One of my favorite things to do is to refer prospects to people I know, like, and trust. 

I consider myself a loyal person (sometimes to a fault). 

Loyalty is a quality I appreciate in others as well. 

What I’ve learned through the years as a super connector is that loyalty has to be about more than just personalities. 

Quality over Quantity When It Comes to Referrals

You can’t just refer prospects to people you like, even if they’re freakin’ amazing at what they do. 

Not everyone is a good referral match. 

So instead, be loyal to bringing value to your relationships, not just to one certain person. 

It does no one any good if you refer a mismatched prospect to your favorite attorney, just because you like him. It just wastes time and it costs you credibility in two relationships (or more). 

You Can Never Have Too Many Referral Partners

That’s why you can never have too many partners on your referral list. 

...

Last night, on our weekly NBB Accountability call, I shared an accidental strategy that ended up working quite well for me in my business relationships. 

I’ve never been great at mailing cards and letters on time. 

Birthday cards would sit on my counter, or in my glove box for months until they were so late I may as well have used them for the recipient’s next birthday. 

I was especially bad with holiday cards for my clients. 

Always Late With Holiday Cards

At first, I’d be so embarrassed at how late the cards were that I wouldn’t send them at all, even after signing and addressing them. 

And then one January, after missing another season, I said, “screw-it, I’m sending them anyway.” I decided I would pop-in to my clients and drop off cards and good spirits six weeks after everyone else, and something interesting happened. 

As they were taking down the swarms of holiday cards they had received...

I’m still shocked by how much I don’t know. 

More shocking still, is how much I don’t know about how much I don’t know. 

There’s always something new to learn. Especially, it seems, as a small business owner. 

It feels impossible to know everything you need to know about running an enterprise. And, without a budget to hire someone else, it’s on us to figure it out. 

Everything is Figureoutable (Marie Forleo)

When I have something I need to figure out, I have a process:

• First, I buy a book or six on the subject. 
• Second, I buy a course or six on the subject (sometimes, I actually take the courses). 
• Third, if I need more, I hire a coach/teacher/mentor on the subject. 

But I didn’t always have a budget that supported that process. 

As I was pulling my head out of my rear-end, learning habits, routines, mindset, and practical business applications, I had zero fundage for luxuries like education. I...

Once you’ve accepted that consumer reviews are important to your mobile notary success, the next question you probably have is about how to ask for reviews and when to ask for them. 

Right? 

(And if you're still not quite sold on the idea of review-getting, read two of my previous articles here and here)

You can get as creative as you want with this, and you can find a style that matches your personality. 

If you’re uncomfortable asking for reviews, consider that 70% of consumers have left reviews before, and 90% of consumers use reviews to make buying decisions. That means you’re not asking for something out of left field here. They’re used to it!

More than that, most people want to help small business owners when they’ve had a positive experience. 

So let’s talk about it.

When to Ask For Reviews:

As a rule of thumb, you’ll only ask a client for a review when you’ve delivered five-star service and there is no...

Thanksgiving weekend is what I call my Sacred Weekend.

Nearly ten years ago, these four days were going to either represent my death, or my legacy. 

I was so depressed after the collapse of my remaining businesses (save this one, as a mobile notary), that I was ready to off myself completely. 

I mean, after 26 business failures, there’s only so much a man can take. 

Or, is there?

I could have done the deed. Sure, it’s possible. Aside from a bottle of vodka though, I really hadn’t made any plans for my departure. Pills? I had them. Drugs? I had them. Guns? I had them. 

And yet, I didn't need them. 

Gratefully (hence my “Sacred Weekend”), instead of taking my life, I decided to make my life. I had to figure out WHAT it was that stopped me from achieving the results I wanted. 

If not WHAT, then, WHO?

I won’t keep you in distress. It was ME! 

I was in the way, as usual. 

Limiting beliefs. Excuses. Poor...

