Ep. 4June 7, 2018· 40:26
04 - Davy Keith, Quantum Process | Mighty Process Server in Mississippi
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Episode Highlights
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In this episode of "Process Server Daily," host Mighty Mike Reid chats with Davy Keith of Quantum Process, who shares insights from his extensive career in the process serving industry. Despite a challenging start involving a severe motorcycle accident, Keith uses his past experiences in law enforcement and private investigation to navigate the complexities of managing his process-serving business. He shares a dramatic story of one particular serve, offering valuable lessons learned from the encounter.
- 01:50 — Host Mighty Mike introduces the show and guest, Davy Keith.
- 03:55 — Davy Keith shares how he started in the process serving industry after working as a private investigator.
- 06:30 — Insights into the transition from private investigation to full-time process serving and how it built his business.
- 08:05 — Discussing the unexpected nature of his career path and the role of faith.
- 09:25 — The story of meeting his wife through his work, showcasing the connections made in the field.
- 11:10 — Davy discusses the importance of knowing when to back off from serving, especially in potentially dangerous situations.
- 13:45 — A detailed recount of a challenging serve that taught him to hire others for difficult jobs.
- 19:30 — Davy mentions strategies he used in the past and why certain tactics are no longer effective.
- 22:15 — A dramatic encounter with a sheriff during an attempted serve and lessons learned.
- 25:55 — Mighty Mike closes the episode encouraging listeners to apply learned strategies and stay safe.
Full Transcript
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:You know, $10,000 and a lot of mental anguish. But out of this I have learned one important lesson. Never, ever, ever assume that just because you're acting as an arm of the law and that you're, and that you're doing, even if you're not doing anything wrong, that you can't get in trouble or be charged with something. And when there is a. What I didn't know at the time was that he was friends with her husband, used to work on the force together. So this was kind of a brother, you know, deal. When I encounter confrontation, severe confrontation, or when people are absolutely adverse to getting served, to back off the serving, it's not worth me getting into a physical confrontation, getting sued, getting arrested. And sometimes I just send a different server more often now I send the sheriff's department and we have a really good server here locally, which it wasn't in my county anyway. But that was, that was a really big learning experience.
Intro:So. So, Davey, that's an awesome thing to take from your story. I enjoyed that story. Listening to Process Server Daily, the show where hustle meets strategy in the high stakes world of process serving. From elite pros to the new servers taking massive action, these are the voices of a rising industry. Hosted by the founder of 1, 2, 3 legal support, mighty Mike Reed. This is your backstage path to building a profitable process serving empire. Let's get it to it. Take a minute to fill in the gaps and tell us a little bit about your personal life.
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:Well, I'm over the hill, just turned 44 I think this year if I remember correctly. And I've been involved in the process industry since probably around 97 and started out as a private investigator in this, in private work and did that for about three years or so and then started doing process serving and kind of like that a lot better. And as far as personal life, you know, do have quantum process. That is what keeps me busy Monday through Friday and then weekends. I'm, I'm usually doing other things but fortunately I've gotten to the point where have a lot of, a lot of people that serve for me. So I more or less just manage my company now.
Mighty Mike:That's excellent when you can get to a point where you're able to just kind of control your business and spend your time in the office making sure that everything is good. Do you ever get out there and show them how it's done?
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:Well, fortunately I have a team of really good servers and I like to offer, you know, as I review the serves, offer suggestions and just experience Some of the servers have been doing it longer than I have.
Mighty Mike:Oh, wow.
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:You know, I consider going out. I do go out when I can. You know, just some local, local serves. It's, it works better for me to kind of control and you know, I still enjoy. I really, it's ironic because I said that I would never get to that point and it just kind of happened.
Mighty Mike:Yeah. And it, and it does happen. So Dave, before we move on too far into your business, because I know you're doing a lot of awesome things and you got some cool stories to tell today. How many kids do you have?
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:Sure, I have three that I know of. And let's see. Seriously, I have three. Kayden, he's turning 14 next month. And Josh just turned 12 this month. And Mikayla, she's nine. Great wife. We've been married 16 years. Things real going real well there.
Mighty Mike:That's awesome. That's awesome. Family is most important and absolutely, you know, as process servers, we go out there and sometimes we come home. I mean, to me it's, it's what makes the job worth it. You know, you come back and you see your kids and you're like, okay, I'm going out and sacrificing all this time, it's for something, right? So that's why I like to start the podcast with the family. Some people don't want to really linger on it because they don't want everyone to know their personal life.
