California Escrow Association
President’s Message, November 6, 2019
Is It Your Escrow Career, Or Theirs?
This last weekend I presided over my last Board of Directors meeting as President of the California Escrow Association (CEA). Taking the train home I had a good two hours to relax, think and digest my impressions of this last year. A person gets a different view of the organization, you know, when you are at the top looking down and across the whole expanse.
Is escrow your career? Many, many years ago I made the decision that this was going to be mine. I had a B.A. in International Affairs, I was going to school for my MBA, and then, bam! I fell into escrow. The more I worked at my Broker Owned Escrow Dept the more I realized I needed help from other people who understood escrow and the process. I needed to talk to someone who understood my escrow language; I needed to be able to bounce questions off someone; I needed to hear what headaches other people were having. I found my local escrow association - the Escrow Associates of San Gabriel Valley (EASGV) - and the rest is history. 40 years later I am looking back on the business that I built and the reputation that I have garnered. It was hard work, of course, but without realizing it, I had become a part of a professional family!
At first I joined for the peer group companionship (someone to commiserate with). Then I realized that I needed the education (what the heck is an AITD?). Years later I realized that I needed to find out what outside factors were going to affect my desk (what the heck is FIRPTA?). When you own your own business, you want to be sure you get it all upfront and first hand. No second hand news for me! I lasted in this grindingly competitive and stressful industry because of my ties to my local association. What I am today professionally is due to them. They really did have my back.
Do you look at escrow as your career, too? The whole California Escrow Association organization and all its 25 regionals throughout the state welcomes you. They exist to provide you with education; to provide you with peer group support; to provide you with an organization that you can take pride in and proclaim your membership far and wide. The California Escrow Association is an organization made up of people of all races, education and cultural backgrounds. It is an organization of inclusivity. No one is excluded. Look at me! I am a Chinese- American immigrant, for crying out loud, and not even first or second generation! From the moment I joined and as I worked my way up to the very top, I have been welcomed and embraced and given the support which carried me through the years. This last meeting in November was clearly a celebration of our inclusivity.
I told everyone one year ago and I have repeated it again and again through the year:
Invest in your future,
Bank on yourself.
Look out for yourself.
Give yourself value,
Give yourself worth.
Don’t rely on others to bring you the news and education second or third hand. Come and learn for yourself first-hand. How do you know they heard everything right? How do you know they didn’t miss anything important? Is it your career or theirs? Is it your derrière on the line or theirs?
Think about it. Join me! Join us! Click on this link
Juliana Tu, CSEO, CEO, CBSS, CEI, SASIP
2019 (64th) President of the California Escrow Association
Visit us at www.ceaescrow.org
Soaring To New Heights
I am honored to have been given the opportunity to lead the California Escrow Association (CEA) in 2019. I am also exquisitely aware that I am the first President of Chinese descent to do so and hopefully not the last.
My theme this year will be “Soaring To New Heights” and my goals are twofold:
First, to increase and expand CEA’s visibility; to bring awareness of our organization to the real estate and financial industries as well as the general public. We must educate and promote understanding of our very important role as the linchpin of the process by which consumers achieve their American Dream of home ownership, of asset expansion, and of business acquisition.
Second, to encourage all escrow professionals to join and become a part of the CEA "pack". As a pack, we watch each others' back, we support each other. The bigger the pack, the more we can withstand, the more we get noticed, and the bigger the impact we will make. I ask each escrow professional to join. Invest in your own future. Give yourself value, give yourself worth. Take pride in what we do. Take pride in our industry.
Soar with me!
Knowledge is Power!
Juliana has passed the tests to be professionally designated as CSEO (Certified Senior Escrow Officer),
CEO (Certified Escrow Officer), CBSS (Certified Bulk Sale Specialist), CEI (Certified Escrow Instructor)
and the American Escrow Association’s Senior American Settlement Industry Professional (SASIP).
Paying it Forward
There are many Escrow Officers in our community. Ultimately, what sets each Escrow Officer apart is his/her ingrained beliefs. For Juliana, her motto has always been to “Pay it Forward”, forward to the next generation of escrow officers.
Knowledge and experience is nothing if it is not used for the benefit of others and not passed on to the new generation of escrow officers.