I believe everyone wants a legacy. I want to have had a positive impact through the work our company does, through our individual philanthropy. … I want to go to bed every single night knowing I’ve had a positive impact on somebody.
I was blessed with two parents who lived to 90, who every single day told me I could be anything I wanted to be, who scrimped their entire lives to help put me through college. My parents took a brown-bag lunch to work every day because they saved money.
My grandmother, everybody called her Miss Pearl — Wilmington, N.C. — had to quit school in the fifth grade to pick tobacco and raise her younger siblings. Her husband, my grandfather, quit school in the third grade to pick tobacco and to build Navy ships. He probably died as a result of asbestos. He never learned to read. He signed everything with an ‘X.’ But my grandmother taught herself to read, and at the age of 72, she went back and got her GED.
I saw the pride on her face as she walked across the stage to get her GED diploma. And I keep that in my mind every time I think about what should we be doing for this upcoming generation. We need to have them know that they should aspire to post-secondary education. … It might be a certificate, it might be a four-year degree. But you can do it if you want to, just like Miss Pearl did.
My father, the first time he had indoor plumbing was when he went in the Navy. Can you imagine, in literally one generation (going) from without indoor plumbing to (being) a multimillionaire? It’s incredible.
When Richard and I got married, I was 18, he was 19. Children. He did ROTC. He put himself through college. We were in the Air Force. At one point he calls me up … and he says, ‘I decided I want to be an attorney.’ So we left the Air Force and moved to Tallahassee so he could go to law school. We’ve stayed there ever since.
Founded in 1992, The Moore Agency employs 60 people in nine states. Moore has served as a Tallahassee State College Trustee since 2007, endowed the Richard W. and Karen B. Moore Veterans Success Center and founded the Tallahassee Collegiate Academy charter school at TSC.
We were best friends from middle school on. I used to date his best friend, and he used to date my best friend. My parents allowed us to go out on double dates. And then when I went to Turkey (as an exchange student) we exchanged letters of course. He would go over to my parents’ house. He taught my sister how to drive a car that summer. He became ingrained in the family. I’m sure it was to get a free meal every night.
But I got home from Turkey, and he, along with a group of people, met me at the airport with the signs and the posters. He pulled me aside and he said, ‘Can we go out on a date tomorrow night?’ I said, ‘A date date or just friends?’ He said, ‘A date,’ and I said, ‘Sure.’ He asked me to marry him that night and I said yes. Then I said, ‘You need to go ask my father.’
We’ve been married 47 years, and he is my biggest champion. I think that’s the basis of all successful marriages — you’ve got to be friends first.
I opened a company 30 years ago. I do not recommend that anyone do it the way I did — I had no office, no phone, no computer, no business plan, no marketing plan, an infant and we were paying off law school debt.
I did so many things wrong. And if I can help the next person not make those same mistakes, I almost have an obligation to do that.
The number I’m most proud of is the staff retention rate (92%). In our industry as in many industries, staff turnover is one of the biggest challenges. Not just continuity, but for historical information, for culture. To have that in our industry is pretty remarkable. And client retention (98%) — that’s a pretty big deal.
What disturbs me about our culture now is that somehow tearing others down makes you rise. And I think just the opposite. When people ask me to give them advice, I say use your smart phone to make you smarter. Stop using your smart phone to spew hatred or negativity.
People have bucket lists. My bucket list was to hit 100 countries. It took me, gosh, 25 years? We lived in Europe for six years (when Richard was in the Air Force and I worked for Embry-Riddle), so I could go to Liechtenstein, and I could go to France, and I could go to Germany. We ticked off a lot of the European countries.
We were vacationing in the upper west (about 15 years ago) and I went into an antique store, and my eye of course always beelines to what’s on sale. I found these two miniature Book of Common Prayers. That’s the prayer book used by the Anglican community, so I bought them. And then I discovered eBay and I started buying books off of eBay. … I have over 600 (today). … I probably have 30 or so from the 1600s. I have 100-plus from the 1700s.
I love the stories behind them. There’s one that says, ‘I arrived in America today.’ It’s from around 1899. They probably could only bring a few possessions, and that book was one of the ones they chose.