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:But that's pretty easy to find these days with Facebook. If you're on Facebook, there's hardly any secrets anymore.
Mighty Mike:That's true, that's true. So how did you get started? You said you're a private investigator, but tell me the story. Who gave you your start? Who did you meet or how'd that happen?
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:Well, ever since I was walking and could, far back as I can remember, I wanted to be in law enforcement. It was just something about that field that really appealed to me. I went to, went to college, got a four year degree in criminal justice and that was what I had my, my heart set on because I really enjoyed everything there was about law enforcement. So I got, got involved in that, worked at a small police department, had a, had a bad motorcycle wreck. I used to ride motorcycles quite a bit. And while I was in the hospital recovering from that, a job that I'd really wanted in law enforcement. They said that I was going to be able to go to that particular academy. But in the meantime, as I was recovering, I had decided to start kind of on I'm 4th generation self employed and started doing some PI work and it just kind of hit the ground running. I remember back before I did any of this, a friend of mine had told me, you know what you really need to do? You need to try to serve papers. And I said, what is that where you go out and you serve a court paper? And I said, okay, well that might be something. So it did. It was integrated into my Keith Investigations was the name of my business. But it really didn't take off until, you know, I kind of got burnt out in the PI field and let the law enforcement job go and I started doing that and eventually shifted over to doing process serving full time. I can't really remember who gave me my first serve but really all of this just happened. It never really was planned. And that was really what's kind of awesome about it. I'm a strong believer in faith and God. And you know, this was not. If you would have told me in college or growing up, this is what you're going to be. You're going to have a process serving company. I would have been disappointed because it didn't sound very exciting and I wanted a life full of excitement. But it just kind of happened, you know, and that's the weird part about it, but it's, it's built on itself and continues to do that. And you know, today we do very little advertising because don't have to really. So it worked out.
Mighty Mike:That's great. So you, so you started your business and as private investigation and you still do private investigation?
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:No, you know, I tell people when they. I still get calls for something that I haven't been doing for 16 years and I tell them, you know, if you offer me $50,000 to do a case, I don't think I would take it.
Mighty Mike:Really.
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:It's. It's one of those things that, you know, it's really good that it happened because actually that's how I met my wife. I was hired by my future mother in law at the time and the more I got to know her, the more, you know, I really felt like she was a very upstanding, really, really good person. And at the time I was kind of looking for a wife and so aster I said, do you happen to have a daughter? She said yes, I do. And so that's how I met my. And you know, I had to meet her dad after everything kind of came out that was kind of awkward, but he's a really good guy and everything worked out.
Mighty Mike:Davey, you got a lot going on and there's a reason why you're on my show. I heard you tell an awesome story and I wanted to get into the different stories. And that's what makes the Podcast Process Server Daily such a cool podcast and why we are getting more listeners every day. You're full of experiences, and let's get to your worst experience working in the field.
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:Sure. You know, my worst experience has probably been one of my greatest lessons. I am a hard charger. I don't give up. You know, when someone doesn't want to be served, that. That made me more determined to get it done. And, you know, I've learned over the years that not only is it, you know, not a good idea to keep going when. When there is possibly dangerous serve, but when someone just doesn't want to be served. I know that sounds counterintuitive to what we do, but there's serves that you should back off from. And the experience that I'll tell you about is one that has helped me understand how to do that and how to, you know, if the situation is going bad, how to hire another, get another server in there, just get a fresh face or look at it from a different angle. But this happened probably around six, seven, eight years ago. But I had just a regular subpoena for deposition. It was in a domestic matter. And the person I was trying to serve was a teacher who happened to be a counselor as well, for a child that was, you know, caught up, you know, in the divorce, you know, you have the child custody. For whatever reason, the plaintiff needed to subpoena this teacher to have a deposition. So, you know, I'm thinking this can't be any big deal. You know, first mistake, any kind of domestic service, you have to really do yourself a favor and read the complaint, kind of get a background, talk to the attorney to make sure there's nothing in there. You know, I'd went to the house or either I called the lady. I can't remember which one I did first this week. I've done that before, just, hey, my name's Davey Keith. Have a subpoena need to give you and diffuse the situation if there's any kind of get a feel for the situation again, that