Integrity and Innovation: Squire Servance's Path to Advancing Health Equity
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Description
The world does not evolve without innovation, yet often innovative ideas and solutions are blocked due to individual, institutional, and structural barriers. To move in a more equitable direction, it takes figuring out how to use whatever the blocks are and turn them into catalysts.
Squire Servance understands this when it comes to capitalism and is drawing resources together to support his vision. He’s a health equity advocate with a passion for focusing on providing an avenue for accessible, innovative healthcare solutions for all, which he does with his investment firm Syridex Bio.
In this episode of the Branding Room Only podcast, you’ll learn about how this investment firm is working to change the landscape and advance life sciences for underserved communities. He’ll also define what health equity is, discuss his non-traditional approach to acquiring capital to fund ventures, and much more!
Chapters
1:38 - What personal brand means to Squire, three words to describe him, quotes that keep him focused, and his hype song
6:46 - The environment that taught Squire about hard work and ambition and got him interested in science
9:16 - Squire’s pivot from science and medicine to law and business in his education journey and what that says about him
13:59 - How Squire’s educational background came together early in his career and led to his interest in investing
19:50 - How Squire’s investment firm focuses on helping underserved communities and where it gets its funding
25:31 - What health equity is and why no single institution can achieve it alone
30:25 - How to make it easier to pick and juggle opportunities and how that helps with branding
33:48 - The legacy Squire wants to have, what he does for fun, two of his non-negotiable brand aspects, and the magic he can give others
Connect With Squire Servance
Squire Servance is the Founder and Managing Partner of Syridex Bio, an impact-driven, life sciences-focused investment firm geared toward investing in and developing therapies that accelerate global health equity. As Managing Partner, he oversees the firm’s operations, growth strategy, investment decisions, and fundraising execution.
Mentioned In Integrity and Innovation: Squire Servance's Path to Advancing Health Equity
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Sponsor for this episode
This episode is brought to you by PGE Consulting Group LLC.
PGE Consulting Group LLC is dedicated to providing a practical hybrid of professional development training and diversity solutions. From speaking to consulting to programming and more, all services and resources are carefully tailored for each partner. Paula Edgar’s distinct expertise helps engage attendees and create lasting change for her clients.
To learn more about Paula and her services, go to www.paulaedgar.com or contact her at info@paulaedgar.com, and follow Paula Edgar and the PGE Consulting Group LLC on LinkedIn.
Transcript
Paula Edgar: Welcome to The Branding Room Only Podcast where we share career stories, strategies, and lessons learned on how industry leaders and influencers have built their personal brands. Now, let's get started with the show.
Hi all, I am super excited for you to hear this next conversation with my good friend, Squire Servance. You'll hear me say, “I think Squire is really, really smart.” He's also really, really invested in thinking about healthcare, health equity, and how we can change the landscape in terms of getting access to people through some of the innovations that he is looking at with the new company.
I really want you to hear this conversation and tell a friend, you know I like to bring people to you that I think you need to hear how they built their brands and also what innovations and what new things they're doing, and Squire is a perfect example of that so enjoy.
Hi, everybody. It's Paula, your host of Branding Room Only. Super, super excited today to be talking to my good friend, Squire Servance. He is the founder and managing partner of Syridex Bio, an investment firm focused on advancing life sciences for global health equity.
As a health equity advocate, Squire is focused on investing in medicines and therapies for underserved populations. Previously, he held leadership roles at Repligen Corporation and Baxter International overseeing legal and corporate functions.
He also actively serves on boards, including as a trustee for Rutgers University. Squire, welcome to The Branding Room.
Squire Servance: Oh, Paula, thank you for having me.
Paula Edgar: So excited to be talking to you really—we'll get into this—but because I think of you as somebody really smart.
Squire Servance: That's good. It's a good brand thing.
Paula Edgar: Yeah, exactly, it’s a good brand thing. Speaking of, what does the concept of personal brand mean to you?
Squire Servance: I think personal brand really is about how you want people to see you. I think it needs to be rooted in authenticity. It should really mirror what your true self is, but you also have to be intentional about it.
But I think if you want a personal brand to be sustainable, it has to be authentic. That's the only way you'll have a lasting brand because, at some point, you can't be fake for your entire life, sometimes it's going to crack. It's just got to mirror what your true self is.
Paula Edgar: Hey, that's the truth. It will crack. Thinking of personal brand, how would you describe yourself in three short words or phrases?
