I started with Aid Association for Lutherans in 1993. In 2001, A.A.L. and our primary competitor, Lutheran Brotherhood, merged. For awhile, we operated as A.A.L.-L.B. before the name creating factory turned out Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
As I moved along in my career as a representative with A.A.L. I became more comfortable in what I was doing and my clients became more comfortable with me. It was still a hectic life, starting in the office around 8 in the morning and frequently seeing folks in their homes till 9 p.m. and sometimes later than that.
When the merger came along it caused some questions among my colleagues as to how everything would work since in our area there were L.B. and A.A.L. representatives. There were some changes that seemed strange at the time, and in fact, in the years since some have been reversed or revised.
A person I worked with to help my clients with charitable giving told me about an opening in development where he was serving and he thought I might be a good fit. It sounded intriguing.
In the days after 9/11/2001 as the nation wondered what was going on with terrorism on our soil and commercial planes used as bombs... it was a Topsy-turvy time for me. There was a lot of "hand-holding" with clients to try to help make sense of events and how that might affect their finances. There was also business as usual, since families still had futures to protect.
Over the 8 years I served, I developed a very close relationship with a few clients - not sales anymore, but service since widows I was working with could really use my help with some day to day tasks. I enjoyed providing that service. And by the time I was told I might want to consider development, those situations had been resolved, so if I was going to make a career change I wouldn't feel like I was leaving clients and friends high and dry.
To this day, my time as a representative with insurance and investments remains the longest I served in one particular job.
Ten years of service, fraternal activity, bus trips, picnics, attending funerals of clients, and helping with fundraisers. It was time to change, and in 2003 I started in development.
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