Hub of Success – Eve Ward

Hub of Success – Eve Ward.

Jordan Rich:
Welcome to The Hub of Success podcast with your host Dave Elmasian today, David talking with Eve Ward, founder and CEO of Eve Ward: Bond & Des Voeux, headquartered in Boston. Eve Ward: Bond & Des Voeux prides itself on being a resource for relocation and full service move management. And now here’s Dave.

So, Eve Welcome to The Hub of Success. I’m really excited that you’re here.

Eve Ward:
Thank you, David. I’m excited to be here.

David Elmasian:
Great. Before we jump into everything, Why don’t you tell us a little bit about how you got to where you are today.

Eve Ward:
Right

Eve Ward:
Well, that’s how did I get to where I am today?

Eve Ward:
I know you are all sides, right? Right. Well, you know, I think a lot of pivoting, to be honest with you. I relocated to Boston in 2013 and due to marriage and I had been in financial services before that. And I think one of the things having relocated personally five times that you really start to understand exactly what is included in moving and just that the stress that it can bring you. And it really is down to math and emotion. Right. When you’re moving. And I think then I had an experience in Boston where I was moving out because I was having construction and I had somebody move me. And then at the end of the day, the quote ended up being a third more because of packaging and material. And and I really felt that this I don’t know, just something about it didn’t seem right. And and I wanted somebody to just look after that area of stressful me. And there really isn’t anyone out there. So I have pivoted a lot since I’ve been here. I’ve started Bond & Des Voeux in twenty fifteen. And it’s it’s just grown organically and really focusing on move services and everything the way beyond the logistics of moving now. It’s just it’s really grown much more than I had anticipated.

David Elmasian:
So the infamous elevator pitch, right. So, you know, you’re talking to somebody and they say to you, you know, what do you do? What do you say to them?

Eve Ward:
I’d say, what? You I will take care of your move or relocation. And as an important, you know, distinguishing between the two, if I’m relocating somebody out of the city or out of the country or into the city or from another country as really a relocation, you actually changing your location of living. We add and we move people from one neighborhood to another. And we help them settling in, settle in. Now, I do hope the elevator’s going from zero to twenty two because everyone says, oh, give me your rent. I don’t really fall into that naturally. So I don’t.

David Elmasian:
So don’t feel bad. Right. Why you. Too much pressure for 30 seconds. Too much pressure, right?

Eve Ward:
Indeed. Indeed.

David Elmasian:
So what’s different about what you do and how you do it as opposed to, quote unquote, I’m using air quotes, corporate relocation?

Eve Ward:
Well, I think corporate relocation is very cookie-cutter. I dont think that you can be like that. Look, when you know you’re getting into such an emotional and personal situation with people, you know, one of my most challenging moves was from the north of India to the south of India should really have been very straightforward. But actually, it turns out you need an entirely different visa and the south of India and you know that it nearly ended up with me having to leave the country. So when you get into cookie cutter, you know, it’s it’s it. And a lot of companies do this wellin. But I think what we do differently is we really wrap our arms around the clients that we work with. We dont publish anything on social media about the clients that we work with. We don’t even take photos inside their homes. It really is a private time. And and I think it’s very underestimated sometimes just sort of from the people helping. Certainly not by the people moving, but certainly by the people. You know, we can do this. We can make money from this. This is a business idea. Boom, boom, boom, boom. It’s not just a simple process, right?

David Elmasian:
Yeah. And I get what you’re saying. I think you’re being overly kind, too, because like in our business, we deal with a lot of corporate helped us and more affect than previous life. I waited for a living. And really what it boils down to is, yes, that you get stuff done. But it’s always a managed cost. It’s always about how can we do this for the least possible cost.

Eve Ward:
Right.

David Elmasian:
And I said to you guys, you know, that’s not important, but it’s more personalized.

Eve Ward:
Right.

David Elmasian:
It’s more accustomed to making their life easier and taking so much stress rather than just saying we’re gonna do. A,B,C and D.

Eve Ward:
Right. I mean, if we were driven solely by the dollar amount, we’d have a very different business today.

David Elmasian:
Right. So you mentioned a couple of things. The more will jump back over to those. About where you’ve lived in the past and the moves that you’ve had, but you also mentioned that you work for a company called this little company called Fidelity Investments, right. And you didn’t risk management. So how did we get in again other than the moves, which I get that. But how do we get from risk management to what you’re doing today?

