Before the World Says No, Don’t Say It to Yourself

“It’s not my job to tell myself no. The world will offer plenty of obstacles. I don’t need to add to them. My mind is my friend. I am my own biggest believer.”
— James Clear

If you run a notary business long enough, you’ll hear the word “no” in a hundred different forms.

“No thanks, we already have a notary.”

“We’re good for now.”

“That fee is too high.”

“We found someone cheaper.”

“We need someone available sooner.”

Sometimes the “no” isn’t spoken directly. It shows up as silence after an email, an unanswered phone call, or a social media post that barely gets noticed.

For many notaries, especially newer ones, these moments begin to chip away at confidence. The temptation becomes shrinking back before anyone else has the chance to reject us. We stop introducing ourselves to businesses. We hesitate to post online. We decide in advance that someone probably won’t hire us anyway.

That is where James Clear’s quote becomes powerfu...

“How did you go from corporate… to managing an assisted living facility… to becoming an executive director for a synagogue… to building a notary business… to teaching, speaking at national conferences, and writing two books?”

People ask me this constantly. My answer is simple:

I reserved the right to keep inventing myself. 

Not once. Not twice. But over and over again.

And here’s the part most people miss: each version of me didn’t replace the last one. It was built on it.

The Thread That Never Broke

If you looked at my résumé, you’d see completely different roles. Different industries. Different responsibilities.

But I never experienced it that way.

There has always been a connecting thread running through everything I’ve done:

Service.

Whether I was in a corporate setting, caring for seniors, supporting a faith-based community, or guiding notaries in their businesses, I was serving people.

That throughline became my compass. Not the job title. Not the paycheck. Not even th...