From Wall Street to Real Estate: Creating Sanctuary in NYC with Ellen Silverman

In this inspiring episode of Worthy and Abundant, I sit down with Ellen Silverman—an ex-Wall Streeter turned powerhouse real estate broker in New York City. Ellen shares her journey from a high-pressure finance career to helping buyers, sellers, and renters find their perfect sanctuary in one of the most dynamic cities in the world.

We talk about:
💼 What it was like transitioning from Wall Street to real estate
🏙️ The unique challenges (and magic) of navigating the NYC housing market
🧠 How her analytical mind and love for design give her clients a competitive edge
💬 Her experiences working with international investors and local buyers
✨ What success, empowerment, and balance mean in a city that never sleeps

Whether you're dreaming of big transitions, curious about NYC real estate, or just love stories of bold reinvention—this conversation is full of value, heart, and wisdom.

Ellen has worked in real estate since 2016 after a seasoned career as a Wall Street analyst.  Born and raised in Manhattan, she went to Trinity School prep school, then graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University with a BS in Business Administration and Mathematics and also received an MBA from Zicklin School of Business. 

Email: ellen.silverman@compass.com
Website: https://ellenjsilverman.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/ellenjsilverman/

Transcript

 Hello everyone and welcome back to the podcast. I am so grateful you're here. I know you have so many things to listen to and it means the world to me that you're here listening. Today we have a special guest. She is an ex wall Streeter turned real estate broker.

She currently helps buyers and sellers and renters navigate the crazy world of New York City real estate. She's worked mostly in Manhattan and she also loves art, fashion, and travel, which is great if you live in New York. Welcome Ellen to the show. Thank you for being here. Thanks so much for having me.

Absolutely. So tell us a little bit about you recently or not recently, 2016. So let's start at the beginning. You had a successful career in Wall, on Wall Street. What inspired the shift into real estate and what was the biggest mindset shift you had to make when transitioning from finance to real estate?

Yeah. I think, I had always wanted to be in real estate. I had a successful career as an analyst in finance for many years, and it's very hard to leave a full-time job with benefits. I was also a consultant so I., I wasn't an employee, but I still was paid very well.

And but I always was interested in real estate. I had bought and sold my own home several times. I had a very good eye for interior decorating, having grown up with a mother who was always decorating her home, and and I had good financial skills. So all those things lent to real estate. I'm also a native New Yorker, so I know the city very well.

And in 2016 I was working for a very large prestigious international investment bank that's no longer around. But the new CEO came in and cleaned house and I was let go. And at that point I thought, okay, this is the time to do it. It's either now or never. Yeah, redirect, rejections, redirection and rejections.

So it literally, that was the gift in you being let go is you got to do your passion, what you were just dreaming about or loving for a long time. And then so what was the biggest mindset shift, going from finance to real estate? Was it helpful that you had that it, it sounds like it would've been pretty helpful that you had the finance background.

Yeah absolutely. It was very helpful to know finance and be. Very comfortable with numbers. Also, my knowledge of the city definitely helped. But the shift was going from employment to self-employment real self-employment with no guarantee of income. 'cause I had worked as a consultant and that was self-employment as well.

But I knew. I was on a project for six months or eight months or a year, and I knew I was, what I was gonna be making every week. So this was, CRE is really starting from scratch and I had to get rid of the employee mindset and really become the CEO of my life. And that meant incorporating every facet of running a business from.

Administrative tasks to marketing, to sales, to keeping track of finances and costs and operations and generating business, which to this day after nine years is 70% of what I do is generate business. Yeah. Yeah. I have a real estate background. As I was telling you before we hit record, I thought you perhaps knew that, but, so I was licensed in 92 in Michigan.

And then a broker, 95, because I was so young, I decided to get my broker's license to get, more respect or something. And then my son was born in 98 and I stepped away in the early two thousands. Had a different business. But yeah, absolutely. If you don't run the real estate like a business, you will.

