Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, Seacoast Banking Fl
Search every verified Juliette Kleffel interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a September 2021 interview, Juliette Kleffel, then Executive Vice President and Chief Banking Officer at Seacoast Bank, discussed her personal and professional journey following a divorce and the death of her second husband. Kleffel stated that after her divorce she sold her home and "walked away with about 750 dollars to my name and a few pots and pans," adding that she had no job and was unaware of an impending IRS audit. She said she "absolutely would have had support from legal counsel" if she could do it again. Kleffel described starting her banking career as a part-time teller and customer service representative, learning "from the ground up" by reading policy and procedure manuals. She recounted walking into the president's office and asking how to get into management, a meeting she said he took. Kleffel noted that her "big faith is absolutely the foundation of everything" she does and that she sought professional counseling two weeks after her husband's death, continuing for nearly a decade. She advised others to "give yourself permission to grieve" and to build a "village" of support when raising children after divorce or tragedy.
“We sold our home and I walked away with about 750 dollars to my name and a few pots and pans — I had no job, I gave up the car, I gave up the dog, and shortly after I walked away what I learned is that I was getting ready to go through an IRS audit and I had no idea what was going on in the finances at that time.”
“If I had to do it all over again I absolutely would have had support from legal counsel.”
“I started as a part-time teller and customer service representative — I learned it from the ground up, reading everything I could about the banking industry from the credit policy manual to the procedures manual.”
“I walked myself into the president's office and said, 'Hi, my name is Julie... I'd really like to do more and I want to get my way into management — how do I do that quickly?' and fortunately he actually took the meeting.”
“My big faith is absolutely the foundation of everything that I do in life — if you really walk that faith out, God continues to show himself faithful.”
“Two weeks after my husband passed away I immediately got professional counseling; my counselor eventually became my executive coach and my life-balance coach — I was in counseling for almost a decade and it was very valuable.”
“Give yourself permission to grieve — grieve the loss of my first marriage through divorce, grieve the loss of my second marriage through death — and remind yourself that everyone has a story.”
“I built out a village — family, friends and hired help — anyone that's a working professional needs a village when you're raising children, especially post-divorce or post-tragedy.”
“That's my day job — I'm the executive vice president and chief banking officer of Seacoast Bank.”
Julie Kleffel is Seacoast Bank's EVP, Chief Banking Officer. She joined the Seacoast leadership team as a result of a merger ...
Sign in to search the full transcript archive, filter by topic, and access every quote from Juliette Kleffel.
The summary and quote tags on this profile are produced with AI assistance from verified, first-person interview transcripts, then checked by our team to confirm the speaker's identity and the accuracy of every quote. See how we verify →