Finding Success as a Part Time Notary Signing Agent

Lori has a job and a family life that keeps her busy and fulfilled. And, she was looking for another passion project that could create another income flow when she discovered the career as a mobile notary and loan signing agent. Now, she balances it all and continues to grow and expand her business and enjoyment.

Guest Information:

Lori Morgan is the proud owner of "Sign Here and There Notary Services". She is also the founders of both the Level Up Notary Signing Agent Virtual Summit and the Notary Book Club. She’s worked in the industry as a commissioned Notary for over 8 years, based in Central Indiana. She’s passionate about encouraging newer Notaries. When she's not working or moderating a Notary-themed room on the Clubhouse app, Lori can be found traveling, attending live jazz shows or spending quality time with family and friends.

Notaries can connect with her via social media - Instagram or LinkedIN or Facebook

For info about the next Book Club Meeting, click HERE.

For info about the next Level Up Notary Signing Agent Summit, click HERE.

I'll also moderate the upcoming Notary Philly Social with Judi Lawrence, featuring Laura Biewer, Amy Seitz with CyberizeIt, Laura Biewer with Coach Me Laura, Sue Hope with NotaryAssist and yourself. More info can be found at https://lawrenceinstitutefornotariesevents.com/fall-notary-event-2/

Episode Highlights:

15:08 Lori's daily gratitude practice helps get her back on track when life and business don't seem to be going the way she planned.

38:50 Lori shares how everyone has transferable skills from previous careers that will help you build your mobile notary and loan signing business

44:39 After she made her first $10,000 as a Notary Signing Agent, Lori realized this opportunity is real. She sought the advice of those who had the results she wanted, and blazed ahead.

--- Full Raw Transcription Below ---

Bill Soroka (00:21):
Welcome to the Sign and Thrive Podcast. I'm excited to introduce you to my next guest today. Lori Morgan. Lori is the owner of "Sign Here and There Notary Services" and also a fellow serial entrepreneur. Lori, thank you so much for making some time for us today.

Lori Morgan (00:38):
Absolutely. Thanks for having me today, Bill. I appreciate it.

Bill Soroka (00:42):
Yeah, it's, I've been looking for this, looking forward to this for quite some time and thank you for sharing that this is your very first podcast interview.

Lori Morgan (00:52):
It is, it is. I listen to them all the time. Just have not had the privilege of being a special guest. And I'm so happy that you are, that it's your show that I'm, that I'm making my debut. So thank you,

Bill Soroka (01:06):
Me too. I'm honored to have you here. The way I was introduced to you was through a Clubhouse in particular and you, I know you help co-facilitate a few rooms in there. You always have great topics. And what really stood out beside your voice, which is made for this kind of work is the way that you facilitate with such kindness, compassion, and boundaries. You really know how to control a room and I've always really appreciated that. And I'm so glad that our paths have continued to intertwine and connect along this journey.

Lori Morgan (01:42):
Thank so much. That means a lot coming from you. Bill,

Bill Soroka (01:46):
Speaking of journey, I want to find out, I love these origin stories about how someone becomes a notary public, and you've been able to really stand out because you do have a career that you actually enjoy working in, you have a family life that you, that fulfills you, as you just mentioned before we started recording and yet you've been able to find success also as a part-time notary public and loan signing agent. So I want to find out how this came to be. How'd you get started with this.

Lori Morgan (02:22):
Absolutely. So you you're absolutely right. I have a very thriving, nine to five that keeps me very, very busy. And just to give some of the listeners, some little bit of background, I've been a notary public for a commission notary public for a little over eight years. And in that capacity, I would say for the six years or so, I was kind of like a backup notary at work. Anytime we had anything that needed notarized, they would come to me and it was so rare that we needed that, but I kept that commission up and didn't think anything about it. And then the pandemic sets in. Everyone's at home, you have a lot more free time on your hands. And I came across a lot of videos on YouTube or I like, we like to call it YouTube university and loan signing was one of those topics or subjects that came up. And I watched a lot of videos. I watched a lot of your videos. I watched a lot of other successful notary publics and loan signing agents. And that's really what piqued my interest. I became certified as a loan signing agent and I jumped in the waters early on in the pandemic, early on in the pandemic. And I've been just going from there. So that's a little of my notary story… notary slash notary signing agent.

Bill Soroka (03:57):
Awesome. And I've, I hear that story all the time. I saw your videos on YouTube and that I think that's has been the spark of so many endeavors into this, into this realm because there are, especially now there's tons of great trainers out there, specialty training, things that were not around for that long that's relatively new. And it, I think it sparked a really incredible raising of the bar in our industry in so many different ways, cause people are so much more qualified out there. So tell me, though, you were able to do this without leaving your job, right? Like you weren't in a place of desperation, you hadn't been laid off, you hadn't failed at 26 businesses before, you know, you didn't have to make this work. You just, what caught your attention about it?

