Alison Moss:

[00:00:00] I still talk to new hires today as if it were 20 years ago. Here's who Comstock is. Here's our guardrails, here is our branding. Here's how we look and feel. These are the standards. We had it written, and if it didn't fall within the guardrails, we knew. Okay, we're not the fit for you in our industry. It really tends to be each man for himself. If you build your own book of business, you service as it your way, and I didn't want any part of that. Mission

Matt Pennebaker:

[00:00:29] control, we. Imagine pivoting from concert halls to capital markets to join dad's firm just for a stint, only to beat him at his own ring making game and lift the company to become a $3.5 billion powerhouse. That's Alison Moss artist turned advisor who proved succession. Can Sprint. Stay tuned on how Clarity crushed convention.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:01:00] Allison, thank you for joining us this morning for our podcast of Rethink Change.

Alison Moss:

[00:01:05] Thank you for having me. Pleasure.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:01:07] I'd like to talk to you about what does Comstock do?

Alison Moss:

[00:01:11] Sure. So Comstock is our quick name for Paul Comstock Partners, which is a wealth advisory firm. That's a fairly broad description, so as we get into the elevator pitch version, we're an outsourced. CIO, chief Investment Officer to families and family offices.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:01:27] And has that industry niche changed a lot over the years?

Alison Moss:

[00:01:30] It is evolving and the offerings at different bigger shops as well as smaller shops has been evolving. When Paul founded the firm, he was an anomaly. And now more and more. Groups are offering similar services and have their own way of offering it that meets their strengths and talents

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:01:50] when you're doing your business development. And would they be talking to more than one family office consultant or would it be just they'd find you and say, okay, we're ready to go?

Alison Moss:

[00:02:02] Um, we've had both, I would say more often than not, we're brought in as a referral by either another family office that they're. Collaborating with or connected to, or an advisor such as a, an accountant or an estate planning attorney is most often how we're brought in,

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:02:21] I guess it was 20 years ago that we worked together.

Alison Moss:

[00:02:24] Yeah.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:02:25] Do you remember what the, kind of the lay of the land was? You said that Paul was one of the early guys, one of the only ones doing it. What caused the decision to go out and we gotta figure out how to do this better to grow the business?

Alison Moss:

[00:02:40] Yeah, we had to expand beyond an individual, and I was eager to do that because I was eager for this to exist beyond the individual. Now we had a team of, I think there were 12 people at that time, so it was, it was a reasonable size group for our industry, for being a boutique firm. So it's not that we were small, but. We had a primary rainmaker and strategist, and I was looking to see how we could expand beyond the founder without watering down the deliverable.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:03:16] And how did you decide to take the path you did to figure that out?

Alison Moss:

[00:03:21] Well, in some ways I felt like it was chosen for me. I'd never anticipated coming to work. For my dad, he never anticipated me coming to work for him, and I never thought to be in the financial world as a young adult. I was a musician, as an artist in in the music realm and. I just really didn't have it on my radar and where, and it ended up evolving. And then I came, graduated, couldn't play my music anymore, had problems with my hands and I was forced to pivot. I went to work in oil and gas in Houston as one does, and then Paul had an opening and asked if I would consider it, and I came over and. Consistent with my personality, I immediately saw all these things that needed to be changed. I'm very much an editor, uh, certainly back then too. And so I said, you know, dad, we gotta do this. We gotta do that. And, and some of the ideas were good, and some of them weren't. Some of them were ignorant and, and didn't have the whole picture, but fortunately he gave me a chance and he and the team let me try some things and bring new ideas to the table and push back on things that. I didn't think were the best options for the firm and for that I saw more. More opportunities and they listened. It

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:04:41] was, can you gimme some examples of things that turned out to be, yeah, we gotta deal with this.

Alison Moss:

[00:04:47] The biggest one was when I moved into the research department and I saw how high caliber the work was. And by this point I had exposure to other financial firms and what they were doing. 'cause I'd been looking around and I thought, my goodness, this is really, really good work. But we're not presenting it in a way that's digestible easily. For our clients. So I'd gotten to know our clients. I'd gotten to understand our research, and I just felt like we were leaving good data on the table that they just couldn't bite. So that was what I tackled first, and I worked on the presentation. I got to bring in my artistic side and worked on the deliverable of very, very good information. We got some great traction from that.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:05:32] I know over time you took over more and more of the business development as well as the other. How did you learn to do that better?