Eve Ward:
Right. Well, you know, you would arguably say mitigating people’s risk is exactly what we do. But, you know, I had what fabulous company, Fidelity. I have to say. I’ve had the ability to travel and their relocation company is very good. And I learned a lot. I just want to put that out there. Now, I had a fabulous, fabulous experience with Fidelity, and I’ve worked with them for 17 years. And I had originally started in the U.K., did a little stint in Germany, then moved to India, moved a couple of times in India and then Korea and then Hong Kong. Then I met my spouse in Hong Kong who happens to be American. Also, what small world? Small world. So we ended up back here and we ended up here in Boston, not like me. I was ready to relocate to another country. And as it turns out, that other country ended up being America. And when I arrived here, I could go back into the corporate world. But, you know, it’s when you take time out of the corporate world, it’s hard to get back in time. And really.

David Elmasian:
Yeah, I totally relate. Okay. And so we touched upon this a little bit. And I know it sounds kind of backtracking, but I think it’s important for people to understand the why part. Mm hmm. But we all face do it yourselfers. Anybody can say, hey, I can I can rent a van and or I can hire a moving car. Right. And I can do all this stuff. You know, why should they use you as opposed to a do it yourself? I think I might try to see if to justify. But but again, that why question always comes up.

Eve Ward:
Well, I think that’s interesting. And I think when I look at the demographic of a sort of audience of clients, they they’re it spans a very wide demographic because they know a lot of move managers. And when. Definitely when we leave, management is only part of what we do. But there are a lot of move managers that deal with the elderly, the seniors. I’m not saying we don’t. But, you know, we have a much wider variety of people. And, you know, it’s busy people or people that, you know, either too busy to do all they want to partner with you and just feel like someone’s there to hold their hand. And, you know, it’s extraordinary to me that I didn’t know. So there’s so much I didn’t know about the movie industry. So when people say to me, there’s so many movies in Boston, largely there are few that do it well. And, you know, we, you know, closely work with them and partner with them to really understand the process. You know, we organize people to the movies in and out and they do what they’re fantastic at. And we sort of add value to that by organizing someone you shouldn’t you know, we try it wouldn’t say shouldn’t, but we try where possible to downsize people before they move. So they’re not paying for things that they don’t need. And when I say downsize, that is a relative term as well, because we’ve had academics also automatically now feel guilty for having too many books because everyone is telling them to minimize everything. And, you know, one size doesn’t fit all. You know, that they’re sort of downsizing is the new thing to feel guilty about. We’ve moved away from diaries and now it’s all about how much stuff I have too much stuff. You should see this storage unit. You know, it’s well,.

David Elmasian:
I’d be a little curious if I if I met an academic, as you said, but didn’t have a lot of books.

David Elmasian:
I read that I really like books that I really so bizarre, so bizarre.

Eve Ward:
Now, we should feel guilty about having things, but, you know, it’s all relative. And so so why should somebody use this? I would say that we partner with them. We don’t you know, we partner or there are some times where somebody has given us a set of keys and they go away for two weeks and then they come back to the new address and everything’s set up for them. I mean, we really do a full service.

David Elmasian:
That’s a visual. I can quite wrap my head around. Right. Having moved not as many times as you, but yeah, it’s not fun. So walk us through the steps, kind of from a high level meeting, you know, customer inquires or I refer to you, which I think is primarily a case. What’s kind of your process from, you know, a high level perspective?

Eve Ward:
So the process the process process reaches out to us. We are meeting somebody this afternoon naturally. And we meet with them. We meet with them in their home. We do a walk through. No, you know, no charge for that because, you know, I really want to it’s important for me and the team to really understand how we can add. Value before we start charging. So where meet would go through the process of what are the first steps if they have a lot of items in the home that they. Don’t want to take with them, so they may want to donate. Take this opportunity to downsize. We have a fabulous team that will work with them to really sort of understand what it is that they would like to downsize and what we mean by done so.