Lori Morgan (04:52):
Yeah. I think for me, so yeah, it's still not laid off what the big difference for me was in my current role, I travel a lot. So I travel a lot domestically as well as international and I did not have the travel. So I work in marketing. I do a lot of trade shows or did a lot of trade shows in the past couple of years, as you can imagine, those just kind of got shut down. So the work continued, but not the travel. So when you go from having very little extra time to now, you have all this extra or down time, it makes for you know, some time where you're like, what am I going to do to fill this space? And for me, I wanted to see how I could add some additional knowledge you know, different streams of income.

Lori Morgan (05:45):
I think if, if nothing else, this pandemic has opened a lot of eyes inspired a lot of people and got those wheels turning in the way that they have not turned before. Now I do want to preface this by saying, I am a proud third generation entrepreneur. So my grandparents had their own business while working full-time as well. My dad for over, he worked for 53 years before he retired, but he worked his own business for 40 of the, those years while working full-time. And so I just come from a hardworking family. So just because I've had my own business and I've always had some type of business for I'd say the last 20 years, whether it was consulting or, you know, event planning or something like that, I've always kept a full-time job. And then I've always had a, for a better term, side hustle and been successful in both arenas.

Lori Morgan (06:44):
The loan signing was just an additional, just additional tool to add to the toolkit. I wasn't exactly sure where it was going, but when I hear and I see other people being successful that tells me or shows me it is possible. So when I hear you talk about your success, you know, after a number of different tries at different businesses, when I saw my good friend Nikia Alexander on YouTube, talking about how she was successful and she's right here in my home state, in my home city, it just kind sparked a light bulb in my head like, hey, this is possible. Let me look a little bit more into it. It seemed like a low cost startup.

Bill Soroka (07:29):
Yeah.

Lori Morgan (07:29):
And I tried it and it's been working ever since.

Bill Soroka (07:34):
I, I love that. And I think, I, I think having somebody in your life whether it's on YouTube or in a course or in a book or just in your circle, that can be your Roger Banister, right? That just shows you, hey yeah, you can run the mile under four minutes. You know, like Roger Banister did in the fifties or sixties or whenever it was just to show you, oh, wow, that is possible. I think that's extremely important. But as you were sharing your story about the entrepreneurialism, a question occurred to me, there's lots of people that are satisfied with their nine to five. It fulfills, it makes them enough money, they like it enough to stay, they're not real driven to take on something else. So I'm curious for you and maybe even up through the generations, was the decision to start a side hustle, was it an income decision or a passion decision or a combination?

Lori Morgan (08:33):
Yeah, that's a great question. I think it's definitely a combination. So for me, I have to be passionate about some, some thing. So I was never one of those kind of just widget turners or, you know, stamp here, I shouldn't say stamp, but you know what I mean. yeah. Clock here, clock there. It has to be something that I'm passionate about. And so for me, yeah, a lot of the things that I've done on my own and then with my nine to five, you know, I'm passionate about marketing and I'm passionate about seeing people succeed. I'm really passionate about seeing something from the beginning all the way to the end. That just kind of gives me kind of like a completion. So that's part of it. And then, you know, I think once you've been successful, you know, whatever society designs successful, you know, can you take care of yourself, can you take a couple of vacations a year, you know, do you have a nice, you know, comfortable transportation to get around.

Lori Morgan (09:30):
I think once you reach that level and I think most adults reach that level at some point in their career, I think that you have to have some sort of something else that drives you. Okay. What's my next level. What's my, you know, you don't want to get complacent because then complacency breeds you know, boredom or disappointment or discontentment or what have you and so I am one of those people that I'm always motivated myself or trying to think of ways that I can motivate myself. Entrepreneurship for me equals motivation because there's always levels to like, you know, there's a saying there's levels to this. There's always levels in entrepreneurship, just like there's levels in your corporate or not for profit career path there's levels to the entrepreneurship.

Lori Morgan (10:21):
And I think until you get to the, I don't know, the Bill gates or the, well now even, you know, pop stars or billionaires, Rihanna, and, you know, Beyonce, until you get to that level, you know, financially I think there's always room for growth. And for me now that, you know, I'm in the position that I am in, I have nieces, I have nephews that I'm looking to leave legacies for. So that they, when they're, you know, growing up and looking at their career and looking at the possibilities, I want them to see infinite possibilities, but how are they going to know the that that's possible. They have to see someone else do it. And so for me, yeah, that's, that's it, it's, it's a combination of having passion for what I'm doing, but then also wanting to leave some sort of financial and legacy for my family.

Bill Soroka (11:11):
That's, that's huge. And I love that you get to be the Roger Banister for your nieces and nephews. You get to show them the what's possible as well. And speaking of family, have you found with your family support, are they, are they cool? Are they on board with working full time and taking on side hustles and all your other responsibilities?