sounds like, well, why would you want to do that? Then they're not going to come to the door. It's just different strategies. So I made contact or I left a voicemail. Her husband called me back and he was very, very upset, very belligerent, very. Just very rude. And I said, look, you know, your former law enforcement, I'm Former law enforcement said, you know, this is nothing personal. I said, you know, even I tell people to this day, if I give you this opinion and you don't want to go, you know, you do it, do what you want to. It's not. It's up to you. This is still free country, you know. After that conversation, it was a clue that, especially some of the things he said. It probably wasn't the best idea to proceed with the service, but nonetheless, I did. Went out to the house, knocked on the door, nobody would answer the door. A car was there. So I kind of backed off for a minute and sat and thought. And I have this. Had this strategy. I no longer use it, but, you know, squeaky wheel gets the oil, no matter who you're dealing with. And I knocked on the door for probably a couple minutes, not just beating down the door or just knocking the door, hoping that she'd get tired and come to the door and answer it or the police would get called. That was the strategy, because I had called the sheriff's department, said, hey, if you get a call, I'm at this address trying to serve this paper. Okay, that's fine. And I checked with a neighbor. Neighbor said, she's home. So after knocking on the door for four or five minutes, I did another little strategy, which was to leave, get in the car, drive around, stay, you know, make the block or go a mile or two and return. And I can't tell you how many people I've caught outside looking around, seeing if things been disturbed. When I came back, she was leaving the house, walking out of the house, and a sheriff was pulling in. And I said, well, this is good, you know, gonna get this served. Well, I saw who the deputy was, and that was the first major sign that I needed to just drive on, because I'd had problems with this deputy before, interfering with service. I had talked to the sheriff about this, him, and he said, if you ever have a problem with him, just let me know. Well, I made the decision to go ahead and get out. And I didn't park behind him because tactically speaking, they don't like when you block them in or whatever. So I pulled into the neighbor's house, walked out. He still didn't see me. So as I got closer, I said, hey, Sheriff, his name. And I said, how you doing? He said, who are you? And I said, well, I'm Davey Keith. I'm the one that. I called you guys about the service. And so he shouted to me to stay, to stay at my car. And when he said that, I said, you know what? This is not gonna go well. So I stayed at my car and he walked over to the lady and they proceeded to have a conversation. And this was, I guess, another bad decision on my part. I should have been patient, just stood there without saying a word. But after what seemed to me like several minutes, I said, ma', am, I'm just here to serve you a paper. So I laid it on the ground and went to get back in my car. And he ran up to me, full sprint and had his taser out. And he said, if you move, I'm tasing you. So I just stood there. So he grabbed me and threw me on my car, the hood of my car, hard enough to dent my car, the hood and put me in cuffs and told me to sit down on the hood of my car. So I did. And he went back over to the lady. And at the time I was wearing Bluetooth, you know, this was, yes, that was the thing back then. But I was able to inch my shoulder over and double click the button and it called somebody. And I said, hey, I need you to call this attorney, tell him to call the sheriff and tell him, you know, what's going on. Anyway, the word got back to the, to the client who called the sheriff. Well, I stayed in cuffs and he saw me talking on that, so he ran over, ripped it off my head and said, you have any other phones? You know, he was kind of screaming at me, I said, no, I don't. So he took me and put me in his patrol car. And I sat there for about at least an hour while they talked and talked and talked. So he gets in the car, doesn't say a word, we drive to the jail. Mind you, I've taken people to jail, but I've never been in jail, like incarcerated. So I'm not feeling very good about this situation. And we get to the jail, he made some comments to me, you know, about, you know, welcome to my county. And this is what you get when you act stupid or something. And I didn't say anything. So they strip searched me and put me in an orange jumpsuit, put me in leg irons and then also hand irons, actually had me stand on the wall for about 30 minutes. And I didn't complain. I just stood there, throw me in the drunk tank with another guy and made good friends with him. And so I'm thinking this is really, I don't know what's going to happen here because hours and hours and hours were going.
Mighty Mike:Here you are Serving legal process. Right. It's all about perception. Here you are a process server who's been in law enforcement before, been in the situ. I was just in a situation like this the other day where I got out of the car and walked up when they told me to stay in the car and I said, listen, I'm already serving her. And I served her and walked away. They listened to me. But in this case, this was a guy you've had a problem with before. Take. So you're already. At this point, I just want to like emphasize you're in an orange jumpsuit as a process server in jail, sitting next to someone who potentially could have arrested before. In the past, probably not. Right. But now you're friends with the guy or your least acquaintances with the guy. Where does it go from there?