Not succeed. So it sounds like you jumped into all the things and had to navigate everything. So how did you did you have a great brokerage? Are you still with the same broker? I know you're with Compass, but were you with the same. Whole time, have you? No, not at all. I didn't know anything about brokerage firms.

I had heard of Corcoran and Brown, Howard Stevens and Holstead when Holstead was around at that time the major players just from being a consumer of real estate. You get your license. They don't tell you anything in licensing school about the day-to-day life of a real estate broker.

I joined a company called City Habitats, which was a division of Corcoran at the time. Yeah. And they specialized in rentals and I thought that would be a good way to begin my career. 'Cause it's also fast money, fast cash flow, faster transaction and you learn a lot. I started with City Habitats and then moved on to two other smaller companies and then finally joined Compass.

And I've been with them actually almost six years, 2019, and I'm very happy at Compass. And basically in this business you really learn by doing, all the companies I worked for had very good mentors and training. But you really have to pick and choose which process or which tool or which marketing method works best for you.

And there's no magic bullet and everybody has their restraints and weaknesses and personalities, and you just have to see what works best for you for your unique personality and way of doing business. Absolutely. I agree. There's so many different ways to gen, to do the same thing.

There's multiple different ways to get leads. You could be a marketer or you could, make phone calls or do both or, there's so many things. So New York is a market like no other. What do you think makes New York City real estate so unique? Or challenging. I can only imagine how challenging it would be.

And you talk about finding your sanctuary in the city that never sleeps. What does sanctuary mean to you personally and how do you help your clients find theirs? Yeah. To answer your last question to me, the sanctuary is the place where that you call home. And, everyone in New York City, I don't care who you are, works very hard and is under a lot of stress and moves very quickly.

And, getting on the subway is an act of survival. I, I don't mean that in necessarily a bad way, but it's it's fast moving and you have to keep your wits about you. So I think. Whoever you are, you wanna come home and have peace of mind. And you want to, regroup, breathe, have a nice place to live, whether it's a small studio or a very large apartment, and it's your personal sanctuary where you regain your composure.

Yeah. Yeah. My home is my sanctuary for sure. But so New York though, so it's totally different. I live in Florida. I'm, I do sell a little bit in Florida and I'm gonna jump more into it soon. And but what, what makes New York like more challenging? . Tell us a little bit about.

How you navigated, I know you have, you grew up there and Manhattan areas is where you're selling, correct? Correct. Only Manhattan, that's enough. I would say, okay, the good thing about Manhattan or New York City, even old five boroughs, there's thousands and thousands of neighborhoods and neighborhoods are constantly changing and constantly redeveloping.

And developers are, every time I think I've seen a great. New development. There's another one right around the corner. I've been doing this nine years and there's still amazing development going on constantly that will never change. And I think the good thing about New York is the diversity of neighborhoods, ideas creative people, designers, architects, developers coming here and always reinventing.

So that's the really good thing. There's. And there's also a diversity of price points. Not every apartment is $30 million that you see on tv. It is expensive to live here. Yes. But I think that if you really wanna own something, you can. The, the bad thing about New York is that right now we have an inventory shortage that creates a lot more competition.

I think there are a lot of agents. That creates competition, right? That would be question. And and, but I think if you're working with good agents you can, you can iron out issues and iron out conflicts and work together and get a deal done. I don't think it's as. Competitive is awful as people make it out to be.

I think the shows on TV are a little bit misleading. I also think that there's plenty of other competition in other markets. I'm sure Florida is very competitive. Everybody wants to move there now. No, you're actually mistaken, Ellen. Really this the case? Yeah. We have a. We have an overabundance of listings right now in Florida and things are sitting in Florida and things are sitting and it is, it's not even funny.

