Real Estate was not my first love.  I've had many careers and professions but all have led me here.

I am an Air Force Vietnam era veteran.  I trained as a Medic in the Air Force and when I rejoined civilian life went to Nurses School.  I wanted to go into something else, but during the 60s women weren't encouraged to utilize their real talents but to follow society's idea of what women should be.

During my nursing career, the direction of my career went from ER nurse to IV Nurse into Administration.  I became the Head Nurse at the Blood Bank in St Petersburg, Florida.  Now my career was more about coordinating schedules, directing and training staff,budgets etc. and much less about direct patient care.

Later, I became a Licensed Massage Therapist and for twelve years had a really satisying, successful business which I continued when I left St Pete and moved to North Carolina.  For the next thirteen years I was the co-owner of a successful camping and backpacking specialty shop called Venture Out.  After Venture Out, I was still in love with many aspects of retail so I opened another specialty shop called Lighten Up! At first I specialized in unique and quality candles only, but when I had the opportunity to buy out another business in the most picturesque building in Dillsboro I jumped on it.  My candle business morphed into home decor, rustic furnishings, artwork and I continued to build the candle business.  In addition to all of that I was able to indulge my real passion of shopping for antiques to sell in the store.

We all know the story about the direct hit the economy dealt to small retail.  When it became challenging to pull two salaries out of the store, my partner went into real estate.  Before long she was too busy to handle the clients in the manner we'd always treated our customers and asked if I'd consider joining her.

Long story short - I sold my business and got my license.  We are unique in our area working as a team in real estate.   While we both participate in the initial contact and counseling of our clients, my partner does the running around in the car stuff and I handle our web based marketing, as well as all the business aspects such as book-keeping, bill paying (ugh) etc. 

It is a great working relationship and one that we've used for many years.  The relationships we fostered through our other businesses have been the basis of our success in real estate.