GNW.

Have you ever seen these initials and wonder? Hmm. What is that?

Well, those in the know, recognize it as General Notary Work, meaning everything that is NOT a loan signing job!

Hi, my name is Laura with Coach Me Laura.com, And this is a pet peeve of mine. It doesn't describe at all what you do. It doesn't indicate that you have any special knowledge or training or skill. It doesn't even imply that you travel to their location. It's a terrible misnomer. And I want to change that. Hence my new acronym, SNW, which is Specialty Notary Work. Hmm. I like it! This work is made up of many different niches that require a notary. And just like loan signing work, you will be more competent and more exposed to more opportunities when you invest in understanding these common documents used, and the venues most requested by the public and businesses.

Like any business, I solve problems and I serve a need. People need their documents notarized, but they cannot access the service. For...

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear. The brave person is not he or she who does not feel afraid, but he or she who conquers that fear" that quote was from Nelson Mandela. In other words, do it afraid!

Hi, I'm Laura Biewer with Coach Me Laura. Today, I want to discuss a true person of value the world lost a few months ago, Kobe Bryant. Here's a person who mastered his skills as a basketball player, but he didn't stop with that. He also used his success to help other people and to inspire millions. So I have three questions for you to ponder today.

The first one is, are you doing everything you can to master your skills as a notary? And number two, are there others you can mentor or help? Whether it's as a notary or just to lend a hand to another human being. And three, are you taking steps today to move in the direction of your dream?

Don't wait. We may not have tomorrow. Don't wait to live your dream. Say what you need to say and do what you need to do. It...

Hi, this is Laura with Coach Me Laura and At Your Service Mobile Notary.

Today, let's talk about signatures.

You know, I verify the right person signed the document, but can I even read the signature I'm looking at?

Typically not, and that's okay because their signature does not have to be legible to be their legal signature. I'm verifying their name from the printed name on their ID card. So that's not a problem. However, there can be issues with signatures. So let's take the easiest one, which is that it's not illegible - really it's incomplete, or just a mark of some kind. In this case, this might happen with an older signer or a signer, who's had an accident with their signing hand, or perhaps they're a signer who has a disease state that is preventing them from their finger dexterity to manipulate a pen well. So when that happens, how do you handle that?

It depends on your state, because not all states handle it the same. So there are some states, Kansas, for instance, who...

Hi, this is Laura with Coach Me Laura and At Your Service Mobile Notary.

Today, I'd like to talk to you about background checks.

I'm asked frequently about them. What are they? What are they searching for? Why do I have to have one? I've already had one to become a notary. Why do I need another one? Can I do the work without one? So let's talk about that a little bit.

Did you know that not all states require background checks to even become a notary? Actually not that many states have that requirement. And most of them that have the requirement, they only have to do it one time for the life of the commission. If they have back to back commissions, they could do one for 20 years and never have to submit another one. So now we know that not everybody who gets to become a notary has all the same requirements.

Some have training, some don't, some have testing, some don't. Some have background screens, some don't. So how do we know that we can be trusted to handle the public's...

Hi, this is Laura with Coach Me Laura and At Your Service Mobile Notary.

I have been talking about different things that impact us notaries, particularly during Covid-19. So many instructions have come our way in terms of how we do the dance to maintain social distancing and how we can follow CDC requirements. And some of those instructions have been helpful and have facilitated safe signings and some of them don't really neat notary requirements. So we had to make sure we sifted through those instructions from signing companies or title companies and doing the right thing.

California in particular has been difficult to get through Covid-19 with no emergency order for RON in our state, although many other States have gone that route. But I do have two small pieces of good news and any good news is helpful for us!

The first one is many of you may know that in the state of California, because of the DMV closures, the extension has been granted for 60 days if you're under the...

Hi, this is Laura with Coach Me Laura and At Your Service Mobile Notary.

Today I'd like to talk about one of the basic tenets of notarization, and that's identification of our signer.

Now, during the pandemic, there's a few wrinkles in that plan. So let's just talk about what we mean by "identifying our signer".

Every state charges a notary with accomplishing positive identification, meaning we certify that the right person signed the document. Now, how do we know that they signed the document? Well, we are with the signer either physically or through audio visual communication, and we know it's the right person signing it because they're using some form of satisfactory evidence, meaning that either I know them or I've used some some sort of ID card, typically government issued photo ID, that confirms that's the person standing in front of me.

But what if their satisfactory evidence isn't so satisfactory? There can be a lot of reasons, legitimate reasons, why this happens....

Hi, this is Laura with Coach Me Laura and At Your Service Mobile Notary. Today I just want to remind us of some really important lessons we have regarding our safety.

I just heard that a notary went to an assignment, was progressing through the assignment, only to have it disclosed that one of the signers was positive for Covid-19. Now I don't know about you, but that's a little freaking me out, right? Just thinking about that - where did that go wrong?

The first thing is that when we contact our signers about our appointment, the first thing we need to do is check. We cannot assume somebody else checked, somebody else asked. So it's really important that we ask, 'Have you been ill or anybody in your household been ill in the last 14 days?' 'Have you been in contact with anybody who has been ill in the last 14 days?' Because if the answer is YES to either one of those, now is NOT a good time for you to be going into their environment because it starts with the environment!

...

Hi, this is Laura with Coach Me Laura and At Your Service Mobile Notary.

You know, right now, some of us have a lot of time on our hands, and we're using that time for various activities.

It might be watching movies and binging on seasons, playing video games, doing a lot of social media posting, or we might be working on our business and doing video conference with our families.

But there's one thing that we really should be doing if we haven't already: and that's take care of our own business as notaries!

We are out there taking care of everybody else's business - their important documents. But what about our own?

So there are four important documents that every person should have. These four include a Durable Power of Attorney Financial and Advanced Healthcare Directive, a Last Will and Testament, and if you have real estate think about a Living Trust.

So let's start with what if you get ill, what if you're incapacitated in any way and you need help? You know what? You...

Hi, this is Laura with At Your Service Mobile Notary and Coach Me Laura.

This week, I think it's obvious, we need to talk about COVID-19, and its impact on notaries. There are a lot of headlines out there. First of all, we've got a national bill that's been introduced for minimum Remote Online Notarization (RON) standards across the 50 States, whether or not you have that in your state. Over half of the States have an Emergency Order or Proclamation issued that impacts notaries regarding identification as well as remote online notarization.

Then we have a Federal Department of Homeland security order that defines who are essential services. So we know who's allowed to go out there and do work when we're in a 'shelter in place' environment. Here's the problem with these headlines. There's no details. We need to read the details so I know what's going on in my state, in my county, because it may not be the same as yours!

What I'm seeing is a lot of gaps in the information. I'm seeing...

Hi, this is Laura with At Your Service Mobile Notary and www.CoachMeLaura.com

Today I want to start at the beginning, something that doesn't get explained in great detail when we go through our training to become a notary.

Typically, we recommend when you get your commission packet, just go on down to the County Clerk and get everything taken care of. But there are some things that you need to take care of a little differently considering how things are today.

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What's recommended now is that you mail in your Oath of Office and your bond for filing and the filing fees. Now that isn't gone into much detail because typically we like to just go on down there and take care of everything. But the County Clerk's offices are closed to the public. They may be inside processing mail and recording deeds electronically, but they're not allowing us to come in to take care of our business.

So let's talk about how we get that done and when to start...