IAM1975 – Lawyer, Entrepreneur and Author Helps Clients with Consumer & Business Debt

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Leslie Tayne Teaser 00:00

Coming from the in-house council position and starting to see the wave of a future in terms of debt resolution alternatives, I knew that the consumers would be vulnerable and I knew that opening a law practice would make it so that consumers would feel much more comfortable working directly with an attorney in a very manageable situation that didn't give people the fear that they have with attorneys, didn't give them the fear that they have a debt resolution traditionally.

Intro 00:28

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:54

Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Leslie Tayne, Esq. of the Tayne Law Group.

Leslie, it is awesome to have you on the show.

Leslie Tayne 01:06

Thank you so much for having me.

Gresham Harkless 01:07

No problem. No problem. What I wanted to do was just read a little bit about Leslie so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's been able to do and she is doing.

Leslie H. Tayne Esq. is a consumer and business debt-related attorney. She founded the Tayne Law Group P. C. concentrated solely on debt resolution and alternatives to filing bankruptcy for consumers, small business owners and professionals. Leslie has over 20 years of experience and debt relief.

So Leslie, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

Leslie Tayne 01:36

I certainly am.

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Gresham Harkless 01:37

Awesome. The first question I usually have is just to give you the floor of the mic, so to speak, and see if you can tell us a little bit more about your CEO story, about your background and what led you to start your business.

Leslie Tayne 01:48

Sure. So because it's over 20 years, my background is long, but to sum it up, I started out as an attorney as in-house counsel to a national debt settlement company. I was with them for a few years. I felt that I could make a difference opening up a law practice that specifically concentrated in the area of consumer debt resolution and alternatives to bankruptcy.

Most people were just thinking at the time of a bankruptcy situation, and when you sought out an attorney for debt resolution, that was the solution. For me, I felt that coming from the in-house counsel position and starting to see the wave of a future in terms of debt resolution alternatives, I knew that the consumers would be vulnerable and I knew that opening a law practice would make it so that consumers would feel much more comfortable working directly with an attorney in a very manageable situation that didn't give people the fear that they have with attorneys, didn't give them the fear that they have a debt resolution traditionally.

That's why I opened my own practice.

Gresham Harkless 02:48

Awesome. Could you drill a little bit deeper and tell us a little bit more about what exactly do you do for your clients as far as like your products and your services?

Leslie Tayne 02:55

So I think you hit on a really good point. It's point. There's a fear factor and an anxiety factor. There's also a frustration when it comes to financial issues and also an embarrassment. People have paid their bills regularly on time, year after year. They're respectable business people. They're attorneys, they're doctors, they're teachers, they're members of the community. I've had clergy. And so there are so many pieces of the puzzle when somebody comes to see me. That's really the first step. So when you ask me, how do I really help somebody? It's, there's an understanding of what's going on within that individual or business person's mind as to what's happening.

So we have a free phone consultation. It is a conversation to speak with me and one of my assistance to assess really what's going on. So we just have to know what are the symptoms of the problem? Very similar to as if you were going to a doctor, what is going on in your financial life? Then we set up an appointment to come in, we sit and we discuss those details that we discussed over the phone in greater detail. So I start to learn a lot about that individual or business person's personal life financially and their business life. The important piece to know is that they're both intertwined. So obviously what happens in business happens in your personal life. If there's less money coming in or you lost your job or you lost your biggest account or you're not getting that money in fast enough, the receivables are slow and or your practice has changed considerably.

So many of my doctor-patient-by-doctor clients have their practices have just changed over the years from cash cows to dealing with insurance companies. So really understanding what's causing a lot of the issues is the way we come up with a strategy or solution to resolve things. So we want the client to be open and honest with us. We want them to feel really comfortable with the process. So we get it all out on the table with expectations and we talk about what's the best solution to managing the underlying issue, getting them out of that problem and getting them to a new place. So that involves short and long-term goals.

Then we come up with a solution that absolutely makes sense and we work through it. The best piece of it is that everything's all-inclusive. We come up with a single monthly payment based on the total amount of debt that the client has. There are no large retainers, there's no monthly billing, there are no hourly rates. If you've ever dealt with a creditor and I'm sure that you have a positive or negative, it takes time to get through to them. So we don't want clients to be billed because we're sitting on the phone for one to two or three hours with a creditor. So this comprehensive program where we come up with this budgeted dollar amount monthly is really successful and we're there for them.