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:Well, I had any time I would have a confrontational serve back then. I would call my wife before and then as soon as I got through, I'd call her and say everything's fine. Well, I had called her and told her the situation and she never hears back from me because I didn't think about telling the attorney to call her. So after an hour or so or she's wondering what happened? Is he dead? And so I'm sitting there in jail and it is a very bad feeling, you know, even though you know that it's going to turn out okay. And what possibly. But see, at this point, I didn't know what he was going to charge me with. I didn't know. See, I carry a gun, concealed carry permit, strong second amendment supporter. Obviously I have a firearms business and I don't believe in. I never ever, ever want to shoot anyone. I have pulled my gun. That was the bad, other bad service I was going to tell you about. So I'm thinking, okay, is he going to charge me? Say something that I, that I tried to use this gun. What story did they concoct while this timeframe went on? They would never tell me what I was charged with, which was another problem. But you know, I'm in jail and it goes for eight hours and finally they tell me, someone here to see you, and it's my wife. So I get out and they let me bond out and if come turns out they had five charges on me, they impounded my car. I mean, it's just blown me away. What, what can you possibly be charging me with? Well, I'll tell you. Trespassing, criminal trespass, family disturbance, failure to obey a lawful order. And I think the other one was impersonating A police officer. I had a badge at the time. And this is another thing. Story we can talk about it clearly said process server. I don't promote badges. I can go on and on and on about that. And not just this one, but anyway. And I had made it clear to her and her husband that I was a process server. I was not law enforcement, but they charged me with it anyway. So we get out, we go get my car, and this is about $2,000 by the time I pay the bond and getting the car back. I'm glad he didn't charge me with. You say that I had, you know, used the firearm in this, you know, charged me with some really bad. You know, it was all misdemeanors. Well, the next day, she finds out that I'm going to charge her with interference with process. Because in the state of Mississippi, Mississippi code 97975, any person who interferes or avoids process can be charged with a criminal offense. So at this time, we've got attorneys. So her attorney calls my attorney, says, oh, wait a minute. She's gonna. If you won't charge her with that, she's gonna drop all her charges. And at the time, I was like, that's fine, because I don't have any problem with her. My problem is with that deputy, because he's the one who trumped this up. And there was gonna be that one charge with him, which was disorderly conduct. So that went away. You know, I had to sign that I wouldn't sue her, and I was. I was fine with that because, you know, she didn't want to be served and whatever. That's fine. But the way the deputy handled this, my. My bond was with him of contention that took about two. Well, it took about a year to finally go to court on this. And we're standing in court. He gets up in court and says that he told me to stay at my car. And he told me that five times. And I kept charging him or breaking away from my car. I got on the stand. I said, you, Honor, that's a complete lie. I said, prior law enforcement. He told me to stay at my car. I stayed at my car. I said, that's not the truth. And he found me guilty anyway, went on the officer's testimony, which, conveniently, they don't have cameras or audio at the time. And the statement he had made to me in jail conveniently disappeared. Something lightning had hit the jail is what they said, and destroyed the recording. So I'm convicted of criminal disorderly conduct, which is a Misdemeanor. But I wasn't gonna let that lie, so I sued him for false arrest. I hired three different attorneys because the first one turned out to be a drunk. The second one just wasn't aggressive enough. Then the third one was the right one. We started doing depositions with her and the deputy. All of a sudden, her testimony was not lining up with what he said I did. So they're beginning to think, oh, we got a problem. She's not saying. She's saying that I stayed in my car, which was what I did. So they start talking, okay, we want to settle. And I told the attorney, attorney, you know, this is not about money. This is about what he did. And I did an investigation into him, and there was multiple reports all throughout the county of people he had done wrong. Many deputies that worked there did not like him. So, anyway, long story short, they offered a settlement, went ahead and took the settlement, which was only about. Cost me 10 grand, all the attorneys and everything. It was a $13,000 settlement. So whatever, I made 3,000. But it was not worth. It was worth the learning experience. And ultimately what happened was he got let go, got the settlement, and I got that charge dropped. So it took me two years and, you know, $10,000 and a lot of mental anguish. But out of this, I have learned one important lesson. Never, ever, ever assume that just because you're acting as an arm of the law and that you're. And that you're doing. Even if you're not doing anything wrong, that you can't get in trouble or be charged with something. And when there is a. What I didn't know at the time was that he was friends with her husband, used to work on the force together. So this was kind of a brother, you know, deal. When I encounter confrontation, severe confrontation, or when people are absolutely adverse to getting served, to back off the serving, it's not worth me getting into a physical confrontation, getting sued, getting arrested. And sometimes I just send a different server more often now I send the sheriff's department, and we have a really good server here locally, which it wasn't in my county anyway, but that was. That was a really big learning experience.
