Posted by Sophia Brown on 6/4/05 1:24pm
Msg #42321

mentor needed!!

Good afternoon forum,

I am a new notary in the Sacramento area, I'm looking for mentor that would be willing to
allow me to do a ride along with them. I received my commision in January and haven't
done one signing yet!! Is that normal?? I am confident I can do this, I have been a deputy court
clerk for almost 5 years, but I am having a really hard time getting started. Are there any notaries
here in the Sac area willing to be my mentor??

Reply by Melody on 6/4/05 1:39pm
Msg #42325

Hugh - Do not post

Remember - you are supposed to nice now. Despite provocation.

Reply by HisHughness on 6/4/05 1:48pm
Msg #42329

Re: Hugh - Do not post

Melody cautions:

***Hugh - Do not post. Remember - you are supposed to nice now. Despite provocation.***

I am sitting on my hands. My fingernails are clawing at my buttocks, trying to escape. My cheeks have been scratched raw and bleeding, my fingernails are all broken, and my carpal tunnel syndrome has returned because of the repetitive flexing of my wrists against restraint. It's so much easier doing it my way.

Reply by Melody on 6/4/05 1:49pm
Msg #42330

Good boy!

I sympathize.

You are being very, very good. I applaud you.

Reply by HisHughness on 6/4/05 2:01pm
Msg #42332

Sophia:

You don't know this yet, but you are being treated to a rare phenomenon: A calm and helpful answer from me, responding to a question that should not have been asked.

The competition in your area among signing agents is intense; there are hundreds, nay, thousands seeking a diminishing amount of business. What you are requesting essentially is that someone take money out of their pocket and give it to you; i.e., you are asking that they train you as their competition. Wise business people don't do that, and beginning businesspersons usually have sense enough not to ask.

If you received your commission in January, there are several things you should have done by now to begin receiving assignments as a signing agent.

1. You make no mention of having taken any signing agent training. Have you done that?

2. You also do not mention signing up for work. At least four months have passed since you were commissioned. That is at least 80 working days. You should have registered with at least one signing agency a day during that period. Have you?

3. You know this board exists. It does not exist to make you a signing agent, though, Sophia; it exists to make you a BETTER signing agent after you already have the requisite skills. Have you used this board as the marvelous resource it is? In other words, have you gone back to the beginning and read the postings by experienced agents on the ways they resolve the problems they encounter and the techniques they employ to make themselves better agents?

If you have not done those three things, I would suggest you do so before posting here again. And you should do one other thing.

4. Print this out and frame it. One of these days it may be valuable as a one-of-a-kind response by me. If you see a similar response from someone who calls himself CaliNotary, look for a star in the East. Between the three occurances, they probably signal the Second Coming.

Reply by christi/socal on 6/4/05 2:11pm
Msg #42333

I am running out this second to look to the east! n/m

Reply by Melody on 6/4/05 2:18pm
Msg #42335

I am shocked - and very impressed

Hugh,

What a transformation! That was very restrained, indeed. Definitely worthy of printing and framing.

I just sent you an ePlea for help. I am hoping to take advantage of your charitable mood.

Thanks!

Reply by Sylvia_FL on 6/4/05 2:19pm
Msg #42336

OK - what have you done with the real Hugh???

Where is the real Hugh? This "Hugh" I do not know!

Did he get a supply of "nice pills"???? LOL

Reply by Jenene on 6/4/05 2:32pm
Msg #42340

Re: OK - what have you done with the real Hugh???

Hi guys! I got my first introduction to this "hishughness" man today in a response to my email. I take it he doesn't usually take his "nice pills"?

Reply by janCA on 6/4/05 4:27pm
Msg #42354

CA needs thousands of additional notaries............

Yes, this is in a local newspaper which the junior college here in town is offering the CA State Notary Public Class and Exam in one day. Earn additional income by attending our next class. This is an excellent opportunity for people who wish to service the community and the State and need a fulfilling career as a valuable employee or the owner of their own business. Maybe I should take that class and let all those attending realize what the "potential additional income" really is. I believe this ad is quite deceiving. No, they are not advertising anything about the "signing agent" aspect, but no doubt this will come up in the classroom.

