Ep 126- Meet The Hive: Creating A Global Notary Agency With Rafaniel Jimerson

Transcript

all right we're here today with rafaniel

out of

stockton in north carolina north

california um he is a mobile notary he's

been involved in rotary for

over a year now and now he's teaching

people how to do mobile notice we're

going to kind of cover into that um but

first i always have to start it off with

rathaniel

how'd you get to this point how did you

begin to this point in entrepreneurship

what'd you do in the past we talked to a

lot of construction workers last podcast

i did was a firefighter

how'd you get end up here man

man i appreciate you having me on daniel

uh it's an honor to be on here uh man

how i got into the business man i was

working security for about six years

and my security supervisor i was working

under

they placed a lot of responsibilities

and tasks on him as far as like managing

their day-to-day operations

it was it was starting to be a conflict

as far as handling the different duties

of from other departments the way they

was treating him

they was trying to get him out of the

company i said they doing him like that

it's only a matter of time before they

get to me so i was already already i

already was trying to find my ex

strategy anyway but i just didn't know

what i wanted to do just felt like i

wasn't innovative as far as you know

creating a product anything of that

nature so my first stop was i was going

to the first idea was to create a

private security company

just going based off my experience six

years of experience of being a security

guard but then after that

i found out what the capital i would

need to get started i was like i don't

necessarily have that happen now so so i

know my mom she was a notary public so

she's been working for the government

for over 20 years and she was working as

a notary at the fight hustle i was like

man let me look into that let me do a

little research on google and let me see

if i can you know turn this into a

business and so when i did the research

find out how much mobile notaries can

make it was more than what i was making

that security a security guard at the

time and i was like all right i'm gonna

take this and run with it and so that

same night

uh filed uh submitted my application

paid for the training and everything

after my shift was over

uh went to the uh

went to the title company i think i

think it was like north america title

why did you do the training

and ended up just doing the eight-hour

training there took the exam after the

uh after the eight hour class found

another couple weeks that i passed and

after that i took off i never looked

back since so

been in the industry for about five

years now was working as an independent

mobile notary for about four years about

four years and then in 2021 in august

that's why i started to decided to scale

it to a nationwide level so where now we

have a notary agency so

that coin is in florida just recently

tennessee uh southern california

uh where else new jersey so we're going

into new markets it seems like every

week

that's awesome man

i like i like uh i like your story

because it sounds similar to mine

because

i was i was trucking and then i was like

yeah let me start a business so i

started my trucking business and you

like i want to go to the security

business so like you do what you know

most cases are off the bat but you kind

of pivot from there into wherever you're

going then interesting story man

that is

that's good man how old are you by the

way cause i know you're young

31 31 see yeah you're 31 you look a lot

younger because you're older

i thought you're younger than me man i'm

only 29. i turned 30 yesterday yeah i

mean it's just that good jeans man

drinking

that's good man a lot of a lot of people

they struggle and what they're

i feel like and you understand this

because you're still young i feel like a

lot of people in their 20s they they

don't know what they want to do and they

don't know how to do it so they're kind

of like

lost

lost in their own way

trying to figure out their own position

and where they fit in in life

um yeah i definitely struggle with that

yeah yeah well was that a struggle with

you that you had as well

yeah because uh in high school you know

my thing is i went to play basketball so

i was really big on my thing was like

you know

i'm gonna try to go to college go try to

play college ball and hopefully i can

get into the nba something like that

because i'm 6'4 so i've always been the

type of person i've always played sports

and so

when i graduated high school was pretty

much all right well what's the next step

and i'm not going to play college ball i

had a couple of tryouts but i didn't

really necessarily know what i wanted to

do as far as a career goes like i always

had the idea to start a business

uh when i was initially going to go into

college my initial thought was i was

going to get into business

administration i was like all right

maybe i can turn this into knowing how

to start a business and go from there

but um it's funny because my stepdad was

in prison at the time

and he was always

always like when i talk to him you

always say oh you should go look into

being a correctional officer they don't

do nothing i was like all right maybe i

could turn that into a career so that's

how i ended up getting a degree in

criminal justice and pursued possibly

going into law enforcement but it ended

up working out so i ended up going into

security

and that led to me doing what i'm doing

now

that's awesome man

um i i i like i like that like we don't

young people they don't just know where

they're going but they'll figure it out

eventually and like it usually takes

mid 30s i mean mid-20s the late late 20s

to kind of figure it out figure out what

direction you're going to go

i think it's a great opportunity i took

it all the time is that the best time to

kind of screw up and mess up is in your

20s because you get the worst case there

you're going to end up on your parents

couch

absolutely yeah you got to fail as much

as possible and fail as much as possible

figure out what you want to do just

don't sit on your hands and hope for the

best like you know if it comes if it's a

job that you're going to try to apply

for whatever you're trying to do you

just like you know just just try stuff

you know if you fail so what you know

it's most people that's still not even

they're still debating on what they want

to do they're not even willing to take

those steps to actually pursue what is

what they're trying to go after so

like i said if you listen to this like

you say if you got that idea just don't

sit on it throw it at the wall see what

sticks and then double down on that

whatever's working

so let's kind of jump in the notary so a

lot of people think notary doesn't pay

well because

i can go to the the postal annex right

around the corner get a notary down 15

bucks

and then i've had this a side note i've

had somebody come to my come to my house

for 20 bucks and i'm like

you must be doing it wrong

yeah definitely doing it wrong

because i know i know

yeah

that sucks for him but here's your 20

bucks you were you earned it

sorry right yeah

what are the qualifications people that

