Good Neighbor Podcast: Pittsburgh

E25: Notarize in Your PJs at 3AM: Bryan Ghingold's Remote Notary

• Leila Carter & Bryan Ghingold • Episode 25

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What makes Bryan Ghingold with Steel City Notary a good neighbor?  

Ever found yourself needing a document notarized at an odd hour, perhaps even in your pajamas? Bryan Ghingold of Steel City Notary has made convenience his cornerstone. His journey, from notarizing reports for his own moving company to becoming one of Pittsburgh's leading Remote Online Notaries, truly exemplifies how traditional services can seamlessly adapt to modern demands.

What truly distinguishes Steel City Notary is Bryan's commitment to accessibility through technology. He belongs to an exclusive group—just two percent of Pennsylvania notaries are certified to perform remote online notarization (RON). This innovative approach proved invaluable during the pandemic and continues to break down barriers for clients who are hospitalized, traveling abroad, or simply prefer the ease of notarizing from their living room. Bryan clarifies that notaries are essentially "human CAPTCHAs," verifying the identity of the signers. 

Beyond his professional dedication, Bryan's innovative spirit extends to creative pursuits like filmmaking and 3D printing, reflecting a dynamic approach to a traditionally conservative field. He's available to notarize at any hour, ensuring clients receive essential services whenever- and wherever- they're needed. To experience document signing reimagined for the digital age, visit steelcitynotary.com!

To learn more about Steel City Notary go to: 

https://steelcitynotary.com/schedule-an-appointment/

Steel City Notary

(412)254-6424


Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lila Carter.

Speaker 2:

To the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a remote online notary? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, brian Gingold, with Steel City Notary. Brian, how's it going?

Speaker 3:

Hi, good morning, Lila, doing well, how are you?

Speaker 2:

I'm excellent. Thanks so much for being here. We're excited to learn all about you and your business. Tell us about your company.

Speaker 3:

Sure. So Steel City Notary is a notary public. Our office is in Forest Hills on the east end of Pittsburgh. We offer, you know, walk-in appointments or you know set appointments, but sort of what sets us apart is we're also mobile notaries so we can come to you, or, you know, especially around the time of the pandemic, there were a lot of people in hospitals that needed us to come to them.

Speaker 3:

We go into hospitals, we go into retirement facilities, but then, also because of the pandemic, pennsylvania made remote online notary legal, which is a little peculiar for a state like Pennsylvania, where things are a little slow to catch up technology wise. So Pennsylvania permits remote online notary and I am one of only two percent of all Pennsylvania notaries that can also do remote online notary, which is I can notarize something remotely over the internet with somebody who's you know maybe they're vacationing in Greece and they have a real estate closing or they need to sign a power of attorney before they get put on a ventilator and they're in a hospital and they can't accept visitors. Now we could do that via remote online notary, as opposed to having to get a wet signature.

Speaker 2:

Excellent. So how did you get into this business?

Speaker 3:

So I actually used to run a moving company called Steel City Movers that I founded in 2008. And I ran it right up until 2019 when I made the voluntary decision to close it. When my daughter was born, I wanted to be present for her growth and development and all that, and the moving company was taking a lot out of me physically and emotionally and spiritually. But while I was running the moving company, we had to submit these quarterly reports to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission saying here's what percentage of moves went overestimate by more than 10%, here's what percentage of moves were residential versus commercial. And that report had to be notarized. And I was finding that every quarter I'd try to go back to whatever notary I'd gone to the previous quarter to find that they were closed or not answering their phone or the building had been torn down and no one had told us. So it was really hard to find a notary that I could consistently go to every quarter. And so I asked my business attorney if you know, even as the president of the company, if I became a notary? And because you're not, a notary is not allowed to notarize their own signature or anything that directly benefits them. But I asked you know if, if my office manager fills out the PUC Public Utilities Commission reporting form, can I notarize their signature? And he said, yes, that would not be a conflict of interest. So I commissioned myself as a notary and I just sort of thought to myself you know, I'm not going to really advertise for this business, but let me just do a really low effort. I got a sign printed that just said notary public on Vistaprint and I hung it perpendicular to my office. So if you're walking on the sidewalk past the moving company, the office was in Wilkinsburg, you'd see it and the notary business exploded and just tons and tons of people were walk-in clients. I did zero advertising and people would say like, oh hey, I came into your office in Wilkinsburg, but are you able to come to my home? Or, you know, are you able to come to UPMC Shadyside or whatever? And so from that I sort of became a mobile notary and then closed.