Mighty Mike:So, Davey, that's an awesome thing to take from your story. I enjoyed that story. Hey, quick break from the episode to tell you about something that's changing the game for process servers across the country. It's called Mighty Process Servers. And, yeah, you can join absolutely free inside. You'll get full access to every course, every download, and the educational tools that we use. To help process servers build profitable companies. We meet every Tuesday at 1pm Eastern for our live Mighty Mastermind call. Come join the conversation. You can connect with other professionals, post on the discussion board, direct message members and become part of one of the most engaged communities for process servers. Don't wait. Go to mightyprocess server.com and join today. Those who get verified, get listed and start bidding on jobs same day. Now let's get back to the show, But tell me about your greatest experience working in the field.
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:I think that perhaps it is a culmination of people that I've been able to meet. I can't tell you on the number of occasions that I've been invited for dinner. I've been invited back to people's houses in the south where they're, you know, people are very hospitality oriented. And when I go out to serve and I've seen some of your videos, I don't come up there and say I'm looking for so and so. I get up there and say, hey, y' all believe we got that six inches of snow this year, you know, or is it a beautiful day? And whatever I needed to do to break the ice because I'm there to get this job served. But I'm also there because you're dealing with people. And I tell people all the time, just because you're getting served with papers doesn't mean you've done anything wrong. That's why, you know, I'm actually doing you a favor by being here. And I know you don't think that, but if I wasn't here to notify you of what's going on, you'd never know. People could railroad you in a court action. But the greatest experiences I've had are being able to meet with people and actually get very, very personal information of a situation and perhaps even share my faith. I have prayed with people on a number of occasions and I'm not saying that to toot my horn. It's just because you get to meet people in probably some of the, I know when this happened to me or anytime you've got a lawsuit hanging over your head, it's a very bad experience. And when you can actually offer comfort to someone in the smallest way, whatever that may be, that's been probably the greatest reward or best experience I've had. You know, being able to help people hang on when they're, this could be the straw that makes the camel's back. And I've seen people, we all know people who've committed suicide and this May be the very last thing that pushes someone over the edge. And I've had situations where people admitted to me, you know, I was contemplating that and I said, look, this is why you need to live. This is why you need to keep going. All this stuff is going to go away this time next year. This is not even going to be an issue. So being able to meet the people, we have, some people we've served so many times, and I've made really good friends, and I take all the server jokes in stride, you know, about, you know, if I'd have saw you coming, I'd have ran the other way. Yeah, yeah. A lot of people say that. So it's hard to nail down one exact one. But I do have one. I just can't really say. I just can't go into details. But she was basically, you know, being sued and had no money and was trying to raise some kids, and we were able to help her in a small way. And that was probably one of the most rewarding things.
Mighty Mike:That's awesome. So there's a couple things I got from your story. So, first of all, you're human. We're all human. We get out there, we're out there serving. Yeah. We don't want the feeling of rejection, the feeling of somebody like yelling at us. We don't want that. But the truth is, when you get out there, you do have a job to do. You get the job done. But doesn't mean you can't be professional. Doesn't mean you can't be a human. I don't know. You said you saw some of my videos, and I don't know if it's for them or for me, but I feel like when I'm like, hey, I love this porch. Did you build this deck? And they're like, yeah, who are you? I'm a processor. Yeah. That's the part that I don't really want. We don't talk about that too much. Here's that. But seriously, what did you use to varnish this deck? You know, like long conversations with guys that are just really cool or, you
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:know, and that's why I'd like to iterate just quickly that we don't employ gimmicks for the most part. We don't employ deceitful tactics. I mean, there's going to be some people that you absolutely know, without a doubt, you're going to have to use some kind of. You may choose to use some kind of tactic that is not. It makes them think you're there for Another reason, but it just makes me feel icky. The longer I do this, the more I like to knock on the door, tell them my name, and I'm trying to get in touch with so and so and when he's not here. Okay, well, here's my phone number. Can you tell me to give me a call? I don't have to go into what it is. If they ask, I'll say, sure, it's court papers. Not a big deal. You know, I don't. I don't. I do a lot of straightforward serving. That's kind of where I've come to. And.