David Elmasian:
Because I think it’s overwhelming. If you don’t need that help. Yeah, right. And I can talk first while not first in experience. But I went through that recently with my with my parents where, you know, my my dad passed away and then my mother had to go through some of the stuff and then she passed away. And so we have all this stuff. Right. And, you know, I think most people’s natural reaction is, oh, we can do it ourselves. It’s no big deal. But then when you get involved in it, you realize it is a big deal. And having somebody just. Point out best practices and just say, you know, here’s what I’ve learned, what works? It just was huge. Right. But I apologize about interrupting you there.

Eve Ward:
No, no, no. You raise a really good point. You think about how long it takes you to pack a bag to go on holiday, you know, and you’re all the thing you don’t think about either. Considerations are away for a weekend. So we really do partner. And I will stress that. I would say 60 percent that definitely, you know, sort of moving people in from Australia and Japan and and other states. Then, you know, we take a lot of, you know, the management of that. But certainly when people are moving or downsizing, they’ve gone through a divorce or they’ve gone through a bereavement or they’re going through, you know, or a loss. And and you really have to go at someone’s speed, but also give them guidance and set up a schedule and a project plan. And we’ve realized that when we first started that and we’re learning lessons all the time. So brand new at this and we don’t want to be in a situation where some people have said to us, I’ve been doing this 20 years. We’ve actually been doing it 90 sort of one year of learning, 19 years of repeating. We want to constantly grow with what our clients say to us. And it really is helping. And I did one of the things as a schedule on a project plan complete. Check him, where am I? Because a lot of the average time we work with people is sort of three to six months because we settle them into their new neighborhood or their new country afterwards. We just moved somebody to to Germany and we now have a partner in Germany where we help them settle in and unpack the house and all of that.

David Elmasian:
Just just I don’t know, you’d have a conversation, my wife, because you’ll you’ll settle into some place in Italy. I don’t know if that’s enough for another discussion.

David Elmasian:
So you have an interesting name for your business. How did that come about?

Eve Ward:
So I lived near Bond Street in London and Dubai Road in Hong Kong. So bond and debate. OK. Yeah. Yeah.

Eve Ward:
Yes.

David Elmasian:
London and Hong Kong with a lot of places. So, look, let’s jump into that a little bit. So you mentioned London, Hong Kong, India. Living in different places. And I’ve never lived outside of the United States, but I’ve traveled a little bit. Right. And one of the things that my takeaway has always been, it’s really nice to see the cultural differences. It gives you a point of comparison. You know, and I think that’s a lot of value, for least for me personally. Right. What? You know, what are your experience has been like living in other parts of the world?

Eve Ward:
Fabulous. Now, I think it just gives you a firsthand understanding of how other cultures. It is sort of live and just you. You know, I always feel like even in the U.S., I feel like we’re separated by the same language and definitely some cultural differences are it. India will always hold a special place. I love India? So vibrant, so colorful. And, you know, so much enthusiasm. I loved Korea. It’s wild. Culturally, certain challenges. You know, being a woman in the finance industry was definitely a challenge for me. And in Korea. You know, it is it is it is difficult. They are they they have an honorary language, certain things that they can say, you know, within that culture can say no to something she can’t. I mean, it really that is all over the whole different podcasts.

David Elmasian:
Right.

Eve Ward:
You know, I really.And we also went through the 08 sort of crash. Yeah. Correction. Right.

David Elmasian:
But whatever that term we want to use every time you want to use. Yeah.

Eve Ward:
And that was you know, but I did enjoy career. I learned a lot from Korea actually. And Hong Kong is just very sad what’s happening now. But a fabulous place to live. All right.

David Elmasian:
So was London. You’re where you were born and raised.

Eve Ward:
No. Little town outside London. And, you know, in the sort of an hour west of London, my mother was from Wales, my father from London. So moved halfway up on the freeway motorway highway to a small town, slap bang in the middle. And then I moved to Brighton and then I moved to London before I did a stint in India.

David Elmasian:
So what gave you that? It’s always curious to me why people have made the decision to to live outside of where they were, you know, the country they were born. It was a job or land. It was just simply, hey, we want you to go to A, B or C.