Speaker 3:

The moving company continued doing notary in 2019, when I got into the industry I'm in now. In 2019 when I got into the industry I'm in now which is multimedia litigation support, with a separate business called Investigative Photography or IPV Litigation Services. But I continued doing notary. And then, when the pandemic happened, just by being part of a trade organization called the Pennsylvania Association of Notaries, I found out that remote online notary was being considered and, being a relatively tech savvy and tech forward individual, I was following that news pretty closely. And then on I believe it was March 6th of 2020, then Governor Tom Wolf signed remote online notary into law on a temporary basis as long as the state of emergency was declared for the pandemic. So remote online notary was legal, but only until the state of emergency was lifted. But then, on October 29th of 2020, he amended it to say remote online notary is here to stay regardless of the status of the pandemic. So I've been a remote online notary ever since.

Speaker 2:

Wow, what great insight. And the fact that it was also born out of you meeting a need for these people, from originating from these walk-by clients, and then you kind of creating this offering where you became a mobile service. That's awesome. What are some myths or misconceptions in your industry? Okay, what are some myths or misconceptions?

Speaker 3:

in your industry. Okay, so definitely some myths or misconceptions. I don't know about myth, but a misconception is that we are attorneys and can offer legal advice. There are attorneys who are also notaries, but you do not need to be an attorney to be a notary and most notaries are not attorneys and it's actually part of our commission that we are professionally prohibited from offering legal advice.

Speaker 3:

So clients will frequently ask me like, oh, can you draft me a power of attorney or can you draft me a quit claim deed? And I will have to say I cannot. I could refer you to an attorney who can, or you can look online and download a template, but I can't tell you if that template satisfies the legal requirements of the document or not. All I can do is verify the identity of the signer and witness and notarize their signature.

Speaker 3:

My associate Nick, who's with Steel City Notary and with IPV Litigation Services, he came up with a really good way to explain it. He said that notaries are like a human CAPTCHA we are just here to make sure that you are human and you are who you say you are. Another misconception is that notaries can certify weddings. In some states they can, but not in Pennsylvania. In some states they can, but not in Pennsylvania, and the closest I ever came to doing a wedding was I had a client who was in the military and they had gotten married to their wife and they needed a form notarized so that they could get spousal benefits from their wife.

Speaker 2:

And so I notarized that form for them and that was the closest I got to doing a wedding, but notaries can't certify a wedding in Pennsylvania Gotcha. That's great insight.

Speaker 3:

So who are your target customers and how do you track them? Yeah, so I mean pretty much anyone who needs. So there's two tiers of notary service. There's just kind of the general notary, like oh, I need a deed notarized, I need a power of attorney or an affidavit notarized. And then there's the vehicle stuff. Like when people think notary, they think oh, plates and registration. Like when people think notary, they think, oh, plates and registration. That's actually called a full agent notary and that is certified through the Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicles or Department of Transportation, whereas the notary public stuff the affidavits and all that that is regulated and certified by Pennsylvania Department of State. So I am a regular notary public so I cannot do plates, registration, title transfers, collecting taxes on a vehicle sale on behalf of the Commonwealth. So I'm working on becoming a full agent notary but I'm not. So my ideal client would be somebody who doesn't need the full agent notary services. We actually have a sign on our door that says we cannot notarize vehicle titles right now but we still. It does not stop deter people from coming in and asking if we can help them with their vehicle transfers.

Speaker 3:

But my ideal client would be either, you know, someone who needs a real estate closing and either they're traveling and they can't be there for the in-person closing and their title company is permitting them to execute the closing documents via remote online notary. I've helped a ton of people with that. And then also folks who need their estate documents updated, like their will their power of attorney, their healthcare power of attorney, their durable general power of attorney. In Pennsylvania. Those documents usually require two witnesses, so the ROM session has to be the principal signer, myself, and then two witnesses, so four total participants. And one of the services I offer is, if people can't find witnesses, I can provide two witnesses for Ron appointments or office appointments. I've had trouble finding people willing to travel with me into hospitals ever since COVID, so I can no longer offer witnesses for mobile appointments, but for Ron and office appointments I can provide two witnesses for folks.

