Kathleen St. Louis Caliento, CEO and President of Cara Collective

THEMES 

  • Taking More, Forever to its core—human connection and love. 
  • Make an individual’s experiences assets not liabilities 
  • The power and purpose of employment 
  • Creating successful more and forever relationships, not just with clients but all different groups, means thinking about them. “It’s starting where the person is.” 
  • Managing people is one of the most important and hardest parts of being a leader 
  • Being both warm and demanding helps relationships thrive but first “it requires building a lot of trust” 
  • Building strong relationships requires a few things but it starts with having genuine curiosity about others 

KEY MOMENTS 

[2:06] Kathleen shares her personal and professional journey and background 

[3:15] Equity, opportunity and access, “these are words that drive me and the work that I do” 

[6:39] “They are who they are because of where they come from, not in spite of where they come from.”

[6:51] Some background of Cara Collective and how it got started 

[7:32] “At Cara Collective, we believe in the power and purpose of employment.” 

[8:54] Kathleen talks about the importance and priority of building a chosen family, network, and community, “You get out what you put in” 

[10:03] Creating a bank of relationship equity 

[10:26] Kathleen gives us a breakdown of what Cara Collective encompasses

[18:34] What does it mean to you to create a more and forever relationship? “Meet the person where they are at”

[19:49] Critical pieces of developing relationships, you want to be warm but demanding which requires a lot of trust and putting in the work 

[22:43] “We are all coming with our stuff!” 

[23:32] “So many barriers to remove mentally to just get to the simplicity of: do you care enough about the individual to be curious about them” 

[24:24] People can feel the spirit of curiosity, learning, and helpfulness 

[25:15] Listen to feel; listen to understand 

 [26:20] What are Cara Collective’s strategic priorities (and how do they align so well to build relationships)? Solution, investment, and employer of choice 

[29:52] Kathleen is the first non-home-grown CEO of Cara Collective. What has it been like coming in as an outside leader? And how has the pandemic affected that? 

[31:49] How have you built relationships without meeting people in person as a new leader? 

[33:56] “We all bring two types of care to work” 

[36:10] What are some of the little things that you do consistently to build relationships?

[40:07] “The Road Up”: A great documentary recommendation on Cara and three of their participants 

[41:30] We lose sight of practice, reflection, and making good habits; we can get away from the fundamentals because we are so busy 

[43:05] What it means to come from a place of love and how Cara Collective embraces that

[46:41] “I’m very moved by corporations who lead the pack in this way [equity].” 

[47:38] “Show me you love me; don’t tell me you love me” 

[48:22] What can you do to choose love in the workplace?

[50:24] Kathleen’s marathon commitment (6 marathons down!!)–do the little things great 

[52:33] How do you balance everything and stay grounded and take care of yourself? 

[53:33] “If there was anything I acutely learned during the pandemic, it is the idea of grace” 

[55:13] What allows you to be more present 

[56:23] Final thoughts on more & forever: “It really starts with the person” 

LINKS & RESOURCES 

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