Alison Moss:

[00:05:41] After learning the business and having some great experiences and feeling more comfortable with my ability to do the work, I knew that if this was going to succeed, it had to. Be sustainable by my efforts alone on the growth part of it. I'm never alone on the deliverables, but at least I had to. I had to feel confident that I could bring in business before I approached Paul to say, Hey, I'd like to start buying you out. And so I really just hunkered down and went. And got new business. I'm also very competitive. Paul and I are very competitive, and we would look at the end of the year, well, who brought in more? Now he's competitive while being super supportive. So it wasn't a negative in any way, but I loved that. And so I'm like, I gotta beat Dad. And then the next year I, I beat him and then I thought. Okay, but I'm gonna do this now. And I'm very, very goal oriented. So I would set a number, and interestingly, Paul would do the same thing. We didn't really know each other was doing it until further in the process. And I set a number like, this is what I wanna do, which is a little odd because I'm actually not very number driven. I'm people driven, but I needed something. Some kind of a benchmark because I had to stay connected to the financial part of it, not just enjoying doing the work. It was quite a transition for him to not be the one to be called, that calls were starting to come to me. That was a process, uh, for him and for me. So I'm not just an employee at that point. I'm a rising principal, but I am still his daughter. It was a bit of a dance for both of us, but we were both very eager to see both the business transition succeed and our relationship to continue to succeed.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:07:29] When we did the process of the strategic guardrails, what were you hoping to get out of it?

Alison Moss:

[00:07:36] I wanted to unveil what I thought was this basket of gold that. The cover just couldn't get off of fully. There'd been snippets of it, little windows into it. I thought we need to kind of blow off the top here, and there wasn't enough capacity to do that with, with the current players and with the current resources that were being utilized. And there was. A lot of things that the founder could do. Paul was very, very bright, is very bright, very capable, and he would run in many directions. I didn't find myself able to run in all those different directions or interested in it, so I thought, let's find where we can grow as a firm. We know where, what Paul can do. Let's see what we can do as a firm and do it efficiently. The guardrails process brought in efficiency as a one of the. Key results of that was to help us focus and creators do some of their best work by not focusing, and I was ready to. Find ways we could focus as a firm.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:08:42] So what was the process like to go through?

Alison Moss:

[00:08:45] Well, fortunately we had no resistance from any of our senior people at the firm. I was worried, they're like, who? What are you doing, Allison? What? What are you coming up with? Why do you want us to go spend a couple days? And I didn't get that actually. And that was exciting. And we all got in the room together and everyone's voice was heard. That was exciting. And what we discovered through that process was. There. There was a lot of consistency, but the packaging was different person to person. How they described it was different person to person. But the process helped us identify, we're actually all on the same page. Here's how we can better package it to increase the deliverable, the consumption of the deliverable. Right? People processing what we're doing. 'cause it is a little different from the norm. And then. Get us focused as a firm for the areas we're best suited to grow going forward. It was kind of this delineation of good, better, best, and it helped us stick with the best.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:09:44] After going through the process, did. Paul change anything the way he would do business development or that you would learn to say, this is the way we ought to do it?

Alison Moss:

[00:09:55] He did. He did. I would say the, the quickest takeaway was he felt confident to proceed with more focus, that confidence. Created a commitment to it that allowed for it to be very successful. And there were times when I would come in like, Hey, remember we're gonna do it this way now. I didn't get resistance. And I think that speaks a lot to the process because it was a process and not just being told this is what you need to do. He was committed to it 'cause it made sense. He, he. Got to that conclusion on his own, wasn't just given the conclusion, and that's pretty valuable. I think without that, it would've been very hard to keep this going for so long, but we all saw the value because of the process, kind of pulled it out and made it very obvious this is what we should do.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:10:42] What exactly was he doing differently? As he focused,

Alison Moss:

[00:10:45] he gets a lot of phone calls. He would run after each phone call and it was the ability to say no. In in some instances, and then the ability to say, yes, we can do it. This is how we can do it, and very committed to that structure of our deliverable. It wasn't that he wasn't doing it before, but it was a stronger commitment to the structure.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:11:10] And part of that, was it easier to recognize who was going to be a good prospect and who wouldn't? Yes,

Alison Moss:

[00:11:17] very much so. And I would say the transition probably was more for everyone else at the firm than it was for Paul, actually. When we would get a call from a family and they would describe what was going on that they needed help with, uh, we had a list of questions to ask versus more off the cuff. Discussions and that helped people beyond Paul. 'cause Paul would was very good at asking questions, but helped the rest of us be focused. And then when we would get feedback from this prospective client or client family of what they wanted to see happen, we had it written. And if it didn't fall within the guardrails, we knew, okay, we're not the fit for you. That had never been said before. To my knowledge, we can't do this. If you're a competitive person, you can figure it out. You can do anything. We now had this license to say no, and that was new and key for us to be focused.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:12:13] The marketing that you started doing after the the sessions, can you describe kind of the impact that they had?