Lori Morgan (11:35):
Absolutely. I come from one of those families where they were those, they were the family that said you can do anything. So it wouldn't have mattered. If I said, I would like to be a dog catcher. They would've said that is so awesome, Lori, you be the best dog catcher in the whole city in the whole state. You know, they were those, they, I had those kind of parents. I had those kind of grandparents and I have that kind of family today. Yeah. If you're not supportive, it's not like I'm dismissive of you. It's just that you can't be like in that inner circle because it's hard enough to just motivate yourself every day. But yeah, my family is extremely supportive to this day. I mean, my mom, she clips, she still clips every little article if I'm in an article, she clips it out and, and puts it in the scrapbook and, and you know, my, my immediate family and my extended family absolutely. They're my biggest cheerleaders.

Bill Soroka (12:36):
What a gift, what a gift. So you mentioned a little bit what sounded like boundaries and I think having healthy boundaries is extremely important to creating success, but you also mentioned legacy too. So how do do you have a written vision for yourself? How do you plan this out? How do you know where you're going?

Lori Morgan (13:02):
Yeah, that's a, that's another great question, Bill. So for me, I'm a very structured individual in, in a lot of aspects. So now I am impromptu, you know, if you call me tomorrow and say, hey, do you want to go to Paris? I'm packing my bags.

Bill Soroka (13:17):
You're in?

Lori Morgan (13:17):
I'm in. I'm in. So I definitely have, you know, some kind of whim about myself and that's awesome, but regarding my career and my personal I am one of those vision board people. So I don't make necessarily resolutions every year, but every single year, yes, I have a, a vision board. And on that vision board are, you know, usually I'll have some personal things. I have some business things, and a lot of times those two worlds will collide. I revisit that every year. And then I have a check-in process on almost a monthly basis to kind of, you know, touch back in to see, okay, where am I?

Lori Morgan (13:57):
And, and you know, where do I need to go? Or what's my next step or what, you know, connection do I need to make next? So it, it looks you know, a lot of times people, when you have, you know, a particular success, it looks like it's like an overnight thing to someone else, but there's a lot of behind the scenes that go into the that, and that's the way I've always operated. And I think that's one of the reasons why I've been, you know, had the degree of success that I've had so far.

Bill Soroka (14:25):
How do you get yourself back on track when you derail?

Lori Morgan (14:29):
That's a good one. So sometimes you have to step away from the situation. So let's say you're working on something and it's a really, really big event or a really, really big, you know, business opportunity and things are just not falling the way you thought they would fall. You've reached out to 20 people and you're not getting any return phone calls. So for me, what I like to do is just kind of step back, decompress and then I just like, you know, either go on to something else for a minute because sometimes just thinking about or doing something else will definitely get your mind off of that one particular thing. And then the other thing that I do now, this is a daily thing, and I don't want to get too spiritual or religious on anyone, but I am a spiritual person. I am a religious person.

Lori Morgan (15:19):
I am a self, you know, I am a, a very outspoken person on what my beliefs are. And so I am a Christian. And because of that, I do daily gratitude. And so I have a book and I would grab it, but I don't want to mess up my microphone, but I have a book that is a gratitude journal. And in that journal there it's, in that journal. It has a list of like blessings or some people might call them miracles or just things that I can be grateful for. And the reason I bring that up is because when you have a bad day and, or you have a bad season or a bad time, and we all go through those 2020, yeah, 2020, or I'm sorry, not 2020, 2021 seems like 2020 and 2022. It's like a blur. So ,

Lori Morgan (16:16):
Yes, it was a, probably the worst season that I've ever gone through. My dad was, had been diagnosed with dementia about three and a half years before. It was a very aggressive, very rapid disease. We as a family chose to keep him at home, which I'm so grateful we did, but it was just a very challenging season, so I, you know, challenging in every way you can possibly imagine. And the times that I was able to keep the most grounded was when I would go back to that list of blessings or miracles, or just like good things that had happened, because it, it's a reminder to you that it might be bad like right now, but it hasn't always been bad and it won't always be bad. And so that is what keeps me grounded is just being able to kind of have that as a touch point. And so even if you're not religious, even if you're not spiritual, we all have good things that happen to us and you'll have some bad things that'll happen. And that's just life. I would remind, I would ask you to write those in some type of journal or notebook so that you can go back and remind yourself of those. And that's usually what gets me out of it.

Bill Soroka (17:31):
Oh, what a great practice that is. Yeah. I agree with, with you and gratitude doesn't require any particular religion, right? You can be great grateful in any religion you choose. And I love that you write those things down and it's, you know, it's, it's kind of similar to what we talk about a lot is keeping things top of mind. You know, with my particular vision, I read mine every single day. So it stays top of mind. I remember who I'm becoming, who am I, what's the legacy and impact I want to leave in this world. So it helps affect your decision making. And if you do that with your things you're grateful for every day, it can help reset your mindset. A I love that you do that. Thank you for sharing that very private practice with us. So let's go back and talk about when you first started doing this, cause you had some pretty, well, let's say, let's not say it's an overnight success, but it was relatively immediate success as a loan signing agent. Is that right?

Lori Morgan (18:28):
Yeah. I, I would say, yeah, I would say compared to other people's journey, like I said, I, although I'd been a commission notary, let's just be honest. I wasn't really doing that much with it.