If there's one thing I've learned in life and business, it's that you can't avoid the problems and challenges. You have to face them head-on. 

As we approach 2024, I see a few problematic areas for our industry. We can't ignore them, even if we wanted to. 

At best, we adopt and adapt. 

At worst, well, maybe it's back to the call center we go. 

Three Blindspots for Notaries

1. Relying on a single source of revenue. We can't keep pretending that loan signings will come back, looking the same, and with the same volume we had during the pandemic.
2. Giving up your voice. Not participating in legislative movements and government affairs.
3. Ignoring tech trends. We must keep tabs on emerging technology and not only how it impacts our role as the notary, but how it may impact our clients. 

Rather than stick your head in the sand, shine a light into these three blindspots. I know it's overhwelming, especially if you're just starting out. But it's better you have one eye...

My friend Alison just published her book, The Art of Selling, and I think you should check it out.

If you're like me, one of the reasons you probably love the notary business is it isn't too "salesy." We're an essential service, and it's easy to hide from sales behind that label. 

But "sales" is the lifeblood for a small business like ours. 

We can call it pop-in, pop-by, networking, outreach, or building relationships, but it's sales. 

And we have to get good at to thrive as an entrepreneur. 

If you've struggled with inner demons, or systems for reaching out and following up, I think Alison's $5 book could help.

Get it here

I asked Alison to lead a special training just for the notary community. So grab the book, read it (and don't forget to leave a review), and then watch the replay of the training at the link below. 

Watch Sales Training Webinar here 

Between you and me, my inner critic can be a real bitch. 

 In my younger years, it was worse. Much worse. 

Nothing was ever good enough, and it was always catastrophizing one thing or another, causing paralyzing anxiety that kept me up at night. 

My inner critic, whom I’ve named Art, would obsess about conversations I had earlier in the day (or throughout the week). You shouldn’t have said that! You should have said this! I couldn’t win. 

If I was feeling cute and wore a shirt that was a little tighter than usual, Art would make sure I knew everyone in the room was whispering about how big guys like me shouldn’t wear tight clothes. 

Having a bitchy inner critic doesn’t serve you (or me). The good news is, you can tame your inner critic. 

Three Suggestions To Help Tame Your Inner Critic:

• Name It 
  

  This sounded ridiculous to me too, but I can’t believe how much it’s helped me laugh more at myself, and...

You may say I am a dreamer. 

But I'm not the only one (wink, fans of "Imagine"). 

You likely have some big goals and dreams too. That's why we're in this business together. 

The Next Five Steps

A good "big goal" should straddle the line between obtainable and overwhelming. You want to be able to hit it, but it also should require growth and a stretch beyond your current capabilities. "Becoming" what you need to be to get the goal done is what makes goals powerful-not just simply accomplishing them. 

Today, I'm sharing my "Next Five Steps" strategy for goal accomplishment. I use it as a planning tool, both for goals I set for myself, and also for ideas I'm noodling around with. Knowing your next five steps can help you choose projects or get stuff done. 

The Next Five Steps is super simple and helps turn giant endeavors into bite-sized chunks. Let's look at a couple of examples. 

Putting the Next Five Steps to Work

Let's say you wanted to land five new...

Reviews play a big part in making sure you get hired by your prospects that search for a “notary near me.” 

Reviews are “social proof” that demonstrate that you’re a real business, and there’s less risk in hiring you because others already have. 

Plus, search engines use positive commentary, like reviews, to help them decide which profiles to highlight on their coveted “first page” of search results. 

So, the question often is, which platforms are better for customer reviews? 

Sometimes you don’t have any control over this. A customer that is compelled to give a review will simply post on whatever platform they want to. Nothing wrong with that!

All reviews are good reviews (even the bad reviews, if you respond correctly).

But, if you’re a smart small business person (which you are), and you’ve implemented a review-getting strategy, you’ll likely be able to guide some of your customers to the...