Squire Servance: Ooh, good question. I would think people probably think of me as very ambitious. I would say mission-oriented, and then a connector, trying to be the conduit to connect people within the network.
Paula Edgar: See, you even used the word conduit. I told y'all he was smart. I was like, science, something or the other. Okay. What is your favorite quote? Or do you have a mantra that you use in your daily to keep yourself up and focus on what you're doing?
Squire Servance: It's funny, I collect quotes, and I keep all the things on the phone. I track them. But a couple of the ones I think I'll share here, “What's for me is for me.” That's one. I can't look at what someone else is doing, their career is their career. What's me, it's meant for me, and no one else can take it.
That leads me to stay focused, stay in the lane, and just keep my blinders on as I go forward. Then another one I usually lean into is like, “Aim for perfection but achieve excellence.” That is the name of the game, I want to be perfect, I know I can't be but hopefully, I work hard enough, put in the hours in the work and I can hopefully settle in excellence.
Paula Edgar: Excellence is the standard because perfection can't be reached, but I do like it. I think it was like the stars, we get to the moon, that's excellent.
Squire Servance: It's the same thing, aim for the stars, you’ll land in the moon. It's the same concept.
Paula Edgar: I love that. Tell me this, so I love to ask people about their hype song. The way that I think about it is this, if they're going to get full Squire, what song is playing in your head when you walk into a room? Or if you're having a bad day, what song are you using to get yourself up? It could be the same song or a different one?
Squire Servance: For me, I'll give you some context. I'm from South Jersey, a town called Sicklerville. I get the Philadelphia radio stations. For me, Meek Mill's, Dreams and Nightmares, that's going to get me hyped.
I think you're growing up when you hear him on the radio before he had the album because he was big there for a while. Then he dropped the album with Dreams and Nightmares, and I used to pray for times like this, to rhyme like this. Exactly. It's the come up and he's like, it's the grittiness, it's the grind. He put in the work to get to where he was at.
He's like, ”So I had to grind like that, to rhyme like that, or to shine like this.” It's that the up-and-comer, the gritty, and the grind up of actually achieving his goal. He worked for years before he made it big internationally, I would say. That's something that'll get me hyped.
Paula Edgar: Yeah. I like that song because I like the build up. It's like even the way he's rapping, it is like the build-up. As an entrepreneur, I feel like, “Yes.”
Squire Servance: Exactly, when the beat switches you're like, “Okay, hold up, wait a minute.” Absolutely, I'm a musician too, so I love the musicality of it.
Paula Edgar: Are you a musician? What? Are you a musician?
Squire Servance: Yeah, I am. I am. I play the piano. I grew up playing classical music and things like that. Then I found a [inaudible] playing something that I liked. It was like, “I want to do that.”
I started playing by ear and I used to have a band in college called Raw Talent, we used to go around. We did a lot of events around the Rutgers community in Brunswick. I love playing music. I love listening to music, all types too.
Paula Edgar: This is why I love doing this podcast because people who I'm like, “Yeah, I know them,” I'm like, “Oh, wait, there's always more.” There's always more to know, which leads me to my next question. Tell me about where you grew up and how that shaped your brand.
Squire Servance: Yeah. The town’s called Sicklerville, South Jersey, outside of Philly. To me, I think the community is just real people. There are a lot of people that I grew up with who have influenced me over my career.
Absolutely, my parents, and my brother. I'm talking about my brother, we're 18 months apart. Being competitive with him at all times was something my mother really taught me, the hard work and the grind.
My mother was a judge, she was also a former Marine. You talk about hard work and dedication, she leaned into it. There was zero sympathy for me or anything. If I ever wanted something and I'm like, “Oh, this is hard,” my mom would look at me and say, “Well, you wanted this. This is what you asked for? Okay.” There was zero sympathy.
She taught me about hard work and the grind. My dad was really ambitious, so I got that from him. I look at a number of the teachers that I had, I could point to one teacher that really got me interested in sciences, my sixth-grade teacher. That was like an impetus from a career move tracked onto what I'm doing today.
Then I got my family and my other friends who were in the community which kept me grounded and helped shape some of my personality. I like to joke a lot too. They probably helped shape that.
Paula Edgar: I love that. I knew you had a Jersey connection, but I didn't really think about the specifics that we have. My parents moved to New Jersey when I was 14. They moved to South Jersey, so my parents lived in Willingboro.
