Hello, my name is Tess McColgan. I'm the
Roslindale Village Main Street Program
Manager. Today we're at the Cooperative
Bank interviewing CEO and President Phil
Bryan.
Hi, Phil how are you today? I'm fine Tess,
how are you? I'm doing very well, nice to
be here at the Cooperative Bank today
with you. Glad to have you here, tell us a
little bit about the Cooperative Bank?
Well the Cooperative Bank has been
around since 1898, so this is actually
our 120th year
anniversary. Wow congratulations. And
we're going strong, we're as
strong as we have ever been thanks to
the people of Roslindale and the
communities that we serve. Awesome, and
why do you keep the TCB here in
Roslindale. Well this is where we started
you know. We have such an affinity for
the community, our employees are very
active in the community, it's just a
great place to be. You know we sit
right across the train station, which
I think, which is nice, they'll get
people coming on and off and they see us.
And I just I could never see us moving
out of Roslindale, this is our home. What's
one thing you think a Roslindale
resident should know about living here
in Roslindale?
Well I think it's a very diverse
community, you walk down the
streets, it's a very safe place to be and
to live and you just see all different
types of people walking up and down the
streets. Lots of young families, which as
I've been here for four years now, a
little over four years, the
community just keeps changing and
there's new construction, it just
keeps developing and growing.
I think people work together well here,
you know I'd go down to the Village
Market and I see the owners, they
actually walk out here in the front
lobby and we wave and many of
the business owners work together, which
I certainly think, it's special and
there's so many different types of nice
businesses, wine and cheese shops, great
restaurants. It's just a
small town within Boston, and that's
how it feels. And a tight-knit business
community, which is always nice.
So why don't you tell us a little bit
about what Balanced Rock does and how
people can get started with you here?
Absolutely, so we are a financial planner
and investment manager and we always
offer free introductory meetings. You can
go online and schedule right from our
website or call us and we generally
collect a little bit of information from
you upfront and then meet with you, give
you an estimate and go from there.
Balanced Rock is really leading the way
to help folks, particularly folks who aren't already wealthy, who aren't
accredited investors, invest in ways that
are our direct and impactful. We help
clients invest in a way that better
reflects their values and their
investments. And we can do this in a
couple of ways and usually combine them
for many clients. One is helping with
their public market investments, making
the investments they have in the
public markets more environmentally,
socially, and and from a governance
perspective, more responsible companies
and we can also help exclude companies
in industries or conducting business
that our clients don't agree with. At the
same time we also offer what we call our
dial-in strategy, which allows people to put
their money into their own communities
or into the types of projects that are
truly impactful in that they are
creating opportunities for people who
wouldn't have it if these funds weren't
there, making these loans for low-income
housing or to work/owner
cooperatives or to convert mobile
home communities into resident owned
communities, so there's a lot of
opportunities for investment that people
just aren't familiar with and that we
can help them realize their values by
using. Do you have any promotions going
on right now or any anything you want to
let us know about? Along with our kind of
impact investing in Direct Investing,
we've rolled out our own program called
DIAL, which is Direct Impact
Alternative and Local investing and so
that's that's something that's really
been the last year or so that
we've pushed out and started you know,
helping clients invest in
more impactful ways. And so we're
excited to continue sharing that and
growing that program.
What makes Rozzie a special community to
you and what would you say to a new
resident of Roslindale? I've just been
amazed since I moved here and really
since I started meeting more folks when
I started my business at just how much
people in Roslindale love Roslindale and
other things in Roslindale whatever
those things are. And I think
there's a lot of local pride that's
related to that and and being in
a community that people take pride in is
really special and I think that rubs off
on people. Do you have a specific
Roslindale memory that's your favorite?
Well I love the Farmers Market.
And that was really what helped
me get my business off the ground and
from the beginning I was there with
first, my my son when he was a baby
sitting behind me with my wife as
well, sitting behind my table, at the
Farmers Market trying to pitch financial
planning like it was an organic tomato,
and five years later I was there with my
daughter doing the same thing still. And
so having that kind of continuity and
yeah, this has been a really special
place. And the market and being able to
share that and show the business and the
involvement of the business in the
community with my my family makes it
feel like a real family business and a
real local enterprise.
So we're here today at Long, Hagan, Huff-Harris and I'm here with partners Amy
Huff-Harris and Sean Hagan. Hi Amy and
Sean, how are you today? Great. Good
thank you for having us. Of course. Why
don't you tell us a little bit about
what Long, Hagan, Huff-Harris does? Sure, we
have three primary practice areas you
know, we're really trying to not be that
law firm that sort of does a little bit
of everything, we try and specialize and
the three areas are family law, business
law and estate planning, trust and estates
planning. And what would you say is
something that people who visit,
customers may be surprised or not know
about your firm? People would be
surprised by how passionate we are about
our work, we really enjoy working with
people. We really see ourselves also
as educators, we try to make sure that
people understand the choices that they
have available to them and that whatever
choice they make, that it's an educated
decision. I do a family law practice area
and often I work with parents who are
not really getting a fair shake from the
Probate and Family Court system and when
I can come in and help them basically
right a wrong and make it so that they
can have a better relationship with
their children, with other
family, that's something that really
makes me feel good about what I do and I
know why I'm doing what I'm doing. What
would you say to a new Roslindale
resident, what would you say they should
know about living in Roslindale? I think
they should know that they're
joining a larger community which is
different than just being in a
particular neighborhood. I think that
there's a culture here that is pretty
obvious you know, when you're living here
even for a short time, whether
it be the different events that go on,
certainly the things that Main Street
puts on, the way that you're treated when
you walk in a business is different than
maybe a more downtown location. And that
sort of community collaborative focus is
just omnipresent in the Square so I
think that's something they should
know and if they're looking for that,
they're in the right spot. And then the
other thing is that people are very
friendly overall, so you know Boston as a
city, yes it's still a city, but it's much
more
than that in this particular
neighborhood, just because people have a
different mentality and it's a different
feel. And so those are things that people
should be aware of when they are new to
the Square, new to the
community. Yeah, I feel like Roslindale
definitely takes pride in the
neighborhood feel, the community
engagement here. I also think that you
see, it's not just that statement right,
newer hot neighborhoods will
say 'oh we're very community focused,
community engaged' but I really see
commitment on the level of the business
owners and residents here that you don't
always see in other committees. Amy, I
know you've been here in Roslindale
longest of the partners, (yes) do
you have a favorite Roslindale memory? A
number of my clients are children and
being right across from the park,
I don't like to meet with my child
clients in an office setting, I think
that can be really off-putting to
younger children. So I often will meet
with them over in the park, so
we can be talking a little bit
about what the situation is for them and
what are the issues for them, but they
also can see other residents walking,
their dogs and you know, asking if it's
okay to pet the dog and running around.
One of my clients, her favorite thing was
to come in to race around the park and
talk in between the laps. And why do you
keep Long, Hagan, Huff-Harris in Roslindale?
I just think that this community is
absolutely on the rise, there's so much
energy here you can feel it when you're
out on the streets, you see new
businesses opening, you see existing ones
they've been here a long time
you know. We're here because the
community's been very good to us and
we've really enjoyed being a part of it,
so we don't see that changing anytime
soon and this is why we keep the core of
our business here, we do have other
offices but this is the epicenter, this
is the main office and we just don't
see that changing anytime soon. Though
we have different locations and we're in
Boston generally, we have the
South Shore office, you know this is home,
which is really nice thing. Yeah, I'd also
have to add that you know we've been
here for a while and so we've known how
special Roslindale was, we're glad to see
that a number of other businesses are
recognizing how special Roslindale is as
well.
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