Toni Jennings began her professional career as a teacher at Killarney Elementary School in Orlando.

At the age of 23, Jennings joined her father's commercial construction company, Jack Jennings & Sons, Inc..

The company, founded in 1948, has served the Central Florida area for more than 65 years.

Jennings shared what inspired her to take the leap from teacher to construction company to politics.

"I'm not so sure it was inspiration as much as it was; maybe I should say the wrong place at the wrong time. When I left teaching, I was involved in a professional organization, Associated Builders & Contractors, and I happened to live in an apartment complex that had several other young ladies who worked for legislators," explained Jennings.

So it began.

From working and volunteering on various campaigns to being approached to run for office, she ran for a House seat in 1976.

"Probably the Republican Party had 30 percent of the registered voters back then. I had three opponents. I mean, everybody that was a Republican was running for office that year,” said Jennings. “Won in the general election in 1976 and the rest kind of as they say is history."

Jennings made history as Florida's first female lieutenant governor in 2007.

She also served two terms as president of the Florida Senate and successful businesswoman.

Even former Gov. Jeb Bush wanted her as a running mate.

"Gov. Bush tried to talk me into running with him a couple of times, but it just wasn’t the right time and I was in the Senate and I was scheduled to be Senate president and it was a better thing for me to do, and as I later pointed out to him, I was a lot more useful to him as the Senate president when he was governor than I probably would have been as a running mate."

But when Jennings was forced out by term limits, Bush tried again to persuade her.

"When Frank Brogan left to become president of Florida Atlantic [University], Jeb called again and he said 'I've got a deal for you, will you come now? Don't say no, think about it, we'll call you back.’”

Jennings served one term as Florida's lieutenant governor.

She shared her take on the way social media has changed the political landscape.

“It's changed it probably 360 degrees. It has changed how you get your information. It has changed how information is disseminated. It's changed how you raise money. It has changed the whole tenure of how you run a campaign. How you share information and then, that's the factual part. All the implications and the influences that want to be less than factual and how that comes down on top of a campaign or you as a candidate or to your opponent; it's unbelievable what social media has done to us. And I don't tweet. I can email, but I don't tweet, I don't Twitter, I don't,” Jennings explained.

She also said she is not on Facebook.

“I do really well to, you know, make full sentences on email," Jennings said. "That's about all I do. So it's just as well I'm not in politics. It's all kind of passed me by, you know.”

As for getting back to politics, Jennings said, “I love politics and I love doing it, but I can't tell you how much I love not doing it."

Jennings summed up her time spent serving the state.

"I hope I did a good job while I was there. I tried really hard and I leave it to others to do today," Jennings said.

As a member of the House, Jennings became the youngest woman ever elected to the Florida Legislature and the first female Republican leader of either house of the legislature.