Alison Moss:

[00:12:20] Yes. Oh, that was really the most exciting part. So we had new materials. We had a new look. We elevated the appearance of Comstock, in my opinion, to the level that the data was already at. So I went back and I started visiting people that had been visited before and didn't receive. Us with enthusiasm or just didn't hire us. And I walked in the first meeting that I went and I, I had a list of people that Paul had visited and I said, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go see. And we went in and, and we handed our materials and we talked through our process and we had a more refined message and we got the engagement. And the feedback we got was you looked the part this time, and boy was that exciting to confirm that the whole process was worth it. On our very first pitch, it was confirmed. Okay, now you look the part that you've been playing and we can connect the dots and we feel confident. We weren't just some mom and pop group visually, then that happened on repeat over and over again that we looked the part of the level of sophistication we were operating under. And then of course, it's exciting to have that confidence come and then I had no fear going, continuing on the journey and continuing knocking on doors and, and that's really what I, I'm convinced, made the difference. It bolstered confidence with its. Look, feel, and very succinct messaging.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:13:51] You got feedback from people you talked to before, so that was a big change. Big change. Did you get feedback from some competitors saying, whoa, what's happened here? Oh, definitely.

Alison Moss:

[00:14:02] Yes. We got some folks in town. Here in Houston that, oh, hey, what's going on at Comstock? Definitely created buzz in the, the peer community here. We had one instance where we felt like we were being copied, but we let it be. But yeah, no, it was it. It put us on the map, certainly.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:14:23] What's an example of a situation that in the past you would've said, yes, I'll try it, but. Now it's like, no, this is not a fit.

Alison Moss:

[00:14:31] Well, there's one in particular that came about after the guardrails and I didn't stick to the guardrails as tightly as I should have, and it didn't work. And a family came to us and said, you know, we've got multiple family owners, but only a couple are participating in the business. And one of those people, family members, was coming to us saying, Hey, help me deal with my non-working family members. We got in there and we didn't ask enough questions up front and we, at the end of the day, were asked to basically push out the other family members. This person had a very, very specific agenda and that we're not puppets, so that did not work. And I will say I was. I was disappointed that we didn't catch it sooner. 'cause we wasted a lot of energy on that. And for us, and candidly for the client family, it was just, that wasn't a good pursuit. But

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:15:27] what are some other triggers that you, in the initial conversations you go, oh, this isn't a good, now this isn't gonna fit.

Alison Moss:

[00:15:35] When someone reaches out and says, um, we've got. The various money managers that we're working with, and we want you to give us your pitch. What would you do with this amount of money? And then we're gonna compare you to all these other folks. And we say no to that. And it's not because we don't wanna be compared to other money managers, it's because it's not in the best interest of the client. And we tell them that and we say, you know, if that's what you want, we're not the people for you. There's far more complexity to this than I think you're. Giving credit to, and we don't have to be the only shop, so we actually have many clients with many money managers. That's not the problem. It's this like, we're just gonna have you look at a sliver. That was the issue. So we look at the whole wealth. We can focus in on a particular portion of the wealth and then we can help strategize on the whole.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:16:29] Tell me about the growth you've had over the last 20 years.

Alison Moss:

[00:16:32] The growth came. At the rate that an individual can grow, right? So I could only bring so much at a time successfully and, and thoughtfully now. So that was over about a decade of period of time, and I wasn't the only one bringing in business by any stretch, but I was bringing in the most significant amounts of new revenue. We went from 20 years ago. We were like a um, 1.6 billion. Of assets under advisement and fast forward to now, and we're 3.5 billion, and of course the market's grown and that's, that's great. Where the bigger difference happened is our average client size when I started the firm was. About 2 million. It is now upwards of 35 million. To me, that's the biggest change. It's not so much how many clients we've served or are now serving 'cause of the growth. 'cause I've actually reduced new client count year over year. What I've increased is the family wealth portfolio size, and that was done intentionally, not just 'cause Bigger is better, bigger is more, has a longer run rate. So I could. Have clients much longer because when it moves to the next generation, it's still large enough to make our services valuable. And so that was my focus. I was eager to increase the average client size, and that has been done in a very meaningful way.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:17:58] So part of that's attributable to your focus, but. It's harder to get the big ones.