Bill Soroka (18:40):
Right.

Lori Morgan (18:40):
But once the light bulb came on and I saw that it could be a side business, I just looked to see, okay, what's the, you know what the track, what's the framework. And I'm one of those people where I don't have to reinvent the wheel. I'll just tell you that. Now if I see somebody else and they're successful, if they're, you know, willing to, I'm going to ask them point blank, you know, you and I have had conversations in California in person before. And I just, I probably hit you up with 10, 20 questions right off the bat because is you're a successful person a successful entrepreneur, a successful notary, a successful notary signing agent.

Lori Morgan (19:17):
So why not ask another successful person, you know, what they're doing and then just kind of, you know, replicate that in your own, in your own way. And so, yeah, once I saw that, you know, people like my friend Nikia and, and other notaries were being successful, I just asked like, hey, what are you doing? Do you mind sharing that with me? And I've been so blessed to have people that weren't like stingy, they call it stingy energy, no stingy energy. Yeah. And they share what, what made them successful. And so I just took that and ran with it. And so once I made up my mind, like, this is, I think I'm going, going to do this. Yeah. It was pretty quick. It was, it honestly, it was pretty quick.

Bill Soroka (19:57):
How did you balance that? You know, we, we talk about well, how did you balance working a full-time job and being a part-time loan signing agent?

Lori Morgan (20:06):
Right. So when my friend and I'm just bringing in Nikia, just because she's local here with me and she's one of my mentors and one of my best, best notary friends, she was doing it also. So she was part-time initially. And she, I asked her, you know, how are you doing this? She said, well, I do early morning signings. I do signings on my lunch break. I do signings right after work. I do signings on Saturday. I do signings on Sunday. And this was right around the time when the interest rates just kind of plummeted and everyone was doing a refi. Everybody was buying, everybody was selling. And so if you wanted to, you could, I mean, theoretically, you could work seven days a week. And so when you see something like that, you just jump on it because you don't know how long it's going to last.

Lori Morgan (20:52):
And I didn't even know at that point, you know, everything that went into it, you know, building those relationships, all of the marketing that goes into it, I was just like, let me sign up with the few services and see what happens. And that's where the business came. And but once I found out, you know, hey, this is, you know, not as hard as everybody's trying to make it, there's a formula here, you know, stick with it. You know, you do have to grind, you do have to, you know, put your head down and, you know, you have to be very, very organized. You know, there were a lot of assignments that I couldn't take, you know, during the day because I'm working, but I did have a lot of flexibility working from home. So that helped, you know, being able to run out, you know, on my lunch break and before work and after work and things of that nature. And so it just kind of has sky, it skyrocketed from there. And then it just hasn't stopped.

(Commercial break)

Lori Morgan (22:53):
Yeah. So you, you, you know, because the signing service, the title companies, even the general public, they don't know your schedule and they don't know your part-time. And I don't advertise myself as part-time, I am a professional, notary, you know, professional loan, signing, agent, whatever you call yourself. And that's, you know what I am, I have certain availability. And so a lot of times when you, you know, you will get those requests during the day when you may be working your full-time or nine to five. And unfortunately, I just have to be honest, I'm not available. And they don't, you know, I'm definitely want you to, you know, use your integrity and please be honest, but they don't know, you know, are you, they just assume you're already booked, you're already, you know, booked with another appointment. And that's just kind of, that's just, that's just how I do it.

Lori Morgan (23:45):
I just I'm, I'm not available, you know, thanks for thinking of me, but I am available, you know, after five I'm available on Saturdays, I'm available on Sundays. I, you know, I can be available if it's a quick, you know, if it's a refi, that's going to be what, 15, 20 minutes I am available on my lunch break. And the other thing that I do which is a little bit different than what some agents may do. I tend to stay in my area. So I will just go in the counties and the cities that are close, a close drive for me. I typically don't put in, you know, I know some people put in, I put 50 zip codes. I put in every county in my state. I think that's awesome. And kudos to you. That is not me. I try to go places that I can get to and get back, because that is what works for my schedule. And that's that's what works for my business model for now, while I am still technically part-time.

Bill Soroka (24:43):
Yeah, I think that's one of the coolest things about this business is you can build it however you want, and you don't have to compare yourself to everybody else who might be willing to drive 400 miles a day. If you want to keep it more limited, you certainly can. I love where you went with that though with how you turned down an appointment. No, I'm sorry. I'm not available or I'm booked already. And then you follow up with a solution. You know, I think so many people can do that first half, but the second half is where the money's at. I'm not available at 3:00 but I can be available at 5:30. And it will blow your mind how many of your clients, especially if you have a little bit of a relationship with them and they like working with you, they'll actually call the client and see if they're flexible enough to change that.

