Gail Kaplan
Gail joined Pinnacle in 1992 in Houston, TX where she started her recruiting career. The conference was in Houston and while small, it was very powerful. As most people are when they first join, she was extremely impressed with the members and their accomplishments. And, they all had a great time in addition to learning from each other. Gail was hooked and from that meeting until recently, only missed 1 meeting.
It was in Pinnacle that she learned to bill higher amounts each year and was taught by another member to do retainers. While she never completely converted to retainers, they became the bulk of her work. Gail went from billing $350,00 a year to $800,000 a year. Someone from Pinnacle challenged Gail to bill $1 million and she took him up on it. Back in 2003, a million was a large amount. Today, it is pocket change to many Pinnacle members. Gail wanted to give back to the organization and joined the board in 1996. From 2000-2004, she was President. After that, she became the Hospitality Chair until 2021.
As the organization grew, Gail decided to resign from her position to give other people the opportunity to participate on the board. She is currently retired from recruiting. Gail thought giving up the career she had had for 36 years would be boring and that she would go back to it quickly. However, the pandemic hit and she began taking classes at various Universities around the city. Some were science classes, many on the brain, but the bulk were writing classes – both prose and poetry. Gail has even had a poem published and she hopes to have more.
Gail is now in the process of writing a book about Amelia, an eleven-year-old girl who is feisty, smart, and believes she can do anything. In the first paragraph, Amelia tells the audience that she will write a novel when she turns 13, since she will be old enough then. We’ll just have to see if that actually happens in the book. Gail seems to be busier in retirement than she was while working. Gail also does a significant amount of volunteer work which gives her pleasure. She is happy and fulfilled, and mostly just having a lot of fun.