Alison Moss:

[00:18:04] That's what people tell me. I don't know.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:18:07] Not for you.

Alison Moss:

[00:18:08] I, it doesn't feel harder. It actually feels easier for me because I feel like what they're looking for is more natural for me to provide. I feel it's better suits my strengths and skill sets, so I don't think it's harder, but I get told that a lot and they're like, why are you doing this? This is so much more work. But I love it. So I thought, well. I'm gonna do what I wanna do here and if they're happy with this, why wouldn't I run with that? That's a big reason why, and the team, I love being unique and what we're doing and how we're doing it, I continue to find is unique. So that's, that's a good fit. Describe that uniqueness Well. We don't sell any investment products. We don't receive commissions from anything we recommend. We don't have outside shareholders. We don't have the common pressures for how we deliver advice to clients that the big shops have. So that frees us up to do things that other firms cannot afford to do, but we charge in a way where we can still make. Great money. If you're looking at it, the business side of it, we are still very profitable, but we aren't driven by the same decision making to get to that profitability. For example, we do consolidated reporting for client assets that are in lots of different types of investments and we've invested in customized reporting. And you can say, oh, okay, so you get it all in one place. Is that really that big a deal? Well, it's actually a really big deal at that portfolio size, so that you're making decisions. That are best decisions. 'cause you have all the data in front of you. It can be difficult on a hundred million dollar portfolio with four different custodians and 30% of the portfolio in a myriad of private investments that that can be tricky to keep track of. And not just for accounting purposes, but for cash flow management of capital calls and overall liquidity. Getting all of that organized is. A task. And we've built systems and processes to help do that for clients in a way that's more efficient than they could do if they did it within their own family office.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:20:20] So 20 years ago you were started going through this change. What was the response with the other members of the firm and how did you achieve alignment? We had And did you get alignment?

Alison Moss:

[00:20:32] We did. We caught great alignment. It was very enthusiastic. I nobody didn't want. To participate. There wasn't anybody thinking this was a bad idea and we, we had a lot of fun doing it too. So, I mean, there wasn't anybody at the firm that wasn't interested in expanding beyond the founder. We all benefited from that, and it was. It's just, it was exciting and it's that energy stayed and it continues to stay. And candidly, it was key for me recruiting new talent. It's not easy to recruit someone when if the primary breadwinner rainmaker was in his seventies. A 20 year old's not gonna come in enthusiastically as like, oh, this is where I'm gonna hang my hat forever. So it actually. Later became pivotal to being able to attract really great talent because we had this plan for going beyond the founder. It was one that had some success already behind it. So you know, we started 20 years ago, five years in, we were already having tangible success. 10 years later, we're out hiring new talent to come in and take it to the next level with us. And it just. Kept going. And you know, I still talk to new hires today as if it were 20 years ago. Here's who Comstock is. Here's our guardrails, here is our branding, here's how we look and feel. These are the standards and we need you to buy in on the standards.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:22:02] I take it you have really good, uh, employee retention.

Alison Moss:

[00:22:05] We have really good employee retention for the really good talent that comes in. Yep. And those that don't buy in. Don't stay. And that's okay. That's okay.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:22:16] The trains left the station and you're either on board or not Indeed. Yes. Looking back, it sounds like it wasn't that hard, but what were the hard parts of the transition?

Alison Moss:

[00:22:27] Certainly logistical components to it. So updating all the PowerPoints and it's like kinda the tactical part, creating new habits when we had to change how we created presentations after many years of doing it a different way. Yeah, that took some time to do. But I will say because everybody liked it, we didn't have resistance to it. We just like, oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I would go down, I would carry around the booklet. I would have a printed copy, like, oh, remember on page five I was, I was almost, uh. Probably some people would say I was annoying with it because I would walk around like it was my Bible. So this is the report, this is the report, the playbook. And in fact, I worked with, you might not remember this, but I worked with you all to build out the playbook beyond the original plan because I really was. Eager to have it where anybody that walked in the door as a new employee, current employee, long-term employee, it was there. You know, we travel a lot to service our clients. We're not always in the office every day, and I wanted something really strong to serve as the kind of reference point.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:23:36] What's an example of how you changed your presentations?