Eve Ward:
It’s you know, it really was. I mean, I think that sort of I I always have the philosophy of lost man straight woman, straight ness and standing. Just do it. You know, and I think Fidelity is, you know, a great example of supporting its employees. It’s not like you’re going with a backpack to India. You know, they they’re it’s kind of a softer, older India. Necessity isn’t a soft introduction to Asia. It it is a soft introduction because you have a network and some of the teamwork. In my early lessons from Fidelity of stayed with me forever. Just the sheer teamwork of the company is is incredible and the support mechanism that’s in place. So, you know, I had the opportunity. You know, I didn’t want to say no. So. Yeah.

David Elmasian:
Yeah, that’s great. Yeah. As a matter of fact, one of my sons just left Fidelity and he he’s working with a smaller company now about a hundred employee business. And the first thing he said to me that I thought was, you know, beyond the normal. Oh, it’s good. Fine. You know, all that stuff was he realized all the processes and all the stuff that Fidelity already had in place that he kind of take for granted. When you work for a company like that and like you mentioned, even just something as simple as like a move, they have a process for all that and they have logistics. Right. When you start with the smaller company, none of that stuff, you’re really creating yourself or you’re just kind of winging it. And when you’ve had exposure to it, you realize it’s kind of nice when you’re dealing with something like that. And that kind of turns around to what I was going to ask you next, which is about your business. I know you said you’ve only been in business since 2015. But in today’s world, that’s a long time. Right. If you’re a restaurant, you’re like, you know, forever.

David Elmasian:
We all learn lessons. Some are more painful, some more successful. What do you think for some of the things that if you could talk to yourself back in 2015, when you when you started, what would be some constructive feedback, you’d kind of say to yourself, wow, jeez, maybe I should have done it, you know, or shouldn’t have done whatever things, anything come to mind?

Eve Ward:
Listen. Well, yeah, yeah. Listen, I think listen, I’ve always thought I was a good listener. Turns out. You know, I wasn’t so much. So I think I would definitely listen more. I would also, you know, and I think this goes hand-in-hand, but be more considered in my approach and not be so gung ho. I think kind of understood my accounts a lot more, I think, in the early days. You know, we probably didn’t spend wisely. Right. And I think sort of. Just just be more considered, I think slow down. And you know what, I have values in my business now that you know that not about just my business, I have a team of people. So it’s all values and we have to agree on those values. And I listened to them and also our vendors and our clients. Everybody is equal into it because they fall vendors, no employees, no court client clients. You really have to, you know, so I think listen a lot more to the team. Listen a lot more to our vendors and listen a lot more to our clients. Right.

David Elmasian:
Yeah. No, that’s it’s. I hear that a lot. I can certainly relate to that myself, too. And, you know, I was fortunate in that one of my corporate I.T. jobs was listening in to phone calls, tech support, phone calls, which I’m telling you right now. It’s fun for like five minutes, not so much fun after that. But the challenging part, which I thought was really kind of drudgery at the time, was I had to give instant constructive feedback to that person that took that support call. And I would do it 30, 40, 50 times a day. And so, like anything else, if you do it long enough, you kind of get a little efficient at it. But what it taught me as a business owner later on when I started my my business was Cavic. What you were hitting upon. Number one, you have to listen. Yeah. And number two, you have to have the ability to not only, you know, get constructive feedback, but to accept constructive feedback. Because when you start a business. Right, you have to go you have to have this, you know, blind belief that whatever you’re doing is right. And I joke with some, you know, companies that I work with that, you know, as business owners, we think we’re the only person qualified to do everything. That includes, you know, if we’re having a company meeting, I’m only I can order the pizza, because if if somebody else does it, they’re going to screw it up. I have to do that. I have to as I have do that. And so that that to me was a you know, I should have known better, but totally blew that the first I’d say at least first five years where, you know, I would hear stuff and I thought I was listening. But just like you said, I really wasn’t. And it’s and when you open yourself up to that. Yeah. It opens up the door making yourself realize jeez, maybe I was wrong. Right. But more importantly, it it it allows you and your employees and your vendors and everybody that you work with to realize that, hey, there’s a there’s much there’s a lot of minds working on this, not just mine. Right. And I’m always gonna be the one that has the best ideas. Matter of fact, usually I don’t.