want to get a notary because a lot of

people think like they need a college

degree to succeed in life

yeah so you definitely you definitely

don't need a college degree in order to

become a notary so every state is

different but here in california

they just regret that the secretary of

state it is required to do a six-hour

training that's it used to be eight-hour

training but now just six-hour training

you can do that online as soon as you

complete the training then you will need

to schedule your proctored exam so once

you schedule the project exam you're

going to go to the location wherever the

location of the exam or where you're

going to take place and the only thing

you're just getting educated on is just

the laws as far as with the laws or what

the penalties the fines are if you don't

perform the assignment

in a certain way

and then once you pass the exam then the

next step is you got to get your arizona

missions coverage you got to get bonded

you got to get your stamp and then you

just wait for the secretary of state to

send your staff to send you your

commission so once you get your

commission you're officially in business

so the process is this is really it's

really not not not tough to get into i

know there's other states to where all

you got to do is just sign up get a

background check and then you are notary

but here in the little california it's a

little strange that they get there it's

a little strange about how you can get

out in the process of how you become a

commission of the notary

i know you had to get bonded i didn't

know it was that too so how much is your

money

uh from here in my account it was like

40 bucks it's like 40 bucks you just

take a you just take an oath and say oh

you uh do you promise to follow by the

rules and things of that nature and you

do that once you do it i mean you're

pretty much in business for the most

part

overnight business

overnight business just like that so

i mean that's the easy part you know the

next step is like all right how do i do

business how do i market myself who's my

target audience

uh what is it that i really want to do

with this business because you have some

folks that get into the notary business

where they may be working a nine to five

and they just doing this that's the way

to generate part-time income

but i think you that's that's you is

other niches there's other ways to

actually make money in this industry but

you just got to actually be deep into

the craft and actually connect with

people that's in the industry to know

what opportunities and possibilities are

out there

so let's let's get let's get a little

specific because that's where i was like

i just got twenty bucks from

notary like how do people make money

doing this because i know

you're kind of like doing like notary

dispatching now

and then you know like middle manning to

find other notaries to actually fulfill

yeah so for the most part

the pricing is normally going to be

dependent on your state so i use

california as an example right so you

can't charge the california law you

can't charge you can't charge more than

15 per signature but you can also tack

on your travel fee so let's say for

example if you don't have an office

starting out you can charge for you can

you as an owner you can charge to travel

to that client to get your documents

override so let's say for example i have

a power of attorney right and this one

and the client only needs one signature

and they need me to come to them okay we

know it's fifteen dollars per signature

and if my travel fee is like 35 bucks i

could tack that on on the fee as well

and then what i think it's 15.35 that's

like 15 but 50 bucks but you guys should

charge more than that as far as for your

travel fee so

there's no cap on what you can charge

for your travel fee i know there's some

states that do limit that in regards to

like your mileage or whatnot

but that travel fee is very important

because one they're paying for

convenience

like if you don't have if you need me to

come to you like right now you need to

document otherwise like yesterday you

don't care about what you don't care

what the cost is you need to get this

document taken care of like right away

you definitely want to add your pricing

together don't just you know perform a

notarization for 20 bucks like i don't

know what that notary speaking of they

might have been new

but you definitely charge more than 20

bucks to get a document notarized

oh that's funny i think time of

convenience is getting a pace so you got

to write it into your your travel fee

100 absolutely is that the only way to

like write in your extra fees on taxes

so you make sure you charge your fifteen

dollars for rotary

yeah so you got the fifteen dollars uh

per signature and then you have your

travel fee and then that's what that so

those are pretty much the two to two

ways that you're going to get paid as

far as notarizing the document so if

it's more than two signatures obviously

you're going to tackle an additional 15

and then you obviously your travel fee

is going to be what that is so

here in california like i said there's

no cap on your travel fee you can charge

as much as you want

uh you can try i've seen folks charge 60

bucks just to travel you know and then

there's clients they will pay that money

they will pay that money especially if

it's a problem that needs to be solved

like they have no issue with it they

just want to get that document notarized

especially if it's like a power of

attorney and they have a loved one

that's in hospice or in the hospital and

they need to get that power of attorney

like right right now they're willing to

pay for it so

yeah definitely

definitely do you definitely definitely

do your due diligence definitely do your

due diligence ahead of time we know what

your price what you're charging for the

services

let's talk about this so how long you've

been doing notary and you're full-time

notary right that's all you do yeah yeah

i've been full time since 2018 2008

september 3rd 2018. so i've been full

time since that point

and

initially i was just like i said this

when i first started out it was mostly

doing loan documents so if a person

selling their home buying a home if so

if a title company needed a notary or as

a final service that needed a notary

they would reach out to me to see if i

was available and i would more times not

make myself available to complete those

assignments it wasn't until i want to

say to the top of last year no not even

top of last year i want to say towards

the middle towards the summer well i

actually started to learn how to book my

own appointments because a lot of times

when nobody's getting into the business

you're just setting up your google my

business page you sign it up with all

the signing services and you're pretty

much waiting on them to look

to bring you business but as an

entrepreneur you can't sit around and

wait you got to actually learn how to

book your own appointments you're going

to learn how to network you know network

within the industry so you can position

yourself to diversify your business

whether you're doing estate plans

whether you need a documented postfield

whether you're doing fingerprinting

whatever the case may be you got to be

