The $50 Notary and the $200 Notary Work the Same Hours

How many signings did you do last month? The better question: what were they worth?

I talk to notaries every week who are flat out exhausted. They drive 40 minutes each way for a $60 loan signing. They grab every assignment that pings their phone because they're scared the next one won't come. They work more hours every month, and somehow the bank account doesn't move.

If that sounds familiar, stay with me. There's a different way to think about this business.

##The marketplace doesn't pay for your time

Jim Rohn is one of my favorite business philosophers, and he cut right through this. Most of us measure income by the hour: how much per hour, how many hours can I squeeze in. Jim's view was that the marketplace doesn't care how long you were there. It cares what you brought.

He pointed out that two people can hold the same job in the same building for the same hours and end up with completely different lifetime earnings. The clock isn't the difference. The person is.

Jim found that freeing, and so do I. Hours run out. There are only so many in a day. Value has no ceiling except the one you set.

So why are you getting $50 signings?

I'm asking this without judgment, but I am asking it.

If the offers coming in are $50 and $60, the market is telling you how it sees you right now: interchangeable, one name on a signing service list of hundreds, where the cheapest yes wins the job.

That isn't a character flaw. It's a positioning problem, and you can change your positioning.

So stop asking, "How do I get more of these?" Ask Jim's question instead: what kind of notary do I need to become to attract the $150 to $200 appointment?

##What the $150 to $200 notary brings

In more than 20 years and 35,000 notarizations, I've watched the higher paid notaries do three things differently.

They build relationships for direct work. They aren't waiting on an app. They know the estate planning attorneys, hospice social workers, financial advisors, escrow officers, and senior living directors in their area. When those people have a signing, they call one name. Direct clients pay for trust and reliability, not just a stamp.

They add adjacent lines of revenue. Every appointment can solve more than one problem: apostille facilitation, live scan fingerprinting once you're certified. Each service you add gives a client one more reason to call you instead of the next name on the list.

They know the documents: trusts, powers of attorney, advance health care directives, and hospital bedside signings. These assignments need a notary who knows what they're looking at, stays calm with a fragile signer, and doesn't freeze when a family member hovers. You never give legal advice. You bring competence, and competence commands a different fee.

Some of this is skills you already have but haven't marketed. Some of it takes new education. Both count.

##The old path won't get you somewhere new

Keep doing what you've always done, and you'll keep earning what you've always earned. Taking every $50 signing to stay busy isn't a strategy. It's a treadmill, and every hour on that treadmill is an hour you didn't spend becoming more valuable.

I learned this in 2008. The crash gutted loan work, and after four years as a working notary, I had a choice: wait for the old business to come back, or become the notary for what came next. I started doing trust signings. That decision shaped the next 18 years of my career.

Jim's challenge was simple. Pick one skill, one area of knowledge, or one quality of character that would make you more valuable to the people you serve. Then give it 30 minutes today.

Here's the notary version. Pick one:

List five local professionals who serve the clients you want, and reach out to one of them.

Look up what it takes to offer apostille facilitation or live scan in your state.

Walk through a sample trust signing package, page by page, until you can explain what each document is for.

Rewrite your bio to say what problems you solve, not just that you hold a commission.

Not next quarter. Today.

The $200 appointment isn't looking for a notary who works more hours. It's looking for the notary you're about to become.

##Ready to become that notary?

If trust work is where you want to grow, that's exactly why Jen Neitzel and I built the Certified Notary Trust Delivery Agent (CNTDA) program. It's for loan signing agents who want steady trust business that holds up when loan volume swings.

You'll learn to handle trust deliveries with confidence and build relationships with attorneys, legal document assistants and financial professionals who send repeat work your way. You become the outside notary with insider knowledge, and that's the notary who can earn the $150 to $200 appointment.

Watch the free on demand CNTDA video at coachmelaura.com/cntda. Make it your 30 minutes today.