| Learning from each and every job
T ony Payne  has worn many hats throughout his life — delivering the San Diego Union as a boy, working in his family’s fast food restaurants as a teenager, and bravely serving his country in Vietnam as a young man.
 Each of those experiences taught him something useful, and those skills have helped him throughout his career in the title industry, which has seen him work his way from a messenger at a title company to head of a company with more than 50 employees.
“What [most] prepared me for life was working with my family. I found that my parents were a little harder on me than the average employee,” recalled Tony, 71, president and chief financial officer of Priority Title Co. in southern California. “I was dedicated to them. I was paid less but I learned a lot.
“I got the discipline from my folks – and that helped me get through the Army and Vietnam and becoming an adult,” he added. “That dedication has allowed me to open my heart and my mind to almost anything.”
Perhaps like one of his paper routes, Tony’s path to the title industry was a circuitous one. After being drafted into the Army at age 19, he served a year in Vietnam before returning stateside. “The first thing I saw [upon arriving in Vietnam] was all the foxholes with guys in them on both sides of the runway with weapons.” He remembers thinking to himself: “I guess this is serious now.”
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"We started out as a boutique title company. We’re not everything to everybody. That’s what we still believe. But we provide good customer service."
Tony Payne
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Tony returned to the U.S. in 1967 and married his wife, Ruthann. They have two sons, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild. “I was fortunate enough to find a woman who was sort of like me in a sense that if someone asked us to do something, and they wanted us to do it, we were proud of that,” he said. “We just love new adventures.”
As he continued in the military, Tony would draw on his ability to adapt to different, challenging jobs as he was stationed in San Francisco at the Presidio. Included in his duties there were apprehending AWOL soldiers and participating in weekly ceremonies where war medals were presented to the families of fallen comrades. “I was ordered to hold these medals as the general placed them on the lapels of the fathers/mothers,” he remembered. “T.V. cameras were there every week, so sad for all.”
Tony said his experiences after returning from Vietnam gave him empathy.
“Many of my experiences were negative,” he said, recalling some of the comments people in San Francisco and other places would make to returning soldiers. “It was a long struggle, and we have a lot of guys that are bitter.”
Tony eventually left the military, but the armed services permanently left its mark on him. He displays the American flag outside his home every day, often is moved to tears when he hears patriotic songs, and displays a photo of his uncle in his den. His uncle died in World War II and Tony was named after him.
In 1970, Tony replied to an ad in the Orange County Register for a messenger job at a title company. He was hired by John Drental of Republic Title of Santa Ana. “I guess he liked me as he told me I was starting off making $35 more than other messengers they hired,” Tony quipped.
During five years at Republic Title, Tony advanced from messenger to searcher/examiner. He followed that with a six-year stint at Western Title Co., where he served as title officer, chief title officer and office manager.
He spent the next two decades serving as a county manager in three California areas before moving to Fidelity Title’s corporate office in Irvine. He also spent a brief period as a Michigan state manager.
Tony retired in 2002, only to return to the industry one year later to serve as the executive vice president of operations for Priority. Since 2013, he’s served as Priority’s president and CFO.
 “We started out as a boutique title company. We’re not everything to everybody. That’s what we still believe. But we provide good customer service,” Tony said.
Since 2003, Priority has grown from one county to five counties. It has four offices. “We’re not trying to take over the world. We know we can’t be number one. We don’t want to be number one. We want to be an independent title company in southern California that makes a reasonable profit and takes care of its employees and their families.”
He said the key to the company’s success is employees who are personable, cross trained, have great customer service skills, and are empowered to rely on their experience to do things the correct way.
“I depend on them more than they think,” Tony said. “And I always call them my lieutenants.”
He also credits Bill Foley, the chairman of Fidelity and Black Knight, for teaching him a valuable lesson. “When I was working for him, he said ‘Tony make a decision. If it’s wrong, it’s wrong. I’m going to yell at you, but you made a decision.’ ” he said. “The great thing about being a smaller company is that the decision is made by me. I wear 19 hats.”
When Tony is not wearing multiple hats at Priority, he enjoys golf, landscaping, growing vegetables and watching western movies. “Because of the water shortage, I had to turn my backyard into a rock garden,” he lamented. “But I refuse to change my front lawn.”
He said he loves growing vegetables because of the “growth and the caring and seeing a final result.”
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