Be the Solution with Maria Quattrone

Survive, Then Thrive: Adaptability, Leadership & Philly Real Estate with Chris Somers

• Maria Quattrone • Season 1 • Episode 344

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I sat down with my longtime friend (and friendly competitor) Chris Somers, CEO of The Somers Team. We’ve both been in this wild real estate world for 22 years, and today we went straight at it—adaptability, leadership, and getting deals to the finish line when the market isn’t giving anyone freebies. I opened with a line that anchors me: “The most successful people are those who accept and adapt to constant change.” That’s been our story—from the financial crisis to zero rates, inflation, and a tougher transaction environment. If you’re ready to control the controllables and lead, this episode is for you.

Key Takeaways (from me)

  • Adaptability is survival. Markets shift. Stay flexible, humble, and decisive—or get left behind.
  • Plan for fallout. Termination rates are up. If you think you need 10 closings, plan for 13–14. Do more than you think you need.
  • Teams accelerate growth. New agents have a much higher success rate on a team—skills, systems, and support matter.
  • Control what you can. Double down on contact, follow-up, sales skills, and daily consistency.
  • Lead in your market. We are community leaders—advocate for homeownership and sensible policy; protect property rights.
  • Mindset first. Gratitude, boundaries, and listening are performance multipliers. Protect your time and your focus.
  • Cycles turn. With rates easing and pent-up demand building, be the person who’s already prepared when activity lifts.

Standout Quotes

  • From me (Maria): “It’s time to hunker down—blinders on. Add 30% to what you think you need, control the controllables, and let the results follow.”
  • From Chris: “Small things done consistently over time lead to big results.”

Connect with Chris Somers

  • Guest: Chris Somers, CEO — The Somers Team (Philadelphia)
  • Connect: LinkedIn: Christopher Somers • Instagram/Facebook: The Somers Team
    (Share exact handles/links and I’ll insert them.)

We don’t wait for easy markets—we be the solution. Do the work, lead your people, and keep your mindset clean. Survive first, then thrive. I’m grateful you’re here with me on this journey—now let’s get to work.

Connect with Maria Quattrone:
Facebook: Maria Quattrone
Facebook Page: REMAX at Home Facebook
Facebook Page: Rise in Real Estate Facebook
LinkedIn: Maria Quattrone
YouTube: Maria Quattrone
Instagram: @maria_quattrone
TikTok: mariaquattronerealestate
Website: MQrealesate.com
Office number: 215- 607-3535

Maria Quattrone:

This morning we are going to get right into it with Chris Somers, CEO of the Sommers team. Chris and I have been good friends for a long time in the industry, and we're both pretty much in 22 years in this crazy world of real estate. And so this morning, Chris, I have this quote for our podcast. And the most successful people are those who accept and adapt to constant change. This adaptability requires a degree of flexibility and humility most people can't manage.

Chris Sommers:

I mean, what a beautiful quote that is. And um, yeah, we have been friends and friendly competitors, right? Yeah, look kind of like the uh Phillies Dodgers, but hopefully, yeah, the better competitor will come out on top. Yeah, but bad respect to you, um, your podcast. And I think that quote, I mean, that's powerful. And that quote obviously can apply to life. And it really, like with the real estate industry, with yeah, with us in 22 years, Maria, yeah, we've had the financial crisis, we've had foreclosures, short sales, you know, we've had interest rates at basically zero, right? Um, and then we had you know massive inflation. I talk about the fact that the real estate industry, in essence, has been in a recession, but no one else really talks about that. Um, you know, when transactions in the city of Philadelphia are down 30 percent 2023 versus 2022, if that's and it and it hasn't improved since then, it's kept going down a little bit year in and year out. I mean, that in essence is a recession. And in essence, I guess as your quote applies, you know, change and adaptability, you know, in that market or this market or any market, you know, is critical, you know, for growth or even survive, right? I heard like a lot of people talk about survive and thrive, yeah, but you can't thrive sometimes until you survive, right? But there's still a lot of opportunity, but you know, yeah, let's face it, it's been tough for our industry last few years.

Maria Quattrone:

Yeah, not only are sales down, but the sales that we are having, like there's a very uh big chance and of them falling apart in the 11th hour. So, and they are, and they have uh for crazy things, you know.