Reply by BrendaTX on 6/4/05 4:31pm
Msg #42357

Re: CA needs thousands of additional notaries............

Excellent idea, Jan. I always hate the person in a class who knows it all, but in this case...I'll probably do the same thing if I see such an ad in my local paper. Or maybe...just go and ask all the hard questions that you can't know the answer to until you experienced via hands on in the field.

Reply by janCA on 6/4/05 4:37pm
Msg #42359

Re: CA needs thousands of additional notaries............

This just unnerves me. There is a website stated in the ad to the director of workforce development which I'm going to e-mail and let him know a few facts about just how many notaries there are in CA. Maybe the NNA has a hand in this indirectly but I'm going to find out.

Reply by JanetK/CA on 6/4/05 5:24pm
Msg #42365

Very well said!!

Thanks for the chuckle, Hugh! But actually this is excellent advice that any new person would do well to take to heart. After all, this is not a non-profit industry (at least not by choice...) ;>) We do this to make a buck, and some of us full-timers, to make a living. While there may be a public service aspect to being a notary, being a signing agent is a business and should be treated as such. I don't know of any other industry where people would be expected - or asked - to train their competition.

I realize that it's probably suggested in training classes that people find a mentor. However, how many of you have had success finding a mentor in other previous careers? In traditional business, someone normally has to distinguish themselves by their effort, attitude, saavy, competence, work ethic, etc. before a potential mentor will take them under their wing. Even then, the mentor is likely to be someone within the same company who might at least indirectly benefit from helping someone up the ranks. In business, training your competition could be considered foolish, yet some here are willing to offer benefit of their experience in spite of that. We should be very grateful for what we DO have.

[OK, I'll get off my soapbox now.... ;>)]

Reply by Sophia Brown on 6/9/05 9:55pm
Msg #43689

On 6-4-05 I posted a message asking if there were any mentors in my area willing to assist
a new notary. The first response I received was from someone named HisHughness.
Possibly Hugh, you are doing this notary loan signing on a fulltime basis, I am not, I am attempting
to supplement my income, so actually there have not been 80 "working days" since I received my
commission. I don't appreciate your incinuating that I am an unwise business person, because I
went on to a "notary forum" and asked for assistance. I would think that would be the logical place to
ask for a mentor, what is a mentor?? A person who can show another person how to get where
they are, the "PROPER" steps to take, correct.
I did go to the beginining of the forum and read previous notes, and its funny I saw nothing from you....
You must be in the business of knocking people down, instead of building them up. There is plenty of
work in this area. A confident notary would have no problem showing someone else the ropes,
what comes around goes around.
I would thank you not to reply to any future notes that I post.

Reply by Anonymous on 6/9/05 10:22pm
Msg #43696

I doubt you read 43,688 posts since the 4th of June. If you had you would have come across a plethora of pontification from HH. Many people on this board enjoy mentoring. Many do not. Some prefer to network and use the search button diligently. It is your career at stake so be careful in your choices.

Reply by HisHughness on 6/10/05 12:16am
Msg #43714

Sophia Brown grumbles:

***I don't appreciate your incinuating that I am an unwise business person, because I went on to a "notary forum" and asked for assistance. I would think that would be the logical place to ask for a mentor***

SALES DIRECTOR FORUM

Mentor needed!!

Posted by Sadsack Beige on 6/10/05 12:10 a.m.

Hi! I just completed the Vacuum Cleaner Sales and Toilet Repair Course at Scrugh U. I have been trying to sell vacuum cleaners now for four months and I still haven't sold a single one. I haven't even been asked to unstop a toilet. I know that I can sell vacuum cleaners. All I need to do is get another vacuum cleaner salesman to take me along and show me all his techniques and the territory he works and how he develops his cold-call list, and then I can spend my evenings selling vacuum cleaners part-time in the area where he works full-time trying to earn a living. All I want is for him to show me the ropes, so that I then can use one of them to hang him with. This seemed to be a logical place to get help on ways to assist in putting other vacuum cleaner salesmen out of business.