able to generate consistency be able to

generate consistent stream of income

so this is where i think i comes in

right

yep you're using hide mine for marketing

for your notary business right

absolutely absolutely so

the beauty of what behind mine

is for me i ca it allows me to keep

track of all the notice that we work

with because normally as a notary agency

owner if you don't have uh if you don't

have a database of builders you're

pretty much going to use a couple of

directories so whether it's notary cafe

123 notary for signingagent.com you can

use those directories but you're pretty

much like it's almost like you're

shooting in the dark as far as who's the

notary why there's a person they can

make themselves available but if i don't

know their work i don't have a

relationship with them you're pretty

much hoping that they do a good job like

you're hoping that

you know they know what the hell they're

doing and you know they actually perform

the assignment so for me i make it a

point to network with notaries on a on a

constant basis and i also have my group

as well the stanford community so that

way if we if i am looking for notaries

instead of instead of me having to spend

time on these directories just going

through each one trying to find the

right notary you can come into our group

i already know already got your phone

number already got your email i know

what areas you service which station you

service so by time we get a new order

that comes in i can go right in the

headline i can find out what notary

circuit area and i can use highmind to

shoot out a text to them or shoot out

shoot them out of email to see if

they're available for their client

boom i love it i love it i tell people

all the time you need a facebook

community because you can leverage and

it's just free traffic coming in so the

facebook community you you leverage and

you bring in experience and new notaries

and you can even you're even training

people to be a notary as well that you

can build up your your database as well

so you're kind of building up your own

your own people

through everything from either start to

finish or just being on my network that

way if i ever get a job that comes in

absolutely because the name of the game

is speed i mean the name of the game is

speed how quick can you find a notary it

takes me an hour and a half to find a

notary and you absolutely leave that

document notarized you're gonna you're

gonna go you're pretty much gonna go

find another another notary company to

help you with that so

with us i'm prioritizing this being as

quickly and quick and efficient so with

the facebook group again that left me to

keep track of everyone that's within the

group and it allows me to get business

out to them as quickly as possible and

then with the group as well that allows

me to build my own community that allows

me to know like um like i said when it

comes back to the game when i have to

work use the directories if i don't know

that they're trained you know you're

pretty much taking you're pretty much

taking a chance but with the people in

my group because i do weekly workshops

and webinars those same people who i

send business to they attend those

workshops so that when i do get a new

order that comes in i feel more

uncomfortable sending them business

because one i know they're dedicated to

the craft i know they're knowledgeable

we know we i understand i know that they

understand they know what they're doing

and i know they're going to be

professional and get the job done so i

mean it's a win-win all the way

so let me ask you this

can you download the directories from

the 123 notary and then notary.com and

all that stuff

no i don't believe so no i think i don't

oh that's a good question i don't think

i don't think you would be able to you

gotta i think you have to pay

in order to do that i think

for the most part what's up but for you

know to be being you know you can

connect uh hi mine to facebook

but uh

you don't gotta necessarily have to do

that so when i say soon as they join

into the group

uh it's actually getting kicked in the

high mind into my crm i know again i

never got their phone number i got the

email i put tags on them as far as

specific states and areas that they

serve so it makes it it makes it makes

the uh it makes it so much cleaner and

so much faster for me to be able to get

those orders to find out as quickly as

possible

yeah my my my uh my entrepreneurial

brains like i need to figure out a bot

to scrape all that stuff out and buy

them into the facebook group and then

i'll get the information and i can tag

them all based out of that so that's

what i'm thinking

yeah i mean that that would be a good

idea but you know i'd say

one thing

that i'll message that i always preach

in my um in my workshops like not all

notaries are created equal

so yeah you may have like those

directories of notaries in there but you

know if

their experience level is not there if

they don't have the necessary

certifications or insurance that makes

that that gives me that makes me feel

comfortable and passing them assignment

i'm not going to work with them you know

for the most part so i'm very particular

about who i work with and uh because at

the end of the day uh my tagline is if

you want it downright the first time

call us the first time and i want to

make sure that whenever the order has

been accepted we do we we're complete

this is the flawless execution all the

way through as far as getting the order

completed

that's awesome i think i think a lot of

people they miss out on that and i think

you're you're providing a lot of

different facets of notary just to make

it a cohesive thing

so are you mostly doing dispatch now or

do you still go out and sign yourself i

still go on so far so for locally i

still go out i've been working mostly

with law firms that's late so uh there's

some building quite a few relationships

to where they need me personally i can

show up and then those same offer those

same clients if they have clients in

other states they have estate planning

clients in other states i mean i have no

reason i feel very built i feel very

confident in that they can perform those

assignments and they get them taken care

so yeah i still do them but then like i

still for the most part i still do a lot

more dispatching now than i do that i do

myself that i'm performing assignments

myself but you know at the end of that

i'm still doing it because

i still like to get out in the field i

still like to get out and touch the

people see what's going on see what's

new in the industry so that way you know

something new that comes about the

notice i'm working with they can be well

informed what's going on

so um you also you're doing like a

five-day training now is that like new

notaries i want to learn

man yep so it's for it's for new

notaries it's for notaries that season

in the industry they want to step it up

to a national level so it's the five day

stamper challenge so we're going to

spend five days and we're just gonna

spend those five days teaching you how

to systematize your business so day one

we're going to focus on purely on just

accepting the order

and there's a system behind accepting

that order when it comes to the new

