TRUE View: She Stitched It in Needlepoint — and I Never Forgot It

For us, real estate has never been work — it's always been family

Mother's Day just passed, and I haven't quite been able to stop thinking about her.

Every year, Mother's Day has a way of slowing me down. This year was no different. In the quiet after the weekend, I found myself reflecting — not just on family, but on how deeply the two are intertwined for me: family and real estate. They have never been separate things.

People sometimes ask what drew me to the leadership and management side of this industry — why I've always been more energized by building teams and organizations than by the transaction itself. The honest answer is that the distinction never really existed for me. Real estate isn't something I stepped into professionally. It's simply always been life — the language spoken at our dinner table, the lens through which I learned to see the world.

"Real estate isn't something I chose. It chose me — by way of the two people who raised me."

My Dad builds beautiful homes in Palm Beach — not just structures, but homes designed with intention, craftsmanship, and a deep respect for what real property means to the people who live in it. Watching him work gave me an early and lasting appreciation for the stakes of this business: that what we do touches shelter, stability, aspiration, and legacy.

And then there was my mother. Karen True was a Palm Beach broker — and one of the finest relationship builders I have ever encountered in any industry. This past weekend had me thinking about her lessons with fresh eyes, and I wanted to share a few of them here.

She gave me my model for leadership long before I knew that's what it was.

My Mom had a gift that I have spent my career trying to understand, articulate, and cultivate in others: she made every person in front of her feel genuinely seen. In a market as discerning as Palm Beach, where clients have high expectations and even higher stakes, that capacity for authentic human connection wasn't just a lovely quality — it was the foundation of everything she built.

She remembered what mattered to people. She knew when to listen and when to lead. She understood that a home purchase is never purely a financial transaction — it is one of the most personal decisions a person makes — and she treated it that way, every single time, without exception.

But what set her apart wasn't only her poise and grace — though she had both in abundance. It was that underneath all of it, she never lost her sense of humor. She moved through high-stakes situations with elegance and composure, and then, at exactly the right moment, reminded everyone in the room not to take themselves too seriously. That combination — genuine warmth, professionalism, and a lightness of spirit — is rarer than it sounds, and it made people adore her.

"She understood something the best leaders I've worked with also know: that trust is the product. Everything else is just the occasion."

When I graduated college, she gave me a gift that I have never forgotten — and honestly, have never stopped needing. She made me a needlepoint pillow by hand. On it, stitched with care and just the right amount of mischief, were these words:

"You will do foolish things - do them with ENTHUSIASM"

That is Karen True in a single sentence. The grace to acknowledge that none of us gets it right all the time. The wisdom to know that confidence and joy matter more than perfection. And the love to stitch it by hand so you'd never forget it.

It is, I've come to realize, not a bad philosophy for leadership either.

A belated thank you to the mentors who showed us how.

From where I sit in this industry, I have deep respect for what real estate professionals do every single day. The work is harder and more human than it looks from the outside. Agents carry the weight of their clients' most significant decisions, often invisibly. Great brokers and leaders build the cultures that allow those agents to thrive.

If you're fortunate, somewhere along the way someone showed you how it's really done. A leader who saw your potential before you did. A mentor who modeled grace under pressure — and then winked at you across the table. A mother who happened to be among the very best in the business.

Mother's Day may have just passed — but some reflections are worth sitting with a little longer. This is one of them.