Alison Moss:

[00:23:39] Oh my goodness. Everything about it changed. So visually it changed in that we had a template. We didn't have a structured template before. Every presentation started with a new document on PowerPoint and. Then this gave us, um, a beautiful visual template. And we talked in there about, you know, when you're doing bullet points, here's what you need to be thinking about. You know, don't turn 'em into long sentences, for example. You're just, how do you focus in on the messaging that you're trying to deliver? How do you organize it within a page? It was all there in the template. And the colors. Oh, the colors were a big deal. We had PowerPoint was pushing through a particular color palette and we were trying to teach everybody, here's how you get the Comstock color palette. And yet it seems small. I really can't remember a single time when someone's like, I hate this. I, I, we just didn't have it. Uh, when we unveiled the new logo, we all sat around the conference room, every, everybody at the firm, what does this logo look like to you? What does it evoke in you? And all the answers were phenomenal. And so that again, was just brought so much great energy. We just didn't have anybody saying, why did you do this? I like the old one better. It wasn't just didn't happen. So I don't know if that was luck, but I'm gonna say it was the craftsmanship and the quality of the deliverable that had everybody on board.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:25:05] How would you describe to. A third party that has not, that doesn't know anything about the process, how would you describe to them what it's like? If you're looking for this, here's what the outcome is.

Alison Moss:

[00:25:18] If you're looking to push through either the plateau you're on or the wall that you find yourself running up against, this is the key that will unlock the door. If you are not sure why you're not charging forward, how you want to, this process will identify it.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:25:37] So if you look five years out, what changes do you see both in the marketplace and at Comstock Partners? Sure. Oh, and I have a five

Alison Moss:

[00:25:48] year plan, so I love answering this question. Five years out. We have some pretty phenomenal technology continuing to evolve and we are embracing it as fast as reasonably. Can be embraced. We see the benefits of, um, a lot of different technology coming out, AI included, and, and that's a tricky one, right? That's new. And it's, it can be difficult for people to understand how it's helpful. That's still evolving. We're right out front in how to utilize it safely, effectively, but not lean on it as a. Almost a cop out of doing good work. So technology is a big one. Uh, in the coming years, how can we continue to stay ahead of our peers in our deliverables, providing really strong data to clients? That's a big one. Another area, you know, the most of our clients probably have anywhere from 50 to 70% of their assets in liquid markets. So in, in the stock markets, in some way or another. And we've had quite the run in a particular area of the market. We don't, we would be foolish to be complacent in any way on what the next five years could look like. And certainly right now all sorts of interesting things have been introduced, uh, under our new administration that are uncomfortable for the market because it's unpredictable. The markets love predictability and. This is candidly, as my father would always say, this is our time to shine. Because with that volatility that the unpredictable or really, you know, decisions being made where the outcomes are not clear, this is the time where. Some of our most valuable opportunities to serve clients, come forth. I'm looking forward to helping our clients navigate these environments and as a firm, I've got growth numbers to hit, I've discovered. What is the pace that we can reasonably do, but still push ourselves? And then what's the type of talent we need to be out recruiting so that we have it in place as the new business comes in? And we've gotten into a, a better sync on that. And, you know, the job market was interesting during CID and so I'm, I'm grateful that we. Much more able to access really high caliber talent. And um, that's been very exciting for me to see.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:28:27] And when you are going after talent, what is it that they see that they go, I gotta be a part of that?

Alison Moss:

[00:28:34] You know, the answer to that is not only true for employees, but also for clients when we get young talent. That has worked already at the big shops and decided that's not what they want. That's the best hire. They don't have to wonder if the grass is greener. They already know it's not for them. At least they've already decided that's not them. Versus when we hire very new talent, they maybe didn't get in at a big shop and they wanna. Come at ours, but then they're still aiming for that. That's not a good fit for us because what is drawing them to that type of a firm? That's not who we are. So those, those are not good fits. Interestingly, same thing for clients, if they want to work with a big name. They need to go work with that group. There's no amount of pitch sales pitch I can do that's gonna quench that desire. Then what usually happens is they call us later and they say, yeah, that really didn't work out. I wanna come over. And then they're a client for many, many, many, many, many years. I really love the talent that comes to us having already been exposed to firms with very glossy marketing materials and also very big profit margins to a piece. Shareholders and I, I love it when they've already done that, drank that, decided they didn't want it, and came over because then they see the value of what we're doing and are eager to. Help us expand on that mission.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:30:08] We've had the same experience.