order comes in we're going to do our

pre-screening we're going to put the

appointment and then the very next day

day two is we focusing on hiring and

vetting the notaries because one again

not all notice are created equal we want

to make sure that we're properly vetting

these notaries and we're hiring the

right fit for right notary for the job

that's the system behind that and in day

three we're focusing on confirming the

appointment someone's not sending out a

notary confirmation whether let's make

sure we have the correct details as far

as the appointment if documents need to

be included in the email we're going to

focus on that as well

and then that's the that's the date

through what we focus on

confirming the appointment and then day

four we're going to focusing on

completing the assignment making sure

the notary shows up on time uh basically

making sure the notary is communicating

with you throughout the entire process

hey i made it to the appointment hey the

appointment has been completed uh

letting them know letting the notary

know that hey before they go to the

appointment they have a support system

behind them in case they have any

questions or concerns because we don't

want any hiccups in this process and

then day five we're going to focus on

closing out the order behind the system

behind closing out that order and make

sure you get those reviews as well

because reviews are so key for notaries

without the reviews it's going to be

tough for you to generate new business

if we're going to spend those five days

putting the system together that way by

the time you start your agency

you're going to start you're going to

you go you off to the races

it's not even a thought about what to do

moving forward you already have the

system in place for how to execute that

every step in place

are using google are using uh google my

business for reviews

yup i use google my business for reviews

and then there's a platform that i use

as well called them tax lead generation

uh that's another way to get reviews as

well but for the most part we use a

the largest search engine in the world

and google is pretty much mostly used

for folks that's looking for notaries

anyway

awesome did you just check thailand to

google

okay

did you connect piedmont to google

absolutely you got to

you got to like

yeah the beauty of hive mind is

everything is centrally located in uh

weather as far as automating like like

like one thing about hotline i didn't

even realize it until today where i

could set up my workflow because

initially i didn't understand what that

meant

was like what is the what's the purpose

of a workflow but then when i started

incorporating that into it so i defined

a separate challenge as far as okay with

this other steps that need to be

completed once somebody purchases this

product and as far as like the signings

and as far as when we get new signings

that come in what's the next steps after

that the following up with the notary to

see how the binding went following uh

with the signer to see how how the

finding went was there anything we could

have been done to be better could you

also leave us a review if we if you

thought we did a great job as well so

if you hide mine

man every business owner should have to

have the platform you need a crm if you

don't have a crm like i don't know what

you're doing

you pretty much just you know you you

you gambling in my opinion you gamble if

you don't have a crm

that's awesome man i'm i'm trying not to

like pitch that one but i'm like i

haven't talked to you since you signed

up so i'm kind of curious like what

stage you're at and it's kind of it's

kind of exciting because like you're

learning you're still learning new stuff

about it

but like now that you're in it like man

same it's like saving my butt from a lot

of things like a lot of stuff that you

have to like mainly remember to do is

just automation

and and you just said that you just took

the words out of my mouth the the manual

aspect the manual aspect because we are

human we give we are forgetful

especially as business owners we getting

you know we got so many things coming

our way and it's easy to get swayed off

if you put the systems in place

that saves you a lot of time a lot of

headache from having to forget about the

flaming appointment that's been booked

whether it's a certain like a certain

email that needs to be sent out and

putting on putting all that information

together so the system's together

so yeah i'm still learning new things

about hive mind and how it's been

helping me in my business because again

i want to i want to get to a level where

we have unprecedented speed like the

speed level i want to get to is where

it's like amazon i want to be like the

amazon prime of the notary business as

soon as you as soon as you get an order

that comes in we already got a notary

available for you within that within the

next 30 minutes up to an hour so that's

the goal where i'm trying to get to and

high mind has been very helpful in doing

something

i think i think with that you just got

to build it up for like relationships

yeah and then automate it from there

because yeah once you do that that's it

the relationships is the is the power

tool

and then the systems is the

everything else behind it

yeah it ties everything together

that automation i mean the automation

aspect just

it's so exciting to incorporate those

type of systems in place

it's so exciting because

again that saves you time for having to

manually do everything like

the way the way the world is moving the

way things the technology is changing

every single day like you can't manually

do everything by yourself so it's

important to put those automations in

place

so one thing i like did you did you take

hatchet's course or did you kind of kind

of go down the notary path on hatchet

so i went down to notary pass first and

then i came into andre hatcher's course

i took a lot of courses man and took the

the mark wills course uh tiger toledo's

course kind of like andre had this like

i just took a little

i just took a little piece of everything

and then it's incorporated into my own

style so

you know like i said having a crm that's

i mean let's take it up to the next

level and then learn how to incorporate

the marketing and everything so

i think for the most part you know being

a notary for me is easy i think that the

the part where most noises but they got

to understand is how to market yourself

so if you get the marketing down aspect

down if you know who you're targeting

who you actually want to work with that

makes your marketing a little easier i

suppose you know just brought just

shrinking everything again as opposed to

just trying to market to everybody if

you could shrink it moving in to just be

really specific as far as who you're

marketing to

you'll start to see some success in your

business

man that's good um

so i i always like hitting this because

a lot of people they don't like buying

courses and like for me like that's how

i got the real estate i got a real

estate through a course and you said you

got you got a notary through of course

you kind of took a lot of different

courses i think education is really

powerful because it

it shortcuts your learning curve

