Selling Soulfully with Jennifer Allan

THANK YOU THANK YOU AR Gods for featuring my little rant last week about whether or not an 80/20% business model (where 80% of one's time is devoted to prospecting and 20% devoted to client care) is a wise course to take in a real estate career. I can't say enough how encouraging it was to hear so many commenters jump on the "clients-first" bandwagon, proclaiming that while they acknowledge prospecting for new clients must be done, it should NOT be done at the expense of one's current clients!

Yay!

In the original blog, I promised to return with some more thoughts of my own on the matter, but most of those thoughts were already spoken within the nearly 100 comments. But I'll make good on my promise and share mine anyway, even though they'll likely just echo the brilliance provided by those who participated in the discussion.

Thought #1
If you are a new or struggling real estate agent and don't have any (or many) clients to care for, then I suppose you should be spending some signficant time looking for some - in other words, you probably can't fill up all or most of your working hours serving the clients you don't yet have. HOWEVER... hold true to the philosophy of putting clients first - when you get up in the morning, make darn sure that your current clients and prospects are fully taken care of before you even think about prospecting. GET INTO THIS HABIT EARLY and it will pay off for you big time in the future. I promise.

Thought #2
As many pointed out, taking great care of the clients you have is a FANTASTIC prospecting strategy. Those who neglect their current clients so they can pursue their future ones darn well better enjoy that pursuit because they'll be doing it their entire careers. In other words, very few referrals cometh to agents who don't take good care of their clients when they have them.  

But maybe that's okay for the 80/20 crowd. Maybe they're so awesome at prospecting, they don't need the trust, affection and referrals of their current and past clients, so it doesn't matter if their clients don't think much of them during and after their time together. The 80/20's just spend the rest of their career devoting 80% of your time prospecting! Hey, it's one business model that many subscribe to and they make it work, so if that sounds like fun to you, knock yourself out!

Thought #3
As many mentioned in the original blog, a 20/80 model (20% prospecting, 80% client care) IS a viable strategy once you have enough clients to care for. Spend your days taking great care of your clients and then stay in touch with them on a reasonably regular basis afterwards (which probably won't take even 20% of your time) and I promise you - you'll be golden. 

Thanks for such a great discussion, my friends!

* * *

We're closing out the 2011 Season in the SWS Virtual Studio with two related teleseminar shows... one this Thursday and one the following Thursday. This week's show is called "Secrets of Successful SWS'ers" and next week's is the grand finale - "Are You the Best Real Estate Agent You Know?" To register, just visit the SWS Calendar of Events here: www.SellwithSoul.com/about/calendar.

There was a featured blog here in the Rain a few weeks ago advising agents to devote 80% of their time prospecting for new business and 20% dealing with current business (i.e. active buyers and sellers). This isn't the first time we've seen this advice and it won't be the last; in fact, most Big Name training programs proclaim that a real estate agent's primary job is to prospect; that agents should vigorously resist the temptation to abandon their daily prospecting when clients call with pesky, administrative, non-income-producing problems to solve.

But I can't help but wonder... If a real estate agent's primary job is to prospect... and if the job our clients have hired us to perform for them can be done in a few hours a week... how on earth do we justify charging fees in the thousands and thousands of dollars?

Hold that thought while we return to the advice to devote far more time to prospecting than to serving...

Let's say that all this focused prospecting is paying off, and an agent is gathering an impressive book of real estate business - 5, 10, 20, 40 active buyers and sellers. Bravo! 

But, hmmmmm, just because the agent now has more clients to serve doesn't add hours to the day, so if he insists (as he's advised to do) on sticking to his 80/20 plan (because it's working so well!), his current clients are obviously going to be receiving smaller and smaller slices of his care and attention.

"But," the Power Prospector protests, "if I don't make prospecting a priority in my business and I do focus on my current clients, down the road I'll find myself with an empty pipeline and I can't have THAT! So, even if I'd like to do the job I promised to do I'd prefer to provide great service to my clients, I can't because I need to ensure that I always have new business coming in."

Well, um...

I'm guessing your current clients wouldn't think much of this argument, especially as they're feeling more and more neglected by the agent who promised them the world in service - and isn't delivering. I'm guessing they aren't singing his praises around the water cooler or at yoga class. I'm thinking that if they knew his business model was predicated on spending the vast majority of his time searching for, preparing for and pitching to his future clients instead of taking care of THEM, his current clients, they might have thought twice about hiring him in the first place.