Alison Moss:

[00:30:10] Mm.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:30:10] People straight outta school always assume there's someplace better.

Alison Moss:

[00:30:13] Yeah. So we like

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:30:14] hiring people that come from bad, uh, bad experiences. Yes. 'cause it's like, now they know this is the place I wanna be.

Alison Moss:

[00:30:20] Yeah. They're, they absolutely see, ah, this is why you're doing what you're doing, and, oh, this is more gratifying for me to participate in. Yeah, and I get it. I mean, geez, I did it. Well, I started working for the company and I started interviewing at bigger shops and I thought, well, I'm gonna go see, I mean, if I can do this, let's see if I can really do this. And then I realized, oh, no, no, no, no. That's not a fit for me. Just in the interview process. Thankfully I found it out in the interview process. It's like, no, no, I really. I really believe in what is being done here and why and how I'd like, I'd like to really run with this. I don't, I don't want to do it this other way. So I, I get it, you know, no criticism, but just that's how

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:31:04] the path goes. So it's all about fits. It is. So, are there any questions you thought I would ask that I didn't, that you'd like to? Throw out there.

Alison Moss:

[00:31:13] How has the guardrails changed our firm's culture? So how has the guardrails process

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:31:20] changed your culture?

Alison Moss:

[00:31:23] The culture has shifted, especially in the last seven years as we were bringing on. New talent. I was very eager to use that as an opportunity to further shore up the mission that my father created so many years ago, 40 plus years ago. And I, instead of looking at the guardrails as my marketing strategy, I really leaned in on it from a culture. Perspective we'd had the success with bringing in new clients and looking good and, and, um, our image being strong. And we were, our image was strong not only for attracting new business, but attracting higher talent, having a strong foothold in our industry. We were being recognized by Forbes and Fortune and all these national level organizations. And so then I thought it's time we were transitioning from senior employees at the firm that had been working for Paul for a long time. So in that transition, I thought, this is, this is the time to further strengthen the, the culture of the company. And so we, I. Leaned in on it and really used it in our interview process, but then also in how we were interacting with each other, and that has been. A really nice contribution to further improving our culture

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:32:48] internally. What's an example of, uh, a win in that area?

Alison Moss:

[00:32:52] Uh, a win is when someone like Bryce Cooper, who I, we brought on five years ago when, and he, who came from a big shop and, and enjoyed his experience there about, he was ready to go to the next level. And I sat down with him and we went through the, our process. I said, let me tell you about something we did. A few years ago and why it was so valuable, and he's like, absolutely, this makes so much sense. Ran with it. Now we're, so there's a Spanish word, junto. We were so in junto, we were so together it in our industry, it really tends to be each man for himself. You go get your own book of, you build your own book of business, you serve as it your way, and you lean on the tools that your firm offers. And I didn't want any part of that. This was about building. Comstock client base and providing everybody the highest caliber. And it should be that a client experiences something with Bryce that they're experiencing with me, that they're experiencing with Paul. I, I wanted all clients to have the best of Comstock, and we were using the guardrails as a starting point, and then of course, expanded with. You know, going out and together and, and talking through different experiences with clients and scenarios and how do we do this? But the buy-in happened right away and, and those that are no longer with us did not have that same. Buy-in to it and, and we're more eager to do things a different way, and that's okay. Just not okay within our shop. And so that commitment to it created a really unified and cohesive culture internally. And so it's, it's very much feels like Three Musketeers, you know? All for one, one for all. It really, it really. Feels that way now versus there for a few years we were talking about it, but we didn't have the cohesiveness and we have that cohesiveness.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:34:46] This has been a wonderful conversation, Alison. Thank you so much for coming in and talking with us.

Alison Moss:

[00:34:51] Well, thank you, ward for helping us change the trajectory of our firm so many years ago, and what an exciting experience it's been since.

Ward Pennebaker:

[00:34:59] So we'll get together in another 20 years and see how it went. Absolutely.

Alison Moss:

[00:35:04] Thank you.

Matt Pennebaker:

[00:35:05] Thank you. Thanks for listening to Rethink Change. If you enjoyed