I joined Pinnacle in 1992 in Houston, TX where I started my recruiting career. The conference was in Houston and while small, it was very powerful. As most people are when they first join, I was extremely impressed with the members and their accomplishments. And, we all had a great time in addition to learning from each other. I was hooked and from that meeting until recently, I only missed 1 meeting. It was in Pinnacle that I learned to bill higher amounts each year and I was taught by another member to do retainers. While I never completely converted to retainers, they became the bulk of my work. I went from billing $350,00 a year to $800,000 a year. Someone from Pinnacle challenged me to bill $1million and I took him up on it. Back in 2003, a million was a large amount. Today, it is pocket change to many Pinnacle members. I wanted to give back to the organization and joined the board in 1996. From 2000-2004, I was President. After that, I became the Hospitality Chair until 2021. As the organization grew, I decided to resign from my position to give other people the opportunity to participate on the board. I am currently retired from recruiting. I thought giving up the career I had had for 36 years would be boring and that I would go back to it quickly. However, the pandemic hit and I began taking classes at various Universities around the city. Some are science classes, many on the brain, but the bulk are writing classes – both prose and poetry. I have even had a poem published and hope to have more. I am 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 she 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. I seem to be busier in retirement than I was when I was working. I do a significant amount of volunteer work which gives me pleasure. I am happy and fulfilled and mostly just having a lot of fun.