Brad Makes $1.5 MILLION in a Year! Notary Signing Agent & Signing Service Owner (Maryland)

Can you tell people what you're expected to do in GROSS Signing income 2024.

We are projected to do $1.5 million. If you're someone who is. Is really whether it's upset about your job, you don't want to work anymore, like, whatever it is that drives you every day, and you're like, screw this. I need something better. You can have it. I mean, there's nothing stopping you. No one's holding you.

Another. Where are they now? This time with notary public loan, signing agent, and signing service owner, Brad in the great state of Maryland. How you doing, man?

Good, Mark. Thanks for having me.

You know, this is a. Where are they now? So your interview with me over two years ago, you were making what I think was a pretty astounding number of $17,000 a month. But now with your signing service, can you tell people what you're expected to do in gross revenue, gross signing income.

2024, we are projected to do $1.5 million.

$1.5 million. When I say that back to you, man, or when you say it out loud, like, what are thoughts that come through your mind?

I mean, super grateful. It was actually three years ago that we chatted when I first got in the business, and Covid was killing it. Now, to do potentially million five this year is insane. I look at my whiteboard and it says, I'm going to gross 3 million this year, and I'm not going to come close to that. But it. It's just that putting that big goal up there has helped me push and to realize that I'm already, like, halfway, potentially there is crazy.

Brad just shared that on his vision board. On his board right in front of his computer, where he is right now, he has a goal written of $3 million. And so the reason I share that is because successful people dream big. They think big. They don't let. They're not set by limits. And you may not hit 3 million, but it's that classic adage, if you shoot for the stars, you'll still get the moon, and the moon is still amazing. And so 1.5 million in projected revenue in 2024. I mean, the simple math. And that is 100 to $110,000 a month in revenue. And so you go from $17,000 a month to over $100,000 a month in revenue. And so we're going to unpack his journey over the past three years and see how he got from 17,000 to $100,000 plus. So tell me about the mindset here. Why didn't you quit? Why didn't you throw in the towel? Why did you have a negative mindset? The moment rates went from three to six, because if you remember, it was almost overnight. They went from three and a half to six. It wasn't like this slow movement. So talk about the mindset at that moment and then we'll kind of get up to modern day.

Sure. So, I mean, full disclosure, when that happened, that was March of 22nd, and they started to tick up from 3% aggressively. Thanks, Fed. And I was kind of honestly worried for me because I have a ton of direct clients at the time, my signing service was only 10 months old. So it's still kind of a baby signing service at the time. And I didn't know what the future was going to hold because this was my first down, this was my first gut punch. And like a lot of notary public loan signing agents, in my mind I was probably thinking, oh, I'm just going to keep going up and up and up and up. And reality hits you. You're like, okay, that's not happening. What are we going to pivot and do about it? And so for me, it was okay, I guess I have more time to market more because I was getting less appointments because my clients were slowing down. No refis were happening. So. And that's what I did. So it was really about, okay, I have more time, let's not waste that time. Let's capitalize and do two things, really. One, market more, go wider. Yes. But to develop the relationships and get deeper in the offices, I'm, I'm with because I have more time to get to now, actually go in the offices and chat up my clients and see, you know, what they're doing and build that relationship even more than it had been. Because prior to that, we were so slammed that that wasn't really a luxury we had.

What made you double down versus go out of the business? Right. I mean, for all intent purposes, you had a fairly successful career as a restaurant manager before you came over to the loan signing industry. So why didn't you say, you know what, I'm going to go back to the guaranteed 80, 90, $100,000 a year in the restaurant industry, which you had 20 years of experience, if I remember that conversation correctly.

Yeah.

Why didn't you kind of flee, but instead do what you just said? What was the mindset behind that?

