Pivoting to Success: Navigating Career Transitions and the Hybrid Work Revolution with Philip Hogan

When life throws you curveballs, how do you pivot and thrive? Philip Hogan, president of Signing Services America, joins us to share his extraordinary journey from social work to the forefront of innovative entrepreneurship, offering a beacon of hope for anyone facing career crossroads. Witness as he unveils the bold moves and strategies that propelled his company to success amidst the global crisis, transforming challenges into opportunities with the power of remote notarization and the resilience of essential workers.

The future of the workplace is here, and it's more dynamic than ever. In our conversation with Philip, we uncover the intricacies of a hybrid work model that marries the best of remote and in-office dynamics. Discover how Signing Services America champions employee satisfaction and retention with progressive policies, while AI tools like chatbots revolutionize their business efficiency. This episode is a goldmine for anyone looking to navigate the changing tides of corporate culture and technology's growing role in our daily grind.

As we wrap up our insightful exchange, Philip doesn't hold back on the realities of entrepreneurship – the highs, the lows, and everything in between. He shares the lessons learned from strategic marketing and embracing the value of trial and error, providing a roadmap for scaling a business from the ground up. For those inspired to connect with Philip or to delve further into his professional narrative, he lays out the welcome mat, inviting you to reach out and explore a world of possibilities. Tune in and arm yourself with the knowledge and inspiration from a leader who's sailed through the unpredictable waters of business with unwavering determination.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hey everybody, welcome back to the growing Lean podcast, sponsored by Lean Discovery Group and powered by Magic Mind. I've been drinking these Magic Mind shots for like three months now and it's absolutely changed my life. My focus, my calmness, my alertness and, especially, my productivity have absolutely been through the roof. So yeah, check it out if you'd like. So today I'm here with Philip Hogan, the president of Signing Services America. Welcome, philip.

Speaker 2: 0:33

Thank you, deeds, glad to be here.

Speaker 1: 0:36

Awesome, awesome. So, philip, to get us started, can you tell us a little bit about your industry and your background and pretty much what led you to where you are today?

Speaker 2: 0:48

Sure. So Signing Surl. My background is in really social services. I have a master's in social work from Fordham University and a master's in public administration from the American Public University and I spent 15, 18 years working in social services community and where I feel that's my calling is to be a service. And in those 15, 18 years not only did I work at some high level positions in both city government and the city of New York, as well as in the nonprofit sector, I'm also the founding executive director for Housing Managers of New York, which was a nonprofit organization that provided transitional housing to formerly incarcerated adult men with non-finan drug offenders in Brooklyn, new York, brownsville, brooklyn.

Speaker 2: 1:36

I purchased a home a brownstone out of foreclosure and converted it into the transitional community, and that ran for five years, and because of just trying to do so much, I just kind of like got burned out and the board decided to suspend services, and so we had to shut down our program and assign the remaining residents into other programs throughout the city or throughout the barrel of Brooklyn, and then we sold the building in and I took a break. I had been. It was a long run, from 1993 to probably 2005. It was just a continuous push after certain goals, but my desire to still be of service and, of course, to continue to be an entrepreneur was still burning in me. And in 2014, I purchased a car out of state, and then America won too.

Speaker 2: 2:42

When you purchase a car out of state, the closing documents need to be witnessed by a mobile notary. So the notary came to my home. We went through the closing of the auto loan documents and the question of how did you do that was fascinated with the ability to come into someone's home and notary documents, and so, literally, he explained to me what I needed to do, and that day, if not next, I began to get my notary commission become credentialed and then began marketing my services as a mobile notary in Atlanta, georgia, and from 2014 to 2015, I was doing a really good job and I landed a huge account in Clearwater, florida, which was a national title insurance company that was sending me a lot of business and I couldn't handle it all. So the next viable step was to start a company where I could handle that volume by dispatching it to notaries. Thus, in February 2016, science Service America was born, and we will be eight years old in February of 2024.

Speaker 1: 3:53

That's amazing. That's amazing. I love that background story. It's awesome and thank you. Happy birthday for February.

Speaker 2: 4:01

That's awesome.

