Notary Makes $15,000 in 3 Months After Homelessness and Addiction | Colorado Signing Agent

What are you on track to close in your third month of being a notary public loan signing agent?

Right now I'm looking to close around 8,000, maybe hit eight and a half. I was like, I something has to change or else I'm gonna die in Austin, Texas. Which is also why I'm so happy to be here because I am here right now.

Another on the road notary public loan signing agent, Nick, and out in the great state of Colorado. How you doing today, man?

I'm doing great. How are you, Mark?

Dude, your story is crazy inspiring. You've only been a notary public loan signing agent for three months. What are you on track to close in the month of April, in your third month of being a notary public loan signing agent?

Right now I'm looking to close around 8,000, maybe hit eight and a half.

8,000. We're three weeks into the month of April. How much have you done three weeks in the month of April?

5,500.

So you've already made $5,000 this month. And this is only the third month in your business before we tell people about your crazy work ethic and your crazy scaling so quick. Your story within itself is super inspirational. That's really another main reason I wanted to bring you on. And so, you know, there was a moment in your life where you made a decision. I got to stop doing what I'm doing. I'm going to be a notary public loan signing agent three months ago. But let's take people back, man, because I want to show people that you can get through what you've been through in your life, man. You're crazy inspirational that anyone can build this business. So, you know, take us back and I'll let you share whatever you feel vulnerable enough sharing today.

Awesome. Thanks, Mark, so much. I'm so glad to be here. Just hoping my story is going to help inspire people because somebody else did it for me, you know. But, you know, I started struggling with addiction at a young age, about 13, 14 years old. It progressed throughout my life and through traumatic events and other circumstances. Eventually it led to a point where I was homeless for multiple years. I was never felt fulfilled. I was depressed and just in a really bad place. And it wasn't until I finally said, enough is enough. That's when I decided that I was going to move away from Austin and start a brand new journey in Colorado. And that's happening here today.

First, thank you for being vulnerable to share that you've been battling an addiction. You know, it's something that you probably battle every day to get through. And, and I'm sure there are people watching this who are on the same journey as you because you said it so nonchalantly as if there wasn't so many valleys. If Nick can build this business through what he's been through, like anyone could build this business. So talk about the struggle. You know, you said you left a rehab facility and talk through just some of those dark moments. And again, to show people that they're not alone, if they have the same ones.

Yeah, definitely. So when I was, when I was younger, I didn't quite understand what drug addiction was. And I don't think my parents or my friends did either. You know, we just thought that there was something wrong with me. And, you know, that's what I had always thought too. And I remember at the age of, you know, my, my friends who, like my older adult friends who I knew, you know, they would talk about how they partied when they were younger. Right. But they had successful jobs, they had families, they had car, you know what I mean? They seemed happy. And so I was like, oh, it's just a face, you know, I'll just grow up and it'll go away. And that wasn't the case. And, you know, it got to the point where I believed the delusions that I was telling myself that everything's just going to change one day. And that is a delusion that is perpetuated throughout my cycles of either getting sober or relapsing and going back into treatment. Getting sober. Right. And it is, you know, sobriety isn't linear. It goes up and down. And, and both of those. I like to say that if I'm not moving forward, I'm moving backward. And so what can be challenging about addiction specifically is that it's a, it's a disease of the mind. And so it not only, you know, do you stop taking the drugs and alcohol, Right. But then you get to find out who you truly are as an individual. That's where the real work is. And it's, you know, yes, the substances are, you know, addictive and the, the disease is, is, you know, perpetuates in the mind. But I don't think I was, you know, at a young age, I suffered from strokes and open heart surgery. At age of, age of 20 years old, I was an IV addict. And luckily I've been, I haven't, I haven't used a needle in over 10 years now. So I'm very proud of that. And due to my, let's just say Unhealthy living habits. I got a staph infection from a dirty needle. It went straight to my heart. I had, I had a staff. It was called, yeah, staph infection to the heart. I had four strokes. Lost the ability to read, write, walk, talk and move and had my first open heart surgery. I always like to, I always like to joke around a little bit, but they were going to go with a pig heart for me, but my heart was too big, so they had to go with a cow.