Well, I was definitely not ever going back. And that's because this is my first really successful business and I had already been working for Myself for I guess a year and a half at this point. And the reason is because the same thing we talked about three years ago, like there is no plan B. My back's against the wall. Like my family is depending on my, my efforts and what I'm bringing to the table. And that's not ever going to drop off. The effort will never drop off. If anything it's going to increase because my kids deserve the best, you know, dad they can have. And that means that I had to bust my butt when it's time to bust my butt. And that's what I did, you know. Yes, people were quitting. That's nice. Just like people got out of real estate when I was starting to buy investment property. Same thing. Like I don't really care about that. I'm caring about my effort. And there's so many quotes about, you know, it's time to be greedy when others are feel fearful. And the reverse, like that's it, like there's opportunity there. If you get past that first initial fear that I had. And I, and I knew that and I recognize that for okay, this is what everyone else would be doing, which is quitting, right? So don't do what everyone else is doing and you'll make a lot of money. And that's all I did was okay. Now I have to bust it harder because my family deserves the best I can give them. And it's not going to be because of my lack of effort ever.

There was going to be no plan B. And what I also heard was my, my children, my family deserve more. Brad is also the amazing ambassador of the DMV as a loan signing system ambassador. And every year we have ambassador retreats and the year right after Covid, you know, I said, hey, you know, come out to San Diego for the ambassador retreat. And he said, mark, you know, my business isn't where it used to be, but I need to double down. And that was the moment I knew that you were cut. I knew you can get where you are today because you didn't play victim to the market that moment. I knew as your mentor that you're going to build a million dollar business because you prioritize staying in the dmv, building your business versus coming out to the retreat and doing what you had to do by keeping your head down. And again, I think sometimes people see, you know, signing service owners like you who have this massive success but don't see the valleys. And you had about, I remember talking to you, you're very down and you're like, mark, my numbers aren't there. I can't come out. And. But I'm going to stay here, and I'm going to keep building. I remember talking to you about, like, you had a little bit of shiny object syndrome. And I'm like, you just got to focus. And it was that moment where everything clicked for you. And now you're one of the most successful students we have. And. And that's the story I want people to hear. People think it's always just this upward trajectory. Always, oh, we start off at $17,000. No, there was a moment where you. You kind of hit bottom and you made a decision. I'm not going back. There's no plan B. Talk more about that. If you could.

I would never go back to the restaurant world. I just can't. Like I said, I've been. I've escaped the matrix. Thank you for helping me do that, Mark. But now that I've escaped, I can see all the potential and the upside there is when we work for ourselves. And there's. There's always a limit when you're working for someone else, building someone else's dream. So there was no way in the world you were going to put me back in that prison. I would do whatever I had to do to build the business back to where it needed to be to take care of my family, period. Like, that's it. Like, I can't disappoint them. I can't disappoint myself. I was in my 20s, writing goals, saying I would be retired by 45. And the kind of weird thing is I'm kind of retired now, and I'm 42, but that was where I was three years ago. It was like, okay, buddy, you need to buckle down and stop coasting and get your butt in gear like you did when you first started. And like you said, there's tons of valleys. Complacency is the enemy of success because once you get to this next peak, you kind of have this human urge to coast and live in your comfort zone. And the problem is you have to constantly fight that over and over again because it's just. That's the theme of success. So I guess the more I fight it, the more I recognize it, but know I didn't recognize it at the time. And. And. But to answer your question, there's no way I was going to go back because my. My family deserved the best, and. And I would never quit on that. I'm not going to quit on myself. And. And I have to keep building and there is no other option, period. As soon as I let some other option creep in my brain, it's over. So it is. We are going to put our head down and keep building and find out there's a wall, get over it, there's a wall. Knock, knock down the wall, get around it, whatever you got to do.

I the reason I bring you guys back on and say you guys, as you know, the successful signing agents is you just got a glimpse into the mindset of someone who is going to be a seven figure earner in the notary industry. The success of my business is not determined on the rates of the market but of my effort. I'm putting in 100.

And the reason that is so empowering to say is because when you blame your success on anything else other than the person in the mirror and what's in between your ears, you give power to other people. You put yourself in your own mental prison, you put self limiting beliefs and thoughts and actions and you basically pigeonhole yourself versus when you put it all on yourself. It's a double edged sword. It's the positive is no one can stop you but yourself. And the negative is okay, no one else is going to motivate me but myself, but either way it's up to me. And as soon as you really fully realize that, which took me 38 years to lead the restaurant industry to realize that, you know that you are your own salvation. But it's not gonna be easy. But I mean there's nothing stopping you. No one's holding you back but you.

