A Special Message From President Mark Demaree

In 2021, I am starting my 22nd year with Top Echelon. Time certainly does fly by.

During the past 20+ years, I’ve been part of Top Echelon’s recruiting network. Over the course of that time, I’ve come to fully appreciate the recruiters who comprise our split network.

When you do something for 20 years, you get to know the people with whom you work. Of course, I’ve grown to know the other people who have worked at Top Echelon over the years. But who I’m specifically talking about Top Echelon Network members.

Like any network, people come and people go. That’s just a fact of life. However, some people stay and they often stay for a long time. During the past 20 years, I’ve grown to know quite a few recruiters who have been Network members for five, 10, and 15+ years.

Heck, there are TE recruiters who were Network members before I even joined Top Echelon, and they’re still Network members! To me, that’s an awesome display of resiliency, loyalty, and success, and I can’t thank those recruiters enough for everything that they’ve done during their time with us.

That being said, no journey is immune to hardship, and as you all know, there were plenty of hardships not only in the recruiting profession, but in life in general in this country and around the world in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the headlines and the lives of many people during the past year, and there were many members of the Network who have been affected by the ongoing challenges that this pandemic presents.

While there are vaccines currently being rolled out even as I write this, there is still a lot of uncertainty about the virus right now and that will probably continue to be the case throughout the rest of this year. You’ve probably heard the mantra, “Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.” Those are certainly words of wisdom as we close out the first month of 2021 with our Yearly Issue of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.

Which brings me to the point of this blog post: I want to thank YOU, the Top Echelon Network membership, for your commitment to us. And it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been with us, either; I’m thankful for every single one of you.

So in more than 20 years at Top Echelon, I’ve learned quite a few things. One of those things is that a customer doesn’t have to just be a customer. A customer can be a friend, too. And that’s not the only friendship that can exist with the Network. Customers (or recruiters) can be friends with other customers. There have been literally hundreds of such friendships down through the years.

And even though we’re proud of the many recruiters who have called themselves Top Echelon customers down through the years, we’re more proud of the many Top Echelon customers who we’ve been able to call friends.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you once again for your commitment as Top Echelon Network members and for choosing to join us in making 2021 the very best that it can be!