Eve Ward:
So, you know, I I agree. I mean. Right. It’s. Yeah. My employees are employees. You know, I wouldn’t even call them that, you know, team members and employees. There’s very corporate time. But my team members and our team. You know, it’s a you know, we offer a very, very flexible. Sort of. Yeah. I was for people and, you know, really want them to love, loved, loved what they do and they do. And I think that comes over to the client as well. The same with our vendors. We’re extraordinarily. Well, you’ve met. Yeah. Heidi, who heads up our operation. She is extraordinary. So vendors that we use. It means that we don’t have the same vendors that we did at the beginning. But they have to, you know, really embrace the same values, not all values. It has to be I don’t want anyone to price out value. I want to embrace our own values.

David Elmasian:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But those are the things that are it makes decisions easier when you’re thinking about where you want to go with things is what I’ve always learned. And I certainly haven’t figured everything out. Trust me, it’s like, you know, just ask my wife and kids. They’ll tell you I’m wrong most of the time. So but but every once in a while, I get lucky and I figure something out. But hearing that from other people and taking that in, I think. So there’s a lot of value in that. And it sounds like, you know, and so I’ve seen Heidi in action. And. Yes. Yeah. Get it together. She really does. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned Boston and you know, our podcast called The Hub of Success. And I know if you ever heard the term with hobbies like one of those things for Boston. I know you mentioned you came here to get married, which is fantastic. But now that you’ve been in Boston, likes, dislikes, what are your impressions coming from? I know you’re one of us kind of at this point. But when you first got here, what was your impressions of the time?

Eve Ward:
It was very difficult. Honestly, part of the reason I started the businesses. The only person I really spoke to was the barista. he was bored of my conversation You know, a week because it really, really is difficult to meet people. And people would say, oh, you know, Boston’s like a safe. You won’t be out of crack it as if it was something that should be, you know, you people should be proud of and I really understand that. And I think that that that was challenging. So the one thing that I say to our clients to talk right now, if you find a group. I’m one of the things that really helped me was just having one lead in Boston because I didn’t want to rely, you know, on my spouse the whole time. I wanted to really. Find my own way. It was really important because one of the things that you’d see with a lot of people who are moving together an awful corporate time that I hope we’ve dropped now is trailing spouse. And now I don’t want to be a trailing spouse. I’ve seen that. I’ve seen the emotional damage that can do to people. So I think it’s really important to find your own way and, you know, your own way with us. Bond & Des Voeux all your own way on your own. Just get advice.

David Elmasian:
But that goes back to what you talk about with values. That’s huge. That’s something that you don’t necessarily think of or talk about. But when you practice that and you experience the good and the bad that that’s used to people.

Eve Ward:
But no, it really is introduced to someone who runs and they have run the marathon many times.

Eve Ward:
And so even though I’ve probably seen him out on the course, so I’m definitely not a natural runner.

David Elmasian:
I don’t know why she’s laughing so hard. What’s so funny?.But you know what is a group and from if I could make all these steps, so you know what I mean?

Eve Ward:
And then I started to meet people. I you know, from that one person. I’ve met a ton of people. And then also I got involved in the Y2y project, which is youth homelessness in Harvard Square. And I helped them and started to feel like I was adding value and that fantastic organization. and they you know, and because it is important just to I didn’t have a green card or couldn’t get paid, I didn’t have a Social Security number was going through that process. And, you know, that can be a quite a lengthy process. And then so, you know, once I have my Social Security number, I was weighing up my options. And now I’m involved in the South End Business Alliance, some of the president of that group. you know that that’s been extraordinarily challenging. But now we have three or four new members. Oh, wow. That on the board. They have just changed the shape. And I think that comes back to the corporate question. One of the things you need is just a few good people. And they changed the face. They can change the face of everything. Yeah, because good or bad.

David Elmasian:
Good. Good. . Yeah, good or bad.

Eve Ward:
And we’ve got new energy now. We have that energy. And I think it’s it’s going to really change things over the next year or so.

David Elmasian:
So you’ve kind of plugged yourself in, so you found it. And it’s interesting because you I was born and raised in this area. So it’s different for me because it’s kind of what you’re used to. Right. Right. But, you know, the way you said it makes a lot of sense to me because you don’t get that warm welcome that you get in other parts of the world or even parts of the United States. Right. But once you kind of break through it, you know, it generally then starts working for you. And I find that, you know, people aren’t as friendly as you are. You’ll see is out in California and South, but it’s also deeper generally. You make better, longer term, deeper relationships.