I mean, I love this. I, I hope everyone watches this a couple times because you're saying so many good things. You sound like someone who's an avid reader, someone who believes that learning is a journey, not a destination. You're getting into the mind of a successful person. Complacency is the enemy of success. Like you're someone who lives and breathes reading and expanding, growing. And that's what I want everybody here. You're not at a million dollar producer on accident. There's a lot of effort that people don't see that I'm trying to bring out of the woodworks. So they really get that this is not an accidental success. Speaking of non accidental Success, last year, 2023, what was your revenue in 2023 for your signing service?

Signing service was about 563,000.

So you did $563,000 last year when interest rates touched 8% for about a month. So interest rates were all between 6 and 8% in 2023. And you're doing half a million dollars for a notary public loan. Signing agent. Who says it's slow? Brad, what would you say to that? Signing agent?

Oh man, a lot of things in this very short amount of time we have. I would say first off, get all the negativity that, that is causing you to think about that out of your life. First off, you're being poisoned by something. And if you're in a Facebook group or you're around friends that are negative and that are doubters and haters, just cut those out of your life, number one, because those voices usually don't spring up out of nowhere. And two, again, as you said, our revenue we did, I don't know, 5% of that was refis. That's a ton of transactions and opportunities for folks without refi business. And it's really just based on your effort. You know, saying it's slow again is just giving power, using words to give power to blame your lack of success, your lack of effort, your lack of hustle, your lack of, of discipline on somebody else instead of just looking in the mirror and saying, okay, why is it slow for me? Is it slow for me? Because. And I'll steal what you always tell me, which is, okay, how many open houses, how many title offices, how many networking events did I go to in the last 30 days? And if it's not a really big freaking number on all those things, the only person to blame is you. Again, like I didn't go from 563 to 1.5. It's not like I marketed an absurd amount. I mean I healthy amount. But a lot of it is referral business. A lot of it is all the seeds I planted are starting to sprout. And that's the problem is like we said, no sees all the valleys and everything that leads up to the success. It's a lot of walking into offices and getting, you know, no non committal answers necessarily. Nos we not right now. But it, it's also me following up every week for four years in a row closes a lot of people. So if you say it's slow, first off, get the negativity, negativity out of your mind. And second off, you know, be around positive people is the next thing I would say. But lastly, you got to get real with yourself. Like you can ask for help, you can ask for mentorship and mentorship is important to buy someone else's time and to learn from other people. But ultimately you still have to motivate you and you have to find out deep in here, like what is it that is really driving you to really want to succeed in this business? Because when you're having that doubt, that's where you have to go. You have to go to that well of like, okay, why am I doing this? What do I want to accomplish? Who am I doing this for? And find those powerful, your bag of whys and really go to that, that well to push yourself. Because all you are saying when it's slow is I am not going to bust my butt and hustle. That's it.

You said something in there that I think I want to pull out though. You said, if I remember correctly, 30 seconds ago you said you marketed the same person for four years. Like it is, that is what I want people to hear. They see these signing service owners making a million dollars or you know, $500,000 and like, oh, they're better than me. No, they're just more committed than you. The same client for four years before they said yes. How many stories do you have like that of clients that took three, six, nine a year, nine months a year. Like of your clients you have how many. What's the percentage where you just had a lean on, on follow ups and lean on. That's over, let's say three or four months.

Over three or four months, probably at least 50% the touch points you need for someone to try your service. It's the same thing. It's establishing the relationship and that takes time. And if you go in it from a long term perspective, hey, I'm going to be doing this business for at least the next five, 10 years, then ultimately you would have to commit to being following up every single week. And if you do that, well, let's see. If I followed up every week for three years, that's 150 some touch points. If I did nothing else, not counting social media, text, dm, walking back in the office, networking events, referrals, nothing else. So yeah, if you take a long term perspective, yeah that's, that's very normal in this business. It just takes time.

