Clients and customers deserve to be heard. They desire to be listened to.  The people we do business with each day want to be treated with respect and understanding when transacting, so they can feel enlightened and causative through their goal-oriented decision-making process.  Clients don’t want to be manipulated, distracted and pressured into making quick decisions they’ll regret later.  A client also wants to come out of a business experience feeling good about the transaction and the people they interact with.

But for decades, the real estate industry, as well as sales trainers in many other types of business fields, have pushed high pressure sales approaches and aggressive sales tactics onto their students, that end up leaving clients and customers feeling less respected, and less powerful as people.  These sales techniques were often taught by business consultants and coaches who focused more on creating a mega coaching business instead of providing knowledge and advice on how to truly serve a client’s needs while granting the client their “beingness”, i.e. respect as the human being they are through the transaction.  These coaches’ techniques consisted of pushing agents and sales people through superficial, repetitive drills exercising a technique called “HARD SELL.”  Hard-Sell consists of high-pressure salesmanship that pushes buyers to buy immediately, and sellers to list their property quickly, often without giving the client and customer ample time to make informed choices and to fully think through their actions, goals and desires.  This hard-sell technique, and general lack of care for people, has created a less harmonious, mature and value-driven environment in today’s business world and society in general.

HOA boards will no longer have to provide personal information to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.  This week, Scott Bessent, the new Secretary of Treasury in the Trump Administration, announced the Treasury Department will not enforce the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) against U.S citizens and domestic companies.  This ruling includes domestic homeowner association boards.   The Treasury Department announced it will now draft an emergency ruling stating only foreign companies will be subject to the Corporate Transparency Act.

According to the Department of Treasure website on March 2, 2025, “the Treasury Department this week that, with respect to the Corporate Transparency Act, not only will it not enforce any penalties or fines associated with the beneficial ownership information reporting rule under the existing regulatory deadlines, but it will further not enforce any penalties or fines against U.S. citizens or domestic reporting companies or their beneficial owners after the forthcoming rule changes take effect either. The Treasury Department will further be issuing a proposed rulemaking that will narrow the scope of the rule to foreign reporting companies only. Treasury takes this step in the interest of supporting hard-working American taxpayers and small businesses and ensuring that the rule is appropriately tailored to advance the public interest.”