yeah you hit the nail on the head like

this i have no problem paying for

courses at all like like me i spent like

i took out student loans but to get a

degree that i have to do absolutely do

not need

like i did not use the degree at all it

wasn't to my benefit at all so and then

still like i said just this new as a

business owner there's new things that's

coming up every day and you have to be

you got to be on you got to be ahead of

the curve because if you're not ahead of

the curve then you're behind and you're

playing catch-up i don't want to be in a

position playing catch up like i want to

be ahead of what's new what can we do to

incorporate this into our business but

how can it be to our benefit so i

absolutely have no problem paying for

courses absolutely no problem with it

and

notary for four years now

2018 that's a long time man

what do you what what stuff you're

trying to get into nowadays like uh to

let mostly pivot but now that you're

you're free for 95

what i noticed for me

is as soon as i quit my job

i saw opportunity

everywhere and i was just like i was

like a lost puppy

and it's crazy it's crazy how it works

though because like when when when you

when you when you're working for your

nine to five you're always like this

they always get your head down they take

your best hours and you're out you don't

see anything because you don't have the

ability to see anything and then once

you like once you're unemployed once

you're unemployed and you're

self-employed it's just like

there's a the floodgates open you know

yeah so

what are some other stuff you're working

on besides notary and like if it's i

know you're like working on education

side to educate that side and like what

stuff you're working on besides that uh

right now we're working on the digital

side of the business uh doing a little

more doing more education doing the

workshops

i haven't been a vending machine

business owner as well so we're working

on getting more locations

my mom is a business partner with me as

well so that helps me from having to do

everything by myself i have a partner in

there that's willing to help me with the

business and help it scale as well so

uh for most for the most part

been the machine business but i've

devote a lot of my attention to the

notary business because i'm trying to

scale this to a point where we can work

internationally

so you can uh there's no owners they

need notaries found in the uk they need

money out in australia i want to get to

a point to where we can operate on the

international level so

i think that's something that no one has

ever done i don't think anyone here in

the states has operated on the

international level so that's something

i'm striving to get to

big goals for the stamp right there

that's awesome

that's awesome man i didn't even think

about notaries

nationwide

or globally i didn't think about that

look at that it's crazy

yeah that's that's the next level for me

so i'm currently in the process of

working on that still got still got ways

to go but

you know because because like i said now

i've been i've been blessed to be an

opportunity i've been blessed to be able

to you know operate in different markets

like i said with the new jerseys texas

nevada all those other states you know i

want to continue to do so but i want

like i want to be able to stretch

overseas and be able to service those

countries as well so

we'll see how it goes

i think i think a lot of people is that

they

they don't think they can they don't

they don't think they can put bigger

goals on themselves because i think

we'll never obtain them

yeah

that's huge man i think that's a huge

goal and i think

now that you know where you're going

okay now you're like okay

it's all about building up people

because you know you want to do this

globally because that's that's huge man

that's like that's a big goal i'm proud

of you that's dope thank you

thank you yes um

you can't do everything by yourself i

struggle with that not a lot of struggle

with that for a long time i try to do

everything by myself and

it's power and collaboration it's tiring

and being able to you know put people

put people in position to win and create

opportunities for other people as well

i've been very blessed to be in a

position to do so it's like all right

now that we've done this how big can we

actually take it you know i got a white

board at home and i wake up to think big

every day like that's really my that's

i'm literally trying to think big as

possible

you just never know i mean why not go

for it i've never been one to turn down

a challenge if i fail at it okay at

least i could say i did it most people

are not willing to even think about it

or even try to pursue after so

uh trying to leave a legacy of where you

know we we're trying to do the

impossible you know so

yeah that's what we're trying to try

that's what we're trying to try to

attain you know get to that get to the

international level we can service the

world service on a global level

servicing servicing the the global level

let's talk about this did you watch

charles's video that he posts about

podcasting

uh nah i think i'm my name you know so

much stuff every day yeah it was wrong

i'll post it and i'll send you a link

but it talks about how they had uh earn

your leisure on and like somebody cut

a bit from here

yeah yeah yeah he said uh they have a

shot on that topic right

yeah he was like that uh he there where

he was saying that we're not uh

influencers were like world leaders i

think he would say something to that

effect

yeah we're global leaders

so i i i love that because it reminds me

what you just said because like i'm

trying to take this global i'm like me

i'm trying to take the hat before they

got my global too so i'm like

and then with the podcast thing where i

told you before we recorded that we're

in ten hundreds of the podcast now and

i'm like

we're reaching the globe at this point

through podcasting through business

through education and it's just

providing the right information and

having a bigger cause than you can even

think of and imagine absolutely

yeah they did that yeah folks they need

property i mean properties are being

sold worldwide so

yeah i mean they might as well you hide

mine you gotta definitely use it because

it's very beneficial why not use it

oh yeah we actually have we actually

have clients in four countries right now

yeah

we're in canada australia and uh we have

a client in africa and the us of course

how does that feel to have that how does

that feel like for you like to know you

have that type of reach

it's

it's it's almost like unbelievable

yeah but it's kind of cool at the same

time because

you realize

you're thinking too small you think you

said it earlier you think i'm too small

and you you can

you can make an internal decision to

change the world in your own way and you

could do it

yeah

and you could do it anybody could do it

yeah that was very possible

it's very positive

you just got to want to do it you know

mostly i don't know if this folks don't

want to they want to try

like what's the word i mean what's the

worst that could happen

you can't like to me like that i'm

really i'm i really do not care about