Let's unpack that. Hope everybody has heard this. So if you take a long term perspective, meaning like, like when you become a notary public loan signing agent, you knew this, you were in it for the long haul. So marketing for a year really isn't that long. If you have a five, ten year projection, you're like, that's only 20% of the time that I'm, I'm figuring over a five year span. And again the reason I Do where are they now is so you can see the mindset. A lot of notary public loan signing agents come in and they see like six months as a long time. You're like, look, this is a 5, 10 year game plan here. So if it's a 5 year roadmap, a year of Mark into the same client really isn't that long. And that's the frame of mind I want everybody to hear. It's like you put a perspective like I'm be here for five years, a year is not a big deal. And frankly, if I'm going to be here for five years, four years isn't that big of a deal. And if you even push your timeline out to 10 years or mark into the same person for four years, all of a sudden is literally a drop in the bucket. And so you said it so quickly that I want everyone to hear what he said there. He saw this business as a long term business, not something that's fly by night. So therefore he was willing to put in the investment. And I think that's the reframe a lot of notary public loan signing agents need to have. They see it like the end goal, I'm gonna be in business for the a year. So then marketing to the same person for a year is the life of your expectation. But when you have five years, a year is not long to market somebody. And I hope everybody picked up on that. Let me ask you a question, kind of switching gears. You've been in the business four or five years now, helping a newer notary public loan signing agent, right now, you know, if you were going to talk to young signing agent Brad, you know, what advice would you give young signing age Brad that you wish you kind of would have glommed onto earlier so you could have got to this moment of your career even sooner. What would those things be to help you excel, accelerate this, this, this, this timeline you've created.

So if I could boil it down to one key knowledge I would love to share with the younger me is to take the one step back, to move two steps forward. Because I've, you know, I've had to run into that a couple times. So, you know, as a new notary public loan signing agent, you're working with a lot of notary public loan signing services. But in order to get direct business, you have to have time to market, which means you have to say no to those opportunities. From signing services to calendar, schedule yourself to market. And then once you are an intermediate notary public loan signing agent, you have those direct title clients a handful. Then if you want to go all direct, same thing, you got to say no to the signing services and go all direct. But you have to say no to those opportunities.

What you're really saying is you wish you would have got out of a scarcity mindset earlier. Because sometimes you take signings not thinking there's going to be more signings. You almost take the business out of this fear. If I don't take this, there's no way I'm going to have more money in the future. But what you're really saying, what you tell young Brad is like, I got to get out of a scarcity mindset to get into abundance mindset. Meaning even though I turn down two or three signings a week, I know my efforts will equal five future signings. And that's hard to tell anybody, you know, and that's why I love you sharing that. Because nobody in the moment feels like, oh, if I miss three signings, I'm going to earn 10 more. They're like, that's $300 out of my revenue stream versus like man, I can lose $300, but I could be gaining a potential thousand or 1500 percent.

Yeah, I agree. I never label it as scarcity. Even though you're 100. Correct. Because you know that requires me being hard on myself. But it's, it's true when you frame it like that. That's why I have you. Because everyone should have a mentor that can kick their butt. That's where you would like to be. And that's why I value the heck out of this relationship we have. Because every time I don't think I need to kick in the butt, I get a kick in the butt from Mark. And it's true at every level. And I was, and I met with Molina at last year's conference when mayor and she runs a seven figure signing service. And I said, hey, what are you doing on a week to week basis? And the main difference was that she doesn't do signings for anyone. She just markets her signing service. In other words, she is laser focused. And she said please stop doing signings and also doing a signing service from that point that was end of July, so August of last year until now. Fast forward seven months. We've grown from where we were probably doing about 40,000amonth to over 100,000amonth now because I had that opportunity to work laser focused. And that's what I would tell myself is don't have that scarcity mindset and also get Laser focused on what it is you want. And it took me years to realize that I can't scale myself. I'm one person. So I need a team to help me do it. A team of notaries, a team of schedulers, a team of great people around me. And that's some lessons I've learned. And I'll continue to learn more as we, as we go on, I'm sure.