You've been through journey, but man, I mean, we communicate throughout the Facebook group, but this is the first time we really communicate face to face. And your spirit and is just. It's so beautiful, dude. Like your smile and your energy and you could have easily been, you know, defeated by this. But I just have to say, man, like your energy and your spirit, it comes through this video and I'm sure other people will feel it. Like you're just giddy and you're happy and it's a beautiful thing to watch. It's inspiring to see how you've, you're on the other, other side. You know, the other side's still going to take work, but it hasn't crushed who you are. And I think that's beautiful, dude. Is there anything else that you want to share that you think is, is something that might inspire somebody not to give up and keep on going?

About seven years ago, I had a really big relapse and I did start touching the hard drugs again. And it was back to that delusion that I thought that, oh, I can just do it one time, you know, and that one time turned into three years. And that three years turned into the, the darkest place I've ever been to in my life. I, the only person I spoke to was my drug dealer. I, I lived in my car or on people's couches. I was in psych wards, I was going to treatment centers and within a two year cycle, I went to 12 of them. You know, and the only reason I even bring up that number is because I will not give up. It doesn't matter how many times you go to treatment. It doesn't matter how many times you relapse, right? What matter? I mean it really. The drive to want to get better and to, to, to, to fight your disease and to, and not even fight your disease. I think part is like accepting it for what it is and not fighting it, but instead using that perceptive change to get better. And you. I did that through the help of my therapist, through medications, through Positive support groups through my hobbies, you know, getting back into writing music. And then. Which eventually led into me wanting to help other people again. And so after three years of in and out of treatment centers, in and out of psych wards, homeless, poor all the time, you know, losing massive amounts of weight, and my second open heart surgery at the age of 30, wow. I was like, I. Something has to change or else I'm going to die in Austin, Texas. And that's not me, like, overshadowing. That's. That's, like, me doctors telling me, like, dude, if you don't knock it off, you're. You're. We don't even know how you're here right now. Which is also why I'm so happy to be here, because I am here right now. Yeah.

Being inspiration, brother. Like, all I can say, like, I found myself getting a little emotional because, I mean, as someone who has his own journey, mental health journey, like, I know how tough, tough it is. And so the way that you have this spirit about you, about not giving up in this. In this unbelievable spirit of wanting to give back and help other humans, like, just. It's an honor to know you, man. It's an honor to be on this journey. You are literally just starting this journey. If there's somebody else going through their moment right now, what their version of a dark time, what would you say to them to inspire them to keep going and keep getting through?

I think the beautiful thing of life is that it is constantly changing. And while that can be fearful for many people, including myself, that also gives me a lot of inspiration, knowing that change is always possible. And I'll be real with you. If you think you can do it alone, that's the mistake. I believe everybody makes me, myself for years, thinking I could do it by myself, you know, but there's. There's. There's a reason why we have family and friends and mentors and positive influences in our lives. And it's not for them just to sit on the sidelines and go, or, oh, you know what I mean? It's. It's.

Yeah, we.

We. We are in this together. Whether you're a notary or not, whether you. You're an addiction or you're not, whether you're a friend or not, like, really, we. We have to be in this together. Because if we're not, we're not moving forward. We're moving backwards.

Now I know why you're crushing it the first three months. I mean, this is incredible. We're gonna go over your income Journey next. But, you know, I just want to say thank you for sharing your journey, being vulnerable enough to let people know that you're out on the other side. And, and, and on the other side is going to take work, constant work. But you, you're up for the challenge. It's like you're built to build the business now because of what you've been through. Like, honestly, the word no, like that pales. That even doesn't go on the radar compared to what you've been through. Like, the number one trade it takes to be a good business owner is resilience.

Honestly, I, I mean this with all 110%, everything within me, I am so incredibly grateful for those three, those three years when I was homeless, a druggie dying, because it's the yin and the yang. Without the absolute bottom of the bottom, there's no way I've been able to, to soar enough to the top to get as far away from it as possible. And it's, it's be, it is, is a part of the journey. Right. My addiction is part of who I am. I'm not shying away from that. Right. And, but now I'm continuing to work on myself through therapy, through medications, through positive relationships, through focusing on business, talking to my family again, having friends again. Right. All of these things. And, and if I didn't have that experience, three years of hating existence, I don't think I would have the positivity in my life right now to love existence.

I mean, you're the poster boy for framing everything positively. And, and again, I mean, you walk the walk, you talk to talk. And, and so, you know, we'll move on to your income journey. Just thank you for sharing that.