Chris Sommers:

Well, the good news is, you know, when you had the Maria's of the world involved in a transaction or the Chris Summers of the world, yeah, chances are that getting to closing and finalizing will be higher. But you're right, yeah, I see that the termination percentage, you know, has been very high, you know, from a historic standpoint.

Maria Quattrone:

Um, and the deals so think about this, right? If it was just us in the transaction crisp and not some other side that has very little experience or just maybe works another job and real estate is a part-time thing and they don't know how to do the deal, and they're not giving their client the best advice or the right advice is a big, it's a big part of that equation. So if I only did my own transactions, we'd have a better, much, much, much better chance of getting to the end for mostly probably all of them. The fact that we're dealing with the other side makes us even that doesn't know what they're doing, makes it even worse.

Chris Sommers:

Yes, there's good news, bad news to that. The bad news is kind of like what you just said. You know, the good news, you know, like I I'll I'll kind of like allude to the financial crisis. You know, it's like, yeah, a lot of like realtors left the industry, a lot of the horrible mortgage companies left the industry, and that's kind of one reason like some some things don't get the closing. Um, but the good news is like as you know, we kind of get through you know this bud and this buck, you know, is um you know, the better agents you know will get better. And some of the agents that just aren't doing it anything or much at all, they have that those one or two transactions a year, probably will float out, or you know, they have the opportunity to to step up. Maybe they should join the Maria Quatron team.

Maria Quattrone:

Maybe they should, yeah, or they should join the Chris Summers team.

Chris Sommers:

Yeah, either or, you know, but I think they have two great choices. Exactly. Um, but uh, I mean, I think that's one trend that's obviously happened over the years, is like, you know, less the solo agent's been around for a while, you know, they have a big like referral network or whatnot. I mean, it's super, super difficult. I think you would agree for a new or newer agent, you know, to be solo and not be on a team, you know, due to the massive amount of tasks and things that need to be done. I mean, that's one trend that's been going on for a while.

Maria Quattrone:

100%. I think that it's virtually almost impossible for a new person to make it. You know, if you think you know the numbers, I mean, 13% make it after two years. 87 some 87% lean. Now, if you join a team, those numbers are much, much different. Much different.

Chris Sommers:

Correct. Like I remember when I was president of GPAR in 2019 at it and that new member orientation, I would tell people that yeah, the over-under, I use gambling terms sometimes, you know, for someone to stay in the business is exactly what you said, two years. And if you fast forward to today, you know, again, due to some of the um, you know, things that have changed, yeah, that might, it's probably down to a year and a half, you know what I mean? So, you know, the there's a lot of challenge there. But again, with that, you know, it's kind of like the 80-20 rule with anything, Maria, as you know. Yeah, like there's tons of opportunities for those agents, you know, to you know, get to you know, the top 20% and not the bottom 80%, you know, but you know, it does require all those things hard work, diligence, showing up, follow-up, sales skills, you know, learning, developing. And it does seem like, correct me if I'm wrong, you know, that since COVID, you know, some like for people to have all those um traits or personalities or strengths isn't as much as it used to be prior to COVID, but that might just be yeah, kind of like an assumption on my part. But I think we will get there and the opportunity is there in front of all of us.

Maria Quattrone:

We certainly will. You know, I said in our meeting on Friday, I said now is the time to hunker down. Hunker down, do as much as you humanly can do between now and Christmas. Because not only will it have great effect on 2026, you'll still get business into 2025. And because so many people are in a stuffed place at the moment, uh, and if you do more, you'll stand out, you'll be able to have you know, have more business, and really, really have the opportunity to get some of this business where you have about this year so far 250,000 ish, I think it's 244 uh licensees that left the industry. So there will be more of that at the end of the year because dues come up and people won't be able to continue on if you're only doing a few transactions a year. So I think it's an opportune time right now. You know, one of the things I have to tell myself all the time, Chris, is that we are not what we do. We are not real estate. We're people. You know, people look at us a lot of times like we're real estate, that's our thing, real estate. I'm like, I'm not real estate. I'm a human, right? We have feelings, we have um emotions. And the thing is, because we're so tied to what we do, because real estate's kind of like a lifestyle business in the sense of like it's around us constantly. Like, did you ever go to a dinner with somebody you haven't seen and that they have asked you, they do not ask you about the market? It's the only industry where everybody always wants to talk about it. So you're constantly always good and bad.