Eve Ward:
I’ve certainly seen the case right.

David Elmasian:
So you mentioned the South End Business Alliance. So I’m a little bit on what you do. I know you said you’re on the board. Yep.

Eve Ward:
On the board. We’re now focusing on more energy going into the group. I think like anything, it can sort of bounce along the bottom of the sort of sea bed. But if you have a little bit of energy and recently we’ve had board members be, you know, new board members reaching out, say, like, I want something to happen. I want this to be dynamic. And sometimes you need to take that opportunity of the energy and say, let’s just do it. That’s that’s really make this big, you know, an area for all to succeed in. And I think that Boston can be quite challenging in as much. And I say Boston, but I really don’t know if it’s everywhere. I just haven’t found a small business before. But I think that people can walk in silos. And I think the beauty about working in the corporate industry is knowing where your you know, where you can get funding for marketing.

Eve Ward:
You know, so resource resources. Exactly right. So when I look at you, I look at you as you as not, you know, David Elmasian a marathoner, right. In a marathon. I don’t know who you is. You know, I might look at your you know, is this is the IT team. I might I you know, look at the accountant as, you know, the finance team. I don’t look at individual businesses. And I think that that’s really, really important that we connect us almost like all these small businesses connecting as one corporate. Yeah. You know, and that’s and it makes no sense.

David Elmasian:
But all it does makes a lot of sense to me. And I think the other part that I haven’t been as as involved as you are or have been in those types of organizations, but. The challenge for me has always been you have a lot of independent, independent thinking business owners. So how do you get the collective?

Eve Ward:
Well, that’s what that’s challenging. So you have somebody from retail focusing on the board, focusing on the retail businesses. Nobody needs, you know, me to tell them how to run a retail business. I don’t know the first thing about it or help them all get. But it’s about again, comes back down to listening, really. And I think that an understanding why you joined the business associations. I feel like there are some small business owners and I’m definitely not a salesperson. I rather like definitely not a salesperson. I like to think that our brand will, you know, will grow corporately and privately. And, you know, on its own without. Yeah. There we go. See you. And I talk about sales maybe because. But I think so. I’m not a member of the South in business size to push my business. Yeah. That’s not the right audience. You know, and it’s not the right place to do it. Because if I’m if I always have one eye on growing my business, I’d feel like I’m doing a disservice to the organization. So cause and and I don’t know that that sounds probably a bit trite, but it’s I think it’s knowing when to insult your business and when not to instead. And I think because I don’t wanna be identified solely by my business. I wasn’t when you went away to Fidelity. Right. They would be this joke about, you know, what do you do there? And then people move on very quickly. You know, and so I don’t want to be your name. Every time I go to a party, some assistant, what I do and I’m identified by, you know, by all the good work my team do.

David Elmasian:
Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I see what you’re saying with that. And I think also it goes back to what you talked about your values and like be mentioning about the trailing spouse. You don’t want to be known just as, oh, I’m in the business owner pushing my business. Right. You’re adding value based upon your experience and you really try and do something for the collective good. And putting it in front of you. And if there’s something that comes out of that as a result. Great, fabulous fun. Absolutely. You’re not just there just to represent your business.

Eve Ward:
No. And I think because that gets old very quick and we’ve seen a lot of people die.

David Elmasian:
That’s what they do.

Eve Ward:
Right. And I think I did make that mistake again. And then, you know, when people start hiding me in Whole Foods, oh, my God, they think I’m said all that. I think I’m trying to sell them a move. And so, you know, you know,.

David Elmasian:
Don’t talk to me about that. Imagine if you’re an I.T. business. You start talking about that stuff. Right. Talk about that and make an icon. Right.

Eve Ward:
But right now, you know, and I don’t do. I don’t. But then what part of what we do is help people settle in as well. So we do know somebody is maybe just s that that’s a no brainer for us. We say go to all these wonderful stores and, you know, go to some restaurants. I mean, I say all the time. You know, there are some fabulous restaurants in in Boston that are consistent service. And, you know, I have a lot of regulars at the restaurants, but it’s not you know, it has to come from a sort of an experience place.

David Elmasian:
Yeah. And a good place. Yeah. And again, that because you try and push the restaurant per say it’s because. No. You know, it’s going to benefit your client. Right.