Speaker 1: 4:04

So you started in 2015,. Right, so you've gone through quite a lot of changes in technology, in just the global environment. So how did you adapt to these changes? Most notably the pandemic I think that's been the biggest change in the last 10 years and then, secondly, the change in technology, with AI coming into the mainstream. Let's start with the pandemic. How did you adjust your business to the pandemic? Because I'm sure, like you couldn't people couldn't just go to random people's houses during that lockdown period.

Speaker 2: 4:43

Well, it was certainly like walking on dead ice, and if you've ever walked on ice particularly thin, you always would kind of test the waters to find out where the ice was the thickest and that's where you'll walk. And so, fortunately, the states did consider the services of a notary to be essential business. So that gave us an opportunity to continue to keep notaries employed and it's us employed. However, when the state of Georgia went down to lockdown mode, we had to shift and had to start working remotely. So literally in maybe two days, we transferred, we transcended from all coming into the office to everyone working from home, and we had to distribute the computers to all of our schedulers and make sure that those computers were up and running. But we had one of two schedulers who were operating from the home devices to make sure that orders were being processed, and then, in the background, I and a number of other staff and our computer technician were busy building and making sure that the computers would be able to do the work at the schedulers home. And so that between the two, one the states allowing us to work, because we were considered essential workers and the workers were doing very creative thing when I say the workers being in the notaries Sometimes, you know, instead of going into a person's home, then what would happen is that we were able to get the signer to be in their car and the notary to be in their car and, facing opposite direction, to be able to exchange, be able to send the document from the notary to the signer, to sign the document in their car and then back.

Speaker 2: 6:34

That was one approach. Another approach was being able to pass the documents over to the signer through the door of their home, and then the signer would have a camera on their phone on and actually taking a video of the documents being signed to make sure that they were authentically being signed and correctly being signed. And so that's how we were able to just be able to move forward. And, fortunately, what was brilliant for us at the time we didn't realize it, but it was a really astonishing move, deige for us to be able to work remotely and not have a break in service, and our clients later on really appreciated that, and that was a turning point for us In regard to this. In regard to the other part, I think you wanna know about technology.

Speaker 1: 7:25

Yeah, I just wanted to comment on that. Are you adjusted there? I think that's like hilarious how you managed to make it work by having them pass it through their cars and everything. I like to laugh at these situations, just because it takes a bit of a load of how heavy the pandemic was, and it's nice to hear how other people have adapted to, had to adapt. They didn't have a choice. It's great to hear people's like survival stories and how they change their business models and how quickly they had to adapt to those things. That it was great, yeah. And then the second thing is on the remote working. Have you Kept that as your thing or do you? Are you guys still in office? Did you come back to the office?

Speaker 2: 8:09

we're hybrid and you know I prefer my personal preferences to have staff in the office.

Speaker 2: 8:17

Not, it is because the, the Level, the, the level of quality assurance is really important for us, dij, and you know I value the relationship that we have with our clients and that our clients trust us, and one of the things that has allowed us to be, one of the features that has been a staple throughout the existence of signing service America, is to provide an impeccable customer service, and One of the ways that we've been able to do that is have staff in the office sharing Communications, hearing conversations, sharing information, asking questions and being like a almost like a team, where, if I have a question, well, you know, you know what's the best way you've handled this, or if I have a situation with, this is how I've handled it, and that has really helped to build the, the, the, the trust within the staff, that has helped to build the experience, their confidence and their the ability to To facilitate the needs of both of our clients who are Sending us the orders, and then, of course, those that are doing the work for us, the notaries of the attorneys.

Speaker 2: 9:21

They may have questions, they may be issues, and Our work is somewhat unique because of who we're working with. The product that we're working with, the client or the notary or the attorney that we're working with may have some very special situations that we always can't prepare for. However, staff a may not know what staff B does, and if they're working together in the same office or similar space, then they can share the information. If they're working remotely and isolated, then it becomes very difficult For that information to be so readily available and then it can affect the quality of work that we produce.

Speaker 1: 10:03

Yeah, 100%. I can also speak to that because Previously I was in an in-office role for about five years in real estate and then in finance, and then I switched to an online job, working remotely for US company, and there's definitely benefits to both. I prefer remote work just because I feel more comfortable, I can wear shorts and no one will know I'm wearing shorts, but I completely agree with the office camaraderie and the sharing of information. That's definitely something I miss, but it's you can't have all, you can't have everything. It's definitely changed the way people work though this whole remote working life, and I think overall it's changed for the better.