Squire Servance: Oh, Willingboro, yeah.
Paula Edgar: I was like, “I understand that whole thing.” Because this is more of Philadelphia than New Jersey.
Squire Servance: South Jersey, North Jersey. Some people argue it's Central Jersey, but it's really South and North in my perspective. Because the North gets, like from TV and radio, you get all the New York stations. In the South, you get all the Philly, so that's why you have South Jersey, Philadelphia 76ers, Eagles, all the other stuff, which is because that's the media market you're in. New Jersey really doesn't have it. It is split and you get two different jerseys in that context.
Paula Edgar: I know, when we drive there, I'm like, ”Okay, we gotta switch radio stations.”
Squire Servance: Right, you get below that line, it's like, “All right, that Hot 97 is not working anymore. You gotta switch to Power 99.”
Paula Edgar: Exactly. Once you get by, a great adventure. That's six flags. I was like, “Okay, you gotta switch it up.” Tell me about your educational journey. You talked about sixth grade being your science emphasis. What happened after that? Tell me about high school, college, and after that.
Squire Servance: Yeah. Sixth grade, I did a project on orthopedic surgeons. I was like, “Oh, this is pretty cool.” I was like, “Wait, you get to be a doctor. You get to work with athletes, this is pretty cool.”
That's what really started me on my science and medical career if you want to call it that. I ended up going to Rutgers University and I wanted a degree that if I didn't go to med school or anything like that, I could practice.
I ended up doing biomedical engineering. I enjoyed the area a lot. I ended up adding another major, cell biology and neuroscience. Those are my majors while there. Did some interesting research on Parkinson's patients and how to detect where you need the lesion in the brain to stop the tremors, and things like that.
The plan was ultimately to go to medical school, decided at the last minute you could in undergrad, I said, “That wasn't a route for me.” It was me talking to a bunch of doctors, figuring out personally what I liked, and ultimately that wasn't the move and ultimately pivoted to law.
I ended up going to Duke Law School and while there, I applied to the business school. I do have a joint JD and MBA program while there. I knew I was going to practice law, but I felt like getting that extra year and getting an MBA would be helpful in the legal side of my career because a lot of times the law is a means to an end.
There's a business decision and the law helped and the lawyers helped implement it, the contracts, what have you. I wanted to understand a little bit more of the business decisions, what goes into it, and how to think like a true business person.
That's why I ended up getting that. Then after that, I went and clerked for a year in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals out in Oklahoma City before I started my practice. That is like my educational journey. I look back and I try to characterize, I try to, whenever situation, to get the most out of it which is probably why I look back, I'm like, “I got the double major. Well, I'm here. I got a scholarship for years, I'm going to maximize it.” Get the most out of it.
The same thing was that when I was at Duke, it's like, “I'm here, literally the business school is next door, why not go out and learn a little bit more about the business?” That's a telltale sign for me, personally about who I am. I think it tracks probably throughout my career about trying to do a little bit more to get the most out of whatever the opportunities presented.
Paula Edgar: I told y'all he was smart. See, because I was like, “What?” When I got to school I was like, “When do I finish? This is nice, but I want it to be done.” I'm just sitting here thinking, I can barely say the things that you got. You're a double major.
But it's different, honestly, because I'm grateful and blessed enough to have a lot of smart friends. But the folks who have that science background, it's different. The conversations that you have, you can see that meme with the calculations.
Squire Servance: Yeah, right, spinning in the head.
Paula Edgar: You can see that happening. Just brand-wise, it for me is like, “Yeah, I'll just stand next to a Squire and that's good enough.”
Squire Servance: I look back, and I don't think I did anything different than most. It was hours, the more I studied, the better I did. Literally, it wasn't rocket science for me. It was like, “I just got to study more.”
Paula Edgar: But it was almost rocket science. It was kind of rocket science.
Squire Servance: It was almost rocket science. I remember, for example, my first exams at Rutgers, and I think I failed the majority of them. Now, I ended up graduating with honors.
Paula Edgar: Of course you did.
Squire Servance: But think about it, like that first time it was different. I actually had to change how I studied and change how I approached learning, and it just required more hours. To me, it was just like, "All right, you gotta put in more time."
Paula Edgar: Yeah, right. You clerked, and then you started practicing. Tell me a little bit about more of your career journey, and then we'll get into what you're doing now.
