working. my goodness. They're going to come at me with one.

Nancy Hughes (25:18.382)
good, I'm not the only one with technical issues.