Let’s just get this out of the way…
It’s been a while. Five months, to be exact. Work got busy. Life got busier. And this newsletter slipped onto the back burner.

But here’s the thing: the time away gave me clarity. I realized how much I missed writing. Not just the act of typing words on a page, but the act of slowing down, thinking deeply, and sorting out my own ideas so I can share them with you.

So… I’m back! You can expect weekly emails again. Will I hit every single week without fail? Probably not—I’m still human. But the goal is consistency, and I’m excited to get back into the rhythm.

Don’t expect a huge overhaul in what I write. My main focus is still the same: practical, actionable content for the ARM industry. But I do want to get sharper about what that means.

Here’s why: I’m honestly sick of the articles and “industry studies” that sound impressive but are completely impractical for most agencies. Just yesterday I read one insisting that agencies must immediately start using scoring models that not only predict who will pay but also determine the perfect contact channel and time of day. Sounds great, right? Except most agencies don’t have the resources, data, or infrastructure to actually pull that off.

That’s the gap I want to fill. Instead of just echoing “what the future should look like,” I’ll focus on how to build the bridge to get there—how to operationalize those shiny ideas in a way that actually works in real life.

So expect the usual mix of tactics and strategies, but with more of my real-life experiences woven in—the successes and the failures. I’ll also keep diving into the things I geek out on most: technology, AI, and workflow design.

All in all, it feels good to be back. Thanks for sticking with me—I’m excited to share what’s next.

Since the theme of this “welcome back” newsletter seems to be keeping it real, let’s kick things off with a story that comes with some humbling moments… but also some wins you can take and apply.

This is a little embarrassing, but up until very recently, the way we kicked off our legal process was painfully inefficient.

Even if the specific fix I came up with isn’t directly relevant to your world, my hope is that it sparks inspiration to tackle the workflows you’ve written off as ‘unfixable’—because the right tools can often prove you wrong.

Here’s how it used to work:

Our legal team would identify a good candidate for suit. They’d run some actions in our system to semi-manually create a document. That document would then get queued to our admin team, who would email it to our client as a PDF. The client would print it, fill it out by hand, sign it, scan it, and email it back.

Yes, you read that right. In 2025, we were still running a process that required printers and scanners.

Not surprisingly, this led to delays, frustrations, and a less-than-great experience for our clients. Especially those working remotely who didn’t exactly have a scanner sitting next to their laptop.

So why did it take us so long to fix? Honestly… inertia. We told ourselves, “Well, our software doesn’t have a solution, so we’re stuck.”

Eventually, we saw the light.

I love tinkering with internal tools and automation, and I realized we didn’t need our collection software to have a built-in e-signature module. We could build the workflow ourselves.

And we did. Using Zapier as the bridge, we now automatically trigger suit authorization forms to flow into ZohoSign. Our clients can sign electronically, upload supporting documents, and ZohoSign even sends automated reminders to keep things moving. It feels a little duct tape-and-wire, but it works beautifully. And it’s incredibly cheap given the combined time savings for both us and our clients.

I recorded a short video walking through how the automation works. I used Monday.com and ZohoSign, but you could easily swap in your own tools and build the same workflow.

Now for the humble pie part:

I spent the better part of a week trialing e-signature vendors, from the big names like DocuSign to the smaller players. Almost all of them looked affordable on paper… until I realized their pricing models were a bit misleading. They advertised “X signatures per year” at one price—but buried in the fine print, that limit was actually per month. Which meant we would have blown through the allotment instantly and racked up massive overage charges.

We eventually found one that didn’t play that game. So if you’re exploring high-volume e-signature tools, learn from my mistake: triple check the pricing details before you sign up for anything yourself.

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Stay ahead in the ARM industry with real-world tactics, workflow tips, and tech strategies. Weekly(ish). Actionable, relevant, and worth your time.

Nate

EngageARM.com