Thank you for share my, my journey. Like somebody else helped me. So I, I, the only way this continues to grow is if we pay it forward.

So speaking of paying it forward, let's talk about your journey. Yeah, I mean, like, I mean, look, dude, you've been in the business for a whopping three months, right? I mean, it blows my mind because you, you've been able to scale. So your first couple weeks in the business, how much money did you make?

First couple weeks? Probably like six to 800.

800 bucks.

Yeah.

I would argue, like, that is a great first two weeks. I mean, I'm not saying that like, like literally. I mean, you made 6, 800 bucks. What do you attribute that to before we get to your next phase?

For me, this was all or nothing, so I was very much of a, I don't have. Look, I'm not making enough money to even put money aside right now. So why am I still working here when I can just transition into a full time? So maybe the only reason I didn't get hired in those first two weeks was because I was still working at Amazon. So once I was able to take that and increase my, my time frame, I was golden. Let's go. I could take any loan signings.

So I mean, what I really heard though is it was all or nothing.

Yeah.

And I think it's a beautiful place to be, by the way. It's because it's amazing what happens when there is no plan B. Sometimes when there's a plan B or C, it allows us not to put our foot really on the gas. And I think a lot of times people see a notary public loan signing agent like you and they're like, oh, it's luck. That's far from it. We're about to talk about that in this next part of the conversation. But six, eight hundred bucks, all or nothing. Your first full month in business, which was March 2024, how much did you make? 5,555 in your first full month, six weeks in the business, you did 55. You had 5,500 in one month.

Yep.

We're now three weeks into April and you've also done fifty five hundred dollars. So I think people see I want to now pull the curtain back on the success in order to $5,000 literally in your second month, as ever being a notary public loan signing agent, tell people the effort that you had to put in to get there.

So when I first started off, I was hitting about anywhere from five to 10 title companies, realtors, realty companies, loan officers, going to networking events. I mean, every day was there was a dedicated time slot to meet in person with my local community.

How many days in a row did you do 5 or 10 title companies or 5 to 10 events people you get in front of. How many weeks was that?

It was probably a good three week. Two to three weeks. You know, I don't want to say I was at 40 title companies in two, two weeks because that, that's not true. Right. But when I'm doing UberEats, if I see a reality come, you know, if I stop at pick up an order somewhere and there's a title company there, I'm giving them a marketing bag. You know, I'm constant. Every single person who comes to my website gets a personalized message from me asking them if they need a notary.

Well, what I want people to hear is, is, you know, how are these notary public loan signing agents making $5,000 in the six month? It's impossible. It's not impossible. It's effortless. And that's all I really wanted. I mean, the magic isn't in the scripts. The magic isn't in the. Oh, this is a mythical business. This business is real. If you want to put in real effort. We're three weeks into your third month and we're about to do. We're at 5,500. Your goal is 8,000 for the month. But the point I'm trying, I want people to hear is it's just about effort and it's mass, mass effort. Why are you putting so much effort into your business?

Two reasons. I never want to go back to where I was again, and I want to help as many people as possible.

Okay, let's hold on, let's unpack that. I don't ever want to go back to where I was. And I think there's power turning your pain into passion, you know, and you really leverage that again, it is that that can be an asset or liability and you're using it as an asset. I'm not going to go back there. It's amazing. Again, I've said I'm gonna say it again, what we're capable of when there's no plan B like that. You burn the boats, right? You ever heard that analogy? Just burn the boats. Like there's no going back out on show to the ocean. It's like. And. And that's what it takes. And that's the magic. Yes, I have scripts, but everyone has the same course. Not everyone does the same thing with it. And that's what I want to make sure you get your flowers and anyone who's watching this video. If you want to make $5,000 in your second month, then do five to 10 title companies in a day. Now let's really inspire people. Five to ten title companies, right? Let's say you hit 20 a week. Okay? How many out of the 20 actually used you?

Five.

That's my point. I think that's all I need.

That's all I need, too. I have more than enough business. Between signing services and direct signings, your.

Effort determines how big this business grows and how fast it grows. And again, I'm not saying that Nick's journey is for everybody. I'm definitely not suggesting everybody work 80 hours a week. But what I am suggesting is really understanding that once you have the fundamentals and know what you're doing, the rest is up to you.

I don't work 80 hours a week now.

Yeah, but yeah, good point.