Chris Sommers:

Yeah, good and bad. It's always something to talk about. I certainly don't buy I kind of I love talking about it, but obviously it comes in ways where you need like some Maria time, you need some Chris time. You know, sometimes that might be at home. And let's face it, like our industry, you know, it's like we have our cell phones everywhere, you know, clients are texting, emailing, calling at all you know, times during during the day, Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, you there's like classes on boundaries and whatnot. So I think I mean that it's a good problem to have, you know, of course to be busy. And yeah, I love the fact that real estate is talked about. You know, we just kind of need, you know, like um hopefully city council to step up here, you know, with some pro-growth, pro-real estate policies, and not like what they've been doing the last few years since COVID. I mean, that might be a whole different story, but I do think the good news, and I really love what you said there, is like the people that do hunker down right now. I mean, obviously there's two sec two segments in the market that I kind of think about. You know, one is like you know, focus on what you can control, not what you can't, be in contact with all your people, show up, and so forth. But the second part, you know, is the cyclical nature of real estate. And I do finally think I was a little bit wrong this year, you know, with my prediction of uh why owned when you can lease would start to revert back to why lease when you can own. Um, so as a result, you know, the transactions once again are down a little bit 2025 versus 2024, so we're gonna 2024 being down from 2023. And then we just talked about 2023 being down 30 percent. But with that, you know, because mortgage rates are finally down, thank God, and I think people are kind of coming back to, hey, let me do something. I do believe that there is pent-up demand, you know, for more activity um in the city, you know, and hopefully, you know, there'll be a little bit more new construction for single family homes. You know, like me and Northern Liberties, people talk about oh, there's development everywhere. I'm like, yes, but it's all development. Yeah, it's all apartment buildings for leased. Now, I I think maybe that trend will start to you know to go the other way because you know now you know people are struggling with vacancies and all the promotions. But I do think that there is an inherent demand you know that could you know finally be beneficial um you know with transactions. And hopefully city council you know does something to promote home ownership, you know, to um backbone property rights, you know. People, you know, if someone's a landlord, they still own that property, they have rights. The squatter, why does the squatter have rights? Yeah, why does it take six months to a year to get a squatter out of a property that you own? Why does it take forever for a landlord to evict someone when they own the property? And then as a result, you know, like that smaller investor that might own one, two, three, four, five to ten properties, where their tenants have moved out, they've sold Maria. They're gone and they continue to go. Now, some you know are still there, yeah, but as a result, that rental inventory of homes that we kind of had throughout some of the neighborhoods is going down. And then the only thing left for some of these folks are are homes, and then those people just really aren't buying properties right now. You know, think about all that you know, tax money or or the growth or neighborhoods improving, you know, for people to be involved in the community. So I hear about these things you know kind of being talked about, but you know, until that happens, I think we're really, or the city of Philadelphia is really missing an opportunity for simply not um you know, like be the backbone or have policies that support property rights.

Maria Quattrone:

Uh it's a problem. You know, every day, almost not every day, a couple times a week, I talk with owners of properties that have squatters or tenants that refuse to leave every single week. They don't pay. I have to I have a tenant, I'm not paying. Doesn't pay. Won't leave. I mean it's very frustrating. And I I, you know, like you, I've as we've been in the business so long, you know, I have a lot of clients that just don't have friends, people that used to develop and buy in Philadelphia who've left Philadelphia.

Chris Sommers:

Yeah, and some developers, you know, left two years ago. Yeah, like every once in a while.

Maria Quattrone:

They're gone. They've they've left after COVID. After COVID, a lot of people left, and even in the last, I would say a couple years, like two years, yeah. They went to down the shore, they went to the suburbs. Um, I know a couple that went to like the Reading area. Correct. Um but a lot, I know a lot of people that went to the beach market, you know.