Mighty Mike:And I appreciate that you've mentioned Davey. I appreciate you mentioned faith. Faith is a big part of my life too. I know that. I'm a Second Amendment supporter. I'm a, you know, conservative. And. But the thing is, I know there are so many people out there that have different views, and I don't want them to think that I judge them differently. So I don't go into it a lot, but I gotta tell you, there's a lot to that when it comes to serving. Getting out of the car, it's pitch dark outside. You know there's a dog somewhere. You're out in the middle of nowhere in the country, and if you don't have faith that somebody's looking out for you, then you must be the baddest mama jama out there. You know what I mean?
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:I had another situation. Won't make this one very long at all, but there was several people. Had to search some adoption papers on a guy. There was three ex cons. I didn't know there were ex con. One of them actually killed someone. So I got out to serve him and it turned into a scuffle. He pushed me, and when he did, I had my pepper spray my hands, I sprayed him. Well, that kept the other two guys from jumping me and. Which would have been a deadly force situation. Three guys against me, got back to my car, got out of there. So intermediate level of force is also good. Carrying pepper spray. Big proponent of that. But that intermediate level of force actually saved either my life or their life because I have no doubt they wanted to jump me. When I got back to my car, they started beating on my car.
Mighty Mike:Wow. Mississippi process servers, man. Watch out.
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:A lot of this has to do with how you approach people.
Mighty Mike:Yeah.
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:And knowing when not to approach people. If they're out there drinking or using, don't walk up there and try to serve them a favor. Bad timing.
Mighty Mike:Yeah. Timing in place. I call it prime Time, you know, I don't want to go. So somebody tells me. Just one little tip. If someone tells me that there's a guy they need to have served and he's an alcoholic, I'm not going at nighttime, I'm not going at 6pm Because I know he's going to be drunk. I'm going at 9am, 8am, something like that, because he's going to be hungry, he might be a little cranky, but it'll be a little bit more clear headed. And every time I've done that, it's worked out. I mean, I had to serve a guy in his underwear on his front lawn, you know, at, you know, 6:30 in the morning one time because they said he starts drinking as soon as he wakes up. So I was there at 6:30.
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:I was going to say with an alcoholic you really never know when the best or worst time.
Mighty Mike:Yeah, exactly. So you got a lot going on. It's a. I feel like Server Nation is going to be able to learn a lot as far as defense from this podcast. So I'm really excited about that. But what kind of advice do you want to give to the struggling server out there right now that's trying to build his business?
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:Okay, so just a few short, really good tips that I've learned over the years. First of all, every opportunity you have, speak with that attorney in the courthouse, promote yourself, join as many process serving directories as you can. Go the extra mile for your client, your client's paying you $50, whatever, to serve. Go to that second address, do a skip trace, go the extra mile as often as you can to get your foot in the door and to prove yourself. You know, we're to the point where we don't guarantee service, we guarantee to make X number of attempts. But go the extra mile when you're responding to naps request or whatever that you may get, have a signature line because I can't tell you the number of people, I don't even respond to them. If they respond back from their iPhone, there's no signature line. $50 and that's it. And be specific when they ask you how much for how many attempts to attempt to serve, read what they're asking and respond to their questions briefly. Because I look for people who have an attention to detail. Because if they're responding back with an attention to detail and they have a signature line, you know, that shows me that they're on top of their game. But at every opportunity you have and also have another business, don't depend don't get a big business loan. Trying to get into the industry, have a source of income and build your. Let your business build itself on its own. Don't go out and get a $20,000 loan. Think you need that. All of my businesses were built from the ground up. Didn't start with a huge buy in. You don't have to have costly soft process server software. You can start just a simple spreadsheet or something. So there's some of the few things that I found that I encourage.
Mighty Mike:That's awesome. That's golden. Golden nuggets raining down on server nation right now. That is awesome. So what are you working on right now that has you most excited, most fired up?
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:Oh, well, in life. I'm actually bought a Humvee, military Humvee and just, just playing with that. There's so many. It's the. I thought the Jeep was the ultimate LEGO vehicle, but I have, I found out that this military vehicle, there's so many things you can do. You know, I wouldn't say that I'm a prepper per se, but I like to read a lot about, in time, apocalyptic type scenarios. So I'm working on my Humvee. I think I was painting because you could spray paint it and it looks cool, you know, don't even have. You could just sit there with a spray can. And so I'm doing that and I see my, my daughter kicking the soccer ball and I think to myself, I should probably should go over there and kick the ball with her. Well, I got, I got back, focused on what I was doing and looked up, she's kicking the ball, I should go kick the ball with her. So the third time I say, okay, so I put the paint can down, I go over there and we kick the ball for like 30 minutes. That probably was the most important thing I did that day. Because, you know, no matter what I have on my agenda, it's so easy as a workaholic, I guess you would say, or as a very focused person to forget some of the most important things. And that's making sure that you spend time with your children and your wife. Because I can tell you when I was out serving from dusk to dawn to dusk, that, you know, it affected my family life. And sometimes, unfortunately, early on you may have to do that. But, you know, once you can get to where you can, when you have time. For me, the most important thing is trying to remember it's not all about me. You know, I've got other people in my life I want to do things with that I need to do things with so that it will build that, you know, good relationships.