Squire Servance: Yeah. I ended up going to a firm, Morgan Lewis in Philadelphia and joined their patent group, an electoral property group. Did a lot of great work. I did a lot of work with life sciences companies, did a lot of med device and pharma, and then represent some banks as well, some business method patents.
Then I got really good at writing patents and understanding the strategy behind it. I ultimately got interested in doing more transaction work. I started doing the IP provisions of contracts, what have you.
Once I started doing deals, then I started to see where people were having an impact. I found that the people who were controlling where innovation was going were investors. I'll put this pin in here because it ties to what I'm doing now.
Early on in my career, the people who can say, “Hey, this gets funded,” or, “This innovation gets developed or not,” were the ones that are putting the money in. Early on in my legal career, I was like, “Look, I ultimately want to get into investing at some point, whether it be my fund or working for someone else.”
It's funny, I do these things called personal development plans, it is not just work, but it's life, it's everything. I looked back on one recently, it was 2015, 2014. It was like, “Hey, start a fund.” Literally, and this was while I was at Morgan, Lewis.
I ended up, at the time, speaking with a gentleman who ran his own fund, and he's like, "Look, Squire, if you want to do what I'm doing, you got to leave the law firm, go in-house." He recommended me to do business development, go over to the business, and do a variety of things.
My career took me on a different trajectory, but for the most part, I followed that path. I ended up working at Morgan, Lewis for a little over six years, I think. Then I went in-house and worked at Dr. Reddy's doing business development work, the legal side supporting the business development team acquiring products.
Then I went to Baxter out in the Chicago land area. I pretty much was head of legal for the pharmaceutical business. It was a two-billion-dollar business. Great experience, great team, great people. Got a chance to manage the team.
The majority of my team was in India and spent a lot of time over there. Then I was ultimately hired to become general counsel at a company in Boston, [inaudible] bioprocessing companies, a public bioprocessing company.
That was my legal career. What happened was—this may be the next question, but this pivot is what I'm doing now—I had this idea for investing. I'm like, “Okay, what does that look like?” Then in the middle of COVID, it was hard to hide health disparities.
People of color were dying, longer hospital stays, and a variety of other metrics that you were looking at. I started thinking through, “Is there a way to, from an investment standpoint, address health disparities and accelerate health equity?”
The idea for my firm stemmed from those two points. I knew some people in the space that had the idea from investing, so I spoke with them to figure out, “What's the model? What's the investment strategy? What's the thesis?”
We ended up landing on something that I felt comfortable with. My wife was pretty much like, “All right, Squire, you've been talking about this long enough, go do it, just go out and do it.” I decided to take that leap to go launch my own firm and it's been great ever since.
Paula Edgar: Well, there are a couple of things that I love about this. One is that even as you're talking, I love that your first word was ambitious because we're talking the same talk.
As you were talking about what you did, it was like, and then was nice and I could feel it because I think folks who have that ambitious core don't ever stay comfortable. This is nice, what's next? When you talked about, I wrote it down, personal development plan, I was like, “Oh, my gosh. Are me and Squire best friends?”
Because every year, I talk to people about, at the beginning of the year, “What is our goal this year?” I put everybody together, 500 people on the internet and I say, “Let's walk through this because when you have a plan, you have a goal. You have someplace to go to. And you may not hit everything on there, but it is powerful when you start to see those things.”
Squire Servance: It’s directional. That's what I say, “Look, you may not get it, but having that goal is directional, and those I'm walking towards this this way.”
Paula Edgar: It is intention. You just mentioned that this came to you, the culmination of you feeling like that, “I got to get something new, do something else,” and being interested in investment in that way. Then COVID, which really put things right in your face, to your point, we couldn't not see the disparity, you could not see the lack of equity in the health space during COVID.
I'm sure a lot of people saw that, but not a lot of people said, "Now I'm going to do something about it." Now I know what motivated you, but tell me about the firm, tell me what are the goals and what's the mission.
Squire Servance: Yeah, so Syridex Bio is the name. Life sciences investment firm, our goal is to invest in health solutions for diseases that disproportionately impact underserved communities.
If you think about it, we start with indications like, “Okay, sickle cell, lupus, sarcoidosis, we have a number of diseases where we know there are big health disparities.”
We think through, we then go out and say, “All right, are there health solutions we can invest in that can help that patient population and hopefully help put them in a better position, save lives, cures, what have you?”