Lori Morgan (25:30):
You're absolutely right. They will and that's kind of the second layer. So after you get commissioned, after you get your training, after you sign up and you kind of get your basics down, the, the second layer that comes into play is your building, those relations, you know, how do you market yourself, how do you stay on top of mind, how do you like you said, kind of go that, that next level, and that's the part I think, where some notaries may pickle out. That's why some, may it weeded out that's way where some may just decide, hey, this isn't working for me. And it's because they don't know you know, how to get to that next level. And I think that's where additional training, maybe coaching something to kind of help you kind of either get to the next level or figure out, at least what's missing here for me.

Lori Morgan (26:33):
And that's where I, I think that's another thing that, because I've had a great deal of success early on, and I've been able to surround myself with people like Nakia, like like you like Laura, like my friend Star, you know, we are, we're kind of, like-minded in the sense that, you know, we are building businesses, we're building brands, we're trying to build, you know, leave legacies for, you know, our families. And so I think that that is, you know, that would definitely be something that I would strongly encourage someone like, get the basics down, absolutely. But make sure that you add you know, whatever missing pieces that you have so that you can continue to thrive so that you can continue to Sign and Thrive, so to speak

Bill Soroka (27:24):
Well played well played. No, but I, you bring up such a great point. And one of the dangers that you run into stepping into a, an industry during a boom, right? So the last two, two years, definitely, but even the last 3, 4, 5 years, it's been an amazing run in this business. But one of the dangers of that is, is that it's easy to think that you just sign up for all these services or a platform and you go, you roll out of bed and suddenly you're making 10 grand a month because that's how it was, you know, very easily for the, for many people over the last couple of years. And now that life goes back to somewhat normal or the volume goes back to normal, the real work sets in, and this is about prospecting. This is about connecting. This is about building those authentic relationships because people are always buying and selling houses. Refinances are probably going to slow down a little bit, cause interest rates were so ridiculously low, but people always buy and sell. And how do you get those? Through relationships. So how do you do it? What's your, what's your system for that?

Lori Morgan (28:31):
Yeah. So, you know, a lot of hard work. Let me, let me say that again, a lot of hard work networking, so networking within your network, networking outside of your net at work, getting out of your comfort zone. So it is, so I have a full-time job. I have a part-time job. And then I feel like everything that goes along with it is an additional part-time job. So it's social media. You know, before, you know, I would post a fun picture when going a vacation, every blue moon on a face or something. And now, you know, I find myself, I have to post daily for business purposes. That's like a part-time gig. I feel like, you know, I am my own social media manager, so that's like a part-time gig. But what that does is it can introduce you to a, an a different or additional pull of, of people.

Lori Morgan (29:26):
So just to give someone a quick example, for example, for LinkedIn, LinkedIn, I think, you know, the old way to use it. Most of us used to put our resume on there. You know, you just share an article every six months and that's kind of it well now the LinkedIn for my notary business, you know, I have, I would say just guessing maybe 30% notary friends, cause I like to, you know, encourage them, see what's going on, cheer them on. But the other is a mixture of realtors and title companies and lending companies and banks so that I can see what's, you know, trending in the mortgage industry and then there's healthcare and attorneys. And it's basically all of my targeted market that those are who my can actions are on LinkedIn and LinkedIn, I would say LinkedIn has been my most successful as far as building relationships. You know, you do have people check contact you and the DM's for business. And I've had, you know, multiple attorneys and realtors reach out to me just from my posts on LinkedIn. And that has been, I probably have received the most amount of business from there. I'm also on Instagram and Facebook. Tiktok is on my list for this year. I'm not a Tiktoker yet, but I'm, it's on my list. So I'll get, I'll get to that at some point.

Bill Soroka (30:59):
Oh, I love that. You yourself on like that. I

Lori Morgan (31:02):
Oh yeah. I'll try. I'll I'll try anything once. And so, yeah, so that is a lot of it. And then what has been very powerful as far as building connections as well is, like you said, you originally came to notice, you know, who I even was, was on Clubhouse. And I was not even on, I've only been on Clubhouse really a few more. I wasn't one of the initial folks that got on, I, I have a love in hate going back and forth with iPhone, Android, iPhone, Android, I'm currently iPhone. But at the time when Clubhouse came out, I was team Android. And so I wasn't on Clubhouse. And so I just got on again during the pandemic and it has been a amazing place to make relationships, build those connections and, and also additional business from making those connections.

Lori Morgan (31:55):
I mean, there's any topic you can think of, there's a room there and you can go there and meet folks that are in and out of your arena. And you can also tell them exactly what you do. So for me, that, that has been, you know, most of it now, of course I do the regular marketing, you know, go into the title offices and introducing myself, creating flyers on, you know, Canva, try to, I try my best to, to share resources with people, to kind of keep your costs as low as you possibly can. So I do design a lot of my own flyers on Canva, but I also reach out to artists on, you know, Fiverr and things like that.