To get my business where it needed to be in order for me to, to succeed the way I want to and put myself and to set myself up for success, to be able to scale into a signing service and, and that's, and that's just like one of my businesses. Right. You know, so Yeah, I worked 80, 90 hours a week the first month and a half. Do I do that now? No.

What you went through has made you a good businessman, dude. And so I'm just so happy for you being sober and clean, dude. I'm always a message away. Yes. It's eight months. Let's go. I think there are people out there who, who have been story similar to yours, you know, that might be like, who's gonna hire me? Yeah, like, you know, like, like, like I, and so, so if someone who struggled on or a similar journey of yours who may be thinking like, you know, no one's gonna hire me. I've. I've been, you know, on this sober up and down journey for 8, 10 years. Help them through that. Understanding this business is all about what you can do for me now, not where you've been.

Oh, oh, 100. That, like that, that imposter syndrome. It's all, it's all BS that I, I've even experienced in my life plenty of times. Here's the thing you like for me, I love the journey. That was my one. That was the one thing I told myself when I was going to move out here to Denver is, is I was no longer going to a future trip and focus on what's going to happen. It's good to have goals, set your goal, but you got to live in the now. And that's what I've done is I, I truly am enjoying each step of the journey. For. From the time where I had $50 in my account and I had to decide what flavor ramen I wanted to eat this week to today, being able to pick up lamb chops at the grocery store. It's all about enjoying the journey. And you have because you have to appreciate each and every step you take.

That brings us to the next question, which I think is very appropriate. I mean, if a notary public loan signing agent was watching this three months in, I'm doing the math over here. You've already cleared 10, almost $15,000 in three months. Brand spanking new in the industry. What would your number one piece of advice to Give someone else who wants to scale this business in three months.

Like you have, every single no is one step closer to a yes. Like you're no is what is eventually going to turn into a yes. And there are signing companies that I just, you know, they still haven't called me yet, you know, or local title companies, they still haven't called for a signing yet. I still show up every single month and just let them know that I'm still here.

Your sense of urgency of building this is incredible. Would you say maybe people need to operate in that space a little bit more to get where they want to go?

Oh, 100%. 100%. The second I get a lead, they get a phone call. If they don't answer their phone call, leave them a voicemail. And if, if they don't listen to their voicemail, as soon as I leave that, I also send them a text message. I mean if you contacted me or if you need notary services and you made it known, I'm not stopping until I hear back from you.

Well, again, I just trying to ask and I don't know your follow up style but you know, you just, you a sense of urgency, everybody, it doesn't matter if they give you business or not. You're just cut, you're following up like a madman. And, and that's what business is about. Whoever has the biggest sense of urgency usually scales the quickest. And I'm so proud of you, man. So let's kind of jump into the last question. And you're really young in your journey for me to ask this, but I ask it to every notary public loan signing agent. You know, if you can look back on your journey of a whole whopping three months, is there anything you would have done differently or is there something you wish you could have whispered into the ear of notary public loan signing agent Nick three months ago to maybe help expedite this process even quicker or more.

I got to the point, I guess mid January where I was signing up for signing services, right? And I signed up for like 10, right? I did the, in the course, you know, it's like sign up with these 10 right here, right? So I signed up with 10 of them and then I sat down on my ass and I waited for nothing. It wasn't until I decided I was taking my business into my hands and I'm not gonna only I'm not waiting on signing services. Nick wants to go out and make his business. He needs to actually go out and like market, talk to people, make marketing bags this delusion that people are just gonna give me signings because I signed up for their service. Like, if nobody knows who I am, the. The what I can offer, like, if I'm not going out there and. And. And doing everything I can to get the next biz, to get the next signing, then what am I doing? I was just sitting there and waiting for my business to grow. So that's what I would have done differently, is come to the realization that I have a business to run. And I have. If I want to be successful, if I want to have influence on people, if I want to help people and grow even further, I'm going to have to put in as much effort as possible, which is why I started working 80 to 90 hours a week, because I started off working none.

I just want to say I'm proud of you, dude. Thank you for sharing your journey. I hope this inspired somebody today. You know, you're you. You turned your trauma into triumph, and it's a beautiful story. I know you're just rewrite. You're just starting to write this chapter, and I'm just super excited to have a little footnote in this chapter, man. But don't stop. Keep taking this moon, dude. And until next time, just. Thank you, brother. Have a good rest of your day, man.

Thank you so much. Appreciate.

Mark.