Mark Lingenfelter's Reflections on Ten Years at Christopher Street Financial
We are launching a series addressing the question “Why do you work at Christopher Street Financial?”. To kick off the series, I, rather self-consciously, considering I am the one who oversees these efforts, started with my own, which I did at the time of passing my ten-year mark at Christopher Street. I hope you find the essays enjoyable. - ML
In 2015 I was in Stockholm on my first trip to Europe. I was there to swim in the Eurogames (50 meter free for those keeping track). While there, I received an email from Jen Hatch. In my memory, the email said she was looking for a gay receptionist. I have since found the email and that is not what it said, but I do believe at some point, that was the gist. I was not looking to be receptionist. I had just left a similar position, and I wanted to move on. And even though I am a homosexual, there is a litany of adjectives I would prefer to be known for, before “gay.” Not in an internalized homophobia kinda way, but for crying out loud, can’t I first be known as “funny”?!
Cutting to the chase: I took the job, and I just celebrated ten years of working at Christopher Street Financial. We call them “workiversaries” around here, which continues to come up in spellcheck, but we don’t care. It’s an occasion we celebrate, even if we have to make up a word to do so.
Ten years feels like a long time. I’m a person who gets introspective, so of course I have been looking back on my time here. I am grateful for many of the experiences I have had at Christopher Street. I am grateful that, with the support of CSF leadership over the years, I was able to step away from reception and carve out a job for me in areas that I have grown to be passionate about: the employee and client experience. Someone recently told me that my job title sounded like something I made up. I did. To clarify what this role entails, on the employee experience side, I oversee our recruiting and employee development initiatives. I love interviewing candidates. My interviewing style is heavily influenced by how much I hated being in their seat, looking for a job. I strive to create an environment where I can see the person in their best light.
For the client experience side, I oversee CSF’s marketing initiatives, including our branding, social media posts, newsletters, email campaigns, events, how we tell our story, and, most important to me, our relationship with our charitable partners. Sometimes this means I am a creator; other times I am an editor. Sometimes this means I am writing about others; sometimes this means I am writing about myself in the third person. Sometimes this means I am taking stabs at what I think the reader might find helpful or interesting. (ps: How am I doing?)
At first glance, this role may seem like a far cry from the industry I originally started out in and what brought me to New York City from small town central Pennsylvania in the first place: the theatre. The common bond between my theatre work and my work here at Christopher Street Financial is that they both are about creating an experience. I love giving people the opportunity to feel something, whether it is feeling heard in an interview, feeling secure with our messaging, feeling smart when we make stock market content accessible, feeling cared for in a client meeting, or feeling funny at a pun thrown into the middle of a social media post. That is my “why.” My incentive to get out of bed in the morning is to extraordinary-ize (another made-up word!) the mundane.
And, I have the honor of doing that at Christopher Street Financial, the nation’s first financial planning firm dedicated to serving the LGBTQ+ community and those that share with our values. And while, “gay” may still not be my preferred leading adjective for self-description, (I am funny, darnnit!) I recognize the gravity of the work we do in service to our clients and our community. And, I am happy that in times I like these, that I get to do that all here.