Lori Morgan (32:34):
So I do the old fashioned you know, door knocking as well, a lot of emails. You have to, you have to market yourself and I think it was you that told me the person, yeah, yeah. I think it was one time you came on the Clubhouse initially and you said, you know, the, the business, the most successful business is the business that lets everyone know what they, what they do or what service they offer. And so the more people you tell what you do, they're going to contact you. So I, I wish it was something as easy as, you know, people would just find me, like I have to put myself out there and put my business out there so that people know that I am even here to even do it. Do you know what I do? Or the service that I offer and then once I'm able to do that, then I can build and cultivate those relationships once you get the relationship, but you gotta get the relationship, you know, initially. And that usually takes you, you know, doing some hard work and, and marketing and putting yourself out there, but it does work. It does work.

Bill Soroka (33:35):
Yeah. Thank you for sharing that with such detail. And I mean, you know, through all the businesses I've been through this one in particular, I have found that you really are surrounded by people who love and support you and they want you to succeed in this. So when you talk about your business, you get business. It's the weirdest thing, but I'll be talking to somebody in the grocery store, I'll get business, I'll be talking to somebody at the doctor's office, I've got a new contact. They, everybody needs a notary at some point, or they know someone who does yes. It's kind of the gift of this business.

Lori Morgan (34:09):
Yes.

Bill Soroka (34:10):
You, you brought up something interesting that I hear this question a lot too, is as a part-time mobile notary and loan signing agent, can I market to escrow officers directly? Sounds like you are.

Lori Morgan (34:27):
Absolutely. I would say absolutely. You can market it to not just escrow officers, but you can market to anyone. You can market it to attorneys. You can market to realtors because here's the thing. You know, I think it's, maybe it's just a misnomer that people have of about our business. The majority of notaries that I know they're not full-time, they are part-time. And so if you, if you, if you know that going into it, you know, the other ones that are able to fill sort of that eight to five, nine to five, that's great. They can have those appointments all day. But how many people are willing to be available in the evening? How many people will take those? Sometimes they're scheduled sometimes their last minute. How many people are willing to take those appointments on holidays? How many people are willing to take those appointments when there's a last minute cancellation?

Lori Morgan (35:19):
So you have to position and market yourself. If you know, going into it, I only have a limited amount of time that I'm available. You know, you put your, put yourself out there as, hey, this, you know, and I'll, this is a I'm so glad you brought that up. So when you do go out and market, you know, a lot of times I call it the brush off or the blow off. Oh yeah. We already have our own notaries either on staff or we have our own backup notaries. And you say, oh, that is great. I'm giving you guys a little bit of a gem right now. So that's great. That's wonderful. I'm sure you have some of the most top notch notaries because you're such a success. You know, you have such a successful business, so you just kind of play right into that and say, but if they are not available, you know, if they go on medical leave, if they go on an extended vacation, if they, you know, leave for whatever reason, can I be that backup or the backup to your backup.

Lori Morgan (36:15):
And you'd be surprised how many people are like, oh, sure. They'll take your information. And you may not hear from them that day. And I always follow up of course and say, thanks for, you know, just letting me make the introduction, but they'll, they'll contact you when that cause they're like, wait a minute. She said she wanted to be the backup to the backup. Or she said she, she was available on holidays. She said she was available to do an evening you know, appointment. And so I've had, you know, a lot of people, you know, the public attorneys direct, you know, reach out to me. And then, oh goodness, family, friends, friends of friends, the more people I tell. Yes. So I don't even know. And that, I, I mean, I guess they'll find out when they hear this broadcast. I don't even know if people even know that I'm part-time they probably think, oh, she does it all the time. cause she's she promotes it on social media. She's always talking about how great it is. But yeah, you don't, I, I don't, that's not my brand is to brand myself as the part-time notary, but I am the part-time notary  

Bill Soroka (37:23):
I, I think that's a, a great insight. And thank you for sharing that, cause that's a, that part timeness is a, is a obstacle more to the person, the notary than it is to the to the possible customer. Your customers don't know what your schedule is. And what I used to say is that I would much rather have the chance to say no because maybe my schedule is free. Maybe I have a PTO day that day, maybe I'm on vacation. I want people calling me. I want the opportunity to say no, cause I know I, if I can find a way to, yes, I'm making it happen. But if I can't, then I can say, no, I can turn that down and they can move on to the next notary on the list or whatever it might be. Or maybe I have a referral to one of my notary friends. Well now I have a signing company. So I, I can say yes to everything if I want to. But I love your attitude about that. Now this sparked another question for me. What do you think, like if we were to interview your favorite clients, where you are the preferred notary, they obviously love working with you and we ask them what makes Lori stand out? What do you think they would say?

Lori Morgan (38:38):
Oh, that's a great question as well. I think that they would say that they, you know, of course I'm professional, of course I'm punctual. So, and that brings up we, you could probably talk about this after this question, but those transferable skills that I talk about all the time with, with folks who say, I don't have a notary background, I don't have a mortgage background. Do you think I can still do this? And I didn't really, you know, to begin with either, but I did have some transferable skills. And so for me being able to be flexible they would say that I am highly motivated. I'm very, very motivated. And then I, you know, have excellent customer service skills, both with the my client and then my client's client. You know, I am that. I try to, you know, kind of give them exactly what I would want to receive.

