Own The Promise Own The Promise
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- Wirtschaft
At CliftonLarsonAllen, our Promise is to know you and help you. It’s an incredible privilege and an awesome responsibility that guides every decision we make and every relationship we cultivate. These communications help remind us of our strategic focus, prepare us for new and exciting endeavors, and help us sustain our rhythm of business.
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Industry Forward: Brent Terhaar, Life Sciences
In the first segment of this two-part podcast, Brent describes the fateful meeting that changed his career and pioneered a whole new life science industry practice. He traces his journey to that point and how he looked out with excitement — and no small degree of discomfort — at where this opportunity was heading. Nine months later, in part two, he tells us that growth in life sciences is up more than 20 percent — and how this once fledgling practice is moving from “experienced” to truly “specialized.”
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Industry Forward: Eric Beenken and Brendan Kurvers
Got an entrepreneurial spark but haven’t yet aligned your passions with your work? That’s when the joyless daily grind can set in — but also some real creative tension and the possibility for exciting career growth and satisfaction. Eric Beenken and Brenan Kurvers personal stories can show you how industry specialization may be just the thing that turns your spark into a fire. Industry Forward starts now!
[00:00:00]
John: Welcome, CLA family, to Industry Forward, a podcast
designed to tell the stories behind the CLA promise. We create opportunities
when we live the CLA culture, leadership, ownership, entrepreneurship.
[00:00:17]
At the center of CLA promise is our purpose, our why for
existence, to create opportunities for our clients, create opportunities for
our people, and create opportunities for our communities. Industry
specialization propels, enables, and drives all of those. Industry specialization
drives seamless capabilities. Industry specialization drives careers.
[00:00:46]
So why specialize? A better question is, “How do you
get started? And what’s it like when you’re just getting going?” So today,
we’ve invited Eric Beenken from our River Valley region, specializing
agribusiness but really in the pork industry, and Brendan Kurvers from our
Minneapolis office. He’s part of the M&D team but has been taken on the
leadership of driving our food and beverage practice. Welcome to the mic, guys.
[00:01:15]
Eric: Thanks, John.
[00:01:16]
Brendan: Thanks, John.
[00:01:17]
John: Glad to have you here. I’m gonna start with a really
simple question if I can today, just to get started. Let’s start with your
personal story. Brendan, tell us a little bit about yourself.
[00:01:27]
Brendan: Yeah, certainly. Grew up in the south side of
Minneapolis here, so grew up in Burnsville, Minnesota, which is about three
suburbs out of Minneapolis. Wound up at North Dakota State in Fargo. So spent
some time in North Dakota and then found myself back in Minneapolis, working
for CLA shortly thereafter college. Really got my start with CLA in 2012 with a
manufacturing, distribution internship.
[00:01:52]
And then found myself back at CLA in 2013 with another
summer internship, and then finally fulltime–As Dudley Ryan would say, I was a
seasonal intern. But found my way back fulltime in 2014. And that’s where I
really nestled into the manufacturing, distribution group.
[00:02:09]
John: So why accounting and finance? Why CPA?
[00:02:13]
Brendan: Yeah. It’s an interesting story, John. I actually
really went up to North Dakota State to be a pharmacist.
[00:02:19]
John: A pharmacist?
[00:02:20]
Brendan: Yeah. So a little bit of a pivot from what a CPA
does on a day-to-day. But at the end of the day, where I found my passion, when
I was in high school, was helping people. And the easiest thing that I could
really see was something that was frontline and center for me, my mom went
through two bouts of cancer when I was growing up. And I saw the immense amount
of drugs that were going into her body to combat this cancer.
And something, for me, -
Industry Forward: Financial institutions Charlie Cameron and Josh Juergensen
Charlie and Josh have taken two very different career
journeys in the FI industry, but they agree passionately on this: an
entrepreneurial approach to serving banks and credit unions is what sets CLA
apart. Together they lead our FI practice, which now boasts $70M in revenue,
more than 250 staff members, and roughly 1,500 clients. Let their stories of
grit and success inspire your own industry specialization path.
[00:00:24]
John:
Welcome CLA family to this podcast designed to tell the stories behind the CLA
promise. I’m John Langan, chief industry officer for our regulated industries.
We create opportunities when we live our culture as entrepreneurs, owners, and
leaders. At the center of the CLA promise is our why: to create opportunities.
Behind the CLA are a set of core beliefs. One of them is helping verse selling:
A belief that specialization enables us to focus less on ourselves and our
practice service specialty and more on our clients’ needs and opportunities.
