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Not many are as lucky as Mike Cowguill, who got his first job in collections right after graduating high school and has stayed for more than three decades. Cowguill can credit his brother for helping him find his calling easily, but rising up the ranks is a testament to Cowguill’s focus and willingness to prepare. Read on to learn more about Mike, why he avoids disagreeing, and how his work persona is different from how he is “on the battlefield.”
Name: Mike Cowguill
Job Title: Director of Consumer Engagement and Strategy
Company: Capio
Length of time at current company: 6 months
Length of time in industry: 33 years
How did you get your start in the industry?
A much older brother recruited me right out of high school (literally). He was a collection manager with a large national agency. It was my first job right after graduation. It turned out to become a life-long career!
What is your career highlight so far?
There are so many, but they all involve watching those I’ve invested my time in become better versions of themselves. Their success becomes my success, and watching all of them better their lives and achieve things with me and beyond me is all the highlight I need. There are some individuals that standout and hold a special highlight in my career. They know who they are.
When or how are you most productive?
I tend to avoid chaos. I plan ahead, think ahead, and generally defeat chaos with good order. I’ve gotten better at it as I’ve aged. However, sometimes the collection Gods do conspire against the best laid plans, determined to sow its chaos. Welcome to the debt collections business! I seem to have a natural predisposition to thrive and survive in the chaos when it emerges. I tend to be steady and my reasoning and thinking focuses and intensifies in the ensuing fast pace and confusion. While many tend to lose their bearings altogether and wring their hands in despair, I tend to rise up. That seems to steady those around me, and I’m able to lead the way out of the chaos and back into the light. Sounds over-dramatic, but possessing that aptitude has proven very handy over my career.
Which industry professional do you admire most?
I tend to appreciate people that give me knowledge of something or insight into myself or life wisdom in general. It takes me back to mentors that I looked up to in my younger years. My older brother Craig Cavalcante and the wise old man, Herb Immerman. Both were foundational figures and influences in my early career and life. They helped me discover who I am and what I was meant to do with the life ahead of me. Both have long ago passed on, but their influence lives within me and now lives within everyone I’ve influence over my career…past present, and future.
What is one thing you do better than everyone else?
I don’t get lost in minutia. It’s easy to get distracted by what’s not important and lose sight of what is. Making a plan, adapting a plan, and running a plan to completion have been a natural strength. I’ve gotten better at it as I’ve learned how to recognized and keep my “human side” in check appropriately. I think I excel at leading and teaching. I won’t proclaim to be the best at anything, but I’m probably better than many.
What do you like most about this industry?
The complexity. People are not simple. Technology and its maximum use application are not simple. Business survival is not simple in this business. My mind needs complex engagement, planning, challenges to overcome, and problems to solve. There’s very little mental downtime in this industry….if you are doing it right. I’d be bored and under stimulated with simple, slow, and uneventful.
What is one thing you wish you could change about this industry?
Some are unwilling to embrace the modern industry and are stuck in 1994, while others have no concept at all of the old-school foundational principles of our past. Those are the extreme factions I see taking sides within the industry. Both think they are right. I’d change that and teach the extremes how to blend both, in the right proportions, to create a true masterpiece.
If you weren’t in this industry, what would you be doing?
If I could start again with what I know today about myself, I’d teach history and help young minds find the many lessons and wisdoms of the past and how they apply to their futures.
Describe a typical work day.
Up at 7:30am. I’m a quick and energetic riser…no breakfast, coffee, or other usual start up required for me. Our kids are grown and life is simple…and I’m simple by nature. I work at home, so I’m dressed, groomed, turned on, and ready to go at 8am. I check the meeting and project schedules and determine what topic(s) I’m writing, speaking, advocating, presenting today. I prepare my thoughts, research, plans accordingly, and then launch!
What is your guilty pleasure?
A cup of hot tea at sunrise on a quiet sunny morning in December.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
“The best way to avoid an argument is to not disagree.” An early mentor gave me that gem at the tender age of 19. I had no clue at that time the meaning, but as I’ve aged I’ve come to realize the impact of that simple statement. Life is disagreement. How one chooses to handle that reality determines what they get out of life. I could talk for hours about the meaning and applications of this simple statement. I’ve tried to live my life, personally and professionally, with that as a general idea and compass.
What are you currently reading?
I don’t read as much as I used to, but if I were reading something it would be historical and involving a military campaign of some sort and the strategy, maneuvers, and leaders involved.
What is one fact you’d like everyone in the industry to know about you?
I’m intense on the battlefield and have probably been guilty of overlooking some niceties from time to time, while I’m fixated on mission success. I have come to refer to it as a gift and a curse. But I’m self-aware of it. Look beyond it. Surprisingly enough to those that know me professionally, I’m actually very sensitive, introverted, and prefer to be alone and surrounded by my adult kids, grandkids, and wife of 31 years.
Who else would you like to see answer these questions?
Wendy Kukla at Hollis Cobb.