Chris Sommers:

Yeah, and like every once in a while, I won't mention any names, but I'll send, you know, hey, maybe this person's still interested, you know, in buying vacant land and I'll send, like, hey, yeah, it's a pretty good deal. Yeah, the you know, the width, the depth, you know, I'll get a text back. Chris, I love you. But I told you two years ago I left the Philadelphia market. And you know, just to hear that, I just I got to believe that you know, the city of Philadelphia, like, you know, the mayor and the council people and the people involved in these in these neighborhoods are hearing some of this and you know and being be like, you know what? Why? And well, we know why, but like what's being done about it? Um, I haven't seen anything. And in 2019, again, you know, I'll just revert back to that, you know, being president of Jeepar, you know, at that point, you know, sometimes they jam like the jam bills down at the end of the year, right? So that tax abatement bill kind of came out in like October, you know, with a vote in November. And um, yeah, that was the bill that kind of changed the tax abatement. I mean, that's just one part of like many. And I remember meeting every city council person you know that I knew that might be open to a few things. There's one or two that just wanted to abolish it completely. I didn't even bother meeting with them. And I looked them in the eye, Maria, and I said, Hey, well, what about when the economy changes? And all of them just kind of look back at me with like a blank face. And fast forward, you know, two years later, or even a year later, you know, kind of COVID came, you know, and then all this other, you know, things came. And, you know, it was like to me, that was one of the worst decisions ever. Um, you know, due to the fact that yeah, that abatement again brings in so many new homeowners, brings in so many new taxes across the board, you know, and the rhetoric of, you know, like some of those city council people didn't even realize that someone that owns a tax, a house that has a tax abatement on it, still pay real estate taxes.

Maria Quattrone:

Yeah.

Chris Sommers:

On the land assessment. And then when the land gets gets assessed higher, they pay more taxes, right? And then fast forward, I think um, you know, the city of Philadelphia like released like a really nice kind of grant program for first-time home buyers. And at that time, you know, Daryl Clark was uh, you know, president of city council. And I went up to him, it's like, hey, out of curiosity, like where where are the funds coming from from this program? And he looked at me, he goes, Oh, yeah, it's good, it's it's with all the properties going off the the the abatement, yeah, it's a lot of money coming in, and then yeah, we're using it for that. Oh, okay. You know, so I mean if you if you just if people could just take a step back and look at the big picture, um, you know, it's not the tax abatement's fault, yeah, that the schools are having issues. You know, we could do a lot with the schools, but you know, if we if we don't have a thriving local economy, you know, things might not be going that great. So I think you know, this is the time, I think, you know, for all of us, you know, in our industry, you know, to be advocates for homeownership, for property rights, for growth, and be voices you know in our neighborhoods to get involved with GPAR or just you know, help and educate people along the way. Um, you know, because I think you know things are changing a little bit for the better. But you know, why other states you know have policies for anti-squatting and the state of Pennsylvania does not, or the city of Philadelphia does not. Why? Yeah, why did our real estate transfer tax go up again? You know, when our sale prices aren't as high as all these other states, you know, and the rhetoric was it was to support um affordable housing. Well, I guess 40,000 new units would be built, but yeah, maybe that might affect 3% of our housing pop population. And in turn, we just made buying a house or even selling a house not more unaffordable. So I I really would like to see you know some more kind of like you know, real estate growth minds in city council because I do believe that every city and every location, it kind of starts with that, right? And if you don't have growth in that area, if you don't have like investment, if you don't have big picture thinking, well, pretty much your other industries and your other sectors within the city might not be as strong as you want them to be. Would you agree with that?

Maria Quattrone:

Or I mean I I could go on like a policy kind of rampage, but I mean there's so many, there's so many things like the tax abatement should be 20 years, not a step-down five-year program. Should be 20 years. We've the city really needs it. I don't understand. Did they do a um did they do a study on why they need 40,000 affordable housing units? Have they actually done like a study on that? Do they even know that that's the number? Or is it just because it sounds good?