Lori Morgan (39:40):
And that's, again, someone who is, you know, professional genuine has a great communication style. That's, that's what I think what they would say. And then of course I am going for the long term relationship. So I am building, you know, constantly building those relationships and those friendships. And although it's a business relationship, I feel like I'm making new, I'm making new friends in this industry as well. So hopefully that those are the type of things that they would say. I do, you know, surveys and feedback. So those are some of the, some of the insight into some of the things that they've said.

Bill Soroka (40:17):
I love that because what you're talking about is those softer skills which is in, in the four pillars, the likability factor, right? Like I think you, you touched on a couple of things here, but when you come in, when a new notary comes into this industry, they get so focused on the paper. You know, this is just, but it's way more than knowing how to sign, date, stamp a piece of paper that's important, right? There's this work matters and you can be the best paper stamper in the world. You can know the laws inside and out, but if you're a jerk or if you're just, you got RBF that just looks like you're off all the mean it's not going to go well in this industry. It's those other skills. And I love that you see transferable skills because how, and I know you help a lot of new notaries out, but how many of them come to you and say, I got nothing. I mean, they were CFOs sometimes in their previous career, then they retire and they come into the notary business and they're like, I don't I'm, I can't do anything. I don't know anything. I'm like, you've got skills. Whether you've could have been a fast food restaurant. Yes. Could be a CEO. You could do a law enforcement military, all of those skills transferred to this career. Would you agree?

Lori Morgan (41:32):
Absolutely. Absolutely. I do try to help and mentor the newer notaries cause a lot of times it's just kind of getting over those initial jitters and then once they get out there, usually they're fine. For some of our local notaries, I try to be on standby for their first couple of signings or general notary or specialty notary work jobs because remember having those butterflies on, in my stomach on the first one. And so just trying to, and really all I'm doing is just reassuring them, pulling out some of the skills, like you said, the soft skills that they already have and say, you know, you can read off the paperwork. No problem. I, I'm quite sure that you, you can do that. But in addition to that, let's pull out some of your, and then we just kind of go through their list, you know, like you said, maybe they were customer service for 10 years.

Lori Morgan (42:24):
You know, helping customers. Okay, well let's, let's get that. You know, everyone can show up on time. That's a, that's one at the top of the list. You know, everyone can show up five minutes early. That's a skill that can impress a client. And so I just try to encourage them. I, I work, I try to emphasize more of the positive than I do the negative and that usually kind of helps them get over the kind of that nervousness hurdle. And then, you know, I always tell them, hey, let me know how the first one goes. And it always comes back like it was better than I thought it would go or better than I thought it would be. And that always makes me feel good. Yeah, transferable skills are where it's at. I don't care what you were.

Lori Morgan (43:07):
I come across people all the time and if they provide great customer service, it could be like a, a waiter or waitress. And they're just like on it. I give them my card and say, hey, have you ever heard about notary public or loan signing? I think you might be. And there like, well, I don't know. I'm like, yeah, but you, your customer service is on point. And so I do that as well, just because it's been such an awesome journey for me so far, it's been very lucrative and just, you know, the friendships that I've made, like I want I expose this to everyone that I come in contact with that I think might be a good fit.

Bill Soroka (43:40):
I love that you do that. I thought I was the only one. I, I love it when I have great customer service. I'm like, oh, you, you need to come into this business. We need you. Yes. I love that. I love that. Well, thank you. This has been such a great conversation. And as we wind down though, there's more to this business than even just what we've talked about, right. And this is where the the nailing it and scaling it part comes in. I, I believe this in industry is ripe for innovation and those with the courage and the initiative to step into it. And you've been able to do that. You you're nailing it with the actual loan signing, building your business that way, but then you have scaled it a little bit with your event and then some of the other things you have going on. So can you tell us about that?

Lori Morgan (44:29):
Oh yeah. Thanks for this opportunity. So just, you know, we talked just a little bit before we went on and you know, I in full transparency, I initially got into this business. I thought if I make enough money to cover my vacation to wherever like that would be great and I'd be happy with that. And when I made my first $5,000, I was like, oh, oh, okay. Like, this is, this, this, this will work. And then when I made my first $10,000 … it just like, I couldn't believe that I had not heard about this before. Like where, where have I been? And so that, you know, the business part of the business, yes. That part has been great. But then the other kind of offspring from this as well. So you know, this year and you, I was so proud and happy to have you as a part of it.

Lori Morgan (45:27):
I had my very first level up Notary Signing Agent Virtual Summit. And it was, you know, really just kind of came out of, you know, we're all in a lot of us are still working from home. A lot of us are still inside and I had just wanted to see how much I could leverage, leverage social media to get the word out. And we opened up the registration and we had registered over 500 notaries or aspiring notaries within 12 hours. Wow. And so let me know that, hey, there is a need a hunger, a desire for people to learn and to increase their knowledge. We ended up having about 950 registered attendees for that event. And it was an in January of this year and it was phenomenal. And I'm not saying that because it was my own event, but I'm saying it based on the feedback that we received, you know, we had speakers like you and Laura Biewer.

