Modern Butler Brings Personified Luxury to High Profile Clients
Due to their expertise and reputation, power couple Robert Gertz and Mario Seiler are two of the most highly sought-after estate managers in the world. Ten years ago, they began Modern Butler, a luxury estate and lifestyle management company that aims to provide a “one-stop shop” for maintaining wealth and luxury, without the hassle or headache.
Modern Butler has become known worldwide for providing the most personalized, prestigious, and worry-free maintenance for splendor estates. Services include, but are not limited to, real estate, estate branding, staffing (assistants, housekeepers, chefs), security, events, travel, health (including COVID-19 safety), and beauty.
The needs of each home and family are meticulously assessed, and Modern Butler also provides á la carte services including personal shopping, transportation and car service, relocation management, and preventative maintenance plans. Modern Butler is proud to have worked with the likes of several celebrities including Cindy Crawford, Elaine Wynn, and Robbie Williams.
Gertz and Seiler took some time to chat with OFM about the company.
Let me begin by asking, how did you two meet?
Mario Seiler: At a dinner party. I was in L.A. for work, quite often, working for a private family, so I never really got to leave the hotel. My yoga teacher at the hotel told me, if you ever have a night off, let me know. I would love for you to see more of Los Angeles than just your hotel and the hotel restaurant and grounds. I will get some friends together, and we will have a night out. I called him one day in the afternoon and said, ‘As it turns out, I have the night off, finally! Is it too late to organize something?’ It wasn’t, so I went to the dinner party and Robert was my table neighbor.
You two are the founders of Modern Butler. Can you tell us more about the company and services that are offered?
Robert Gertz: We are an estate and lifestyle management company. We offer á la carte services to clients, and our services range from estate management to events and event planning production to estate branding where we develop an identity for one’s home. We are now offering security; we partnered with a third-party vendor that we have been working with on the residential security side for about a decade now.
Real estate is our newest offering, which has been really great because of our background in managing these estates. We know homes; we know how to maintain homes. Offering real estate has been great. Staffing is another service that we offer, and really, the sky’s the limit. If you go to our website, modernbutlerla.com, all the services that we offer are listed. Everything is so personalized to the needs of the clients, and we are here to help people have a great lifestyle. Whatever they need, we are here to provide fantastic service.
Why did you want to start Modern Butler?
RG: My background is in events, branding, and working for upper, high-net-worth clients. I love when clients come to me, and to us now, asking to help make things work. If a client needs a new chef, do that work to find them the perfect chef. It fuels me and makes me feel so good. I love being of service to others. One example I can give, we have a family from Saudi Arabia who was in town for the summer a couple years ago. He wanted to meet the players of A.C. Milan since they were playing Manchester United here in Los Angeles. The family wanted to have a private meet and greet with the players in like two days. I know nothing of soccer, but I was able to make it work, and that was so gratifying. It is a great feeling. Mario can speak a bit more about his background in hospitality and why this fuels him.
MS: I used to be a hotel person, and I was in charge of guest relations for two properties of a five-star luxury hotel group in the U.S. I have dealt with everyone from movie productions, CEOs, royal families, singers, and talent from Hollywood. I was always the one connecting them with everyone in the hotel, everyone in the city, just making everything work. Essentially, I ended up working for one of our guests who made me a job offer to take care of the family, and this was a very high-profile family in Europe. We traveled extensively. One night in Zurich, one night in New York, one night in the Bahamas.
For me, it was always like, this is who we are; this is what we like; this is what we don’t like; this is how billing works, and I was constantly repeating myself and dealing with so many different people. I was always saying, I wish there would be one person, then I can focus on the real thing like taking care of the family’s day-to-day and this and that, versus not the nitty gritty, like how do they like their clothes folded when they come back from laundry service? That is how I joined Robert and said my idea for these combined net worth individuals. I want to create this comprehensive setup where they can offload it once, and then that is it.
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Besides the personal gratification of helping others, how else has Modern Butler been personally rewarding to you?
RG: Being tasked and seeing something be achieved through my work—we had a client, she called us a few years ago, we were traveling at the time on holiday, and she said, ‘We want to have a birthday party, and we want it Moroccan themed.’ We were like, ‘Great. When we get back, we will look at venues in L.A.,’ but she was like, ‘No, we want to have it in Morocco. We want it in Marrakesh.’
