Meet Janessa West

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Janessa West a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Janessa, so great to have you with us today. There are so many topics we want to ask you about, but perhaps the one we can start with is burnout. How have you overcome or avoided burnout?

​In the mobile notary business, especially serving the emotional spectrum of needs across St. Louis, burnout isn’t just about the miles—it’s about the mental and emotional weight you carry. I’ve been in high-stakes situations, from time-sensitive real estate closings to standing at a family’s side as a loved one is on their deathbed. While these moments are taxing, they are also where I recognize the immense value of my service—being called a “saving grace” reminds me why I do this. To sustain that level of presence, I treat my car not just as an office, but as a mental decompression chamber. The drive between appointments is essential; I intentionally use that time to mentally disengage by calling a friend or listening to music, ensuring the stress from the last client doesn’t bleed into the next. Since starting in 2017, I’ve learned that not everyone is my customer, and knowing when to say “No” protects my ability to serve the clients I can help best. Most importantly, my ultimate recharge is stepping away completely: whether it’s a big trip or just an afternoon of hiking or kayaking with my dog. This time in nature resets my attitude 100%, allowing MobileNotaryStLouis.com to continue offering the reliable, focused peace of mind our clients need.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

At MobileNotaryStLouis.com, we lead a dedicated team that delivers professional, on-demand notary services across the entire St. Louis metro area. While I founded and own the business, our strength lies in our comprehensive staff: a highly-trained team of mobile notaries and specialized administrative personnel. We handle everything from simple notarizations to complex, multi-document loan closings. When you call us, you aren’t booking a single person; you’re accessing an efficient system designed to ensure availability and punctuality, bringing the entire legal process right to your office, home, or hospital bedside.
What Makes Us Special: The Scale of Service, The Focus on Peace
What makes us truly special is our ability to combine the scale of a team with the personal touch required for high-stakes documents. Because we have multiple commissioned notaries, we can cover appointments quickly and efficiently, even handling last-minute needs that single-person operations often have to turn away. This collective strength translates directly into peace of mind for our clients.
We see our notaries serving the community in moments that matter most—whether it’s securing a family’s financial future with a real estate closing or providing crucial assistance during an emotional estate planning situation. Our administrative support ensures that our notaries are focused purely on accuracy and professionalism at the signing table. It’s this commitment to seamless, reliable, and respectful service that makes MobileNotaryStLouis.com a “saving grace” for St. Louis families and businesses.

The Next Chapter: Strategic Focus on Specialized Expertise and Global Reach
The professional focus at MobileNotaryStLouis.com is strategically prioritizing services that demand the highest level of specialized knowledge and dedication. We are intensifying our efforts and customer outreach in two key areas where our team already provides exceptional service: Estate Planning Notarization and Global Document Authentication. Dealing with estate documents is often sensitive, and we work closely with attorneys and families to ensure our team provides the flawless, compassionate execution these clients require. Furthermore, we are amplifying our capability to assist people anywhere in the world who need U.S. documents legalized for foreign use. Our Online Notary (RON) services allow signers located globally to have their U.S. documents notarized instantly, and our team then manages the complex process of obtaining the necessary Nationwide Apostille or Authentication—a service that provides St. Louis residents and international clients a single, expert point of contact for complex, cross-border document needs.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Three Pillars of Success for MobileNotaryStLouis.com
Running a professional mobile notary team requires more than just a commission; it demands a unique combination of discipline, emotional intelligence, and relentless focus. Looking back over our journey since 2017, the three qualities that have been most impactful for the success of MobileNotaryStLouis.com are Operational Rigor, Emotional Resilience, and Unwavering Professionalism.
1. Operational Rigor: The Non-Negotiable of Reliability
In the mobile service industry, punctuality and accuracy are non-negotiable. Operational rigor is the skill of executing every step of the business process—from scheduling and driving routes to document verification—with flawless consistency. It means building internal systems (like our team scheduling and administrative support) that ensure we are on time for every client and that the documents are signed and returned correctly the first time.
Advice: Early on, document every step of your process. Create a written, step-by-step checklist for every type of signing you do. This makes training your team easier, drastically reduces expensive errors, and is the foundation of reliability.
2. Emotional Resilience: Handling High-Stakes Moments
Our service often involves clients during the most stressful times of their lives. Emotional resilience is the ability to walk into that high-stress environment, remain absolutely calm, and execute the notarization with competence and compassion, without letting the client’s stress affect your performance or carry into your personal life.
Advice: Practice mindful disengagement. After a difficult appointment, use the drive to perform a quick mental reset. Learn to view yourself as a necessary, professional anchor of stability in a difficult situation, not as an emotional participant.
3. Unwavering Professionalism: The Power of Knowledge
In our specialized areas, like Apostille Services and complex estate documents, clients are paying for expertise. Unwavering Professionalism means constantly investing in knowledge—knowing the notary laws, understanding specific document requirements, and staying current with national and international authentication processes.
Advice: Invest heavily in advanced training immediately. Seek out certification courses and specialized training in your niche (like loan signing or apostilles). The cost of the training is always less than the cost of a single major mistake. Your knowledge is your brand’s biggest competitive advantage.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

At MobileNotaryStLouis.com, we are actively seeking professional partners who value accuracy, client-focused service, and efficiency. Our goal is to serve as a trusted, reliable extension of their own business.
We are specifically looking to collaborate with two key types of professionals:
1. Estate Planning Attorneys & Financial Advisors
We seek firms and independent advisors in the St. Louis metro area who handle Wills, Trusts, and Powers of Attorney. These documents require discretion and flawless execution, often under sensitive circumstances (like hospital or home visits). By partnering with us, they gain a team of notaries who specialize in these complex signings, ensuring their documents are executed correctly the first time, every time, giving their clients peace of mind.
2. International Law Firms & Immigration Specialists
We are seeking partners who frequently deal with cross-border document authentication. Because of our expertise in Nationwide Apostille and Authentication services, we can streamline the lengthy, complex legalization process for their clients. If an attorney is working on a case that requires documents to be used in a foreign country, our team can handle the entire Apostille process seamlessly.
How to Connect
If any professionals are reading this and want to partner with a mobile notary team dedicated to expert, reliable service, the best way to connect is directly through our website.
Visit our website: www.MobileNotaryStLouis.com
Email: [email protected]
Reach out directly to discuss partnership opportunities. Please title your email “Magazine Collaboration Inquiry” so our administrative team can fast-track the conversation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.MobileNotaryStLouis.com

Image Credits

Janessa West