Chris Sommers:

Like it probably because it's sound, yeah, great question. And then all the studies of the benefits of the abatement, you know, were presented. Yeah, but the fact of the matter is, like, yeah, going back, I guess this is what was kind of frustrating, yeah. Like knowing that I met with every person at city council, in reality, that bill, and I kind of found out later, and I kind of knew it was was already done, right? Yeah, so all the conversations that people had, all the one-on-ones, all the, you know, like you know, when people go down to city council and testify, okay. And I did that too. Yeah, BIA president Jim Moransky did it that year too. Yeah, but it was already done. And how frustrating is that? Like if something's already done, yeah, why are we having public testimony on it? And I think that's happened recently with a few other, I think like this um the budget that just passed, like with what we're just talking about. Yeah, I think people went down to city to city hall and testified. But my understanding is that was already done too. Like, why isn't there more of an open mind, big picture kind of thinking where you know the people are kind of taking in you know some input, yeah, versus you know, just kind of putting something together, knowing that it's done, and say, okay, yeah, we'll talk about this.

Maria Quattrone:

So, Chris, you know, think about how many houses sell in Philadelphia County a year. And they want to bring on 40,000 new houses in five years. How does that that doesn't even make sense because if you look at the numbers, it would never absorb.

Chris Sommers:

It's a very small number in comparison to the bigger picture. And hey, if you're gonna do that, that's fine. Uh, you know, I'm okay with that, but you know, like playing with the transfer tax again, you know, for you know, when someone buys and sells a property, yeah, like our transfer tax is one of the highest, I think it's the second highest in the country, right? You know, and our sale prices certainly aren't the second highest in the country. Yeah, plus we have other taxes on on top of that, you know. So, you know, until you know this tax structure maybe kind of gets changed at some point, you know, like we're you know, we're kind of shooting ourselves in the foot every year, you know, with policy that's not helping everyone, right? Um, yeah, we have the right policy no matter where someone is, what neighborhood, um, you know, what class they're in, you know, without growth, you know, there's either stagnation or regression. And then obviously since COVID, you know, neighborhoods were really starting to improve everywhere, right? You know, like you know, Fishtown going to East Kensington, yeah, going past Front Street, going towards Kensington, Point Breeze, you know, going towards Greats Ferry, Art Museum, going towards Brewerytown, everywhere. Yeah, but then COVID happened, and with the lack of anything to do with public safety, yeah, things just kind of pulled back. And then it, yeah, it's kind of stayed that way for a while. Um, it will improve, but yeah, and I really like to some extent what Parker has done with public safety, but yeah, we certainly need more.

Maria Quattrone:

There's no doubt we need more, you know. The I don't know if you notice, but a lot of restaurants aren't even open on Mondays or Tuesdays anymore. You can't even hardly find a restaurant in Center City, you know, open on Tuesday night. Except for like the star restaurants, but just even in the neighborhood, in our neighborhood, a lot of places aren't open till Wednesday. That didn't used to be like that.

Chris Sommers:

No, I mean people were were out more, things were you know more energy, you know, more flourishment, is that the word? You know, and then yeah, now there's a little bit less energy. Restaurants obviously, you know, are dealing with you know their inflation issues, um, you know, and just you know, getting by and you having the cutback or not being open, you know, maybe it's lack of demand, maybe it's just you know being protective, you know, with dollars and cents. Now, I am wearing my Phillies hoodie, Maria, and people that you know might watch this podcast later on, it might be after the fact, but perhaps you know, if the Phillies can get by the Dodgers, you know, we're down one zip, um, yeah, that could add a lot of stimulus, you know, to our local economy. It always does. So, hey, whatever it takes, red October. Red October, baby.

Maria Quattrone:

Um, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Chris Sommers:

I mean, I think like you know, people like disagree with so many things these days, and they disagree, like they're so far apart, you know, and yeah, that in turn, I think people are just they would just aren't going out as much, or there's just too much of this or too much of that. And I remember like, you know, again, post-COVID, you know, sports, you know, brought a lot of people together. And you know, whether it's sports or something else, hopefully that could be the case again. Um, you know, because I love to agree to disagree with people and walk away and still be friends, right? Uh that's always been who I am. I don't understand, you know, why other people don't do that sometimes too, but at the same time, I guess I do understand. But um, I mean, at the end of the day, I mean, with our industry, you know, someone always needs a home, right? People are always upsizing, people are always downsizing. You know, again, hopefully this why own when you can lease trend will turn into why lease when you can own. You know, investments will kind of come back. Um, so you know, I think you know that at the end of the day, there's either doom or gloom, you know, or you know, positivity. On most days, I have positivity, you know, but on some days, you know, with all this stuff going on, you know, it's hard not to be you know sucked in with the negativity, especially if you spend too much time on social media or watching the news or you know, anything.

