MATT FLEISSIG: I mean, at the very basic, we are still a single family office for multiple families. From the start of the firm, our philosophy has been if our people are happy, our clients are happy, and the business will do well as a product of that. And I think it's very important that even whatever success we've had, whatever growth we've seen, is really because of those first two things, and it's for serving clients. You know, people say, when you look at our growth rate and new clients joining, 'How did you do it?' Well, we just delivered incredible service to our clients. I know it sounds old-fashioned that there's not a…
EDDIE BROWN: Sure. Sure.
MATT: …there's not a secret trick that's out there. But the secret trick is delivering incredible service to your families and growing the business. And I think that's been from the start.
STEVE BRAVERMAN: Yeah, we make what we consider to be a multi-generational promise to our clients. You know, when I said back to this concept of a family who hires us is effectively entrusting us with their legacy. So, you know, the way in which we think about building the firm, the way in which we set our north star, as you say, is really centered on this idea of getting it right continuously, and being the right partner for our clients each and every day.
EDDIE: Yeah, and it's become more complex. It's a tremendous responsibility when you think about the impact that you and your teams can have for multiple generations and how that shapes the course for the family's success. You know, and with increasing complexity in families, and the needs and expectations increasing, it's obvious they're asking more of you.
STEVE: We had a wonderful family of ours that we had been serving for a number of years prior to their liquidity event back in 2008, and they were able to sell their business to a large, well-known, multinational conglomerate for what was a quarter-billion dollars in cash in August of 2008. Markets were at about 6,000 on the Dow. So, you know, effectively having 250 million in cash was a good place to be those days. But, interestingly, the entrepreneur that had spent years getting himself into that position, shared with me at that very moment, basically said, 'Steve, I've never felt so poor.' And I said to him, 'Well, tell me a little bit more about that. You've just now taken in $250 million by way of the sale of your business. Why is it that you feel poor?' And he said, 'Steve, today is the first day I stop making money. From this point forward, I have to live on what I've done.'
Now, of course, you know, the beauty part of it is that this gentleman has gone on to multiple iterations of entrepreneurial success since then. But, nonetheless, in that moment, he needed to know from us as his family office that we had his back, that we understood his balance sheet, that we understood his goals, his fears, his aspirations, and that he needed to hear from us in that moment 'I've got you.' And I think for me, that always sits as a special moment, an opportunity to really say, 'Look, we are informed. We've known you for years. We were working with you well before your liquidity event. And we know how you live, what you want to do, how you want to impact society, how you want to develop your family, and we're ready to be, you know, a confident partner for you.' So that's always been an impactful story for me.
EDDIE: You know, it's all about the client perspective, and something that we built with Chuck Schwab and his vision was always seeing things through clients' eyes.
STEVE: Absolutely.
EDDIE: And safety and security is incredibly important, but the ability for you to kind of span that scope of doing so much more than just manage the money is tremendous.
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