looking stupid i really do not care

about none of that at all

stupid i don't care about you know

failing anything and it's because i just

failed at a lot of stuff it means if i

fail one time it's not gonna be the

first time so

i'd rather go for it you know i'd rather

go for the win and and

you know let the chest fall where they

may you know because you never know what

happens when you take that risk

i think uh

a lot of people underestimate global

impact

um i had a conversation with the

previous previous guest and i was like

he's like

he's in real estate for like 30 years so

now he's just focusing on building his

brand because he's never it was never

about the money he's made the money he

has the money and it's more about making

an impact

because

and the even in that in the uh eyl clip

is like you don't know the type of

impact you can make just by producing

yeah

it's so crazy

so i commend you for producing i commend

you for having bigger goals

and

i i think a lot of people think too

small and

shout out to the mastermind man

i may have tim jackson on there he was

talking about um like you know being

driven by your purpose

you know i think that was that was

really a message that really resonated

with

you know when uh i think tim jackson was

doing that thing was somebody like two

weeks ago i think he was on on one of

the calls and that really stuck with me

as far as you know having it waking up

with a purpose you know what do you what

why are you doing what you're doing you

know if you keep that in perspective

then that makes sense it makes it real

easy for you to wake up in the morning

and just get to it you

know

all right knowing what you're knowing

that your purpose is

a lot of people struggle with that but

if you know what your purpose is

you you move you move with purpose

yeah

it's no longer like hey let me like let

me stick my foot in this and try this

like no you move with purpose things

things happen in front of you that

wouldn't normally happen because now you

have a purpose and there's a bigger goal

with it so like

like i was talking to tell you like i'm

running out of podcasts to record but i

have a purpose of what i'm doing and i'm

releasing five a week so i'm moving the

purpose um i'm always trying to produce

content i'll move on purpose

i'm not taking that produce

yeah yeah you got to put stuff out there

yeah that's a blade i just been throwing

stuff out there i'm just saying what

stick just produced throw it out there

to the world and like i said i remember

charles saying just i was listening to

tweettalk

and he was saying um he had a quote on

there where he was saying just you know

throw it out there and let the market

determine let the market determine you

know if it's a valuable product or not

because i just struggle with that

initially as far as like i don't know do

i i feel like i'm smart enough to

actually do this when people actually

listen to me

i was like when you bypass all of that

you know especially now i have proof of

concepts in my business like i know this

stuff works so let's throw it out there

let's see how we can help some people

and if they think it's valuable okay if

not we're just gonna put more stuff out

there and see what works so

yeah i'm very big on that just just try

just produce

stop thinking about it just do it

you know a lot of times we're getting

like we get in the way we get in our own

way with overthinking and

caring about other people's opinions and

everything and when you got kids you got

a family you ain't got time to be

thinking about you know you do not have

the time to be thinking about what

people think about what you're doing or

or if they or if you feel like they

think you should be actually doing this

like nah i don't care what y'all got to

say

i know what i'm doing i'm gonna put this

out there i'm gonna let that i never let

the market determine if this is valuable

or not so

yeah for sure

that's awesome man um

what is

what has been like your driving force

right now to keep to keep it and i think

we kind of mentioned this like global

purpose but it's like are you getting

trying to hit like a certain goal of

i'm trying to educate

a thousand people or ten thousand people

in in the notary space to get out of

here to five was there like an internal

goal for that

eternal goal

initially i didn't really have the

eternal goal i just wanted to help

people get into the business because i

see how i was impacting my life and now

i've been able to change you know my

quality of life what i've been able to

do for myself and my family

and i was i think who's i got the idea

from royal

the other day

he had a tweet about selling and

possibly selling his business one day

and that's a thought i never came across

it so now i've been waking up with the

purpose like all right i'm gonna put

this work in i'm gonna educate people

how to get into the business i'm gonna

continue to build this thing up to a

global level

and then i'm gonna sell it

i wanna go this business to a point

where i can sell it you know say i've

helped i helped a thousand people get

into this business i help people start

their notary agencies and i can exit out

and find what's and find what's my next

path and when i need to embark on my

next path or a journey to embark on

interesting

i've uh

i don't know i've never thought about

selling it i've never thought about

selling it

i feel like

it's your baby man

it's your baby

i mean

it's

it's such a difficult topic for me

because i'm like

a lot of it is like

i'd rather i'd rather

outsource and keep then

then sell and walk away from it because

there's so there's a there's like a bond

to it that you

poured so much

so much time and effort and

networks and systems and creating

processes and there's just this there's

there's love in there too

yeah like you can't sell that off

they get i i understand that like i

completely understand what you mean like

especially like bad days where it's been

hard you know you didn't even did put

everything that the blood sweat and

tears literally into the business

you know but at some point you know if

you if you feel like you know if you get

to a point where you've done all that

you can i mean that's like i said it's a

whole world out here there's other

industries other markets have been

untapped that possibly you want to get

into and see what you can do to help

people funnel people into this industry

how you can help build up this industry

as well so that's the beauty of working

in the industry business notary business

for sure because this is still largely

untapped still largely on tap as far as

on the technology level as far as

working on the global level and even

with working at the agency like most

people they get into the business they

think mostly just to do you know work

with real estate documents only

and that was my initial thought when i

first came into the business but i

didn't understand the different niches

and

you know the different ways you can

actually you know build in this business

you know so as largely untapped

like i said once i get to that level

like i said we operate on the global

level

it may be time for me to exit out and

finally find a new journey to embark on

and see what i what i can do to help

