Who is Claire Kluever and what is Magnolia Solutions LLC?

My name is Claire Kluever and I strongly believe in authenticity, integrity and abundance in all dimensions -  spiritual, mental, emotional and physical.   Yet, for the majority of my adult life, I spent considerable time and effort trying to suppress my authentic self and to fit into a certain mold that I felt would most please others. In my mid 40’s, due to the grace of God and an excellent life coach, I was able to break free from unfulfilling, self-imposed norms and begin to live the life that I had always wanted to live.  I realized that every person has within themselves the strength and the knowledge of how to live their most fulfilling life; but unfortunately it is very difficult to achieve this without some form of assistance, education and practice.   In January, 2011, I founded Magnolia Solutions LLC with the goal of joining my unique experience working in the wealth management industry with my love for building relationships and partnering with people to help them to live their best lives.

I get tremendous fulfillment from empowering people to confidently address important life decisions, embrace life transitions, as opposed to fear them, and purposefully live more fulfilling and low-stress lives.  Magnolia Solutions LLC was created so that I could continue to work with, and add value to, the lives of some of the most selfless, hard working, genuine people you could hope to meet- family office executives.  My mission at Magnolia Solutions LLC is to assist Wealth Management Executives to significantly lower their stress, raise their intuition, and achieve success, for themselves and for their clients, with less effort.

I accomplish this mission by partnering with my clients and teaching them a full-proof method for lowering stress, increasing engagement and markedly improving their own effect in all areas of life.

What experience do you have working with family office and wealth management executives?

I have spent over 20 amazing years working closely with family office executives, family member clients and the full array of external advisors who assist the family with investing, estate planning, tax planning, risk management, accounting and personal services.  I have also worked a great deal with multi-family offices and large financial institutions which offer the full gamut of wealth management services.

In 1991, I was fortunate to be hired by Sara Hamilton at Family Office Exchange (FOX) to start an executive recruiting practice specializing in family office searches.  For the next ten years, I built the FOX retained search practice and served as Project Leader in the majority of our searches.  We were specially qualified to complete family office searches because of our unparalleled knowledge of the clientele, family office operations and unique qualifications required to run a family office.  Because of our keen appreciation for the exceptional skill set required to successfully run a family office, we spent a tremendous amount of time vetting candidates, at both a technical as well as personal level, and successfully completed over 50 executive level searches across the country.

During this time, we also published annual research reports benchmarking industry norms for family office compensation and benefits and were recognized for our expertise in creating win/win compensation structures within these specialized operating entities.  Through this experience, I gained an immense appreciation for the complex, vast and distinctive personal and technical skills required to be a successful family office leader.

You can learn more about these talented professionals in my article: Do You have What It Takes? Characteristics of Exceptional Family Office Leaders.

My last six years at FOX, I was able to shift gears and partner closely with FOX’s industry leading advisor clientele i.e. investment consultants, multi-family offices, large banks and estate, tax and risk management practices.  My responsibility for clients was to develop a complete understanding of each firm’s unique strengths, products and services for ultra-wealthy families, identify how these aligned with the current needs of the market, develop methods for raising the firm’s visibility within the FOX community, facilitate cross-discipline peer networking opportunities and keep advisors abreast of the key trending issues and concerns of mega-wealthy private clients.

Why did you become an Executive Coach?

In 2007, I took a summer sabbatical from my job from my job of 16 years.  At the time, I was traveling, working long hours, and feeling extremely stressed out; and, I had a strong desire to spend some time purely focused on my family, my faith and my mental, physical and spiritual well-being.  I was firmly committed to coming back to my job after the summer and I fully intended to, however, as the end of my sabbatical drew near instead of feeling refreshed and ready to dive back in, I began to feel anxious and unsettled.  Instead of pushing these feelings down and pushing forward, as I had done so many other times in my life, I made a decision which turned out to be one of the most transforming and powerful decisions of my then 46 year life.  I hired a life coach.

My life coach helped me to honestly examine my core values, priorities and what I felt compelled to do and opened my eyes to the truth that, at this point in my life, a career comprised of business travel, long hours and constant pressure was a choice that I would no longer make.  This realization came to me over a period of time, but once I faced this truth head on, I felt a sense of strength, excitement and utter commitment to whatever lay ahead.

The gift that my life coach gave to me was to “wake me up” to the full possibilities and dreams that I had for my life and, more importantly, to help me develop a greater belief and trust in myself and my own inner compass.

While reveling in this incredible insight and clarity, I began to think “Who wouldn’t want to have this gift for themselves and how amazing would it be for me to be able to give this empowering gift to other people?”  So began my incredible journey into learning, training and studying to become a life coach and towards fully utilizing my gifts and passions to give this same gift and the empowering energy which results from it to others.

What is the difference between coaching and consulting?

Having spent a great deal of my career as a consultant, I had a lot of learning and growing to do in order to become a life coach.  I was used to having an agenda and a set of possible answers, and bringing that agenda and those answers to clients who were in need of them.  I was an expert in the family office market.  As a coach, I do not come into a new relationship with an agenda or answers to any questions.  My sole purpose as a coach is to partner with my client as they examine their own core values, priorities and what they truly feel truly compelled to do and assist them in taking steps towards meeting their most important goals .  Although coaches have specializations in certain fields, like wealth management for myself, their true expertise is in the coaching process itself.

For wealth management professionals, I am able to serve as a coach whose knowledge and past experiences, provide powerful insight and synergy when partnering together as well as a mutual understanding of the unique requirements and challenges of family office work.

How does your service work? How can we work together?

There are a number of ways which we can work together and all of them begin with you picking up the phone and calling me in order to find out more.  As one of my clients, we would work together one-on-one and in complete privacy and we would create a powerful alliance which would enable you to better manage your life, experience greater fulfillment, and to basically create and fully realize the life of your choosing.  It sounds too good to be true, right?  Let me assure you that it is not, and I am living proof of that.

I believe that each of us has his or her own “Higher Coach,” an inner instinctual voice that, when listened to, guides with wisdom and empowers us with unlimited potential.  Aligning yourself with your greatest power and potential allows you to know that the answers to your challenges and questions in life are always within your grasp.  More importantly, when you connect with your Higher Coach, you connect with the best and truest part of who you really are.

If you are inclined to believe in the concept of a cutting edge modality that offers new possibility for taking your life to the next level or if you can subscribe to the concept that it makes good sense to have the assistance of someone who is non-judgmental, a good listener, and capable of thinking “outside of the box” to help you make your life more manageable and enjoyable then you are a solid candidate for coaching transformation.  Call me at 847-883-0220 to find out more.  You owe it only to yourself!

 “It is better to follow the Voice inside and be at war with the whole world, than to follow the ways of the world and be at war with your deepest self.” – Michael Pastore