And as far as realtors, there's definitely a giant competition. A little bit, they stepped away because of the market and because of the NAR settlement and whatever. But ultimately Florida is, it's very interesting. I don't know if it's. Perhaps the hurricanes or the insurance or what it, is causing this like why we have so much inventory and, but I know in my former state, Michigan, it's selling quickly.

And it sounds like you have the same thing where there's like multiple bids on properties, which is a challenge too. It's another big challenge. But yeah, okay what's a day in the life of a Manhattan realtor? Every day is very different. There are certain things I try to do every single day is just part of running my business.

A lot of it is reaching out to sellers reaching out to my buyers on a weekly basis sharing market comps and, there's what else do I do of my newsletter and my social media and I'm trying to do more videos. So those are things that I try to always keep going to build my brand and, make sure that everybody knows I'm still alive and open for business.

I spend a lot of time showing apartments, rentals and working with buyers more than sellers. So I do that. I tend to do that later in the day, in the afternoon to early evening, and one day of the weekend. I'm either running my own open houses or working with buyers. But it varies every day I try to have no know ahead of time what my day will be.

I don't like working spur of the moment very much. And I don't, thankfully. But usually I spend my morning on the business and afternoons showing. Yep. What qualities do you think make a great real estate agent in today's fast-paced digital world? I think you really have to be organized and treat your business like a business and like a job.

I think a lot of realtors feel, think they have freedom and they can do whatever they want and they don't have to adhere to any routines, but you really do. I think it's also to be successful, you probably, you do you need a routine? Yeah. It's good to. Work with other agents, maybe work with someone who doesn't have all the strengths that you have, so you compliment one another.

I just started doing that with someone and it's working out very well. You do what? I'm sorry to interrupt you. What does that look like? Is that oh, let's work together and try to get listings and co list things, or is it let's work together? Or are you just helping each other with your own individual businesses or are you teaming up.

In different cases to work together, like you said, you have different qualities perhaps, or strengths that the other agent doesn't like. What does that look like working together? Just curious. Yeah. I get a lot of leads from StreetEasy because I buy zip codes. Okay. I find StreetEasy is like the New York City MLS in Florida.

Okay. And, I get some very good buyers. At the beginning of the year, I had an overabundance of buyers so I had too much to handle. So I have, there's another compass agent who I like very much, and she's fantastic on the phone. She's fantastic with talking to people, listening, empathizing connecting.

The skill that I'm not, she's patient probably too, not as good as she's better at, much better at it than I am. And so I said to her, listen, I have these leads. They're sitting, nothing's happening with them. I will give you them to you. You work on the communications and the phone calls. I will work on the marketing, the the market comps, the statistics, the finances.

The listings, we can split up the work and split up the showings and we'll go 50 50 on commission. Nice. And we we wrote up an agreement, we signed it and that's it. I love that. That's really great. But that's only you still are both doing your individual things as well, right? It's just, yes, and I have my own individual buyers.

She has her own Absolutely. Yes. Yeah. But on a certain I gave her 10 leads and these leads just weren't, they just weren't moving because I just wasn't getting on the phone and having enough communication and getting on the phone is not my strong suit. So I said to her, you're great on the phone.

Here are these leads. Go get 'em. Let's split the money because 50% is better than zero, right? 50% of something is better than zero. Can you share a story of a memorable client success or time you help someone overcome major obstacles in a real estate transaction? It seems like I do it every deal.

There's always something. Yy I'm trying to think of a, and then I have a question that just came to mind before, if you don't mind. Like when you, in 2016, when you left finance and you went into, became an entrepreneur, an independent contractor, and did you have a husband or do you have, did you at the time have a partner that was supportive, that you knew that you didn't have you would still have a roof over your head and stuff? Oh no. I have a boyfriend and he is very supportive. But we don't live together and I'm single and no I own my own condo here in New York City. I have my own, I manage my money, I have my own investments and I'm independent.