We have an open-door policy. Things are good. Things are bad. I want to know about that. So it's important and you don't get that with the big companies. That's really the difference between what my company offers and what's out there; the personalization in a world that's become so impersonal. Think about how your banking relationships have changed. You never deal with the same person. You don't even speak to people in this country. So we want to keep that personalization going where the client comes to us and it's not a typical law firm. You're not like, sign here and we never talk to you again. We have an open door, close often as you like. We'll let you know what's going on and we'll keep you up to date.

In many cases, my clients get refunds when they're finished. So you just don't see that in any type of form of debt consolidation or debt resolution. And frankly, I really want to take that negative stigma out of debt consolidation and debt resolution. Certainly the debt settlement industry, which has been wrought with unfortunate incidences where consumers have been taken advantage of. We want our clients to come at us and say, wow, had a great experience. If you ask yourself, how many times have you come out of something where you were involved with lawyers and you say, wow, that was a great experience?

It's few, even I have been involved with lawyers over the years. We all need them for one reason or another, but we all want to come out and say, I wish I didn't have to do that. Nobody wants to say that, but you're going to need me at some point. When you need me, I want you to come out and say, you know what, I had a different experience with the team law group. I had a good experience and you know what? I feel positive about it. Instead of so much negative energy surrounding what goes on in the legal world, what goes on in the debt world, it can be positive and we do turn it around and we try to really be positive about it.

Gresham Harkless 07:16

No, that's awesome, and I love your process. You might have already touched a little bit on it, but I want to ask you again, what are some of the things that you feel like make you unique? Did you already touch on some of those things or there's some other things you want to add on top of that?

Leslie Tayne 07:28

I think I'm unique in a lot of ways.

First of all, I've been a single parent for 10-plus years where I started my business very young and I was divorced during early on. My kids were only three and five. I managed my three little kids all those years and now all going into college. But I managed my kids and made my business what it is. So I just know that I try to take a real perspective from things that certainly makes me unique.

I don't mind keeping my practice the way it is. We are selective about who we're willing to work with. We want to work with people who want and have the desire to get things resolved. So it's not a one-size-fits-all or one-side catch-all situation. I think that my desire is to keep the legal community and the debt resolution community reputation clean. It's very different than the motivation. I think that some of my predecessors and some of my even competitors out there where you know, it is a money driven. Listen, we're all in business to make money, but my motivation here on a daily basis is to make my clients happy.

Are they walking away with a good experience? Are we trying to say yes more than we can say we can't. That's not gonna fit into the model. The most piece that makes me the most unique is that I've taken my business and turned it into a franchise opportunity. We want to bring the service to different areas and communities that maybe we can't get into. There are different ethnic communities, minority communities, there are all different kinds of communities where they need some sort of help. By bringing somebody from that community in as a partner or a franchisee, I want to be able to reach out to other communities.

Frankly, I don't speak Spanish. I have staff that do, but it's not a community that I'm not actively involved in that, but we would love a representative from that community that is actively involved so that they could bring the service that we have to them directly. So that's why we started the franchise program. It's definitely something that we have at the forefront of our growth and that makes us very unique as well.

Gresham Harkless 09:22

Makes perfect sense, so it's important for you to be client-focused and make sure that you're helping out your clients.

The next question I wanted to ask you was for a CEO hack, which might be like an app or book or something that you feel like you use on a regular everyday basis that you feel like makes you more effective and efficient as a CEO.

Leslie Tayne 09:39

So what makes me most efficient? Truthfully, a really good staff. You can't always replace that with an app. We are always looking into different opportunities, apps and other services that can make things a lot more efficient. What's become really most efficient is in camera meetings where I can be in another location, let's say, in my office in Florida and still meet with a client here in New York or vice versa. So, for me, what's really an invaluable tool is the use of video conferencing. It gets better every single day and it gets much easier to use on a regular basis and that's making things a lot easier because the truth is in my business, People still want to see who I am.

They still and I don't blame them. They want to see who I am. They want to touch and feel and they want to get a good feeling and we want them to have that. So I don't want us to become so impersonal that everything is done electronically. Although we do have clients that will sign up electronically online and that's great. But there are plenty of people out there who still want to see that face-to-face. That's a really invaluable tool for us to stay in contact with our clients and give them that real feeling when we're just not jurisdictionally or geographically close to one another.

So that's really helpful.

Gresham Harkless 10:49

That's awesome. That makes perfect sense. Now, the next question I had, is a CEO nugget, which might be like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice that you might give to other CEOs, entrepreneurs or business owners.