Brad, again, you, I'm so proud of you, man. I hope I say that enough. Dude, like a seven figure earner. That's insane. What I heard, and I think this is relatable, is almost sometimes it's not only a scarcity mindset, it's a little insecurity in your belief you can actually get where you want to go. And so by saying, by, by, by saying I'm not doing any more signings, you really have to double down that I have the ability to go market and earn more than I'm losing. So there has to be a real self belief that like, okay, I can actually do this. And I see that I'm secure enough and I believe in myself enough to execute. And the reason I share that, Brad, is not to call you out is to give other people to know they're not alone if they feel insecure, if they feel like, you know, like even the biggest earners also have these moments of like, man, can I take this next step? Thank you for being so vulnerable because I think everyone needs to hear that, you know, successful notary public loan signing agents have the same battles. They do, but the difference is they don't succumb to it. They move through it and they double down on it. And, and that's what I think you're a picture of. Did I miss anything in that?

No, 100%. And, and to address what you're saying about insecurities, I mean, I have insecurities every day. I mean I fight today, this week. I fight insecurities about, you know, can I pick up the phone and cold call 20 title offices? And most of my brain is saying, no, you suck, you can't do it. And I won't get in my comfort zone of just walking into title offices. But the problem is I've walked into over 200 title offices in the DMV. I can't do that anymore. I have to call people I don't know. So every day I fight insecurities. We all do at every level. And you just have to, like you said, Jedi mind, trick yourself and get pumped up and think about your whys and like, why am I growing this? Why am I going through this uncomfortable part of the day? I don't want to do. It's because I want more for my family, I want more for me and I want more of a legacy and I want and more of an impact for everyone. My team, my clients, my notaries. So again, we all deal with those insecurities 100%. I would never brush that under the rug. It just usually never comes up in a meeting. It's 100% fact and reality that we deal with every day.

How many title companies have you marketed in the DMV? Say that again.

At least over 250, I think between Northern Virginia, D.C. and Maryland. That's not even counting. Like 90% of Virginia haven't even gotten to yet.

This is why you make seven figures. If you're watching this right now, you're like, well, how come I can't make more than $5,000 a month? Well, it's because you've been to three title companies. That's the answer like Brad isn't better than you. Successful notary public loan signing agents just tend to be more committed and the commitment is doing it scared. Doing a Jedi trick to use your word, you know, to move through that insecurity and picking up the phone and 250 different title companies. And if you're watching this right now and you've only been to seven, well, maybe that's why you haven't broken six figures or $10,000 a month. Now you realize I've hit every title company in the DMV area, you know, and for people who don't know, that's dc, Maryland and Virginia. And so now I gotta start cold calling out of my state because now you're like, look, if I want to grow my business, I gotta start getting business in New York and Florida and Texas, whatever insert, any state you want. But again, I want everybody here. This is the mindset signing service owners of your size. It is not accident. This is the efforts I like in these videos to show it's not an accident you are here. 250 title companies you walked into personally and now you're cold calling out of state title companies. Effort, equal signings. And Brad, you are the epitome of that man. Thank you. How good do you feel that your efforts help someone else put food on the table for their family?

You know, full disclosure, I don't, I don't take enough time in my day to for gratitude as I should and most people should. I used to And I need to get back to it because Tony Robbins is big on it. The impact, if I really think about it, and I'm not going to cry on camera, I'll let Mark handle that. But yeah, so it's great. I'm grateful to have that impact on notaries that we do business with every day, literally hundreds a month. And, and the same thing with our team. And you know, I'll give you two examples. I used to work in the restaurant industry with Lauren and Candy. There were restaurant managers right next to me on my team and then I left to do this and I was able to bring them on board and now they have amazing quality of life with Lauren's a single mom of two kids. Candy's amazing as well. The most positive person on the planet. 11 out of 10 in positivity. But that impact alone, I get see that on a daily basis. Like, I don't think about it, but they, they could be working 60 hours in a restaurant grinding or the notaries that we're able to help every month, especially the DMV that I get to see at our meetups, like, I don't take a second to think about it. But there is so much impact that we make and it, it's incredible that I can help people like quit their jobs and have side income and pay off debt and go vacations and like whatever and have, have margins in their life. And that is an incredible feeling. And we're just grateful for, for them looking out for our clients and, and I'm grateful to be able to have that kind of impact.