Back when it happened, were you also similar situation? Oh, okay. Yeah, it is, it's scary. You left your corporate. 'cause I have friends that are working full-time and creating their, side hopeful to be fully doing coaching or how, whatever it is. And so it's, they're always wondering when do I leave my job?

Like they wanna do it, but they're scared. So you were. Forced to do it, but you probably had savings and things. I assume being in finance, of course. Yeah. Yeah, of course. I had, of course I had savings and of course, I. Put my hand in the cookie jar one too many times that has stopped.

But sure. Yes. I yes. Yeah. So share a story, a memorable client success story that you navigated. Perhaps, maybe you were make, there were multiple bids and you came in with. Do you guys write like heartfelt letters when you see a unit that, I assume it's mostly apartments there, or do they have houses.

Yeah, they do. They do write letters to the sellers. That doesn't really do anything. I haven't seen one of those in a very long time. It's all about money and who's gonna close quickest and most easily and with the most money. And I did have a deal earlier this year and it wasn't a bidding more, I.

And the other broker said her buyer did not come represented, so therefore she would get the full commission and working with me, she would get half of the commission. Obviously she didn't wanna work with me and she kept, putting me under a lot of pressure and creating issues and problems, but.

The fact is we had the highest bid, we had all cash, and we had a very strong buyer that I had worked for in the past. And and I got it. So that one, oh, that seller said, no, this is more money. This is all cash. This will close quicker. So that was it. And I really find that's the way things go.

It's really comes down to money. Cash. Did they allow you to present your offer? Like back in the day, 20 plus years ago, things were way different. We didn't have the technology we have today or, but we did at times. The agent, the buyer agent would be able to present to the seller with the the listing agent present.

But I assume that doesn't take place anymore. So she was just telling you that she would be getting. More commission if Yeah. With the other office. She didn't have to tell you any of that. And actually she shouldn't have. No, she shouldn't have. And I'm sorry, you're not gonna get your two and a half or three per whatever the hell it was.

I'm sorry about that. But this is a free market. And she has to legally present every offer to her seller. She knows that, and she did, and we won. And the th this is, I come from finance. This is the world of. Of, of capitalism, free enterprise and real estate.

And she didn't like it. She probably doesn't like me, and I'm sure she's trying to have other business with this buyer on her own, whatever. That's also, I can't con, I can't control everyone. Yeah. I can only do my very best to get the best deal for my client. And that's what I focus on.

I, I've said this many times, I try not to focus on drama and get sucked in. Yeah. It's hard to, yeah. But at the end of the day, it really is about money. Yeah. Okay. In New York, that's what it's, does that sound cold and heartless? I don't think so. No. It sounds honest.

It sounds honest. It's, I appreciate that. Because I'm, like I said, I lived in Michigan for 30 years, or my whole life up until three years ago when I moved to Florida, but I was licensed up there for 30 years and it wasn't always about money. I came in, I had an offer once with a client who was putting a large down payment.

They were a couple, there were tons of synchronicities in the home while we were looking at it. Like they went to the same college and all these little things. And they actually wrote this heartfelt letter. This is, years ago, I don't know, seven years ago or something. And at the time it was multiple bids.

There was a cash offer. And they went with ours because of the heartfelt letter, because of, they weren't in a hurry, but like we still had a large down payment. We still, waived the appraisal, gave 30 day free occupancy or something like that to the seller. I'm just sharing because I. Here they could have gone with just cash and closed into, and they chose my offer because, so it wasn't, I'm just, it's interesting, but in New York it's, it is, you're it's different.

And like I said, in Florida there's houses on the market left and right. It's sad. There's. A lot of sellers that are desperate and vacant homes and, condos aren't selling at all down here right now. I'm just being on, I'm exaggerating a tiny bit, but you work with clients all over the world.

How is helping an international buyer different from working with a local one? Yeah there's a lot of education involved. With international as, as well as local. I find the international buyers that I have are extremely sophisticated and bright and don't need as much handholding as some of the younger first time home buyers here in New York.