other people

all right i think i think i think we

have to have a conversation after

conversation

because

i'm excited man i'm excited for you man

i think i think it's

a big opportunity there's a lot of

opportunity and a lot of people

people are like oh there's too much

competition in this business and i'm

like oh don't get me target on that

there's

no yeah me starting on that competition

thing um

man competition that's the funny thing

because i cuz i always hear folks when

they first get into the industry they're

like oh is it they always ask the

oversaturated

and then here in california i mean here

in california it's over 500 000 realtors

and it's under

i think it's no more than 200 000

realtors no there's no more than 200 000

no there's no more than 188 000 notaries

here in california

and we have i think our population here

was like what over three million or

something like that so

what do you mean over saturation and

you know what do you mean by that when

you say it's oversaturated and you're

dealing with competition like embrace it

embrace it like

people folks like this you gotta you

gotta have this mentality is like it's

enough business for everybody out here

like you gotta really be having an

abundance mentality

it's really enough business for

everybody like no one like i don't care

who it is the top person the top

producing person in the industry they

don't have all this

they're not literally having clients in

eureka and having clients in l.a like

they're not snatching up all the clients

sometimes

folks feel i like that could be fear as

well they be in their own way they think

oh i'm not going to be any business

maybe it's a confidence thing but

anyone listening to this you got to have

a different mentality this really it

really is enough it's for everybody and

and until if you feel like it's you know

it's a way where

you feel like it's oversaturated you

know exercise the business or try to

collaborate with people that's actually

doing well for themselves and see what

they're doing that's helping them in

their businesses

again a lot of times come to people

trying to do this by themselves when

you're trying to do it by yourself

you're gonna run into a lot of heartache

going right into a lot of struggles

collaborate with other notaries as i see

working in the business and see how that

works for you

collaboration

collaboration is it

gets to get into places where you want

to go faster

it took me five years to understand that

it's amazing to understand that so you

imagine all the the struggles

all the heartaches i went through over a

five year period it took me it took me

years to understand that i think imma do

this by myself i don't need no help i

don't need nobody stealing my ideas i

don't know if nobody's feeling my sauce

and i struggled a lot because of that

and thinking like that it wasn't until

that's when i actually started the

agency while i started to say oh this is

what it's like to actually work with

other people

oh i joined the mastermind oh other

people are doing this oh i want to do

what they're doing what are they doing

so i get that maybe that can help me in

my business so

you know the environment is important

you know getting in the right rooms

you know networking connected with the

right people every day

it's i mean that's that type of stuff is

important man

it's key yes i try to do everything by

yourself

collaboration and man

i could talk about collaboration for a

whole hour to provide you know just what

it's done for me and my business

so what's the struggle you had as an

early entrepreneur that some people need

to address like um

is it that like you just just name a

struggle like you struggle with

education struggle with um

following through did you struggle with

like what was something you struggled

with

trusting people uh trust was something i

really struggle with because um

i come from a community where not a lot

of folks trust each other we all get we

always looking at each other with a side

eye very skeptical i'm skeptical about

nature that's just who i am so i

struggle with that i struggle with like

sometimes when somebody said they had

this much success

a lot of times i behaved and i didn't

believe them because i was like well it

didn't work for me why is it if it is

not if any record for me i know they

clearly learned about something so

my thing was really just trusting other

people trusting the information and then

just and just applying it so i went

through a lot of years so it was like

when somebody said this was working i

would try it the first time it didn't

work i'd be like but that that was a

tree what they just told me only still

oh you know why i'm listening to them so

uh you go out to trust you got to trust

people at some point especially in

business because you're going to because

you're going to come across different

types of people every single day

no matter who you are every day

so you gotta learn how to trust people

you gotta learn how to get out you out

of your own way uh guide your own

feelings and yeah you gotta develop

trust you know what i mean if you don't

if you can't learn how to trust people

you should probably just stick to your

job

it's a bar

yeah

that's the trust thing i struggle with

that a lot man just

trusting people trusting the information

that they give me i always have to have

this mentality like i think people were

out to you know get me dissuade me the

wrong way and a lot of times it was a

lot of my struggles was due to my own

doing

you know

i like twitter because there's a lot of

bars on twitter

and it says that

no one wants to no one wants you to win

more than a random stranger on the

internet

right

right especially

and then two when you think about it

what benefit does it serve them to give

you the wrong information and they don't

even know you

what what benefit does it serve them to

give you the wrong information a lot of

time is like twitter man i get a lot of

great information from twitter and it's

helped me in my business whether it's

for email marketing

whether it's um sales whether it's you

know networking

i've gotten a lot of great information

from folks who i actually do not know

i've never seen a video of them i ain't

never heard them talk so the information

that they put out there was very helpful

for me so

yeah just getting over that trust you

know trusting people you know um

yeah just man i could go on about that

yeah the trust factor was really was

something i definitely struggled with

but that's kind of going on

you know you start to build and

cultivate those relationships i'm

starting i'm in a better space now to

where you know i don't struggle with

that as much you know if you give me

some information i think that's helpful

like all right i'm gonna take it and run

with it if it doesn't work the first

time all right maybe just that time that

didn't work let me try it on the next

person to see if that works this time so

when i started to you know continue to

apply the concepts i started i started

to see things turn the corner so

yeah anyone listening to this

uh get over the fear get over the fear

trusting people because you you are

going to trust people especially in

business and then too on top of that