Here's the thing. Taking proper care of your clients takes time. Your need for a full pipeline doesn't change the fact that you made promises and commitments to the buyers and sellers who believed you would take great care of them and their real estate needs. Believe me, they did NOT hire you because they were impressed by your prospecting prowess; they hired you because you assured them you'd take better care of them than any of the other agents they considered honoring with their business.

The bottom line is that if you can't handle more than X number of active buyers and sellers without sacrificing your service to them, then I guess you shouldn't be looking for more business when you already have as much as you can properly take care of.

Now let's go back to the first concept in this blog - if you're only devoting a few hours or even a few minutes a week to your clients, don't you think they might start to wonder what on earth they're paying you so much money for? And IF WHAT WE DO FOR OUR CLIENTS IS SO EASY THAT IT ONLY TAKES 20% OF OUR TIME OR WE CAN HAND IT OFF TO A $12/HOUR ASSISTANT, are our services really worth the fees we charge?

You can't have it both ways. You can't say, on one hand, that client care is simply a collection of administrative tasks that can be handled in your spare time or by an assistant, and THEN in the next breath declare that your client-care services are extremely valuable and should be well-compensated.

For the record, I don't believe that what we do is easy and I do believe we deserve to be well-compensated... as long as... we're doing the job we were HIRED to do and giving it our full attention.

I'll continue this soon, but please share your thoughts with me!

RELATED RANT
If Real Estate is So Easy, How Do You Justify Your Fee? 

As you may know, my mom died a few months ago. It's a rite of passage we all go through, I suppose.

When someone dies, there are immediate details to take care of. And these details must be attended to right away, regardless of whether it's convenient or even bearable to deal with them. Even as your heart is breaking, you must attend to these gazillion details, and usually (hopefully) without much experience to draw from.   

Well, even in the midst of my family's sadness at Mom's death, I must confess to a little sticker-shock at the prices associated with one's final journey. We're a practical bunch and agreed on a pretty basic package, but the final tally was still somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000.

I thought it was quite a racket. $500 for a tent and seating at the graveyard? $1,500 for a concrete vault? $900 for this and $1200 for that? Not to be disrespectful, but sheesh. I was starting to feel a little taken advantage of.

Well, when all was said and done, I was wrong. Or, at least, pleasantly surprised (if you can use the word "pleasantly" in relation to your mother's funeral) at what we got for our money.

Kent, our wonderful funeral director, took care of us. Very good care of us. Exceptionally good care of us. In our time of need and sorrow, he showed up. And handled everything he possibly could. Professionally, competently. No unneeded drama or stress on a family who didn't need any additional drama or stress. The service and visitation went flawlessly, even with last-minute changes and requests. When the cemetery claimed to have no record of our plot reservation, he took care of it. After the family left the cemetery, he stayed behind to ensure that the final step in the process was completed without incident. When we returned to the funeral home after the burial, our things were collected and waiting for us.

But, Jennifer, what's so impressive about that? After all, you paid him to do a job and he did it. Big deal, right?

It was a very big deal.

Because... we toss around the phrase "You get what you pay for" as if it's an undisputed fact.  But it's not. In fact, I very rarely pay top dollar for something and feel I got my money's worth. Most of the time, I feel ripped off. I usually come away with the feeling that the person I paid a lot of money to has an inflated sense of his or her own worth, and that I was taken for a ride.

But every once in awhile... someone blows me away. They DO their job and they do it well, and with pride. They deliver.

What's my point?

My point is that we real estate agents also charge a lot of money for what we do. Thousands of dollars. And our fees are almost universally perceived by our clients as excessive, perhaps even a racket, at least at first.

But we have the power to take that perception and turn it around. To deliver on our promises! To take care of the details! To show up and do our jobs, professionally, competently. Without subjecting our clients to unneeded stress or drama, which they certainly don't need.

We charge a lot of money for what we do. But if we do it well, exceptionally well, maybe our clients will say of us: "I GOT what I paid for and I was happy to pay it."

"Lead generation is what selling real estate is all about, plain and simple." 

"I have three jobs: Getting a listing appointment, preparing for a listing appointment, and going on a listing appointment," 

"My primary duty is to prospect. Everything else is secondary."