Leslie Tayne 10:59

So I would have to say that the one piece of advice that I could give people is that you really have to go with your gut and your instinct. Understand that you are going to make mistakes and that not every decision is going to be the best one. Sometimes you're going to make decisions that pull your eye off the ball, but always stay focused on what it is that you're trying to achieve. Revisit it on a regular basis, be involved in every aspect of your business. You can't be an expert in every area, but you can understand what's happening and be involved. I think that's the best piece of advice just to really understand that you have to go with your instinct as an entrepreneur, as a business owner.

You have to trust that if you're in a place that you really don't trust your instinct or your gut, then you need to get a mentor who can help reinforce that and help teach you to understand what it feels like inside your gut to go with it. Do I feel good about this is the right decision? Sometimes I felt good about things and we've gone with it. It hasn't turned out the way I wanted it to turn out. That doesn't mean it turned out bad. It just means it turned out different than what my expectations were. So, over the years, and as I've evolved as a person and a business person, my decision-making gets solidified more and more as time goes on.

I'm really confident with myself at this point in my career and confident with my decisions. Sometimes I still feel frustrated. So the frustration is still there sometimes, sometimes you feel as a business owner, you're trying to push this giant rock up a big hill and you feel like, I'm I ever gonna get it to the next level? But you just keep persevering and trust your judgment and trust your instinct and just go with it.

Gresham Harkless 12:29

I love that. So one of the next questions that I'm super excited to ask you is we get a lot of different quote and quote CEOs, and we're looking to redefine like what it means to be a CEO.

I wanted to ask you very specifically, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Leslie Tayne 12:43

So that's an interesting question because I don't always define myself as a CEO I'm definitely an entrepreneur and businesswoman. I am a CEO of course, but I don't know if in my position I have defined myself the same way you define yourself as like the CEO Of a very, very large company although our roles may be similar, but on a different scale. So the way I see myself is that I am the leader of the pack and I am the captain of the ship and it's my job and my responsibility.

I think there's a big piece of that puzzle, which is the responsibility piece, my responsibility to my clients, my responsibility to my business and my responsibility to my staff. Biggest of all is my responsibility to myself. So, as a CEO in a smaller type of company, I wear a lot more hats, I think, than a very well-defined CEO in a large company who's maybe not the CEO and the CMO at the same time. I wear the CEO, the CMO and the COO at times and a lot of different hats.

So, I'm pretty well versed in all those areas when it comes to my business. And so I see myself more as that a pilot or the captain of the ship where I am making lots of decisions. I'm getting the information from my assistants, but I'm certainly wearing a number of different hats. So that's where I am with the CEO piece of the puzzle.

Gresham Harkless 14:00

I love it. I love it. The captain or the pilot. I love that analogy, so to speak. Leslie, I truly appreciate you for taking the time out of your schedule to speak with us, tell us about all the awesome things that you're doing. I wanted to give you the mic one more time just to see if there was anything additional as far as advice or anything about your business you wanted to tell our readers and our listeners.

Then after that, if you can let us know how best to get ahold of you.

Leslie Tayne 14:21

Sure. As far as my business is concerned, we're available to help anybody wherever they are. But we help people with all different kinds of debt. We really positioned ourselves and certainly myself as a debt expert. I wrote a book called Life and Debt, and that's available on Amazon lifeanddebtbook.com. And that's a really great place to start if you have some even beginner questions about budgeting and money management. There's really nothing. The most important piece I always try to end on and try to express is nothing to be embarrassed about.

What's the only piece that's the most important piece is understanding that debt happens. It's part of life and finding the right person to help you with it. There are so many life circumstances that come up where debt and money need some assistance and don't be afraid to reach out there. But when you do look for companies, I do want to warn you that again, go with your own instincts there, but be aware whether that company has some of the red flags, how long have they been in business? Where can you meet them? Who are you really talking to? Is it going to make things better? Or what's going to happen down the road?

Really take your time and research it and find the right person to work with who can help you. So you can certainly reach me easily. Obviously, if you google Leslie Tayne, www.taynelaw.com. I'm on every social media on Twitter and Linkedin and Facebook and everywhere out there. The book is Life and Debt book. So we're happy to help and consult. Again, our conversations over the phone are always free. So why not take advantage of that opportunity?

Gresham Harkless 15:56

Definitely. Leslie, I truly appreciate all the awesome things you're doing here. You're a superhero being a single mom and juggling all those different things.

We'll make sure to have all those links in the show notes just in case anybody wants to get a copy of your book, of course, follow you on any social media. But thank you so much again. You are super awesome, and I truly appreciate the time you took today.

Leslie Tayne 16:15

Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Outro 16:17

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast, powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Check out the latest and greatest apps, books, and habits to level up your business at ceohacks.co.

This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless, Jr.Thank you for listening.

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