the strangers are going to get you to

where you want to get to in your

business anyway

your cousin's not going to get you

your cousin's not going to help is not

going to support your business right

away your auntie's not going to support

you in business right away if they do

that's cool but

you know more times than that

especially in the black community they

might yeah they they want to see they

want to see how you do first and then

see if it's working for you if i see

it's working then i'll support but

sometimes i got to actually see you put

the work in and actually see you out

there putting up building those

relationships before they actually

support you so

get over that you got the strangers are

gonna get you to where you want to get

um i think it's uh

it's it's an interesting dynamic because

a lot of it's like

family and friends always want to get to

the position where you're at they don't

want to put in the work they want the

shortcut

then i'm like and i'm like dude you got

to go you got to go to basic training

that's where you start you got to punch

the face a couple times you know what it

feels like

yeah you got to you got to deal with all

the the mental battles

i've had many plenty battles with myself

and like doubts my man can't really do

this you know those are real questions

that you gotta ask

y'all look in the mirror you gotta look

up in the mirror every day and tell

yourself look i can do this

i'm gonna push through i'm gonna

persevere and let the chest fall away

they may so

yeah they tend to uh to jump on you know

the bandwagon when they when they see

some traction but by that time i was

like oh

you got to start from the ground level

where i started where i started from

you can't shortcut you can't shortcut

entrepreneurship

unless you're willing to lose a lot of

money

no shortcuts i actually look for a lot

of shortcuts too when i started out

that's right what's this what's the i

think it was a secret formula for why

folks was winning

it's like what's the secret formula what

are they doing did

do they get some some secret funding

from their family to get them to where

they want to get to know a lot of times

discipline and being consistent if you

show up every day it's going to swing in

your favor

showing up every day i think i think the

biggest people that people struggle with

is consistency because

when it comes because

in most people's lives

they're not consistent in anything

yeah

not one thing the only thing your

assistant with is their is their habits

like their bad habits

yeah

yeah definitely the habits is key too

you definitely got to have good habits

it's funny because when i first left the

job

i wasn't accustomed to having that much

freedom

you know i'm so used to you know i go to

sleep at a certain time and i know i got

to be at work at a certain time when i

first started my job i had a whole week

of just just chilling

doing no work

no marketing not doing nothing because i

wasn't used to that type of freedom you

know so that's you know then that's when

you gotta you know incorporate those

habits you know read a book here and

there uh make it make it a point to talk

to five people a day make it a point to

get out of the house like i struggle

with that too like just getting out of

the house because i was like i don't

know what to do

you know i don't know who i need to talk

to is my target marketing anything like

that so a lot of that stuff i struggle

with as far as the habits go but after a

while once you're starting to get into a

rhythm you understand okay this is what

i need to do to get passive success or

just win the day in general

you know you start to see those uh you

start to see your morality kick up a bit

yeah know how to know how to um

you know how to leverage your uh your

time

um you can have that discipline was key

at this point here because i did not

know how to use that all that freak i

was not accustomed to having that much

freedom

i got up until 2018 i always had a job i

always had i always had some some type

of structure to my day and then on the

days off on my days off it was like all

right i just sat around and do much i

didn't do the things i like to do or

like play basketball and go hang out

that was that

you know but you know after getting

punched in a couple of guests again

punching the mouth a couple of times

then you know you ain't making no money

too initially when you first start out

then it's like all right i can't be

sitting up in the house i need to figure

out something

i need to figure something out you know

what is the quote that is yours or

somebody else's that you resonate with

oh what's the quote that i resonate with

uh oh yes uh neil yeah nehemiah

is either gonna work or is it gonna work

say that again mentality i said it's

either gonna work or it's gonna work

oh yeah

there's no it's no plan b man this is

this is what we're doing all right if

you don't if i didn't win the day all

right we're gonna get up again and start

from zero and go for it so

yeah i just i just

i just don't believe in quitting

i've had many days i wanted to quit

i will say that not that many days i was

like all right what am i doing this for

but

i know i just always had this

mentalities like uh even before i got

into business i just can't quit you know

you got people you got to answer to

you know got kids watching you got your

family watching you and i don't want to

have that perception that the mind after

quitter

you know i just want to throw stuff out

there i'm going to just keep trying

trying to mention on my breakthrough so

every day man it's easy going to work or

it's going to work

the work is going to work

um where can people find me online

what's your instagram what's your what's

your facebook group

nothing to hold you

and uh where can they find to learn how

to play a notary

yeah man y'all gotta uh i'm all i'm very

frequent on twitter uh stanford notary

i'm on twitter stanford notary uh i got

two instagram pages you can find me on

rafan yo

r-a-s-a-n-y-o

and then the second page is stamper

notary i'm on tick-tock as well i'm

still working on that that's stamper

digital

uh what else what else oh yeah make sure

if you guys if you're a notary i'm

always looking for new notaries looking

for new ways to create opportunities uh

join the stanford community that's on

facebook and the only thing we ask is

for your phone number your email

whatever you service and then just make

yourself available we have uh have the

finding in your area

uh make sure you join stampin stampin

academy uh that's pretty much my school

academy for where i teach folks how to

get into the notary industry how to

build your business as a notary signing

agent and i also teach also teach how to

start how to start your notary agency as

well so you can join the stampin stampin

academy www.stamperdigital

and yeah come join stephanie academy so

i can help you start your notary

business to help help cut you a check

we appreciate coming on stamp this is a

great episode we hope you inspire a lot

of people to go to the notary and put

their business nine to five

offer that i don't want you to work for

the man unless it's yourself

i appreciate you having me on man it was

a honor

all right man we'll catch you next time