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Episodes
Tales from those on the front lines of dealing with clients. Tales of difficult clients, complex situations, relationship management - and how massive client management problems were solved, and what they learned. Largely those running agencies, but all across different professional services.
Episodes
Tuesday Apr 12, 2022
Tuesday Apr 12, 2022
In this episode, Ari Krzyzek, the co-founder of Chykalophia, shared an exciting-turned-heartbreaking project that led her to learn how important it is to have detailed contracts and establish policies when offering digital services.
It all started when a client approached her to do an exciting project, and Ari was excited about it too. The client also recognized Ari’s expertise, saying that they are the professionals they’re looking for, which for Ari, was very warming and boosted their ego.
During the brainstorming phase of the project, Ari and her team threw lots of ideas to the client, and in return, the client wanted them to try everything out. Little did they know, this triggered the problem. So the original contract of getting 15 pages done in 5-6 months became 150+ pages and lasted for more than a year.
Since a lot of time was wasted on revisions and demands, Ari and her team were burned out from finishing the super delayed project. What’s worse is, they weren’t paid the full price.
As the episode reaches the end, Morgan and Ari share a lot of lessons and ideas preventing such things from happening. One of them is establishing a process structure and strictly following it every time a new project comes in. Watch the episode to hear more!
Friday Mar 04, 2022
Friday Mar 04, 2022
In this episode, Rachel Brenke, a multi-faceted entrepreneur and intellectual property attorney shared two stories with key takeaways: (1) Always establish good communication with your clients and (2) Know that no money is worth the stress and mistreatment.
The first story started when Rachel was diagnosed with cancer in her early 20s, but she just shrugged it off since it was “impossible” for her age. Two years later, her cancer worsened, and she had to undergo therapy.
As Rachel was about to head home after 3-day radiotherapy, she was in the elevator with her client. After that, she received an email from that client.
The second story was when a big shot photographer approached Rachel to help with a copyright infringement case. Rachel did what she was good at and produced results, aka “financial compensation” for her client’s case. However, the client had some sort of different expectations.
As the episode wraps up, Morgan and Rachel point out a lot of lessons, primarily on the good practices and preventive practices that every entrepreneur or business owner should have.
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Thursday Feb 10, 2022
Thursday Feb 10, 2022
In this episode, Morgan meets fellow Will Smith fan, Liz Wilcox. A self-employed Email Marketing Specialist from Miramar Beach, Florida.
A while ago, Liz´s was contacted by her friend because their client needed some email marketing services. And of course, she was very excited to work with her buddy.
The client worked in the funeral industry, and to begin with they thought Liz´s rate was waaay high.
In Client Horror Stories #28, Liz works with a friend, who was the middleman between her and the clients, getting in contact with grieving customers, and a client who does not believe nor let her use her usual tools.
Talking about her style and brand and her client´s persona, in Liz´s own words “If you are on a fundamental level so different from your client, that's probably a red flag that you will never make them happy”
A year later, a new marketing manager comes in, Liz goes on holiday, and when she comes back her client stopped replying to her calls.
Luckily Liz has a policy of getting paid upfront... good advice especially when your client disappears.
As in many of our stories, one key lesson to be learnt: when something feels funky, it probably is.
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Friday Jan 28, 2022
Friday Jan 28, 2022
Always be careful when working with friends, close ones, or family members. You might wind up becoming their packager!
In today's episode Nick Janetakis, a Full Stack Developer, tells us the story of a time when he was introduced to a friend´s friend who sold sports sweaters and now wanted to start selling them online, so asked Nick to work on this.
He ended up taking the job and because he sort of knew the business owner, he didn't seal the deal with any type of contract. He even gave him a special discount.
The client lived within walking distance of Nick's office, and he ended up going there quite often.
Eventually, it got to the point where the business was working well and there were many orders. The client asked Nick to help pack the merch up and move boxes around!
Nick even started helping set up his client kiosk in the mall, at midnight! f
Nowadays, he doesn't resent that time but has learned from it. Boundaries are healthy and very necessary.
This episode leaves us with a very important lesson: Focusing too much on the relationship part of the job is counterproductive. Always be careful when working with friends, close ones, or family members.
And a very important lesson in Nicks' own words: You should be respectful of yourself when it comes to how you value yourself.
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Friday Dec 31, 2021
Friday Dec 31, 2021
Dimitri Constantine is the CEO & Founder of Brandcoders, and the protagonist of today’s tale. His story brings us back a couple of years when a long-time friend brought him into a brand new project that seemed all too good to be true. And here’s our first lesson: if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Dimitri’s narrative walks us through the birth and development of a business that, even though it seemed brilliant and crazy easy to sell, for some reason was not able to get investors to commit. And that was just the first red flag.
An abusive culture of “slow-boiling” employees, talking trash behind other people’s backs, and firing people every three months after deciding they were the ones to blame for the lack of success is only a couple of highlights of Dimitri’s client.
To wrap up this gripping story, Dimitri leaves us with some wonderful and original lessons learned: it is not a good sign when there’s only one full-time employee in the company, you should always work with people looking to learn and progress, and that you never realize exactly where you are until you are in too deep.
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