Our Story

For over 32 years, I’ve helped guide, teach, and coach clients up their personal and business mountains.

I really love coaching my clients to the summit. I believe the climb should be enjoyable, with regular celebrations as milestones are achieved and leaders reach new heights. With the wrong approach, the climb can easily become a disaster.

Stop the grind and enjoy the climb!

– Gregory Cleary, Pinnacle Guide and Founder

 Duane Marshall, Michael Erath and Greg Cleary met up at Michael’s home in Phoenix and on Saturday, November 9th 2019, drew up on whiteboards around his pool the first thoughts on the framework of Pinnacle Business Guides and who is an ideal guide for us.

The resulting vision was a community just for business guides– one that provided content, tools, training, support, and community, while allowing guides to work on their own terms. The foundation for an incredible community had just been laid, but the work had only just begun. Pinnacle Business Guides became an official company on March 4th 2020, launching in Dallas, Texas. To this day, we consider March 4th to be Pinnacle’s birthday; it was the day that our guide community finally started to take shape. Although we started small, we saw a bright future ahead of us and were so excited to get started.

Our community reached its first milestone with the addition of Deb Thompson as our 20th guide in August 2020. Collectively, we focused on taking business to the next level, bringing clarity to chaos, and scaling the highest mountains– and creating a framework to show others how to do it, too. August 26th was also our very first onboarding session with our new community of guides. In September, we held our First Quarterly Guide Summit, with 18 guides located all over the country gathering on Zoom. Our first in-person meeting of the community would follow in November; we met in Minneapolis to discuss Pinnacle’s bright future and strategize on how to combine great tools, great people, and great businesses. We also worked together to film our “Greatest Of All Toolboxes”.

On January 30, 2021 Pinnacle hit a major milestone with the joining of Steve Preda: 50 guides. Less than one year later, we reached 100 guides with the addition of Tommy Battle. Our growth has been exponential, and we can’t wait to continue on this journey, continuing to expand our community along the way. 

Pinnacle’s Milestones

March 2020

Michael Erath and Keith Trost join as Pinnacle’s first guides.

August 2020

Our community grew to its first milestone of 20 guides with the addition of Deb Thompson.

January 2021

We reached our 50th guide when Steve Preda came on board.

January 2022

Less than one year later, we hit our next milestone of 100 Guides when Tommy Battle joined.