Speaker 2: 10:52

I agree with you and you know we do have a.

Speaker 2: 10:54

You know there are certain conditions that are very relaxed within signing service America.

Speaker 2: 10:59

You know folks can come to work in shorts and sneakers and, and you know, from time to time we have childcare, childcare space. So if a parent child is sick and but sick enough to still come to work with them, then we allow that employee to bring their child and we have space with the child, can stay and work and not work, but can stay and be monitored by the parent while both child are in their space and the employees in their space. And what is it doing is one is increasing the value that we have in that that employee and that employee has in our company. But more importantly it is it is supporting the parent that hey, listen, you know, just because your child is sick, that doesn't mean that you have to stay home. And then many times then you know if a parent has a sick child, either they have to stay home or they have to put the child in childcare if possible. So by bringing the child into the work office it really has helped all parties the child, the parent and signing services America.

Speaker 1: 12:05

That's amazing, that's that's super progressive. I really, I really admire. I think that definitely increases your employee satisfaction. I can imagine.

Speaker 2: 12:14

Absolutely, and we have a very slow turnover, you know, because of because of those steps and others that we take, and I think, as entrepreneurs, you know we have to. You know I believe right in in in. You know, my father is someone who told me most of my business acumen and he said, philip, if you take care of your people, meaning your staff, your clients, your staff and your clients will take care of you. And so this is just one of the examples and how signing services America takes care of its staff.

Speaker 1: 12:47

That's amazing. I really admire that. That's awesome, thank you. And then I'm back to the other points of change and the option. Can you tell me have you been making use of any of the tools that have become available over the last couple years, especially, maybe, for your clients, but more importantly, within your business operations, for the clients know, for business operation? Yes.

Speaker 2: 13:14

And you know there are many documents or procedural plans that I have to, that I prepared policies, job descriptions, and then I have to make sure that I have a good job, job descriptions, et cetera that I've had to prepare, and AI has been extremely helpful and accelerating the, the execution of accelerating the completion of these tasks, because before I would have to you know, so, like you know, take a few hours to pull something together like that. It's basically something that just you know chat BGT chat BGT is one of my favorite tools and it has been very, very helpful. And the document preparation for signing service America.

Speaker 2: 13:56

But again, when it comes to the clients, no, ai is nothing can replace the presence of a notary and witnessing the execution of documents, nothing technology can you know. Technology can make it more feasible, particularly when the notary and the client are in different states or possibly different countries, but nothing. You need the presence of a notary because you know we are the official witness to the execution of documents and, of course, the notary in this country, in America, is is a commission notary and under the superior court of the county with their commission. So there's there's just a lot of legality that's involved and a lot of weight that's given to the notary. So no, I can't replace that.

Speaker 1: 14:46

Okay, that's awesome. I'm glad to hear there's some industries that can't be replaced with the robot. That's awesome. And and yeah, with chat BGT it's literally my best friend. I've got it pinned on all my tabs. I've got it as a widget on my home screen on my phone. I don't use it much for like copyrighting, more for just ideas and formatting notes and formatting, so I can just scribble down notes and then it formats it perfectly. And what would take me like 1520 minutes to write up a little report? I can just pop in my notes and it does it in three seconds. It's a game changer. And to think that, like where we are now is literally like the tip of the iceberg of the next 10 years of technological evolution, that I have nightmares about it sometimes, but like also good dreams about it, it's going to be an interesting next decade, for sure. For sure.

Speaker 1: 15:45

Crazy times. Back to your business. I want to know from your perspective what were the biggest challenges firstly, in starting your business, getting it from the startup to a scale up phase and then, like continuous growth, what have been the biggest challenges in those three phases?

Speaker 2: 16:04

Overcoming the mistakes I made a lot of mistakes and those mistakes you know.

Speaker 2: 16:12

Sit us back and, you know, not becoming discouraged in the results of the mistake but learning from that and, more importantly, not blaming someone else for the mistake that I committed, Taking ownership for it, looking at, investigating what went wrong. How did it get wrong? What was my role in? It was really critical to overcoming that. The next issue was to marketing Marketing this business, finding out, figuring out how best to market to our potential clients.

