We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Genna Rubolino a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Genna, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your career and how did you resolve those issues?
Florida Virtual Notary LLC (“FVN”) was founded in February 2020 and the anticipated customer base was young professionals ranging from thirty (30) to fifty (50) years old. The pandemic shut down was initiated in March 2020. The demand for online notarization became individuals over the age of sixty-five (65) executing estate planning and real estate documents; since those were the individuals most affected by the shutdown, who stayed in their homes (whether local, in other states or countries) or care facilities. Therefore, we had to change our initial customer experience delivery from convenience to collaboration. I quickly identified that collaboration was required because our client base required technical support and/or sensitivity to the nature of the documents being executed. We quickly went from being a business that provided online notary services to a business that provided a customer experience extending from IT professionals to online notary educators. For example, we had a ninety (90) year old woman executing seller documents and she had never even used her email before. We were able to successfully provide her with an online notarization by talking her through the process from start to finish, which included accessing her email, connecting to audio and video conference and electronic signing.
Genna, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Prior to founding FVN, I worked as an estate, trust, and tax paralegal. I noticed that the law was changing to permit online notarization beginning January 1, 2020. I felt there would be a strong demand for individuals to get documents notarized remotely. I wanted to offer online notarization for individuals like me, young professionals, too busy to go get documents notarized in person. I thought it would take individuals time to learn that you could get documents notarized online. However, the pandemic escalated the need. I am most proud of our ability to collaborate with each signer executing documents online to ensure the process can be seamless no matter the signer’s computer knowledge. Signing things and connecting to someone online can be scary if you’ve never done it before.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I think education was key in helping build my business and my reputation. I believe that knowledge is power and sharing it with others such as my staff, other legal professionals and signers set the expectation in the online notarization field. I started providing online webinars on remote notarization as continuing legal education credits for paralegals and attorneys because online notarization was still new, and everyone had a lot of questions about how it works. Providing education on remote notarization served many purposes but ultimately, I think if you are going to offer a service you should be an expert in your field. Becoming an expert in my field helped build my reputation as the “go-to” for online notarization services within the legal community.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
Prior to being a legal professional, I worked as a manager at a retail store in the local mall and my district manager recommended the book “First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently” by Curt Coffman. At the time, that book changed my management style for the better and I keep it in mind now that I have my own business. The biggest takeaway for me is to treat everyone differently. Each staff member is different, so why would I treat them the same? The reality for me is each person has different needs from a manager and it’s my job as the owner to figure out how I can best support each team member so that they can do the same for our clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://flvirtualnotary.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flvirtualnotary/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flvirtualnotary/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/florida-virtual-notary-llc
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/flvirtualnotary
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/florida-virtual-notary-boca-raton