If there are any meanies out there who think I know about as much about business as a pig knows about communion and that though I may never learn that I know diddly, I will very shortly establish that it is true, I would thank you not to reply to this post. I don't want to hear any discordant notes on my way to becoming the Donella Trump of the vacuum cleaner sales world.

If I can't find a mentor here, I'm going to become a notary public signing agent. No way those people can be as smart as vacuum cleaner salesmen.

Reply by CaliNotary on 6/10/05 12:47am
Msg #43716

"Possibly Hugh, you are doing this notary loan signing on a fulltime basis, I am not, I am attempting
to supplement my income, so actually there have not been 80 "working days" since I received my
commission. I don't appreciate your incinuating that I am an unwise business person"

If you don't want us to think you're an unwise business person, you should probably refrain from saying unwise things like this. To say that 80 working days haven't passed because you're only working part time is laughable, to put it politely.

Hugh gave you great advice. I suggest you get a major shift in your attitude or you're pretty much guaranteed to fail at this business. Nobody owes you squat. If you're going to post on this board you should be appreciative of the help you get, don't whine about the help not being exactly what you wanted.

Reply by Rickwca on 6/4/05 4:53pm
Msg #42361

I am happy that you took my suggestion . Good luck and I hope someone in Sacramento with help her out as mentor
Rick Woolworth

Reply by Rickwca on 6/4/05 5:02pm
Msg #42362

I am sorry but I meet alot people at the National Convention that were nice and trying to learn more as notaries. I suggested to them that this website was a good resource. I hope that you will let them learn and even would want to be a mentor. I have been help by each one of you. Let us help new notaries so that we are professional notaries.
Thank you
Rick

Reply by CaliNotary on 6/4/05 7:28pm
Msg #42396

"Let us help new notaries so that we are professional notaries."

And if we don't help train our competition then we're unprofessional notaries? I think you've got it backwards Rick. A true professional knows better than to do something so foolish. She can get almost all the help she needs simply by reading this board.

Reply by Judy Cobb on 6/4/05 5:25pm
Msg #42366

Sarah: I am an Oregon notary. Welcome. When I read the responses, I could not help but think about when I started my Health food store in the 70's no one wanted to help. Afraid we would take business away from them. In spite of it all, we were in the black the 1st yr. and had a successful store for many years. When a man came in who wanted to start a store quite a distance away, he wanted to know if we would help him get started. Our answer yes! We showed him the stock to buy and not buy, things to lease or to buy. etc. The result was that his store was very successful too and people came from miles around to buy his wife's wonderful homemade bread. So to the crux of it, I would have answered a few questions, but not have helped him if his store was in direct competition to mine.

May I suggest that you get the National Notary Assn.'s book Notary Signing Agent Certification Course. It will allow you to get certified online and have a very think easy to read book that will guide you through many situations, gives good illustrations of Jarat, acknowledgements, documents, etc. to familiarize you with documents you will see multiple times a day later. Take time to get a good handle on recognizing these docs. The National Notary Assn. will put you on their website and your cell phone will be ringing soon. Do a good job, be respectful of the coordinators calling you, remember to thank them, send emails to them telling them you have completed your work/id of the borrower/when docs dropped and the tracking number. They will appreciate you. I mad my own letterhead and fax letter sheets with Publisher. You can design a good invoice, email me and I will send you mine. I copy and paste to make a custom one for each company for easy invoicing. It will take dedication, professionalism and some marketing to get to your income goal. You can do it, but in some areas, there is much competition.
I hope some of this has helped. I wish you well,
Judy-Oregon

Reply by MsRobbo on 6/4/05 5:40pm
Msg #42370

I am in complete aggreement with Judy. Many of the notaries on this site rip the NNA but I got my certification through them and find their notary hotline a big help when I'm in a jam over a document. The course is very helpful and especially the illustrations of actual documents. Wishing you well.