Lori Morgan (46:26):
And I don't want to get, start getting into the, all the different names because I'll end up forgetting someone, my friend Nakia, my friend Star, they were a part of it, but it was so motivating for so many that's that, that was the, the feedback that I think it put a little fire under some people that maybe had been in the business, but had not thought about some additional, you know, options for themselves. And then it also inspired aspiring notaries. And that is so exciting for me. I've also been able to start a notary book club. And so we are reading books about, you know, notary, the business. And then we're also reading books about just entrepreneurship in general. So hosting those every other month, and that's been exciting so far, can't wait to get Sign and Thrive on our readers list very, very soon.

Lori Morgan (47:21):
And so it's just been a blessing and then that's not even touching just the friendships that I've been able to make. I've been able to, you know, meet you and become with friends with you, and you've mentored me and I've, I've been so appreciative, but just, it's opened up just a whole new world of friendships and connections that I wouldn't have had before. And so it's just been, I, I just don't have any negative things to say about the notary world or about loan signing. It's just been just, just been amazing. It's been amazing so far and I cannot wait to see what else 2022 has in store for me.

Bill Soroka (48:03):
Well, what a great lead into my next question first. I totally agree with you. I think this business is a gift and it has absolutely changed my life and I love sharing it, but what does the future have in store? What's next for Lori Morgan?

Lori Morgan (48:21):
Oh my goodness. Well, you know, I'm going to go to that gratitude journal and pull it out and that's going to remind me of what's happened so far, and then with the vision board for this year if I showed it to you, Bill, I don't even know if you'd believe it, cause half of the things on there, I don't even believe, but I know that I, I know that I have a limitless possibility it's limitless with the possibilities. And so I have a lot of exciting things coming up. I have a follow-up to the summit, so we're going to do a midyear check-in which should be awesome. That will be on a little bit smaller scale because I want to give us some time to do some breakouts. I want to hear about the successes that some of the attendees have had and some of the things that they have on their vision board.

Lori Morgan (49:09):
So I will definitely be sharing more information about that later. We have, like I said, the book club is ongoing and I have some, a couple of pretty big projects that I have working on. I'm working on a book right now that will be out sometime in the next few months. And I'll be sharing more information about that as well. And then of course, just trying to, you know, increase my business. I don't know if a signing service is in my site at this point, but it's always on the table. But just, just continuing to grow and expand and you know, be continue to successful, but also to continue to be very grateful and you know, showing that gratitude because it's, I just, I've been incredibly blessed throughout my life, but especially these last these last few years,

Bill Soroka (50:07):
That sounds incredible. I can't wait to see what 2022 and beyond creates or what you create in 2022 and beyond be sure to let me know how to support you. I love it when people write books. I think it was probably one of the most rewarding things internally I have ever done for myself. So I can't wait to support you in that too. I'm sure we'll talk about that. But Lori, if somebody wanted to get a hold of you or get in your orbit, how can they do that?

Lori Morgan (50:34):
Absolutely, absolutely. So I reluctantly I am on social media so that's probably the easiest and best way to contact me. I am on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn under Sign Here And There Notary and or under my name, Lori Morgan, and that's probably the best way, you know, I'm always in Clubhouse, so we're there week, on a weekly basis providing as much value as we possibly can there. And yeah, definitely be out, I mean, definitely look out for the next Level Up Notary Agent Summit, going to provide as much value as we can there as well. And, and, like you mentioned before, I love to, I am just passing on to other notaries what's been passed on to me. And I just want to mention just real briefly, Bill ,when I, when you and I finally met in person, you didn't know me.

Lori Morgan (51:31):
I didn't know you very well. We had met on the Clubhouse app briefly and we spent a few moments along with some of our other notary friends and we had a, I call it a fireside chat. There was no fire. We were just chatting and you, you were so just such a, it was such an invaluable conversation that it really got my wheels turning about like the notary business and entrepreneurship in a way that I hadn't looked at it before. And so I've told you privately before, I'm telling you publicly now you know, just thank you for pouring into me. I feel like you are definitely part of the, a part of my success and I just appreciate all of your support that you've provided throughout my notary journey. And then I've, I'm thankful that I've been able to share or pour into other notaries as well. And so it's just a wonderful cycle. And so I just wanted to publicly thank you for everything that you do as well.

Bill Soroka (52:33):
Wow. Well, thank you so much unexpected and it's truly my honor, my pleasure to be a part of that. And I can receive no greater compliment than you got my wheels turning. I love that. Thank you so much for joining us here, Lori. I can't wait to see what 2022 brings.

Lori Morgan (52:50):
Absolutely. It's been a pleasure to be here. I appreciate the opportunity and our slogan. This is the notary community. Our slogan is, 2022, We are coming for you.

Bill Soroka (53:03):
I love it. 

--- End of Transcription ---

Bill

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