In March, I will be temporarily unavailable due to scheduled outpatient cataract surgeries. Earlier this week, following my initial procedure, I returned home and, upon reactivating my phone, discovered that I had missed eight RON orders. While resting, the frequent notifications reminded me of how ingrained my response to work alerts has become, underscoring the challenge of slowing down after maintaining significant momentum in recent months. This down time, also has made clear that my business will experience a decline in revenue. This experience has given me a new appreciation for Ivan Pavlov’s classical conditioning theory, as I have found myself conditioned to immediately respond to notification sounds.
Fortunately, I can fulfill several signing orders prior to my next surgery, which is planned for mid-March. This period of reduced activity has also allowed me to address important administrative tasks, including renewing my IdenTrust digital certificate and updating my Notary commission credentials with all relevant vendors. Reflecting on these events highlights the importance of diversifying income streams beyond transactional revenue and striving for greater residual income. As I move forward, I am committed to shifting my focus from routine transactions to building sustainable and passive sources of revenue, thereby reducing reliance on constant direct engagement.
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I wish you a speedy recovery!
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Thanks for sharing. Keep healing bro.
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Hope it goes well - several siblings have had this surgery and say recovery is much faster than they expected so here’s hoping that’s how you find it as well.
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@mstrata @tdalliance2019 @johnsonps306 Thanks to everyone for the support and well wishes…
Wishing you a quick recovery and taking this opportunity to share something I just discovered: None of the platforms really rate you on ‘responding to everything as quick as possible’. I discovered this the way I usually do–the hard way. When the platforms began, I was only responding to jobs where the location was in my service area. Countered those because offered fees are a NOT funny joke. Got about half the jobs at my fee. THEN I started poking around the site and discovered they ‘rate’ us–and we should respond as much as possible to keep our rating (visability) high. So, being a good little doobie, I did. Know what actually happened?
I got more offers–of course, they were also for more distant locations–but the fee offered was the same lowball amount as tho’ location was in my area. Sure, I countered with my fee for 2, 3 counties distant, but, of course, I never got the job because someone closer could do it for less than I. But I had to ‘respond quick’ 2, 3, 4 or more times, stating the same high fee over & over & over. Crazy waste of time! (and sanity)
As time went on with me responding to ALL, (even saying "NO–way too far at any fee!) Still the offers I’d get in a day kept increasing—and so did the (totally undoable) distance! It finally got to the point I was driven nuts with insane offers–and then discovered that my gmail was capable of filtering offers ONLY to the zip codes that were doable! Still have to counter & still getting about half of 'em. I am totally IGNORING–DO NOT RESPOND IN ANY WAY to the ‘not my preferred zips’ offers. And the worthless noise is GONE. I still get the ‘way too far’ offers, but they go directly & quietly to a ‘junk offer’ folder. It took about a week for the ‘way too far’ offers to begin to decrease BECAUSE I RE-TRAINED THE ALGORITHM that was applied to me.
I have no idea why it works the way it does except that perhaps cfletcher nailed it: they’re treating us like Pavlov’s dogs! Respond every time; be quick (don’t think). Have you ever accepted a job that, in hindsight, you wished you hadn’t? If so, that’s more’n likely because you’ve been conditioned to RESPOND QUICK (don’t think!)
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I wish you a speedy and complete recovery.
The Pavlov statement struck true with me. I just returned from a week’s vacation and put out of office entries on the platforms that allowed me to do so. For the most part my phone stayed on silent and my voicemail and email had an out of office message (as did my website and google business listing). It was actually nice, although I received one call and one text from fellow notaries asking me if I could a RON for them. The notifications have been coming and I am back to keeping my phone within my reach as I go about the dreaded laundry and putting travel items back in their place.
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Likewise, I was recovering from surgery for about a month and, of course, I didn’t do a single signing for 30 days. My income stream went to -0-. As soon as I notified all by signing services I was back and ready to go, the orders began to trickle in. Now, I’m so busy, I had my busiest day of the year just yesterday. I turned down double what I actually took (doesn’t happen a lot).
If you plan and communicate properly, blips like this can be overcome.
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