Maria Quattrone:

So it's it's that's why I said it's time to hunker down, blinders on just what's happening right here, right here. And the one thing I I wanted to say earlier on was you know, to combat combat the number of transactions that are going through in this current environment, I tell or I told everybody on Friday, if you think that you need 10, you need 14 transactions or whatever number, I I said add 30 percent to it. And then you know, hopefully we hope we hope for the best, and they all go through. But we can't control things that are out of our control, and that's the thing when it comes back down to adaptability. Back to adaptability and back to what I what I was earlier on said about we are not real estate, right? But and a good year, a bad year, a good month, a bad month, a good three years, a bad three years, it is what it is, and it's not I think even myself, like I would take take it like oh I'm a I'm a failure. Oh, it's me, you know, and it's not us. Shit happens. And things aren't always things aren't always, you know, it's like I said, I I was talking about this yesterday. I said that's why there's sun. Today it's sunny, right? There's rain. It's cold, it's hot. Like if it was always sunny every single day, and we had no rain, we need the rain. We need the rain, we need the rain for the rain and for the water, but we need the rain too because the rain reminds us and gives us thanks for the sunny days, and some days we're thankful for the rainy days. And it shows us in life, it's about humility, vulnerability, and and and for for for us, right? And we're leaders leadership, teaching leadership, showing by teaching. Yeah, I said the other day, I said I don't want a bunch of followers in the office. I'm gonna I'm gonna teach you through the be the solution movement leadership. I said, someday you will all, I hope, have your own teams.

Chris Sommers:

Well, I love that, Marie. I mean, I like the saying focus of what you can control, not what you can't. Um and yes, I mean, there is a lot of things, you know, external factors that can get someone frozen or paralyzed. I think it's like during those times where you know a lot of people in our industry or any industry, you know, could could still have the ability to do better, you know, by again focusing on the things they can control. And I think at the end of the day, you know, if you or at the end of the week or a month, you know, you did everything that you could do and then some, I think you're gonna be feeling good about yourself. And then I guess the second thing about what you said, yeah, it all starts with you know, gratitude or perspective, um, you know, to be able to kind of see things in a different light or even like see things through someone else's eyes, I think is important. I think one art. That has kind of been lost to a certain degree, which is really important, you know, in selling or or communicating is listening. And I think the people that can listen more, um, whether it's have empathy or really understand where someone else is coming from. And I think that's super important, you know, in our industry. Like if you're not listening to your client or a prospect, you know, and you just, you know, kind of doing something in a different way, I mean, that's gonna catch on, right? And sometimes it is better to terminate a deal than move on and you know, shove something down someone's throat. Yeah, but along the way, I mean, there are solutions, and I think it kind of comes down to you know, you become who you surround yourself with, right?

Maria Quattrone:

That's why it's important to protect our time and important to make sure that you know we're around people. That's part of you know, doing a podcast too, because I I get to at least have some interaction. I try to have one a few time, you know, a few times a week. I have interaction with other leaders, other people in the industry, different everybody brings a different perspective. And the other day on Friday, I did this podcast and you know, I had sh I had known of this person for many years and we I saw him at an event, um I know like uh um AI, Bruno and Stacey at this event and I purposely like made an effort extra effort to talk with him. And I said I invited him on the show and then on Friday when we had this podcast, he said some things that I really needed to hear. He didn't know this. He didn't he didn't he didn't know. But I needed to hear, and I look back on that and I thought about that on Friday, and it's it was like divine timing. You know, sometimes the messages are delivered and we don't we don't hear them. Sometimes the messages have to be delivered many times and then we're ready to hear it. And I think that's life. I think that you know we and I I truly, truly believe this that we are our own solution. And for us in real estate, there's so many things. I mean, in my opinion, I'm sick of the city of Philadelphia, honestly, all their nonsense, but that's where I live right now. And I'm just gonna like do my thing, and you know, when I can make uh something to make things better, do my best. In the meantime, we can control all these crazy stuff going on, and we just have to control the controllables when we started with.