So it hasn't been that much of a challenge working with foreigners. Most, they're all highly educated. They understand mo most processes and rules. Sometimes there are issues getting money out of Asian countries and that just takes some patience and some finagling. A lot of the time the documents have to be translated into English, into American currency, so that takes some time and I have to put an extra effort into the board application.

To explain to the management companies here in New York, the American dollars, the translated dollars, and show that these foreign buyers have sufficient assets. So that's one thing. But first time home buyers just, I think, have a lot of psychological just anxiety and fear handholding.

And I find that takes up more time than the foreign buyers. Yeah. What trends are you seeing in the Manhattan market right now? Is there anything surprising you? I. You said there's a shortage of homes for salary? Yeah. I think that the, a lot of the developers are offering more concessions and are more amenable to negotiation right now with buyers because the high price condos are not selling as quickly because the prices are high and the property taxes are high.

In the lower end, which is 1 million to. 3 million. There is lower inventory on apartments, especially Upper West Side, upper East side in co-ops. And those prices are holding, the low inventory, and in certain PA neighborhoods in Manhattan, there is a lot of inventory on the lower end, under a million dollars for studios or small one bedrooms.

Nice. So you have a great eye for design. How does your passion for interiors and staging show up in your work? I think I can, and probably you can do being a real estate agent, walk into an apartment and right away see. It's potential or see the problems, and I try to explain to a new buyer how they could lay out the furniture, how to create more light.

More space using colors, wider walls, opening up the windows. So I try to instill the basics of making a home seem bigger and lighter than it is. 'cause there's a lot of dark spaces in New York City, unfortunately. Do you guys do staging and virtual staging for the properties, the listings?

Yes, I hire stagers and also virtual stagers. Absolutely. For every property that I sell it's a must. Yes. So outside of real estate, you love art, fashion, and travel. How do these passions feed your creativity or balance your hustle and have you traveled and like, where's your favorite travel destination?

I love, I really love Greece and I love Istanbul, the Grand Bazaar. I don't know if you've ever. Been there, but it's really fun. It's like a bizarre of like thousands of shops inside this big building. And these Turkish merchants are very good salesmen and they should work in real estate, I think.

And they're very charming and there's a whole ritual of. Buying with them which I found really interesting. You have to drink their tea and you sit down and they just bring you the carpets or the rugs or the leather jackets or the, they're big into leather and carpets in Turkey.

And craftsmanship is. Just amazing. Just beautiful work. So that's a, it's a lot of fun interacting with the people there and and then seeing all the beauty. It's really incredible. Yeah, it's incredible. Yeah. As a woman in two competitive industries, finance and real estate, what has helped you stay empowered and successful?

I don't know. You have to have a sense of humor and certainly I have bad days, but I try to just, if I have a bad day, I'm just gonna have a bad day, and the next day I'm gonna wake up. And it's a new day. Yeah. And I'm just gonna have it, I just give myself one bad day and try not to let it drag beyond 24 hours.

And I try to just have a sense of humor and I realize that, my clients or buyers or sellers are just as emotional and insane as I can be. We all are. And it's just an emotional reaction. It's not reality. That's right. So I try to, keep that in mind. Yeah. I think that especially men I learned in finance that the guys tend to have their disagreements

and then they will go out and have a beer and shake hands and forget about it and let it go. And the next day they're friends again. I think men tend to. They don't hold on to things like women. They hold onto things. It's part of the football game. Come on. Let's shake hands. And it's done. Yeah, and it's done.

And then, but the women, because women have worked so hard to get where they are. They tend to hold on to a lot of stuff, and I get it. I totally understand that. And they tend to, they don't let things go as quickly. I used to be like that, and then I learned. To let things go.