Speaker 2:

Okay, excellent, and Ron, meaning remote online notary appointments.

Speaker 3:

Remote online notary correct.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's the state official acronym. Excellent excellent.

Speaker 3:

So, as we know that marketing is kind of the heart of every business, have you ever thought about doing your own podcast to reach your target audience? So not as a notary, but when I was running the moving company, I had sort of this fantasy of doing a podcast where I would sit down with people ideally in my head it was like local, like Pittsburgh celebrities, like Pittsburgh dad and sports folks and people like that and ask them about their moving experiences and perhaps their moving horror stories and then talk about what I would have done differently. Or you know how Steel City Movers packs fragile items or how Steel City Movers moves dressers and mirrors and things like that. But obviously that never got off the ground and now steel city movers is defunct. But that was. That was sort of the podcast I had, you know, in my head but never really thought about applying it to the notary business quite yet no, not particularly gotcha outside of work.

Speaker 2:

What do you do for fun, brian?

Speaker 3:

um, so I now my daughter is now six. She she was born in 2019. She actually just turned six, so spending a lot of time with her. I really enjoy Star Wars. So consuming a lot of Star Wars content, whether it's the movies or the shows on Disney Plus the expanded universe content. Reading the books I collect lightsabers that's kind of my little nerdy, geeky, adult collectible thing. And then I enjoy making movies. Actually, the people who work at IPV litigation services with me are all. We all have film backgrounds. Or, in fact, in the case of Nick who's also with Steel City Notary, he and I met at film school, you know, many, many years ago. So we actually over the slow season in the winter. Last winter we actually shot a short film and we're in the process of editing it now. So making little narrative shorts just for fun, playing with my daughter and consuming Star Wars content. Also, 3d printing I really enjoy 3D printing.

Speaker 2:

Oh, very neat. Yeah, you could film something about you guys fighting with lightsabers and then edit some special effects in there.

Speaker 3:

I actually did that as a high schooler, before I had lightsabers, when we just had little like bamboo sticks. We would shoot a video in my parents backyard and then we'd rotoscope it in like Windows Movie Maker to have the little lightsaber effect.

Speaker 2:

What a cool memory. And now, instead of bamboo sticks, you can 3D print your own lightsaber.

Speaker 3:

That's true.

Speaker 2:

Well, Brian, please tell our listeners one thing that they should remember about Steel City. Notary.

Speaker 3:

One thing they should remember about Steel City Notary is I believe I'm the only notary in Pittsburgh who will meet you in your pajamas, so that's via remote online notary. If you need a notary at three o'clock in the morning, ideally it'd be better to set the appointment than try to call me at 3 amam when I'll be sleeping. But if I managed to wake up and hear the call, I will log into my computer and we can notarize something in our pajamas. And I actually have a little car magnet that says notary in your PJs.

Speaker 3:

So, that's my little tagline.

Speaker 2:

When money calls, we're answering right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And how can our listeners learn more about Steel City?

Speaker 3:

Notary. So my website is wwwsteelcitynotarycom. Steel, obviously like the metal, like the Steel City. And then on the website we actually have a booking form or an appointment request form where people can say you know I need you on this day, at this time, and what type of appointment? Is it a mobile appointment? Is it an office appointment? Is it a RON? So people can request appointments directly through the website and those emails go to both Nick and myself. Nick's email is notary at steelcitynotarycom. My email is brian at steelcitynotarycom. Brian with a Y Steel City Notary can also be found on Facebook, though admittedly I haven't been super active in keeping the posts up to date, but we are on there and if people message the Steel City Notary Facebook page it'll come as a Facebook message request to me and I'll chat with them.

Speaker 2:

Excellent. Well, Brian, I really appreciate your time today and having you as a guest on the show. We wish you and your business the best moving forward.

Speaker 3:

Awesome. Thank you very much, Lila. I really appreciate the invite and this was a lot of fun.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNP Pittsburghcom. That's GNP Pittsburghcom, or call 412-561-9956.