These are direct quotes from real estate agents; some here on Active Rain, others from, well, other places.

Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

That's why we have to go to real estate school and pass a proficiency test? That's why we have a license and continuing education requirements? That's why we pursue various advanced certifications and designations?

Because selling real estate is All About Lead Generation?

Okay, if you want to convince me that part of our job is procure leads FOR our buyers and sellers (that is, buyers for our listings or listings for our buyers), I'll buy that. But it's certainly not ALL we do; in fact, in some ways, putting buyers and sellers together is the easy part. Keeping them together is a whole ‘nother story. And certainly has nothing to do with Lead Generation.

My friends, generating leads is a necessary part of any small-business owner's business model. Whether you're a massage therapist, a dog-groomer, an insurance agent, a dentist, a chiropractor or a real estate agent, you need incoming customers to stay afloat. And it's up to you to figure out how to find those customers and do what it takes to lure them in.

But that doesn't mean it's your job. It's how you stay in business so you can DO YOUR JOB and make a living doing it!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, Jennifer. Who cares? What's your point?

My point is that our clients deserve better. Sorry, but they do. How would you feel if your veterinarian appeared to place a higher priority on finding new customers than on figuring out what's wrong with your beagle? What if your CPA seemed to care more about building his business than on doing your taxes correctly? Doesn't it annoy you when a service provider you hire seems more interested in getting referrals from you than in providing the service you hired him to do?

Our buyers and sellers deserve our full attention. They deserve to be our top priority. And until we give them our full attention and make them our top priorities, we'll never enjoy the professional respect we so long for. And as long our industry considers our primary duty to be lead generation, we won't deserve it.

RELATED RANTS
Doctors, Lawyers and Real Estate Agents?
Which is More Important to you - Sales or Service? 

Quoted with permission from Go-Givers Sell More by Bob Burg and John David Mann:

"You may have been taught that to be successful in sales, you need to "step outside of your comfort zone." Let's reexamine that idea. If you push yourself to a place that makes you uncomfortable, chances are pretty good you'll end up making the other person uncomfortable, too. Consciously or not, they'll sense your discomfort - and attitudes are contageous.

We human beings tend to resist discomfort; in fact, we'll typically do anything to avoid putting outselves in uncomfortable situations. Why base your entire career on something your strongest instincts tell you to avoid?"

One fine day last spring, I got a phone call from a real estate agent whose name didn't ring a bell.

This agent whose name didn't ring a bell small-talked with me for a few minutes, while I racked my brain to figure out if he was someone I should remember.

Well, when the small-talking was done, he asked me if I knew anyone moving to his town that I could refer to him. Ahhhhhh, sez Jennifer, Now I get it. He's prospecting. Well, I know it's hard to believe, but I didn't happen to know anyone moving to his area, so I told him he could send me an email with his contact information and I'd be glad to let him know if that situation changes. He bade me farewell and hung up. And I never heard from him.

I thought it was pretty funny, not to mention an abysmal waste of his time - cold-calling someone and asking for referrals - and then not even following up?? Interesting strategy.

But over the next month, I got more such calls from agents around the country. Agents whose names I DID recognize; agents who were followers of my philosophy which specifically advises against any form of referral-begging. All asking me if I knew anyone moving to their area.

Now I was confused. What was inspiring this flurry of referral-begging activity?

I gently tried to dissuade the callers from making more such calls to their spheres of influence, but they all seemed determined and even enthusiastic about it.

Well, okay. To each his or her own. Far be it from me to talk someone out of a prospecting technique they're excited about.

It finally dawned on me that these calls must be part of a corporate training program. My assumption was correct - there was a program making the rounds where participants were instructed to call 100 people per day (or maybe it was per week) and ask for referrals.

Whatever. I think it's a ridiculous strategy to abuse friendships with any sort of referral-begging, but apparently I'm in the minority there, at least in the world of real estate training. I'll just say that I don't like it when it's done to me, so it's a given that I will never do it to anyone else.

But the epilogue to this story is that I heard from one of the agents again the other day. Was she calling to hit me up again for referrals to her area? Nope. She was calling to apologize for doing it the first time. That she'd felt sick to her stomach doing it, not only to me, but to the other dozens of friends and acquaintances she subjected her pitch to. She is concerned that she'd actually damaged her friendships and was asking for advice on how to repair that damage.