I, I learned over, investing myself and coaching and becoming a coach and, facing all the things. It just doesn't serve us to do that, to hold onto things and people change. And maybe two weeks ago I said something that I would. Hope that someone would forgive me for, we're not perfect beings, right? We're whole and complete, but we're not perfect. We're imperfect living here in this reality. What's one lesson that New York City has taught you about life or business? New York City doesn't sleep. It keeps on going. And so I've learned if you snooze you lose.

And if you stop thinking, working, learning, growing, you're gonna die. So you really have to. Keep motivated in life no matter what your age is, no matter who you are. And if you don't like what you're doing, find something else that you enjoy and grow in that. But keep moving. And New York City is definitely a city that doesn't sleep.

Sleep. Yeah. If someone was listening to this right now and. They're considering making a bold career change or entering real estate, what would you tell them? I would say, do your homework, make sure you have some money in the bank. But if it's something you really want to do, by all means do it. Don't live with regret.

That's great. That's great advice. I love that. What do you hope your clients feel after working with you? Happy. I hope they're happy in their new home. That's the most important thing. And I hope I hope they enjoyed working with me and that I that I worked hard to get them the result they wanted.

I don't know, sometimes so sometimes you get to the closing and there's issues and then lawyers get involved and things get ugly. You could be working six months and everything's great and then at the closing. A chandelier doesn't work and then all help breaks loose and everybody go, so sometimes, they'll remember that. I love that. Yeah. Ellen in the chandelier episode, but I'm hoping that they remember me as someone who, worked really hard and got them what they wanted. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I know what you're saying. You gotta do that walkthrough because if you don't walk through prior to closing, I.

Anything could happen. Yeah. Yeah. So what's next, any big dreams or goals that you're currently working on? And then we'll do some rapid fire fun questions if you're good with that. Oh, okay. This year I hired a branding agency that is. Getting me on podcasts like yours, and I'm trying to do more podcasting, more videos, just get my brand out there and build my social media followers and hopefully, get more business that way.

So I would just like to have more consistent business so I'm not chasing. That it's coming to me more. It's an energy thing too, right? Yes. It, yes. It's one, one more thing. And clingy, needy. One thing you said earlier about holding on and different things about you try to have a sense of humor.

I don't know if you know who Tracy Lit is, but she is in Florida. She wrote a book called Worthy Human. She's a coach. She's amazing. I met her in person, but she loves to say we aren't getting outta here alive. So lighten up. We're not getting out alive. Like it's true. And every day is a gift. I love that you said that every day is a new day and anything can happen.

But let's do some fun rapid fire questions. Coffee or matcha. Oh coffee uptown or downtown? Oh I'm going downtown. Okay. And your favorite New York City neighborhood right now. Carnegie Hill. Nice. Heels or sneakers? Sneakers. Favorite travel destination? Turkey, Istanbul.

Oh, nice. Beautiful. Okay. Is there anything else Ellen, you would love to share with the audience? I have a lot of women entrepreneurs listing a lot of podcasters, a lot of healers, coaches just curious or people. On the path to the self-healing journey and growth journey and like you, you had to have a great upbringing.

I'm guessing being a successful financial person and then stepping into this, it's like you can't be, not a confident person or someone that didn't have a founda. Did you have a strong foundation? I'm just curious. I had a very good educational background. Absolutely.

Yes I did. But, I think, I don't think I'm exactly confident as I am curious, and I was always very curious about the stock market and finance and what really went on in those banks. I. I knew I was good in math, so I had skills. I didn't ne necessarily have confidence of dealing with all those crazy men.

But I've always been very curious. So I always asked a lot of questions and I was a pain in the neck, but curious. But I didn't really care because I knew that I was fairly smart and I. I really wanted answers to things. So that's what always keeps me going.

And I do think when you ask questions, people don't always, it indicates a lack of knowledge or something? Or why is she asking that? Or does it think she know that or whatever it is, but I don't really care because I know that if I don't know the answer, a lot of other people don't.