You deserve to be applied at all signing service owners do. And so I just want to make sure you took a moment to get some that kudos that you deserve. All signing service owners deserve. It took massive effort to get to $17,000 a month three years ago and I did that interview. But it took even more effort here. And to me, the theme of the conversation, Brad, is your effort equals your signings to inspire another notary to go out and build their business and, and through with the experience that you've had, what do you want to leave them with?

Look, whoever is listening to this and is on the fence about can they really crush it in this business? I always say the same thing. It's you can. If you get really drilled in on your whys, what is really pushing you? It's hard to get below this surface level of like what is really pushing me. And when I really get raw and emotional about it, if you could do the same thing for me it's about leaving a legacy for my kids and them having a better childhood than I did growing up. Because I didn't grow up with a lot of margin, A lot of vacations, a lot of, a lot of things that I wanted as a kid. We weren't terrible, but I wanted, you know, more for my kids than I had for mine. And that's one of the massive whys. I also want to see how big I can get. And whatever it is for you, you have to figure out like what is your challenge, what are you looking to accomplish and what do you really want? Like just write it out. What are your big goals? Don't put realistic things on it. Just write out your freaking goals that you really would want and be like, yes, realize you can have those things if you put in the effort. And we're not talking a lot of time. I mean my first signing was October of 2020, so I always round up. It's really three and a half years in at this point. There's not a lot of time if you can commit to being consistent every single week and realizing it's a long game. If you had told me three and a half years ago when I first started this business and I did my first signing for a hundred dollar refi that I would be a seven figure business owner, I've been like, you're out of your freaking mind. That's not possible because I have this limiting belief of like I didn't even enter my, my thought pattern. I was just like, can I not work at restaurants? And if you're someone who is just really, whether it's upset about your job, you don't want to work anymore, like whatever it is that drives you every day and you're like, screw this, I need something better. You can have it, but it requires you busting your butt and you will get knocked down. That's part of being a business owner. But as long as you will always have that mindset going in of like whatever comes up, I'm going to find a way around it. Over it or through it, you will crush it. And lastly, I will definitely say get a freaking mentor. It doesn't have to be Mark, doesn't have to be me, but get someone who is where you want to be. So if you want to be six figure notary public loan signing agent with time, freedom to do whatever you want with your family, then find someone hopefully close to you that has that and add value to them and try to get as much information, information out of them as you can but really, if you want the life hack, it's just take Mark's course. And if you're in the dmv, hit me up because I give nothing but advice. I wish everyone would take it, but I get plenty of advice. Like Mark says, like we all have the same course, but what we do with it is just based on our own effort, like how much we want to escape where we're going from. So as a new notary public loan signing agent or notary public loan signing agent struggling, just revisit your whys. Why are you doing this? Think about your big goals and then just commit to busting your butt. And when you're at a wall you can't get through, just reach out to someone positive that can help you through it. Because we love mentoring other people that have that same hunger we have because we recognize it. It's like that eye of the tiger. We all know people that have it that are hungry and not making excuses. They're just going to do what it takes. We love mentoring those people because we know they'll actually do what we ask them to do and put it and implement it. So we're happy to do it. So just reach out. It's okay, we encourage it. Please.

Do I hear a student or a human who went from surviving to thriving when you were in your restaurant years, it was just a battle of survival, trying to do the best, you know, I can, feed my family, do the best I can. And, and it wasn't really thriving. And it's really cool man to see you go from surviving to now uber thriving. And it's really cool that this business can help you go from surviving to thriving in four years. Like I don't know what other industry you can go from zero to a million dollar business in three and a half years. Like that is insane. And I hope everyone's inspired this conversation because where he is now, he is a seven figure earner, gross revenue and that is incredible to do in three and a half years. So Brad, man, thank you for taking the time to inspire. If you're in the dmv, make sure you, you talk to Brad and get some of his coaching because you know the loan signing system ethos is a rising tide, can lift all ships. And we don't believe in saturation. We don't believe in not giving away the secrets. We believe there's room for all of us at top because business is not not a zero sum game. So B, appreciate your dog. Love you man. And thank you for this conversation always.

I'M always here for you, Mark. I appreciate you having me on to inspire, and I'm looking forward to that next on the road. Where are they now? In a few more years.