Mighty Mike:Yeah. Prior proper planning prevents problems has always been my, like, my five P's that I remember whenever I start planning. And I want to bring that up only because I have this similar situation. I call it promptings, if you will. Like, I get prompted like, okay, like a good example. Similar is similar to your painting example. I'm on the couch playing with my iPad. I'm always creating new graphics for the vodka or something using Canva. And my daughter's like, daddy, you said you were gonna play Barbies with me. And, you know, she's got this little dollhouse, and she's this perfect little girl, and she's only five, so. And so I'll go play with her and. But sometimes I'm like, okay, you set the Barbies up on the table for tea time, and then I'll come. Then I'll come. Once you got that ready, I'll come. It's just me putting it up.
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:Things that I found out is you don't have to necessarily spend vast amounts of time doing these things. It can be simple as five minutes doing something, and to them that I don't know, they're on a different time scale. You know, little things can. Can really make a big difference. And that's why I go back to when you're out serving and you say a kind word to someone while you're serving, or you actually make a friend out of a person than an enemy. Words make a difference, and little words can make a huge differ in people's lives. And that prompting that you're talking about may be something that you need to say to that person that could actually alter the course of their entire life.
Mighty Mike:That's so true. That's so true. I had a friend that called me. He wasn't my friend. I wasn't sure. I was kind of mean to him in high school and one time, and I really liked him, actually, when we were adults, I didn't understand why I treated him the way I did in high school. But he told me he called me pal. He goes, hey, pal, I'll see you tomorrow. And just him saying pal was like. Like, wait, are we. Are we cool? I think we're cool now, you know, and it was just like that one word. So it's so powerful what one word can do. And so what is your favorite skip, trace, tip, or trick?
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:Don't overlook the obvious. Take that person's phone number, plug it into Facebook, and if they listed that number with Facebook. It'll pull them up. It's so easy. I mean a lot of people know that, but some people don't know.
Mighty Mike:That's a good one. I can't tell you how often I go on Facebook and I'll type into someone's name and I'm like, I can't find them. And I'm like, oh yeah, I have their phone number.
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:And it works exactly. And you know, there's, there's multiple easy skip tracing tools to use, which of course we all know the credit headers, which is a base. And that's the thing I tell especially new service or anyone for that matter. A skip trace is not a just a report you run and then you give them an address. It's getting for us. We get a verbal verification from a friend, neighbor, relative or other person. But I don't want to get too far into that without answering your question.
Mighty Mike:So what is your favorite tool for defense?
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:I'm going to go with my firearm. It's not just a protection me. It may be to protect my family or someone else or. You know, everyone in Mississippi, nearly everyone in the south has a dog. And those dogs can be quite dangerous at times. But I don't carry the weapon for intimidation or any kind of anything like that. It's concealed. But if I, if I, you know, my gun is on me 99.999% of the time. And it's not that I'm afraid. I'm not afraid at all. Mainly because I have a gun and I have God, you know, God, I depend on him. But yeah, I'm not gonna give up my gun. I'm not gonna give it up very easily based on any past experiences of never having to be in a deadly force or deadly situation does not in any way change any statistic that you could be. So a lot of people use their past experiences to make. I keep it in my car, you know, I keep it by my bed when I'm, you know, I'm in the living room. Home invasion takes about. Could take as little as three seconds, seconds before they're in. So I always warn people to never use your past experiences as a template to try to figure out what could happen in the future.
Mighty Mike:What book would you recommend?
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:I. Okay, this is where it gets weird. I like to read post apocalyptic dystopian fiction.
Mighty Mike:That's a mouthful. I'll have to put that in the show notes so we can read it.