But the ultimate goal for that patient population overall is to help put them in a better position and address their unmet need. We do have a unique model in the sense that we're not the traditional venture fund, minority stake investment.
Traditional fund, I'll give you $5 million or $1 million in exchange for X percent equity in the company. That's not necessarily our focus. We're more venture creation, a venture studio where we identify the disease we want to invest in. We go out and try to find an asset that we like, that we think of and address it. We'll buy it or license it, and then we actually create a standalone company around it, pay the team, put money in it, and then let it grow.
Ultimately in a day, it'll look the same at the end result, because we'll be at a company with multiple or fund with multiple portfolio companies underneath, but we create companies.
I tell people it's not a new model. I think it works particularly well in biotech when we looked at the different models that I thought had the best way of getting products across the finish line.
This was it for me because we have way more control, we have way more visibility into how we mitigate strategy and mitigate issues we identify upfront. There are companies like Roivant that have this model, and Third Rock Ventures, they do the same, somewhat similar model.
But that's what we do. It's been great because a couple of things it does is when people come to us and we get a lot of inbounds, they are forced to talk about impact instead of like, “Hey we got this great disease,” “This is the disparity,” because that's the first line. If it doesn't address that, you gotta pass.
I've been seeing it, it forces people to talk to us or want us to look at their products or the pipeline to talk through that lens, which has been helpful.
Paula Edgar: Again, you're smart and you could think about this and see all these things, but I'm a regular person and I'm like, “This is important to me.” How does the fund get funded? Tell us about that process.
Squire Servance: Yes. We have two pools of capital that we can deal with. One is we're raising a fund. Raising a fund, we go and talk to the limited partners or institutional investors really. High net worth individuals, banks, state governments, things like that.
I spent a lot of my time going out piling the payment, trying to raise the capital. It's usually talking with them. That's one pool of capital that we get to pull from. We're raising a fund, we're raising a $50 million fund. We have a little over $5 million to commit it now, and that's where we're piling the payment to get to 10, and we can start to deploy.
Now, in going through that process, I've identified a number of investors that say, “Hey, we don't invest in the funds, but we will invest directly in companies.” We gotta identify like a cohort of investors that we say, “If we ever wanted to just do a deal outside of the fund, for example, we like this asset, we want to go and create a company around it right now, we already have a pool of investors that we think would be interested.”
That’s the second pool of capital we get to pull from and go and talk to people that way. We get two strategies that we're approaching.
Paula Edgar: I love that. I think that we want to make sure that folks, speaking of equity, have an understanding of exactly how all of this stuff works because I think most people who will listen in here are at the end of when all the things that you're talking about actually get the market in and it's done and that's when they see the product of this but seeing how it actually happens and to your point of saying that it really is the money, it drives innovation, then you want to know where the money comes from.
Squire Servance: Where the money is.
Paula Edgar: It actually just made me think a lot. There are so many systems and structures that can prevent so much innovation from coming through, because if the place where the capital is does not want to fund those things, then it has a stopping point.
That I think is a really important point to get across when you think about brands and you think about how you leverage networks and people invest and trust the people who are doing the thing in order to put their funds where that innovation is, so that's where the circle just closed for me and I hope for everybody else who are listening too.
You do all of that and I had a question here and I'm glad you explained that because I really think health equity is so important. It's important everywhere. But globally, this can have such a big impact. You talk a little bit about your vision for how this can actually impact global health equity.
Squire Servance: Yeah. I think first, we got a good understanding of what health equity is. To me, it's a state where everyone, regardless of race, gender, or what have you, religion, everyone has the fair and just opportunity to attain the highest level of living. There shouldn't be any restrictions on you attaining your healthiest level of whatever you want to be.
I think for far too long, it's really not been the case. Some of it's historical, structural, that kind of things go into it. When we talk about health equity and then the different components, like the social determinants of health that really go into, that feeds into what health equity is, it's education, it's economics, it's access to quality healthcare, it's the environment, there are so many different factors that go into getting a person to achieve health equity that I don't think no one institution can take it all.
If you're just looking at social determinants of health and the different four or five criteria there, we play on the access to quality and healthcare pillar. That's where our focus is.
We want to make sure that there are sufficient health solutions for diseases that we felt, in some instances, weren't getting enough R&D or we feel like there's a lot of still an unmet deed for that specific community.
Paula Edgar: R&D is Research and Development?
Squire Servance: Research and Development.
