What the CLA Promise Means to My Daughter
Earlier this year we distilled our CLA Promise to one phrase: we promise to know you and help you. It is a personal commitment based on deep relationships. It requires us to take action to get to know our clients and each other. When we do this, we create opportunities for our clients, our people, and our communities.
This month Denny asked his daughter to record a podcast, sharing her perspective on how the CLA Promise has affected her life, from a very young age. She talks about the opportunities CLA has brought to her, and why that is significant to her, personally.
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Transcript
[00:00:05]
announcer: Welcome to “Own the Promise,” a CLA podcast created to share what guides every decision we make and every relationship we cultivate.
[00:21:20]
Cara: Hello, CLA family. My name is Cara Schleper, and I’m Danny Schleper’s daughter. I know he has mentioned me in some of his podcasts. I’m 28 years old, currently living in Tampa, and working out of St. Petersburg as a business development manager for a loyalty marketing firm. My dad asked me to do this podcast to give my experience and view of the firm. I was a bit taken aback on why he or the firm would like to hear from me, but as I sat and thought about it, I realized the firm has been a part of my whole life.
[00:50:25]
One of the first things I thought about was my father’s podcast on CLA’s mobility philosophy. Of course, as you all know, this is a subject that hits close to home. As I was listening to it, I really think my father gave us a lot of credit, but I thought I would share a bit from my perspective. When we moved from Minnesota to St. Louis, I was only six years old. I didn’t have too much clue of what was going on. However, with the Philadelphia move, I was 13, just started eighth grade.
[01:19:15]
We had made some roots. I had fallen in love with baseball–of course, “Field of Dreams,” and the St. Louis Cardinals. I had a ton of friends, even knew what high school I wanted to attend– which if you’ve ever known someone from St. Louis, that’s a big deal. I knew exactly what was going on, so when my father sat us down to have a family meeting, I knew exactly what it was about. One thing that my father did, which he has done for our whole lives, was be completely transparent and honest.
He told us why we were moving, what it would mean, what it meant to the firm, and of course, what it meant to him. The firm was seen as a part of our family. It meant a lot to my father, so it meant a lot to us. He never made it about his job or his passion or his ambitions. It was about what opportunities we could have as a family that neither him nor my mom ever had. The firm was giving my family the opportunity to see things that were beyond our scope of the world, so my family was in.
[02:17:11]
Let’s just say the move was extremely difficult for our family, and at points it felt like the family we were in St. Louis was gone forever. We struggled with a new culture, a faster pace of life, and handling new areas and people we weren’t used to. I remember distinctly showing up for the first day of school with the wrong uniform and crying in the car, telling my mom I didn’t want to go in. I was mortified. My dad took the brunt force of this, of course, because he was seen as the reason why we moved, even though we all agreed as a family.
[02:49:00]
It took a toll on everyone. Philadelphia honestly never became our home. However, what did become our home was our family unit. We established a bond during those years that I’ve come to cherish more than anything, because in the end, we only have each other amongst millions of people. We weren’t the Brady Bunch, and we did have our share of fights, but we made it through this struggle and came out on the other side as a stronger family.
[03:16:25]
If I hadn’t moved to Philadelphia, I wouldn’t have seen or heard of the University of Tampa, who heavily recruited from my high school. I would have never experienced catching the train in New Jersey to hang out in New York for the weekend, or have the ability to travel abroad at a young age. I probably would have never known how good a hoagie is from Wawa, which would be an utter shame. These experiences have taught me that no matter where I go in the world, I can find a piece of home.
[03:44:15]
Early in my own career, I have found being oddly comfortable in an airport is an asset that I have, as well as being able to talk to any stranger. And to be fair, if you know my mom, she would have taught us that anyway. But with almost every client or potential client I have spoken to, somehow my unconventional past has benefited me, whether I know their hometown or have experienced something in common. Even though any time my father calls a family meeting, my brother and I both ask right away, “Where are we moving to this time?”, we do appreciate the experiences the firm have provided us.
[04:20:23]
And specifically for me, a St. Cloud-born, St. Louis-raised, Gwinnett High School woman who is now firmly at home in Florida, I appreciate the opportunities and experiences the firm has provided me, our family, and my father. I started the podcast by saying hello, CLA family, because honestly, the firm has been a part of my family and has had a hand in shaping my life. Thanks for listening.
Denny is the chief executive officer of CLA. As he goes about his duties related to the oversight of CLA’s direction, operations, expansion, and strategy, he is also an enthusiastic ambassador for the CLA Promise. He is fully committed to the firm’s position as a professional services firm that delivers integrated wealth advisory, outsourcing, and audit, tax, and consulting capabilities to help our clients succeed professionally and personally.
Please thank your daughter for her story today! My family has had a very similar experience moving with my husband’s career, including my 28 year old son’s experience with the culture shock of suburbia Philadelphia! I know this is an internal podcast, but my family needs to hear Cara’s story.