Speaker 2: 16:47

And the industry that we serve primarily is the settlement industry of the mortgage loan process.

Speaker 2: 16:54

And you know not to take too much time, but the in the mortgage product you have the front side, or the beginning phases, which is where the homeowner is acquiring for a loan through the mortgage lender.

Speaker 2: 17:07

Once that loan has been approved, that file begins to progress through the process into the settlement stages, where the title insurance company comes in and they will then do the work that the title insurance company does to prepare the file for settlement, meaning for clothes, for funding, and that's where we come in and we'll reach out to the signers and do what we need to do.

Speaker 2: 17:31

Well, that segment of the mortgage industry has a very I would say, a very conditioned way of approaching, being approached and how to develop relationships and how to figure out how that was. And it's just no blueprint, it's just no book to read, it's just, you know, there's some things that I material, that I certainly have read to help me understand marketing sales, but specifically to the population that we're reaching to and working with. That was just a try and trial method. And then, finally, you know, building trust, you know, with our clients, is that in letting them know that this we value you and you value us, and then to build that trust required for me to adopt, do what you say and say what you're going to do. Concept Right.

Speaker 2: 18:24

And yeah and that was really big, you know, because sometimes you know, you know people will say, say things, but really not able to deliver, and then when you don't deliver, then they become very discouraged and wanted to work with you further. So those are the things that I have learned and went through to get to this point.

Speaker 1: 18:46

Okay, that's amazing. And where do most of your clients come from? Is it through direct marketing, or is it word of mouth.

Speaker 2: 18:58

Really, it comes through, not word of mouth, it comes by way of. You know, the clients will search us out on the internet. We're now being more assertive in our marketing by being a podcast guest on your show and other podcasts. We are advertising more in certain literature that is disseminated within the industry that we primarily serve. And then, finally, we're beginning to network more on LinkedIn to other industries that use these services of a nationwide notary public loan signing service.

Speaker 1: 19:41

Okay, that's awesome, that's awesome. And if you have to choose one KPI that you'd like to improve by, let's say, 50% in the next 12 months, what would that be?

Speaker 2: 19:54

Well, the first and foremost it would be the number of orders that we are processing. Monthly I, with our accounting department and the operations manager, look over our work for the previous month and we're looking to see who sent us orders, what type of products were sent and how many orders did those clients send us, and from that it kind of gives us a good baseline, if you will, as to you know if we're performing where we should, if we're below or we are above the mark, and then also we do a KPI on those that receive our orders. Who is receiving our orders? How many orders have they processed for us? Has there been any issues with those orders? And if they are, then of course we have a consultation with those individuals to help them improve the errors that they may have or eliminate the errors that they have that may have created, that have caused some delay in the finalization of that loan or that mortgage product.

Speaker 1: 21:02

Okay, amazing, amazing. I love that, and we are coming to the end of our time now, but before we go, I wanted to ask what is the biggest piece of advice you'd like to give other business owners that are either looking to start up or scale their business during this time?

Speaker 2: 21:23

Networking is you can never do more. You can never do enough networking, you know. Find the audience, find the space that you best can align with where your consumers are willing. Are there what we call net weaving, being able to help other people with their products, not so much for the purpose of getting business for them but for the purpose of helping, and then that will come back to you. Those individuals may be able to connect you to someone who can utilize your services, build relationships with people and, through the relationship building, establish trust. And I stand on what I said earlier do what you say and say what you're going to do. It's almost coming down to the point where you're coming like an overachiever, underscore and over deliver, and those are the characteristics that I think can make a business owner to be very successful in their endeavors. At least, it has been for us.

Speaker 1: 22:17

Appreciate that. No, I couldn't agree more Well, phillip. Thank you so much for your time today. I've really enjoyed chatting to you. What's the best way for our listeners to get in touch with Phillip Hogan if they're looking for your services or if they're looking to follow your journey?

Speaker 2: 22:34

Sure, and then the best place we'll go is to our website, signingservicescom. There you can book a consultation with me and we can talk about whatever your needs are, and I'd be happy to listen, learn and assist.

Speaker 1: 22:52

Amazing. Thank you so much, Phillip.

Speaker 2: 22:54

Thank you, Dill, Thank you Phillip.