Many Notaries ask me how to find a Notary mentor. I used to know people who did teaching and mentoring. But, they are all getting so old. I don’t know who to recommend. There are several issues here.

ISSUES WITH MENTORS

1. If you get a mentor who is near where you live, you represent competition for them. Even if they are the best in the world and you are brand new, you will eventually get better and take some market share from them.

2. If you get a mentor who is far, then how will you ever be able to meet with them?

3. Ideally, you want a mentor who is about an hour away so you are not in direct competition with them.

4. When I call people who are being mentored, whenever I ask about their skill set, they immediately tell me all about what their mentor knows and how great their mentor is. That is all very wonderful if I am going to hire their mentor, but not if I am going to hire the new Notary. Answer questions about you based on you. If you know nothing, be up front about that otherwise you would be a very slippery person who knows nothing vs. an honest straight forward person who knows nothing. People who hire notaries can see through all of this type of BS and none of us have patience for it or like it. Real answers to real questions please.

HOW TO FIND A MENTOR

NNA used to publish a list of mentors. I don’t know if they still know people who do this.

You can call the most experienced notaries on 123notary and see if any of them will help you. You could call local ones, or people far away with high placed listings.

The NNA claims that social media is a good place to find a Notary mentor. Facebook groups, forums, etc. I tend to agree with that idea. However, people who are busy and successful don’t always show their face on social media because they are too busy working so that they can keep being successful. Meanwhile, people who are not at all successful often spend all of their time on social media, sometimes bashing other people who spend their lives being productive (especially in the notary world.) Carmen and I are very familiar with that type of social media user.

Carol Ray knows many people in the business and might be able to help. She runs Notary2Pro which is an agency that trains Notaries.

Asking leaders of notary organizations (other than myself) might be a great idea. I know people who teach or used to teach, but I don’t know if they are mentors. I just emailed a few to ask if they do it or know anyone who does it. But, the various leaders of Notary organizations might know all sorts of people doing all sorts of things and there are many organizations out there.

HOW TO SCRUTINIZE A MENTOR

Not all people are experts at all things and not all experts are available or helpful. So, how do you find a good mentor? You could find someone 1000 miles away who is good at answering questions. But, that doesn’t help when you want to shadow someone. On a brighter note, if someone doesn’t want you shadowing them, they have to tell you to your face as you can’t “shadow ban” someone who is with you in person. You should ideally either have a company who can micromanage you and walk you through your first several signings, or find a local mentor you can tag along with for three to ten signings.

The mentor should know:
1. Local notary laws
2. Signing agent procedure
3. How to handle situations
4. How to explain the documents, initialing, the right to rescind, document recording, and basics about title, escrow, and lending.

Since you presumably don’t know anything about signing work or situations, you can see if that person knows how to be a good notary at a minimum. But, you won’t know if they are a good signing agent since you don’t know what to ask them to verify that information. You can ask questions about various notary signing topics and see how thorough or intelligent the answers are. However if you are at the stage where you are ready for a mentor, YOU need to be an expert at your state notary law yourself. If you are going to use your stamp even once, you could end up in big trouble if you do something wrong — so know your stuff!

It would be a little like me hiring someone to be a rocket scientist — I wouldn’t know what to ask them since I know nothing about rocket science.

IF YOU ARE A MENTOR
If you actually are a mentor and are willing to deal with new people and their insecurities, you can respond to this blog post! Additionally, if you know where to find a mentor, shares your comments as well.

What is Notaritus?
It is a disease that is spread on social media. It is not a disease of the body (pause), but of the mind! Notaries who are poorly trained spread a lot of incorrect information and gossip on Facebook and other online forums. Forums are a great place to share information and experience. But, to share incorrect ideas of how to handle notary situations is just plain dangerous. The problem is that Notaries are addicted to mingling and taking advice from others, so the wrong information spreads from person to person much like a virus.

So, there needs to be a vaccine from this virus, and perhaps information about how to flatten the curve of spreading incorrect information.

1. Stay six feet away from other social media platforms.
2. Wear a mask on your brain when you read notary information published by someone other than your state’s secretary of state.
3. Stay in your basement as much as possible and avoid sunlight, being happy, or going out. Although being happy and getting vitamin D from sunlight strengthens your immune system, we need to keep you afraid so you’ll buy our vaccine, so stay in your basement and remain scared.
4. Wash your brain for at least twenty seconds after every contact with social media.

Then what is the vaccine? Simple. Your state notary division’s website will have correct information about what your state’s notary laws and practices are. Some have newsletters or blogs as well. California has a great handbook and then has a blog of some sort. Not all of the info is in the handbook, so you could lose your commission over vague information in the handbook as to correct journal entry procedure. Wouldn’t it be easier to keep all pertinent information in one place? No! That would be too easy and we can’t have that!

Don’t believe what anyone says about notary law unless they are the Secretary of State’s Notary Division, or someone who is officially designated to teach Notary law. Please keep in mind that 123notary’s notary information is NOT state specific and might not apply to your state and might be outdated. Sorry to downplay our credibility, but I don’t want to mislead the public. Our information is in your best interests, but laws are different in each state and it is hard to keep up with them all.

Come to think of it, I just found out that the Virgin Islands and American Samoa are in the United States. Personally, I think we should sell the Virgin Islands to Al-Qaida, they just love virgins.

So, get the vaccine for Notaritus today, but checking in with your notary division, reading your handbook and going straight to the source for correct information rather than relying on your incompetent friends. When Jesus made reference to the blind leading the blind, he was really talking about Notary Facebook groups, he just didn’t know it at the time.