Recently, I had the pleasure of delivering a recorded presentation for the PayrollOrg Virtual Congress.

While the session certainly included business presentation skills, it was far more personal than most of my audiences expect.

Early in the presentation, I asked:

“When you count your riches, do you count money… or memories?”

That question became the thread that connected a lifetime of experiences.

I reflected on growing up with my parents, my remarkable brother, serving my apprenticeship with Mr. Paul, moving to the Channel Islands to work on Jersey, emigrating to America, working in the beauty salon at the Mark Hopkins Hotel, and later with Jay Sebring when men’s hairstyling was just beginning to revolutionize the industry.

Next, I reflected on the 1998 PayrollOrg convention when two of my all-time best friends, Susan RoAne and Diane Parente, were also on the program. Diane Parente was the founder of the Association of Image Consultants International. After we first met, Diane went through my closets.

My message was that we can relate to cleaning out our closets, office desks, and garages. Once in a while, we need to clean out the closets of our lives, including the people, habits, and thoughts that might be getting in the way of having the lives we want.

When the recording finished, I joined the audience live for the Q&A.

Steve Hodgson, who moderated the session and has known me for over 25 years, smiled and said, “Patricia, I’ve never heard most of these stories.”

He’s right.

Most audiences invite me to help them speak more effectively, present more persuasively, or sell more successfully. They rarely hear the experiences that shaped how I became…me.

As I listened to my own presentation, I found myself becoming unexpectedly emotional.

Why?

I think it’s because memories are never just memories. They reconnect us with the people who influenced us, the opportunities that changed us, the risks we took, and the moments that quietly redirected our lives.

We often think experience teaches us. It does.

However, occasionally, revisiting those experiences reminds us how fortunate we’ve been.

Perhaps our greatest wealth isn’t measured by what we’ve earned.

It’s measured by the people we’ve loved, the lessons we’ve learned, and the memories we’ve created.

Let me ask you the same question I asked my audience:

When you count your riches, do you count money… or memories?