My friends, if it feels wrong DON'T DO IT. IGNORE the well-intentioned (?) coaches and trainers and brokers who say you have to venture out of your comfort zone in order to succeed. Because there's a difference between overcoming a fear of something new, and doing something you feel is wrong. A BIG difference.

And you know what? You can tell the difference if you'll only pay attention to that little voice inside of you. It knows what it's talking about!

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(The other day I promised to do a little series on applying Go-Giver principles to real estate - while this blog wasn't written with that in mind, I realize that it DOES indeed reflect a Go-Giver philosophy! So, let's consider this the first in that series, k?)

I was just talking to an agent who is going through a corporate-sponsored FSBO training program.

Sigh.

It’s typical stuff. Under the guise of being helpful, the program advises you to scare the guy to death about everything he doesn’t know about selling a house. Bring in a stack of complicated contracts and disclosures, “just so that he’ll be prepared if an offer comes in.” Include intimidating documents that he won’t actually need at contract (like a deed of trust and personal property bill of sale) just to beef up your pile. Provide a “helpful” info-sheet about the dangers of letting strangers into your home.

Again, your basic FSBO scare-tactics.

And again, sigh.

Hey, someone decides to FSBO their home because they think they can do it. They think they’re smart enough to do it and they don’t see the point in paying some smarty-pants real estate agent a whole bunch of dollars to stick a sign in the yard and do an open house. In most markets, they can pay a few hundred bucks to get on the MLS and borrow a For Sale sign, so they’re good to go.

And you know what? Maybe they are smart enough. But it doesn’t matter if they are or they aren’t; what matters is that they think they are. So, when you come in with your brow all furrowed with faux concern and your “helpful” material in hand, all you’re really doing is insulting the seller’s intelligence. You’re basically saying “You’re an idiot for trying to sell your house yourself! You can’t possibly succeed without me because I’m SO much smarter than you are.”

Oh, I know that’s not what you’re saying, but that’s what he’s hearing. And we wonder why FSBO’s can be hostile to us smarty-pants real estate agent types!

How about let’s be straight with the guy? If you think you can actually help this guy sell his house, then PROVE it to him. BE helpful without strings attached. Authentically CARE about his situation instead of mastering that look of faux concern. Be genuinely willing to walk him through contracts and answer his questions. Provide informative market reports to help him price properly.

Contrary to popular belief, demonstrating your expertise by sharing your knowledge won’t eliminate the seller’s need for you. I hope not, anyway; shoot, if it’s so easy to sell and close a house that we can explain it in an hour or two, that seller truly DOESN’T need us!

No, being cheerfully and genuinely helpful, caring and GIVING is gonna go a whole lot further with a suspicious FSBO than all the scare tactics in the world!

I'm going to steal a page from the Broker Bryant rulebook and dredge up an old post from the distant past. In fact, what follows is one of my very first posts here on Active Rain, but I was inspired to re-post today it by Susan Haughton's excellent post on the same topic... 

Besides I only got 8 comments on it the first go-around (hmpf!), so let's give it another go!

BUYERS ARE NOT LIARS! (first posted January, 2007)

Buyers can be hard to nail down and you'll hear agents talk about the "Buyers Are Liars" phenomenon. It's a phrase usually used in frustration either when an agent loses a buyer or when he's at his wit's end showing homes that the buyer says work for her, but don't inspire her to make an offer. It simply means that buyers don't really know what they want, and often it's true.

Remember, buyers don't shop for houses every day and they probably don't know what they'll respond to until they see it. So you'll need to have a little patience with them.

Find out your buyer's preferred neighborhood. If he is unfamiliar with your city, find out what kind of neighborhood he thinks he'd like - urban, suburban, rural, mountains, coastal? Any particular commuting distance? Does he like charming older homes near the city center or new contemporary homes near the shopping malls? Price range?

Moving on... number of bedrooms, baths, garage? Any special needs? Don't get too specific though. Pushing buyers for too many details is counterproductive, believe it or not. If you keep pushing, he may start making things up to please you. Doesn't everyone want a garage and more than one bath? But he might not really care that much and, if you limit your search to his non-critical parameters, you'll miss a lot of great homes.