David Elmasian:
Well the person is. Right. Right. Right.

David Elmasian:
Yeah. Now that that that that that. And I know that’s that can be challenging at times because again, those personalities and people have agendas. Right. But being able to navigate than this sounds like you been able navigate that pretty successfully.

Eve Ward:
Right. Yes. And then you have people that you eventually like. I can’t now in a position where you hire people for the pieces that you’re not great at. So, you know, I do.

David Elmasian:
I don’t I don’t have that problem. You name it. I can do it. I mentioned the marathon. That’s obviously an easy one. No, I’m kidding. I want to talk to a little bit about that. So I was able to meet you and Heidi. And for brief moments, some people on your team, you had a company meeting, let’s just say. Right. Yeah. And, you know, I think I you mentioned this to you. I walk into a lot of businesses. Yes. And in the old days, used to mean I used to walk in the traditional offices. Nowadays, it’s more likely I’m walking into somebodies home or shared workspace or I’m talking, you know, over Skype or whatever. But that doesn’t change the fact that I do that a lot. But just nature of what I do. And Heidi came to me and you guys came to me as a referral from somebody that we both knew. So I had a little bit of insight. But when I got there, all kidding aside, Eve, I was really wowed by your team because it was a bunch of intelligent, strong willed, and I mean that in a positive yet hardworking, motivated people. And that’s very unusual. Very unusual, and the reason I bring that up is not to kiss up, so to speak, but it’s to point out the fact that that doesn’t happen by accident. It doesn’t just like, oh, I got lucky and I hired a bunch of people and it just so happened. They’re all fantastic. I’m not saying everybody’s perfect, nobody’s perfect. But, you know, and I think maybe this touches upon a little bit. We talked about as far as values go, but. What’s your view on hiring people, what do you look for? What are some of those traits and characteristics that make you say, hey, this is the right person?

Eve Ward:
They have to really want to do the job? And really, it’s not an easy job. You receive a message at 10 to say, you know, I’m nervous about this. Right. You know? Yeah. What do we do with this or that? So you have to really learn to or I’ll have that innate sort of feeling that you really want to help people. And be open to development. That’s definitely important because we invest time in development of the individuals. So we offer flexibility in terms of time. We you know, we offer an environment that’s going to help you develop. And I don’t say this anymore, but I used to but I used to say to the team, if you’re not here in two years, that’s absolutely fine. I just want you to be in a better position. I want to help you develop to get to that position. I don’t I don’t. You and I, we will find other. I don’t say that anymore, because actually, I really don’t want anyone to leave because they’re fantastic. They’re really strong.

David Elmasian:
But I think I get the spirit of what’s behind that you’re trying to get people to grow, develop. learn, ambitious, you know, but. Yeah.

Eve Ward:
Right. And, you know, we have a we have a process that hopefully is not always visual to to the guy. But the one thing we will always want the client to know is that we’ve got you, you know, we will take care of. I have not a great fan of peace of mind. I think it’s been overused a little bit like that. You know, some other times I felt that, you know, it doesn’t have the energy behind it. Meet us, meet the team, understand who we are. And and, you know, more than slogans. We you know, we we really that energy from the team is so important and that passion about, you know, about understanding the industry as well, not just about doing the job. Understanding the industry, understanding the better options. Having the clients, you know, focus all the time, you know, negotiating hard with vendors. We have you know, I really like the vendors we have. And I think Heidi’s done a fantastic job of engaging the vendors, you know, and making sure they hold the same values and making sure that our team know that the these are the approved vendors that they can work with. Fabulous. Right. You know, used to be when I first started out this business, I was with brokers all the time. But I realized, you know, there are few brokers that I really trust. And it’s important that I trust them and they trust us. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think it’s that passion when we talk about the openness and willingness to learn. Right. You know, we are all driven. You know, it might be that some people have children, that they need flexible time. You know, part time, hours, full time. You know, we have we have a mixture and we’re growing. So we you know, we’re opening we’re in in South Florida in January. We’re working with a business partner to cover sort of New York and Carolina. So, you know, the whole because we realize this route is, you know, big. But the one thing you very rarely hear us talk about is a very specific client. We’re very we’re very particular. Of course, anyone could sign an NDA, but, you know. But it really goes beyond that. It goes beyond the fact that a non-disclosure. It goes way beyond that.