That's right. It's no stupid. I think that it's no stupid question at least, it's, yeah. Yeah. I, yeah, I don't think any question is stupid, so I'm very pro, questions. Yeah. And asking and I'm cur, I'm a curious person and I'm an only kid, and I think I've just had I forge ahead very independently and I, grew up with a single mother.

Who was very strong, so I think maybe that also helped. Yeah. Yeah. When is your birthday? 'cause I'm also very curious. Oh, I'm Capricorn. January 11th. Oh, okay. I'm married. What's your birthday? April 10th. Aries. Oh, Aries, that's a great sign. Oh, thank you. I think Aries, I love. My boyfriend's an Aries and my father was an Aries.

Nice. Great. Nice. I love Aries. Yeah. There was something else you said that was interesting. Let's see if I can remember it. I do love your glasses, by the way. Oh, have you thought of starting a podcast, like a real estate podcast or something?

Just because being curious is an excellent trait. To start a podcast because you're curious, you ask questions, and it's a great trait if you're gonna do a podcast. Yeah. Just curious if you've ever thought of it. I do. No, I haven't. I'm I feels, it feels so overwhelming. I, my hat's off to you. Oh, thank you.

Yeah, I know. I actually, I'm, I am selling in Florida, but I've been focusing my time and energy on podcasting and coaching and building the coaching business, but I am transitioning today to a new brokerage and. I'm gonna be stepping in a little further into some stuff because real estate's been really good to me over time.

Referrals and all that and, do, are you getting some referral business? I do. I do. Yep. I get referrals all over the place. Yeah. Yeah. And the international, are those coming through your company as just curious where you're getting the international clients? There referrals from clients that I initially met through StreetEasy.

Okay. Six years ago. I don't know. StreetEasy has been very good to me and I know Compass would probably hate me for saying that 'cause they want to, they're competing with StreetEasy, but, I don't think here. We had, like I, I know back in 2016, I paid for some Zillow ads and. It did work out, but I don't like being glued to my phone and if you don't respond back then, if you didn't respond within moments like minutes.

Yeah. They're onto the next agent. Yeah. You do have to respond right away. Yeah. You do. You do. Yeah. And I'm impressed. You have a car, you probably have a car, right? New York? No. Oh, in New York City? No. Oh, you don't? No. So you just, so you take. Yeah, I'm just cur, I've watched Sex in the City.

I've been to New York like once as a child, so I don't even, I just watch tv. Or I have watched what it's like. So you meet clients by going that's a lot. So you're like taking the subway or cabs or, yeah. Yeah. Subway I live near six subway lines. And I can get to Midtown in 20 minutes. I grew up on the subway.

I took the subway to grammar school when I was Wow. 10 years old. And that's what New Yorkers do. They get on a subway. It's really okay. Oh, do you know Gabby Bernstein? And have you ever met her? I have met Gabby Bernstein. I have her books. And I have all your books.

She's lovely. Yeah. She's in New York City. I know, that's why I asked you. Yeah. Yeah. Because I have all her cards, all of her books. I saw her live in Tampa. I went to see her. But yeah, I have a dream. I always tell my friends in this, that my goal is to be my own version of Gabby, like a different version.

Oh. Yeah. But this has been lovely. It was so good to meet you, Ellen. Perhaps we'll have some referral business for each other. Yes, please send me your new contact info in Florida. Yes, I'll and absolutely I would love to yeah, I can send you business clients. Yeah, potentially. Yeah. 'cause I'm sure there's some New Yorkers that wanna maybe get a place for, the winters or who know, retire down here or something.

My, a girlfriend from high school just retired to Sarasota. Really? Yeah. She loves it. She's so happy. And she is a New Yorker. Yeah. There's a lot of them down here, but I do, I love it too. Actually, it's a little hot in the summer. I'm not complaining. I'm grateful. But it's better than six, seven months of darkness and cold in the, yeah.

Yeah. Thank you so much for being here. Okay, wonderful. Thank you. You're welcome.