[00:01:02]
As
we get to know our clients better and help them more it will in fact result in
growth for CLA. That’s industry specialization at CLA. Industry specialization
equals growth along with better quality, profitability, and more inspired
careers. But how do you get started? And how do you build a succession plan for
yourself? To answer those questions, we’ve invited two industry specialists,
financial institutions leaders MPI Charlie Cameron from our St. Louis office
and Josh Juergensen, an FI principal in the Minneapolis office.
[00:01:39]
Charlie
and Josh, welcome. You represent two ends of the industry journey, so exploring
it from both of your perspectives will provide real insight to our audience.
Let’s start with your personal stories. How long have you been with the firm?
Tell us about your career and what you have that brought you to this place.
And, Charlie, let’s start with you.
[00:02:00]
Charlie:
Thanks, John. I’m in my eighth year now with CLA. I actually merged my legacy
firm in at the beginning of 2012 when we first began operating at CLA. After
spending a few years with the Big Four at the beginning of my career, I worked
for 12 years for a regional bank holding company in St. Louis. After that bank
was sold, I purchased a small niche bank consulting firm and ran it for 12
years. By hiring some good people, many of which are still with us today, we
were able to grow consistently and establish a good reputation in the
marketplace.
[00:02:38]
In
2017, I began transitioning into my current role FI. Our FI practice now
stretches across the country, as totally revenue approximately $70 million, and
consists of about 250 total staff members.
[00:02:54]
John:
And I’ll bet as you started in this industry you had no idea you’d be sitting
on top of revenue of that size.
[00:03:00]
Charlie:
Absolutely no idea. It’s been a great ride.
[00:03:03]
John:
So, Josh, tell us about your story.
[00:03:05]
Josh: Thanks, John. I followed the more traditional
career path starting right out of college coming to CLA back in 2007, currently
in my 13th business season. By dumb luck, I happened to be placed in the
financial institutions practice and here we are today. -
Carrying the CLA Promise Forward
CEO Denny Schleper reaches out to our CLA family to recognize everyone during these busy times and give special thanks to those carrying the CLA Promise forward.
Music up
Man:
Welcome to “Own the Promise,” a CLA podcast created to share what
guides every decision we make and every relationship we cultivate.
[00:00:14]
Denny:
Hello, CLA family. This is Denny, coming to you at the beginning of March,
really in the heart of opportunity season. I hope that all of you are finding
those opportunities for yourselves and helping you build those inspired
careers. And I also hope that we’re finding those wonderful opportunities for
our clients as well. I am going to be very brief today. I know many of us are
so very, very busy providing these opportunities and creating them.
[00:00:42]
I just wanted to maybe remind all of us that
it’s also a great time of year to really give thanks to all those people around
us that are working so hard helping — carrying the CLA promise forward. And if
you could take just a few seconds each and every day to thank those people, it
does mean a tremendous amount to all of us this time of year. Also, there’s
ways to do this, like Workday — Workday app, if you have it on your phones,
just very quickly and easily to jump on that, give feedback, give recognition
to those, again, around you.
[00:01:19]
If I could also ask to keep our eyes and ears
open to those around us that are really looking for help and make sure that
we’re providing the help to them wherever it is needed. Also, for those of you
needing that help, please don’t hide. Make sure that you raise your hand. Make
sure that you get to people, asking for that help that you need. All of us in
the CLA family will operate that way together and I’m confident that, together,
we can get through this very busy time.
[00:01:51]
Things are off to a very good start in 2019.
Again, thanks to everyone in the CLA family working so hard. So I’m recognizing
all of you, I’m thanking all of you for the tremendous efforts that are being
put forth. Thank you so very much on behalf of myself, the executive team, the
leadership advisory team, and the board of directors.
[00:02:15]
Please keep it going through this opportunity season and, once again, reach out for help and make sure, if you’re being asked, that we respond as well as we possibly can to help all of us in the CLA family. Hang in there and have a good rest of the opportunity season.
Thank you.
Music out -
Industry Forward: Sam Metcalf’s Passion for M&D
Sam Metcalf, Managing Principal of Industry, has built an impressive career on a lifetime passion for the M&D industry. She explains how market segments are screaming for highly specialized professionals, and she has some profoundly helpful insights for those who want to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities this offers. One of her most fascinating tips? Be inquisitive and don’t hold back any of your questions.
[00:00:04]
Narrator: John Richter takes a moment to catch up with Sam Metcalf who’s built an impressive career on a lifetime passion for the M&D industry. She explains the need for highly specialized professionals, and shares her helpful insights for those who want to take advantage of new and exciting opportunities. One tip? Be inquisitive… ask questions. Industry Forward starts now .
