Michael Watkins started Atlanta, Ga.-based Traditional Title in 1994 when he was in his early 20s. Since that time, his company has completed more than 650,000 title searches, making it the largest abstracting company in the history of the state.

“Michael’s strength comes not only in his ability to grow the company, but in his attempts to raise the standards for the searches,” said nominator Greg Kuvin of Traditional Title Services. “His goal is to reduce the number of claims to each title insurance company in 2007. He constantly assesses the requirements for a title search, and looks for better ways to ensure quality.”

Three years ago, Watkins started building ClosingLogic, a Web-based pre-closing system that connects all of the parties of a closing together. The system is now the largest pre-closing system in Georgia, with over 500 offices using it with nearly 1,600 users and has processed over 70,000 closings since its launch in October 2004.

“Michael is also really great to his staff,” Kuvin noted. “The company faced a severe economic crisis two years ago. Michael told everyone that he could afford to keep them all on board at their current salaries for the next year, while the business tried to recover. Within 10 months, the business was larger than before, and not a single person was laid off.”

My first job in the settlement services industry was working as a title examiner before my senior year of college. There was a refi boom going on at the time, and I went to work for an attorney running searches at various courthouses in the Atlanta area.

While I was working in the courthouse as a title examiner, I realized that searches could be completed more efficiently and with accuracy if a sophisticated management system was implemented. I founded Traditional Title Services (TTS) with the goal of providing clients with more accurate searches completed in a more timely fashion, and on top of that provide them with better customer service.

I would say there are two things that I find really satisfying about my job.

The first thing would be seeing the impact that Traditional Title Services has had on the lives of our employees. We have a culture that encourages excellence and growth, and I really enjoying seeing the difference in the way that someone will carry themselves after six months of working with us. We see noticeable improvements in people’s confidence, stress levels, and overall happiness.

The other thing that gives me satisfaction is seeing something that we dreamed up two or three years earlier finally come to fruition. We have created and developed technology that sometimes takes a couple of years to build, and seeing it in use for the first time is extremely satisfying.

The best advice I could give is to create a very detailed and organized set of instructions and standards for each function of the organization. I have found that the more we document our guidelines, the more that our staff will operate in unison with each other. This also helps with hiring of new staff, as the new employees have a much shorter learning curve than if the guidelines were not present.

I have two achievements that I am very proud of accomplishing.

The first was when I realized that we had completed more title searches than any other organization in the history of the state.

My other proudest professional accomplishment was the launch of our newest technology. It took almost two years of planning and development, and to see it operational was a huge thrill. We were very fortunate that the improvements in efficiency we had predicted would be there, were actually there. Less than a month after we launched our new system I received a phone call from someone telling me that what used to take her an hour and a half to do, was now completed in 15 minutes

The most unusual assignment was someone that wanted a title search delivered to a junk yard. Traditional Title was a very young company at the time, so we did not have the luxury of turning down work, so I actually went and hand delivered the search. I was very nervous, and the whole experience was surreal.



I would say that my success is attributed to getting the right people in the right positions, and motivating them to be the best that they can possibly be. I have worked at trying to help people reach their potential. I have found that when you bring out the best in someone, it starts to filter through your organization and brings out the best in others.



I would really like to have lunch with Dr. Eric Schmidt who is the CEO of Google. Google was founded in 1998 (four years after Traditional Title Services), and in that short period of time, they have revolutionized numerous areas of technology. They also have very unique hiring practices, and I think a lunch with Eric Schmidt might help a small company like ours come up with some innovative ways to hire, as well as maintain a staff of qualified people.



I am a big Metallica fan, and have seen them in 7 different cities across the country (San Francisco, Houston, Charlotte, Salt Lake City, Knoxville, Cincinnati, and Atlanta).



My favorite book is Atlas Shrugged, and my favorite movie is the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.



Coldplay, Steely Dan, Flaming Lips, U2, Cat Stevens, Keane, Norah Jones and Metallica



Movies, Poker and Concerts. All three activities force me to focus on nothing else than what is in front of me, but each in a different way.



The rescue shelter that I adopted my dog from lost their major source of funding. I launched a campaign to help them raise enough money to move the shelter, and keep them running until the funding situation was rectified.


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