Paula Edgar: Okay, I just want to make sure we all know. I was like, “I'm not sure, but okay.” You see y'all, let's catch it. I know I'm smart.
Squire Servance: That's kind of what it is. We play a small part there, but I think governments and policies play a big part, you got to like, “What are you doing with the environment?”
I think churches in faith communities play a big part. It's mind-body-soul-like community context, what support systems are, particularly churches, providing for their community.
I think nonprofits, for-profits, and companies making sure that they're providing quality health care for their employees is important. There are so many different institutions that really need to play in and to help accelerate health equity, close health disparities gaps, we're playing a small role.
My hope is that I can be an advocate for a broader people's understanding of what health equity is, to share that it isn't one person, everyone can play a role in addressing it, and then really being a mouthpiece.
One of the things that I'll talk to investors and folks about, a lot of times they don't delay, I think you hear health equity, like, "Oh, go talk to the foundation." I'm like, "No, no, no, let me tell you, you could do double bottom line returns. You can do good and do well. You can invest in a meaningful way to get strong returns and that product that you're investing in can help close health equity gaps."
I have to have that conversation. My hope is that at some point, that's not the case. It'd be like, “Okay, this makes good investment sense.” At the end of the day, I think capitalism is probably one of the strongest forces in the world. If you can harness that and direct it in a way to a social benefit, that's a win-win.
They care about health equity, but they care about returns way, way more. I spend my day talking to people and selling that point and saying, “Look, we got this good sickle cell treatment. There's still an unmet need out there that we need to invest in and help close this gap for lupus.” In showing people that you can do well and make strong returns, market-rate returns really are something that I'm focused on.
Paula Edgar: Yes, that pitch is really the essence of branding, what you think about what you have, what you're trying to do, what their need and desires are, and how they meet and how you can leverage all of those things at once in order to get to that vision you have at the end.
I think that the work that you're doing and the things that you're elevating for everyone in terms of really understanding we all have a part in this is truly important, which is why I wanted to have the opportunity to have this conversation.
Because I think that not enough of us, we all have a space to be able to say, “Let's do good for the good people for ourselves and still do good for ourselves.” I'm glad that you took the time and I'm glad that you’re doing what you're doing. I'm looking forward to seeing it get to the places in which your vision has led.
Tell me this, because I know you, and I know you from all the different things that we do together in terms of our volunteerism for the community, through different boards and initiatives, so I know what my answer is, but I want to ask you this: How do you balance those professional responsibilities with your commitment to community service and your leadership roles?
Squire Servance: Well, I feel like I got two answers. One is juggling. There's no one right way. There are certain days where like this past weekend I'm in New York and I'm not with my family, but then certain days I'm like, "All right, look, I can't go out to this event or that. It's family time." It's less balancing. It's more juggling.
On certain days, I'm more focused on one thing or the other. But I also think what's been helpful for me is having a clear idea of what I'm passionate about and what I care about. Because if you know that, it filters out all the other stuff. It may be good opportunities, but if it's not something that I'm truly passionate about, I could easily say, “No, that's not for me.”
Knowing your “why” is a filter, and it makes things a lot more clearer. I think those are the two things that have been helpful for me in helping to balance, and juggle the different leadership opportunities.
Paula Edgar: I love that, knowing your “why” as a filter. I love that as a thought and strategy. When I think about this, I'm on a lot of boards, I do a lot of things, I tend to, at the beginning when the ask comes to me, I will say, “You're never going to get 100% Paula.” Find to what percent, what's the skill [inaudible] to get and I can commit to do a thing, those things but not everything, you won't. I won't be at all the events.
To be frank, I say it to my children too, “What are the events, what are the things that you need me to be at? I’m blocking those off. They are those that are non-negotiable, but everything else is up in the air. I'm not going to be the person who's there all the time.” But you prioritize for us and then move forward. It is like juggling. It's like skating. Sometimes I fall.
Squire Servance: Yeah, it happens.
Paula Edgar: Yes. Like this year, my word of the year is joy. I will say, if somebody asks me something, will this bring me joy? If the answer is no, cannot be able to do it. Can't do it, can't do it, can't do it.
Squire Servance: Look, 24 hours in a day, time is a great equalizer. It's like everyone has that same amount of time and the value is it's limited. So you have to make sure you use it wisely.
