Originally Posted 5/6/22

My “Day in the Life” is different almost every day. Unlike a 9-5 job, I don’t have a consistent schedule. So every day is somewhat of a surprise for the most part. So, I will take you through my most typical day for today's blog post.

Since my days are subject to change based on appointments that I have already scheduled and appointments that will pop up during the day, what I can have complete control over are my mornings. I have yet to do a signing at 4 am. So my morning routine, which I have written about before here, is very important to me. It's important to balance my day and the success of my day.

4 AM:

That alarm goes off. It has been going off for most mornings, slowly waking me up since 3:30 am. Most people will see that time and think, “Why on Earth would you ever wake up that early?” It's a fair question. However, I do that to take care of myself and the things I need to do before the rest of the world wakes up and needs my attention.

It starts simply with getting out of bed and wearing my workout clothes. Then the normal, first thing in the morning; bathroom things. Brush my teeth and splash some water on my face. I then head to the kitchen, pull my cup of lemon water out of the fridge, and try to drink it all at once. I become especially dehydrated overnight, like most people, which helps my mind and body wake up and get started.

Then the rest of my morning routine kicks into gear. I spend some quiet time with God, work on beating a nasty habit, do some affirmations and visualizations, exercise, read my devotion, and write in my journal. In that time frame, I also review my planner and the tasks and appointments I have lined up for my day. Then, just as my husband and son get up to work out around 5 am, I jump in the shower and start getting ready. When the guys are done working out, I make breakfast, and we all sit together and eat.

That's my morning routine every single day- even on weekends. If I skip that process, it highly impacts the success and completion of my day. So I try very hard to stick to my guns on this one.

7 AM: Work Day Start-Up Ritual

If I don’t have an early morning appointment, then this is when I head to my desk in my home office. I add tasks to my planner, and then I get started on some of my daily work routines. These include my “Daily Dos.” It's a marketing concept created by Bill Soroka. He's a titan, mentor, and friend in our Notary world. Check out his “Daily Dos” as a part of his “Morning Mastery” Course. It's free, and you can sign up here. Also, if you want to check out the interview, Bill did with me, check it out here. I take the “Daily Dos” daily to reach out to my current business network and begin researching and developing future connections and relationships for my business. When I finish my workday start-up ritual, and if I don’t have any appointments, I use this time to work on my social media presence. It could be responding to comments or creating content for my blog and Youtube page. It could be about a dozen different things, but they all work towards promoting my business and creating a network around it.

Today I have 4 appointments. So let's get on the road.

One of the essential steps in my workday shutdown routine is prepping documents the night before. If I have loan signing appointments and the documents have been emailed to me or have to be downloaded, I try to do that the night before. I print, review, prep, and organize all the documents to make my workday more seamless and productive. Provided I have done that and arrangements have been made, if needed, to get my son to or from school, I head out.

I aim to be 5-10 minutes early for every appointment, and it gives me time to find the address (much harder to do at night), review documents if needed, and close up and complete the previous appointment.

Today three of my four appointments are from direct Escrow offices, so my day includes a trip to each office to drop off completed documents. The other appointment is from a signing service, so I must stop at FedEx.

1st Appointment:

This is the seller's document with only one signer. It doesn’t take long to get through, and I found this signer delightful. I rarely have a signer that is miserable and/or difficult to deal with. Not never, just rarely. Forty-five minutes later, I am out the door and on my way to appointment number 2.

It's not often that I have appointments back to back. It's one of the reasons I am seriously considering an office in Fresno. It would make that time between appointments more productive. If I have significant time between appointments, I take this opportunity to do some pop-ins. Pop-ins are just quick visits to potential clients I have been vetting as part of my “Daily Dos.” The term “Pop-in” was shared by Jennifer Neitzel, a Notary industry leader that teaches notaries how to market their business and build strong working relationships. Check her out here. My Pop-in includes a little gift bag I leave for the receptionist and the person I hoped to meet. I keep these in my car. Nothing super fancy.

2nd Appointment:

This appointment has the potential to take the longest. It's a Refinance with four signers. Not every day, but not unheard of either. When I have appointments like this, I build in extra time. I can get through a normal refi in 45 minutes, provided the signers don’t need to read every document. I built an hour and a half to sign with this many signers.

This appointment went smoothly and easily on this day, and I was in and out in an hour. There is another step I take before I drive away from the appointment. As I am sitting in my car and taking one more look at the package to make sure we didn’t miss anything, I work on sending the signers a thank you card. I sometimes handwrite these, but I often use the app SendOutCards. I don’t send thank you cards to ask for more business or even include my business card. I send thank you cards because I am thankful for the opportunity to sign documents with them. They let me, a stranger, into their home. I learned about their family and met their children and pets. Sending thank you cards is something my dad always did. However, Bill Soroka is the mentor for this business who told me about his process and the Sendoutcards app.

I have about two hours between the second and third appointments. These documents need to go to FedEx. So I have a quick trip to my favorite FedEx location and still have time to kill. I like to take these breaks and have lunch with one or more of my notary colleagues. Or my mom or friends. It's a great time to feed into those meaningful relationships.

3rd Appointment:

Another Seller's packet. This is with a couple downsizing their big house to something closer to the beach. What a fun and exciting journey to talk about. This appointment took 30 minutes, and I was in and out. Same steps as the previous, double-check everything and send a card.

I only have thirty minutes between this and my last appointment, so no time filling is necessary. It's getting late into the afternoon, and I need to get all these docs back to the Escrow companies. Thank goodness this last appointment is a loan modification, one signer.

4th Appointment:

If I haven’t told you what I love about my career, meeting so many new and different people is one of the coolest parts. This gentleman is modifying his loan to build a tiny home in the back for his mom. It's an exciting project; he shows me the pad for the future house and all his plans. I love it. The signing took ten minutes; the conversation took 45.

That's that. I am done with the signings. I double-check, send my card, and head to the land of title offices. In Fresno, there is an area where, on every corner, is a title office. It makes dropping off documents pretty easy. I take this opportunity to visit with the reception staff. I may talk to the escrow officer who gave me the order, but it's usually catching up with the front office assistants.

That's it for my workday. I may swing by the grocery store on my way home. When I get home, I try to make it a point to get back to my desk to review my planner, plan a little for the next day, print docs, and then clean my desk. I do like to shut it down and walk away. I put my “business owner” hat away and put back on the hat of being a mom, wife, daughter, and friend.

I hope this post gave you some perspective on what a day in the life looks like for me. There are many excellent links and people to meet in this post, and I hope you will check them all out.

Thank you so much for participating in my journey by reading my blog posts.

Till Next Time,

Jennifer Cooper- JKC Mobile Notary