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:Yeah, it's about what would you do if basically the world Your life ended as you know it, an emp, any kind of disaster. And I don't really like to get into the zombies, like real world stuff. I love military history. I have a book about one of the most prolific snipers in the War of Northern Aggression, Civil War, that is really good. But you know, right now I'm reading a C.G. cooper book. I can't even remember the name of it, but the one I would recommend is the Survivalist. It's a very good series, very well written. And the only disclaimer, the only thing I'll tell you, if you start reading it at night and you get into this kind of stuff, you know, I'll look over at the clock and it'll be three in the morning. And I'm like, oh man, gotta get to bed.
Mighty Mike:Okay, what's the greatest advice you've ever received?
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:Greatest advice. My grandfather, before he died, he would tell me about the Depression, the Great Depression. And coming up through that. And I wouldn't say this is the. I don't know if you. This is the greatest advice because that's such a profound statement, but I would. That's just what comes to my mind. Some of the things he told me. And he told me this, get out of debt and stay out of debt. Because if you're in debt and things go bad, you'll lose everything. But if you're out of debt and what you have will remain yours. And I've taken that and applied that.
Mighty Mike:That's good. What would you do if you woke up today, had all of the same skills and knowledge, had no clients, a smartphone, a car and only $100. What would you do in the next seven days to grow your business?
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:Well, I'd burn that smartphone up with. I go to the Mississippi Bar.org and I get email addresses and I start sending out emails and I make it enticing for them to want to use me. Your first service is free. I want to get your business anywhere I could find where potential clients would be. And selling myself as far as selling my product, not myself, selling my product of what I can do the hundred dollars. I'm probably gonna have to spend that on gas to figure out which areas I'm gonna go to getting at getting my any way I can and not really doing it in a cost effective way. You know, people, you give them a business card, they put it in their pocket, they probably never look at it again. Everybody does everything by email, electronic, talking to a client. I might need you for a service coming up. Okay, can I send you an email. So you'll have my contact information. Sure. They give your email, boom, you send an email right away. So use that smartphone to communicate. We funnel all as much communication as we can through email because it saves time trying to get out there and solicit whomever I could possibly work for and doing a hundred dollar job for $10 to get my foot in the door, to get my, to prove myself. And eventually you have to, you know, kind of draw a line there, what you're going to do. You don't want to run yourself in the ground.
Mighty Mike:No, I love that feedback. I love the, the bar association. That's really outside the box. I love the email. In the legal industry, we live and die by our email. Same as they used to live and die by their fax machine before. Right. You know, now it's the email. So I love what you shared about the email, about getting people email. People live and die by the email. This is one thing I want to add to what you said and then we'll wrap it up. If you could send one extra email a day, just one, think about it. That's 365 emails that you didn't send that you haven't been sending now. And maybe it's not an email, maybe it's a phone call. Go this step further, right, to get their email. Maybe you don't have their email address. I think that so many people, though, they have a block, a mental block that says, there's nothing I can do as a person. I'm not lucky enough. And these are stories that we tell ourselves inside. And you got to conquer those. Okay. You got to conquer those. So, Dave, I love what you've shared so far about everything has been awesome. Dropping major value bombs on us today. I know we could probably Talk for another two hours. You're full of stories, Mr. Keith. This has been fun. What is the best way that we can connect with you and then we'll say goodbye.
Davy Keith, Quantum Process:Sure. As previously mentioned, email's great. Keithumprocess.com, my wife told me, you've got a. You know, I was complaining about someone's email address being complicated. She's like, you have a complicated. And I was like, you know, I came up with the business name being in bed one night and the next day decided to call myself. I read it out of a book, but email K e I t h@quantum q u a n t u m process.com and of course my phone number is cell phone number. I'm not afraid to give that out. So many people are afraid to give their cell phone out. 601-319-2675 I'm on Facebook. You can actually google Davey Keith and my website will come up. I'm real easy to find. I don't really have many secrets when it comes to how do you find Davey Keith?
Outro:So Davey, I want to personally thank you for coming on the show. I know Server Nation appreciates all of the value bombs that you dropped today. I've been impressed with your story and I'm excited to share it with the world. Until next time, Server Nation, you've been served up some awesomeness by Davey the Black Belt and Mighty Mike the Podcast server.
Outro:That's a wrap on another episode of Process Server Daily where the legal support industry levels up. Want to grow your process serving business with the best marketing tools, the most engaged community and the highest ranking directory online? Visit mightyprocessserver.com claim your listing Join our free community Surround yourself with process servers who get it and build something real from the field to the courtroom. This is Process Server Server Daily. Until next time, stay safe out there and live. Mighty.
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