Probably in your role, the same thing means like the more opportunities we get to do more or some things like that. You could do everything. You could do it. There are so many opportunities out there. You just got to figure out, “Okay, where can I have the most impact? Which one am I passionate about?” Then the cost [inaudible].
Paula Edgar: Sure. It's that strategy and that thoughtfulness about what your values are that really do build your brand. It's what makes the end result better because you're not just saying yes, because you're getting offers.
I was thinking about the questions I wanted to ask you. I don't usually ask this question for folks who are not as seasoned, I'll say that. But I wanted to ask you this because I'm interested in hearing the answer as your friend. What do you hope your impact and legacy will be?
Squire Servance: It's interesting. I actually go through this exercise annually, for the last five, or six years, like legacy, what do I want it to be? I do give it a lot of thought because this helps me filter out stuff. I think for me, I want people to know I love to serve God, that I love my family, and provide for my kids, that I loved to help people.
That I used whatever things I've been privileged to be blessed with over the course of my life, I appreciate I've had the privilege. But then I try to work to make society a little bit better. My passion lies in health and economic equity.
We love to be known, from a legacy standpoint, to be helping to move the needle and being an advocate in that respect, moving boundaries for people so that regardless of race, or religion, what have you, we can equalize the opportunities of folks.
Because I feel like intellect and intelligence are somewhat equally distributed, but opportunities are not. I would love my legacy to be at least helping move the needle a little bit in that regard.
Paula Edgar: I love that. All right, so we talked about all the science stuff, education, what about the fun stuff? What do you do for fun?
Squire Servance: Oh, man, I love the arts. I love music. I love plays. I love going to different shows and what have you. Then also I have two kids. I got a four and a five-year-old who turns six in a few days. But they want to give me joy.
I don't think they appreciate how much they energize me. Even when I'm having a rough day at work, I come home, I work from home most days, but I see them and that energy comes back. That's like the fun part of my day, hanging with my family and my kids and then going out and doing the artsy stuff.
Paula Edgar: Yeah, I love that. I ask everyone who comes to my podcast two questions. One is this: stand by your brand moment, what is an aspect of your personal brand that you will never compromise on?
Squire Servance: Transparency in my views and maintaining integrity in my dealings. Particularly, I think as a lawyer, and as an investor, those two things are paramount. If you don't have integrity, no one's going to trust you to manage your money, that's why I am a money manager. You have to stand on those two things, transparency and integrity. That's what I try to stand on.
Paula Edgar: Love that. Okay, so Branding Room Only is a play on standing room only because I'm clever, so what is an experience or skill that you have something that would have people standing in a room to experience about you with only standing room?
Squire Servance: Ooh, that one ain’t in the questions you sent, that's a new one. This one, I don't know.
Paula Edgar: Is it to play the piano?
Squire Servance: No, look, I could play the piano. I'll say this. Because people ask me lately, if you weren't doing what you're doing, I would probably be a musician. I love music, I love playing music, writing music, what have you. So I would love, if personal branding room, branding standing room only piece, if I was at a concert performing, and it's not even like in front of the stage, I am the keyboardist in the band supporting somebody else. But that would be great for me.
Paula Edgar: I love that. Well, I knew I was going to do this conversation and I did and I'm so happy that you were on podcasts. Tell everybody how they can stay informed about what you're doing in Syridex Bio.
Squire Servance: Yeah. I would say the best way is to connect with me on LinkedIn, Squire Servance, so you can look my name up there and you can always check our website, syridexbio.com. We have news and insights part so you can check what we're doing there.
That's it. I'm actually not on a lot of other social media platforms but LinkedIn is probably the best way to hear about what's going on with me and my firm.
Paula Edgar: Fantastic. It was wonderful having you. Thank you for joining me in The Branding Room. Everybody go tell everyone about this. You know I curate specifically who I think I need you to hear from because I have the opportunity to connect with so many wonderful people and Squire is one of them. Tell a friend, download this, and share this with your people. See you next time in The Branding Room. Bye, y'all.
Wasn't that fantastic? Again, having folks who have a passion, who have a strategy, all of these things build brands in how they make an impact. I love the fact that he was able to talk so succinctly about what he wants his legacy to be.
Squire was really wonderful in terms of taking us through his journey and what the impact is going to be based on this new innovation and the world doesn't move without it.
I really hope that you enjoy this and please do, again, share, download, like, rate, and tell a friend about this podcast and this conversation. See you next time in The Branding Room, everybody. Bye-bye.