The other danger in asking for too many details is that your buyer will start telling you things like, "I really want a window over the kitchen sink" or "I want an open floor plan with lots of light." Depending on your inventory, you may end up with nothing to show her if you rely strictly on her wish list. And if you show her homes that don't meet her "requirements," she may think you weren't listening. You (and she) need to gauge her reactions to different styles of homes in person. Remember, buyers don't shop for homes every day and don't really know what they will respond to until they've seen it.

And you know what else (by the way, this is new material from here on out)? Buyers change their minds about what they want or need. OMG! How dare they? I mean, they TELL us they want to live in this-and-such neighborhood and then, BAM! They find a new favorite neighborhood they'd like to explore. Egads - the nerve of them! (that's sarcasm ;-])

When I was looking for a home in Alabama, I changed my mind at least three times as to whether or not I wanted to live in the City... or the country. Whether or not I could live without a garage. Whether that fourth bedroom was REALLY necessary. My real estate agent hung in there with me, never breathing a hint of annoyance at my incredible insensitivity to wasting her valuable time. Good thing, because if she had, I'd have found someone else more appreciative of the $7,000 paycheck I eventually generated for her, as well as the two other $7k-ish paychecks she got when I bought two rental properties.

My friends, our buyers are not liars. They're just regular human beings who deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. And we are well-paid to do just that. 

Just got off the phone with an ambitious newer real estate agent who is all fired up about selling some real estate. Some serious real estate. He has a plan. He's committed to this plan. He's passionate about his plan. He WILL meet his goal or die trying.

His goal? To have 35 listings in the next 90 days.

Impressive. And given his enthusiasm and commitment, I think he can do it.

But should he?

This agent is a follower of SWS which means, among other things, that he is committed to being the best thing that could ever happen to his clients. Which, it is understood, will result in business and referrals coming his way for years to come from all his happy, satisfied clients.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

No new agent can properly service 35 listings. Oh, I'm not saying that he can't HANDLE 35 listings (although it's questionable), but actually SERVICE them? No way. Very few agents of any experience level can provide repeat-and-refer-worthy service at that level of production. 

So, what do I mean by "service?" Well, you can bet I mean more than taking a listing agreement, hiring someone to put a sign in the yard, having the receptionist write up an inaccurate and boring MLS description, taking some awful photos, creating typo-infused home brochures and showing up six weeks later with a smile and an amendment to reduce the price. 

No, I mean overseeing all the moving pieces and parts of the complicated process of preparing, marketing, selling and closing a listed property. Really caring about the outcome. Making sure your seller knows you care about the outcome. Keeping your seller informed and involved. So many other things I've written about in the past.

Many say that most of the post-signed-listing-agreement functions can be handled by a $10/hour assistant. I disagree. But that's a post for a different day.

Anyway, I asked this agent if he really thought he could knock the sox off all 35 of his seller clients with his service... or if, more likely, he'd just find himself with 35 unhappy clients who would not use him again or refer him to others.

He's thinking about it. What do YOU think?

Stay tuned for more on the subject in an upcoming post...

An acupuncturist who also sells Pre-Paid Legal Services memberships... A sales trainer who also distributes organic chocolate bars... A land development consultant who also sells purified water machines... A real estate agent who also sells beauty products...

I'm seeing more and more of this. Friends, acquaintances and service providers promoting their *other* businesses to the same audience to whom they promote their *primary* businesses.

For example, I get emails now and then from a real estate agent who includes a blurb about that month's Avon (or maybe it's Mary Kay) special in her signature line. Sometimes it's reversed; she sends out a promotional email for her beauty product business and includes a blurb about real estate in the signature.

Another one - I was approached a few weeks ago by an industry sales trainer who wanted to know if I'd be interested in selling organic chocolate bars to supplement my own sales training income.

And yes, I was in an acupuncturist's office where his Pre-Paid Legal Services membership brochure was prominently displayed on the check-in/check-out counter.

Hey, I know times are tough. I recently calculated that I have 15 different sources of income, although I will say that the distribution of organic chocolate bars is not going to be one of them. In an uncertain economy, maybe it's prudent to hedge one's bets and create alternative income streams across different industries. (Maybe... I'm not convinced that a better strategy isn't to commit 100% to one, but that's a topic for a different day).

