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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
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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Tuesday Dec 21, 2021
Tuesday Dec 21, 2021
Today’s story might as well fall under the “Managing Horror Stories” category because that’s exactly what it is. Kison Patel, CEO and Founder of M&A Science and DealRoom brings us a tale on the insights of starting a business that you really believe — and trying to save it at all costs.
Kison’s tale takes us back a couple of years, to the time where he decided to chase an idea he was passionate about, along with his partner who also was a very dear friend. And the first thing that he teaches us about is this one: no matter how excited you are about it, take the time to evaluate the product and business model you are pursuing before it’s too late and things start crashing all around you.
In Client Horror Stories #25, Kison brings along a couple of powerful managing secrets, such as the importance of creating an environment where people feel comfortable communicating their thoughts and feelings (even when it’s bad news), acknowledging people’s achievements, and creating a culture where colleagues feel like friends that are happy to work together.
To wrap up Kison’s story, he and Morgan reach the end with a super interesting addendum that only strives to fulfill their #1 conclusion: how essential it is to keep feedback going and to be able to give and receive criticism.
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Tuesday Dec 14, 2021
Tuesday Dec 14, 2021
Andrew Kemendo is the Principal Architect, AI at Unity Technologies, and also the star of Client Horror Stories #24. Today, he brings us a story that has that one killer combo: just enough drama to keep you gripping, and just enough lessons learned to know it was time well invested.
Andrew’s tale brings us back a couple of years ago, to a young startup dedicated to creating augmented reality experiences who accepted what looked like an unbelievable deal from a huge company meant to be their hero case. And even though they were for a little while, Andrew wouldn’t be here if that would’ve remained the situation.
Out of the blue calls to demand a demo from one week to another (even though you weren’t supposed to have it for two more months) & trying to pull their software to massively fail in the way are just a couple of the dramatic highlights this story brings along. Reaching the end, Andrew gives us some powerful lessons on how important it is to never dedicate completely to one project, aligning with your client’s entire company and not just themselves, and overall understanding that it’s not only your client who hires you, but you also hire them.
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Monday Dec 06, 2021
Monday Dec 06, 2021
How often do you see a headline like that? Well, that’s because not often we get stories like this. On today’s episode, we have our first ever guest from the finance world: Liz Farr, Founder & CEO of Farr Communications, telling us an incredibly dramatic story, filled with incredible twists and lessons.
Liz’s story takes us back to 15 years ago, when handwritten tax notes and mail filing your returns were not red flags at all… unless they actually were. Apparently, even when you refuse to pay your taxes for 10 years, you might still want the documentation in order to continue developing your tax-avoiding business.
Being a powerful combo that includes horse riding while balloon shooting, IRS agents, vanishing clients, and massive debt, today’s tale has a lot to teach us on retainer costs, gut-instinct listening, and the risk of being too close to the person you are working for.
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