Music up…
[00:00:36]
John: Hello, CLA
family. Welcome to the Industry Forward podcast, the podcast designed to tell
you the stories behind the CLA promise and the careers that have been inspired
because of industry specialization. We create opportunities when we live the
CLA culture and fulfill the CLA promise.
[00:00:55]
We
act as leaders, owners, entrepreneurs. At the center of this CLA promise is our
purpose, our why: to create opportunities, to wake up each morning and ask
ourselves, for whom will we create an opportunity today? If we did that, if we
act in accordance with that belief, it would be a different firm. Imagine a
firm where every morning, every person wakes up asking themselves, “Who am
I going to create opportunities for today?”
[00:01:24]
Well,
today, we’re going to hear about an individual who had a multitude of
opportunities created, mostly through the industry of manufacturing and
distribution. Samantha Metcalf, welcome
to the microphone. Would you tell us a little bit about your career?
[00:01:41]
Sam: Sure. Well, I
don’t know if you know this, but I came from Cleveland, Minnesota, population
600 people. Graduated with 40 kids in my class and was from a very rural
community. My dad was the sales director of a manufacturing and distribution
company. They manufactured passenger elevators, and so I grew up following my
dad around, riding on top of elevators, meeting individuals on the
manufacturing floor.
My
first job was babysitting the owner’s kids, and then I transitioned into
working for the manufacturing company. I ran parts. I drove these very large
vehicles all over the state of Minnesota and Iowa delivering manufactured parts
to the customers.
[00:02:24]
John: I’m trying to
imagine Sam Metcalf driving a big truck, but let’s go with it.
[00:02:30]
Sam: It was
dangerous, let’s just put it that way. So, it was fun. It was great. But it
gave me a passion for the industry; it gave me a passion for the people. And so
I went to college, went to St. Mary’s University and got an accounting degree.
And mainly, that was because my mom was an accountant, and not knowing exactly
what I wanted to do, I thought, you know, she was very good at her job; I would
follow in her footsteps.
[00:02:53]
So,
started with a small public accounting firm. And I did a bit of everything. I
served non-profits, I did 1099s, I did manufacturing companies. -
Keep Believing in the Promise
Optimism and opportunity are everywhere. A great deal of our success is due to our commitment to the CLA Promise. Listen as Denny shares amazing client feedback as well as his thoughts on why so many people see what we have as something truly special.
[00:00:02]
Narrator: Welcome to Own the Promise, a
CLA podcast created to share what guides every decision we make and every
relationship we cultivate.
[00:00:16]
Denny: Hello, CLA family. This is Denny
Schleper coming to you in the heart of opportunity season. I hope everyone’s
winter and the opportunity season is off to a great start.
I know I was looking at some of the
preliminary budgets for 2019, and it looks like the budgets are coming back
with some very strong optimistic growth in 2019, in the upper 7 percent, close
to 8 percent range in revenue growth for the firm, so a lot of optimism, lots
of opportunity, obviously, in this season. I know that many of you are
extremely busy.
[00:00:56]
It’s not everyone’s busy time of the
year, but for a large part of the firm, it is, and I just wanted to share an
experience that I had over the last week or so with the entire family, because
I think it really is so critical and so important that we keep what we have at
CLA very much in mind, and this experience really came from the wealth summit
that we had in Arizona at the end of January.
[00:01:27]
For those of you that don’t know, we
brought together roughly 280 or so clients throughout the country that
participate in our wealth advisory services, and this was an opportunity for us
to bring them together, obviously get to know them better, build stronger
relationships so that we could help them better,
But also to do some education and an
opportunity just simply to attract more activity in our wealth advisory
services to them. But it was a time for these wealth advisory clients to learn
more about CLA as well.
[00:02:04]
And I think what they learned and the
feedback that I received at this summit was really something amazing to me,
because I think when those wealth advisory clients were able to get to
understand CLA and who we are and what we have to offer to a greater extent, it
really was so well received.
And some of the responses that I
received just made me step back and question myself, why is it that what we
have at CLA, why is it so special?
[00:02:42]
And I’ve been thinking about that ever
since the summit, and what really came to mind for me was all of the people in
the CLA family that really go beyond I’d say their day-to-day jobs and even
leadership roles that they take on, call it within their job activity, but
people that go even beyond that and take on roles that are really what I’ve
always referred to as “and” roles.
They do all the things related to their
jobs, but on top of that, they volunteer for things, and so they really take on
an “and” position, not an “or,” not an
“either-or,” but really everything that they do in their job and the
volunteer opportunities that they find.
[00:03:35]
And I just started listing some of
those. I started listing, you know, really starting with the board of
directors. If you think about,