But cross-marketing incompatible products or services will likely backfire. We all have visions of the sort of person we'd feel comfortable entrusting our beauty needs to and that's not likely the same vision of the person we'd like to talk to about refinancing our home. And it's human nature to assume that someone who claims to be worth, let's say, $150/hour to consult on land issues shouldn't need to sell water purification systems on the side.

Instead of broadening the audience for both your primary product or service and your supplemental product or service by cross-marketing to your database, you'll very likely discredit yourself in both.

Okay, okay Ms. Smarty Pantz - I get it, but what should I do instead?

Here are a few ideas...

First, choose compatible industries. Selling organic chocolate bars might fit quite nicely into the business model of an acupuncturist, chiropractor or massage therapist. Ditto water purification systems. Selling Pre-Paid Legal memberships is somewhat compatible with the business model of a real estate agent or tax accountant.  Mortgage brokering along with selling supplemental insurance or financial services might make some sense.

OR

If you're already committed to incompatible industries, perhaps you can bring your spouse on board to be the "front" man or woman for the supplemental business. Therefore, when you promote the second business, you can be doing it ostensibly for your spouse (isn't that sweet?), even though you may be the primary business owner/manager.

OR

If neither of the above options are, well, options for you, don't promote the products or services at the same time. Keep them separate in your marketing. When you send out stuff about real estate, keep it about real estate. When you promote your organic chocolate business, don't breathe a word about your mortgage business. Don't show up at a real estate closing with a Mary Kay pin on your lapel. Don't show up at your Pampered Chef party with a REALTOR pin on your lapel.

Thoughts? Please share!

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~  Dr. Seuss

In April, I did a teleseminar called "Don't Be Dorky, Be YOU!" which was about how to write interesting, relevant and non-cheesy content for your self-promotional material. During that seminar, I talked about the wisdom of being "transparent" to your audience; specifically, whether or not you should you share your personal beliefs and interests with your audience if those beliefs are at all controversial or subject to debate.

I used the rather obvious examples of *religion and politics. If you are a person of faith, should you make that clear in your personal marketing (whether that's your blog, your Facebook page, your website, your personal brochure and/or your SOI communications)? If you have strong political leanings, is it appropriate to publicly share those from time to time when current events seem to call for it?  

During the seminar, I said yes - it is appropriate, within reason. I explained that even though you take the risk of alienating some of your audience, you also maximize the chances that your candor will attract like-minded people with whom you will probably enjoy working. And even if someone doesn't agree wholeheartedly with your opinion, you'll still stand out among the crowd as simply being more interesting than most of your competition who is determined to play it safe and hang out in the middle of the aisle.  

Brilliant stuff, Jennifer, if she does say so herself.  

Well, last week, I had the opportunity to put my money where my mouth was. I sent out an email to my entire **mailing list, and, without giving it much thought, referenced a recent controversial blog I'd written.

Oops.

Well, sorta oops. The responses poured in, literally hundreds of them within a few hours. The majority of responses were supportive, even effusive. Neato.

But some were... shall we say... less so.

A handful of my (now former) readers blasted me for my opinion, and a percentage promptly unsubscribed from my mailing list and my Active Rain blog.

At first, I was shaken. I was hurt. I was mad at myself for carelessly risking the support of my readership. I berated myself for hours for being so stupid as to be that transparent with my precious mailing list. I didn't sleep much that night.

But somewhere in the middle of that sleepless night, I had an epiphany. While my transparency did indeed alienate a portion of my audience, it also solidified the support of a much larger portion of that audience, and also attracted dozens of new readers into my world.

I must confess that in my initial moments of panic, I considered apologizing, backing off my stance and returning to the middle of the aisle where it's much safer. But I didn't and I'm at peace with that decision.

Are you considering being more transparent in your self-promotion? If so, good for you! But be warned that it may take the wind out of your sails the first few times (actually, every time) someone nastily asks to be removed from your mailing list, and you may very well lose audience members. But be assured that there IS a loyal and supportive audience for your viewpoint (unless it's really wacky or creepy, LOL); one that will love you even more once they've discovered your common ground!

*See Post #44 for other, less-divisive examples of opportunities to be "transparent."

** If you'd like to join my mailing list so you can receive my sometimes-not-thought-all-the-way-through ramblings, just do that on my home page www.sellwithsoul.com.