Irvine Notary Symposium Key Takeaways And Review

 *Full Transcription Below*.

Hey everybody, this is Bill Soroka, founder of NotaryCoach.com and the Sign and Thrive Notary Training Course and Community.

I am live at the Kimpton Rowan Hotel in downtown Palm Springs. (I don't know why I said Las Vegas in the video!!) I decided on my way back from the Notary Symposium in Irvine yesterday to stop in Palm Springs and just kind of refresh a little bit because I was feeling pretty wiped out and exhausted, and found an amazing deal at this luxury hotel by the way, on Hotels Tonight. That's a smart phone app, but there was an incredible deal.

You guys should see the view I have right now of the entire Valley and all the mountains surrounding Palm Springs. So it's really amazing and I'm grateful for deals like that. I love finding amazing deals and cool little places like this on my travels and adventures.

But today I want to talk about my experience at the notary symposium in Irvine, California.

There are two of them this year. The first one is the one that we just had on October 5th in Irvine, California. The second one is going to be on November 16th. Both were completely sold out. So there were no more tickets available this year. And it's put on by Laura Biewer and her team. Her collaborator down here in Southern California was Valerie and they did a really incredible job.

I just wanted to share a little bit about my key takeaways from that because I didn't just show up there to speak or present information. I showed up to learn - and I learned so much - and it was really so amazing to see a room full, I mean packed full - of notaries who take this business seriously and are there for the right reasons. They're heart driven and they're there because they want to be of service to the community and they're really building a business around being a notary public.

So there was a diverse style of speakers. It wasn't all about notary law and guidelines. And while all of that is important, it can be a little bit dry of course. So the lineup of speakers really blew my mind and I love that Laura and Valerie stepped outside the box with some of this. So I'm going to share some of my key takeaways.

A Suzy was the first speaker of the morning and she is a certified NNA instructor as well. She talked about a kind of a holistic approach to your notary business and what it takes to thrive. And while all of the the practical matters of being a notary are so critically important, it is also important to take care of ourselves through eating right, movement, exercise, breathing, all of those things that are just so important no matter what industry you're in. Sometimes we forget to do that in our Notary business. She had the whole room up doing a little dance called "Stomp that Fraud" and it was really a kind of a cool thing to witness and see so many people actually get into it.

The next speaker was Don. He is an estate planning attorney that travels the country speaking,. He spoke about what it takes for a notary to be attractive to an attorney and vice versa. He shared some real important information about why attorneys should use mobile notaries outside of their office personnel. He then shared how notaries should really get into whatever niche they want to get into, whether it's estate planning or criminal law - whatever it might be. Learn the language that your ideal customer is speaking so you can have a conversation with them and recognize where your value might fit in to their business plan.

I thought that was really profound - and coming from an attorney as well. Attorneys really love working within relationships. They network a lot! They are in environments where a referral really means something. So if you can show up and just be there. In fact, Valerie even said it, she said most of her business counts because she just shows up to these events.

Woody Allen said it too - that 80% of life is just showing up.

So if you do step into this, learn the language, hang out in the communities that your ideal customers are in, and you can get some real strategic partnerships.

Speaking of strategic partnerships, there's so much value in that. And Don spoke to this as well, whether you have insurance agent friends, real estate agents, loan officers, escrow officers, attorneys whatever else you might have in your network. If you really want to be a value and help them grow their business, then find a way to build those relationships and share the articles they've written, share articles you've written with them, share blog posts, share posts, and events.

There's so many amazing people out there doing incredible things to bring value to their communities. Sometimes a like or a share with your community makes all the difference and that brings a lot of value to those communities.

Then finally, Laura and Valerie did an amazing presentation on the power of collaboration. Two people or more people working together for a common cause. So whether you're looking to train people, or build a networking group or network - whatever it might be - working together with the right partner can change your business and change your life and change the world. That's what's really amazing.

Very few big ideas happened because of one person.

It does, it really does take a village and an effort of many people. So always be on the lookout for people that you just connect with and are willing to share information openly.

And then finally, I spoke. The title of my presentation is "The Extraordinary Notary", but it was really more about becoming an expert notary - being the expert notary in your state. That's what people are craving. That's what people need.

Your audience, which is the the people of the state that you represent - need you on your A-Game! And they need to be able to find you. Utilizing technologies and strategies from neighboring - or completely outside industries - like email, content marketing, social media - all that stuff can conspire right here, culminate right here in this business to make you the forefront notary.

So you're all over social media, you're all over email. When some people Google, you're the one that comes up because there's an expert and there's a clear path that you can take to get there.

I also learned a lot about my presentation style and my layout too. So I get to tweak some things as I go through, cause I'll be speaking at the November 16th event as well.

There's one other thing too - Gary Tabke was there as well and he speaks to notary safety. In fact, he travels the country speaking about realtor and notary safety. And that's one thing that we sometimes take for granted. We just don't even think about the bad people that are in the world sometimes. We've really got to keep that forefront because none of the other stuff that I mentioned today - or anything else matters - if you are assaulted, if you're injured or if you're killed while you're doing this work. So be aware of your personal safety and always, always, always prioritize that first.

Then the biggest takeaway from me came from Laura and Valerie, just demonstrating exactly what it's like to show adaptability with a smile on your face and a sense of humor - and showing grace under fire.

Because of course - like anything, you know, nothing ever went perfectly to plan and the way that they handled it, it was just so refreshing and awesome and it was a total honor to be a part of it, surrounded by truly good human beings that are doing this kind of work for the right reasons.

I just wanted to thank them for doing that and demonstrating how things can really turn out okay. Even when not everything goes according to plan.

So thank you guys. And if you couldn't make it this year, I hope you'll make it next year. What's really cool is these one day trainings, even two day trainings now are springing up all around the country. So anything that you can do to help support the people who step into the arena and try to bring information to you to make you better at what you do, I highly encourage you to do it.

If you don't have those in your area yet, maybe you're the one! So take a look at that, step into that and let me know how I can support you as well.

OK guys, you can always find me at [email protected] - and you can schedule a free mentor coaching call at NotaryCoach.com - in the upper right hand corner there's a place to 'Book a Call with Bill".

Thanks a lot guys, and I'll check with you later

- Bill 
Creator, Sign & Thrive Notary Training Course and Community

www.NotarySymposium.com
www.NotaryCoach.com