From that concept to then stepping in and designing the brand, the identity, the invitations, working with the designers in Paris, working with production in Morocco, and then dealing with all the guests that are getting there—seeing it all come to life for both of us was a wonderful feeling, starting with an idea and seeing it come to fruition. I think that fuels me, and fuels us, to see the whole experience come to life. At the end of the day, having the client appreciate and see that their vision has been realized partially because of us.
MS: Also, a rewarding part is that it gives us experiences that we would not have in another job. I do like things when they are beautiful, but beautiful does not happen overnight. Systems need to be in place and certain things need to happen to see it all come together, I think that is ultimately what it is. When it does all come together and the system does work, that is the beautiful part. You have created something amazing for yourself and for the client. I think that is one of the biggest driving forces that makes us want to do this.
Modern Butler has been in service for 10 years. What are you going to do to ensure that it stays a success?
MS: We have had plenty of time in these 10 years to create a network of fantastic vendors and suppliers, which on the other side, does not necessarily mean that there is not a task or job needed to look out for new people, new vendors, to have that great support team. I think that is really the key. When it is the 25th of December, and the family calls at 6 p.m. saying the water heater broke; we do not have four days to wait in that Beverly Hills world. Time is of the essence. So, it is really having those connections where you can make the call and say, ‘I will be there in an hour with someone to fix that.’
Obviously, between Robert and I, we can cover a lot, but we cannot do it all. We have a great support team, third-party vendors, a great team in-house that we work with, and for us, it is really trying to stay hands on and not be tucked away in the office away from reality. For me, it has always been very important that the people I work with, of course they have a job, they receive a paycheck, and everyone has a function, but there is a certain respect there. If we have five minutes to turn something around and everyone needs to roll up the sleeves, we will do it. I think it is important to be part of the frontlines to understand how long certain things take, where the challenges lie, and not be tucked away in an office just taking calls and dealing with client requests. That is a big key to our success as well.
How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the business, and what problems or challenges did you have to overcome?
MS: Obviously, travel is very limited to non-existent. Events as well. We have a big client base overseas that have secondary homes, so the pandemic has completely shifted how to take care of these properties. In one sense, it has become much easier because the families are not coming here, but there have been challenges. We have a family who have five cats, and all of a sudden, we became parents for these cats. One of the cats unfortunately had a bad accident and some severe surgeries, so we have now become the foster parents to nurse it back to health.
Clients who have stayed in town have obviously become a little more cautious. Everything is done in-house; people are more concerned and try to quarantine or isolate with their domestic help. Life has gone on, just like it has before, but the way and how to do it has been very different.
RG: It has been modifying systems. We put systems in place, and they work well, but because of these situations, we have had to modify, learn, pivot, and do our best to put in new systems in place that work with the times. We are doing well, but things have definitely shifted.
What are some future goals you would like to see Modern Butler achieve?
MS: Future goals? That is a good question. I would like to have travel back [laughs]. I think it is just continuing with the clients that we have. As Robert said, you do not have to use all our services. We have clients who use us just for staffing, and we have clients who use every single service and more that we offer. Over time, I want to keep creating and keep these relationships. Grow more and show clients that we have this trust. We can take on more if you would like that. Let our services help you more, versus using us once a year to do your birthday party and then not seeing each other for a long time. We have modified what we offer according to client requests as well. So, it is really just that.
RG: Staffing service was birthed out of us by having the estate management service. Let us help find you a housekeeper, chef, anything you need.
MS: There are great agencies out there, but if you want to be a housekeeper in Beverly Hills, most of these agencies will look at your resume and kick out if you do not have Beverly Hills experience. We have a different approach. Certain ways of cleaning and doing things can be taught. If you don’t necessarily have 20 years of experience, but have the right attitude, we can work with that. It is really looking at it from a different perspective, and we are happy for that client feedback. As Robert said, staffing is a great example of a service that we originally would have never thought of. People see the different approach and the different ways of putting these positions into someone’s establishment.
For more information, visit Modern Butler’s official website.
Photos Courtesy of Cliff William
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