David Elmasian:
Right. Yeah. Well, I think, again, that goes back to the value thing. And I’m talking about your team and some of the things you just talked about. You know, again, in that same context of what I was saying, I walk into a lot offices. You can tell when somebody, you know, the leader of the group, whatever term you want to use, has kind of checked out. You see that in the hiring because they don’t bring in people or they don’t keep people that have that philosophy. Those people have already left. Right. And the ones left behind are kind of survivors of the term that I use. And it’s so sad when you see that because, you know, nobody wants to deal with people that really don’t enjoy what they’re doing in the type of business that you do. You’re dealing with very, very personal, emotional things that because like I said, what are they? What’s a joke? It’s not a joke. What are some of the most stressful things in life? You know, getting married. Divorce moving is right up there. All right. Isn’t it? Right. Three. Right. So, you know, having people that are sensitive to that and see that and are motivated to make sure that they’re relieving the stress, it makes all the difference in the world and whatever. You know, if if there even was a price difference between A and B and choosing you guys. People are going to realize right off the bat this is worth every penny because the people that they’re working with. Right.

Eve Ward:
Right. Yeah. Yeah. No. Absolutely. Comes back to math and emotion. And, you know, we’re we’re launching a new Web site called Bond with Your City. And that really is going to be around sort of bonding with a particular city.

David Elmasian:
And don’t give too much away. No, I will not.

Eve Ward:
All right. Away. OK. That’s central. Zip it. OK. You’re right. We’re relaunching. We have the Web site with the designer. You know, fantastic designer is figuring it out at the moment.

David Elmasian:
Good. You have people working on it. Yeah. So, you know, we could talk all day. Let’s wrap things up. And if you listen to some of the previous episodes, I know, because, again, those times you had a tough time saying there’s a segment that we wrap it up with called Check Your Tech. It’s a very technical. So I hope it you’ve boned up on all these topics, you know? It’s not it’s not a pass fail. It’s nothing. You know. Hi. Hi. Hi. Tough, tough sell.

David Elmasian:
So are you a Mac or P.C. person?

Eve Ward:
Definitely a Mac. OK.

David Elmasian:
Even from working with Fidelity. Wow. I’m joking.

David Elmasian:
IPhone or Android?

Eve Ward:
IPhone.

David Elmasian:
OK. I can see where this is going. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn. All the above. None of the above.

Eve Ward:
I’m taking a hiatus from Instagram. OK. OK. So I’m trying to move to well, I’m to Twitter. I’m just a voyeur at the moment. I like to like. I’m not as I said, I’m not a sales person. I’m not out. OK, yeah.

David Elmasian:
So if you ever have time to ever. Is it Netflix or Hulu?

Eve Ward:
Netflix.

David Elmasian:
Nobody picks Hulu. Nobody. Roku. I don’t know this. The answer is if you even have a Roku Apple TV or Chromecast. You know, I’m talking about. Yeah.

Eve Ward:
No, I see definite.

David Elmasian:
Gmail or outlook.

Eve Ward:
G-mail.

David Elmasian:
OK. Now, this is an interesting one. I’m only going to say two words and you can tell me if you know, you pick up where I’m going. This French or California,.

Eve Ward:
I like New World Wines. Oh. Oh, honestly, not giving a plug, but I go to urban grape and in the south end and I let them choose, actually, to be honest, I just tell them where I’m going, what I need it for. I’m not a big wine drinker. They select to say, but you know where I was going with that.

David Elmasian:
OK, well, you know what Eve, what a story. If I could talk again for hours, we’re out of time. But before we finish up, tell everybody how they can reach out to you and inquire about using you in your your company.

Eve Ward:
Told you I’m not a salesperson.

David Elmasian:
Not to sell them, but talk to them if they call you, won’t you?

Eve Ward:
Yes, of course. OK, so Eve E.V.E, my telephone number is 617-755-6667. And please text me. Call me. I won’t give you the email address. Yes.You can go to to Eve Ward: Bond & Des Voeux and it tends to come up with the rest because no one else would name that company. Is such a legal help you. Right. They did Google. Fabulous.

David Elmasian:
Well, thanks again. It’s great talking with you, and I appreciate you spending the time with us. And you’ve been listening to The Hub of Success.