Chris Sommers:

Well, I'm a huge you know, Bruno and Stacy fan, and for the people are watching this, yeah, definitely follow them on Facebook. But yeah, there's something about you know Bruno, yeah, like with his growth over the years, yeah, to have like a little bit of, I don't know what the word is, spiritual strength, um, awareness. Um, you know, and there's something about that, again, I think that will get us through more difficult times. But I also think, yeah, when things are going great, you know, it might kind of keep us more like even keel kind of thing. And at my recent Summers T meeting, it was kind of like we wanted to like have we like to have a theme for every meeting. And you know, it was uh trust your process, which really obviously hasn't worked for the Sixers, you know, but yeah, we kind of redefined that to um you know, trust your own process, you know, and for the people that that do things right each day, because I like to say small things done consistently over time lead to big results, right? And you're a testament of that. Bruno's a testament of that, you know, whether it's real estate or whether it's your own life's growth. Um, you know, I think that's significant with kind of what we're talking about because I think the better, you know, I love the book The Uh The Alchemist, right? Yeah, like you have to have awareness to see signals and then maybe make changes from them, whether it's one time or many times, yeah. But it's hard to have awareness when you're maybe you're maybe not as in as good shape as you should be, or reading books or podcasts, or like really kind of being open to learning and growth, yeah, with your own growth, because if you don't have growth in in one area here, chances are that might not lead to growth over here. So I think that's the opportunity I think with all of us is yeah, with it's not just selling more properties. I think the leadership of your work with your clients, but I think we kind of need more leadership in our neighborhoods and whatnot, too, because you know, I think voices are so silent. And you know, I you know, I'm gonna be a big advocate about city council, kind of like looking into policies. Like councilman, you know, Jeff Young called me a couple weeks ago and he was like, Hey, will you help me with you know raising funds? I'm like, I don't want to help anyone in city council like raise funds right now. Um, you know, but then it got into a dialogue and he kind of shared with me that, you know, hey, he was warped on some pro real estate bills than I was aware of, you know. But you know, like if if voices are silent because they're afraid of you know, like other people, you know, kind of like thinking less of them, that's not a good thing, right? If voices are silent about, hey, what can we do to to improve things, but yeah, they're being scared of, well, hey, you know, that that kind of goes against the schools, but it really doesn't, or this or that, that's not a good thing. Um, and obviously that conversation on a wider scale, you know, it's just yeah, been out there dramatically, you know, where you know we there's this there's just not enough dialogue and not enough listening. And with that, that's where the leadership opportunities come. And it could be on the smallest scale or the biggest scale, but I think you and I as leaders, and I in my mind, every real estate agent is a leader because they're leading, you know, with their clients and then really helping you know people to have the dreams of home ownership or moving on to other parts of their lives. It's like, you know, if we really can kind of like hold on to that and use that as leverage to grow, only good things can come from that, you know. And I remember Alan Dahn will kind of talk about you know the pendulums, you know, of you know, the city and whatnot. And obviously, yeah, it was a little bit before our time, you know, where the center city was just not doing well, right? Yeah, what what saved the center city? The tax abatement. What saved real estate in the city of Philadelphia? And what started growth? Was the tax abatement? Um, you know, so like yeah, the pendulum.

Maria Quattrone:

One minute, one minute.

Chris Sommers:

Yeah, we'll continue to go back and forth, but yeah, I think we could kind of all strive you know for the pendulum to swing into areas where everyone, you know, can't agree agree upon and have like a shared mission to support that.

Maria Quattrone:

Well, this has been a great time with you this morning, Chris. And I love the fact that you know still we're still going. We're still going, we're still being the solution. And it's good to see you and your growth, and you know, we continue just to forge ahead.

Chris Sommers:

Yeah, I mean, you're you have two choices don't be part of the solution or be the solution. I think you and I, and we as leaders, you know, we can help people be the solution.

Maria Quattrone:

That's right.

Chris Sommers:

I know that's right.