An Interview with Fotis Georgiadis
Make progress each day! You’ll have good days, bad days, overwhelming days, too tired days, I’m awesome days, I can’t go on days, and every day you’ll still show up! You must keep going.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Wendy Bratton Of Diem.
Wendy is a mother of two who founded Diem Notary to Go and is based out of central Pennsylvania. She has begun making waves in the notary world with her new 2022 Notary Planner & Notebook. Wendy is an animal lover and is always happy when there are pets to greet at her appointments.
Thank you so much for doing this! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Sure! My career path to owning a mobile notary business has been a bit long and winding. I worked as a real estate/corporate paralegal for a large law firm in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and was there for 17 years. I left the paralegal world to be a stay-at-home mom, which took me about a year to adjust to! Fast forward 13 years. It was time for my husband and I to get serious about saving money for college, and he was strongly encouraging me to get back into the workforce.
I jumped back in by working part time with a local realtor in Hershey, Pennsylvania as her assistant. It was difficult at first since I had adjusted quite well to being a stay-at-home mom! After getting my feet wet again in the working world, I accepted a position as a settlement coordinator for a national title insurance company because I wanted to go deeper into the real estate business. Title insurance and settlement preparation is not for the faint of heart! My job was to do whatever needed to be done to get the buyers/borrowers to the settlement table. This included gathering all the information from the municipalities, realtors, lenders, etc. The “fun” part was conducting the settlement. I found that I really enjoyed handling the settlement, but not all the chaos beforehand. This is where my wheels started turning and I began researching the mobile notary business. Diem Notary to Go was born!
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work that you’re doing that’s disruptive?
I’ve always been the nerd that loves to organize things and a good time for me is going to the Container Store and walking up and down every aisle. I love to create forms and checklists to help myself work smarter. I began doing more research to see what other notaries were using to keep themselves organized daily in their business and I wasn’t finding much. This is how the Notary Planner & Notebook was born. The planner had to be paper! I love being able to carry a paper calendar with me, especially when I’m on the road. It sits right beside me on the passenger seat, so when I get a call asking if I’m available, I can check it quickly.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I’m not sure that notary mistakes are “funny”, but I’ve had some instances where finding people’s houses can be tricky. I always depend on the Waze app, but sometimes even Waze gets confused. There was one night when Waze led me to this dirt road, and I was driving through a wooded area leading to nowhere. It occurred to be that I wasn’t in the right area, got out of the woods and called the client. There are times when you need to go with your gut feeling! When confirming an appointment, I have learned to now ask the client if there is anything tricky that I should know about when looking for their house!
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I have a few! The first person that comes to mind is the attorney that I worked with for 17 years as a paralegal. He believed in me every step of the way and always pushed me to work on projects that I thought I wasn’t capable of. I was a very shy person when I first started working with him. By the end of those 17 years that we worked together, he had me working by his side coordinating the flow of million-dollar commercial loan closings with a roomful of other attorneys and corporate executives! Many times, I was the only female in a room full of men.
My best friend, and husband has also been a huge cheerleader! He is always there to remind me to keep going and do what’s best for me. Also, he is also one of the kindest people I know. He has taught me a lot about be kind to others. You’ll never regret being kind!
And, last, but not least, my business coach, Kyle Slaymaker of The Slaymaker Method. I’ve been working with Kyle for approximately five months, and he has already pushed me to do things I never thought I was capable of! He is relentless!
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has “withstood the test of time”? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is not so positive? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disrupting the industry in a positive way is creating a new product and bringing it to your specific industry to share with the world. A great example would be my Notary Planner and Notebook! This is the first notary planner of its kind to hit the market!
Disrupting the notary world in a not so positive way would be not good! My main role as a notary is to confirm a person’s identity, make sure they’re signing willingly, and they understand the documents they’re signing. A notary is on the front line when it comes to preventing fraudulent transactions taking place.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story for each.
Stay top of mind. It’s important to stay connected with friends, business colleagues and anyone else you meet along the way. I’ve just started to engage more on my personal Facebook page. People want to work with someone they like and know is a good person.
Make progress each day! You’ll have good days, bad days, overwhelming days, too tired days, I’m awesome days, I can’t go on days, and every day you’ll still show up! You must keep going.
Put away the fear and go for it. You automatically lose the chances that you don’t take! This is a big one for me. Every time I have pushed through, I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
Go the extra mile — it’s never crowded! My extra mile is sending my customers a handwritten note after meeting them. Everyone loves to receive happy mail.
In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different. I make sure to be present at every notary appointment. For loan closings, I am efficient and try to sprinkle a little fun at the settlement table. This is a happy time! For hospital visits, I put on my compassionate hat. Most times hospital visits are not a happy time. It’s critical to be understanding and compassionate. Every appointment different and a notary must be present.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
I always try to be aware of doors opening with new opportunities. I love what I do, and I am always looking for ways to make the customer experience the best that it possibly can be.
Do you have a book, podcast or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
I recently read The Five Second Rule and The High Five Habit by Mel Robbins. There are so many things in her books that resonate with me. It’s okay to be scared! You need to have the courage to start somewhere. A little truth about me-I HATE mornings. One tip from her The Five Second Rule book that has stuck with me is give up the snooze alarm! Once your alarm goes off in the morning, jump out of bed! Let’s face it (and research shows), that at this point you’re not getting any more “good sleep”. If you can get out of bed without snoozing, you will have this sense of power and it demonstrates that you have the inner strength to do what needs to be done. Try it!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Don’t Believe Everything YOU Think! This is a big one for me. I must remind myself of this daily. My inner critic is not nice!
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Just be kind! We all have thing going on in our lives. Smile, say hello to a stranger. Make someone’s day. You may make a new friend!
How can your readers follow you online?
My business website is www.diemnotarytogo.com. You can also find me on LinkedIn, and Facebook. Stop by and say hello!
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Meet The Disruptors: Wendy Bratton Of Diem On The Five Things You Need to Shake Up Your Industry was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
