Trisha Miller

I attribute my success to hard work. I'm a busybody, I'm a hard worker. I tend to like to listen to what other people have to say. One of my best pieces of advice to collectors through the years has been to say your peace to people, ask what you have to ask customers when you go and make your collection call, and then do the pause, and just wait. You know, be a listener. It may not be what you want to hear, but you have to listen. I like to listen to people, I like to ask questions, I'm a big questioner. Not everybody likes all the questions I ask, but I like to do the inquiry. You know, they do those personality tests, and it says I'm a questioner, and that's who I am. My kids always complain, well, you ask so many questions. But that's who I am. I want to know, I want to understand, I want to get involved. I like to listen to people's stories. I think that's part of it.

In the construction industry for credit, I would say don't come into an industry with being so much of a go-getter as to being someone who wants to be receptive, to understand. A lot of times, you know, we've interviewed a lot of people that have the understanding of, like, oh, I get it, I got it, I get it, I understand. You think you understand, you don't understand. You know, what's the old adage? You don't know what you don't know, right? I understand your ambition, and you're ambitious, and you want to do more, but pace yourself. And ask questions. And take your time to understand, and don't come into an industry and act like you know everything, because it took me 35 years to get where I am. Take your time to understand it. There's a lot of nuances to the construction industry, to collections, to understanding the best ways to do collections with AR. There's just a lot. It's just not about picking up the phone call and saying you owe money, it's about how to handle customers and how to handle sales, and production, and shipping. There's a lot of different people, a lot of players that you have to deal with, and you deal with them all differently. It's not the same people, and you want to be respectful, and you want to be responsible. You just gotta take your time, and coming in like you know everything, and oh yeah, I know what I'm doing, and this is how we're gonna do it, and I wanna do it this way, that's fine, but you're part of a team, and nobody works in an island. It's just a process, and I understand that young people nowadays kind of jump around, but longevity's not a bad thing either.

In my work life, being very ethical and honest is most important. I've been asked to provide some shaky releases in the past, and my first response is, I'm sorry, that's not ethical, and I can't do that in good conscience. I like to have a very clear accounting process. I don't like to have things disorderly. I like to have things very organized. I'm a pretty organized person. In my personal life, I just have a concept of doing for others. I just feel like that's my purpose, is just doing things for others. I just for some reason think I have a heart to do that, as I just like to take care of other stuff for people. I feel like I have a bigger purpose. I don't know what it is yet, but I feel like I have a bigger purpose somewhere out there. I'm hoping it comes to me. I just don't know what it is yet. I'm currently taking care of my parents' finances and their care, and everything, and I work from home, so I'm pretty busy with all of that.