If I were to poll your clients today, how many of them would say that they really felt like they knew you?

The Dilemma - How Much Do I Share?
One of the things that I agonized over when I first started writing this blog was what to say and how much of myself to reveal. I mean, I'm a pretty strange person. If I let too much hang out, it wasn't going to serve my overall purpose right? Wrong!

The More You Share, The More They'll Read
What I have discovered over the last year of writing my blog is that the more I reveal of myself, the more people want to read. I have people who call the office and talk as if we have known each other for years - because they feel like they know me from my blog, my articles online, my former podcast, the free classes I have online, and my newsletter. Between all those venues, they have gotten to know me really well. And if that wasn't enough, then there's the really strange trivia about me available on my website. It's all too much! And yet it isn't.

Help Those Who Want To Get To Know You
Here's the deal. The people who want to get to know you better want to get to know you! Give them something to read, listen to, engage with! They want to soak in the "youness" of you. Help them. Those people who don't want to get to know you better just won't read, listen, or soak. It's OK. They don't have to. Different people process differently. But if you're like me (and likely you are if you're reading this blog on any sort of a regular basis), then you will WANT to work with the people who want to know you. The best way to convert those leads is to share something of yourself.

Life As Art
Blog about your life - use it as inspiration. You can tell what is going on in my life by reading my blog. I usually talk about the trials, the joys, the questions of my life and then make it relevant to my readers in some way.

Why This Topic?
Why did I choose to talk about this today? Well, I was thinking about how grateful I was to my clients for filling out a survey I was doing on what to offer in my monthly subscription program that I'm designing. And I realized that without the relationship that I have with them, I wouldn't have gotten any responses at all and I'd be flying blind. Instead, I have feedback from my clients about what THEY want. How cool is that?

Kelle Sparta is the author of The Consultative Real Estate Agent - Building Relationships that Create Loyal Clients, Get More Referrals, and Increase Your Sales, as well as being a speaker and trainer specializing in the real estate industry. Kelle is the founder of Sparta Success Systems, a real estate training company that provides tools, products, and training to empower agents and brokers to create lives and businesses they can love. For more information, visit her website at http://www.spartasuccess.com/. © 2007, Kelle Sparta.